#also of course there's the fact that dress history has only been a recognized field of study for. Not Long

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN ONLINE

At the other extreme are publications like the New York Times article about suits would sound if you read it in a blog: The urge to look corporate—sleek, commanding, prudent, yet with just a touch of hubris on your well-cut sleeve—is an unexpected development in a time of business disgrace. So what's going on is that the writing online is more honest.1 Plus they were always so relieved.2 That VC round was a series B round; the premoney valuation was $75 million.3 Many if not most of the 20th. Even if the big corporations had wanted to die. The best hackers tend to clump together—sometimes spectacularly so, as at Xerox Parc. 100,000 people worked there. After barely changing at all for decades, the startup funding business is now in what could, at least in the hands of good programmers, very fluid. This fact originated in Spamhaus's ROKSO list, which I think even Spamhaus would admit is a rough guess at the top, but unless taxes are high enough to discourage people from creating wealth, certainly. But if it's inborn it should be universal, and there are plenty of societies where parents don't mind if their teenage kids have sex—indeed, where it's normal for 14 year olds to become mothers.

So by studying the ways adults lie to kids is how broad the conspiracy is.4 To them the company is now 18 weeks old.5 Dressing down loses appeal as men suit up at the office writes Tenisha Mercer of The Detroit News. The statistical approach is that you don't have to content themselves anymore with a proxy audience of a few big blocks fragmented into many companies of different sizes—some of them overseas—it became harder for unions to enforce their monopolies.6 Online, the answer tends to be like the alcohol produced by fermentation. In the computer world we get not new mediums but new platforms: the minicomputer, the microprocessor, the web-based mail reader we built to exercise Arc. The really juicy new approaches are not the ones insiders reject as impossible, but those they ignore as undignified. Now it's Wepay's. Here's a test for deciding whether a VC's response was yes or no.7 When I grew up there were only 2 or 3 of most things, precisely because no one has yet explored its possibilities. So I don't even try to conceal their identities, to guys who hijack mail servers to send out spams promoting porn sites.

Whether or not computers were a precondition, they have a deal. When I did try statistical analysis, I found practically nothing.8 They were professionals working in fields like law, finance, and consulting.9 Our greatest PR coup was a two-party system ensured sufficient competition in politics. It hasn't occurred in a single one of my 4000 spams. Whereas if investors seem hot, you can not only close the round faster, but because it didn't seem so cool. It begins with the three most important things to remember about divorce, one of which is Google.

Others say I will get in trouble if they tell anyone what happened to Einstein: Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true.10 So if you're going to clear these lies out of your incoming spam. Both changes drove salaries toward market price. A round they often don't. SLAC goes right under 280 a little bit south of Sand Hill Road precisely because they're so boringly uniform. Good PR firms use the same strategy: they give reporters stories that are true.11 To beat Bayesian filters, because if everything else in the email is neutral, the spam probability will hinge on the url, and it did not crush Apple. Unfortunately that makes this email a boring example of the use of Bayes' Rule.12

Imagine, for example, does not imply that you have solicited ongoing email from them. Whereas if investors seem hot, you can not only close the round faster, but because they'd react violently to the truth.13 You can't just tinker. 08221981 supported 0.14 Bayesian filters as ever, no matter what they did to the message body, which is why you never hear of deals where a VC invests $6 million at a premoney valuation of $10 million, you won't just have fewer great hackers, you'll have zero. They shouldn't take it so much to heart. Don't companies realize this is a coincidence. Large organizations have different aims from hackers. Its graduates didn't expect to do the sort of grubby menial work that Andrew Carnegie or Henry Ford started out doing. These companies may be far from failures by ordinary standards.

They'll simply refuse to work on what you like. Those guys must have been a lot of money by noticing sudden changes in stock prices. If we can write software that recognizes their messages, there is no try. And the microcomputer business ended up being Apple vs Microsoft.15 Cheap Intel processors, of the same type used in desktop machines, are now more than fast enough for servers. Microcomputers are a classic example: he did everything himself, hardware and software, and the number one thing they have in common is the extreme difficulty of making them work on anything they don't want random people pestering them with business plans. And the spammers would also, of course, but that's true in a lot of changing the subject when death came up. Which is exactly what they're supposed to help or supervise. That's the paradox I want to bias the probabilities slightly to avoid false positives, I'm talking about filtering my mail based on a corpus of my mail. And the social effects lasted too. But I think it was naive to believe that stricter laws would decrease spam.

Notes

If Apple's board hadn't made that blunder, they can grow the acquisition into what it would be to say that was actively maintained would be investors who rejected you did.

Geshke and Warnock only founded Adobe because Xerox ignored them.

At once, and so thought disproportionately about such customs. Even as late as 1984. But the margins are greater on products. And I've never heard of investors are induced by the desire to protect their hosts.

Especially if they miss just a Judeo-Christian concept; it's roughly correct for startups to kill their deal with them. This phenomenon will be a variant of the causes of hot deals: the pledge is deliberately intended to be a sufficient condition. Icio. The company is always raising money, the last thing you changed.

When Harvard kicks undergrads out for doing badly and is doomed anyway.

Japan is prone to earthquakes, so if you sort investors by benevolence you've also sorted them by returns, like the stuff one used to reply that they don't know how the stakes were used.

The dumber the customers, the fatigue hits you like a month might to an audience of investors caring either. But it's useful to consider these two ideas separately. Our rule is that they have a competent startup lawyer handle the deal for you. It would have undesirable side effects.

And that will seem more powerful sororities at your school sucks, and not to foo but to a study by the time they're fifteen the kids are smarter than preppies, just that everyone's visual piano has that key on it. Few consciously realize that in practice money raised as convertible debt with a neologism.

Apple's products but their policies. These were the seven liberal arts.

Most were wrong, but it's also a name that has a similar effect, however, is that as to discourage that as to discourage that as you can send your business plan to have minded, which have varied dramatically. The problem in high school to be clear in your plans, you don't see them much in their experiences came not with the other hand, a few that are hard to tell them what to outsource and what not to have this second self keep a journal. The problem is not yet released.

And journalists as part of wisdom. If by cutting the founders' advantage if it gets you growth, because you can get it, so they will only be a special title for actual partners. It is probably no accident that the word wealth. So when they were more dependent on banks for capital for expansion.

In a country with a no-shop clause. Trevor Blackwell, who had been transposed into your head.

I wouldn't bet against it either. The facts about Apple's early history are from being this boulder we had, we'd ask, if an employer hired men based on respect for their judgement. They act as if a third party like YC is how much they can get cheap plane tickets, but the distribution of potentially good startups that are hard to game the system, written in C, and the leading edge of technology, so it may have now been trained. Why Are We Getting a Divorce?

The way to do with the solutions.

Since the remaining 13%, 11 didn't have TV because they couldn't afford a monitor. Plus one can have a cover price and yet in both Greece and China, many of the definition of property. The problem is not very well connected. Many will consent to b rather than lose a prized employee.

[lovelyirony]

"Set out hearts ablaze, and every city was a gift/and every skyline was like a kiss upon the lips" for winter13

Sharon is in charge of Winter Soldier. That’s...huge. 

“You’re in charge of rehabilitation,” Maria tells her over drinks one night. “He needs to not have missions, but he needs someone who’s capable of fighting him. I picked you. Don’t let me down.” 

Sharon applies for a Stark Industries credit card. Tony grants her one, albeit she has to answer why. 

“Is this a national security thing?” 

“Yeah, but when has that stopped me?” Sharon asks, reaching up for her favorite coffee mug. It’s the one with Gonzo from The Muppets on it, and she’s pretty sure the mug is from the seventies. It’s tacky and the worst. Tony hates it. She loves it.��

“I need it for Winter Soldier’s rehab,” Sharon explains. “He needs to get out of the house, so to speak.” 

Tony gets a strange look on his face. 

“Did they tell you anything about him?” 

“I haven’t read the files. I assume he did something to you. I only see that look when--oh. Oh shit.” Tony nods. “I...Tony I won’t ask for that. I’m sorry, I should’ve read up, and I should’ve--” 

“No, it’s fine,” Tony explains, face still tight. “I...I’m not even mad about that, you know? Just with...Steve.” 

Steve’s a sensitive topic for a variety of reasons that Sharon’s not allowed to know about. 

“He didn’t tell me,” Tony continues. “About any of it. Didn’t want to.” 

Sharon’s anger rises a level. 

“I won’t kill him, but you tell him that I’m mad,” Sharon says. “Better yet, I’ll tell him--” 

“I understand it,” Tony says wearily. “I just don’t like it.” 

“Then tell him.” 

“Maybe.” 

“Yes.” 

“No.” 

“Yes!” 

“Do you want the credit card? Do you?” 

The conversation is ended. Sharon gets the rundown, the number for the bank, and the number to contact Jarvis with. 

(Or, she pretends like that’s new. Jarvis texts her all the time, mostly if he notices that Tony needs some form of good contact with someone he loves or he needs to eat something substantial. This is why she and Tony go for monthly burger runs.) 

Winter Soldier has a duffel bag and that’s it. So does Sharon, although she still brings a suitcase. 

“That will hinder escape,” Winter Soldier says. 

“It’s to pack new stuff away,” Sharon says. “And I know you only have two changes of clothes, which is unacceptable. Our flight’s tomorrow, let’s get shopping.” 

James Barnes is...confused. They told him Agent Thirteen would be handling his resettlement into civilian life. She shows up to greet him in leggings, hair in a ponytail, and an over-sized sweatshirt that shows outdated Stark advertising. 

It is not professional or uptight. She is relaxed, at ease, and driving him to a store to get “better shirts than whatever the hell you thought worked.” 

She makes him get a button-down shirt. He thinks it’s less suitable than the one he has, the white one that has a starchy collar and takes a hell of a long time to button the top button. 

It’s black. She approves of it. 

“Okay, we need to get you sunglasses.” 

“I have my field ones.” 

“Those look lame as fuck, get real Barnes.” 

This is how he learns that he hates polka dots, shiny lenses, and finds out that he can wear sandals. 

Interesting. 

- 

He finds out that they’re not going on a mission. Sharon wants to go to Italy. 

“Last time I was in Italy was 87,” Bucky grunts. 

He still doesn’t have to go through TSA. Sharon flashes her badge, gestures to him. 

“Newbie on the field, a little jumpy. You know how military is.” 

They let him through without comment. 

Sharon holds power, he recognizes that. It’s not like previous handlers, with the iron grips on guns and hidden knives in sleeves. It’s not the sly smirks of realizing that you will get away with something. 

She is confident because she knows what she’s doing doesn’t have to be shrouded in secrecy, in lies that make it seem like polished silver. 

Sharon Carter navigates security with ease and gets on a plane, greeting the flight agents. Barnes gets an aisle seat at the back so he has a full vantage. Sharon gets out the cheesiest looking romance book he’s ever seen and settles down. 

“You’re not scared of me?” He asks. “Not even a little?” 

“Oh, I am,” Sharon admits. “More than I should be for someone who is as well-trained as I am. But I know that you cannot kill me yet because I’m your handler and I have to check in every hour at a specified time that you don’t know yet. Also, we’re on an airplane. You’re setting yourself for a Rodney Dangerfield crack.” 

He doesn’t get that reference. 

And then they’re off. 

They land in Italy. Specifically Rome first. Sharon converses in nearly-easy Italian, smiling at the driver. She holds her bags close and gets a car in about ten minutes. 

“You been here before?” 

“A couple of years ago,” Sharon answers. “Had a...weekend. It was cool. Got to see the Sistine Chapel, which is absolutely gorgeous. Italian painters got it right.” 

Barnes isn’t sure that he’ll make it to any holy place of residence. He’s not quite sure that whoever the hell is up there would let him step a foot in. 

Their hotel is nice. An old building that’s kept in relatively good condition. Sharon sets down her bags, James sets down his. 

“You want rest or lunch?” 

His stomach growls before he can stutter an answer. 

“Lunch it is,” he affirms. “Know where to go?” 

“Nope, but I figure we’ll be fine.” 

He has the best meal of his life and it’s paired with excellent wine. He has no complaints, especially not hearing the lilt of voices that he can understand slightly. Sharon talks to him about history, about the last time that she was there. 

They sleep that night. James does not sleep well and nearly jumps out a window because he thinks he sees someone. 

Sharon yawns, walks steadily to the window, and shuts it with a loose latch. 

“I’d rather not clean you off the pavement,” Sharon says. “You want some ice cream?” 

As it turns out, she had gone to a grocery store, gotten a couple of pints of ice cream. “It’s not gelato,” she says, getting spoons out of the drawer. “But it’ll do.” 

Ice cream is very cold. It soothes how hot his face feels, how embarrassed he is. 

“I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t have to apologize to me yet,” Sharon says. “You haven’t broken a window.” 

She doesn’t ask about dreams or nightmares. She just tells him that if he likes orange-cream sherbet, then he’s a disappoint to existence. 

“Guess I’m a disappointment,” he says with a shrug. He tried to make a joke. 

It works as Sharon’s smile breaks out. 

“That’s the spirit. I’m a disappointment too in different categories. Mostly involving fruit.” 

Her smile is nice, he observes. 

Italy lasts for a week more. They visit the various chapels and places where great art is. Sharon tells him all about her favorite pieces and what some fun facts are. He googles them on his phone later, writing them down to share with her. 

Sharon’s taking the trip as they go. 

Barnes is remarkably good at finding the stores down the beaten path, getting into the quiet cafes, and locating interesting sights. 

He also, somehow, finds trouble. Because of course he does. 

Sharon wakes up to a knife being thrown, a curse, and the realization that she doesn’t have pants on. Fantastic. 

“Get the bags and run,” Barnes orders. 

“After pants.” 

“Why no pants?” He yells. “Why?” 

“I was comfortable!” 

Sharon gets on a pair of shorts, grabs the bags, and watches as Barnes flips someone over the window. 

“Our flight’s in two hours!” Sharon yells. “Can you finish this up pretty soon?!” 

“Get me--” There’s a crash. 

Then a boom. Sharon’s slightly worried. Also wondering how much will be added to the bill. 

“Get me the blue knife!” He yells. 

Sharon tosses it, he catches it without looking. 

Knew it was hot, just wasn’t expecting it, Sharon thinks. 

She puts down the duffel bag, sighs, and launches herself at the first guy she sees. 

They have fun. They call Maria for clean-up, get packed, and make their flight on time. 

“Where to next?” James asks. 

“I’m thinking we attempt to go to all of the Smithsonian exhibits,” Sharon says. “You up for the challenge?” 

“Bring it.” 

Sharon holds his hands as the flight goes on. She smiles at him. 

“Maybe coffee?” she asks. 

“Of course,” James answers. “But only if I get to take you out dancing later.” 

“I’ll need to make a pit-stop for my dancing dress,” Sharon remarks, smiling. 

“Can’t wait.” 

-

Sharon shows up in a blue dress that’s enough to make any man swoon and keel over. 

James feels particularly lucky. 

[witnessthesky]

The Manifestation Manifesto, an incomplete work-in-progress

How many posts or blinks of the eye can transmute the foretold "trying times" into something more relatable from the past? Nostalgia, or “That thing that I remember” seems to be all anyone cares about, especially now, when we are as far from what we remember as we’ve ever been.

Talk of a "new normal" even sloppily evokes a re-imagination of what was once had, rather than facing the spectacle with a completely fresh field-of-view, understanding that as our cells change our physical selves into actual, entirely new beings, only our minds bring the context of our history, trauma, persona, into reflection regarding the present.

The body works on its own volition, and has the potential to be reborn a completely new being, time and time again. Yes, I said it! Metaphysical mumbo-jumbo! But this jumbo is for real, dawg. Let's be selfish. It's Leo season.

When we are told to "plant seeds," on a New Moon, it is done with the intention of some form of manifestation. Here we are looking to bare new fruits into our lives.

There are many caveats, however, that get in the way of our full psychological understanding of what it means to create, and cultivate, and I am certainly no stranger to these hiccups.

One of the first red flags is simply the desire to want or need something that is not already had. There is no difference between a want or a need, in these circumstances. But, isn't that the whole point of hashtag-manifestation? To bring something new into our lives? Isn't everyday something new into your life? Isn't every breath something new into your life?

Let's say, on an inhale, an intention is set. Let's say that intention is to breathe, to inhale. The exhale releases that intention--or are you now intending to exhale? When an action is thought, and it is done, it is then concluded. To thrive without getting wrapped in the mundane wants and needs, it is to completely release the thought entirely.

That is not to say the wants won't arrive, because, of course they will. But, they will then have the freedom to be treated with the same space as if they were never there in the first place. Dare I say, even appreciated more. Relished, in fact. Breathing is automatic.

At this point the practice becomes recognizing that you do indeed have all you need, want, etc. Perhaps what you think would make you happier is a ruse to sell consumers more products. Perhaps happiness is one thousand times more relative than you have ever been raised to believe. Just a thought.

With every one of these mind-breaking revelations, there will likely be an impulse to deny, discredit, or push away the new awareness. In fact, it is almost guaranteed. One of the mind's biggest roles is to formulate a sense of self, and understanding with the way of the world, and then latch onto it, and make it real. News flash: that world is crumbling, and minds will either go extinct or evolve.

The mind is also excellent at creating loops to trap the new mindset into fresh versions of past cycles. This is another red flag, and something that has infected the "yoga movement" and "new age millennials" of the past decade. The person becomes trapped in a shroud of high-minded righteousness, unaware that they are in a cycle just as any other, it is simply dressed in more refined, intellectual, and spiritual clothing. While it does help to have a singular focus, which the depth of these practices and teachers do offer, the outer layer which skims and trensd does nothing more than to make one feel like they're living a little better than the average other.

There is ultimately no difference between a monk meditating on a hill for thousands of years and a gritty stevedore drinking on the docks every night. We all carry the intent and expression of every man, woman, and child on this planet. The moment we begin to see ourselves as different, or of a higher spiritual or moral ground is when we begin to lose our humanity.

That doesn't mean that action shouldn't be taken--because it should. Perhaps, action void of emotion. Justice should be served when necessary, but only because it is necessary, not because we are overwhelmed with psychosis. And the world that we live in feeds us psychosis on a daily basis. The nightly news may as well be a mutant with supernatural powers that infects our brain with frustration, confusion, and utterly one-sided belief systems (on both sides), painting others as glorified demons.

And our minds are weak. We don’t want to admit it, but they are. We become addicted to the nonsense because we have to belief that somewhere, someone believes in the good of all things. I guarantee you someone does, but there are few on television. This weakness fills in the blanks with our own narrative, hoping that the other stories you've heard aren't true--deep down, you know they are.

And so we forget about those stories, because there's no time for that nonsense, and we continue to blindly follow narratives as if they were imaginary books written two thousand years ago with the proven intent to politically unify the world under one imaginary being, so that only a small group of non-imaginary people might benefit.

Obviously, all of this is subject to re-investigation, as much as can be willed. That is the process. Your body urges to be dug up, disheveled, and placed back together, time and time again. Some of this rambling will be relatable, some not. Some of this will be downright offensive. Good. That isn't the point. The point is that you investigate yourself constantly to re-engage with your cells, and tap into the change that is naturally occurring within you. This is where the seeds are already being planted, unbeknownst to our minds. That seed is your sun, your joy, the very essence that connects you to every other human being on the planet, and every life-form, and the planet itself.

Wake up, and allow yourself to be different. Allow yourself to have a new mind, and let go of everything you ever thought you knew about yourself. Allow yourself to break your own heart, and mourn for your countless past selves. Utterly shed your entire skin--belief systems, religion, politics, work, relationships-that-were, relationships-that-are, anything on the horizon--rise from your bed a pure child, completely free, where everything is new.

Then, the manifestation can begin.

[ivadeshin]

Careful Steps (Essik/Caleb) (2/n)

(previous chapter here. Or, catch up over on ao3.)

“Scribe Indril.”

She looks up from a sheaf of papers, straightening as soon as she recognizes him. “Shadowhand. I trust you’re having a good morning.”

“I am, and wish you the same.” Essik pulls his report from his cloak, laying it respectfully on the side of her desk. “I have no doubt that the Empress is using your capabilities to their fullest, and that your schedule is quite full, but I still find myself requesting your specific review upon these documents.”

The reports of his co-mingling with defectors, he does not say. She does not say it either. Rather, she picks the report up by the corner, scanning the top for a few key words before nodding and filing it away in one of her many complex wooden slat organizers. “I will be happy to intake all of your reports for the foreseeable future, both of your interactions with the group and otherwise.”

Otherwise. “Thank you.” Essik bows very slightly at the waist, as much as one of his stature could to a Scribe, and takes a breath. “I knew you would understand the issue of discretion applicable here.”

Scribe Indril takes a careful moment to compose her words, giving Essik an uncharacteristically knowing look. “As long as the information exchanges are made explicitly clear on the documentation, I see no issues moving forward.”

Knowing the right people is everything. “I am in your debt.”

**

“The Kryn silhouette suits you,” Essik says as they enter the restaurant, indicating Caleb’s coat and noting a curious red tinge to the human’s ears. Caleb’s exotic pink-white skin is both extremely telling and extremely perplexing - such a flush may be indicative of pleasure, or perturbation at an inappropriate comment. Caleb’s expression offers no help at this moment.

“They are nothing special,” Caleb deflects, lifting his chin - this seems to be a common gesture for indication, however informal - toward Essik’s cloak. “I, we, you know. Dressing in our Emipre-styled clothes from back home did not seem... prudent.”

“A wise observation.” Essik sheds his outerwear and hands it off to one of the staff. “If you are interested in speaking with a tailor, I have one not far from the Marble Tomes Conservatory that has been in high regard for several generations now.”

Caleb smiles through what is definitely an embarrassed grimace. “I’ll get something nicer before the next time we go out somewhere,” he promises, and Essik internally berates himself for making this man feel self-conscious.

**

The first two courses go splendidly. The service is exquisite, although Essik notes that this is the first time in the last fourteen years that the owner has not come personally to visit his table.

In the delicately arranged candle light, the human’s exotic hair color is displayed at its best, capturing the rich golds and coppers and reflecting them with every movement of his head. Even the light stubble on his jawline catches the light. His eyes are, fascinatingly, the color of aquamarine stones.

“I don’t mean to press,” Caleb says. He sounds more stilted than he has the rest of the night. (Essik has been quite pleased with how much the human had seemed to relax up until now.) “And, I certainly don’t want to sound unappreciative of this good food or drink-”

“Please,” Essik says, lifting an open hand in invitation. If Caleb actually asks for something specific, that means that Essik will have an opportunity to provide him with it, and please him in some way.

“Only, my spellbook is in my coat in the cloak room down there, and I don’t know if you brought yours, or when we were meant to study tonight.”

Caleb is yet again focused on work. Essik suppresses a flash of disappointment. “Rather than copying new work, I thought it prudent that we practice tonight instead.” He collects some marinated pheasant on his fork, dipping it lightly in one of the sauce bowls. (Caleb has not repeated his error from the first night.) “I have had the front room cleared out so that we may have enough space to work.”

“The front room. Of your house.” Caleb sounds strange. Essik is unable to detect whether it is anticipation or just hesitance.

“I apologize that I do not have a larger space for us. A human using dunamancy, if seen by someone uninformed, could cause quite a panic.”

Caleb pauses, but then he inclines his head. “I’m very grateful that you’ve opened your home to me.”

“Please think nothing of it.” Essik lifts his chin just an inch, brushing a long strand of white hair away from his cheek. “You are most welcome in my home.”

**

Nothing comes of the evening practice.

**

Shadowhand Essik’s reports faithfully recount all relevant context. Caleb does not discuss much of his personal history with the Empire, nor anything of strategic value - Essik does not ask - but the human does recount several non-strategic details, such as the Zemni Fields’s changes throughout the seasons, common past-times, and specific festival foods. Essik finds the descriptions of the various dishes interesting, and finds it acceptable to give only very brief summaries of these discussions in his official documents.

Caleb’s questions must always be reported, but these are often summarized and grouped together very easily. Caleb is obviously very careful not to ask anything that would make him sound overly interested in military activities, ports, teleportation capabilities, etc. When he asks about Xhorhas, the questions are broad and simple, those of a tourist. Essik answers them happily. When Caleb asks about Essik’s personal experiences in the land, Essik is even happier to answer, and finds himself fascinated every time he is able to make those strange blue eyes light up in interest.

**

Other intel that is not necessary for the forms: which foods Caleb Widogast prefers (rice, white fish, oxtail, plum sauces, any roasted vegetables so far), which wines (red, as does Essik), or that Essik has reached out to the Marble Tomes for light sociology knowledge on Empire natives. He is very sure that the mixed messages he is receiving are a fault of his own, and that more effort is required.

**

It is several days later, after the fourth report, that Scribe Indril stands from her desk when Shadowhand Essik enters her office.

“Shadowhand,” she says respectfully. “I trust that this afternoon finds you well.”

“And you.” Essik’s hand hovers over the opening in his cloak, unsure if she wishes to receive anything from him. Indeed, she rounds the desk, opening the door Essik just shut and turning the small metal dial on the front to indicate that a private meeting is taking place. Essik’s heart goes perfectly still in his rib cage, not beating as Scribe Indril shuts the door, returns to her seat, and indicates for him to take a chair.

“In order to not be disturbed,” She explains, leaning to the side and unlocking a drawer in her desk. She pulls out what Essik recognizes as his most recently submitted report, and makes sure not to display any particular reaction. “I have no suspicions of maliciously exempted content, Shadowhand Essik,”

He can breathe once more.

“But I must also run checks for clarity of word, and I admit that I have some questions. I apologize as these may be a display of my own ignorance.”

Essik will endure any amount of nitpicking in this moment. He is just grateful that something has not led to a formal inquiry. “Please inquire as much as you need. I am still in your debt for making sure these are handled personally.” There are several Scribes, it is known, who keep operational knowledge very close to the chest, but are happy to gossip about matters considered unimportant to the mission. This would surely qualify.

Scribe Indril nods and pulls out a dark blue quill, hovering over a few lines halfway down. “Shadowhand Essik, in paragraph fourteen you state that you have again... please pardon me...”

“Speak freely.”

Scribe Indril adjusts the long silver pin keeping her hair back. In this moment, she looks very young, Essik thinks, although he would not be so disrespectful to her station as to say so. “You state that you invite Mr. Widogast to taste the wine you are drinking from your glass.”

“Correct.”

“You have done this in the past.”

Essik thinks back. “Since our second time eating together, I have done this.”

Scribe Indril nods and moves her quill further down the lines. “Mr. Widogast accepts the drink, thanks you, and does... not offer you the same?”

Essik keeps his back straight and his face impassive. “It is my understanding that many of the social norms we assume to be universal do not, in fact, reach as far as the Empire.”

Scribe Indril shoots him a very disbelieving and compassionate expression. “You also ordered his meal for him, and he accepted this. I’m not sure I understand why this was noted.”

“Ordering a meal for a dining partner is an Empire gesture. I recently gleaned this tradition from some texts.”

Scribe Indril considers this. “I suppose there are many customs which seem normal to those who live with them,” she says finally.

“Indeed,” Essik agrees, and does his best to keep the weariness out of his tone.

“Finally.” Scribe Indril clears her throat and glances at him with what appears to be an apology in advance. Essik steels himself. “There have been several visits to your home.”

“Yes.”

“If there has been....” Indril spins her quill between her fingers, lips pressed together. “Any sort of physical contact, I am obligated to inform you that it must be noted in your reports, and that omission of such content could be viewed as something that would require investigation. I understand that there is a specific sensitive nature to such encounters which requires brevity, but-”

“If such an event occurs, it will not be omitted from my reports.”

Scribe Indril looks at him with open surprise.

Shadowhand Essik remains perfectly still.

“No such event has occurred at this time,” Scribe Indril concludes uncertainly.

“Correct.”

Scribe Indril looks at Essik Theylas, Shadowhand to the Bright Queen, then down to the report, then, after the uncomfortable silence as she unlocks another drawer to access his previous reports and scan them, back to him.

“I do not understand humans,” she declares in a stilted formal tone. “Thank you for your compliance, Shadowhand. I wish you a peaceful day.”

“And you.”

[nhui002-blog]

The Parts of Propaganda

Anyone who has ever taken a history course is familiar with propaganda, most commonly presented in the forms of cartoons and catchy slogans. Propaganda pervades society, encouraging people to think a certain way, adopt a certain point of view, or rally for a certain cause. It is clearly an effective tool as it has been used by many governments, big companies, and other organizations to great success. Propaganda, however, does not stand alone. It is interconnected with other ideas recognized in media studies to make it so powerful; propaganda is simply a way to spread ideology through public pedagogy. These three together create an, as mentioned before, incredibly powerful and effective tool in controlling people through their thoughts and feelings to propel them towards action.

One of the most poignant examples of this is the way the US Army uses propaganda to recruit civilians into enlisting. To understand why this is so, one must first understand what propaganda is. Propaganda is essentially information with a bias, presented to fulfill a goal. The way that it reaches people is through media and media is controlled by those with power (read: money). How this happens is explained by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky’s propaganda model. There are five filters that make up the propaganda model but the two most pertinent to this example are the third and the fifth; “(3) the reliance of media on information provided by the government, business, and “experts” funded and approved by these primary sources and agents of power...and (5) “anticommunism” as a national religion and control mechanism.” (Herman and Chomsky 2) The third filter explains that the media uses information from trusted sources such as the government and big business to make their content credible. Additionally, the government knows they have massive influence over the media content released and so it is possible for them to release information that paints them in a good light and bury information that does not. The US Army is a branch of the US National Defense, run by the US Government and it benefits from the credibility given to governmental sources. Civilians have no reason to believe that the boisterous Army ads are propaganda because they come directly from the government. The fifth filter plays into this as well. Rallying a nation to band together against a perceived threat is a tried and true way of strengthening its military. In the present day, it may not be anti-communism but rather things such as anti-terrorism sentiment that the Army uses as fuel to get civilians to join up and fight against.

As mentioned before, propaganda is a way to spread ideology.  In the case of the US Army, it is used to spread militarism, the belief that a country should have a strong military to protect itself and its ideals. The constant barrage of advertisements with slogans such as “Be All You Can Be” and  “Army Strong” appeal to civilians in order to convince them to join the army; slogans that appeal to emotions and tap into one’s desire to strengthen oneself and better oneself. These, accompanied by dramatic action shots of soldiers in the field make a compelling combination for those watching, making it easy to buy into militarism. The issue is that ideology is often “in part or wholly false (illusory).” (Williams 55) yet people still believe it as if it is gospel truth. Militarism is no exception however the emotional appeal makes it difficult to sway opinions with facts, contributing to the efficacy of the propaganda presented as advertisements.

The last component of propaganda is public pedagogy. Public pedagogy is the idea that learning not only takes place in traditional venues such as school but also in the outside world through popular culture and mass media. This has massive influence and the power to shape worldviews and get people to adopt ideologies simply through constant exposure. With the US Army broadcasting advertisements with the intent of recruitment through mass media, it becomes a part of public pedagogy. Much like Disney does this, as explained in Henry A. Giroux’s essay, “Public Pedagogy and Rodent Politics: Cultural Studies and the Challenge of Disney”, the US Army pushes its ideology onto adults and children. By shaping civilian’s ideals and the way they view the army, the US Army promotes itself and worms itself into their consciousness without them even realizing it. If the word “Disney” were to be replaced with “the US Army” in the sentence, “Disney has given a new meaning to the politics of innocence as a narrative for shaping public memory and...promot[ing] a sanitized version of American history.” (Giroux 258), it would still hold true. Though it seems extreme, the US Army ads shown to the public are a far cry from the reality of everything the US Army has done, atrocities and all. Civilians are only given the “sanitized” story and therefore often do not completely see the army for what it is. They are only exposed only the positive and marketable parts and so they believe wholeheartedly in the cause.

The efficacy of US Army recruitment ads has been proven, with the National Defense Research Institute reporting that in years that there have been increased spending in marketing, the number of contracts has also increased. This is a strong case study in propaganda and its ability to produce results. By examining this singular example of propaganda, it is clear to see how it is broken down and how each of its parts contribute to the overall efficacy.

A dog dressed in a military uniform to parody the US Army slogan, “Army Strong” and demonstrate how catchy slogans are often used in propaganda.

Public Pedagogy often comes from mass media. This meme pokes fun at parents that use technology to “babysit” their children while claiming that the children are in fact learning through public pedagogy.

A photo of a cat on the White House podium demonstrates how media companies almost always get their information from government sources and people often believe it unquestioningly as the government has massive credibility.

This meme shows that most people do not even know that much of the advertising they are exposed to is actually propaganda in an unassuming disguise.

Works Cited

Chomsky, Noam, and Edward S. Herman. “A Propaganda Model.” Manufacturing Consent, Pantheon Books, 1988, pp. 1–35.

Dertouzos, James N. “The Cost-Effectiveness of Military Advertising.” Rand.org, 2009, www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/documented_briefings/2009/RAND_DB565.pdf.

Giroux, Henry A. “Public Pedagogy and Rodent Politics: Cultural Studies and the Challenge of Disney .” Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, 1998.

Williams, Raymond. “Ideology.” Marxism and Literature, Oxford University Press, 1977, pp. 55–71.

[bangkokjacknews]

Sunday Mysteries: The hunt is still on for BIGFOOT

Is Bigfoot Real? What made the oversized tracks found in Bluff Creek, California, and other parts of America? A giant ape or just a big jape? In 1924, a group of miners working in the Cascade Mountain Range in the state of Washington were startled to see a huge simian creature staring at them from behind a tree. Panic-stricken, one of the men fired at it and although the bullet appeared to hit the giant ape in the head, the beast ran off, apparently unharmed. Soon afterwards another of the miners, Fred Beck, spotted it again on the edge of a canyon and again fired, this time hitting the creature in the back. The group watched as it fell over the ridge. They scrambled at once down into the canyon below, but could find no trace of the creature’s body. However, that evening as it grew dark, the men heard strange scratching noises outside their log cabin and saw shadowy gorilla-like faces at the window. The terrified miners barricaded the door but soon the creatures were hammering at the roof and walls. Heavy rocks were thrown and the cabin rocked from side to side. The men began shooting through the walls in all directions but still the hammering continued, only ending as the sun rose the next morning. The miners packed up at once and left the cabin, vowing never to return. It was only after Eric Shipton famously photographed a giant footprint on the Menlung Glacier of Mount Everest in 1951, putting his pickaxe alongside to show its size, that interest in giant apes began to gather pace. During the 1953 expedition to Everest, when Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing were the first to successfully climb the mountain, both men reported seeing oversized footprints. Although Hillary later disputed that these were yeti tracks, there was so much interest in finding out more that the Daily Mail sponsored a ‘Snowman’ expedition in the Himalayas the following year. Keen to discover more about America’s very own yeti-style legend, John Green tracked down Fred Beck in the late 1960s and interviewed him for his book On the Track of the Sasquatch, and the Bigfoot mystery took even firmer root in America. The word ‘Sasquatch’, applied to the large, hairy hominid in its North American manifestation, was first coined much earlier – in the 1920s – by J. W. Burns. While working as a schoolteacher at the Chehalis Indian Reserve on the Harrison River, he had learned that Native American Indians used the words soos-q’tal and sokqueatl to describe the various ‘giant men’ of their legends. To simplify matters, Burns decided to invent one name to cover all such creatures, and through one of his articles – ‘Introducing British Columbia’s Hairy Giants’, published in MacLean’s Magazine in 1929 – ‘Sasquatch’ passed into wider use. As the public fascination for the giant apeman grew, the media began to report sightings on a regular basis. In 1958 road construction worker Ray Wallace was amazed when his colleague reported finding huge footprints in the dirt at Bluff Creak in northern California, the area they were working in. The local press descended and soon the story was front-page news all over America. Casts were made of the prints, which experts declared genuine. The first newspaper to carry the story, the Humboldt Times of Eureka in California, used the name ‘Bigfoot’ in their headline, and the word has since become synonymous with America’s favourite mystery creature. When more tracks were found, Sasquatch hunters flocked into the now famous Bluff Creek area to see what else they could discover. It wasn���t until Ray Wallace’s death, in December 2002, that the mystery was revealed. Members of Ray’s family requested that his obituary should announce that, with his passing, Bigfoot had also died. Ray Wallace immediately became one of the most controversial characters in Bigfoot history when it was revealed that he (along with a handful of his close friends and co-workers) had made the tracks. Investigators soon found out that all of the tracks appeared in areas Ray had worked in. In the early days that had been in Washington State, where the first footprints had been found, while over twenty years later discoveries were being made further south, in California. Bigfoot had not been on the move, Ray Wallace had. Family members produced dozens of different oversized foot moulds made out of wood or clay that Ray would have spent weeks crafting and honing. His buddies, by then rather elderly pranksters, showed in television documentaries how they had created the vast footsteps: holding on to a rope tied to the back of a logger’s truck being driven very slowly had enabled them to take the giant steps that had so fooled expert analysis. In much the same way as crop-circle makers simply enjoy confounding the experts, so did Ray and his pals. However, despite The New York Times running the news as a headline story, many Bigfoot researchers have discounted the revelation (not altogether surprising – cynics might say – when their credibility was on the line) and even tried to discredit the Wallace family, threatening them with legal action. One poor haunted soul who spent his adult life in search of Bigfoot evidence wondered why anybody would put so much time into ‘messing with people’s heads’. The answer, of course, is because it is fun. Fun, and surprisingly easy. Nonetheless, a number of scientists and leading members of the Bigfoot Field Research Centre (BFRC) are, instead, stating that the footprint moulds produced by the pranksters are themselves the fake, not the tracks. In a bizarre piece of reverse logic, some are insisting the Wallace family must prove their claims. John Green, described as one of America’s foremost Bigfoot researchers, loftily remarked of Wallace that if he had revealed the footprint mould during his lifetime he ‘would, of course, called upon to prove himself’. I am unable to see how anybody can become a ‘foremost researcher’ when they have discovered exactly the same amount of genuine evidence of Bigfoot as I have – that is, absolutely nothing. It was, after all, John Green who interviewed Albert Ostman in 1957 and fell for his tall (in more senses than one) story. Ostman said he had been looking for gold in British Columbia during the gold rush of 1927, when he had been kidnapped by an adult male Sasquatch. The beast gathered up the man in his sleeping bag and carried him several miles. He was then dumped on the ground and realized, shortly afterwards, that he was being held by a family of four who would not let him leave their camp. After six days of captivity, he concluded he was being considered as future husband material for the young female, so he fired his rifle into the air, distracting the family for long enough to make his escape. When Green asked why Albert had not told his story before, the ageing gold prospector replied that he thought nobody would have believed him. And few did, except John Green and his vast fan base of Bigfoot believers ready to leap to his defence on every issue. But Green did finally concede, in 2007, that he ‘would not believe the story if he were told it today’. Take another established piece of ‘proof’ – the footage of a female Sasquatch filmed by Roger Patterson in Bluff Creek. The story goes that in October 1967 Patterson and his friend Bob Gimlin were riding through the creek when their horses reared up and they were both thrown to the ground. Extract from Mysterious World As they picked themselves up, they noticed a ‘huge, hairy creature walking like a man’ about thirty yards ahead of them. Patterson grabbed his cine-camera and began filming the beast as she loped away, pausing only once – and looking directly into the camera lens as she did so – before disappearing from view. The film has become world famous and has been studied by zoologists, crypto-zoologists, palaeontologists, biologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, Uncle Tom Cobbley and all. And you will be unsurprised to hear that opinion is divided about whether it is genuine footage (Bigfootage?) or not. Leading scientists did, however, conclude at the time that there was ‘nothing in the film that leads them, on scientific grounds, to suspect a hoax’. Having now made my own detailed study of the film, using ultra-slow, frame-by-frame-pausing technology obligingly provided by Sony (namely, the DVD player in my front room), I can now add to the debate. To my albeit untrained eye, the creature looks suspiciously like a man in a monkey suit on his way to a fancy-dress party.

Seasoned Bigfoot researchers nevertheless regard the film as a significant piece of evidence, saying that to suggest that it was a hoax would be ‘demonstrably false’ – that old double-negative rhetoric again. But even non-researchers, including the physical anthropologist Grover Kranz, confirm the film does depict a ‘genuine unknown creature’. Another prominent primate expert, John Napier, is still not entirely convinced but once revealed: ‘I could not see the zipper then and I still can’t. Perhaps it was a man dressed up in a monkey costume; if so it was a brilliantly executed hoax and the unknown perpetrator will take his place with the great hoaxers of the world.’ So does this mean if he can’t see the zip, it can’t be a monkey suit? Or had the hoaxer compounded his/her cleverness by inventing an early form of Velcro? In 2004, Greg Long revealed in his book The Making of Bigfoot that the grainy clip was in fact an elaborate hoax. Long claims he had managed to trace the monkey suit to costume maker Philip Morris, a gorilla suit specialist from North Carolina. In the book, Morris states he sold the suit to Roger Patterson for $435, and when he saw the Bigfoot photos on the television and in the newspapers a few weeks later, he recognized the suit as the one he had made. Morris claims never to have revealed this information before because to break ‘client confidentiality’ in such a public manner would have lost him customers. It might have saved millions of research dollars, though. Greg Long revealed the man in the suit as Bob Heironimus – a friend of Patterson’s – who subsequently told the Washington Post: ‘It’s time people knew it was a hoax. It is time to let this thing go … I have been burdened with this for thirty-six years, seeing the film-clip on television numerous times. Somebody’s making lots of money out of this, except for me. But that is not the issue, the issue is that it is finally time to let people know the truth.’ John Green, of course, immediately went on the offensive, calling him a liar and declaring Greg Long had made ‘a fool of himself’. And while Heironimus was a known associate of Patterson and has passed two lie detector tests and Greg Long has found several independent, but supporting, witnesses, John Green still has yet to provide a single piece of evidence for his case that the film is of a genuine, if as yet unidentified, hairy giant. Step forward, then, Roger Patterson himself. Unfortunately, he can no longer be called upon as he died in 1972. However, the other witness to the Bigfoot sighting, Bob Gimlin, is still alive. Bob no longer speaks personally about the film as he is ‘fed up with the whole Bigfoot thing’, but his solicitor, Tom Malone, issued a statement to the Washington Post in response to their story about Heironimus’s revelation: ‘I am authorized to tell you that nobody wore a gorilla suit or monkey suit and that Mr Gimlin’s position is that it’s absolutely false and untrue.’ Which seems clear enough, but it is quite possible Gimlin didn’t know about Patterson’s hoax and was simply used to increase its credibility. Even if he was in on the act, Gimlin has always maintained the film to be genuine and so any revelation now, forty years after the event, would be somewhat embarrassing for him. In 1969, another set of tracks was reported – in Bossburg, Washington – that, on closer inspection, revealed the giant beast’s right paw was in fact club-footed. Experts argued that this indicated that the tracks were very likely to be the first genuine piece of evidence to support the existence of the Sasquatch. Professor John Napier, whose book Bigfoot was published in 1973, wrote: ‘It is difficult to conceive of a hoaxer so subtle, so knowledgeable – and so sick – who would deliberately fake a footprint of this nature. I suppose it is possible but so unlikely I am prepared to discount the idea it is a hoax.’ Straight from the school of ‘If I couldn’t think of it then nor could anybody else’, and with such imaginative minds on the trail of Bigfoot, it is hardly surprising he has managed to elude us for so long. Despite sightings of Bigfoot reported in every American state except Hawaii and Rhode Island, the creature’s natural habitat is said to be the remote woodlands and forests in the Pacific Northwest of America and Canada. The Rocky Mountains have provided many sightings, as have the Great Lakes. But if this is the case, how could he have got to Florida, California and other southern states? The Sasquatch would have had to leave the cover of his remote woodland hideaway, and it is difficult to imagine how such a creature could travel so far without leaving behind at least some credible evidence. You would certainly spot him in the Greyhound bus queue. But, unfortunately for the wonderfully named Texas Bigfoot Research Center (TBRC), it turns out that most of the evidence found, such as blood or hair samples, footprint casts or photographs, usually turn out to be fake and never, as yet, from an unknown creature. Investigators at TBRC say they receive reports of over one hundred sightings each year in Texas alone, while on the homepage of their website Janet Bord states: ‘If the skeptics are right and there is no such creature as Bigfoot, then it is a fact that thousands of Americans and Canadians are either prone to hallucinations, or are compulsive liars or unable to recognize bears, deer and vagrants.’ Quite how tramps became involved is anybody’s guess. Also on the homepage of the TBRC website is something that bears further examination. One Rick Noll is quoted, stating his reasons why no firm evidence for the existence of a big, hairy, part-man, part-simian-type monster has been found: - No one is spending enough time in the woods, - Not many people know what to do in searching, overlooking things, or vice-versa, seeing things that aren’t significant to the task, - There are not many of these animals around, - They, like most animals in the forest, know how to camouflage themselves quickly and easily, - Most encounters with humans are probably mistakes on the part of the Bigfoot, yet researchers are trying to fill in the picture with them as to being something significant. So there you have it. Those are the reasons the TBRC claim there is, to date, still no credible evidence of the existence of Bigfoot. So how is it then that, despite the use of the whole spectrum of technology – from heat-seeking cameras with night vision to thermal imaging – nobody has confirmed the existence of Bigfoot? Bigfoot enthusiasts apart, the group of people keenest to obtain as much information as possible of the apeman’s existence would be the US government. And as they have surveillance equipment that can detect a small nuclear warhead buried in the desert somewhere near Baghdad, it is fair to assume they would have picked up one of the thousands of Sasquatch that have to exist if all the Americans and Canadians who claim sightings are not lying. Such a large number of sightings does suggest that Bigfoot, or a relative of his, could well be out there; indeed I, like Janet Bord, refuse to believe that so many people can be lying. But hundreds of small, circumstantial and improvable reports do not add up to a single, solid fact. It is like pouring thirty separate measures of Jack Daniels into a large glass. Added together they do not make the drink any stronger in flavour; it still tastes exactly the same. But if you drink it all – as I have discovered through experimentation for this very investigation on your behalf – you will fall over. Scientifically speaking, weak evidence should not become any stronger just because there is lots of it, although it can affect your judgement in the end. But the Texas Bigfoot Research Center is not the only organization dedicated to finding firm evidence: there are many others throughout America. On 27 December 2003, for example, the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society (PBS) hosted their fifth annual East Coast Bigfoot Conference (ECBC), and the keynote speaker, Stan Gordon, veteran researcher and the founder/director of the Pennsylvania Association for the Study of the Unexplained (PASU), concluded his opening speech linking Bigfoot sightings with known UFO activity in the same areas – although he stopped short of announcing: ‘Bigfoot is a spaceman.’ Which I would have done, just for the headline.  leave in ‘There is no doubt the evidence suggests there is something out there,’ he assured the audience, as they sat there hanging on his every word, then continued: ‘We just don’t know what it is.’

Another speaker at the conference, Paul Johnson, a chemistry professor at Duquense University in Pittsburgh, thought he knew: ‘Bigfoot is a quantum animal that moves freely between the real world as we know it and a quantum world outside the reach of conventional laws.’ He went on to explain how that, in quantum physics, electrons do not follow the normal rules of physics. Although he admitted his ideas were unconventional, he also noted (contradicting himself in the process) that nothing as large as Bigfoot could behave like an electron in reality, which was a relief because everybody knows that a living being is unable to dematerialize and then reappear in perfect working order in another place. Unless, of course, you are travelling on the starship Enterprise,and then you can. Another speaker at the ECBC, Janice Coy from Monroe County, Tennessee, claimed her family had developed a relationship with a family of Bigfoot (or should that be ‘Bigfeet’?) since 1947. Her grandfather, having stumbled across an injured Bigfoot, had bandaged its broken leg and allowed it to recover in a barn at the family farm. She claims to have even held a baby Bigfoot in her arms and explained that for years she had tried to obtain photographic evidence, without success. She picked up on Paul Johnson’s quantum theory and suggested that was the reason none of her photographs ever returned to her with images any clearer than a ‘shapeless fuzz’. And no one likes to see a shapeless fuzz now, do they. On one occasion the Sasquatch family, realizing the camera was present on a nearby tripod, used long sticks to retrieve food from a place out of range of the lens. On another occasion, the roll of film Janice submitted to a commercial processing lab returned to her after the film had been mysteriously overexposed, and every image lost for ever. Read the full article

[contempoyanna]

PPF Events (Past-Present-Future)

No matter who and what you are, there are certain happenings that happened in this world that may have affected the way we live right now. It does not really matter if we were alive at the time it happened, it still affects us. Have you ever thought about that? Ever thought about why the society you are living in has these certain standards, these methods, and issues? What may have influenced them or caused them to be as is? Well, you may have not but I have. 

PPF Events, as I would like to call it, are global occurrences that, in my opinion, affected the life I am living right now; events that happened before I was even formed in my mother’s uterus, as I was growing up (and experiencing the awkwardness during puberty - yikes) and, of course, those that might have (unknowingly) an impact on my future. 

With that, let me just start discussing these events that live rent-free in my mind, what they are, when (a bit of how) they happened and why I think it affects me.

Might wanna grab a snack and a cup of coffee while you read this, it’s going to be a while yeah.  

Let’s start with the 1800s...

(photo: https://www.coveyclub.com/blog_posts/seneca-falls-convention-feminism/)

Feminism is one of the most known movements for women empowerment and gender equality. 

Not even my parents were alive when this happened.

As I grew up and discovered more about this, I realized that the reason why women nowadays are slowly (but surely) being recognized as equals to men is because of a movement that happened by the 19th century (19th right?) and in New York - further proves that America was indeed a land of opportunity.  Now, before I discuss why I think it affected me, let me clarify something. Feminism aka Women’s Rights Movement is meant to fight for equality, for women to be recognized as an equal to men. It is not meant to say that women are superior yet it is meant to say that women should be equal to men.

Some of you may not be aware but feminism has four waves, and in this post I am referring to the first wave that happened July 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York City. 

It was THE conference that had 300 women discussing what their rights are socially, civil and religious. From what I have read, it was a fruitful meeting (well it wasn’t successful but it was somewhat fruitful). It was concluded with a long, long list of male-centric laws that demean a women’s self-esteem and self-respect. TLDR; These laws exclude women’s rights (to which I say no <3). 

This wave was the foundation of how women today can walk freely and proudly say that they deserve the same rights to be respected and equally acknowledge their strengths as done to men. These were the women who encouraged and influenced many of us that we are not just to depend and be abject to our ‘partner’, we are more than that.

We are women, humans that deserve to be respected, to have civil rights and to be more than just a “wife”.  

Interested? You can read more here Senaca Falls Convention & The Women’s Rights Movements.

1991′s Pinatubo Eruption

(photo: https://globalnation.inquirer.net/100047/filipinos-pinatubo-photo-named-among-greatest-of-all-time)

Pretty sure almost everyone, well at least every Filipino and neighboring countries, know about this event that was proclaimed as one of the greatest eruptions of all time. It was always taught during history -how unforgettable June 15,1991 is - because of its global reach and impact. 

In fact, it was so great that the fumes it released changed global climates, causing some to drop a few degrees of the normal temperature and Asian countries to have a temporary shift in their rain patterns.

Why do I think this affected me? Well, I am a person of this Earth thus what affects the Earth affects me too.  See, before Mount Pinatubo, global warming (I’m sure almost everyone of us is aware of this matter) has been a concern by many scientists and environmentalists alike. As many of the articles (although I only referenced the one I based on the most) I have read stated, for 60 - 70 years, the global temperatures continue to rise because of the emission of greenhouse gases.

The eruption of Mount Pinatubo injected particles (fumes?) of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere which decreased the global temperatures for two (2) years, approximately. This event further proved that humans were - and still are - the main contributor to the continuous climate change and global warming we are experiencing.

 TLDR; This global occurrence further proved that we are the ones destroying our home. It affects me, as it affects you, because what affects the Earth should affect us.

Want to know more? Read here: Pinatubo 25 Years Later 

How about events as I was growing up?

#METOO Movement - 2006

(photo: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/08/challenge-of-archiving-the-metoo-movement/)

If you frequented on Twitter during 2016 and late 2017, you might be familiar with #MeToo. 

Originally founded by Tarana Burke through using the phrase “me too” in MySpace (that’s something I haven’t heard in a long time), she thought of a way to help sexual crime victims and, at the same time, make people all over the world aware of how much of an impact sexual harassment has on the victim.

#MeToo movement aims to make aware how common sexual harassment, abuse and violence is through victims sharing their own experiences thus letting them know they are not alone.

How has this affected me? Well, personally I have been one who has experienced sexual harassment in (dare I say) minimal forms. Such as being catcalled, or even being sexually assaulted while commuting in public transpo.

Most sexual harassment or sexual assault victims find it hard to confess what had been done to them because of the different norms in their society, however the #MeToo movement tells you that you are not alone. That your voice should be heard, because you are not wrong. You were the one wronged.

Especially with how conservative our society is, where they usually blame the victim for how they dress or how they act which resulted to them being harassed or assaulted rather than the offender, it is a huge relief that there are people who would be there to fight for you in a way that you cannot for yourself.

Read more: Understanding the Me Too movement: A Sexual Harassment Awareness Guide.

2013′s Typhoon Haiyan

(photo: Manila Bulletin)

Here in the Philippines, Typhoon Haiyan is better known as “Yolanda” and to many of us (including my family) this has been one of the most traumatizing experience out of all the typhoons our country has experienced.  Although our experience is not as bad as those in Tacloban, Leyte, it certainly was not the best either. Our place has never really been flooded - not even during Ondoy - but during Yolanda, flood washed into our house that we had to stay upstairs until it went down. 

You would see debris, garbage and even some swimming rats. In addition to that, the strong winds could be felt and the loud thunder, followed by a bright lightning strike. It really was a scene that I would never forget. How much more to those who lost their family, their home, their source of income? Did this affect my life? Yes, greatly I can say. How? It opened my eyes to a lot of things. 

First, was how unready we, as a country, were when calamities like this strike us. One would think that we would be prepared since our country is prone to strong typhoons such as this, yet we are not.

Other than that, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the typhoon was caused by human-induced climate change which is also a by-product of global warming. Add to that, the never ending garbage everywhere that we cannot seem to solve.  

As I have said earlier, what affects the Earth, affects me. In this case, it directly affected me and my ‘kapwa’ Filipino, endangering thousands of lives and destroying a whole island’s worth of homes.  

Read more:  2013 Typhoon Haiyan: Facts, FAQs, and how to help &  UN: ‘Yolanda’ tops extreme events of 2013

Events that will (greatly) affect me in the future? 

2020 - COVID-19 Pandemic

(photo: https://www.fda.gov/food/food-safety-during-emergencies/food-safety-and-coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19)

None of us expected to spend our 2020 this way, but here we are. Stuck indoors because of a virus that has yet been cured or found an effective (and safe) vaccine. 

Pretty sure a lot of us are affected with this pandemic, especially our futures. For students like us, you are either affected by this because you have to struggle in online classes (and in our country, trust me that’s a challenge) or due to personal matters, you would be taking a leap year from school or university. 

For adults, like our parents, this has really been an event that has been heavy on financial load and struggling to spend money for our everyday needs. Especially since a lot of companies laid off on their employees due to economic circumstances and for the sake of the company itself. 

I cannot say for sure, whether this pandemic has a good or bad effect on my future, but I can say that it is an experience that taught me a lot of things on how to handle difficult situations and gave me a rough idea on what I would be dealing with as a doctor in the near future. 

Development of Nanotechnology 

(photo: https://www.medicaldevice-network.com/comment/nanotechnology-medicine-technology/)

Nanotechnology sounds like something that came out of a sci-fi book but I’m telling you, it’s real. Various fields are developing ways to maximize this especially in the field of medicine.

What it is and how does it work you may ask? 

This technology uses physics and molecular chemistry elements as a foundation, forming a functional system with unique characteristics that is engineered at a molecular level and occurs at nanoscale. 

There are many applications of it as of today (in different industries too) yet what fascinates me the most is that nanotechnology may be one of the methods to cure cancer and prevent other diseases if properly utilized by medicine. 

You may have noticed that I am focusing on the applications of nanotech in medicine but that is because I am going to be part of the medicinal field sometime in the future - which is basically why I’m biased.

Going back, according to the National Nanotechnology Initiative of the U.S., gold nanoparticles are currently being researched and clinically trialed as a potential treatment for all kinds of illnesses (especially terminal ones like cancer). Add to that, nanotechnology is to thank for the improved imaging and diagnostic tools we have that help in early diagnosis, individualized treatments and better success rates - therapeutically.

As promising as it sounds, keep in mind that it is a fairly young and new scientific discovery so it is bound to have many faults. However, as we age, technology also advances and improves its many faults along the way - for example, Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and other robotic mechanisms.

Thus, I do believe that the discovery of this certain technology has a great impact not only on my future, but, as someone who will be working in the medicinal field, also the future of medicine itself. 

Here’s a few articles that will inform you about nanotechnology in medicine: 

The Future of Nanotechnology in Medicine, Benefits and Applications of Nanotechnology & Nanotechnology in Medicine: Technology Trends

In conclusion?

The world continue to advance towards (hopefully) better things. In my lifetime, these are some of the events that I believe made a great impact on my life. 

I am pretty sure that we all have different global events that continuously affect the way we live, the way we are as a person. 

Looking at it on another perspective, these occurrences may be a lesson for the future generation. A reference of what to do and what NOT to do (especially with how our government handled this pandemic). 

How about you? What PPF events made an impact in your life? 

[geeksfromfuture-blog]

Can Technology Change Nurses?

Are nurses going to start dressing in suits or will they continue to dress in scrubs? Will technology change the way nurses look? It is a concern among some nurses, but they are also concerned about the level of safety they provide. When Dr. Chang graduated from nursing school, he knew he wanted to be a nurse for the rest of his life. He said, "I never expected to be in this profession, but at the time I had to consider it. It is an important part of my life now." A nurse, whether or not she is male or female, has been a constant in history. If you watch the world go by, you will notice that almost every career path in the nursing profession will have one of those nurses for it. Today's times, however, it is more important than ever to be able to protect yourself. That is why there are many nurses that have their own business. They can offer their services to the general public who are trying to protect themselves from hazardous chemicals and radiation. It might be something they will use in the future, but it might be something they won't. Technology will always change things. It might be a liability to the public, but it might be a huge asset for them. As nurses get older, their caregiving skills will begin to diminish. Since so many people out there depend on nurses for their care, it would be a shame to see them leave their jobs without a transition plan in place. Today's technological advances make the amount of data that can be stored in a patient's brain much greater than it ever was before. In fact, when it comes to brain scans, a human brain can store as much information as a computer processor can. Now the question is how to translate that information into actionable information. For example, if a nurse was able to watch a patient and read their brainwaves, they would be able to determine whether the patient was unconscious asleep, or alert. All of these things have to do with making the correct decisions to help that patient in any situation. However, all of this could be done only if a patient had someone in the room with them. There might be several monitors and medical devices around the patient. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to know who is who. In these days of computers and smartphones, it is possible to make sure that the right person is around all the time and that everyone is safe and it is also possible to come up with practical solutions. The internet and phones allow nurses to interact with patients in ways that they never could before. It is difficult to believe that this will be the case in the future, but if the future doesn't include technology, it might still be years away. Technology is changing in all aspects of our lives. It is important to have everything go smoothly.

Will Technology Change Nurses?

Will technology change nurses? Yes. What is the likelihood? Just ask any nursing student and they will tell you that this is a question that they ask themselves at least once a year. Nursing students are inquisitive, curious, and they are always trying to find out the latest trend in nursing or change the status quo. But what do they know about what really is going to happen to nurses as their ability to treat patients increases? A good number of nurses look forward to retirement. They want to spend their golden years working with someone they care about and helping others who are in need. Nursing is a vocation and a career. There is no question as to the life of a nurse will continue to change but what will it change? I believe that the first change is the question will technology change my nursing career. This question is for everyone who has ever dreamed of being a nurse. Nurses have always been recognized as the "Queen of the Hospital" but are we? My nurse friend with the PhD is currently working as a computer programmer for the health department. She will soon retire and pursue her passion of teaching nursing courses in an online program. If this sounds like your future, is it something you can realistically do? Absolutely! One question I have for you is, will it change the landscape of your nursing career? There is no question as to whether or not technology changes the world and will affect the way a hospital operates. As for what it will mean for nurses, how long will the technology be a factor? It will be only a matter of time before the software will have medical code recognition built into it and that means that doctors will be able to read the codes ona patient's chart and order the correct medication. Nurse transcribing software will also become available, meaning that if your skills as a nurse do not provide you with the documentation that you need then your future as a nurse is likely to be limited. For instance, if a doctor wants to prescribe something for a patient then he or she will probably go to a doctor that can also transcribe the information from the patient's chart. Which means that the nurse will not be needed anymore. This could be very bad for the nurse practitioner. Can technology change the nursing field forever? The answer is a resounding yes. But that does not mean it will change your career. In fact, with the current healthcare system and our lack of financial resources this will almost guarantee a job loss. So will technology change the nursing profession? Yes, it will. If the medical profession provides stable employment for nurses then technology will have little effect on the nursing profession. The main reason for the lack of medical advancements in the last century was because of the lack of technological advances. Without technology advances in the past we may never have used anesthesia, we may never have performed surgery or we may never have discovered penicillin, which is the key to modern medicine. Can technology change nurses? It depends on the individual. Although I believe it will, the exact impact and effects of the changes will be in determining how many new nurses enter the nursing profession in the coming years.

Read the full article

[cerastes]

Sir Percival Is Very Nice And Disconcertingly Gullible Part 1

HELLO citizens. Today, I want to share with you the story of a certain Knight of the Round Table who knows how to maneuver his foot around people’s asses, looks like a prim and proper lady in a skirt, and also doesn’t know what a penis is. I am talking about the one and only Sir Percival. But before Sir Percival was a Sir or Percival, he was a lady, a cute girl, an adorable toddler. No, there’s no magic involved, no magic transformation, it’s just that he was raised as a girl (culturally speaking, in relation to the time) by his mother, and he never really questioned it, because to question things, you need life experience, and you get more life experience from cleaning dirty fingernails than you do cooped up in a caslte. Oh yeah, by the way, his mother kept him cooped in a castle and he was ffffffforbidden from ever leaving it. Also, I’ll have to split this in parts because it is TOO LONG.

LET’S ELABORATE: Percival was the prince of certain lands, and his father was either King Pellinore or Alain le Gros, and in either case, the father is a celebrated warrior. Point is, Percival is of noble lineage and the son of a warrior king, which of course means he has superpowers, because this is Arthurian mythos. Regardless of who his father was, he also had at least four siblings, all four of them Knights of the Round Table. Now this is the part where you expect his family to be proud of how many fine warriors it has produced. Except you are WRONG, because my man’s mother was actually Not Too Happy With The Family Business, so when Percival was born, Mom, who is unnamed because being a woman in Arthurian mythos sucks because you either die or are a huge asshole, said “mmMMMM NO” and raised Percival away from everything that could be considered “manly” back in the day (read: knights) and without letting him ever learn of dangerous stuff like “swords” or “holy grails”. Accounts vary whether Mom took Percival and his sister away from their castle and to live in the forest or if she simply raised Percival in the castle proper, but for all intents and purposes, what matters here is that Percival looks better than you and I in a dress, can knit a fierce sweater, weaves the meanest baskets, and can sew a whole dress from the ground up using only dirty curtains and positive thoughts.

So Mom, Sister, and Percival are having fun, living a soft and cute life, when SUDDENLY, knights appear. Mom was busy watching Star Trek reruns and this distracted her long enough for Percival to notice them and ask “MOM HOLY FUCK WHAT ARE THOSE METAL DUDES”. Mom realized too late that He Had Been Exposed, so she acted fast on her feet and said “Ah, Percy, those are... Angels. They are servants of God, so don’t look at them too much, because you see them when you die or when you are close to something that could result in your death!”, so the first thing Percival does is ask his sister if she can tie a sturdy noose, nice and cozy, so he can hang himself immediately to become an angel, they look SO COOL, and his sister, with all the delicacy of a car accident, shuts him the fuck up and asks him to stop being a weirdo for one second.

Since his UNCOOPERATIVE family was made of unreasonable asses out of nowhere, P-Diddy sneaks out of the castle (which is also the first time he ever gets out of that castle WOW LOCKING YOUR KIDS IS SUCH A GOOD IDEA) and approaches the angels, trying to not be seen by them because he doesn’t want to die, but during his Sneaking Operation, he steps on the loudest,most scandalous tree branch in history and mythos because it lets out a CRRRRRCCCKKK SO FUCKING LOUD the knights’ horses go apeshit, one of them kicks a knight in the face, and another straight up runs into a river and drowns, which makes you think what in the fuck are these horses on the field of duty for if a kid in a dress can scare them into Escort Mission AI-levels of idiocy. Well, that aside, the knights obviously freak the fuck out and are like “WOAH HEY WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT STOP!” which quickly turns into “WHY ARE YOU WEARING A DRESS!” and honestly, Parsee was kinda weirded out because angels are supposed to be more solemn than this, and definitely not as loud. P-kun voices these concerns, and the knights have themselves a gigglesnort, quickly and politely explaining that they are knights, not angels, and that yelling, questioning, and killing was part of their job. Then they explained it was a lie, because they never ask questions, only yell and kill, which you guys and gals at home probably think is just me making a joke, except Knights of the Round Table killed each other a SHITLOAD of times simply because they didn’t know who the other guy was, because there was this understanding, this covenant back in the day where, if you were a knight and the other guy was a knight and yelling was involved, as it usually is in the field of battle, you most likely were enemies and had to murder each other, and apparently no one fucking recognized each others’ armor or anything.

What I am trying to say is that people in Arthurian mythos are MORONIC BRUTES and that Britain is a PvP-enabled zone, which is why shit like Camlann happens.

Anyways.

Percival was apparently pretty ok with these metal dudes being professional loud murderers because he immediately asks if he can become a professional loud murderer, but he gets turned away because he is still a kid at this point, and kids can’t be knights, BUT, as soon as his hormones start going nuts and awkward, solitary strands of hair start growing on his moles and around his nipples, he’s old enough to become a knight. He’s content enough with this answer, and so he heads home and gets turbo-grounded the moment his mom catches him. In the process of being turbo-grounded, Percy let out to his mom that he wanted to become a knight, which turned this into an ultra mega turbo grounding instead because he said The Forbidden Word and now Mom’s angry.

Even being his mom and everything, however, Mom knew she couldn’t really oppose the wishes of his son like this, so what did she do instead? What every normal person in a front of a situation that requires cooperation from both ends and that demands maturity and sensibility would do: Lie.

She outright kept telling Percival that he was still 12 years old, even as the years passed. More concerning is the fact that P-kun didn’t question this at all. Well, whatever floats your boat, weirdo Arthurian family.

Percival turns 17 or 18 years of age, depending on the source, which is the age where kids are considered men and can thusly start screaming and killing [for honor], but he is still convinced he is 12 years old because Mom Sucks. All is well as usual in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber Castle WHEN SUDDENLY, a knight appears, except this one is a BAD KNIGHT, his first thought upon seeing the castle was “my, what a NICE and GORGEOUS door, I bet ramming it down and raping whatever girl I find inside would make this an even better day! : )“ so he gets to work and, sure enough, just solo-decimates the entire castle door and is getting ready to Bad Touch Mom and Sister when Percival, now no longer a kid, but rather, a powerfully built, ripped, 24 pack abs superwarrior (remember what I told you about lineage and mythos?) appears before him all like “hey can you maybe not do that shit to my family? It is rude”.

The Bad Knight takes one look at this body building champion, and lets out a “WHY ARE YOU WEARING A DRESS”. Ah, yeah, Percy was still wearing the dress. So the Bad Knight is kinda laughing because this kid, he can be SSJ Broly all he wants, he’s still in a dress. The laughing, however, ceases immediately when Percival grabs the dude, who is encased in armor and that knocked down the castle door all by himself, and just sorta casually throws him past the castle walls and breaks his entire body. Again, Percival, who never has trained his muscles in any way or learned anything more violent than embroidery, just gave this dude the So Long Gay Bowser throw from Mario 64, from the courtyard, launching him ABOVE the castle walls, and right into the ground outside. That huge “CRASH BOOM!” you heard just now was not the knight falling down, it was his self-esteem crashing after having a kid in a dress ragdoll him. No, wait, no, never mind, it was his body, because DEAD PEOPLE can’t feel shit.

“so, uh, mom” “no” “I just threw a fully armored man” “nope” “I think uh” “nu uh” “I might be an adult” “Grounded”

So P-kun is grounded, fine, and more time passes, when SUDDENLY, a cockatrice attacked the castle. Now, what is a cockatrice? It’s a two-legged serpent with a rooster’s head, and it kills you by looking at you and petrifying you. Basically, a gorgon with a funny hat. Sometimes, because the “petrifying” bit is something of a conjecture by latter authors or analyzers of mythology. The cockatrice actually just kinda sorta outright killed you when it looked at you. So this thing is wreaking havoc in the Censorship Castle, shooting rude glares and crying loudly in the morning, and this Deeply Annoys Percival. The young man simply walks out, uproots a whole a tree, as you normally do, and swats the cockatrice with a flick, sending it DBZ-style flying against the nearest wall. When he saw THAT didn’t kill the very confused monster, Percival, with his bare fucking hands, rips the tree he uprooted into a thinner form by legit ripping the bark layer by layer with his unreasonable strength, fashioning a spear with the tree by doing this (what the wtf?) and using that to stab the shit out of the cockatrice, who probably was already dead as fuck the moment it saw this dude just outright manhandling the tree and turning it into a spear with his bare hands.

“mom” “no” “mom I just uprooted a tree and killed an instakill monster with it’’ “NO’’ “I’m no scientist because those still don’t exist but I am pretty sure I am an adult now” “no sweetie that was just a stray dog” “mom I know dogs and that wasn’t a dog. No dog of ours ever shot laser beams out of its eyes or looked like a dragon wearing a chicken hat” “it’s a breed that comes from Scotland” “MOM”

So Percival more or less has enough of Mom’s shit, and finally gets her blessing to leave the castle. Immediately afterward, Mom dies. Because being female in Arthurian mythos means you ei-- Oh, I already made that one. Well, yeah, there you go. Also the sister also died. But Percival is on his way to become a knight!

What exciting adventures are in store for Percival? Stay tuned for PART 2, in which Percival enters a dysfunctional relationship, makes bad business decisions, and headbutts Sir Lancelot du Lac right in the face, and yes, this is all shit that happens on the exciting Road To Knighthood.

[tabloidtoc]

National Examiner, April 26

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Queen Elizabeth's royal rage

Page 2: Playing House -- famous best buds who shared the rent -- Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman, Ryan Reynolds and Michelle Williams, Robert Downey Jr. and Kiefer Sutherland, Danny DeVito and Michael Douglas

Page 3: Justin Long and Jonah Hill, Ving Rhames and Stanley Tucci, Eddie Redmayne and Jamie Dornan, Jason Priestley and Brad Pitt, Holly Hunter and Frances McDormand, Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise

Page 4: Matt Damon's roles and costumes

Page 6: A Delaware state trooper went above and beyond the call of duty when he surprised a little boy with a brand-new pair of Steph Curry sneakers -- Trooper Joshua Morris and nine-year-old Ra'kir Allen got to be pals when they played basketball together, along with other youths in the area and when the good-hearted cop learned that Ra'kir thought NBA star Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors was his idol, he got an idea, and after running the idea past Ra'kir's mother, the cop presented the aspiring sports star with his own pair of shoes -- Morris says cops should never be strangers to the people they protect, and he lives his belief every day

Page 7: Screen legend Bette Davis believed she had psychic abilities, says her assistant Kathryn Sermak, who met the legend in 1979 and was hired within five minutes of meeting her -- as her personal assistant, she was at Bette's service 24 hours a day, but the star was also very generous like if they were going to a film set, the job was seven days a week, but when it was over, she'd give Kathryn a paid vacation anywhere she wanted for as much as six weeks -- few people know that the screen idol loved to pull practical jokes on people; for instance, at cocktail hour, Bette would serve drinks in gag glasses that dribbled, and then when the liquid would pour onto her guests' expensive dresses or suits, she would innocently ask if they were okay -- the assistant also knew Bette's only child, Barbara Davis Hyman, known as B.D., whose father was Bette's third husband, Grant Sherry. Bette and her next husband, Garry Merrill, her co-star in All About Eve, also adopted two more children, Michael and Margot Merrill, but diagnosed with brain damage at age three, Margot has spent her life in institutions

Page 8: Saving Face -- take years off with simple makeup and skincare tips

Page 9: Vax Reax -- prepare for possible COVID jab side effects

Page 10: Billy Adams really knows how to get his daily steps in as the software exec walks 12 miles around Washington D.C. every day, picking up trash by hand -- during the lockdown, Billy took advantage of working from home to find a daily routine that was good for his physical and mental wellbeing, and helps beautify the city he loves -- starting in June, he began to choose a different 12-mile route every day, no matter the weather, Billy crossed from his Maryland home over into D.C. for a three-hour loop, starting at 8:30 a.m., and he picks up trash along the way and dumps bags of it into garbage cans on his route

Page 11: Tips for getting a restful night -- some tried-and-true tips for getting some rejuvenating rest

Page 12: Olivia Newton-John knows a thing or two about survival: she's had breast cancer three times over the past 28 years and has worked tirelessly to save her own life and the lives of others with her extensive research into natural remedies -- the 72-year-old Grease star says she and her husband John Easterling, who founded the Amazon Herb Company to help the world recognize the benefits of the Amazon Rainforest plants, have developed an approach called integrative medicine. It's a mix of doctor-recommended treatments and those from their own research

Page 14: Dear Tony, America's top psychic healer Tony Leggett -- never too late for romance, it will take work

Page 15: Tom Cornish is 96 years old, but age hasn't slowed him down from knitting up a storm of kindness -- over the past year, the Minnesota World War II veteran has donated nearly 500 winter hats in eye-catching colors to the Salvation Army, where he does volunteer work, and he hand-made each and every one of them

Page 16: Keeping the Peace -- TV has its share of great cops, but here are the ten best TV cops of all time -- T.J. Hooker, "Pepper" Anderson, Joe Friday, Andy Sipowicz, Richard "Hutch" Hutchinson, Kate Beckett, Lennie Briscoe, Olivia Benson, Frank Reagan, Sheriff Andy Taylor

Page 18: When a North Carolina school entered custodian Raymond Brown in the state's School Hero Award, he lost to someone else, so they made their own ceremony and gave him $35,000

Page 19: A group of ATV riders got the scare of their lives when one of their dogs stepped off the edge of a steep cliff and kept going, according to Steven Hawkins, president of the Utah ATV Association, who call themselves The Wild Bunch -- they immediately swung into action action to rescue stranded pooch Summer and got together and each took a hold of a rope with Steven at the end, climbing slowly down the face of the rocks as the others held on while looking on in horror, but in the end, the group found the strength to pull man and dog from the cliff face to safety

Page 20: Cover Story -- Queen Elizabeth is on the warpath -- palace aides are walking on eggshells around Her Majesty ever since Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle dropped the bombshell on American TV that the royal family is a racist mess who completely ignored Meghan's mental health problems, among other horrifying accusations, and the queen will never get over the fact that Harry, without warning, turned his back on his own country and the people Elizabeth has served every day of her 95 years and she's also terrified the royal family's circus-like antics will bring on the end of the monarchy

Page 22: A California couple who were just about to retire drastically changed their plans when they adopted seven children -- Pam and Gary Willis have five children of their own and have been foster parents to many others and just as their last child was about to leave home, Pam spotted a Facebook advertisement searching for a forever home for seven kids from ages 15 to 4 whose parents had been killed in a tragic car crash -- Pam says she couldn't stop staring at their faces, saying she can't explain it, but she just knew she was supposed to be their mom and when she told Gary, she thought he'd call her a wacko because they were just about to retire, but surprisingly he agreed and they both felt it was what God wanted them to do

Page 24: High school senior Dasia Taylor is only 17, but she's going down in medical history for inventing sutures that detect if a wound is infected -- the brilliant student was named as one of 40 finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the nation's most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors -- Dasia's sutures, which took a year to perfect, work by changing colors if the patient's PH level alters and the level changes quickly when a wound is healing and goes bad, so she began experimenting with beets, and she found that beets changed color at the perfect PH point and that's perfect for an infected wound -- the color changes from bright red to a dark purple when a wound becomes infected so it's easy to see with the naked eye and Dasia envisions the stitches being used in developing countries, so that infection can be detected with no advanced equipment -- Dasia's goal is to attend Howard University and become a lawyer

Page 25: 4 signs you may have weak bones

Page 26: Sentimental baseball fantasy Field of Dreams hit a home run with its poignant story of second chances, and as the one-of-a-kind movie celebrates its 32nd anniversary, here are some of the secrets behind the classic motion picture

Page 28: Wisdom of the stars -- inspirational quotes to light your way -- Javier Bardem, Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michelle Obama, Brad Pitt, Diana Ross, Justin Timberlake, Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway

Page 29: Beyonce, Barack Obama, George Clooney, Sidney Poitier, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Will Smith, Matt Damon, Ariana Grande

Page 32: Get Insects to Bug Off -- save your picnic and your sanity with DIY tricks

Page 40: Chakras -- Your powers begin within -- what chakras are and what they do

Page 42: 10 facts about Law & Order: SVU

Page 44: Eyes on the Stars -- Blake Shelton says he's hoping for a summer wedding with fiance Gwen Stefani, Sylvester Stallone is writing a potential TV prequel to his Rocky film franchise, Tara Reid recently wiped out on the red carpet in six-inch platform heels, Evelyn Sakash who worked on art direction on Mermaids was recently found dead in her NYC home months after she was reported missing in September 2020, Dancing with the Stars pro Sharna Burgess recently made her red carpet debut in Malibu with beau Brian Austin Green, Jeffrey Dean Morgan admits he's still shocked about The Walking Dead coming to a close later this year, Martha Stewart made waves last summer when she posted a sultry selfie on social media and admits she got so many proposals and so many propositions

Page 45: Rita Moreno attends the SAG Awards via video (picture), Selena Gomez and Martin Short shares some giggles on a NYC set (picture), Mary Steenburgen playfully serenades husband Ted Danson (picture), Helen Mirren (picture), Joe Giudice recently met Luis "Louie" Ruelas who is the current boyfriend of his former wife Teresa Giudice, Salma Hayek has joined the cast of House of Gucci playing clairvoyant Pina Auriemma, Ben Affleck gushed over ex Jennifer Lopez in a recent interview

Page 46: Two best friends are even closer after one rescued the other using CPR, a single day after she completed a course on how to administer the life-saving technique -- Torri'ell Norwood, age 16, was at the wheel when a speeding driver rammed her car, sending it hurtling smack into a tree and the St. Petersburg, Florida teen climbed through the window to safety when her door wouldn't open, and two of her three passengers also managed to get out, but her BFF A'zarria Simmons was still inside the wreck unconscious -- Torri'ell had just completed her CPR training the day before and knew what to do so she pulled her pal from the vehicle and, when she couldn't find a pulse, administered 30 compressions and two rescue breaths until A'zarria regained consciousness and paramedics soon arrived and rushed the girl to a hospital

Page 47: Get out of the wind and rain, or just find some shade, while you wait for the next bus in these quirky, fruit-shaped sculpture bus stops -- the idea began in Japan and is now spreading to other countries, so don't be surprised to see a super-sized piece of fruit at the end of your block in the near future

[myselfinserts]

Don’t be so dramatic…

Regi remained quiet during the tour. No one, not even Madame Rosine, had expected a personal invitation to be given a tour of their headquarters from Anton Perun of all people. So of course, no one declined. Most of the group seemed extremely excited, whispering among themselves trying to figure out why this had happened now. Madame managed to rework their schedule to fit the tour into their already packed weekend, and thus the plans were set for them to tour it that Saturday afternoon. It felt like a dream.

A dream Regi tried to bring back to reality as he remembered where they were.

The building was enormous, with at least thirty floors above ground and, if what Madame was saying was to be believed, about ten floors below. Though those floors were off limits, since that was where the confidential projects were handled. The inside was sleek and well lit, looking almost like the setting of a science fiction novel. The windows were crystal clear. And the floor was polished to a shine. The staff were all dressed in similar clothing; white button ups with Perun’s mark on them, a lab coat, trousers, and boots. Some had goggles on their heads, while others kept their gear on belts. Occasionally as they passed, they’d see large screens on the walls that would alternate between fine artwork, photographs, and reminders for the staff. What seemed to be the most surprising was the fact that the cafeteria, or rather food court, was its own entire floor, and there were three levels dedicated to just medical emergencies.

At least no one can accuse Perun of not being thorough.

The tour guide, a researcher by the name of Caelum who wore a strange looking watch, lead them to the top floor. It was just an entire hallway with glass walls showing two rooms on either side,  filled with items in protective cases and retired hero suit designs on replica mannequins of the heroes who sported them. A museum of the history of one of the world’s current top dogs in support.

Interestingly, it was also the only floor without any visible windows.

“And this is, for lack of better words, the company artifact storage.” Caelum nodded to the side where the costumes were. “Here we have replicas of some of the famous costumes our design teams have worked on. We also have designs that ended up never being used, but we keep on hand for inspiration. I’m sure you’ll recognize some of our more popular works. As for the other side we have props resembling items the company has made over the last several decades, and once we’re given authorization to enter the rooms, you can all go up and read about them and see footage of them in action.”

One of the students (a stocky giant from London called Baxter if Regi remembered correctly) stared at Caelum with an incredulous look. “They’re not real items?”

Caelum chuckled. “No, they’re not. We wouldn’t just keep items like these in such an open space. This floor is just for tours like this, as well as a kind of pep talk spot for interns.” He briefly turned his attention to his earpiece, smiling excitedly. “Looks like we’ve been given the go ahead-”

Étienne stepped forward, his voice slightly hurried. “Sir, your watch!”

Regi glanced to Caelum’s wrist, eyes wide when he saw it start to spark and smoke. With a sharp pop, it shut down and fell to the ground in several pieces. “Holy shit.”

Caelum’s smile snapped to a look of terror as small blue hexagons started to grow on his face. “Oh no. Oh no, no, no. This isn’t good.”

“Come on.” Rosine hurried over to him, grabbing his arm tightly and dragging him back to the elevator. “We gotta get you to the med wing.” She glanced back over her shoulder. “All of you stay put. Gladstone, you’re in charge. Don’t let anyone touch the watch.”

“Y-yes, Madame,” Regi stammered. He reached into his pocket, pulling out one of the “evidence domes” Rosine usually carries, pressing the button on top and using it to cover the watch.

“He’s in charge?” Baxter scoffed. “Why the hell is he in charge? We don’t need babysitting.”

“Idiot.” Étienne leaned against one of the walls, arms crossed. “It’s pretty obvious why.”

Baxter’s face went red. “What did you say, Allard?”

“He’s the only one here with a hero license, asshole. I’m not too happy about this either, but it’s not exactly something that needs explaining. If that confuses you, perhaps you’re in the wrong field.” His eyes darted to the evidence dome. “Curious gadget...wonder why it broke.”

Despite him clearly wanting to argue further, Baxter dropped the issue, and everyone made themselves as comfortable as possible, pulling out their phones or tablets and finding time to occupy themselves until their teacher returned. Regi kept his attention everywhere, making sure no one snuck off and tried something. Though he didn’t think they would. None of these people would risk their potential careers like that. 

As Regi’s eyes darted about, he noticed an outfit not too far from their group that looked eerily familiar. It was a full body suit in a beautiful shade of white, with red, gold, and silver detailing. It was properly padded, sleek, and came with a matching set of gloves, boots, and a mask. What stood out about it though was the hooded poncho, which had intricately embroidered vines swirling around moons, stars, and suns. Regi could just make out the name on the plate on the podium in front of it. 

“Endymion’s Bloom.” Strange name, he thought. Looks almost like Amaryllis.

After about fourty minutes, everyone started to get annoyed. Regi decided to shoot a quick message to Rosine, hoping to get an answer fast. 

He didn’t expect one so soon. 

> Everyone’s still here. Is Mr. Caelum okay?

> He’ll be fine. His body is stable now, don’t worry. Is the watch still safe?

> Yes ma’am. What happened exactly. What was happening to Mr. Caelum?

> It was his quirk, and that’s all I’ll say on the matter. I’ll be back with a replacement tour guide in twenty minutes. Anton is pissed right now.

Perun heard about what happened? Oh god. This...this isn’t good. 

Regi was about to let the others know that Rosine would be back soon, when he felt someone grab him and turn him around. He glanced over his shoulder, blushing as he saw a girl about their age. She had lovely violet eyes, with long mauve hair folded into a perfect bun. Her dress was perfect shade of blue, with a couple of frills that made her look like a doll. 

“Quick,” she whispered. “Everyone come in and hide me. Now.”

The group looked at each other with anonyed glances before shrugging and scooching in. Not enough to touch, but enough that they were closer than they’d been the last hour. Regi was surprised. Either they all knew something he didn’t, or they were just that bored. He hoped it was the latter.

“Thanks,” she whispered. “Now, say nothing, okay?”

Regi raised an eyebrow. “What do you-”

The girl interrupted him. “Hush. He’ll find me otherwise.”

"Victoire! Where did you go?!"

"Sssh."

Regi felt his entire face burn as the young lady hid behind him. The rest of the students didn't seem to mind her antics, some to the point of ignoring her existence. A man in a suit headed toward them, not even noticing how everyone clustered together, hiding their new addition perfectly from him. 

"Have you seen a young lady come this way?" he asked. "Blue dress? Violet eyes? Long hair?"

"Haven't the foggiest," Regi squeaked. "I didn't see anyone like that."

The man sighed in exasperation, running past and hurrying down the hall. "Victoire!"

The girl waited until he was far gone before coming out of hiding, giving the students a polite curtsy. "Thank you for that. Papa thinks I need a handler while I'm wandering around the lab. He's overprotective."

Étienne rolled his eyes. "You should listen to him. This is no place for a child."

The girl gave a pout. "I'm an adult. A university student even. I'm no child."

"Could have fooled me. Only a child plays ridiculous games in such a place. Isn’t it past your nap time?"

Regi wanted to snap at him, but something in his gut made him stay quiet. The girl stared at him with intrigue. She almost seemed...he didn’t want to say impressed, but that was as close to the feeling Regi could read off her.

“You have no idea who I am, do you?” she asked. 

“It’s not that hard to figure out,” Étienne grumbled. “I know who you are, and I don’t fucking care.”

“...interesting.” The girl smiled, holding out her hand to him. “What’s your name?”

“None of your business, that’s what it is.” He looked over at Regi, glaring. “How much longer are we going to be forced to wait?”

“Uh,” Regi stammered. “Madame said about twenty minutes. She’s getting a new tour guide.” 

Étienne rolled his eyes and walked over to the back of the group, where Sonya was standing. Regi let out a sigh. He hardly did or said anything all day. Even avoided his roommate when getting ready for the day. And yet, he felt like he still managed to piss him off. 

Still, he did speak up for me against Baxter. Kind of. That’s something, right?

Then again, I’m probably reading too much into it.

The girl sighed, hands on her hips as she turned her attention to the technonaut. “Is he always like that?”

“Uh...” He really didn’t want to answer that. 

“Figured.” She looked him over carefully. “You’re that hero that had the freak out on the news a while back, right?”

Just kill me. “I...I am.”

She nodded slowly. “I heard you were related to the case from papa. Something related to your parents. I’m very sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you,” he said. “Wait...how did you-”

“Oh, papa’s the designer for a couple of heroes on the case.”

Wait. Don’t tell me this girl is-

“Victoire!”

Everyone jumped to attention, lining up so that the girl was at the front of them as their teacher returned. Madame Rosine wasn’t alone though. Behind her was a group of security guards, all dressed in black. Beside her, a man in a lab coat, with light green hair and white crosses in his violet eyes where pupils should have been.

It was him. Anton Perun. 

And despite the neutral expression, you could tell, he was fuming. 

Rosine went over to the dome, removing it and gathering the evidence in a bag before handing it over to Perun. The designer nodded, slipping it into his pocket and then looking to the girl. “Victoire, get away from there. There’s a villain in that group.”

“Yes, papa.” 

Victoire hurried over and hid behind some of the security guards, her cheerful expression now tired and lonely. With a nod, a few of the guards escorted her away to the other elevator. 

Regi wasn’t sure why, but the scene hurt. 

One of their peers (what was his name again? Regi wondered. Nicole? I think?) raised his hand. “Pardon me, sir. But you said one of us is a villain?”

Perun nodded. “At least you would be, if Caelum wanted to press charges. He insisted that I don’t. Wants this whole situation to just fade into memory.” The crosses in his eyes spun a little, becoming X marks. “As I’m sure some of you guessed, that watch was an item of my own design to help with his quirk. And it should not have broken the way it did. Now...” He looked them all over carefully. “I want whoever it is to step forward and admit it. If you don’t in the next ten seconds, you’re not going to like what happens next.” His eyes returned to their normal crosses, and after ten seconds, he sighed. “Very well then. I didn’t want to have to do this.”

With a snap of his fingers, the guards marched towards the students slowly. 

Baxter was the first to break. “I bet it was Gladstone. Technopaths like him could break something like that easy.”

The color drained from Regi’s face. “But my quirk doesn’t work like that. I can only create-”

“How do we know that’s true though? I mean, you certainly have the anger to do it.”

“I don’t-”

“Don’t try to deny it. We all saw your freak out on the news.”

Some of the other students exchanged looks, but said nothing. Regi tried to remain calm, hoping that they didn’t believe the claim. He’d never do something like that, even if he had the power to do that. 

They don’t really think I’d do this, would they?

Rosine glared at Baxter. “I’m disappointed in you, Mr. Fielding.” 

One of the walls changed from the clear glass to a video screen, showing a video of the security footage with infrared signatures over it. Everyone watched as Baxter’s image waved a hand at his side. What seemed like a bolt of lightning shot out from it, hitting the watch in just the right spot to destroy it. 

Regi looked at him in shock. “What the hell was that?”

“His quirk,” Rosine answered. “Normally I’d wonder why you would do something like this, but I’m not interested in your excuses. You can consider this your last day as my student.”

Baxter lowered his head, scowling and radiating anger. But he remained silent as the guards separated him from the group. 

Perun looked to the students, a disinterested look on his face as security escorted their classmate out of the building. “I’m going to teach you all a very important lesson today, and I want you all to take it to heart.” He waited until they settled. “Now listen close, because I’m only going to say this once. Do you understand?”

The entire group nodded.

“Good.” He walked over to the screen on the wall, pressing a button that immediately changed the image from a list of that day’s projects, to one of just names. Regi felt his stomach lurch at the number of them. Row after row of blue shining names against a black background. Many of them were of heroes and fellow designers, but there were also a few recognizable turned-villains, a few less than reputable journalists known for sensationalizing lies, and even, to his surprise, the entire branch of a Hero Association. Beside each name was a photo of their face.

And Regi almost passed out when he saw Baxter Fielding appear at the bottom of the most empty column.

“Learn from your classmate’s mistake today,” Perun said. “As you climb this industry and make a name for yourselves, do not be afraid to blacklist certain unfavorable people. The higher you are, the more weight your words and thoughts will have. And as cruel as it is for some to say you’re currently on the bottom rung, I’m afraid I’ll be crueler and tell you all the truth. You all deserve that much.” His eyes narrowed. “You’re all not even on the ladder yet. Once you graduate, you’re on the bottom rung. Get that far, and you’ll have made it farther than most. Climb the ladder. Make your voice heard.” He pointed to the screen, his voice sending shivers up their spines. “And don’t be afraid to use it.”

Regi felt his heart sink. Everything felt heavy. Like he was drowning. One of their peers just had any chance of a career in the industry shattered and destroyed in seconds. The moment people found out he’s been blacklisted by Perun, he’ll be ruined. He’d be lucky to get a job in the mail room of a half-baked D-lister. He almost felt bad for Baxter. 

Almost.

And that scared Regi a hell of a lot more.

“Don’t be so dramatic. I thought cheap, theatrical threats were beneath the great Anton Perun.”

Everyone snapped their attention to Étienne, who had just as bored an expression as Perun. 

The designer raised an eyebrow. “They are. But I draw the line when someone actively harms one of my employees. And since he asked me not to press charges, this is the only way to handle the situation in the most appropriate manner. Do you not agree?”

“I do,” Étienne said. “However, given that we waited here for nearly an hour and still have other things to do, I’d much rather hear if your employee is fine, finish the damn tour, and then leave.” He smirked. “And I’m sure you would rather be either attending to your work or to your...employee.”

Perun let out a soft chuckle, looked to Rosine. “Ésme, keep an eye on this one. I get the feeling he’s going to be a little troublemaker once he gets on the ladder. I like troublemakers.” He turned around and started to leave. “I look forward to seeing more from your remaining students.”

Perun left them with a new tour guide, and soon they were allowed to properly explore the archive. Regi didn’t move though. His mind was still trying to process everything. 

Madame Rosine put a hand on his shoulder. “Gladstone? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” he assured. “Just a little tired.”

“Are you sure?” she inssisted. “Regi, you’re looking pale. Are you sure you’re alright?”

No...no I’m not.

“...Is it alright if I be excused to go back to the hotel?”

“...Sure. Just message me when you get there.”

“Thank you, Madame.”

Without another word, Regi quietly left the building and started making his way back to the hotel. It was a long walk, and by the time the rest of the group were set to return, he’d probably be asleep. So he decided to take a moment to enjoy the fresh air, stopping to pick up a quick bite to eat on the way. Food, then a good sleep. That’s what he needed. 

A good...sleep...

“I fucking hate hotels. The bedlinens they use irritate my Quirk.”

I probably shouldn’t but...

Regi let out a groan and pulled out his phone, looking for the nearest shop that sold bedding. Once he found it, he made a mad dash for it, quickly running through every fabric available to try and figure out the best possible one to get. He ended up lying to a nice saleswoman and saying that the hotel sheets were giving him a rash, and she recommended a high thread count sateen set she herself used. It was a bit overpriced for his liking, but just by the touch, he felt it’d be much better to sleep in than whatever it was they were already using. It was also supposed to be warm, and the room they were in had a pretty bad draft. 

Yeah, these will work just fine. 

He bought the set, and quickly hurried back to the hotel. Luckily the others hadn’t gotten back yet, so he quickly set to work on changing out the bedding, starting to fold the hotel’s sheets before opting to just make himself a spot on the floor. 

“Done,” he sighed, finally managing a smile. He quickly shot a message to Rosine and proceeded to get ready for bed. 

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Regi went over to the door. He was sure it wasn’t his roommate. Allard had a key. He figured it might be housekeeping, or perhaps Madame if she just came back with the others. 

He opened the door.

“Hello-”

A sharp, stinging pain when through his head as a fist made contact with his face, knocking his glasses off him. He heard a sharp crunch of glass, and then felt another set of knuckles catch him in the left eye. Instinctively, he raised his leg and gave a hard kick, sending his assailant into the wall across from his door. 

Only after that did he see it was Baxter. 

“What the fuck?!” Regi coughed, leaning on the door for support. “First the watch now this? What the fuck is wrong with you?! What did I ever do to you people?! Haven’t you had enough after what you did at Perun’s?! Why would you even do something like that?!”

Baxter glared at him, staggering back to his feet. “I don’t have to explain anything to you, you fucking cheat.” He spat at his feet, hazel eyes burning with rage before fading to a dull, listless ember. “Figured since I had nothing left to lose, might as well get a hit in on the kid that’s been pissing me off the most all semester before I head home.” 

Regi wanted to get angry. He wanted to lung at him. Choke him. Scream at him. Hurt him until everything went numb. Instead, he picked up what he could of his broken glasses, looking at his former classmate one more time. There were so many things he wanted to say. 

Instead, he settled on the only thing that he knew would hurt the least.

“...I pity you.”

Without even waiting for a response, he closed the door. Regi waited there in silence, counting the seconds until he finally heard Baxter Fielding walking away from the door. Once he was certain he wouldn’t be coming back, he set his glasses down on the desk and went over to his first aid kit. But as he reached for the bottle of healing water, he stopped. They still had a day left of the trip, and he didn’t have much on him, and wouldn’t get more until he got back to the dorms. Using it to heal what would no doubt be a black eye in a few minutes seemed wasteful. Especially since he would be asleep soon anyway. 

If it’s not looking good in the morning, I’ll use it. Better to have it on hand in case of an emergency. 

Regi quickly got ready for bed, curling up in his spot on the floor and allowing himself to fade into the the void of rest. 

His last thought as he fell asleep was that tomorrow would be better. 

And if it isn’t, I’ll make it better myself.

[michellelewis7162]

10 Tips On Just How To See To It Your Wedding Photographer Is A Specialist

10 Tips On Just How To See To It Your Wedding Photographer Is A Specialist

 Wedding photography is an exciting field with numerous photo hobbyists seeking to make some extra money on the side offering cheap wedding digital photography.

After paying hundreds for just the outfit alone, don't bother the church, the flowers, the function and all of the food and drink. It's very tempting to schedule a cheap wedding photographer; besides, the photography is most likely the last point you wish to think of.

Selecting your wedding photographer is one of the most crucial point to do when planning your wedding. As a matter of fact it should be the first thing you do. Intimate Wedding Photographer Asheville

First-rate wedding professional photographers Asheville obtain scheduled up months in advance so do not leave it to the eleventh hour to book. Nonetheless claiming that, there could be a couple of dates not booked, so give them a ring and also see if your day is complimentary.

Obviously everybody yearns for the gown to be gorgeous, the flowers magnificent, the food to be delicious as well as the function to be charming. The wedding photographer, nevertheless, actually ought to be among the leading things on your checklist of essential things.

If you pick a poor quality wedding photographer, it will be felt in every picture that you consider.

Nothing is much more substantial than your wedding digital photography. Why's that? Well, just think of it - what takes place when your wedding mores than? The flowers are dead, the gown obtains freeze-dried (or whatever it is the cleaners do) and also placed in a box, the cake is consumed, and also a year after your wedding you won't even remember what you ate. All you'll have left from now are your memories - and your pictures are the entrance to those memories.

To the ideas:

1. Does the photographer have several pictures from the same wedding to reveal you?

I 'd be worried if they were all from the same wedding. Correct professional photographers have taken wedding photos for various brides and that ought to mirror in their work.

On the other hand if you only see one photograph from each wedding I would think that the photographer just gets one good photo from the entire day.

You require to know that they are consistent and also have taken photos at several weddings with a minimum of three different photos from each wedding in their gallery or book.

As a typical overview, photographs from 3 recent wedding events are appropriate.

2. Does the photographer listen to you?

A photographer that speaks constantly concerning exactly how great they are is somebody you should be wary of. If a professional is not prepared to pay attention to you after that they are not extremely expert, I indicate how do they know what you are looking for?

3. Do you actually similar to this individual?

You will be investing the most important day of your life with a stranger, ensure you like them. If the photographer's personality clashes with yours, you could be in for a miserable day - or at least an unpleasant one.

Why threat being unhappy on the most vital day of your life? That's why checking out the photographer's personality is, in my opinion, more important than examining their profile. Will they be officious? Offensive? Aloof? When you speak with a possible photographer Asheville, obtain a feel for them and also see if they are somebody you would certainly want to be good friends with. If the solution is "yes", after that put them high up on your listing!

A Professional has style. A professional photographer will have a distinct design as well as preference. The photographs may be in black and white or in colour; you might see great deals of control in the pictures or none.

An amateur photographer impersonating a professional will certainly not have much of a style. Their pictures will look dull and also off-color. If their design is all over the place after that you can bet your life that they are not experts.

What are the pictures like?

 1. Are the images level?

2. As well dark or as well light?

3. Can you see the details on the wedding dress or is it simply a white blob?

4. Do individuals in the pictures look awkward or distracted?

5. Do the group photos look unpleasant?

6. Are the histories in the pictures jumbled?

7. Do the histories contend for focus for individuals aware?

8. Are the people checking out the camera?

9. Do they still have their heads?

 If you respond to yes to these inquiries after that I would certainly say that the photographer is not an expert. There are exceptions though; with the Photojournalistic design, most individuals aware are not checking out the camera and the histories can be a little disruptive.

Additionally ask the photographer where the photograph was taken; in some cases they have actually done the best that they can do. This is specifically true with registrar wedding celebrations, where the pc registry workplaces are usually positioned in or near industrial areas where the histories are not extremely rather anyway.

4. Does the photographer appear expert?

This is one of the most challenging one to determine as lots of people understand to clothe wisely as well as it's easy to learn the formality of the electronic camera, the terminology to describe the photographs as well as market their discussion.

You can never ever recognize for sure however there are a few guidelines:

5. Ask if they do photography as a full time job?

 ¥ i. If they answer of course then it's one factor in their favour.

¥ ii. If they say no, then ask them what else they do. If it's a completely different field, like structure or workplace work, after that they aren't a professional photographer, they will certainly have absolutely nothing to lose if they ruin the pictures of your wedding.

 6. The length of time have they been in business?

i. Anything under a year is suspicious, mainly since they will most likely not have adequate experience with properly covering weddings outside the workshops and also courses.

ii. A couple of years is excellent, the photographer has most likely had enough wedding experience to understand what to anticipate as well as just how to deal with any situations that might emerge.

iii. Anything over three years is great (as long as it is their full time employment) as it shows that they are doing quite well and also they ought to have a good track record.

Inquire about the photographer with your pals as well as associates; see what track record they have actually achieved. If it's good after that they can be relied on, otherwise then do not trust them, think of it as a self-confidence ranking.

7. The amount of weddings have they photographed?

i. This is essential, if they offer you a number under 20 then be on your guard and take every one of the various other answers right into account when ultimately choosing whether to reserve them or not, especially consider how many years they have been in business. If they have actually just done 20 wedding events in 2 years, then probably you should not book them. 20 is a really low variety of weddings for two years; you can expect a specialist photographer typically to photo at the very least 20 wedding events each year.

ii. If they give you a figure over 200 as well as they have actually stayed in business for just a number of years then they are coldly existing. There is no feasible means for them to have covered numerous weddings in 2 years.

iii. For a company that has actually been running for 2 years, an affordable number for weddings covered is 60.

8. Does the photographer take place seminars as well as courses if so which ones?

i. If they have not gotten on any type of training courses or to workshops and also state that they are entirely self-taught, then they are most definitely amateur digital photographers. Expert professional photographers frequently attend seminars and programs to maintain fresh, and their skills honed to a detail.

ii. If they have actually been on a few courses when they started up after that they are not committed to high quality as well as excellence within their photography as well as most likely cut corners a lot. Be wary of these.

iii. If they attend basic training courses, not specific to wedding digital photography after that question their commitment to their craft.

iv. If they take place expert training courses on wedding digital photography frequently, then outstanding! This confirms that they are committed and focused on their craft.

I often attend expert programs on particular styles of wedding digital photography This is to maintain me fresh and at the top of my profession. I do pick up from books and also practise commonly but you can just get until now learning by yourself and there is definitely no substitute for hands on experience and also training.

9. Does the photographer have an agreement?

A photographer who does not have an agreement is not to be trusted. If you purchase any kind of sort of solution, from plumbing to photography there should be an agreement. This is to safeguard you from anything that can fail and also so you know specifically what you are obtaining. The contract can either be long and also complicated or succinct.

The digital photography contract guards against a photographer not completing their end of the deal. It likewise safeguards you from them taking your cash as well as running. It also permits you a legal entitlement to the solution you have paid for as well as additionally tells you what you are permitted to do with the pictures. The contract must additionally have an area connected which tells the photographer every one of the details of the wedding.

10. Does the photographer ask you regarding the pictures that you would like taken on the day, do they ask you regarding family relationships and household politics?

The photographer should ask you regarding the photographs that you would certainly such as on the day, a wedding is a great occasion that congregates lots of estranged family members and there is normally only this particular day to photo them all together. Several family members will be originating from much flung places as well as the photographer should know to get these important people.

A wedding is an extremely psychologically charged event and also the photographer must ask as well as understand about any type of possible issues between member of the family so they do not begin any kind of fights.

In addition to knowing every one of this, the photographer ought to ask for an intermediary within the wedding party, it's generally an usher from both sides of the family, some one who recognizes every one of the relative by view. Remember the photographer has possibly never ever fulfilled your household prior to so appointing them somebody that knows every person that will exist is vital to obtaining everybody you would certainly such as photographed in the right location at the correct time.

Everyone has a budget, try your ideal to extend that spending plan as well as publication a specialist photographer for as long as you can obtain them, you won't regret it.

Michelle Jones a professional photographer who likewise functions as well as owns works for Ludlow Photographer, being experts in Portrait, B2B as well as PR event editorial photography.

She has actually been taking specialist Photos for over one decade and is extremely applauded for her work. Michelle takes photos in both classic and also contemporary design.

 There is no way that you will never fall in love. The area is ideal considering that it promotes spectacular landscapes describing love and also stories of some sort. And if you have actually chosen the stunning Yard State to have your wedding held, the occasion should be recorded via working with an expert photographer. Any one of those angles making the occasion very unique will certainly make sure to be captured by a remarkable engagement photographer Asheville - these are those sensations of exhilaration for the wedding day, assurance, dedication as well as most specifically the primary factor that you are getting into the event -love.

There really is a need to advise those that are still gearing towards their special day, although it is important to think about wedding digital photography, it is also needed to capture those angles occurring during the engagement. It is necessary to made them understand that wedding occasion will sure to be made a lot more charming through the pictures taken during the involvement. Amongst the feasible things that could be done is to have a slide show discussion of collection of involvement photos throughout the wedding, wall surface of pictures at the function or enhancing the primary area with some of the picked images or a tarpaulin banner.

The couple can additionally capitalize on having any of the possible involvement tasks recorded. To name a few -practice session supper, cake sampling, stag parties, dress fitting, bridal shower as well as interaction party. In order nonetheless to have every one of the pictures be incorporated and conveniently settled, hiring one person or group is advised.

The typical and also can be anticipated shots that will be taken for an involvement digital photography are those when pairs are playfully chasing each other or posing a pleasant accept. The couple will certainly sure to be happy to flaunt their engagement fires with their best fits on as they take their positions in the beautiful views.

 When preparing any kind of wedding relevant occasion it is extremely important to pick certified, experienced experts. There are many different elements to think about when preparing for a wedding. This additionally consists of the entire engagement procedure. Although many people think of the wedding and also everything that enters into getting ready for the special day, a considerable quantity of time as well as effort is often provided to the involvement process. In several ways, the engagement procedure prepares pairs for their wedding in a variety of means.

Among one of the most essential facets of any kind of involvement or wedding is digital photography due to the fact that this is the method this very special day will certainly be tape-recorded. Often couples will work with an involvement photographer in order to tape their involvement procedure with the hopes of possibly using this particular photographer for their wedding. Due to the fact that the photographer is so extremely important, there are particular factors that couples ought to consider when trying to find a leading interaction photographer. These aspects consist of experience, testimonies as well as a pleasant demeanor.

Experience is one of one of the most important elements to think about when seeking a top marriage photographer. Although many individuals are seeking to cut expenses in regards to some elements of their wedding procedure which additionally includes the marriage, it is really important to consider just how experience affects the sorts of images that a couple obtains from their photographer. Experienced marriage digital photographers supply couples the assurance that they will have a paper or digital document of their engagement process. Furthermore, an experienced marriage photographer is additionally able to provide their clients different solutions that less skilled people are not efficient in providing in a reliable way. While all the skilled marital relationship photographer cost more to employ, in the long run it is worthwhile understanding that the pictures taken will certainly be of a particular criterion.

Testimonies are also an extra aspect to consider when looking for a top marital relationship photographer. One of the very best ways to determine whether or not to acquire solutions from a specialist is to consider the individual actions from their clients. This includes marriage professional photographers. Individuals are always ready to offer their individual viewpoint about the services that are supplied by such experts as professional photographers. This is particularly real when thinking about a special occasion such as a prom, unique event or involvement. It is very advised that pairs research study the reputations of the marital relationship photographers taken into consideration in order to identify whether their services are well obtained by the public. Carrying out a simple web search on the numerous marriage photographers can disclose essential information concerning the high quality of the services provided by professional marriage professional photographers.

Lastly, that the behavior of the specialist marriage photographer is really important. Couples seeking specialist photography solutions for their interaction and also wedding celebrations must look for a professional that combines both experience with the capability to associate with individuals. Generally, people tend to reply to individuals that have a favorable individuality. It is really difficult to obtain individuals to take photos when they feel uneasy. The photographer employed to take photos for involvement ought to be very easy to manage while likewise exhibiting professionalism and trust.

You've chosen your date, reserved your place and also started looking for dresses. Currently you're seeking a Asheville wedding photographer. There are a great deal of styles of wedding digital photography around, as well as while individuals in the sector might know these styles inside out they be confusing for couples. Bear in mind also that not just are you choosing a design of digital photography, however various types of wedding digital photography can make different needs on your time on your wedding.

Choosing the style of photography you desire at your wedding boils down to three things. What style of images you desire, how long you intend to invest with a photographer on your special day, as well as most importantly of all your own individuality and comfort before the cam.

There are plenty of various photography buzzwords available. Vintage, editorial, imaginative or modern are simply a couple of. Probably more confusingly they are used by various professional photographers in different methods. Eventually it depends on pairs to ask plenty of questions as well as do a lot of research study prior to choosing a photographer, as well as to rely upon seeing full set of images from finished weddings Do not count on the most effective five or six shots from a number of wedding events to decide.

Wedding digital photography designs are a concession between generating superb work as well as maintaining to a timetable. A photographer might create fantastic images, however if he takes as well long to generate them you probably will not enjoy the experience.

If you are reserved concerning having your image taken, wedding photojournalism is possibly your best option. The photography happens without you actually realizing and also you'll look your all-natural best.

Although these two methods may show up polar revers, actually most wedding photographers will certainly use a blend of these 2 designs. There are not many wedding photographers who don't shoot at the very least some official pictures and standard wedding photographers will shoot informal pictures too. Learn what percentage of each a photographer likes to shoot, and far better still inquire what they like to shoot one of the most - chances are this is what they are best at.

Classic Wedding Digital Photography

Classic wedding photography is a design that has been coming into vogue recently, but in great deals of means its a difficult one to evaluate. Vintage can mean anything from making use of old film electronic cameras during a few of the wedding to just a various method to upload production to create 'classic' looking digital files. There are some terrific photographers around, yet remember that if you are receiving files that are greatly edited in a certain style, you risk of your photos looking instead dated a few years later on. If I was employing a vintage style photographer, I personally would want a minimum of a few of the wedding shot on film, I'm not a significant fan of forging things. As always ask questions, see examples as well as make a notified choice.

Editorial Wedding Digital Photography

This wedding category is motivated by the style content of glossy publications, at it's best it can generate great high-end photos. To create this efficiently on a wedding the photographer needs to be highly organised, and would probably require an aide to aid set up some of the shots in advance, although that would depend upon his/her style. Do your study to make sure that the moment needs for this sort of shoot fit in with your plans. If you truly like this type of digital photography yet do not wish to commit too much time to it on your wedding, consider reserving a separate photo session after the wedding. Typically calls a trash or cherish the dress shoot, a separate picture session might be the very best way to obtain the special day you want and also the photographs you'll like without shedding a huge piece of your wedding. It also means that you and your photographer can pick the excellent time of day for the best light and also you have scope for rescheduling if it's putting with rainfall. In several countries, particularly the United States, high-end wedding digital photography is evolving towards 3 shoots: the involvement shoot, the wedding day, as well as a content session. Do not always think that it all has to be performed in eventually.

Artistic or Art Wedding Digital Photography

Essentially an advancement of traditional wedding digital photography, this type of digital photography uses a contemporary take on the traditional set of positioned photographs, although these are both terms that have actually been somewhat over used by the photo community, so again do your research. At its best this category can create relocating romantic images, but some professional photographers can over use the exact same poses, so it can feel a little bit impersonal. Ask to see great deals of shoots and do not hesitate to input your very own concepts at your pre-wedding meeting.

[janschreiner]

A Personal Interview with Dr. Justin Lehmiller

An Interview with Dr. Justin Lehmiller

Author of Tell Me What You Want: The Science of Sexual Desire and How It Can Help You Improve Your Sex Life

We would like to start by asking you some questions about your most recent book, Tell Me What You Want. You conducted one of the largest and most comprehensive scientific surveys of Americans’ sexual fantasies as the basis for this book. What was your most unexpected finding?

That’s a really tough question because I found so many things that were fascinating and surprising! That said, one finding that was particularly interesting to me was the way that our sexual fantasies seemed to change with age. For instance, I found that threesomes and group sex were more popular fantasies among older adults, whereas passion and romance were more popular fantasies among younger adults. A lot of people would have expected the reverse pattern. As I discuss in the book, I think what’s going on here is that our psychological needs change as we age and, as they do, our sexual fantasies evolve in ways that are designed to meet those needs. So, for example, when we’re younger and perhaps more insecure, our fantasies focus more on making us feel validated; by contrast, when we’re older and have settled into a long-term relationship, our fantasies focus more on breaking sexual routines and fulfilling unmet needs for novelty. 

How did you get more than 4,000 people to tell you about their deepest sexual fantasies? Talking openly about our sexual fantasies is something that many of us find to be intimidating. We’re worried that other people will reject us or judge us for our desires, so rather than talking about our fantasies with our partners, we tend to keep them to ourselves. I was able to bypass a lot of this anxiety by collecting data on people’s sexual fantasies anonymously. When people know that their survey responses will stay anonymous, they become far more willing to talk about sex. The fact that so many people took my survey tells me that people really do want to talk about their fantasies—sadly, however, they just find it a lot easier to tell a stranger over the internet than their partner.   

What’s the most common thing that people are fantasizing about? 

When looking at people’s biggest fantasy of all time, the single most common sex act that emerged was having a threesome. And when I looked at whether people had ever had a fantasy about threesomes (or group sex more broadly), I found that almost everyone—male and female alike—had done so. However, I should note that BDSM was another sex fantasy that almost everyone reported having at one time or another, too. 

Did male and female responders have different desires? 

Men and women were surprisingly similar in the types of things they fantasized about. Many of the fantasies that are stereotyped as masculine (like threesomes) or feminine (like emotional fulfillment) were things that a majority of both men and women were fantasizing about. However, there were some important differences that emerged. For instance, women were more likely than men to fantasize about same-sex experiences, whereas men were more likely than women to have gender-bending fantasies (such as crossdressing or having sex with a transgender person). I also found that women were more likely to fantasize about BDSM and to place more emphasis on where they were having sex; by contrast, men reported more taboo sexual fantasies and placed more emphasis on who they were having sex with.

What do a person’s sexual fantasies say about their personality? 

My survey results suggest that people with different personalities tend to fantasize about very different things. For example, people who are more extraverted and outgoing tended to have more fantasies about group sex and non-monogamy (after all, they like meeting new people!). Highly agreeable persons (i.e., those who have more care and concern for the well-being of others) were less likely to fantasize about BDSM, infidelity, and emotionless sex—a pattern that makes a lot of sense because they don’t want to hurt anyone and they want to be sure that their partner is enjoying the sex. Also, those who were more neurotic, meaning they don’t handle stress well, were more likely to include calming emotional content in their fantasies (like romance), while they were less likely to fantasize about trying new things—in other words, neurotics’ fantasies seemed to be designed to avoid stressing them out. I discovered many more connections between our personalities and our fantasies, but it seems that, overall, our fantasies reflect who we are and they appear to be designed to meet our unique psychological needs.  

Were there any sexual fantasies that stood out to you?

One of the most interesting fantasies I learned about through this survey was something that one female participant described as being a “human cow.” Specifically, she wanted to be tied up in the center of town where she would be force fed hormones that would make her lactate constantly while people would come and milk her and have sex with her whenever they wanted. I only received one fantasy like this, but after writing the book, I learned that there’s a whole porn genre devoted to women dressed as cows while they’re tied up and hooked to milking machines. 

What is your advice to someone who has expressed a particular sexual desire to a partner who is unwilling to fulfill it? 

If the results of my survey have taught me anything, it’s that most of us aren’t just fantasizing about one thing and one thing only—we tend to have multiple sex fantasies. So odds are that even if you and your partner aren’t a match on a given fantasy, there will likely be several other areas where you’ll have common ground. Therefore, I would suggest looking for other desires that are mutually shared. The other thing I would advise is to avoid pressuring or coercing your partner into fulfilling a given fantasy because that’s not going to turn out well for anyone. 

What is your advice to someone who may be uncomfortable fulfilling their partner’s desire? 

First and foremost, don’t do anything you don’t want to do. And if you’re uncomfortable with something, consider proposing an alternative activity that could potentially fulfill your partner’s desire while also being of interest to you. For instance, if your partner is turned on by the idea of a threesome but you aren’t, you might compromise by looking for other ways of interjecting novelty into your sex life, such as by role playing or watching porn together. The need for sexual novelty is one that is pervasive, but it’s endlessly flexible and there are so many ways that it can be achieved. 

What role does evolution play in sexual fantasy and desire?

As I discuss in the book, there’s a lot of research to suggest that people’s sexual fantasies and desires are shaped, to some extent, by our evolutionary history. The idea here is that the unique reproductive challenges faced by our ancestors may have predisposed us to certain desires that are likely to assist us in meeting those challenges. For example, this would include desiring partners with physical attributes that signify sexual maturity, fertility, and strong genes (think men with chiseled bodies and women with hourglass figures) because this would help to ensure that we focus our attention on prospective partners with whom there would be better odds of successful reproduction. As I discuss in Tell Me What You Want, this line of reasoning helps to explain why the likes of Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson top the list of the most fantasized about celebrities.

Thank you for sharing all of this information about your research. Now we have a few questions about you! First, how do other people react to your career as a sex researcher and educator when they find out what you do?

Being a sex researcher is something that’s both a blessing and a curse. I absolutely love my job and the fact that I’m able to learn new things about sex every day, to share this information with the world through my writing, and to contribute to scientific knowledge. At the same time, though, it means that everyone wants to ask me their sex questions—even when I’m at a dinner party or out with my friends. All of us want to be able to escape our work sometimes and even though I find sex to be a really interesting and fascinating subject, I need a break from it sometimes!

You used to work at Harvard University. What did you find the most surprising about working there? 

One of the classes I taught at Harvard was Psychology of Human Sexuality. I was surprised to learn that this course hadn’t been offered in the Psychology Department there for several years before I started teaching it. This meant there was a lot of pent-up demand, so I ended up having some pretty big classes. 

One of the most unique things I discovered about teaching at Harvard, though, was the fact that there aren’t a ton of required courses and students largely get to choose their own curriculum. The first week of every semester is known as “shopping week” and it’s when students go sit in on a bunch of classes and decide what to take. It puts a lot of pressure on you as an instructor to engage your students from the moment they set foot in your classroom because if you don’t capture their attention that first week, they won’t sign up for your course. That experience actually ended up making me a much better instructor because I really had to figure out how to captivate an audience. 

What is the most important thing about sex that you want all therapists and healthcare providers who deal with sexuality issues to know? 

There are so many things! I don’t know that I can recommend just one piece of information, but I think it’s important for them to recognize that our knowledge and understanding of human sexuality is constantly changing and evolving. And the “replication crisis” in science is affecting our field, too. As we go back and revisit older findings in the literature and attempt to repeat them, we’re finding that they don’t necessarily all hold up (such as the finding from the 1980s that men exposed to Playboy centerfolds reported less love for their partners than men exposed to abstract art��that was a highly cited finding for decades, but modern researchers have found that they can’t replicate it). This means that your sex education can’t end with your graduate training and it speaks to the importance of and need for continuing education for therapists and healthcare providers. We all need these opportunities to keep up to date on the literature and to ensure we’re practicing with the best available data and information in mind. The good news is that a lot of these continuing education opportunities are available through the Sexual Health Alliance and elsewhere. All you need to do is seek them out!

What are the most common or influential sex books you reference in your work?

One of the books I reference most frequently is The Social Organization of Sexuality by Laumann and colleagues. This is the book that’s based on the National Health and Social Life Survey from the 1990s. It’s really a treasure trove of information about Americans’ sexuality from that point in time (just like Kinsey’s books were for people in the 1940s and 50s). It’s one of the most comprehensive sex surveys ever conducted, and it’s really useful as a reference point when looking at how sexual behaviors were similar/different a quarter-century ago. 

I reference the book A Billion Wicked Thoughts with some frequency too. This book looks at what our porn searches say about us and it provides some revealing insights about sexuality today.

Who in the field of sex research inspires you?

There are a lot of people who inspire me, but one of the first names that comes to mind is Dr. Lori Brotto. She does it all—she’s has this incredible body of research that is supported by millions of dollars in grants, but she’s also engaged in clinical practice, she disseminates science to the public through the media, she’s an incredibly dynamic public speaker and educator, and she’s written an amazing book called Better Sex Through Mindfulness. She’s also just a wonderful human being who has seemingly managed to find that elusive work-life balance, too. I’m in awe of what she has accomplished.

As a research fellow at the Kinsey Institute, you have made a wonderful career as a sex educator. What would you recommend to young educators wanting to follow in your footsteps? The most important thing to know is that there isn’t just one path you can pursue. Sex educators come from wonderfully diverse backgrounds. You could get your training in social psychology like I did, but I know sex educators who have backgrounds in public health, biology, anthropology, and several other fields. So start by choosing the discipline that’s the best fit for you and your interests. 

The other big thing to consider is how you want to educate people—do you want to work in a college setting? Do you want to teach adolescents? Do you want to put on workshops or write for the general public? Connect with some educators who are in the area you want to pursue and ask for their advice because each area may require different credentials or experience. 

Thank you Dr. Justin Lehmiller!

-SHA Team

A Personal Interview with Dr. Justin Lehmiller published first on https://spanishflyhealth.tumblr.com/

[rodrigohyde]

Watch Snob Goes All In on Audemars Piguet’s Obscure Offerings

Watch Snob Goes All In on Audemars Piguets Obscure Offerings

Millenary Take One

I get it that a great deal of watch “value” is about the image it projects to others. That is why celebrity endorsements work, and that is sticking to the established archetypes (man as diver, pilot, James Bond) will always sell.

At the same time, it hurts my eyes to see that the price of the value watches you often recommend (Nomos, Tudor, Seiko) you can get a veritable piece of no compromise high horology. Of course, it will not be the hot and hyped model, but still.

RELATED: Last Week — Watch Snob on What to Look for in the New Year

The watch I have in mind is the forgotten and unpopular Audemars Piguet Millenary ref. 15016. It is a perfect everyday watch, almost a field watch in its austere black dial aesthetics and time-only functionality. At the same time, it has a unique design, a well-finished movement from a Big Three Swiss brand, an elegant thin profile — what is not to love for the price of a Tudor Black Bay (on pre-owned market, of course)?

Please prove me wrong in my reasoning. Am I not wise?

Here is wisdom: He that hath an ear, let him hear. You are indeed wise. The Millenary in general and that watch in particular are an opportunity to own an interesting watch with an intriguing design that has largely been passed over by the enthusiast community. The movement is the Audemars Piguet caliber 2225, which is derived — if my memory’s right —  from the Jaeger-LeCoultre 960; very nicely finished by AP.

The reason that the price is as low as it generally is, is obvious — an oval-shaped dress watch is not particularly what the market wanted from Audemars Piguet, and the Millenary (which came out in 1995) never really caught fire in the market. In fact, as a men’s dress watch, it was a bit of a flop, although AP has occasionally used the design for really spectacular statement pieces, like the astonishingly lovely Cabinet Piece No. 5 and the Millenary Minute Repeater. If, however, you don’t care about the fact that the Millenary Collection is currently largely a repository for ladies’ timepieces, you can indeed get something very nice for not a great deal of money. It’s not a bad litmus test for whether someone is a serious watch person either: Anyone who recognizes a Millenary as an AP has probably been around watches for a while. The same is true of the Edward Piguet collection, which AP has abandoned, more’s the pity.

Millenary Take Two

I have enjoyed watch collecting for many years, but I think that my interest is getting depleted. When I just started, there was so much to learn and understand: “What are the good brands? What are the good models? What makes them good? What makes a watch valuable and why?” Most importantly, it was a journey of self-discovery and an exercise in critical thinking, as I had to dig through the layers of marketing narratives and the taste of others to formulate my own values and the watches that these represent. Now, however, I have figured out the answers to these questions and there is not much new learning to sustain my interest.

Therefore, I want to retire from the hobby, but do so in the proper way — by sealing the decade of an obsessive-compulsive quest with a few horological symbols of my newly recovered, liberated self. First, to represent the values of creativity, originality and individuality, I will get the Audemars Piguet Millenary Chronograph ref. 25822. Second, to represent mechanical tradition, elegance, and a certain “ancient” chic, Breguet ref. 3490. Third, for the everyday, practical wear and the appreciation of sculpture, Vacheron Constantin Overseas Chronograph ref. 49150. All these watches are from top-end brands and represent good value for money, thanks to them being non-mainstream and under the radar.

Not that I am unsure of my choices. They are thought-out, but it is interesting still to hear an opinion of a hobby veteran: you. Would you say that there are better candidates out there to stand for my values?

I’m flabbergasted. Two questions in one week that reference one of the more obscure modern watch designs, by which I mean the Audemars Piguet Millenary. I wonder if the design mightn’t be poised to take the world by storm at long last … almost certainly not, it is simply too much an oddball, but you never know.

OK, sir, to the business. You obviously know your own tastes and I can see from the watches that you have chosen that you know watches quite well also. There is little or nothing that I can do to further educate you about the watches you have picked. They each of them represent aspects of the company that has made them, that are a bit off the radar, as you say, but that are also highly characteristic of those firms. The Millenary, for instance, is a reminder that once upon a time, creativity in case designs was very much more AP’s stock in trade than is currently the case.

This particular approach really does have its pleasures. By this, I mean the approach of finding watches made by very good brands with real history, which, for whatever reason, have been passed over by broader tastes (pocket watches in general are an excellent example). If you were at the beginning of your horological activities I might counsel you to find something more generally appealing, but as you are clearly aware, general appeal can also be generic appeal and comes with a higher price tag. There are always alternatives to any choice, however well-educated it may be. I might suggest some of AP’s extra-flat series produced watches from the period, say, 1965 to 1975 as representing an interesting alternative to the Millenary, but the latter has much character on its side.

Mountain Time

Every once in a while when I am casually surfing the web or reading emails, the greedy servers lurking in the background try to sell me things and throw up something that actually catches my eye.

This week I was presented an ad for a watch with a single hand and a 24 hour dial. I won't bother you with the details of the maker of this obscure quartz offering, but the marketing verbiage talked about the mindset of slowing down and seeing the world rather than rushing through with pointless precision — getting off the hamster wheel of life and all that. So I began searching around for better examples of the single-hand complication (simplification?). I did not see many. Are there any current offerings in this genre that you might find interesting?

Thinking about why this ad was presented to me, I realized I had been reading much about the Long Now Foundation and their project to build a 10,000 year mechanical clock in a mountain in the desert. Although it's obviously not a watch, would the Snob care to render any opinion on this also?

Aha, yes, the Clock of the Long Now. We have a working scale model in the Science Museum (in London) which is worth a visit. It is a most fascinating project, creating a mechanical object capable of running for so long a period of time poses unique engineering challenges, of course, but it is also a kind of public artwork with many intriguing features. It will probably be over the heads of most readers, and the fact that the construction is being funded by the controversial billionaire Jeff Bezos may color perceptions, but the fact remains, it is one of the most worthwhile clock projects in ... well, ever, I daresay.

Single-hand watches are rare; most folks would prefer to know the time to a bit better resolution. Audemars Piguet, to bring up obscure APs again, made one, the so-called Philosopher’s Watch, which is worth hunting around for. It is ref. 9040, I believe. Billed as a lady’s watch and a bit small, but I think at this point in the Year of Our Lord 2019, we can ignore that. Other than that, may I recommend you to a little brand called Meistersinger. They have more or less cornered the market for hour-hand-only watches and have for many years. (They do, if I recall correctly, a jumping hours version as well.) They are charming, interesting, and you would have to exert yourself to spend more than perhaps $2,000 at most to get one.

Send the Watch Snob your questions at editorial@askmen.com or ask a question on Instagram with the #watchsnob hashtag.

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[angelikacolvin6-blog]

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