#and an EXCELLENTLY drawn cat btw

[inonibird]

Sahuldeem Q&A Part 2

Look, I’m NOT good about answering asks, y’all. I will let them pile up, promising myself I’ll get to them eventually, and then too often they sink into the mire of “oh no I waited too long”. BUT! I’m making myself grab a handful and slap them up here together like I did previously. (questions bold; answers italic)

i know you just answered a bunch of questions, but this one has been in my head for a while; are the kuunsi(?) based off of the sha/set animal? i'm kind of a kemetic mythology kid so when i saw the art i was very intrigued! Excellent observation! Given my own affinity for Egyptian mythology, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the answer is: there was definitely some inspiration there.

Is the actual meaning of the word Sahuldeem a spoiler?

How does Kaleesh courtship work? Like so many things, it’s regional, but we’ve already seen part of the custom particular to the Ausez Steppes. ;)

What’s your take on what Mumuu look like? I’ve seen dozens ranging from big cat to cow to dinosaur and I was wondering if you had a description of some kind for how you see them? I see most of the Kaleesh animals as…well, expies of Earth animals, because…it’s easy, lol. So mumuu are definitely bovine in nature (possibly mammal-like reptiles, like the Kaleesh? I’m a sucker for non-mammalian synapsids), but bulls not only have horns but elongated spinous processes to form a large armored ridge along the length of the back. Maybe more armor in the form of scutes, if it is semi-reptilian. I haven’t drawn anything, but they will probably be described more later in the story, so I’ll have to put more thought into ‘em then! Hey Inonibird, can you tell us more about the kakmusme and tuugmusme from your fic? A kakmusme (pl. kakmusmal) is a warrior’s bonemask, either carved from the skull of a beast hunted by the warrior themself when they come of age or passed down from a parent. Warriors cover their faces during battles and hunts so as to humble themselves before the ever-watchful eyes of the ancestors—sure, you want them to notice your accomplishments, but it’s considered hubristic to flaunt your identity. That’s what the painted sigil is there for—to identify one’s clan to the pertinent ancestors. A tuugmusme (pl. tuugmusmal) is a broad term for a veil worn by Kaleesh women (and some men, but less commonly). Like the kakmusme, it covers the face. There are different styles and circumstances for wearing them depending on the region. Which leads me to… How do dulhlavas work? What shape is it when it's unfolded? Is it one piece of fabric or multiple? Are there different types and styles of dulhlava? This ask! So dulhlava is ALSO a broad term that refers to several different types of head wraps that can be worn all over Kalee. It’s pure artistic laziness on my part that one can’t look at a dulhlava and suss out how it fits together, lol, BUT I do imagine that it is usually made up of at least two portions. Qymaen’s chieftain dulhlava may even have three pieces; the…er…dangling bits of patterned cloth that hang on either side of his head (which represents his authority) is actually one long strip that is held in place. But yes! So! Short answer: I haven’t put a whole lot of thought into it, it’s sort of a catch-all. Qymaen: [coughs slightly] Me: OH MY GOSH THE FORESHADOWING You may be jesting or think you’re overreacting, but HOO BOY LET ME TELL YOU, I am hyperaware of every single cough, wheeze, gasp, and ding-dang breath that passes through Qymaen’s doomed lungs. Just you wait. Are small villages like Irikuum usually monotribal, or are there always at least two clans in any given settlement? There are usually multiple clans! (I should really do a post about Kaleesh clans like I did about naming conventions that one time. Someday!) Kaleesh... Sumerian... Kaleesh Ea-Nasir... Brain thoughts Oh, jeez. Do I need to have a Kaleesh named Nanni show up in the background of a scene, whining about shitty kuluha he bought off a merchant? How old is Qy atm? As of the Battle of Shrupak, he is 18 years old. ((BTW, if you’ve sent me positive comments about the fic, really, thank you, I do appreciate it! If you haven’t yet, leave a comment or kudos on AO3; that would mean a lot to me! <3))

[geekade]

WILW: Aleister Black

Aleister Black, the former Tommy End finally made his official NXT debut over Wrestlemania weekend. He had previously had a televised match during the UK tournament, billed as Tommy End, in a losing contest against Neville. But no longer. Aleister Black is here.And make no mistake, this guy is a fucking star.

Black has been wrestling all over the world since 2002. He was trained by current NXT star Kassius Ohno (Chris Hero) and current NXT commentator Nigel McGuinness among others. He became a star in the UK wrestling for promotions like Rev Pro, ICW, and wXw while making his name stateside in in EVOLVE and PWG. In the ring, Black strikes like a kickboxer which makes sense. Black has been training in kickboxing, and other martial arts, since he was a kid in the Netherlands. (kickboxing is huge in the Netherlands, btw) His matches are feature strikes in a variety of ways and just look damn cool. It's not just strikes though with Black. He is a legitimate athlete that can mat wrestle as well as fly through the air. He features a unique take on the dragon sleeper hold, a personal favorite, as well as a number of different flips and dives to the outside. He has excellent ring psychology as well. He is the complete package as far as a modern wrestler is concerned. 

Being able to do cool moves is only part of the package, however. Plenty of guys can do cool shit. Not everyone is as captivating as Black is upon first look. He has the elusive it factor; the thing that makes you stop and watch. Not many martial arts-influenced wrestlers come out looking like a member of a punk or black metal band. Black sports a long mowhawk, a long unkempt beard, and a ton of tattoos. He is covered in tattoos like few others in the business today and they are from a variety of influences. Some Japanese, some based on the occult, some with simple yet personal meaning, Black is damn near out of room for more ink. If I were a pro wrestler, I would want to look like Aleister Black. Add on to the cool look the fact that he cuts intense promos and has an amazing entrance, he rises from the ground on a platform like a goddamn vampire, with great music and you have a genuine big deal. Aleister Black is a future WWE champion right now and he is only getting better. The only possible derailment will come from the fact that Black is a satanist, an actual one too not a cartoonish villain, and his work has drawn criticism in the past for being somewhat over the top.

Check out the videos below for examples of his work. Follow him on Twitter @WWEAleister, buy his merch, support the hell out of this guy. It's not often we get such a unique cat in WWE. Black has all the potential to reach Undertaker levels, seriously. Follow me on Twitter and instagram, @geekadedan, and let me know what you think of Aleister Balck. And if you have a minute please take the time to like, comment, or share the article. Until then...

[kayleigh-83]

Ask Meme

I got tagged by @zebrasims​ :)

Name: Kayleigh 

Nicknames: My initials are KK so some people call me that, really only at work though

Zodiac sign: Taurus, and I am the most Taurusy-Taurus who ever Taurused

Height: 5′3″

Orientation: straight 

Ethnicity: white 

Favorite fruit: apples and strawberries 

Favorite season: Summer! There’s something to love in every season but summer is my favourite, good energy, love the heat!

Favorite book series: Outlander, but I like many books and series, I’m a biiig bookworm.

Favorite flower: Lilacs, hydrangea, hyacinth

Favorite scent: Wow there are so many! I honestly don’t think I could choose. I love scented candles (I worked at Bath & Body Works for a short while and the obsession was truly born) but even then I choose a variety of scents. I love fresh, clean smelling ones, nature type scents, and some of the more warm/cozy vanilla-cinnamon type scents too. A lot!

Favorite color:  I don’t know that I have a particular favourite - I’m probably drawn to blues the most, at least in clothing, but I like every colour! 

Favorite animal: Always been somewhat partial to squirrels, but I really like every animal, like way too much. Dogs and cats of course. Roughly 75% of my Instagram feed is various animal accounts I follow - dogs, cats, pigs, bunnies, guinea pigs, hamsters, etc etc....

Coffee, tea, or hot cocoa: All, but probably in that order haha.. coffee the most, tea second, hot chocolate last (no one here calls it hot cocoa that I know of, just a regional thing)

Average sleep hours: 7-8 hours usually

Cat or dog person: BOTH! My goodness I don’t know how anyone could choose. Sadly I have none right now because I rent, but I always grew up with both.

Favorite fictional characters: Claire from Outlander is excellent.

Number of blankets you sleep with: one duvet, and one of those fuzzy/furry throw blankets as well

Dream trip: Well a dream trip would involve going to ALL the places in the world I want to go haha, so too many to list!

Blog created: No clue, this account used to be used for something else and then I stopped using it. Then I just resurrected it, deleted all the old stuff off my blog, and started posting new content!

Number of followers: 592 currently. but I honestly don’t know how much of that is current - I had something like 200-300 still on from my Tumblr’s previous and totally non Sim related incarnation. Probably half of my followers are from that era and don’t use their accounts anymore, or keep wondering why TS2 stuff keeps showing up on their dash XD So I would guesstimate for Sims followers, let’s call it maybe 300??? Who knows!! LOL

Time right now: right about 10 am

Last thing you googled: Greater than 2 Gig fix - was looking up something for Kiri’s research!

Fave music artist: I don’t have one particular favourite, but I like a pretty wide variety of music!

Song stuck in my head: All We Got by Chance the Rapper, but before that it was Church by Maren Morris (so you see what I mean by liking a wide variety LOL)

Last movie I watched: I can’t even remember, I don’t watch movies too often, mostly TV series!

Last TV show I watched: Star Trek DS9 

What I’m wearing right now: green sweat pants and a grey top - at home/comfy clothes!

The kind of stuff I post: Sims 2! LOL

Why did I choose my url: My name is Kayleigh, and I’ve always really liked the number 83 since I was a kid. I think most people would assume that’s the year I was born, but it’s not, I’m actually 5 years younger than that!

Gender: Female

Hogwarts house: I feel like I'm about 60% Hufflepuff and 40% Ravenclaw.

Pokémon team: No clue, my Pokemon days were when I was younger, I haven’t gotten into the current incarnation! 

Lucky number: 83 of course! Don’t know that it’s lucky but I like it.

Dream job: Huh I have no idea haha I do like my job, I think a big part of that is that I like my office/coworkers/bosses/particular work environment too though. That’s hugely important. But I like a job where my work is pretty self directed, and I have a regular schedule and tasks of my own to get through - did I mention I’m a Taurus? We don’t like change! I am an insurance broker by day, btw. Relationship status: single

Pets: none right now :( I’m too nervous to ask my landlords if they would bend the rules and let me have a cat, mostly because I actually hate putting other people in a position where they might feel bad for having to say no, more than how I would feel if the answer WAS no, because that wouldn’t surprise me. I can be overly sensitive to stuff like that sometimes.

Last song you listened to: Love on the Brain by Rihanna

Favorite TV Show: I love all the Star Treks (especially TNG/DS9/VOY as they all aired during my childhood and my parents watched most of them so they also get the benefit of having the nostalgia factor) but I never got into TOR, Mad Men is my ride or die, will watch it forever and ever and ever, have lots of others I have really really enjoyed but I’d say those ones get to be enshrined as true favourites.

First Fandom: Spice Girls probably haha I remember my cousin and I being around 6 or 7 when Wannabe first came out, and in the subsequent years we were pretty huge into them as I’m sure most girls our age were. We would have sleepovers and we’d cut up paper into small “pages”, draw Spice Girls on them, and staple or tape them together and make our own “Spice Girls Magazines��. Hahah! I also have to say I could count The Sims as an early fandom of mine too. My mom was always into Sims games when I was growing up, various versions of “SimCity”, I had “SimTown” which was a game that came out in the mid 90′s - sort of like “SimCity” for kids. When we got “SimCity” 3000 in 1999 and saw the trailer for the forthcoming game “The Sims”, we were pretty much in hysterics LOL. So it all started there and I never looked back!

I’m going to tag completely at random so if you have already done this, please ignore, and if you don’t want to go it, also please ignore! :p

@dramallamadingdang @arielle-celeste @eulaliasims @foxglovesims @littleblondesim and also ANYONE else who wants to do this! I’d keep going with specific tags but I already spent a silly amount of time on this hahaha :p

[ankurmutreja]

Review of the Book 'Left, Right and Centre' by Nidhi Razdan

Published on 18.07.2017 To be very frank, I had no intention to publish the review of the book ‘Left, Right and Centre’ by Nidhi Razdan on my blog. I prefer to review only well-deserving books on my blog. This book doesn’t seem to be one of them. The only motivation for writing this review here is the snub by Google Play, which I am assuming has been done under the influence of either the editor or the publisher of this book. I posted an innocuous 3 star neutral rating review of the book on Google Play yesterday, but those ….. removed it before or after publishing it. I didn’t save the copy of the review, so I am reproducing it below from my memory, which is not an exact reproduction. “In older days, that search for an item number or a pretty smile in an otherwise boring movie many a times led to manual rotating of the cassettes tapes. This need not be done now courtesy YouTube. However, books still don’t offer that convenience. Therefore, authors will have to learn to write crisp and short contents. Or at least highlight important text within the 140 characters limit, so that enterprising readers can tweet quotes from the book. I have only read the sample pages of this book, which mainly dwelled upon the Kashmir problem, so I won’t comment on the contents, but I am not buying this book unless either of the editor, the authors or the publisher tweet at least 300 engrossing quotes from the book (Rs 1/quote x 300 = Price of the book). I am giving the book a neutral 3 star rating.” As I said Google Play removed the above review, so I decided to go whole hog and wrote a new review discussing the contents of the two essays I had read; i.e., the introduction by Nidhi Razdan and the essay by Shah Faesal. Since the review was negative, I decided to send the notice of the review to Nidhi Razdan, Shah Faesal and Penguin through Twitter. I gave them a clear notice of nine hours. Nidhi Razdan was active on Twitter till late at night yesterday. There have been 10 profile clicks and two link clicks on my tweet. So, there is good reason to believe the review has been read by atleast one of the recipients. Since there was no reply by anybody, I submitted this second review to Google Play at around 8 AM today. Nearly two hours have passed since then but the review has not been published. So, I am reproducing it here in the quotes below. The review has not been edited, so please bear with me. “I wrote a review a while ago with a neutral 3 star rating here on Google Play, which has been removed. Don’t know why? But anyways, now I will go whole hog. I have read introduction by Nidhi Razdan, the full essay by Shah Faesal, and the part essay by Rahul Pandita, which is good enough to write a review. First, this book is expensive even after a discount. These kinds of opinions are available in blogs and magazines for free. I wonder what value addition the caption ‘Left, Right & Center’ brings to the readers. Shah Faesal, who is a civil servant, actually has no business expressing his views in public. First thing I want to know is has he taken permission from the government while publishing his views in this book? And if he has taken the permission, then which minister or bureaucrat gave him the permission in the early years of his service when he hardly knows anything about the Kashmir problem? Anyways, his essay is a confused potpourri of immature thoughts, which hardly link to each other. Overall, the essay doesn’t leave any concrete message. Morever, it is too long winded to decipher anything sensible out of it. Nidhi Razdan has written an introduction for the book, which in itself is an essay. Well…she is also from Kashmir, so Kashmir gets lots of space in her essay as well. She has tried to define Kashmiriyat as some kind of secular tradition in which Muslims and Hindus intermingle. I will take it with a pinch of salt because Rahul Pandita in his earlier book has written about ingrained rivalry between Muslim and Hindu kids reflected best in Cricket matches. Anyways, I think Kashmiriyat has more to do with humanity than religion. To be very frank, I doubt if Nidhi Razdan is qualified enough to speak on such intellectually stressing topics. Thereafter, she has pretty lightly linked Kashmir conflict to Ultra-Nationalism of Indians. I am an #AntiNationalHumanist, so nobody can hate Ultra-Nationalism more than me, but you can’t start drawing links where none exist – what does Supreme Court taking cognizance of Sardar Jokes has to do with Kashmir conflict? Rest is regular: Pathankot, Gurmehar Kaur, JNU, Trolls, and even Tanmay Bhatt (LOL). This book seems to be a serious fraud. In my last review, which has been taken off, I had given benefit of doubt to the book by putting a condition for purchasing this book, which was that either of the authors, the editor or the publisher should tweet at least 300 engrossing quotes from the book to assure about the quality of the book. If they do it even now, I will buy the book and read other authors, esp people like Aruna Roy, Sunita Narayan, etc. – though I am surprised they have associated with this book. Last but not the least, you don’t delete reviews just because the publisher or the editor asks for it. Google has fallen way down in my eyes today. I wonder if they will publish this review. Anyways, I am saving the copy of this review. If it is not published here, it will be published on my blog. Also, I am giving notice of this review to Nidhi Razdan, Shah Faesal, and Penguin on Twitter before publishing it. At present, I am going with a 2 star rating for the book.” P.S. In the line “I doubt if Nidhi Razdan is qualified enough to speak on such intellectually stressing topics”, my reference is not to educational qualification or IQ of Nidhi Razdan. My reference is rather to her elite upbringing. In her essay, she had defined 'Kashmiriyat’ by way of exemplification through her childhood memories. Had she defined it in abstract terms with or without quoting other thinkers, I wouldn’t have made this comment. However, at the same time, I do believe philosophy is not the exclusive domain of dreamers and thinkers as elaborated in the introduction to my book Light: Philosophy. Comment Dt. 26.07.2017 Today I had some free time so I re-read the two essays, wherafter I am upgrading the rating to 3 stars for the following reasons: The essay by Shah Faesal though not leaving any concrete message is nevertheless a good reading. The comparisons of dogs to militants and soldiers, both despised yet useful, and that of cat to conflict, which sneaks in before you know it, are pretty interesting. Had Shah Faesal concentrated on these two thoughts and build around them to reach a solution, it would have been better. I think he wasted too much of his ink in describing his own celebration and the people’s cynicism surrounding it. It has not added any value to the essay. Generalisations drawn from his own case study are far-fetched. However, since it is an interesting read, it qualifies on the second reading. I have found journalists’ appearance on TV entirely different from that in print. While they may seem completely frivolous as anchors, they do pretty well as researchers. Sunetra Chaudhury, Sagarika Ghosh, Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, are some names I have discovered favourably as authors. I was expecting something similar from Nidhi Razdan. So, probably my standards were high. However, she gets benefit of doubt because technically speaking this is not her book as an author per se. It seems she has produced this book more as a franchisee owner. Nidhi Razdan’s thoughts on nationalism find deep resonance with me because I am an #AntiNationalHumanist, but her linking it with Kashmir conflict, almost frivously as if in an anchor driven TV show, put me off. I think she also over-extended her narrative. Though “Sardar Jokes” was just a single line, it was nevertheless very distracting – there was no scope whatsoever at all for “Sardar Jokes” in the theme of her essay; if she wanted to present it as a side-thought, it should have been separated from the main narrative through appropriate separators, brackets or whatever. Rabindra Nath Tagore is an excellent anchor on any discussion on ultra-nationalism, but unlike Nidhi Razdan, he would not flirt with army tanks, Kashmir conflict, Twitter trolls, Tanmay Bhatt, Gurmehar Kaur, all at the same time swinging in all possible directions – btw, she follows Narendra Modi on Twitter amongst other things. But since it is a boldly written essay on a topic close to my heart, it qualifies too. Click to Post