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thebloodofsaints · 1 year

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What is The Blood of Saints?

So, if you're here, on this page, then you have probably heard about the story I've been working on. Hello! I appreciate your company. I realize that perhaps I should give some sort of a synopsis of this story, and what it means to me as the author.

So... what is The Blood of Saints?

It is a passion project, above all else! I really have no desire to publish it in a professional setting, or seek out financial gain from it. It is, quite literally, just for funsies.

It is also a means of exploration for myself. An exploration of religion, guilt, trauma, loneliness, and sexual liberation. The setting is no accident, either, it was not random. Setting this story in rural Tennessee in the early 1980's was deliberate. While there may be some of the classic elements of horror and suspense in a vampire story, the real horror comes from the regional conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism (particularly, Evangelical Fundamentalism).

My father is a lapsed Catholic from Northern Pennsylvania, my mother a former Christian of the Church of Christ, from Tennessee. I was born and raised in Tennessee, and they both made the decision early on to raise me without any religious affiliation, because all of the churches they attended in the area as a means of testing the waters conflicted directly with their morals.

To put bluntly, they were all a bit horrifying and cultish. This was, of course, the rural American south, post-9/11.

Unfortunately, due to some lingering prejudices, my mother told my father directly that I would not be raised Catholic.

All of these factors led to a very interesting upbringing, a focus more on doing good and being kind just for the sake of it rather than out of fear of my eternal salvation. It also led to some pretty relentless bullying and an intense feeling of isolation that lasted all my life. Couple that with being trans and queer and knowing that I was different in some way, but being unable to place just how I was different, and you've got... a bit of a neurotic mess.

A lot has happened in the last two and a half decades for me to be here, but I ultimately wouldn't change it for the world.

What else inspired this story?

Glad you asked! Besides my kind of weird agnostic upbringing in the deep south Bible Belt, it was, admittedly, inspired by a lot of the media I consume. I've been fascinated by vampires since I was a kid. But it should come as no surprise that Midnight Mass was the biggest catalyst in me even starting this story. The way it delved into religion, loss, love, and evangelism spoke to me. As I said, I've always been agnostic, but make no mistake, I am actually pretty religious. But... just sort of in my own way.

Another piece of media which spoke to me was Wise Blood, both the book by Flannery O'Connor and the movie directed by John Huston. The tone is almost absurdist, and the setting threw me right back into my small town where I grew up, where nothing at all seems to have modernized.

The Exorcist and The Exorcist III were also inspiration for me, the first for the horror elements and the questioning of faith, and the second for its strange and Lynchian tone and imagery.

In terms of music, I was inspired particularly by artists such as K. D. Lang, Nick Cave, Neil Diamond, Simon and Garfunkel, Townes Van Zandt, and Colter Wall.

What else is there, besides religion and vampires? Are there any other horrors?

Possibly. I'll be honest, I'm sort of making this up as I go, but there may be more to everything than vampires and priests and preachers and love and folk music. The Appalachians are an ancient and strange place. Who's to say?

How does it end?

With love. But you'll just have to find out the rest for yourself!

#the blood of saints #writeblr #original story #original fiction #religious horror #appalachian horror #vampirism #catholic horror #catholocism #letters from the author

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pureamericanism · 2 years

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I've seen, in recent months, a few people online talking about the 'spirit' or 'character' of landscapes, and this is a topic I have Strong Opinions about. I do not trust my intuition about the character of people much at all, but I trust my intuition about the character of landscapes implicitly. A skeptic might say that this is because landscapes don't have a 'spirit,' and thus my intuitions can never be proven wrong. Well, perhaps, but I'm going to indulge myself anyway.

In particular, the Appalachians have a reputation for being dark and sinister and forboding, and have for about as long as English speakers have known about them. Obviously the trope of the darksome woods is very old in European culture, and makes sense for an agricultural civilization for whom forest clearance directly leads to greater wealth. But the reputation of the Appalachian mountains is a separate thing, distinct in kind and degree from that of the Yankee's North Woods, the southern pinelands, or the forests of the mountain west. All of those were 'tamed' by American industry and literature. But no amount of coal-mining, railroad-building, or poetry-composing has dimmed the folkloric reputation of the Appalachians as a landscape haunted by dark forces. There's certainly a Marxist perpective that it's just because they're remote and full of poor people, but there's plenty of remote places with lots of poverty that do not have this reputation for the land itself being anti-human.

Over the past few years, I've had the opportunity to spend much more time in Appalachia than I ever previously had, and I've come to believe that this bit of American belief is wrongheaded. The hills and forests of Appalachia do not seem at all sinister to me, but instead give an impression of great peace. The hills and forests are old here, old and powerful beyond measure, to be sure, but I find them kindly, as if they had found in their great age an acceptance of the ways of things and that sense of Oneness With All Things we are told mystics strive for. Yes, I do find all forests (at least, all temperate forests) kindly to me in particular, because I love them so much and they condescend to return the favor. But I can still recognize that certain trees (spruces in general and Sitka spruces in particular; and willows in general and sandbar willows in particular) have in them a deeply inhuman spirit, inimical to us and perhaps to all animal life. But I find nothing like this in the Appalachian forests, and it is perhaps notable that they are crowned by red spruces, probably the least sinister member of the genus.

But there is a sinister geography in the region, and one that probably explains the ill reputation of the whole area. It's not the hills, though, and not the forests. It's the rivers. The Ohio river and all her tributaries seem to me to carry a dark, ferocious, brooding energy, that leaks out into the landscape immediately adjacent even farther than their floodwaters. To the physiognomist of landscapes, these constricted valleys seethe with angry inhuman spirits. When the morning fog rolls in from the river to blanket Portsmouth, Ohio, it's a very different feeling from the same thing happening in the San Francisco Bay. And since these valleys are also the corridors through which all human traffic in the region moves, all who travel in or through the area take this impression with them, however subconsciously.

This sees some reflection in folklore, too: the most famous 'cryptid' of the area, the mothman, was sighted around Point Pleasant, WV. For people from New York or Chicago, this is just one more random Appalachian mountain town, doubtlessly full of hillbillies. But no, Point Pleasant is a low-lying, (ex-)industrial river town. The great tragedy the mothman is associated with was even the collapse of a bridge over the Ohio River itself!

This may all be silly, pretentious gobbledygook. It's definitely silly and pretentious. And even if it isn't gobbledygook, I'm not occultist enough - or even necessarily believing enough in the supernatural - to speculate why this is, what causes this, or if it's anything more than a wannabe poet's fancy. But I still trust my readings of landscapes, and would like to see the vocabulary of the good and kindly hills (especially as contrasted with the cruel and violent valleys) enter the repertoire of Appalachian landscape writers.

#gobbledygook #appalachia #america

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bananana-boat · 22 days

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Giants

You see, the existence of giants has been quite the debated topic for what seems to be the history of all time (source- that's what I imagine at least). Where I live, in the Appalachian region, there's talk of the mountainous beasts that live in the woods that no ones ever been able to get a good enough look at and live to tell the tale. Big Foot, Sasquatch, the W word (which I won't even give the credence of typing bc im not trying to mess w that). Other kinds of folktale describe larger than life humans, seen at a glimpse walking between the trees on trail cams, or as a live testimony from your uncle who's known to be heavy handed with the PBRs.

Mainly, disbelief understandably arises from the fact that there seems to be no substantial evidence of the existence of these beings. Maybe you can find an old story in a newspaper about an abnormally large footprint found just on the outskirts of town, the origins of which were probably just some middle school kids with little better to do. But I recently made some connections as I was driving back from my parents house in northern Kentucky, just a couple months back.

The moon was full and high the night before, illuminating a thick layer of fog that settled between the hills outside my bedroom window. Something woke me in the middle of the night, probably the screech of some cats out in the barn or something. As I sat very still in my bed and listened, I became aware of a whole other kind of life that thrives in the darkness out in the country. Come late morning, I had hit the road, and I couldn't help but notice the huge amount of roadkill I was passing. Like, much more than normal. Deer, possums, raccoons, all speckled just on the side of the road, before the metal barrier, on the white line.

I got thinking to myself, as one naturally does on a drive, what could be the cause of this? In an effort to indulge my artsy side, I've been attempting to creatively question the things I observe around me that I assume to be true. The answer I immediately jump to, of course, is night drivers. You can't see well at night, and sometimes animals just decide to jump into the road right when you happen to be driving past. Or, what if its something else?

Have you ever looked up at the moon, like, really looked up at it? Sometimes I'll stick my head out the car window when my friends are driving and stare at the moon like its a staring contest. Who'll blink first! (its always me). There's just something so captivating about it. I embrace my inner moth and just stare, stare until my eyes are wet from the wind and I have to retreat back into the car. I find myself drawn towards it, like I could be content here forever, never looking away. What if the giants are the same way? Think about it- science teaches us that there are some animals that sleep during the day and are active during the night-nocturnal animals (sorry to get remedial there). I think the thing that's always terrified me about the ocean is that we have No idea what's down there, and perhaps something similar can be said about the mountains.

...

Deep in the mountains, where the peaks reach great heights and the valleys dip low, where the trees are packed so dense you wouldn't know the time of day if you were plucked from your living room and found yourself stuck there- that's where the giants live. They're not active very often, if they were, I'm sure more people would have seen them by now. But just about every month, during the full moon, the local giant wakes. An instinctual yearning shakes them from their deep sleep, as if something with great power pulled them from the ground.

The moon.

When she shines to her fullest, not even the dense canopy can stop her light from peaking right into the eyes of the giant, causing them to slowly but decisively untangle themselves from the roots and the rocks and the moss.

Perhaps, in the olden days when things weren't developed, the giants would have followed a more natural path. Maybe they walked alongside a stream or a river, knocking down trees as they went, picking huckle berries for a snack, deepening the riverbed with every step. Nowadays, however, human development has got them all confused, and when they get to wondering, they seem to always find themselves on the highway.

Deep in the middle of the night, when no cars are on the road, the giants are known to stroll. They follow the white line, heading in the direction of the moon. And, you see, just like me when I'm looking out the car window, they have no choice but to stare deep into her eye, transfixed by the light. Of course, that's why they don't see the animals on the road before them. Their giant gate (pun intended) and huge feet are no match for the well-meaning but small-minded deer, which explains why all the roadkill seems to be gathered right there on the white line. They wander until the moon kisses the horizon, when they become quite sleepy and find another valley to lay themselves down in to sleep for another month.

If you live in the country, or if you're from out of town and just visiting, you'll be sure to know when there's giants around. With each deer or possum there on the white line, taking part in our deepest known form of rest, the giants must have been passing through just the night before, in pursuit of the moon.

#writing #fiction #short story #giants #fantasy #appalachia #big foot #moon #folklore #kentucky

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matthewshaffer · 1 year

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Creative Ethnography Identity from Matthew Shaffer on Vimeo.

Creative ethnography exploring gender, identity, and agency during my first year of graduate school at Wilson College 2021. For educational purposes only.

“Moving Pictures”

Introduction: I spent the better part of my childhood and adolescence struggling to find a place among my peers; I was uninterested in the activities and conversations that held their attention, and turned instead to finding myself in the characters I was enamored with on screen and stage. These larger-than-life representations provided a layered, complicated, authentic development, which resonated with me deeply.  My idea to explore the Los Angeles film community was born out of a lecture in Praxis––Movement Arts exploring narrative and ritual; specifically how the interplay between ritual and performance creates a support structure that captures an audience. As we watched the work of Martha Graham’s, Appalachian Spring (1944), I was intrigue with how precise she was in introducing clear characters and conflict in her story development. For my creative ethnography, I decided to examine the commonalities which exist within a small, likeminded, but incredibly diverse group of Los Angeles film connoisseurs. My question, does our gender and socioeconomic background impact the way we perceive movies? While reading Victor Turner’s, "The Anthropology of Performance", my interest was peaked when he suggested, “One may perhaps distinguish between secret and public liminality, between performative genres that are secluded from the gaze of the mass and those that involve their participation not only as audience but also as actors––taking place, moreover, in the squares of the city, the heart of the village, not away in the bush, hidden in a cave, or secreted in a catacomb or cellar. (1987; p. 26). Here I am in Los Angeles, CA. A city that largely hides in cars, sitting in traffic, slowly dancing down freeways that lead us to offices, appointments, and social engagements. Turner’s concept sparked a curiosity; most of the people that share my love of obscure 35mm film––the kind that play at The New Beverly Cinema–-have a colorful personality and curated style they share publicly; but we all arrive from different directions of a diversified and vast region. During a lecture on place and narrative, multi-media artist, Mariam Ghani shares, “Narratives exist in places where there are conflicts; shifting public and private narratives mirror the things that contest truth; versions of the same stories; how does the public respond, how do families respond in private?” These two ideas, encouraged me to begin my field work at The New Beverly Cinema. I committed to attending two films a week, on Tuesday and Friday evenings, and discovered quickly that the group of attendees was usually a cluster of the same people. I arrived early to watch as movie lovers from different directions would pull up, some in luxury vehicles, many in economy hybrid vehicles; most dressed in, what I would soon discover, was a “costume” of sorts. I learned that people liked dressing for the part of the movie goer. Some wore themed content that might tie into the film that we were going to watch.   The first three weeks, I watched, took notes, and eventually decided on several people who always stood out from the crowd. Once I established who I was going to study, I arrived at how I might approach the work. Because we were in a theater, and would spend the majority of our time in the dark watching a screen, I decided to use my smartphone to capture the exchanges and interactions with like mind film aficionados. From there, I thought it would be interesting to incorporate a backstory using the intricate web of freeways we have in Los Angeles, to represent the far reaching impact that the film has on people, and the lengths that they will go to feel one with that community.

References Bogart, A. (2014). What’s the story: Essays about art, theater and storytelling. p. 139; Routledge

Turner, V. (1987). The anthropology of performance. p. 26; PAJ Publications

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7serendipities · 2 years

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Spirit Relationships for a Defensible Home, Part One: Outside

I said in my last blog that spirit relationships make up another layer of my home defensibility, and they do — both inside and outside my house. I’m working from an animistic perspective here, because that’s what I do and who I am, but I think there might be some helpful kernels even for folks who aren’t starting from that perspective. In the last blog, I mentioned greeting the spirit of the parcel of land, and the spirit of the house itself, and those are the first two spirits I build a relationship with in any new place I live. Those relationships are usually somewhat less “showy” (at least for me) that some of the others I’ll mention in this blog, but they’re the foundation for everything else. If you’re not on good terms with them and well situated in your property, it will be difficult to make your home defensible, no matter what else you do. Also, if you’re not the property owner, you can still form your own relationships with the house and land, and that will help support any wards you place around areas (like a bedroom) that are specifically yours. You can also make relationships with spirits both outside and inside the property, to support your defenses. For the purposes of this blog, I’m just going to cover spirits that are found outside the property, because I originally had started writing out both “outside” and “inside”, but it became a bit too long for one post!

Land spirits, (ie spirits of the land itself, not nature spirits more generally) in my experience, seem to be some sort of nesting dolls, in that you can ask to speak to the spirit of a particular property, and one will show up, and ask to speak to the spirit of a neighborhood, and one that feels slightly different and slightly bigger will show up, and the same (slightly different, slightly bigger) for a town, a region, etc. (However, when we start to approach places the size of the state of Virginia, they get a little too big for me to really pin down borders. I find it easier at that point to attempt to contact the spirit of a particular geographic feature, like “the Appalachian Mountains”, or “the land to the east of the Chesapeake Bay”, rather than relying on my memory of a map of human-drawn borders!) For the purposes of A Defensible Home, the neighborhood or perhaps the town should do you pretty well — this is the larger land spirit that encompasses the land you call home, and it is a good idea to get to know them, and to remain on friendly terms. For me, that usually means being a good “citizen” — picking up trash when I see it, making sure my yard has plants helpful to local insect life, not disturbing local animal life, and the occasional offering of water or something biodegradable that won’t disrupt the local ecosystem (no invasive plants, no foods that will harm wildlife, don’t pour alcohol on plants, etc). When we “talk”, it’s more a mind-brush than a conversation in words, and most often I just ask about the weather! The creatures who live on the land this spirit encompasses live in symbiosis with it — and we should strive to, as well. That also means that all your plant and animal and insect “neighbors” can provide omens, should you need to seek them. I have mapped my local birds to the ogham, and that often provides my land and nature spirits with a way to get my attention. I know which birds live nearby, and which are infrequent enough visitors that their presence might be meaningful.

Spirits of your local waterways are likewise important, and also seem to function like nesting dolls, with a spirit of a stream, the creek it feeds into, the river that feeds into, and then around here — the Chesapeake Bay. I really think every animist witch ought to know what watershed they live in, down to the small streams closest to you! At the larger end, your local river spirit can be a very powerful ally, and with the vast number of witchy uses for water, especially running water, I think it makes sense to nurture that relationship. As with the large land spirits, my offerings to my local waterway spirits are mostly “being a good citizen”, and my contact with them is more mind-brush than casual conversation. Interestingly, though — and this is just my personal experience, so your mileage may vary — I do find the river spirits to be more likely to take on humanoid forms and speak to me in words. That may come from my background in Irish Polytheism, where several river names are those of goddesses, because I do tend to address rivers (and the Great Lakes, and the Chesapeake Bay) as deities in their own right.

For both of these categories of spirit, the role they play in the defense of my home is mainly that I can ask them for forewarning if danger is nearby, and for assistance if I attempt to expel something from my property. If I banish something, I don’t want it to take two steps and come right back, and sometimes the land and waterway spirits are willing to help keep it away. They can also ground out or disperse unwanted energies, though I find it best to ask them how to transmute the energies so that they will be most useful. I have even used some of my excess energy as offerings recently: I was running a little hot due to a hormonal problem, and got up early in the morning to go on a cave tour. Inside, I ended up stumbling a bit because of drowsiness and balance issues, so I stopped and greeted the spirit of the cave and asked what I could give, in exchange for sure footing. The answer I received: your heat. So I took off the jacket (which was a little warm anyhow), and let my excess heat float off of me, into the cave. And after that, I didn’t have any more trouble walking over the uneven terrain!

The other main category of Outside spirits just consists of spirits who live nearby. You have human neighbors, and animal, plant, insect, fungi neighbors, spirits of land and water and (perhaps) of constructed things, but also there are other types of spirits who just go about their business mostly unseen in this world we share. For me, the spirits of this category with whom I interact the most often are the Fair Folk. (All the rest of this paragraph is my own UPG, based on my own experiences; I make no claims that others will experience it the same way, even within my local area, and outside my local area I have no idea how things are organized. Understood? Then let’s continue.) There is a fairy court near me that has territory roughly corresponding to the local stream’s watershed, and the Queen of that court has become a close ally of mine. When I banish something, her folk will (often) chase it beyond their own borders, and when there are dangers, she (often) warns me, and when she requests my assistance in her own difficulties, I aid her with my magic as best I am able. As her stream empties into the Potomac River, her court seems to belong to a larger assembly of courts aligned with the Potomac watershed, and then above that, there seems to be a higher authority encompassing the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed. I try to nurture relationships with each of the small courts I come into contact with, and with the larger authorities, but the court whose territory I live in is the most important for my home defense. We are very frequently in contact, and I give very frequent offerings, and when there is something I need help dealing with that lies beyond my wards but not beyond her borders, it is usually to her that I first turn, even before my gods. The Fair Folk are fickle though, and so diverse it’s impossible to paint them all with the same brush — the type of relationship you’re likely to have with your local Fair Folk depends on them perhaps even more than it depends on the steps you take to nurture a relationship. It is far easier and far safer to be on pleasantly cordial terms like “you stay out of my home and I’ll not meddle in yours” than it is to be involved in a pact that amounts to mutual defense, but for those who do have Good Neighbors inclined to alliances, for prices you’re willing to pay, they can be very valuable allies.

Some of the members of the court local to me do come in the house now and again, but mostly they stay outside, hence their inclusion here. However, they are the main reason, as I said in the first blog, that I don’t use iron at my property line. That does mean I have to use a little more finesse when it comes to creating wards that will allow emissaries in, for example, but not those inclined to make trouble. I do rely on my agreement with their queen for that, in large part, but I also have some finely tuned interior wards, as I mentioned before, and House Rules, which I will explain in more depth in the next blog. In the meantime, Daniela Siminia has an excellent overview of her own approach to allowing in some-but-not-all, on her own blog, here.

And as that’s already quite a long post, we’ll call that a wrap! I’ll be back with part two next week, hopefully. I’m trying to post a new blog every Wednesday, so check back then!

#spiritwork #warding #fair folk #land spirits #waterway spirits

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duggardata · 3 years

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Anna and Mary Maxwell Might Be Attending [Bible] College. (Wow!)

Recently, an eagle–eyed Anon spotted the 2 Youngest Maxwell Girls, Anna (28) and Mary (25), in the absolute last place you'd ever expect—a college campus. It's all on Facebook... Anna and Mary appear in a photo posted by Appalachian Bible College to its official Facebook Page, along with caption: "The first day of classes. That's something to smile about!" (Permalink.)

Why Are We So Surprised By This?

Ordinarily, two young women attending college wouldn't be at all shocking, but the Maxwells are not ordinary. Anna and Mary's Parents, Steve + Teri Maxwell, are openly anti–college. Steve thinks that state–run education, including higher education, is "a godless, promiscuity–promoting, humanistic environment," and that it traps young people in debt. He is wary even of Christian colleges, since he believes they cause children to rebel. He’s proud of his sons' lack of higher education, and praised them for "avoid[ing] the influence and cost of college." Teri is, sadly, just as opposed to college—especially for women. Back in 1999, she wrote an article speculating that college may undermine a woman's ability to be a good and godly wife. Her article laments—

"As far as our daughters go, I wonder how many of us developed independent spirits during our college or working days. Has this made it more difficult for us to submit to our husbands in the meek and quiet way we would like?"

Finally... Anna and Mary's views on this topic seemed to be aligned with their parents, until now. According to Steve + Teri, all of the Maxwell Daughters had planned to be Stay–at–Home–Daughters until marriage. (See Also.) (And all 3 Daughters seemed to be doing so, since none had moved out.) What is more, in 2010, Anna described college as "silly," and said that she thought attending would expose her to unsavory influences, and possibly hold her back from her ultimate goal of "be[ing] a stay–at–home wife and mother."

So, yeah... This is quite a surprise! And, while neither Steve + Teri, nor Anna or Mary, has actually confirmed that they’re enrolled at Appalachian Bible College, their appearance on the Facebook Page is definitely suspicious!

Tell Me About Appalachian Bible College.

TL;DR If you just want to know how conservative and restrictive Appalachian Bible College is, skip down to “Student Life.”

Appalachian Bible College (ABC) is a tiny (~250 Students), insular bible college, located on 150 Acres in rural Mount Hope, West Virginia. (The Maxwell Family hails from Leavenworth, Kansas, which >800 Miles Away.) It self–describes as a “non–denominational and fundamental” institution, primarily associated with “Baptist and Bible churches.” Unlike many so–called “bible colleges,” ABC is nationally and regionally accredited. (Hurray!)

A lot, lot more information... After the jump.

Admissions—

ABC requires prospective students to submit an application; transcripts from high school or home school; ACT, SAT, or CLT test scores; and two reference letters, one from a pastor and one from another mentor, e.g., teacher or youth group leader. A high school diploma or GED is required, unless the student is homeschooled. In that case, a detailed homeschool transcript is needed, and standardized test scores are “especially important.”

As part of the application, prospective students must attest that they agree w/ the college’s Doctrinal Statement.

Academics—

ABC offers four degree programs—Bible Certificate (1 Year), Associate of Arts (A.A.) (2 Years), Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) (4 Years), and Master of Arts (M.A.). In addition, it runs an online program for degree–seeking or non–degree seeking students. (But, Anna and Mary were spotted on–campus, so they don’t seem to be in the online program!) Anna and Mary haven’t gone to college, so they almost certainly aren’t in the Master’s program. Let’s just look at the rest...

(Sidenote—Before we go on, just want to point out... All ABC graduates must, in addition to completing academic requirements, show that they are members of a church and that they possess good Christian character. If they don’t, they won’t give their diploma!)

Bible Certificate—ABC describes the one–year program as an “opportunit[y] for you to dig into Scripture and build your life on its unchanging truths.” The program has two tracks—Bible + General Education and Bible + Ministry. As the names suggest, both tracks’ core curriculum is the Bible and Bible study. Both also require three courses in ministry—Foundations of Ministry, Biblical Theology of Missions, and Personal Evangelism & Discipleship. Where they differ is is what else they require...

For the Bible + General Education Certificate, students must also take four ‘core’ classes—English Composition, Speech, Physical Education, Music, and “Success Seminar”—plus, an elective of their choice. (This curriculum also mirrors the first–year curriculum of ABC’s A.A. and B.A. Degree Programs, so students can easily continue their studies, should they decide to do so.)

For Bible + Ministry, ‘core’ classes are waived in favor of extra theology. Students take Principles of Biblical Interpretation, along with classes on Systematic Theology (2 Classes), the New Testament (Survey Class + 2 Classes), and the Old Testament (Survey Class + 2 Classes).

Associate’s Degree (A.A.)—ABC also offers a 2–Year A.A. Degree in Bible + Theology. (That’s the only major offered.) For this degree, the curriculum is a 50/50 split between General Education and Bible + Theology courses, plus a few ministry classes and electives. All students take the following courses—

General Education English Composition (2 Classes), Speech, Physical Education, Music, Biblical Worldview, and Ethical Issues in Ministry

Bible + Theology Principles of Biblical Interpretation, Survey of the Old Testament, Survey of the New Testament, Matthew to Acts, Genesis to Deuteronomy, Paul’s Letters (2 Classes), and Doctrine (2 Classes)

Ministry Theology of Missions, Foundations of Ministry, Evangelism & Discipleship, and Homiletics I (Males) / Bible Teaching (Females)

Additionally, students must take a history class, a science or sociology class, and an elective.

Bachelor’s Degree (B.A.)—Finally, ABC offers a 4–Year B.A. Dual Degree in Bible + Theology and in Ministry. Each student completes General Education classes. Beyond that, each student is also a “double major.” Everyone’s first major is Bible + Theology and everyone’s second major is ministry–focused—but, not everyone has the exact same Ministry Major. (More on that in a bit...) As far as curriculum, students must complete the General Education, Bible + Theology, and Ministry courses required for the Associate’s Degree, plus the following additional core classes—

General Education Health, Psychology, Sociology, Finance, 2 History Classes (History of Western Civilization and American Church History), and 1 Science Class (Earth Science or Biology)

Bible + Theology Joshua to Esther, Hebrews to Revelation, Isaiah to Malachi, Job to Song of Soloman, Doctrine (2 Additional Classes), and Bible Capstone

Ministry World Religion and Cults, and Homiletics II (Men) / Women’s Ministry (Women)

Finally, students must also pick a Ministry Major and complete its mandatory coursework. At ABC, there are seven ministry majors to pick from—some of which have concentrations. Here’s the list of Ministry Majors, with additional concentrations or sub–specialties listed in parentheses—

Biblical Counseling (Youth & Family or Women’s Ministries)

Camping Ministry

Elementary Education

Missions (Biblical Languages, Foreign Language / Spanish, International Studies, Nursing, or Teaching English)

Music (Pedagogy, Performance, or Worship)

Pastoral Ministry (Biblical Languages or Youth & Family Pastoring)

Interdisciplinary

The Pastor Ministry Major seems to be limited to male students.

Click the links to check out the coursework each Ministry Major requires.

Student Life—

So, yeah... ABC is not a progressive place. At all. They’re upfront about it, though, which is nice. Their Student Handbook is online, available for all to read. Here are some highlights... (All italics are mine, not in original.)

Discipline / Consequences—Students who break the rules face discipline in the form of “a verbal or written Carefrontation, a fine, a work assignment, a temporary room or dorm confinement, a social [or] ... campus restriction,” or “some other determination.” Egregious offenses may result in the student being “suspended ... , asked to withdraw from the college, or dismissed.”

Dress Code—There’s a detailed Dress Code, with different different activities requiring different standards of dress. Perhaps surprisingly, pants are allowed for female students for all but the fanciest standard of dress. (For that, they’ll have to wear skirts or dresses.) Here are a few of the rules...

“Earrings may be worn by females only,” and “all other body piercing is prohibited.”

ABC students are prohibited from getting new tattoos. If a student has an old tattoo, they may be required to cover it at all times if the Dean of Students deems it “offensive.”

Prohibited Activities—ABC says that, “in order to remain above reproach,” students are prohibited from the following “questionable activities”...

Consuming “alcohol as a beverage,” tobacco in any form (including e–cigarettes), or drugs for non–medicinal purposes. (Penalty for violating this rule is dismissal.)

Serving alcohol to others, even if done in the course of a student’s off–campus employment.

Gossiping, or engaging in “other forms of impure speech.”

Listening to, viewing, or reading “unwholesome” media or literature, or accessing websites “that do not promote godliness.” (See Prohibited Media and Prohibited Music.)

Attending “commercial movie theaters.”

Gambling.

Dancing.

Prohibited Media—Per the ABC Student Handbook, ABC students shall not consume “any media (including social media) that features vulgar or obscene language, sexual innuendo, nudity, immodest clothing, or ... a blatantly non–Christian message.” Additionally, students may not—

Watch movies rated PG–13, R, X, or NC–17, or shows rated TV–MA.

Play video games or use apps rated A, M, or RP.

... and, they’re strongly cautioned to avoid media that promotes “unbiblical definitions of love”; endorses “witchcraft or the occult”; mocks “law or law enforcement”; denigrates “marriage and the traditional family”; or contains “excessive violence.” Students are urged not to consume media made by people—e.g., actors, producers, directors—“known for their stand against Christian values.”

Prohibited Music—Students are banned from listening to music “that includes God–dishonoring language, anti–biblical messages ... , a prominent resurfacing beat, pulsating and driving or dance rhythms, or sensual overtones in the music itself or in the performance.” They’re specifically cautioned to avoid...

Rock—Because the “lyrics may be unacceptable” and “[t]he beat of the music may become the most prominent element.”

Country—Because the “lyrics may be unacceptable” and the underlying “music may be connected to a heavy rock beat.”

Folk—As “[e]xistentialism, humanism, or hedonism may be propagated through the lyrics.”

Jazz—Since syncopation may be “extensive[ly] use[d],” and “a sensual performance style may be employed.”

Contemporary Christian—Since “a sensual performance style may be employed,” “a beat may be overly prominent,” and the “lyrics may be theologically incorrect or existential in their emphasis.”

Relationships—

“The Bible restricts sexual activity to marriage between a man and a woman. Thus, fornication, adultery, incest, sexual abuse of a minor, homosexuality, indecent exposure, sexual harassment, and other such activities are forbidden.”

“[N]o display of affection through physical contact (including holding hands) on the part of non–married couples, on or off campus.”

Dating students are forbidden from sitting together in class or chapel.

No male–female pair, dating or not, may be alone together in anyone’s home or residence, on– or off–campus.

No male–female pair, dating or not, may socialize off–campus without a chaperone, unless they’ve been at ABC for at least 4 Semesters.

Divorced students “shall not be permitted to date other ... students.”

According to ABC’s Student Handbook, all these rules apply to all students, at all times, on– or off–campus.

All in all, it’s great if Anna and Mary are attending college, even if it’s a super–duper conservative one, like ABC clearly is. The fact that they’ve possibly left home and are out there, living on their own... Crazy to even think about, given Steve’s apparent iron grip on his household. It can only be good from them to venture out on their own, even if it’s just to a slightly less stifling place.

#mary maxwell #anna maxwell

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lobselvith8 · 3 years

Text

Fallout 76 asks “Should we give pseudo-Nazi scientists a chance?”

There are things about Fallout 76 that vex me. With the release of Steel Reign, an incredibly short finale to Steel Dawn, the conclusion to the storyline has been incredibly lacking. Rather than delve into the ideological schism that exists between Rahmani and Shin, allowing the player to get some nuanced insights into the two positions that each potential leader of the Expeditionary Force in Appalachia represents, the story instead decided to present a binary choice that is completely divorced from the dichotomy between the two and, overall, is fairly jarring.

For some reason, Rahmani mentions to Shin that Maxson came to regret killing the Nazi-like scientists at Mariposa who were torturing and experimenting on unwilling humans, which is an incredibly odd “creative choice” for Bethesda to make.

Of all the things you can make the original Maxson come to regret, is killing amoral scientists who were conducting experiments on helpless people, and killing countless innocents in the process, really the direction you want to take that character in? It feels as misguided as Fallout 3's The Pitt presenting the dilemma between Ashur and the slaves, but then focusing instead on the baby.

The exchange between Rahmani and Shin is odd, and it honestly has little to do with the ideological schism between them over how the Brotherhood of Steel should be run. It falls into Dragon Age territory by setting up a problem that bypasses the actual issues between two opposing groups, and it hurts the overall story.

At the near conclusion, you're given the choice to decide the fate of three scientists who helped Dr. Blackburn experiment on unwilling civilians. All of whom make it clear that they want to continue their experiments into altering humans, and one of whom shows absolutely no remorse about the innocent people who they sacrificed in the name of their experiments.

Is sparing amoral scientists who have engaged in torturous and vile experimentation on humans that only lead to the creation of Super Mutants really their idea of a "gray choice"?

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like 76 is living up to the promise, even though Wastelanders pivoted the game in a better direction with NPCs and dialogue choices.

Looking at 76 as a whole, the game has a number of issues which may or may not bother some people, depending on how you feel about the original games and the current direction of the franchise. In terms of story, one could address how the Brotherhood of Steel in Fallout 76 shares more in common with the Fallout 4 variant than with the original depiction of the Brotherhood in Fallout. The hierarchy, the attire, the responsibilities of the Scribes, the aesthetics of the emblem and the Brotherhood controlled environment, and then one could also ask why the currency of the Hub is used, why Super Mutants exist before the Master, why Jet exists before Myron creates it through the mass experimentation and the subsequent murder of slaves, and what the point is in trying to establish a society (backed by gold) in the model of the Old World when we have seen the homophobic, imperialistic society of the New California Republic that emulates America.

One could also make the argument that having vault dwellers serve to "rebuild America" on orders from Vault-Tec (a morally bankrupt company who ruined countless lives) falls into some questionable territory that could have been avoided had the main characters instead been, say, the Followers of the Apocalypse. Humans, ghouls, Mariposa Super Mutants and Nightkin, cyborgs, and others coming to the region to help after the fall of the Master.

Admittedly, some find the tonal shift distracting. Fallout 2 addressed how "Spears of nuclear fire rained from the skies. Continents were swallowed in flames and fell beneath the boiling oceans. Humanity was almost extinguished, their spirits becoming part of the background radiation that blanketed the earth." Now the Reclaimers lobby nukes with abandon, something that's even brought up in-game by characters like Shin (indicating that it's not simply a game mechanic but part of the story).

In terms of gameplay, there really isn't much to do, so you can basically explore the whole of Appalachia in about two or three months time, and you're essentially done, which I would constitute as a real problem for an online game. Gameplay is artificially inflated with a scoreboard where you're doing the same things each day to earn points in order to get "prizes."

Where 76 could have excelled at are compelling choices that really make you think and reflect the type of protagonist you play as. As in the past recent games, you could have been a Lone Wanderer who was faced with the choice to give Harold the peace he sought, or to help his roots expand because it might lead to the rebirth of the Capital Wasteland in defiance of his plea. Your Courier could have abandoned the vault dwellers to save the farms if you were playing as someone who had plans to make the Mojave viable (perhaps even envisioning a future where the NCR is ousted). In Steel Reign, however, your choice is to decide whether to allow three scientists who did unspeakable acts against numerous people, and set loose Super Mutants into the region, another chance. Essentially, if you want to engage in your own Operation Paperclip, and Rahamni seems oblivious when the scientists (within earshot) make it clear they want to continue their experiments.

However, this has nothing to do with the issues between Shin and Rahmani. It's a weird choice to present as the decider between who will govern the Appalachian Expeditionary Force, and it feels like it's trying hard to be in the same vein as the morally ambiguous choices you had with Oasis in Fallout 3 or how you handled certain choices in the Mojave.

#paladin rahmani #knight shin #fallout 76 #steel reign #fallout thoughts #steel reign spoilers

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hillbillyoracle · 4 years

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Book Review: Backwoods Witchcraft by Jake Richards

There's something about this book that makes it feel so personal to the point that I almost don't want to recommend it, especially not to folks who don't have a connection to Appalachia. For someone like me who's connection was disrupted by financial hardships, moves, and strained relationships, this book is invaluable for filling in the gaps of the practice I did manage to inherit. I was born in West Virginia, much like many many generations before me. But I think I may have been the last child in my family to have been so. I lived in the state itself intermittently over the years, spending the rest of my time in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia at various points.

While this book is extremely approachable, I have a hard time knowing how someone who isn't either living in the region presently or connected to the region through family being able to get the full usefulness of this book. Which isn't to say those who don't have that connection can't read it, in fact I think those folks should but perhaps instead of the goal to use it, the goal should be to gain a greater appreciation for this style of traditional witchcraft and the power a thrifty hillbilly can wield with a little cunning and a lot of faith.

Stylistically, I have a deep appreciation for the way Richards has structured and narrated this work. It's true to how these traditions are passed down in families - in rambling stories, in spirals that touch on the same practices again and again in different lights, in biblical verses themselves. It felt familiar and welcoming in a way I rarely experience in texts.

It's also firmly rooted in the practical. While Richards backs up most spells mentioned with the theory as to why it works - something often missing and extremely important in texts detailing magical practices - they are described in simple uncomplicated language. The spells themselves range from incredibly simple to the painstakingly detailed so whether you're looking for a few associations to add to your workings or a detailed cure for headaches - Richards has you covered.

One thing to keep in mind, and something Richards touches on at points, is that Appalachia is not a cohesive region by any means. It's highly regionalized and even within those regions family traditions will vary and take precedent. So this book is definitely a picture of a particular kind of Appalachian magic, but one that folks from other parts will no doubt find familiar. There were many practices that overlapped with my family's practices and for me lends credence to the rest.

Another reason I feel comfortable recommending this book is that it does not Wiccanify Appalachian magic at all, which is one reason why I've stayed away from the vast majority of works on the subject. Appalachian magic is firmly rooted in the Bible and there's absolutely no way around that. I know this will probably gain me plenty of pushback but at least for white folks in the region, there's no shortcut through nature spirits or deferring to some other god without losing the heart and soul of Appalachian practices. If you are uncomfortable with spellwork that requires a Bible and biblical verses/figures, then it’d be best to leave this book be. While there are a handful of practices that don't touch on things associated with Christianity, they're far outnumbered by practices that just plain wouldn't work if you bled them dry of the belief.

There were some things I didn't care for in the book personally. I'm not sure how well the connection of Appalachian folk magic to practices of indigenous and enslaved folks was handled. Parts of it felt off. Richards explains his grandmother was Cherokee but doesn't explain any tribal ties so it feels a bit strange when he tries to convey practices and stories that he says are from that tribe. I know bonds like that are complicated - especially in the mountains - but it's just not handled in a way that feels entirely skillful. It's hard to explain and I doubt I'm the best person to speak on it so I raise it here only as a caution. I would just be leery of conveying those stories as facts.

I also wasn't a big fan of where some of the larger history was conveyed. It's a throw away line at the beginning of the chapter but it did bug me and I want folks to know the truth - folks in Appalachia didn't just sell off their land to coal mines and railway companies. Some did and those families enjoyed a certain amount of financial stability with their funds. But far more were forced out through disputing their claims, systematically destroying their ability to make a living off of their land, and outright theft. If your image of the modernization of Appalachia is one of a poor hillbilly that wasn't bright enough to know the coal mines would be terrible, you're dead wrong. So take the social and geographic history here with a healthy dose of skepticism. If you're looking for Appalachian history, I'd suggest Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia by Steven Stoll and Uneven Ground by Ronald D. Eller.

But even with those weaknesses, the spellwork described in this book is something special and I feel comfortable recommending this book. It's extremely engaging; practically a masterclass in how to write about traditional witchcraft in an authentic way. It's unbashedly forthright and plainly practical. I eagerly look forward to any future work from Richards. What I wouldn't give for more work that makes a hillbilly like me feel so damn seen.

#book review #witchblr #witch #appalachian witch #traditional witchcraft

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antoine-roquentin · 4 years

Link

This year marks Harold “Hal” Rogers’s twenty-first consecutive electoral victory in Kentucky’s Fifth Congressional District, making him the second-longest-serving Republican in Congress. He rode into office on the wave of the Reagan Revolution in 1980, and the governing style he’s employed in the Fifth District—which covers the rural, mountainous, Appalachian region of southeastern Kentucky—can mostly be described as Reaganite: pro–War on Drugs, pro–prison expansion, anti-regulation of extractive industries, and pro-family. The congressman has had to improvise a little over the years in response to changes in the economy and political system, but he’s well-positioned to do so: as a former Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, the elite “College of Cardinals” that manages the government’s budget, and the ranking member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, he’s one of the most powerful men in Washington. Rogers has extraordinary discretion over where and how the government exercises power domestically and overseas, especially within the border regions; he can coerce other lawmakers to support his policies by withholding funding; and, crucially, he can funnel tons of “pork” back to his home district.

If you were to mention that to the average American, however, you’d probably be met with confusion. Hal who? Most people, when they think of powerful politicians from Kentucky, think of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who over the last decade or so has singlehandedly reshaped how Congress functions, and has all but ensured the prioritization of corporate interests within the federal judiciary. So you’re telling me there’s another powerful congressman from Kentucky who has control over virtually every aspect of my life? That is indeed what I’m telling you, my friend, and it’s no coincidence that both of these men come from the mostly rural state of Kentucky.

How did Kentucky come to mean so much at the national level? McConnell’s story isn’t that compelling. He is deeply unpopular statewide, but every six years he hyper-focuses on a handful of places in the state—Paducah, the Cincinnati suburbs in Northern Kentucky, the rural counties around Louisville (his hometown), and the rural counties in southern Kentucky—and makes enough empty promises and assurances to carry him to victory. He then launders his success as a success story for all of Kentucky, claiming that it allows the state to punch above its weight at the national level against states like New York and California. His voters eat this up, and McConnell plays off of it to increasingly cringe results (see: “Cocaine Mitch.”) At the end of the day it’s a pretty standard story of electioneering, manipulation, and voter suppression; Kentucky consistently ranks among the bottom ten states in terms of “electoral integrity.”

But whereas McConnell is motivated by the long-term viability of corporate domination of the United States, Hal Rogers is motivated by the long-term viability of corporate and personal domination of southeastern Kentucky. Make no mistake that this benighted region—long one of the poorest in the country—is Rogers’s personal dominion, his fiefdom. The fact that his name is on just about everything you see should be enough evidence to support this claim. To enter and exit the region you have to travel on the Hal Rogers Parkway, which used to be the Daniel Boone Parkway until Rogers renamed it after itself. Want to take your family on a weekend getaway vacation? You can check out the Hal Rogers Family Entertainment Center in Williamsburg, which contains a wave pool, water slides, and a mini-golf course. Or perhaps you’re addicted to drugs? Rogers has just the thing for you: the Hal Rogers Appalachian Recovery Center, which has outposts all across the region.

This last “amenity” that Rogers so graciously offers—drug rehabilitation centers—is rich with irony. In 2003 he created a program known as Operation UNITE (Unlawful Narcotics Investigations, Treatment and Education). UNITE is a brilliant form of rural social control. It ruthlessly enforces drug abstention through the traditional methods of law enforcement—undercover policing, kicking down doors—and, at the same time, encourages community members to snitch on fellow community members who they suspect of being involved in drug activities. The result is that no one trusts anyone: everyone is a suspect, all of the time. UNITE is the sort of program that engenders alienation, making it less likely that people will mount meaningful political challenges against the region’s political institutions, such as Rogers himself.

But Rogers’s UNITE program is even more ingenious than that. It sweeps you up in raids and undercover stings, and then sends you to treatment (likely in a building with Rogers’s name plastered on it), and then uses you as an example to the rest of the community about the harms of drug abuse. You will become a poster child, an educator, a warning from the future: Do not become me; I was lucky enough to make it out alive, and even then it was only through the help and compassion of good old Hal Rogers. In other words, Hal giveth and Hal taketh away. He is simultaneously good cop and bad cop, or, if you’re feeling biblical, the Old Testament God of Vengeance and Wrath and New Testament God of Redemption and Forgiveness. If you’re a drug user in southeastern Kentucky, you will eventually come under his all-seeing eye.

Of course, if you do not make it to (and through) the rehabilitation stage, you can go to prison, in which Rogers is also deeply invested. When southeastern Kentucky’s coal economy started going south in the 1980s and ’90s due to mechanization caused by an increase in strip mining (facilitated by Rogers’s loosening of environmental regulations), Rogers became the biggest advocate for prison expansion in the region. During his career he’s brought no less than three federal prisons to his district, and he’s currently working on bringing a fourth, to Letcher County, right on the border of Kentucky and Virginia. Either in jail or on the anti-drug education circuit, your story will eventually be used for Hal Rogers’s personal glorification.

This does not mean that all power is consolidated within the person of Rogers, however. The intricate system that’s slowly grown to facilitate the expansion of drug courts, rehabilitation centers, jails that counties rely on for revenue, and prisons is its own network of feudal control and peonage. Hang around outside any county courthouse in eastern Kentucky for long enough and you’ll see, like I have, people begging judges to sign off on this or that paper granting them this or that level of re-entry into their community (previously restricted as a result of being caught with this or that drug). Or hang around outside any drug counseling office long enough and you’ll hear, like I have, people casually discussing which local judges are the strictest and which are the most lenient. A lot of people’s lives are tied up in a system that is ruled mostly by whimsy and fiat.

If and when Rogers ever kicks the bucket—and this will have to be the way he leaves office, because he will likely never be defeated at the ballot box—all this will have been his legacy. Not just the buildings and highways and rehabilitative centers with his name on them. Not just the prisons and the beefed-up law enforcement agencies. Not just the ominous office building in Somerset, known colloquially as the “Taj Ma-Hal,” which houses a number of nonprofits with boring names like “Center for Rural Development” that Rogers helped create in order to vacuum up federal grant money from agencies like the Appalachian Regional Commission. It’s all these things, but it’s also something bigger: the remaking of rural political economy. Rogers’s model has been exported across the United States.

As the nation’s rural regions experienced deindustrialization, out-migration, drug-assisted suicide, or a combination of all the above over the last three or four decades, rural elites had to figure out a way to maintain control over their constituents. Many of them turned to Rogers’s example. For example, when Rogers launched UNITE in 2003, John Walters, then the White House drug czar, said that it would “serve as a model for the rest of the nation.” It doesn’t go by the name “UNITE” in every community, but if you go anywhere in rural America and listen long enough, you’ll hear the voices of people who are trapped within similar systems of manipulation, coercion, and foreclosure on the future. And you’ll also see, lording over them, the names and faces of men who have carved out their own kingdoms, which from the outside seem impervious to pressure from below. But that’s the thing about power: it doesn’t last forever, and it can always be beaten. It’s up to us to figure out how to do it.

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thetriggeredhappy · 4 years

Note

hello! do you take sniperspy requests? if it's okay with you can i ask for something soft between them? not romantic or sexual but i mean Soft™ and intimate moment maybe some kind of inside joke they only understand idk. thank you!

me, speaking into the mic, my mouth exactly zero millimeters away from it: what if spy and sniper..... were best friends

my girlfriend from the back of the auditorium: (absolutely apeshit bananas applause)

Spy sauntered out the door and into the shade of the base, pointedly moving to stand more comfortably even as he kept an amount of distance between himself and the wall for the sake of his far-too-expensive suit. He took a cigarette from his case without needing to look, lit it in one smooth motion, took a puff, and exhaled. Then, and only then, did he turn his head to acknowledge Sniper, lounging against the wall a few feet away.

“Your fifth smoke break of the day, mon ami,” he observed neutrally. “I can’t help but wonder if something might be bothering you.”

Sniper didn’t reply verbally, but there was a muscle in his shoulders that went lax when Spy finally spoke. He took a drag of his own cigarette.

It was something that the team had commented on, once or twice. The fact that Sniper’s greatest enemy on the battlefield was the other team’s Spy, and Spy’s the other team’s Sniper, and yet with the counterpart on their own team, there was no great tension or rivalry to speak of. Instead, their relationship was entirely professional, even somewhat warm. And they took care to have the team think they were merely professional, as strictly speaking, friendship was looked down upon in their line of work, but also because with the aforementioned rivalry, their being good and well-trusted friends was something that would surely be questioned and prodded at and neither of them cared for such theatrics.

Well, Spy did ever-so-slightly, but he knew that Sniper loathed such attention, and so took care to be discreet.

“Am I being that obvious?” Sniper asked after a brief silence between them, voice a deliberate kind of calm and easygoing and level.

“Non, I’m simply being observant,” Spy replied easily, and took another drag before he elaborated. “Usually you only smoke this much when your scores are down or we’re on a losing streak, but you’ve been performing in an entirely standard and average way all week. You seem to be coping with a stress that simply doesn’t seem to be there. And so, something is bothering you.”

“Social mathematician, you are,” Sniper huffed, rolling his eyes.

“I might not have noticed, if not for the fact that you forgot your cigarettes at work and had to ask me for one three separate times and didn’t seem to remember it,” Spy admitted.

Sniper nodded at that, eyes drifting to look back out at the landscape stretching before them again.

“So?” Spy prompted, voice a bit quieter. “What is bothering you?”

Sniper reached up to knead at the bridge of his own nose, eyes falling shut, needing to push his glasses up out of the way to do so. “Not sure I’d like to talk about it, t’be honest,” he said, tone falling in parallel.

Spy shifted on his feet, looking into the distance as well for a moment. After a second or two, he spoke again, changing tactics. “Perhaps some long-lost love, or the glory days of youth?” Spy asked, intentionally melodramatic. “Pondering what all was, or perhaps what once could have been? Have you been assigned a quest by some supernatural or religious force that will surely involve mortal perils?”

“Bugger off, Spook,” Sniper deadpanned, but there was an undeniable twitch at the corner of his mouth as he fought the urge to smile at the theatrics.

“I’m only this curious because more often than not, I’m the one being dramatic and glaring at the horizon line, mon ami. Melancholy is a new look on you,” Spy admitted, dropping the joke.

“It’s... hard to explain,” Sniper finally said, and the hint of a laugh was gone.

“You’ll find I’m patient,” Spy replied easily.

Sniper was quiet for another few moments. He looked at the stub of a cigarette he had left and gave up on it, crushing it out against the wall and then grinding it into the sand beneath his heel. “It’s not... it’s not your joke about the ‘long lost love’ buggery,” he said, doing halfhearted air quotes. “It’s more... in general, the idea of...”

Spy didn’t interrupt or make any jokes, simply waiting patiently for Sniper to decide on a sentence to finish.

“...I’m just, I’ve never done any of this right,” Sniper finally said, sighing hard at himself. “Grew up too scrawny, too clever and cared too much about books when I was young and then wasn’t clever enough when I started getting older, learnt to shoot rather than fistfight, ended up a mercenary rather than a... a scientist or a rancher or any other respectable thing. And I never... never went out, never got along with anyone, and, after a while you can’t help but wonder if you’re just not meant for people. If maybe it means something that dating never once appealed to you beyond being some big strange idea of a thing that eventually you’re meant to get around to, or...” He hung his head, dragging a hand down over his face. “...I don’t know. It’s... I had it for a moment.”

Spy hesitated for a few moments, looking at him. Considered his words. Stepped over to clap a gentle hand to Sniper’s shoulder, exhaled when that made Sniper relax in some small way. “If it’s any consolation, I can assure you that you are not the only person in the world who feels that way, and perhaps even not the only man on this base who feels that way,” Spy said finally. “It takes a particular kind of person to willingly go live in a cramped, terrible experimental military base in the deserts of New Mexico being killed practically on the daily. I’m sure that is a sentiment you will find in great supply among the other men here, should you ask. And for what it’s worth, even if you are not meant for regular people, you are well liked and very much respected by your coworkers and by me.”

Sniper nodded in a way that meant he heard and understood what Spy was saying, even if he couldn’t quite formulate a verbal response to it, which was such a specific thing to read into a nod that for a minute it caught Spy by surprise and he lost track of what he’d been planning on saying next. He took a moment to try and remember it.

“What I think might help, more than expediting your inevitable lung cancer and getting a replacement set from the Docteur,” he said, gesturing pointedly with his own cigarette, “is taking one of those... what do you call them, hunting trips?”

“Just camping, usually, more than hunting,” Sniper corrected lightly.

“Oui, that. You haven’t taken a break in quite some time, and it’s terrible for morale. You were talking about the, the Rocky Mountains being the place you were hoping to see next, since last time you went to the Appilachia?”

“Appalachian Mountains, yeah,” Sniper nodded. “You’d know that if you, er, ever bloody well agreed to go with one of these times.”

“I simply do not see the appeal of camping,” Spy said airily. “It is not to my tastes. There is value in quiet cabins and inns in countryside or less populated places, but camping itself simply does not appeal to me.”

“What, never been?” Sniper asked lightly, mouth quirking up on one side.

Spy scoffed, well and truly offended. “I take back absolutely everything I said about you being respected,” he said firmly.

Sniper started to snicker outright. “Oh, go on, why’s that?” he prodded.

“You do not get to use ‘never been’ for camping. That is not allowed,” Spy said firmly.

“You’ve used ‘never been’ for bloody wine tastings, you absolute cheat!” Sniper pointed out.

“Less so the wine tasting and more the region itself,” Spy huffed, posture straight, head held high. “But you do not get to use ‘never been’ for camping.”

‘Never been’ was one of their pettier jokes, to be fair. It had started when Sniper had challenged Spy’s claim to being the most well-travelled individual on the team, and when Spy had asked where exactly Sniper had travelled to, he’d begun bringing up locations outside of largely English- and French-speaking regions, and ended off his list with a rather cocky “What’s the matter, have you never been?” It had kicked off them each naming place after place in stories when around the team, saying the place in passing then lightheartedly saying “never been?” in an entirely and increasingly ridiculous and elaborate manner for more and more specific locations.

As they ran out of stories and places, they began to argue semantics more and it became clear that the joke wasn’t even truly them trying to make fun of each other so much as them bonding over the concept of traveling in their own way, and they found it coming up more in conversation in the wake of the joke.

“Fine, can I at least use it for the mountains?” Sniper laughed.

“No, because I have been, thank you very much,” Spy huffed, turning up his nose at the very thought.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“No, you’re just ridiculous.”

“Are you going to go camping or not?” Spy challenged.

Sniper rolled his eyes, even if his mood had visibly improved, his posture straightening out, less tension in his brow. “Not scheduled to have a break for a long while.”

“We do have vacation days, however,” Spy pointed out.

“I don’t do that,” Sniper said without hesitation. “I’m not leaving you blokes alone to deal with the other Sniper so I can go build a bonfire near some trees, awright?”

“Would it not be convenient, though, if something were to mysteriously happen to him and he just so happened to miss work for the exact number of days that you were gone?” Spy asked lightly, examining his cigarette case with too much interest.

“Do you want him to hate you more, Spook?” Sniper asked dryly. “You can’t just sabotage the man so I can go see slightly more bloody birds than usual.”

“I’m not saying I would sabotage the man! I’m just saying it would be a funny coincidence that would be entirely unrelated to me and nobody would ever be able to prove otherwise,” Spy said, just as lightly as before.

A pause. “...What kind of mysterious something would happen to him, just out of curiosity?” Sniper asked, tone flat.

“Oh, how on earth would I know such a thing, mon ami? I have no idea. But if I were to venture a guess I would simply say that he would be hired on a contract to protect some random citizen in a faraway city who is in absolutely no danger in the first place by some mysterious but concerned source,” Spy shrugged airily.

“...And you’re sure you don’t want to go camping too?” Sniper asked, tone back to normal and vaguely conversational. “Really, it’s not all that bad. You might enjoy it.”

“I am more than fine,” Spy assured, dropping the joke for a moment and shaking his head. “But thank you for the offer.”

Sniper nodded vaguely, considering it. “...Might just take off next Thursday and Friday, make a four-day weekend, two days to camp and a day’s travel and packing on either end,” he mused aloud. Paused. “...Thanks. For... you know.”

“I do,” Spy agreed easily. “And it is of no issue, mon ami, I can assure you.”

“Right.” Sniper stood there for a moment, lost in his own thoughts again. Paused. “Well, bugger off now, Spook. Go... drink wine, or, or whatever the hell else you do.”

“But of course,” Spy laughed, and crushed his own cigarette into the sand. “Bonne nuit, Bushman.”

“See ya, Spook,” Sniper said easily, even as Spy cloaked and walked away, his eyes still locked on the horizon line.

#sniperspy #tf2 #team fortress 2 #my fanfiction #shut up me #everybody talks #the fiendship tag #had fun with this one anon #sometimes..... you just gotta comfort your coworker abt his place in the world and what hes meant to do with his life #and thats okay

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springtimestudies · 4 years

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Austria , Cameroon and Japan for the Country ask! I hope you have a great day! 😊🍁✨

Thanks for the ask and I hope you had a good day as well!

Austria - what kind of person do you wish to be?

I want to be the kind of person who knows what she wants and is able to persevere through failures without feeling like they’re a reflection on her character. I also want to be someone people can rely on to support them during difficult times and celebrate with them in good times.

Cameroon - describe your culture

The short answer is that I identify with some parts of “southern” US culture- sweet tea, saying the word “y’all” all the time (and even funkier ones like y’all’d’ve 🤣), eating chicken and waffles for Sunday brunch, listening to country music, going to Friday night football games, spending weekends at the lake

The Southeastern US also has a really conflicted reputation, though: one one hand we’re known for “southern hospitality,” but on the other hand this is the region that started a civil war to defend slavery. I went on a bit of a ramble about these contradictions, my own relationship to culture, and my thoughts on how we can build a more inclusive South, but it’s long af so I put it below the cut for anyone who’s interested.

Japan - tell us a secret about yourself

I’m not sure if this is normal, but I daydream in the third person? Like I never imagine myself doing something, I imagine that I am someone else watching me do something. So the daydreams are less about what I actually want and more about how I want to be seen by others if that makes sense. Let me know in the comments if you do that too or if that’s weird af 😂😅

🌏 Country asks 🌎

⬇️ Further comments on Southern culture below the cut (tw: slavery mention, racism mention)

Long answer about my culture:

I always struggle with this question because I grew up in a city different than where my parents did so I feel a bit disconnected from my roots (especially in terms of my accent and lack of relationship with the land). Then this question gets even more complicated when I think about the fact that my ancestors came to the Americas hundreds of years ago as colonizers/settlers, and we’ve long since forgotten our Scottish culture in favor of a sort of generic “Anglo-American culture”. And I’m honestly just not sure how to engage with that cultural identity in ways that don’t reinforce colonial narratives...

I grew up in the southeastern US, which has a really conflicted reputation: on one hand we always talk about “southern hospitality”- being warm, generous, and welcoming- but on the other hand there’s such a dark history of racism (especially anti-Black and anti-indigenous, but tbh against anyone who’s not white Protestant Christian) that’s still playing out in the region today. Obviously nowhere in the US is exempt from racism, but the fact that the southern states literally started a civil war to defend slavery really emphasizes how entrenched it is in the local culture. For example, today it’s really common here for rich people to get married at old plantation houses because of the ~aesthetic architecture~, which imo inappropriately glorifies a period when white landowners got rich off the labor of enslaved people.

I guess that’s a really roundabout way of saying that too often the same people that treat me (a white woman) with “southern hospitality” treat people of color with utter disrespect. I think that those of us with privilege need to work towards extending the same principles of kindness and generosity towards everyone in our community. And beyond just easy answers like ~be nice to everyone~, this is certain to involve some uncomfortable conversations with loved ones who cling to the old, exclusionary ways. And, perhaps more importantly- lots of self-reflection on ways our own choices reinforce these racist/classist power structures, and a deliberate effort to make new choices that are actively anti-racist and anti-colonial.

Aside from my love/hate relationship with Southern culture, I also have a family connection to Southern Appalachian culture. My dad grew up in East Tennessee and definitely identifies more with the mountain culture, which is quite distinct from the lowland South. Since I didn’t grow up there, I don’t know as much about it other than from him and my grandparents, but I did start learning the banjo this summer, which is a typical instrument from the area. I’m really excited to learn some traditional songs!!

I’m also starting to reconnect with my Celtic roots- reading up on our traditional religion, our languages, etc. Not sure what this will look like for me in the long term, but I can definitely put updates on my blog if any of y’all are interested ☺️

Lol I didn’t mean to ramble this much, but this is something I’ve been thinking about a lot the past few months and it’s nice to write it out. If anyone wants to chat about these issues (or challenge some of my ideas), please message me or tag me in a post and I’d love to talk to you!!

#springtimestudies #hertwilight #ask game #answered #studyblr #culture #springshares #tw slavery #tw racism

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utilitycaster · 5 years

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Accents of Exandria

I’m doing this more by accent rather than by location first, due to accent diversity in major cities and racial ties to certain accents.

One thing to note: accents in fiction are important signifiers of class and background based on our own preconceived notions, and it’s worth keeping that in mind. For example, most people associate an RP British accent with being upper class and educated, and the characters who speak in this accent typically are either nobility, wealthy, educated, or all three, even if they come from very different regions. It’s a common shorthand in media and that includes Critical Role. Consider Lord of The Rings - Sam and Frodo are of the same race and in the same region with the same native language, but they have very different accents to show that Frodo is wealthy, worldly, and highly educated, and Sam is more working-class and provincial.

Obviously spoilers for both campaigns all over and I’m sure I’ve left plenty of things out - feel free to send me suggestions! I’m sure I will write a follow-up at some point.

And finally, I am just a nerd who loves accents. I took a few linguistics classes in college and learn about them in my free time, but I’m no expert, so if you are one or have corrections let me know!

Scottish: Dwarvish, and by extension places primarily populated by dwarves. Examples: Kraghammer.

RP British: a large number of elves (including many drow), educated/upper-class people (especially humans). Examples: Percy, Vex, Vax, the elves of Syngorn, High Bearer Vord, Lieve’tel, the Briarwoods, Taryon, Zahra, Yussah. Artagan seems to have this too, further indicating an elvish/fey influence. Vex and Vax have a bit more of a drawl than Percy’s more clipped accent, which could partially be a personality difference and partially their more humble, frontier childhood in Byroden. This also seems to be Fjord’s original accent, indicating some level of education (which we know is the case - he’s quite intelligent and trained in history).

Mid-Atlantic: The Old Hollywood one, not the Tidewater one. Sort of in between RP and US Neutral (hence the name Mid-Atlantic - it’s seen as a blend between British and U.S. accents). Also seen in a lot of educated/upper-class people who aren’t elves, and people imitating them. Examples: most of Emon’s upper class including the Tal’Dorei family and Allura. This is probably not Gilmore’s native accent, but it’s his accent now. I’d put Scanlan here as well, which fits, particularly since this accent was the ‘theater’ accent in the first half of 20th Century America.

United States ‘non-regional’: Westruun, the Air Ashari, a lot of regular middle-class humans, halflings, and gnomes, a lot of Firbolgs, Shady Creek Run. Examples: Keyleth, Beau, Caduceus, Kima, Pike, Kerrek, Kashaw, Thorbir, Lyra, Keg, Tova, Twiggy, Yeza, and a whole lot more. The Doylist explanation for this is that all of the main cast and most guests speak like this normally, and not all guests are comfortable playing an improv-based game that many of them have never played before while also doing accent work; as such it’s sort of a catch-all for a lot of average people. In Westruun in particular it sometimes skews a bit midwestern (slightly flatter vowels - compare Kima’s accent to most of the other people on the list).

United States southern: unclear but my guess is based in the north of the continent, perhaps along the Empire’s borders: Starosta Wyatt, a halfling in Zadash, has this accent; Fjord has a deeper version which is in turn an imitation of Vandran; Lorenzo and Wursh both have it as well which raises the question whether this might be related to ogre/orcish languages. Note that the accents many people would class as Southern in the US encompass a pretty broad region. IIRC Wyatt sounded a bit more Appalachian whereas Fjord (so Vandran) sounds more Texan.

Irish: I think we’ve seen this most consistently in Kymal (notably in Kaylie), but Molly also has an Irish accent so I wonder if it’s particularly common among entertainers? On the other hand we have no reason to believe Molly didn’t have this accent in previous lives as well.

German: Zemni Fields. Explicitly linked to a region of the Empire and to a language that is distinct from Common or any of the racial languages. Zemnian as a language is still alive and well, and the Zemnian people are as far as we’ve seen well-integrated into the Empire’s fabric - Caleb’s parents were very pro-Empire, Zemnians are found in high positions, Dairon notes that a Zemnian accent in Xhorhas would be recognized as Dwendalian, and Zemnian words are used in Zadash pretty regularly (Zauberspire, for example). As a result this seems to indicate that while the Empire took over Zemni Fields, they let Zemnians maintain their culture. Examples: Caleb, Trent, Ophelia Mardun.

French: Menagerie Coast, Bisaft Island. Unclear exactly where on the coast. Examples: Avantika, Vera. Interestingly, other French-based accents (like Cajun) are also seen in this region (eg: Orly) which might imply that there’s a fantasy French equivalent (a la Zemnian for German) spoken in this region with varying dialects.

Eastern European: Unclear, but actually this is not uncommon in Tieflings - not only is it Jester and Marion’s accent despite them having a somewhat French-sounding last name, but it’s also seen in Campaign 1 for both Vanessa of the Slayer’s Take and Lillith. But Cree (Tabaxi) has it as well. Eastern European is also a pretty broad term and IRL Eastern Europe encompasses a whole lot of different languages, not all of which are related. Anecdotally, Jester’s accent reminds me of a few native Romanian speakers I know. Overall, seems to be mostly Tieflings and Wildemount.

Russian: in the notes Matt’s published, this is stated to be Oremid Hass’s accent as well as some others in Zadash. Seems to be specific to the Empire - some of the towns (eg: Nogvorot) have Russian-sounding names, but the region is unclear.

Scandinavian: thus far only seen in Yasha, so this may be specific to the Iotha marshes of Xhorhas.

Working Class London-ish accent: rough types more so than any region. It’s Grog’s accent and the accent of the Herd of Storms, but we also see similar accents among some of the criminal types in Zadash, along the way to Shady Creek Run, and at the Sour Nest.

Southern European: I’m not positive about the Kryn Dynasty upper-class accent found among many members of the consecuted Dens, but it sounds a little Greek or a little Spanish, depending (thanks,the International Dialects of English Archives!) Examples: Zethris Olios, Leylas Krynn, Shadowhand Essik.

#critical role #long post #this has been in my drafts for a long time

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sohannabarberaesque · 4 years

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Underwater America with Peter Potamus (episode 25: Moxie Pond and Moosehead Lake, Maine)

At any rate, as we open this particular episode, much can be said aerially of the view to be had along the New Hampshire-Maine border region, largely roughed-up granite mountains interspersed by the odd lake here and there, which can be said to also be the scene coming into the lake country of northern Maine (which even the selected stock music can’t manage to compromise) ...

PETER POTAMUS, in narrator mode: Wasn’t Lake Winnipesaukee quite the dive, especially the “giant’s staircase” underwater?

MILDEW WOLF, getting snarky as ever: You can say THAT again!

WALLY GATOR: And setting aside Weeki Wachee, you hardly see much of that back in Florida, don’t you know....

At any rate, we see the scene shifting to a campy-looking diner in Skowhegan, Maine, where, over coffee and pancakes in the classic Northern Maine stylee, discussion lies afoot--

PETER POTAMUS: Skowhegan, Maine--gateway to Moosehead Lake, one of northern Maine’s most popular resort areas ... and, in a way, Mt. Katahdin, itself a symbol of Maine in its own way. Not to mention the northern terminal of the Appalachian Trail ... but in a diner there, we discuss diving strategy:

Listening in on the breakfast and dive strategy session--

PETER POTAMUS: --as if Moosehead Lake wasn’t itself interesting, someone was mentioning to me about Moxie Pond, which we’ll dive first before heading to Moosehead!

MAGILLA GORILLA, somewhat ahead of himself: Is that where Moxie soda comes from? (Laughter all around)

PETER POTAMUS: In a way, Magilla--as in the name perhaps having come from there....

BREEZLY BRUIN: Might it be likely that we could have some Moxie while at Moxie Pond?

PETER POTAMUS: I think there might be a store on the way where we might pick up a case to enjoy on the side ...

WALLY GATOR: I’d be hard pressed to imagine us trying to drink Moxie in Moxie Pond just as those Weeki Wachee Mermaids were drinking RC Cola in the spring during their performance, don’t you know ...

MILDEW WOLF: Well, who wouldn’t?!

And so the drive up US 201 northward from Skowhegan towards Moxie Pond, stopping at the general store in The Forks, which could be considered the “gateway” to Moxie Pond ...

PETER POTAMUS, narrating: Moxie Pond, itself somewhat elongated, is reachable for the most part by way of a gravel road easterly from The Forks, whose general store managed to be a decent source of supply--including the inevitable elixir known as Moxie. Having it as part of a hot dog roast that evening--nothing but skin-on weiners of the sort Down Easters call “snappers,” as in the natural casing--we couldn’t help but notice how uniquely bitter was Moxie’s taste. Which, I will admit, was something of an experience ahead of the diving experience.

The action can be said to shift here to underwater, thanks to Squiddly Diddly’s rather amazing underwater camera work as much as kitschy background music inevitable to the series; we can assume a dive boat came into play.

For as unlikely a dive spot as Moxie Pond, whose average depth is about 12 feet (with a maximum such of 50 feet), such couldn’t be more refreshing on one of those muggy summer afternoons as seem to prevail in northern Maine, so long as mosquitoes and deerflies don’t get to you first!

We discern some especially interesting action off a spot about midway into Moxie Pond known as Burnt Jacket Island (how that name came about is anybody’s guess), finding much in the way of game fish such as would be common in northern Maine’s lakes region surrounding our intrepid divers ... not to mention a bit of hubris and debris from the logging era in those parts such as submerged logs from, say, a lumber raft as came apart for some reason to otherwise relieve the monotony of what could be lake grasses and sand. or maybe some granite “wall” coming out of the bottom from a modestly shallow lake as Moxie Pond inherently is. Oh, and amazingly clear, what with the lake not quite disturbed otherwise considering its isolation and obscurity.

Back at camp on shore ...

Considering all the mosquitoes and deerflies endemic, which can cause quite a problem at night, we took the precaution of stocking up on punk sticks to burn strategically around our campsite; the smoke from burning punk sticks is said to drive them away.

LOOPY De LOOP: Just like back in the wilds of Quebec during the summer months when the mosquitoes and the deerflies came out ... only we used a smouldering fire aimed at maximising the smoke output to keep such stingers at bay. Believe you me, you don’t want to get caught stung by a north woods mosquito at the wrong time; hence, the need for plenty of mosquito-confusing smoke in the summer months!

PETER POTAMUS, getting back to the narration: At least one thing was to be said for Moxie Pond: The night before we left for Moosehead Lake, we toasted her in--what else?--Moxie. (A chorus of “The Maine Stein Song” from Rudy Vallee could be heard in the background to maybe add a chintzy sort of atmosphere to the evening’s proceedings, even with punk-stick smoke to keep mosquitoes and deerflies at bay.)

The next morning, a hearty little campfire breakfast before proceeding on that gravel road leading us initially to Moxie Pond out from same ... and towards the main highway to Moosehead Lake, as in Maine 6/15 ... somehow, trying to dodge the tourist traffic was never going to be easy in the middle of a near-wilderness where the Northeast’s largest lake happens to be.... yet we find ourselves at a “hole in the wall” dive shop in Greenville Junction, practically on a side street and the sort where you need to be referred to ... and what stories could certainly be told, especially of the days when the pioneers on Moosehead Lake would basically use the ice-covered surface in the winters as a garbage dump, hoping the spring thaw would send the junk “in its place,” by and large.

The diving scene shifts now to one such especially fascinating underwater refuse dump site in Moosehead Lake from the past, presumably left over from an abandoned logging camp from back when the lumbering industry (which, as Loopy De Loop will be quick to admit, attracted plenty of French-Canadian types in the winter months) held sway. Not only cheesy music, but also plenty of empty bottles (liquor and otherwise), bedframes, bed springs, tables such as might have been from the dining hall--and even a substantial iron cookstove, looking none the worse for wear despite some algae, attracting especially the interest of Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har.

HOKEY WOLF, going into a mix of narrator and Sgt. Ernie Bilko: I would have to wonder if, in an earlier time, there could have been some easier way to move all that junk when the lumber camp was abandoned--but NOOOOO!! They just found it easier and more convenient to dump it all underwater, creating quite the potential for an Underwater Salvage Operation on an inland lake such as this!! And imagine the profit potential!!

PETER POTAMUS, as the action shifts to a chartered dive boat moving towards Mt. Kimeo on the north side of Moosehead Lake: Moving from the absurd to the sublime ... one of the boys in the dive shop back in Greenville Junction suggested diving what you’d call the “trunk” underwater of Mt. Kimeo, a rather substantial hill rising from the lake bottom ... which happens to be close to a somewhat down-at-heel resort hotel close by. Dropping anchor within view of the mountain, I mentioned in the pre-dive briefing about a granite “wall” on the underwater portion of Mt. Kimeo as might be worth checking out ...

And check out they did, as witness the dive into the waters off Mt. Kimeo, the flashlight action galore from the wetsuited dive team (yes, even Breezly Bruin is in black neoprene), and the sheer fascination of an underwater rock wall dropoff into the “steep and deep” of another remarkably clear lake for northern Maine’s resort country. Even the cheesiness of the stock background music doesn’t seem to distract one iota from the awe and wonderment of seeing the underwater side of a mountain. Not even Hardy Har-Har could appear fazed at such a sensation ... inevitably leading to--

At any rate, next week’s show is expected to be rather interesting. In fact, the whole’s premise is such that you’ll want to watch it for yourself to understand what it’s all about. So, till then, Peter Potamus winding things up ... and hoping you’ll enjoy the dive!

@warnerarchive @hanna-barbera-land @warnerbrosentertainment @hanna-barberians @joey-gatorman @hanna-barbera-blog

#fanfic friday #hanna barbera #documentary #scuba #scuba party #peter potamus #loopy de loop #lippy the lion and hardy har har #breezly bruin #hokey wolf #magilla gorilla #wally gator #squiddly diddly #mildew wolf #northern maine #moxie pond #moosehead lake #mt kimeo #hannabarberaforever

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pcttrailsidereader · 5 years

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Thru-hikers Got Kicked Off a Plane Because They Smelled

I remember a rendezvous with my wife after several sweaty, hot weeks on the PCT some years ago when our first act, at her insistence, was to purchase new, clean clothing (to the extent possible) from the gift shop at the Crater Lake Lodge. This was replicated at the Seiad Valley Cafe and Store some years later. In both cases, I had managed to bath and wash clothing beforehand but my clothing was irreparably smelly. I was oblivious as long as I was outdoors and with other similarly odiferous colleagues but once in the confined spaces of civilization, it quickly became overpowering. So I can empathize with the crew and passengers of this Frontier Airlines flight.

This is an excerpt of a longer article authored by Kathryn Miles, Outside magazine, October, 2019.

On October 15, two Appalachian Trail thru-hikers were escorted off a Frontier Airlines flight at Boston’s Logan airport. The duo (who asked not to be named) had just completed their northbound hike and said they stopped to shower and change into clean clothes before arriving at the airport. Nevertheless, shortly after boarding, they were approached by crew members, who said they would not be allowed to fly because at least one of them had what was deemed to be offensive body odor. The hikers were walked off the plane, provided with travel-size toiletry bags, and told they could try to fly again the next day.

Back in the terminal, the hikers posted a tongue-in-cheek photo on a Facebook page for hikers. “First taste of the real world,” they wrote. “Now we’re in Boston with no way to get home.”

This elicited all kinds of responses from fellow backpackers, ranging from outrage (“Total bullshit! They should have let you fly!”) to empathy for the other passengers (“I wouldn’t even let my husband ride home in my car after he finished his hike!”). And it included, perhaps not surprisingly, all kinds of advice, ranging from the obvious (“Did you try deodorant?”) to the downright dangerous (“Douse yourself in Fabreze and rub hand sanitizer in your armpits!”).

I contacted both hikers, along with Frontier. The two backpackers and the airline both said there had been some extenuating circumstances that hadn’t been made clear in the viral Facebook post—namely, that the hikers were flying on buddy passes (standby tickets provided to airline employees), because one of the hiker’s relatives works for the company. A Frontier spokesperson explained that passengers flying on these nonrevenue-generating tickets are held to a higher standard for personal hygiene. But, like most airlines, Frontier also has a general policy concerning such matters.

They are far from alone. Last year, a family of three was escorted off an American Airlines flight after passengers complained about what they called offensive body odor. The airline booked the family on another flight and gave them vouchers for meals and a hotel.

It’s obviously not for us to say whether any of these individuals smelled offensive when they boarded their respective flights. But if you’ve spent any time around long-distance backpackers or other endurance athletes, you know the funk is real. So how can you make sure you get home after your next big adventure? Here are a few tips to get you past more than security.

Read the Airline Policy Before You Fly

I reached out to several major airlines. Of those that responded to my inquiries, all have policies concerning personal hygiene. An American Airlines representative pointed me to the fine print on its tickets, which state that all passengers must “be respectful that your odor isn’t offensive (unless it’s caused by a disability or illness).” Delta stipulates that you can be removed if your “hygiene or odor creates an unreasonable risk of offense or annoyance to other passengers.” Ditto for Southwest and all members of the Lufthansa group. The former told me it handles each potential BO situation on a case-by-case basis. A rep from Lufthansa told me, “We rely on our crew to use fair, reasonable judgement in making such a decision. Our guests’ safety and comfort is of the utmost priority, and they are asked to make decisions that ensure both.”

Technically, none of these airlines have to rebook you or compensate you for your ticket, but most of the representatives I spoke with said they will make every attempt possible to get you on another flight—provided you smell better by then.

Know the Science

We have two major types of sweat glands in our bodies, says Dr. Marlyanne Pol-Rodriguez, a dermatologist and clinical assistant professor at the Stanford Medicine Outpatient Center. Eccrine glands, which are located near the surface of the skin, are pretty much everywhere on our bodies. They secrete a mixture of water, electrolytes, and salt, which is virtually odor-free. Apocrine glands, on the other hand, are located primarily in our armpits, chest, and genital region. These glands secrete a combination of sweat and oil, which feeds bacteria located on our bodies. When that bacteria breaks down thicker, richer sweat, it results in odor, says Pol-Rodriguez.

Be Proactive

According to Pol-Rodriguez, one way to prevent excessive body odor from accumulating is to use antibacterial soap when you shower at hiker hostels or motels. And while hikers are often loathe to carry any more weight than they have to, Pol-Ridriguez says it’s definitely worth it to stash a small pouch of baby wipes in your pack and use them often. The good news: because apocrine glands are so centrally located, you can really economize on where you wipe, and make that quarter-pound bag of baby wipes last for days.

Skip the Chemicals

Pol-Rodriguez is pretty wary of any body-odor-removal regimen that includes applying cleaners or high doses of hand sanitizer or cologne directly to your skin. “There’s just too much in them that might irritate the skin—especially if you have to sit for a long flight,” she says. If you think you need to go beyond soap and wipes, she recommends using superdiluted vinegar (as little as a tablespoon or two per cup of water) when you bathe.

Clothes and Gear Smell Worse Than You

It’s particularly hard to get odor out of clothes, says Pol-Rodriguez. She favors products like OxiClean for getting funk out of garments you really want to hang onto. If you or someone you know can ship you some clean clothes before you board a plane, that’s half the battle.

#smell #odor #clean clothes

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