#and let's be real he isn't self-aware enough to consider that money money money might have anything to do with him

[laceratedlamiaceae]

geneuinely a hate crime to give Stede better taste than Ed. Stede would not appreciate ABBA because he hates women too much and thinks Money, Money, Money is a personal attack on him.

I maintain that Stede has better taste than Ed (although I might be biased because I love to talk shit about Ed), however "Stede would not appreciate ABBA because he hates women too much" is the funniest thing I've ever received in my inbox

[ome-magical-ramblings]

Good deeds, virtues don't sell.

The idea of talking about Virtues and Good deeds isn't as big or popular but it's a good enough topic that I feel deserve a post here. Mainly that the results from our livelihood deserve this aspect of action in the world...that sounded a bit weird writing it out. What I am saying is that your action in the world, your behavior with other, and a lot of the stuff you do "off the cushion" or "with normies" matter a lot when you go and do the rituals or even meditate.

The essence of all the practices is some kind of finicky adjustment and the real meat is what you do when you talk to people, when you act with people, and how this feed back into the whole equation. It doesn't matter how you talk to random people politely, what matter is how you talk, deal, and act with people close to you.

What are you doing in the world, how are the stuff manifesting in the world, is it all internal? you have to ask yourself these questions.

"The wrong person even with the right knowledge will come to no good end. But the right person even with the wrong (or incomplete) knowledge will make it work."

Some people might think of it as "oh I don't have a lot of money", it's not even about the money, if not by the money then you can help with time, with effort, with talking, with guiding, etc. It's not about always gain and loss in that sense. I think you can see it yourself, but if you don't do anything bad or anything good which is most of population they just tend to "blob" along the sea of life not sinking nor floating, most of their action are morally ambivalent or not even considered "actions" just motions. Paul Sedir in his book about how to Pray have a very good quote on this:

To make ourselves heard, our heart must speak the language of Heaven, and that language is charity; our person must become aware of his nothingness, and in this inner void infinity rushes in to fill it. Thus, belief is not enough; believing in God and not obeying Him is what only too many Christians do. I prefer those who claim not to believe yet obey the Divine Law. Praying without previously performing an act of charity can do nothing; whereas charity without faith still moves Heaven. Remember the wonderful stories of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan. It isn’t faith that begets charity, it is charity that begets faith. Faith isn’t an opinion of the brain, it’s a conviction of the heart. To have faith in someone isn’t to believe that the person exists; it’s to trust them, and to trust them wholeheartedly.

Faith means love of God, as charity means love of one’s fellow beings. These two flames grow through one another and feed one another.

I hope, this doesn't remove the importance of the experiences, the rituals, the practices, and so on. One of my friend said he didn't appreciate the Quran or wasn't moved by the Quran until he worked with Jaljalutiya prayer. So again it's a very tricky situation, there's no one way to crack this egg and some people who over-emphasize the charity too soon don't realize it could be a bit too bad for the people who didn't have the experience or understand why they would do that. I am not telling you to go out right now and do charity just because you read it in the internet, but think about it and contemplate it. Just like Paul Sedir said, they're two flames(prayer and Faith) working in conjunctions, your rituals, invocation, spellwork, etc AND your behavior irl, how you deal with people and how people see you, your actions, thoughts, and words. You can't just practice 1 hour a day and do shit for the rest of the 23 hours. The WHOLE thing is your practice.

Let me end this two points, first a quote and lastly a technique. The Quote from G.O Mebes' Minor Arcana course:

An isolation for too long could harden your heart and damage the intuition. A period of self-analysis lasting too long, developing the principle of reason, could take place at the cost of sensitivity, which is also necessary. This is the first danger that the disciple encounters on the Way and that you need to avoid, instituting an adequate "modus vivendi" in your environment. Ethical Hermeticism teaches that it is preferable to take just one step forward and advance your environment - even a tenth part of that step - than to take ten steps, giving nothing to the environment. It is by giving that man receives.

The technique is either the Planetary Charity which you can read about extensively here and the other one is that aim to just do one good deed a day, to counsel a friend, to drop one cent in a charity box, to pray for the dead, or to help a friend with a problem. Again, Charitable and good deeds have a lot of ways to come about them so why not try praying to be in the position to help people ;) maybe that prayer can be answered. May the Divine Creator open the way for us to help one another as brothers and sisters.

Sincerely, From the Heart.

[variousqueerthings]

cis people making movies about trans people like

this cis actor who dared to get into the mindset of a depressed, self-hating ugly weirdo with no other defining characteristics or plot is so brave and deserves awards for crossdressing

the writing/directing team also deserve awards for going out of their comfort zone and making something so totally unrelatable to us all that we can gawk at and say "so sad" about

I'm going to look in a mirror and hate myself while naked (but in a voyeuristic way, as if self-aware that there's a cinema full of cis people who will be watching this scene with binoculars)

more nudity - even if I'm literally portrayed by a child, my complete nudity exists to convince you, The Cis Viewer, that I am Not The Sex I Present Myself As

"lying" - "pretending" - "delusional" - "phase" - "sick" -- repeat one of these words or synonyms thereof every 5 minutes

an inventive array of hatecrimes

these cis actors portraying trans people have literally harassed and abused trans people in real life

more sympathy for the family and friends who reject, mock, and possibly violently assault the trans character, than for the trans character

more self-hating nudity, just in case the first time around wasn't enough for you, gotta make sure you get your money's worth

characters talking about the trans character, while that character is in the room, in ways that are dehumanising - within the context of the movie, it's not considered dehumanising

ok for a change let's boldly explore the idea that this kid character isn't trans, but it's all a phase, which makes all the violence and rejection worth it

also no awareness of the real overlaps between gay and trans communities - never shall the twain meet, because we've done literally no research and nobody trans was spoken to once and actually the director lowkey doesn't believe in trans people

"this director thinks all trans people are misguided, self-hating gay people" propaganda

all this character thinks about and cares about is their body, all day and every day, because we don't actually know how to write this character (because once again: being trans is totally unrelatable to normal people)

this movie made in the 90s with cis actors is actually better than this movie made in 2016 with a cis actor because it cared about narrative and character-writing and community-focus as the entry point, which weirdly enough makes for an actual story and not 2 hours of navel-gazy hyper-pretentious artistic nude shots

2 hours of navel-gazy hyper-pretentious artistic nude shots. bonus points if the movie is depressing as hell too

everyone is either in a boring middle-class household or a sex-worker. at least the sex-worker might have some trans friends... might

trans people are lonely and alone. they know nobody else who is trans and never seek trans community. they are sad. and also alone, did we mention how lonely and alone all trans people are?

cis actor shows up to the award's show looking aggressively gendered to fend off any accusations that they're anything but all-man/all-woman

cis actor makes a tearjerky speech about how we have to all love and support one another that hundreds of abusers of power sniffle to. there are no out trans creators or artists in the crowd

this sexual abuser of trans women says he hopes he'll be the last cis man to portray a trans woman while getting his award... he is not (nor does his career suffer at all for the abuse)

compares trans people to trees, which is fair because we're written with about the same amount of pathos on average

is this trans actress getting hired in big productions after appearing in this award-winning film/show? I haven't seen her in anything in years...

[thewomanwhowatchedchristmas]

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

I've been nervous to review this one because it's my best friend's favorite movie, but I've never seen it before. I was worried it wouldn't be as good of I hadn't seen it until adulthood. But, to be fair, I was never into the Muppets, so I don't think I would have liked it.

There are several things I was not prepared for. I was not prepared for Michael Caine to play Ebeneezer Scrooge. Like I knew that actual people played on screen with the Muppets, but I wasn't ready for it here. I was also not prepared for it to be a musical with original songs. Mostly, I was not prepared to be impressed by this movie.

So I hope everyone knows the story of A Christmas Carol because I feel like it's common knowledge. Instead, we're gonna talk about the other elements of the film. As I said, Sir Michael Caine plays Ebeneezer Scrooge. Maybe it's because I already loved Michael Caine, but I feel like he wasn't mean enough for Scrooge. Like yes it's a kids' movie, but so is every version. It's a kids' story. Our other human cast members are Fred (Steven Mackintosh), Clara (Robin Weaver), and Belle (Meredith Brawn). I loved Fred for getting sassy with Scrooge, but Clara looked like a 12 year old.

Now for the Muppets. The Great Gonzo narrates as Charles Dickens with Rizzo the Rat as our comedic relief. I appreciated what they brought to the movie it's accurate to the book AND they're self-aware enough that it cracks the fourth wall, but doesn't totally beak it. Kermit the Frog plays Bob Cratchit because of course he does. Who else is that sad and sweet? Miss Piggy as Emily Cratchit was a bit much; Emily isn't quite that sassy, and definitely not conceited. But the little I do know about the Muppets, I know that Miss Piggy would have demanded that role. Their children Betina, Belinda, and Peter were all original to the film. Tiny Tim is played by Robin the Frog, a character I didn't know existed until I was doing my research. Regardless, the boys are frogs and the girls are pigs, and no one is a horrifying mix of the two. And you can tell me they're a different character but they all look like shrunken Kermits or Piggys. This might be why I never got into Muppets. Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker are the collectors for charity donations. Probably a good idea to give a small role to a character who famously doesn't talk. Jacob and Robert Marley are played by Statler and Waldorf. Having never seen this movie, I was very confused because there is no Robert Marley, but Statler and Waldorf fit the miserly roles, and it would be tough to separate them and maintain the essence of their character. The Ghost of Christmas Past is original to the movie. She's creepy, and I don't like her. But they kept the story the same for when she took Scrooge: to his school days where we see Sam the Eagle as Headmaster, to the Christmas party of his first boss Fozziewig played by Fozzie Bear where he meets Belle, to a few years after when Belle dumps him. Which like... Was that how relationships we're back then? You didn't talk about your concerns and try to work through it, you just left? Unless you were married of course. The Ghost of Christmas Present is also original to this movie, but I really liked him! I feel like he's the character that's the most difficult to portray, and they did an excellent job. I don't think I've seen another version that has even come close. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come was also original to the film and also very accurately portrayed (which means creepy).

The story and the language was surprisingly accurate compared to the book (minus the songs). My only complaint is that at no point is it said that Tiny Tim died because they couldn't afford treatment for him. And I guess the only reason that bothers me is that children don't understand how money works, so giving the Cratchits money because Tiny Tim is sick doesn't make sense. Or maybe children today are more desensitized to the world of privatized healthcare than I was.

The songs. I should count how many reviews I say this in, but I'm not a fan of modern Christmas songs 99% of the time. Although certain references do make sense to me now. And I guess 1992 isn't modern. This movie came out 13 1/2 months before I was born so... However the songs are cheesy. And let's be real, Kermit is not a songbird.

The visual effects were done well, especially considering the year and the characters. I'm still not into the Muppets, and I still think all puppets are creepy. But I'm impressed with the cinematography here.

Overall, I give it 3.5 stars.