#anna watch my firefighter shows challenge

[walkinginland]

For the ao3 wrap: 6, 16, 29?

HALLLOOOOOO

6. Favorite title you used

oooooo this is an interesting one! all my titles for the last few years have been song lyrics. I think I like "when my time comes around" just because it fits JC so well. The song as a whole yes, but that like specifically, the "time" of it all, the peaceful acceptance of "yes my time is going to come, but that's alright, because I have you." soulmatism etc

16. What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag?

I think it's "Canon Compliant"! I tend to write nearly entirely canon compliant/missing moment type fics, especially in the last year or so. Also a lot of "inspired by music" tags, because of my song drabbles and the Hozier fic.

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

oh this is difficult 😬 despite the fact that I haven't posted all that much this year, full fics at least, I'm really proud of the stuff I wrote, and there's a few lines that I hold really close to my heart. this one from when my time comes around means a lot to me, and I think was a really important moment for Jamie.

It was here, in this holy place, that she showed her mettle. It was here, with tears in her eyes and hands steady and shaking, with her voice breaking and desperate and dark shadows under her eyes, that she pulled him back from that abyss with teeth bared. She had looked him in the eye and pulled down both their walls, and brought him home. He had tried to beg for her forgiveness, had tried to explain to her why she must leave, how he was not and could not be the man that she married. Claire had just looked him in the eyes, had held him and made him look back, and told him with every bit of cold determination in her voice that she would not. She would not forgive him, because there was not a single thing to forgive.

I also really really liked this one from later in the same fic. I feel like it's really important to Jamie that he faces things head on, that he's seen as having courage and strength. But at his core he does have some very very profound fears, and those come into play when he's at death's door. BUT there was something so different in that moment in Bees, and the stage that he's in in his life. He's afraid but found a different type of peace.

He had looked death in the face so many times in his life. He had told himself all those other times that he wasn’t afraid. This is the first time he is telling the truth.

also i'm gonna be selfish and post a third one. this is technically not posted yet, but I did write it in 2023, so it counts. pre-canon buck my beloved lil sad dude.

Buck doesn’t have much. A worn-down Jeep that has seen more miles than it was ever meant to, a worn-out bag of clothes in the back seat, a dry pack of pens to sign one-way postcards, and a heart that he never quite seems to put in the right place. He’s always had something in him pushing him to go, find a place a people a home. Buck climbs out of his beat-up Jeep, and hopes that this time, this time, he’s found it. He pulls his brand-new LAFD issued cap firmer on his head, and steps into the 118.

[zankokunowisdom]

100 days of Productivity Challenge

I’ve had another good week! Definetly feeling better and more like myself minute by minute. Feeling good, feeling powerful~ Getting my emotional, mental, intellectual, spiritual, artistic and physical powers back. Don’t try to stop me now, do not fuck with me, enemies, you’ll regret it.

There’s definetly a formula to feeling good about yourself and life: it is hard work. Good mood doesn’t just happen for me, I understand it very clearly now, I must be in control of myself. There is power in awareness, there is strength in growth, there’s energy in love. It’s not always easy to resist the mental programming that comes from society, media and other people but a witch must always follow his/her own guidelines, I must follow my own path and be unconcerned by any fears. I am strong enough to overcome any fears, I’m strong enough to overcome anything.

Anyway, here is my productivity week:

Monday (15.10.18) - Day 15. I’ve watched a documentary about dinosaurs (yaaas, points for mantaining childhood interests), have read 5 second rule book (a great book that’s about doing more actions instead of just thinking about doing something.), watched a new Charmed reboot (it was suprisingly pretty good, I don’t care what anyone else thinks! I’ve done some meditation, made an appoitment to see a doctor, researched some info for my finances and prepared an episode of my rolegame. Also I’ve drawn a table on my whiteboard for the week.

Tuesday (16.10.18)  - Day 16. Had a walk, bought some groceries for the week, work, more or less finished dealing with skills for my Shadowrun character, had a chat about potential future job, did an arm work-out, spoke with Era on the phone, met with Akira- we had a session of my rolegame -Gardarika, practiced some drawing,

Wednesday: (17.10.18) - Day 17. That day was slow because I kinda had an emotional/mental breakdown. I was looking through old photos and everything kinda hit me. I talked it out with an acquaintance, that helped. Had a walk with Akira, checked some pre-planned things, work.

Thursday: (18.10.18) - Day 18 - Listened to an audiobook about human history, worked on getting better (I got sick), work, walked a lot, started a new show! Harlots, it’s great. (I’ve seen some spoilers now when I looked for gifs, such a stupid mistake!) It’s about women in England, about sex-work and the hardships women had to face.

Friday: (19.10.18) - Day 19. Listened to human history audiobook, done some self-therapy, meditated, read The Raven King, watched Harlots (like amost the whole season, it’s so good, actors are so great), talked to a friend (Taeva) on the phone, met with Akira again (we’ve seen each other so often this week о.о, it’s great, always happy to see her!). Worked on getting healthy, walked a lot, worked.

Saturday: (20.10.18) - Day 20. I’ve met with a friend - Daria, I haven’t seen her in almost a year! We caught up, walked in the forest, took a lot of pictures and then ate some Japanese food at the Murakame cafe. It was refreshing to see her. I’ve read a chapter of a new (for me) book that deals with thinking about finances. I wrote down some things in my mini-journal and just took time to think and unplug from everything. I’ve also drawn a picture for Inctober (I am so behind... I don’t thing I’ll finish it up this month, but I will finish it!). Also I’ve asked my friends to name my flaws (after watching an Anna Akana video), it was interesting, I don’t agree with some of them though, ahah. Also I’ve watched Station 19 - a show about firefighters. The core idea of episode is that we keep a lot of things - in our house, in our minds and it’s dangerous, and that we need to declutter and free ourselfs from the uselless and harmful baggage. I had a great idea.

Sunday: (21.10.18) - Day 21. Did some stretching, sang a bit, met with Akira to watch the Voice, eeh, I went to the shop to buy water, also I fell asleep (I found a new creative way to sit near the window and it was too comfy, ahaha), I’ve read Raven King some more and watched an episode of Harlots (season 2). Wrote this post. Listed to Meaning Of Life for the first time in a while, such a great album!

Also I don’t remember the precise day, but I fixed my armchair, it bothered me for a while. Here’s to another great week!

[husheduphistory]

From Amazement to Ash: The Blaze at Barnum’s American Museum

Throughout time few names ring to the tune of "showman" as strongly and loudly as P.T. Barnum. Born on a Connecticut farm in 1810, Phineas Taylor Barnum tried his had at a variety of professions including Bible selling and shop keeping before moving to New York City in 1834 to begin his entertainment career. It was amid the tensions of this ever-expanding and changing metropolis that he developed an arsenal of tactics that would help him change the very face of commercial entertainment in New York City and beyond. In 1841 he opened a business that brought and unprecedented degree of spectacle, magic, and awe to the people of the city that never sleeps. In November 1864 it was lucky. On the morning of July 13th 1865 it was open for business. By sunset it was gone.

P.T.Barnum

P.T. Barnum's American Museum was located at the intersection of Broadway and Ann Street before later moving up the block to the corner of Fulton Street. Originally John Scudder's American Museum, Barnum purchased the building in 1841 and transformed it into a palace of shock, awe, and amazement that absolutely fascinated every New Yorker that crossed its path and doorways. Outer windows were painted with the words "BARNUM'S MUSEUM" in a size that could not be ignored but as flashy as the exterior was, it was nothing compared to what awaited behind the walls. Inside the building were five floors packed with peculiarities including wax figures of historical fame such as Napoleon, war relics, scientific instruments, a segment of a tree trunk where Jesus once sat, preserved bodies, the clubs that killed Captain Cook, portraits, an oyster bar, gigantic animated models of places like Niagara Falls, massive dioramas, a rifle range, stuffed specimens and fossils from all branches of nature, and the famous FeeJee Mermaid. It was already a massive list, but these were not even the exhibits that were alive. The living collection of Barnum's American Museum intermingled with the rest to create a place that was part museum, zoo, circus, freak show, and everything in between. Humans on display included fortune tellers, ‘The Giantess" Anna Swan, General Tom Thumb, Native American performers, Jenny Lind, Chang and Eng, and a long list of jugglers,magicians, "fat men" and other talent that made their careers in sideshows. The animals that called Barnum's museum home included monkeys, birds, seals, hippopotamuses, tigers, alligators, snakes, elephants, kangaroos, hundreds of fish in massive aquariums, and even two fully grown white whales that lived inside a twenty-five foot tank on the second floor. If these were not enough to entice a visitor there was also a lecture hall and a theater where two regular performances or lectures were given daily.

Barnum’s American Museum circa 1858.

The Giantess Anna Swan.

The first grand hall of the museum.

The Lecture Room circa 1853.

Advertisement for some of Barnum’s animal exhibits.

All of these attractions were available to anyone for the price of 25 cents and the price and promise of amazement kept the museum packed with people from all walks of life. The museum was equal ground to lower, middle, and upper class all of which could regularly be seen mingling, navigating the halls, and peering at the same spectacles which produced the same reactions regardless of one's lot in life. Barnum himself ensured a steady stream of people by using some of his master skills as an advertiser and performer. He would anonymously write scathing reviews of what could be found inside to entice people to see such alleged horrors with their own eyes. He challenged accusations that his items were fake by telling people to come in and decide for themselves and would deliberately "leak" controversies to entice people inside. To Barnum all publicity was good publicity and he was a master at generating his own word of mouth. His plans worked and the museum, open for fifteen of every twenty-four hours and could often count nearly 15,000 visitors per day. It is estimated that between 1841 and 1865 the museum was visited 38 million times when the total population of the United States was under 32 million.

The museum was able to become an entertainment monolith in one of the most rapidly evolving cities in the world, but in 1864 Barnum's American Museum also became a target.

By November 25th 1864 tensions were running high in the states on account of the Civil War that had been tearing the country apart at the seams. On that evening Confederate agents in New York City planned a series of arson attacks as retribution for the Union’s destruction in the Shenandoah Valley weeks earlier. Armed with twelve dozen bottles of  an incendiary mixture called "Greek Fire" the group of Confederates began their attack on New York by settling fire to hotels. During the arson attacks one man decided on a whim to also set Barnum's museum ablaze and at 9pm that evening an employee of the museum discovered fire on the fifth floor staircase. The occupants and visitors heard his warning of fire and thousands of people fled into the streets while the fire was quickly extinguished. The damage to the building was minimal and Barnum quickly made statements assuring that his museum was "as safe a place of amusement as can be found in the world" while detailing plans to protect the building should another fire ever take place. Unfortunately for Barnum, he was not done dealing with fire and less than a year later his museum would face an inferno that he never could have planned for.

At approximately 12:30pm on July 13th 1865 Barnum's entertainment empire began it's final curtain call when a museum employee ran up from the basement yelling that his office was on fire. An alarm went out to the fire department and the local police while visitors quickly flooded the streets  to escape the quick-moving blaze. Employees of the museum flew into a panic with performers racing through the theaters and dressing rooms indiscriminately grabbing pieces of wardrobe, wax figures, and whatever other curiosities they could amid the thick smoke. People inside began hurling things out of windows where a massive crowd was forming to watch  the building quickly being engulfed in flame. The spilling of items into the streets only enhanced the chaos with witnesses screaming that people were being rescued or jumping only to then learn they were wax figures or statues being tossed from the flames. By 1pm the building was beyond doomed, a fate sealed when the roof caved in leaving the structure resembling what the New York Times called "the crater of a vast volcano.” It also began to spread to other buildings on Broadway, Ann, and Fulton streets and the fire department began to pour water on the towers in order to prevent the fiasco from spreading. Firefighters at the museum exited the building holding small cases of rare coins and stuffed owls but no such regard was given to the huge numbers of animals living at Barnum's American Museum. Of the shapes diving from the windows and charging from doors, many were animals set free by the fire only to be thrown into a tangle of smoke and turmoil that they barreled through trying desperately to escape. Some, upon hitting the streets in sheer delirium were shot by police. Most were taken by the flames including the two whales which perished in the heated water. The intense heat forced the massive crowd of spectators back into the surrounding city blocks. At 1:30pm a massive crash signaled that the museum was starting to collapse and the entire Ann Street side fell to the ground throwing more smoke, dust, bricks, and chaos into the air. This was quickly followed minutes later by the front sides of the building facing Park Row and Broadway falling to the ground throwing the fire across the streets into surrounding businesses. By 3pm the fire was extinguished and left behind were the remains of nineteen buildings in addition to the absolute ruin of Barnum's American Museum. Miraculously no human lives were taken in the ordeal but the loss of animal life and curiosities was devastating.

An illustration of the Barnum’s American Museum fire as it appeared in Harper’s Weekly.

The news of Barnum's museum being totally demolished drew very mixed reactions. Although the museum was visited by millions and loved by many in New York, others were thrilled that the business was destroyed, calling it a deplorable mockery of good taste and begging for the city to now create a "real" and respectable museum for it's citizens. On July 27th 1865 Edwin Lawrence Godkin wrote a piece for The Nation celebrating the destruction and opening the article with "Barnum's Museum is gone at last" before going on to state that "The worst and most corrupt classes of our people must seek some new place of resort, and other opportunities of meeting one another.” He wrote that the only reason so many people visited the museum was to see the mess that it was kept in and to marvel at how terribly it was organized and displayed. Attacking the lecture room he accused that it "furnished for the entertainment of its patrons the most vulgar sensation dramas of the day. Its patrons were suitably entertained. It has been many years since a citizen could take his wife or daughter to see a play on that stage.” He begged someone to give the city "a real museum for his own enlightenment, the good of his children, and the honor and benefit of the community."

Edwin Lawrence Godkin

Barnum was never a man to spare words and his answers to these opinions was fierce. In his response to The Nation he remarked that his museum had a collection that sought to attract and entertain everyone because he had to run and support it without the government funds enjoyed by other more respectable museums "That class for which it [my Museum] would seem to have been originally intended would not support a proper museum pecuniarily. More’s the pity–but such is the stern fact." He also strongly fought the accusations of vulgarity and by stating:

"No vulgar word or gesture, and not a profane expression, was ever allowed on my stage! Even in Shakespeare’s plays, I unflinchingly and invariably cut out vulgarity and profanity. It is equally incorrect that "respectable citizens did not take their wives daughters" "to see a play on that stage." Your writer doubtless supposed he was stating facts, but let him enquire, and he will find that nothing could be further from the truth. I am sensitive on these points, because I was always extremely squeamish in my determination to allow nothing objectionable on my stage. I permitted no intoxicating liquors in the Museum. I would not even allow my visitors to "go out to drink" and return again without paying the second time, and this reconciled them to the "ice-water" which was always profuse and free on each floor of the Museum. I could not personally or by proxy examine into the character of every visitor, but I continually had half a score of detectives dressed in plain clothes, who incontinently turned into the street every person of either sex whose actions indicated loose habits. My interest even depended upon my keeping a good reputation for my Museum, and I did it to a greater degree than one out of ten could attain who had charge of a free museum, or even a free picture gallery"

He ended his rebuttal with a promise that more than likely made Godkin and those agreeing with him cringe. Barnum declared that if he were to build another museum it would be filled to the brim with wonders from all over the world, and that it would be fireproof.

Barnum did in fact build another museum, once again on Broadway, and once again filled with all manner of animals, circus performers, and spectacle every bit as flamboyant as his previous American Museum had been. The front of the building had exotic animals painted alongside the windows and the roof was a strolling garden that offered both stretching views of the city and daily hot air balloon rides. Barnum kept his word on his collection, but he unfortunately did not follow through on his other promise and on March 3rd 1868 his museum was swallowed  by flames due to a defective flue on the third floor. Once again the alarms rang out and stunned crowds gathered but this time the temperatures were cold and due to a recent snowstorm the fire department was delayed in their arrival only to be further hindered by the fire hydrants being frozen. The building was destroyed by the blaze within an hour. Again there was no loss of human life, but again most of the items and the animals inside were taken by the fire.

The frozen ruins of Barnum’s museum after the 1868 fire.

This fire marked the end of Barnum's careers in the museum business but by no means did he depart the entertainment field. In 1870 at the age of sixty he founded the P. T. Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan & Hippodrome along with  William Cameron Coup. It was an endeavor that through many reincarnations would become the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus which defined the very name of circus entertainment from April 1871 until its closing on May 21st 2017.

Barnum’s American Museum left us in 1865 but it lives on today digitally. To explore a virtual form of the museum and a wealth of related materials please visit The Lost Museum here 

[heidigital-blog]

Don’t get scared, be afraid.

Good morning my followers! A week basically just flew by just like that and I’m here thinking about where to start. On Monday, we had a lecture with a task. Our speaker was Pekka Tuominen, CEO of Digipeople. He presented us thoughts about innovators, proving what you believe in and attracting those who believe in you. Also, some information about brain activity and decision making was shared and he gave us three reasons people give why their businesses fail. He used Simon Sinek’s 18 minutes long video material to inspire us and later talked about Sinek’s famous Golden circle. That was all about how great leaders inspire action and was very interesting speech still, though I have already watched it for a few times before! Don’t know if there’s any right patterns of starting a lecture on a Monday morning, but in my opinion, a long monotonic speech from TEDtalk is the right way. Our task was to create a moodboard and a synopsis for a company we could choose. Our idea was inspired by Ville Ulmanen and his hairy chest, that Oskari nicely noticed; we made a Santa Claus -themed synopisis for Gillette. Once again, great team work and abs for the summer trained for I laughed so hard on my team’s great sense of humor. The best a man can get, indeed.

Simon Sinek on the other hand is truly an inspirational person with a range of thoughts. He is a consult specialized in HR and management. The latest interesting topic that he has influenced is the millennials (birth years from the mid-1990s to early 2000s) and their struggle in the world that we live in today. He describes youngsters to be “selfish, narcissistic and lazy generation Y with a lack of concentration and perseverance.” This is not by all means their own fault but Sinek states that there are 3 patterned factors behind this phenomenon as well. First, technology is both an opportunity and a threat as it acts like a good bottle of French finest, Côtes du Rhône, you get hooked easily ;). Social Media tools are nothing new to millennials which I have noticed while working with a group of Vantaa city workers in a Finland 100 project as well! In this case I am the millennial, believe it or not lol. Sometimes people mistake my age, I’m forever on my 20’s, fine by me! Second, impatience. Millennials are used to getting it all right here, right now. Companies like Wolt, Netflix, Uber and Foodora are making things so easy nowadays. Great innovations make great impact and you get hooked, AGAIN! People are familiar with multitasking and instead of focusing on one thing at a time, they want to up the effectiveness and do it all at once. If one masters this task, one is a genius. Third, environment is a key factor and an influencer. People do, what other people do, to synch with the tribe. People want, what other people want, so influencing on an individual first will lead to influencing on a group of people later on. Kauppalehti magazine’s journalist from Sweden, Antti Lehmusvirta, wrote a critical article about how he thinks there’s no need for him to create sustainable way of living if people in Asian countries won’t either. Well, I accept this view, but I’d like to think that it’s all about your own choices and practicing what you preach. Environment that we love and live in needs to be taken care of and if here, in small Finland, we have all the knowledge of the world to do the right thing, (even if nobody’s watching) why don’t we. It’s called integrity.

On Tuesday, I presented my marketing plan for this Finland 100 project that I mentioned and it was widely accepted by my coworkers. This truly made my day and the rest of the day I spent in a lovely Italian bistro Signora Delizia in Katajanokka, which I highly recommend visiting. It’s like a small, cozy piece of Naples in the heart of Helsinki, got to love it! http://www.signoradeli.com/ <- take a look! Effectiveness of the reading was not that high for there was the owner’s dog that I really needed to tap every once in a while :D.

I visited library 5 days this week so on Thursday I was happy to have a meeting in Laurea Tikkurila to focus on another project, this is why I skipped our lecture on that day too! Thanks to our digicoaches and technology, I watched the livestream on Friday and it was one of the most motivational and honest speech I ‘ve watched on this course. Ronja Salmi, writer and an entrepreneur shared her life story and really got me intrigued. She has published many books, organized events and has an high experience in SoMe content making. She talked about bravery and saying yes to new things in life and asked the fundamental question: “Is the fear stopping you of doing things?” Bravery is a skill that you can learn, she said. It’s takes a whole lot of practice to gain more courage and I agree on this. I was a former swimmer that wanted to work as a lifeguard in Helsinki area for the summer back in 2011. I had to take this intensive course of open water and diving without equipment -training, which I was terrified at first but since I’m still alive, didn’t kill me after all. It took me 5 metres under the sea level to cope with my fear and I kicked it’s butt right there! Afraid and still doing it? Yes. But you don’t need to be, all the time, firefighter-brave in EVERYTHING you do. I believe in standing behind one’s opinions and important matter, e.g. campaigns on Facebook that activate people to show their support on things that they value. Bravery is embracing all the sides of who you are and trying to love yourself in a world that’s constantly telling you not to,; it’s getting out of your comfort zone, protecting yourself and your loved ones, talking to a new person and facing the unknown.

I say Ronja Salmi summed it up very well. “If it’s not necessary, you can just let it be.” The fear, I mean. She held a great example of having an invisible jacket of bravery on you when you face your fears. For me, it’s not a jacket, it’s my red heels that gives me that ego boost and self confidence that I need, when balancing in the fence of my comfort zone. It also affects one’s bravery depending on the situation and the people you’re interacting with, face the fact; you never know who you are going to meet on your way to your destination. It can even end up changing your road or the goals in the final destination! It’s all about attracting the right people you share somewhat common thoughts, but opening up to the diversity as well! I prefer not always choosing the most familiar option and in that way, you can grow and learn from new things and from new people, it’s adventurous and awakening. Also, the mantra “learn to do it, while doing it”, is awesome. For me, it’s having both the education and work experience that matter and achieving those in an early age will benefit me in the future. I said yes to working in a luxury clothing company back in 2012 and I had an older, experienced coworker that showed me hand-to-hand how it’s done! Ronja Salmi answered Anna’s question about inspiration that she doesn’t believe in inspiration, instead of working hard. I agree on working hard, but on the contrary, she held an example that she gets easily inspired on Instagram, so, maybe subconsciously inspired..

When you think about life, when have you ever really been ready for the upcoming tasks and opportunities offered? The truth is, you’re never ready and it’s never the right time. Seth Godin encourages you to dance with the fear. That’s something to think of. You don’t need to impress everyone, just surprise yourself more often. The truth is, you really are not expanding, if you can’t challenge yourself. After all, who defines the best of the best? So, take you fear on the dancefloor and shake it off, do the twist or hang on till the very last slow song.

Till the next week!

I’ll write an extra post in a few days about the Onepager -task and about the entrepreneurship event! Take a look on DNA blogs about entrepreneurship here: http://blogit.dna.fi/

“Courage is grace under pressure” -Ernest Hemingway

A sudden snow got me all smiles!