#avid cyclist

[maryverrandeaux]

Mary Verrandeaux - An Accomplished Fine Artist

Mary Verrandeaux, a gifted Fine Artist, is making waves in the art scene of Inman, SC. As a graduate with honors from Ringling College of Art & Design, she demonstrates exceptional talent and dedication to her craft.

[decidentia]

Just a note to say thanks for bearing with me. ♡

[prairiies]

fuck it!!!! i must give it a shot

[warningsine]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/02/world/europe/france-husband-rape-drug-trial-mazan.html

For years, she had been losing hair and weight. She had started forgetting whole days, and sometimes appeared to be in dreamlike trances. Her children and friends worried she had Alzheimer’s.

But in late 2020, after she was summoned to a police station in southern France, she learned a far more shattering story.

Her husband of 50 years, Dominique Pelicot, had been crushing sleeping pills into her food and drink to put her into a deep sleep, the police said, and then raping her. He had ushered dozens of men into her home to film them raping her, too, they said, in abuse that lasted nearly a decade.

Using the man’s photographs, videos and online messages, the police spent the next two years identifying and charging those other suspects.

On Monday, 51 men, including Mr. Pelicot, went on trial in Avignon, in a case that has shocked France and cast a spotlight on the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse and the broader culture in which such crimes could occur.

The accused men represent a kaleidoscope of working-class and middle-class French society: truck drivers, soldiers, carpenters and trade workers, a prison guard, a nurse, an I.T. expert working for a bank, a local journalist. They range in age from 26 to 74. Many have children and are in relationships.

Most are charged with raping the woman once. A handful are accused of returning as many as six times to rape her.

The victim, Gisèle, who has divorced her husband and changed her surname since his arrest, is now in her 70s.

Since his arrest, Mr. Pelicot, 71, has “always declared himself guilty,” said Béatrice Zavarro, his lawyer. “He is not at all contesting his role.”

Other defendants have denied the rape charges, with some arguing that they had the husband’s permission and thought that was sufficient, while others claimed they believed the victim had agreed to be drugged.

When the police showed Gisèle some of the photographs they say her husband had carefully classified and stored, she expressed deep shock. She and her husband had been together since they were 18. She had described him to the police as caring and considerate.

She had no memory of being raped, by him or the other men, only one of whom she recognized, she told the police, as a neighbor in town.

The first time she will consciously witness the rapes, her lawyer Antoine Camus says, will be in the courtroom when the video recordings are played as evidence.

The trial comes at a moment of heightened scrutiny of the handling of sexual crimes in the country. Rape is defined in French law as an “act of sexual penetration” committed “by violence, coercion, threat or surprise.” A number of feminist lawmakers want to amend that wording to say explicitly that sex without consent is rape, that consent can be withdrawn at any time, and that consent cannot exist if sexual assault is committed “by abusing a state impairing the judgment of another.”

“There is a kind of naïveté on the topic of predators in France, a kind of denial,” said Sandrine Josso, a lawmaker who led a parliamentary commission into what is known in France as “chemical submission” — drugging someone with malicious intent. She started the commission after she says she became the victim of a drugging last year. A senator is being investigated on accusations that he slipped Ecstasy into her Champagne.

Ms. Josso hopes that the Avignon trial will draw attention to the use of drugs to prey on women, and also shed light on the wide profile of predators. “They could be your neighbors, without falling into paranoia,” she said.

Mr. Pelicot seemed like a classic man next door. He was a trained electrician, an entrepreneur and an avid cyclist. His middle child and only daughter, Caroline Darian, her pen name, described him as a warm and present father in a book published in 2022 about the case, “And I Stopped Calling You Papa.” She tried to turn her family trauma into action, forming a nonprofit association, “Don’t Put Me to Sleep,” to publicize the dangers of drug-facilitated crimes.

Her father, she wrote, was the one who drove her to school, picked her up late from parties, encouraged her and consoled her. Her mother was the stable breadwinner, working as a manager in a Paris-area company for 20 years.

When Gisèle retired, they moved to a house with a big garden and pool in Mazan, a small town northeast of Avignon. The couple regularly hosted their three children and grandchildren for summer vacations peppered with late dinners on the terrace, where the family debated, held dance competitions and played Trivial Pursuit.

“I think of us as happy,” his daughter wrote. “I thought my parents were.”

None of them harbored any suspicions. Then, in 2020, three women reported Mr. Pelicot to the police for trying to use his camera to film up their skirts in a grocery store, and he was arrested.

The police seized his two cellphones, two cameras and his electronic devices, including his laptop, before releasing him on bail.

On the devices, the police say they found 300 photographs and a video of an unconscious woman being sexually assaulted by many people. They said they also found Skype messages in which the man boasted of drugging his wife and invited men to join him in having sex with her while she was unconscious.

Over the course of their investigation, the police found more than 20,000 videos and photographs, many of them dated and labeled, in an electronic folder titled “abuse.” The timeline they built began in 2011. The list of suspects grew to 83.

Two months after his initial arrest, Mr. Pelicot was arrested again and charged with aggravated rape, drugging and a list of sexual abuse charges. He is also accused of violating the privacy of his wife, daughter and two daughters-in-law on suspicion of illegally recording, and at times distributing, intimate photos of them.

If he is found guilty, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

During interviews with the police, the details of which were included in an overview of the case by the investigative judge, Mr. Pelicot said he began drugging his wife so he could do things to her, and dress her in things, that she normally refused. Then he started inviting others to participate. He said he never asked for or accepted money.

He met most of the men, the investigating judge’s report stated, in a chat room on a notorious, unmoderated French website implicated in more than 23,000 police cases in France alone from 2021 to 2024. It was finally shut down, and its owner arrested, in June after an 18-month investigation stretching across Europe.

The chat room where most of the men met Mr. Pelicot was called “a son insu,” which means “without their knowledge.”

Over the years, Mr. Pelicot told the police, he developed rules for the visitors to ensure that his wife did not wake: no smoking or cologne; undress in the kitchen; warm hands under hot water or on a radiator, so their cold touch would not jolt her. At the end of each night, according to the investigating judge’s report, he cleaned his wife’s body.

Of the 83 suspects, the police identified and charged 50.

Only one of the men is not charged with rape, assault or attempted rape of Mr. Pelicot’s wife. Instead, that man is accused of following the same model, and drugging his own wife to rape her. Mr. Pelicot is also charged with raping the man’s wife while she was drugged.

Five of the men also face charges for possessing child sexual abuse imagery.

Mr. Pelicot is also being investigated in the rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in 1991 and the attempted rape of a 19-year-old in 1999. He admitted to the attempted rape, according to Florence Rault, the lawyer representing the victims in both cases, but denies any involvement in the 1991 homicide.

The story has prompted some soul-searching among doctors, since Gisèle had visited gynecologists and neurologists over a series of mystifying symptoms, but had received no diagnosis, according to her daughter.

“What I found disturbing for us doctors was that no doctor considered this hypothesis,” said Dr. Ghada Hatem-Gantzer, a well known obstetrician-gynecologist and expert in violence against women. She and a pharmacist, Leila Chaouachi, have now developed training for doctors and nurses on the symptoms that victims of drug-facilitated assault can experience.

Contrary to popular belief, most cases occur at home, not at bars, said Ms. Chaouachi, who runs annual surveys on such offenses in France. Most victims are women, the surveys show, and around half of the victims do not remember the attack, because of blackouts, she said.

In the case going to court in Avignon, some of the accused admitted guilt to the police. According to the investigating judge’s report, many claimed that they were tricked into having sex with a drugged woman — lured by a husband for a three-way encounter and told she was pretending to sleep, because she was shy.

Several said they believed that she had consented to being drugged and raped as part of a sex fantasy. Some said they did not believe it was rape, because her husband was there and they believed he could consent for both of them.

“It sends shivers down the spine regarding the state of affairs in French society,” said Mr. Camus, who is also representing Ms. Darian and many other members of the family. “If that’s the conception of consent in sexual matters in 2024, then we have a lot, a lot, a lot of work to do.”

[someone-will-remember-us]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/02/world/europe/france-husband-rape-drug-trial-mazan.html

France Confronts Horror of Rape and Drugging Case as 51 Men Go on Trial

A man is accused of drugging his wife and then inviting dozens of men to rape her over almost a decade. The questions raised by the case have unsettled the country.

For years, she had been losing hair and weight. She had started forgetting whole days, and sometimes appeared to be in dreamlike trances. Her children and friends worried she had Alzheimer’s.

But in late 2020, after she was summoned to a police station in southern France, she learned a far more shattering story.

Her husband of 50 years, Dominique Pelicot, had been crushing sleeping pills into her food and drink to put her into a deep sleep, the police said, and then raping her. He had ushered dozens of men into her home to film them raping her, too, they said, in abuse that lasted nearly a decade.

Using the man’s photographs, videos and online messages, the police spent the next two years identifying and charging those other suspects.

On Monday, 51 men, including Mr. Pelicot, went on trial in Avignon, in a case that has shocked France and cast a spotlight on the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse and the broader culture in which such crimes could occur.

The accused men represent a kaleidoscope of working-class and middle-class French society: truck drivers, soldiers, carpenters and trade workers, a prison guard, a nurse, an I.T. expert working for a bank, a local journalist. They range in age from 26 to 74. Many have children and are in relationships.

Most are charged with raping the woman once. A handful are accused of returning as many as six times to rape her.

The victim, who has divorced her husband and changed her surname since his arrest, is now in her 70s.

Since his arrest, Mr. Pelicot, 71, has “always declared himself guilty,” said Béatrice Zavarro, his lawyer. “He is not at all contesting his role.”

Other defendants have denied the rape charges, with some arguing that they had the husband’s permission and thought that was sufficient, while others claimed they believed the victim had agreed to be drugged.

When the police showed the victim some of the photographs they say her husband had carefully classified and stored, she expressed deep shock. She and her husband had been together since they were 18. She had described him to the police as caring and considerate.

She had no memory of being raped, by him or the other men, only one of whom she recognized, she told the police, as a neighbor in town.

The first time she will consciously witness the rapes, her lawyer Antoine Camus says, will be in the courtroom when the video recordings are played as evidence.

The trial comes at a moment of heightened scrutiny of the handling of sexual crimes in the country. Rape is defined in French law as an “act of sexual penetration” committed “by violence, coercion, threat or surprise.” A number of feminist lawmakers want to amend that wording to say explicitly that sex without consent is rape, that consent can be withdrawn at any time, and that consent cannot exist if sexual assault is committed “by abusing a state impairing the judgment of another.”

“There is a kind of naïveté on the topic of predators in France, a kind of denial,” said Sandrine Josso, a lawmaker who led a parliamentary commission into what is known in France as “chemical submission” — drugging someone with malicious intent. She started the commission after she says she became the victim of a drugging last year. A senator is being investigated on accusations that he slipped ecstasy into her Champagne.

Ms. Josso hopes that the Avignon trial will draw attention to the use of drugs to prey on women, and also shed light on the wide profile of predators. “They could be your neighbors, without falling into paranoia,” she said.

Mr. Pelicot seemed like a classic man next door. He was a trained electrician, an entrepreneur and an avid cyclist. His middle child and only daughter, Caroline Darian, her pen name, described him as a warm and present father in a book published in 2022 about the case, “And I Stopped Calling You Papa.” She tried to turn her family trauma into action, forming a nonprofit association, “Don’t Put Me to Sleep,” to publicize the dangers of drug-facilitated crimes.

Her father, she wrote, was the one who drove her to school, picked her up late from parties, encouraged her and consoled her. Her mother was the stable breadwinner, working as a manager in a Paris-area company for 20 years.

When she retired, they moved to a house with a big garden and pool in Mazan, a small town northeast of Avignon. The couple regularly hosted their three children and grandchildren for summer vacations peppered with late dinners on the terrace, where the family debated, held dance competitions and played Trivial Pursuit.

“I think of us as happy,” his daughter wrote. “I thought my parents were.”

None of them harbored any suspicions. Then, in 2020, three women reported Mr. Pelicot to the police for trying to use his camera to film up their skirts in a grocery store, and he was arrested.

The police seized his two cellphones, two cameras and his electronic devices, including his laptop, before releasing him on bail.

On the devices, the police say they found 300 photographs and a video of an unconscious woman being sexually assaulted by many people. They said they also found Skype messages in which the man boasted of drugging his wife and invited men to join him in having sex with her while she was unconscious.

Over the course of their investigation, the police found more than 20,000 videos and photographs, many of them dated and labeled, in an electronic folder titled “abuse.” The timeline they built began in 2011. The list of suspects grew to 83.

Two months after his initial arrest, Mr. Pelicot was arrested again and charged with aggravated rape, drugging and a list of sexual abuse charges. He is also accused of violating the privacy of his wife, daughter and two daughters-in-law on suspicion of illegally recording, and at times distributing, intimate photos of them.

If he is found guilty, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

During interviews with the police, the details of which were included in an overview of the case by the investigative judge, Mr. Pelicot said he began drugging his wife so he could do things to her, and dress her in things, that she normally refused. Then he started inviting others to participate. He said he never asked for or accepted money.

He met most of the men, the investigating judge’s report stated, in a chat room on a notorious, unmoderated French website implicated in more than 23,000 police cases in France alone from 2021 to 2024. It was finally shut down, and its owner arrested, in June after an 18-month investigation stretching across Europe.

The chat room where most of the men met Mr. Pelicot was called “a son insu,” which means “without their knowledge.”

Over the years, Mr. Pelicot told the police, he developed rules for the visitors to ensure that his wife did not wake: no smoking or cologne; undress in the kitchen; warm hands under hot water or on a radiator, so their cold touch would not jolt her. At the end of each night, according to the investigating judge’s report, he cleaned his wife’s body.

Of the 83 suspects, the police identified and charged 50.

Only one of the men is not charged with rape, assault or attempted rape of Mr. Pelicot’s wife. Instead, that man is accused of following the same model, and drugging his own wife to rape her. Mr. Pelicot is also charged with raping the man’s wife while she was drugged.

Five of the men also face charges for possessing child sexual abuse imagery.

Mr. Pelicot is also being investigated in the rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in 1991 and the attempted rape of a 19-year-old in 1999. He admitted to the attempted rape, according to Florence Rault, the lawyer representing the victims in both cases, but denies any involvement in the 1991 homicide.

The story has prompted some soul-searching among doctors, since Mr. Pelicot’s wife had visited gynecologists and neurologists over a series of mystifying symptoms, but had received no diagnosis, according to her daughter.

“What I found disturbing for us doctors was that no doctor considered this hypothesis,” said Dr. Ghada Hatem-Gantzer, a well known obstetrician-gynecologist and expert in violence against women. She and a pharmacist, Leila Chaouachi, have now developed training for doctors and nurses on the symptoms that victims of drug-facilitated assault can experience.

Contrary to popular belief, most cases occur at home, not at bars, said Ms. Chaouachi, who runs annual surveys on such offenses in France. Most victims are women, the surveys show, and around half of the victims do not remember the attack, because of blackouts, she said.

In the case going to court in Avignon, some of the accused admitted guilt to the police. According to the investigating judge’s report, many claimed that they were tricked into having sex with a drugged woman — lured by a husband for a three-way encounter and told she was pretending to sleep, because she was shy.

Several said they believed that she had consented to being drugged and raped as part of a sex fantasy. Some said they did not believe it was rape, because her husband was there and they believed he could consent for both of them.

“It sends shivers down the spine regarding the state of affairs in French society,” said Mr. Camus, who is also representing Ms. Darian and many other members of the family. “If that’s the conception of consent in sexual matters in 2024, then we have a lot, a lot, a lot of work to do.”

(archive)

[visit-new-york]

What recreational activities are available for visitors in Brooklyn Bridge Park?

Brooklyn Bridge Park stands as a testament to urban revitalization, transforming an industrial waterfront into a vibrant green space that attracts locals and tourists alike. Nestled along the East River, this 85-acre park offers breathtaking views of the Manhattan skyline, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Statue of Liberty. Beyond its scenic beauty, Brooklyn Bridge Park provides a plethora of recreational activities for visitors seeking an immersive and enjoyable experience.

Cycling and Rollerblading:

A network of dedicated bike paths and scenic routes makes Brooklyn Bridge Park a haven for cyclists and rollerbladers. With the gentle breeze from the river and stunning vistas, exploring the park on wheels is a favorite among locals. Visitors can bring their own bikes or rent from the park's various rental stations.

Picnicking and Relaxing:

For those seeking a more leisurely experience, the park offers ample green spaces perfect for picnicking and relaxation. Visitors can bask in the sun, enjoy a meal with friends and family, or simply unwind amidst the lush lawns and gardens. Several designated picnic areas equipped with tables and grills enhance the overall experience.

Kayaking and Paddleboarding:

The park's waterfront location makes it an ideal spot for water-based activities. Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse provides free kayaking and paddleboarding sessions during the summer months, allowing visitors to paddle along the East River while taking in iconic views of the Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan.

Basketball and Volleyball Courts:

Sports enthusiasts can engage in friendly matches at the park's basketball and volleyball courts. Whether it's a pickup game with friends or a more organized match, these facilities provide an energetic outlet with the stunning backdrop of the city skyline.

Fishing at Pier 5:

Pier 5 features a dedicated fishing area, attracting anglers of all skill levels. Fishing is a popular pastime, and the park's location along the river makes it a prime spot to cast a line and enjoy the peacefulness of the waterfront.

Children's Playground:

Families with children can take advantage of the well-designed playgrounds within the park. Featuring modern play structures, water features, and sandboxes, these areas provide a safe and entertaining environment for kids to expend their energy.

Fitness Classes and Events:

Brooklyn Bridge Park frequently hosts fitness classes and events, ranging from yoga sessions with a view to outdoor boot camps. These activities cater to fitness enthusiasts of all levels and offer a unique way to stay active while enjoying the park's scenic surroundings.

Conclusion:

Brooklyn Bridge Park stands as a shining example of urban green spaces that cater to the diverse recreational interests of its visitors. Whether you're an avid cyclist, water sports enthusiast, or someone who simply wants to relax in a picturesque setting, the park has something for everyone. As you explore the various offerings at Brooklyn Bridge Park, you'll discover that it's not just a park; it's a dynamic and engaging destination that invites you to experience the best of outdoor recreation in the heart of Brooklyn.

[socialjusticeinamerica]

Many people don’t seem to realize that Einstein was an ordinary man outside of academia. He was an avid cyclist, had a good sense of humor, and enjoyed socializing at various events.

This was during the Great Depression. It’s been documented that during times of hardship and social turmoil that movie attendance soars. During the Depression and World War II movie attendance set new records.

Films are an opportunity to briefly escape your problems and relax in a world of make-believe. This is why streaming will never kill cinemas. It’s not only an escape but it’s an afternoon or evening out or even a social outing. People will always want to get out of their homes for a bit.

Books printed on paper, cinema, broadcast tv/cable, radio, and even vinyl albums (which are now outselling cd’s for the first time in decades) are all proof that popular media will defy the naysayers and adept to survive. The oligarchs may decide we need something new and try to force it on us but eventually they relent and re-sell us what we’ve always wanted all along.

[publiccollectors]

Horror Decor New Public Collectors publication! Available for $9.00 here. Public Collectors publication #82 is a photo booklet surveying five years of Halloween decoration documentation in Chicago's Avondale neighborhood area. From the back cover:

Every year I watch as my neighbors in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood add gruesome details to their homes for Halloween. Some people are ambitious and assemble constructions that look like they took months to acquire or create, but it’s the smaller and cheaper decorations that I’m particularly drawn to: a severed finger here, a scattering of bones there, with maybe some Caution! tape, or a rubber rat chewing on a foot tossed in for good measure. Simple, strange gestures like these can heighten our attention to other overlooked additions to our built and natural environment, revealing not just someone’s Halloween play, but other details that we mighthave ignored. What else are you seeing and what are you missing?

I shot these photos over the last five years. I have lived in Avondale since 2012, but it has taken me time to feel firmly situated and committed to making creative work about my neighborhood. I like having the time to observe slowly. Being mindful of privacy, I tend to zoom in rather than photograph someone’s entire house. It was hard to choose what to include, as I have enough material for four booklets, but ultimately this is what made the cut.

I invited David Canario to write this booklet’s introduction. David also lives in Avondale. We met a little over two years ago when we found ourselves working to address the same concerns about affordable housing and aggressive development in our ward. David spends a lot of time canvassing for progressive candidates and concerns, and he’s an avid cyclist so he sees a lot when he travels through Avondale. He’s also a horror buff, making him a perfect collaborator for a project like this. 

— Marc Fischer / Public Collectors

[despazito]

Still reeling after the discovery of avid helmet denier cyclists

[maryverrandeaux]

Mary Verrandeaux - A Highly Skilled Fine Artist | Anobii

Mary Verrandeaux is a Fine Artist from Inman, SC, she is creating captivating artworks that stir emotions.

[pointandshooter]

Seven Years.

My tumblr blog is seven years old this month. Seven years is a long time in a person’s life and an eternity on social media. The photography community has changed quite a bit here since 2016 . Many photographers have left Tumblr for other platforms with more potential views, worries about work being stolen, censorship, or just the fear of missing out. Others have just moved on from photography or social media in general. I can understand that. It might actually be healthy to reevaluate and change what one is doing in life every seven years. I used to be passionate about music, hoping to make a living playing guitar in my band. And then, for about 14 years I was an avid cyclist, riding over 150 miles every week. Nowadays, I don’t ride my bike anymore, although it would be very beneficial to both my physical and mental health; and I haven’t touched my guitar in several years. I sometimes miss playing and still have dreams at night where I am back on stage with my band. During all of those years I never thought about taking up photography. When I visited art galleries, I never bothered looking at photo exhibits. One day, in the Autumn of 2015, something clicked in my brain, and here I am today - just as passionate about photography as I once was about the guitar and cycling. Maybe in the coming years my interest and passion will change again, but for now I am happy to keep taking photos and post them on Tumblr.

Every year, on this blog’s anniversary, I like to give thanks. 

First, I give thanks to Tumblr for still being here. It is still free, but I pay the subscription fee to give back something, and to avoid the manscaping ads. Tumblr has made some positive changes in the past year and I have seen a few photographers return to the platform. I hope the platform can afford to keep going for a few more years.

I would then like to thank all of my followers, real and bot. For the real followers, I appreciate every like, reblog, tag, and comment. I find it encouraging and it helps lift my spirits. Some of you have been following me for years. I appreciate your endurance. As for the bots - who knows? With the advancements in AI maybe the bots will some day become sentient beings, creating their own AI generated text, images, and memes. 

I want to thank all of the wonderful photographers who share their work here. You are an inspiration. Something I love about Tumblr is the variety of photos I find here and the willingness of photographers to experiment. There doesn’t seem to be the drive to be popular here, and the photos are not as homogenous as might be found on other platforms. 

Praise be and blessed are all of the hard-working curators who tirelessly reblog our photos. You help put our photos on so many dashboards that would not normallly find us. I am also grateful for those curators who find classic and contemporary fine art photos from other sources and post them on their blogs. As I have said in the past, I feel these blogs are providing me with a free education in photography appreciation. My home library expands every month with photo books of photographers that I first discovered on Tumblr.

Lastly, I want to thank my team members on ISU: Nur and Lina, who are also my team members on Lensblr, along with Tom. You have become good friends over the years. Although we have never met, and may not ever, it is good know you. I hope we can continue as team members for a while yet.

I hope everyone has a good creative year, and find stimulating challenges along the way.

Love you all,

David

[kuiperblog]

It's easy for a writer to lose their own "voice"

Recently, I've been thinking about the topic of "voice" in writing, and why it's easy to recognize it when you see it, but it feels almost impossible to "teach" voice.

You can observe this in people who have years of experience writing, who then try a new form for the first time, and they write in a way that seems so utterly unlike their usual voice.

Most commonly, this happens when I have friends who have spent years writing forum posts, blog posts, newsletters, and other forms of nonfiction that have a clear distinctive style, who then attempt to "write a book" for the first time. Oftentimes, they write in a way that is is pleasantly idiosyncratic: maybe it's playfully sardonic, or refreshingly candid, or irreverent yet insightful.

But then, when it comes time to open up the document and start writing chapter 1, page 1, suddenly all of that posting experience goes away and is replaced by a new voice that can be best described as "someone doing their best impression of what they think prestigious writing is supposed to sound like."

(If you're a standup comedy buff, you'll observe a similar phenomenon at some open mic comedy night: there are certain novice comedians who haven't developed their own voice, or just don't feel confident speaking with their own voice. So, you get a lot of first-timers on stage who are clearly delivering copying the style of another comedian: they're not necessarily stealing jokes, but you can clearly tell, "Oh, this guy is doing his best Chris Rock impression," or "that's very clearly a Brian Regan-style delivery.")

In writing, this kind of "putting on airs" can take lots of forms. "Purple prose" is a commonly-named example. Another common failure mode is "thesaurus.txt" (wherein an embryonic wordsmith endeavors to traverse the labyrinthine corridors of the lexicon, brandishing polysyllabic colossi with a zeal that obfuscates rather than enriches their narrative tapestry, leaving the audience ensnared in a quagmire of lexical opulence.)

A more common and representative failure mode looks something like this:

His eyes sparkled with a luminosity that seemed to illuminate the very essence of his soul, a beacon of hope in the shadowy dusk of uncertainty.

I could pick this sentence apart and name specific issues with it. For example, there's some redundancy: "sparkled" and "luminosity" are both words that are gesturing at the same thing, so we're kind of belaboring the point about his eyes.

I might also point to the fact that there's more metaphor than actual concrete language here. In fact, we only get three words of actual physical description -- "His eyes sparkled" -- before we begin pondering "the very essence of his soul" and other abstractions. It's kind of unfair to pick this apart in isolation, because it's fine to have sentences like this occasionally, but this kind of melodramatic navel-gazing needs to exist in the context of a larger passage with enough concrete language to actually anchor it in the story, and some writers seem over-eager to leap right into excessive introspection.

There's also the fact that the sentence ends with an appositive phrase that is 10 words long: "...a beacon of hope in the shadowy dusk of uncertainty." This is weird in two ways: first, the appositive is long, and secondly, appositives usually go in the middle of sentences, rather than at the end. (For an example of a short appositive used mid-sentence: "My brother, an avid cyclist, participates in races every weekend.")

Also, it's grammatically unclear what the appositive phrase at the end is even referring to:

His eyes sparkled with a luminosity that seemed to illuminate the very essence of his soul, a beacon of hope in the shadowy dusk of uncertainty.

What specific noun is being described as "a beacon of hope in the shadowy dusk of uncertainty?" Is this phrase referring to his soul? His eyes? The luminosity in his eyes? Even though I get the general gist of what this flowery language is gesturing at, it's not precisely clear what this sentence actually means.

I could probably go on, picking apart that sentence to describe all of the ways in which it's "flawed," but I don't think this finely-tuned dissection is really necessary, because I think people instinctively understand what's wrong with it, even if they couldn't fully articulate it. In my eyes, all of these issues boil down to the same thing: it comes across like a sentence written by someone who is trying too hard.

That issue of "trying too hard" extends to a large swath of critique leveled at this sort of amateur writing mistakes, including purple prose, forced poeticism, and text that is overloaded with metaphors.

I want to be clear about one thing: Avoiding these problems isn't a matter of creating a list of "things not to do." In fact, I've developed a bit of an aversion to any piece of writing advice that begins with the word "DON'T" or "AVOID." Writing well isn't just a matter of "avoiding flaws." This isn't a school assignment where you're trying to minimize the amount of red ink the teacher leaves on your paper.

As an aside: that mindset is a bit at odds with a lot of the ecosystem of "online writing advice," because some of the most widely-circulated writing advice tends to be things like "top 10 mistakes new writers make." You can observe this on YouTube: even on channels that cover a mixture of "negatively framed advice" and "positively-framed advice," sort their videos by "most popular," and you'll find that the negative framing tends to be the more popular format by far:

To be clear, Jed Herne (pictured above) does plenty of stuff that is framed positively! He has plenty of videos that aren't themed around "things you should avoid doing." However, when you sort his videos by "most popular," you notice that the thing viewers seem to have the biggest appetite for is the video that promises to show them all of the potential failure modes that they can stumble into as a new writer.

I understand how this type of "writing advice" can be addictive. Part of why these sorts of videos are so popular is that they encourage a consumptive mindset that leads to higher "engagement" and "watchtime" and all of the metrics that the YouTube algorithm is designed to reward: YouTube wants you to stay on YouTube so you can keep watching ads; YouTube does not want you to close the app and start writing. And in looking at the most popular videos from "writing advice" channels on YouTube, we see an emergent phenomenon that reveals which videos are best at keeping viewers stuck in a consumptive watch loop: "6 worldbuilding mistakes every new writer makes." "First chapter mistakes new writers make."

This format is great at making you feel justified in your consumptive behavior: "Well, I can't just start writing -- I need to learn all about all the classic 'new writer mistakes' first!" But I think this is ultimately counterproductive for new writers. Not just because it encourages "content consumption" over the act of writing, though that is of course a problem. But, perhaps worse than that: even when writers do finally decide to write, they do so with a sense of dread and anxiety. They're aware of all of the various ways that their writing could fail, and they're deathly afraid of falling into one of those "new writer traps" that the top 10 list helpfully informed them of. So, rather than just sit down and write, they agonize over the opening sentence. They can't "just write," because they don't want to stumble and embarrass themselves. And I think that this place of insecurity is actually what causes people to write in a way that feels like it is "trying too hard."

If you want to write fancy prose and use ornate metaphors because that's what you're comfortable with, go for it! But all too often, I think that these are downstream of new writers' insecurity with their natural writing voice. They sit down, think of a sentence, and think, "Oh, I can't write that. It's too plain. Too boring. Too normal." And that's when they reach for the thesaurus, or whip out the mixed metaphor, or add a 10-word appositive to the end of the sentence, because somehow they feel that their natural voice isn't "good enough" for the book they are writing.

The irony is that a lot of people stray away from their own natural voice because they're afraid that something that sounds like their everyday speech will sound "too generic." And so, in the quest to avoid "sounding generic," they abandon their own unique voice, and instead write their best impression of what they think a prestigious-sounding writer is supposed to sound like. They start trying too hard, and that is how they end up with cliche-sounding sentences like "His eyes sparkled with a luminosity that seemed to illuminate the very essence of his soul, a beacon of hope in the shadowy dusk of uncertainty."

Assessing the uniqueness of your own voice is one place where you cannot trust your own judgment: your natural voice might sound "generic" or "normal" to you, because you live with it every day. But your voice is unique in ways that are completely invisible to you, that will nonetheless shine through if you just get out of your own way.

More than anything, I'd really like to disabuse young writers of this fear of writing something that sounds too "normal," as if the sort of writing that feels natural to you is going to appear "generic" or otherwise "not good enough."

To be clear, it's fine to experiment! Certain voices work better for different characters and styles of narration. Maybe you have written enough to realize that your most 'natural voice' doesn't work for the story you're telling, and you need to make several attempts at exploring different styles before you find one that really "clicks" with you. Every time I try writing a different viewpoint, or write a plot that is paced differently, my voice often shifts, and there's a bit of time as I work out the best way to write a story that is faster-paced and less contemplative, or a story from the perspective of a younger and more naive character. I am always trying new things to see if maybe there's a better way than my current "default."

But, before you begin, maybe it's worthwhile to ask yourself: is the voice that you've spent your entire life thinking and speaking in suitable for the story you're writing? Before you begin writing that sci-fi novel by doing your best impression of some other sci-fi writer, or writing the way that you think fantasy narration is "supposed" to sound, consider that perhaps your existing voice is already "good enough." You won't know until you try.

[athletearrhythmia]

How much bigger is my heart?

The left images are from a man approximately my age and height, healthy but non-athlete. Mine are on the right, avid cyclist and amateur bodybuilder.

[princeofcyberpunk]

random scout characters ive collected as my personal favorite group of guys

Imoto Sayumi

there is not a THING going on up there except that hairbow

Fukukawa Yoko

we need more goth characters in this franchise that arent overtly "scary" or "halloween" themed. anyway apparently she hates wasting money so i automatically relate hell yeah frugal queen

Hoshihara Tsugumi

APARENTLY SHE RUNS AWAY IF BOYS SAY THEY LIKE HER?? LMAO?? her dismayed expression is really everything to me

Fujieda Nunoka

girl i am begging you to get brown contacts

Matsutani Kazuho

apparently she wants to be a model but is worried about her appearance. alright thats another for the 'make them kaede's friend because they have no real lore and a tangential relation to fashion' pile

Yashiro Momoko

she feeds the stray cats in her neighborhood how could i not love her

Kurashima Mao

i am resisting the urge to make a "bLuE hAiReD wOkE fEmiNiSt" joke so hard rn anyways shes completely correct i can attest i am an urchin im very spiky

Shirasagi Akesumi

all it says is that he's self-conscious about his apperence and while im inclined to say that makes him endearing the evil within me is saying "well yeah with a dumbass asymmetrical haircut like that you better be"

Chidori Yaena

im gonna be so real i genuinely thought that she was a frog for a second anyway we need more inazuma eleven characters with bows on them

Rinnouji Raigo

ok putting aside the fact that this man is a cyclist HIS DUB NAME IS AVID PEDDLER. his parents must fucking HATE HIM

Takama Ai

im gonna be real i only like her because her design is scary what is WRONG with her

Kazamatsuri Sou

he looks like those times in the Yo-Kai Watch canon where the Yo-Kai use those leaves to appear as humans. but like. if Ventoct did that

Hiraraki Raina

she aparently loves american tv and orders DVDs from there of said shows. i am afraid of which ones she's referring to because last time i checked the only good thing on TV we export is cartoons

Reizei Rikihito

his hair is cute and his name is fun to say what more could i ask for

Aragaki Rekkuu

he looks like he'd be rivals with the previous guy and also kinda like he fell out of beyblade

and finally Shima Naemi

SHE WANTS TO BE A DETECTIVE AND LOOKS LIKE SHES ABOUT TO CRY I LOVE HER we need to have a whole game about this girl stat

[dystini]

Indycar Driver Lore

Indycar Driver Lore Masterlist

Marcus John Armstrong

Birthdate: July 29, 2000 Hometown: Christchurch, New Zealand Residence: London, UK/Indianapolis, indiana Height/Weight: 5’9”/130lbs

Rookie Year: 2023

Team: Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR)

Follow him on: Instagram Twitter

Career Stats

2023: Chip Ganassi Racing #11 (road and street courses only)

The Side Pod (with Callum Ilott) on You Tube Screaming Meals (with Clement Novalak and James Harvey Blair) on You Tube Screaming Meals on Twitch Screaming Meals on Instagram

Past Racing

2017: Italian Formula 4 - 1st overall ADAC Formula 4 - 2nd overall Toyota Racing Series - 4th overall

2018: FIA Formula 3 European Championship - Prema Theodore Racing -5th Overall Toyota Racing Series - 3rd overall

2019: FIA Formula 3 - Prema Racing - 2nd Overall Toyota Racing Series - 2nd overall

2020: FIA Formula 2 - ART Grand Prix - 13th overall

2021: FIA Formula 2 - DAMS - 13th overall

2022: FIA Formula 2 - Hitech Grand Prix - 13th overall

His father owns Armstrong's, a major car dealership chain in NZ

Has two older half-brothers, a younger sister, and a younger brother

Started karting in NZ at 10 years old, winning multiple national titles

Member of the Ferrari Driver Academy from 2017 - 2021

Finished second in the 2019 Formula 3 championship standings driving for Prema

Multiple race winner and podium sitter in Formula 2

Was Lundgaard's teammate in F2 in 2020

Pescatarian (and very vocal about it)

Drinks a lot of espresso

Has a video podcast called Screaming Meals co-hosted with his childhood friend James and F2 driver Clement Novalak, with an offshoot called The Sidepod that he hosts with Callum Ilott

Lived with Callum in Italy when they were both Ferrari Driver Academy members

Speaks Italian, but will only do so after a few drinks

Hobbies are going to the gym, listening to podcasts, going to restaurants, and watching American football

Used to be an avid cyclist, but gave it up due to it keeping his weight too low and causing problems with his ability to handle the car

Has a serious issue placing bets with his friends, to the extent that he had to pay to take fellow F2 driver Jehan Daruvala on vacation because he owed him so much money from lost bets

Scott Dixon was his childhood hero, and Kimi Räikkönen was his favorite F1 driver as a kid

Hates video games

Doesn’t like animals, but loves children

Iconic/memorable moments Indycar: Marcus Armstrong At IndyCar Spring Training New Indy Car Driver Marcus Armstrong about the Grand Prix of St Pete OVER THE WALL // ACURA GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH Marcus Armstrong Long Beach Preview Marcus Armstrong Post Qualifications Marcus Armstrong rocked up to Turn 1 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to see what 235mph looks like… Callum and Marcus chat during pre-season testing:

F2 and earlier: F2 Speed Date: Marcus Armstrong The Wet Head Challenge HOW TO BECOME A FERRARI DRIVER, A CONVERSATION WITH MARCUS ARMSTRONG F2 DRIVER | Sector 1 Marcus Armstrong Interview | Sky Speed Marcus Armstrong: All the way from New Zealand Keeping it cool at Prema “Michael Shakespeare”: Bullying from Callum and James: Marcus wins “best late lunge” award from F2: Marcus Armstrong Once Said…: Marcus absolutely annoying the shit out of Arthur Leclerc during a virtual GP: F2 Speed Date (2020): Marcus sings “Rocket Man”: Marcus attempting to be sweet with Callum, who is absolutely not having it:

Doing fast laps around Goodwood in his dad’s car: 16-year-old Marcus talks about leaving home to move to Europe alone: Clem Novalak loves Marcus: He likes pineapple on pizza: Interesting content:

Marcus is a self-proclaimed "lover not a fighter". He's known to be very friendly and approachable, with a significant portion of the Formula 2 grid mentioning that he was the driver they got on with best in the paddock during his time there. His results in F2 were mixed, moving teams in 3 successive years, as he sometimes had difficulty getting to grips with the F2 car and tyres, however it’s generally agreed that his midfield championship positions during his F2 tenure aren’t an accurate reflection of his genuine ability and talent. Multiple Ganassi team members (including the boss) have commented on how impressed they are by his raw speed, work ethic, and attitude since his arrival in IndyCar. Marcus himself has already talked about how much more enjoyable the Indy car is to drive and how much fun he’s having now after several years of struggling with the notoriously difficult F2 car. He also appears to be getting on well with his CGR teammates and in particular has talked about how much he likes Marcus Ericsson.

He moved to London in early 2022 after spending several years living near Ferrari’s HQ in Maranello, Italy, and is known to enjoy city nightlife, being a big fan of wine. He’s a major foodie who likes taking photos of good food almost as much as he enjoys complaining about bad food. He is known to be determined to the point of stubbornness, causing himself permanent damage to his knee during a half-marathon due to refusing to stop when he was in pain. He had a low attendance record at school due to focusing on his racing career and moving to Europe at the age of 14, and as such, although he’s not unintelligent he’s known to be somewhat lacking in general knowledge (such as thinking Shakespeare’s first name was Michael). However, he has the characteristically Kiwi dry, sarcastic sense of humor and very much enjoys mutual teasing and banter with his close friends, something that’s often on display in the Screaming Meals podcasts.

Fanfic Lore

Usually paired with Callum Ilott, or F2 driver Clement Novalak due to their extremely close and physically affectionate friendship - was Clem’s teammate during their karting days, and has said that they talk every day while he’s in the US Likes to tease Callum and wind him up to his face, but often calls him his best mate and praises him when he’s not around. However Callum rarely (if ever) reciprocates the latter, probably due to his intense Britishness Good friends with multiple drivers from various series, including Juan Manuel Correa, Jüri Vips, Guanyu Zhou, Nick Cassidy, Max Fewtrell and Felipe Drugovich Also has a tendency to “adopt” younger drivers and refer to them as “little bro”, including Jak Crawford and Dino Beganovic Has said on several occasions that he doesn’t wear underwear, and also shaves his legs (and possibly elsewhere, having claimed that he is “hairless from the eyebrows down”) Claims he can’t tell the difference between someone being nice to him and someone flirting with him

credit for most of this post to @whitewindhowl and friends

[power-chords]

Random post-COVID update: I got infected for the third time right before Thanksgiving and first tested positive 11/22/2022. I was testing consistently negative after a round of Paxlovid + Paxlovid “rebound” by 12/3/2022. I had an episode of post-exertional malaise and joint pain that following weekend which was triggered by going for drinks with friends on a Friday night and then sprinting close to a mile from the Garment District to catch a train at Grand Central. These are common symptoms of PASC (Long COVID) and I was totally flattened and very grateful it was a weekend because I would have been totally nonfunctional at work. My Adderall dose did nothing. All I could do was lie down and watch TV and sleep.

By that Monday I was OK, so I resumed commuting to work. I spoke to a friend of mine who had Long COVID for about eight weeks after his first acute infection and it was bad enough that his doctor didn’t even want him to fly — his symptoms were primarily respiratory. He’s an avid cyclist and in good physical shape. He saw a LC specialist who advised him that most people return to “normal” levels of physical exercise much too soon after acute COVID recovery and that appears to be a major trigger. The major takeaway is that you need 8-10 weeks of strict avoidance of “real” exercise, anything that isn’t walking around, housework, lifting stuff here and there, and ascending short flights of stairs. She sees a lot of LC in people who are young and were otherwise healthy and physically very active, which she doesn’t think is a coincidence. These people are getting sick, returning to hiking and cycling and running as soon as they feel better, and then wham, they get hit with classic LC symptoms. My friend was prescribed several weeks of sustained bed rest which fortunately he could take due to his job, and he made a full recovery from LC. He’s since resumed cycling and has gradually and carefully built himself back up to more or less where he was prior to infection.

So since my own infection and that bout with PEM and Joint Hurty, I have avoided booze (which is an inflammatory) and taken that advice and I have not done anything to get myself seriously sweating and pumping blood and catching my breath. I have also tried to keep my sleeping and eating schedules regular, with less success (lol). I am going to keep it up through the end of January, and per the advice of LC forums and subreddits I have also been supplementing with antihistamines at night and low dose Aspirin and getting plenty of hydration + electrolytes (mostly drinking Gatorade). It is now 1/8/2023 and I have not had any further flares of intense fatigue or joint pain. My experience is purely anecdotal and I can’t confidently say it will work for everybody, but it has definitely been working for me, so I thought I’d put it out there. Just because you feel you are recovered from COVID does not mean you’re out of the woods for Long COVID — do yourself a favor and be extraordinarily gentle with yourself as long as you possibly can.