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creepingsharia · 13 years

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Must Read: “They Thought They Were Free”

…But Then It Was Too Late.

If you read nothing else this weekend read this excerpt in its entirety. It could easily apply to The Americans, 2001 – 201?. (some bold font added)

Originally posted on Creeping Sharia - December 17, 2011

Excerpted from:

They Thought They Were Free

The Germans, 1933-45

Milton Mayer

But Then It Was Too Late

“What no one seemed to notice,” said a colleague of mine, a philologist, “was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know, it doesn’t make people close to their government to be told that this is a people’s government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing, to do with knowing one is governing.

“What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

“This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.

“You will understand me when I say that my Middle High German was my life. It was all I cared about. I was a scholar, a specialist. Then, suddenly, I was plunged into all the new activity, as the university was drawn into the new situation; meetings, conferences, interviews, ceremonies, and, above all, papers to be filled out, reports, bibliographies, lists, questionnaires. And on top of that were the demands in the community, the things in which one had to, was ‘expected to’ participate that had not been there or had not been important before. It was all rigmarole, of course, but it consumed all one’s energies, coming on top of the work one really wanted to do. You can see how easy it was, then, not to think about fundamental things. One had no time.”

“Those,” I said, “are the words of my friend the baker. ‘One had no time to think. There was so much going on.’”

“Your friend the baker was right,” said my colleague. “The dictatorship, and the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting. It provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway. I do not speak of your ‘little men,’ your baker and so on; I speak of my colleagues and myself, learned men, mind you. Most of us did not want to think about fundamental things and never had. There was no need to. Nazism gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about—we were decent people—and kept us so busy with continuous changes and ‘crises’ and so fascinated, yes, fascinated, by the machinations of the ‘national enemies,’ without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. Unconsciously, I suppose, we were grateful. Who wants to think?

“To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it—please try to believe me—unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted,’ that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these ‘little measures’ that no ‘patriotic German’ could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.

“How is this to be avoided, among ordinary men, even highly educated ordinary men? Frankly, I do not know. I do not see, even now. Many, many times since it all happened I have pondered that pair of great maxims, Principiis obsta and Finem respice—‘Resist the beginnings’ and ‘Consider the end.’ But one must foresee the end in order to resist, or even see, the beginnings. One must foresee the end clearly and certainly and how is this to be done, by ordinary men or even by extraordinary men? Things might have. And everyone counts on that might.

“Your ‘little men,’ your Nazi friends, were not against National Socialism in principle. Men like me, who were, are the greater offenders, not because we knew better (that would be too much to say) but because we sensed better. Pastor Niemöller spoke for the thousands and thousands of men like me when he spoke (too modestly of himself) and said that, when the Nazis attacked the Communists, he was a little uneasy, but, after all, he was not a Communist, and so he did nothing; and then they attacked the Socialists, and he was a little uneasier, but, still, he was not a Socialist, and he did nothing; and then the schools, the press, the Jews, and so on, and he was always uneasier, but still he did nothing. And then they attacked the Church, and he was a Churchman, and he did something—but then it was too late.”

“Yes,” I said.

“You see,” my colleague went on, “one doesn’t see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even talk, alone; you don’t want to ‘go out of your way to make trouble.’ Why not?—Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty.

“Uncertainty is a very important factor, and, instead of decreasing as time goes on, it grows. Outside, in the streets, in the general community, ‘everyone’ is happy. One hears no protest, and certainly sees none. You know, in France or Italy there would be slogans against the government painted on walls and fences; in Germany, outside the great cities, perhaps, there is not even this. In the university community, in your own community, you speak privately to your colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they say? They say, ‘It’s not so bad’ or ‘You’re seeing things’ or ‘You’re an alarmist.’

“And you are an alarmist. You are saying that this must lead to this, and you can’t prove it. These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you know for sure when you don’t know the end, and how do you know, or even surmise, the end? On the one hand, your enemies, the law, the regime, the Party, intimidate you. On the other, your colleagues pooh-pooh you as pessimistic or even neurotic. You are left with your close friends, who are, naturally, people who have always thought as you have.

“But your friends are fewer now. Some have drifted off somewhere or submerged themselves in their work. You no longer see as many as you did at meetings or gatherings. Informal groups become smaller; attendance drops off in little organizations, and the organizations themselves wither. Now, in small gatherings of your oldest friends, you feel that you are talking to yourselves, that you are isolated from the reality of things. This weakens your confidence still further and serves as a further deterrent to—to what? It is clearer all the time that, if you are going to do anything, you must make an occasion to do it, and then you are obviously a troublemaker. So you wait, and you wait.

“But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked—if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in ’43 had come immediately after the ‘German Firm’ stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in ’33. But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D.

“And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying ‘Jewish swine,’ collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in—your nation, your people—is not the world you were born in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God. The system itself could not have intended this in the beginning, but in order to sustain itself it was compelled to go all the way.

“You have gone almost all the way yourself. Life is a continuing process, a flow, not a succession of acts and events at all. It has flowed to a new level, carrying you with it, without any effort on your part. On this new level you live, you have been living more comfortably every day, with new morals, new principles. You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things that your father, even in Germany, could not have imagined.

“Suddenly it all comes down, all at once. You see what you are, what you have done, or, more accurately, what you haven’t done (for that was all that was required of most of us: that we do nothing). You remember those early meetings of your department in the university when, if one had stood, others would have stood, perhaps, but no one stood. A small matter, a matter of hiring this man or that, and you hired this one rather than that. You remember everything now, and your heart breaks. Too late. You are compromised beyond repair.

“What then? You must then shoot yourself. A few did. Or ‘adjust’ your principles. Many tried, and some, I suppose, succeeded; not I, however. Or learn to live the rest of your life with your shame. This last is the nearest there is, under the circumstances, to heroism: shame. Many Germans became this poor kind of hero, many more, I think, than the world knows or cares to know.”

I said nothing. I thought of nothing to say.

“I can tell you,” my colleague went on, “of a man in Leipzig, a judge. He was not a Nazi, except nominally, but he certainly wasn’t an anti-Nazi. He was just—a judge. In ’42 or ’43, early ’43, I think it was, a Jew was tried before him in a case involving, but only incidentally, relations with an ‘Aryan’ woman. This was ‘race injury,’ something the Party was especially anxious to punish. In the case at bar, however, the judge had the power to convict the man of a ‘nonracial’ offense and send him to an ordinary prison for a very long term, thus saving him from Party ‘processing’ which would have meant concentration camp or, more probably, deportation and death. But the man was innocent of the ‘nonracial’ charge, in the judge’s opinion, and so, as an honorable judge, he acquitted him. Of course, the Party seized the Jew as soon as he left the courtroom.”

“And the judge?”

“Yes, the judge. He could not get the case off his conscience—a case, mind you, in which he had acquitted an innocent man. He thought that he should have convicted him and saved him from the Party, but how could he have convicted an innocent man? The thing preyed on him more and more, and he had to talk about it, first to his family, then to his friends, and then to acquaintances. (That’s how I heard about it.) After the ’44 Putsch they arrested him. After that, I don’t know.”

I said nothing.

“Once the war began,” my colleague continued, “resistance, protest, criticism, complaint, all carried with them a multiplied likelihood of the greatest punishment. Mere lack of enthusiasm, or failure to show it in public, was ‘defeatism.’ You assumed that there were lists of those who would be ‘dealt with’ later, after the victory. Goebbels was very clever here, too. He continually promised a ‘victory orgy’ to ‘take care of’ those who thought that their ‘treasonable attitude’ had escaped notice. And he meant it; that was not just propaganda. And that was enough to put an end to all uncertainty.

“Once the war began, the government could do anything ‘necessary’ to win it; so it was with the ‘final solution of the Jewish problem,’ which the Nazis always talked about but never dared undertake, not even the Nazis, until war and its ‘necessities’ gave them the knowledge that they could get away with it. The people abroad who thought that war against Hitler would help the Jews were wrong. And the people in Germany who, once the war had begun, still thought of complaining, protesting, resisting, were betting on Germany’s losing the war. It was a long bet. Not many made it.”

Copyright notice: Excerpt from pages 166-73 of They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 by Milton Mayer, published by the University of Chicago Press. ©1955, 1966 by the University of Chicago. All rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that this entire notice, including copyright information, is carried and provided that the University of Chicago Press is notified and no fee is charged for access. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the University of Chicago Press. (Footnotes and other references included in the book may have been removed from this online version of the text.)

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problemstarchild · 4 years

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honestly i wish they did more with the fact that miranda lawson is clearly an accomplished... necromancer, i guess. biochemist? idk what you would even call what she does. i know that mordin’s supposed to fill the organic science slot on your team since you meet him fixing a plague and he gives you the sex talk and a vaccine against evil bees or whatever. but mass effect has a tendency to focus way too hard on computer tech and hacking as like, the only way to be smart.

doesn’t help that self-sustaining hydroponics should probably be the main form of agricultural infrastructure on new colonies by now, but they keep dressing colonists in those butt-ugly canvas overalls to make them look... lower class, i guess? poor? agricultural workers have always had to know a lot about science, whether they know specifically that chicken shit is loaded with nitrogen or just the trial and error of using different fertilizers, you know? they’ve always been doing science, even if it’s not always in a lab. and i’d assume that SPACE FARMERS would have some kind of educational background in agriculture, if they’re taking the risk of going to space.

it would have been nice if that also felt like it was represented with dignity, as a science. and a lot of the dignity in those games comes from the presentation of the character, or the clothes they slap on them and the dialogue. did we ever talk to farmers in the original trilogy? i honestly have no clue. there were people i thought were supposed to be farmers, but i think they were just dock workers, now that i think about it. god. i just really hate those overalls. the fact that they put them on kelly chambers in me3 after also mangling her face import and taking away her hairstyle was literally a crime

wait wait actually yes! juliana baynham should count as a crop scientist depicted as a crop scientist. she worked in the growth labs on feros. (i’m going to say lizbeth doesn’t count because she was studying the thorian, which is a sapient plant, and not... agriculture. agriculture presumes she created something through her work.)

the other colonists IIRC either wore that overall thing or like... a male version of the overalls, that has a shirt under it or something? and they have the weird sleeves and bare shoulders... i don’t know it just steams me up SO bad that they have such a complicated fucked up costume piece that’s not even practical or protective! bro just wear a shirt and jeans! i’m literally angry! like i get that they’re doing the actual hard work of fixing generators and whatever so they’re not going to be wearing lab coats like the exogeni scientists. but why do they have to look terrible while they’re doing it.

zhus hope colonists are literally wearing overalls with like. arm tubes and a choker. you can’t tell me that a cotton turtleneck with space jeans wouldn’t have served the same purpose of covering up the joint between the head and the body (which was a graphical issue in the games, which is why every piece of clothing has some kind of choker, necklace, or a high neck) and also getting across the fact that this person lives a more down-to-(insert planet here) lifestyle than the people wearing Space Lab Coats on the same planets.

#this is multiple hills i'm dying on but jesus christ #after i take this exam i might actually just bang out some ideas for early colonial development fashion #bc the overalls SERIOUSLY BUG ME

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todisturbtheuniverse · 4 years

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FIC: Set All Trappings Aside [3/8]

Rating: T Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition Pairing: f!Adaar/Josephine Montilyet Tags: Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, Class Differences Word Count: 3800 (this chapter) Summary: After months of flirtation, a contract on Josephine’s life brings Adaar’s feelings for her closer to the surface than ever. It highlights, too, all of their differences, all of the reasons a relationship between them would not last. But Adaar is a hopeful woman at heart; if Josephine can set all trappings aside, then so can she. Also on AO3. Notes: While the context for this story is the Of Somewhat Fallen Fortune questline, some of the conversations within it didn’t quite fit for this Inquisitor. The resulting fic is a twist on the canon romance. This Adaar and Josephine have featured in other fics, so you may miss a little context if you haven’t read Promising or Truth-Telling, which both come before this one.

Chapter 1 | 2

"Inquisitor!"

Adaar winced. She'd been aware of someone shadowing her all the way across the keep, up several flights of stairs, but now that shadow had Leliana's voice and seemed a great deal more threatening.

She'd been expecting this ever since the last, incredulous look Leliana had cast at her over Josephine's desk, ever since Josephine had laid out her plan and Adaar had backed it. But Leliana had bided her time. A full week, watching for a moment when no ears would overhear them.

And with an hour until Josephine was set to appear for dinner, there would be no rescue.

Adaar turned. Leliana strode toward her, no thundercloud on her face, no obvious sign of anger. She didn't carry her bow, either, but Adaar was certain she was plenty capable of hiding knives on her person. Poisonous ones, even.

Surely the needs of the Inquisition would still her hand from a killing blow. Surely.

"Nightingale," Adaar replied, and added a respectful nod for good measure, hoping to stave off the worst.

Leliana's jaw tightened. "May I have a word?"

Adaar opened the door to her quarters and gestured her through. She was not about to walk up those stairs with Leliana at her back.

To her credit, at least, Leliana did not make her. She walked ahead, and Adaar followed, shutting the door behind them.

"I was certain, at first, that your support of Josephine's plan was just a ploy," she said, stopping before the empty fireplace. "But now I see that you really do mean to nurse this foolishness along."

Adaar's temper flared. She did not like all the waiting and watching and scribbling, but she did not think Josephine's plan foolish. It was elegant, if slow.

But Leliana would probably admit as much, if pressed. She was just worried about her friend. Adaar, who had been worrying nonstop for some time now, could sympathize.

"Yes," Adaar said. "I do. The remaining du Paraquettes have agreed, and she has already found an appropriate sponsor—"

"Her life is more important than her regard for you," Leliana cut across her, turning to face Adaar. "You fear that she will be angry with you if you decide to deal with the House of Repose more directly, but better angry than dead!"

The accusation stung. "Do you really think I didn't already try to talk her out of it? Besides, if anyone has a chance of convincing her, it's you, not—"

"You do not need to talk her out of anything," Leliana snapped. "You are the Inquisitor. You have authority over us all."

"And I choose how to use it," Adaar replied. "She is carefully watched. She is not going to leave Skyhold while this goes on. No one will touch her here. We will make sure of it."

Leliana released an exasperated breath. "This could all be over in a handful of days. We do not need her permission."

"But you need mine," Adaar said. Dared to say. She hated having to do it. Usually things went best when she didn't remind her advisors that the mercenary Vashoth with pointy daggers had the final say, when she could convince them and every stray noble they trotted in front of her that the ideas all came from them, not her. That they acted of their own free will, not on her orders.

But if she had to do it, so be it.

Leliana's eyes narrowed. "If she dies, it is on your hands."

"I won't let that happen." Adaar took a step closer, the better to loom. Leliana had to crane her neck a little to meet her eyes. "Will you? Everyone swears you know every package, every person, every donkey that wanders in and out of this fortress—or is that just a pretty story?"

For a moment, Adaar thought that Leliana would continue to press; instead, she shook her head and brushed past Adaar, making for the stairs.

"It is the truth," she said. "Remember that the next time you send her some pretty bauble from your travels. My eyes are never shut."

Hard to come up with a retort for that. Leliana was already gone, down the stairs and through the door, before Adaar could come up with even half of one. Briefly, her temper sustained her—breath coming hard, muscles tensed as if to rush after Leliana—but then, legs gone watery, she collapsed to the couch.

Maybe Leliana was right. Maybe this was all much worse than Josephine thought, and Adaar was putting her life at risk. But Leliana would act on her own, if that was the case—and ask forgiveness later, rather than trouble with permission now. No, Josephine had the right of it, and Leliana was merely worried for her friend, just like Adaar.

She'd been looking forward to dinner with Josephine all day—all week, really—but some of the enthusiasm left her now. Leliana clearly saw her interest, and disapproved of it. Another tick in the column against any relationship between them: Josephine's oldest and dearest friend found her lacking.

The flirtation was still fun. Wonderful, even. It had just been more fun, more wonderful, when she hadn't cared whether or not anything came of it.

Then again, maybe she had cared. Maybe she'd thought there was a chance.

Cassandra was right. Partially, at least. She was star-crossed. She just didn't want to be.

Some of Cook's people came along half an hour later to set the table. Adaar stayed out of their way. She did not put her daggers away, not with Leliana's warning still in her ears. She kept them hanging from her chair within easy reach, and if Josephine noticed them as she swept in and took her seat, she didn't comment.

"This is our most popular vintage," she said, lifting the bottle to pour wine into Adaar's glass. "If it can't convince you to leave your hypothetical hermitage, then nothing will."

Adaar laughed, amused despite the dour mood Leliana had delivered to her. "We'll see," she said, teasing. "It's an awfully long trip from the Free Marches."

Josephine gave an indignant scoff. "Antiva is neighboring! You wouldn't even need to cross water, though I suppose taking ship from Wycome might be faster than horseback."

"Ah, but I'll be just a poor farmer, unable to afford passage."

Josephine rolled her eyes. "Try the wine, please."

Adaar sipped. The taste bloomed in her mouth—heady, rich, complex. Far different from the watered-down drinks they served at the Herald's Rest. She didn't have the knowledge to describe it further.

"I suppose I will have to find a way," she sighed, setting the glass down. "It really is very good."

"I am glad that is settled," Josephine said with a smile. "Now, about these demands—my apologies, requests—that piled up while we were away…"

Adaar chuckled, and Josephine smiled a little wider, unfolding the first document. They ate while they worked, Adaar trying to keep her mind on problem after problem as it was passed before her.

But there was another problem distracting her, demanding her attention. Whoever had lived in Skyhold previously hadn't worried much about things like the inherent danger of a room made entirely of windows, and with Leliana's dire words still ringing in her ears, she found herself wishing they'd met in Josephine's office instead.

She'd hardly ever noticed the windows before. It was rare for her to spend more than a handful of minutes awake in this room. Long enough for a brief wash, no more. The inside of her tent felt more familiar to her than this place. It had been decorated very pleasantly, but she'd had no hand in it.

The point being: she slept in this room, but lightly. She was unconcerned with her own self-defense, which the daggers under her pillow could take care of.

But she had never tried to protect anyone else in this room before, and it was a logistical nightmare. So many points of entry. What had the original builder had against nice, sturdy stone walls? A few arrowslits would've sufficed for the view.

"You've hardly touched your wine," Josephine said, the tone of her voice changing just enough for Adaar to take notice. "I am afraid you lied about liking it. To spare my feelings, perhaps?"

Adaar glanced at the glass—yes, still barely a sip gone—and went back to watching the windows.

"It's not that, I'd just rather keep my head clear if we’re going to get through this," she said, gesturing without looking to the piles of letters strewn across the table between them.

"Mmm-hmm." In her peripheral vision, Adaar saw Josephine’s eyes narrow. "So what do you suggest we do about Lord Baloveyer, then?"

Adaar had no idea who Lord Baloveyer was. Probably the topic of Josephine’s talk just a moment before, but Adaar, absorbed by her window observation, remembered none of it.

"I’m sorry," she admitted. "Despite the lack of wine, my attention...wandered. Can you summarize the issue for me?"

Josephine folded her hands over the papers, raising an eyebrow at Adaar. "Assassins are not going to burst through the window if you take your eyes off of it."

"They might," Adaar grumbled, not bothering to protest this observation.

"There are soldiers stationed both in the garden and on the wall. There are even a few at the bottom of the stairs. I know you trust our people."

"You haven’t seen how keen some of them are on supplies. All an assassin has to do is wave some silverite under their noses and they’ll let him right up."

There was a look of concern in Josephine's eyes that didn’t belong there at all. Didn’t she understand that she was the one at risk, and Adaar was merely her insufficient shield for the evening?

And what would happen when even that was gone, when she had to return to her quarters and rely only on the guards for her safety? They were good, Adaar could admit that, but not as good as Adaar. These assassins, if they came, would not play fair.

"Then you'll take care of him," Josephine said, all confidence, "whether you're watching the windows or not."

"I plan to," Adaar said. "I just wish that you would sit in a nice, windowless room while this all gets sorted out."

"There is too much work to be done for me to shut myself away for weeks on end."

"Then we should get back to it." It was clear that Josephine was not going to give up this topic until Adaar relaxed her vigilance a little. Reluctantly, she shifted to sit properly in her chair, her back now to one set of windows. Theoretically, the soldiers in the garden below could deal with that entrance. She’d watch the sheer cliffside instead.

She'd have to be careful not to get distracted by watching Josephine's face, which also happened to be in that direction. Even now, she looked at Adaar, her brow still creased with concern.

"Perhaps we should take the rest of the night off," she suggested.

"Oh? I can prepare the vault for your arrival, if that’s the case."

"No," Josephine said, laughing a little. "I only meant...you have been working very hard. You look as if you could use a break. Just for an evening."

"You have a very nice way of saying I look like shit," Adaar said dryly.

Josephine lifted her chin. "I did not say that."

"Exactly."

Josephine looked pointedly at Adaar's still-full glass of wine, and with a resigned sigh, she picked it up and drank. As good as the first sip had been. Heavy, maybe, was the word for it. Not the right word, but a word. The warmth of it settled in her stomach, loosening her muscles a little.

Well, if Josephine wanted to set work aside, who was Adaar to refuse? Trying to keep track of it all was giving her a headache, anyway.

"My calendar called this a working dinner," she said, a last token protest.

"And since I have free reign over your calendar, as you yourself said, I can strike a word or two from the record." Josephine leaned back in her chair, wine glass in hand. "The work will still be there in the morning."

"Will it ever," Adaar muttered. "Fine, then. I hope you brought more of this very good wine."

Josephine's eyes sparkled. The candlelight brought out the subtler hues in her irises: a stormy gray-blue, a dappled green. Adaar could practically hear Shokrakar's voice in her head, taunting: Working on your poetry, Adaar?

"A few bottles, actually," Josephine said. "Different vintages. I find that you appreciate the expensive ones less after a few glasses."

Adaar's curiosity piqued. "Define expensive for me, here."

Josephine named a sum. Adaar put down her glass immediately.

"I think you should probably open one of those less expensive bottles," she said. She wished she'd set the glass further away. She was not particularly clumsy, but she imagined knocking that glass off the table, the coins that would roll away through the floorboards, lost forever. "This is wasted on me."

"Oh, don't be ridiculous—"

"No, really. Until recently, I was drinking the first watered-down swill we could find every time the Valo-kas came off a job. And it worked just fine. I don't need to guzzle the last of your family's gold."

Josephine gave her an arch look. "We are not that destitute. And even if we were…"

She reached across the table, took Adaar's hand, and molded her fingers back to the stem of the wine glass. The way that all Adaar's insides surged against her ribs at the touch was not helpful.

"You like it," Josephine said, her fingers still curled around Adaar's, holding them in place. "Yes? So it is not wasted on you." She looked up at Adaar, her smile soft, sweet. "Besides, I think you'll find that it works better than just fine. Perhaps it will help you relax."

Josephine released her hand, and Adaar released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. The oxygen that flooded her brain left her a little lightheaded.

"Relaxing used to be a lot easier," she said, but she took another cautious sip of the wine made of gold.

"Ah, so you used to be better at it."

Adaar shot her a dirty look. Josephine smiled innocently back, as if daring her to prove it.

"Every tavern we passed loved the Valo-kas," Adaar said. "We spent all our coin drinking all their ale, and we were nice to the barmaids." She stared into her wine and gave a dramatic, forlorn sigh, as if she longed for those simpler days.

Some part of her did, in fairness. She'd been so much clearer on where she belonged then.

"You sound like one of those gaudy stories Yvette loves," Josephine teased. "The mercenaries were hard as iron, but a serving girl with a listening ear who was quick with the ale would learn they were soft of heart. And other silliness."

"Just a listening ear, hmm?"

"It does seem a euphemism, doesn’t it?" Josephine said, not missing a beat, and gave Adaar a sly look. "Well? Is it?"

Adaar managed a laugh, though she nearly choked on it. Talking to Josephine wasn't like talking to one of the holier-than-thou nobles who passed through Skyhold, who'd handed a job to the Valo-kas as if trying not to brush fingers with them. Despite her family's eminent fortunes, she was still just...Josephine. Clever, sweet, kind, funny Josephine.

If she could be so bold, then Adaar would not hold back.

"Are you asking me if I ever bedded a serving girl?" she asked, putting on her most devilish grin. "Maybe after she listened to one of my very obviously embellished stories and bound up my most recent wounds?"

There was a flash of something on Josephine's face. Heat, maybe? Consternation? Jealousy? Oh, Adaar wished.

"You might consider listening to more of Skyhold's rumormongers," Josephine said. "There are a few people here who claim to have done as much with you."

Adaar, in the middle of a mouthful of wine, nearly spat it out. She swallowed hastily. "Excuse me?"

There was a wicked glint in Josephine’s eye now. Adaar should have known better than to trifle with her. Her humor had been honed by the Grand Game; Adaar felt a sickening swoop in her stomach at the sight of that intent look on her face, the feeling she’d come to associate with falling an inch or a foot or a mile deeper in love.

"Only the gullible believe it, of course," Josephine continued, almost carelessly. "Or visiting nobles who like a bit of a story about our figurehead. There are enough eyes on you to confirm, without question, whether you’ve actually been involved with anyone."

"How reassuring," Adaar muttered, not particularly mollified. "I think I will continue my practice of ignoring rumors, thank you. It will be hard to look Cook in the face if I think she’s daydreaming. Six months ago she wouldn’t even make eye contact with me, and now she puts a little vase of flowers on the tray when she has meals sent up to me. Is that what that’s about?"

Josephine had pressed her hand over her mouth, not quite tight enough to contain the laughter spilling out; there was a gleam of tears in her eyes from the mirth. Adaar shook her head and took a gulp of the wine before remembering how expensive it was; at the look on her face, Josephine laughed all the harder.

The rumors weren't so far off base. If not for the circumstances, she'd have found someone to roll in the hay with by now. Let off a little steam. But even for a casual tryst, it seemed unfair to any takers if Josephine was in her head all night.

"What about you, then," she said, only a little grumpily—for effect. "This is all very base, this talk of unions in seedy taverns. I’m sure you’ve had more elaborate romances. You were in Orlais, after all, with Leliana for a friend."

Josephine’s laughter died off to chuckles; she dabbed at her eyes, careful not to smear any of the kohl that lined them. "With Leliana for a friend, I was lucky to occasionally sneak a kiss behind a tapestry. She can be very protective."

Adaar thought back to an hour before. "I had no idea."

Josephine shrugged, just the smallest motion of her shoulders. "There were overtures. None of it felt...natural. A great deal of poetry recited at length, bouquet after bouquet of flowers. It always felt like another part of the Game rather than any real feeling. I entertained a few, but only briefly. They were flings, nothing more."

"Pity," Adaar said, though she didn't mean it in the slightest.

"Pity?"

"In the same way that Yvette—and you, it seems—found some entertainment in the idea of a lowly merc with a soft side sharing a night with a kind stranger, I’ve always imagined there must be something unbearably romantic about being swept off your feet with all the trappings. Poetry, flowers, beautiful dress, glittering jewelry." She grinned, despite how close this came to highlighting all of their differences. "My parents were farmers, after all."

Josephine shook her head, an amused, somewhat fond smile on her face. "I’m sorry to disappoint you."

"And I, you."

"I don’t think you’ve quite managed that, yet." Josephine folded her arms in a way that—well, Adaar did not stare, she just had good peripheral vision, and the swell of Josephine's breasts in the low neckline of her dress was very nice, indeed. She had a few freckles there, barely discernible.

"Oh?" Adaar said. She sounded passably normal, luckily.

"After all, as you are quite adept at doing, you changed the subject. You managed to thoroughly avoid confirming or denying your activities with the Valo-kas."

"It's just not that interesting."

"I'll be the judge of that."

Adaar shook her head. "There were a few people. Men, women. But none of them ever patched me up, or looked me in the eyes such that they seemed to pierce through to my soul, or anything."

"Flings," Josephine said, understanding.

"Yes, though without the poetry and flowers."

"You are better off, I promise you," Josephine said, shuddering theatrically. "The things they would come up with! One wrote an entire stanza devoted to my eyebrows. Not a skilled writer among them."

"Ah, pity the poor fools. It would be near impossible to capture your beauty with words."

Josephine laughed, dismissing it as a joke, but Adaar saw her cheeks darken, too. Her fingers tightened on her wine glass. Her eyes darted to Adaar's and away again, a little wide, a little flustered.

Yes, good grief, the flirtation was still fun. Nothing compared to how Josephine reacted to a compliment, like she'd never been paid one before.

"You are ridiculous," she said.

Adaar sobered, wondering if she'd misread. "Should I stop?"

Josephine considered, her head tilted just slightly to the side. "I would miss it if you did. Even if the things you say are outrageous."

Just once, Adaar wanted Josephine to understand: it wasn't outrageous, not to her. It was true. The slight golden cast of her skin in the firelight; the sweet curve of her smile; the way she'd looked at Adaar and declared her worthy. Josephine was exceptional. Extraordinary. Capturing that in a few stanzas was not possible.

She was about to say as much, to do her best, when a knock echoed from the bottom of the stairs. "Message for you, Inquisitor!" a scout's voice called.

If she wasn't mistaken, Josephine looked a little disappointed, as if the conversation had been cut too short for her liking, too.

Once Adaar had peeled back the wax seal, though, the easy mood of the evening evaporated, and there was no getting it back. The events described in the letter were too chilling. Another settlement threatened. More lives lost.

"I'll have to set out tomorrow," she said, fingertips tucked tight against her glowing palm.

Josephine closed the gap between them again, curled her fingers around Adaar's fist. "Be careful."

Adaar looked up from the letter. "I hadn't planned to leave while this was still unresolved, but—"

"Herah. There are plenty of guards here. I will follow Leliana's instructions to the letter. You have greater concerns."

It was selfish, but Adaar wanted to retort that she didn't. That Josephine was her greatest concern. That the world would have to get in line.

But that would tip her hand. She couldn't do that, no matter how thin her resolve was wearing, all the thinner after hearing her name on Josephine's tongue, as if it was perfectly at home there.

She would just have to be quick. Fix it, and hurry back, and hope that Skyhold would hold in her absence.

Go to Chapter 4 -->

#josephine montilyet #inquisitor adaar #f!adaar x josephine #f!adaar/josephine #dragon age #inquisition #friends to lovers #mutual pining #developing relationship #class differences #universe writes

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rootsooman · 5 years

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How can we Vegans employ moral relativity when dealing with carnist cultures?

I am a vegan from a trod-on background. I come from people who were herded, bred, farmed, and killed with impunity because (even today) we were and are considered non human animals (beasts of the field). And as carnivores feed on herbivores, likewise us human omnivores ate both plants and animals. The difference here is that, in ancient times, animal life was sacred. So were the lives of trees, yams, forests, rocks, stones and water bodies.

Killing was not taken lightly, and heavy superstitions and tribal law ensured that extinction was not possible. Even when slash and burn techniques were used for farming and planting, the jungles were still thick and the lower population density and the lack of money (we used cowrie shells or traded) meant that massive land destruction was unnecessary because eating and feeding our families was not a corporate enterprise. We had no need to import or export food. We farmed, we gathered, occassionally we hunted. Humans are of course, majority practicing omnivores despite our very frugivorous biology.

Now we are all in the 21st century. Us wild folk and us industrialized folk. And now, thanks to decades of progressive thought, vegans can be found among us all. But a big problem with mainstream vegans and purely animal rights vegans is a tendency to forego moral relativism when dealing with omnivorous/carnist people. This is a grave mistake that not only is ethnocentric, speciesist in itself, ableist, classist and downright wrong, but it further isolates all creatures from the cause of veganism REGARDLESS of how the fate of non human animals is tied in with human animals and the environment. Using arguments like health, aesthetic and the frugivore theory do not help veganism either. A first world, educated, westernized/industrialized person can not begin to understand the complexity of the relationship between peoples and their food and their beliefs if they grew up in a society and world that offered them CHOICES at every turn.

Choices are not something that comes freely and easily to individuals who were moulded and shaped by an environment that has existed for thousands of years longer than veganism. Change has never been a quick or easy process. Evolution of thought may be quicker, but not by much. When approaching populations who sustain themselves on hunting, just imagine how absurd it would be to stop lions from hunting. Lions do not kill for sport. They have been seen in the wild saving the lives of helpless prey animals. Their carnivorism is biological. You may say, well, humans, we have a choice because we are not carnivores. True, but the illusion of a choice is relative to your society and sustainability. Some tracts of land are very dry and NOT abundant in adequate plant foods. Thus, patterns of eating are highly dependent on historical, geographical and cultural eco systems.

Importing corn to a desert could very well cause digestive issues or make indigenous farmers poor. Look what happened in Haiti when Monsanto flooded it with FrankenRice, causing native farmers to lose their entire food security and independence, and how Big Government made the native (tropical adapted) Haitian pig go extinct over a swine flu scare. Now there is HUNGER that is virtually irreversible. This same patronizing attitude is being adopted by vegans: "Why can't they just grow kale and wheat and almonds to make almond milk? We can just send it there! Presto!".

And watch a country starve?

As vegans we have to accept the FACT that the world will not be vegan ANYTIME soon. It is up to us to decrease as much as practically possible, the suffering of our fellow animals (human and non human) and our environments. It is not as simple as forcing people to give up eating meat.

Also consider Food Deserts. When all you have ever been exposed to for generations are cheap, calorie dense packs of Oscar Meyers bologna and other awful scrap cuttings leftover by the privileged, plus, being ridiculed and debased for enjoying fruits like watermelon (cheap, filling, healthy, abundant) there is no way you can safely just go vegan without first reversing years of (psych+phys) damage and relearning everything, yes, everything you know about food. Some populations' relationship to their foods has been damaged beyond recognition and it will take time, patience and understanding to help fix that. We have to wear their shoes to understand how to approach their change. You have to wear our shoes.

You have to put on that skin, and see yourself made out by society to be a monkey, ape or beast for enjoying a f***ing fruit. Imagine having to show up to a job interview and the employer thinking, "I'm supposed to hire and pay a comical creature like this, when I can hire a person to do the job?" All because of decades of damaging imagery. If you can't feel what it's like to wear the pelt, don't discourage anyone from wearing the belt.

The lowest cancer rates in the world are found amongst us "primitives". We also lack the eye, dental + heart issues, high blood pressure and lactose-caused diseases of our Westernized breeds. Our populations in modernity tend to die from DIET based disease rather than environmental ones like malaria. Yes, meat plays a large role in that, but the root cause itself isnt general meat consumption but industrialized meat consumption. Meat was never the largest portion on the plate for "primitive" people. It was the smallest.

While modernization can alleviate some of those problems, we have to understand too that most of these "gifts" from the elite (yes, that includes all 1st world beneficiaries of 1st world perks) come with a catch and are built on centuries of exploitation: human, environmental and non human.

"I'll feed you, clothe you and cure you if you eat like me, talk like me, sh!t like me, sit like me, do this for me, and live like me" and that is NOT the answer. Building American toilets instead of squat toilets? The gift is double edged: better sanitation and, as a bonus? colon cancer. Likewise, veganism in its current mainstream form cannot simply be applied to any given people or place. It has to be bio-suitable and enviro-suitable. Acknowledging unique needs is not politically incorrect, it is necessary. Tarzan is not the answer. Grassroots is.

I am lucky to come from a population that is 90% lactose intolerant. But that doesn't mean going vegan was easy, but I am glad for every single one of the 6 years that I have been and won't be turning back. However, being that I and the cows are one and the same in our plight, I know what it feels like to be so domesticated and severed from my instincts as to be heavily reliant on the elite (which yes, does include you vegans of privilege as much I love you and thank you). For a while, cows were fed other cows. It hurt them but they were hungry and it was what they knew. Likewise, severing reliance on our breeders requires an overhaul of identity that moves away from the corporate (national) to the environmental (natural).

Please approach cultures armed with knowledge AND understanding before proposing Veganism. Transitions can only be relative, and the world will never be 100% vegan. It was pristine before veganism. The culprit is western civilization, not carnism. And we have to reimagine "civilization" (colonial elite corporate hegemony) before we can reimagine carnism.

I'd like to end this piece by saying thank you to all the western vegans who use so much of their time and power to further the vegan cause. Your work is valuable wonderful and is making waves in the push for a safer, more sustainable, more beautiful world. Just remember that being a savior should never be the goal. A savior has a position of power and we do not need any more of those. We need grassroots level change.Meaning, learn from us, do what you can, then move on.

A creature that cannot feed itself is a PET.

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thisguyatthemovies · 5 years

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Down on the farm

Title: “The Biggest Little Farm”

Release date: May 10, 2019

Starring: John Chester, Molly Chester, Alan York

Directed by: John Chester

Run time: 1 hour, 31 minutes

Rated: PG

What it’s about: A documentary about a California couple who decide to start a self-sustaining farm that is in harmony with nature

How I saw it: John and Molly Chester seem to be the idyllic couple for the 20-teens – maybe borderline too much so. He is an Emmy-winning cinematographer, she a chef/foodie and cooking blogger. They have a dog, and they have big ideas. And they are social media savvy. They are this decade’s version of hippies. They are mindful of the environment and yearn to be even more so. But they also are business savvy and not above recording their everyday lives. Sometimes they seem so perfect as to not be real, and in these Instagram days, can we ever know who is and isn’t real?

And yet if you watch their self-made documentary, “The Biggest Little Farm,” you are likely to root for the Chesters, even if their film straddles a line between important documentary and shameless self-promotion.

The Chesters were in their 30s and living in a Santa Monica, Calif., apartment when they rescued a dog from an animal-hoarder situation. The dog would not stop barking when they were gone, and the Chesters were evicted. They had dreamed of starting a regenerative farm, so that’s what they did, finding investors (some of them their friends) after telling the world of their big plans and buying 20 acres about an hour north of Los Angeles in Ventura County.

The Chesters had more ideas than agricultural experience, and their farm, dubbed Apricot Lane Farms, was in shambles. The soil was unfertile. Bees had been raised on the farm but were dead now. The farm had been ravaged by neglect and California’s weather extremes. The Chesters realized they were in over their heads, so they hired help, including Alan York, a surfer/hippie/farmer who was either an agricultural genius or crazy. The Chesters weren’t sure which, but they listened as York spewed what seemed like new-age ecological babble, and they did as he said. Soon, they had a farm with many animals, fruit trees, lots of manure and (most importantly, apparently) cover crops.

“The Biggest Little Farm” follows the trials, tribulations and triumphs that followed over seven years (2010-2017). Not everything goes as planned, and what nature throws at the Chesters tests their will and commitment to being at one with nature. At one point, with coyotes raiding their chicken coup (the Chesters were selling eggs by the dozens at farmers markets), John Chester grabs a shotgun and takes aim at a predator – not exactly the stuff of being in harmony with nature.

But with thought and patience, the Chesters solve the coyote crisis and similar issues through more natural means. As John Chester explains (he directed and narrates), the couple’s perseverance helps produce good fortune (including when their farm is spared of wildfires by a shift in wind direction). Also, it turns out York knew what he was talking about when he preached diversity of crop and animal life, because Apricot Lane Farms becomes an agricultural utopia. The Chesters add to their family with a son, and all’s well that ends well.

“The Biggest Little Farm” is beautifully shot, as you would expect from an award-winning cinematographer. It’s an up-close examination of farming many of us would not otherwise get to experience. It’s fascinating to watch the farm unfold and watch how the animals get along with each other (as when an ugly rooster befriends a remarkably reproductive pig) and don’t get along (as when one of the dogs supposed to be on guard for coyotes eats the rooster). “The Biggest Little Farm” is full of life but, this being nature, full of death, some of it savage. This is a movie that children can (and should) see, but they might shed tears and ask for explanations afterward.

Perhaps by design, the Chesters don’t get into the economics of their farm. Their investors must have had deep pockets to have sustained the couple through the lean years, and they were able to hire farmhands despite the early lack of income. The only reference to the financial side is John Chester saying they blew through the first year’s budget almost right away. Also, they put a call out for help, and many college-age dreamers came to work on the farm, but were they paid or volunteers? At times “The Biggest Little Farm” plays like a reality TV show, especially when York is involved (he likes to play to the camera), and it also, toward the end, morphs into an Apricot Lane Farms infomercial, especially when we are told to see “the rest of the story” at the farm’s website.

But these shortcomings can be forgiven. “The Biggest Little Farm” is, more importantly, full of the human spirit and the Chesters’ optimism to make their dreams work while respecting nature. Perhaps not everyone could pull off what they have done (and make a movie about it), but they did, and that is cause for at least a little hope for the planet’s future.

My score: 92 out of 100

Should you see it? Yes. It is likely to lead to quality discussions about the environment, how we get our food and the circle of life.

#movies #movie review #movie recommendation #the biggest little farm #Farming #Ecology #documentaries #Agriculture

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vegannightschool · 5 years

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Vegan on a Farm

by Ben Thorne

"Ben, why are you here?"

Good question Farmer Dan. Why was I there? In the middle of Welsh farming country, surrounded by animals being raised for their bodies, for what they produce. I was in the belly of the beast, my worst nightmare, deep inside enemy lines. But the truth was I wanted to be there. I was asked if I'd like to accompany thirty eleven year old students on a week long school trip to a 'Farms for City Children'. I said yes. As a teacher I am passionate about education, as a vegan teacher I see true value in educating others on the realities of the animal agriculture industry. The closer someone gets to the truth, the easier it is to make clear choices. That's how I changed. Reading and educating myself empowered me to become vegan.

So what was my plan? Sneak out the dorms in the middle of the night with a balaclava, break the oppressive chains, open the gates and lead the great animal revolution? Unfortunately not. I don't think I would have got very far. No, my plan was to educate; be the voice on the other side, be an example of a healthy, positive vegan who showed love for animals and provide the point of view I wish I had when I was at school. My students knew I was vegan, so all I had to do was be there to answer any questions they came up with.

"Sir, is that vegan?" It sure is "Is bread vegan?" Yep "Can I try some of your soy milk, sir?" Of course

"Are you sad that the pig will be dead soon?" I am, are you? "Yeah. If it has to happen, I suppose it's okay" Does it have to happen? "No" Back to Farmer Dan and his lovely welsh twang. He was a warm and interesting ex-teacher, enthusiastic about education and anthropology. We had both been greatly affected by Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari (it tipped me to the vegan conclusion). Dan, and the farm staff, knew I was vegan before I got there. They looked after me well with delicious veganised food and showed me respect, which I reciprocated. Dan had sympathy with what veganism stood for (maybe because of Sapiens). While milking a goat in front of 10 kids, he explained the contradiction of being vegetarian; explaining that if you're vegetarian because of how animals are used and killed, then you should be vegan because the dairy industry is just as abusive. That message resonated with the kids. Me and Dan were allies in a strange way, even though he was still doing acts I was completely against, we had an understanding - not enough to fool around on the hay bails, but we had interesting conversations. The truth is we are creatures of our surroundings. Dan's world is farming, my world is suburbia. He was attached to a traditional way of living on a farm. I was attached to my dog and going for walks in the woods. This is not to excuse the actions of farming, it is just to highlight the conditioning we individuals find ourselves in - and how our choices are imprisoned by this.

During my time feeding goats, shovelling poop and putting the chickens to bed I bumped in to a number of farm contradictions. While chatting about sustainability, Dan admitted farms should turn more to plant based farming, but emphasised the role of sheep as conservationists; keeping the coastline in beautiful condition. What were these fluff balls conserving the coastline against? Nature? Beautiful, wild nature? Unfortunately sheep are devastating to the UK's land. Their extensive grazing prevents natural habitats to grow, leading to higher chances of flooding and lack of biodiversity. They originate from arid Asian lands, where grass is dry and limited. This leads to the abusive manipulation of lambs. Farmer Owen showed the kids how the orphan lambs are castrated and their tails docked; by an elastic band around both until they rot and fall off. "But don't worry" Farmer Owen said "They don't feel it". Their tails are docked because they have diarrhoea due to the rich British grass, a richness sheep are biologically unable to metabolise fully and end up squirting it out with infection luring poop.

Farmer Owen was friendly and chatty, his whole working life depended on the success of the sheep he rears and send to slaughter. He was quick to defend the practice of sheep farming stating "There would be none of these animals around if they weren't farmed" like they were native to this isle (they ain't, they're Asian). He also asked if I get enough zinc and magnesium as a vegan. I said it was easier than I thought it was going to be. He quickly followed up by showing me the cow milk mix he feeds the lambs, heavily supplemented with zinc and magnesium! Farmer Owen had four calves in the barn with the lonely lambs. As you approached them they would open their mouths ready to feed. One boy took a liking to them, standing in the pen while the beautiful babies sucked his fingers. I couldn't help ask Farmer Owen where their mothers were. "Another farmer's herd". I also couldn't resist "How long will they live for?". "Lambs, four more months. Calves, two years." The kids stood there wide-eyed, mouths slightly ajar; when they start their next year at school, the lamb they're holding will be sliced up on a shelf, in a Waitrose somewhere. While putting the sassy chickens to bed Farmer Les warned a kid to be careful with the eggs they're carrying. If they dropped one and a chicken ate it, it would have to be killed (the chicken not the child). Why? If a chicken realises it can eat a broken egg, it will eat eggs that have been sitting there for a while. So no eggs for humans! And we can't have that!

I had so many positive conversations with the kids that week. They got my position, they agreed with it mostly. The main contention being that they like the taste of animal flesh too much, a point they understood wasn't a much to stand on. Many of the children had tried vegan food, like Gregg's Vegan Sausage Roll and non-dairy Ben & Jerry's. While having dinner on the farm, one girl said that before the trip she told her dad she wanted to be vegan. He threatened to not make her separate food and she'd have to pick the animal flesh out of the food made. This 'dietism' was frustrating. Is this a form of emotional abuse? If a child under the care of an adult asks for permission to stop something because it has a negative effect on their mental (and possibly physical) well being, and it is refused? By the end of the week at least three of the kids made a commitment to trying vegan. I truly believe that is three more than if I hadn't went on this trip. Unfortunately social conditioning reared its ugly face on the day of the 8 hour coach journey back, with most kids going through their service stop McDonald's order. Thankfully where we stopped only had a Subway and Greggs. I took the opportunity to show off the options and show them the joy of eating well while living in line the values most of us share.

#vegan #activism #education #farm #activist #animalrights #blog

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portkcysa · 6 years

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“a hand outstretched across the plane aisle, a constant warm presence, a smile so wide your face aches for days, bouncing a baby up and down on your knee, responsibility laden on your shoulders, bubblegum, a steady hand in all things.“ – ( richard madden, twenty-six, cismale, he/him. ) frank longbottom? yes, i have more information about them. the twenty-six year old pureblood used to attend hogwarts as a hufflepuff. nowadays, they’re an auror, and are currently a order of the phoenix member. from what i’ve heard, they can be quite observant and loyal, but also forgetful and strong-willed. from their records, i can also see that their best subject at school was transfiguration. ( ellie, 18, she/her, gmt. ) – CANON

you may cry, you may laugh, you may feel all things and let yourself breathe through them all, but that does not make you any less a man. your life is glorious, soft, not stern. warmth. enveloping.

quick facts

alignment: lawful good. amortentia: rose perfume on the air. the smell of alice’s shampoo. the yorkshire pudding his mum makes. green tea. baby smell. mbti: esfj. patronus: a labrador. boggart: losing alice. losing neville. soul type: the caregiver. wand: ebony. phoenix tail feather. 8 inches. described as supple, suited to combative magic and transfiguration. zodiac sign: leo. mythological figure: apollo. vice: pride. virtue: charity.

drifters

01. Frank’s never met his dad. He only, really, knows his name: Dominick Francis Longbottom. His mother rarely talked about him - he grew up, alone, with just her.

Dominick died before Frank was born. You see, Dominick was a very highly respected Auror, top of his field, known for his flair for excellent spellwork and a famed inability to sit still. He’d been out on assignment, integrating the group known as the Knights of Walpurgis, which is now known, more commonly, as the inner circle of the Death Eaters. He’d managed to pull it off for years, keeping his and his wife’s political positions to themselves, keeping out of the limelight when any purist-inclined violence made the headlines.

Augusta, of course, was less than pleased by the fact that he kept late hours, and woke up, some days, as early as 4 to head to the Aurors office. She was six months pregnant, in the end, when things went down the drain.

Dominick hadn’t even seen it coming.

One of the other Aurors - young, easily fooled, impressionable - had overheard one of his conversations with the Head Auror at the time. He’d been duped, you see. Duped into telling one of the people they’d been escorting to Azkaban if there were any weasels.

He’d seemed like a good guy, despite the crime he’d been imprisoned for, because he’d get years in Azkaban for it. (Nobody really gave a shit about trading useless Dragon eggs anyway.)

He’d been killed less than two days later.

He’d never even got to say goodbye - he’d been working for three days straight, and hadn’t even been to the Auror office in a week, but the damage was done and he never even saw it coming.

Augusta suspects it was Yaxley, but Frank’s never trusted Avery, nor the Lestrange’s, and he never was told how his dad was found. Just that his dad was dead before he was born, and that he looked like him. (The same jaw, the same smile, the same dark brown hair and grey streak.)

Frank visits the grave whenever he can, and talks to him as if he’s still there, still alive.

He tried, once, to get access to the files around his death. He didn’t get very far - Moody pulled him aside, hand on his elbow, to tell him there was no point - he knew, from experience, that all that it stirred up was rage. And Frank was better than that.

Frank wishes he’d gotten to meet his dad. He hopes that he’d be proud of him - that he’d be proud of the man he’s become. He knows his mum is, despite how she wheedles at him, and preens, and all the tough love she’s given him over the years. It’s always been just the two of them. The lone Longbottom’s, the ones who stranded themselves as far away from London as they could get without moving out of the country.

That was how they were known: the silent onlookers, the ones who rarely came out of their home but when they did, they sought justice in every way they could.

02. Frank wasn’t, exactly, surprised when he was sorted into Hufflepuff.

His magic had come through late - he supposes it’s nothing to do with how his mother raised him (an iron fist, that vulture hat outlasting the ages despite the sad fact that she was merely 32 and already a widow –) but entirely to do with how he viewed himself.

He’d never been a popular kid. He hadn’t got many friends, just the little boy that lived three villages over, the exact same age as he was, the one whose dad had up and left his mum.

He was shy, too honest, and considered a little weird - his mum didn’t send him to primary school, spoke with a proper accent where Frank had a burgeoning Scottish one, and he could do things the other kids couldn’t. He rarely played outside, and the little marbles he played with had once blown up in another kids’ face. Needless to say, that spelled a lonely childhood for Frank.

Frank didn’t mind, though. He had the horses, and the cows, and the chickens, and the dogs. His family may not have been big people-wise, but he had an affinity for animals, and plants, and if his mother hadn’t been sure he was a wizard, he would’ve ended up a farmer.

His first actual display of magic was when the tree in their garden collapsed over the road in and out of the village. It nearly crushed their next door neighbours and their tiny, yellow car, and before anybody could even figure out what they were going to do, it had completely vanished.

(Or, as Frank would tell his mother, “I made it burst, mam! It didn’t disappear! It exploded!”)

It wasn’t much of a surprise when Augusta smoothed his hair back and kissed him on the forehead, that rare grin climbing onto her face.

Pride, shining in her eyes.

03. Auror training was the bane of Frank’s life. All he wanted, all he ever wanted to do, all he could imagine himself doing, was being out there, saving lives.

Of course, his best friend jokingly reminded him that if he wanted to go out that fast, he should’ve just signed up for the Hit Wizard programme and taken the risk that he’d end up dead within a week (an unfortunate downside, occasionally, for new Hit Wizards and Witches.)

He knew he was talented enough. He knew that he was smart enough.

He knew he was good at thinking on his feet, he knew that they could use a man like him because he was loyal, pain-stakingly so, and he’d do anything for the cause, sacrifice or be anything they asked him to be.

There was already a target on his back, so why the hell not push him through training faster than the others.

(His last name was the target.)

They were running out of Aurors, as is. More and more kept leaving. They couldn’t do it, they said. They couldn’t live with the reality they were being faced with. They couldn’t risk their families lives like this, they couldn’t have a target painted on their back for the badge they held in their hands. They couldn’t face the threats that were slowly trickling in, the heat that was turning up and up and up.

Frank couldn’t blame them. They weren’t cowards. They were good people, who had suffered enough, who had gone through enough.

He was saddled with nothing, nothing that he felt was worth it. Worth the risk of losing lives. It wasn’t what he wanted. It wasn’t what they wanted. But he stuck it out, regardless. He gave himself goals to meet, Aurors to shadow, people to impress.

It made him a success. It made him good at his job.

(And good at the things he did on the side as well.)

04. He’s got the worst habit of attracting strays.

Okay, it’s not like that - not dogs, or cats, or anything. But people. The ones with nowhere left to go. The ones who are either not involved with their families, or those who have lost them.

He always has money on him. More money than he’ll ever need on a day to day basis, but enough to sustain someone for a month, or two. He’s always got his eye out. Always willing to give whatever he can, his money, his time, his effort. (He’s gotten himself into a spot or two, here and there.)

He’d do anything for his fellow Order members.

Anything. When they need help, Frank is always the one they know they can call. (Or, rather, just show up on his and Alice’s doorstep, because he’s known for crumbling at the sight of a friend in need.)

The Longbottom family have always had a lot of money. That’s not to mention his mother’s wealth in herself - she’s the last recorded Selwyn from the main male lineage (and she’s not related to that Umbridge woman, Merlin forbid –) and inherited the entire estate, as well as all the money they had invested in Borgin and Burke’s and several, very successful stores all along Diagon Alley (the least of which being Flourish and Blott’s.)

Some’d say it’s stupidity. That he’s so open, with things like that.

Others? They’d say he’s just too full of kindness. A tap, that overflows, consistently, until it seems like there’s going to be nothing left, but it’s bottomless. A bottomless well of kindness, fed into by a river of kindness, fed into by a sea of kindness.

He does what he can, for the people that he knows have nothing, not because he can relate. But because he just has to.

He can’t sit idly by while people are struggling. No matter the reason.

He’s too selfless. Too ready to give everything that he has. (Some part of him knows that it all stems from Augusta. From Dominick. From the love that he received, the love he never got to feel in anything other than photographs, and memories that never were.)

There’s always been a part of him that wants to prove his mother wrong. That softness can be just as good as sternness, and now he gets the chance to do just that.

constants

frank longbottom, in all things, is a ray of sunshine.

his softness, often taken for weakness, is one of his greatest strengths, over which he has laboured for many, many years.

he’s an only child. he supposes it means he’s always been spoiled, but he hasn’t.

he’s worked hard to get where he is, he hasn’t taken any handouts from his mother (who would never dream of giving him one anyway -) and there is a great sense of pride that he’s proved her wrong, about sternness being the only way to get things done.

(meanwhile, augusta is a part of the order, so - yes. there have been quite a few arguments over the order itself.)

he’s a lover of many things, including plants.

(also alice longbottom, but that’s a given, i mean, look at her --)

he’s worked so hard to become an auror, you guys. it’s been his dream, since childhood, since he learned about his father and his job, and despite his fate, pushed himself so, so hard to make his mother proud, and to feel the pride that he knows his father is feeling, where-ever he is, now.

really does enjoy his work.

(it’s super dangerous, but, when isn’t something frank likes, dangerous? he’s insane, absolutely so, but also adorably so.)

born and raised in scotland, but also surrounded by muggles. so, not a magical neighbourhood. scotland is? still his home, really. hogwarts is, too, but that’s kind of secondary to the little cottage he and his mother lived in. where she still lives, actually, and insists that she’s never to be moved.

joined the order soon after graduation - he was approached by dumbledore, because he does have a particular skillset dumbledore finds particularly useful.

can/does smuggle death eater related case files home with him. the good ruse is that he’s forgetful af, and so is prone to just forgettin stuff anyway (nev inherits this, his poor babe,) and he knows it’s dangerous, but there’s no law really inhibiting it... that’s his logic, anyway.

best friends with kingsley shacklebolt and hestia jones. grew up with them as brief companions, but spent hogwarts with them, as well as alice, and the four are tig HT.

was in the duelling club, but didn’t really? like the spotlight. aka evidence why he doesn’t want to be head auror, but he’s perfectly happy being just a member of the order and an auror, but is a very skilled dueller. incredible, really. don’t mess with the longbottom’s. he inherits it from his mother.

excells in dark magic identification, tracking and transfiguration. there isn’t a spell frank hasn’t heard of, and if there is, it’s likely because it’s being tested in the department of mysteries, and therefore, cannot be discussed.

neville is... frank’s world. he refuses to leave him the same way his father left him. he refuses to do that. he refuses the possibility that he’ll die, and end up leaving a widow and a son behind. he plans to live a long, happy life, with his wife, and his son.

frank re: alice

his dream

will she ever let him breathe?

that moment when the dream girl is his WIFE

he -

is he living or not? he doesn’t know

she smiles like this and his heart aches

seeing her with neville is the greatest feeling in the universe

if they ever went abroad on holiday he’d lose his damn mind

is she teasing him???? he’s dying slowly

alice’s hufflepuff pride, man

imagine this as frank giving alice a flower i want to CRY

going anywhere with this like

HER GLASSES HE’S GOING INTO CARDIAC ARREST

ugh his heart

he’s compromised

taking her on a tour of where he went on childhood holidays

you know when you see someone so attractive you struggle to breathe? yeah frank knows the feeling

he’s in LOOOVE

"got you.”

everyone: frank, breathe

let him be happy with her for the rest of his life

her SMILE he’s combusting internally

will he ever let go? #no

them together is. his fave thing

her laUgH

the way he looks at her? legendary

#incalescent:intro #( frank longbottom: softness does not negate masculinity. )

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radiantgoodhealth · 6 years

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Food Healthy Kids, Food Healthy Adults

“Food is medicine,” the old adage goes.

In medicine, it is good to remember that the most important difference between a medicine and a poison is the dosage. This applies to food. We’ve certainly seen the poor health outcomes directly and indirectly related to the US Cult of Food Overdose.

Cases in point:

US incidence of adult and childhood obesity: Epidemic. US incidence of colorectal cancer: Epidemic. US incidence of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D): Epidemic.

Each of these diseases is directly correlated to food overdose. Worse, our sedentary lifestyles are co-conspirators. Imagine if a foreign power caused the disease and death that our sick food systems contribute to.

Bad food corporations spending millions on very effective marketing is one external villain. Our own willingness to trade our health for a mouthful of temporary feel-good is the internal villain. That means ultimately, the fix is in the mirror.

How did we get into this food-disease mess? In July 2018, the American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP) offered one strong answer:

According to the AAP, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) got us into this mess. Wait. What?

Referring to a GAO assessment of FDA practices, the AAP supported the conclusion that “…the FDA is not able to ensure the safety of existing or new (food) additives through (their) approval mechanisms.” (emphasis added). Read the full statement here.

In the case of foodstuffs intended for (and heavily marketed toward) US kids, the FDA is doing a miserable job of protecting kids. Why would we expect otherwise? Regardless of political party in power, the FDA is led, managed, and run by the very food-for-profit and drug-for-profit businesses it is supposed to regulate. FDA appointees aren’t Moms or Dads looking out for kids, or kids looking out for their aging Moms or Dads, or everyday folks like you and me trying to make smart food choices. The FDA is run by a constant flow of people racing through the revolving door between government and industry, cashing in on your health and that of the nation with every turn of the door.

That sick mix of bad practice and corporate policy is killing us. It’s killing our kids and their parents.

America’s pediatricians are increasingly concerned for a reason. Not only are there bad chemical preservatives in foods marketed to kids, the packaging leaches harmful chemicals that leach into food. Keep in mind this is FDA permitted/approved packaging the stuff that agribusinesses use to convey convenient (aka “dead” and “processed”) food to us…and to our babies and kids.

These chemicals, AAP says, “may interfere with the body’s natural hormones in ways that may affect long-term growth and development (NYT July 24, 2018, A14).

Cans, cardboard, even the “waxed” paper used—all leach chemicals into our foodstuffs.

Let’s give the pediatricians their say: “Our purposes with this policy statement and its accompanying technical report are to review and highlight emerging child health concerns related to the use of colorings, flavorings, and chemicals deliberately added to food during processing (direct food additives) as well as substances in food contact materials, including adhesives, dyes, coatings, paper, paperboard, plastic, and other polymers, which may contaminate food as part of packaging or manufacturing equipment (indirect food additives); to make reasonable recommendations that the pediatrician might be able to adopt into the guidance provided during pediatric visits; and to propose urgently needed reforms to the current regulatory process at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for food additives.” These authors aren’t political hacks or corporate sharks. These are the applied scientists, the physicians, the men and women who spend 10 to 15 years of their lives just learning how to care for babies and kids…before they begin to invest the rest of their working lives doing more of that. Keywords: scientists, physicians, invest.

More from the Docs: “Substantial improvements to the food additives regulatory system are urgently needed, including greatly strengthening or replacing the “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) determination process, updating the scientific foundation of the FDA’s safety assessment program, retesting all previously approved chemicals, and labeling direct additives with limited or no toxicity data.” What’s all this have to do with acupuncture, especially since Enerqi is not primarily a pediatric practice? Food as medicine, food as poison, including food that has been poisoned by food additives and toxic packaging.

Nearly every patient contact at Enerqi involves some discussion of diet, eating habits, quantity of food, and most of all quality of food. You probably don’t truly need a keto diet, or an Atkins diet, or a paleo diet. But you certainly need a diet free of unregulated, untested, and harmful food additives stuffed into toxic wrappers. You can’t base your nutritional safety on a Facebook post, a YouTube video, or an advertisement, even if it comes with a coupon. You base your diet on safe, sane, simple, and sustainable food principles. Here are the ones we offer to every patient at Enerqi.

Look at your plate, every single meal.

1. About half of that plate (bowl, slab—whatever you eat out of or off of) should be covered with fresh vegetables, fruits, green leafy goodness, with small amounts of best quality fats—like organic olive oil, coconut oil, or butter. Yes, butter. Real food. Good fats are good.

2. Of the other half, you should have a piece of protein about the size of your own palm. Fish, meat, tofu, beans—doesn’t really matter…with these exceptions:

a. In a very large World Health Organization (WHO) study you can read here, processed meats (bacon, sausage, deli meats) were found to be correlated with increases in colorectal cancer at amounts greater than 4 ounces per week. A good analysis of the WHO study is here.

b. Factory farm meats feed you antibiotics, growth hormones, and poo. Buy local and organic meats, preferably from farmers you can make eye contact with. Meat protein is not essential to health although it does strike the Happy Zone for many of us. There is no reason whatsoever to eat meat every day, certainly not at every meal.

3. With rare exception, whatever the amount of carbohydrates you normally eat, start putting one spoonful back. Unfortunately, beer is a carb (talking to you, Wisconsin); mind your suds.

4. Anything you eat out of a paper bag, a can, or a cardboard box will be unnecessarily high in some combination of salt, sugar, carcinogenic additives, calories, and/or chemicals, including chemicals that the bought-and-paid-for FDA declares are “generally regarded as safe”—whatever the actual heck that toss-off bit of government-business codswollop means.

The pediatricians, bless them, are watching out for our kids, the next generation, the tiniest among us, whom we will all desperately need—every one of them—in 15 or 20 years. As it turns out, they’re watching out for all of us, too.

Let’s apply the same scientific rigor to our own grocery shopping, our own refrigerators, and our own plates, kids or no kids. Food is medicine. Good medicine. A necessary component to Your Radiant Good Health.

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radramblog · 4 years

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Who should I vote for in the WA state election?

Full disclosure, this is directly inspired by this article, by someone from my high school as part of a youth newspaper he was working on. Considering said newspaper hasn’t updated since, oh, 2017, I think it’s fine to step on a few toes.

According to the ABC there are 19 parties vying for votes in the 2021 Western Australia State Election, which is coming up on Saturday. Some of them are good, some of them are very very not. Let’s go through each!

Animal Justice Party

The Animal Justice Party is a single-platform party masquerading as a multi-platform party, and while they have bland but reasonable positions on common issues everything, and I mean everything, on their page circles back to animals. Mental Health? Animal therapy and volunteering are good for that! Foreign Policy? We only care about trophies and wildlife trade! Domestic Violence? Abusers kick puppies, not just spouses! You get the idea. They mean well, but I don’t think they’re even close to a top pick, especially considering some of their odder platforms (banning processed meat sales to minors like they’re cigarettes, sure ok).

Vote for them if you’re the epitome of the obnoxious vegan.

Australian Christians

I mean, obviously I’m not religious, but I’m pretty sure these folks don’t speak for all Christians. They’re first on the list of whackjobs, anti-abortion and same-sex marriage, pro “sexual morality” (read: puritanism) and have out-of-context bible quotes on their statement of intents. Oh, sorry, statement of beliefs. Clicking on this webpage made my skin crawl- protip, if a person or party claims to support “family values” or “Christian ideals” 99 times out of 100 they’re just using it to justify bigotry.

Vote for them if you’d feel right at home in Cromwellian England.

Daylight Savings Party

This one’s website was broken for me, so I couldn’t really get a hold of anything beyond the name and what was on their facebook page, which is pretty much just what their mission statement is- Western Australia but we have daylight savings time. Despite being ridiculously sunny all the time. But….but why though….

Vote for them if you enjoy changing your clocks twice a year, like a weirdo.

The Great Australian Party

There are two really obvious jokes here screaming at me to be made. The GAP wants to make Australia great again, and despite the name it doesn’t involve jeans. These guys think taxes are bad but it would be good if they were instead handled by corporations, which is the most laughably stupid idea that itd be enough to bottom-vote them just on that- fortunately, their stance on firearms (we’ll get to it later) and immigration (withdrawing from UN treaties, seriously?) make it pretty clear they’re just a bunch of cunts. Their policy pages complain about political correctness and want to make fucking with a flag a crime like it is in the US, so the comparisons to a certain US party keep going.

Vote for them if you’re the proud owner of a red hat that your children will burn out of shame.

Health Australia Party

The fact that these people have an entire page dedicated to going “no, we aren’t anti-vax, we just have a lot of concerns” answers any questions you could possibly have. They also advocate for “natural medicine” to be placed on equal footing with, you know, medicine, which is obviously not a great idea.

Also, that they spell it “anti-vacc” and that their policy list is in fucking Calibri bugs me to no end.

Vote for them if you’re on a lemon detox.

Legalise Cannabis Western Australia

Take a guess. Take a wild fucking guess what single issue these guys are about. I don’t even have anything against this idea, their policies aren’t awful or anything, but it’s a heck of a hill to spend so much of your time on.

Vote for them if you’re high off your tits, I guess.

Liberal Democrats

What is this, libertarians? I’ll be frank, most of their policies are rooted in economics stuff I don’t really understand, but they’re against COVID lockdowns. You know, despite how effective they’re shown to be around here since we don’t fuck them up (mostly).

These guys seem to be one of the bigger of the small parties but their website is super unhelpful so ???

Vote for them if… I dunno?

Liberal Party

The first of the two major parties. They lost power in the last state election, and I couldn’t be more thankful- they’d been doing nothing but cock up for years at that point, and the premier was a fucking joke. Considering that their leader has apparently already conceded defeat, I suspect they aren’t looking to repeat the process.

The Liberals seem to be the default for a lot of people, thanks to their incalculable media bias and being one of the big two. I suppose if you’re reading this, you aren’t voting for them anyway.

Vote for them if your mum voted for them and you’re proud of that for some reason.

Liberals for Climate

If you voted in the last election, you might remember a party called the Flux network, which was a party where their policy was just online voting for everything. This is, uh them again? But they seem more concerned about climate than last time.

Vote for them if you haven’t watched this video.

No Mandatory Vaccination Party

…no. just no.

Antivaccination is an opinion that makes my skin crawl. The fucker that effectively started the movement, Andrew Wakefield, effectively did so for the money, and as such is indirectly responsible for thousands of deaths. The people who believe this shit know nothing of chemistry or medicine but hear a few buzzwords and do a google or two and think they’re the greatest geniuses of our time. They think they’re soooo fucking smart. Confident incorrectness can be funny at times, but not when such a huge issue is at stake.

Vote for them if you want me to call you out on twitter dot com.

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation

Oh christ she’s still trying this shit? For reference, in the last election these xenophobic cunts were rightfully punted out of our state, despite massive campaigning, proving that we aren’t the bogan capital of the country quite as much. Their policy pages make me want to vomit, but who the fuck voting for One Nation reads the fucking policy page?

Pauline Hanson was a fish and chip shop owner who made a political party to get her xenophobic bullshit out on the national stage, and was arrested for election fraud, yet still is allowed to run a party for some reason. She’s switched the target of her ire from China to the Middle East to reflect modern bigotry better, but it’s the same old shit. The only good thing ever to come about her was the Pauline Pantsdown song, and she obviously wasn’t involved in that.

Vote for them if you’re interested in joining the Proud Boys.

Shooters Fishers and Farmers

Oh and the hits just keep coming. Funnily enough I don’t have an issue with their fishery policy, but that’s not the main one, obviously. Australia has harsh gun control laws on account of a mass shooting back in 1997, and we’ve stayed that way for 23 years with, shockingly, no further mass shootings (that I’m aware of). You can disguise your policy by saying its for the sport all you want, but I’ve got no interest in bringing guns back to WA.

Vote for them if you think the NRA having massive political sway in the USA is a good thing.

Socialist Alliance

Full disclosure, I consider myself a socialist, so I’m probably a little biased here. But yeah, these look like good policies. They want to remove the USA military presence in Australia which I am personally very for, they support royal commission into the big banks which should have been done a decade ago, and they want to lower the voting age to 16 which considering that the youth are generally more politically minded these days seems fair enough to me. I’m for it.

Vote for them if you would have voted for the Greens, and don’t know which to put higher.

Sustainable Australia

Despite the name, the policy of this party is more concerned about population than climate, an issue I’m not sure is especially pronounced in this neck of the woods. I’d put them fairly middle of the road, seeing as they have some policies I’m for (no new coal mines or fracking) and some I’m very against (increased police funding, lowered immigration).

Vote for them if you too don’t know the common usage of the word Sustainable in modern times.

The Greens

Why everything is alphabetical until this and the next one are beyond me. Regardless, I suspect you already know if you’re voting Greens, but bluntly: They’re basically the only ones with a real, functional plan about Climate Change. And considering that’s the biggest problem facing humanity at large right now (yes, including COVID), that’s a pretty solid claim.

Vote for them if THERE IS NO PLANET BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

The Nationals

The nationals end up in coalition with the Liberals basically all the fucking time so if you’d vote for the Libs you’ll vote for the Nats. They’re basically the liberals, but they pay lip service to caring about poor rural areas while continuing to suck big buisness’s cock like a kid with an icy-pole.

Vote for them if you’re a genuine country bumpkin.

WA Labor

I’ll be frank, I don’t think there’s a single way Labor doesn’t win this election. Mark McGowan has developed a minor cult of personality, and they’ve handled the old COVID situation remarkably well. I don’t agree with everything they’ve done in the past 4 years, but their track record is certainly better than the Liberals. Still, they’re not going to be the top of my preference sheet.

Vote for them if you don’t know what small parties to preference first.

WAxit party

I’ve admittedly entertained the idea of a Western Australian Secession, and provided it is handled well am not entirely against it. It does make me feel vaguely Texan, though, and that’s not a position I enjoy being in. This party wants to massively invest in defense so WA can protect itself from an invasion- one that will never, ever come, and I really don’t expect to eat those words. We don’t matter enough to target.

Vote for them if you think Brexit 2 sounds like a good idea.

Western Australia Party

Look at this point I’m fucking sick of all these parties. They have Family Values on their policy list so I’m just taking that as a red enough flag not to vote for them.

Vote for them if you actually read their shit and were a fan of it.

And that’s…everyone. Wait no not everyone hang on.

Independents

I must confess, I basically always forget to read about the independents prior to an election. This is going to be different in every district, so do your research- or just do what I do and stick them all smack bang in the middle between the parties I like and the parties I don’t like.

Ok now that’s everyone. This took a long time and a lot out of me, so I hope you appreciate this shit. Hopefully you are now prepared for what may come on Saturday the 13th, and won’t be too disappointed when your minor party of choice doesn’t win the seat because everyone in your area votes Liberal for some fucking reason.

#ramble #perth #political

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internetandnetwork · 4 years

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Analyzing the Psychology of PPC Ad Copy

Everything has changed since the prehistoric era, but what remained constant is the initial drivers that inspire people to take action.

PPC professionals often find themselves searching for what appeals the most to their target audience. However, it turns out that the answer was right here, in our behavioral history. Let’s explore the psychology of PPC ad copy.

What do you think is common between oranges and diamond rings? – Well, they both became a part of our everyday life as a result of ad campaigns.

De Beers was facing challenges selling their diamonds during the Great Depression period in the 1930s. So, their ad agency came up with a slogan associating diamonds with eternal love – “A Diamond is forever.” As a result, even decades later, people fondly propose with diamond rings.

Again, during the 1900s, California’s orange farmers were stuck in a situation where they were picking more oranges than they could sell. So, once again, an ad agency came up with a new use for the excess oranges – Juice! As a result, even today, orange juice remains a very popular, widely-used drink.

With the above examples, we can understand how powerful and vital advertising is, and why it’s been utilized ever since the prehistoric era. But, the modern generation is increasingly becoming anti-advertisements, and the reason is pretty apparent; wherever we go, we are bombarded with ads.

While some people think that nowadays people have a very little attention span, we believe otherwise. Let’s see why.

How many people do you think stream Netflix shows every night regularly or binge-watch series? So, attention span is not really the issue because people will spend time or pay attention to things they actually care about.

And that is the key. Apart from fire and clubs, not much has changed about things that drive people to take action or things that they care about.

So, something that has worked in the past will still work today, even in entirely new forms. Thus, it is safe to say that human nature is perpetual, meaning psychology principles are enduring and fixed.

In this blog, we will discuss some ancient persuasion principles that have always been a part of human nature. Marketers should consider remixing these principles for the “ad-weary” audience today.

Present an irresistible bargain

Ever since the barter system, humans have learned going back, looking for good deals. Although what’s interesting is that humans don’t like “cheap.” What we do like getting is a bargain regardless of the actual price.

Let’s see how cheap as a core benefit of your product can put you in a troublesome situation.

Back in 2009, Tata Motors, which owns luxury cars like Land Rover and Jaguar, decided to manufacture a car designed especially for the Indian market, which is still a developing economy.

Now, one would think that getting a car under $1600, probably the cheapest car in the world, is a pretty good deal. And we also know that for most people owning a car is associated with prestige and social status.

Instead of launching an ad campaign that focuses on the prestige of owning a car, theirs just went out, focusing on how this was the cheapest car in the world. And this terribly backfired as one can imagine because nobody wanted to be seen driving the “cheapest car in the world.”

So, the point is, how can you make your next offer an irresistible one?

For that, one must realize the power of reason. According to numerous experiments, people are more likely to say “yes” when they know “why.”

But how does this apply to PPC Ads? Let’s understand this with an example:

“All Shirts on Sale – Get 80% Off | Over-Stock Sale.”

What came to your mind when you saw this? Probably that something must be wrong with these shirts; the deal seems too good to be true… Right?

Now let’s see another one.

“All Shirts on Sale – Get 80% off | Over-Stock Sale

All shirts on sale because we ordered double the stock. Enjoy the best prices and help us to free up space in our stockroom!”

Now, this ad is more relatable and catchy than the first one. Do you see the power of presenting a reason?

Conclusion: We all are used to getting bombarded with hundreds of discounts and offers, but adding a reason can make your ad more compelling.

2. Utilize the power of surprise

Although, we might get the idea that people are “ad-weary” or “ad-blind,” but that’s not the case. The truth is people are bored with the regular sales stuff. So, all we have to do is surprise them.

Surprise has the power to supercharge other feelings, both positive as well as negative. We need to focus on the good to boost positive emotions and drive people to take the desired action. Let’s understand this with an example.

Suppose you work for a Vitamins & Supplements company, and you knew that most of your customers take about three months to finish up a protein shake box on average.

Now, during the second month, your company can run an ad offering a compelling deal, right on time while also showering them with a little love for being your loyal consumer. This goes a long way in increasing customer lifetime values. When customers come across this ad, they will, more likely than not, consider reordering.

Conclusion: When creating an ad, brainstorm ideas of bringing the unexpected to surprise and delighting the searchers.

3. Showcase your personality

Appealing personas work for companies even today. The reason being they bring up sentiments and make brands more memorable.

After all, most of us purchase based on our emotions and justify it with logic. At this point, this is almost a cliché. Yet marketing to the logical brain is still the default for many, and it’s only because it is pretty tough to not think of ourselves when creating an ad.

But one must understand the power of personality and how it can help you stand apart from the ordinary. When making a PPC ad, the focus should be on earning both trust and likability points.

Let’s understand this with an example.

A few years back, when Apple launched its iPhone 6s, Samsung had a model with a similar name “S6.” So, they decided to run an ad campaign.

Whenever someone searched for the iPhone 6s, their ad “Awkward You Obviously Mean S6…” would pop up.

Conclusion: Personality is additionally helpful as it helps in establishing a brand preference because it adds an emotional connection. Therefore, let your personality shine to build a connection and attachment with your audience.

4. Deliberately include

Every human feels the need for a connection and inclusion, which is applicable to our advertising efforts.

Inclusive marketing is the key to loyalty, especially for brands that have millennials and Gen Z as their target audiences.

When done authentically, inclusive advertising feels like connection and family as it creates feelings of trust and joy.

According to research, companies that represent diversity in their ads are more credible and authentic.

So, how is this applicable to PPC?

When making ad copies, campaigns, and keyword lists, we are often subject to our own blind spots or unconscious biases. But as an industry, we need to cast a light on that because our unconscious biases or blind spots can mean that a vast section of the audience may not be served at all.

Often we are looking for ways to expand our reach and audiences, and find a new segment to get a step ahead of our competitors. Inclusive Marketing can help you with this.

Try being more inclusive with who you target your ad campaigns. Start by identifying whose voice is missing. Think of all the potential groups that you might have left out accidentally. This varies by business, but if you think about traditional groups, that would include gender, age, language spoken, ability, race, etc.

These quick tips can come handy:

Scoop out inclusive keywords using a keyword planner.

Identify exclusions in your ad copy and keywords using Dynamic Search Ads.

Don’t forget to optimize your shopping campaigns too – your ad title must include your product details with the crucial data upfront i.e., Adaptive, Ethical, Sustainable, etc.

Conclusion

Few simple optimizations can yield greater rewards and grow brand loyalty.

This was all about it. Marketers can use these age-old persuasion principles to improve their PPC ads. We hope this information was useful for you. Share your views on this psychology of PPC ads in the comments below. Thanks!

Hariom Balhara is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles for E Global Soft Solutions. E Global Soft Solutions is a digital marketing, seo, smo, ppc and web development company that comes with massive experiences. We specialize in digital marketing, web designing and development, graphic design, and a lot more.

SOURCE : Analyzing the Psychology of PPC Ad Copy , E Global Soft Solutions

#E Global Soft Solutions #digital marketing #website designing #web development #PPC professionals #ad campaigns #PPC Ads #graphics designing #wordpress development solution #e-commerce solution

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miamacdonald-702uxui · 4 years

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Week 1 - Refining HMW - Pt.1

Refining your HMW question

How might we re-imagine the vegetable gardening experience for people living in small or temporary spaces?

Questions to ask a classmate:

1. What is the problem to be solved?

2. Who are the users that are experiencing this problem? (age, gender, other descriptors)

3. Who are the stakeholders that are interested in this problem being solved?

4. What are the specific user needs that this HMW question is focused on?

5. Is there anything else that you need to know about the problem before it can be solved?

6. Do you think this problem is broad enough to encourage wild ideas?

7. Do you think this problem is specific enough to be directive? (e.g. we can’t solve climate change, but we can encourage people to compost more)

8. How is the problem currently being solved?

9. Is it clear that the problem is being backed up by evidence? (Can you tell the scale of the problem? E.g. data is present, problem statement prefacing HMW)

10. Is the problem focused on a need rather than a benefit?

11. Does the problem include a baked-in solution?

12. Does the problem seem inspiring to solve?

Answers from Harry:

1. How people live in spaces that might not cater to vegetable growing and people growing gardens in small spaces – how to navigate that issue. Small and temporary are quite different things, e.g. studio apartment – small applies most to people around here but temporary is a good thing to look at. Temp is like working quickly, setting up / small is interesting ways to have a small, sustainable garden.

2. Anyone who has an interest in gardening, or eats vegetables, assume almost every age group. You could direct it in a way to promote it as a money saving thing, tries to make gardening more accessible to people who might not already be in it.

3. The people who it benefits the most are the people who use it, falls in the same boat as the users. Garden centres would be a stakeholder, and local farmers markets if you want to grow and sell your own vegetables.

4. Targeting the need for making gardening more accessible to people who might live in small spaces. It’s not something you have or need to do but it’s a massive benefit.

5. A good HMW, small implies almost tips and tricks, temporary is like a garden that you can easily dismantle. Looking at how accessible gardening is to people living in those spaces.

6. I think so, depends on how you look at solving it, e.g. a product and a website, a guide, a website, it’s pretty broad, an app.

7. Yes, definitely. It’s a clear parameter, gardening/small spaces/temp spaces, clear audience, the people who aren’t in the audience you can reach out to, e.g. start gardening.

8. I have no idea, limited knowledge of gardening – could be a reason why it’s not being solved. Used to have tomatoes but no clue how to garden. There’s a lot he has no clue about. He’d probably go on Google or Reddit, an app would be the last place he’d look, consider a campaign around pushing it rather than just releasing it. Focus on marketing it. Some people would go to garden centre.

9. In this sentence, not really, but are you supposed to in the HMW? To back it up with evidence, e.g. people who are unaware of… etc. Backed up enough that if he wanted to get into gardening, he could look here.

10. Need/benefit – water bottle example. People could probably figure out gardening on their own, but an app would be a benefit. It’s important to have both, e.g. apartment gardening concept and flat garden.

11. No, it doesn’t include a baked-in solution, loads of different ways to solve, e.g. product approach, quite open-ended idea to focus on.

12. Yes, I could think of a lot of cool things to do around it. Especially with product design, you could think of some ideas or find some products that help promote gardening in small spaces.

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notjustagirltattoopodcast · 4 years

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Not Just A Girl: Dark Art of Sunshine

You can listen to the seventh episode with Tahlia Undarlegt here. Or you can find this interview on YouTube with English subtitles/closed captions here.

NOT JUST A GIRL: Tattoo Podcast

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Season 1, Episode 7: Dark Art of Sunshine

Eddy: Hello, friends and welcome to Not Just A Girl your favorite feminist tattoo podcast. I'm Eddy and I'm back to share with you the thoughts and experiences of some of my favorite people in tattooing. On the seventh episode, we'll be chatting about the social perception of tattoos, being a traveling tattooer and then settling down into a new and slower way of life.Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are the traditional custodians of this land that was stolen and never ceded. I am honored and grateful to be on the ancestral land of the Awabakal people. And I pay my respects to the Elders past and present and extend that recognition to their descendant.Today I am so happy to be joined by one of my dear friends Tahlia Undarlegt. Tahlia works at Great White Tattoo in Sydney. Um, and she is known for her unique psychedelic black work. Um, I actually met Tahlia in Melbourne at a convention before she started her apprenticeship and it's been such a joy to watch her grow and to watch her journey through tattooing. Um, she really is an absolute ray of sunshine and I'm so lucky to know her. Thank you so much for joining me today and for being part of the podcast, I'm so excited to chat to you. Tahlia: Thank you for having me this is awesome. Eddy: Um, I've seen heaps on your Instagram stories about all the little things you've been up to at the farm. Um, you know, you seem to really be using this time to connect with nature again. What has that been like for you? Tahlia: Um, it's been really lovely. I mean, like we, like my partner and I, we live part time in the city when we work and then part time here at the farm. So we've just kind of like gotten months worth of stuff done because we usually do two, three days a week down here. Uh, we've got, uh, like a fully sustainable veggie garden and like a big, like, we had some fermenting going with some different foods, but we wanted to get some other stuff done. So we've built ourselves, a chicken coop, but we have chickens and we've been doing like, um, other stuff like the gardens going nuts and lots of animals. Just typical farmer Joe stuff.Eddy: So many animals like the cats. The cats are such angels. Tahlia: Yes. I love those guys. Eddy: And you've been doing heaps of like foraging and hiking and stuff as well. Has that helped you get through the lockdown? Tahlia: Um, yeah, like we're very lucky. I mean, like we have a giant gorge behind our house and you can like hike down and, you know, there's all kinds of stuff down there. Like you can just, I've been. Looking into a lot more like, um, IDing, different like native plants and stuff, just to be able to kind of work out what's what, a bit more and like, you know, realizing how much like edible and like sustainable kind of things that we can get from around here. I mean, like I'm a big nerd for mushrooms. Like I really love just like, I just think like fungus in general is really interesting. Um, like, I mean, if you look at my work, you'd see in itself, like I'm very inspired by it, but it's kind of fun to finally have enough time to look into it enough to ID stuff to be able to take home and eat and not die from it. So that's good. Eddy: I mean, that's always a bonus for sure. And um like, obviously your love of nature and mushrooms in particular is really prevalent in your work and the way you use organic shapes. Like, do you think that'll continue to be a big part of your work moving forward after COVID? Tahlia: Um, definitely like, I think, um, you know, having more time to kind of have my hands in the dirt and not so much on the machines has been like a real nice kind of relief. Like, um, I don't know, like, there's just, it's always been prevalent in my work, but I suppose, like I've learned a lot more, therefore I've gained a lot more inspiration because, you know, I know a lot more plants and different like stuff now that it's like photographic memory that, you know, when I bring it in, um, I don't know, just anytime you do something it influences your work, I don't think it, it can't not influence it.Eddy: Yeah, I guess your work is just like an extension of yourself really and that's why it's so unique. Tahlia: Yeah. Just like an amalgamation of everything you find really cool and interesting. Eddy: I do love that about your work as well, because it is like, it's so unique and it's so instantly recognizable and it, it really does carry a lot of that joy and like fun that I see in you.Tahlia: Well, thank you. Um, like I, I try my hardest to do that, um, I really like, just like off that, like question that you said, like personally, like when I, like I've often been told I'm way too connected to like the tattoos that I do. And I don't know, like, I think that's a good thing and sometimes a bad thing as well, but, um, I do really love to meet my clients and like, kind of have a rough idea of what I'm going to do for them, or even like, when I email with them, I really love to kind of get an idea of like what they're into, what their kind of vibe is. And, you know, I like, if I can, when I create something kind of, you know, sometimes you don't realize like for me, with like, I suppose I can bring an idea that someone can speak out. I can draw her out, whereas like, you know, the other way round, like, I, I can't always like articulate myself as well, but I can definitely like show it in a different way. So I like in myself, I always want to try and bring that for other people so that, you know, when they get it, it's really something that's like, special to them.Eddy: Yeah. That's so nice. And it's so important to be able to use like the language of tattooing to express who the client is. Cause then they're going to live with that tattoo much more harmoniously throughout their life.Tahlia: Yeah, definitely. I mean like, um, like for anyone I think like, like everybody does it for a different reason, I suppose, but like personally for myself. I feel like there's so much kind of going on inside of you, that you just want to be like project that onto the world. And it's really nice to be able to kind of put that on you and be like, Hey world, you know, this is me. Like here's what I'm about, you know? And like, it's a good opener for like other people as well, you know, because you meet other people and you kind of see a little bit more about what they're about. And I mean, I'm not even just talking about tattoos, just like in any kind of like modification, whether it's the way you color or cut your hair or the clothes you decide to wear, you know, like you're obviously putting out something that you want to portray to the world, which is like really cool to be able to you know, solidify. I can internalise that for somebody, you know, like you just kind of be like, Oh, okay, this is your vibe. And being able to create something that maybe they couldn't like envision is really cool. You know and you see somebody look in the mirror and you're just like, I mean, I've done it myself, millions of times, like, you know, you get a new tattoo and all of a sudden you're walking past a mirror and you're like yeah who's that like feeling really cool, like that. It's like, you just love. You're just like, wow, this tattoo is way too cool for me and then... come to you. And you're like, yeah this is me. Eddy: You feel so much more in love with yourself and your body. And like you walk past a shop window and you check your self out and make sure you get a glimpse of the tattoo Tahlia: And all of a sudden you're buying clothes so that it sits like to suit a certain tattoo that you've got. You're like, I remember the first time I started my sleeve, I don't think I wore a single sleeve for like two years after that like. Eddy: I used to um like, Oh, I'm wearing a higher neck shirt now, but I never, ever used to expose my chest or cleavage at all. And then when I got my chest tattooed, I was like, I'm going to undo my buttons. I'm going to stop wearing like my buttons done all the way up. I'm going to start buying plunging neck lines. I just want this like to be on display because it's so beautiful. Tahlia: Yeah. I mean, like one of the ladies that I learnt tattoo off, uh, her name was Ela Pour, Berlin. Um, and also another girl I worked with Laura um, she had this like beautiful tattoo kind of coming around like her, like inner thigh kind of area. And she just like whenever she was, when we'd go to the beach or something, I always look and I'd be like, wow, she's so beautiful. And like, I remember her and Ela telling me like, they're like, Oh, you know, you can dress like that. And I was like, Oh, I can't, you know, like my inner thighs are too fat. You know, like when you're a bit younger, you feel like, like really like self conscious about stuff like that.And I remember them saying, well, just find something you love and tattoo it there and you'll never feel like that conscious about it. I remember we were traveling through Mexico with a friend of ours ...and, um, she was like, let's just tattoo some, like something that you love. So I had to, I got her to tattoo some lavender coming out of there. Like now, whenever I like slight if I've ever felt slightly self conscious about it, I'm kind of like, well I got a sick tattoo there so it doesn't really matter. I've, haven't worn shorts to the beach in a long time, which is like, I think, you know, personally for me, that's something I find really amazing about, you know, what we get to do and that we get to like, collect that ourselves. Eddy: Yeah. It's such a powerful way to express self-love and like self ownership. It's so beautiful. Tahlia: Yeah. I mean, it's like pretty much like reclaiming what was already in there, you know? Like, and, and I think sometimes like this can be a little bit misconstrued. Like sometimes people said to me, Oh, did you not love yourself? Like, how come you did that? You know, why didn't you just go to therapy or something? And it's like, well, I think like any kind of mental health I would say, you know, therapy is definitely great and I've been through therapy myself, you know, like, and I think that like, it's just like, like you were saying, it's like reclaiming that, you know, like it's not that you had something missing and this filled the void. It's that, like, you had something that you couldn't express and now all of a sudden like it's like this inner goodness in yourself, you're able to kind of project out and you know, it just adds a, like a, an extra shield of like confidence and like light for yourself.Eddy: Yeah. And that's another form of language too, because you know what we do to our bodies and how we shape them, it helps attract a certain kind of people to us. I feel like, you know, in the tattoo community, part of why we band together is because we look at each other and see something common in each other. Tahlia: Definitely. And like, I think that's something that's so like hyper special about the tattoo industry is it's kind of like um, and I say this in like a good term, like, it's like a bunch of wierdos, we're all completely different. We're all kind of slightly outcast. We don't really have a place, but we have this one thing that bonds us together. And, you know, even like our friendship, you know, there's like so many things that make us different to each other, but then, you know, there's like this connection of that. And like, you know, just like. Just, you know, our personalities, you know, you just love each other, you know, you're just like, wow, these people are awesome. These are my people. We might not be the same, but we're just a bunch of weirdos kind of hanging out. Eddy: It's so good because you know, you start a conversation through tattooing and then you form relationships and you get to know people and just that diversity and, and like learning to accept and love people so different to you. It makes you such a better person. And I feel like it makes your work better too. Tahlia: Yeah, definitely. I mean, like you learn different like views and like different things in life that you can kind of like take from each other and like learn from each other. Like that's, that's amazing. Eddy: It's so good. Well, you, um, you mentioned before about traveling, you've traveled so much in your career and even like from the get go from when you first started tattooing, like where has that taken you in the world?Tahlia: Um, I mean, like I've been so, so lucky to be able to travel as much as I can. Um, even like, you know, how I've kind of gotten into tattooing from that like it kind of started as a bit of the creative journey. Like I remember years ago when I used to hang out in tattoo studios, hang out with like, Um, some like friends of mine that, you know, we had a lot of creative endeavors that we'd kind of do together. And I remember this old tattooer, uh, like said to me, like, you need to leave, you need to travel as much as you can. And like, he was kind of saying like, you know, this is the future of tattooing, you know, going out and like, as time went on, I'm like, you know, and I traveled a lot and I got influenced by different things. Like I also saw, I mean, cause especially in Australia with such like a tight knit tattoo community and like, we also like because of our like government suppressing kind of our indigenous culture. We don't have a lot of culture here. You know, we're like an amalgamation of our immigrants and like people that have kind of bought little bits here and there, but it's all been kind of watered down over time, you know?And then you go to somewhere, like when I lived in Mexico, there's just such a, a vibrant culture. And like that influences the artwork of... people, which then influences like the tattoo culture, you know, and you see like you go there and you go to a place and you bring something back that you like took and then, you know, like all that you learnt from people and then, you know, you show other people and then they take it. And the coolest thing about that is like, every time you see you know, a friend of yours or another tattoo artist, they go overseas they learn something and they take something back, they bring it back here and then other people are like, wow, that's so cool. You know, like, and then they take their own spin on it. And then that kind of like grows into something even bigger and better. And then, you know, like even like in, in Sydney, like in New South Wales, we recently had a, um, Japanese art exhibition at the, um, the museum. Eddy: That was amazingTahlia: Yeah. It's like a lot of artists, like a lot of tattoo artists went there and like all of a sudden you seeing all this really wacky cool, inspired like artwork because obviously everybody's gone they're like whoa, how did I miss this? How did I not see this? Or think of this, you know? And everybody's creating their own versions of it. Eddy: YeahTahlia: And I mean, you know, especially like, you know, it's just, I don't know. It's just really cool to see, like that's how art kind of progresses and grows you know. And I like becomes its own like things of everything.Eddy: That's such an important part of tattoo history as well. Like that's how we came to know tattooing through traveling. And obviously colonialism is not in any way, shape or form a good thing at all and it's been toxic, but you know, the, the one good thing, I guess for us is that it did bring tattooing to the Western world and the fact that we continue to travel and sample from different cultures and share ideas and perspectives with each other is what makes tattooing so diverse now.Tahlia: Yeah, definitely. And the amount of times you've kind of like you've had this small snippet of something and somebody is doing something so amazing. And then you go to a place and you realize that they were just this tiny, like subculture of a giant, like main culture of an area, you know, and you just kind of like, wow, this is so cool. Like, I mean, sometimes especially like if I'm feeling a little bit like, um, you know, like stuck for, you know, what kind of creative direction. Cause I mean, personally myself, I always feel like I need to be doing and creating something off there and you know, like growing in some kind of way. And I always find, you know, going back into something all are looking at maybe like a, a culture that you didn't like that you didn't know that much about, you know, and you go back through and you're like, Whoa, like this is insane, you know? Like, and then in yourself I feel like, how the hell is this not like, what's big right now. Like how come, like, everybody doesn't know about this. Like I've watched like, um, I mean, not that I would ever like use anything from there, but like a, a real sacred culture is like the Inuit culture. I mean, in like, um, the Northern parts of America and Alaska and that, and obviously there that we're using like the I think it's like the seal fat. I watched like a documentary on it and they do the threading with the tattoos and it was just amazing. Like it's such a lost culture and it was just like watching that. And I was like, how come? Like nobody. Okay. And I was talking to people about it at the studio the next day. And everybody was like, nah, I didn't know what you talking about. And I was like, Oh, you got to go watch this. Like, it's, it's amazing. You know, now all I think about, I just want to go there and I want to meet this young girl that I watched on this documentary. And I just want to be like, Oh my gosh, like, how do you do this? Not, not even like for myself, but I just, I want to know the history of it. It's, it's amazing. You know, like, and also that was like quite a, like, um, It was like a matriarchal kind of thing. So it was only like really the women that will like, so it's like a coming of age thing as well, which is also really amazing. So just that so Eddy: I feel like that's really rare in like tattoo history, because I guess, you know, our knowledge of tattoo history has been in predominantly patriarchal societies. So finding out about the Inuit tattooing is so amazing. Tahlia: Yeah. And I mean, like also don't take like any of my information as like proper information. I'm so bad at relaying. Like for anyone that is... look it up yourself, you'll learn so much.Eddy: Yeah, I'm, I'm really bad at remembering historical stuff. I'm very fascinated by history. I read a lot and watch a lot, but my brains a pudding and I have no recall whatsoever. Tahlia: I think I just get so excited about what I'm reading that I'm just like, Oh, this is so good. And then I'm trying to tell people and my brains like stuttering it out so.Eddy: But just the excitement that you get over, like reading about another culture or seeing a trick someone uses it doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to use it yourself, but it can inspire just a new way of thinking. And then you adapt that into your work and then it becomes even more unique and more authentic to yourself. Tahlia: I mean, like for sure also there was like, um, when I first started kind of hanging out in tattoo studios and getting to know tattooers and stuff. I remember like these kind of old school guys that I was working for were like, well, there's this process of tattooing and it's this way. And it's that way. And I mean, like, as I've gone on and I've traveled around the world, like all of a sudden you're like meeting these people and they're like, well, no, like, you know, we get told like, you know, you can't tattoo without like, you know, a solid black line around it, but then you're looking at these like old cultures that are just using like, just like a light blue ink or something, you know, it just like, this is just a tiny example of it, but you know, like you you're told that like a certain way is wrong.Like same with like, um, when people say to you like, Oh, you know, Like you'll hear some like old school Trad guys sometimes be like, Oh, you know, it has to be Trad because if it's anything else, it doesn't last, you know, it's like, that's how it tattooing is. That's how it's always been. It's like, well no. Like, you know, if you look back on like certain cultures, actually they were doing a lot of fine line stuff then, or like these cultures would just using like, just colors and not like, you know, they weren't really using like a solid kind of base. I mean, definitely there's the technical application that needs to be like, mastered with stuff like that. Like, I'm not saying that everybody should tattoo without lines, but like, you know, like there's, you know, it's there's stuff that's doable and you know, if you're, if you teach yourself right, like, you know, you can, you can experience and like, kind of break a bit of the, the norms and the barriers of what tattooing kind of should be as well.Eddy: Exactly. It's like, it's important to respect traditions, but also disrupt them like, and to, to push, to push the boundaries and not be gatekeepers. Cause I, you know, I've, I have a, a history of being a little bit gatekeepery with my opinions about what tattooing is and isn't, but then like the older I get and the longer I'm in tattooing, the more I realize that we don't benefit from being that way at all, that the more people push boundaries, the more they try the more they offer different perspectives the better tattooing will be in the long run. Tahlia: I mean like, um, when I first moved to Europe, when I like really properly started tattooing, um, when I was living, I was living in Berlin at the time. Like, um, I mean, Berlin, as anybody who knows anything about Berlin is such a like forefront on like arts and like, you know, different subcultures. I mean, like there was all kinds of, I mean, Surrealistic like abstract kind of stuff going on. And I remember going there and I was just like, what the hell is this? Like I remember before I left Australia years ago and like lived abroad, I remember seeing someone with a blacked out limb and being like, Whoa, that's so extreme. Like, I don't know if I could ever do that. And I mean, Like years later, I was tattooing and I was just like, Holy shit like, I can totally understand why everybody's pushing these weird barriers, you know? And like you meeting people that are just like, well, you know, and you're like, well, no, it's this way. You know? And it has to be like a pretty picture. And like, I remember being told a lot, like. You know, you can't get this because it's not feminine and you can't do that. Like that's too aggressive. I mean, like, does it make me any less of a woman having a black arm? Eddy: No.Tahlia: I don't think so, but you know what I mean? Like, it's just like.Eddy: You still identify a woman, regardless of what tattoos you have. Tahlia: Yeah. Like it doesn't matter what you look like. Or, what’s there? Like if, if you're a woman, you're a woman. Like if that's, what if that's what I am, than I am, you know? Eddy: No one has a right to prescribe anything like that. And yeah, it's like when people say to me, Oh, I really want a tattoo, but it has to be feminine because like, you know, I don't want my parents to judge me and it's just like, well, it doesn't have to be anything. It's just going to be what you like, what imagery do you enjoy? What makes you happy? And you get that because then that's a part of you.Tahlia: Exactly just to come from, like compliment yourself. Eddy: Yeah. That's where it can be difficult as well, knowing where to draw the line technically with tattoos, you know, sometimes people will come to me and say, I want this. And I'll be like, Oh, from a technical point of view, I don't feel comfortable making that to tattoo because I know it's not going to last, however, this person's also got the right to say no, but I want that tattoo because that'll make me feel happy. And then if they've been informed of the possible longterm effects, then yeah. That opens up a whole other that's a whole other kettle of fish though. Tahlia: No, no, no. I mean, I think this is an interesting thing to talk about. Like, I definitely, like I have this a lot, like, um, a lot of my work nowadays has quite like bold lines and solid color. And I have to like often tell people, look, I don't really feel that comfortable making it that small, you know, like, especially with the trend of like micro tattoos and stuff. And this was what I was saying before about like, stuff is not impossible, but technically it has to be done in a certain way. So like, you can't really get a big traditional eagle and make it, this big because I mean, you're going to end up with a blob and I mean, as much as people would say no, no, but that's what I want, that's what I want. I mean, I would love to do that, but I would also hate to think that I would do something that someone would dislike in the future. And I'll be pretty honest with people, you know, because I mean, we've all kind of, especially like. Like as tattoo artists, or if you've been getting tattooed for a very long time, like there's probably stuff you look back on you, like in hindsight, I kind of wish that somebody had kind of guided me a bit better to that, you know?And I mean, I have plenty of tattoos on myself that I got when I was like a little bit of a ratbag when I was younger. And like, when somebody is like, Oh, well, you know, this would be cool and I show them and I'm like, well, this is what it's going to look like now. And they're kind of like, Oh, that's a bit horrible. It's like, yeah, we do have things like laser and that now. But if you're going to be like spending your time, you might as well do the right thing. And I think, like on the subject of that as well, a lot of the time when people do kind of want stuff like micro or they want it in a way that's not really going to work a lot of the time, it's not so much, like, it's more fear of like, they want to be tattooed, but they're also scared of like the outcome. They don't want it to be because they're worried that they're not going to like it. Or like, you know, Eddy: What other people will think?Tahlia: Where someone's like oh my partner won't like it, my parents won't like it, and it's like I dunno. I think if you're going to commit to it, you probably should just like do it the right way straight off the bat, because you know, like if there's one thing I can tell you, like, people like perfect example, like my parents were a little bit like, when I told them I was getting my arm black out they were like, Ooh, I don't know about that. You know? But like, and like, I remember even like my, my stepdad, like he's amazing and he was like, look Tahlia, just, don't get you face, your throat or your hands tattooed. And I mean, as you can see by this, I definitely didn't listen, but I think a lot of older generation, they have this like, perceived thing that will like, you know, bikeys and then like this thing of like the females are like, you know, like we're like somehow controlled by bikeys or like they're going to perceive us in this, like really, you know, that kind of, um, I don't know how to word it properly, but like, you know how to, they think that we're going to be like this biker wife, you know, owned by some kind of gang or we're going to be kind of badass drug dealer if we get it, you know, and then we get it and they're like, Oh, that's beautiful. I love it. You know, I'm like. Eddy: Yeah.Tahlia: You’re not going to disown you because of a tattoo, they're gonna like eventually get over it. And I mean, if they decide to disown you because you have tattoos, I mean, well, nobody should ever treat you like that. And maybe, you know, you have to realize that that's within themselves and that's nothing to do with you. Eddy: Exactly. It's really interesting how people like restrict what they can get tattooed because they're so scared of not fitting into this like socially prescribed version of normal and like, you know, studies have been done about how women with tattoos are perceived as being more sexually promiscuous. And then that brings up all these things of like, well, for starters, there's absolutely nothing wrong with being sexually promiscuous. You do you. And then also, how can a tattoo have any impact on a person's like sexual adventures. It's just like, it's so irrelevant and it's so weird that people would restrict how they express themselves on their own skin because of another person, it's sad.Tahlia: I mean, if I ever have a client come in, regardless of gender or anything, if they say anything to me about, Oh yeah, my partner said, I can't get this. I'm literally like dump them. You don't need that in your life. And people are like, Whoa, that's really harsh. And I'm like, well, no, if anybody has that kind of say over you, then they're probably toxic, you know, like you shouldn't be, I mean, fair enough. If somebody is worried about your like physical safety, you know, or like your mental health, you know, if your partner's like, Oh, you know, I don't think you should get that cause you're not in a good head space. You know, if it's something really gnarly and negative. You know, if they want to get some big curse words or something and you know, their partner's like, Oh, they're not in the best head space. You know, it'd be a little bit like I would also, regardless of if they had a partner or not, I'd probably be like, look, this is a pretty gnarly thing to be getting are you show you're in the right space for this, you know, maybe you should think about it, you know? But like, I mean, if somebody is telling you what to do in that kind of way, that's a very toxic environment to be a part of.Eddy: A hundred percent. Tahlia: You know? And then I also think like, from that, I'm like, if they're saying that about your tattoos, what else are they saying? Like, this is probably not good for you. Eddy: Exactly. I remember many years ago. I tattooed, I outlined a half sleeve on a girl and I found out a couple of weeks later that her partner didn't like it because it reminded him of a tattooer, he didn't like the style that I had done. And he made her get it lasered off. And then he chose the artist who would redo it. And it was just like such a horrifying thought, just so horrifying that somebody like felt they had a right to control because the whole reason that we're attracted to tattooing is because it's our way of reclaiming ourselves. So when somebody else has an input in that, Like I, I certainly would never allow that to happen in my studio again, like wherever possible. I would just be like, no, get out well to the, not to the customer, obviously to the partner, then I'd turn around to the client and say let's do a bigger and on your forearm.Tahlia: Yeah. I mean, like, um, yeah, I still get a little bit weird about doing partners names. Eddy: Oh.Tahlia: Like I've done them, but like, I mean, I'm still so so strange about it. I mean, if you're somebody that wants to get tattooed and you want your partner's name right now, like, listen to me, when I say this, just find an object, something that you both love, you know, get that tattooed, you know, because you never know what's going to happen in the future. You know? Like, and I mean, like, we all think we all want love to last forever. And I mean, sometimes it does, but you know, like sometimes I feel like like from my experience in studios sometimes I feel like it's more of a bad omen than what it is like a good one, you know? So I'm very, very hesitant to do it.I mean, if I have like an old couple and they're like, yeah, we've been married for this many years, you know, I'm a bit like, ah, okay then, but you know, if you kind of like doing it to prove you love a little bit. I guess so many other things you can do, like get their favorite band lyrics tattooed on you, before you get their name, you know, becauseEddy: ExactlyTahlia: I know plenty of people that have gotten like partner's names and they've had to like cross them out or do other stuff or you know and it's like, you just don't want that on you.Eddy: No. Well, I reckon 90% of the partners' names. I've tattooed on people within six months, they've broken up. And I think it's, it's not that the tattoos necessarily jinxed. I think that the reason they've done that was because there was something, there was underlying issues and they were so terrified of losing this relationship because of these ideas that love allegedly has to last forever. So they've gone and done this as this way of like proving it and cementing it and it doesn't work. And, yeah, you can't do that. Tahlia: Definitely, I mean sometimes like if somebody would tell me like, like I've had people come in before and they're like, I want to win my partner back. I want to get the name tattooed. I'm like, well, how about you go home? And you write a list of things that you could do. Like, you know, there's like, if there is there's problems there maybe address the problem. Not like try and bandaid it with a tattoo. Eddy: Yep.Tahlia: That's my advice, you know, and I'm no therapist, I think that, you know, uh, immortalising, something like just, just think about it. Eddy: Yeah. I usually tell people to get flowers or, you know, some sort of really organic image because you can apply whatever meaning you want to at any particular point in your life. It's so flexible and, you know, words are defined by a very precise meaning and especially a name? SoTahlia: Well, I think like in general, like talking about words of tattooing and I know I just get on tangents here, but that's like something I think as well, like a lot of people. I mean, like, I've got, like, I've got script on, on here. Some of my favorite like lyrics when I was younger. And I think like when you start to get tattooed, if you not, like, um, sometimes you can't picture exactly what you want all the time. And a lot of people gather a lot of like inspiration off like a quote that they read or like, you know, a song that they hear and they're like, I need that tattooed on me. But the thing is that thats our jobs as artists, like I have people contact me. Sorry, I got flies in the house, in the country house. Um, like sometimes, you know, um, I forgot where I was going with this. Oh yeah. That's right. Um, so like, you know, that's our thing as artist that, um, we need to. You know, we create like what you give us.Like, I have clients message me like that are like, Oh, this is my favorite band. So I get them to send me the song that they love, you know, and like the kind of lyric that kind of meant something to them. And, you know, if they're comfortable to, you know, like create something off that I will let find out what their kind of images, you know, they're listen to that. What do they kind of see when they hear that? You know, what do they feel? You know? And like, you know, Like created a lot of stuff based off that, and I think that it makes for really cool, unique tattoos. So if you have an idea, contact the artist you like, and kind of explain that to them, you know, because you'd be surprised how many, like artists are actually really looking forward to kind of, you know, just getting a little bit more like creative and it's, it's a challenge.Eddy: Yeah, that's it, it elevates the tattoo as well. I mean, you know, not all of our clients are creatives, you know, they can't always be expected to take it on themselves to have all the good ideas. And so it, it can be this like working back and forth where they express kind of what they want. But then if they're able to let, like, trust us to decide what to do with that visually, and then. You often end up with such a better tattoo.Tahlia: Yeah definitely, especially if you're doing the right thing with your tattoos, and you're looking up an artist that you like, I mean, whatever you tell them that they're going to create something you like, you know, or if like, they do an amalgamation of styles, kind of send them the vibe that you like of theirs, you know, the color palette that they use and be like, well, you know, here's this idea I have. And this was what I really loved that you did. And, you know, straightaway your artist is going to be like, Oh, okay. No, I understand what you mean. You know, rather than like, you know, feeling like you have to get it nailed. And I think that sometimes, especially like, you know, contacting artists can be a daunting thing.I still remember when I first got tattooed. Going into a studio. I mean, it's changing, you know, with studios like yours, with like, you know what we have at Great White, you know, it's a little bit more inviting environments, but you know, like the, the whole culture of tattooing used to be quite a daunting one to walk into a studio, you know? And it's, it's like, You know, a lot of people have kind of heard those experiences. So when they reach out to artists to, you know, get, get some work done and stuff, they, they feel like they have to have like a million notes in order, you know, and bring it in and have everything to the precise point, you know? And it's like, it is cool when we have an idea to run off. But you know, if you like allow a little bit of creative freedom, like everybody, everything works better. Yeah, it just has that organic flow then. Eddy: Absolutely. And I, I still now get people going and paying a designer to do a tattoo for them who aren't tattooers and who don't understand the complexity of complexities of how a tattoo design works. Then they bring that design they've paid for to me. And I'm like, I actually have to change it because it's not tattooable. And they've wasted all this time because you know, they've not been tattooed before or they've had really bad experiences and didn't understand that it's actually my job to do that for you. And to make sure it's the best possible version of that you can get. Tahlia: Well, that is also, I like for clients why, why are you paying a deposit for stuff. You're paying because you know, we're going to create something we're going to spend a lot of time. And this is another thing with tattoos. That like, I think a lot of people don't realize is most of the time we're spending so many hours, like the week or the day before, you know, to kind of create something like this up, you know, you have that security, you've given that idea and we're going to sit down with all these, like, things that you've given us and we're going to be like, okay, what can I do to make this the best that I can make it?You know? And I, I think, unfortunately I've seen, especially a lot more lately, like, um, with like, you know, the rise of being able to pay for sponsored ads and stuff on social media, you have a lot of, um, maybe like creatives that aren't able to kind of make a viable income off like their, their thing. And they're kind of um profiting a little bit and like targeting their marketing towards, you know, making people feel like, you know, that it's part of like the tattoo process, you know, they kind of selling it and like, I don't know, packaging it in a way that like, you know, this is actually a thing you need to have your stuff like predone, you know, and this is what I do. This is what I specialize in. Then, like you said, you know, that's, that's part of our, like what we do, but, you know, we you know, we're tattooers we don't really have like a, it's not like you look up and there's a job title on want a tattooer does. So Eddy: [Yeah. There's all sorts. Like there's some who literally just tattoo images off Google and that makes them happy and they see themselves more as tradespeople. Then there's those of us who are really only interested in doing custom pieces in our particular style and then everything in between. Tahlia: Yeah, definitely. I mean, like, I think, um, like any, anybody that tattoos it's important to know the technical side of things, but I think that whole, I mean, it used to be like the kind of Western like style of tattooing used to be walking to a studio would usually be like a pretty scary place. You know, like you see all the old films and old bikies sitting in the chair. I mean, it hasn't always been like thatEddy: Ciggies, carpet on the ground.Tahlia: It's just a majority of the places. Yeah. Like, you know, and it used to be picked out, they get the old stencil, they stick it on, you know, and like these days is it's way more of an experience. So like live it up, you know, like do it, like use, use your artists, like as you can, you know, work with them and you know, you're also, you're going to enjoy it a lot more, you know, like, um, like. You're gonna enjoy your artist is going to really enjoy it. And it's something that you connect on then, you know, by the time you come in to get tattooed, your artist is so stoked on it. Like the amount of times, like people send me really cool ideas and they're like, just do what you want. You know, I just want something like this and I'm just like, I'm writing them I'm like, yeah, this is so rad, I'm so excited. This is going to be awesome. And then I'm like, Oh, thats right I'm also, I have to be slightly professional. A lot of the time they come in, I feel like we're best mates from way back when, you know, and I'm like, Yeah, so what are we doing now? You know? And like, they leave. And from there, it's like, you know, you, you're friends, like, that's it, you know, like you see them in the street it's just like, how's it going? I'm like, what's going on? You know, it's really cool. Like what other, what other kind of job can you do where like that's, that's your day to day? Eddy: Yeah, you almost, um, become a part of their lives, even if you don't necessarily ever connect again after the tattoo, you've still had this like intimate and unique interaction that has marked their body and they will remember every time they look at it and yeah, the impact of that goes beyond even, even that initial tattoo experience. But yeah, we're so lucky.Tahlia: Definitely.Eddy: I did want to ask you actually, um, How you, how you got into tattooing. Cause I mentioned that before that I met you, um, when, before you even started your apprenticeship, like, and you've been tattooing for, what would it be like six years, five or six is now Tahlia: I think it's about five, I mean, it's so like, it was such a weird coming into it. I mean, like, I, I didn't...tattooing so it looks like lets wind it right back. So it all kind of started, I mean, I was always like into creative stuff, but, um, I, I had a trade I quit that and I was working part time for a freak show. So it was like a performance, um, like agency and these guys are like, nowadays they're all just my best mates. Um, you know, and like, That was like my first kind of, I liked tattoos and I'd had a few tattoos, but this was like, I met all these really like creative, weird people. And they like had all these really weird tattoos and I was just like, this is awesome. And because of the shows that we were doing was so like, um, niche underground, kind of like, it was more like, um, I did a lot of like fire stuff and like grotesque, burlesque kind of stuff.Eddy: That's awesome.Tahlia: And like, therefore, like a lot of people we met were other creators. So at these events that we were doing I'd meet other tattooers. So from there I was like, Hey, can I come and like, hang out at the studio and paint and draw. So I just would like hang out with people. And then I just, I ended up like helping run like front counters sometimes and someone would go away for the week. Um, I just like when friends would, so when we met in Melbourne, um, friends of mine would like work the convention and they'd be like, Hey, do you want to come across? And they'd let me sell my artwork in return for working in the booth for them for the weekend, you know? And I'd just like, get my flights and go out and hang out with everyone just cause.Like I just idolized. I was like, this is the greatest job in the world. And I mean, I, I created a lot, but I also, I had a lot of like self pressure where I was like, okay, tattooers are like up here. Their work is up here and my artwork has to be up there. So, I mean, I have moved away to Europe and then I was kind of still hanging out in studios, but not really doing a lot. And I had done a couple of tattoos. I was living in Brighton at the time. Um just at some friend's studios there just on like a few friends that I knew in the area. And I was just trying to like get out there, but I mean, it was good, but it was bad. Like, unfortunately and fortunately, I worked in like private studios when I did kind of like when I hung out, I was always in private studios. So it wasn't like they could be like, you're an apprentice. You can do some walk-ins or you can do that. So it's like, I kind of got to teach myself and watch other people use machines, but I was like, you know, they were like, if you want to learn, you can tattoo yourself or tattoo a friend. So, I meanEddy: Yeah. Tahlia: I'd done a couple. And then I moved to Berlin and I was trying to see if it was like, you know, at this point I just caught the bug. I was like, I w I want to do this. I want to do it seriously. And I was able to, um, score a job at a studio called Pechschwarz Tattoo in...which is like, um a darkwork studio and the artists there were just so high caliber and amazing, and really friendly and lovely. And I mean, I was pretty honest about stuff. Like I was like, look, I don't really know what I'm doing. Like I just want to apprentice. And they already had an apprentice and they were kinda like, look you just tattoo here. You do your jobs here. And they will like and, you know, you just work as an artist, but you just travel as much as you can. You travel and you like learn off everybody you can you take as much knowledge as you can? And it was until then I went to work within like the first month or two of kind of tattooing I was able to go and work a convention in Kassel, in central Germany, where I met friends from a studio called Green Pearl, which is in Braunschweig in Germany.And, um, I used to go out there and I used to just like, that was my first experience of doing walk-ins, which was like, you know, at this point I was a bit fake it till you make it. So like I'm there and they're just throwing me all these walk ins. And I'm with all these amazing tattooers, and I was just like sweating and like, Oh my God, am I going to do this? Okay. People are coming over. I'm waiting for them to be like, Oh, this is shit. But they're like, Oh cool, man. Like awesome. You know, everybody was just so friendly and nice. And then, I mean, I was just, I dunno, I like, from there, I just met so many people just going to different places. So I was just like, okay, anytime somebody invites me somewhere, I would just go there. And then from there, I just ended up being able to like, I got invited to the Nepal tattoo convention and I tattooed around Nepal. I ended up working at Parliament Tattoo in London. I got invited to work there with a friend. I worked in Brighton a lot. Um, worked in, um, Krakow in Poland. I worked at a couple of conventions there. I worked in Italy and Spain a lot. I did a lot of work in Spain. Um, I think I'm forgetting a few places. Eddy: It's like, initiation by fire.Tahlia: Oh yeah. Like I was way out of my depth. Like, and I was just like so grateful and I mean, I was also like, I can't, I felt like I couldn't turn down the opportunities because, you know, I was like, if I tell them no, like, I'm not really ready then like, would I have that opportunity again? And like, I just got to, like, everybody was just so lovely. I mean like sometimes I think like, people, like I've said before, they, they build up tattoo is like, they're these scary things, you know? And then you meet them and they're just so awesome. And I mean, when I would go there, I would end up getting to talk to the people and I'd be like, Oh, you know, actually I haven't been tattooing long and they're just like, yeah, good on you. You know, this is awesome. And you know, they'd give you constructive criticism. And I mean, like, As long as you were nice to everyone, I mean, I'd just walk around and be like, how did you do that? That's amazing. You know, they would just stoked to share it. They're like, Oh, you think that's really cool? Like, well, I think this is cool. You know, you're just bouncing off one another. And I think that was the difference. Like Eddy: Yeah.Tahlia: It was just like really lucky. Eddy: Yeah. I love that there's different ways to enter tattooing because like, if we all had the exact same like apprenticeship situation or whatever things wouldn't be as diverse or interesting. Like the fact that you've got to travel the world learning along the way is what makes your work yours.Tahlia: Oh, thank you. I mean, I think also like, like I said, I was very lucky. I had some very good mentors. Um, like some of the places I would hang out, like I got offered, um, a lot of apprenticeships before I left Australia. And I remember a few of the older guys that I worked with and that like mentored me. Um, they kind of said like, you know, you don't like because of this underlying in a few of the studios, especially like at that point in time, on the West coast of Australia, unless you were an amazing artist straight away, like you kind of, your only choice from there was to work in these like kind of misogynistic, kind of sexist like underlying places, you know? And they were like, you know, you don't want to work somewhere you're a little bit owned by the studio. Like in, you know, there was this a lot of kind of dodgy stuff going on and, you know, I wanted to tattoo so bad, but I'm really glad I had good like mentors around that were like get out while you can, you know, like, you know, and I'm kind of like, but this is the wrong way to do it.And they're like, that's when I had people, like, not like you do it, however you do it, you know? Kind of like get in there. I mean, and I'm not an advocate, like when I'm telling my story, I'm not an advocate for like, you know, tattoo at home and do this. Like, I never did any of that. Like, you know, I mean, like I'm not. I still believed in a safe practice. I went and did my occupational health and safety before I started tattooing. And I've only ever like tattooed in studios, you know, or in like a safe environment like that. Like I, I think sometimes there's a little bit of a blurred line with people when they're like, you know, when they say, Oh, you know, you don't need to have a traditional kind of apprenticeship, like I totally agree with that. But I also would say like, you know, you have to make sure that you're having a safe practice. And at the end of the day, like, you know, there is, there is definitely a technical application that you need to learn. Eddy: You do need a mentor.Tahlia: Like everybody learns in their own different way, but yeah, like there is like, there is some technical stuff you have to learn. I mean, like I learned that pretty quick that like, just because I could draw something on paper didn't mean I could tattoo it. Like, and, and even now, like sometimes I feel like when I tattoo for a long time and I don't have a lot of time to draw. Sometimes I feel like my tattooing abilities surpasses my drawing ability. And you know, you've got to kind of notch it back together. Like, because at the end of the day, it is two different crafts it's like it's like doing like, you know, drawing sketching with a pencil and then painting with oils and expecting to be an amazing oil painter cause you good with pencils, you know, it's like it's two different things.Eddy: Absolutely. That's what, um, you know, like I've mentioned in previous interviews, how, you know, we're so privileged, like will those of us who are comfortable, like to be able to actually use this time to practice those skills again and kind of, you know, when we go back to tattooing, we'll have like being able to build other skills up to a point where, you know, everything's a bit more balanced.Tahlia: Yeah, definitely like, um, I think that, you know, it's, it's important to keep, like I think I see it with a lot of people. I did it a lot myself as well. Like I was lucky enough to kind of get, um, like I kind of, I was drawing all the time. I was painting all the time and I was so much like involved in my art. And then I started tattooing and I felt like that was maybe after a year or two of tattooing. I felt like my work was kind of becoming a little bit repetitive, like for my own liking, but I think a lot of it was to do with like, more of, I just wasn't taking the time to draw anymore. Like I was just so excited to tattoo that all I did was tattoo to the point that like I think then I had like a little while where I was like, Oh, well, what do I draw now? You know, because I'd just gotten so into this process of like what I would do to do a tattoo that when I got to sit down in front of a piece of paper, my brain was up. It's just like, nah you've used all that up now.Eddy: Yeah, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves as well to like, do everything perfectly and it's not really realistic. And, uh, you know, we've, we've talked about many times about like all of these like external pressures that we put on ourselves and how, you know, we're all ending up getting really burnt out and tattoo. Like I know so many tattooers who have been like, Oh, I've just been so burnt out lately. Like almost thankful that lockdown happened. And like, do, were you feeling that way as well? Tahlia: Um, definitely like I think, um, I mean, I I've had like moments of, uh, I think now I'm able to kind of better adjust to that. Like, I feel like I had my moment where I burnt out a bit and then I had the kind of go wait and like reel it back a bit. I mean, I think there's the co like there's, there's different pressures. So there's like the personal pressure, like the, you know, we want to be able to do, because we have to create all the time. There's this kind of thing to create on demand, you know? And like, sometimes you can't do that. Sometimes you have a bit of a creative block. It doesn't mean that what you create, isn't going to be amazing for somebody, but it just means like, as far as you creating something new and innovative, You're just maybe like a little bit, you just need to relax and like take some time whether what it is that relaxes you whether you take a ride on your motorbike, or you go out to nature for a bit, you know, something that just kind of resets and takes you out of the studio, you know, and like, um, you know, there's also this like, this social pressure. I mean, with like social media these days, especially like Instagram, I mean personally myself with all this like COVID stuff, like I'm looking online and like, I mean, I've gotten my gardens going. I've been looking after all the farm animals. Yeah. I've done lots of stuff. But then I was finding myself, hopping on Instagram and I'm like, Oh, everybody's painting.Everybody's like selling like originals. And they're doing all of this amazing stuff. And I'm sitting here going well, how come like, you know, I managed to get up and make lunch today and like sort the garden out. And then I'm like, Oh, I need to leave my garden and I need to paint. I should be doing my greatest work right now. You know? And like you find yourself, like even though you don't mean to you're like comparing yourself to other people and I mean like, back when I first started tattooing Instagram was like pretty like, it was like prevalent, but it wasn't like huge. And I mean, you know, nowadays, like, like you used to know the artists because they were the artists in your area, in your city, you'd read tattoo magazines. And that's how you'd find cool people. Whereas these days, literally, if I want to hop on my phone right now, I'm just like, exposed to the greatest tattoo artists in the world, the greatest artists in the world. So you just, you're looking and you're like, Oh my God. You know, and everybody's doing their own individual thing, but you're not seeing that.You're just seeing an amalgamation of like amazing, different everything, you know? And you're like, Oh God, like, why am I no good at this? You know? And like, we also have, like, it's more of like an old school mentality, but there's like this thing of like, Um, like, it's kind of cool to overwork yourself when your tattoo, like, if you talk to artists that like, when like tattoo conventions are the perfect example of what you know, we'll tattoo for 12 to 14 hours straight, we do it for three days. And I mean, that's fun when you work at convention. Sometimes it's fun to burn yourself out a little bit, you know, but like, you know, people are just. They just take the work because it's there, you know, and they're just working and working, working, you know, and like they're burning themselves out. They're not like eating properly. They're not like, you know, a lot of the time, you know, they're kind of like going out and having a few drinks and like dinner with friends afterwards, you know? And they're like, They kind of like get some weird satisfaction from it, because somewhere along the line, some old school guys told us, you know, if you're not working, like, you know, then like, like for some reason, like we're made to feel guilty.Eddy: Yeah.Tahlia: If we decide that we need to take a day off a week, because we want to like, you know, get something else going. Or like, you know, if you're like, well, I'm working way too much, you know, like I, I took a day off a week so that I could you know, do my drawings to the best of my ability, because I feel like if I take that extra time, then like, you know, I create something better than if I'm just like putting it on, on the morning of like the thing, you know, but I don't know. It's just, it's this weird thing. And it's like, Nobody talks about it. Like nobody's really gonna make you feel bad about it, but you kind of have this weird guilt sometimes when you're like, Oh, you know, I need to work a little less than sometimes, you know, you're like, Oh, is everybody going to look down on me or think I'm weak because I need to take a bit of time to create.Eddy: Yeah.Tahlia: But I think also like a lot of people that do over work. They work in studios where they're doing a lot of walk-ins and like, they're not really like thinking about the stuff that they're creating a lot of stuff. So maybe they do like one of their own flash pieces. But for the rest of the week, they're doing like, you know, somebody that comes in and says, I want this picture. I want this. So they're doing that after like one after the other. And I mean that still can burn you out. But I mean, when you're doing what you do, what I do, what a lot of artists do, where you're like putting a bit of yourself into everything you create for somebody you just like mentally and physically cannot spend all your time doing that. Like if I'm working seven days a week doing three or four tattoos a day, Like by like Saturday, Sunday, how am I going to make the best work that I can? Because all I'm thinking is I need a good sleep. Eddy: Yep.Tahlia: I need to get out of the studio. Like I've traveled when I first started tattooing, I took that on board so hard and I just wanted to work so much that like for a while there, when I was traveling, like I did a three month trip with my friend, Laura, that I was working in Berlin with and we went to Italy, we went to Spain. Um, Where else, there was somewhere else we went, but there was like a few places that we traveled to. And then the three months, I didn't see anything. The first time I went to Spain, I spent most of my time in Barcelona. I hadn't even seen the beach. Eddy: Oh my god.Tahlia: Like we literally just stayed in a studio the whole time. I went Milan. All I can tell you about Milan is I went to. Well, I was lucky enough, actually, I got to go to some fashion shows in the nighttime, but we'd just been so busy that like, by the time we went there, I was so burnt out. I couldn't take in the fact that I was in fashion week. Like with you know, at an exclusive like NIKE and ADIDAS party, like, you know, all I was thinking was I just need to sleep. I need to draw these jobs for tomorrow and I need to work. Like know, I can't like you couldn't be. And at some point, and I think that also prompted, you know, when I moved to Mexico for a while, Like, it's a very slow, relaxed kind of lifestyle. And I think that's what, like drew me to it when I was living in Europe, I was like, so fast paced and tattooing all the time.And everybody I worked with was so heavily into that, that I like was so into this place where I was like, wow, everybody just wakes up. They go and do a little bit of work and then they relax. They take a lunch break, you know, like, and nowadays I think like, You know, I try and I think maybe I went from like so fast paced to so relaxed and I feel like coming back here was a little bit more of like, okay, let's like work is like, To the best of our abilities and then, you know, go home and like, relax and enjoy like, you know, our family, our pets, our garden, our plant babies, whatever we want, you know, take the time to really enjoy stuff like that.Eddy: Absolutely. It's so important to get that balance. Like I burnt myself out so hard and I always had these like ideas in my head that I had to be here for the studio to make sure that all the artists who work here were happy and that I was doing everything I could for them. And then I had to be there for my clients to make sure I was doing the best work for them. And I had to do all of these things and I had to do a lot of it to please everyone. And that I forgot about myself. And then I kind of realized like, what's the point of living if you're in, you're not enjoying it. What's the point of creating art if, if you're not able to actually put any thing of value into it, and then like, what's the point of, you know, being there for, you know, my colleagues, if I'm just angry and tired, like it's just, it's crazy. And tattooing is....Yeah, and it's, it's such a strange thing that tattooers have developed that attitude because it's such a capitalist attitude and we're meant to be pirates. It doesn't make sense. Tahlia: Yeah, I mean, not like how many, like as soon as we got put into lockdown how many tattooers was stressed about not working and do you know what that was? I mean, go back. Like a year. I was like, I'm in, I'd say like, I've made some of my biggest changes to that in the last year. I mean, I would be having a full mental breakdown if you go back a year or two, not being able to have work because you know, like it got to the point that, I mean, I love tattooing with all my heart and soul, and I always have like, and just like creating, but I mean, it got to the point where I had no life besides tattooing. Like my life was going to work early and then being the last one to leave because, you know, I just stay and paint. Like, I, I didn't bother with like relationships. I didn't like bother like everything.Like my friends were everybody I tattooed with. I didn't bother having a partner because I didn't want the time for it. Like, I I've always wanted pets. But I didn't have pets because I was like, Oh, well, I don't want to have to look after them because I want to be able to go and tattoo. I'd have a day off and I'd go into the studio and the guys at work all would be like, well, what are you doing? I'd be like, just in the area because I had nothing else to do, you know? Everything that I could. It's like, I feel for people that have done that to their life, because now that we're not tattooing, like, you know, you have to take a that's what happened to me? Like you have to take a hard, look at yourself and be like, wow, like, you know, this is something that I've like invested so much in my life in that, like, I don't have anything besides that, you know?And I think it's important to have that balance, you know, because. It did get to that like, my inspiration was all just tattoo inspiration. And then, you know, when I took a step back and I went back to doing the things I enjoy doing, like going for long hikes, you know, like I started taking Mondays off and I called Mondays adventure Mondays. And every Monday I'd go for a big hike by the time I'd go to work on Tuesday, I'd be physically exhausted, but I would also just be like, Oh, I did this and I saw that and like, it just got me out of that, like that habit, like I saw something different and I was like just fresh perspective. Like all of a sudden my work started going in like different directions and yeah, it's just, it's, it's very important.Eddy: Oh, that's so awesome. Yeah. Well if, to any of our listeners who are tattooers, who've been in that kind of situation, where their, they've invested all of their self worth in tattooing, what, what would you suggest if anything? Tahlia: I mean, everybody's got the different things. I mean, like, obviously we have like hobbies and passions besides tattooing like, even if it's something as simple as if you still want to do something creative, like go and do a life drawing course, or like, you know, an extra art course or something, something away from it find like a different medium, or like, you know, another thing I've like, I've done, which I enjoyed is like just volunteer work at places, go and volunteer somewhere. Obviously, you know, you're tattooing that much. You don't need to go and hustle and make money off something. And I think that that's something that like, you know, being self employed, kind of, you can get into that bubble of feeling like you need a hustle all the time, you know, and like make money off every creative endeavor, but go and do something that you can't make money off.Eddy: Yeah. Tahlia: You know like going like knit or paint, like go and ask someone if they got a free wall and go and paint their wall for them or something, you know, like just do something that breaks you out of the cycle of like, you know, It being so much of work, you know, or like, you know, go on a date. It's not going to kill you. I mean, like, I definitely, it was like, I was afraid of people, like, you know, I was like, Oh, I can't get close to anyone because you know, work is everything, you know, and like, You just go and treat yourself, take yourself out for a nice dinner. Like one of my really good friends, like I rang her up and she was in Scotland and I was like, what are you doing? And she's like, just taking myself for a date, you know? And you know, it's like, she took a day off work, took herself for a day and made herself feel better. And I was like, Oh God, I've never done that. Like, I never would think of that. You know? So like, just think of like, Think of someone you really love and if they were like, if they needed a break, what would you do for them? And then just do that for yourself. Eddy: That's a really good point. Yeah. That's awesome. I love that. I'm going to do that. I'm going to take myself for a date tomorrow. Tahlia: It's so good. I mean like also another thing I love to do when I take myself for a day, Is when I sit down, I like table for one, I'm like, Oh no table for two, please. I'm just waiting on my date and then seeing their face and like, Oh, they just didn't show up...it's a horrible thing to do.Eddy: Hey, you got to take the joy where you can. Tahlia: Yeah.Eddy: Well, before we finish up today, is there anything else you wanted to touch on?Tahlia: Um, I don't know, I could ramble on for a million years. I'm in like, I've already expressed for this my love for you guys as well. Um. Eddy: I love you. Tahlia: I mean, for anyone. Well, I can't wait till I can come visit you guys.Eddy: Aww, I miss you so much.Tahlia: But I mean like, with like tattooing, I mean, I'm just like, I can't wait to go back I like, I'm just super excited to like, you know, see my clients again, meet new people, travel more, you know, like it's been such a wild ride to get to here.I'm super excited to see kind of what the future of tattooing holds. And there's just that many amazing artists out there. And like, you know, I, I have the absolute pleasure to say that a lot of those amazing people are my friends as well. You know, like I I feel really, really, really blessed to be able to be inspired by the people that come and eat dinner at my house with me, and like, you know, meet up for coffee. You know like, it's, it's pretty awesome. And like, you know, it's the people that like are collecting tattoos and let like contact us and that really dig our art, like I just like I just pinch myself every day and I'm like, wow, people actually like what I'm doing. I'm so so I stoked on that and I'm stoked that a lot of people share that same kind of vibe as me, you know, and just like, appreciate everything about it.Eddy: We are the luckiest people on the planet, I think, in the universe, even Tahlia: Yeah and like, if anybody, if anybody ever sees this and they want to like reach out and chat about art, about tattooing like I kind of, I swear I'm not a scary person. Sometimes it might take me a few days to answer, but I do love like, hearing and seeing art projects. Like, I love when like, you know, people that follow me on Instagram, they like message me and like, Hey, I drew this, what do you think of that? Like, and I just love that. Like, I love like supporting people, like if you're creating in any kind of for yourself or if you're pursuing to be a tattooer. Like just support as many people as you can support local artists, support, local business, you know, like Eddy: AbsolutelyTahlia: That kind of thing. You know, like there there's no room for hate there's enough, like hate out there. So just like just bugger it off, you know, just find things you like. And if you find something really nice, like if you like something, don't just scroll past it, you know, make the effort to tell somebody because you know, like for like, as artists we're so self-critical like, you know, someone writing something really nice to us, or like commenting on something, you know, that could be what makes our day. That could be what, you know, you saying that you like, that could inspire us to create more of that. You know, like if you're not engaging with us and we're not really sure what you're into. So like, be like, you know, be more engaging with us and like, we can bring you exactly what you want. Like tell us what you want to see, like go for it. Eddy: That's awesome. Yeah. That's that is such a good thing to do. And it's so true about the whole, like, just being kind and spreading love it like that kind of optimism is really going to be what makes the world a better place moving forward.Tahlia: Yeah, definitely. And I really hope all of this time that we've had at home has kind of like sparked that, you know, it's definitely made me realize like how much you can get into doing it everyday life. And then you kind of like take for granted the fact that you know, like I drive two hours and I can be with you guys and hanging out, you know? And you kind of like, you know, even with family and any kind of friends, you know, you kind of take that for granted. And then something like this happens. You're like, Oh, I miss everyone. I really appreciate having those people in my life. And all of a sudden you're like, as soon as this is over, I'm going to go hug every single person and tell them how much I love them.Eddy: So many hugs after this. Oh my God. Tahlia: Although I feel like our pets will be very upset when we all return to work. Eddy: Yeah. The cats are going to be devastated. Like my, my exotic short hair, my little squish face boy, he like, he spends hours just sitting on Aaron's lap, staring into Aaron's eyes, just full of love. And he's so happy Aaron's home all the time now. Tahlia: So good though, I mean, if there's anyone, that's like not hating COVID. It's definitely our pets. Eddy: Yeah. All the doggos in the world having the best time going for walks every day. Tahlia: Oh, yeah, they're all just like yeah best day ever.Eddy: Aww, little angels. Well, for, for our listeners, um, if you'd like to watch the footage of this chat, you can head over to our YouTube and follow us on Instagram at not just a girl underscore tattoo for regular updates. I'll be sure to link Tahlia's information if you want to contact her, um, and follow her. And um, any other information in the show notes, um, make sure you subscribe and follow and share and spread the love of tattooing. Um, thank you so much for joining me Tahlia. It's been so amazing and thank you so much to all of our listeners. Um, I hope everyone has a wonderful day if they can and get out there and spread the love and be kind and don't take anything for the granted.

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