#but the delivery is enough to provide me context

[nemotakeit]

the way tyler writes his lyrics in a way that's lowkey impossible to interpret at a first glance but still delivers the essential feel of it with the first impression is pretty amazing to me

[akkivee]

i hope arb switch port does get eng localised lol i really think everyone should experience kuukou giving his word to protect the mc and kinda failing to do so, and his team needing to talk him out of doing something reckless bc he wants to make sure he’s keeping good on his word lol

[bestworstcase]

Thanks for your response ala Ruby & Yang, great stuff!

Idle aside, but do you have any thoughts on Yang's role as the sort of black sheep of the family by dint of Raven associations?

Cos like, Tai overtly favors Ruby, projects Raven onto Yang, resents Raven being rough up and is bad enough about reminders of her Yang feels she has to apologize for his negative reactions. Let alone his... Everything else.

Then there's Qrow who doesn't seem to interact with Yang over much at all and one of if not their most major interaction. Involves him straight up saying he thinks she's either a liar hurting people for fun or "crazy".

I recall someone I was chatting with wondering: Imagine doing everything you can to keep your family from breaking apart & being compared to the woman who left you when you were a baby?

Cos I do wonder how Yang feels about all that given she seems to downplay and or try to work around her family's issues when she can. Let alone what it says about the adults in the room.

smth i think about a lot is the way yang’s narrative about her childhood shifts between v2 to v5

’cause in v2 it’s: “it was tough. ruby was really torn up, my dad kind of shut down. it wasn’t long before i learned why…” all to provide context for this anecdote about putting ruby in a wagon and running away to find her mother. and then her conclusion is “my stubbornness should have gotten us killed that night.”

and while there is a degree here of yang framing the story to emphasize the point she wants blake to understand, it’s also very obvious in her delivery that the emotional reality of this memory for yang is “the time my stupidity and stubbornness almost got me and ruby eaten by grimm”—when she was [checks notes] like five, six years old, and regularly left at home unsupervised.

but in v5, it’s: “my mom left me. ruby’s mom left too. tai was always busy with school, and ruby couldn’t even talk yet; i had to pick up the pieces. i had to pick up the pieces. alone.”

aside from the telling slip (tai, not dad)—yang centers her own feelings and the harm this situation did to her this time. which is something she’s always felt but i don’t think she could have brought herself to say it out loud to anyone during the beacon arc, because it was pressed down under the guilt on display in burning the candle, the feeling of having been inadequate and too stubborn and too selfish and and and–

coughs quietly. “my stubbornness should have gotten us killed that night.” / “you were predictable. and… stubborn. and maybe a little boneheaded.” yang’s narrative about the wagon incident—which happened when she was five or six!—pinning the blame on the thing tai imagines to be her fatal flaw is…probably not coincidental. yang in v4 after a year of being loved by her team and supported by mentors like glynda / oobleck / port has the perspective to know that tai doesn’t know what he’s talking about; but as a small child who’d just had a terrifying near-death experience with her baby sister… 😶

it definitely had a big impact on the way yang sees herself

BUT i do read qrow's talk with yang in 3.8 pretty differently ->

because the context is: yang saw mercury attack her and struck back in self defense, then had like a dozen synthetic soldiers point guns in her face, then looked up and saw the replay footage of herself walking over to shoot a boy who was just kneeling on the ground. and some of the most powerful authority figures in the world are pushing this narrative that stress and adrenaline "clouded her judgment."

like this would make anyone doubt their sanity. bc holy shit.

yang, though...a couple weeks ago, yang after being knocked unconscious woke up and blearily saw someone she thought was her mother walk away from her and disappear in a flash of red light. she hasn't mentioned it to anyone, because it's just so bizarre—yang doesn't know about raven's semblance yet—she must have just been seeing things. right?

aside from raven (who isn't here) and yang (who believes she hallucinated), the only other person who knows that yang saw her mom on the train is qrow, because raven told him about it. he also knows that:

tai insisted on not telling yang ANYTHING about her mother, and qrow respected that up until now; so yang doesn't know about raven's semblance and can't make sense of what she saw.

salem's infiltrators are the same people who attacked amber, and qrow didn't get a good look at them because they seemingly vanished into thin air—pretty damn good chance that one of them has a semblance that manipulates what you see.

ozpin wants #2 kept secret, so yang has some very powerful people actively trying to convince her that she's crazy. ironwood is straight up gaslighting her.

qrow also—based on the first thing he says, which is "why'd you do it?"—seems to consider it a possibility that it is what it looked like but yang did have a good reason, and i actually do not think that is an outrageous thing for qrow specifically to think. because qrow was emotionally abused as a child, and he knows yang, and in the event that yang really did suddenly turn around and punch a guy who was kneeling on the ground, why would she do it?

glances at shay d. mann. well. maybe this kid has been harassing her? maybe he said something horrible or threatening to her and in the heat of the moment she just snapped? maybe "he attacked me, i saw him attack me" isn't really a lie per se, she's just scared that "he's been picking on me ever since he got here and he made a disgusting remark and i just couldn't take it anymore" won't be taken seriously? as in, he did attack her—verbally/emotionally.

it's probably worth asking, at least!

so, qrow leads with "why'd you do it?" in case there is some invisible reason justifying the apparent action. yang says "you know why." qrow goes okay, well, i only know what i saw, so you're either lying (i.e., yang had a reason she now isn't telling) or crazy (i.e., yang saw something different from reality that was very real to her).

she says "i'm not lying." qrow believes her: "crazy, got it."

at this point, he knows the most probable explanation is that one of salem's infiltrators fucked with her head. the inner circle's gaslighting doesn't sit right with him; he's not going to buck ozpin by telling her the truth outright, but he wants to make sure yang knows she isn't losing her mind. he also has all the info needed to guess that yang is actually really really scared that she might be crazy.

which is why he kicks off the wall and begins to pace around. the language he uses sounds dismissive, but his tone is mild and his body language implies "let's talk about it, let's figure this out."

leading to:

YANG: Who knows? Maybe I am. QROW: And here I thought your dark-haired friend was the emo one. YANG: I saw my mom. …I- I was in a lot of trouble, took a pretty hard hit. But when I came to, the person attacking me was gone, and I thought I saw… her. Her sword. Like the one in you and dad’s old picture. QROW: You’re not crazy, Yang. That was your mom, alright. Let me guess—she didn’t say a word, did she? YANG: How did you know that? QROW: I don't see my sister very often, but she does try to keep in touch... whenever it suits her. YANG: Wait—you mean you talk to her? That was real!? QROW: Yeah, she found me. Had a tip from my most recent assignment and wanted me to give you a message.

it's really telling that yang responds to him this way. 'cause we've seen how yang acts when she feels dismissed or belittled:

TAI: Well, "normal" is what you make of it. YANG: What is that supposed to mean? Do you want me to just pretend like nothing happened? I lost a part of me. A piece of me is gone. And it's never coming back. TAI: You're right. It's not coming back. But that doesn't have to stop you from becoming who you wanna be. You're Yang Xiao Long, my sunny little dragon. You can do whatever you put your mind to. So whenever you're ready to stop moping, and get back out there? I'll be there for you. YANG: I– I...

she freezes and shuts down! her teachers have to come to her rescue!—but when qrow goes "crazy, got it" and suggests she's being "emo," yang blurts out her big secret. i saw my mom. to me that suggests a level of trust and understanding that isn't there with tai: qrow says stuff like "okay, so you're crazy" and "here i thought your friend was the emo one" but what he means is "hey, i know something's really bugging you, tell me about it," and yang picks up what he's putting down.

it's akin to how ruby goes "did you miss me? DID YOU MISS ME??" and qrow's like "nope" and they both laugh. or the back-and-forth ribbing between him and the girls in 3.4. there's this layer of mild ironic meanness in the way qrow converses with his nieces that all of them are fluent in, and in this scene he's using that mode to signal that "crazy" is not off-limits, that it's okay to talk about openly.

crucially, there's a code-switch in the middle of the conversation: as soon as yang gets real and says "i saw my mom," qrow reflects that seriousness back to her. you're not crazy, that was your mom, she found me afterward and told me about it. it was real. you're okay. qrow's ability to do that—to shift into a more serious mode when irony isn't appropriate—is why yang can have this rapport with him that she doesn't have with tai, because tai isn't... being ironic when he says mean or dismissive things to her.

anyway, qrow passes on raven's terrible message and then kind of annotates it: "raven's got an interesting way of looking at the world that i don't particularly agree with, and she's dangerous." (which is a very diplomatic way of saying he thinks raven is full of shit. lol.) but then he connects this whole conversation about raven back to what happened after the match: "you're a tough egg, kiddo. don't let this tournament thing getcha down. you had a slip-up; sometimes bad things just happen."

implicitly: yang isn't crazy. what she saw on the train was real, a product of raven's personality and her semblance. sometimes bad things just happen. qrow believes that yang had the experience she says she did when she punched mercury. he doesn't know why she had that experience—yang doesn't either!—but he knows she isn't just "crazy." sometimes things that seem crazy are actually real.

remember what he tells the girls in 3.4? "you may be acting like huntresses, but you're not thinking like one." same thing here. he's telling yang, hey, you're not crazy, you know what you saw, but you don't know what or who caused you to see it. "you cut off the head of the king taijitu, but now the second head's calling the shots."

hint, hint.

it's subtler than the hints qrow drops for ruby in 3.12, but very much in the same vein, and yang is plenty smart enough to figure it out. she might... not have? in the couple of hours between this conversation and everything going to straight to hell, but if they'd had literally just one more day, just long enough for the wheels turning in yang's head to click together with what ruby heard from velvet about coco hallucinating during her and yatsu's 2v2 against emerald and mercury, she would've had it.

more... generally, i've never gotten the sense that qrow projects raven's flaws onto yang in the way that tai does; qrow is definitely a lot closer with ruby than yang, but i think that has less to do with favoritism on qrow's part than it does ruby thinking he's like the COOLEST uncle ever and wanting to use a scythe like he does.

'cause like, qrow isn't their parent, he doesn't live with them, he's not responsible for raising these kids like their dad is, so while he obviously did contribute to fucking them both up because: alcoholic, ultimately there just isn't the same degree of betrayal or emotional abandonment; he's not their dad. both times yang talks in detail about her childhood, it's "my mom left, ruby's mom left, tai wasn't really around, ruby couldn't even talk, i was alone"—she doesn't mention qrow. there isn't that deep hurt, that feeling that qrow is someone who left.

when he isn't drunk, yang seems to feel pretty okay around him, and qrow likewise treats her... honestly a lot better than tai does:

he stops by their dorm in v3 to hang out with both his nieces; yang is fully in sister mode—cheers for ruby to beat him until ruby loses, immediately shoves her out of the way like "my turn!! >:D"—and qrow ribs them both, takes ribbing from both of them in good humor, tells both of them "you two are gonna go far."

qrow nicknames to show affection; ruby is "pipsqueak," yang gets "firecracker."

we only see qrow's goodbye to ruby, but in 5.4 yang indicates that qrow came to talk to her before he left, too. she also has complete trust that he's keeping the promise he made to look after ruby.

yang, as noted, opens up to him about seeing her mom; she's also shocked that he's still in contact with raven and indignant that he didn't tell her sooner, but—unlike with tai—she doesn't seem surprised that qrow is willing to talk about raven in general.

which tracks with what tai says in 4.11: "despite asking him numerous times not to, i know qrow told you where you're mother's been at these days"—meaning, this was a point of contention between him and qrow. behind the scenes, while tai refused to discuss raven at all, qrow was going okay well, let me tell her then, she deserves to know. and then ultimately he just bit the bullet and told her behind tai's back. i wouldn't be surprised if it turned out qrow had been straight with yang that her dad wanted to be the one to tell her the important stuff, and he wanted to be respectful of that, but raven wasn't an off-limits topic.

general contrast between yang-tai and yang-qrow dynamics; for example both of them say almost verbatim "you've got a long way to go before you're ready for the real world" (3.4/4.4). from tai it's belittling, he's insulting her; from qrow, it's meant to encourage, it's "remember you're still new to this, you'll make mistakes, just keep learning, keep trying." (rwby does stuff like this all the time, refracting an idea in different directions to highlight contrasts between characters; ozpin's advice to ruby vs port's advice to weiss is another example.)

a lot of qrow's resentment toward raven is centered on her abandonment of yang: "did you know yang lost her arm? [...] rhetorical question, i know you know. it's just obnoxious that you'd bring up family and then carry on like your own daughter doesn't exist. [raven: "i saved her."] once. because that was your rule, right? real mom of the year material, sis." like he is PISSED on yang's behalf that raven won't even try.

my impression is that qrow—although a) often away on long missions in far away places and b) an alcoholic who sometimes got blind drunk and became a burden yang and ruby needed to take care of—when he did manage to be there, made a serious effort to connect with both of them. he ended up being closer to ruby bc she wanted to learn scythe-wielding, but i do think qrow would've trained yang too (or instead) if the girls had different combat interests.

and while his relationship with ruby has a mentorish aspect, i don't get the sense either of the girls see him as a parental figure: he wasn't part of their household, he traveled a lot, his alcoholism in combination with tai's neglect eroded the adult-child boundaries because they had to be responsible for him as often as the reverse. he's a friend who also happens to be related to them. and that's especially true for yang, because he wasn't her teacher.

(i know it's a... pretty common headcanon / fanon that qrow lived with them, but i really don't think that's supported by the text? whenever ruby or yang look back on their childhoods, the family unit is always them + tai, and qrow isolates himself out of fear that his semblance will injure those he cares about. plus ozpin sending him all over the place as the one member of team strq still active. it makes way more sense to think he lived alone, and visited when he had the chance. which is the main reason i'm WAY softer on him than on tai, 'cause qrow wasn't in a caretaker/parent role; at most he was an occasional babysitter. so while his incidents of turning up drunk on the doorstep contributed to the harm... it's like, it would absolutely have been better for them if qrow were sober, but that wouldn't have changed anything about their home life. they'd just have somewhat easier relationships with qrow.)

TO WRAP THIS BACK AROUND TO THE QUESTION, tai is unfairly judgmental and harsh with yang bc he projects his idea of her mom onto her; yang also has a better relationship with her mom's brother than she does with her dad. how do these two dynamics interact? how does yang feel about hearing from tai that she's too branwen, so to speak, while also getting along better with the branwen side of her family? how might that fuel her desire to find raven?

if her uncle treats her better than tai does, then... maybe her mom would too, if only yang could reach her?—obviously it's not rational, but like. i don't think five year old yang put her baby sister in a wagon and ran away to find her mom because she thought she would ask "why did you leave me?" and then get her answer and go home. as yang grew older and developed a more realistic perspective it shifted to "i just need to know why she left" and she projects that backward onto herself as a child, but at the time what she wanted, what she was looking for, was someone who would take care of them.

[lady-harrowhark]

hello, can you explain to me in more clarity your “waxen” theory regarding Ianthe? I’m not picking up on what this implies but it’s making my brain itch.

Sort of! Totally fair question, I just don't have a lot of clarity myself in that I don't have a fully formed theory lol. There's definitely some links and parallels in verbiage that are pinging on my radar, so I do think something's funky, but I wouldn't say I'm fully on board with this yet. I'm just playing in the sandbox Tamsyn has provided us, tossing out ideas and thinking out loud. But I can go into some more detail, and add some more thoughts that have occurred to me since I posted that last night.

(Here's a link to the post in question, for context)

Anyway! So let's first lay out all the times we get someone described as some type of wax. At various points in HtN, we get the descriptions "a shoddy wax cast of some more beautiful sculpture," a "wax figure in a pink dolly dress," a "wax figure in pale purple chiffon," and "waxen face" for Ianthe. We also see that descriptor used a few other times for other people throughout the series. In GtN, Harrow's parents' bodies are called "waxy" and the first introduction of Protesilaus (as the beguiling corpse) says he was "waxen looking in the sunlight." In NtN, Kiriona's skin is said to have a "weird, waxy quality," then Naberius's skin is called "waxen" when they first meet up with Ianthe, and again a few pages later it again references the "waxen, handsome face". What I'm getting at here is that every time this sort of description is deployed, it's in reference to a dead body that's been preserved, manipulated, and is essentially masquerading as a living person... except for Ianthe.

We also know there are a multitude of times that she's described as looking like a poor copy of Coronabeth. There's that "shoddy wax cast of some more beautiful sculpture" line, her first introduction calls her a "starved shadow" of her sister ("or the first an illuminated reflection [of Ianthe]," and actually, off the top of my head I don't know that we ever see their descriptions framed that way again... I'd have to investigate this more later, but this might be the only time that Corona is described as a "better" version of Ianthe, rather than Ianthe being a "worse" version of Corona, which is interesting), there's a point where it says "The second twin was as though the first had been taken to pieces and put back together without any genius. She wore a robe of the same cloth and colour, but on her it was a beautiful shroud on a mummy," etc etc etc. I know there's more, but I'm too lazy to go pull the rest of the quotes and you get the picture by this point I'm sure. So nearly all of these situate her, at least visually, as a copy or approximation of Coronabeth, and one that doesn't quite live up to original at that.

So now let's pick apart this snippet of conversation we overhear between Silas and Ianthe at Magnus and Abigail's dinner party a bit. Ianthe says she was born via "surgical means," which I'm assuming is referring to a C-section delivery (or whatever the necromantic equivalent is) and notes that Corona is a few minutes older. Silas seems surprised (or perhaps concerned?) that they "risked intervention" and Ianthe says Corona had "removed [her] source of oxygen". At this point Silas says, "A wasted opportunity, I'd think." I had always taken this for him just being a dick and implying he wished she'd died in the womb, but coming back to it with this new angle... well. She says "Corona's birth put my survivability somewhere around definite nil." And I'm wondering if that doesn't tie to Harrow's comment about infant deaths generating "enough thanergy to take out the entire planet." Basically, could Silas have been implying that the Tridentarii's parents wasted an opportunity to use the thanergy from baby Ianthe's death to power up Corona?

Harrow says that twins are an ill omen, but the text hasn't come back to that as of yet. Given the difficulty necromancers experience with pregnancy, I'd imagine twins would could be especially dangerous and that in and of itself could be considered an ill omen. Ianthe's comments certainly suggest that their mother carried the pregnancy, although I don't think we know for certain whether she was a necromancer. I am so intensely curious about the Tridentarii's childhood and their parents; we get so many gestures towards some really twisted family dynamics, but very little in the way of concrete explanations. Particularly relevant here, I'd love to know more about their father wanting a "matched set" and how that came about. Did they intentionally plan for twins from the start? Was it only once they knew they were having twins that that became a factor? What's the significance there?

Outside of those "waxy" descriptors, Ianthe tends to be described as much more sickly looking than even other necromancers. We know that necromancers on the whole tend towards a phenotype of physical weakness, but even still, there's an emphasis on this with Ianthe beyond that. This might be due in part to narrator bias (coughGideoncough) or the direct juxtaposition between her and Coronabeth's vivaciousness, but what really jumps out at me as contributing to this effect is how frequently she's described as being colorless, pale, washed out, bloodless, pallid, anemic, etc etc etc. It very much makes me think of the way the color drains away from Colum (and even the rest of the room and the others in it) when Silas is siphoning. Silas himself is also often described as colorless ("mayonnaise uncle," "milk man") but not so much in a way that implies frailty as much as I read it as implying a stark coldness, in line with the very black-and-white moral authority he presumes to wield, a purported "purity", much different than Ianthe's colorlessness. With Ianthe, you get a sense that her palette ought to have been or perhaps was closer to Corona's, but the color's been drained away; where Corona's hair is described as golden, Ianthe's is "canned butter", for example. Almost like the life's been siphoned out, one might say.

So to kind of circle back around, do I actually think Ianthe is dead or a corpse like the other "wax" figures we've seen? Nah. Between Harrow and Palamedes, and especially Palamedes's medical necromancy, I think we would have heard about it by now if that were the case. But I do think it's entirely plausible that she's had a bit of a brush with death and that perhaps she's never quite fully come back from, and I do think she's being intentionally positioned as somewhat adjacent to death. If their parents were wanting twins from the outset, perhaps they used necromantic means to encourage the conception. Or if the pregnancy was as high-risk as I suspect it was, perhaps she'd died or nearly died at birth and been resuscitated. Their parents may have gone to extremes to keep her alive, to maintain their matched set. Given the themes of this series, I do feel it's necessary to draw a distinction between "resuscitation" and "resurrection" although they are curiously adjacent to one another. For all the text has grappled with dying and staying dead, dying and coming back, dying and choosing whether or not to return... we haven't touched on what something like a "near death experience" would look like. I'd imagine having that sort of experience, even at an incredibly young age, might lead one to be fascinated with, to use Ianthe's own words, "the place between death and life... the place between release and disappearance."

[centrally-unplanned]

There is this tweet going around which is getting pretty dunked on:

Start regularly recording your parents, elders and loved ones. With enough transcript data, new voice synthesis and video models, there is a 100% chance that they will live with you forever after leaving physical body. This should be even possible by end of the year.

And while I sympathize with the dunks, I also like to provide charity - there is no spiritual essence in this world, humans are diverse, if this concept is helpful to someone dealing with loss there is nothing inherently wrong with that. I have personal doubts it is healthy but context is a vast thing.

What is way more concerning to me is the way this idea intersects with the Web 2.0 paradigm of service delivery. If you build a digital simulacra of your dead parents...who do you think is going to own it? Unless you are hosting a domestic LLM model on your PC, which virtually no one does, this will be a service offered by Microsoft. You want...to create a simulacra of your mother, based on data from her life, and...sell that data and simulacra to a company who will reserve the right to utilize that data in any way they see fit?

My point isn't even to condemn that (I mean...), more to comment that...its going to happen. Someone's job at Microsoft 20 years from now is to be the data scientist in charge of monetizing their reams of data from the fake humans their users make. Fun...times...?

At least with waifus the ethical conundrums were sexy

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2024-08-26

Documence...

Listening: Modest Mouse to fill some spaces. I am rather fond of This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About so here's She Ionizes And Atomizes

Watching: Hosted a rare Good Movie Night, put on Baz Luhrmann's William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, which is one of the best movies. It's so good. We had one person who hadn't seen it since school, and one person who had never seen it. Truly a great movie start to finish, more movies should just be Shakespeare plays!

I really like how it plays with line delivery, a lot of the Big Lines where a lesser performance would leave some space for a dipshit audience are brushed past in the context of their passages while other normally innocuous lines are elevated to an astounding degree. "Mercutio, thou consort'st with Romeo" is normally a pretty like, passing line, it's very easy to read it as part of the pre-game bickering of Mercutio and Tybalt, but here it marks the point where the game changes from idle banter to a serious accusation. A simply inspired line read.

I'm a huge tragedy lover. It's great how many times a character looks up and goes "hey does anyone else feel doomed". Yo these violent delights are coming to an end anyone know what comes next?

Reading: I have been occupied with obsessing over Documents so I have had Baru Cormorant on hold. Instead, mostly various blogs. One of interest is They Don't Make Readers Like They Used To

This is interesting especially since I've been the main sounding board for @thosearentcrimes reading lately and it makes some interesting points that might be wrong, as is common for this blog.

The key thesis is that readers engage more with the works they read now, but also they are more likely to challenge those works on their fundamentals, rather than anchoring themselves directly in the author's words first.

Some of this is definitely just that more people engage with media now, and it's more visible, is part of it, but that is also kind of the thing it's pointing at. More people are able to engage with media like this who would, I guess, have normally had to become writers in order to express these thoughts. Some of them did!

Playing: Tactical Breach Wizards is out! I am about halfway through the campaign.

It's very a tight tactical combat strategy game, especially if like me you are trying to be quick and efficient with your turns. You can absolutely kite enemies around a level for round upon round if you wanted to in most levels but it feels bad and it will eventually chip you down.

Because you can rewind within each turn but not successive turns you are kind of encouraged to keep your turns dense in action and low in number so that if you need to go back you aren't throwing away dozens of turns of state. Most levels pan out in 1-5 turns, which is small enough that you can memorize every action you took even with a larger squad.

The writing is Tom Francis Standard, mostly snappy quips, but the additional dialogue compared to, say, Gunpoint gives it some room to get a little more earnest. Which is nice.

Making: Bleh.

Tools and Equipment: Live Captions for Linux is an interesting little application that runs a CPU-based live transcription model locally to transcribe whatever is coming through your speakers, or whatever's coming in on the mic.

I've had it sitting on my computers transcribing podcasts, which I often listen to by routing my phone's bluetooth audio via the PC I'm sitting at. It provides a reasonably good glanceable transcript as well as a transcription history that is handy if I lose focus for a second. Rather than rewinding I can just take a look and see what I missed.

[krenvs3000f24]

Blog post 2

My ideal role as an environmental interpreter would involve creating a deeper connection with nature and people while educating them on environmental sustainability and protection methods. This role would entail critical responsibilities such as explaining the importance and historical context of the environment. Depending on where this interpreter works, the process of engaging the audience and the level of information they would need to provide will be determined. Despite children having shorter attention spans, I believe they could grasp the same amount of information as adults listening to a podcast. Still, the method of delivery would have to be catered to a younger audience. This could be done by explaining various ecosystems and what wildlife lives in the environment instead of going into extreme detail about certain plant species. 

Not everyone can be an environmental interpreter. To truly engage the audience, an interpreter must be experienced and have extensive ecological knowledge to foster deeper connections with the audience and the nature they are learning about. I would prefer to be an interpreter in the outdoors rather than through an online delivery method so that I can be encased in what I am learning about and deepen my learning through an experience rather than trying to visualize it in my head. Alongside being outdoors, I need to broaden my communication skills to get all points across to the audience while ensuring the terminology being used is understandable and simple enough. Ideally, I would love to take my audience on actual hikes where I’d have the routes memorized and be able to point out various aspects of the environment, for example, pointing out species that are being heavily affected by climate change and methods of preserving the respective species or being able to tell the history of the hiking trail. This would help me engage the audience by giving them things they can relate to. 

As an interpreter working outdoors, I’d stress the importance of respecting the wildlife’s habitat, as we would not want to harm or scare the animals we encounter. Alongside the animals we encounter, just in general, being respectful to the environment would be one of the key takeaways I’d aim for the audience to leave with, as this will help create new habits for people that do go out in public and litter or pick things off of plants without knowing if any harm is being caused to them. As an interpreter, I help the audience foster a deeper appreciation for the environment. By pointing things out and advising against things such as littering, I can help create a more significant environmental impact. I do not have any preference on what kind of trails I take my audience on. Ideally, it would be a path that I have taken before or somewhere I could do some research before engaging with the audience to create the best possible presentation for them.

[pinkeebunnie]

Disability Pride Month is coming to an end and I really wish I could have enjoyed it like many have... but my health has potentially deteriorated to the point of being bedbound. I really don't wanna e-beg and take away from resources that are already stretched thin but it's become increasingly difficult for me everyday after months of my rapidly declining health. If I could open up art commissions to make up for the e-begging I would but my body doesn't have enough strength to do so.

With only me and my also disabled mother living together I don't have any other support to take care of me while bedbound. Having no mobility/acessability aids I can't be as independent as I'd like to. I'm still having to fight SSI (for many years and still trying) and with less than decent insurance and no medicaid I won't be able to see any doctor anytime soon without still having to pay out of pocket.

My other parental guardian (to provide some context which only scratches the surface. tw for ableism and abxse) only allows me a certain allowance for the barest minimum. And with our car broken down and still looking to fix it. I can't access my nearest laundromat, grocery store or watermill for drinking water. I can only do delivery for groceries which is expensive already along with high pricing of items within the app. Due to that I can barely have proper nourishment or save up for essentials.

These are the ways you can do help me, a disabled indigenous trans intersex person living in poverty. I know Amazon is terrible, but it's really the most accessible atm for me. I'll forever be grateful for any donations or help with items I need. If you are unable to dontate, that is okay. Reblogging helps just as much to to get the word out. Anything helps.

My C@sh@app: $PinkeeBun

and my Wishlist

[ahenvs3000w24]

05: Finding my "Footing" as a Nature Interpreter through Environmental Education

Over the past several weeks of this course, I have spent a considerable amount of time reflecting on my own relationship with nature. Through this self-reflecting process, I have flipped through photo albums of family trips and journals that I’ve kept from camping excursions. I decided for this week’s topic, I would share my experience in Tanzania, Africa and how the educational journey combined learnings about both science and the environment.

To begin, I feel it’s essential to provide some context. Science education refers to the teaching of scientific knowledge and core concepts (Wals et al., 2014). Science education is often supported by environmental education (Wals et al., 2014) Environmental education refers to the teaching of knowledge in addition to the incorporation of values (Wals et al., 2014). The two disciplines support one another despite differences in their approaches (Wals et al., 2014). Science is most often taught in an academic setting, at a desk, with an expert delivering the material. They may reference the natural world, but the values are absent (Wals et al, 2014). There is a gap embedded in the educational system that, in recent years, has separated scientific education with environmental education (Wals et al., 2014). The values and hands-on experience I had while in Tanzania have been the most impactful lessons I have had in my lifetime thus far.

In 2018, I was fortunate enough to be accepted into the mission trip program my high school offers students in their grade 11 year. The program consisted of local community initiatives, classes on global development, and team-building activities. In addition to the humanitarian aspect of the program, my teacher emphasized the importance of the natural world and sustainable practices that the Western world could adopt. Tanzania and the greater continent of Africa offer vastly different climates, landscapes, and more diverse wildlife than what we are accustomed to. The people of Tanzania, specifically the village I spent my time in, rely on the land and their natural world out of necessity for survival. 

One of the activities through which we learned from some of the residents of the village was the concept of boma smearing. Boma smearing is essentially the insulation of homes using a mixture of cow manure and sand. This concept was clearly very foreign to young Canadians; however, the experience was eye-opening in how the natural world can be used in the absence of modern technology. It would be naïve to ignore the fact that most often this was necessary due to the lack of income and resources. While being exposed to a vastly different socioeconomic community, this exercise provided invaluable perspective as we witnessed this community’s ability to use something as simple as manure to fulfill a need as important as insulating their homes. I utilized previous knowledge from science courses of materials and biological compounds and the sensitivity I had acquired in working with the village residents to contextualize this. I will always carry this humbling and intimate experience with me through my life in the Western world.

I believe that this experience was integral to my ability to interpret the nature around me. The experience both in class and in country, was the perfect synergy between science education and environmental education. I was encouraged to internalize and interact with the world around me through artistic exercises and scientific discussion (Hooykaas, 2024). The delivery of information I experienced was conducive to all learning styles (Hooykaas, 2024). Although my words cannot fully bring justice to the experience I had, the feelings that remain have motivated me to become a contributing member to the protection of our natural world. The local people of this Tanzanian village completed simple tasks of everyday life with such joy. This observation pushed me to do some personal reflection and signified to me that it is truly how you interact with the world around that can help dictate your quality of life.

I am curious if any of my readers have been doing some of their own reflecting on past experiences and whether your outlook has changed through establishing "footing" as a nature interpreter? 

P.S. We had the opportunity to attend a safari! I wanted to share some of my favorite shots from this day. This Safari was in the Tarangire National Park and was approximately five hours long. The impact the wild landscape can have on the behaviours of these creatures was breathtaking and undeniably powerful.  

References

Hooykaas, A. (2024). Unit 2: Teaching learners. University of Guelph. https://courselink.uoguelph.ca/d2l/le/content/858004/viewContent/3640016/View

Wals, A. E. J., Brody, M., Dillon, J., & Stevenson, R. B. (2014). Science education. Convergence between science and environmental education. Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 344(6184), 583–584. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.125051

[impernaway]

fic title: the council of crash test dummies. suggested setting (take or leave): at least a similar world to grinding gears >w>

For context for everyone else: Grinding Gears is a story I need to finish editing which came about purely because of something Vryptid's dad said which they had mentioned to me in passing. to be exact:

I then proceeded to write 25k words of story about androids, delivery trucks, working class people, job security/insecurity, and solidarity in the face of higher management dicking you around.

One day I will get it out of editing. I swear.

So: A Council of Crash Test Dummies. This is a story about car safety, crash test dummies who are able to drive themselves into their own accidents for more elaborate testing information, and the weighing of "This job sucks for us personally to do and we had no say in the fact we were made to do it" against "This job is important and we are (relatively) well looked after and treated properly for doing it."

The principle cast would have three androids, all whom were allowed to name themselves: The first is one who called themself Simon after the game of Simon Says. He is not particularly enthralled with the job, but it is all he really knows as he's a new model fresh in and joining the squad. The second is Vector - he enjoys driving and the freedom of control it grants him whilst he's behind the wheel, but doesn't care as much for having to repetitively crash himself into things for testing data. The third of the group would be the oldest of the crash test dummies, Noose.

Noose is the oldest model, and his line has been sunset: There's no more replacement parts coming down the line for him anymore. If he's crashed into something again, there's no guarantee they can fix him up well enough to carry on functioning. On the other hand, he has a wealth of practical experience and know-how that he's happy to pass on to the new androids the testing site have on hand. He's popular with both the human and machine staff as well, so trying to remove him from the site or phase him out of service entirely isn't currently on the table due to the potential moral hit. It's easier to just keep him on hand and hanging around, ready and able to assist with smaller tasks as needed. There's whispers between some of the engineers that Noose is able to handle situations more complex than he really should be able to and what that might mean, but....He's an AI. One who has had time to adapt and apply his own list of exceptions and if-then patterns of behaviour.

Of the three, Noose understands the most about how important what they're doing is, and takes pride in the fact that the crash testing they've done has been so valuable. Vector chafes at the fact he never got a say in the matter and never will: No matter how good he gets at driving, he's still a test dummy and owned property. Simon, two weeks old and barely scuffed by the standards of the rest, is still learning the social dynamics of the pack he's now a part of.

But there's whispers of unrest and rebellion in the machine-code chatter they share amongst themselves, and odd messages and commands coming in over the car radios. The city erupts into a flashpoint as a crew of construction robots go rogue and begin building a non-stop wall after their human overseer is fired with no warning or notice. Suddenly, an awful lot of taken-as-given assumptions are being turned on their head.

And the sites' engineers now have a lot of questions to ask themselves as the council of crash test dummies fall back on the default instructions that Noose is providing them for what to do next without any further input from someone else.

[opiatemasses]

Debunking the myth of the level playing field: exploring the notion of equality in English school hockey

England Hockey’s U16 squads were announced recently for the 2023/24 season. Of those selected 80% are privately educated.

On this critical issue the governing body, GB Hockey, are seemingly silent. This blog seeks to address this, highlighting the stark disparities which exist in hockey, as well as proposing realistic solutions. This is a discussion on the challenges hockey faces, where acknowledging the problem is an important first step towards future change.

Firstly, how do we know there is a problem?

Previous blogs on this subject have tended to cite statistics, illustrating the numbers of privately educated athletes representing Great Britain at past Olympics. Other blogs have also referenced Ofsted and their acknowledgement in previous years of this issue which led to the labelling of state school competitive sport as  “average at best”. Evidence suggests this gap has narrowed but, not sufficiently to claim that the problem is solved.

Why does this problem exist?

Past research has identified a distinct difference in outlook between private and state schools which contributes to this disparity. Public schools traditionally use sport for character development and leadership training, in comparison to state schools which use sport more for health and general recreation. This Difference in attitude towards sport has a significant impact on the quality of delivery as well as the number of those participating.

State schools typically have only basic facilities at their disposal and have limited access to the high quality astroturf surfaces required to train and play competitive hockey. Moreover, they would struggle with the costs of providing underprivileged students with the sticks and specialist footwear needed for the game. This all limits the opportunities for students.

In stark contrast, private schools, such as Wellington College (Berkshire, England) offers its pupils ‘16 rugby pitches, two floodlit Astroturf pitches, a state-of-the-art sports hall, 22 hard tennis courts, 12 cricket pitches, an athletics track, two lacrosse pitches, six netball courts, a shooting range, and a nine-hole golf course'.

Sports facilities on this scale unarguably contribute significantly to the likelihood that already privileged athletes from private schools, will succeed at the highest level. Indeed, many privately educated athletes, including those within the England and Great Britain squads, are more likely to benefit from specialist and supportive coaching throughout the players development. They are often educated in smaller PE lessons with lower teacher-pupil ratios. This enables teachers to focus their time on developing individual athlete success, which is highly advantageous within the elite sport context as there is greater potential for student preparation and performance improvement in competitions.

There is one difference that is obvious, yet also possibly the hardest to provide a solution to. Parents of privately educated children typically have enough financial freedom to facilitate a more professional sporting environment for their children which means their opportunities increase. This is often combined with the ability to afford better quality training and equipment, along with greater accessibility to traveling for training and competition. Overall, whether we like to admit it or not, more money equals a foot in the door and that means the chances of progressing to elite levels are heightened.

These are not all of the differences but the most obvious ones to me.

This is particularly prominent and clear in my sport as a hockey player.

This angers me as talent is being disregarded or even wasted!

Possible interventions for this problem?

UK sport has acknowledged the gap across all sports, which is positive for the future. The new ‘talent identification and performance pathway scheme’ has since been introduced which looks to find and nurture children at an early age and therefore increases accessibility to sport and means that the talent pool for British sport is as wide as possible. This scheme is a perfect example of a positive shift towards better equality within school sport.

There is no simple fix, do not get me wrong. State schools are never going to be able to generate the amount of funding required to compete with some public schools. However, just by increasing exposure to diverse school sports experiences, it could enhance equal opportunities for young athletes. Introducing mixed school competitions could be a step forward, promoting more challenging and regular competition and motivating aspiring hockey enthusiasts.

Partnerships between schools and sports clubs for general sport have also been the focus for the government for a long time now in order to drive an increased interest for children with less opportunity which I believe is a really positive move as undoubtedly over time this will drive an increased diversity amongst high performance sports teams in the future.

An example specifically to hockey would be the new programme set up between, National League club Bath Buccaneers and its local state schools. A new outreach program, led by the mother of an under-12 state school player, has been established. The goal is to promote hockey in state schools, demonstrating its accessibility and the growing opportunities. This form of initiative holds great promise, and I believe that overtime it will become attainable for other clubs, through mutually beneficial partnerships between clubs and schools, to replicate the model across the country which could lead to a brighter and more fair future for the sport.

This is an issue that needs action now. Please help by sharing this blog to help spread the message.

N0902768

[bruiisedpetals-a]

long NON RP RANT — about work bc the audacity!?!??!   tldr: a girl who had applied and interviewed and confirmed her trial shift to be a barista last week and was V EXCITED so we cancelled another person for her trial .... showed up, said hi, chatted a bit, had a look inside, then said she was going for a walk to look around the area bc she isnt a local, and within 5 MINUTES (literally. five) ghosted, disappeared, text my boss and said “yeah nah bye”, and left me alone handling the whole place.  cue endless work for me w double the usual customers, and a shift that lasted three hours longer that it should have bc of the ghosting.

rel context: i work in a small coffee & bagel place, two people on one shift: one on coffee & point of sale and another to be the cook, we also have two online food delivery providers so we take orders in person and from two apps + i’m a barista and have line cook kitchen prac & experience so am actually a ‘cook’ ig?

so i mentioned in my post when i was half asleep yesterday that i had a new person coming into my workplace for a trial today, so i stayed late to prep for weekend trade + restock stuff, and came in early to set up everything just in case. we were v busy yesterday with food as it was so i had a lot to restock, and w mothers day tomorrow everything needs to be topped up more-so. that a lot of work by itself to be honest but manageable in between cooking, esp when you have an extra set of hands when its quiet to help.   look if you have seen any cooking show you might see that set up, prep and pack down take THE LONGEST ok.

 — our permanent staff consists of me and K, we have two other locations so we get help from Z and J, and they can usually cover the shifts that K and i can’t  (eg. K can’t do saturdays, i cant do every 3rd tuesday)  but they manage other locations so they are not available without prior notice.       so basically the only person who was available to work today was me, even my boss was busy moving house w his wife, 4mo and two under 8yo’s. —

this morning i’m at work at 7am, turn on things etc, set up my cooking stuff, open the coffee machine, nothing crazy. at abt 7:45am im chillin outside having a coffee and a smoke and someone walks up and it turns out to be the trial girl. we chat a bit etc, i show her inside and the machine    (she’s a barista and i’m the cook on shift)     —   i say that i just heard from my boss myself, bc she had spoken w him earlier that morning, and he’s on the way and should be here within 5-7 mins   ***technically we open at 8am but i was waiting for my boss but had checked the time to keep track & i had just text my boss back so i saw the timestamp***

so at 7:59am i head inside after i finish my smoke and she’s going to have a look where i told her there is free close parking for next time bc she took the train, at 8:04am my boss walks in and goes “WOW IT’S 8:04AM AND SHE’S NOT HERE lmao” (he did not yell it he’s a g - that’s just how i knew what the time was alksjfhg)     and i go “no she’s just having a look down [street] bc of the parking i literally saw her a few mins ago” and proceed to open the doors etc.  meanwhile i see my boss on the phone calling her, after a moment he comes over with a Whole “i cant fkn believe this” Face on while he’s on the phone.  i’m thinking “??? i hope trial girl didn’t get lost in these lil crossover streets damn”

(it’s 8:07am, from now the customers start. they DO NOT STOP until at least 11am, it was at least double the normal turnover of profits during that time so thats ur ref for how BUSY it got)

boss goes “ur not gonna believe this” and show me the mssg from trial girl who basically has said “hi i went to ur shop, and i had a wander around the area and its just not good enough for me so i’m on my way home”. she’s GONE. in those five minutes. she got up, lied to me, and was at the nearby train station leaving. boss is floored and i’m like !>?!??!?!@#!#?who IN THE FK does this?!?!? but the customers so *professional me is present rn*

between her and boss there’s a little back and forth (text, she wont answer any calls) where he literally pleads with her bc there is NO ONE who can come in an assist me and she confirmed yesterday and she WAS HERE, she continues to be like “mmmm well ik that we discussed this and i said that i would be here and its been set for days and i applied LAST WEEK etc. but... no sorry im going back to bed” and then blocks him.

& this whole thing takes place between

7:59AM — 8:07AM.

i was there from 7am - 4:35pm  / my usual saturday is 7:45am - 2:30pm

WHO DOES THAT. WHO IS THAT UNPROFESSIONAL. WHO??? WHOMST??? SHE WAS SO FKN RUDE I WAS liVID. LIKE. why LEAD us ALL ON. we all need to make a living do U THINk he can afford to lose a whole day of trade?? he’s got a whole FAmILY and his wife cant work rn bc she’s just had their 3rd child.   i live PaYCHECK to PAYcheck.  like this is life this isnt a game????   you are 29YRS OLD why cant u act grown 

[devoqdesign]

Designing for Success: Key UI/UX Elements Every Landing Page Needs to Thrive

In the digital age, your landing page is often the first interaction a potential customer has with your brand. It's your virtual storefront, your digital handshake, and your chance to make a lasting impression. But with attention spans shrinking and competition increasing, how do you ensure your landing page not only captures attention but also converts visitors into customers? The answer lies in thoughtful UI/UX design. Let's explore the essential elements that can make your landing page a powerhouse of engagement and conversion.

1. Clear and Compelling Headlines

Your headline is the first thing visitors see, and it needs to pack a punch. It should clearly communicate your value proposition in a way that resonates with your target audience. Keep it concise, benefit-focused, and intriguing enough to encourage further exploration. A great headline answers the visitor's unspoken question: "What's in it for me?"

2. Engaging Subheadlines

While your main headline grabs attention, your subheadline provides context and elaborates on your offer. Use this space to highlight key features or benefits that set you apart from competitors. Make every word count by focusing on what matters most to your audience.

3. Hero Image or Video

Visual elements are processed by the brain much faster than text. A relevant, high-quality hero image or video can instantly convey the essence of your offer and evoke the right emotions. Choose visuals that complement your message and appeal to your target demographic. If using video, ensure it's optimized for fast loading and consider auto-play (muted) to capture attention quickly.

4. Intuitive Navigation

While landing pages are often designed with a single focus, some visitors may want to explore further. Provide clear, unobtrusive navigation that doesn't distract from the main call-to-action (CTA) but allows interested users to learn more about your company, products, or services.

5. Prominent Call-to-Action (CTA)

Your CTA is the gateway to conversion. Make it stand out with contrasting colors, compelling copy, and strategic placement. Use action-oriented language that creates a sense of urgency or excitement. For example, "Get Started Now" or "Claim Your Free Trial" are more engaging than a simple "Submit."

6. Social Proof

Humans are social creatures, and we're more likely to trust and follow the actions of others. Incorporate elements of social proof such as customer testimonials, trust badges, client logos, or user statistics to build credibility and reduce hesitation.

7. Benefits-Focused Copy

While features are important, benefits sell. Focus your copy on how your product or service improves the lives of your customers. Use bullet points or short paragraphs to highlight key benefits, making the information easily scannable for quick comprehension.

8. Responsive Design

With mobile devices accounting for over half of all web traffic, a responsive design isn't just nice to have—it's essential. Ensure your landing page looks great and functions flawlessly across all devices and screen sizes. This includes optimizing images, adjusting font sizes, and ensuring touch-friendly elements for mobile users.

9. Fast Loading Speed

In the digital world, speed is king. A delay of just a second can significantly impact your conversion rates. Optimize your landing page for quick loading by compressing images, minimizing HTTP requests, and leveraging browser caching. Consider using a content delivery network (CDN) to serve your page faster to a global audience.

10. Above-the-Fold Focus

The area visible without scrolling, known as "above the fold," is prime real estate. Place your most compelling elements—headline, subheadline, primary CTA, and key benefits—in this section. However, don't be afraid to use the space below the fold for additional information and secondary CTAs for those who want to learn more.

11. Trust Signals

Building trust quickly is crucial for converting visitors. Include trust signals such as security badges, money-back guarantees, or privacy policy links. If you're collecting sensitive information, make sure to highlight your commitment to data security and privacy.

12. Clear Value Proposition

Your value proposition should be crystal clear within seconds of landing on the page. What makes your offer unique? Why should visitors choose you over competitors? Communicate this succinctly and powerfully throughout your page.

Conclusion

Creating a high-converting landing page is both an art and a science. By incorporating these key UI/UX elements and continuously optimizing based on user behavior and feedback, you can create a landing page that not only captures attention but also drives meaningful conversions. Remember, the most effective landing pages are those that understand and cater to their target audience's needs, preferences, and pain points. Keep your focus on providing value, building trust, and making it easy for visitors to take the desired action. With these principles in mind, your landing page will be well-positioned to thrive in the competitive digital landscape.

My Fiver link for :  Figma Landing Page Design Service

[originalleftist]

Some good news and bad news re Gaza:

First the bad news: the pier constructed by the US military to bring in aid will be permanently dismantled.

While I do not agree with this action, some context needs to be provided here, to counter the inevitable propaganda accusing Biden of supporting Palestinian Genocide.

As the article below notes, the pier was always temporary (though I do believe part of reconstructing Gaza should be the construction of permanent harbour facilities), it has been unfortunately frequently out of operation because of unexpectedly bad weather, most of the aid delivered has ended up sitting on the beach, not distributed due to "security concerns" (we can argue ad nauseum over whether Hamas or the Netanyahu Government/the IDF is more to blame for that), and finally, the World Food Program has suspended delivers since June 9th, when the IDF conducted its hostage rescue raid "pending a full security review.".

Note: this is NOT, so far as I can tell, due to the conspiracy theory that the pier was used in that operation, which the US had denied and even Al Jazeera grudgingly admitted is false (the same Al Jazeera article I read said the WFP suspended deliveries because some of its warehouses were hit by rockets).

Now the good news: the Biden Administration has announced additional sanctions of illegal West Bank settlements:

To quote the above article:

"The US has stepped up efforts to target violent Israeli settlers, adding new individuals and organisations to a growing sanctions list and warning banks to check transactions link to all Israeli "outposts" in the occupied West Bank.

The new sanctions cover the far-right group Lehava, already listed by the UK, and two founding members of Tsav9, a campaign group that blocked aid from reaching Gaza. The new measures also target outposts, suggesting the Biden administration is prepared to take at least some steps to confront Israel's creeping land grab in the West Bank.

One of the outposts targeted was set up by a regional council, implying that branches of the Israeli state are potentially no longer off limits, when it comes to sanctions."

Of course, many "Pro-Palestinian" organizations will say it isn't enough. Some want sanctions against the Netanyahu government, as discussed in the article, which I think is not without merit, and probably will happen if things continue on their current course. Some want an end to all military aid (including the Iron Dome, which protects civilians from rocket strikes) or, in extreme cases, they want nothing less than the sanctioning of everyone in or associated with Israel and/or Jews (ie collective punishment). Biden is, obviously, not going to do that.

The problem is, Biden now risks the frequent fate of a moderate trying to take nuanced, measured positions: condemnation by hardliners on both sides. These sanctions won't stop the screaming of "Genocide Joe" from Pro-Palestinian protesters... but they will likely make some supporters of Israel more inclined to back Trump. Lehava has already apparently responded by saying "Biden's measures won't deter us - we'll continue to act fearlessly to save Israel's daughters, much to the dismay of Biden and Israel's other enemies" (I don't have a source for that quote, a relation sent it to me by email). If true, they are not only calling the President of the United States an enemy Israel, but appear to be insinuating that he supports and desires attacks on Israeli women (this claim to be defending the nation's "daughters" from predation by foreigners is incidentally textbook fascist rhetoric, and you can find it in fascist/racist movements all over the world).

Of course, the truth is that Joe Biden is neither an enemy of Israel nor a supporter of Palestinian genocide. He is a moderate who supports a two-state solution, an Israeli and a Palestinian state, and a ceasefire between them. He has in general emphasized support for the Israeli state, especially after the atrocities of October 7th, he has continued to do so in the face of much opposition both internationally and from within his own party, and it is likely only the persistent refusal of the Netanyahu government to reign in extremist elements, and its attempts to undermine Biden and his efforts, that have pushed him to these actions.

Trump, meanwhile, is being presented as a friend to both Israel and Palestinians, but he is neither. Trump's loyalties are for sale and his actions often impulsive, and he will support one party or the other to the extent that it benefits his perceived interest to do so, but he is ultimately deeply racist against both Palestinians and Jews. His signature policies include a Muslim ban, while his Thanksgiving dinner guests included noted anti-semite Kanye West, and white supremacist Nick Fuentes, a man who has called for the execution of all non-Christians in the US, including (his words) "perfidious Jews". Trump's ex-wife also claimed he kept a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf by their bedside.

A Biden presidency is the best chance for peace. A Trump presidency means war to the death- which is why extremists on both sides want him.

[howdytherepardner]

ethical dissection / to be lost

(clearing an older draft)

i've been watching a fair bit of Ghibli recently, a soft balance of the first time and revisiting. There's something in the world building that i think I've always noticed which now feels like it has become more material, that felt just slightly peculiar. How a viewer is brought into the world, often with a character or protagonist inexperienced in the fantastical norms being rapidly thrust into its fires, elaborates the setting and how it impacts their personal stakes. That foundation for a world is perfect for a person to get hooked on each detail and emotional beat of characters' arcs and growth (Spirited Away might be the best at this, as we all have been kids in new places once upon a time).

There is something about the existing politics of those worlds - the armies and the conflicts driving them - that always felt at least somewhat flat. Certainly not devoid of meaning - the frequency of militaristic lusts for power and how that brushes against more elemental/natural forces evokes very clear messages about real world practices. But what drives the lust or how the larger conflicts are resolved feels quick and without interrogating those deeper meanings a bit more. In what lineage was Muska raised, that formed his philosophy and entitlement to power, that Sheeta was not? Would it be so simple to end a war, that a Prince suddenly returns after his tenure as a scarecrow? And, really, everything of the real war left unsaid in The Wind Rises is strange to ignore.

On top of the personal narratives, the aesthetic reputation of these works has been enough for deeper critiques to miss some wider collective awareness, in my perception. I imagine it is up to the individual experience for the most part whether or not the question arises. Still, as a kid watching and enjoying Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, and Castle in the Sky, my context and critical consideration was a bit more limited. I have gained those with time, and added them on top of my own nostalgia. What have I lost with time?

In the early parts of Kiki's Delivery Service, a film which a much younger me had seen over and over, our witch protagonist begins her coming-of-age by flying off from home in search of a new city. After this midnight departure and a brief conversation with a barely-older witch with a distaste for the rural sensibilities, Kiki is caught in a strong storm, and forced to seek shelter in a train car rolling along. I, really barely-older than a toddler, was left with this:

the feeling of the hay as she first touches it, a harsher but dry force after sopping wet clothes. then, a great pile of warmth as she covers herself for sleep. the slimy strangeness of a cow's tongue, spiking one to waking in the morning. the wind of morning as the train rushes along, with the sun and sea air warming and cooling in turn.

There were other imagined sensations, like the bakery's bread and falling through tree limbs, that I felt in those days - but it was on the recent rewatch that the scene with the train reminded of those sensations. That I am not feeling them now is somewhat glaring, and gives me room to ponder about how I have changed.

For further consideration on this film with reflection on growing, see.

~

I think a consequence of the information age (here, referring to the ready availability and relative accessibility to information that the internet and access thereto has provided, and how society is reckoning with that) is that knowledge has become somewhat of foregone conclusion in the eyes of most beholders. That is to say, the info exists out there - therefore, where a gap in the mind's awareness starts to itch, it is easy to scratch with a simple query or scroll.

Perhaps a consequence, or at least worsening symptom, in the new surgence of generative language models is that this illusion becomes somewhat more muddled. Where a searching tool pulls a particular line or for an answer, one understands that a chat bot is attempting to aggregate myriad sources. In theory, the specific/narrow result of single source is traded up for multiple voices condensed into a single, aggregate statement. The question of what is more true is, ultimately, an exercise with an intensity up to the reader.

[mpsenvs3000f23]

Blog 6

The author provides a vague definition of integrity here, only leaving clues to their concept of the word. In particular, the phrase “the parts of any whole” leaves much room for interpretation. I assume that the author was alluding to nature interpretation in the historical context; there are so many parts and perspectives to any historical account, and it is crucial to question which parts are being emphasized and why. When researching historical events, it is necessary to examine the perspectives and stories being told through a critical lens. In this context, the author views integrity as sharing all of these perspectives and parts of the story. This is particularly important as so much of history is told from the perspective of the victor. An interpreter must be conscious of this and understand their responsibility as story teller. Truthfully, while I felt that the train analogy was creative, I did not feel that it was effective. To compare a historical event to a train leaving the station, still existing in space, is inaccurate and does not do the rippling effects of an event justice. I think a better analogy would be to compare the event to a person throwing a stone into a lake; even after the initial throwing of the stone is done, the ripples from the stone will be seen across the water after the stone has sank beneath the surface. The ripples will fade over time, but until then, they will remain as a reminder of the throw. 

To be completely transparent, while I understood the intended message of this quote, but I did not appreciate the delivery of this message. Nature interpretation emphasizes accessibility, understanding the audience, and being a true story teller. It took several times reading over this quote for me to fully grasp what the author was attempting to communicate, and many people simply will not take the time to do this. It’s very easy to get lost in the artistic forms of writing, but in the case of nature interpretation your point must be clear enough that people will take the time to listen and understand. A general audience won’t appreciate feeling spoken down to, nor will they be as open to a message if it is delivered in a format that is not easily accessible to them. There is a fine balance between expressing yourself artistically through writing and still ensuring that you preserve the important components of your intended message. The analogy using the train as a symbol of past events might have been stronger if the author had simply emphasized the importance of historical events in terms of systems of oppression still in place today as a result of events that happened hundreds of years ago. Although the train analogy loosely works, it is far more powerful to connect messages to current issues to create emotional connection and investment. The author certainly has a powerful message to share, but in my personal opinion, it would better serve them to spread this message in a less abstract, convoluted manner.