#certainly some of the most changing and turbulent years

[slytherinshua]

I think one of the reasons the astronaut continues to be so nostalgic and sentimental to me is because its release marked the close of my bts era— not in a sad sudden way, but like a gentle taper out to an end.

I never biased jin, yet his vocals were the start, middle, and end to everything I associate with bts and my time with them as a group. epiphany was the first bts song I ever heard in 2018, even though I wouldn’t stan them for 3 more years. moon is my favourite bts song to this day. the astronaut ending my era with them as my ults is a picture perfect close.

I think jin is under-appreciated as an artist and a vocalist. because of his personality, we mostly love him for his jokes, or because of his visuals, he’s known for his face. yet when he sings songs like abyss, epiphany, the astronaut, moon, or awake, his voice holds a million emotions and feelings in the melody. there is something so timelessly beautiful about his voice, and for the first time since I stopped following bts closely, I’m really so excited for his solo album. I hope he can continue to shine as an artist and a vocalist into his late 30’s and 40’s. his voice is one that will never get old and I certainly will never get tired of hearing him sing.

deep in my bts era, I always used to debate whether my favourite bts vocalist was jin or jungkook. and it was always funny to me why jin made it to such a high ranking when jungkook was my bias. jin didn’t even wreck me like other members, and at the time, I enjoyed his solos, but they weren’t in the ranking to become my favourite timeless songs like they are now that I’ve stepped away.

although I’m not active in the fandom anymore and have disconnected from content and the members, the music still stays, their voices still stay, always reminding me how bts changed my life in such a dramatic way. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how different I would be if I hadn’t found them. it’s not just about kpop, fanfic or being a stan— finding them was the first time I ever found something by myself, for myself and enjoyed it independently without the influence of anyone else. and the start of that was with jin and his voice and I’ll never forget how much he changed my life.

[kamiraaah]

TWST PARENTS! Diamond, Shroud and Bucchi!!

⚠️⚠️First of all, I must warn you that these designs may change in the future, either because the game presented us with the official designs, or just because I really wanted to change... Or I could reuse these designs for these characters!⚠️⚠️ Given that warning...

Guys, gals, and non-binary pals. I present to you, the Diamond, Shroud, and Bucchi families!

The Diamond family is relatively well-known thanks to Mr. Diamond's job as a banker. Not only because of that, but also because Mrs. Diamond loves to brag about her children to anyone who has the slightest interest or gives her the opportunity to talk about her family. The Diamonds' oldest daughters are quite popular on social media, even though they don't show much of their personal lives (some would even say that they are reserved… Which would honestly make Cater laugh with indignation). Their profile consists a lot of showing feminine things or everything they consider cute, be it clothes, accessories or tourist spots, restaurants or makeup tips, maybe we can call them influencers? The siblings' relationship has always been somewhat turbulent, especially when it came to the sudden changes due to Mr. Diamond's work… On the one hand, the older ones didn't know how to respect their younger brother's limits and thus caused many fights… On the other hand, they were the only ones (apart from their mother) who were able to console Cater in some way when he refused to move to a new city. These changes didn't just affect the children's relationship, but also Cater's relationship with his father. The relationship between the two became more distant over the years, especially after Cater was accepted into Night Raven College (not that he didn't try to understand his son's tastes to try to get closer to him… Which didn't yield good results). In comparison, Cater's relationship with his sisters and mother improved a lot over the years. Whenever she can, Cater gets in touch with them through social media (Cater's mother is always accompanied by her daughters since they have no idea how to use a cell phone).

The Shrouds are famous, but little is known about them outside of their work and history with the Jupiter family. Mr. and Mrs. Shroud have very different personalities, but they are an extremely close couple. Mrs. Shroud is certainly the most lively (after Ortho) and loves challenges and complex games. And she certainly spent a good part of Idia's childhood showing him animes and games that she loved, unintentionally influencing her son's tastes. Mr. Shroud is more reserved and pessimistic about everything. While his wife thinks about the solutions and positive aspects of the projects they work on, he thinks about the flaws and everything that could go wrong. He had some difficulty relating to his children. Deep down, he feels guilty for placing such a heavy destiny on Idia's shoulders… The family has a tendency to separate work relationships and family matters almost instinctively, and this ended up creating a slightly tense relationship between Idia and his parents. Much of it was due to Idia's father, even though his mother tried to ease the tension from time to time, Ortho's death increased this tension considerably... To the point that Idia hardly spoke to his father outside of work. Who knows, with time the family will be able to overcome this nightmare, after all, it's them against the world.

The Bucchi family has experienced many tragedies over the years… The matriarch of the family had someone she loved very much, she was expecting a daughter and her wedding was set. She dreamed of having a moment of happiness and calm amidst the chaos that was to survive day after day. Her beloved was confident, lively and could be arrogant at times, after all he loved to challenge her when they were children, who would have thought that the brat who bothered her so much would one day win her heart… It was a great tragedy when he died in a work accident. For years she was depressed and could hardly smile like before, it was difficult but she continued working so she could take care of her daughter, the most important thing in her life… That is until she found out she was going to be a grandmother. Of course the addition of… her daughter's boyfriend, and the future father of her... grandson, granddaughter? It was a shock, she would never let anyone have the opportunity to hurt her daughter and she made it very clear to the young man that if he even thought about breaking her daughter's heart… She would hunt him to the ends of the earth. The worst part was that the young man reminded her a lot of her old love, and she feared that her daughter would suffer as she had in the past. She promised herself that, no matter what happened, she would take care of her daughter and the baby she was expecting… She would be strong for both of them.

AND MORE FAMILIES DONE!! And I'm still going to draw pictures of other members of the TWST families, so please bear with me a little… I'm going as fast as I can! 🙃

It took a while but we finally have another Twst Parents! (^ w ^) AND PUT DOWN THE TORCHES AND FORKS I ALSO SUFFERED WHEN DRAWING THEM!!!!

[aihoshiino]

An Interview with Ai: Da Vinci Magazine Jan. 2024 (4chan Anon TL)

In the issue of Da Vinci Magazine dated for Jan 2024, there was an exciting surprise - four whole pages of an in-character interview with Ai of B-Komachi! Taking place shortly before her 20th birthday, Ai discusses various things with the interviewer, resulting in some surprising new information about her relationships with certain characters and her own home life...

To be clear up front: This is not my translation! I'm archiving and mirroring it from 4chan where it was originally posted by an anon. I've made no changes to the text save cleaning up some grammar errors and typos and formatting it for tumblr. I plan on doing my own translation of the interview, either via scans or buying the magazine myself when I have the money, but for now, I hope this will do!

Q: It seems to have been a turbulent year for B-Komachi and Ai as well. Looking back, what was your impression?

Ai: That's true. It really went by in the blink of an eye. Everyone was so busy, myself included. It was so strange. Before I knew it, we were already scheduled to perform in the Tokyo Dome (laughs). I thought to myself, "I see... so we did come this far."

Q: You have taken on many challenges so far. What is your most memorable job?

Ai: I had a great time in all of them. There were also many occasions when I thought, "Are they asking me to do this too!?". But if I had to pick something other than my idol activities, then my most memorable job would be all the times I had to work in movies. I met so many people that, at the end, it felt like hanging out with friends. And then, in the blink of an eye, the job would be over (laughs).

Q: You were really getting into it (laughs). But acting is completely different than being an idol. Did you find it difficult?

Ai: For me, it is normal to be photographed as well as being filmed while singing, on a music video, or during variety shows. I wonder if I was able to put that experience to good use, but then I think about it, and I believe I did it perfectly!!

Q: ...so was it difficult?

Ai: Having to deal with the waiting time was more difficult at first. I know I shouldn't say this, but sometimes I was sooo bored (laughs). But finding new ways to kill time was fun.

Q: It's like the saying goes, "Waiting is part of an actor's job."

Ai: Oooh, I had no idea there was a saying like that! How interesting!!

Q: Looking back, Ai's first drama was directed by Taishi Gotanda, and then you worked with him in subsequent films too. What impression do you have of him?

Ai: He has a scary face. But when I talk to him, there are many times when it feels like he's just a useless adult. In that aspect, I can sympathize with him. There were times I was eating my lunch, and whenever rice fell while eating, he would just jump and say, "WATCH OUT!" like a mom (laughs). But well, I love his works. Whenever I watched them, it felt like, "Ah, his passion for authenticity is genuine." As a creator myself, I knew I could trust in him.

Q: It certainly feels like he's good at depicting the inner lives of characters.

Ai: That's right, it always feels like instead of characters, his works show real people. And I love that. I'm not a big fan of movies; at most, I watch some dramas recommended to me, and they are usually really entertaining! I think I'm not good for the roles of such characters, and I thank that director Gotanda's works aren't of that type.

Q: Your acting feels quite natural. What kind of acting guidance did the director give to you?

Ai: None, really. He just said, "Do as you please," and I just went with it. However, I don't think everyone was on the same page. In one of the sets, there was a child actress called Kana Arima-chan. She is suuuuuper cute, and whenever she was acting, I was thinking, "Wow, she's just like the character," and that's when it sunk to me that actors are capable of anything.

Q: Maybe it was possible that you, without realizing it, were asking Arima-san to lead the scenes?

Ai: Pretty much. In fact, she even scolded me (laughs). "Can you take this a bit more seriously?" she told me. I was doing my best, though! (laughs). But seeing Kana-chan so serious about doing a good job made me want to put even more effort into my role.

Q: That reminds me, there's a child actor from Ichigo Pro called Aqua-kun working on it too.

Ai: Ahaha, Aqua-kun was so cute too! He has such a mysterious charm, it made me wonder "maybe he's a genius too?" Don't forget to watch his future projects, alright?

Q: I won't. Returning to the topic of your activities as an actress, what part of it was the most interesting for you?

Ai: I still have problems understanding what "acting" means. Sometimes it felt that, well… rather than trying to find a character in myself, the character itself was taking over my own actions. Even thought I was acting, I didn't feel like myself, as if every action was being performed automatically. But rather than make me wonder about my talent or lack of, I guess it was all thanks to the wonderful script.

Q: I see. So in a way it's similar to separating Ai as a person and Ai as an idol?

Ai: There are parts of myself that I still don't understand, but I believe it's the same for everyone. Everyone acts with an idea of what they "want to become". Until now and from now on, I will continue working hard just so I can become the person that everyone wants me to be. In that sense I could say that I'm acting, playing the role of Ai. Of course it doesn't mean that I'm forcing myself to, it just happens unconsciously, naturally. I also have to face everyone in B-Komachi, how cute they are as well as their honesty. They show that cuteness to the fans, and for me, that's not an act.

Q: And said B-Komachi is now going to perform at the Dome. Why do you think the group is so beloved by fans?

Ai: It's because we worked together, because I knew that by working seriously we could go this far. Also I don't believe the Dome is our ultimate goal, or better said, I can't quite grasp how amazing is for us to perform there. Our boss said that he always wanted to see us perform there so I decided to do my best in order to make that dream come true. That's why, till now and from now on, I will continue working hard to fulfill everyone's dreams.

Q: So Ai's forte is to want everyone around her to be happy.

Ai: Yes. But I wonder if the rest thinks the same.

Q: Don't you have any personal ambitions?

Ai: Ah, now that you ask, I have a bit of a naughty opinion and is that I'm happy that we are selling a lot and getting a good amount of money (laughs). Being able to buy a really expensive ice cream is pure bliss. As for the rest, just seeing my fans happy is enough to make me happy too. But rather than happy, I guess it makes me feel at ease.

Q: When you say you feel at ease, is that similar to saying that you found a place where you belong?

Ai: A place where I belong… I'm sure everyone search such thing, I think it's the same for some members of B-komachi.

Q: …is it different for you?

Ai: I can't quite tell, it's something I'm having problems figuring that out. Sometimes I feel like I'm stuck in place, but then I feel like the energy I receive from everyone allows me to do my best as an idol as well as my other jobs, and in exchange, I'm able to bring smiles to them.

Q: I see. It's true that many types of fans have enjoyed your live performances in the past. Which reminds me, there was also this one video of baby twins cheering for you that went viral.

Ai: Oh yeah that one!! I can't believe how those babies could swing those glowsticks like that. It was so cute~. I feel so much bliss every time I watch it.

Q: During a TV show when they showed that video to you, many people in social media pointed out your smile while watching it

Ai: Oh right! I thought it was the same smile I always had. When I read those comments I couldn't help but ask to myself "Eh? What is so different?"

Q: From now I'll be making questions a bit more private. Could you tell us about how were you during your childhood?

Ai: I don't think I was a good child. If anything, I was a really nasty brat (laughs). Because our house was close to the railroad, during midnight I would often walk near the tracks wondering if the train is coming close. Once I hear it, I would run away. If I tried that today, I'm sure it would be a problem (laughs)

Q: Did you wonder where did you want to go back then?

Ai: I wonder. I didn't had an specific place in mind. I lived with my mother, but she had a boyfriend back then, always living in their own little bubble being loveydovey and it was rough for me. I just said "Ah, this is not my place" and ran away, I could think about the rest later.

Q: Maybe going to a friend's house was a better option.

Ai: I've always been a loner, since I was a kid. There were many times when people would get irritating and I would just prefer to be alone playing Tetris. Of course, that doesn't mean that I would take loneliness over company, but at times I could tell that, whenever someone was around, the mood between people would go sour and I then stayed away from them.

Q: But then, are there any fond memories you have from your childhood?

Ai: Let's see… I do remember my dad. It wasn't something that happened often, but this one time, we went to the grocery store and bought some natto. Then, when I took the plastic from it and wrapped it in seaweed, he said, "Oh, you did it well," and that made me happy. That's why, even to this day, I'm quite skilled at wrapping food in seaweed.

Q: Being praised by your parents is usually trivial, but for some, it's something fondly remembered when it happens. From your perspective, what were your parents like?

Ai: Maybe they were like me, seeing things from the same perspective. Rather than seeing each other like family, it felt more like partners in a way. But I can't hate them for that, no human is perfect and no one is actively seeking a parental role.

Q: That's quite a mature way of seeing things. 

Ai: I wonder. I'm in a parental role too… ooooor so I think that's what I feel whenever I see a child with their parents in the audience. It's because of my experience in my childhood that I can't comment on other parents whenever their children do something bad. Parenting is difficult, I'm sure.

Q: In that case, if Ai ever had a family, would you also treat your children as friends or partners instead of keeping a parent-child relationship?

Ai: It doesn't matter. As long as everyone is happy and smiling, then it's fine with me. If you asked me what a perfect family is, I just wouldn't know how to answer that. But it would be one as long as the children are happy. If I had a family, I would do whatever it takes to achieve that.

Q: I know I shouldn't ask this of an idol, but do you have someone you want to marry?

Ai: ...That's a secret (laughs)

Q: You were scouted in order to be an idol. What were your impressions about idols back then?

Ai: For me, they were so pure, always shining, and doing their best to support and care about their fans. That's how I saw idols. If the job of an idol is to make people happy, then I wanted to be like that too, well I'm still working on it.

Q: And now that you are one, has that image changed?

Ai: They are hard workers, just as I imagined. There are times when things get rough, but then I push myself like, "Let's just do it" and continue with pure momentum (laughs)

Q: It would be weird to not get used to the routine.

Ai: But I love it, with its ups and downs. There's been times I felt like I was doing something wrong, that maybe I didn't belong here, but then I remember that being able to be an idol is wonderful.

Q: For Ai, is this your dream job?

Ai: Hmmm, I wonder. I wouldn't go that far. A real idol truly loves their fans, is always kind, and would never lie. I'm still trying hard, doing my best, wondering if one day someone will look at me and say, "She is the real deal.".

Q: But there are many who describe Ai as an "unmatched genius idol."

Ai: Why do they even call me something like that? I'm just there in the group, being myself; I don't know which one of my actions qualifies me to be called that.

Q: In that case, for Ai, what does it mean to be an idol?

Ai: At times, I think that being an idol means being "able to express herself to others." Sounds cool, doesn't it? (laughs). In reality, I believe that it's about being able to replicate what others want from you. ….Hmmm, I guess it makes it sound like school or something.

Q: Do you feel B-Komachi in the same way?

Ai: B-Komachi is different. I met everyone when the group was created, and we wasted no time getting into idol activities. If I lagged behind even a bit, I felt like I was causing problems for others. But with the passing of time, we managed to spend more time together, and I feel like we share an irreplaceable bond.

Q: What is exactly this "irreplaceable bond"?

Ai: Ah, it's nothing too deep. It's just that I've started hanging out with the rest more often. I'm quite a home person, so when I ordered food for everyone, Takamii (Takamine) would get mad at me because the vegetable portions were too small. "You lack femininity! You will never become a wife at this rate!" (laughs). I never said I was thinking of becoming a wife! (laughs)

Q: (laughs) Earlier, you said that sometimes you felt alienated during your childhood. Didn't that cause problems for you, considering that you were chosen as the center of the group?

Ai: Kinda does. Even now, I still wonder if I should be the center. There are more capable members in the group. Of course, I feel honored, but I'm still unsure if I'm doing it right. Maybe other members should be in my position. Besides, it's hard to memorize the dance as a center (bitter laugh)

Q: As a final question, what are the current goals for B-Komachi?

Ai: We have new members joining us this year, so we are even more hyped than before, and we are finally performing in such a big venue as the Dome. B-Komachi has finally become a great group, and I'm sure they will be fine even after I'm gone. Not that I'm planning on quitting (laughs). All the members are so hardworking, kind, and cute. From now on, please, pretty please, support them as much as you can.

[thoughtportal]

Mulrooney’s success, as a woman and an Irish immigrant with little education, was as improbable as the Fair View’s remote glamour. Only 26 when she opened the hotel in July of 1898, in two short years she’d come to be known as the richest woman in the Klondike, overseeing an empire that extended from hotels, restaurants and real estate development to mining companies, banks, even utilities. It’s a swashbuckling story, one marked by constant self-reinvention that saw Mulrooney help build a city, make and lose several fortunes, and leave a lasting legacy as a Yukon pioneer.

Yet Mulrooney’s legacy remains little known outside the frozen north. “I think she’s certainly up there with significant women who had an impact on Alaska, and she hasn’t been given the prominence that she deserves,” says Jo Antonson, executive director of the Alaska Historical Society. A true reckoning of Mulrooney’s life reveals her as a hero of the frontier—and perhaps its canniest business owner. 

Born in 1872 in County Sligo, Ireland, Mulrooney stayed behind when her parents emigrated to America and spent her childhood on her maternal grandparents’ farm, surrounded by boys. That experience shaped her and inspired her legendary drive. “I never expected any favors,” Mulrooney told writer Helen Lyon Hawkins, who conducted a series of interviews in the late 1920s for a biography that was never published. “I knew a woman around men who couldn’t do her share is a nuisance and is left behind, so I tried to be in the front always, to lead.” 

Thirteen when she finally joined her parents in the U.S., Mulrooney was unimpressed by life in the coal town of Archbald, Pennsylvania, and soon took a position as a nanny for a wealthy Philadelphia family. After the economic crash of 1891, Mulrooney took her savings to Chicago, sensing opportunity in the city’s preparations for the 1893 World’s Fair. 

Mulrooney purchased a lot just outside the fair’s carnival strip and built on it, renting and then selling the property at considerable profit, which she used to buy a popular restaurant nearby. As the fair closed, Mulrooney learned that San Francisco was planning its own exposition and took her profits westward, where she repeated her real estate speculations. But when an 1895 fire in an uninsured building left her penniless, it was time to start over.

This time she found success in merchant ventures, bootlegging whiskey and other coveted supplies aboard the steamship City of Topeka between Seattle and southern Alaska—then reselling goods at frontier prices. She opened a store in Juneau and was scanning the landscape for opportunity when a prospector strolled into town, showing off some of the gold nuggets he’d found in what seemed like a promising strike in the Klondike. Instantly, Mulrooney began outfitting for an expedition that would change her life, and the frozen frontier, forever.  

Getting to the Klondike gold fields in 1897 required astonishing mettle. The majority of stampeders, as new arrivals were known, came via a brutal overland trek, each explorer hauling gear by sled over the icy, 3,550-foot Chilkoot Pass. Mulrooney’s supplies required 30 such trips. Then came the two-week journey down the turbulent Yukon River to Dawson, for which travelers had to build their own boats. 

Mulrooney landed in Dawson in April 1897, one of the first entrepreneurs on the scene. In an often-told anecdote, Mulrooney describes tossing her one remaining coin in the river for luck, announcing with breezy confidence: “I’ll start clean.”  

But it wasn’t luck that made Belinda Mulrooney rich; it was her unerring ability to anticipate what people would most need. Her goods, including hot water bottles for miners enduring the frigid winter in tents, netted a 600 percent profit from that first trip. She also saw the miners were desperate for a good meal and opened an all-hours restaurant serving hearty homestyle fare.

Mulrooney also had a canny instinct for location. During that first Yukon spring, she scouted ground on which to open her first hotel and chose the junction of the two busiest gold-mining creeks, 16 miles outside of Dawson. The Grand Forks quickly became the miners’ primary gathering place and soon doubled as an official collection office for royalties demanded by the Canadian government. At night Mulrooney put the floor sweepings through a sluice, gleaning an extra $100 or so in gold dust daily. Perfectly positioned for intelligence-gathering, she invested accordingly and by the end of 1897 owned five gold claims—plus almost 20 percent of one of the region’s wealthiest mining companies. 

Ever the expansionist, Mulrooney set out to build the finest hotel in Dawson City, one modeled on the elegant hotels she’d seen in Chicago and San Francisco. Calling it the Fair View, Mulrooney was meticulous in choosing the lace curtains, plush carpets, brass bedsteads and other finery that would make her new hotel the envy of the region’s other hoteliers, who housed most guests in rough dormitories. When explorer Mary E. Hitchcock arrived in Dawson in June 1898, she was deeply impressed and detailed her reaction in her 1899 memoir, Two Women in the Klondike: “The menu, beginning with ‘oyster cocktails,’ caused us to open our eyes wide with astonishment, after all that the papers have told us of the starvation about Dawson.”

The Fair View was the first property in town to have electricity. When miners bet Mulrooney $5,000 that she couldn’t keep the three-story building warm, she bought an old steamboat boiler, attaching a sawmill to provide the fuel. Mulrooney modernized the town in other ways, too, helping bring Dawson its first telephone and telegraph, housing the switchboard in the Fair View, and forming the Hygeia Water Supply Company to provide safe drinking water. It was less than two years since she arrived in Dawson, and already she was one of its foremost citizens.

“She really loomed large in the history of Dawson City,” says Angharad Wenz, director of the Dawson City Museum, adding that if we were to credit a single person with bringing the Klondike into the 20th century, Mulrooney would be the prime candidate. 

As sharp-eyed as she was in business, Mulrooney proved less so in matters of the heart. Disaster came courting in the form of a sham European nobleman, “Count” Charles Eugene Carbonneau—actually a French Canadian barber from Montreal—whom Mulrooney wed in Dawson City on October 1, 1900.

Newspapers around the country published rhapsodic descriptions of the lavish wedding and followed the Carbonneaus on their honeymoon tour of Europe, running photographs of Mulrooney wearing furs and jewels in a mansion the couple rented in Nice. The next few years found the Carbonneaus wintering in Paris, in an apartment near the Champs-Élysées with a bevy of servants. 

But Carbonneau’s profligate spending, dubious investments and mismanagement of Mulrooney’s mining companies emptied the couple’s bank accounts. Leaving the con man in France, where he was soon to be convicted of swindling and embezzlement, Mulrooney returned to Dawson alone in 1904.

Forced to start over yet again, she regathered her energies and in the spring of 1905 followed the next gold strike to Fairbanks, some 400 miles west of Dawson City, buying up claims in partnership with fellow investors. She also purchased several building lots and opened a bank in nearby Dome City. By the time Mulrooney filed for divorce from Carbonneau in July 1906, she was flush once again. 

“She just did not give up, that woman,” says Melanie Mayer, author of the 2000 Mulrooney biography Staking Her Claim. “If she was down, well, she knew how she had gotten up before, and she went at it again from a different angle.”

Perhaps foreseeing the inevitable bust of the Alaskan claims, Mulrooney decamped to Washington State’s fertile Yakima Valley, where she ran a 20-acre farm and orchard, built an imposing stone castle, and reigned there into the 1920s. Locals came to refer to her as the Countess Carbonneau. But this attempt at a bucolic life didn’t prove profitable: She sold the acreage at a loss, leased the castle and moved to a modest cottage in Seattle, where she ended her career in humble fashion, de-rusting minesweepers in the shipyards during and after World War II. Though no longer commanding an empire, Mulrooney continued to prize her self-reliance and practical skill; in a photo taken in her 60s, she stands proudly in front of the seafaring equipment she maintained. 

Still, it was her memories of the Klondike that Mulrooney most prized. Of her fondness for that wild country, she recalled poignantly: “I was young when I went there full of hope.” Later in life, Mulrooney took special pleasure in her membership in the male-only Yukon Order of Pioneers, which made an exception for her mining achievements and civic service. 

In 1957, her money mostly gone, Mulrooney moved to a senior care facility in Seattle, where she died in 1967 at the age of 95. The obituary of the most daring self-made woman of the period read simply: “Born in Ireland, she came to Seattle in 1925. Mrs. Carbonneau was in the Klondike in 1898.” Her small footstone in the city’s Holyrood Cemetery bears only dates, and a name: B.A. Carbonneau. 

Editors' note, November 4, 2024: A previous version of this article misstated the location of Fairbanks, Alaska; it is west of Dawson City. The article has been updated to correct this error.

Editors’ note, November 8, 2024: This article was updated with additional information from Melanie Mayer, co-author of the Mulrooney biography Staking Her Claim.

[123pixieaod]

pilot!Max x backpacker!Daniel 👨‍✈️✈️💼

Part 5!

Part 1: Part 4

"Well, when I'm not being hunted by interpol," he says after a beat, the laughter still playing on his lips. "I'm a tattoo artist."

Max's gaze darts down, taking in the lengths of tanned, tattoo skin; dark ink woven onto Daniel.

"Ah," he says after a beat. "Possibly slightly more likely than a teacher."

"Hey, I'm a teacher of life," Daniel says, and then flushes, no doubt hearing how presumption he sounds. Max laughs, cheeks warming.

"A teacher of life? Go on?"

"Well," he shrugs modestly, a mix between proud and bashful. "It is my Instagram username."

"Is it now?" Max asks dryly, watching as Daniel takes out his phone and unlocks it to reveal a wallpaper of bright, blue ocean.

"Yeah, well, something like that," he says, tapping on the screen and then twisting the device around so Max can see. Rows of neat squares great him, patterned in alternative art and lifestyle themes.

Max gaze flickers to the top.

Tattooed.teacher.of.lyf

1747 posts, 915k followers, 1,324 following

"Impressive," Max says, taking the figures in.

Daniel laughs. "What, my misspelling of life? 20 year old me thought he was a genius. Here," he taps on the most recent post, a black and white tattoo. A whale jumping through stars, it's body detailed with feather- like strokes of ink.

"This is the one I did last week," he says, note of pride clear. "Cool, right?"

"Very," Max replies, earnestly clicking to the next photo of a cartoon racecar inked into someone's ankle.

"Maybe one day I could give you a tat," Daniel says. Max's head jerks up, and then he lets out a surprised laugh when he realises Daniel is teasing him.

"I don't think so," he says smoothly. Sebastian would kill him before F1 Wings had a chance to fire him. Professionalism is the first article in the code of conduct they all have to sign. No tattoos is the third article.

"Why?" Daniel cocks his head. "You don't like them?"

"Not on me," Max replies. He's always known his appearance is more akin to an office worker than anything remotely exciting. If people were colours, he'd be a fine beige hue. Tattoos are cool and dynamic and interesting, all things Max is most certainly not.

"I think you'd suit a few tattoos," Daniel continues, gaze turned critical as it runs up and down Max's body. He shivers, trying to resist the urge to cross his arms across his chest.

"You have a wonderfully cool colouring; tattoos would really take to you I think."

"You mean pallor," Max says dryly, but Daniel shakes his head.

"No, I meant what I said. Cool colouring. Opposite of warm. Tattooing you would be like painting on a canvas, the colours would be so beautiful and bright, I can just tell. I mean, look at me," he rolls up his sleeve, revealing tanned skin adorned with ink. "I'm a bitch to tattoo with colours because you constantly have to work out colour theory, and how the inks will show up against my darker complexion. You wouldn't have any of that worry - your colouring is perfect, a tattooist's wet dream."

"Am I really?" Max says with a grin, delighted in the way Daniel's cheeks instantly darken.

"I didn't mean," he blurts out, and then shakes his head. "Well, I mean, I idn't not not mean - The flight."

"The flight, " Max repeats, smiling at how flustered Daniel is.

"How'd you find it?" He asks, clearly desperate to move the conversation on and to ease the burning in his cheeks.

"Good," Max says with a shrug, taking pity on him and letting the topic change. "What about you?"

"Er good, yes, very good. I mean, I pretty much slept the whole time, so that helped. How about you?"

"How about me what?" Max asks, piercing a lump of chicken. It's beyond stupid, but he takes a sprig of pride in the fact the flight was smooth enough for Daniel to sleep, despite the turbulence they went through.

"Did you catch some Zs?" Daniel asks. He tilts his head slightly, as if searching Max's expression for evidence of exhaustion.

Max huffs a soft laugh. "No, not really. I can't really sleep on planes. I think I got about forty-five minutes? But not a lot. It's fine, I'm used to it." Forty-five minutes in the cramped chair as Lando took his seat, listening to Sebastian carefully instructing Lando and knowing it was advice Lando would promptly forgot.

Daniel's eyebrows draw together. "You must be wrecked then, right? As you didn't sleep on the bus either."

Max shrugs. It feels nice to have someone fuss over him, even a stranger like Daniel.

"Not really," he says, piercing another lump of amorphous chicken in the sea of mayo. "Like I said, I'm used to it."

Daniel just scoffs, as if Max has done something particularly impressive. "Wow, if I had gone over 24 hours without sleep, I think I'd be fit to kill."

"Good thing for me you slept on the plane then, right?" Max quips.

Daniel looks at him, and then grins. "Yeah, I suppose it is."

-

When they've moved onto their second coffee, Max can't resist any longer. He has to ask about Lando's overhead announcement.

"So," he broaches the subject. "Had you fallen asleep yet when the first pilot came on the comms?"

Daniel snorts, and Max feels his lips turn upwards reflexively.

"No, and thank fuck I did not get to miss that. The most entertaining thing I've ever witnessed on the plane, and that includes watching the Fast and Furious films in one sitting and watching a toddler drawing with a Sharpie on her sleeping dad's face. I don't think I've ever heard a pilot be more enthusiastic while being so undeprepared. How did he manage to get every detail wrong?"

Max smirks at the memory. The first comms announcement typically fell under his responsibilities as Second Officer. This time, ostensibly as a reward for officially being promoted to Cadet, but in reality simply to prevent Daniel from hearing his voice, he had convinced Sebastian to let Lando do the welcome comms for the first time.

"Come on Seb," he'd said as they all belted. "It's three sentences, how bad can he fuck them up?

Clearly, Max had vastly underestimated Lando's talented for fucking things up.

"He sounded like he was 12 or something," Daniel says, not unkindly. "The woman sitting beside me looked like she was checking whether it was too late to bolt for it when his voice cracked for like the tenth time."

Max laughs. "Considering he also got his am and pm mixed up, the date wrong, and mispronounced about five words, I can't really fault her logic."

Max had been sitting beside him in the cockpit, hissing corrections, which in turn only made Lando panic more and somehow mess up even further. When he'd finally switched off the comms, successfully turning the simple, routine welcoming address Max does on each flight into about ten rambling sentences, Sebastian had looked up from his final checks.

"Let's not do that again, okay?" He had said mildly, and for once Lando had just meekly nodded in agreement, and Max had had to turn to the window to hide his grin.

"Speaking of ages," Daniel says, drawing Max from the memory. "How old are you?"

"Me?" He replies stupidly, as if Daniel could mean anyone else. "Twenty-three."

Daniel's eyebrows shoot up. "No shit. I had you figured to be at least in your mid, if not late, twenties."

Max tries for a teasing smile. "Do I already have so many wrinkles?"

Daniel huffs a laugh, and gratification spools in Max's chest, tighter and tighter.

"Fuck you, you full on know you look like an extra in, like, Baywatch."

"Oh yes, because I am clearly so tanned, " Max deadpans, and Daniel laughs again, his cheeks warming.

"Well, okay, but -"

He's interrupted by a shrill alarm and swears as he taps at his phone.

"Sorry," he mutters, leaving over to rummage through his bag. "Normally I'm fine, but when I'm traveling I have to set alarms to remember to take my meds, or else the jet lag would completely ruin it."

Max watches as Daniel sits up again, a neat medicine box in his hands, the same one Max can remember his grandmother using.

"Health is wealth, as they say," Daniel clips open the section labelled Monday, revealing one circular white pill and one blue tablet.

"Do they?" Max asks, and Daniel shrugs as he scoops them into his palm.

"I keep forgetting English isn't your native language. So this one," he holds up the blue tablet, "is keratin, to ensure these lovely, luscious curls continue being just that while evading the male baldness gene which haunts my paternal line." He pops in his mouth, swallowing it dry. "And this one," he continues, holding up the remaining pill, "is a wonderful combination of various vitamins and minerals to keep me looking young, vibrant and ridiculously attractive."

"And humble as well?" Max asks as Daniel swallows that one dry too.

"Of course," Daniel gives him a grin, finally reaching for his water. "Naturally, Maxy."

Part 6

[theeternalwomb]

Channeled message: march 31, 2024

Some of you are undergoing some really heavy transitions here and some of are you are about to stepping into manifestations or be given things you’ve been asking for long term or things that were divinely orchestrated for you to have as these things are part of the divine plan for you to come into, it was only a matter of time I just heard. Someone or some of you have done a lot of inner work or undergone a lot of tower moments within the last couple of years or beyond that. There’s emphasis on past life karma or deeply rooted triggers, past situations or nostalgia weighing heavy on the heart chakra. Issues and blockages with the nervous system are significant as well. Some of you who this message is for may not have super trivial or turbulent pasts or can’t think of anything that has happened to you that may have caused significant damage or changes but some of you have had a humble beginning or have had to pave the way for yourself for a long while and are making breakthroughs at this time, I just heard “debut” someone actually makes music but there’s an energy of those who are being blessed soon being given the opportunity to really step outside of their shell or step outside of a version of themselves or a version of their reality that was stagnant or was limiting for a really long time. Someone is due for a heavy reset in their lives as well and is being pushed to leave all things behind.

Whomever this person is has dealt with a good amount of loss or was being prepared to make these steps for the past couple of months as they went through a consistent process of having to let things go that they carried with them a long time and this is sort of a climax moment in your plot here. You made a physical transformation (through appearance perhaps and/or most certainly through people and environment) there may be people from your past or people you’ve let go of whose karma is coming around to them soon or were taken aback by the move you made to move forward without them and are going to continue to be taken aback for whatever is coming for you next or whatever you’re about to come into. i just heard, "you need to stop hiding." someones fear of being seen made a spontaneous return or there was some sort of extinction burst here but spirit says that behavior isn’t going to do moving forward.

Someone is struggling with guilt or a lot of unresolved feelings and deeply rooted issues or emotions regarding various situations within their past but there’s a message here about coming up on the moment where it’s finally time to let these things go. Indefinitely. Someone had some sort of “villain origin story” or some sort of large emotional catalyst that caused them a lot of chaos and pain I’m hearing but you can’t take that with you where you’re going. Whatever you’re about to receive is on its way but while you wait confront all these things that are coming up to the surface to be let out and resolved. You’re sensitive to energies at this time as well, you know what people are thinking of you or how they feel about you on an internal scale whether they want to admit it or not but this is there problem don’t let their energy dictate the way that you feel. Whatever guilt you’re holding onto, whatever energy they’re sending that you’re absorbing, you need to release. You did the best you could, let it go. Forgive yourself and forgive others. Let it go.

Letting things go is very significant at this time. Don’t let other people’s thoughts, energies, perceptions of you or intentions hold you back any longer. Take all your power back. 2023 is significant as well as 2022 and 2020/2021. There’s a lot of unresolved bullshit within the heart chakra that may be effecting the solar plexus as well as the sacral chakra, I almost said root, the root as well.

Heart: love, healing, acceptance

Mantra: “I love..”

Solar plexus: vitality, manifestation

Mantra: “I do..”

Sacral: creativity, abundance

Mantra: “I feel..”

Root: survival, trust, grounding

Mantra: “I am..”

Pay really close attention to where all your emotions are felt in the body when triggering emotions or thoughts arise within you. The chakras I just channeled tell me a lot about what’s been going on within the collective and where a lot of these trigger points or internal emotions or dialogue are sitting. There’s a lot of crisis or reflection regarding who you loved, what you loved, what you were passionate about, how you loved, what love meant to you, and that experience and what you did/were doing in the name of love or in the energy of love, there’s a LOT of feelings and unresolved emotions and just *shit* really that’s sitting within oneself regarding all of that and who that makes you or your essence!! Forgive yourself for the mistakes you made, for the times when you couldn’t love yourself beyond how much you loved others, and for some of you make peace with the fact that the hardship is over and you did what was asked of you and stood tall in what you loved, believed in and were passionate about despite what you faced from others. A lot of this hardship took place 2020-2023 for a lot of you. Remember who you are, what makes you who you are, your essence, your power, your energy, your strength! There’s a lot of self hatred or some overly critical energy you’ve picked up along the way that’s coming up. Someone feels like throwing up or has been nauseous lately. A physical manifestation of spiritual and internal purging.

This message is really long, can I shut up?

[gigiinabottle]

Extra special bla bla bla #1

Hello Tumblr!

This is my first ever entry on this blog. It will serve as my digital commonplace book, journal and gallery for my art, writings, photography and anything else I damn well please. But before I get too ahead of myself I think Introductions are in order.

I am GG, I am 20 years old and I currently live in Johannesburg South Africa. Right now i'm in a very turbulent and stressful time in my life. I want to move out of my mother's house but i'm struggling to fund that among many other financial challenges. Above that and more importantly my relationships to people around me are in disarray and crumbling before my eyes. This is all due to stupid decitions that I made last year that I will most certainly reject on in this blog at some point in time. Things are not going my way to put it very bluntly and I am directly at fault. Being only 20 means I have yet to fully discover my sense of self and what I want from life, though I do have a clear idea. However Ive recently found myself with a lot (and I mean A LOT) of time to reflect and change my life for the better, hence the creation of this blog. I intend to document my journey of self realisation and discovery and all the inner-workings of my mind.

Some important things to note if you plan on coming along for this shit show:

I am diagnosed with BPD, this disorder rules my thoughts and governs every decision I make whether I chose to ignore it or not. It makes me impulsive, irrational, volatile, unreliable and at my core fearful of the people and the world around me. My judgment is sometimes clouded by this and I ask that you be understanding and patient as I try to end these bad and damaging habits.

I am what they would call a hopeless romantic. What drives me, what motivates me, why I get up in the mornings, what makes me who I am. Love. I do everything (that isn't influenced by fear or shame) in the name of love. It is my greatest strength as well as my biggest weakness. Again this clouds my judgment and makes me immature and meek in nature. I have so much love to give and nowhere to put all of it, I certainly am not giving any of this love to myself. Instead it festers inside of me and turns into deep and all consuming feelings of despair and longing for a soul that wants to love without boundaries like me. I am more often than not in a state of deep depression for this reason, i'm not a fun person to be around. It's not easy for anyone to watch a person they care about lay their neck out in the name of love, over and over, only to keep being stamped out. This is mostly why I've become such a loner in recent months. Many people in my life have simply given up on me for my way of thinking. Hopeless, a hopeless romantic.

I have a bizarre and innate interest in the macabre and taboo. I don't really know why but these topics have always interested me and I have a lot of personal knowledge on such topics. I most likely will discuss such things on my blog, including but not limited to: Canabolism; Cults; Murderers; Psychopaths; Female Depression; The Dark Web; Gore and Gore-Sites; Drugs; Mania; Urban Legends; Mythological Creatures; Snuff Media; Torture Methods and Disturbing Films and Literature of all kinds. Obviously to the average person this is horrid and disgusting and if you are one of these kinds of people I kindly thank you for reading this far and now I will show you the door.

For those few chose to continue, that's about as weird as it's going to get on here. Although I doubt it would even be possible to get any weirder and if there is a way I will find it.

Other topics I plan to discuss include and again is not limited too. My own personal experiences; My love life; Psychology; Philosophy; Generational trauma; Sad media; Art I deem cool and interesting and some online discussions.

If you yourself have a topic you'd be interested to hear my thoughts on I have a Ask Me Anything button at the top of my blog where you can submit any requests or even questions or media you may have anonymously or not. I would love to build a kind of community here, although at the same time i'm really not expecting to amass any kind of audience let alone one single reader. If you'd like more of a peak into my life I have a scrapbook instagram page called @rockstar.gigi where you can find some more parts to my puzzle.

All of that said. Welcome friend, let's unravel the mysteries of love and the universe by diving into my flawed mind and seeing what we find. Its gonna be fucking crazy.

Goodbye for now

Stay foxy much love,

GG

[mariacallous]

Donald Trump is commonly described as transactional. At some level, however, all leaders are transactional. What defines the U.S. president-elect is his unabashed opportunism, often at the expense of values, alliances, and even treaties. For Trump, who co-wrote the 1987 book The Art of the Deal, every transaction is zero-sum, with a clear winner and loser. More than anything else, Trump likes to be seen as a winner, even when he isn’t.

Pundits reflexively see Trump’s nakedly transactional nature as an attribute that might terrify other global stakeholders. The reality is more complicated. States that have come to rely on U.S.-backed alliances will certainly need to recalibrate. Global markets will experience turbulence. But countries and companies will also sniff out opportunities. The ones with the means to do so will look to exploit the president-elect’s tendency to prioritize his self-interest. As Trump begins a second term, world leaders and corporate executives are more prepared than they were in 2016. They have not only learned lessons from his first stint in the White House but also since pored over abundant reporting about Trump’s non-traditional leadership style, his what’s-in-it-for-me mindset, and his reliance on family members for dealmaking.

Trump may retain his ability to shock, but the world is no longer surprised by an opportunistic United States. The post-World War II order that managed the globe for seven decades had already begun to fray before Trump’s first term. Countries that aspired to abide by an equal, rules-based international system have watched as Washington has resisted sharing power in multilateral bodies such as the United Nations, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. China’s unprecedented rise, along with a growing global disillusionment with free trade and globalization, has turned the United States toward protectionism and made it less likely to privilege norms and professed values when they conflict with interests. This trend was already underway, perhaps most visibly since the start of the Iraq War two decades ago. Trump’s return will only accelerate a move toward a more transactional global system.

The world will navigate Trump’s zero-sum mindset in a variety of ways. For countries that have historically relied on Washington’s friendship, the next years will bring painful disruptions. At a campaign event last February, Trump recounted how he told an unidentified NATO member he would encourage aggressors to “do whatever the hell they want” if that country hadn’t allocated what he deemed to be the right amount of defense spending. “You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills,” Trump concluded. The president-elect’s supporters argue that he is right-sizing U.S. policy and that his maximalist statements are designed to reach desirable outcomes in negotiations. Critics counter that the mere suggestion he won’t abide by a treaty alliance destroys U.S. credibility.

Either way, Europe must respond to a changing relationship with the United States. Beyond encouraging European armies to beef up their militaries, Brussels is already preparing to buy American to make Trump feel as though he’s winning. In a recent interview with the Financial Times, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde affirmed this plan by suggesting that Europe should employ a “cheque-book strategy,” in which it increases purchases of U.S. exports. Similarly, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed giving U.S. firms special access to the country’s rare minerals to appeal to Trump’s quid pro quo mentality.

While countries in Europe are making the best of the circumstances presented to them, there’s little doubt they’d rather deal with a different president in the White House. According to a poll of 30 countries and territories conducted by the Economist in July and August, resounding pluralities in Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain preferred a Democratic winner over a Republican one. And it’s not just Europe. Respondents from two other countries that have signed U.S. defense treaties—Japan and South Korea—also marked a preference for a candidate other than Trump.

In contrast, a plurality of respondents from emerging markets such as Egypt, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Vietnam expressed a preference for a Republican candidate over a Democratic one. This shouldn’t be surprising. First, none of them have defense agreements that Trump could threaten to abandon. And second, while these countries acknowledge the risks under a Trump presidency, they also see abundant opportunities. Many of these rising economies have grown tired of Western lectures on human rights and democracy and are instead itching to deploy their growing clout to strike the best deals for themselves.

“Republicans place more importance on a convergence of interests than coalescing values,” said Syed Akbaruddin, a former Indian diplomat who served as New Delhi’s ambassador to the United Nations during Trump’s first term. “As a neo-realist power, India feels it can deal with a transactional Trump. If it’s a question of give-and-take, we know we can give some and take some.”

The larger the economy, the more touchpoints for give-and-take. One element of Trump’s style that seems to lend itself to transactions is his inclination to pick family members in official roles. Daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner played significant roles in domestic and foreign policy in Trump’s first term. Trump has now named Jared’s father, Charles Kushner, as his ambassador to France and Massad Boulos, father-in-law to Tiffany Trump, as his Middle East advisor.

There’s a track record of countries reaching out to family members to draw closer to Trump himself. Six months after leaving the White House, Jared Kushner’s private equity firm received a $2 billion investment from a Saudi sovereign wealth fund controlled by the country’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. The seed money was approved despite objections from the fund’s due diligence committee, according to documents seen by the New York Times. One way of interpreting the decision is as an investment in a member of the future U.S. president’s inner circle.

India tried a different approach during Trump’s first term as it scrambled to get on an inside track. In November 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out a red carpet to welcome Ivanka Trump to Hyderabad for a business summit focused on empowering women. No expense was spared: Roads were repaired, pavements cleaned up, and curbsides painted as the city put on a charm offensive for the president’s daughter, with adoring TV reports on the country’s government-friendly cable channels. The entire operation was designed to catch the transactional Trump’s eye, a leader known to enjoy not only pomp and circumstance but also favorable media coverage.

If U.S. allies and emerging markets have a relatively clear strategy to appeal to the opportunistic part of Trump world—flattery, deals, buying American, and leveraging family connections—it is less obvious how U.S. adversaries might fare. Rivals such as Russia and China, already sanctioned and sidelined by the United States, are bracing for tougher penalties while simultaneously relishing the prospect of a more unstable global order. Russia sees NATO’s strength—backstopped by the United States, of course—as a mortal, long-term threat. China, meanwhile, has complained of Washington’s desire to create an “Asian NATO” in the form of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a group that also includes Australia, India, and Japan. If Trump denigrates either alliance to reach better deals in one domain, then U.S. adversaries will gain in another. Similarly, if the success of U.S. attempts to curb Chinese development of high-level semiconductors hinges on cooperation with U.S. allies, then Beijing would welcome any disruption in those partnerships.

Tariffs are likely to play an outsized role in Trump’s negotiating tactics; he has already deployed them in the past as a tool to bludgeon China and has more recently described “tariff” as “the most beautiful word in the dictionary.” What is unclear is how they will serve U.S. interests. In the short term, tariffs function mostly as a sales tax, with immediate inflationary impacts that are likely to affect lower-income families more acutely than richer ones. Economists linked to Trump argue that over time, tariffs could raise immense amounts of revenue, funding tax cuts and encouraging businesses to produce locally, thereby correcting some of the key problems they diagnose in the U.S. economy. Even if those assessments have merit, they are inherently longer- term projects. Yet, in the short term, tariffs are likely to cause two things Trump loathes: inflation, as mentioned, but also panic in the stock market. Paradoxically, Trump’s favorite tactic is likely to be the one he may not have the patience to see through. And by all accounts, Beijing has a sophisticated understanding of this dynamic and is therefore unlikely to react passively to tariffs designed to damage its economy. If China can contribute to a stock market downturn, it likely will, knowing how much Trump will dislike it. And while Beijing has reduced its exports to the United States, it retains significant leverage over key U.S. companies such as Apple and Tesla, which continue to run large manufacturing operations in China.

Spare a thought for a final group of countries that stands to lose the most in the likely scenario where Trump shuns multilateralism and prioritizes bilateral transactions: the more than 100 nations with populations under 10 million. Countries from the Maldives to Mauritania lack the size, strength, or salience to lobby for preferential treatment in the event of blanket global tariffs or the Trump team’s search for favorable deals on the global stage. A majority of these countries are developing economies spread out across the global south, generally flying under the radar of great-power politics.

“Smaller countries—by their very definition—would like a world with more rules. They don’t have the leverage larger countries have,” said Akbaruddin, the former Indian diplomat. And in many ways, smaller and lower-income countries have never needed more leverage. After the peak years of free trade and globalization in the latter part of the 20th century, and the China-led commodities boom at the start of the current century, there is no longer a rising tide lifting all boats. Instead, there’s the existential threat of climate change, which smaller countries do not have the funds to build defenses for; a world that has become more protectionist, prioritizing large-scale industrial policy and domestic production, and in which smaller countries lose out; and growing global conflict, leading to mass migration and instability in the food and commodities markets, which tend to generate the biggest disruptions for the tiniest nations. In each of these cases, a more transactional global order re-creates the scenario Thucydides once described: The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer as they must. If the law of the jungle dominates statecraft, where does that leave the art of diplomacy?

The Biden years now represent a blip in the longer trend line of Trump’s America First. It’s worth noting that President Joe Biden himself frequently struggled to mask the contradictions between his rhetoric and his actions. Two weeks after assuming the presidency in 2021, Biden declared at the State Department that “America is back.” His words were designed to reassure the global community that Trump’s first term was an aberration. “Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy,” he said.

Yet while he was fond of promising that his White House would defend freedom and uphold universal rights, Biden found himself in the awkward position of visiting Jeddah in the summer of 2022 and fist-bumping Mohammed bin Salman, whom he once branded a “pariah” for his role in the murder of the dissident Jamal Khashoggi. Riyadh’s muscle in the oil markets turned out to be more valuable than Biden’s idealism. More recently, Biden’s seemingly blind support for Israel’s war in Gaza—a lonely stance in the very multilateral organizations the United States helped create—furthered a global sentiment that Washington had one set of rules for friends and another for everyone else.

Biden was also not immune from nepotism. After repeatedly denying he would pardon his son Hunter for his three felony convictions, Biden did just that after his final family Thanksgiving dinner as president. Once again, Biden’s lofty words had come back to bite him.

Trump won’t have these kinds of problems. Global expectations of him are lower to begin with. Having won a popular vote while making clear he will put America first—at all costs and unconstrained by concerns about human rights, values, the climate crisis, or migration—Trump will assume he has a free pass to pursue what he sees as being in Washington’s brazen interest. For much of the rest of the world, this won’t feel like a massive course correction. Instead, it’ll confirm a collective instinct that the old world order is no longer fit for purpose. 

The "Biden nepotism" stuff is bullshit here, but otherwise I think this makes some interesting points.

[jody-and-the-bees]

Not dead, just busy. Mostly been working on writing and planning, and the odd hasty sketch. Ah, but I have to post something, so here’s this.

Top right text is song lyrics from “Veneficium” by Lacuna Coil. Mostly just a mood note for myself. I've been putting most of my effort into Threads and Instagram the past year, and it feels like pulling teeth; if I'm inactive for a day, nobody sees me, and the near 500 followers I supposedly have don't mean jack diddly squat if my art is still being seen there by a single-digit number of people. Meanwhile, I post a single-digit number of times on here, and somehow there's 50 to 100 notifications every time I come back. Feels like I've been beating my head against a brick wall instead of walking through an open door. Got me thinking I should change my posting priorities.

Social media is a chore and I hate doing it, but it feels like all the other avenues for artists have been walled off by our technocratic dystopian nightmare hellscape.

Well, I do like to write longer explanations and ramblings about what I'm working on, so I'll be a lot more active on here going forward. I'll also be tagging posts with the title of the related project. Not trying to make myself a hashtag or any other delusion of fame, I just think it's a good idea for the sake of organization.

I've had an idea for a cover or poster stuck in my head for a long time now. This isn't exactly what I envisioned, but the pose I was thinking of before felt more hopeless and world-weary, while the pose I'm moving toward in the sketches is more dangerous. Sadie is the sort of person who chooses violence, so this just wound up feeling more 'honest' to the character.

I started planning this comic way back in 2019, and it's been through some turbulent changes since then. It was supposed to be a short spoof of harem rom-coms like Bokuben, with a protagonist who was too blunt and direct to let any misunderstandings get out of hand. One of the heroines wound up being so dominant a personality that she wound up stealing away the Protagonist role. Inspired by Tristan & Isolde, it shifted into a darker comedy about people falling in love after one plotted to murder the other.

That plan also fell by the wayside. I've thought of ways to explain the transformation (and transformation certainly the word I think fits best) of my story. The word I've settled on is "honesty." Writing the characters as sources of comedy, and the circumstances as humorous (albeit amid grim topics) felt dishonest.

I'm aware some authors have described their characters as imaginary friends, or real people met through some communion with another world. I don't know that I would be so prosaic. Rather, as my pen is laying down a description of a scene, some quieter part of my mind speaks up and corrects me, tells me "no, that isn't what would happen, no she wouldn't do that, no no no, you're lying. This world and these people simply aren't the way you want them to be." That's what I mean by 'honest' writing. I am discovering, consciously, what my unconscious mind has already decided on.

I wanted to write a story that was light and fluffy and palatable and marketable, but if I did, I would be lying through my art. I'm ashamed, to some degree, of what I'm making. Sadie is an evil person in an evil world; a monster that can only be sympathized with by contrast of the monsters that surround her. It's edgy, and grim, and all the things I dislike as a reader, all the things that are too easy to lean on when writing shallow slop. I worry that my life's work will be looked at as a mistake, or the pathetic arrested juvenilia of a man too ignorant of his own limits to expand them. But to correct these things, to sand away the rough burrs of raw metal would be to bury the truth of it. An ugly, awful monster is clawing its bloody way into the world through me, and to persist in trying to change it is to lie about the nature of the thing.

The story begins in a setting that is familiar enough: a city. A wide, flat city built on industry, with veins full of crime and a beating heart of greed. At the outset, Sadie's world is figuratively destroyed. From there, she becomes a bottomless hole in the bottom of the world, pulling and tearing at reality until it crumbles and disappears. By the end of the story, she will have burned the world to the ground and swallowed a potion of its ashes. And, if I tell this ugly, honest story effectively, if my mad gambit pans out, I hope my readers will cheer for this monster.

For posterity, I want to acknowledge some influences. I mentioned Bokuben, and I'll shout out Nisekoi. They were still the first step, even if the final product might be unrecognizable, but their DNA is in here somewhere.

Next, H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. Lovecraft for his namesake cosmic horrors, the fear of something beyond all comprehension noticing us, to our detriment. Howard for Conan The Barbarian, Sword and Sorcery, the progenitor of dark fantasy -- and personally, most of all, for the poem "The Symbol" the terrible apocalyptic mood of which seems most relevant of all.

Nadia Bulkin's story "Red Goat, Black Goat" provided a great deal to the existential threat at the core of the story, and also gave me the name and motif for my villain, "Mother." I won't spoil the story more than I have to, to make my point. Go read it, go buy Nadia's books, she is phenomenal. A character exclaims "The goat is our real mother! She is everyone's *real* mother!" This declaration follows some truly shocking violence, and that horror, that usurping, and that cruel sense of possession and ownership, was the seed that sprouted into my own monstrosity.

In T.E.D. Klein's novella, "Nadelman's God," the title character (in his youth) conjectures that God is not loving, but cruel. That He must delight in pain and suffering, that the world is a torture chamber fashioned by an omnipotent sadist. As a middle-aged man, Nadelman experiences a series of inexplicable episodes involving a rock band, a stalker, and a golem of garbage that compound to suggest his younger self may have been closer to the truth than he ever believed. He has, indirectly, created an avatar through which this Hungering God can directly inflict pain and suffering on victims, no longer trapped outside and forced to suggest its cruelty, it is now free to walk the world and distribute its murderous miracles in a more intimate fashion. The story ends with Nadelman in a mad panic to escape the deity he prophesied, running into a synagogue and hiding among the people attending Sunday service. I was underwhelmed by the conclusion, but came to appreciate it more as I thought about it in the days and years after. Is he only looking to escape the physical threat, or is he desperately trying to find the faith he rejected now that he's been exposed to something that makes it impossible? While Nadia Bulkin provided me with an aesthetic and motif for my villain, Klein inspired her motivations. I am, at this point, spoiling a story I plan to tell over the course of the next decade of my life. Oh well.

A small aside, the choice of a spear is inspired by Moby Dick, first and foremost. Ahab challenges God, with a spear forged from the steel of horseshoe nails and used razor blades, tempered in fire stoked by the oil of dead flesh and quenched not in water but human blood, and set to its purpose with the dedication "Ego non baptizo te in nomine patris, sed in nomine diaboli!" -- I baptize you not in the name of The Father, but in the name of The Devil. Have you read Moby Dick? It's the most Heavy Metal thing I've ever seen, it's absolutely apocalyptic.

Lastly, I want to mention a broader concept. Not the work of one author, but a religious motif I find fascinating. Chaos, and Chaoskampf. Chaos, in the Greek Cosmogony, was the Prime Material from which all of reality was forged. All that we can observe, all that exists in our world, our universe, our reality, is Order. All the infinite bottomless darkness beyond our comprehension, is Chaos. It is a difficult concept to describe because, as beings of Order, we cannot observe or comprehend Chaos. Perhaps understanding it would destroy us outright, tear apart our material and return it to the Absolute Nothing the creator sculpted into us. Chaoskampf, then, is an extrapolated concept, tell me if you've heard this one before: a great dragon or serpent, rising from water and breathing fire, does battle with a warrior god, who wields lightning, at the outset of the world. The god destroys the dragon, and uses its bones and blood as the foundation of the world. When the time comes for the world to end, the dragon returns, destroys the warrior that had vanquished it and proceeds to burn, break, drown or swallow the world. Chaoskampf is not exclusive the Greeks and Romans, but also found in Judaism Christianity and Islam, as well as Shintoism, Hinduism, Norse Odinism, Dynastic Egypt, virtually every civilization that descended from the migration out of Africa along the Kurgan Hypothesis. I am, by no means, writing an exhaustive list of the cultures that exhibit the motif. Please understand that I'm not intending to besmirch anyone's culture, history or faith, nor am I implying that the events hinted at truly happened in my grossly simplified description; I am, in broad strokes, gushing about something so vast and obscure that it feels truly Lovecraftian, truly Cosmic, while still very much being a part of our material reality. Whether you believe any of these accounts directly, it is readily observable that these parallels exist. And what I find most compelling is the conflict itself.

Post script, I've realized that Moby Dick invokes the motif of Chaoskampf, even directly referring to the whale with the title "Leviathan," the name of the sea-serpent that God recalls battling in the book of Job; but has Ahab and the Whale reflecting one another, both of them being great Destroyers, both of them being things of the primordial sea.

And, as I'm sure some readers will have realized, Chaoskampf is also the inspiration for Dragon's Dogma, The Elder Scrolls, and (I'm sure) countless other works of fantasy fiction and their mythological frameworks. It's an infectious idea. A memetic virus that replicates, mutates, and transmits. The tendency to repeat and shift while remaining recognizable across languages and cultures and whole millennia, that's what I love about the whole thing.

Hinduism, in particular, holds that the world begins and ends with the Naga, Ananta Shesha, swallowing the world. The world exists in cycles, or Kalpas, wherein the creation of a world cannot begin without the destruction of its predecessor. Unpleasant perhaps for the people alive at the end, but an inevitable and inextricable component of creation.

So here is Sadie Doherty. An ordinary girl, and the end of the world. A dragon whose rage and hate is beyond all mete and fathom. To write her as anything else would be a lie.

[forlorn-crows]

Just wanted to say I absolutely LOVE Lady of the Lake and I've reread it so many times that I should be lowkey ashamed haha BUT

I'm also very curious about Nyneve's interactions with other ghouls like Delta or Dew. How did Dew find her?

You can absolutely take this as an opportunity to ramble about it if you want :)

okay so. i admit that technically the ghoul i call Water in my fic i guess is Delta? im terribly bad at tracking who's who in the water ghoul 'lore'. but Terzo called his bass player before Mist 'Water' so thats what i went with. so please call him whatever you'd like lmao.

for anyone who needs a refresher, this is sort of all i've established about Nyneve's past interactions w/ghouls or otherwise:

Uh, how long has it been? Since you’ve met a ghoul, I mean. Rain isn’t sure what to do with himself—what to do with his hands, his limbs, any of it. He dangles in front of her like a worm on a lure, and he supposes he is one, in a way. A slice of life outside the murky waters she inhabits. But he knows he’d be her catch of the day, not the other way around. 

Many years, Nyvene says wistfully. I can sense those who venture into the water at any depth, as well as those close to the shore. But the ones who seem most closely aligned to you have never traveled as far as yourself. They were surface dwellers. Rain gives her a confused look. Not all are drawn to the depths, and that is perfectly fine for a being such as myself. But I did begin to wonder who would come next.

Dew had been telling the truth, then. Who was before me?

His name was simply Water. He was quite robust in his search, perhaps a little impatient. But he was kind to me. So I cannot fault him too much. She seems wistful, reminiscent. Rain realizes he doesn’t know much about the water ghouls before him and Dewdrop, let alone any of the ghouls that came before their current pack. 

How many before him?

Many, she says simply.

Rain swallows, more bubbles escaping his gills. How, uh—how old are you, exactly?

Hm, age is a funny thing. That can’t be good. I have existed for a long time, longer than your congregation. 

So, we didn’t, um, create you?

No, my child. Though, the dark magick running more frequently through these lands has been . . . refreshing, to put it simply.

You’ve always been here? In this lake, I mean. 

Well, as long as I can remember, yes. She chuckles.

so, you'll notice, and as a gentle reminder, Dew and Mist did not interact with her. to me, they are not a deep-water alignment as Rain is. that's not to say Dew never meets her. because he does. but he didn't interact with her prior to Rain.

i think water ghouls, and ghouls/demons in general, have more specified alignments within the elements they are 'made' of/from. just water itself can be saltwater, freshwater, deep sea, rivers/streams, storms, ice, and things of the like.

so not all of them will have desired to go to the bottom of the lake (i think its pretty deep, think some of the deeper american great lakes depth despite its overall size). the elder ghouls may have passed down the knowledge about her, and some, like Water i think, dont. maybe theyre a little selfish about her, feel like theyve been 'chosen' and that everyone else should have to discover her too. with Water (again, Delta, w/e), it was turbulent with the new summonings, the changing of ghouls and even elements. there simply wasnt time to be like 'oh yeah also theres a big tentacle lady in the lake if you want to have a fun time' you know? not his fault.

so Nyneve's def had a relationship with many a ghoul, but it hasnt been linear. it hasnt all been water ghouls either, but i think the interaction of other elements has come and gone throughout time. i havent decided if any of the 'more recent' ghouls beyond the others mentioned have met her, or just know of her.

certainly there'd be urban legends passed around amongst humans that live in the surrounding areas, so they may have heard about something in passing. esp if any of those humans happened to become siblings of the church. but humans that do know of her have never truly known who she is, and mainly just call her varelse, creature. a monster.

the poem at the end you may have noticed uses her real name, Nyneve. so we can assume someone more personally familiar with her wrote it. scribbled it in some tome somewhere about local myths and legends, or historical drafts about the abbey itself.

she's very mysterious and not even i know everything about her, haha! dark magick gone rougue, some creature that crawled up from the depths, or something created by some long forgotten god.

all this to say, Rain had to introduce Dew to Nyneve. once he got over the fact that he'd have to tell everyone else about her, considering hed come home with sucker marks all over with no real logical explanation. i think Mountain is the first one he tells, but Dew is the first one he introduces.

i really appreciate that you enjoy LOTL so much; apologies for taking a little bit to answer this, but thanks for stopping by xx

if you havent already read about Nyneve and Rain, and this sparks your interest, you can do so here:

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[neilanuruodo]

I just noticed something interesting.  A good number of years back I learned that the most efficient way to stir a hot drink was to bring the spoon back and forth through the liquid rather than stirring around in a circle.  It makes sense.  It creates more turbulence and cools the liquid faster.

Messing around with this just now, simply because I find these things interesting and enjoy seeing them in action, I realized why circular stirring has probably been popular for so long.  Unlike back and forth, when you stir your drink in a circle it continues to swirl for some time after you stop, continuing to cool at an increased rate until it peters out.

And I realized that (most likely, this is just a guess of course) circular stirring is probably more energy efficient (in terms of calories burned to cool the liquid) while back and forth stirring is certainly more time efficient.  And it says a lot about our priorities and the changes that have taken place in our world.  Calories are (relative to the past) plentiful; time is not.

[ofmoonlily]

"I get why you never told me, but... All this time... Everything I said to you about things we'd do in the future, didn't that hurt you instead?" Much as he wishes he would have known, he can kind of get how someone not knowing could lift the mood. Gloom and doom sure had seemed to haunt the party's every step and he'd never quite understood why until now.

That's not to say he doesn't also have his own revelations to contend with, because those do keep him awake at night when no one is watching to notice Tidus acting 'out of character', but he'd always kept those things hidden from the others as best he could. Zanarkand, Sin, Auron... Those were all things he couldn't burden the others with, questions that were hundreds of years removed from the present couldn't be put to rest by bothering his Summoner about it. She had plenty to worry about all on her own, and that was when he'd just thought all she had to do was gather the aeons.

"Well, if this is how things are going to be then I'll keep thinking of a way to change things, okay? And in the meantime we're going to have some fun, too! If we might not get to do all of that stuff later, we'll just have to find the time to do as much as we can now!"

There's no way he's going to manage sleeping tonight, huh? || Tidus || this literally went from 'hmm i should add a bit more context ig' to 'whoops, it got away from me—' xD

Free ask | Always Accepting | @worldly-diversity

Not once did she experience any type of negative response to Tidus's boasting about the future. Although, she understood the complexity behind his concern, or why anyone else would have been dismayed with his behavior. However, he wasn't from Spira. He did not know of their customs or what being a summoner truly entailed. Tidus knew next to nothing, and he made that abundantly clear the more Yuna and everyone came to know him.

Thusly, she could never be mad at him for the secret everyone intentionally concealed. In fact, his encouragement was what kept her going. He was her cheerleader, guiding her down the turbulent road in order to bring her before violence incarnate, and usher peace to all of Spira.

"No, of course not" Yuna chuckles, repositioning herself on the multicolored ground of lake macalania, "it made me happy. The pilgrimage takes a toll on all of us, you know? Normally, summoner's and their guardians keep a straight face, baring the weight of the responsibility of their pilgrimage with grace. And yet...when you joined, everything changed.

"You looked at the goal with a smile on your face, determined to take down Sin and jump through every obstacle. Every day was full of cheer, and you always applauded me with every hindrance I overcame. And you know, I felt like the most powerful summoner in the world...with you by my side."

Yuna laughs, enthralled with his proposition. And yet, she knew it wasn't to be. Still. It didn't hurt to wish for the same things; to defeat Sin and stay alive. That was the wish of all Yevon's children, indeed.

"Hm.~" the lightest giggle was all she could muster. She could not push herself to agree nor deny his claims. There really was only one way to destroy Sin... And if Tidus thought of another way? That would certainly be wonderful.

However, Yuna remained steadfast in the tradition of the final summoning. She will destroy Sin either with the tradition, or Tidus's undiscovered plan.

[blindrapture]

So over Dream Theater's 40-year career, they've made a lot of long songs. In fact, when I went and made a list of long songs, at first I counted anything longer than ten minutes, but I quickly realized that would have taken me a lot of time to make a tier list for, as they have nearly 40 songs over ten minutes. And the thing is, those aren't even what people really think of when they think of... y'know, the Long Songs. The "epics."

There are 10 songs we can unambiguously consider the "epics," and they are all longer than fifteen minutes. In addition, we can add 2 additional songs that are both edge cases of different degrees.

Going chronologically, they are:

1: "A Mind Beside Itself" 20:26, from 1994's Awake. (technically this one is three separate songs: "Erotomania," "Voices," and "The Silent Man." however, they are intended as one long suite.) [I think "Voices" is a top-tier song. I think everyone owes it to themselves to hear "Voices" at least once in their lives. I also think, as a 20-minute suite, "A Mind Beside Itself" has a structure that dream theater ought to try working more with; they never really revisited this kind of structure. but this one, as it stands? yeah, "Erotomania" and "The Silent Man" both make me antsy. I can skip both of them, for very different reasons.]

2: "A Change of Seasons" 23:01, from 1995's A Change of Seasons (no ambiguity here. absolutely one long song, in seven movements.) [why is it so damn high? I dunno. it took me a while to really sit with this song. but when I finally did, I mean jesus, I felt like I'd discovered something. this song actually and honestly feels like what old men say classic rock feels like. this song feels like classic rock. this feels like every bit of hype I never bought into. this is an evergreen song. I can listen to it a million times and it's always just as good as the first time.]

3: "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence" 42:02, from 2002's Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (released in eight tracks spanning the entire second disc of the album, this is a giant song and has been treated, in live albums, as one single 42-minute track.) [why do I rank it so damn low? look, man. it's.. complicated. I have a ton of nostalgia for Six Degrees, and I think disc 1 by itself is the strongest collection of music they've ever put out. and while I'm impressed by the ambition of the 42-minute title track, I'm not.. impressed by the song itself. conceptually it has no reason to be a single song, there's certainly no narrative there. musically it doesn't really have high points, it just kinda keeps going. this is a song that genuinely feels like.. just a bunch of songs slapped together, albeit with some moments of artful recapitulation. I think most or even all of the individual movements are strong compositions, and I'd love a song that expands any one of those movements into a larger piece. but Six Degrees.. doesn't do that. Six Degrees is just A Bunch Of Songs, which are all kinda short.]

(edge case 1): "Beyond This Life," the "Budokan" version, 19:37, from 2004's Live at Budokan [the original song is 'only' 11 minutes long, but on the Budokan performance they managed to extend it by eight minutes with a series of improv jams that I still think are the coolest thing ever. this is also the only case of them extending a song quite to this length. when I was beginning to get tired of the original song, and in fact Scenes from a Memory as a whole, Live at Budokan taught me a whole new appreciation. "Beyond This Life" truly does rock.]

4: "Octavarium" 24:00, from 2005's Octavarium (it's a 24-minute song, in five movements, the eighth track on the album.) [lots of 5s and 8s in this song, and in this whole album. conceptually I adore this song. conceptually it's a grandiose mathcore kinda idea. conceptually I want dream theater to make like ten more spins on this number shit. I love the number shit. musically, I.. well, I love the third and fourth movements. they are the evergreen part of this song. the wacky mathcore noodling in the middle of this song, like, that defined dream theater to me, in part because this was one of the first things I ever heard by them. it feels like it's somehow tracing a scary story through wacky music, and I like that. but it's only like five minutes of the whole song. the bulk of this song is so slow. so goddamn slow. and not really exploring a cool vibe, more a kinda.. peaceful, sleepy, serene one. the final movement in particular is something I almost never bother to listen to. it's a kind of Finale that dream theater have endlessly repeated since then... and I get so damn impatient.]

5: "In the Presence of Enemies" 25:38, from 2007's Systematic Chaos (six movements split across two tracks, performed live as one piece.) [this is quite possibly dream theater's most cohesive epic. this has been my favorite dream theater song for a very long time. it has never been dethroned. it's a kind of song they don't really normally make, it stays in one pocket the whole time, one vibe but in a variety of tempos. it's a confrontation of evil. it's fucking sick, dude. this one is evergreen for me because I have listened to it a hundred times, and I have not gotten tired of it. at all.]

6: "A Nightmare to Remember" 16:10, from 2009's Black Clouds & Silver Linings [there's three main 'sections' to this song, unlabelled but evidently there. the composition is quite solid. the vibes are fantastic. the lyrics are great, and then suddenly silly, and then they're over! I dunno, the second half of this song just kinda exists... there are some grooves on there I think are killer, and necessary, so I can't just write off the second half altogether... I just don't know, man! it's hardly a bad second half. it keeps the vibes going. doesn't kill anything. and, like, ultimately this epic doesn't have to blow your mind completely, as there's a second one on the same album that kinda overshadows it!]

7: "The Count of Tuscany" 19:16, from 2009's Black Clouds & Silver Linings [yeah. count of tuscany overshadows nightmare. count of tuscany is a modern prog classic, that is the consensus I generally see when I find other opinions. count of tuscany is maybe flawless, it's just a matter of personal preference if it's The Best Thing DT Ever Did or Just A Really Good Song. I mean it's got an anchor of pure beauty, then it's got a metal song in there that's fucking Scooby-Doo-core, and then.. that's it, no in-between. it's beauty, it's scooby-doo, it's beauty again to the end. and for what it's worth, I embrace the scooby-doo. dream theater, for whatever reason, are great when doing the scooby-doo.]

(edge case 2): "The Twelve-Step Suite" 57:13, spread across five albums (twelve movements across five tracks on five albums-- "The Glass Prison" on Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, "This Dying Soul" on Train of Thought, "The Root of All Evil" on Octavarium, "Repentance" on Systematic Chaos, and "The Shattered Fortress" on Black Clouds & Silver Linings. pretty much everyone considers this to be a single piece, as it was intended that way. unlike "Beyond This Life," this suite is, like.. unambiguously "canonical." it's just an edge case because, as of the present, it's never been released all as one thing, nor even performed as one thing.) [so much nostalgia. the five albums of this suite were my era, dammit, they were my introduction to dream theater, so as I got into dream theater I got to gradually discover this hour-long hidden song at the same time. and, man!!!! it's another long-form structure that they never did again! this is, compositionally, pretty damn original! and pretty fucking metal! the Twelve-Step Suite has some of dream theater's heaviest shit in it. the first, like, five movements are a fucking endurance challenge. and I even love the lyrics to this whole suite! I love the Twelve-Step Suite!!! [....so then, why is it so damn low in my rankings? it's.. I mean I had to think about this one. this one is a case of nostalgia for me. nostalgically I think it's top-tier. and I think the individual songs are pretty damn strong. but it just.. didn't.. stick the landing. :( it starts to lose its steam in "The Root of All Evil" and never picks back up. I can appreciate "Repentance," even if the composition kinda gave up? but "The Shattered Fortress..." ugh, what happened there. that song just sounds like burnout to me. and so, the arc of this suite, as a composition, feels like the gradual arc of burnout. and.. this is not a suite about burnout. this is a suite about recovering from a violent crash-- recovering from alcoholism! but it doesn't feel like it!!!]

8: "Illumination Theory" 22:17, from 2013's Dream Theater (five movements. one song.) [why is this one so high in the rankings? is it really evergreen? I mean, yeah it kinda is! I don't know that I really expect it to be, but, it.. is! it's the fastest 20 minutes I could ever have! it flows really goddamn well! the song is catchy and compelling! I somehow get the solos stuck in my head, and I don't give a shit about solos!! and the string section had me floored from day 1!!! and that finale!!! god, yeah it's the stereotypical dream theater epic finale, but it hits real hard and gives me something to sing along to!! and there's even a damn hidden track that I think is ridiculously beautiful!!! Illumination Theory is just perfect, okay!!! it's a movie!!!]

9: "A View From the Top of the World" 20:24, from 2021's A View From the Top of the World (three movements, one song.) [I Really Like this song. I think its vibes are charming. it feels like a Big song. feels like vibes an orchestra would explore. the more complex riffs are really catchy. and I think this song has one of the best damn endings dream theater's ever managed to do. [...so then why's it so low? I dunno what to tell you. it's not enough. it does its job, it fits the album, it's a really good time. but does it compare to the other epics? I think it tries to compare itself to them. in fact, I know it does. I know for a fact the band looked back over previous fan favorites to try and recapture popular vibes. and I hear it, I hear "A Change of Seasons" and "Finally Free" in the third movement. and, like.. you can do that, man. you can do a nostalgic epic. but then make it about nostalgia! do something with the concept! this song doesn't do that! it's a song about pushing boundaries, exploring past your own limits, and seeing what's never been seen before! the highest highs, the lowest lows, it's literally about that! so then why is the composition so familiar??? it just, it doesn't gel.]

10: "The Shadow Man Incident" 19:32, from 2025's Parasomnia (the newest one. no breakdown of movements, not explicitly labelled anyway, but I count about five sections.) [I've given this song about ten listens already and will listen to it many more. my first reaction to it was disappointing. this was my least-favorite song on the album, which I otherwise found to be an album of positive surprises! this one, I just didn't understand it, truthfully. I needed the extra listens. I kinda love it a lot now. [so, what is The Shadow Man Incident? what does it do, as a song? it explores a few metal vibes I don't normally listen to! it doesn't really, uh, establish them, so of course I didn't understand what the song was doing at first, but they're there, they're cohesive, they're linked to each other through legit composition shit-- motifs, development, juxtaposition, recapitulation. in some ways this is an evil song. it has surprise flats, it has sinister carnival riffs, it has spoken-word Lovecraft quotes, it has a fucking nuts instrumental section with old-world vibes to capture the universality of the subject matter. and it also has a stereotypical dream theater epic finale, but at least this time there's a twinge of scooby-doo to it, which, y'know what, I can understand that decision. [The Shadow Man Incident is legit. it's intelligent, it's deliberate, it's made for relistens, and it's fun. it also acts as an anchor for the album as a whole. well, maybe A Broken Man is the anchor, but then The Shadow Man Incident is the counterweight. and dammit I find that shit interesting! this is a song that gets my brain going! and so it's a welcome addition to the canon of epics.]

raggh okay I typed a lot of words.

I'm gonna wrap this up quickly.

this is my personal, and current, ranking of dream theater songs that are over 15 minutes.

if you already like dream theater, you are free to be baffled by my decisions. and yeah maybe I'm being too harsh on some things or not harsh enough on others. I am the least certain of this ranking, out of any ranking I've ever had to do. but it was fun to think this stuff through.

if you haven't listened to much dream theater and had always meant to, the epics are an inevitability. you will listen to the epics at some point. and now you know what they're all called, and where to find them!

see you later. thanks for putting up with my fanboy shit. this will happen again.

[dcpl73]

Inside the Mind of Contemporary Artist Senaka Senanayake at Laasya Art Gallery

Laasya Art Gallery offers a deep dive into the creative process of contemporary artist Senaka Senanayake, revealing the inspirations behind his vibrant works.

INTERVIEW WITH CONTEMPORARY MASTER SENAKA SENANAYAKE

Saturated scenes of rainforests, lotuses, heliconias, hummingbirds, butterflies and macaws — artist Senaka Senanayake is renowned for his ability to render the majesty and joy of nature on canvas. One of the most sought-after contemporary artists from Asia today, Senaka’s journey began in Sri Lanka, where he was born and raised. He was identified as an artistic prodigy at a very young age, and by the time he turned 10, he had already exhibited in prestigious institutions both in Sri Lanka and abroad. He has since been the subject of more than 150 solo shows in over 18 countries, and his paintings can be found around the world in Parliament Buildings, in the official residence of the President of Sri Lanka, in the United Nations headquarters in New York and even in the collection of the White House in Washington, DC.

I recently sat down with Senaka over a video chat, and he kindly shared more about his career, creative process and sources of inspiration. From rocketing to fame as a child to studying at Yale in the turbulent atmosphere of the 60s and 70s, he has certainly led a life as rich and fascinating as his paintings.

One of Senaka’s vibrant, large-scale canvases reflects the natural beauty of Sri Lanka that surrounds it.

How would you describe yourself in a few words?

I would say I’m sort of a happy-go-lucky guy. I take life easy as it comes. And I’ve not changed from the time I was a kid!

You got into art at a very early age. What was your environment like, at home and at school, such that it encouraged you to pursue art?

In my school, we had a very progressive teacher. After any lesson, say in geography or history, she would take these big pieces of brown paper, stick them up on the walls and say, “You studied Africa today, why don’t you make some images of African birds?” So all together we would paint murals on the walls. It was unusual for a kid to get a huge surface to paint on — usually children are given an A4 size piece of paper, where you don’t have freedom of movement. The natural tendency for a child to have a big sweep of hand, but a small piece of paper stifles you.

I came back home and told my parents about this, and they thought it was a great idea — it would keep me out of mischief. They got me brown wrapping paper and put it up in my bedroom. My early motifs were mainly animals, birds and life in Sri Lanka, reflecting the environment I lived in.

Senaka’s home garden is filled with plants from all over the world, creating unusual combinations of shapes and colors.

So did you always want to be an artist?

My parents were not that keen that I pursue art as a profession. They would say, “Okay, art is fine, but you will be a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer or an accountant.” At that time, I was also really interested in sports. In fact, my ambition was not to be an artist but to be a serious cricketer!

Senaka paints a large-scale canvas in his studio.

But by age 8, you had an exhibition at the National Art Gallery in Colombo, and by age 10, you had your first international exhibition. How did it feel to experience so much so young?

Truthfully, I never took it that seriously. I never thought about being a professional artist, since my parents did not want me to do so. But what changed my life completely was the exposure I had to the United States. At one of my later exhibitions when I was about 16 or 17 years old, there was a gentleman from the Smithsonian Institute who came and he saw my work. He asked what I wanted to be. I said I was going to be a plastic surgeon. Then he looked me in the eye and said, “When god gives people a talent, it’s not a talent in everything. You would be a very good artist but I doubt you would be a good doctor!” He suggested I attend an American university, as the educational system doesn’t force you to specialize too early in life.

Ultimately I studied art and architecture at Yale, with a minor in political science. After that, I applied to Cambridge to study architecture further. But I didn’t really want to do it, I wanted to continue painting. I took one year off and went back to Sri Lanka, and then I told my parents that I wanted to pursue art professionally. Having had exposure to American life, I was far more rebellious!

This commissioned painting, now hanging in a client’s dining room, beautifully demonstrates one of Senaka’s main themes, lotus flowers.

To Read Full Blog :- https://laasyaart.com/blog/interview-with-contemporary-artist-senaka-senanayake/

[swantourtravel]

Bhutan Tour Packages: What Should You Look Out For?

Bhutan is one of the most beautiful places and if you love lush greenery, then Bhutan is the place for you. Wondering what you should look out for Bhutan tour packages?

Along with the serenity of Bhutan, the people here are indeed one of a kind. Bhutan is the land of beauty and the best part is that there are some cultural monuments that you can certainly witness. There are quite a few options for Bhutan tour packages and hence surfing through these options can get easier. 

Choosing Bhutan Tour Packages the Right Way

Are you planning for a Bhutan tour package from Delhi or other places but do not know how to choose the best? Here are some basics that you need to be aware of.

Duration of the Trip

The first and most important thing that you need to consider when it comes to choosing among the Bhutan tour packages is the duration of the trip. Bhutan has got quite a few beautiful places to visit and this is one of the major reasons why you need to be aware of the duration.

Determine the ideal duration of the trip and then choose the one package that fits all your needs. If you are looking for a shorter trip, then try to select the packages that focus on only the core attractions. On the other hand, if you have a few days in hand, you can choose the packages that give you a taste of rustic Bhutan.

Inclusions

The next important factor that you need to consider while choosing a Bhutan tour package is the inclusions. This means that you have to be aware that the tour package is included. It can encompass basics like the kind of stay, number of stays covered, the transit cost as well as entry to various public places.

The best way to be aware of the same is by asking your point of contact for the tour package and taking the same in detail. Some amazing tour packages include some special attractions as well like trekking and fun activities that might be a part of the package. It is always important that you are very sure of the inclusions before choosing a tour package.

Group Size

Some people love to go for a group holiday and yet others do not want to partner with other people and want to go for family or solo trips. In such instances, you need to be aware of the group size and if you are comfortable with the same. 

Based on the group size there are often changes in the price of the package as well. You can also plan with the tour package provider about which group size can fit your needs. 

Prices 

Finally, one of the most important things that you need to consider when choosing Bhutan tour packages is the prices. There are various tour packages available and based on the same you can make up a decision.

The prices of tour packages can be customized as well depending on which kind of stay you want and the duration of the trip as well. Choosing affordability as well quality are two of the most important things that you need to focus on. 

Witness Bhutan's Culture and Heritage

Bhutan offers a unique blend of natural beauty and cultural richness. Beyond its breathtaking landscapes, the country boasts a vibrant heritage that is deeply rooted in its traditions. Cultural immersion is a key highlight of any Bhutan tour package. Explore ancient monasteries, witness traditional dances, and interact with the warm and hospitable locals to gain a deeper understanding of Bhutanese culture.

Embracing the Thrill with Adventure Activities

For those seeking adventure, Bhutan offers a range of thrilling activities. Trekking through pristine forests, camping under starlit skies, and white-water rafting down the turbulent rivers are just a few options. Embrace the adrenaline rush and create unforgettable memories in this Himalayan paradise.

Conclusion

Do you also want to get yourself the best of Le Meridien Paro riverfront packages but do not know which can be the best choice for you? One of the best options is none other than Swan Tours. With years of experience and a great team, you will get access to some of the most amazing packages and affordable options.