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tl-notes · 4 years ago

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Kobayashi’s Maid Dragon S2 Episode 9 Notes

...設立から大分地盤が固まってきており、少しずつだが、業態は改善されている。

One thing to note here is that Kobayashi(‘s narration) isn’t saying the company has already made solid improvements, it’s that the company has finally established itself somewhat (as it was only founded relatively recently, and typically new companies are especially busy while trying to get off the ground) and now is starting to make improvements.

Similarly in the second sentence, it’s not “was” slow going, it’s “is still” slow going, and the working conditions “are” improving, not “have improved.”

This is がんば ganba, short of course for がんばって ganbatte, which I’m sure most of you are familiar with: the (in)famous “do your best.”

I only mention it because I like this shortened version of it. Ganba!

This is a fun little idiom(?)/saying: 鼻で笑う hana de warau (conjugated as hana de warawareta), lit. to laugh using the nose. It’s used to describe laughing at someone you’re looking down on for whatever reason (not necessarily in a super serious way, could just be a friend being dumb etc.; in this case it’s Elma’s being naive).

Typically it refers to like a “heh-but-through-the-nose” kind of “laugh,” but as you can see in this scene (where clearly Kobayashi is laughing with the mouth, even starting with “pff” lips) it works idiomatically even if the laughing isn’t only through the nose.

You may have heard that Japan is/was a “lifetime employment” country, where typically people would get hired right out of school and stay at that company until retirement. While that’s much less true today than it was even a couple of decades ago (and has become kind of controversial in ways), it’s still much more common of a practice than in say the US.

One result of this is that there’s a much bigger distinction placed between hiring people in spring as part of the annual graduation rush (the Japanese school year ends in March), and mid-career hiring. Typically you can’t participate in the fresh grad hiring if you aren’t one, even if you’re new to the field in question.

For larger employers (i.e. 5k+ employees), roughly two-thirds of all hirings come from fresh grads, and only small employers (<300 employees) hire more mid-careerists than people directly out of school.

Of course, this split tends to apply mostly to “standard” full time jobs, not so much part time, and is not necessarily a thing in every industry/at every company.

Just as a minor point of clarity, this “organized text” in Elma’s document refers to the phrase まとめられた文章 matomerareta bunshou. In a literal sense, matomerareta can mean organized/consolidated etc., and bunshou text/passages, but meaning-wise it’s more like “writing that gets its point across clearly/cleanly.”

This is a pretty big compliment and a very useful skill to have in organizations like this, as writing such that people can quickly and easily understand exactly what you’re trying to say often saves a ton of time and frustration.

我々はエルマの気迫に押されるがままにその書類を読み始めた。

Another minor point, but where the English could imply that they were overwhelmed by Elma’s intensity through the act of reading her report, the Japanese implies more that they started reading it because of how intense Elma was being.

It doesn’t really make much of a difference either way, but it stuck out a little for me.

To justify mentioning it, I guess I’ll explain the grammar point Kobayashi uses: されるがままに sareru ga mama ni. Sareru is a generic verb/verb conjugation for having something done to you (technically here it’s 押される, to be “pushed/pressed/pressured”), and mama refers to a state, condition, or “way” (like “do it this way”).

Put together, the whole phrase is used to indicate “you” do/did something that someone else wants you to, without (meaningful) opposition. (Something similar in raw meaning but with a very different connotation would be “going with the flow.”)

If a friend says “hey let’s go do something,” and next thing you know you’re out bowling despite preferring to stay at home, this is you.

You can stick the mama ni to various other things as well to come up with a similar idea, but without the sareru the nuance may end up different.

The word for clairvoyance here is 千里眼 senrigan, lit. “eye(s) [that can see] a thousand li”, li being a Chinese unit of measurement for length (shorter than a mile, but for general purposes “eyes that see a thousand miles” is basically the gist).

Despite the perhaps physical-sounding nature of the term, it does actually describe the same power as “clairvoyance” in English: being able to perceive things outside your actual range of vision, including potentially into people’s hearts and minds etc.

Hence why it’s a thousand screen display, when she updates it with tech knowledge:

“Tainted by work” here is 職業病 shokugyou-byou, lit. an occupational disease. The “proper” definition is a disease one gets from working in a particular job, such as black lung for coal miners or even posture-related health issues for desk workers.

Additionally, it’s used colloquially to refer to noticeable habits or quirks that people in a certain profession pick up, like a baker always waking up super early or a programmer using programming lingo out of context in normal conversation. The latter being especially noticeable in Japanese, as a lot of such terms are English in origin.

“Shocking” here is a fun word: ドン引き don-biki. “Don” here is added just for emphasis; the main meaning revolves around 引き hiki/biki, from the verb 引く hiku, meaning to pull.

The idea is that someone does/says something that you recoil from. Maybe it’s gross (“I only shower once a week”), maybe it’s mean (“They didn’t smile enough so I didn’t leave a tip.”), maybe it’s creepy (“I sent like 30 texts yesterday but still no reply.”), just anything that has you feeling like you might want to create some distance because... phew.

It’s kind of similar to the current use of “cringe” as an adjective/noun, though with less of an internet-slang feel* to it, and generally used more as something the speaker is doing rather than describing whatever/whoever is being cringe.

(*I think it started being used popularly in this way in the early-to-mid 90s, with the “don”biki variant specifically popping up around 2005.)

A “Premium Friday” is the last Friday of the month, where you get to leave work at 3 pm. It is largely theoretical.

The idea was created by the Japanese government as a way to reduce working hours and encourage domestic spending (boost demand), but it has not been implemented by all that many employers, and especially not many smaller employers. There isn’t, after all, any mandate or government-provided incentive for doing so.

Evidence from the places that did implement it suggests it is actually good for the economy, but good luck convincing bosses to give extra paid time off.

“Last Friday of the month” was chosen because most people get paid on the 25th each month (Japan tends to pay monthly instead of every two weeks), so it would usually be right after payday, when people are more willing to get spendy.

Kobayashi saying eight hours here reminded me of a “fun” fact: the typical Japanese work day is eight hours plus a one hour break. Plus a one hour break, not with. So a typical work day is actually nine hours. Most commonly 8 to 5 or 9 to 6. Not many “nine-to-fives” here.

The characters for Joui are 上井, which usually read as Kamii or Uwai. It’s “Joui” because that means, when written as 上位, “superior.” As in “a superior life-form.” Like a dragon, say.

でも、ゆっくりやる事業改善案を見せてもらえたじゃない？

This one is actually kind of a critical mistake. In the English it sounds like she’s talking about the improvement proposal that Elma made and that the boss looked at. In the Japanese though, she’s talking about a different plan, one the boss showed them*, that is similar in idea but is going to take longer to be fully implemented**. So we’re being told that while Elma didn’t get what she wanted as fast as she wanted it, it is still basically going through at a slower pace.

*In ”見せてもらえた misete moraeta,” the misete vs mite means they were the ones who got shown something, rather than the ones who got someone to look at their stuff.

**Which you can tell from the ゆっくりやる yukkuri yaru, where yaru is basically “do” and yukkuri means (in this case) at an unhurried pace.

(Re previous note: Hence why she says “immediately” here.)

“Black (ブラック)” and “white (ホワイト)” in the context of Japanese employers refers to how well employees are treated: a company with good benefits/pay, reasonable levels of overtime, and feels safe to work at is “white,” while a company that has excessive overtime, often pays poorly, breaks labor laws, and allows harassment to fester is “black.��

While “white company” was created simply in contrast to the term “black company,” the latter finds its origins in front businesses for organized crime, which were called “black” in the sense of “illegal” (similar to “black market” or something being in a “grey area”). Given the international reputation of Japanese work life, you can imagine that “black company” as a term sees much more use.

There’s been some discussion about maybe replacing it due to the racial implications (especially since it uses the English word “black”), but while typically English translations drop the color for that reason (e.g. ブラック企業大賞, an “award” given to Japan’s worst employer each year, is officially “Most Evil Corporation of the Year Award” in English), it hasn’t really penetrated to the mainstream at this point.

The rice there is in a 飯盒 hangou, a metal container that looks… like that, and is the stereotypical item of choice for cooking rice while camping. It has its origins in the mess kits used by the military, but these days they’re primarily marketed as portable rice cookers for camping use.

You can get round ones too, but the bean shape is very popular.

“Settings” here is 設定 settei, lit. exactly that, “setting(s).” E.g. if you open a computer program and look at the settings menu, it’ll be settei in the Japanese language settings (settei).

I bring it up here because there’s a bit of a difference in how it gets used colloquially like this. In English, the “setting” for a story typically refers to where and when it’s set. In Japanese, “setting” in that sense is usually 舞台 butai. But settei is still used when talking about fiction, just in a different, more expansive way.

Often in these cases settei is used to refer to the various conceits that provide the context in which the story takes place. In this show, for example, one such “setting” is that dragons are real: another is that magic exists. It comes up especially often in fantasy/sci-fi type stuff where there are major distinctions between that universe and the real world—not that stories in a real-world setting don’t have settei of their own, but they often are lumped into descriptions of the plot in that case (”a dragon comes to live with an office worker in her apartment”).

It also refers to the “settings” of characters, like name or age, and things like “they run a bakery that’s going out of business and are trying to save it.” Basically all the details you’d have in a character profile.

It also gets used in conversation to refer to pretend things or (basically) lies: like here, where Saikawa thinks Shouta is playing pretend with his ley-lines talk, or e.g. if someone is trying to tell you some outlandish story (“my uncle works at Nintendo…” or someone asking for love life advice for “their friend”) and you’re just like “Okay so that’s the settei here, I see.”

Not really a big deal, but Elma’s line here in Japanese implies she won’t let Tohru call her that anymore (see her もう mou). Tohru’s response is also more of a “I haven’t been?”, since of course she wasn’t aware of Elma’s-mental-image-Tohru tormenting Elma in the previous scene:

The word for “full of” in the title here is ざんまい zanmai (a suffix form of 三昧 sanmai), usually meaning that there’s a whole lot of [whatever] to immerse oneself in. I mostly bring it up because there’s a famous restaurant chain called Sushi Zanmai that specializes in, obviously, sushi.

And you know, Elma is a water dragon that looks kinda like an eel… I’m just sayin’…

Not really a translation note, but wild that Elma didn’t even touch her parfait. (Not so wild that Fafnir finished his so quickly.) Serious business ahead...

“Genuinely” here is 素直に sunao ni, where the “ni” is used like “-ly” to make sunao work as an adverb. Sunao itself is an interesting word that falls into that category of “simple concept that is often hellish to translate.”

For some context, the first character, 素, is also used in the word 素顔 sugao, which is a face without makeup and 素材 sozai, basically raw ingredients/materials. The second, 直, is used in words like 直線 chokusen, a straight line, or 正直 shoujiki, honest.

Put them together, and you’ve got a word with connotations of directness and being unadorned. The original definition of the word tends toward “simple, natural” in the sense of e.g. life growing up on a rural farm.

The more common use for it these days is to describe people and their actions. Positively, it can mean something similar to a person being happy to help, or kind of like the opposite of conniving; open, frank, genuine. Less positively, it can mean someone is too trusting and easy to trick into doing things OR someone who is “too honest” and says hurtful things.

(If it helps: tsundere characters are often described as explicitly not sunao.)

In this case, the idea is that Tohru accepted the invitation easily as-is, without putting any conditions on it, or doing any “ugh, what a pain, do I have to, jeez” rigamarole—she just accepted. Another way you could put it in this case might be “It’s even more unusual for Tohru to accept an invitation like this without a fuss.”

Just to point out the hand on head thing again.

Also just to point out that this is another example of otsukare, as a reminder of how ubiquitous that word is.

And it makes a good place to end on: thanks for reading!

#maidragon #Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid #kobayashi-san chi no maid dragon #translation notes #anime

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ulmbybreathless345 · 5 years ago

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Hello! I’m wondering what your take is on Dear Friend (and especially “I’m in love with a friend of mine”?) I find the song a little confusing, and I’ve read a lot of different interpretations. I really love your films and I know you’ve done a lot of research, would love to know what you think. Thanks!

Thanks for your appreciation, anon! I love Dear Friend and am happy to share my thoughts on this haunting, mournful, mysterious song!

I’ll be the first to admit the lyrics are confusing (like so many McCartney songs!), mostly by virtue of the fact that Paul uses “friend” twice in a row. Are there two friends, or only one? By using the word “friend” on top of each other as he does, it suggests either a single friend (the titular “Dear Friend”) in two situations OR two friends, in separate/competing situations.

Dear Friend, throw the wine

I’m in love with a friend of mine

Really, truly, young and newlywed

Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, interpretation, fantasy, etc. and no one but McCartney himself can definitively declare precisely what he meant with this song. But it’s my opinion that Paul was saying the latter; that he is in love with his friend and new wife, Linda. This is my conclusion after having deeply researched this period extensively for TWO documentary series (McCartney (2020) and Understanding Lennon/McCartney), an opinion that obviously no one is required to entertain and anyone is free to discard. But for those who are interested, I’ll share my reasoning below.

Firstly, this is NOT an attempt to disprove that Paul was ever in love with John or vice verse. They both used this term publicly and therefore probably/possibly did privately with each other as well. But Paul’s statements in April, 1970 pretty clearly spell out the situation:

“Personally, I don’t think John could do the Beatles thing now. I don’t think it would be good for him.

John’s in love with Yoko, and he’s no longer in love with the other three of us. And let’s face it, we were in love with the Beatles as much as anyone.”

So John and Paul were “in love” (with each other as people, or the Beatles as a concept, or Lennon/McCartney as a team, etc) for a long time. But by 1970, they both have new spouses and new lives and are following different paths. Here’s a brief recap of the events that led to this statement:

In a now-famous meeting in September 1969, John told Paul that he was leaving the Beatles and wanted a divorce. Whether this was an idle threat designed to scare/hurt Paul, or a real desire on John’s part is open to interpretation, but Paul, for his part, took it seriously.

Allen Klein asked John not to go public with his decision to leave the group and John happily and uncharacteristically agreed to sit on this “news” indefinitely. Paul subsequently disappeared for 6-8 weeks, mourned the loss of the band privately in Scotland, and then began working on his first solo album. Communication between John and Paul fell apart at that point, and John began a campaign of maneuvers - possibly engineered or facilitated by Klein - to bring Paul back into the Beatles’ fold and force him to submit to Klein’s management and John’s leadership. Backed into a proverbial corner by John, George, Ringo, Yoko and Klein, Paul played the last card he had: he quit.

In April 1970, Paul made the split official (deliberately or accidentally? YMMV) with the release of his first solo LP, and attempted to finalize the divorce with an uncooperative John for the remainder of the year. As is pretty well-documented, Paul tried for a quick and amicable split, requesting a release from the Beatles’ contract. But after John was unresponsive and Allen Klein advised him to set duplicitous legal traps that would prevent Paul from separating from the Beatles, Paul (as advised by his lawyers) decided to sue for divorce by the end of 1970.

By 2020, even the most casual Beatles fans know two basic truisms: 1) that Paul loved John always and 2) that Paul didn’t want the band to break up. Of course there’s more to the story than just that. We have also been told repeatedly that John “left Paul,” but this is not the whole truth either.

Essentially what John did was yell “I’m breaking up with you!” and then block the door every time Paul tried to leave.

As late as September, 1971 John is still saying publicly that he hopes Paul will return.

Int.: Let's talk a bit about Paul's aversion to Klein. From what we've read it seemed as if this wasn't there in the beginning, even though Paul wanted the Eastmans to run things. But it came on later as things progressed. And yet despite this, we gather that Klein was still hoping that Paul would return to the group.

John: Oh, he'd love it if Paul would come back. I think he was hoping he would for years and years. He thought that if he did something, to show Paul that he could do it, Paul would come around. But no chance. I mean, I want him to come out of it, too, you know. He will one day. I give him five years, I've said that. In five years he'll wake up.

[Narrator voice: Paul did not came back.]

Yes, Paul loved John. No, Paul didn’t want the Beatles to break up.

But when John said he wanted out, Paul took him seriously, respected his decision, never made a single attempt to woo John back and showed up 6 months later with a moving van and divorce papers.

When you hear Dear Friend out of context -knowing only that Paul loved John and was sad after the breakup- it’s not wholly unreasonable to think maybe Paul was declaring his eternal love for John here:

I’m in love with a friend of mine really, truly, young and newlywed

But when you experience Dear Friend in the proper context, that interpretation sounds less and less likely. Here’s Paul:

April 21, 1970

“I’m not blaming her. I’m blaming me. You can’t blame John for falling in love with Yoko any more than you can blame me for falling in love with Linda.

We tried writing together a few more times, but I think we both decided it would be easier to work separately. I told John on the phone the other day that at the beginning of last year I was annoyed with him. I was jealous because of Yoko, and afraid about the break-up of a great musical partnership. It’s taken me a year to realise that they were in love. Just like Linda and me."

Summer 1970

Paul writes John a 12-page letter requesting that they “let each other out of the trap.” John’s response was a picture of himself and Yoko with a balloon drawn above his head saying “How and Why?”

Paul responded: “How? By singing a paper that says we hereby dissolve our partnership. Why? Because there is no partnership.”

April 16, 1971

PAUL: “We used to get asked at press conferences, 'What are you going to do when the bubble bursts?' When I talked to John just the other day, he said something about, 'Well, the bubble's going to burst.' And I said, 'It has burst. That's the point. That's why I've had to do this, why l had to apply to the court. You don't think I really enjoy doing that kind of stuff. I had to do it because the bubble has burst-- everywhere but on paper.' That's the only place we're tied now.”

Nov 11, 1971

MM: But John said to me that what you’d done in bringing the [court] trials up and everything was what they all wanted, that you’d just done it a lot earlier than they would have done.

PAUL: Well if that’s true, well… well, come on! That’s – see, I’ve told you… The joke is, though, that we don’t have to do trials. It’s not necessary. If the four Beatles signed a bit of paper, or even ripped the old contract up and said, “This contract is no longer valid, we all hereby said it, we all legally direct the shareholders…” the whole thing, to wind it all up, we could do it. And if that’s really what he wants, he could do it this minute. [snaps fingers]

Furthermore, Paul was deeply in love with Linda during this period, as reflected by: the songs on both McCartney and RAM, the testimony of those around them at the time and by Paul’s own recollections. The first few years of Paul and Linda’s marriage was their honeymoon period, their era as newlyweds. It was certainly an awful time for Paul in many respects: the business battles of the Beatles were excruciating and extremely stressful and the loss of his three best friends was heartbreaking. Furthermore, the rock press had largely turned against him (sometimes viciously so), and John & Yoko (and Allen Klein) were painting him as a traitor to the counterculture and a villain for destroying the Beatles with his granny music, giant ego and overbearing personality. Paul and Linda were extremely isolated, partially by choice and partially by force.

But even though this was a terrible time for Paul in many respects, he was extremely happy with his new family. He later described this period with Linda as one of the happiest periods of their life. Paul has said numerous times Linda (along with nature and horse-riding) brought him out of depression after the Beatles ended and gave him the strength to push forward with his solo career, at a time when many were rooting against him (and a literal cult was forming that claimed he was DEAD and had been replaced by an inferior imposter- let that sink in for a moment!). He has been consistent about it over the years, and reiterated it as recently as 2020:

UNCUT: Tell me about the guy in the photo n the McCartney sleeve. He looks happy.

PAUL: I was really happy, yeah. The Beatles had become such a business machine, and with the arrival of Allen Klein the whole thing, every day was very unpleasant.

UNCUT: So there you were on the farm, finding solace in a new family...

PAUL: Yes. I had a little place in Scotland. So we just went out there. “It’s so remote, no one can be bothered trekking all the way up here for a meeting.” It was a good period. We grabbed our freedom- you know what, we seized the day! Also, I had a new baby; I’d not been a father before, so I was very happy.

In December of 1970, John gave his infamous Lennon Remembers interview to Rolling Stone. According to the liner notes of the Wildlife reissue from 2018 (and confirmed by the timing of the demo), Paul composed Dear Friend in reaction to John’s comments in that interview (not How Do You Sleep, as is commonly believed). But he sat on the song for awhile and didn’t record it until late 1971 (for inclusion on Wildlife). Judging from the tone of Too Many People and other songs on RAM, Paul’s initial sadness, confusion and disappointment gradually morphed into (or perhaps swung back and forth between) anger and defiance, accompanied by a taunting and/or gloating tone. Having gotten Dear Friend out of his system, it seems it simply didn’t fit thematically on RAM. Perhaps after the release of HDYS, Paul was deflated and despondent enough to return to Dear Friend? Perhaps Jealous Guy tempered or calmed Paul’s anger?

Or maybe it was just a genuine attempt to turn the heat down. We know that immediately following its release, John and Paul agreed (seemingly at Paul’s insistence) to quit bickering in public.

In any case, Dear Friend is a complex songs with a spectrum of emotions. Unlike Jealous Guy it is not apologetic; it’s mournful but also incredulous and slightly accusatory. Paul appears to be calling John’s bluff: Do you really believe all the bullshit you’re spewing?

Are you a fool, or is it true?

The John Lennon of Lennon Remembers is without hope or faith, denouncing everything he ever believed in and everyone he ever trusted -with the notable exceptions of Allen Klein, Phil Spector and Yoko. Paul clearly loves John and hopes to salvage their relationship, but Dear Friend was written at a time when John was being manipulated and exploited by people he later admitted were misplaced “daddy figures.” While Klein and Spector turned out to not be the most reliable friends to John, Paul certainly seems to know and understand John’s vulnerabilities and motivations better than most. As he sings in the demo:

Are you afraid? Or are you blue?

So why does Paul mention that he’s newlywed and in love with Linda? Firstly, because he is, and he wants to celebrate with his best friend. We know Paul’s desire was for the two couples to make peace and be friends. Pour the Wine. Clink glasses and celebrate their new marriages together.

PAUL: Dear Friend was to do with John, a bit of longing about John. Let’s have a glass of wine and forget about it. A making up song. (July 2001).

This is precisely what the two couples did in December of 1971, immediately following the release of Wildlife.

JOHN: We were both nervous, the four of us were nervous. I hadn’t seen him for a long time. I’d spoken on the phone [with him]. Uh, it was alright, you know. It was alright.

This is precisely what happened again throughout 1974 (with John & May Pang this time around), which John affectionately called their “Beaujolais evenings.”

Admittedly, It may seem odd for Paul to mention that he is happily married (and in love with another “friend”) in a make up song to John. Until you think about the romantic tension between John and Paul and Paul’s bold public recognition of it with this statement: “It’s taken me a year to realise that they were in love. Just like Linda and me.” Paul acknowledges here that John is in love with Yoko and wants John to acknowledge his love for Linda as well.

In Dear Friend he’s communicating that there is nothing to fear; they are secure in their respective marriages, there is no need to be hurt or angry or jealous anymore. We’re no longer partners, but we can still be friends. “Let’s have a glass of wine and forget about it.” A softer, gentler version of: Wake up, John. It’s over. Sign the fucking papers already.

So I think of Dear Friend as an olive branch, but not the groveling type some apparently do. And I most definitely do not think it was a signal to John that Paul was still in love with him, despite being newlywed to Linda.

I suppose it might seem a bit brutal for Paul to be singing about loving someone else in a song to John (although he’s done it before and I think John has done the same). But I honestly think it is something Paul believes John needs to hear and accept at this point; that he is “really, truly” in love with Linda and that he’s not about to divorce her or run after the first “blonde with big tits” as Allen Klein so charmingly suggested.

By September 1971, John still hasn’t seemed to accept Linda, or Paul’s relationship with her:

John: Paul always wanted the home life, you see. [... long, rambling story about being terrified when Paul got a job in 1961 and for a second looked as if he might abandon John and the group]

All the other girls were just groupies mainly. And with Linda not only did he have a ready-made family, but she knows what he wants, obviously, and has given it to him. The complete family life. He's in Scotland. He told me he doesn't like English cities anymore. So that's how it is.

Int.: So you think with Linda he's found what he wanted?

John: I guess so. I guess so. I just don't understand . . . I never knew what he wanted in a woman because I never knew what I wanted.

With comments like this John seems (IMO) to be twisting himself into knots trying to rationalize Paul’s choice of Linda, practically wondering aloud what could she give him that I couldn’t? He still seems unwilling to face or accept what Paul begrudgingly accepted and admitted years before: that his partner fell in love with someone else.

Here’s 76 year old Paul reminiscing about this tender, bittersweet time in his life, happy and in love with his wife and young family and simultaneously in deep pain over losing his dearly beloved best friend:

I remember when I heard the song recently, listening to the roughs in the car. And I thought, ‘Oh God’. That lyric: ‘Really truly, young and newly wed’. Listening to that was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s true!’ I’m trying to say to John, ‘Look, you know, it’s all cool. Have a glass of wine. Let’s be cool.’

“Let’s be cool.” Not “Please take me back,” not “Ignore my just-for-show marriage, I’m still in love with YOU.” To me, Paul is saying “I’m really, truly in love with my friend and new wife, can we please just be happy for each other? It’s all cool.” And for the record, I don’t find this sentiment any less loving on Paul’s part because I don’t think Paul being in love with his own wife (which he was), detracts from his love for John in any way. Again, I agree that the lyrics are slightly ambiguous, and perhaps this is meaningful too. It could be that the lack of hard boundary between the two friends (John and Linda) reflects how much Paul loves them both; they certainly aren’t positioned as opposites (i.e. I love her but I hate you). Instead they’re both part of the imagined celebration; Paul wants them all to share the wine together- and he wants them to tolerate (love) each other.

I think the traditional narrative doesn’t account for all of this because the traditional narrative does not acknowledge that John has any feelings for Paul in the first place. How in the world could Paul be asking John to “be cool” and accept the new situation when John didn’t even care about Paul in the first place and had been trying to get rid of him for years? This perception - of John gleefully blasting Paul with HDYS and Paul replying that he’s in love with John - has taken hold in many minds and has picked up a lot of steam in recent years with so-called “jean jackets” because they fundamentally believe that Paul’s love for John was one-sided. They cannot comprehend that Paul would ever tell John to “cool it” or back off in any way (even in 70-71) because they take the surface story at face value: John dumped Paul for Yoko and heartbroken Paul spent the rest of his life desperately trying to win John back. This is the narrative depicted in virtually every book I’ve read. My analysis is based on my own research, not this narrative.

I would invite readers of this post to watch (or re-watch) ULM (particularly volume 3 ) for a more comprehensive study of John and Paul’s relationship.

Lastly, after doing my own independent research for McCartney (2020), I found that the Paul McCartney described by the musicians and collaborators in Paul’s life was dramatically different from the person depicted in books like Man on the Run. My films are free from narration and commentary; I rely on first-hand interviews and information from the people involved, and in my opinion there is a great deal to be learned about Paul from the way he relates to others, especially through music. And although the McCartney series is about his solo career as opposed to his Beatle career, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in Lennon/McCartney for the insights they could gain.

Thank you very much for this ask- hopefully there aren’t too many typos!

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mylordshesacactus · 4 years ago

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plantser questionnaire marathon

What is the first thing you do when you start working on a new WIP?

Generally, I'll do a quick bullet-point "outline" of the scenes I want to include to make sure I don't leave any out. (My default setting is scrapbook-style oneshots, so this is pretty relevant!) These are EXTREMELY informal and probably incomprehensible to anyone but me. Because most of my oneshot ideas started out as chatting with friends or a tumblr post, they'll often have little dialogue snippets that occurred to me as relevant to the theme or situation but don't have any context; I'll toss any particularly effective or witty or just profoundly in-character lines--anything where I love the exact phrasing and don't want to lose it--up as their own bullet points.

If it's particularly plot-heavy or intricate, or if I'm struggling to go from an outline to actual prose, I'll add sub-bullets to brainstorm and lay out the scene more precisely to give me a better roadmap.

These "outlines" can get a little more detailed if it's a multichapter. I'll divide them first into rough chunks, less strict chapter divides and more "here's what happens in Act 1". Then I'll...start writing, and if one scene ends up longer or more detailed than I expected, I'll rearrange how I divided the scenes. Sometimes this results in me writing a scene, developing it in more detail and realizing that it could very naturally include all the important aspects I'd allocated to a different scene, so I'll combine what would have been two weak chapters into one strong one.

What is the most important question to answer about your characters?

What wouldn't they do?

This can be a moral question, of course--what's the line your character won't cross? What would make them less nobly just say no, you're not paying me enough for that? Conversely, what level of selflessness would they balk at or view with disdain--a character who'd be totally fine with a genuinely mutually beneficial arrangement, for example, might sneer at an arrangement where he got something he wanted but the other person got something they needed, because that exchange wasn't equally balanced so he thinks he got cheated.

But it doesn't have to be a big deep question.

Usually, if you're stuck when writing because you don't know what a character would do next or how they'd respond, you can get a lot of traction out of going "okay, well, what WOULDN'T they do?" and then thinking about the answer.

Like. It's easy to say well, this character absolutely would never go to the criminal organization from canon for help...but would they? Are you sure? Luke Skywalker went to every effort to make a peaceful deal with Jabba because the backup plan was incredibly risky. Robyn Hill hates the Atlesian military, but was willing to work with them in the interest of making real change on the Council; and when the heat went off in Mantle, she shelved her pride instantly and begged for help to save civilian lives.

What wouldn't they do? And how sure are you?

What are three things you have to have during a writing session?

Time, relative quiet, and a stream-of-consciousness outlet.

I don't enjoy writing under pressure and tend to get engrossed when I hit my flow, so even if I only intend to write for an hour or so I can't be trying to cram it into a limited time at the end of which I have to do something else. I can write until bedtime because that's a natural endpoint and I'm tired and would be stopping anyway, but I can't "write before bedtime" because that's a time limit. My partner will frequently go "I just need to write 500 words and then bed" but I absolutely can't do that.

I say "relative" quiet because dead silence is unpleasant, and because @alexkablob and I have discovered that we can cowrite just fine (and in fact better) while on a Skype call together. However, I cannot write independently while on a call, and I can't write with music unless it's EXTREMELY unobtrusive. I had decent results playing spaghetti western soundtracks in the background while working on Bellwether, but even then I frequently had to pause it or switch to a different track when the music got too intense.

(I have sensory processing issues where my brain physically cannot filter out background noise if it's rhythmic or has a pattern. Music or voices force my brain to pay attention to it, making it impossible to write because my attention is split. So, background music rather than full instrumental themes--music designed to play under dialogue without distracting from it--can actually be great!)

And a stream-of-consciousness outlet. Sometimes a "scratch notes" document is enough for this--something I can tab over to and jot down random dialogue that I just thought of, or a plot concept, or the solution to a problem, without having to organize it. And I write best when I can talk about what I'm doing to someone without involving auditory input--just today I was building a D&D puzzle and was able to focus on it better when I could occasionally tab over to a chat with friends who aren't in the campaign, so I could talk about what I was doing. It keeps my momentum up and keeps me excited. My original writing doc has like five people who've got access to it just so that they can see what I'm doing and help me keep interest in the ongoing project.

#askmeme

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masterweaverx · 4 years ago

Text

Part of the fun of these character builds is taking absolutely ridiculous characters and making them work in the context of D&D. So today I’ll be looking at Makuta Teridax, from Bionicle. That’s right, I’m expanding my palette a bit!

So Makuta Teridax is a Makuta. Which means he’s a shape-shifting robot with the elemental power of shadow, a unique shadow hand, a bit of telepathy, the ability to make Kraata and Rhakshi from himself... and, oh, fourty-two seperate Kraata Powers. Which he, himself, can also use. Also he has the mask of Shadows. Yeah, Bionicle was a wacky setting, all things told. Basically, we’re going to have to go Full Caster, with some unusual considerations.

Since we’re going Full Caster, that means we’ll be using the point buy system--all six stats start at 8, and you have 27 points to spend to up them, at a rate of 1 point for one improvement up to 13 and then 2 points per improvement after. That means upping a stat to 15 costs nine points total--and we’re going to be upping Intelligence and Wisdom to 15 to maximize our spell power. That leaves us nine points to split between Constitution and Charisma--five to Constitution, upping it to 13, because Constitution is both the ‘health’ and the ‘concentration’ stat, and 4 to Charisma, upping it to 12, because when a Makuta speaks, you listen. And Teridax is the leader of the Makuta...

Bionicle characters are biomechanical and you know what, so are Warforged! Yes I know the Makuta are actually living gas clouds in airtight armor but (1) they weren’t always that and (2) this is Flavor/Mechanics oriented, not accuracy oriented. Anyway, as an Envoy Warforged specifically, Teridax gets +1 to Constitution and +1 to two other stats--which are of course going to be Intelligence and Wisdom, since those are going to be our casting abilities.

All Warforged have Integrated Protection--instead of wearing armor, they can switch between ‘modes’ they’re proficient in every long rest, great for a shapeshifter. There’s also Warforged Resilience, which makes him immune to disease, resistant to poison, renders eating and drinking and even breathing unnecessary, and makes him impossible to put to sleep magically. Speaking of which he also has Sentry’s rest, which means on a long rest he just goes inert for six hours without going unconscious.

Envoy Warforged in particular have a few other advantages. Their Specialized Design gives them a Skill Proficiency and a Tool Proficiency, and since we’re not going to get it anywhere else Teridax is going to pick Intimidation and Thieves’ tools. And they have an Integrated Tool--they can select one tool they’re proficient with, and not only is it part of their body but they have expertise with it. I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say that the tool, in this case, is a Disguise Kit--because Teridax is going to get proficiency in disguise kits from his background.

And what background is that? Why, Charlatan, of course! Free with proficiencies in Deception, Sleight of Hand, Disguise Kits, and Forgery Kits. It also has the False Identity feature, allowing Makuta Teridax to take on another persona (like say, Turaga Dume), and have all the paperwork on hand to prove that, no really, he’s Turaga Dume! Pay no attention to that sphere in the corner. He’s also really great at forgery of documents.

And now comes the tricky bit: getting 42 Kraata powers, plus all the other abilities Teridax has, onto a spell list. Doing that meant I had to multiclass, pick specific subclasses for each class, allow each class to meet a minimum level, and amp two different stats to their max. It was incredibly tricky, but through some very, VERY careful selection, I pulled it off. Mostly. The Elasticity Kraata Power just couldn’t fit, sorry about that. But everything else, I packed in! Are you ready for this?

Three levels in Tempest Domain Cleric...

...then seventeen levels in Nature Theurgy Wizard.

Okay, so before I explain the subclasses, I’m going to go over the standard class abilities. Clerics have proficiency in light and medium armor, shields and simple weapons, and Wisdom and Charisma saving throws. They get two skill proficiencies--I chose History and persuasion--and at three levels their big thing is just... Channel Divinity. Which I’ll get to in a moment.

Wizards, on the other hand, get Arcane Recovery, which lets them regain spell slots on a short rest once per day up to a total of half their wizard level rounded up. That’s 9 points here, so you can get three third level spell slots, or a fourth and a fifth, or five first and two second... but you can’t get seventh, eighth, or ninth spell slots back, presumably for balance reasons. The Wizard class is also where we’ll get our four Ability Score Increases, for a total of eight points to spread among ability scores--and putting four each in Wisdom and Intelligence lets us have the MAXIMUM SPELL POWER for this combination. Trust me, preparing Spells is important for clerics, and for wizards.

So now let’s talk about the Tempest Domain. Teridax gets proficiency in Heavy Armor and Martial Weapons from it, as well as Wrath Of The Storm--which means if somebody rushes in and hits him, he can use a reaction to force the creature to make a dexterity saving throw or suffer 2d8 Lightning/Thunder damage. And he can do this five times per long rest. Of course, it also gives him a Channel Divinity option; once per rest, Teridax can either Turn Undead (making them run away from him in fear), Harness Divine Power (regaining a spell slot of first, second, or third level), or unleash the power of a Destructive Wave (automatically rolling maximum for Lightning or Thunder damage).

And now... Theurgy Wizard. What does it do, you might ask? Well, it basically hybridizes Cleric and Wizard classes. A Theurgy Wizard takes a Cleric Domain--in this case, Nature--and those spells are considered Wizard spells for purposes of what they can learn. They also get some of the Domain’s cleric benefits--not the eighth level one, or any weapon or armor proficiencies from the first level, but at level seventeen, they have everything else.

Including Channel Arcana, which is slightly different from Channel Divinity. For one thing, Teridax can do it twice per rest, instead of just once. For another, the options are either Divine Arcana, giving +2 to his next spell’s attack roll or save DC, or Charm Animals and Plants, which... charms animals and plants within 30 feet for up to a minute.

Acolyte of Nature means that Teridax has proficiency in Animal Handling and a single druid Cantrip, which we’ll get back to in a moment. Dampen Elements means that, as a reaction, he can give himself or anybody in 30 feet resistance to an attack that hit them if that attack did acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage--very useful in a world where a good portion of the population has elemental powers. And Master of Nature means that he can take a bonus action to tell critters that are charmed by his Channeled Arcana what to do on their next turn.

And now, at last, we get to the spells. BUT FIRST! Let’s calculate this all out. Since Clerics and Wizards are both full casters, Teridax has all the spell slots--4 first level slots, 3 second-through-fifth level slots each, 2 sixth and seventh level slots, and one slot for eighth and ninth levels.

Clerics can prepare a number of spells equal to their level plus their Wisdom modifer--so 3+5--up to a level determined by their cleric level--in this case, up to second level. They also automatically have spells prepared from their domain, which don’t count toward the previous limit; while it’s only up to the level they can learn, it’s still an extra four spells.

Wizards, on the other hand, learn six spells at first level and two spells every level thereafter, so at level 17 that’s 38 spells. Granted, they only prepare their level plus their intelligence bonus a day, which is 22 spells from that 38 spell list, but hey! That’s on top of the 12 prepared spells of a cleric

And Teridax also has five Wizard Cantrips, 3 Cleric Cantrips, and 1 Druid Cantrip from Nature Theurgy. Which segues well into why I picked Nature Theurgy--I needed a LOT of wizard levels for most of these spells, but I also needed some Cleric levels for some spells wizards couldn’t get, and some Druid spells that neither class could get on their own. And most of the low-level spells I needed that come in a cleric domain actually are from the tempest domain, but the Nature domain has high-level spells from the druid list... hence, Nature Theurge.

So with all that said: The list below covers the spells Makuta Teridax has, and what abilities they correspond to. Spells from Cleric, Cleric Domain, or Druid List use Wisdom; Spells from Wizard or Wizard Theurgy list use Intelligence. The listed Cleric spells are considered always prepared; Teridax selects 22 of the listed Wizard and Theurgy spells every long rest.

The Makuta Power Shadow Hand has 2 component spells: Lightning Lure and Soul Cage. The Makuta Powers Project Voice Through Shadows and Telepathy have the same spell: Telepathy.

The Kraata Power Density Control has 2 component spells: Gaseous Form and Investiture of Stone. The Kraata Power Insect Control has 2 component spells: Infestation and Insect Plague. The Kraata Power Plant Control has 2 component spells: Plant Growth and Grasping Vine. The Kraata Power Rahi Control has 2 component spells: Animal Friendship and Dominate Beast. The Kraata Power Weather Control has 2 component spells: Control Weather and Fog Cloud.

The Kraata Power Stasis Field has 2 component spells: Hold Person and Hold Monster. The Kraata Power Teleportation has 2 component Spells: Misty Step and Teleportation.

The Kraata Powers Fire Resistence and Ice Resistance have the same spell: Protection from Energy. The Kraata Power Elasticity has no component spells, due to not really having a good match and most of its benefits being covered in other spells.

Cantrips: 5 from Wizard, 3 from Cleric, 1 from Druid for Nature Theurgy -Chill Touch [Wizard] --Shadow Blasts (MAKUTA) -Fire Bolt [Wizard] --Heat Vision (Kraata Power) -Infestation [Druid] --Insect Control (Kraata Power) -Lightning Lure [Wizard] --Shadow Hand (MAKUTA) -Mending [Cleric] --Forge Tools (MAKUTA) -Sacred Flame [Cleric] --Laser Vision (Kraata Power) -Thunderclap [Wizard] --Sonics (Kraata Power) -Thaumaturgy [Cleric] --Control world mechanics (MAKUTA) -True Strike [Wizard] [Concentration] --Accuracy (Kraata Power)

1st-4 Slots -Animal Friendship [Wizard Theurgy] --Rahi Control (Kraata Power) -Cause Fear [Wizard] [Concentration] --Fear (Kraata Power) -Command [Cleric] --Terrorize (MASK OF SHADOWS) -Cure Wounds [Cleric] --Quick Healing (Kraata Power) -Fog Cloud [Cleric Domain] [Concentration] --Weather Control (Kraata Power) -Inflict Wounds [Cleric] --Protosteel Armor (MAKUTA) -Ray of Sickness [Wizard] --Poison (Kraata Power) -Sense Emotion [Wizard] [Concentration] --Sense Moral Darkness (MASK OF SHADOWS) -Sleep [Wizard] --Sleep (Kraata Power) -Thunderwave [Cleric Domain] --Power Scream (Kraata Power) -Witch Bolt [Wizard] [Concentration] --Electricity (Kraata Power

2nd-3 Slots -Blindness/Deafness [Cleric] --Enshadow (MASK OF SHADOWS) -Crown of Madness [Wizard] [Concentration] --Anger (Kraata Power) -Darkness [Wizard] [Concentration] --Darkness (Kraata Power) -Detect Thoughts [Wizard] [Concentration] --Mind Reading (Kraata Power) -Enhance Ability [Cleric] [Concentration] --Adaptation (Kraata Power) -Gust of Wind [Cleric Domain] [Concentration] --Vacuum (Kraata Power) -Hold Person [Cleric] [Concentration] --Stasis Field (Kraata Power) -Immovable Object [Wizard] --Gravity (Kraata Power) -Invisibility [Wizard] [Concentration] --Chameleon (Kraata Power) -Locate Object [Cleric] [Concentration] --Sense through Shadows (MASK OF SHADOWS) -Misty Step [Wizard] --Teleportation (Kraata Power) -Shatter [Cleric Domain] --Fragmentation (Kraata Power) -Silence [Cleric] [Concentration] --Silence (Kraata Power) -Spider Climb [Wizard] [Concentration] --Magnetism (Kraata Power)

3rd-3 Slots -Gaseous Form [Wizard] [Concentration] --Density Control (Kraata Power) -Haste [Wizard] [Concentration] --Dodge (Kraata Power) -Major Image [Wizard] [Concentration] --Illusion (Kraata Power) -Melf's Minute Meteors [Wizard] [Concentration] --Plasma (Kraata Power) -Plant Growth [Wizard Theurgy] --Plant Control (Kraata Power) -Protection from Energy [Wizard] [Concentration] --Fire Resistance (Kraata Power) --Ice Resistance (Kraata Power) -Slow [Wizard] [Concentration] --Slow (Kraata Power) -Vampiric Touch [Wizard] [Concentration] --Hunger (Kraata Power)

4th-3 Slots -Confusion [Wizard] [Concentration] --Confusion (Kraata Power) -Dominate Beast [Wizard Theurgy] [Concentration] --Rahi Control (Kraata Power) -Grasping Vine [Wizard Theurgy] [Concentration] --Plant Control (Kraata Power) -Summon Greater Demon [Wizard] [Concentration] --Create Kraata/Rhakshi

5th-3 Slots -Hold Monster [Wizard] [Concentration] --Stasis Field (Kraata Power) -Insect Plague [Wizard Theurgy] [Concentration] --Insect Control (Kraata Power) -Passwall [Wizard] --Molecular Disruption (Kraata Power)

6th-2 Slots -Chain Lightning [Wizard] --Chain Lightning (Kraata Power) -Disintegrate [Wizard] --Disintegration (Kraata Power) -Investiture of Stone [Wizard] [Concentration] --Density Control (Kraata Power) -Soul Cage [Wizard] --Shadow Hand (MAKUTA)

7th-2 Slots -Teleportation [Wizard] --Teleportation (Kraata Power) -Whirlwind [Wizard] [Concentration] --Cyclone (Kraata Power)

8th-1 Slots -Control Weather [Wizard] [Concentration] --Weather Control (Kraata Power) -Telepathy [Wizard] --Project Voice Through Shadow (MAKUTA) --Telepathy (MAKUTA)

9th-1 Slots -Invulnerability [Wizard] [Concentration] --Limited Invulnerability (Kraata Power) -Shapechange [Wizard] [Concentration] --Shapeshifting (Kraata Power)

And I mean... LOOK AT THAT LIST OF SPELLS. It’s ridiculous. Bionicle is an amazing setting, sure, but this is insane! Even if Teridax burns through all his spells, he’s still got nine cantrips--NINE! With a lot of effects! That he can use to attack the petty heroes coming after him.

So yeah, that’s Makuta Teridax.

#Bionicle #Dungeons & Dragons #D&D 5E #Makuta Teridax #Character Build

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takaraphoenix · 5 years ago

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Hi! What are your thoughts about OUAT.

That’s a complex, layered answer because my feelings for OUaT are very complex. The short of it is that, obsession and love level wise, this was my Shadowhunters before Shadowhunters existed as a show. I completely loved and adored this show, I watched every episode as soon as it came out, with a single-minded focus (as in: normally, when watching TV, I use the show as a background noise to my writing. There is only a select handful of TV shows that ever managed to get my full, undivided attention of me turning all else off to only focus on the show).

I love OUaT to bits and pieces. However, much like Shadowhunters, it was far from a flawless show. Very, very, very far. Seriously, it’s an absolute mess in many aspects but damn do I love it.

It appeals to many of the things I love. For one, classic Disney movies. For another, fairy tales - but the very specific niche genre of fairy tale crossovers, which is just... my biggest weakness, possibly. Thirdly, characters you can get invested in and love to bits and pieces.And fourth, shipping.

This is one of the incredibly small, tiny pool of shows where I absolutely adore the canon ships, not just in a “daw it’s cute enough” way that makes me accept that it is The Canon Ship That’s Happening, but in a way that has me actively invested in and rooting for those absolute dumbasses. And. Not just one ship, usually it’s like “huh I am surprisingly invested in this one ship”, but - Rumpel/Belle, Hook/Emma, David/Snow?? Yes, please, inject it into my veins.

Though also just as attached to my non-canon ships - REGINA/EMMA FOR LIFE, Ruby/Snow, Hook/David. And that duality of being really invested in the non-canon ships but still absolutely loving the canon ships? That is... completely and entirely unique to OUaT for me. Never happened outside this show.

I adore that this show did one of the things that I complained Descendants didn’t - it respects Snow White, the very first Disney princess, and puts her front and center. Never-ever made sense to me that Descendants just went “uuuh we at random picked Belle to rule all the kingdoms because I dunno the head writer loves Beauty and the Beast the most”... Snow White was Disney’s very first and I do think she deserves more respect.

The things they did with her! They made her an actual active heroine. Not a little girl hiding out in the woods. They explored possibilities and turned her into a total badass, who never lost the main qualities of Disney’s Snow White though. Her nurturing, loving, gentle soul. That is what I adore about her, because very often when trying to portray strong female characters, media removes their softness, makes them hardened to make them a badass.

Regina and Emma have such a brilliant canon dynamic - even beyond the fanon ship. The way they mended and grew together and became friends. The growth, the softness, the shared custody. I love them.

And with both Regina and Rumpel, I love the day they gradually progressed from “main antagonist from season 1″ to “part of the family”. This show is a found family feast.

It wasn’t flawless. It had some pacing issues, in my opinion. Like the Peter Pan arc was too long. They went hiking for like 12 episodes. That one still sticks with me as having bored me. And I also do think it was a huge mistake to make Peter Pan, one of Disney’s heroes a villain. He was a great villain and his actor absolutely killed it, don’t get me wrong, but in the context of Disney canon, it was a bit jarring.

The same is to be said about Arthur. Don’t take King Arthur, of all people, and turn him into a jackass. That didn’t sit right with me and I think that could, and should, have been handled differently.

As a huge fan of Wizard of Oz canon, I have mixed feelings about Zelina. She was kind of a joke most of the time, her raping Robin was not good at all (beeecause that’s what it is when you shapeshift into the person the other one loves and then have sex with them under pretense to get yourself pregnant), but in the end it - and her - fit relatively well into all of this.

Was completely wasted for the entire Frozen arc, but even I, someone who loathes that movie with a burning passion, genuinely enjoyed the way the show was trying to fix it? Answer all the unanswered question the movie left and actually tie it into the Snow Queen fairy tale? Like, that was a feast and I love that they did that. Also Ingrid was hot and checked all my boxes so there’s that.

In the same way, I adore what they did with Ursula. That they took the scraped canon of Ursula being Triton’s sister and worked with that and that they in the end decided to redeem her too - though I am still very disappointed that we never got to see Ursula actually interact with Ariel at all. That’d have been so interesting. (Also, I admit, they went really overkill with having three Ursulas. Regina pretending to be Ursula, Ursula the ancient golden statue goddess and the actual Ursula, daughter of Poseidon).

I love Hades. I love Greg Germann’s take on Hades. He absolutely killed it. The whole underworld story was incredibly awesome to me personally - though I know others didn’t like that half-season as much. But I really dug that.

I think that it started to fizz out after that though and that after the underworld storyline, they probably should have drawn it to a close, because... after everything, after five whole seasons of watching redemption and working hard to make up for the things you did in the past, they really just decided “and now Regina is gonna physically split off her Evil Queen”... and made that Evil Queen the villain. That felt insanely repetitive of season 1 and like a set-back for Regina.

(The second half of that season didn’t go better because honestly that whole nonsense with “not only is Rumpel the son of Peter Pan, nope, now we bring in his mom the Evil Fairy”, featuring the very overused trope of “baby is magically aged up to be a character who can contribute to the plot”... Not the best.)

Also I refuse to acknowledge the existence of that reboot season. It’s bullshit is what it is. The show had the perfect ending. And then they immediately slapped a reboot onto it... why? If they had taken their time, wait ten years until nostalgia for the show kicks in and the actors all need work again, and do a proper “now Henry goes through shit”, that’d have actually been interesting, but... the moment I saw “so... we keep half the main cast, break up some OTPs, don’t age the adults up but age Henry up and also there is now a second Cinderella”, I knew that’s not gonna be good.

Seriously, the second Cinderella is what really fucked it over for me. What I loved about OUaT was that it gave very specific rules to its universe.

The Author documents the tales. The Author gives them their spin. But they are still the same tale. Be that the Brothers Grimm, who documented Cinderella, or then Walt Disney, it was still Cinderella, from the Enchanted Forest. Their stories were simply written down.

That they then, in the reboot season, went “well, actually There Are Many Cinderellas!!” completely contradicts the previously established rules of this world? Because yes, the concept very similar to Cinderella actually exists in many cultures - and that was the cool thing of OUaT’s take, because pressumably that is because the Author was in said culture at said time and documented the tale, as is the Author’s job.

Especially since it was so... unnecessary? I mean, they gave Rapunzel one half-assed episode in the past, they never tackled Gold Mary, they could have shown what became of Hänsel and Gretel now also grown up, etc. There were other unused characters that could have been brought in instead of throwing the rules out of the window.

But moving on from that; I love that they didn’t limit themselves to Disney movies - that they did prominently put Red Riding Hood (my favorite fairy tale character) in there, that they worked with mythology as well as books.

One thing they absolutely fucked up was their spin-off though. Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. They made that. They decided that, out of everything touched upon in the series, Alice’s tale should get a spin-off... and then they didn’t use any of the actual characters?

Alice herself never got an appearance in OUaT, not prior or after the spin-off (only very much later in the reboot season, with a different Alice)

They had the Queen of Hearts on OUaT, but they didn’t use her as the main antagonist, or at least a huge deal, on Wonderland

They had the freaking Mad Hatter on OUaT, but he doesn’t even have a single cameo on Wonderland

And don’t give me “Seb Stan was too busy!”, because... even then, they could have recast. The Mad Hatter is kind of a big part of Alice in Wonderland, but... they ignored the majority of what is important in AiW in general, so there is that

They named the Red Queen Anastasia and very heavily implied that yes, the Anastasia who was the stepsister of Cinderella - but when OUaT’s original Cinderella got her stepsisters introduced, they suddenly had entirely different names than the Disney stepsisters and of course it wasn’t the same actress either

They introduced Jafar (for some reason) in Wonderland. And then recast him when Aladdin was tackled on OUaT and never addressed any of the things that happened on Wonderland, especially not how Jafar was the son of the sultan which would technically make him Jasmine’s brother

It was nearly dumb to move Will Scarlet to OUaT after the spin-off was axed, because at that point they legit just ignored Wonderland as a whole so this acknowledgment felt very off. But then it’s Michael Socha and I love him so I ain’t gonna complain about that.

So yes, I have mild issues with how they made a spin-off that had basically no inpact on the show, despite many elements that should have crossed over and carried significance in both shows.

Lastly, because we’re on the topic of spin-offs, I still would absolutely kill for a spin-off about Mulan, Merida and Ruby. Those three, exploring the Enchanting Forest together, training together, being gay together, it was the best thing. Which does force me to mention the gay. Because... Mulan was canonically in love with Aurora and when they set her up to find Ruby and journey with her, it came really off as them trying to make Mulan/Ruby happen. Then they introduce Merida, a very famously single princess, and you start to wonder. But in the end, it’s Ruby who ends up with Dorothy, aka two characters not associated with Disney. And it makes you wonder. (It doesn’t. We all know Disney is hugely homophobic. We all know OUaT most likely had some Disney executive yelling at them for even implying one of their characters may be gay. So they backtracked to give the wlw storyline to two characters that weren’t Disney property.)

Ah, I don’t like ending things on a negative note so one last positive - as weirdly as the Dark Swan arc was handled at parts, I absolutely love that Emma’s name being Swan really did pay off in making her the Swan Princess in the end and giving a nudge to Swan Lake with the Dark Swan. That was such a cool pay-off of something as small as a last name.

So, to sum it up, there’s some flaws in the writing, some things I wish would have been explored more, but overall good gods do I love and adore this TV show.

#Once Upon a Time #Once Upon a Time in Wonderland #Disney #Anonymous

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benevolentbirdgal · 4 years ago

Note

From the worldbuilding questions list:

What is language like? Are there multiple languages in regular use (i.e. in schools, on road signs, on gov’t documents)? How many dialects are there? Are there mutual intelligibility issues? Is dialect a point of contention or mistreatment?

This is probably going to be super long, sorry not sorry!

What is language like?

So for context, I currently have two WIPS. One is basically “2010s YA fantasy but make it Jewish” and the other is “sci-space dramedy.” In the Jewish YA fantasy, it takes place in the U.S. and language mostly reflects that, although Yiddish and Hebrew play a role in helping the main characters reclaim assimilated identities and culture.

In the space dramedy, there are many, many languages, because there are many, many space-faring civilizations. There are five standard intergalactic languages within the use of BUBBLE (basically the space U.N.), so those are relevant in some capacity, as are the languages of Earth that have made it to space. The story mostly takes place in Earth’s empire, so Earth languages are in use (mostly English, Russian, Chinese, and Spanish). On these planets, local dialects have developed. Publically managed planets have to have operate in at least one of those four and offer translation in at least one of the Five Standard Galactic Languages. Privately-owned planets and systems in the empire can do whatever, but in practice usually follow the same standard.

Are there multiple languages in regular use (i.e. in schools, on road signs, on gov’t documents)?

On the Galactic Highway, it’s required that at least two of the SGLs are in use for everything. That’s the requirement in theory, but not necessarily how it operates in practice. On official forms on the galactic scale and official meetings, you can operate in any one of the five, at least in theory. In practice, there might be someone on hand who can translate between two to three of them.

The five SGLs are used differently in different circumstances. The idea is that any given species that is spacing faring, or at least those who were space-faring when the SGLs were created, would have the physical capability to speak at least two of them.

An original “universal” language was developed by BUBBLE, although it was heinously clunky and did not work as an actual useable language. Usually now referred to as SGL #0, it was split into five daughter languages, which actually see some use.

SGL #1 is by far the most common. It requires a certain range of producing high and low pitch sounds at certain volumes, but no use of additional body parts like stridulation (like cicadas do) or clacking together claws or well-defined whistling abilities. There’s a large vocabulary, but the grammar is consistent in its rules. It is designed to be easy to speak in a variety of less formal situations. There’s an official dictionary and guidebook to #1 (as there is for all SGLs) and most speakers are pretty fluent once they learn it. SGL #1 is frequently updated and reevaluated to make sure that the guidebook reflects its usage in the real world, especially as new things are found.

SGL #2 is the SGL designed for beings that rely on non-vocal noisemaking (like stridulation) as an essential part of their audible communication. It is very difficult to speak if you do not have the ability to make such sounds naturally (translators without the ability to stridulate will usually carry a device that looks similar to a xylophone to simulate this sound in conversations, for example).

SGL #3 is an alternative to #1 that a rival group in BUBBLE developed at the same time. It is the second-most widely used SGL. Signage and documentation for day-to-day stuff is mostly available in #1 and #3.

SGL #4 is the SGL that is easiest to learn and most popular in communication outside official streams. It is the least like to be on official stuff. It is very simple on purpose, in its official form, but tends to become dialectal in the outer edges and less regulated parts of different empires. The base of #4 is pretty much as simple as language can be, on purpose, but it tends to evolve to fit local needs more so than other SGLs.

SGL #5 is the most formal SGL. #5 is really only used in very formal communications or settings on the galactic scale. BUBBLE headquarters at official outposts tend to use this, captains are expected to learn it in training, but in practice, it’s rarely used and everyone relies on trained translators when they have to use it. #5 is the closest to the original overly-specific unwieldy #0.

How many dialects are there?

Because the SGL languages were invented and remain regulated by a defined, singular entity (BUBBLE), dialect is less relevant (with the exception of #4).

Are there mutual intelligibility issues?

#1 and #2 have some mutual intelligibility, and #3 and #4 have some mutual intelligibility, #4 was actually derived from #3. #1 and #3 have some grammatical similarities, but confusing false friends in vocabulary.

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arecomicsevengood · 5 years ago

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Self-Released Comics from 2020

A bunch of zines came out this year that I liked but haven’t written anything about because I’ve been working under the assumption that my liking the artists involved is unsurprising. But I might as well, I like them more than much of what’s offered by larger publishers and they’re probably doomed to some degree of obscurity. I should excerpt images but don’t feel like doing that. All of these would be in consideration for a theoretical “best of the year” list, but I generally get conservative with those and limit it to five books that are widely available as a concession to an imagined general audience.

Gonzales, by Matthew Thurber and Ric Royer, available through Matthew’s online shop

The parties involved in this comic’s creation would probably prefer I not mention that Ric, the writer, was “cancelled” and made a pariah in Baltimore (and I believe Providence too) due to his behavior in relationships, which had a marked pattern of manipulation and psychological abuse. I don’t know how many people outside these places, in the broader comics community, are aware of such things, but certainly some people are probably buying this comic not knowing anything about it who would be uncomfortable with the concept if they knew. I support Matthew’s willingness to support his friend as an artist by collaborating with him in a context where it’s unlikely women would come into his orbit (this isn’t to imply there aren’t women in comics, only that there aren’t festivals happening right now) but not so much so I can look the other way entirely. If I had to have hand-wringing conversations with Baltimore friends, you have to have them in your head: Heads up for those who don’t like it when authors are creeps.

The comic itself is pretty good! It’s a satire about the Satanic Panic of the 1980s that basically works as a kid’s comic, where a superhero named Gonzales teaches kids to overcome their parents’ fears. Thurber’s a great cartoonist, and I don’t think he loses too much working from a script here. There’s less improvisatory surrealism and more general storytelling economy.

Everglide by Carlos Gonzalez, available through Wasp Video Roadhouse

This kinda feels like Carlos’ eXistenZ, by which I mean it’s about humans “jacking in” to video game worlds where they can run around. Also I think eXistenZ is the best Cronenberg movie, and who knows how good this comic will turn out? I like the serialized minicomic format. I do feel like the ideal format for this would be typical comic proportions, sold in retail stores monthly, and Carlos’ thin line that delineates the shape of a figure but none of its weight or texture could confront readers with its seeming amateurism. But alas! No one can afford to put out black and white genre comics in stores regularly these days. As a minicomic with so many pages in each issue, the focus on the narrative, and each issue feels satisfying on those grounds, building out its world.

Detective Double Digest by Drew Lerman and Pete Faecke, available at The Stink Hole

Drew Lerman takes his Snake Creek characters out for a detective caper with gags about pissing and a plot about cryogenic freezing. Pete Faecke, who I’m unfamiliar with, but is in the new Bubbles writing about the horse sequence in Jimbo Adventures In Paradise, does a comic where multiple people huff gasoline. It’s great. There’s plenty of jokes, an interesting tone, but also a good deal of narrative space being covered in a short amount of pages. The contrast between art styles works to the advantage of each, with Faecke sort of approximating a stiff “golden age” style while Lerman works in a scribblier cartoonier form, closer to a comic strip like Barney Google. Faecke also did a similar format split with A.T. Pratt of western comics that looks pretty good too.

Whisnant by Max Huffman, available at Motion Goods

I loved reading this comic as pages would pop up on Max’s social media feed. Honestly considered buying a page of the original art to finance the printing of the minicomic version. Improvised goofball comedy, tells a story, interrupts that story, then comes back to it, the way the gags and callbacks work is insane in this. I kinda hope he continues with it but maybe it won’t work if it attempted to function like an ongoing comic and not just a stream of consciousness thing that’s disinterested in resolution. On any given page, it feels either like Huffman is going for some weird gag or he’s exploring the form and abstracted geometry of page layout and shape. The amount of panels per page is generally pretty low, so it makes for a breezy minicomic, but reading it online a page at a time I always imagined it at classic comic book size, feeling like part of the point was the subversion of expectations of a classic “teen” comic like Archie.

Hubert by Elijah Brubaker, available at his Patreon

Elijah put up a few issues of this for free as PDFs somewhere but that might’ve been a limited time thing, and it’s worth tossing him some small amount of money to get these. They’re comedies about being an obnoxious dumbass who’s dumb and horny, sorta sitcom-y, sorta weird indie movie vibe, but with a cartoon’s sense of freedom from consequences. Strange and likable, uncontrived, honest to its world of slackers. Would be a good alt-comic in the tradition of Hate or any number of forgotten Slave Labor comics. Hubert the character’s abstracted cartoon shape is kinda like Ben Jones’ Alfe but he ends up in a house full of women and there’s a flirtatious chemistry in his interactions as opposed to Jones’ sexless goofball shenanigans. Since Brubaker’s I think most known for his Wilhelm Reich bio-comic and is currently working on a Charles Manson thing, this feels more “accessible” to a certain alienated pandemic brain looking to live vicariously through fiction while maybe the other stuff is more saleable to libraries. That may sound more cynical than I intend, I mean this comic is fun and it would be nice to encounter it on someone’s coffee table when you’re at the house getting drunk and stoned in a different era. The artist is unemployed and currently only making money from his Patreon, he deserves people kicking in donations for this thing.

Dog Biscuits by Alex Graham, viewable at Instagram for the time being

For a fictionalized document of the pandemic times we’re living in, currently being serialized on Instagram, running in sequences of panels you click through, I like this better than Crisis Zone. It seems close to wrapping up, at which point Alex will collect it into a self-published book I think will make a worthwhile purchase. As time has gone on, and the strip’s moved away from discussing protests and the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone overtly, settling in with the romantic drama of its small cast as they try to find their way in a world where it feels like every stupid asshole might have exposed themselves to COVID already and now thinks nothing of exposing you as well feels fraught as any editorial cartooning, a sense of desperation to find joy underlies a multipage XXX sequence of characters boning. The Instagram comments are lit up with people seemingly familiar with only reading YA getting really emotionally invested and being extremely judgmental of the characters, with maybe the weirdest moment from my vantage point was someone asking the author what a character’s astrological breakdown was. These reactions do bring home how thought out, alive, and well-observed these characters feel.

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lupine-publishers-sjpbs · 6 years ago

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Lupine Publishers | Psychology And Behavioral Sciences Lupine Publishers | Synthesis of New Oxazin Compounds Derived from Furfural, Chalcons and Schiff Bases

Abstract

Objective: Based on the biopsychosocial model, we developed a paradigm to explore if music therapy (MT) is effective in increasing the well-being of persons with dementia.

Method: A randomized controlled trial, mixed method design was used. Twenty-seven persons with moderate/severe dementia split into an experimental (n = 16; MT and standard care) and a control (n = 11; standard care only) group were subjected to a cycle of MT weekly sessions for five months. Quantitative levels of salivary cortisol, health status (body functioning and structures and health-related states), and outcome measures (psycho-behavioral disturbances and quality of life) were associated with qualitative analysis of the participants’ behavior during MT sessions.

Results: The study showed that MT is effective in reducing psycho-behavioral disturbances and maintaining a good quality of life. No apparent effects were found with respect to the level of salivary cortisol. Qualitative analysis is very effective for obtaining information on patient behavior during the MT.

Conclusions: The paradigm was suitable to integrate quantitative and qualitative data on the effectiveness of MT interventions.

Keywords: Dementia; Music Therapy; Quality of Life; Geriatric Assessment; Biopsychosocial Model, Cortisol

Introduction

The effectiveness of music therapy (MT) in the management of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) is well documented in the literature [1-8]. However, evidence for the efficacy of MT in dementia is still inconclusive [9]. The lack of evidence-based practice in MT for dementia has been noted by several scholars [10-13], who also found methodological limitations across the studies [5,14,15].and biases due to unspecified criteria in participant selection to the studies, small sample size, lack of randomization and blinded evaluation, group dissimilarity at baseline, no test-retest studies, and lack of a control group [16]. Researchers must face a twofold challenge:

a. adopt a research method able to mix quantitative and qualitative data that come from the interacting and complex domains of human functioning and affect the progressive and unpredictable course of dementia;

b. select a homogenous sample able to be representative of the studied condition (dementia), so different from individual to individual. With regard to the first point, according to the geriatric medicine, the health status of older people with dementia and therefore the effectiveness of the MT should be evaluated using the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) [17]. This multidimensional, multidisciplinary diagnostic instrument was designed to collect data on the medical, psychosocial, and functional capabilities and limitations of older patients. The geriatric assessment differs from a standard medical evaluation because it takes into account also nonmedical domains emphasizing functional ability and quality of life. So, the CGA is very compatible with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) based on the biopsychosocial model [18].

In fact, both the CGA and the biopsychosocial model are focused on human functioning as a person–environmental interaction and integrating medical, psychological, and social models of human functioning. As it was highlighted [19,20], the CGA and ICF models include similar assessment domains: health condition, body functions and structures, activities, participation, and contextual factors, and share a common approach to the assessment of the person as a whole within the context of both person’s capacities and expectations and supportive resources of the environment. The second challenge posed to researchers is strongly correlated to the first one. Because of the large number of variables affecting the health status of people with dementia and the substantial individual differences in the course of dementia, the scholar should remain cautious in generalizations, provide clear patient anamnestic descriptions, and develop a longitudinal design to control individual variability in the course of the disease to control what characterizes individual history with respect to the effectiveness of the MT intervention [3]. Innovative paradigms and research protocol have been recently presented and mixed method [21]. have been used in order to capture MT effects.

Study Paradigm

To overcome those challenges, the present study developed a paradigm to assess the effectiveness of an MT treatment in people with moderate/severe dementia, by adopting a biopsychosocial and CGA perspective. A mixed method randomized controlled trial experiment was designed to gather quantitative data on cognitive reserve, severity of dementia, comorbidity, cognitive and physiological functions, and psychological functioning and behavior, and qualitative data involving the phenomenological observation of the MT interventions.

Expected Results

Go toTo dispose of a paradigm able to study music therapy effects in participants with dementia. To demonstrate the usefulness of our paradigm to explore if MT is effective, we expect to observe the following results

a) Those who receive MT should have a lower level of BPSD, as measured by the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI), Cohen- Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI), and Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CDS) than the control group.

b) This result was expected from studies founding that MT is useful for the management of BPSD in older people with dementia [2,9,22].

c) Those receiving MT will have a higher quality of life (QOL) than those in the control group.

d) QOL was identified as a central goal in the treatment of dementia [11,23]. This result will replicate previous studies that correlated MT with QOL of people with dementia [1,9,12,15].

e) Those receiving MT will have a lower level of salivary cortisol, indicative of a lower level of stress, than those in the control group.

f) This result will replicate a previous study by Suzuki et al. [24]. who found a diminished secretion of cortisol correlated with positive psychological well-being in people with dementia.

g) Those receiving MT will be able to recognize nonverbal signs.

h) This result will replicate previous studies finding that MT is effective for expanding group participation, archaic expressive, and relational nonverbal abilities in those with moderate/severe dementia [2,25].

Method

Participants

The study was a mixed method single-blinded randomized controlled trial performed in two Italian nursing homes. The protocol was approved by the Bioethics Committee of the University of Perugia (MUSIC14). Inclusion and exclusion criteria were established by a consensus of experts (geriatricians and psychologists). Inclusion criteria were:

a. Diagnosis of Alzheimer or vascular dementia or mixed dementia, defined according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV-TR criteria (DSM-IV [26];

b. Moderate or severe stage of dementia according to the Clinical Dementia Rating [27]: score from 2 to 3;

c. Scores between 0 and 20 on the Mini Mental State Examination [28].

Exclusion criteria were;

I. Wandering;

II. Diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia;

III. Diagnosis of Levy body dementia;

IV. Vegetative state;

V. Use of corticosteroids.

Informed consent was obtained from proxies.

Experimental (EG) and control groups (CG) were formed in the nursing homes. CG participants from each nursing home were treated with usual activities (group games, arts, motor or sensorial stimulation). EG participants were also involved in the usual activities when not involved in music therapy. S.F., not involved in the assessment, randomly assigned participants to CG or EG. A simple randomization was used.

Experimental Condition

The program consisted of 20 MT sessions: once a week for 60 min. per session over 5 months. The model of the intervention [29] belongs to the humanistic MT [30-32] The MT intervention can be ascribed among the active techniques, characterized by direct interactions with participants using musical improvisation with the aim of stimulating communication skills, improving relational abilities, and reducing BPSD [33]. The intervention was conducted in a structured therapeutic setting, in a large and quiet room of the nursing home where participants dwelled. Music therapy was conducted by a professional music therapist together with a formal caregiver of the nursing home. Number of participants was 10 in a nursing home and 6 in the other.

Measures

Quantitative and qualitative data were collected in the manner summarized in Table 1. These measures consisted of the following:

Table 1: Timetable of experimental procedure and timing of measures collection.

ADCS–ADL = Alzheimer Disease Cooperative Study-Activities of Daily Living; CDR = Clinical Dementia Rating Scale; CDS = Cornell Depression Rating Scale; CIRS-s/c = Cumulative Illness Rating Scale severity/comorbidity; CMAI = Cohen–Mansfield Agitation Inventory; CO = salivary cortisol level; grey = MT sessions; Microanalysis = sessions video analyzed; MMSE = Mini Mental State Examination (row score); NPI = Neuropsychiatric Inventory; QOL–C = Quality of Life Alzheimer Disease caregiver version; QOL–P = Quality of Life Alzheimer Disease patient version; S = music therapy session; T = month of the experimental phase; WHODAS 2.0 = World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0.

I. Clinical Interview on Socio-Demographic and Clinical Data (C–Int): An interviewer asked participants questions about cultural person capital (cognitive reserve index), medical history, and pharmacological treatment.

II. Cortisol Biological Marker (CO): The measure of salivary cortisol level (CO) was performed on unstimulated whole saliva collected from passive drooling. Unstimulated whole saliva is the baseline saliva present in the oral cavity for the majority of a 24– hour period. To avoid variations due to circadian rhythm, saliva specimens were taken at a fixed time, immediately before the MT session (10 a.m.) and immediately after the session (11 a.m.) in both groups.

III. Cumulative Illness Rating Scale (CIRS) [34]: It is a summary measure of illness severity (CIRS-s) and comorbidity (CIRS-c).

IV. Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) [27]: is a global staging measure of dementia.

V. Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) [28]: This is the most commonly used screening test of cognitive functions.

VI. Alzheimer Disease Cooperative Study-Activities of Daily Living (ADCS-ADL) [35]: This is an inventory to assess activities of daily living for clinical trials in dementia.

VII. World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0) [36,37]: Generic assessment instrument to provide a standardized cross-cultural method for measuring activity limitations and participation restrictions, largely employed in geriatric settings [38]. The Italian 12-item version of the WHODAS 2.0 interviewer-administered proxy form was used [37]. The simple scoring option was adopted [36].

VIII. Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) [39]: assesses neuropsychiatric disturbances common in dementia together with the amount of caregiver distress engendered by each of the neuropsychiatric disorders.

IX. Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CDS) [40]: Clinician-administered instrument that uses information from interviews with both the patient and an informant to evaluate depression in dementia. It was also validated in patients with moderate to severe dementia [41].

X. Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI) [42]: In this questionnaire, caregivers rate the frequency of manifestations of agitated behaviors in elderly persons. The Italian 30-item proxy version [43,44]. was administered.

XI. The Quality of Life – Alzheimer’s Disease scale (QOL– AD) [45]: Developed for individuals with dementia, it comprises both a version for the person with dementia (QOL–P) and a version for the caregiver (QOL–C).

XII. Microanalysis on MT sessions’ Video Clips (Microanalysis) [46,47]: This is a five-step procedure for video analysis to investigate the communicative response of a specific client in a music therapy treatment. A consensus of experts (music therapist and psychologist) developed criteria to identify the patient’s and music therapist’s salient behaviors (e.g., when the patient joins in singing, plays, smiles, shows a gaze orientation, spontaneously moves their body, etc.) during MT intervention (videotaped). A trained group of psychology students analyzed the video of the MT sessions. Starting from the results of this analysis, the music therapist composed a video clip consisting of the most salient moments of the therapy of each participant. The microanalysis provides a clear distinction between description, observation, personal reflections, and interpretations of the clip content. The assessment measures (CDR, MMSE, ADCS–ADL, NPI, CDS, CMAI) were adopted to comprehensively cover the geriatric assessment domains of the CGA [17], in fact these are extensively employed in geriatric medicine.

Procedure

The study covers a period of twelve months (T0–T11). Twenty music therapy sessions (S1–S20) were administered to two experimental groups, once a week in the morning, for 60 min. per session over 5 months (T3–T8), starting three months after the patient eligibility assessment (T0). The MT treatment was evaluated longitudinally four times: (i) at the beginning of the MT treatment (T3), (ii) at the beginning of the fourth month of treatment (T6), at the end of the MT treatment (T8), and three months after the MT treatment (T11). Salivary cortisol fluid was sampled at the time of the second MT session (S2), midway through the sessions (S11), and at the time of the last session (S20). Samples were taken at fixed times, to avoid variations due to circadian rhythms: immediately before the beginning of the MT session (10:00 a.m.) and immediately after (11:00 a.m.). Those in the control group had salivary fluid sampled on the same days and at the same times. Ten out of 20 MT sessions (S1; S2; S5; S7; S10; S11; S14; S16; S19; S20) were also videotaped for the microanalysis. As Microanalysis is a very long procedure, it was conducted limited to three clinical case casually chosen from the EG. Geriatricians provided information on the personal and clinical history (C–Int) severity of dementia (CDR) and comorbidity (CIRS). Caregivers were interviewed to obtain their assessments of the patients/participants neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPI, CDS, CMAI), functional status (ADCS–ADL), quality of life (QOL–C), and activity limitations and participation restrictions (WHODAS 2.0). Patients were assessed on the cognitive status (MMSE) and quality of life (QOL–P). Three biologists were involved in the salivary cortisol level analysis. Table 1 summarizes the timing of measures collection. The professional administering interviews and measures and respondents involved in the study were blind to patients’ membership in the EG or CG. The music therapist was unaware of the changes in cognitive, functioning, and behavioral status measured during the study (Table 1).

Analysis

Mann–Whitney and Wilcoxon tests were performed on health status and outcome measures. Statistical significance was defined as p ≤ 0.05 [48]. On biological measures, a t-test was also conducted, using the bootstrap method. Analyses were performed through IBM – Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, version 24 for Windows, Armonk, NY. Qualitative data were inserted into an Excel file according to the Microanalysis guidelines developed by Ridder [46].

Results

Demographic

A total of 27 people with dementia were enrolled and blinded randomized into the CG (n = 11; male = 3; mean age = 83.36 ± 9.19; mean education in years = 6.91 ± 4.50) and EG (n = 16; male = 3; mean age = 85.94 ± 8.54; mean education in years = 4.75 ± 3.00). No differences in health status measures and outcome measures were found between the CG and EG at baseline. Four patients died during the study and two were hospitalized. So for these cases, some data are missing.

Health Status

The analysis reveals a worsening of dementia severity (CDR) together with an improvement on activities of daily living (ADCS– ADL) in the EG: the CDR score in the T0 vs. T8 comparison (p = 0.046) significantly increased. The ADCS–ADL score significantly decreased from T0 to T3 (p=0.020) and T6 to T8 (p=0.003) and significantly increased from T0 to T6 (p=0.049) and T3 to T6 (p=0.003). No differences were found on the health status measures in the CG.

Outcome

Figure 1: Significant differences between EG and CG on outcome measures detected with Wilcoxon non-parametric statistic. The horizontal axis indicates month of the experimental phase (T); the vertical axis indicates QOL scores (range 0–48, the higher scores, the better QOL–AD).

ADCS–ADL = Alzheimer Disease Cooperative Study-Activities of Daily Living; CDR = Clinical Dementia Rating Scale; CDS = Cornell Depression Rating Scale; CIRS-s/c = Cumulative Illness Rating Scale severity/comorbidity; CMAI = Cohen–Mansfield Agitation Inventory; MMSE = Mini Mental State Examination (row score); NPI = Neuropsychiatric Inventory; QOL–C = Quality of Life Alzheimer Disease caregiver version; QOL–P = Quality of Life Alzheimer Disease patient version; WHODAS 2.0 = World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0.

Differences in outcome measures were observed within and between the CG and EG from T0 to T11, as follows. A significant difference on QOL–AD between samples emerged at T8. In particular, QOL–P (p < 0.05) had a higher score in the EG (32.86 ± 9.87) than in the CG (20.71 ± 9.03) (Figure 1). No differences between groups on the other outcome measures (NPI, CDS, CMAI, and QOL–C) were found from T0 to T11. No differences between QOL–C and QOL–P were observed from T0 to T11. Table 2 displays differences within samples in dementia-related neuropsychiatric disturbance detected using the Wilcoxon non-parametric statistic. From T3 to T11 (p = 0.027) and from T6 to T11 (p = 0.007), the NPI score in the EG significantly increased. In the CG, the NPI score significantly increased from T0 to T8 (p = 0.050). Significant declines in depression (CDS) scores were found in the EG from T0 to T3 (p =

0.054), and scores remained lower at T6 (p = 0.001), T8 (p = 0.001), and T11 (p = 0.002). CDS scores also significantly decreased from T3 to T6 (p = 0.006), and the significant difference remained at T11 (p = 0.022). There was also a significant decrease between T8 and T11 (p = 0.046). For the CG, there was a significant decrease in CDS scores between T0 and T11 (p = 0.011). Agitation (CMAI) scores fluctuated over the course of the study. A significant decrease was observed in the EG between T0 and T6 (p = 0.005), and the T3 vs. T6 difference was also significant (p = 0.017), whereas a significant increase occurred from T6 to T8 (p = 0.010), which remained at T11 (p = 0.012 for T6 vs. T11). A significant decrease was observed in the CG for T0 vs. T8 (p = 0.015), part of which took place between T6 and T8 (p = 0.018). With respect to the QOL–AD, there are no differences in EG and CG on QOL–C, whereas a significant decrease was observed in the CG on QOL–P at T0 vs. T3 (p = 0.043) and T3 vs. T8 (p = 0.043). Figure 2 displays the graphs related to the results on the outcome measures. For CO, Figure 3 shows increases from pre to post MT in S2, S11, and S20, as well as for the measures taken at the corresponding times for the CG. (Figure 2) Both in the EG and in the CG the CO collection procedure appeared to be stressful. Some patients did not secrete enough saliva to measure CO. In the CG, results were obtained from five patients for S2, S11, and S20. The mean value in S2 increased from 6.678 (± 0.434) to 7.318 (± 0.238) μg/l (p = 0.077). In S11 there was a significant increase from 6.458 (± 0.395) to 7.526 (± 0.327) μg/l (p = 0.041). There was also an increase from 7.420 (± 1.076) to 7.956 (± 0.571) μg/l (p = 0.340) in S20. In the EG, results were obtained from nine patients for S2, S11, and S20. The mean value in S2 significantly increased from 6.359 (± 1.045) to 6.990 (± 1.021) μg/l (p = 0.026). In S11 it slightly increased from 7.073 (± 1.024) to 7.266 (± 1.053) μg/l (p = 0.086). There was also an increase from 7.111 (± 0.700) to 7.406 (± 0.703) μg/l (p = 0.672) in S20. (Figure 3) Identical results were obtained from the bootstrap analysis.

Microanalysis of Mrs. R. a Patient of the Experimental Group

Mrs. R. microanalysis is reported because she represents an emblematic clinical case for the age, the severity of the clinical condition and the sensorial impairment. This patient was a 91 year– old woman with moderate/severe vascular dementia (CDR = 2 at T0, T8 and T11; MMSE = 14 at T0; MMSE = 17 at T3; MMSE = 17 at T8; MMSE = 12 at T11). She had a first-grade education and worked as a housekeeper. She had a severe visual deficit, hypertensive heart disease, chronic obstructive bronchopneumopathy, controlled hypothyroidism, polyarthritis, and suffered from a hip fracture (CIRS-c = 5 at T0, T8, and T11; CIRS-s = 1.86 at T0, T8, and T11). All self-administered measures were provided by a formal caregiver (healthcare provider employed in the nursing home). At T0 and T3, she needed help in all basic and instrumental activities of daily living (ADCS–ADL = 5 at T0; ADCS–ADL = 3 at T3) except for the use of a fork or a spoon. At T6 and T8, she combed her hair, asking to listen to the radio, and commented on the news (ADCS–ADL = 11 at T6). At T8 and T11, she reduced her activities (ADCS–ADL = 7 at T8; ADCS–ADL = 4 at T11). The WHODAS 2.0 score remained the same throughout the study. Pharmacological treatment remained stable during the study. The CO before S2 was 8.28 μg/l and increased to 9.03 μg/l after the MT. At S11 CO was 6.85 μg/l before and 7.33 μg/l after while at S20 they were 7.84 μg/l before and 8.02 μg/l after. On the NPI at baseline, Ms. R presented severe delusions, hallucinations, sleep disturbances, and sometimes depressive symptoms (NPI = 46 at T0; NPI = 36 at T3; NPI = 11 at T6; NPI = 52 at T8; NPI = 43 at T11).

She was verbally aggressive and engaged in repetitive actions (CMAI = 50 at T0; CMAI = 38 at T3; CMAI = 38 at T6; CMAI = 59 at T8; CMAI = 58 at T11). She expressed depressive symptoms during the study (CDS = 17 at T0; CDS = 5 at T3; CDS= 0 at T6; CDS = 3 at T8; CDS = 0 at T11). She gave unreliable answers for the QOL items at T0 and T8, (QOL–P at T0 and T8 was inapplicable) and answers (QOL–P = 28 at T3; ADCS–ADL = 31 at T11) comparable to those given by the caregiver (QOL–C = 30 at T0; QOL–C = 32 at T3; QOL–C = 33 at T8; QOL–C = 28 at T11) at T3 and T11. Sessions graphs evidenced a progressive increase in involvement in the MT (eye contact, language, and spontaneous movement). (Figure 4) The music therapist reported that Mrs. R reveals receptive participation in the MT by listening, marking the beat, and playing the maracas. Her behavioral response in the sessions was very positive, and she had her identity and self-worth confirmed by the experience. She was also emotionally affected by the songs, showing interest in the therapist (e.g., by searching for a touch). Based on the video analysis (Supplemental Material), it was concluded that Mrs. R. benefited from the MT as showed in.In the column on the right, clips and sequences refer to the video consisting of the most salient moments of the therapy of Mrs. R. created by the therapist (Supplemental Material).

Discussion

Several studies have suggested the possibility of innovative paradigms able to capture MT effects in dementia [5,9,15]. The present study aimed to demonstrate the usefulness of our biopsychosocial paradigm to explore if MT is useful. To reach this aim, we used outcome measures such as the NPI, CMAI, CDS, and QOL–AD to assess the impact of music therapy on behavioral disturbances and quality of life in persons with moderate/ severe dementia living in a nursing home. Biological markers and relational aspects of behavior were also assessed using salivary cortisol analysis and Microanalysis, respectively. At the same time, health status was monitored throughout the study with the C–Int, CDR, CIRS, MMSE, WHODAS 2.0, and ADCS–ADL. The biopsychosocial paradigm seems capable of capturing MT effects on the degenerative and progressive process of ingravescent health conditions that characterize dementia. In fact, as expected (second prediction), a significant decrease in quality of life (QOL–P score) was observed for the CG but not for the EG [15], even though health status worsened in the EG. Moreover, the EG manifested improvement in functional capacity, showing significant increases in average ADCS–ADL scores. However, the prediction that the EG would obtain NPI, CMAI, and CDS scores lower than the CG (i.e., manifest a lower level of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia) was disconfirmed, although within the EG there was a nonsignificant trend toward decreased behavioral disturbances from T0 to T11, partially confirming previous studies [2,9,22]. The third prediction—that EG participants would show decreased signs of stress, as indicated by salivary cortisol (CO) levels—was not confirmed. Our results showed no significant difference between EG and CG on CO; in addition, a significant CO increase was present in S2 on EG and in S11 on CG. However, patients e2, e6, and e8, belonging to the EG, showed a reduced CO at S11.

Literature is controversial about the effect of MT. Although Evans et al. [49] and Suzuki et al. [24] found a diminished secretion of cortisol correlated with positive psychological well-being, respectively in aging people the first and people with dementia the last; conversely, Takahashi and Matsushita [50] found no significant effect among person with moderate and severe dementia after MT. The fourth prediction—that social skills and participation would be enhanced by MT—was supported. Through the Microanalysis, it was possible to demonstrate that salient behaviors (e.g., when the patient joins in singing, plays, smiles, makes appropriate eye contact during interaction, spontaneously moves their body, etc.) were enhanced, providing evidence that MT is effective for enriching relational and communicative abilities in those with moderate/severe dementia, as Raglio et al. [2] found. Despite her CO increasing (Figure 3), Ms. R (e6) was engaged with positive emotions with the music therapist and participated actively in the group activities. The fact that CO collection was perceived by the patients as a stressful procedure might explain the fact that CO increased in both the EG and the CG. Furthermore, the increase in CO after MT may be indicative of beneficial stress (eustress) and not negative stress (distress) [51], that is a consequence of patient’s activation following the biopsychosocial intervention. In fact, as Chanda and Levitin argue [14], active MT intervention (direct interactions to stimulate participants) could increase cortisol.

Limitations of the Study

The small sample size, the heterogeneity of the subjects, and the presence of formal caregivers reduced the possibility of generalizing the results. Futures studies are required to confirm the utility of our paradigm. The majority of the quantitative outcomes (Table 2) are not statistically significant. We know that statistical significance in psychosocial studies is a highly controversial issue. In dementia studies, statistical comparison between groups (experimental and control) could be compromised by a twofold difficulty [52]: the short-term and non-permanent changes in the expression of signs and symptoms of a single individual in the same day; 2) the variability of the expression of signs and symptoms among person with the same diagnosis. Nevertheless, in our study, notable changes in individual measures was observed (although not statistically significant) that might be considered significant from a clinical point of view. Although a clinical analysis of our findings is indubitably interesting, it is beyond the aim of the present study. In summary, the results suggested that the paradigm is effective in demonstrating MT effects in patients with moderate/severe dementia. Active MT is effective in preserving a higher quality of life in institutionalized older adults with moderate/severe dementia. According to demographic projections, the oldest old with dementia will increase in the coming years, and it will be important to have means available to reliably detect the effects of bio(eco) psychological (usually called non-pharmacological) interventions designed to increase the quality of life in those with dementia.

Acknowledgement

This study was co-funded by Regione Umbria, Ricerca Sanitaria Finalizzata (MUSICT14; E17903P4), and by “Associational Malattia Alzheimer e Telefono Alzheimer Umbria” (A.M.A.T.A. Umbria). The authors would like to thank: Catia Passerine and Maria Grazia Marcacci (nursing homes’ social workers), the nursing homes’ healthcare assistants, and the students of the Department of Philosophy, Social & Human Sciences and Education, who supported the study.

#Lupine Publishers #Lupinepublishers #Lupine Publishers Group #psychology #brain sciences

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malwarebytes-anti-malwareoo · 3 years ago

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malwarebytes-anti-malwarerk · 3 years ago

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of-suns-and-guns · 7 years ago

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For the ask game for writers: 2, 8, 20, 30, 44, 53 and 54.

Shadow is Good, Shadow is Kind

I thank you, good lion

2. Favorite part of writing:

Playing. Building. Just the whole process of, like, I dunno, playing with words to build this thing, this story that I wanted to tell and just telling it the way I want it to be told.

Just everything about it, really.

(Also making people ache with it. That’s A+ too.)

8. Favorite trope to write:

I have three:

1) enemies to lovers (sometimes skipping the ‘friends’ bit in between, for the drama of it all.)

2) friends with benefits/accidental relationship

3) secret relationship/there’s some aspect people don’t know (for Kalex, this would either be people not knowing they’re together, or people knowing they’re together but not knowing they’re sisters)

20. Post a snippet of a WIP you’re working on:

Well, because I posed a snip of ‘just come home to me’ last night, so I’m gonna spin the wheel on what to post now.

(the rest of the Q’s and A’s under the cut)

Okay, this came about in response to the whole Kara-Doppleganger thing coming in Season 4. Her name is Red. She’s the product of that weird stone that splits Kryptonians in the last season. She has all of Kara’s memories, but stands, herself, as a slightly different personality from Kara. A bit rougher, more bite, more rakish humor, but she holds core pieces of Kara’s personality, including her love for Alex.

The context for this scene is the DEO is keeping Red in containment because they think she might be evil, and (unbeknownst to Alex) Red and Kara had a…let’s call it an emotional moment that ended with Kara freaking out and running away from Red. Kara and Alex later fought over something else.

This scene is Red breaking under the turmoil.

(Side note, Red is actually a character Jae and I created a LONG time ago and write about a LOT, which was the basis for Red’s characterization in this.)

- - -[scene]- - -

Alexdoesn’t come back to see her until nearly five pm, and when she does, hermovements are sharp, frustrated. Her tone stiff and professional. Colder thanshe was yesterday, to the point Red has to fight ever the well of self doubtthat makes her want to cower and beg forgiveness.

Karadoesn’t come back at all.

“Whatdo you remember?” Alex asks, making a note on her tablet, backstiff, legs crossed, facing Red’s containment head-on in her seat, brokering analmost suffocating power hold on the room that chafes up Red’s spine to have tosit on the receiving end of it.

“Snow,”Red answers, dull, wanting more breathing room to make a joke of it, to wrestleback that indifference she’d sold so well up til now. But her eyes keepbouncing to the closed door she’d begged to open all day, only to deliver her This Alex, and no Kara

ThisAlex makes her feel fourteen and trying in vain to behave in whatever way it’lltake to earn herself Alex’s softness. It’s that, mixed with Eliza’sdisappointment. It’s that, mixed with the harsh words she’d seen hovering at thetip of Jeremiah’s tongue.

It’sthat, mixed with the knowledge of just how good Alex’s softness feels, mixedwith the knowledge that she’d earned this, earned its loss. Had touched whenshe wasn’t allowed. Had taken things in the wrong way, the alien way, so farfrom human she’s no longer allowed to pretend she’s ever held human affection.

“Besidessnow,” Alex says, voice level, eyes cool and aloof. “What aboutbefore. Tell me what you remember between being Kara, and being this.”

This. This thing,this other, this bastardization of the person she was before she wasjust this. This person who doesn’t belong to Alex because Alex alreadyhas the Kara she loves, and this person who doesn’t belong to Kara becauseshe’s every discarded piece Kara never even wanted in the first place, letalone this person formed entirely of those pieces.

Itturns her ribs to splinters and depresses her sternum sharp and hard, brokenand jagged enough to tear at the soft tissue beneath.

Sheis bad. Even if she’s not evil, she is bad. And they all know it. Sheknows it.

AndAlex knows it.

“Therewas chaos,” she mutters with whatever gumption she can scrape together.“Fighting the worldkillers. Saving Sam. I remember pain. Screaming. And Iwas falling. And then…snow.”

“Whathappened after that? What’d you do? What did you feel?”

Redscoffs into a broken chuckle, chest too tight to take a full breath and rollsher head to look at Alex. “I was scared. And cold. My powers werebasically gone and it was dark, so I couldn’t see.”

“Sowhat’d you do?”

Redsighs and curls in on herself. “I started walking. A couple miles til Ifound an abandoned cabin, used the last dregs of my powers to light a fire andthen I started planning.”

“Planningwhat?” Alex voice goes impossibly darker, not a single benefit of thedoubt given, and why should she? She’s not talking to her Kara, she’s talkingto the loose, dangerous pieces of Kara nobody wanted.

“Howto get back here,” she says, dull, tired, watching her own finger tracethe plastic containment wall.

“Why?To do what? What was the plan once you got here?”

Shealmost feels too hopeless to cry, but the tears do burn, and she lets them,even if she can’t find the strength to either lean into them, or pull away fromthem.

Shesighs and drops her hand. “What else would I do? Where else would Igo?”

“Youtell me.”

Shelaughs but it sounds like crying, and she’s reminded, crazily, of Kara’s voicein her ear, murmuring the first and last sweetness she’d ever given Red.

“Iwas scared,” she rasps, wanting to roll her eyes toward Alex, but knows she’d likely throw up if she saw the expression that accompanies the tone inAlex’s voice. “I knew I wasn’t her, and I didn’t know what hadhappened to me, and I—”

Her throat tightens hard and she chokes on theemotions, trying to fight them back, sure that Alex will have no patience forthese emotions from someone who isn’t really her Kara, not as far as she’sconcerned, and definitely not after what Red’s done.

“Youwhat.”

Somethingbreaks in her at the tone. The firmness, the coldness, aware she’s not doing agood job of hiding her own upset and acknowledging how little Alex cares.

Sheisn’t the Kara Alex loves, and she isn’t the Kara who gets to seek home in anypart of Alex. Not anymore.

It’sover.

Itsnaps something in her. Cuts off her emotions with one sharp rip, detaches herfrom her own body and makes hopelessness feel like safety. A quiet void to tuckher heart and mind into and disappear from the world that hurts to exists in.

Thesharper edges of the word smooth over, become a fog out of reach and hardlyworth noticing. What’s the point? What’s even left to fight for?

“I’mtired,” her own voice says, a shopkeeper flipping the ‘Closed’ sign on thedoor.

It’sbetter in here. Inside. Away from the rest of it.

“I’mgoing to sleep.”

If Alex responds, Red’s ears have already tuned to a white-static frequency; unreachable.

It’sbetter here.

- - -[end scene]- - -

30. Favorite line you’ve ever written:

Listen, I love the fuck outta my own writing and cannot even begin TRYING to pick just one line.

That being said, and presented without an ounce of context: “Cheese danish, Donner! Goddamn cheese danish!”

53. What does writing mean to you:

There’s no way to answer this with out being super fuckin’ corny. So time for corn:

I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s my whole life. Every part of me feels like a result of it, and everything I do feels contingent on it. I’m confident it takes up a good 90% of my soul.

I’ve been doing it since I was 5~6 years old, and I literally do not know what life looks like without it.

It’s a compulsion at this point.

54. Any writing advice you want to share:

Go ape on your first draft; be as self-indulgent and technically insufficient as you want. Just do whatever you gotta do to keep yourself writing through the stalls, even if you know what your writing will have to be re-written before you post.

Do not edit it yet.

If you typed your first draft on a computer, print it out (unedited), pin it next to your monitor, open a new document

And then re-type it completely from scratch.

Do not copy and paste, do not just edit your first draft in it’s document.

Re-write it c o m p l e t e l y.

This is where you’ll edit, re-word, cut, replace, flesh-out, and build the depth of your story.

Just try it. Just once. You’ll immediately see the profound difference it makes on the final product. I promise.

I am in your debt, and I thank you kindly for the asks.

#shadows-of-the-night11

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the-cryptographer · 7 years ago

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Probably not that many of you follow my writing too closely, but even for those of you that haven’t you might have noticed that I discuss polyamorous ships and concepts kind of disproportionately. And even when I’m not directly engaging open relationships or polyamory, I’m often writing monogamy as it exists in the context of people who are (1) spontaneously attracted to people who are not their partner and (2) have strong, emotionally intimate relationships with people outside their family or romances.

I’m far more willing for the latter to be the hill I die on than the former - which is to say closed two-person relationships are great, but I’ll forever stand by the estimation that, in any healthy relationship as such, both participants should be allowed without fear to have strong friendships with, and to experience passing attractions to, other people. But I kind of want to talk more about the former: about why I write polyamory, and how it is often a safer space for me to talk about my feelings of insecurity and jealousy and possessiveness than monogamy is. I’m not saying that it should be that kind of space for everyone - I understand and respect how, for many people, open relationships and polyamory can be a much less safe and secure place for people to explore these emotions. But I guess I’m bucking up against the idea that open and/or polyamorous relationships are inherently less suited than monogamy to comfortably processing these emotions. Against the idea that characters (and people) must be interpreted as unsuited for polyamory for the presence of feelings of shyness, insecurity, jealousy, etc. And, conversely, against the idea put forth by proponents of polyamory that it exists as a more generous and free form of love, which is inherently above feelings of insecurity or possessiveness.

I’m not exactly swimming in a surplus of relationship experience here, and the rest is me talking vaguely about my personal experience of anxiety in interpersonal relationships. So under the cut:

I mean, the gist of it is I’m a rather aloof and insecure person – anxious and neurotic. I often worry about getting clingy and overbearing with people, even when I’m pulling away in practice. I’m often envious of others - of their ambitions and accomplishments, outgoing nature and confidence and attractiveness. I have an overestimated opinion of my own talents at times, but somehow it’s vaporous and will recede into air - when I’m upset, I often have trouble thinking of things about myself that I like. I feel hopeless and helpless when situations run outside of my control, and can definitely become controlling and manipulative in my attempts to regain a feeling of security - although I’m relatively aware of it and take efforts to not toe ethical boundaries and to accept what’s outside of my power. But it upsets me all the same. I get tired of other people easily, even though I’m also often craving contact and social stimuli. I end up guarding my relationships with others pretty closely - I want to be around and there for the people I like, and I don’t want them to ditch me for other people. Being abandoned or left behind is probably my most reoccurring fear.

Based on assumption, this doesn’t seem entirely to me like someone who’d be really into multiple partner relationships. But it is. And it’s not something that’s really new for me. I’ve have a pretty long documented interest in open relationships and three-person relationships. In practice, I’m notoriously bad with relationships, and I think there are some ways that polyamory is inherently more complicated than monogamy that make it a further stretch for me - most notably it would involve maintaining relationships with more people and making decisions so as to accommodate and attend to the feelings of three (or more) people rather than two. But simply from the perspective of insecurity and abandonment, it’s something I find more cathartic and comfortable than monogamy.

It’s just... I’m painfully aware of all the ways that relationships fall apart. Certainly feelings for or a relationship with another person is one possible cause. But, there are just so many reasons. So many ways that stress, and tragedy, and death can pull people apart. Even for much less traumatic reasons, there are so many reasons someone could not be in the same place in my life five years from now. There are so many deeply practical reasons for people to split apart or let each other drift. And there are so many reasons that someone might very well chose to be alone rather than be with me (a decision i make about other people regularly) And there are so many ways all of that may or may not coincide with someone coming to love and care about me less - which really fucking stings, yeah. So amidst that crescendo of deeply upsetting feelings and realisations, there’s not really something super uniquely traumatic about the idea that the person I’m with might be in love with or sleep with someone else. I don’t see loving someone else or sleeping with someone else as determinately attached to either someone leaving me, or caring less about me. And if someone left me or came to love me less because of it - it would probably hurt no more and no less than if they left me or came to love someone else for all the many other reasons something like that might happen.

I mean, there are a lot of very shitty people out there who cheat as an easy, volatile escape from a relationship, or use their attraction to other people as a weapon to pry at their partner’s or partners’ insecurities and control them, or just generally behave like a waste of space. But I kind of default to my own experience here, and I don’t think it’s necessarily bad for me to want to connect with people who experience this in roughly the same way that I do. Which is to say I find it’s rather easy to care about multiple people at once, and to find multiple people attractive at once, and that wanting to sleep with that person over there doesn’t mean I’m /less/ interested in this person right here. Also I’m bi with aro leanings. And, while I don’t think this is really hardwired into my sexuality, I think my sexuality has made it a part of my identity that’s really hard to deny. I realise other people have described being bi as gender not being a determining factor in their attraction if they’ve otherwise found the right person. And that’s cool, and it’s interesting how this kind of thing works differently for different people. But for my personal brand, I kind of mean it more like if I’m in a room with forty random people, I’m going to find multiple men and multiple women attractive out of that forty people. And out of those, probably none of them I’ll actually want to sleep with, for god knows what number of petty reasons. But... I know there’s never going to be a one and only for me. Not because I couldn’t be with one person and only one person to death do us part in practice, but it’s not how my emotional response works. I feel strong emotionally intimate connections with people, but nothing that’s really of a singular romantic focus. And I’m going to always walk into that room with forty people and think a good number of them are sexy. And I’m very absolutely not okay with being with someone who’s not able to be okay with that. It’s been the object of too much shame and homophobia in my life that I’m not okay with having to hide it in its entirety from the people I’m closest to.

So, none of this is like - it must be polyamory for me. But it’s very... why not? If I found a couple of people I found interesting, and found me interesting, could get the logistics to work... why not? If the idea of someone I like sleeping with someone else doesn’t stress me out any more than all the other shit I’m constantly stressed out about... it’s kind of better that there are more people that you mutually care about and that you can rely on, no? If there are more people around, I’m better supported if something bad happens to one of them. If I feel insecure and need attention, there are more potential people who could provide it for me. If I am overtaxed and tired and can’t give my partner attention when they need it, there’s someone else who can maybe step in and help them. If there are more people that love and care about you, and/or more people that love and care about the people that you love and care about - that’s nice. I mean, this kind of thing cuts both ways - even if love’s not a finite resource, attention certainly is. And it means putting more attention and work in, for the sake of more people. It means more individual relationships to manage and maintain that might, nonetheless, someday sour. And all of this is balanced against the fact that, in our personal relationships most of all, we want to be recognised and appreciated in a unique and individual way. But there’s a kind of security in a wider network that doesn’t over-rely on any one of its parts. And I think people underestimate the heady comfort that could exist in that - almost particularly for those who are anxious, insecure, and controlling.

Anyhow, these are the kind of personal considerations that effect my fictional interests. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talks. I wrote this post at 3am. Don’t make me regret it.

#the process

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raysync · 4 years ago

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15 Large File Transfer Solutions in 2021

The transfer of large files has become more and more frequent. With the continuous development of the market economy, the ties between countries and regions are close, the development of the commodity economy, large file transfer, and large data transfer are frequent, so large file transfer is required The service is mainly used for sending and transferring large files.

1. Jumpshare

Jumpshare allows you to send files up to 250 MB using their free account, but if you upgrade to their paid plan, you can send files of any size. You only need to upload the file and they will provide you with a link to share the file.

Unlike all other competitors, they have a very good application on both Windows and Mac that allows you to easily share files, folders, and documents.

2. Securely Send

Securely Send allows anyone to transfer large files securely. Sending a file is as simple as entering the email address to which you want to send the file, attaching the file to be sent, and clicking "Send". Safe sending saves the tedious work of sending large files. You can be sure that your documents have been received.

A free account allows you to send three each month, with a maximum file size of 200MB. There are basic, standard, and premium paid plans that allow you to send more content each month and increase the maximum file size allowed.

3. BITzen

BITzen is an online service that allows you to quickly, safely, and reliably receive files from others or send files to others in any format. This service is aimed at companies that need to send files to and receive files from clients or collaborators, but others can also use it for personal purposes. You do not need to install any software to use this service, and you can use its free service almost immediately after signing up for the free plan.

The free account provides 1GB of storage space, the monthly transfer limit is 2GB, and the maximum file size is 2GB. There are 3 payment plans also available for users.

4. Kicksend

Most of your relatives are not on social networks, and shared folders are too complicated for what they actually want to do: view your photos. Kicksend is specially designed for them. They make it easy for parents to use without technical support or training.

You can also quickly and easily order beautiful, high-quality prints for yourself and your loved ones on Kicksend. You choose the print, and they choose the store (CVS, Target, or Walgreens). One hour from your phone to their hands. Always be ready to frame and cherish memories.

Kicksend can help you release your email inbox and everyone else's email. All your pictures are stored securely on Kicksend, so you can view and download them privately from any device anytime, anywhere.

5. YouSendIt

YouSendIt has millions of registered users in 193 countries/regions, accounting for 98% of the Fortune 500, and is the preferred document collaboration service for consumers and businesses. The company's online services range from simple file sharing to complete collaboration services, allowing users to safely share, sign, and access content on any mobile device or PC.

The free Lite plan provides 2 GB of storage space, five electronic signatures, and maximum file size of 50 MB.

6. WeTransfer

WeTransfer is a free platform that can transfer large digital files up to 2GB per transfer. They can transfer any type of files, such as presentations, photos, videos, music, documents, etc. Without registration, the file can be used for two weeks.

They are supported by advertisements displayed as wallpapers on the WeTransfer website. They also sell WeTransfer channels, which allow you to have your own wallpaper, no ads, unique WeTransfer URL, personal background in emails, and files available for a month instead of two weeks.

7. TransferBigFiles

TransferBigFiles makes it very easy to send and share large files that are usually too large to be sent via email. It does this by allowing you to upload files to our server and send a link to the page where the recipient can then retrieve the file (if you are the recipient, you can retrieve it yourself).

You do not need to register to use the website for free. This free account allows you to send files up to 100MB in size, and most email systems have a maximum file size of 10MB to 25MB. The free account keeps files for five days.

If you want to take advantage of the new features, you can use premium paid accounts, such as personal inbox, transfer history, larger size limit, higher download limit, storage space, etc.

8. TitanFile

TitanFile allows you to drag and drop files from various sources and use any device to safely share them with your colleagues or customers anytime, anywhere.

Organizing information around people and public context, instead of organizing information around files and folders, makes finding files easier and more intuitive.

TitanFile transfers files through a secure connection and stores them encrypted in a secure facility.

Their free basic plan is perfect for basic use and supports uploading files up to 100MB. You will also get a 7-day audit trail and 5 communication channels. If you need more features, there are also paid professional plans and enterprise plans.

9. MailBigFile

MailBigFile allows you to send large files when you cannot send mail via regular email. It is web-based, so there is no need to download software and it is easy to use. The free service allows you to upload files up to 300MB per file. These files can be used for 10 days. Each file can have one recipient, and each file can be downloaded up to 20 times. The free service has no permanent storage space.

If you need higher limits and more features, there are other paid plans.

10. Pando

Pando is a free file sharing software that uses the hosted peer-to-peer (P2P) technology they designed to quickly and easily download, stream and share large files and folders (up to 1GB). It allows you to use any email to send large files and folders without registration. Pando bypasses the email attachment restriction with small .pando attachments and will never block your inbox.

You can also embed the Pando package into any website (including MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, WordPress, Typepad, Xanga, and LiveJournal), share directly to IM, Facebook or Twitter, and publish downloadable videos and photos.

Use any IM client (such as Google Talk and Skype) to share files and folders (maximum 1GB) with others. Just create a Pando link and paste it into IM to go offline. Your recipients simply click the link to get the content sent.

11. SendThisFile

SendThisFile is a powerful file transfer service that uses the functions of the Internet to modernize and simplify the sending and receiving of large files. It provides you with simple and fast file transfer and avoids complexity through our easy-to-use file upload page (where progress can be monitored). All transfers include the comprehensive encryption and security of SendThisFile, and end-to-end 128-bit encrypted file transfers can be created without configuring a single setting.

The free account allows you to send files with a maximum size of 2GB to one recipient at a time. These files can be downloaded for three days and can be transferred securely using 128-bit SSL. You can also use their FileBox to get photos from your friends and family.

They also offer paid accounts that provide higher limits and additional features.

12. JustBeamIt

JustBeamIt is a Beta version service that can transfer files very easily. Just drag the file to the drop zone, which is the area under the heading with the parachute. You can also select files by clicking on the parachute. Then, click the "Create Link" button to generate a unique download link to share with the recipient of the file. After the file is uploaded, a "wait" indication will be displayed until the recipient connects to the page and downloads the file.

The only disadvantage of this method is that, as the sender, you cannot leave the page before the download is complete. Once you and your recipient both leave the page, the transfer link becomes useless. If the recipient encounters file problems, they must restart the process.

13. Pastebin

Pastebin is a free web service where you can paste text to share with your friends, family, and even colleagues, and keep it for a while. In addition, you can choose how long to keep a specific post because it will be automatically deleted after a specified period of time.

You can also choose to keep the paste public or private. The private paste is only visible to people you choose to share the link with. All this is free, no need to download or install any software.

They also provide a program called Pastebin Desktop, which allows you to take full advantage of your Pastebin.com account directly from the desktop. The program places an icon in the system tray, allowing you to access the entire application.

14. GSplit

GSplit is a free and reliable file splitting program for Windows that allows you to split larger files (greater than 4GB) into a group, such as self-extracting archives, Zip archives, disk images, photos, music, videos, and backup files. Smaller files are called fragments. These clips are easier to send via email (forget about the additional file size restrictions imposed by some ISPs, pop3, SMTP, and other email servers), and can be uploaded to hosting accounts with file size restrictions, file delivery services, and online files Host the site and share it with friends, colleagues or other users via the network and the Internet.

You can choose one of the following two ways to split files: disk partition (which is automatically calculated by GSplit as a set of files of different sizes based on the available disk space, and immediately saved to an expandable removable disk) or blocked ( Split into a group) split files of the same size).

File fragments can also make them self-unifying. To this end, GSplit created a small independent executable file that puts all the parts back together. The executable file provides your users with an intuitive Windows interface, and its appearance can be customized according to your needs. Therefore, split files can be restored without GSplit.

You can also store file attributes (such as file date and attributes) and restore them. GSplit also provides a quick check (size, offset, CRC32) function to detect file damage and assure you that the user successfully restored the file. When a block is damaged, you will be notified, so you only need to get a new copy of the block, not the entire copy.

A portable version of GSplit is also available without installation. Run the portable file splitter directly from any removable disk (such as a USB flash drive). The settings are also saved directly on the storage medium instead of on the computer.

15. Raysync

The Raysync lagre file transfer solution is dedicated to meeting the data transfer needs of enterprises or external partners, providing efficient and controllable accelerated transfer of large files, ultra-long distance, transnational network data transfer, safe distribution of file assets, file management and organizational authority management, Supports local deployment and cloud services, and provides enterprises with safe, stable, efficient and convenient large file interactive technical support and services.

Raysync is an enterprise-level file-accelerated transfer management platform, which realizes various transfer needs such as efficient and controllable large file transfer, long-distance accelerated transfer, transnational transfer, and cross-border transfer for enterprises. It perfectly replaces the file transfer protocol FTP and realizes enterprise data transfer management. 100% efficient operation.

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#large file transfer solutions #large file transfer #large file transfer software

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