#gage smith

[niraff14]

It's Showtime for the Negotiator and the Android.

[euphoriashots]

Euphoria- blue

[politicaldilfs]

Wyoming Governor DILFs

Clifford Hansen, David Freudenthal, Edgar Herschler, Mark Gordon, Joe Hickey, Frank A. Barrett, Nels H. Smith, Jack R. Gage, Mike Sullivan, Lester C. Hunt, Matt Mead, Stanley K. Hathaway, Milward Simpson, Jim Geringer

[thetisming]

Jordan Luke Gage + kisses

[drolesdedalesalbumphoto]

L'épisode "Un tueur à gages dans l'île".

[kosmic-kore]

@autism-purgatory left a sorta open tag here and i liked the line ans im feeling good so why not?

CHARACTER TAG VOICE GAME

my line: "need any help?"

your line: "are you okay!?"

CHARLOTTE: "do you need help? because you've been trying this for 30 minutes now."

PHOEBE: "all good over there?"

OLIVER: "do you want help or are you good by yourself?"

AMELIE: "do you want me to help you?"

TYLER: would probably stare until the other person sees and he would make a face. when hes done helping he would nod with a hand on the brim of his imaginary hat.

ELLIOT: "do you want some help? it looks like you're struggling."

ALYSSA: "need some help, kid?"

im not tagging anyone so feel free to join :))

[usergreenpixel]

JACOBIN FICTION CONVENTION MEETING 29: NAPOLEON’S PYRAMIDS (2007)

1. The introduction

Well, hello again, dear Citizens! Welcome back to Jacobin Fiction Convention because it is now back in session!

Okay, first I will get one thing out of the way. I’m doing much better than I did in summer, hence the decision to resume my reviews. And what better way to make a comeback than to get the promised things out of the way first?!

On that note, I introduce to you the topic of today’s meeting: “Napoleon’s Pyramids”, a novel in the adventure genre set in the Egyptian campaign. Now, Directory years don’t have a good reputation in the Frev community, but technically those years are still officially Frev, hence my decision to include this book in the Jacobin Fiction Convention category.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure some people in my audience already know it, but I LOVE adventure stories, so when I stumbled across this book on a quest to find more Frev/Napoleonic media to review, you can bet your ass that I got excited!

Also, its resemblance to an Indiana Jones story initially drew me in, as I used to like the first Indiana Jones movie as a kid (not so much now) so there is some nostalgia involved here as well.

Luckily for me, I managed to find the book in pdf format here:

Then I did more research and it’s available in Russian too, mainly online and sometimes in paperback form, so my fellow Russian speakers who aren’t good at English can find the Russian version!

Is it worth looking for though? Well, let’s find out.

This review is dedicated to @mamelukeraza .

2. The Summary

Here’s the summary from Amazon and, apparently, the back cover of the book:

What mystical secrets lie beneath the Great Pyramids?

The world changes for Ethan Gage—one-time assistant to the renowned Ben Franklin—on a night in post-revolutionary Paris, when he wins a mysterious medallion in a card game. Framed soon after for the murder of a prostitute and facing the grim prospect of either prison or death, the young expatriate American barely escapes France with his life—choosing instead to accompany the new emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, on his glorious mission to conquer Egypt. With Lord Nelson's fleet following close behind, Gage sets out on the adventure of a lifetime. And in a land of ancient wonder and mystery, with the help of a beautiful Macedonian slave, he will come to realize that the unusual prize he won at the gaming table may be the key to solving one of history's greatest and most perilous riddles: who built the Great Pyramids . . . and why?

By all accounts, this book should have been right up my alley! I mean, we have adventures, ancient artifacts, mysteries and clues! What could possibly go wrong?!

(Spoiler alert: A LOT. More on that later.)

3. The Story

First of all, I didn’t really like the beginning of the book, mostly because the narrator (Ethan Gage) really takes his precious ass time to dive into his backstory and explain how he ended up at a table playing that fateful card game. I’m talking about two pages of backstory before finally getting to the fucking point!

Don’t get me wrong, a proper introduction is important to me personally, but maybe my problem is the fact that I prefer to receive a character’s backstory over time, bit by bit. Otherwise it gets a bit too distracting for me, especially when Gage stops narrating to crank out a few pages of his damn autobiography before returning to the actual events at hand.

Also, unfortunately for this book, the comparisons to Indiana Jones don’t imply anything good here. It simply reads like an extremely predictable adventure story that desperately tries and fails to be engaging and fun while treating really old orientalist tropes like a checklist (mysterious Egypt, hot slave girls…). Even the cliffhanger ending is predictable as shit.

Moreover, there is almost no suspense. Gage either conveniently shoots his target or gets conveniently rescued all the time. In short, he always wins, which is not what should happen in a good story because most people get bored with heroes who always win.

Last but not least, too many coincidences and everyone being connected to the point where my suspension of disbelief just went right out the window.

At one point Ethan Gage randomly encounters Sidney Smith, for example. Also he gets rescued by Nelson after a naval battle. And in a later chapter it turns out that the Romani with whom Gage had to hide at one point were the ones who alerted Gage’s future allies in Egypt about his arrival. Very fucking believable.

At this point, this book may as well be a soap opera where all the heroes are somehow connected!

Speaking of heroes…

4. The Characters

I don’t like Ethan Gage. He’s basically a knockoff Indiana Jones crossbred with a Mary Sue. Perfect sharpshooter, womanizer, spy, adventurer, apprentice of Benjamin Franklin. He has a lot of skills and connections and not enough justification for having them.

Trust me, even the fact that he’s a Freemason wasn’t enough for me to justify the fact that he just HAPPENS to know a bunch of important people.

Other than that, he starts out as a typical lone adventurer with no family who enjoys gambling and the company of sex workers. I was half expecting him to go full James Bond and be an alcoholic too, but luckily it wasn’t that cliché.

The Macedonian slave mentioned in the summary, Astiza, is a slightly more interesting character, even though she’s not free from clichés. Starting out as a beautiful mysterious slave girl, she is revealed to know more than she lets on and has a knack for practicing magic. Also she is later revealed to have known the villain of the book… Welcome to Santa Barbara, folks!

As for the villain, Count Alessandro Silano is presented as this master manipulator and a looming threat who wants to harness whatever secrets the ancient secrets and/or powers this medallion can potentially provide. In reality, however, he’s more of a hammy movie villain who likes to monologue, has no positive traits whatsoever has the same ability to survive the impossible as Gage does. Or maybe they both can just respawn, I dunno.

Unfortunately, “cliché” and “flat” are the best adjectives to describe most original characters in the story. Gage’s friend, Antoine Talma, is your typical intrepid reporter but at least he’s more relatable than Gage; Ashraf, a Mameluke Gage captures, is just a loyal servant who is there to conveniently swoop in and rescue Gage Deus ex machina style, etc.

It’s basically modern clichés served under the “sauce” of the Frev setting.

By the way, Napoleon is there as well and he gives me the same vibes as the Nazi villains in the first Indiana Jones movie. He only cares about people who are useful to him, doesn’t give a shit about his troops and also wants to harness the abilities that medallion potentially can provide so he can use those powers to CONQUER THE WORLD!

Most other historical figures only have minor roles, but I’m glad we got cameos of people like Kléber, Vivant Denon and other military men and scientists who were actually part of that campaign.

5. The Setting

Unfortunately, even the descriptions of settings leave a lot to be desired. They’re just blander than stale bread and I’m not even sure how accurate they are. Probably inaccurate as fuck though, if I’m being honest…

Paris is this city of vices like brothels and gambling houses and this setting is hyperbolic like we’re in a noir detective story.

Egypt is a treasure trove of orientalist clichés - a land of mysteries, cruel people, beautiful women and wise scholars who may or may not dabble in magic. That being said, I liked the fact that the book took a sledgehammer to clichés about harems.

6. The Writing

Ooh boy, I have some complaints here too. Aside from the distractingly long backstory tidbits I already ranted about, that is.

For example, basic French grammar and spelling have clearly left the chat because there are characters whose last names are spelled d’Liberté and d’Bonneville (de is only turned into d’ before vowels or the letter “h”) and at one point there’s a hotel called Le Cocq instead of Coq (rooster). The book was written in 2007 so it’s not like the author couldn’t look up the words and basic grammar that I learned in fifth grade!

These may seem like tiny mistakes, but if the author didn’t bother to look up the basics, then this makes me concerned about other mistakes in the novel that I probably missed. So yeah, take everything in this with a grain (or a barrel) of salt.

Last but not least, this:

This is where General Dumas and General Desaix make a cameo. Now, it seems fine… except there’s no prior mention of them being present in this scene at all before they speak their lines so… did these two just randomly poof into existence or something?

Also, these two suffer from Delayed Introduction Syndrome ™️, which means we don’t find out who the fuck these men are until a few chapters later and we don’t get any descriptions of them before that either.

Why is this an issue? Well, other minor characters in the book do get a proper introduction and a brief description IMMEDIATELY or SHORTLY after being mentioned, so there is an inconsistency here, especially since some minor characters get TOO MUCH time dedicated to their descriptions despite the fact that they are not part of the main cast (d’Liberté in particular gets too much attention).

Also, some descriptions in the book are unintentionally funny, like a part where Gage compares a woman’s nipples poking out of her cleavage to soldiers sticking heads out of a trench. Yes, this is the real comparison in the book and it fucking cracked me up.

One thing I appreciate, however, is the fact that the narrative doesn’t shy away from describing gruesome injuries like traumatic amputations and sometimes the author does have the balls to permanently kill off an important character (said characters has a really gruesome death btw). I don’t mind blood and gore like this, but trigger warning just in case you’re more squeamish than me.

7. The Conclusion

All in all, instead of being a cool swashbuckling adventure, “Napoleon’s Pyramids” comes off as an Indiana Jones ripoff with clichés stacked onto one another like Jenga blocks, a cast of bland characters, mistakes that could be easily corrected by a few Internet searches and inconsistent writing.

Do I recommend it? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Please don’t waste your time on this novel.

Okay, with that said, it’s time to conclude today’s meeting of the Jacobin Fiction Convention.

Please stay tuned for updates on future reviews and stay safe.

Love,

Citizen Green Pixel

[coochiequeens]

By Rachel May

Rachel May, English professor and author, came upon Elizabeth Wagner Reed’s book about a decade ago, on Reed’s daughter’s website.

Published April 22, 2023Updated April 24, 2023, 10:50 a.m. ET

This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.

In 1992, the geneticist Elizabeth Wagner Reed self-published “American Women in Science Before the Civil War,” a book highlighting 22 19th-century scientists. One of them was Eunice Newton Foote, who wrote a paper on her remarkable discovery about greenhouse gases, “a phenomenon which is of concern to us even now,” Reed wrote.

Foote was forgotten soon after the paper was read aloud by a male scientist at a conference in 1856 and published the following year. A male scientist was eventually credited with the discovery.

Like Foote, Reed herself fell into obscurity, a victim of the erasure of female scientists that the historian Margaret Rossiter coined the Matilda Effect — named for the sociologist Matilda Joslyn Gage, whose 1870 pamphlet, “Woman as Inventor,” condemned the idea that women did not have the skills to succeed in the field.

Reed, however, made significant contributions to the sciences.

She wrote a landmark study about intellectual disability genetics, helped found a field of population genetics and wrote many more papers on botany, the biology of women and sexism in science.

Reed persisted in her research even when she found herself a widow with a toddler during World War II. By the time of her death, in 1996, in spite of publishing more than 34 scholarly papers, public school curriculums and two books, the record didn’t bend in her favor. It wasn’t until 2020, when the scientist and scholar Marta Velasco Martín published a paper on Reed, that her legacy was resurrected.

Reed was born Elizabeth Wagner on Aug. 27, 1912, in Baguio, in what was then called the Philippine Islands, to Catherine (Cleland) and John Ovid Wagner. John was from Ohio and worked in construction there at the time; Catherine, from Northern Ireland, was working in the Philippines as a nurse.

The family later settled on a farm in Ohio, where Elizabeth grew up picking raspberries “from dawn to dusk,” her son William Reed said in a phone interview.

“She learned how to work really hard,” he added. “I remember her saying how much she loved school, partly because it wasn’t doing farm work.”

At the end of one summer, he said, she used some of her earnings to buy a book about wildflowers in Ohio — “her first purchase was a scientific book.”

She would go on to cultivate wildflowers in her backyard as an adult, volunteer at a wildflower arboretum in Minnesota and write about botany in scientific articles and in educational materials for children. Reed’s daughter, Catherine Reed, told Martín that her mother “loved nature, especially plants, and, wanted to be a scientist from a very early age.”

In 1933, Reed earned her bachelor’s degree at Ohio State University, where she also earned a master’s in 1934 and a Ph.D. in plant physiology in 1936. She put herself through school with a scholarship and by washing dishes and working in the cafeteria. In 1939 and 1940, she published her first two papers, one about the effects of insecticides on bean plants and the other about how various types of dusts affect the rate of water loss in yellow coleus plants by night and day.

In 1940, she married a fellow scientist, James Otis Beasley, and had a son, John, with him just after James left to fight in World War II in 1942. When her husband was killed in the war the next year, she supported herself and her son by teaching at five different universities. “The first part of her life,” William Reed said, “was sheer determination.”

She began working with the geneticist Sheldon C. Reed, whom she married in 1946, and together they helped found the field of Drosophila population genetics, which uses fruit flies as a simple and economical method of studying genetics in a laboratory while offering important insights into similar species.

Soon after, the couple moved to Minnesota, where Sheldon was hired as the director of the Dight Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Elizabeth was denied a job at the university, which cited rules against nepotism.

The Reeds went on to write a book about intellectual disabilities that analyzed data from 80,000 people and their families; the study, they said, was “one of the largest genetic investigations so far completed.”

They found that disabilities could be caused by genetic or environmental factors and could therefore be heritable. They also proposed — to controversy that still exists today — that such disabilities were preventable through education of the general public and voluntary sterilization or birth control of potential parents with low I.Q.s.

Though Elizabeth’s name was listed first as author, a letter of acknowledgment calling the couple’s work “truly magnificent” referred to them as “Dr. and Mrs. Reed.” 

Reed was quite aware that her husband was receiving more credit, her son William said, but she never let it embitter her. In 1950, however, she published a paper on sexism in the sciences based on her study of 70 women working in the field. It found that marriage and childbirth decreased their productivity and sometimes even dissuaded them from continuing their careers. It led her to mentor women in the field through the advocacy group Graduate Women in Science.

“She was a scientist before it was popular for women to become scientists,” Nancy Segal, a psychologist at California State University known for her study of twins, said in an interview, “and she was a great role model for so many of us women postdocs at the time.”

In writing “American Women in Science Before the Civil War,”Reed corresponded with archivists and scoured card catalogs, journals and proceedings of associations and societies. In addition to recognizing Eunice Foote’s work almost two decades before other scientists did, the book included biographies of, among others, the astronomer Maria Mitchell; Ellen Smith Tupper, who was known as the “Queen Bee of Iowa” for her study of that insect; and the entomologist Mary Townsend.

Reed wrote that it was a testimony to the strengths of these women that they pursued science despite the fact that they were “often denied entry to colleges and unable to attain professional status.”

Reed also supported teaching children about science so that they would have the tools to solve what she called the “current crises of exploding populations and deteriorating environments.” She published papers about teaching proper scientific methods in schools and created curriculums with the University of Minnesota.

“Classrooms always house some living organisms,” she wrote, tongue-in-cheek, in the Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science in 1969. “In many, unfortunately, all are of a single species, Homo sapiens. The population consists of many immature species (children) and a few adults, usually female (teachers). This makes for a certain homogeneity, but it can be alleviated by introduction of other living species, animal or plant.”

The fact that Reed was, like so many of her predecessors, lost to history is indicative of the pervasive sexism of her era. But women today continue to face hurdles in entering scientific fields. A report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this year found that “the underrepresentation of women in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields continues to persist,” with women making up only 28 percent of the STEM work force.

Like Reed, her daughter, Catherine, was a scientist, having earned a Ph.D. in ecology, but she ultimately became so disillusioned that she held a ceremonial burning of her degree and instead turned to artwork and championing her mother’s legacy. She published her mother’s book on American women in science on her website in about 2010. She died in 2021 at 73.

Elizabeth Wagner Reed died at 83 on July 14, 1996, most likely of cancer. She recognized her symptoms, but, knowing what the treatments would be like and, to her mind, the probable outcome, she never sought a diagnosis. (Sheldon Reed died in 2003.)

William Reed said there was no joy like taking a walk with his mother, who could describe every plant and animal they passed. She and Sheldon were avid bird-watchers (and occasional polka dancers), and the family spent many vacations at Lake Itasca, Minn., relaxing under old-growth Norway Pines.

Reed’s favorite flower was the showy lady’s slipper, the state flower of Minnesota, an orchid notoriously difficult to cultivate, like the careers of many of the women she wrote about. Its Latin name is Cypripedium reginae, with reginae meaning queen.

[fancyfade]

New and improved!

[boomgers]

Te prometo, si pudiera ser una persona diferente, lo sería… “Euphoria”

Creada y escrita por Sam Levinson, la serie gira en torno a un grupo de estudiantes que surcan sus vidas por un campo minado de drogas, sexo, identidad, trauma, redes sociales, amor y amistad.

La historia sigue a Rue Bennett, de 17 años, una adicta que acaba de salir de rehabilitación y que lucha por comprender su futuro. La vida de Rue cambia dramáticamente cuando conoce a Jules Vaughn, una chica que recientemente se mudó a la ciudad tras el divorcio de sus padres, y como ella está buscando un lugar al cual pertenecer.

Estreno: 16 de junio de 2019 en HBO y HBO Go.

La primera temporada cuenta con las actuaciones de Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Jacob Elordi, Alexa Demie, Barbie Ferreira, Maude Apatow, Sydney Sweeney, Algee Smith, Eric Dane, Angus Cloud, Lukas Gage, Tyler Timmons, Tristan Timmons, Shiloh Fernandez, Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton, Austin Abrams, Keean Johnson, Nika King y Storm Reid.

Episodio Especial · Parte 1: Rue

Episodio Especial · Parte 2: Jules

[urbaneturtle]

No Context Comics: A Look at 3 Books I Don't Read from the week of May 1st

Welcome to another edition of No Context Comics, the regular column where I review 3 comic book issues from titles I don’t read! This week, Godzilla: War for Humanity #5 from IDW, Weapon X-Men #3 from Marvel, and Minor Threats: The Fastest Way Down #2 from Dark Horse! Continue reading No Context Comics: A Look at 3 Books I Don’t Read from the week of May 1st

[niraff14]

Cast in the name of God, ye not guilty ----------------- Big O! SHOWTIME!

[herpsandbirds]

Brazilian Jewel Tarantula (Typhochlaena seladonia), family Theraphosidae, endemic to Brazil

Small tarantula. Arboreal. Constructs trap door webs in tree bark.

photograph by Gage Smith

[onlydylanobrien]

‘SNL 1975’ Finds Its Garrett Morris, Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase And John Belushi

By Justin Kroll, Anthony D'Alessandro January 30, 2024 10:00am

Lamorne Morris playing Garrett Morris, Dylan O’Brien playing Dan Aykroyd, Cory Michael Smith playing Chevy Chase and Matt Wood playing John Belushi

EXCLUSIVE: Lamorne Morris, Dylan O’Brien, Cory Michael Smith and Matt Wood have joined the cast of Sony Pictures’ SNL 1975 that will be directed by Jason Reitman and based on the real-life behind the scenes accounts of the opening night of Saturday Night Live. Morris will play Garrett Morris, O’Brien will play Dan Aykroyd, Smith will play Chevy Chase, and Wood will play Belushi. The original screenplay is written by Reitman and Gil Kenan.

On October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. SNL 1975 is the true story of what happened behind the scenes that night in the moments leading up to the first broadcast of NBC’s SNL. It depicts the chaos and magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, counting down the minutes in real time to the infamous words, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”

The screenplay is based on an extensive series of interviews conducted by Reitman and Kenan with all the living cast members, writers and crew. Reitman, Kenan, Jason Blumenfeld, Erica Mills and Peter Rice are producing.

Morris can currently be seen in FX’s fifth season of Noah Hawley’s hit drama series Fargo as North Dakota Deputy Witt Farr. He joined the cast of Netflix’s Unstable for season two opposite Rob Lowe. Prior to this, he starred as the titular lead in the hybrid live-action/animated Hulu series Woke, inspired by the life and art of cartoonist Keith Knight.

O’Brien was most recently starring in Ponyboi, which premiered as one of ten films in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Up next, he will be seen in the feature films Caddo Lake, from the writing-directing team of Logan George and Celine Held and producer M. Night Shyamalan, and Anniversary, a thriller co-starring Diane Lane, Kyle Chandler, Zoey Deutch and Phoebe Dynevor. His other credits include Searchlight feature Not Okay from writer-director Quinn Shephard, the critically-acclaimed crime drama The Outfit, opposite Mark Rylance, Zoey Deutch, and Johnny Flynn; Paramount’s Love and Monsters and the popular Maze Runner franchise

Best known for his role on as the Riddler on the popular Fox series Gotham, Smith can currently be seen as Julianne Moore’s son in Todd Haynes’ May December. He most recently starred as Varian Fry in Anna Winger’s limited series Transatlantic opposite Gillian Jacobs and Corey Stoll for Netflix. Smith has also worked with Todd Haynes in both Carol (as private investigator Tommy Tucker) and Wonderstruck.

Wood has appeared in the original Broadway cast of Spongebob Squarepants and as husky kid icon Augustus Gloop in the Broadway First National Tour of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Television credits include Law and Order: SVU, Instinct and Difficult People.

Morris is represented by CAA, Entertainment 360, The Lede Company, and Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobasser Younger & Light. O’Brien is repped by William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, Principal Entertainment LA, and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Feldman, Rogal, Shikora & Clark. Smith is repped by Circle of Confusion. Wood is repped by BRS/Gage Talent Agency.

Source: deadline.com

[basicallyblank]

AWFC, what's going wrong; 23/24 season analysis.

The 23/24 season for Arsenal Women hasn't been impressive, with an opening day defeat to Liverpool, and then losing to West Ham and Tottenham for the first time ever in the league, you have to start asking how we've fallen so far from what we once were.

After going trophyless for 4 years, we finally won the League Cup last season, and managed to defeat Chelsea again in order to win it this season, but when you peel back the years, you realise that for a club like Arsenal, this does not cut it. We haven't won the league since 2019, and we haven't won the FA Cup, the trophy Arsenal have won more than any other club, since 2016.

With an injury crisis last season that left us paper thin, we were obviously going to need some quick signings to cover us just whilst our regular squad members recovered. Ilistedt, Codina, Lacasse, KCC and Alessia Russo where all summer signings.

Alessia Russo is our top scorer this season with 10 goals, and her off the ball work is superb, and I think that she'll only get better. I'm willing to give Codina some time, she's only young and she's having to adapt to another club and country's playing style, I think she has a winning mentality that could push us forward, and I think she's ben okay for us this season. I really don't think I've seen enough of KCC this seasonn, we payed 300K for her and we've barely played her. Jonas likes to play her as a defensive midfielder, where I do think she is more of an 8 (I did think she was Jordans replacement at the start of the season) So I would definitely like to see more, but I think she has a good passing ability, but I don't think she should start in big games just yet, I think she needs more time. I do not think Amanda and Cloe were good signings, yes they have done good and come through for us this season, are they Arsenal standard ? No.

We have to admit it now, we have players that are not good enough, because if we don't, we will stay the way we are. We also have to admit that even our players that are good enough, have been lacking this season when we needed them the most. I didn't rate LWM at all last season, whereas this season she's in contention for PLOTS, I think Beth has made a big impact G/A wise, she's our second top scorer, Caitlin is good for Australia, she lacks for Arsenal. Stina needs to learn the offside rule, she scores goals for us, even with limited game time this season, but I'm gonna need Arsenal to put in the money for a world class striker. Viv is complicated, I'm not speaking in terms of injury, it's difficult to really gage where she's at because she's been struggled coming back, but if she does stay, we can't keep playing her as a 10/midfielder whatever, if she wants to play there, fine, but she can do it somewhere else. We need her as the 9, we've seen what she can do when she's up front, and that's what we need from her.

We have the most big chances missed in the league (40) Our players have gone from free scoring, to not being able to even hit a barn door, we're always taking that extra touch too much, that extra second, when we never used to do that before. In the WSL this season, we've taken a total of 304 shots, we've scored 46 goals this season. Questions need to be asked of what Kelly Smith is telling the players in training, we are hesitent to shoot, our frontline still wouldn't be able to score if the opposition had no keeper in the net.

We also need to look at our corner convertion rate, we've generated 178, 1 7 8, corner kicks this season, we've scored ONE. We've scored once from a corner all season out of 178, when Amanda scored against chelsea. Goals make games, and we are struggling to get them from anywhere.

When we were knocked out of the Champions League on penalties in the qualifying stage, the fans were looking forward to all our focus being on winning the league. At the start of last season, we looked strong, we were on the longest WSL winstreak ever, this season started out unconvincing, obviously we still had injured players coming back, scheduling players didn't get a proper break, but an opening day defeat against Liverpool, winning at the last minute against Manchester United, Aston Villa and Bristol, both of who were battling for last spot for the first half of the season, isn't good enough.

Our biggest struggles come from teams who play a lowblock, Jonas does not know how to get around this, his solution is to play from the wings and ping crosses into the box, which didn't work against Liverpool, West Ham or Spurs, and these are the games that lost us contention for the league. When Joe Montemurro was the coach, we didn't win big games, we didn't win against chelsea once, now we do win the big games, but the league is decided by fine margins, if we don't win our smaller games, those big wins won't help us.

It's a struggle to look at our backline as a cohesive unit, as it's been so inconsistent, our CB pairings aren't the same 2 games in a row, like Leah and Rafa (come back please) were last season. Lotte has been fantastic, she's really stepped up, Katie had a good first half of the season, she's dropped off a bit now but is still solid, Steph has been good, Emily Fox has been great, one of our best signings this season. For the games she's had, Leah has been outstanding, the game against Man City comes to mind, Leah's passing is out of this world, getting a assist on her comeback just demonstrated how much we lose when we don't have her. I think next season when she plays more, we'll see more cohesiveness, but Lotte and Leah should NOT be our CB pair, their playing styles are almost identical, individually they're great but together they're not.

I think it's time to realise the fact that we need a rebuild. The club has no vision, no project, we haven't won anything of value for 5 years. We need to start scouting better players, when Jonas looks away from Scandanavian countries, he, 7/10, makes a decent signing. We have a solid core of players that we can build around, Leah, Veen, Katie, Wally, Kim, although I do think we may start seeing her playtime decrease soon, Pelova, Viv (if she stays) Alessia, as a 9 or 10, I don't mind where she plays. Add a few good signings, world class players, and we can catch Chelsea in their transitional period.

If Viv leaves, we're gonna need a new striker, I love Stina but she can't be our number 1. We have the chance to catch up to Chelsea, and I think Man City are only going to grow, especially if they win the WSL this season.

I don't think this season has been very successful, but I don't think we've been successful for a while, and we know that.

[offender42085]

Post 880

Gavin Blaine Smith, West Virginia inmate 3655351, born 2004, incarceration intake in 2023 at age 18, sentenced to life; as an under 18 conviction, parole consideration as of 12/13/2035

Murder, Use of a Firearm

Kanawha County Circuit Judge Kenneth Ballard says 18 year old Gavin Smith murdered his four family members “in cold blood” which is why he should spend life behind bars.  “This was a heinous crime,” Ballard told Smith during a Tuesday sentencing hearing. “Your actions can only be described as an act of pure evil.”

Smith, who was 16 at the time of the Dec. 2020 murders at his Elkview home, received the maximum sentence — life in prison with mercy for three counts of first degree murder, 40 years for second degree murder and 10 years on a firearms charge, all to run consecutively.

A jury found Smith guilty of those charges.  Smith shot and killed his mother Risa Mae Saunders, 39, his stepfather Daniel Dale Long, 37, and his two younger brothers Gage Ripley, 12, and Jameson Long, 3, on Dec. 9, 2020. Their bodies were found by family members a few days later.

Ballard said the only reason why he gave Smith life with mercy is because it is required by state law since Smith was a juvenile at the time of the crime. He will automatically appear before the state Parole Board in 15 years because of the law.

“You will receive the harshest penalty that the law will allow me to give you,” the judge told Smith.

Smith’s ex-girlfriend Rebecca Walker testified during his trial last month she encouraged Smith to kill his family so they could be together. Walker, who is serving a 10 year prison term for being an accessory after the fact, helped Smith hide out at her grandmother’s home after the slayings.

“There was that peer pressure in place,” said defense attorney John Sullivan.

Walker was on a live video call with Smith during the murders and said “the screen went black” when he started shooting his family members in their sleep.

Sullivan said Smith lived in a home that was “basically a pressure cooker.” There were padlocks on doors including the refrigerator.

“He was basically trapped in his household from a combination of his family’s rules and COVID shutting down the schools. Gavin wasn’t allowed to leave the house,” Sullivan said.

The defense asked for an alternative sentence in the Anthony Correctional Center, but the judge denied that request.

Kanawha County Assistant Prosecutor JC MacCallum said Smith has shown no remorse and has acted selfish.

“I think he regrets doing this. I believe he regrets the consequences that are going to come from it, but he’s also blamed others the entire way,” MacCallum said.

Smith, who spoke for the first time since his conviction, told the judge he felt bad about what he did.

“I do regret this and if I could, I’d take it back because it’s one of my deepest regrets,” he said.

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