#he has A LOT more bargaining power than he did in 2017 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

infinite-xerath · 3 years

Text

Runeterra Retcons 4: Varus

Unlike the other Champions I’ve covered, Varus’s history is surprisingly straightforward. He was released all the way back in 2012 and, as far as I can recall, was the first Champion to ever receive any sort of major promotional material in the form of a short comic. He’s very straight-forward in both concept and design: a man willing to sell his soul, his very humanity, for revenge on the people who took everything from him. Given that this was before Kalista was added to the game, Varus had little choice but take matters into his own hands by bargaining with a vaguely-defined Eldritch being who would give him the power he needed in exchanged for taking over his body.

Original lore here

Varus’s lore is a very traditional revenge story, albeit with a slightly interesting twist in that he is the maker of his own tragedy. Varus opted to place his duty over the well-being of family and, in the process, was unable to even TRY to protect them while his village was being reduced to burning rubble. Out of grief and rage Varus turned to bargaining with the very entity he fought so hard to keep confined now that he no longer has anything to lose.

I and many others liked Varus’s story, and to be honest, Riot could have honestly just kept him more-or-less the same when they updated him post-retcon. Just remove the mention of the League and maybe better-define what the black flames were, and you’d be good. In fact, Riot technically did the former, as his second lore is basically identical save for removing any mention of the League of Legends.

Now, it’s at this point that things start to get a little more complicated. Now, if you want a more comprehensive breakdown of the Darkin and their history, I advise you go check out the part centered around Aatrox and his long and convoluted history, but tldr: the Darkin were a race of beings of whom only five remained, and it was later confirmed with Rhaast that they’re specifically a race of living weapons with the ability to possess whoever wields them. Now, while Varus was specifically possessed by an ominous black flame called Pallas, many drew parallels between him and the other Darkin characters, especially since Varus’s also seemed to be alive.

Given that the flames were never really elaborated on or given a proper origin story, Riot decided that it would probably be best to just go ahead and retcon Varus into being a Darkin as well, and nobody had any real qualms with this. It was a common fan theory for years, so why not? Just change the story a bit so that the flames were actually just a Darkin bow all along and boom, you’ve pretty-much done all you needed to properly fit Varus into the new post-reboot Runeterra.

Well, apparently Riot did not feel this way, as it was with Varus’s 2017 retcon that they decided to finally give fans a proper origin story for who and what the Darkin were. That origin story goes a little something like this.

Alright, so Varus is now an alien. They decided to make Varus himself the Darkin, rather than the man who would later claim the bow. OK, that’s fine. I mean, the whole alien thing is kinda weird and still very vaguely explained, but again, my full thoughts on the history of the Darkin as a whole can be seen in the Aatrox analysis. What I think is most important here is that Riot made an attempt, however sloppy, to explain who and what the Darkin were and finally give context to why Aatrox and Rhaast are such big threats to the world.

Now, it’s the next change that got a lot of controversy around it. Rather than just change the name of the Ionian guard who let Varus possess him, the guy who lost his family to the Noxian invasion, Riot decided to replace him with a pair of entirely new characters: Valmar and Kai, a duo of gay Ionian hunters.

Now, I’m just gonna get this out of the way: I’ve got no real qualms about gay relationships in media. Hell, we have a few LGBT Champions in the game already, and even some in the broader expanse of the world. My main gripe comes from the introduction of Valmar and Kai themselves, and how they’re just sort of these… Nothing characters. I mean, in the first lore, we knew who Varus was. We may not have known him well, but we could at least get a general sense of his character: he was proud of his skill, committed to the duty given to him even at the risk of his family, but ultimately succumbed to grief and rage when his decision caused him to lose everything he held dear. Varus was a good man warped by the loss of his home and loved ones, and that made him a fairly compelling character.

Valmar and Kai are… Two gay hunters. That’s it. That’s literally all we know about them from the bio alone. I mean, yes, Riot released a comic to further expand on these characters, but if your answer to the questions raised in your story are “go and read this extra supplementary material for context,” that’s… A problem.

On the topic of supplementary material, Riot also released a music video about Varus. It’s… OK. I personally don’t care much for the song but the visuals alone are really well-done. It’s supposed to detail the conflict between Valmar, Kai and Varus, but most of the context behind it is explained in the comic and short story.

Honestly, Varus’s retcon is kind of baffling. I mean, he didn’t receive a visual rework, his kit remained pretty-much the same as it’s always been, and he doesn’t even have any new voice lines in-game to indicate that he’s three different guys all stuck in one body. In fact, people who play him in-game without reading the lore probably wouldn’t ever be able to guess as much. Riot went to so much effort promoting Varus’s lore update with a music video, a new bio, a new color story, and a three-part comic, but they really haven’t changed anything about him in the game itself. They put more effort into him than they do for most ACTUAL Champion VGU’s. So… Why?

Admittedly, this is where I’m going to delve a bit into conspiracy theory territory, but I genuinely believe this is a case of Riot trying to push League’s first openly queer relationship. Seriously, Valmar and Kai are the first time a character in League has been confirmed gay IN THE LORE ITSELF and not just through a random tweet. Now, the word “pandering” gets thrown around a lot these days, and I don’t really like to use it, but it really does feel like Valmar and Kai were added JUST to have a confirmed gay couple in the lore.

The fact that they’re not even acknowledged IN THE GAME ITSELF really makes the whole thing feel like an attempt to just appeal to the LGBT crowd, though I’ve seen plenty of people in that community react… Less than positively to the portrayal. I mean, two gay guys are literally trying to hold back a corruptive, even influence with the power of love. I don’t wanna delve too much into the political side of things here, but that’s honestly about as cliché and stereotypical as you can get. Fans in general were extremely displeased that the man they knew as Varus, this genuinely tragic figure from the original lore, was replaced by two guys who’s only defining character trait is how much they apparently love each other.

Apparently, these complaints came through loud and clear, as Riot would update Varus one final time after deciding to retcon the whole alien plotline. So, let’s have a look at how his current, canon bio handles him.

Alright, well… Riot heard the complaints, but whether or not they fixed him is another matter. It seems like they tried to give Varus back his original origin story, basically making the archer we new from his first bio Shuriman. The problem is that there’s significantly less context for him now; we don’t know anything about his family, we don’t know why the temple he’s guarding is so important, and the story never even explicitly states that his family died!

I guess it’s implied because the Ascended acknowledged his “sacrifice,” though him being rewarded by becoming a demigod doesn’t quite have the same impact as exchanging his life and soul for a shot at revenge. On top of that, Varus seems pretty quick to give up on the whole “sacred duty” thing, despite the story claiming that being the thing he “he held above all else.” It all feels like a botched effort to mix his original bio with the new Ascended lore that Riot tied in with the Darkin.

Then, of course, there’s Valmar and Kai, who are… Still just gay hunters. They haven’t been expanded on at all. They helped drive the Noxians off from their home, Kai was apparently wounded, and Valmar decides that dipping his lover in an ominous pool of evil to save his life is a bad idea. Seriously, the bio states that they “inadvertently” freed Varus, but there was nothing accidental about it! There was no bargain, they weren’t tricked, it was literally just one guy making a stupid decision that got him fused with his lover and an ancient evil being.

Also, can we address the fact that Varus still wants to avenge the destruction of his race? Who does he want to avenge? The other Ascended? The Ascended who literally warred with each other for centuries? The same Ascended that HE FOUGHT AGAINST during the civil war for control of Shurima? Did Riot just… Forget that he’s not an alien anymore in that brief paragraph? They stated earlier that he was a cruel, merciless killer who just went to slaughter whoever he was told to slaughter, so for some reason I don’t feel like he’d care all that much about his “race” being felled. Oh, and there’s also still the unnamed warrior queen, who I THINK is meant to be a precious Aspect of the Sun? It’s never really stated in the bio itself.

Alright, enough ranting. Varus’s current lore suffers from one major fault: it is trying way too hard to tell several stories all at once. It tells the story of Varus as a human, Varus as an Ascended, Varus as a Darkin, the “story” of Valmar and Kai, and how they got fused with Varus. The writers tried way too hard to cram everything into a single bio and, as a result, nothing is elaborated on. Nothing is really explained, we don’t get to know the characters who are involved in the gestalt entities now known as Varus, and reason for his current existence AS a gestalt entity are just kinda silly, if we’re being honest.

So, how can we fix this? I admit: this was a tough one. There were a lot of different directions I could go when rewriting Varus’s lore, but I decided to take the Kayn approach, where the human host in the focus of the bio. Originally, I did have a whole bio written out for Varus and how he became an Ascendant, but I ultimately realized that I was going to run into the same issue Riot did: trying to cram way too much into a single character overview. So, instead, I chose to focus in more on the story of Valmar and Kai, and how the Darkin Bow was freed after ages of confinement. Without any further ado, please enjoy.

For years, the Darkin Bow has remained confined within the Ionian city of Pallas. The bow’s true nature has long been lost to time, though legends say it holds the spirit of an ancient god from a vast desert land. Others claim that the bow itself is something much older and viler than history itself dares to remember. Whatever the truth may be, the people have Pallas have guarded the bow for generations, choosing only their most skilled warriors from the task. Among them, none seemed better-suited for the task than Kai and Valmar.

Kai and Valmar were inseparable since they were children. Kai, a prodigy marksman, was known for his sense of humor and fierce resolve. Though infamous for his pranks, Kai would never hesitate to step in and defend someone in need, no matter how poorly the odds stood in his favor. By contrast, Valmar had trained in the ways of swordsmanship since he was old enough to grip a blade. Diligent and studious, Valmar was what many considered a model samurai in the making, yet he was also unendingly curious about the world and the many wonders it held.

At a glance, Kai and Valmar seemed near-total opposites, yet the two formed an unbreakable bond from the day they met. Kai would often accompany Valmar to explore the surrounding wilderness, only for Valmar to shelter Kai whenever one of his pranks went awry. As each boy matured, mastering the bow and blade respectively, their bond became something deeper than simple friendship. Valmar was a part of Kai, and Kai a part of Valmar. Neither was complete without the other, and so it came as little surprise that when Valmar was chosen to guard the Temple of the Bow, Kai soon followed.

Together, Valmar and Kai drove off many would-be thieves seeking to claim the cursed weapon’s power as their own. The two fought as one, each arrow from Kai’s bow in perfect sync with every swing of Valmar’s blade. Eventually, they came to be known as the Locust and Mantis, for the whirring of Kai’s arrows and the elegance of Valmar’s blade. It was believed that none could stand up to their combined might… Until the Noxians came.

From their post at the temple, Valmar and Kai watched in horror as the invaders stormed their home, setting fires and killing anyone who dared to stand in their way. For the first time, two warriors found themselves at odds; Kai wished to help defend the people of Pallas, but Valmar insisted on protecting the temple. In the end, neither had much choice in the matter, for the Noxians soon had them cornered on the temple steps.

Valmar and Kai fought for hours, their combined might slowly waning against the invaders’ onslaught. Kai’s strength was the first to give out, yet before death could reach him, Valmar stepped in the way to shield his partner from the blow of a Noxian axe. Kai watched in horror as Valmar fell to the ground, lifeless. Enraged, Kai fired all the arrows he had left before taking up Valmar’s sword, slaying the Noxian forces assaulting the temple. Even still, he knew it would not be long before more came, seeking to claim the forbidden bow.

In that moment, Kai heard a voice calling to him from within the temple. It promised him vengeance and the strength to fight back. Driven by rage and grief, the wounded archer let the voice guide him inside, just as more Noxian invaders began their ascent up the temple’s stairs. It was there, in the darkness, that Kai at last set eyes upon the cursed weapon he and Valmar spent years protecting: a bow thrumming with unearthly power. Kai hesitated for only a moment before grasping the bow, letting its power wash over him.

Kai’s mind was filled with images and thoughts not his own: a vast desert empire, a man made a god, betrayal, war, and finally, imprisonment. These were the memories of Varus, an Ascended being who devoted his life to serving Shurima, only to be abandoned in his time of need. His bitterness and hatred had summoned the Darkin Bow, granting Varus the opportunity to seek revenge on those who had wronged him. In the end, Varus was sealed within the bow, becoming one with it… And now, he would become one with Kai as well.

As Varus’s memories filled Kai’s mind, the Darkin’s power corrupted his body. Varus prepared to usurp Kai’s form entirely, but to his surprise, the Ionian’s drive for vengeance matched his own. Kai was prepared to give anything to avenge Valmar, his fallen half, yet he would do so with his own hands rather than entrust the task to a fallen god.

Even as their minds fought, the archers’ new, fused body moved on pure instinct. One by one, the Noxian forces in Pallas were felled by crimson arrows born of pure malice. Seeing the corpses of his kinsmen and the ruins of his home only fueled Kai’s rage, which in-turn empowered the Darkin in his grasp. Finally, the two archers came to an agreement as the Noxians fled: Varus would lend Kai his strength, in exchange for the Ionian’s body once Kai’s vengeance was complete.

Now on borrowed time, Kai has but one objective: to find and kill everyone he holds responsible for the destruction of his home and the death of his partner. To Varus, however, the destruction of Noxus is but the first step toward a much larger goal: revenge against the gods who betrayed him, and the world that sealed him away…

So, that’s my take on Varus’s lore. Now, the first thing you’ll probably notice is that I only have one of the lovers being possessed. Frankly, I felt that this was probably the best direction to go with; Riot still hasn’t updated Varus in any meaningful way to include Valmar and Kai in any of his voice lines, and something tells me that, being owned by a certain Chinese company, they probably never will. Given the circumstances, I figured it was probably best to give him a backstory more befitting of his in-game voice lines, which still portray Varus as a man on borrowed time who’s giving what little he has left in pursuit of vengeance.

Even so, I decided to try my hand at fleshing out Valmar and Kai. The first thing I did was change them from random hunters to trained soldiers tasked with guarding the temple. This not only harkens back to Varus’s original lore, but it also gives them more of a reason to stand their ground against the Noxian invaders. I also wanted to flesh out their personalities a little more, because I’ll be completely honest: I legitimately couldn’t remember which one was which even after skimming back through the comic. I forgot that Kai was the one who was injured in the original story, not Valmar, but quite frankly it matters so little given how poorly their characters are fleshed out.

Now, as for Varus himself… Well, like I said: I did have a whole bio written out for him that ties into the new Darkin lore I introduced in my Aatrox analysis, but I decided to focus the story more on Valmar and Kai and only have that backstory briefly alluded to. A tad disappointing, I know, but hey, it’s still more than what we learned about Rhaast from Kayn’s bio.

So, that was Varus, the Arrow of Retribution, otherwise known as Riot’s botched attempt at LGBT representation. He’s a far cry from what he started out as, and yet, hilariously, he’s really not on account of them still not updating anything about him in-game. In that respect, the Varus you play as in League isn’t really even the same character(s) presented in the lore. While I still firmly believe that his backstory never needed to be changed so drastically in the first place, I least wanted to present the potential that this direction held, and how badly the opportunity was squandered.

Oh well. At least the music video still looks nice.

#Runeterra Retcons #Varus #League of Legends

15 notes · View notes

alottamoney · 3 years

Note

I wanna call these thoughts: >> 7-1=0 or is it really?? A Company Analysis<<

Hello!

Recently I've came to this idea/theory that lack of tkk content and suddenly so many jkk content that company is showering fans with, are all because BH prefers to put effort and time on members who *they* think that could be more "beneficial" to have the spotlight! In fact they didn't sabotage the whole factor of shippers power; they just changed the shippers!! So they threw only Tae under the bus and tried to shift the attention from tkk to a more "presentable" pair! *in their eyes* -actually I'm kinda sure that they've had a pov like this sice ages ago; well company's always been so "indirectly" direct about members values! by giving more opportunities to some of them like collabs after collabs, dance covers,etc they always tried to slap fans (especially ot7) by reminding that:"Yes we(=BH) always insist on *7 or nothing* phrase but still not all the mmbrs are equals or deserve equal opportunities if you ask "us"!"- So why not using another group of shippers as a new tool to promote the ones that they want to be more famous?! You know?!

Well basically I just guess that company doesn't like/haven't liked tae that much! I mean they definitely like that tae *as a hidden visual/charm* adds a lot of fans to the fandom with every comeback tho!

But tae isn't their first/second/third or... priority at all! Well not to the level of ruining his image! They don't want to ruin his image because damaging any member's image means damaging the group which is the last thing any company with common sense would want! Or maybe just cuz it gets ppl angry! Btw they can't ruin the members images! There is no profit in it, atleast not now! So they prefer to keep his profile clean but not any spotlight more than necessary! You know?!

I wanna know what do you think about this theory!

Thank you for your time~

Hi anon,

Sorry for the late reply.

About the theory, I think what you said about BH trying to switch out shippers is interesting but I don't think they were successful as a lot stayed Taekookers or just left or became solo stans. I don't know many that became Jikookers. My understanding is that BH never promoted Taekook that much but they were still very popular and Jikook was always around but Jikook did gain more popularity in 2017. Tae was not the favorite from the beginning but I don't know if I'd say they threw him under the bus because he did get solo opportunities. I mean, no other member has starred in a drama for example. I know BH had all of them a audition but it's not like they stopped him using the 7-or-nothing agenda.

I agree that the 7-or-nothing isn't really a thing. I guess sometimes solo opportunities depend on the bargaining skills of the individual member or the mood of whoever is in charge and I agree that BH won't actively sabotage any of them unless they step out of line and the way Tae seems to take control of certain narratives, when it comes to himself at least, makes me think he isn't oppressed either.

#taekook #vkook #bts kookv #bts taehyung #bts jungkook #ask me questions

5 notes · View notes

bergdutt · 3 years

Text

He had to put his shoulder to it to force it open.

He had to put his shoulder to it to force it open. However, when you consider the cost and lack of originality, homemade costumes are a more fun and oftentimes more cost effective option. There have been quite as many anti-slavery men in the New School Presbyterian Church as in the Congregational,—quite as strong anti-slavery newspapers; and the Presbyterian Church has had trial of this matter that the Congregational Church nike air max denim for sale has never been exposed to. To the right of Mens ADIDAS ORIGINALS the twin thrones stood Goghor the Giant, a huge hulk of a man with a brutal, scarred face. He said the overwhelming message from people is that gas companies should be regulated."There are a lot of regulations that are in place as far as looking at contamination of water resources and things like puma red bull racing evo cat ii that. Wednesday and Friday). Five years after his visit to Vassilyevskoe the prince sent Nikolay Sergeyitch an authorization to purchase another splendid estate in the same province with a population of four hundred serfs. She walked through mud and dung, bleeding, goosefleshed, hobbling. 55I have a few words which I wish to address to the court, jury and prosecutors, in the several suits that have been brought against me during the sittings of this court, in order to ghete galbene piele determine the amount of penalty I must pay for doing what my feelings prompted me to do as a lawful and meritorious act; a simple act of humanity and justice, as I believed, to eight of that oppressed race, the people of color, whom I found in the Newcastle jail, in the 12th month, 1845. pendientes bulgari precio The steering wheel feels good, but seems a bit too large in diameter for my tastes I much prefer the smaller helm of the C Class, or the more beautifully sculpted unit in the S Class. Passengers can choose from various packages for their floating adventure. But of course every revolution carries the risk that someone just as bad (or perhaps even worse) will end up in power. The impact of landing heavy on the feet is well that a compatible Lycra, that hugs your curves effectively.. There have been many painful things in the past history of this subject; but is it not time when all the friends of the slave should adopt chanel ágynemű the motto, “forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching 253forth unto those which are before”? Let not the believers of immediate abolition call those who believe in gradual emancipation time-servers and traitors; and let not the upholders of gradual emancipation call the advocates of immediate abolition fanatics and incendiaries. Strong Belwas liked that notion but insisted he should fight, not the Cat. There is the cone shape which has a round heel that grows broad and then meets the sole. I concealed it from him and I assure you, Vanya, this is secretly a worse injury, a worse insult to him than the facts themselves — that I left them and have abandoned myself to my lover. Commenters who violate these terms, including use of vulgar language or racial slurs, will be banned. When the hidden ice cracked beneath the weight of the wagons, three teamsters and four horses were swallowed up by the freezing water, along with two of the men who tried to rescue them. Riders have to be intimately familiar with their bike, and it has to respond as expected, the same way every time. However, Simons's early designs were sufficiently strong for him to leapfrog the education system, with buyers immediately wishing to order the pieces.. This year airshow is taking place at a time when the global economy is showing signs of slowing down and governments around the world are cutting back costs on military spending as they grapple with high debt levels. M.:The bus enters the Rogers dolce gabanna adidași bărbații Centre's underground parking garage. FOYLE looks around the basement for some clues as to what nike air jordan 1 los angeles happened with a police officer. Cyrus' ego and arrogance are off the charts, and he's close to a mental breakdown. HOUSTON The Houston Dynamo have a new television home KUBE TV, Channel 57 for the 2017 season, the club and the station announced today. Ask for a spacer. She was poor and friendless, without money to maintain a suit, and the heirs, of course, threw the child into the hands of the trader. But you can have none of these things; so that, if you sell your souls, for the sake of what poor matters you can get in this world, you have made a very foolish bargain indeed.. She was honored with the National Service Award presented by actress Tess Harper. Farther on, two legions from New Ghis were facing off shield wall to shield wall whilst serjeants in iron halfhelms with horsehair crests screamed commands in their own incomprehensible dialect. JERUSALEM Israel had been on my bucket list for some time, so when the Air Transat folks invited me to tour that country with a group of Canadian journalists, I didn't hesitate. He had begun to make his appearance at Muller’s only lately, he was always accompanied by his dog, and no air jordan aj4 one knew where he came from. Invite your darling to join you on a traditional bamboo thatched houseboat ride that will drift you through the enchanting backwaters bounded by soothing and incomparable natural beauty. Outer sole wear may indicate high arches. Theon trudged away from them. Those deep-set blue eyes of his seemed always slitted in suspicion, cold fury boiling just below their surface. 26, 1831. Kill the boy within you, I told him the day I took ship for the Wall. Otherwise, some team soon will want to carry 14. Before long he was flying around the cavern, weaving through the long stone teeth that hung down from the ceiling, even flapping out over the abyss and swooping down into its cold black depths.. Charlie Gard is given legal permanent residence in US by. Hardik Pandya found that out when he was cramped by a short ball rising up to his shoulder and found deep point; Mills meanwhile had his first T20I wicket. A loud warning emanating constantly from the right hand seat also did wonders to keep me on the correct side of the road.We drove through kilometres of tropical bush interspersed with trim, pastel coloured bungalows in tiny communities boasting names like Burnt Ground, Alligator Bay, Salt Pond, and Scrub Hill. 77The defendant, Mann, had hired a slave-woman for a year. The following is a timeline of the events as described in the grand jury report. What would have been said at such a doctrine announced in the Christian church? Every member would have stopped his ears, and cried out, “Judas!” If he was pronounced accursed who thought that the gift of the Holy Ghost might be purchased with money, what would have been said of him who held that the very temple of the Holy Ghost might be bought and sold, and Christ the Lord become an article of merchandise? Such an idea never was thought of. The display has a "pop up" feature where guests can crawl inside and get face to face nike jean jacket with the bugs thankfully, from behind glass. She said her goal is to "grow and expand." So, rather than simply focusing on the festivals each year, she also hosts weddings, wine tastings and music festivals, as well as other activities..

1 note · View note

somethingusefulfromflorida · 4 years

Text

IF Joe Biden wins, and IF Donald Trump concedes, and IF there’s a peaceful transition of power, there’s going to be a corrupt bargain behind it. The most likely scenarios are that Trump will pardon himself, or he’ll resign on January 20th at 11:59 and have Pence pardon him in his 1 minute in office. Less likely but possible, Trump convinces Biden to pardon him as part of his “exit package.” I’ll go quietly if you pardon me, I’ll go full nuclear if you don’t. Even less likely than that, our friend Donny takes a page out of Snowden’s book*, and takes a permanent vacation to a country that doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the United States. It would almost certainly be daddy Putin’s Russia, but I wouldn’t rule out Saudi Arabia, North Korea, or maybe even China (the animosity between Trump and Xi is a joke, nothing but a dick measuring context between two authoritarian brinkmen; remember, in 2017 we thought Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un hated each other, until they didn’t. He and Xi will reconcile when it suits them personally, mark my words).

These scenarios rely on a lot of ifs. What I actually believe is gonna happen is that Trump will win the electoral college and lose the popular vote, again, and congressional Democrats will whine about it and do nothing all the way to January 20th. They’ll probably keep the House, but that doesn’t mean anything anymore because their only real power was subpoenas, and Trump has decided that the president doesn’t have to obey them anymore; the real power comes from the Senate, which has to confirm any and all cabinet and judicial appointments, though this too is up in the air because if the Democrats tried to hold his appointments hostage like the Republicans did to Obama, Trump would just make recess appointments. Or more likely than that, he would just continue writing executive orders to sidestep Congress, which would be legally binding until Congress or the Supreme Court overturned it.

I don’t see any universe where this man faces consequences for anything. Even if Biden wins AND Trump gets charged for any number of his federal, state, or local crimes, he’ll never go to prison; no judge in the country is going to sentence a former president to anything but time served, a halfhearted slap on the wrist at best. If a judge tried, Trump’s lawyers would appeal it all the way up to the Supreme Court, which would rule 6-3 in his favor, possibly even 7-2, or hell, it could be a unanimous ruling, because the liberal justices wouldn’t want to appear “political.” They’d come up with some BS explanation about precedent or impropriety, something about “healing,” “moral fabric,” “retribution,” blah-dee-fucking-blah, acquittal, move onto the next case.

There are no legal means to “punish the bad guys,” and I definitely DON’T condone the use of, shall we say, “extralegal” means. Besides, one person alone couldn’t change anything, it would take the organization and coordination of a large number of people in cities all over the country, fueled by the systemic injustice and divisive rhetoric that the bad guys use to remain in power. Why, if such an undertaking were possible, I think we would have seen some signs of civil unrest this summer, signs that would only be amplified by the controversial outcome of another disproportional election (the third in 20 years).

Rome didn’t fall in a day.

*I want to be clear that I am not equating Edward Snowden with Donald Trump; Snowden is an American hero and Biden should issue him a full pardon if he becomes president, I’m just saying that Trump will probably have the same idea to leave American jurisdiction

15 notes · View notes

carljparker · 5 years

Photo

The Books of 2019

Here are the books I read in 2019. As some of you might recall, I assess books in terms of how much they affect me:

Changed my life

Deeply influenced me

Influenced me

Interesting

Wish I hadn't done that

This year, I am also including the year in which each book was first published; I am trying to think more about the historical context of the books that I read.

Lawrence in Arabia by Scott Anderson (2013)

Influenced me...enlightened me.

Note that the title is Lawrence in Arabia, not "Lawrence of Arabia". This book is a history of World War I, focused almost entirely on the Middle East--what was then known as the Ottoman Empire. T.E. Lawrence plays a key role, of course, but Anderson weaves other important actors into the story as well. The book gave me a deeper understanding of the events that led to the formation of Israel and why that has resulted in so much conflict.

Mother Night (1962) and Slaughter House Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969) (Double feature)

Deeply influenced me.

This was the year of Kurt Vonnegut. Mother Night was written before Slaughter House Five and I read it first. However, Night is actually something of a sequel to House. They both deal with events during World War II and its aftermath. At times, Vonnegut describes events that are so bizarre that I laughed out loud. At other times, the events seem to come out of a horror novel--but I suspect they are based on actual experiences.

Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2017)

Influenced me.

After reading this book, I now know what a polemic is. Coates' book is a collection of eight essays that he wrote during the Obama administration. The essays express Coates' views on racism in America. I found the reading arduous because of the strong rhetoric. Even so, parts of the book were quite interesting. Examples are Coates' essay on Bill Cosby and Coates' stories about arguing with President Obama at the White House: the fiery Coates contending with the level-headed Obama.

The Fight by Norman Mailer (1975)

Deeply influenced me.

In 1967, Muhammad Ali was stripped of his title as Heavyweight Champion for his refusal to fight in the Vietnam War. Four years later, in 1971, the US Supreme Court unanimously overturned Ali's conviction--but he still had to fight to get his title back. In October, 1974, Ali fought George Foreman for the title. The fight occurred in Zaire (formerly The Congo), in Central Africa and became known as "The Rumble in the Jungle". Norman Mailer was sent as a journalist to cover the fight. The book is about Ali, Foreman, the physics of boxing, and the metaphysics of Africa. It is incredible.

King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild (1999)

Influenced me...Disturbing.

My friend and colleague, Marla, who I work with at Facebook, recommended this book. Having just read The Fight, I was interested in reading more about Africa, especially The Congo (now Zaire). I got more than I bargained for. The book concerns the horrific exploitation and forced labor used by King Leopold of Belgium in The Congo. The forced labor practices were essentially slavery and, historically speaking, most of the action takes place after the period of the American Civil War. Ten million Congolese were murdered by Leopold's colonial forces during this period; when I first read that number, I doubted Hochschild's credibility, but to his credit, he meticulously documents it using multiple independent sources. The events described here are disturbing.

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (1963)

Deeply influenced me. Left me concerned.

I have never encountered anyone who wrote so incisively and authentically about racism in the United States. Although Baldwin represents his relationship with religion as ambiguous, it is clear that he views racism as a deep cultural sin that will, sooner or later, need to be cleansed. In Eight Years in Power, Coates says that he aspires to be as great a writer as James Baldwin; I think that would be difficult.

On Writing by Stephen King (2000)

Influenced me...perhaps deeply.

My friend, Michael, advised me that this book is not really a compilation of guidance from Stephen King about how to write. It is much more of a memoir about King's experiences during his writing career. That said, some of King's ideas about writing are fascinating. For example, King believes that pieces of writing pre-exist inside the consciousness of the writer and it is his job to discover and excavate them. I also very much enjoyed King’s account of how he had given up on his novel Carrie until his wife Tabitha encouraged him to continue; Carrie turned out to be the horror novel that launched King's career.

Ship of Fools by Tucker Carlson (2018)

Influenced me.

Tucker Carlson is a news analyst and commentator currently associated with Fox News. This book is Tucker's analysis of the political and social issues that led to the election of President Trump. At times, Carlson is very funny, but the book is weakened somewhat by Carlson not providing references for many of the facts that he cites. Note though that I did "fact check" some of what I thought were Carlson's more outrageous claims . . . and they turned out to be legit.

So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson (2015)

Influenced me...perhaps deeply.

I first became acquainted with Ronson through the podcast, The Butterfly Effect, in which he explores the less-than-obvious effects of free online pornography. In So You've Been Publicly Shamed, Ronson investigates the phenomenon of online shaming--mostly on Twitter. The book is wide ranging and does a great job of looking at the phenomenon from different angles. However, like everything I've encountered from Ronson, he left me unsure where he himself stands on the issues.

Guns by Stephen King (2013)

Interesting.

I like Stephen King. I've read three of his novels (Carrie, Fire Starter, The Stand) and I intend to read more. His book On Writing, influenced the way that I think about writing and about life. Having said all that, King and I diverge pretty much completely when it comes to gun control. King wrote this essay shortly after the horrible mass shooting at Sandy Hook and it is clear that King (who lives in New England) felt a deep need to respond. However, this essay suffers from an over abundance of passion and a shortage of objectivity. Also, at times, King devolves into snark and sarcasm.

Dancing with Elephants by Jarem Sawatsky (2017)

Influenced me.

Jarem Sawatsky has Huntington's disease, which is an incurable genetic disorder that causes slow but progressive brain damage. Sawatsky wrote this book because he felt that his strategies for living with Huntington's could help other people suffering from degenerative diseases. Sawatsky is deeply courageous, and in addition to practical advice, the book also provides indispensable perspective: In my life I contend with glaucoma, but I would choose glaucoma over Huntington's in a heartbeat.

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (2006)

Influenced me, perhaps deeply.

My friend and colleague, Cash, who I work with at Facebook, recommended this book. As I've gotten older, I've become more skeptical of "New Age" ideology, but based on Cash's unreserved recommendation, I decided to take this on. The book is great. Much of the material was familiar, but Tolle's delivery is excellent: articulate, well organized, and coherent. The term "best in class" comes to mind.

Churchill and Orwell by Thomas E. Ricks (2017)

Influenced me.

This book focuses on the lives of Winston Churchill and George Orwell from the rise of totalitarianism in Europe in the 1930s through the aftermath of World War II. In saving England (and Europe) from Hitler, Churchill was necessarily focused more on fascism. Orwell, in his writing, addressed totalitarianism more broadly by including Soviet Socialism as well. I am allergic to totalitarianism so I enjoyed the book immensely, especially in the way that it showed Churchill and Orwell persevering through what must have seemed like utterly hopeless odds.

An Autobiography: My Experiments with Truth by Mohandas K. Gandhi (Original: 1927, US: 1948)

Influenced me.

Now here is a guy that sticks to his guns--metaphorically speaking. Pretty much nothing in this book is what I expected. For one thing, the book stops before Gandhi launches the movement to free India from British rule; instead, the Gandhi here is deeply loyal to Britain. The book deals mostly with his religious development and with fighting anti-Indian bigotry in what is now South Africa. At times, Gandhi comes off like a fanatic, but I was still impressed by his complete unwillingness to retreat when it comes to his principles or political objectives.

How to Measure Anything by Douglas Hubbard (2014)

Influenced me.

Years ago, circa 2010, I read about 25% of this book and got so excited that I stopped reading it and began recommending it to everyone I met. This year I decided that maybe I should finish it myself. I'm glad I did, and don't regret having recommended it. The message of this book is so hopeful: That the thing that you want to quantify is almost certainly measurable in a way that is worth your time and effort. Lots of great strategies, methods, and examples.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)

Deeply influenced me.

My friend, Michael, gave me a copy of this book years ago. It describes a totalitarian society in which fireman start fires rather than put them out. Specifically, they burn books. (Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which paper ignites.) Prescient and chilling. Required reading for our time.

Thinking in Systems by Donnella H. Meadows (2008)

Deeply influenced me.

I'm so glad I read this book. It is a straightforward introduction to systems concepts. It starts with fundamental ideas and builds up methodically without ever getting ahead of itself. I feel so informed about an area that I now realize I didn't really understand at all. At times, the writing is colored by Meadows' politics, but that is a minor consideration. I would recommend this book to anyone involved in STEM.

The Bhagavad Gita (written a long time ago)

Influenced me.

The "Gita" is part of the scripture of the Hindu religion. Because of my yoga practice, I have been feeling for years as though I should read it; this year I did. Much of the book concerns clean living and doing your duty, whatever that might be in this lifetime. (Hindus believe in reincarnation.) It resonated with what I have learned about Stoicism--which I also have an affinity for. Encouraging.

When Google Met Wikileaks by Julian Assange (2016)

Influenced me. Entertaining. Inspiring.

This book is (mostly) a transcript of a conversation between Julian Assange (founder of WikiLeaks) and Eric Schmidt (then CEO of Google, now CEO of Alphabet). So enriching. Assange opens up about all aspects of WikiLeaks: strategy, technology decisions, future vision. Schmidt is a smart guy and holds his own, seeming to ask all the right questions. Schmidt and Jared Cohen (who was also present) use some of the material in their book The New Digital Age. Assange feels that they misrepresent him in their book and is quite upset about that. That is unfortunate, but their conversation is nevertheless really great.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (2005)

Influenced me.

The Year in the title of this book refers to the year in which Didion's husband dies suddenly from a heart attack and during which their daughter, Quintana, is hospitalized repeatedly over a period of several months with a series of life threatening medical conditions. Didion chronicles both the circumstances as they unfold and her internal state as she contends with them. The story is harrowing, but in the end, it gave me faith in how resilient people can be.

Vanity Fair: Justice: A father's account of the trial of his daughter's killer by Dominick Dunne (2008)

Influenced me. Outraged me.

Over brunch, my friend Ellie and I were discussing Joan Didion's book The Year of Magical Thinking (see above). Ellie suggested that I read an article in Vanity Fair by Didion's brother-in-law Dominick Dunne. Dunne's daughter had been strangled by her boyfriend; the article is Dunne's account of the trial. It suffices to say that justice was not served. (Didion's daughter, Quintana, and Dunne's daughter, Dominique, were close friends.)

Light in August by William Faulkner (1932)

Influenced me...perhaps deeply. Also disturbed me.

Stephen King--in On Writing--refers to William Faulkner as a genius-level writer. That sounded like a recommendation. The Internet told me that Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury was tough going and told me that I should read Light in August instead. Faulkner describes a set of characters who, despite their remarkable capabilities, are compelled inexorably toward their fates. The book is set in Mississippi during the prohibition era (1920s to early 1930s). Given the setting, I should have expected racism; when it finally arrives though, it is so disturbing, that I felt as though I had been ambushed.

The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy (1886)

Influenced me.

This short book (132 pages) follows Ivan Ilych as he contracts an obscure illness that his doctors are unable to treat and which results in his relentless decline. The book deals mostly with Ivan's inner state during this process: How his mind grapples (or fails to grapple) with his inevitable death. It also presents some dark insight into how the realization of his impending death by others changes the way that they relate to him. Dark, but valuable.

Several short sentences about writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg (2012)

Wish I hadn't done this.

Klinkenborg provides guidance about writing by focusing on the sentence as the fundamental unit. I admit that I was empowered by his thoughts on how mindfulness applies to writing. That said, I found this book agonizing because of Klinkenborg's pompous tone. I know that is strong language coming from me, but by the end of this book I felt as though I deserved compensation for pain and suffering.

Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell (2019)

Influenced me...but not so much.

I've read all of Gladwell's books and despite the considerable praise given to this one, I found it to be the weakest of all of them. I think that, in this book, Gladwell is doing his part to mitigate the animosity that is becoming pervasive in our culture. His heart is in the right place, and although the book is thought-provoking, I was left mostly unconvinced.

Introduction to Probability by Blitzstein and Hwang (2019)

Deeply influenced me.

This is the textbook for the Probability and Statistics class that I took recently at the University of Washington. I would not normally include a textbook. However, this might be the best textbook that I've ever used. Blitzstein and Hwang are great teachers. Whenever I would get lost in class, I would read the textbook and it would heal my confusion. It is what a textbook should be.

END

3 notes · View notes

eastonia-blog · 5 years

Text

I’m going to do a weird.

I know a whole lot of us are stuck at home due to the COVID19 outbreak and all our respective governments attempting to flatten the curve. So I’m going to break out my VAST library of fanfiction recommendations for you to read! Please bear in mind that my tastes in fics are not necessarily like yours so the following 15 Fandom reccs might be hit or miss. All ships and above T ratings will be tagged with brackets, all crossovers will be mentioned in those same brackets. Also, if I mention it’s part of a series, I’m not just recommending the fic I mentioned, I’m recommending the whole series. I’ve tried to recommend a different author’s fic each time. So! Let’s start with the 3 fandoms I mention in my blog description.

1) ATLA Fate Deferred (Zutara) Aang remains in the iceberg ten years longer. Sozin’s comet comes, the world keeps turning with no Avatar to save it, and by the time he’s finally found by a waterbender and her Fire Nation husband, a lot has changed. [Zutara established relationship full series rewrite; Now on Book II: Earth] Cheating at Pai Sho (Canon Divergence) “You said you were the Avatar!” “…I lied?” Aang doesn’t get rescued in episode two, and no one’s seen him go glowy yet… so he starts bluffing. Hard. Or: “The Avatar joins Zuko’s quest to find the Avatar.” In which Zuko doesn’t join the Gaang, the Gaang joins Zuko. The Undying Fire: Blood and Fire (First in the Undying Fire Series, eventual Zutara) Book 1. In which rescuing the Avatar from Pohuai Stronghold doesn’t end so well. It’s a tough life being a banished prince trying to get home, especially when the Avatar just wants to be your friend and keeps making everything confusing. Oh, and did Zuko mention he somehow healed the kid? Yeah, that happened. Stalking Zuko (First in the Stalking Zuko Series, eventual Zutara) Katara has developed a new hobby. At the Western Air Temple she takes to stalking Zuko. Much silliness and shenanigans follow. In chapter 20: Katara and Zuko return home to the others. Katara hates the F word and she comes to a decision regarding Zuko. Embers (Canon divergence) Dragon’s fire is not so easily extinguished; when Zuko rediscovers a lost firebending technique, shifting flames can shift the world… 2) Percy Jackson and the Olympians The Father (Percabeth in the GFFA, eventual Anidala) It all started with a wish, but because it was Percy Jackson it couldn’t have been a friendly goddess granting him a wish. No, it had to be Nemesis, goddess of revenge and balance. Now Percy and Annabeth are stuck in a strange new galaxy right when an ancient and powerful darkness finally begins to stir. Glass Figures (MCU Mashup) I lifted my gun, pointing it towards the minefield of shattered fragments, and kicked the small coffee table out of the way.Only to stare down at an awfully familiar face, which split into a somewhat lopsided grin. The intruder raised his hands in a mocking surrender. //“Long time no see, dude.” //I lowered the gun. “What the hell are you doing in South Peru?” //Or in which Clint Barton and Percy Jackson have a long personal history that starts in high school. All Together, Cousins (Canon divergence) When Thalia ran away with her toddler brother, Jason, she slowly gathered her cousins: she and her cousins being Big Three children. As Jason gets older and their motley group expands to six, Thalia resigns herself to the fact that she won’t always be the leader of the pack. As she accepts that, something more is coming, able to challenge even the gods above. A Crown of Golden Leaves (Historical AU) Annabeth, a Lady from the declining polis of Athens, must marry the Heir Apparent of Rome to save the rapidly expanding world from a threat even the gods couldn’t foresee. Deluge (Percy in the Arrowverse) Barry has to deal with yet another Metahuman that Zoom has pitted against him. But this ‘Metahuman’ is an unwilling pawn in Zoom’s plan and really wants to find a way around killing the Scarlet Speester. But how can he when Zoom is holding something against him?

3) DC Firework (First in the Sparks in the Dark Series) Orphaned and removed from the only life he’s ever known, Dick feels like there’s no light left for him in the world. His new benefactor, however, still sees something worth saving… Chronological beginning of the Spark in the Dark series. Iron, Fire, Mirror-Glass After a brutal confrontation with Bane, Bruce comes away with a broken spine and the certainty that his days as Batman are over. An unexpected discovery offers him another chance—but at what price? The story of a man who risks his soul for the sake of his mission, the dangerous creature he names Robin, and the unlikely partnership that will shape the legend of Gotham’s Dark Knight. Get Back Up There was a mole, one who played a long game. The team was betrayed, crushed. Robin nearly died. What are they going to do now? Only one chirped the answer. Get back up. WARNING: lots of talking, little action, many follow ups Five Times …Five times Damian thought of Dick Grayson as his father, and the one time Dick thought of Damian as his son. Future-fic. YJ characters will show up later. Batman!Dick and Damian as Robin. With guest appearances from Jason, Tim, Cass, and Steph. Unveiling the Mystery Series of one-shots about the team learning a little about Robin (Dick Grayson). With all the fics, I heavily suggest you also read what else these authors have to offer in their archive.

And now here’s the plethora of other fandoms I read fics in under the cut!

4) Harry Potter The Horse (Mature) Looking after a Muggle animal should be easy compared to saving Hogwarts from Voldemort. Harry and Draco might disagree with that. Featuring Luna, Marauders, peppermints and, of course, a tall, black, badtempered horse named Simon. The Potions Master’s Nephew An accident occurs and Professor Snape finds himself trapped in his fifteen-year-old body. Enrolled into Harry Potter’s fifth year, he is forced to hide his true identity. Girls, drama and teenage angst do not bode well with Severus. Keeping Up with the Grangers (Dramione, Mature) Mr. Malfoy, I invite you and your mother to tea next Tuesday, May 25th at 2o’clock to discuss recent events. Dr. Helen Granger //… …// He glances at the boxy too-uniform numbers flashing on the face of Richard’s radio. It’s nearly noon, and he should be getting ready to leave; but there is still a harsh tension in his shoulders and neck that he wants to work out before Hermione finds him. It is, after all, Tuesday; and while his Tuesdays were designated ‘tea with Helen’ days previously, they are now ‘lunch with Granger’ days, ever since the chance meet-up with the Weasel’s wife and the insufferable swot herself. Faceless (Dramione, Mature) New year. New love. New threat. A powerful enemy is on the rise, and Hermione Granger finds herself intertwined in a relationship with Draco Malfoy – only she doesn’t know it’s him. / / RUNNER-UP: Enchanted Awards Summer 2017 for Best Relationship Development

5) Devil May Cry And the Rest is Silence (Mature) The destruction of the Saviour wasn’t the end. Too many people had too much invested. An Uncle’s Thoughts Dante’s thoughts and feelings regarding one particular quarter-demon kid. Vignettes that span from the start of Devil May Cry 4 through Devil May Cry 5, and beyond. Fortuna’s Fool Events after DMC5 with flashbacks to the events we briefly see in DMC4SE only with Vergil telling Dante all about Nero’s mother. Family ties are so complicated, aren’t they? Family of Happenstance Some orphans have happy endings, getting adopted or finding their family. Having a demon slaying half devil for a father tends to throw a tiny monkey wrench in the process. AU Father!Dante, Son!Nero. Rated because hunters don’t exactly have clean mouths.

6) Power Rangers (Focus on Might Morphin’ and Dino Thunder teams) Of Love and Bunnies Set just after Dino Thunder. When Angel Grove announces another Power Rangers Day, Tommy takes the Dino Rangers to Angel Grove for a reunion with the original team… including Kimberly. TommyKim, JasonTrini, KiraTrent. The Reason (Part 1 of eclyptyk neo‘s Dino Thunder AU) COMPLETED. DT. AU. Years go by as Tommy Oliver becomes accustomed to his job as a teacher. A person from his past returns. The new ranger team grows interested in its outcome. How will these new changes between rangers young and old be? Sequel: Ordinary World Change of Hearts (Wild Force) PRWF: When Jindrax and Toxica set out to find themselves, they had no idea that their greatest adventure was only beginning. Chronology Conundrum DT/MMPR - After a strange mutation is released in Reefside, the five Dino Thunder Ranges find themselves thrown back into the past, circa 1995 Angel Grove. Somehow, they have to figure out how to make it back to their present without destroying it or themselves. And if they succeed, they must navigate the consequences of their actions in the past, while still protecting Reefside. 7) Merlin (Mergana leaning) The Other Version of Events What if Merlin and Arthur had met when they were children? What if a mysterious illness fell over Ealdor and Merlin was blamed? What if Arthur had actually felt sorry for him? What if destiny was thrown at them in a whole new way? AU, no slash, Bromance, A/G M/M… You get the idea. Flipping the Coin, Part 2 of Coins (2nd story in the Coins Sage but 1st multichapter) Merlin and Gwaine are sent on an adventure to discover their past and stay one step ahead of Morgana. Fearing for them, Arthur and the other knights set out to find them, but soon discover much more than they bargained for. Alt version Season 5. Sequel to “Two Sides of the Coin” Angst, Adventure, BAMF, Bromance, Redemption, Twists on Arthurian Legends. The King’s Legacy “I hope you are rolling in your grave brother, I will find your son, and I hope he is like you. I will ruin him and gain a lovely weapon in the process.” Cenred spat on the grave, “I win Balinor.” .Sequel posted. The Warlock’s Quickening (First in the Albion Cycle) Merlin might have come to Camelot to master his magic, not to end the Purge, but he’s not going to sit idly by while his kin suffer. Oh no. Whether it’s releasing a chained dragon, smuggling sorcerers out of the city, or trying to change Arthur’s mind, he’s fighting back. Now. Series rewrite beginning after 1X02 featuring Proactive!Merlin. AU.

8) Dragon Ball Under the Radar (Gohan/Videl) Gohan is living life as a secret superhero, but Videl is making it her business to find him out! How will Gohan manage her and Saiyan hormones? Will he fess up? Or will he try to live his life -puts on sunglasses- “Under the Radar”? *applause* Thank you! Thank you! And GOODNIGHT! G/V obviously. Rated T because adult situations and language in later chapters. COMPLETE! Golden God (Mature) To save the lives of millions, Gohan is forced to expose himself as a Super Saiyan, proving that his tricks are indeed very real. And it drives the whole world to insanity. Warning; becomes a little graphic goes as it on. Walking Towards the Sunset Bardock’s curse sends him to a mysterious place where weaklings are abundant and an odd trio claim to be his family. Eventually giving in, he stays with them to discover that Earth is more unlucky than Planet Vegeta. Impatiently waiting for his son’s arrival, Bardock has to survive a new life with his estranged family and a certain girl set on finding the truth. (Saiyaman-Buu Saga) Plus One (Gohan/Videl, Mature) Tired of being pursued by the gold-digging, glory-seeking, Satan obsessed freaks of the world, Videl will resort to the only method open to a celebrity like her to find Mr. Right. 9) Sailor Moon (Mainly SenshiShitennou) The Crystal Age (Rewritten) In an alternate version of Season 1, as a result of Beryl’s curse at the end of the Silver Age, Tuxedo Mask and the reincarnated Shitennou are fighting a losing battle to save the city and find the lost princess. Sailor Moon has disappeared, Sailor V is working on her own, and the other Senshi are still just ordinary girls. Sequel to The Silver Age. MxU, SxS. Please R&R. Hooligans It’s after Galaxia and time for University. The Senshi and Mamoru settle into life in Great Britain and meet some old friends. Inner Senshi x Shitennou and Usagi x Mamoru. Modern Timeline. Strong language, crude humour, hilarity and sexual situations abound, be warned, there will be some heavy angst later on too. Never Gone R A single choice can change the course of Fate: a choice, say, like waking up on time. If that choice were made, Chiba Mamoru would never meet Tsukino Usagi; but, he WOULD meet Unami Seiya and the burden of Terra’s future would fall onto his shoulders. Never Gone AU. The Dinner Hour (Part of The Dinner Series) It can be hard to be patient in the face of eternity. But good things come to those who search and refuse to give up on their dreams. R/J. (Sequels: Dinner And Again, Dinner at Last completed!)

10) Les Miserables (Warning: Enjonine ahead) When Apollo Met Persephone (1st of the 1830s AU) The revolution, or at least the first part of it succeeds. Enjolras confronts political and personal realities. Eponine is suddenly faced with more opportunities than she ever thought. Can they guide each other in a world that needs them as much as they need it? Les Choses Qui Sont Arrivées Après “You must flee Paris at once.” Enjolras and Eponine. The thief and the leader, the marble Apollo and the dark street girl… two wholly different survivors of the Revolution are forced together under a dangerous circumstance. Can they successfully fight their demons as well as each other? Neither of them knows quite what is going on, or what will happen when they figure it out. Teacher of Man The first time Enjolras and Éponine meet, it is their wedding day. (arranged marriage AU) My Best Friend’s Wedding Éponine Thenardiér always thought that Marius would eventually come back to her, until the wedding invitation came in the mail. Now she is going to do everything that she can to get him back from that blonde tart Cosette. Nothing goes according to plan and even her partner in crime Enjolras is becoming an obstacle. E/E. 11) Naruto Beginnings Naruto was six years old when he met the man who changed his life. …Now he’s kind of just hoping he survives it. An Inch of Gold (Part of the Legacy of Fire series) Team 7 is sent on a mission to investigate a disturbance outside of the village, where they encounter an unconscious girl in a crater. The mysterious Sarada insists she’s a shinobi from the Hidden Leaf trying to rescue her teammates. When the team discovers she possesses a Sharingan, things become even more unbelievable. [Part of the Legacy of Fire Series] Guilt of Innocence Uchiha Sasuke abandoned Konoha in his persute of power to join Orochimaru. However, this was only a cover story. In fact, on Tsunade’s orders, Sasuke is to act as Konoha’s spy within Otogakure. One agreement and his path had changed forever… Blind (SasuSaku) It was almost time, Orochimaru was going to take his body as a vessel. He hated being used…he refused to be used. With that thought, he took the kunai in his hand and slashed across his eyes.

12) Legend of Zelda (Zelink) The Conviction to Save The princess is dead. Those are the words being whispered in the streets. A great shudder sweeps across the land of Hyrule as news of its beloved monarch’s passing spreads like wildfire. In the midst of the ensuing chaos, a humble village doctor happens upon the body of a gravely injured young woman on the road. Legend of the Miraculous (Concepts taken from Miraculous Ladybug) A legend retold through many a tale, but when a darkness resurfaces after so long, Athena and Sheikhan Wolf must return again! Will Link and Zelda be able to combat this threat? and will they figure out each others’ identities? Come inside and take a look! Hit List AU. It all started as a typical day at Ordon High, until a sudden school shooting turns the life of Link Hero upside down. Now, surrounded by enemies, can Link save his friends and escape the school alive? (Edit 10/2015) Counting Stars Link finds himself caught in the middle of an elaborate gang war. Lucky for him, being a B-list superhero makes that predicament a tiny bit easier. / Modern AU ZeLink, inspired by Spider-Man. Under Revision! 13) Hunger Games Vox Libertas Due to things playing out a bit differently in the last few minutes of the Quell, the rescue also goes a bit differently than expected. Now Peeta has the responsibility of representing the Rebellion thrust upon him. No pressure. *AU Mockingjay. Part I of Dandelion in the Storm AU. Mainly Peeta POV.* Someone To Watch Over Me (Everlark, 1st in the Series) A HG rewrite. What would happen if Peeta was just a little bit bolder, and Katniss a little less emotionally confused? You’d be surprised. Let the Games begin. This is an AU, but I’ve tried to stay as canon as possible. Rated T to be safe. Enthralled (Everlark, Gadge, Mature) Thrall (þræll), n., a slave or serf in Viking Age Scandinavia. After a successful raid, Gale is rewarded with a slave girl: the Saxon noblewoman Madge. Meanwhile, shieldmaiden Katniss grows closer to captive monk Peeta. Gadge/Everlark historical AU with background Odesta and other pairings. Katniss, Vampire Slayer (Mature) “Into every generation a slayer is born.” the man droned out slowly, quietly, in a way that made her think he was quoting something. “One girl in all the world. A chosen one. She alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their number. She is the Slayer.” // Haymitch mocked. “One girl in all the world. Ain’t I just lucky it had to be you.” 14) How To Train Your Dragon Becoming Lífþrasir (Hiccstrid) People often wondered what kept Hiccup going during those early years. When that single, most-treasured thing is taken from him, there is little left to keep him on Berk. The day Stoick returns, and the day before the best recruit is finally chosen, Hiccup leaves Berk; little knowing that he would one day return under … strange circumstances. H/A, R/F, rated for violence. HTTYD Easter Special Sequel to “The Unholy Offspring,” set after the season finale. When Alvin the Treacherous threatens Asgard with a rogue demigod’s help, Hiccup and Berk’s Dragon Riders must prevent an early Ragnorak. It doesn’t help that Alvin has learned to tame dragons, and that the only god that can help Hiccup is a sullen, suspicious boy named Mud. Happy Eos week, Hiccup! The Blacksmith’s Apprentice (Hiccstrid) AU. Hiccup never took the shot on that fateful night-and the war continued. Three years later, Berk is beset by dragon raids and hostile tribes while the boy who should have saved the island is merely the assistant in the forge. With only Astrid as his friend, fate gives Hiccup one more chance to end the war and become the hero he was meant to be. Hiccstrid. Snap (Hiccstrid, Mature) He was just supposed to fix her back, and she doubted that at first. She definitely didn’t expect to get dragged into the ethics of a girlish crush. Modern AU. 15) Star Wars Double Agent Vader The one where Vader turned double agent for the Rebellion about three years after ROTS, and Leia is now his primary contact with the Rebellion. Or, a man attempts to escape slavery by turning into one of his culture heroes, teaching his daughter how to do magic, killing people, and flower arranging. A New History During a heated battle, Dooku escaped into the past! Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker follow to stop him, but discover that Dooku went to the past where Obi-Wan is a young padawan to a very much alive Qui-Gon Jinn. Now, the two must go undercover to stop Dooku’s plans from coming to fruition in order to save not only the future, but also young Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn. Pulse AU for ROTS. As Padme’s life hangs in the balance on Mustafar, a stream of brilliant light causes Anakin to reconsider his choices. Jedi Shmi AU Shmi leaves Tatooine with Anakin and goes to the Jedi Temple.

#Stuff to do #while youre stuck inside #due to coronavirus #eastonia reccs #fanfiction recommendation

31 notes · View notes

newstfionline · 4 years

Text

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

First Arctic Navigation in February (Bloomberg) A tanker sailed through Arctic sea ice in February for the first time, the latest sign of how quickly the pace of climate change is accelerating in the Earth’s northernmost regions. The Christophe de Margerie was accompanied by the nuclear-powered 50 Let Pobedy icebreaker as it sailed back to Russia this month after carrying liquified natural gas to China through the Northern Sea Route in January. Both trips broke navigation records. The experimental voyage happened after a year of extraordinarily warm conditions in the Arctic that have sent shockwaves across the world, from the snowstorm that blanketed Spain in January to the blast of cold air that swept through Canada in mid-February, moving deep into the South as far as Texas. The Arctic is warming more than twice as quickly as the rest of the world and the area covered by ice there has reached historic lows multiple times over the past 12 months. The melting in the region is already in line with the worst-case climate scenarios outlined by scientists.

Biden mourns 500,000 dead, balancing nation’s grief and hope (AP) With sunset remarks and a national moment of silence, President Joe Biden on Monday confronted head-on the country’s once-unimaginable loss—half a million Americans in the COVID-19 pandemic—as he tried to strike a balance between mourning and hope. “We often hear people described as ordinary Americans. There’s no such thing,” he said Monday evening. “There’s nothing ordinary about them. The people we lost were extraordinary.” The president, who lost his first wife and baby daughter in a car collision and later an adult son to brain cancer, leavened the grief with a message of hope. “This nation will smile again. This nation will know sunny days again. This nation will know joy again. And as we do, we’ll remember each person we’ve lost, the lives they lived, the loved ones they left behind.” He said, “We have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow. We have to resist viewing each life as a statistic or a blur or, on the news. We must do so to honor the dead. But, equally important, to care for the living.”

Texans Needed Food and Comfort After a Brutal Storm. As Usual, They Found It at H-E-B. (NYT) The past week had been a nightmare. A winter storm, one of the worst to hit Texas in a generation, robbed Lanita Generous of power, heat and water in her home. The food she had stored in her refrigerator and freezer had spoiled. She was down to her final five bottles of water. But on Sunday, as the sun shined and ice thawed in Austin, Ms. Generous did the same thing as many Texans in urgent need of food, water and a sense of normalcy: She went to H-E-B. “They’ve been great,” she said, adding with just a touch of hyperbole: “If it hadn’t been for the bread and peanut butter, I would have died in my apartment.” H-E-B is a grocery store chain. But it is also more than that. People buy T-shirts that say “H-E-B for President,” and they post videos to TikTok declaring their love, like the woman clutching a small bouquet of flowers handed to her by an employee: “I wish I had a boyfriend like H-E-B. Always there. Gives me flowers. Feeds me.” For many Texans, H-E-B reflected the ways the state’s maverick spirit can flourish: reliable for routine visits but particularly in a time of disaster, and a belief that the family-owned chain—with a vast majority of its more than 340 locations inside state lines—has made a conscious choice to stay rooted to the idea of being a good neighbor. “It’s like H-E-B is the moral center of Texas,” said Stephen Harrigan, a novelist and journalist who lives in Austin. “There seems to be in our state a lack of real leadership, a lack of real efficiency, on the political level. But on the business level, when it comes to a grocery store, all of those things are in place.”

Hunger in Central America skyrockets, U.N. agency says (Reuters) The number of people going hungry in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua has nearly quadrupled in the last two years, the United Nations said on Tuesday, as Central America has been battered by an economic crisis. New data released by the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) showed nearly 8 million people across the four countries are experiencing hunger this year, up from 2.2 million in 2018. “The COVID-19-induced economic crisis had already put food on the market shelves out of reach for the most vulnerable people when the twin hurricanes Eta and Iota battered them further,” Miguel Barreto, WFP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, said in a statement.

Prison riots in Ecuador leave 62 dead (AP) Sixty-two inmates have died in riots at prisons in three cities in Ecuador as a result of fights between rival gangs and an escape attempt, authorities said Tuesday. Prisons Director Edmundo Moncayo said in a news conference that 800 police offices have been helping to regain control of the facilities. Hundreds of officers from tactical units had been deployed since the clashes broke out late Monday. Moncayo said that two groups were trying to gain “criminal leadership within the detention centers” and that the clashes were precipitated by a search for weapons carried out Monday by police officers.

Mount Etna eruption lights up Sicily's night sky (BBC) Mount Etna is erupting again, and its hot lava fountains are illuminating the Sicilian sky. The eruption began earlier this week, and Etna has since been spewing massive orange plumes of smoke and thick clouds of ash. Etna is Europe's most active volcano, and it erupts relatively often. The last major eruption was in 1992. Its eruptions have rarely caused damage or injury in recent decades - and officials believe this eruption is no exception. Stefano Branco, the head of the National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) in the nearby city of Catania, told Italian news agency AGI earlier this week: "We've seen worse."

Cow science (Foreign Policy) A new national exam on cows developed by the Indian government-backed National Cow Commission has been shelved following controversy over its less-than-scientific contents. The curriculum for the test involved erroneous claims about the virtues of Indian cows that were widely ridiculed by the country’s scientific community. Among the “facts” on display: That Indian cows have a special “solar pulse” in their humps which can supposedly convert sun rays into vitamin D that is then passed on to milk, and an assertion that Indian cows are “strong” whereas foreign cows are “lazy.” The issue of cows, considered sacred by Hindus, and their treatment has become even more of a cultural wedge issue in India following the rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, with sometimes deadly results. Attacks by vigilante “cow protection” groups killed 44 people between 2015 and 2018 according to Human Rights Watch, with Muslims among the majority of those targeted.

Japan creates Minister of Loneliness to fight COVID-19 suicides (New York Post) Japan just appointed a Minister of Loneliness—to try to combat its exploding suicide rate amid COVID-19. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga named Tetsushi Sakamoto, a cabinet member already trying to beef up the depressed country’s birthrate, to the post. Suga noted earlier this month that Japanese women, in particular, have been struggling with depression since the coronavirus pandemic began about a year ago—with nearly 880 female suicide victims in the country alone in October, a 70 percent increase over the year before, the BBC reported. Japanese suicide expert Michiko Ueda told the BBC that part of the problem involves an increasing number of single women in the country who don’t have stable employment. “A lot of women are not married anymore,” she said. “They have to support their own lives, and they don’t have permanent jobs.”

Facebook Strikes Deal to Restore News Sharing in Australia (NYT) Facebook said on Monday that it would restore the sharing and viewing of news links in Australia after gaining more time to negotiate over a proposed law that would require it to pay for news content that appears on its site. The social network had blocked news links in Australia last week as the new law neared passage. The legislation includes a code of conduct that would allow media companies to bargain individually or collectively with digital platforms over the value of their news content. Facebook had vigorously objected to the code, which would curb its power and drive up its spending for content, as well as setting a precedent for other governments to follow. The company had argued that news would not be worth the hassle in Australia if the bill became law. But on Monday, Facebook returned to the negotiating table after the Australian government granted a few minor concessions.

U.S.-Saudi ties (Foreign Policy) The families of the three U.S. service members killed and 13 others injured by Mohammed Alshamrani, a Saudi airman who went on a shooting spree at Naval Air Station Pensacola in 2019, are suing Saudi Arabia’s government, alleging that the kingdom failed to screen him appropriately before sending him to the United States for training. The families are filing the lawsuit against Saudi Arabia based on a 2016 law that allows U.S. citizens to sue foreign governments over terrorist attacks—legislation that was initially passed in order to allow the families of 9/11 victims to bring a civil suit against Saudi Arabia.

Italian Ambassador Among Three Killed in Attack on U.N. Convoy in Congo (NYT) For Luca Attanasio, Italy’s ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, humanitarian work was at the core of his mission. The 43-year-old had moved with his wife to the capital, Kinshasa, in 2017, where their family grew to include three young daughters. He rose to the rank of ambassador in 2019, the pinnacle of his diplomatic career. On Monday, Mr. Attanasio was among three people killed in an attack on a humanitarian convoy near the city of Goma, the World Food Program and Italy’s Foreign Ministry said, the latest in a wave of violence in that part of the central African nation. The deaths of Mr. Attanasio; an Italian Embassy official, named by the Foreign Ministry as Vittorio Iacovacci; and Mustapha Milambo, a driver for the World Food Program, have rattled the international diplomatic community and drawn condemnation from across the globe.

Flood damage and insurance (NPR) Right now, over 4 million houses and small apartments in the contiguous United States are at substantial risk of expensive flood damage, and the cost of flood damage to homes will increase by 50 percent over the next 30 years according to the First Street Foundation. As the climate changes, places that were perfectly safe to live in will no longer be as sure of bets as they once were, and the costs are about to be a serious reality check. The National Flood Insurance Program is $36 billion in debt because of underestimated risks. Over the next several years, FEMA plans to raise rates up to 18 percent a year until prices are accurate, starting this October.

#headlines #news

1 note · View note

casaquecasinos299 · 4 years

Text

Which power supply for gaming pc

Unforgettable Moments In Gaming Aspect Three

It really is time to recognize the very best gaming blogs of the year. EDIT:I applied to watch the Feedback video more than at G4 just about every week, but it's gone down hill the last couple of instances I watched it and now that Adam Sessler isn't on it and they have that girl from IGN that absolutely everyone hates in every single episode I just can't be bothered to watch it any more. Nonetheless worth going back and watching some of the older ones though. Klepic applied to be on that show and back then in the early days was when it was the very best. Back when they really talked about gaming news with some semblance of intellect alternatively of just gushing about what ever game they are told is cool this week.

You are quietly accepting and at peace with your decision to come to be a board gamer for life. Your family knows you enjoy board games and almost certainly play them with you. Your pals know really like board games, and you have terrific gaming groups. You have committed to assigning part of your property to be a board gaming area. For the initially time, you have began to eliminate games from your collection. Perhaps you have sold the games, or you simply do not have space to maintain virtually all of them. Mentally you accept that you never need to have to play just about every game, and you've in all probability narrowed down a handful of games that you want to play routinely.

I got into action games late but when I did it entirely changed how I viewed gaming forever. The game which brought me round was Viewtiful Joe. Here was a game with a deep and open-ended combat technique which seemed to be built as a implies for the player to express creativity. This program is then pitted against opponents and obstacles which were developed from the ground up to interact meaningfully with the core technique. The course was fixed, but the strategy for dealing with that course was fully down to the ingenuity, skill and inspiration of the player. You play like you have a enormous audience watching and the game frequently entices you to enhance the concentrate is not just on finding the player from A to B, the concentrate is on getting the player to play Viewtifully”.

No matter whether you want to create a tiny-scale group web page and spread info about your players or manage huge-scale organizations like Group liquid or Virtus Pro with different gaming divisions, PixieHuge is best for you. PixieHuge delivers you with sections with designated purposes such as player profiles,, sponsor promotions, different game departments, match history and achievements list.

Live in the planet of games on this web-site that is committed to giving out magazine style review contents on the hottest games, capabilities on the gaming community and multiplayer user interface for its readers. How to download games on computer system. Acquire games & game keys with Green Man Gaming - get the very best prices, great bundles & exclusive game bargains daily! Take a look at to discover Green Man Gaming.

What You Should Have Asked Your Teachers On READY

You can have your own distinctive Gaming Website and impress your on the web players with this totally functional WordPress Theme for On the web Games. Take a look to our cool attributes list below and you are going to see that the Gameleon theme will be a great decision to your projects and will convince you to acquire it in a minute! Also, if you are not searching to establish gaming website, that's fine too. Due to the fact most up-to-date update this theme options none-gamer edition with comparable functionality but noticeably distinct style.

It's worthwhile getting a niche which will bring men and women back time and once more. This is how you come to be an authority in the gaming neighborhood. Your branding and domain ought to all point to what it is you do, generating you quick to come across. Be creative. Place your personal character into your writing, and your editing. Play to your strengths. If you're a whizz on the Xbox, run with that.

Microsoft — with our practically 40 years of gaming knowledge starting with Computer, as effectively as our breadth and depth of capabilities from software to hardware and deep experience of being a platform enterprise — is nicely equipped to address the complex challenge of cloud game-streaming. With datacenters in 54 Azure regions and solutions readily available in 140 nations, Azure has the scale to provide a good gaming expertise for players worldwide, regardless of their location.

Travel into a virtual world with a VR headset , exactly where http://elsolo.site all of your senses will be treated to a barrage of stimulus from different sources. With the Oculus Rift + Touch Virtual Reality Program , you'd have to prepare yourself for additional intense gameplays, a lot more immersive action, and a totally new and exhilarating gaming present practical experience as the package currently comes with 6 VR games that will retain your heart pumping by way of your chest. The Oculus Touch controllers are ingeniously created for optimum and unparalleled interaction with the a variety of components in the virtual globe. You will need to meet specific system specifications on your laptop, even though. This also makes a excellent gift for nerds in your life.

We're going to the International Festival for Enterprise this month and will be hosting a exceptional occasion Inspiring Entrepreneurs '˜Going Global' where best business individuals will inform us the secrets of their good results. 1 of these entrepreneurs is Paul Sulyok, CEO and Founder of Green Man Gaming Green Man Gaming is a pioneering, worldwide eCommerce technologies company that has gone from strength to strength since its launch in 2010. We asked him how he did it.

It is February! In 2017 that implies that we get six much more weeks of winter AND your yearly dose of video game statistics and trends. We're taking a look at key events and shifts in the gaming business and considering the current state of gaming. Take a peak, or keep for a week! All statistics are completely researched. See sources at the bottom of the page for more information.

Gaming content material on YouTube is some of the stickiest. Extra than 20 of the best one hundred YouTube channels with the most subscribers worldwide are gaming related. Who's the most subscribed? That would be Let's Play creator PewDiePie , with more than 32M subscribers. His loyal following now outnumbers the population of Canada. To give you some viewpoint, Google Trends shows that searches for PewDiePie on YouTube are on par with stars such as Eminem and Katy Perry. He's even made a cameo on South Park.

Top quality gaming headsets not only let the player hear issues that are difficult to pickup with speakers- like directional noises- but also facilitate group operate with their constructed-in mics. Preferred games like PUBG, Fortnite, and Battlefield V need these accurate audio queues surprisingly, hearing footsteps can make a substantial distinction. Regardless of whether you want to make a gaming news weblog, a critiques site or create an online neighborhood for gamers, the CrystalSkull theme has everything you need to have to get began.

When obtaining an very affordable gaming Computer, occasionally you will need to make sacrifices to maintain the specs to a minimum. Thankfully, there are machines like this one from Lenovo that cut down the amount of compromise to a minimum, even supporting virtual reality platforms. The VR Ready” labelÂ means you can play with Oculus Rift and HTC Vive with out any storage difficulties, given the two TB tough drive and the 256 GB SSD. There is a range of specs you can pick out from, so if your spending budget allows for it, you can tailor the most effective components for even superior outcomes.

In the ‘90s, televisions got bigger, and gaming consoles got more strong. Nintendo and Sega fought for the top spot with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and the Sega Genesis, respectively. You are going to uncover all the retro games for SNES and Genesis you loved back in the day in 1 easy spot. From Golden Axe to Mega Man X, all your preferred 16-bit titles are offered at the Retro games shop.

1 note · View note

spam-monster · 5 years

Text

Helsaween day 7: Westergaard Family

Reposting the fic I wrote for Helsaweek in 2017 for “How It Should Have Ended” because it features my headcanons for Hans’ nieces and nephews - his 12 older brothers are probably mostly all married, so it makes sense he’d have a bunch of them. Also there’s not much Helsa technically...yet...

---

He thinks about what he could have done differently. Of course he does. Isn’t that what villains always do?

If he had let the queen be shot back in her ice palace, if he had not revealed his treachery to the princess so soon and let her die thinking that it was her fault true love’s kiss hadn’t saved her, if he had killed the queen as soon as she had fallen out there on the lake instead of sparing her a moment of sympathy for her perceived loss.

Those are the ones he tries to think about. The ones a monster like himself should think about. But there are other thoughts, ones that come to him unbidden when all is quiet and dark and still.

If he had been honest. If he had gone with Anna from the beginning instead of staying behind and feeding his ego. If he had confessed his deception and tried to help her find another way to break her curse instead of shoving it in her face and laughing as he slammed the door behind him.

If he had not pretended to love Anna at all, and had tried to win over Elsa instead, like he had intended. She would not have been fooled so easily. But maybe if he had been honest with her instead. Maybe if he had taken the time to befriend them. Maybe they would have let him come back, after that day. Maybe if he could have spent time away from his cruel brothers, with people who were kind and loving and good, maybe he could have learned such things himself. Maybe…maybe he could have found true love.

Instead he had let himself become the monster of their story, vanquished and cast away, never to be spared a though again.

But there is no use in dwelling on such things, he thinks.

He thinks.

Because it is hard not to dwell on these things when your nieces and nephews insist on him telling the story over and over and over again.

***

He spends more time with them now.

There is a small fountain in the village, near the castle. The children of the local village play there with the children of the royal staff. His nieces and nephews didn’t use to play there, with the lower-class children, but one day he had gotten tired of having to repeat the story to them after he had already told it to the village children that day, and from then on he declared he would only tell it once, to whomever was gathered at the fountain when he was finished with his duties for the day. So all the children play there together now while they wait for him.

His brothers are rather annoyed at him for encouraging this. He can’t bring himself to care. Maybe if he had contact with normal loving families earlier in his life, he would have been quicker to realize what his family had lacked.

Hilda is the eldest, the first-born of his oldest brother, strong-willed and fierce. Fredrick is the first born of his second eldest brother, clever and charming. Christian is the son of Lars, his third eldest brother, and he is as stuffy and studious as his father, and his little sister Margrete is a hopeless romantic. And there is Erik and Harald, Magnus and Frida, Charlotta and Valdimarr and Vivi and Johan…

He had memorized their names out of convenience before. Lately, it had been out of sympathy. Twelve married princes with several children each made it hard for the staff to keep track and easy for the children to get lost in the crowd, and he knew all too well what that had felt like.

They made fun of him, of course, as they forced him to tell of his defeat over and over again. But they also listened to him, now that they knew he was willing to tell them stories if they behaved. It was kind of…nice.

So he comes to the fountain, and waits for them to settle down, and he tells them stories. He throws other fairy tales in sometimes, when they agree, for telling the same story all the time would be dull. But the story of Anna and Elsa is still their favorite, and he has agreed to tell it again today.

***

The beginning is easy.

He does not know much about what happened in Arendelle before he arrived, but between the history books, rumors from foreign travelers, and what he had heard from Anna, he manages to put it together. He then tells them of his arrival, of meeting Anna, of the coronation and the party and his clever wooing of the princess. He re-enacts the dances and the songs with great enthusiasm, even letting the children get up and participate themselves (Fredrick and Margrete often steal the show at this point, unless another child has managed to bargain with them for a chance to play himself or Anna).

After the dancing has settled down, he tells them of the argument. Of Elsa losing control and fleeing across the lake while Arendelle froze behind her. Of how Anna decided to go after her alone, while Hans stayed behind and took care of Arendelle.

“You should have gone with her!” one of the girls pipes up, as they always do.

“You’re just saying that because you’re mad I don’t know what happened to her after that.” He replies.

Because they are annoyed, of course. They don’t care about how Hans helped protect Arendelle’s citizens by organizing food and shelter for them when they were cold and afraid. They want to hear about how Princess Anna braved climbing the mountains to find her sister, and Hans doesn’t know that part of the story.

He’s heard there was an ice harvester involved. And snow monsters. And somehow Elsa ended up freezing Anna’s heart. That’s about it.

So he skips to the part where he traveled up the mountain himself to confront the queen. He emphasizes how he saved her from the Duke’s henchmen and brought her back unconscious but unharmed.

(He knows he does it to try to compensate for what he did later. He doesn’t think they’re fooled.)

He returned to Arendelle’s castle. And so did Anna.

(He hates telling this part.)

(He should be smug about how easily he tricked her. He was, at the time. It’s a lot harder to feel good about yourself for fooling someone into believing you loved them only to throw it back in their face later when there aren’t dozens of small, disapproving eyes watching you.)

So he glosses over it. Just tells them that he hurt her, admits that she probably didn’t deserve it.

(Sometimes he even tries to explain to them that it wasn’t her he was mocking, it was himself for being as naive as she was once. They just glare at him. They don’t understand yet, and that’s a good thing.)

He never tells them exactly what he said to her, although he remembers every word.

(He was wrong, anyway.)

And then, he tells them how he chased after Elsa.

He tells them that he thought killing her was the only way to stop the endless winter and save Arendelle.

(He had thought that, at the time.)

(It’s easier to tell himself that than to admit that he had wanted it to be the only way to stop the winter.)

And then…

He usually lies.

They know he’s going to lie about how it ended. They expect it by now. And as an expert liar, he tries to make it as extravagant as possible.

Last week it had ended with him having been secretly hiding that he had been born with power over fire the whole time, and he and Elsa engaging in an epic magic battle. This week Elsa summoned a giant ice dragon that he had to defeat before she would give up.

(His lies often involve Elsa fighting back somehow. It’s hard to admit now that he was about to kill a defenseless woman in cold blood.)

So he lies, for as long as they allow him to, because he is a very entertaining liar. But eventually they grow bored of it, as they always do.

And he relents, and tells them the truth.

He tells them how, as he went to deliver the final blow, Anna had appeared out of nowhere. How she had protected her sister who had neglected her for all those years, who had frozen their kingdom; how she stood in front of him and blocked his sword as she froze even though the woman she was protecting had been the one to curse her heart to freeze in the first place.

And then, well…

“You really don’t remember anything?” They ask.

“What part of ‘knocked unconscious’ do you not understand?” he retorts.

But even though he doesn’t remember Anna or the kingdom unfreezing, he can tell them now why it happened.

“An act of true love can thaw a frozen heart.” He tells them. “Even after everything Elsa had done, Anna still loved her enough to save her. Her love for her sister is what freed her heart, and then inspired Elsa to find a way to undo her magic and save their kingdom from the endless winter.”

(He knows that he shouldn’t feel happy at this part. He certainly wasn’t happy when he had woken up, back then. But he sees the light in the children’s eyes when he tells them this part, when he tells them that true love is real and it is out there, when he sees siblings and cousins quietly holding hands or pulling each other closer despite his brothers encouraging them to fight and argue among each other as they once had done.

And if he can give them the reassurance he had never gotten as a child, if he can encourage them to hold on to that hope instead of letting it be buried under abuse and loneliness and neglect, then maybe there’s hope for his family yet.)

But they are still obnoxious children.

“You haven’t told us the best part.” Christian complains.

“Isn’t Anna and Elsa saving the kingdom the best part?” he says sweetly.

(It never works, but it’s a tradition by now.)

“Just do it,” Hilda demands.

He sighs. Then he stands up and reenacts Anna’s reaction to him after he had woken up.

As he mimes getting punched in the face and tosses himself dramatically in the fountain, the children laugh and cheer hearty. Little brats.

Well at least someone is satisfied with the end of his story.

He doesn’t notice the fountain water feels icier than usual or that the children have become oddly silent until he hears her.

“Well that’s funny. I certainly don’t remember the dragon.”

---

(And then the kids end up thinking Anna and Elsa are the coolest ever and are really mad that Hans didn’t marry one of them and pester him about it.

“I could have had an aunt with magic ice powers! Uncle Haaaans!”

“So I know Miss Anna has a boyfriend now...but does Miss Elsa have anyone? Because my uncle’s still single...”

*flustered Hans noises* “FOR GOODNESS SAKES - COULD YOU NOT - I TRIED TO - SHE DOESN’T... I...apologize for them, your highness. They don’t understand the severity of the situation -”

“But you feel bad about what you did now, right uncle Hans?”

“...What...feelings? I don’t have feelings! Obviously! Someone like me have feelings that’s ridiculous who has feelings nowadays why-”

*more flustered Hans noises*

*Elsa snickering in the background*)

#helsa #helsaweek #helsaween #helsaweek2019

38 notes · View notes

wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 5 years

Text

Psycho Analysis: Princess Ahmanet

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

Universal really shouldn’t have tried getting on the shared universe bandwagon, huh? The restarted attempt at the Dark Universe was a bomb, but if nothing else, it did give us one thing: the sexy, evil mummy Princess Ahmanet, a villain so cool she deserved a better movie. Of course, as much as I enjoy Ahmanet, and as decent as I think her movie is, I don’t think I truly get Ahmanet… So I decided to call in some help. For this Psycho Analysis, I have enlisted the aid of Ahmanet’s #1 fan and probably the only person on Earth who loves the 2017 attempt of The Mummy: my wife, @lilmissrantsypants!

She did basically all the work aside from this intro and some closing thoughts; the Actor, Motivation/Goals, Personality, and Final Fate sections are all her words, not mine. Of course, I’ll throw my two cents in at the end, but really, wouldn’t you rather hear a character summarized by their biggest fan than by someone who’s just a casual fan?

Actor: Sofia Boutella has been in a few films prior to The Mummy (2017), such as Kingsman: The Secret Service (her breakout role, really) and Star Trek Beyond, but this was her biggest role yet in my opinion. Boutella really enjoyed Ahmanet, which is obvious by her high praise of the character in interviews. She has said Ahmanet is “the definition of a feminist”, which I don’t know if I agree with necessarily since she’s not really doing anything beneficial to women, but I understand what she’s trying to say since previously, the character of the mummy has been played by a man. She also believes this because Ahmanet was denied the chance to be Pharaoh purely because she’s a female (which occurs when her father produces a male heir) and, rather than playing the victim, she takes things into her own hands. She says Ahmanet is “strong, powerful, and opinionated”.

She proved to The Mummy (2017) director Alex Kurtzmann she was perfect for the role through her performance as Gazelle in Kingsman. She showed compassion or anger purely through her eyes, which was a trait he wanted for Ahmanet. She also has the ability to move slowly and powerfully, which is similar to how ancient Egyptian royalty moved, which is something she likely learned as a dancer.

One fun fact I discovered while looking up how she feels about the character (which I knew, but needed a refresher on) is she’s 37. I honestly had no idea. I thought she was my age (28)! She looks so young in this role (and all roles, really). She’s truly a beautiful soul.

Motivation/Goals: Ahmanet’s motivation is set up pretty clearly in the beginning of the movie. She was to become Pharaoh to take her father’s place and was to be praised as a living god as his only heir. But he produced a son who, simply because he was born a male, would become Pharaoh instead. As it is narrated in the movie, “Ahmanet understood that power was not given. It had to be taken.” She makes a deal with Set, who is incorrectly named the Egyptian god of death (come on, really? Everyone knows the Egyptian god of death is Anubis), who basically gives her god powers and brands her with hieroglyphic tattoos from the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. To hold up her end of the bargain, Ahmanet must perform a ritual to bring Set into the body of a mortal. She attempts this after killing her father and her brother (and, honestly, probably her father’s lover/wife, even if that wasn’t shown). Since she was captured and buried alive, she never got to rule as Pharaoh. However, she still had her end of the bargain to hold up, which was mainly her motivation for the movie (as well as her main goal).

Strangely, she chooses Tom Cruise’s character, Nick Morton, as her Setepa-i (or “My Chosen”) and proceeds to mess with his head to get him to give in to her so she can perform the ritual and Set can enter his body. One minor goal she picks up along the way is to kill Jenny purely because Nick has the hots for her and because she keeps preventing the Egyptian queen from achieving her goal.

Personality: You know, I hate to say it, but Ahmanet doesn’t have much of a personality. This is probably because she’s so focused on achieving her goal. I’m sure when she was alive in ancient Egypt, she was a fascinating person, but we’ll never know what she truly is like. In the movie, we see a mix of character traits from her. One, and probably the most prominent, is how regal she is. Ahmanet doesn’t really run in this movie. She always walks with her head held high, even when Nick and Jenny are freaking out and running away. She’s always in control, and she makes this extremely obvious by simply walking everywhere. One of my favorite scenes that really shows her regality happens near the end of the movie. The undead skeletons of the Crusader knights let her into the underground dig site to retrieve the jewel from Set’s dagger. Even when her “people” are just skeletons she’s demanded to come “alive” and serve her, she still walks with purpose. Her head is held high and the expression on her face tells you she is queen and she knows it. It’s absolutely beautiful.

Another character trait is manipulation. This is purely done with Nick since he’s her chosen and she’s trying to sway him to her side. She’s got the ability to break out of any situation, but she still puts on the puppy dog eyes and tries to reason with him or guilt him into helping her. She’s often in his head, both before and after she escapes from her sarcophagus, showing him images where she’s actively seducing him. Probably my favorite part is when she’s bound in Prodigium’s headquarters. She’s fully capable of releasing herself, but as Nick is crossing a walkway to escape, she gives him the most innocent, pleading look you’ll ever see from Ahmanet. She probably would have gotten him to help her if the fire blocking Jenny’s way hadn’t simmered down. As soon as the two continue leaving after Jenny snaps Nick out of his trance, Ahmanet screams in anger and easily breaks herself free.

It’s really hard to write about her character since, like I said, she doesn’t have much of one, so these two character traits really are the most I can say about her. I suppose you could also say she’s selfish and narcissistic since she’s really not thinking of anyone but herself through the whole movie (even to the point where she rationalizes killing her newborn brother by saying, “They were different times”)..

Final Fate: I wonder what would have happened had Set managed to completely take over Nick’s mind and body, but that’s not what happened in The Mummy (2017) canon. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know Ahmanet achieved her goal (even if she wasn’t the one who actually did it). Nick battles with Set for control over his mind and ends up winning (thanks to Jenny mainly since he sees her dead body and remembers her telling him he’s a good man). He easily defeats Ahmanet since now he’s got all of Set’s powers and sucks the life from her just like she did every single person she killed (but slower so we can see her decompose). She ends up being buried in her sarcophagus again where she will, unfortunately, stay since Dark Universe has basically died yet again. RIP Ahmanet.

Best Scene: My wife shockingly didn’t pick these next two things out, so let me just say I’ve always liked the opening that details her origins, as well as the scene where she apes Imhotep and makes the giant cloud of debris; that shot was in a lot of the trailers, and her strutting with her arms outstretched really goes to show how she’s a villain who deserved way better than she got.

Best Quote: Basically any time she breathily utters “Setepa-i,” which Boutella makes uncomfortably hot. Frankly I’m not sure how Tom Cruise managed to resist that. Oh wait, that’s right! Tom Cruise is an idiot and terrible with women.

Final Thoughts & Score: While I’m doing the overall final thoughts, here is what my wife had to say:

“As hard as it was, I wrote this as fairly as I could without any personal bias. I absolutely love Ahmanet and I would have loved to see more of her in the movie, but Tom Cruise warped things around so he got all of the screen time and Sofia Boutella got hardly any. If I was giving the score, she’d have gotten a 8.5/10 (even though I want to give her a 10/10, not really having a personality really takes away from a perfect score).”

Generally speaking, I do agree. Ahmanet is a fascinating character on paper, and Sofia Boutella really manages to sell her with her performance, but she unfortunately has the misfortune of having to share the film with the egotistical manlet known as Tom Cruise. Cruise really did twist things around in this film so he could get more screentime, because as we all know, Tom Cruise is starved for starring roles in big budget movies and definitely needed the exposure compared to a woman who is best known for playing side characters. I mean, she’s only playing the title character, let’s cut out tons of stuff that could have expanded on her so we can see Tom Cruise run!

I’m very salty about it. I think there were good ideas for a film in here, particularly her being a female monster, which as of this writing is a bit of a novelty; aside from the Bride of Frankenstein, there aren’t really many notable female Universal monsters, or classical sort of horror monsters in general. If anyone else had been in Cruise’s role, I think Ahmanet could have been fully realized as there wouldn’t be a money-grubbing Scientologist jerking the director around. Sadly, as written, she is a bit half baked and underutilized despite being the titular monster, though thankfully Sofia Boutella is able to salvage what works and make Ahament at least moderately entertaining. I’d say she deserves a 7/10. I can’t stress enough that Boutella really carries the character even when there isn’t much there, but I can’t really justify much higher because her screen time is so limited and, like my wife says, she lacks a clear personality.

I’d never say this movie is as good as the Brendan Fraser Mummy movies, but I think it deserved a lot better, especially considering Boutella’s character being so much more engaging than the heroes. At the very least, she got a solid showing in the video game adaptation of the movie, The Mummy Demastered, which is a Metroidvania made by Shantae creator WayForward. At the end of the day, Ahmanet is just an underutilized and underwritten villain carried by an actress giving it her all, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, she could have been so much better.

#Psycho Analysis #Princess Ahmanet #The Mummy #The Mummy 2017 #Dark Universe #Universal #Sofia Boutella #Tom Cruise #lilmissrantsypants

47 notes · View notes

arcanalogue · 5 years

Photo

ON TYRANNY - An Unsolicited Tarot Tour, pt. II

In my initial post groping for symbolic parallels between the Major Arcana and Timothy Snyder’s ON TYRANNY, we covered The Fool and The Magician.

In the few days then (just to show how fast time seems to move during a budding oligarchy), video has surfaced of the President speaking to rich donors at one of his own hotels, in which he says: “The European Union is a group of countries that got together to screw the United States, it’s as simple as that.” He goes on to explain why this is surprising: “We’re all sort of from there, right?”

He also tweeted a thinly-veiled threat suggesting that Adam Schiff, the US rep who gave a rousing speech in the impeachment trial the other day, “has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!”

There’s also video of his pick for Special Advisor to the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative, Paula White, working this bit into a sermon: “We command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now.”

And just for fun, a case of the Wuhan coronavirus was detected near Los Angeles, and today officials are reporting that, as feared, the disease is contagious before the appearance of symptoms. There are still plenty of good folks left at the CDC, right? The lights are on, at least?

But if we let paroxysms of fear induced by bad headlines stop us from going about our day, pretty much none of us would have made it through 2017 �� and yet here we are, two full years beyond that point, still rallying, still cracking jokes, still helping each other get things back on track. And sure, my beard and chest hair are suddenly growing in all white, but that’s fine! The sharper contrast will be dazzling against all of my goth attire. How’s that for a silver lining?

Anyway, on to the cards.

The High Priestess represents everything we take for granted about our own awareness. She’s the source of our inspiration, the dream we awaken from that colors our perception of the day; she’s the vapors sighing from a crack in the earth, and she’s also the Pythia who hears and interprets those whispers.

Most of us realize we’re more than just our cognition, or our memories, but it’s still quite easy to lose track of the various pillars our interior world is formed around... until one of them is suddenly swept away.

And it’s the same with our exterior life, because “interior” and “exterior” are only matters of scale, baby. Your mind is your own (for now), but how did it become what it became? What unseen protections was it afforded?

Most people probably think of libraries, or organizations, or certain publications when they hear the word “institutions.” But so many different things fall under this category, it’s actually mind-boggling! It really makes you ponder about the particular framework of your community. Some are more fragile or less corporeal than others; to LGBTQ people, a bar can serve as an institution. Hell, in Brooklyn a taco restaurant can be described as a “mainstay” if it manages to last 15 years.

Some institutions are really only useful to those who created them, and others or who are well-adapted to them, and are bound to crumble naturally with time. A lot of what history has thought to provide will be useless to people in the coming century and beyond; their needs are evolving drastically, right in front of our eyes. This is why we also need to create safe and fertile territory for new institutions to be formed, and try not to take it too personally when the world just moves on. Memento mori, and all that.

But this entropy is not what Snyder’s talking about: he says DEFEND institutions, implying they are under attack. And some of this is very easy to watch for, because we think we know what an attack looks like. But as Snyder’s chapter points out:

“Sometimes institutions are deprived of vitality and function, turned into a simulacrum of what they once were, so that they gird the new order, instead of resisting it. This is what the Nazis called Gleichschaltung.”

You know, like appointing industrial tycoons to manage the EPA and the Department of Education, or leaving countless government positions unfilled so that none of the departments can function quite as they used to.

No one can look after all of them, and none of us knows which we’ll depend on most in a key moment. That means we all have to fan out and each claim a different piece of the puzzle. But which one? And how?

Reflect on the mental architecture that contributed to the formation of your own mind, and then let the Priestess guide you.

The tarot-ticklers of antiquity may have determined that The Emperor’s power trumps that of The Empress (as the cards are ordered so that each one “triumphs” over the one that preceded it), but he can’t exist without her, and everyone in the kingdom knows it.

In this chapter Snyder invokes the popular saying “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” adding:

“When we think of this saying today, we imagine our own righteous vigilance directed outward, against misguided and hostile others... But the sense of the saying was entirely different: that human nature is such that American democracy must be defended from Americans who would exploit its freedoms to bring about its end.”

In readings I often explain to people that The Emperor represents the outward-looking ruler, the conqueror, the prospector, the warlord. The Empress is the inward looking ruler, tending to the needs of the people, governing, presiding over everything that gives life meaning.

I mentioned above that the very concept of interior/exterior is only a matter of scale. Those terms are used very flexibly, aren’t they? There’s the interior of my body, and the interior of my home, and the interior of my apartment complex, and so on. At some point it stops being “my” anything. Suddenly we’re looking beyond my town, or my state, or my country. Sometimes others draw those lines for us, and other times we have to be The Emperor, pushing back against that line, drawing one of our own, defending what’s rightfully ours.

Regarding our own interior as a nation: in case you hadn’t heard (HAHA!) we’re about to stagger through a series of important elections. The one thing we know for sure is that the results of these elections will be disputed, no matter what they happen to be. If we can no longer trust the outcome of an election — due to internal fiddling, not just foreign — then what’s the point of having them at all? You can already sense everyone’s fatigue, ripe to be exploited.

The GOP is already slavering for it, canceling primaries left and right so that Trump will run unopposed for reelection. A “one-party” election suits them just fine. Debates only raise questions, and give a platform to challengers. In order for Trump 2020 to seem like an inevitable choice, he has to be the only choice.

Ruining the public’s faith in American democracy is part of the strategy, because of course it is. Later in Chapter III, Snyder offers yet another popular saying: “Where annual elections end, tyranny begins.”

The work required to protect the upcoming election, and make sure people still care about the outcome, can only be done by Americans organizing and working together on every level: personal, local, national. The fatalism and cynicism everyone’s feeling is understandable, but it ought to drive one toward active participation in preserving what little democracy we have left.

Otherwise, what’s the point? If it’s more important to have your worst fears confirmed, to be able to say “I told you so,” to bargain with the inevitability of fascism, then you’re rooting against The Empress and the rest of us. You’re part of the rot in your own kingdom.

If you’re someone who does Empress-related work, this is your new practice: she is calling you to serve as guardian and minister of the interior. Whatever inspiration you manage to muster, your role is to imbue others with it, and resist whatever negativity you may encounter as you do so.

Are your friends and family registered to vote? Are they sure? Do your representatives in Congress have a plan in place for when Trump refuses to concede? What communities near you could use a leg up in terms of outreach? Ask questions. Get creative. Be a constructive part of the pressure.

What you manage to accomplish on your own may seem meager, but pouring energy into these concerns will remind others why this fight still matters, and it will encourage those who never forgot. We need everyone in this fight.

Our last “real” election can’t already be behind us. The Empress is counting on us to make sure of it.

This is Part II in a series of posts about Timothy Snyder’s ON TYRANNY, which can be purchased via your local bookstore, and also here.

#the empress #the high priestess #major arcana #timothy snyder #on tyranny #tarot cards

3 notes · View notes

borisbubbles · 5 years

Text

Eurovision 2010s: 30 - 26

30. Nika Kocharov & Young Georgian Lolitaz - “Midnight Gold” Georgia 2016

youtube

When rating Eurovision entrants, it’s important to also take note of the journey, and Nika Kocharov had one of the best ever? Similarly to The Shin, everyone was just about:blank towards “Midnight gold”, not understanding the concept and ranking it last in unison. Like Shin & Mariko, I was mostly intrigued and willing to give it a chance. Unlike the Shin though, I thought “Midnight Gold” was a good song for its genre, just not one I was that entheused by. The revamp, which provided the setting of a mad scientist’s laboratory, was a step in the right direction, providing a hint of entropy, a dash of absurdity, a spark of insanity. And then, at long last, the dénouement:

STAINS OF MUD

ON UR SKIN

THE NIGHT WILL COME

AND SO WILL SIN

Winning LIFE *and* everyone over with that <3 I don’t think ANYONE could have anticipated that “Midnight gold” would deliver a non-stop absynthe-minded ACID TRIP in Stockholm. 😍 The visuals were so ICONIC they are still setting the special effects bar in the present day. This is Sacha Jean-Baptiste’s best staging. Period. Not “Euphoria”. Not “Alter ego”. Not “Fuego”. "Midnight gold”. BY FAR. Would it be even considered a stretch to go as far as saying that “Midnight Gold” has the best staging of any Eurovision entrant to date? I don’t think it does, but it is definitely a contender.

Who would have thought that THIS song would become one of the more memorable, epic entries of a great year such as 2016? Of course the flawless staging also made me retroactively appreciate “Midnight gold” as a song as well and I regularly give it play time whenever I can. 😍 STAINS OF MUD.

ps: I don’t care about fashion much, but I want his hat.

________________________________________________________________

29. Naviband - “Story of my life” Belarus 2017

youtube

[2017 Review here]

HEY HEY! HAYAYAYA HO!

What superlatives can I still use for describe the pure, unshattering LIGHT that is “Historija majho zyccia”? It leaks mirth from every pore, infecting everyone around it with the irresistable urge to tap their feet along to the HEY HEY HA JA JA HO’s!

At the center of this wonderful hovercraftian masterpiece lie Artiom and Ksenia, two of the most adorable humans ever to exist, who are also a couple irl and it shows. The two have chemistry and charisma in spades, especially Ksenia who is the living embodiment of the “^__^” emoji. I am ALWAYS happy when I listen to this song and I am thrilled we got to hear it twice.

Eurosnob contempt for happiness is a well-documented feature in this ranking, but it reached its nadir with Naviband: You see, in addition to being ‘A Happy Song’ (a term used with contempt, imagine that O_O), Naviband are also folk singers from Belarus, who -shocker- sing in Belarusian. However, don’t be harsh on the Eurosnobs because the area of the dopamine receptors in the brain of a Naviband hater are always attached to a person who isn’t living happily ever after. Naviband is life at its best. EMBRACE IT. Like this Lithuanian frump did:

________________________________________________________________

28. Måns Zelmerlöw - “Heroes” Sweden 2015

youtube

lol I JUST spoke about “Midnight gold” having one of the best, but not the best staging. Well, that’s because “Heroes” is, in my opinion, the most visually impressive Eurovision entry of all times. 🤗 I don’t think it’s even a stretch to call it that? “Heroes” as a song is widely regarded as pretty whatever, winning due to its act. However, while I don’t necessarily disagree this is why Måns won, I feel this take very much undersells Måns. Using it at an excuse to dismiss his goodness is ridiculous.

First of all; “Heroes” IS a really, really good song. Infectuous, upbeat, irresistably positive with highly quotable lyrics (”now go sing it like a hummingbird the greatest anthem ever heard” 😍) and an earnest anti-bullying message (<3). It may not be *as* original as some of the entries ranked around it on this list, but it definitely handles its own, with and without an act.

Another defining factor in making “Heroes” a great entry is Måns himself. Måns Zelmerlöw is arguably the most attractive human to ever set a foot on a Eurovision stage. The man is irresistable even on a platonic level. He puts every other charismatic performer to shame and does it effortlessly.

However, even with these two trump cards, the staging is indeed the best part of “Heroes”. It bears repeating that I think this is the best Eurovision act to date. Impressive visual effects, flawless choreography and impeccable camerawork elevate “Heroes” to a much higher level. It tells it story with more clarity and efficacity than any other entry I can think of.

Ultimately, Måns staging is a testament of his goodness, and an acceptable reason for winning Eurovision. Because of “Heroes”, many countries have upped their staging game, resulting in more visually impressive entries (specifically the Sabotage Baptiste ones in 2016, and Sergey I guess), which is a positive development. Live music isn’t so much about which song you perform, but about how you perform it, and “Heroes” is the best example of that.

_______________________________________________________________

27. ZiBBZ - “Stones” Switzerland 2018

youtube

[2018 Review Here]

WILD JOKAH ON A GOLD THRONE

Here we are again, our annual appointment with everyone’s favourite sibling alliance. 😍 “Stones” is powerful kick-ass diamond of indie-rock and a serious contender for my favourite Swiss entry of all time.

The song is a masterclass in mental health awareness and self-empowerment, dismantling bullying and depression with perfectly timed percussion and AHUMs, truth-bombing lyrics and an insanely charismatic lead who sounds like Joss Stone on five packs a day. 😍 It’s catchier than ebola, more addictive than sugar and soars higher than a kite.

In addition to all of that jazz, “Stones” is also responsible for some of the most iconic visuals in 2018:

God the shot of Coco with the flare still sends shivers down my spine. WHAT A CRUSADER OF THE DOWNTRODDEN. 😍 Whenever I’m feeling down, this is the song that lifts me back up again.

Really, the only thing not good about ZiBBZ was the camerawork and that wasn’t their fault. FY Hans Pancake. 🙄 If ever there were a robbed NQ who deserves a Genovaesque return, it’s the Zibblings. BRING THEM BACK!!!

________________________________________________________________

26. Paula Seling & Ovi - “Playing with fire” Romania 2010

youtube

Speaking of highly addictive songs, holy cow Ovi I need rehab for that beat alone because I CANNOT get it out of my head.

Anyway, who else would be the #1 for Romania if not for Paula Seling and Ovi? “Miracle” was a beautiful example of tacky taste, but “Playing with fire”, man, :takes a sip of gin:, now that is the real stuff.

I’ll start, I guess, where I’ve begun my write-up which is the composition: “Playing with fire” has one of the best underlying beats in this decade, which gives it infinite replayability. Layered on top of that is some delightfully aggressive piano (😍), on top of THAT some amazingly playful lyrics (”BOY BOY BOY If we’re mean, i would start a fight tonight” songs about playfighting <3) and on top of THAT, Paula Seling. Paula is the STAR of this performance, stealing the show every time she’s shown with deliciously flirtatious facial expressions

and some vocal masturbation in the guise of a dolphin impersonation.

She and Ovi and ignite the place with both insane pyrotechnics and spontaneous chemistry. So fun, SO GOOD, so dynamic especially for an act where the main singers sit down in front of a double-headed plexiglass piano (😍). Duncan Laurence DEAD in a motherfucking DITCH.

And with this update we have eliminated FIVE countries. Check their reviews below:

GEORGIA

Georgia is such a bizarre Eurovision country, often churning out absolutely BONKERS entries that leave Europe stunned in silence. <3 It may not be reflected in their vital statistics but I always look forward for what they have on offer because even in the rare case of them being boring, they are always interesting.

BELARUS

Belarus was one of the worst countries in the 00s, but in the 2010s they’ve evolved into a bargain bin Moldova, which makes them solidly good. It’s really astounding that a country SO GOOD at being entertaining gets dismissed so easily because of their flag (and dictatorship (and gay rights)). They’re mostly good and 100% worthy of our time, tyvm!!

SWEDEN

The worst part of Sweden’s success streak is that it made them conceited and lazy. They no longer need to be innovative, creative or entertaining in order to get a top five position and worse, they are fully aware of it. This resulted in a marked drop in quality and if they don’t curb their hubris quickly, I predict it will soon come back to bite them. (ie: another NQ)

SWITZERLAND

B A S I C. Zibbz and Luca did a lot of the heavy lifting here, which caused Switz to mathematically outrank Sweden, and while that’s hilarious it also feels absurd and wrong. Don’t be fooled by all that green though. Switzerland are basic bitches and have no idea what to do in order to be cool.

ROMANIA

Romania are one of the better hit-or-miss countries in Eurovision, imo even if the chart doesn’t fully reflect it. The problem I have with them is that their entries don’t have a long shelf life. Like, the Cezars and Ilincae of this world grow stale very quickly because they’re exhausting and shallow. Having said that, this is by far preferable over being consistently boring (UK) or violently oscillating between great and demonic entries (Germany, Demark).

#Eurovision #Eurovision Song Contest #Georgia #Belarus #Sweden #Switzerland #Romania #Nika Kocharov & Young Georgian Lolitaz #Midnight Gold #navimumbai #Story of my life #Historija majho zyccia #Måns Zelmerlöw #Heroes #ZiBBZ #stones #Paula Seling #Ovi #playing with fire

20 notes · View notes

gemmayim · 5 years

Text

Interview with Colin, a librarian in Walthamstow library in 1980s

I had an In-depth interview with Colin, who worked in library in Walthamstow for 5 years in 1980s to better know more about libraries and books in the past.

Question: It has been a long time since you worked in library, is there anything that you still remember and feel important to you?

I still remember clearly the reason why I quit my job in library. In 1985, the library in Walthamstow started to introduce computers to replace the card index system for borrowing and returning books and the trend started in most libraries in London since 1980s.. I needed to help with making the barcodes and the admin for that back then and I could feel that my job was going to be replaced by the computers. What I don’t like most about computerisation is that it took away the connection between the public and the staff. It was an important way for people, especially elderlies who live by themselves to meet people.

Question: How would you run a library?

I think libraries nowadays have become souless because there is a lack of interaction between users and the staff. If users need to interact with staff when they borrow/ return books, it creates a community. I used to make friends with the users and staffs in the library. People would say hello to me on the streets in Walthamstow because they knew me from library. I really enjoyed interacting with the children there.

Question: Who are the regular users of the library?

Elderly women, who are around 60-80s, visited the library more often. They normally borrow romance book like Mills Boon, which is some kind of slashy, tame romance stories. Jacky Collins is another popular choice among the elderly women. Some of the elderly women would ask his friend in the library Linda to find erotic romance fiction for them. I guess if the users can find books on the computer system, it would be more private when they want to find books that are more personal.

Question: Was there any event in the library that you really liked or disliked back then?

We didn't usually have events in the library. Sometimes there were talks given by some author, like Michael Rosen. I remember we had a Children's Book week to encourage kids to read more book, and I wore a clown costume and promoted the event with a girl who was wearing a teddy bear costume. That was the only book week for children in the 5 years that I worked there. They did have book weeks for other groups but it didn’t happen that often.

Question: How was the reading culture in 1980s?

Reading culture was much stronger back then. When I was young, I regarded the libraries as churches because of the silence and the atmosphere there. Staff would tell you off if you spoke loudly in the library. And I think the attitude changes over time.

Question: What’s the difference between the reading culture in the past and nowadays?

I think, in the past, we only had radios, magazines, one channel on TV and maybe records to listen to music and no other kinds of entertainment in the media. Nowadays, we have computers and the internet that offer different kinds of entertainment to us and I think that definitely affects the use of libraries, less people go to the library nowadays.

Question: Was it common that people stole books from the library?

I don’t know how common it was but they used to have agents knocking on people’s doors if they haven’t returned the books to the library after a certain time. They probably called reprocessing officers, who worked for the council for collecting rent or other kinds of duty. After the book were overdue for weeks, the library would send the user a warning letter/ reminder and if it was overdue for months, the reprocessing officer would then go knock on their door to collect the fee and the book. I remember there was a time that a reprocessing officer went to the user’s house and found that the room was full of books that were borrowed/ stolen from the library.

Question: What do you think about books in general?

I love the feeling of a paperback and I treat books with reverence. Even I own the book, I treat it as if it is not mine and with utmost respect and very carefully.

I think books exercise a lot of power and transport someone to have a variety of feelings. It conjure different feelings and emotions and it is magical how words take readers to different parts of the world at different times, having different experiences. Books set light to our imagination and there is no limit to the way you think and feel.

Question: How do you get your book?

I normally buy books in bargained bookshops, or charity shops like Oxfarm

Question: How will you treat your book after reading it?

My sportsbooks accumulate at home and find it difficult to give books away to someone who are actually interested in it. And I am reluctant to give away my books because I am quite attached to my sport books. I do give them away to my friends, but only occasionally

Question: Is there any story behind a book that you really like?

In 1960, I was about 9, Arsenal bought a player George Eastham and I was very excited because I thought George Eastham would greatly improve the team a lot. Then Geroge wrote a biography about himself and I managed to get a copy through a supporter club, which is a signed copy written “Best wishes, George Eastham” (see the photo)

Question: Do you think the signature gives more meaning to the book?

Yes, I think so.

Question: What do you think about books in a digital world?

I feel sad that books are taken over by the internet, but the internet can make it much easier for people to find information and from an environmental perspective, the internet is better because it takes much more energy to print and produce a book than posting it on the internet.

Takeaway and Afterthoughts:

I was very intrigued to hear Colin’s story of working in the library in Walthamstow, especially his perceptive of library being soulless after computerisation. Despite his personal resistance to computerisation of the library system, he is actually open to the changes of the society and agreed with the advantages Brough by technological advancement. Yet, if library is actually becoming soulless due to the lack of human interaction, if we need to repurpose and rejuvenate library in our society, what more should we do to make it more accessible with a “soul”? How can we bridge the distance between individuals when they come to library? And how can we attract people to go to library again?

Out of curiosity, I searched on Google to see if there is any existing project that try to bring library alive again and found that a library in Ireland, dlr LexIcon, actually become a local attraction and important community centre since they renovated and reopen in 2017.

Shared by a librarian and event programmer from dlr LexIcon in an interview,

“Regarding challenges or opportunities for the future, I would list the following; the changing concept of the library model, upskilling of staff and the public to embrace the evolving culture of libraries, technological developments and digitalisation, a recovering economy, employment support and adapting and supporting changing demographics in the area i.e. older people, immigrants, young families etc.”

“Our current ambition is to connect and empower people, inspire ideas and support community potential”

“We couldn’t do what we do without all the teamwork and passion. Bring in writers, musicians, storytellers, digital curators in-house as they bring new life and energetic perspectives. We are always trying out our spaces in different ways and it is amazing how many people will come and look at an exhibition that has been on display for a while if you just move it to a slightly different location.”

Source: https://princh.com/how-can-a-new-library-connect-and-inspire-communities-dlr-libraries/

From the look of it, no radical or outrageously innovative changes made in the library, but as Colin mentioned in the interview, they strive to promote the connection and empowerment in the community. If connection and empowerment are the key ingredients to rejuvenate a community and is there a “smarter” way to do it? Also, does human interaction have to be happened in library? if library is just being renovated into a community centre, and physical books are not the main characters anymore, why do we still keep it as a book library? What is actually the right question to ask if changes has to be made? These questions reminded me of the tool library project Lara mentioned in the lecture and the discussion in our first group meeting, Of course! More than books! But Tools and resource!

In that case, back to the main topic about books and library, do library really need physical books anymore?

#library #books

1 note · View note

casspurrjoybell · 5 years

Text

2018 Kia Soul Review

Used car dealership Omaha

Intro

" But he's got a great personality!" When it comes to arranged dates, this is the default description for somebody who may be doing not have in the looks department.

The Kia Soul, a compact multi-purpose lorry type thing that's not quite a subcompact crossover because of its absence of four-wheel drive, and not rather a hatchback since of its towering height, is not only a car with character brimming from every crevice, however likewise has looks covering the range from cute to dreadful, depending upon whom you ask. And simply in 2015, Kia gave the Soul a lot more wit by slapping a turbocharger on the engine to make it much more personable.

What Owners Say

2018 Kia Soul front quarter left photoThat last change, offered solely in the leading trim level, fixed a significant complaint with this spunky little automobile. For that reason, for this evaluation, J.D. Power examined a 2018 Kia Soul Exclaim geared up with optional floor mats. The price came to $23,820, consisting of the $895 location charge.

Before we talk about the results of our examination of the Kia Soul, it is useful to understand who purchases this automobile, and what they like most and least about their Souls.

More ladies than males own Kia Souls, with 52% of Soul owners recognizing as female. Compared to the Compact Multi-Purpose Vehicle section, 46% of owners are ladies.

Soul owners are about the exact same age as compact MPV owners (60 years vs. 61 years for the segment), however they enjoy considerably lower median annual home income at $59,286 (vs. $78,682). This drastic difference might be discussed by the automobiles in the competitive set, which include the Ford C-Max and Toyota Prius v, devoted hybrids that might attract more upscale buyers.

Approximately the same variety of Soul owners and compact MPV owners identify as Price Buyers, appearing to verify that lower mean annual household earnings among Kia buyers is not, within the section, dictating their choice in an automobile. Compact MPV owners are more worried about fuel economy and environmentally friendly cars than Soul owners are, reflecting the existence of dedicated hybrid designs in the competitive set.

In other respects, Soul owners and compact MPV owners are aligned with 2 exceptions. Soul owners are most likely to agree that they like a vehicle that stands apart from the crowd (72% vs. 60%) and that they like a vehicle that uses responsive handling and powerful acceleration (82% vs. 76%).

Owners report that their favorite features of the Soul are (in descending order) the exterior styling, interior decoration, driving dynamics, seats, and storage and space. Owners suggest that their least preferred features of the Soul are (in descending order) exposure and safety, the infotainment system, the climate system, the engine/transmission, and fuel economy.

What Our Expert Says

In the areas that follow, our specialist supplies her own perceptions about how the Kia Soul determines up in each of the 10 classifications that comprise the 2017 APEAL Study.

Outside

The Soul is a lorry of cartoonish proportions, all created to set it apart from its rivals. It's boxy from the beltline up and a little lumpy down, with the wheel arches and the front headlamps adding blobby aspects to an otherwise squared-off lorry. The front grille (which isn't one, actually) looks too little and the lower air intake looks too huge.

Kia jazzes up the Soul Exclaim's currently extroverted exterior with red accent lines to denote the engine's additional boost and bigger 18-inch wheels to provide it a more assertive position. The Soul is one of those automobiles that you either like or dislike, but even haters might grow keen on it after driving it for a while.

Interior

Consider the base Soul. It has a tiny beginning rate of $16,995 (with $895 location), however it features a much better interior than you 'd think a vehicle of that rate may include. The quality level easily makes sense in my more expensive test car, or even a vehicle priced closer to $30,000.

When compared to compact crossovers like the Chevrolet Trax or the Toyota C-HR, which have lots of inexpensive products, the Soul's interior quality stands apart even more. The cabin is made up of appealing soft-touch materials and durable, nicely finished plastics, and collectively they provide the vehicle a surprising quantity of refinement.

The Exclaim's unique cloth seats with leather boosts and red contrast stitching are also mighty trendy.

Seats

For motorists, the Kia Soul is rather comfy, and I always value it when small, low-cost vehicles include a center console armrest, like many versions of the Soul do. Seriously, who does not require an armrest? Nobody keeps his/her hands on the wheel at all times.

For guests, comfort is fine other than that the front right chair is mounted too low and is not geared up with a seat height adjustment unless you choose the package that consists of power change. Without this upgrade, the guest is dealt with to the equivalent of a dunce chair for a small time out. This, combined with an absence of thigh assistance, means pain.

Rear-seat travelers fare better, since the seat is mounted higher. Foot room is plentiful, however tough plastic front seatback panels might show uncomfortable for taller individuals. Shoulder area is great for 2, however three will find it tight.

Climate Control System

The climate control system is fairly basic, however in the Exclaim trim it is a single-zone automated system. A single knob changes temperature, and due to the fact that the vehicle does not have a temperature display you merely make it hotter or cooler than you are when you dial in change.

Remarkably, however, the Soul has a Clean Air ionizer, which supposedly cleans up the cabin's air and keeps the interior smelling great. If it's working with my grade-school-age daughters in the automobile, it's simply hard to inform.

Infotainment System

I was a little bummed to see that my test vehicle did not include the Technology Package, that includes speaker that pulse with light to the thumping beat of what's playing on the audio system. They're extremely entertaining, and along with all the other goodies that it features, like a navigation system and heating for the seats and steering wheel, the Technology Package is a bargain.

However, the Soul Exclaim's basic infotainment system includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone forecast, so it was simple to get directions to locations.

In addition to smartphone forecast, Kia offers Soul owners open door to UVO eServices telematics functions for the duration of ownership. This includes services such as automated collision notice; speed, curfew and geographical boundary alerts for teenaged drivers; an app that keeps an eye on where you last parked the Soul; and a lot more.

Storage and Space

The Soul's rectangular shape provides itself to bring a lot more than you would think for such a little automobile, and storage is among things that Soul owners like about their Kias. This is not unexpected, due to the fact that in the cabin, storage space is plentiful. There is a big glove box, thoughtful little bins and trays around the transmission shifter, and big door panel bins to make arranging your things easier.

Behind the rear seats, an 18.8 cu.-ft. trunk avails itself to you. That measurement consists of a covered, separated tray under the freight floor that organizes your things. Take that out and get rid of the freight floor, and this little automobile materials access to 24.2 cu.-ft. of area.

Without rear guests, you can fold the seats to produce 49.5 cu.-ft. These numbers extend beyond subcompact crossover SUV area and into the realm of bigger compacts, but just if you take the difficulty of getting rid of the useful tray.

Exposure and Safety

Motorists enjoy excellent forward exposure, but the view to the rear quarters is pretty abysmal due to the shape of the car and the width of the rearmost roof pillars. Thankfully, large side mirrors and a standard reversing cam do their finest to alleviate this problem.

While Kia makes a blind spot caution system with rear cross-traffic alert offered in both of the Soul's higher trim levels, the turbocharged Exclaim can't be geared up with functions like adaptive cruise control, forward crash warning, automated emergency situation braking, or lane departure warning. That's a disappointment.

The Soul does a great job of safeguarding occupants in a collision. The NHTSA awards the Soul a 5-star general rating for crashworthiness, while the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety offers it "Good" rankings all around.

Engine/Transmission

Soul owners point out the powertrain as one of their least preferred elements of the cars and truck. Hopefully, they'll give the turbocharged Soul Exclaim a try, as it alters the character of the car, and for the much better.

With 201 horses on tap from the 1.6-liter 4-cylinder engine, the Soul Exclaim is not exactly a rocket, but it's much livelier than it used to be. Enthusiast publications claim it will accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in about 7.6 seconds, which suffices to instill your commute with some additional zip. Power shipment is fairly linear, although there is some turbo lag straight off the line.

Charged with sending out the power to the front wheels, a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission shifts correctly however gracelessly. A little more smoothness and improvement would be great, as would a manual transmission that, undoubtedly, almost no one would choose. Likewise missing is any sort of all-wheel-drive system, which would secure the Soul's membership in the popular crossover SUV sector.

Fuel Economy

The EPA estimates that you must get 28 mpg in combined driving (26 city/31 highway mpg) with a Soul Exclaim. My testing produced a return of 25.5 mpg, which isn't remarkable. The turbocharged Soul, despite making much more power than the naturally aspirated versions of the automobile, is actually a little bit more fuel effective than the engines that go into the base Soul and the Soul Plus trim.

Driving Dynamics

To assist make the most of driving enjoyment, Kia somewhat changes the Exclaim's suspension tuning, sets up larger front brakes, and includes bigger tires and wheels.

While the Soul still preferred knocking about in the city, with its diminutive footprint, active handling, and ability to absorb the ruts and bumps of disregarded public roads, it nonetheless held its own on twisty back roadways threading through local mountain ranges. The steering had a fair amount of heft to it, specifically in Sport mode, however I wanted a bit more feel, feedback and accuracy to make the vehicle more enjoyable to drive. The brakes successfully withstood fade throughout aggressive driving, too, and managed everyday driving tasks without grabbing or bringing the vehicle to a jostling stop.

No, the Kia Soul Exclaim will not be completing in autocross rallies with the Volkswagen GTI or Mazda 3 anytime soon. Its happy-go-lucky character and newfound virility makes it a lot more pleasurable to drive than the tiny crossover lorries versus which it will most likely be cross-shopped.

Last Impressions

By now, everyone needs to recognize with Kia's generous warranty that covers the whole automobile for 5 years or 60,000 miles, while the powertrain is protected for 10 years or 100,000 miles, along with complimentary roadside support for 5 years with no mileage limitation. That interest the rational side of your brain, along with the quality awards that both this cars and truck and Kia have actually received from J.D. Power recently.

What's more, the Kia Soul has a personality. Yes, it's a little strange. And now, with its available turbocharged engine, it is more appealing than ever previously.

There are a lot of people who drive the same thing everyone else does. With a Kia Soul parked in your driveway, you can proudly be one of the others.

2018 Kia Soul front quarter left photoThat last modification, used entirely in the leading trim level, solved a major grievance with this spunky little cars and truck. For this review, J.D. Power evaluated a 2018 Kia Soul Exclaim equipped with optional flooring mats. For drivers, the Kia Soul is quite comfortable, and I constantly value it when little, low-cost vehicles include a center console armrest, like the majority of versions of the Soul do. The Soul's rectangle-shaped shape provides itself to carrying a lot more than you would think for such a little car, and storage is one of things that Soul owners like about their Kias. The turbocharged Soul, in spite of making much more power than the naturally aspirated versions of the car, is really a little bit more fuel effective than the engines that go into the base Soul and the Soul Plus trim.

#used car dealership omaha #omaha

1 note · View note