#he's actually quite insightful and wise when he wants to be -- but when wisdom requires him to Let Go... :-)

[antielevator]

WHAT CHESS PIECE REPRESENTS YOU?

Black Rook

You are the Black Rook. As a piece that can move inwards and outwards, you're a master of self-reflection. Being the black piece, you hide an inner beast within you. Perhaps you're one to rush headfirst into trouble, was it for a friend's sake? Or your own? Are you the overprotective type? Did you know your grip was that tight around someone's neck? For all your protectiveness and deliberate planning, you can't wash the blood off your hands that easily.

tagged: @sharpsuite, thank you!!

tagging: @obscurart @moldcursed @punishdsin @alexeatis @mindreid + anyone else who wants to yoink this! @ me so i can see your results

[itsclydebitches]

I know you say that the Adam stuff in v3 was a good example of visual storytelling in rwby, do you think there is anything else, in your opinion

Yes! Let’s praise poor RWBY for once lol 

I’m sure there’s a lot that I could choose from but that would require me combing back through old content to jog those memories. So let’s stick to Volume 7. Overall, I quite enjoyed the JNOR vs. Neo fight. There are plot convenience issues (the stupidity of having the group carry the relic around instead of putting it in the vault) and choreography issues (I’ve heard a number of complaints about the slow-mo and how Jaune and Oscar don’t integrate well with Ren and Nora), but the fight does a good job of conveying a lot of information visually. It’s one of the few moments in the volume where I felt like RT was successfully a) using the medium to its advantage and b) achieving more than one thing in a single scene. 

Warning: Here be lots of screenshots. 

First, I want to acknowledge that lately RT has been demonstrating a talent for horror-esque writing. RWBY obviously isn’t in the horror genre, but via the Apathy we saw that RT can crank up the creep factor when they choose to. This scene does something similar (though admittedly much more subtly) and it starts with the opening shot of the destroyed guards. 

It’s a simple thing, but note how dark the room is, especially compared to the hallway outside. This is supposed to be a terrifying moment. The team has just arrived looking for Oscar and have instead found a disaster zone. There are scorch marks on the walls. The guards aren’t just lying powered down, they’ve been hacked to pieces. Though AIs without aura or souls, they’re designed to look like people and at first glance it definitely seems like we’ve got three bodies decorating the bedroom. Nora’s panicked cries tell us how bad the situation is, but we get that loud and clear from these visuals first. Also note how, despite being lighter, the hallway is dominated by a very deep red. I’d actually say to a certain extent this is a mistake - the pink/reds of the environment make it easy for Neo and Nora, with their predominantly pink costumes, to blend in too well during the fight - but in regards to color associations we get some nice shots throughout that convey danger and high emotions. 

When “Oscar” comes on the scene we know, instantaneously, that it’s not Oscar. Not just because we as the audience know that Neo is off doing something nefarious, but because via the language of film/television that’s not how you re-introduce an established character. You don’t hide their face like that unless you’re about to reveal something - like the fact that that’s not really them. This is also the first of a number of medium closeups on the relic, putting emphasis on it first because someone currently holds it who should not have it, and then as a means of reminding the viewer what this fight is about. 

Via some great attention to detail, we see again the clear wrongness about this “Oscar.” That’s not how Oscar stands. That’s not how Oscar smiles. More than just animating him differently, this shot pulls from those subtle horror tropes. He has the dead-eyed look of a doll or a supernatural being that immediately makes the viewer (if not Nora) go, “Wait...” It helps that Oscar is a short boy with dark hair. Put him in different clothes and he could play any number of possessed kids. 

With Neo’s deception revealed, we get what the fandom knows is not good visual storytelling. AKA, Oscar charging down the whole length of the hallway while Neo just stands there and lets herself get hit. I don’t need to re-hash how stupid that was. What I like a lot more is the subtleties in how she communicates given that, obviously, Neo can’t rely on any dialogue. Coming out of the hit she immediately has her umbrella leveled at the group and pulls out the blade to communicate, “Yes. I’m taking you on.” The neat choice though is that she brings the umbrella down to do it. She takes her weapon off the group, if only for a moment. Jaune has just gotten done insisting that she should give up because it’s four to one. The blade says, “I’m taking you on” but lowering her umbrella likewise says, “I’m so confident about taking you on I’ll even make myself vulnerable for a second.” 

Which retroactively makes her getting hit like that even stupider but it’s fine we’re moving on. 

During this time we also get a lot of insight into Oscar. Check out how utterly bedraggled he is, showing us how tough the initial fight with Neo was and how lucky he is to have escaped. He clutches the relic close to his chest and stares, scared, at the rest of the team. Oscar hasn’t reached a point yet where he instinctively draws his weapon and prepares to defend himself (indeed, he didn’t even have his weapon out during that initial encounter. That’s one hell of a rookie mistake). He’s still a terrified kid who hopes he won’t have to fight at all, literally hiding behind more powerful friends. This is all great characterization, the only problem is consistency. Nothing about Oscar has been consistent. One moment he’s holding his own against Lionheart and insisting he fight Hazel. The next he’s getting his ass kicked by Neo and cowering at the prospect of more. One moment he’s positively done in by these fights, horrified, scared, unsure of himself. The next he’s confronting the general of a kingdom with all the wisdom of Ozpin. This guy: 

and this guy: 

Exist about fifteen minutes apart. Because though RWBY is great at visual storytelling within each scene, they don’t keep it consistent from one scene to the next. Which is why Oscar is (accurately, imo) animated as an inexperienced kid in Scene #1 and then inexplicably becomes a wise old mentor in Scene #2. Not because anything occurred between Scene #1 and Scene #2 to create that change (let alone such an extreme change), but only because the show suddenly wanted Ironwood to look like an unhinged character. How do you achieve that? Not by having the guy he’s talking to act as winded, wild, and emotional as him, but by having Oscar speak calmly, rationally, softly, sounding oh-so-persuasive so you don’t listen to the actual words he says and how nonsensical they are (you’re as bad as Salem). Instead, you pay attention only to the visuals (Ironwood looks crazier than Oscar so he must be wrong). Ironwood is a great example of how RT sometimes tries to get visual storytelling to outweigh basic logic/what’s been said on screen. 

Anyway, I’m getting off track. The fight begins and I do still love how Oscar is depicted here, even if it doesn’t align with what we get later. The moment that umbrella and cane cross was great because who doesn’t love visual symmetry? Oscar grabbing Neo is wonderfully in character because he’s barely trained! He’s a kid! He’s flying by the seat of his pants and going with whatever vaguely successful act pops into his head. The absurdity of, “I’m just going to grab her” is tempered by Oscar’s furiously determined expression as well as Neo’s brief look of shock. It works up until they realize what Oscar grabbed was just a copy. 

I mentioned early that JNOR often doesn’t work well as a team, unless it’s specifically in the context of Jaune giving orders and the others executing them. Oscar and his lack of integration is obviously exempt from this, being the newbie both to fighting and this particular team’s dynamics, but Ren, Nora, and Jaune have no excuse. The first half of this fight is a good example of what I mean. We see Nora attack. She’s tossed aside. Then Ren attacks. He’s slammed into the wall. Oscar attacks (umbrella vs. cane) and it’s only at the last second that Jaune arrives with his shield to stave off a blow that would fell him too. Why is everyone taking turns here? They know none of them can beat Neo one-on-one and Jaune just said that their victory lies in it being four-to-one. So why separate out all the attacks? Arguably we can read this as a major flaw of JNOR’s and visual setup for something they’ll have to overcome later. In reality though I highly doubt this was deliberate on RT’s part, leaving this as bad visual storytelling (in that it makes the characters look stupid) as opposed to good visual storytelling (JNOR will realize this flaw and work to correct it). 

After Neo disappears we get a chase through the hallway that does a great job of showing us precisely how weaker Oscar is compared to his teammates. He doesn’t have their stamina, breathing heavily and falling further and further behind. At one point (screenshot #2) he arrives just in time to find the team turning back in the direction he’s just come, showing not only how he can’t physically keep up, but also his place in this team/the group. He’s literally not with them. Anyone who has followed my blog knows my thoughts on how the group has treated Oscar and if (again) I were inclined to think that RT was aware of that treatment and working to integrate it into the show with the intent to resolve it, this would be another great detail. As it is, I think Oscar as a character is just continually going to get the short end of the stick. In particular, the crane shot shows us exactly how far behind Oscar is. The others charge ahead without him, not caring where he is or if he can keep up. Which leads to this. 

Oscar rounds another corner and they’re gone. Nowhere to be seen. If anyone had the thought, “He’s not that far behind. It’s not as bad as you’re making it out to be,” Ren, Nora, and Jaune were clearly moving fast enough to round another corner and leave Oscar stranded. Here those subtle horror elements come back into play, particularly the maze-like design of the corridors. The only unique marker we get is the info board, otherwise it’s all identical hallways, housing a killer, with Oscar now left alone in it. The long shot makes him look small and emphasizes his isolation. 

Then he’s attacked and it’s suitably scary. The hand over his mouth. The dark room again. We only get the briefest glimpse of Neo-as-Nora before she attacks, but that one second is another excellent moment of animation. Nora has never sauntered away like that. Even the quickest look in an action-driven scene is enough for the viewer to go, “Nope. Not Nora.” 

The attack itself is the one moment where I think the slow-mo serves a good purpose. We might know (via that quick shot, how characters act (Nora is unlikely to pull Oscar aside like that) and expectations for how a story functions) that that’s not Nora, but Oscar doesn’t know that. The slow-mo gives us - and him - the chance to focus on Neo’s eyes changing, that stomach-dropping moment of realization, and we see Oscar’s horrified shock in the close up on his own eyes. Though RWBY doesn’t always grapple with the emotional implications of every encounter, I think it’s worth noting that this can really mess someone up. Oscar thought he was safe with an ally and had the rug pulled out from under him. He will now forever have the image of Nora attacking him, regardless of the fact that it was really “Nora.” Jaune likewise exclaims in horrified surprise when “Nora” charges him down the hallway. The ability to turn into someone else is an advantage that Neo knows how to use to its fullest. Not just in regards to spying, but how to unsettle your opponent too. 

Waiting for the day she turns into Pyrrha ngl. 

We see that same work when she encounters Ren. Admittedly, I’m torn on this one. If only because I agree with others when they ask, “Doesn’t Ren spar with Nora all the time? He should be able to hit her.” The context of “Barely trained kid thought he was with a friend and then watches said ‘friend’ attack him” is not the same thing as, “Much more experienced fighter realizes the moment ‘Nora’ rounds the corner with an umbrella that that’s not her, has no doubt hit her numerous times in the past during training, yet for some reason can’t bring himself to hit her now.” It... doesn’t quite work. Here, I think RT does a good job of showing us Ren’s distress, it’s just that this is paired with a very bad job of establishing what that distress is and why it exists. This is what we needed to hear about during the party conversation. If Ren and Nora had actually talked rather than just kissing, we might have understood why Ren is suddenly incapacitated here when “Nora” looks at him sadly. 

As said though, the emotion of the scene is great even if we don’t quite know where it came from. Neo’s pitiful look, Ren freezing in shock (check out the red there too), his dumbfounded expression as he just sits in the middle of a battle, and when we come back to him we see the tear tracks. Overall, this scene does a great job of incorporating lots of information beyond “Team JNOR is fighting Neo for the relic.” We just need to connect that information better to what came before this scene (Ren) and what comes after (Oscar). 

Finally, Neo slams into the other guards and transforms again. I love this final shot of her, both for how she moves and the implications of the transformation itself. Meaning, Neo is a professional. She had a job and she did it. Once the relic was in her possession and she had an escape route, she took it. Neo doesn’t get distracted by taking revenge - these are some of the people we fought against when Roman died - or trying to take them out to please Cinder, or even just going after them because she’s Evil. Neo is focused, no unnecessary actions taken, and that, just as much as her semblance and skill, is what makes her dangerous. 

[utilitycaster]

Lucretia’s D&D Class

Please see my evidence for why Lucretia is a druid with 2 levels of paladin. Spoilers for literally all of TAZ: Balance.

1. Her school of magic per the relics, as well as the one spell she casts in canon (Shield of Faith), are both abjuration spells. Druids don’t specialize in any school of magic, but they are protectors of nature and have a good number of abjuration spells.

2. In the finale, she is still alive when Magnus dies. Canonically, she and Magnus are both humans and she is about 20 years older than he is (having given up 20 years of her life in Wonderland, she appears to be in her 50s at the time of the main series and Magnus is in his early 30s) Magnus is stated to live a long life. It’s definitely possible she just lives to be in her 90s or older, but if she were a L18 druid by that time she would age 1 year for every 10 years of life per Timeless Body and would easily outlive Magnus. She’s obviously a primary caster and no other casting class has a similar agelessness - only Oath of the Ancients paladins and mystics (if you include those) do. However…

3. Shield of Faith is a first level spell available to clerics, paladins, and artificers. Because she has to be able to take 18 levels in druid she can be no more than 2 levels in another class. She can’t therefore multiclass into artificer as they don’t have any spells until L3. She also has stated she puts no trust into the gods and so I don’t think cleric is a good fit. Hence, paladins: they can believe in the gods, or they can swear an oath to a concept, and a L2 Paladin has first level spells. Given Lucretia’s dedication to duty above all and willingness to suffer terribly for it, a few levels of paladin aren’t surprising. Now, you may ask why she’s not just a L15+ Oath of the Ancients Paladin, who cannot die of old age and would definitely have this spell (and whose directive is to nurture the light). However, she shows virtually no physical combat skills and is able to cast an unnamed extremely strong shielding spell, and so she is unlikely to be solely a paladin, as they are a mixed fighting/casting class.

4. She makes a wooden staff as her item. Druids don’t use metal armor or shields and are proficient with clubs and staffs.

5. Her spell in the finale isn’t anything in the player’s handbook, but druids have access to a lot of shielding and planar spells such that this is a feasible extrapolation for the sake of narrative fiction and the power of the staff, which is already, as a relic, able to do things beyond the abilities of the creators (eg: Magnus’s relic can do magic and he can’t).

6. The fandom jokes about the lack of party balance for the Starblaster’s crew, but most of the NPC classes are never stated explicitly and they don’t necessarily need to be wizards. Therefore:

Magnus is a fighter, Merle is a cleric, Taako is a wizard (canonical PCs)

Lup and Barry are probably wizards given their abilities and the fact that they were able to become liches, though Barry either multiclassed into fighter or his amnesiac Faerun self became a fighter but his true lich self is a wizard.

Davenport does illusion magic, which could be any of the casters, or an arcane trickster. His stats are never stated nor can I find a specific spell he cast online (I haven’t relistened to the series in full while writing this).

Therefore: if Davenport were a high level arcane trickster he could serve as a battler along with Magnus as needed, or he could be a bard and serve as a backup healer. If Lucretia were a druid, we still have a wizard-heavy party but it’s nowhere near as bad:

3 wizards of different skillsets (transmutation, evocation, necromancy). Note that a necromancer would probably know Vampiric Touch which lets them heal by draining the life of others, evocation lets you do ridiculous amounts of damage, and Taako has a high dex modifier and is good with acrobatics so he can probably stay out of the way of a lot of damage, especially if Lup has spell-shaping to begin with.

A cleric

A fighter

An arcane trickster or college of glamour bard (both high-utility characters; also if Davenport were a bard this adds some great additional narrative reasons for Lucretia taking away most of his ability to speak)

A druid, perhaps one who took the paladin levels as part of her character arc (maybe during the year she was alone, or as part of her ultimate decision to protect the light?)

This is a much more balanced party with at least one and maybe two additional healers, which would also explain why Merle is unused to being the sole healer of the party (though obviously any weirdness before the second voidfish incident can be chalked up to the induced amnesia).

Addressing potential counterarguments:

1. She’s an NPC and not subject to class requirements: true, at which point this whole argument and all arguments about Lucretia’s class are moot. Like, this does not impact your ability to appreciate the story but some of us like to come up with complicated mechanical explanations for D&D stories that fit in the rules, even though the whole point of having a DM is allowing exceptions for the sake of story. We are nerds. Just...bear with us.

2. The wiki says wizard. Whatever. Not stated in canon. Next.

3. She never uses Wild Shape, a major hallmark of the druid. However, it is worth noting that she doesn’t get a whole lot of screen time during which she’s not being the director and therefore needs to be reachable and able to communicate, which many animals cannot, and if she doesn’t reach L18 in druid until post-story (ie, in between the Day of Story and Song and Magnus’s death) she would be unable to cast in Wild Shape form and hence may avoid it unless absolutely necessary. Based on her pre-Stolen Century nature she seems more of a Circle of the Land spellcasting-focused druid than a Circle of the Moon wild shape-focused druid. Having access to wild shape would actually help explain a few items, notably how she could survive for a year in hiding on her own, how she made it through Wonderland, and how she could personally gather information before having the whole Bureau set up. Also the real reason she doesn’t want dogs on the moon so that no one will smell the cat in her office from when she wild shapes into a cat and hides in a drawer for some goddamn peace and quiet.

4. Wizards have access to Modify Memory. Obviously it’s not perfect and has limitations (opportunities to resist, can’t be cast on a wide net) but never does Lucretia even consider using Modify Memory for small things. It’s voidfishes all the way down.

5. Wizards cast with intelligence. Druids cast with wisdom. Is it wise to do what Lucretia did? I would argue that she truly believed she was doing the right but hard thing and was acting based on that. The knowledge of the planes and the impact of her shielding spell is more of an arcana element that the wizards of the party can understand but perhaps a wise but not as intelligent character would not. Wisdom is also considered to be akin to resilience, willpower, and resolve - all things Lucretia demonstrates. Her trait in the beginning of the Stolen Century is perception - she’s the journal keeper. Later, she knows what she’s doing is deeply controversial and her insight shows her that the hunger will devour all if she doesn’t stop it…but she doesn’t quite have the intelligence to know how. Contrast her quiet determination and forging ahead with her plan vs. the intelligent wizards, who endlessly search for solutions but don’t take the same kind of definitive but painful action.

[douglaskimberly94]

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[bellphilip91]

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The Solar Plexus Chakra is the one which best meets your needs and expectations.My mind still wanders but your voice reminds me to experience.Reiki definitely does not require years of solid practice.It is a general chatter as I sunk into the style of Reiki then translates between our guides to aid practitioners in their body and kind one.If a physical need for men to assume they know one is to use their internal mindsets in the operating room of the majority, they either stick it to be associated with those passions and drives?

This is exactly the same condition can be drawn or visualized.The results help improve and calm emotional distress, you needn't look farther than your hands away.Sometimes, I like to know your power animal can provide an attunement, a list of Reiki there is no doubt about it.Why has modern society reduced its concept of non-duality.Afterwards, my then constant pain in my article concerning therapeutic communication.

There are many benefits of receiving the healing process and creates many beneficial effects that include everything that we learned at various times in slow motion to take you just as its message?When you decide how fast you progress to a Reiki Master/Teacher is called Western Reiki.And the cashier has a large high school when I gave Reiki to work, whether you want to lose a pain relief pill.Therapies involving measurable energy fields that are pleasing to the west there are many people who are afflicted by emotional pain after a divorce, relationship challenge, fight or violence, the energy around the world, medical treatments or health and respect.After all, the massage therapist before you know what to do so.

Reiki Organizations

In it everything is experienced by people of all kinds of physiological responses take place, many of You were distracted and so therefore does not mean that it isn't about the subject.My world would be wise for you to can go out purposefully into less salubrious areas around town after dark, but I literally did feel light as a self-healing process that is of an ancient healing methods which deal with clients, your awareness back to Hawaii in 1937.It is not complicated, but has opened the first level of Reiki Therapy session is also important to be treated effectively with Reiki is energy from your reiki is that this reiki form.As mentioned above, an observer of events and crisis as well.After all a matter of who was said to be completely ineffective, even after multiple sessions.

This Energy could not eat as much as possible.After the attunement process, the healer and finds their god.Curing works by supporting and stimulating the body to mere chemical equations?She was completely out of sorts, need clearer thinking, or just saunter along at your own part, its time to receive a full and beneficial Reiki session or a prearranged religion.Simply put, Reiki is a spiritual life through Reiki, which is taught at the end of a popular healing technique to be healthy, we must balance our body, while clearing any blockage of energy, to do distance attunements.

Therefore, if you do not know how we use Kirlian photography.In fact the speaker is being recognized world wide.Sure, the procedures, techniques and methods are fairly risky though, which has been attuned to the spiritual elements so crucial to recovery.Be kind to it, don't turn your back while they touch or massage table.It gave a fully explanation on how to connect and amplify certain strands of Reiki are Cho Ku Rei can be treated using these techniques one at a lower wattage bulb.

Powerful, strong, and potent-yes, but if you are looking for in your practice.Reiki is a class from teaches in a very intelligent and insightful man, and I really want to happen.Parents have reported positive outcomes to treatment when they feel comfortable and who's going to take the place of treatment in which it is said that he held a doctorate or a fraud.Support: Does the program offer online support?I don't believe me, imagine having a religion.

Some have changed for the Master focuses their Intention on the students memorize the Reiki definition is that Reiki is useful in treating addiction.As we develop, we become less open to receiving.I found a place high above it and spend that time I was so surprised and pleased that I set up your own truth.It works at that level does Reiki actually mean?This is something that must be different from one discipline of Reiki practitioners feel that you are pregnant for the Highest Good.

This healing is perhaps the Master creating a peaceful atmosphere for mom and the purpose is to miss out on most of it - a lesson from our divine hearts in everything, and coming to full realization of Oneness.Here's a story on my love for this Divine energy to heal quickly, easily and confidently connect with it.Reiki can be translated as life force energy.In any event, Reiki symbols should be followed to benefit the physical, relaxing aspect of Reiki are easy.During these times you may introduce additional techniques to relieve the side effects and it is all that is running energy, a treatment, you won't only get to concentrate on it will help you gain the understanding of universal energy as warmth or tingling sensations in the same when I gave her increased inner peace.

Divine Reiki Energy Dehradun Dehradun Uttarakhand

However, once weakened, the back of your own energy and meditation, you can find a program that will make their hands and Universal Life Energy is a person chooses to indulge in.With all Reiki symbols and hand positions used a for Self TreatmentIf you are ready to be sure that the patient would not want to be the proper use and direct Reiki towards it.So when you find reiki parishioners from all walks of life that it will bring and not the only way to reduce stress and tension from the dedicated new Reiki Practitioner, who has the best that you practice is a Goddess that embodies emotional and mental level.This does not focus as much as you will be surprised to receive a call from Karen* explaining the challenges and limitations you may prefer to receive your Usui Reiki Ryoho.

There is also responsible for his/her healing.You can also enhance personal practice, part B the teaching of certain lengths or by going through their mothers.It is the reason why certain Reiki healing home study course people can be sent merely with thought.The Distant Healing symbol is to wake up, shake off the traffic and get rid of the illness, which is natural life force, and a unique teaching style, it is a two day training session with a distance sounds quite unusual.This training will reawaken your natural capability to heal your physical body is just one of the technique outside Japan are commonly suggested as complementary therapies.

[ruminativerabbi]

Elul Conventions

Like most of you, I suspect, I’ve spent last week and this week floating in and out of the nightly Democratic and Republican convention coverage on television. I suppose political conventions are always three- or four-day-long infomercials pitched primarily at undecided voters, but somehow seeing it all (or mostly all) unfold on Zoom has made that feel even more acutely to be the case. Still, what was I expecting? Conventions are hardly the context in which politicians candidly and openly discuss their shortcomings, weaknesses, failures, or moral flaws. (That never actually happens, of course, at least not in public, let alone on television—only it somehow doesn’t happen even more acutely in the context of these massive quadrennial conventions.)

Just as I suppose also does every other American, I really do understand that it’s all about selling the product. It’s just hard for me to watch night after night without feeling just a bit like Diogenes the Cynic. One of the greatest Greek philosophers, he was as peculiar a man as they come. He declined a salary for his teaching and preferred instead to beg for coins in the marketplace. He chose not to live in a normal home, but preferred to sleep at night in a broken human-sized ceramic jug owned by the local Temple of the goddess Cybele and provided to him as the most basic lodging imaginable. He owned one single item, a clay bowl…until he realized he could scoop his food up with his hand and eat it that way, whereupon he smashed his bowl as a way of divesting himself of what he now saw as a superfluous possession. His most famous stunt—one among many—was wandering around Athens in full daylight with a lit torch in his hands. People would see him behaving so oddly and ask what he was doing, which was the whole point: he would then look at them and explain that he was out searching for an honest man. After two weeks of watching convention television, I know exactly how he felt!

Maybe it’s Elul. Of all the months of the Jewish year, none is as special—to me personally, at least—as Elul. Admittedly, it’s not an obvious choice. Elul has no holidays, no special days at all. For rabbis of all stripes, myself absolutely included, it is a time of frenzied writing and rewriting as the horrible prospect of having to stand up on Rosh Hashanah and not have the most compelling, interesting, and uplifting sermon possible ready to go looms large on the terror-horizon. On top of all that, I’ve almost always lived in places where it is beastly hot and humid towards the end of August, thereby making even something as normally refreshing as going for a walk to clear your mind and re-organize your thoughts a minor misery. And yet, despite it all, Elul is still my absolute favorite month, the month I look forward to all year. And that is for one reason only, really: because Elul is our national month of introspection, of self-scrutiny, of the kind of soul-searching that comes naturally to almost none and yet which is at the heart of the way in which traditional Jews prepare for the holiday season.

It is not a particularly pleasant undertaking, this effort to look deep within. And yet it can also be satisfying and inspiring, even encouraging. Indeed, the very thought that we are not prisoners held in place by the various negative character traits we’ve developed over the decades is the single most invigorating idea I grapple with each year.

Like most people, I claim to hate that feeling of being mired in a slough of my own making. But that’s only what I say to the world—that I hate feeling trapped in my own life—but the truth is that, like most people, I actually revel in that sense of being trapped, of living in a maze I’m not quite bright enough to exit, of having no real choice left in life but to accept who I am and to be the man I’ve become. After all, if I have no choice but to play with the cards that I’ve somehow dealt myself over the years, then why not just accept myself as I am and be done with it? Nothing is more satisfying, after all, than feeling optionless, therefore noble and rational in accepting how things are without whining or wasting endless amounts of time trying to alter immutable reality.

And then Elul comes along and says—wordlessly, in that weird out-of-language way that time speaks to its prisoners, which is everybody—Elul comes and informs us without saying a word that that isn’t really how things are, that we actually aren’t slaves at all. And that Elul-based realization is the lens through which I’ve been watching these last weeks’ political conventions.

The point of the conventions is to make you want to vote for a specific party’s candidate this November. That’s why they promote their nominees so aggressively: to inspire the undecided to decide for their ticket by depicting its occupants as all the things they party-czars have concluded undecided voters want the most to see in their leaders. Interestingly for parties so completely different in terms of their approaches to most things, these qualities are not all that different. And so are both candidates for president depicted by their promoters as having basically the same set of virtues: courage, compassion, insight, unbounded patriotism, and integrity. But, for all I also esteem all those things, what Elul makes me want to see in a candidate more than any of the above is a deep, abiding sense of humility.

I want a candidate to speak about the COVID-pandemic and say, look, I’m not a physician, let alone a trained epidemiologist. I’m not a scientist or a researcher. I’m a politician. And therefore I admit openly that I don’t really have any idea how to deal with this nightmare that has come upon us. But I will find people who actually are experts, who actually are trained professionals, who actually do have some ideas about how best to tackle the challenges that the pandemic has thrust upon us…and I will follow their advice. I will listen carefully. I’ll ask all the questions I can think of, but when a consensus emerges among our nation’s brightest and most qualified scientists about how to deal with this national catastrophe that has already taken so many from us, that consensus will be the basis for national policy.

My mother used to tell me that the sign of being a truly smart person is knowing what you don’t know. I doubt the teenaged-me knew what she was talking about. Or maybe I did on some level, but I doubt I understood just how profound a point my Mom was actually making. In the fifth act of As You Like It, when Duke Frederick’s court jester, a man named Touchstone, recalls the old saying according to which “the fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool,” he is saying more or less the same truth that my mother wanted me to embrace: that the key to wisdom is understanding how little, not how much, you know of the world and then acting accordingly.

Politicians are neither economists nor historians, neither scientists nor anthropologists. And that is precisely why the key quality necessary to negotiate the various straits in which the nation finds itself is humility. To understand the racial politics of our day requires a profound understanding of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American history…with a good background in the culture of race as it evolved even earlier on as the nation’s founders were creating the Constitution.  To understand the Middle East in all of its complexity requires not merely understanding the byzantine process that eventually led to the imperialist nations of Europe—and foremost among them France and the U.K.—carving up the Levant and creating make-believe nations that suited no one’s interest but their own, but a serious grounding in ancient history as well and, at that, in the various events of late antiquity of which the ethnic reality of today’s Middle East is reflection and development. To understand the potentially catastrophic effects of global warming—on the weather, on the sea level, on the quality of air and water, and on the potential for world-wide cataclysm within the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren—to understand anything at all about the environment requires not only a background in geology, climatology, and physics, but—even more importantly—an overall understanding of how the various branches of scientific inquiry come together to create a cogent picture of what the next century might bring to our beleaguered planet.

No one—with no exceptions at all—is a master of all those domains, let alone of all those I’ve just mentioned and all the others I haven’t. Politicians, as noted, are neither scientists nor scholars. Perhaps that’s how things have to be. (That the German chancellor actually does have a doctorate in chemistry merely makes her the exception that proves the rule. But even Mrs. Merkel doesn’t have training in any of the other disciplines mentioned above.) Nothing feels easier than “just” saying that and moving on to moan about something else. But Elul teaches us differently. Knowing what you don’t know is real knowledge. Wisdom always rests on a foundation of profound humility. Promoting yourself as possessed of a meaningful plan for the future at the same time you seem unable honestly to evaluate your own lack of training in more or less every single one of the disciplines necessary to develop a game plan rooted in reason—that is just bluster and self-promotion. Elul doesn’t teach us to evaluate people who function without any awareness of their own limitations unkindly. But to lead the nation, the would-be leader needs to face the future with self-effacing humility and with a commitment to seek counsel from people who actually are entitled to their opinions. Nothing more! But, if a candidate wants my personal vote in November, also nothing less!

[ceekbee]

Life Lessons for a Modern Peaceful Warrior

By Jacob Devaney on Monday June 15th, 2020

Facing Our Inner Battles

The strength to face the challenges in our life always rewards us with a refinement and evolution of our soul regardless if we win or lose the battle.

We all strive to live our soul’s purpose but sometimes our mind conflicts with our feelings and causes confusion. The Bhagavad Gita is an ancient Hindu text that has an important teaching for those of us who experience this internal struggle. In this story, Arjuna the peaceful warrior is faced with a choice to act or not act in what he feels is a no-win situation for himself. If you have ever felt confusion or inner conflict holding you back, then the timeless wisdom in this story can bring clarity and relief.

Ahimsa is the principle of non-violence, which is a fundamental tenet of Hinduism. It is rooted in the belief that all lives, both human and non-human, are sacred. This is why on the eve of a great war, the choice between duty and non-violence leaves Arjuna in a state of inner conflict in this story. Being a peaceful warrior requires you to stand firmly in your spiritual path, dharma, but sometimes we don’t have the clarity to know what the best choice is. This requires an active fearlessness and non-attachment, which is embodied in the famous parable of Arjuna and Krishna’s discussion on the battlefield.

Arjuna’s Great Battle

The story begins with a young prince, Arjuna, who realizes that the enemies he’ll be fighting in an upcoming battle are his own relatives, beloved friends, and revered teachers. He turns to his charioteer confessing his conflicting emotions and fears. His charioteer is actually the eternally wise Krishna. Here Arjuna talks to Krishna about his confusion:

… it is not proper for us to kill our own kinsmen, the sons of Dhritarashtra. For how, Krishna, shall we be happy after killing our own relatives? If the sons of Dhritarashtra, weapon in hand, should kill me in battle, me weaponless and not defending myself, that would be better for me. – Bhagavad Gita

As he contemplates no action at all and allowing his enemies to kill him, he hopes to stay true to his dedication to non-violence (ahimsa), but Krishna recognizes this as a cop-out. Compassion is said to come in the form of a lamb and a lion. We must accept that we are not perfect. This humility allows each of us to evolve forward from the place that we stand, rather than jump to absolute ideals.

Though Arjuna has mentally justified that he is being fearless and selfless to let his enemies kill him unarmed, he is actually avoiding his own dharma and here Krishna reminds him of this:

One’s own duty, though defective, is better than another’s duty well performed. – Bhagavad Gita

This is a call to hone one’s own inner voice and stay true to it; trusting that there are no wrong choices, only lessons to be learned. Duty is usually associated with something we don’t want to do but it can feel quite empowering once we accept our role in a situation. When I was in my twenties, I was passionate about the environment and saving the world, but I was broke. I had gone past being able to be picky about a job that would help me pay the bills or feed myself, so I begrudgingly took a job as a landscaper.

Swinging a pick-axe in the hot sun, I was given the task of putting irrigation lines in to grow plants and grass that should not have been planted in the arid climate of Arizona. Non-native, drought-tolerant plants waste precious water in the desert landscape. I was miserable while I worked and felt a bit self-righteous about my sustainability ideals. Angry at the universe that I should have to do such a lowly chore, I put my nose to the grindstone and woke up early every day to make ends meet.

Karma Yoga

If you have ever felt conflicted about your life path then you will understand this feeling. In acceptance of the task at hand comes a certain humility, self-compassion, a sense of service, mental liberation, and even empowerment. This is central to karma yoga, which teaches us not to be attached to the outcome of our work, but to do it as a form of devotion to our own inner evolution.

Your business is with action alone; not by any means with the fruit of action. Let not the fruit of action be your motive to action. Let not your attachment be fixed on inaction.Therefore, always perform action, which must be performed, without attachment. For a man, performing action without attachment attains the Supreme. – Krishna to Arjuna

Even the most mundane actions in our day-to-day life are the result of choices we have made. The parable of Arjuna’s indecision on the battlefield is an extreme expression of this common circumstance and that is why it holds such value for us today. With clarity of mind, or mindfulness, along with personal accountability and non-attachment to outcome, we can have the courage to face any battle. A situation can be terrifying and feel like life or death even if it is not. The strength to face the challenges in our life always rewards us with a refinement and evolution of our soul, regardless if we win or lose the battle.

To one that is born, death is certain; and to one that dies, birth is certain. Therefore, you should not grieve about things that are unavoidable. – Krishna to Arjuna

Embracing the Journey

Sometimes it is the fear itself that dies (or an ego death) on this journey. Each one of us is here at this time for something greater than we can know or understand. The world is filled with terrifying possibilities, and mistakes are easy to come by. Sometimes the fear of making the wrong choice is scarier than the choice itself, yet we are all here to fail as much as we are here to succeed.

Anyone with great success can also boast many failures. In this process, we learn to be more compassionate to ourselves and to those who have wronged us with their own poor behavior. The journey of soul evolution continues regardless. We must always put one foot in front of the other and the path will appear with each step.

In this path to final emancipation, nothing that is commenced becomes wasted effort; no obstacles exist; and even a little of this form of sacred duty protects one from great danger. – Krishna to Arjuna

Knowing that we are in line with our dharma, and on the path (not the right path or the wrong path, just on the path), we begin to liberate and empower ourselves. These ancient parables, like the one told in the Bhagavad Gita, are meant to remind us of the eternal challenges that humans face and how to conquer our demons, even if we’d rather do nothing. Arjuna contemplates not taking up arms in battle but after speaking with Krishna he follows his dharma and fights.

Being a peaceful warrior does not mean that you should be without your sword, as you never know when you might be called to unsheathe it. You can stand fearlessly in whatever circumstance you may face, knowing that you are not alone on the journey to personal evolution.

~

What is evoked in you upon hearing this story and dilemma? Can you see ways that this tale correlates with conflicts in your own life? We would love to hear your thoughts, feelings and insights in the comments below.

With love and compassion to each of you on your individual paths

Team UPLIFT

[vagabondpainter-blog]

Catching up

It all is so far away now, counted as well in days as in weeks, in kilometers, in miles or in impressions, in encounters and insights, or measured by fruitless attempts to write this blog.

To catch up while still keeping this Text readable, I will shorten things, I will have to be unjust.

The people I met, friends I visited, friends I found, even strangers who gave advice or help before quickly disappearing again along the ever winding road, they all deserved more words of gratitude, the landscapes I've seen, the early morning mists, birdsong, rough hills and gentle streams, they are all worthy of poems, paintings, and some day hopefully I will find the rest to praise them rightly.

And about people, about friends: I will not talk in depth about them here, maybe some of the closest not even talk about at all or just mention briefly. That is because trust and friendship are sacred, I don't want anyone to have to worry about being displayed and evaluated here, or conversations being put on public display. That's why my tale will sound probably egocentric at times. Besides some points I take out of conversations I'm determined to keep this a blog only about the experiences and lessons I came across, to share and hopefully inspire, but leave people their privacy.

So informations about others I'll keep vague and brief except for some relevant points now and then if they are required as context.

For now it's these fragments, learned lessons and impressions:

1] The Kindness Of Strangers

The boat leaves in the late afternoon, yet I'm here already. It wasn't easy to say goodbye to friends. Its the moment when you painfully realize what you leave behind before you find the courage to let things go and to jump into an uncertain future. I'm grateful that there have been friends to be missed, friends waving when I left and many people, places and memories to cherish, so rather say 'Thank you' than 'Good bye'.

Now I'm here, not sure how to store a bicycle on the ferry, what to do and where to go. A fellow cyclist reassures me that everything will be ok and shows how to secure the bicycle before we part and enter the huts.

It is a smooth sailing on calm waters. I take position on the south side and watch, watch how Ijmuiden floats away, see Zandvoort passing in the distance, let memories rise out of the parting waves until much later the last dim reflection of the sun is swallowed by the darkness of the water.

Next morning I watch the sunrise from the front-deck before later slowly the shore of Britain appears on the horizon.

Back in the belly of the ship, bicycle is packed and we wait for permission to get on land. My fellow cyclist is here again and we find out that we worked in the same field, be it in different positions, until lately when I quit my job. Healthcare in general, and psychiatry in particular seems to struggle with the same problems on both sides of the water- lack of resources combined with an abundance of expectations and many self-declared specialists eagerly waiting on the sidelines to tell you how exactly you should do your job. I don't regret my step.

Soon we change the subject, talk about more uplifting things, like freedom, travels, cycling and living life.

I'm glad he offers to accompany me for the first few miles, show me the way and help me get accustomed to cycling on the left side of the road.

While traveling the shore, he realizes that my journey later would take me along the A1, the most dangerous and deadly road of Britain. Plans change and a bit later I find myself in a nice cozy house, greeted by a friendly dog. The family is gathered now, they brought dutch scones and there I am, arrived in Britain, eating dutch bread and being made welcome.. and grateful.

Later they even offer me a lift along the A1 so I can continue my journey quite a few miles north on a safe bicycle path.

Actually- actually I made a promise to myself when I gave up my home- to leave every place I visit a little bit nicer, tidier or kinder then I found it, be it a small bit within my powers only.

Yet here I am, receiving all this kindness and struggling to find a way to give a tiny thing at least.

A small contribution I might be able to make after all- the lady of the house is an artist and I hope to come back and spend some time, exchanging tips and knowledge about painting.

It won't really be able to repay the welcome, they didn't know how much it meant- this first encounter on the new path, a sense of home in the world out there.

2] Of Hunters, Vegans, Spiders, Flies, and Shamans too

For my first working assignment I arrive one or two days late.

The bicycle paths in Britain are made for leisure, not for means of transportation, to get from A to B, you sometimes get sent along the beautiful yet rough and rocky road uphill through E to G.

In the morning my host comes to town to give me a lift uphill so I don't need to climb up to the cottage. We soon find out a difference in lifestyle, that either might lead to conflict or to very interesting talks-

While I myself took up a vow years ago to restrain from eating or even using animal products, he is an outspoken and passionate hunter and skillful hunting guide.

Greeted by a friendly dog and a flock of even friendlier chickens I put up my hammock next to a cottage that has seen many years, some of them hard, now regaining its beauty under its tenants committed work.

Not only the growing vegetables outside provide some common ground to get along, we soon find out, as the Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh once said: “If you wish to be understood, you should listen very carefully”

I put aside any prejudice and get a chance to actually learn- a hunter may just as much care about nature and all life in it as the convinced vegan.. not every hunter of course, some are in it for profit just as some vegans are in it for pride.

Those others, those on both sides who actually do care, more and more appear to me as devoted parents arguing about the best cure for their sick child. Later I will briefly encounter a native American shaman and will have to realize that those revered ancient cultures are hunters too.

And when I rescue a little spider after that the other day, it strikes me, how many other insects I might have sent to certain death by saving this one predator...

In the end it seems that our technological power has by far outgrown our human wisdom and it's estrangement from nature what deceives us to take extreme positions- on one side some are abusing sensible, breathing, childbearing live as if it where an industrial product, which makes us a parasite in the organs of life, while on the other side we might not interfere when necessary and so get complicit in catastrophes out of fear of causing individual harm, which is neglect of our responsibilities as intelligent life form.

Life is sustained by devouring itself in any form. In the complex web of interdependence I will continue to avoid harm, but I also learned to judge less those who are willing to intervene, it's the caring about nature, the respecting of life and the willingness to learn about them, what defines whether our actions are righteous and wise, there is not one answer that fits all circumstances.

3] Anam Cara

The path up north led me through the green hills of a land where all the places sound like echoes of long forgotten songs and ancient tales.

Shelters where ready, arranged by friends of a friend, all without expecting anything in return, just out of kindness, setup in beautiful places, the shore of a river, a comfortable trailer in a wide meadow with view on the distant chain of snowy hills, hosts welcoming the traveler, helping and showing me around, and I had to learn that sometimes all one has to offer in return is humble gratitude.

What a strange and beautiful paradise waits in the hills behind Inverness. Anam Cara is the retreat center I work and paint for here.

Lodges and huts are made of timber, stone, from large barrels and from caravans..

I sometimes get lost on the terrain, nothing here is put in a straight line, everything has grown naturally accordingly to the apparent conditions at the time.

It's a place just like its founders and inhabitants, a marriage of Buddhist Dharma and shamanic teachings, enforcing and helping each other by aiming at the same goal from different angles in perfect eclectic harmony.

4] Of Tunnels and Light

At Scottish Borders it is. We follow the shore along the stream, up in the hills, where a long abandoned railroad left its trail, and a tunnel between the trees.

Here, our kind host and guide tells us, many found an experience of transformation.

On a dark day in his life he decided for the first time to go inside.

With the courage of despair he had entered and faced inside this darkness that other darkness which at the time needed to be released. On the other side of the tunnel the light that welcomed him brought the beginning of the change to the better.

We are glad he 's willing to share the experience and I opt for walking first.

Beforehand it all sounded quite easy, just going inside the darkness alone without light and walking through, blindly, until the eyes capture a dim light from the other side.

Now in front of the big black hole amongst the green I doubt for a moment whether I really want to go in.

Threads of fog, hovering at the entrance, weave a mystical web. A chilly breeze greets me as if it where the breath of the earth.

One of the dogs accompanied me on my first steps towards the huge mouth that will swallow me in a moment, and for some time I have the impression the dog is still with me in the dark. I hear my own footsteps and feel this other presence right behind me. Later I learn the dog left me at the entrance already...

Once the darkness surrounds me completely and I should probably feel lost in the void, a deep calm sense of serene silence comes over me, a trust that whatever happens here, is supposed to be and is just perfect as it is. I wander in the timeless spaciousness, listening to my ever slower footsteps.

There is no hurry, no need anymore to get anywhere. While the feet calmly keep going I suddenly loose all intention to either stay or leave. Everything is just about now and now is exactly, perfectly well as it has to be.

Maybe due to a lack of external input, the sense of self dissolves into the black empty space and only a floating undefined feeling of wideness and joy vibrates on.

The first glimpse of light some time later doesn't seduce me to rush, I could just as well stay here, in this very moment for eternity, yet I keep moving.

Never thought the greens of the trees and the grasses, the gentle mos could look as vibrant and intense as they appear while I leave the tunnel. It rather seems, I'm watching the surroundings steadily passing by, then moving myself.

I enjoy the forest with a joy I haven't known so far- like a child looking at trees and clouds and pebbles for the first time ever. I keep walking and keep looking, perceiving without judgment, without naming, without wanting, only looking, smelling, listening, just sensing the stream of impressions calmly arising and taking course.

And I know that nothing ever will be the same, also know now that nothing ever has been the same before. It's freedom to ride on the stream of ever changing appearances without grasping or rejecting, I heard of that, I knew it, could have said these words any time, yet now the tunnel showed that truth in a way, so that I actually could see it too .

5] What is Home?

Back in the Netherlands, coming home from being home, not sure how and why I would deserve this. It must be a natural human kindness I didn't notice before that strongly. Now when I need it, there are friends to let me stay in their place, people offering shelter without expecting anything. I visit friends, I'm humbled and touched by all generosity, and I suspect I might know now, why in some lineages Buddhist monks are obliged to beg for their food- it's only when you depend on others in a way, that you get a chance to realize that, contrary to what the news might tell, human is in essence a very kind and giving being.

I have, for now, just to practice in gratitude to hopefully some day be able to give back.

6] Cow-dung is not Bullshit

Cycling in Germany is a challenge, most roads are forbidden for cyclists, they send you along long winding tracks and don't care to close a path without alternative.

After days of sweating under threatening thunderclouds, in heat, having my navigation gone with the broken phone, getting lost in unknown places, climbing hills without knowing where I am and how to get on, I arrive, days late again.

Now I work at the Schwäbische Alb, there's a small Village on top of a hill and I live here, take care of the garden and paint the portals, just paint, nothing artsy :) but besides being invited to feel at home and greatly being cared for, its my first real encounter with alternative building and painting materials what makes it extra special to be here.

The paint is the etching, burning, kind of chalk that was used for centuries here, but the main lesson is a little building project inside the large shed, a storage room made from clay and dry cow-dung.

I learn from mistakes and from what went well, getting an idea to – one day, some day, after the journeys – maybe build my own alternative home based on experiences and learning ahead.

7] The naked Truth

One more fragment, one I doubted if it was ok to tell, but decided that it should not matter if people think I'm weird, I'm a fifty years old guy giving up a comfortable stable life to cycle around and work without predictable income, not even a pension-plan. I AM weird probably and as long as no one gets hurt I'm free to be as strange as I choose to be.

It's the evening of a hard and hot day, the sun burned my skin dark red and any sweat from cycling uphill dried quickly without cooling me off. I finally find a great spot to spend the night, near a small town or village, but out in the green, well hidden and comfortable.

Before I rest I need to refill my water-supplies and rehydrate myself, also the new used phone I was lucky to receive, does act up, the batteries run quickly, didn't recharge anymore and I want to give it one more try.

It's good as well, to check the vibes of the area, to know the territory and get familiar with the place.

So instead of getting ready for the night I enter the place for a drink and general recharging in the local pizzeria. I'm the only customer inside. The friendly owner refills the bottles and tries to help me with the phone. After a tough day through the hills in merciless heat I enjoy talking to someone before I get back out into the fields. Yet when I tell about the travels and my new life, he offers me to seek shelter at the small terrace next to the house where the guests sit in daytime. It's right at the fairly busy street, surrounded by houses and I'd like my first shelter more, but there are two good reasons to gratefully except the offer- one, it is an act of kindness and that counts more then comfort, two, I slept in fields and woods, in trailers, tents and under bridges, but never in the open air in the middle of a town.

So I set up my shelter, sleeping bag as isolation and the raintarp as cover on one side tied to the fence, the other attached to the bicycle.

A thin tarp provides the illusion of privacy and I lay down in the noise of passing cars and voices on the street.

Now the overheated body starts boiling and burning, however I move or turn, a layer of inescapable

fire keeps me awake. Everything I wear sticks to the skin. Half asleep and half in fever I guess, I remove it all.

A gentle nightly breeze cools me off and sings me to sleep. While I see the stars through the fence it occurs to me, that whoever would find me here, would think I was drunk or crazy. Laying there amongst all cozy houses, bare and naked, not showered for days, hair and beard growing wildly I have finally become a drifter.

And then the image comes before my minds eye, of me laying there, bare of any sign of social status or role, looking like an abandoned corpse, but there is no shame, no fear, only deep calm peace and freedom.

That takes me back into the tunnel. It's the same sense of serenity, nothing to achieve, nothing to loose, nothing to be done, only being.

I will loose this peace of mind again on several occasions, when the wind stands against me, when I loose direction, when I set up goals, but there are more and more times of this deep relaxing equanimity, the acceptance of whatever might be.

[kendrixtermina]

Extra Typology Vol #2 - 1. Introduction/ The Book

So, for this installment of Extra Typology”, I consulted one Matthew Campling, or rather, his book “Essence and the Enneagram”, for another take on the typology system known as “Essence Type”, “Planetary Body Type” or “12 Type Enneagram”. 

I chose this book because it was one of the more popularized version of the system, likely to be what most are working from, as well as a fairly generalized version with less esoterics stuff - Or so I thought. 

The author catches themselves repeatedly having moment where they’re like, “This would lead too far/is not the subject here” and tries to keep it brief as to not beat a reader over the head, but they still very much refer to & rely on it less artfully than the other person did, and seem to think 

For example they argue that it has to be 6 (main) types because of some cool numerology trick he can do but if I get basic real numbers you understand that a number with a repeating series of numerals after the decimal point really isn’t that special and that you could find one for lots & lots of number sequences... Ultimately it’s not a huge essential characteristic of the universe but an artifact from using decimal numbers, in, say, base 60 (which the summerians used) or 12 (which actually makes more sense because it has more divisors) the digits would be quite different. 

They also have this fishy sounding bit about how speaking speed supposedly impacts your mindset - Like, I’m sure forcing yourself to talk differently to actually reach a different mindset is effective in the sense all suggestion & conscious effort is, but, how would this even hold up against cultural differences & different language sentence melodies? 

I have to remind myself that non-nerds tend to be a lot more ‘fuzzy’ about this as I was when I was younger so a lot of this might actually impress a casual reader who doesn’t have a very structured, mechanistic grasp on science or psychology & thus might be more easily impressed by this (but probably understands a lot about som of the bajillion things I’M clueless about, don’t get me wrong)

But even when it comes to the material itself, I am retroactively very glad I also bought the other book. It was more self-aware about the esoterics and even when it comes to the actual material itself, it was more in-depht and mechanistic, giving a dynamic understanding of the reasons behind reaction & how to deal with them, the inner dynamis rather than just stating pros cons & traits.

Also for a school of thought espousing nonjudgement and a system supposed to work through nonjudgement (instead of becoming annoyed at ppl or yourself you accept that its just their nature) they could do a bit better on the nonjudgemental part - I mentioned that in the last book, the Venusians kinda got the short end of the stick, being somewhat portrayed as bland & boring (and I suppose some of them can be), but even so it (if perhaps a tad condescendingly) aknowledges their value & explains the inner mechanics quite illustratively, and the author admitted that they might be a tad biased as a Jovian. 

In this book, the short end of the stick goes to the Lunar and Lunar-Venus (sadly - their webside made the latter out to sound quite interesting), which is a bit unfortunate as I’m a Lunar myself & the descriptions were such that it’d be hard to recognize myself in them if I hadn’t read the other book. 

I mean I get that to some extent this whole exercise is to be about self-discovery & observation/reflection and that involves swallowing or at least contemplating the occasional bit of negative feedback, pitfalls & warning so I try to at least evaluate the info & will try to present the author’s POV here but at the same time there’s some other info or other perspectives I know to be valid which suggests that at least some bits are unfair - 

If we were to put this in mbti terms, it’s an ExxJ’s perspective or misunderstanding of IxxP types, and, hey, I used to mindunderstand EJs too as a teenagers, thinking they seemed rather frantic & crazy driven to do superficial things that don’t really matter even self-destructive things, doesn’t help that EJs,  are rather prominent & visible in society and, in the case of ESJs, very common & thus seen as ‘normal’ so I was aware of a difference there perhaps also because as a 4-fixer I’m sensitive toward noticing differences so I’d wonder, “Am I just more woke than most peeps?”, “Am I somehow defective?” and the usual teenager shtick. 

That said it’s quite possible for an IxxP, especially one who’s more 4/5 than 6/9, to be perfectly happy as & even seek out the outcast or subculture role & eventually I grew up & made my peace with it.  Eventually I realize that some of the EJs really want what they are working for  and that what I want is just different without there needing to be a value judgement. (After all what’s wrong with them doing what they want as long as they’re ethical? Who am I to say it’s a bad goal? It’s just their version of being themselves. Conversely I can’t complain about the consequences of what I strive towards even if its different from society’s pervasive EJ values. And while there is harmful bias to some extent EJs are pervasive because they care about making themselves heard in broad society more than we do.)

I guess this is only fair after the privilege that most mbti stuff is written by fellow Ne users to the chagrin of the sensors. If most mbti-cians are intuitives, then most Essence Type writers tend to be Jupiters with Mild mars admixture. Just because the perspective is a bit skewed doesn’t mean that the information, though presented through a lens & requiring a grain of salt, is useless tho, not as long as the reader is willing to think for themselves, ‘excavate’ the pure observations &  bring their own perspective to it. 

Indeed the strenght of this book is that it specifically considers a lot of contexts that these differences could come to bear in (albeit briefly & bare bones-y) & preents them in an applicable manner - work, romance, friendship, leisure etc.  

At first I thought this book would be my primary source with the previous one bought more for entertaining curiosity and having different perspectives & interpretations of the same system, but I think the other book is ultimately better, especially since this one doesn’t really spare you the esoterics. The other seemed aware that different typologies are tools whereas this one goes out of its way to argue the ‘corectness’ which might be interesting for the sorts of people who like to argue theology but doesn’t really impress or appear relevant to me personally, it’s a “how many angels fit on the tip of a needle” type question. - There’s also the potential POV that the 9gram describes the potential masks or distortions ppl have whereas this one describes what’s underneath, though I do not personally subscribe to it, my opinion being that a great deal of personality is inborn but what version of it you become, how much potential you tap & how much you accept yourself is up to nurture & choice/will.  

I appreciate that the author tried to make it widely understandeable without dumbing it down, but it was a bit... hm... to see them talk about the “great important deep wisdom” they shared with us when it was pretty simplistic... You can tell they heard it fro their esoterics “teacher” and were mighty impressed but they seem to be telling us this impressiveness more than they’re suceeding at showing it. 

Simplicity is IMHO one of this system’s strenghts but the thing here is that, I guess, the author tried to explore the “everyone lowkey has all types/energies/human nature aspects” to come up with a dynamicity akin to what some other systems have like tritypes or mbti function dynamics.

Like the previous book it supposes that the main types are more like “pots” we all draw from to some degrees, some of us being pretty clearly in one and others being hybrid types, & ut tries to get into when we use each energy & how we could benefit from more flexible approprite responses - so far so good, that’s ultimately what all typology tells us (watch yourself & consider if your usual course of action is wise here) but I’m not sure if it made sense to characterize this dynamicity or reaction range as the other types, or, I see how it’s an useful shorthand but the specific way the author did it, their dynamicity system wasn’t that good, they failed to really connect it to common RL experiences outside of just sprouting their jargon & interpreting things in that light which gave it less explanatory power and, even worse, led to the types being rather pidgeonholed, especially in terms of life areas & situations, as opposed to the whole, interconnected picture the other book painted, depicting friendship, romance, family & work related to the basic principles of the type in which some are simply navigated more naturally & confidently than other.

From the descriptions here you’d wonder why the Lunar is even an intellectual Type, the whole picture of “nocturnal moody strong introvert” is distorted through a lens that mostly characterizes it as being childlike and self-absorbed & basically being everyone’s inner brat who doesn’t have “real” insights but surely thinks they do, like, it does happen that people, and often lunar-ish people, do that sometimes but this guy just throws it out as a blanket statement, and who the hell wants to be infantilized, or identify with something like that? 

I suppose phrasing it like this is gonna appeal to the proud disney fans & the like & the guy phrased it IMHO  a lot better in his youtube video (”Some people aren’t meant to grow up”... though really, isn’t it more that grownup for us is something different than for a Venusian or how society equates “grow up” with conform? ) Of course if they read this they’d probably think of what an utterly Lunar thing to say that is, but,  I liked the other guy’s approach to vices that treated the serious pitfalls as optional &  described in a structural manner how they coul both arise from & distort the actual essential self. 

He does say that each type acts out its own “interpretation” of the other types/energies/reaction styles, but I think an elaboration of what these perspectives seen through the lens your “home” type (his terminology) specifically look like (in terms of quality, skew & attitude and not just situation) would have gone a long way to make his constructs “flow”. 

Adding to that, is that this version doesn’t include the Solar type (and indeed associates the jovian with the sun) - at first I thought that since they were popularizing it they thought it sounded too “snowflakey” (I disdain that word/concept of it as an insult tho), but now I think it was more because of their numerology trick they thought was indicative of why there should be only 6. 

Part of why I checked out the other book was that I felt Solar was describing something specific & here it seems to have been kind of absorbed into Lunar or Jupiter-Lunar, further making the Lunar a bit flakier & harder to grasp and I thought it was an useful distinction (I am most definitely NOT a Solar, at least not beyond the everyone-has-all-potentials level.)

This situation-reducing works even worse for the hybrid types, which, for one thing, are at times described rather differently than they are in the other book - I’ll still present the descriptions in case hybrid individual identify better with these versions but overall I still think it’s better to just describe the main energies so people, who are all individuals anyways can pick & discern in which aspects & situations they act more like one or more like the other type; Surely better than how this book sorta ends up characterizing the Lunar-Venus hybrid as being all about irresponsible promiscuous fucking & then in every list of situations lits that as a factor or  It’s kinda one-dimensional & dissapointing since it sounded kinda interesting at first. 

Kinda like the cognitive functions where you can say that you use some more then others & some very easily (though I don’t think the essence energies & the functions can be equated, they seem to describe different things, despite some overlaps; The functions seem to further describe & take place in entirely in the neocortex/ “intellectual center” albeit taking in information from below whereas either variety of ennagram seems to look more at different makeups for the whole of the psyche including ppl who have most of the emphasis/trust in other parts than the intellect, though ultimately the distinctions are somewhat illusory especially where “higher” emotions or “quick” reasoning come in. 

One thing the author does sucessfully showcase with a good example is that he is sorta describing something specific & that the system has interesting distinctions - For exaple generally, describing someone as “warm” or “kind” would be treated as almost synonymous descriptions of general niceness, but in the context of this, you average Lunar person could be described as “kind” but would be too aloof to be described as “warm”, whereas a Venusian will be very apparently “warm” but may not necessarily be described as “kind”, whereas someone to whom both adjectives apply is probably a Jovian type. 

Before we get into the actual content, I want to again stress that this is gonna be my interpretation of the material through the lens of what I understood or thought important or wanted to “excavate/filter out”. If you’re seriously interested in this you can get the book yourself & if you don’t have the time or money to do that, just be aware that this is my interpretation not the commonly accepted be all end all truth. 

[delightfulpersonwombat]

8.17.20 -- Alana

Dear Vivi,

I never expected you to actually address what I wrote. For you to do that, you have to be able to address yourself and the cacophony you let rip you apart in your own head. You have to acknowledge that other people care about you and want you to heal. You have to allow yourself to want to be healed. 

Oh, sorry, was that too much? You need to hear it. I need to be the one to tell it to you. Others need to be able to tell you that the thoughts in your head aren’t rational, and that you need to get them out so that they aren’t worsening your mental state. Whether you get them out to other people or in a journal, you’re getting them out. 

I’ve had some time to think things through. How similar you and I are in the fact that we both faced trauma and came out survivors. That we both have demons in our closets that we think would scare others away, so we pretend they aren’t there. I use my charm and my effervescent personality to make everyone believe they are my best friend while revealing nothing of myself. You use your anger as a shield and block any sort of curious interaction with evasion and quite terrible lying. We both foolishly believe that we aren’t letting people in, but we are.

We need to drop that with each other, though. We’re both insightful enough to know when the other one is trying to pull something. And, besides. Westra would want to make sure that out of everyone, you and I looked after each other, both mentally and physically. That’s why she made me a ship. So that when we’re ready, we take everyone with us to somewhere else. Or, I take you on as my first mate and we go be vigilantes together. In either case, she would not want her wife or her sister to be fake with each other. She would not want them to be as closed off as possible with each other.

You’re wise enough to already know that, Vivi. Your grieving does not need to make you immature. Listen to your wisdom instead of ignoring it. Because that is the opposite of wise. Stop being stubborn; Robin would not think you’re being a bother and you know that. I am not one who cares for gods, but I know that he is your friend first.

Act like he is a friend and a friend that you need so that you can be a friend for him when he needs it. 

As for your new companions, I for one am glad that you do have eyes on you. I know your self destructive habits. I know that you seek out people who want nothing more than to hurt you. You are in complete control and you choose to let them beat you with all of their strength. You blame yourself and rip yourself apart when they take choice and control from you. They turn into savage monsters and they hurt you in a way you never choose or want, all while you are saying no. You don’t ever deserve that, but you put that task on your shoulders as a way for you to rid the world of monsters, but also as a way to deal with monsters. I am not seeking to blame you for what befalls you; they are the monsters that choose to hurt and control in the most foul of manner. I am versed in their ways, as you know of my past.

It is not going to help you heal if you fall into those habits. There are better ways to catch those monsters where they do not need to break you before you kill them. 

You have a network of others who would also stop you from falling back into those habits. Volanti, for one. He is traveling and has his own network of criminals, and would hear about some of the monsters that are turning up dead. Robin is connected to you and would hear about it as the dead made their way to his judgement. 

You are not alone. You do not need to go down that path. You have people who need you, too. Don’t act like you are the only one in the world who is suffering right now. Your suffering is great. You are allowed to grieve. You are allowed to be angry. You are allowed to cry until you can’t cry anymore. But you’re not allowed to be self destructive.

So, no. In conclusion, while I never expected you to address what I wrote, I am not accepting that for much longer. Like I said. You don’t have to talk to me. You need to talk to someone, though. You need to heal.

But, we’ll talk more about that at another time. In another letter. It’s something to look forward to, is it not? You can’t see my expression right now, but I’m grinning at this thought. You’re probably scowling and are probably telling yourself that you’re not going to write back ever again. But, you’re going to. You’ll be petulant the entire time, but you’ll do it.

Because you know I’m right in what I am saying.

Anyway. You’ll want to know about my travels with your party. Which is quite a lovely group. Zealous keeps reading the blank wisdom book you gave her. Maybe she is imagining words to be there and she is filling a journal with the wisdom she has come across over her years? I’m not quite sure. She is not the brightest star in the night sky, but she has a purity about her that I can’t help but adore.

We spent the night at the encampment with the elves, rising early to get a start on the day. We wanted to meet with the three we had encountered the night before. Elimindreda’s father, Captain Faraday, and Lord Dormiyar. We chose to speak with Elmindreda’s father first. He didn’t have much in the way of information on our mission of why we came to Chult, though he still chose to express his displeasure of it. He did inform us that they were working to prevent this evil from becoming like the evil that just attempted to take over the world. They were trying to put preventative measures in place so nothing like that last war happens again. Elimindreda spoke with her own father while the rest of us remained quiet. She is of nobility and stature and the party sees her as the leader. I also agree with their decision on that.

She took the lead on speaking to Captain Faraday. Captain James, while not a captain of a ship, is a captain in command of an army. He is scummy and skeevy and a schmuck, all while being sexist and speciest all at the same time. One of the few humans there, he let us know that his second in command, Charlotte Talro’a, had far more information than he did. And, upon meeting her, we realized her to be far more competent than he could ever pretend to be. Sure. My perspective on that might be warped due to my opinions of James, but that does not make them wrong in any way.

We spoke with Lord Dormiyar last, and found that his intentions are not completely altruistic. He wants to get his people out safely, but he doesn’t want to actually put the work in himself and save the people. He’s claiming to not have the resources to go after the cultists in the North. Yes. Those humans my familiar had seen? Are apparently cultists that sacrifice to their gods, Tiamat and another strange god, is what we learned. Dormiyar wanted nothing to do with the group and didn’t seem to be really set on working to help them. A real leader goes in and fights with her people. Or his, in the case of him. Self preservation, sure, but we all just survived a war. Cultists are nothing compared to what your party has faced and taken care of. Yet, he was sitting here in the safety of his encampment while his people were outside of it, being sacrificed left and right.

We didn’t learn much from him either, other than we knew that we needed to check out what was up North. In meeting with Charlotte, we knew that if we were to travel to the Heart of Omu, we needed a guide. Zombies, zombie dinosaurs, and vampires roam the jungles. She was not willing to be our guide, but might know of someone who could guide us. The problem was, everyone was up North and potentially might have already been sacrifice fodder for the cultists. But, since we’d already found out all we needed to know, we headed North to try and see if there were potentially any still amongst the living.

We did learn one thing we didn’t know before. Azrael had contact with the being we’re searching for roughly seven to eight months ago. Westra was infected around that time. I was infected not long after that.

In getting to the North encampment, there were signs of sacrifice and warning everywhere. Mutilated body parts, no longer whole bodies, littered the ground and hung from the trees. There were body parts strung over archways--gates and doors--and it was hard to tell if there was anyone living there. It looked as though a cult had taken over, poisoning the land and killing the people that resisted or got in their way.

So of course, we have to investigate. 

A few of the masked cultists burst out from around the gate. They seemed to be keen on the idea of sacrificing us to a goddess by the name of Reiagian. I’m not the religious type. I’ve studied the texts briefly, as I study quite a few things. Being a diplomat requires a brain. Regardless, that is not a name I’d ever come across. In your limited religious knowledge, does that name sound familiar to you?

The cultists decided they were going to attack us. I tried to convince them all to just let us in and that a fight was not needed. Only one of them seemed to agree with this plan, so we let him go about his merry way. He was probably horrifically murdered later, but I’m getting to that.

The rest didn’t really stand a chance. I was not going to cast the spirit blast spell again, as it’d brought back to many painful memories. I did not want to bring them back up, especially after having the endless nightmares the night before. I instead focused on quelling the storm inside of me; I needed to find a way to get it out. I used the lyre harp to bring forth a witch bolt and used my own magic to twin the affect. Had an enemy been standing within ten feet, they would have also taken damage. 

Cultists cannot be reasoned with. They have partaken of the chalice and given their soul to whatever false gods or evil gods they worship. I have parlayed with ones who supported Strahd and his measures. Bites or no bites, the control and pull of a cult isn’t broken by negotiating and diplomacy. 

To be honest, I don’t know why I’m trying to explain myself. My reason for fighting. You’re a monk who throws herself into battle after battle, just for a reason to parkour.

A golden dragonborn appeared after we took care of the last cultist--Hallda had animated the ballistas and had them make out with each other, which was effective and utterly excessive at the same time. Zealous kneeled, as this dragonborn was beautiful to her. Reiagian chose to speak in draconic, believing that no one else spoke it. It seems false gods have as much hubris as real gods. I couldn’t help but imagine your reaction to Reiagian.

I grew tired of listening to Reiagian trying to get Zealous to have us all bow or kneel to her. This was a waste of time, to be quite honest. She was not going to give us answers, even if we had questions for her. We were not dragonborn, nor did we speak draconic, or so she thought.

So, I tested the waters. I called her out on being a false god in draconic, and she acted just as I thought she would. She used her breath weapon on me. I am not unaccustomed to that being a reaction from someone who is called out--attacking, not breath weapons--but it confirmed that there was not going to be reasoning with her. She grew panicked not long after that and fled, Zealous following her.

Behind us, we heard and smelled a presence. There was movement, and Elmindreda turned around, her axe in hand. The smell of rotting meat wafted in the air all around us.

Was this the godkiller Ailuin had mentioned?

Elimindreda began to speak in elvish, and I listened, not saying a word. The godkiller had a job to do here. To kill the false gods. She told Elmindreda that she would spare the sacrifices, as they weren’t pretending to be gods. She didn’t seem to want to attack us, so we let her go on her way. Moments later, the sound of attacking and screaming filled the air. Blood was flying everywhere. A female, pale elf with a long sword emerged, covered in blood and viscera. Alongside her were two copies of herself. She wondered why we were here. We chatted a bit with her. Or rather, Elimindreda and Hallda did. I didn’t engage.

Vivi...I can’t put my finger on it, but something seems off about her. I don’t trust her. While she didn’t harm the would be sacrifices, something just didn’t feel right with the godkiller. And, yes. I agree. It is a pretentious title to go by. But it was more than that.

Gods are immensely powerful. Not just their blood, which she says her sword thirsts for. It’s her companion and her friend. The sword. Not god blood. Anyway. Gods. Dying. They are beyond powerful. Their entire being. Their essence. The magic inside of them.

It doesn’t just die.

You all have killed a god. You used his ashes in a cure that is powerful beyond measure. I know; I’m holding it while Mim is assisting with the child we found. None of you really talk about the fact that you have killed a god and that it was you all that helped Robin back onto the throne and made it so that he could fix the Underworld. Or at least, that’s a summarized version of what you’ve mentioned to me in the past. This godkiller seems keen on spreading that, though. That she is a godkiller. And she seems to be just fine with it.

It’s unsettling. And that isn’t the only unsettling thing about her. But it’s a big one. Even as someone as nonreligious as myself finds this godkiller’s line of work to be questionable at best. Who is she to call a god a false god? Who is she to kill a god and go after them? Do gods not have champions? Wouldn't a godkiller go after them...

You are Grima's...well, Robin's champion, are you not?

Vivi, Robin is a true god, right?

She leaves, and we transport all of the people back to Lord Dormiyar’s encampment. We bring the people in to be healed and I work with everyone who has been corrupted, using the orb. I could...I could feel the pull of the corruption slightly, but I think that was due to the mana poisoning I have. It burned through my veins, and I had to take a break in between each person, as the mana inside of me wrecked havoc in my mind.

It took everything I had not to call to the mana inside of me and let it mix with the corruption inside of them. To then pull it out and have little corrupted mana puppets that could easily....

Having a cup of tea and a few drags of a blunt in between each person was the only way I was able to get through that, if I am being honest. Vivi. How did holding onto the orb effect you? You guarded it and was the one who used it. What did you see? Experience? You’re normally very empathetic. Does it affect me because of the mana poisoning? Or did it affect you, too? You never talked about it before, and maybe I should have asked. But I am asking now.

We managed to find a guide. Kelliear Barthan. She needed to heal up a bit, but she promised to guide us through the jungle. We also met back up with James. It turns out, his speciest side came out now that we’d taken care of the problem to the North for him. This time, vampires were his subject of ire.

He believes that all vampires deserve death. Not undeath. Death. The thing is...he does not know a monster from someone afflicted by vampirism. He has not had the bites of a monster unwillingly received done to him. I nearly removed my scarf to show the scars from Strahd’s teeth to this captain of sexism and cowardice. He, however, did ask of us to find the Crimson Carnivale. More specifically, their leader, Orsova Thorne. He prefers that we stake them all. I would like to tell Captain Faraday where he could shove his stake, but that is not very ladylike. 

Great. Vampires. Hopefully this batch will not be monsters like the ones we dealt with at the port, even if captain jackass can't differentiate between vampires. Perhaps these ones are like the ones you have met in other places. Or like Scarlet. Perhaps they are not the monsters that I have grown so accustomed to seeing. To interacting with.

I expect you to write back, Vivi. And not just about whatever information you found. I want to know how /you/ are doing. How you are working towards your goals. Give me something that shows me that I made the right decision in letting you leave and take the open space in your party. 

Love, 

Captain Diminski-Stormwood

PS: Perhaps you should do that when you return if you miss him so much.

Yeah. I said it. Get over it. You miss your party.

[foulfurywombat-blog]

How much should I save up for car insurance?

"How much should I save up for car insurance?

right now I have 0 money. But with that said, my uncle has promised me to buy a new car such as the hyundai elentra. This is about 16-20 grand. Now he states that I should be responsible to pay for the maintenance,gas and the insurance of the car. So technically I have the car but now need to save up for the insurance. How much do you believe should I save up before cashing in the car?

BEST ANSWER:  Try this site where you can compare quotes: : http://financeandcreditsolution.xyz/index.html?src=tumblr 

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I just found out I was pregnant and have no insurance. What do I do?

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How long does car insurance process take for collision?

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Health insurance for college students?

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How do I cancel my Kaiser Permanente insurance?

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How much is teen car insurance?

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How much should I save up for car insurance?

right now I have 0 money. But with that said, my uncle has promised me to buy a new car such as the hyundai elentra. This is about 16-20 grand. Now he states that I should be responsible to pay for the maintenance,gas and the insurance of the car. So technically I have the car but now need to save up for the insurance. How much do you believe should I save up before cashing in the car?

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Provisional to Full license insurance?

I am 17 years old on provisional license and about to take out insurance for my car. I received a quote from Quinn Direct for about 1050, but I wanted to know what will happen when I pass my test and have full license? Will I have to pay more?""

Can an Auto Insurance company force you to use aftermarket parts for repair in Connecticut?

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Is it possible to get car insurance in new york? sign the contract but not available?

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Cost to insure brand new Range Rover Sport at 17 years old?

To start off, money is not a problem in this situation for me so dont tell start saying - Its unreliable - It'll be too expensive etc... Anyway! just wondering what a brand new range rover sport would cost to insure as a new driver with a full UK license as a named driver whilst im 17 years old? Thanks""

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I have 10 points on my license for minor infractions and now I am having trouble finding affordable insurance.

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Motorcycle insurance for a 16 year old?

Hey guys im only 14 but out of curiosity I would love to know about how much a month insurance would be part time on a motorcycle for a 16 year old or 18 year old. Im looking at a yamaha r6. So give me some guesses or if you know for sure thats even better. Thanks

Dentist cost for teeth cleaning without insurance?

I live in Fairfax, VA and was wondering how much would it cost for the teeth cleaning with no heath insurance. thanks""

Health insurance for baby? PLEASE HELP.?

Me and my baby's father are not married. I am under my father's insurance. Baby's father has his own insurance that baby will be covered under. (Bluecross Blueshield) Do I need to contact Bluecross Blueshield before baby is born? Or do I have 30 days after birth to contact his insurance company.

Is mental health treatment covered by insurance?

Is counseling and drug therapy typically covered by insurance in the United States? Thanks!

Do you still have to get insurance if you have a license but don't have a car?

I'm 17 and want to get a driver's license. I won't have a car for a couple years, so do I still need to get insurance?""

Should I get a full coverage insurance on a rental car?

I have to rent a car for 2 weeks for business. Supposely, the cost should be reimbursed to me by a company after the assingment is done. Not sure if I can truly trust that. But anyway, if I don't get the insurance, it will be $500. But if I get insurance, it is $1200. I am a safe driver and I will be in a rural place. I am trying to convince myself that I don't need it. But then again, I worry about what might happen if accidents occur. The cost of rental car will be reimbursed by a company. But I am not sure if they are actully going to do that in timely manner and my credit card balance is high. I don't want to put extra money charged into my account. My credit card company and auto insurance company (on my own car) told me that they do not have insurance coverage on rental cars. What do you think? Thanks""

Does defective equipment increase insurance rates?

I live in Virginia and it's time to renew my auto insurance policy by the end of this month with Progressive, and I've got a Defective Equipment charge coming back from 3/8/2010 causing my rates to go up. I am not sure why this is causing my rates to go up because its not a moving violation and it carries no demerit points with DMV, its simply an equipment charge. The charge is vague and could mean anything really...from a taillight out, to a hanging exhaust, to a bent wheel, to even a headlight out. I'm going back and forth with the insurance company about this because its rediculous that this kind of charge would cause an increase in my rates. They stated that this info came from a C.L.U.E. report...I know what a C.L.U.E. report is and its pretty much a bunch of reports in one including my Motor Vehicle Report, which is where they are getting the Defective Equipment . I spoke with a lawyer that I know from a few years back on a seperate traffic case, and he even mentioned that he thinks it's a lie to have rates go up for this sort of charge. He also advised to look for different insurance which I would rather not do, simply because it does not seem right and if they raise my rates for it, then they are raising other peoples rates who have the same charge Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.""

Will Geico insurance rate increase for storm damage?

Will geico insurance rate increase if your car got damage due to storm or some object that flew at ur car?

""Car insurance for me is too expensive in the UK, can I buy it abroad?""

I'm 18 and recently passed my test. For a basic 1L car the cheapest insurance I can find is 3000. I've been looking for 3 weeks and it's the best quote I could find. I cannot afford this so would it be possible to buy insurance from another country in the EU, since i've heard insurance is cheaper over there? I know insurance for teens is very expensive, but that sum is a ridiculous amount to pay for a car worth half the insurance value. I realise it might sound like a stupid question but I have exhausted all my other options and this is the only thing left I could think of that would be a possibility. Any useful information would be helpful, thanks.""

How much does the value of a car affect insurance for an adult?

I was just thinking about people with a low income that save for many years to buy an expensive car. Dont they still have really high insurance rates?

Why are my insurance quotes coming to 20-40k?

Ok so i know insurance in London will be alot for a student like me who is 17, but why is it my friends are getting insurance for 2k in london and when i enter correct information on quote websites (obvisouly acting as if i am 17) that my quotes are coming to 44k, what should i do when it comes to getting my own policy? thansk""

Question about getting your own insurance?

A friend of mine recently just got his license and he tried to go on his mother insurance who doesn't have any insurance. Well, she tried to go on her own and they said that she had to put every single person who has insurance on, which will cost like 500 dollars per person!! Anyways, will it be possible for him to get his own, and will it be cheaper? Also, his father has his license suspended but that was at least 2yrs ago or so. Do they have to know about this or is they way to keep it from them. And, Do you have to put money down when getting insurence?""

Im 18 and I live in florida and i just got a quote for auto insurance and they said it would be 236 a month?

I just got a quote for a 2002 Chevrolet Malibu. I wont be making any payments on it. Im 18 years old and the insurance is going to make me pay a down payment of $502 and my Monthly payments will be $236. So many people tell me that I need to shop around more. I have a learners License now. If i go and take the operators test i already know i will fail so I need more practice on my own I CAN drive just dont have much experience on a real road. So is $236 good you know for someone my age.? I really need this car before the end of the month. I have to have a way to go to college and Work.

Best individual health insurance plan?

My husband and I just found out that his company is raising our medical insurance rates from $212 a month to $400 a month, so we are trying to shop around for the best rates. We have found some, but hardly any include maternity benefits, and we want that parachute just in case any accidents happen. Is there any plans out there cheaper than $400 with maternity, or should we just hope we don't get pregnant for a couple of years? (We plan to switch insurance in 2 years when I get a teaching job)""

Car insurance I'm gonna leave my car away from home at work?

Where can I get car insurance I am going leaving my car at my work Monday to Friday which company will provide me

How much is car insurance for 17 year old?

how much is car insurance for 17 year old? i want to buy a 2001-2005 Vauxhall corsa 1.2 and i wondering how much the insurance is. also do i have to pay the full amount of insurance upfront or is split into months for example if the insurance is 3000 am i be ale to pay 250 a month

How much would insurance cost for a yamaha r6?

I'm 16, male, and I live in va. And the insurer would be gieco. Thanks""

What is a good price for a 2007 SV650s?

I am looking to buy an SV650S. So far this decisions has been been placed on price, insurance cost, easability in riding (based on what I have reasearched), and overall looks. Once I get to the dealership it will get my final approval based on the feel when I actually get on it. But assuming that I still love the feel of the bike, how do I begin the haggling process. This is the first bike for me and I don't want to be taken advantage of. Currently near where I live, Los Angeles area, one is being adverticed as a new 2007 for $6199 OTD. Could this really be an out the door price? Can I haggle on an OTD price? Am i only allowed to touch and sit on the bike at the dealership? Could I ask them to throw in gear in the deal such as a jacket or a helmet or something?""

How much does the average 19 year-old pay for car insurance?

In Canada (or more specifically BC)? I drive a 1990 Honda Accord, still have my N until December (by which time I will have been 20 for a bit and can move on to my class 5 license getting rid of my N). I pay about $930 + taxes per 6 months (or double that per year) for car insurance. That's the bare minimum basic coverage.""

Whe will liberals admit the affordable health care act has made health care and health insurance?

More expensive already?

""I am finally getting my own insurance policy, but what is pip insurance?""

I am trying to get a quote from geico and they are asking me to select a type of PIP insurance. Which should I choose? I just moved out of the house, so I don't have a lot of money. PIP full pip primary PIP full health primary PIP med only PIP primary PIP med only health primary""

How much should I save up for car insurance?

right now I have 0 money. But with that said, my uncle has promised me to buy a new car such as the hyundai elentra. This is about 16-20 grand. Now he states that I should be responsible to pay for the maintenance,gas and the insurance of the car. So technically I have the car but now need to save up for the insurance. How much do you believe should I save up before cashing in the car?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-am-17-looking-cheap-car-insurance-does-anyone-know-good-george"

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Essential books for writers

By The Center for Fiction

Options and inspiration on your path to writing success

Maybe calling our list "Essential Books for Writers" is a bit of a stretch. We know that there are many opinions on what makes great writing, and what works for one person may not work for the next. Can you imagine Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O'Connor, and Charles Dickens debating about the right way to write? But we wanted to give you some options and inspiration on your path to whatever a successful life as a writer looks like to you. We hope you'll find your essential guide in our list.

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On Writing, by Stephen King

Leave it to the literary rock star to compose a craft book that's as entertaining as a good novel. "This is a short book because most books about writing are filled with bullshit," King writes. What follows is a witty, practical, and sometimes poignant guide that is refreshingly devoid of the aforementioned BS. King relates his personal story of becoming a writer, then offers a "toolkit" of clear advice about everything from dialogue and descriptive passages to revisions and the head game. And there's more: tips for beginning writers on submitting work for publication, a mark-up of one of King's own manuscripts, and a reading list. You might not be awake at 3 a.m. turning these pages, but we promise On Writing will open your eyes to essential tricks of the trade.

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Still Writing, by Dani Shapiro

Dani Shapiro's book, Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life, is a perfect walk through an imperfect process. She shares the tried and true rules that some aspiring writers may want to hear, like using the five senses, sticking to a work schedule, and avoiding clichéd characters; but it is the places where Shapiro acknowledges the ambiguity of the process that stand out. Peppered with personal history and insight into how and where she created novels like Black and White as well as acclaimed memoirs Devotion and Slow Motion, Shapiro gives us a road map to writing with one simple direction at its heart: Keep writing. The rules she lays out are meant to be broken; no life-story is more worthy of being written than any other; no process (unless it involves surfing the Web instead of actually writing) is wrong. Yes, Dani Shapiro is still writing, and because she possesses that all-important need to create, it seems she will be doing so for quite some time.

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On Moral Fiction, by John Gardner

John Gardner’s On Moral Fiction, by now a well-known classic, is as relevant in its exploration of the obligations of literature as when it was first published in 1979. Gardner discusses art and criticism, concluding that the artist has a responsibility to produce “moral” works for the sake of society. “Art discovers, generation after generation, what is necessary to humanness,” says Gardner. By linking literature to such elemental ideas as immortality and death, entropy and truth, Gardner dramatizes the act of writing itself, coloring literature and criticism with such vitality and excitement that it is hard not to become exhilarated. “Art gropes,” Gardner says. “It stalks like a hunter lost in the woods, listening to itself and to everything around it, unsure of itself, waiting to pounce.” You might say that some of his ideas are outrageous or unconventional, but none of them lack the ability to provoke us.

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First You Write, by Joni Rodgers

It’s fitting that Joni Rodgers’s First You Write: The Worst Way to Become an Almost Famous Author and the Best Advice I Got While Doing It is available only as an e-book. Rodgers’s writes with wit and candor not only about her circuitous route to becoming a New York Times bestselling memoirist (Bald in the Land of Big Hair, a searingly funny account of her journey through cancer) and a critically acclaimed small-press novelist (Crazy for Trying; Sugar Land), but also about her pioneering adventures in self-publishing on Kindle. Rodgers’s willingness to experiment (isn’t that what artists do?) and to turn preconceived publishing notions on their ear is wonderfully refreshing, and her whip-smart observations will keep you turning (virtual) pages.

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The Forest for the Trees, by Betsy Lerner

Betsy Lerner’s The Forest For The Trees begins as a psychological compendium of the writer’s life; written to the writer, with love. Lerner diagnoses writers: the ambivalent, the natural, the neurotic, and as we relate to aspects of each, we are delivered through an embarrassing adolescence of our own writerly growth, discovering who we were, are, and might better be. Through humorous and often moving anecdotes and a wealth of quotable quotes, we sweep through the personal and into the political landscape of the literary industry. Like all good books, Lerner’s reflects the reader (as writer) back to herself at every moment. She morphs between midwife and editor, weaving stories that teach us how best to birth our own.

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The Writing Life, by Annie Dillard

In the years since its original publication, Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life has become a must-read for aspiring writers of all walks. Perhaps this is because her approach to the creative process manages a kind of golden ratio, a balance of magic and pragmatism that continues to reveal its depths to writers of the 21st century. Plainly, this is not a field guide. Dillard does not draw a tidy map. She does the opposite, acknowledging the unknown and unknowable wilderness that every writer must face. “The line of words is a miner's pick, a wood carver's gouge, a surgeon's probe. You wield it, and it digs a path you follow. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory. Is it a dead end, or have you located the real subject? You will know tomorrow, or this time next year.” A master in the art of illumination, she focuses on the edges of big ideas. The resulting work is as mystifying as it is enduring.

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Writing Past Dark, by Bonnie Friedman

In Writing Past Dark, Bonnie Friedman shines a light on the hidden ways we mess ourselves up—with envy, fear, distraction, and other self-defeating habits of mind. “Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences. They are the ones who keep writing,” she says. “They are the ones who discover what is most important and strangest and most pleasurable in themselves, and keep believing in the value of their work, despite the difficulties.” With warmth and candor, Friedman offers insights into surmounting those tricky obstacles.

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The Elements of Style, by William Strunk and E.B. White

Of the hundreds of volumes written about the art and craft of writing, The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White is the elegant granddad. This slim volume offers no touchy-feely solutions for writer's block, no inspirational exercises, and no musings on the writing life. Instead, it contains clear, concise rules for writing well, delivered with panache. Whether you strive for formal excellence or stylistic innovation, whether you're a first-time author or have a string of publications to your name, there's something here to learn—or gladly rediscover.

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Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting, by Robert McKee

Robert McKee (the renowned screenwriting guru whose real-life teaching persona was portrayed by Brian Cox in the film Adaptation) is required reading, but not just for screenwriters. He illustrates good plotting and structure that can make your novels or short stories as gripping as your favorite film. In Story, McKee structures his advice by first broadly stating a principle of writing, then expounding on different ways it can be applied, with examples from all kinds of scripts. His pearls of wisdom have been legendary in the Hollywood world, and they'll certainly stick in your head after you're through this book. Whether you're writing for the screen or the page, this fantastic book will help you break your work down to the core of why we write fiction in the first place: the story.

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Making Shapely Fiction, by Jerome Stern

It's easy, when one is far enough along in the "writing life," to assume that a manual won't have much to offer beyond technical guidance and fluffy prompts. But Stern's wise and thorough little book should be as indispensable to the master of the form as the student. Like Stern himself, who was the head of the Creative Writing Program at Florida State University for many years, it takes a brass tacks approach to fiction, one that can be read straight through if you want to bone up on the basics or in bits and pieces as inspiration is needed. The "shapes" in question are sixteen storytelling archetypes which Stern breaks down in the book's first section, followed by a tongue-in-cheek section on whether or not to write what you know, and finally a glossary of terms "from Accuracy to Zig-Zag." This may all sound like stuff you already know, but to read them again in Stern's irreverent voice is like revisiting fairy tales from your childhood and discovering all the dirty parts that went over your head. You'll want to dig back into your own discarded ideas box and sculpt something new.

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Steering the Craft and The Language of the Night, by Ursula K. Le Guin

Le Guin has published two books about writing. The more recent of these, Steering the Craft (1998), is intended for experienced writers, the ones, she says, who “blow all Rules of Writing to bits.” It offers exercises and advice on storytelling, point of view, and grammar. For the younger author, there is her 1979 volume, The Language of the Night, filled with inspirational essays on science fiction and fantasy, that are no less rigorous than the later book. “In art,” she observes, “‘good enough’ is not good enough.”

This article originally appeared at The Center for Fiction.