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fruitcoops · 3 years

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Maybe something to do with another coops live stream they’re hilarious😂

These livestreams are basically my favorite fics to write and I’m so glad you all enjoy them! Sweater Weather credit goes to @lumosinlove!

“Hey, Instagram, we’re back!” Sirius smiled so wide his dimples appeared as Remus sat down and wrapped an arm around his waist. “It’s been a while since we did a livestream and we’ve been looking forward to it for a while, so let’s get started.”

“First question,” Remus said, leaning forward a bit. “Who kills the spiders? I do.”

Sirius wrinkled his nose. “We tried to do a catch and release policy, but they always end up coming back. Who is the better dancer? I don’t know, honey, who is the better dancer?”

Remus rolled his eyes and gave him a playful nudge. “Rub it in, why don’t you.”

“It’s me,” Sirius said with a smug grin. “Lionsfan65 wants to know if being married to your best friend is like having a 24/ 7 sleepover.”

“Oh, that’s a good one.” Remus bit his lip. “Yeah, I think so. I mean, some nights we stay up late to watch movies and other nights we stay up late doing taxes, but it’s awesome.”

“That’s so accurate,” Sirius laughed. “We should build a taxes pillow fort sometime.”

“We totally should. That would make it so much more bearable.”

“We could have popcorn!”

“Hell yeah!” They high-fived, and Remus turned back to the phone. “Do waiters ever ask if we’re splitting the check?”

Sirius groaned. “All the time. We were on our honeymoon and literally holding hands over the table, and the waitress asked if we were on a ‘guys’ trip’.”

“She also said that our wives must be glad to have the weekend to themselves,” Remus added with a grimace. “It was one of those awkward ‘thanks, but that’s my husband’ moments.”

Sirius scrolled through the incoming questions, then burst out laughing. “Oh, fuck, I knew I missed doing these for a reason.”

“What? Which one is it?”

He took another moment to catch his breath before tapping the screen. “To Sirius: no offense, but your husband is really hot. Why would I take offense to that, fernbaby? It’s true!”

“Who sent that in? Thank you, fernbaby, that’s so nice!” Remus blushed a bit, but his smile turned to confusion as he read the next one. “Who wears the pants?”

“Right now, both of us. On a really good day, neither of us,” Sirius said easily. “Honey, someone thinks I’m an ‘alpha’.”

Remus tilted his head. “A what?”

“An ‘alpha’, whatever the fuck that’s supposed to mean.”

“Seeing as we’re not werewolves, neither of us are an ‘alpha’.” Remus did air quotes around the word and raised an eyebrow. “Plus, the guy that originally coined those terms for wolf packs later came forward and said his experiment was unreliable and that he had proved wolves work in hierarchies based on age.”

“That’s science, bitches,” Sirius said with a grin. “Aw, this one is sweet! What are our nicknames for each other?”

“I call you ‘baby’ all the time, but ‘honey’ is a close second.”

“Yeah, there aren’t a lot of nicknames for my name. Um, I call you ‘sweetheart’, ‘mon loup’, ‘mon amour’, ‘Re’…now that I think about it, I can’t remember the last time I called you by your full name.”

“I hope not,” Remus laughed. “You only do that when I’m in trouble.”

“True. Oh, this one is for you.”

Remus scooted closer to him. “To Remus: what’s the hardest part about moving from PT to player? Ugh, everything. If I had to choose one thing, it would be having to step back from helping the guys when they get hurt in a game. Hestia still has to remind me to let her do her job sometimes, even though she’s the most amazing PT in the world and I have total trust in her. It’s pretty tough seeing your friends in pain and not being allowed to help them anymore.”

There was a beat of quiet. “Well, that got morbid fast,” Sirius said drily, making Remus snort. “This is promising: pick a Disney princess you each identify with.”

“Should we switch, and each say each other’s?”

Sirius gave him a look. “Do you even know mine?”

“Of course I know yours!” Remus said indignantly. “It’s Rapunzel!”

“What?”

“It totally is! You have a crush on Flynn Rider and her chameleon is named Pascal!”

Sirius hesitated, then nodded slowly. “Okay, fair. I was going to say Elsa. Yours is easy, though.”

“Are you sure?”

“If it’s not Belle, you’re lying to yourself.”

“It is, don’t worry,” Remus laughed. “Everyone in the comment section guessed that. Great job, guys! This is an easy one: what was our last fight about?”

“Which Disney princess I relate to more. Do we have the same taste in men?” Sirius stifled a laugh. “I think this one answers itself.”

Remus gestured vaguely. “Seeing as we look completely different, no. I’m into tall, athletic, heart of gold types.”

Sirius put his best poker face on. “Librarians are really my thing.”

“Okay, you know what—”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” he laughed, tugging Remus closer to kiss his cheek despite the mock-scowl on his face. The phone screen lit up with multicolored hearts and they turned back to it after a chaste kiss on the lips. “Your turn.”

“Librarian,” Remus scoffed around a smile. “Why did we keep our wedding a secret? Well, we didn’t. Everyone knew it was happening.”

“We didn’t tell the media the details for a few reasons. Number one, we wanted a small ceremony with just friends and family. Number two, both of us are tired of people’s noses in our business. Number three, it was really, really funny watching them speculate.” He counted down on his fingers, looking rather self-satisfied. “And it worked. It was perfect.”

“Plus, we planned it in, like, six weeks. There weren’t a lot of concrete details to actually give people. Someone asked one for you, baby.”

“To me…do I get along with Re’s parents? Oh, I adore them. They’re amazing people and I love seeing them when they visit.”

A slow grin spread over Remus’ face. “Oh, I love this next question. Loops, we all know you’re weak for the French accent—you’re not wrong—but Cap, do you like his accent, too?”

Sirius lit up. “I do! It’s so cute! It comes out when he’s tired or excited and I just—” He smiled and drummed his hands on his knees, going a bit pink. “I dunno. It’s cute. Alright, let’s move on before I embarrass myself even more. Who’s the better cook or baker?”

“You are adorable,” Remus said, his cheeks vibrant red. “To answer the question, I’m the better cook, but I can’t bake for shit. Sirius makes brownies like you’ve never tasted before, though.”

“I’m practicing.”

“What’s the best prank I’ve ever pulled on Sirius?” Remus laughed under his breath. “Sirius and Pots teamed up to fuck with my gear one practice, so I spent the next day and a half playing the circus theme song whenever they walked into a room together.”

“Ah, fuck, I forgot about that,” Sirius muttered. “And then you got Finn to sing it, too.”

“I didn’t do anything, he started that himself.”

“He’s so annoying,” Sirius said fondly. “Alright, last question. Remus, was it hard to adjust to having more disposable income?”

Remus hummed in thought for a moment, resting his chin on his hand. “Definitely. I am so, so grateful to have this opportunity, but it’s always the little things that remind me. Like, plane tickets to go see my family in Wisconsin don’t have to be a big expense anymore. It’s been a really interesting adjustment for sure. Is that all we have time for?”

“I think so.” They waved to the camera one last time. “Thanks for joining us, and thanks for the great questions! Go Lions!”

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doomarchives · 3 years

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David Annandale’s The Harrowing Of Doom: An In-Depth Review

So, I was kindly offered an advance reviewer’s copy of The Harrowing of Doom by David Annandale for the Marvel Untold series, a new prose line revolving around Marvel’s villains. Although I’m not personally familiar, the author’s prior written work and academic scholarship indicated a strong background in fantasy, science fiction, as well as horror film and literature - all essential elements of Doom himself honestly, whether in his character, design, or formative influences. A promising start from the outset!

To no one’s surprise, I was especially excited for this one. Doctor Doom is both my favorite Marvel character and area of nerdy comics expertise, and Annandale sounded like the perfect candidate to tackle him.

The Harrowing of Doom centers around a conflict familiar to those who know the character. Taking place fifteen years after his ascension to the throne, Victor von Doom is still hellbent on rescuing the soul of his mother, Cynthia, trapped in hell by the demon Mephisto. His yearly attempts to save her have been fruitless thus far, but he believes he can really do it this time, enlisting the help of a new character, Maria von Helm, and some of his lesser known subjects (also new characters) to accomplish the task, by building a machine called The Harrower. The noble scheme is further complicated by the reappearance of Prince Rudolfo Fortunov, son of the monarch deposed and murdered by Doom years prior, who is equally determined to take back what he believes is his birthright by any means necessary. The novel is a relatively dense and detailed one, and as a true blue Doom enthusiast, I have a dense and detailed review to match.

The first thing that I personally take note of in any material involving Doom is the author’s perspective on the truth of Latveria’s “benevolent dictatorship.” It immediately speaks volumes about a writer’s perception of Doom’s accountability and sense of morality; it kind of ends up coloring his entire characterization. That being said, I was really pleased by the evenhandedness with which Annandale treats Doom’s Latveria and his influence upon his subjects. It slots in neatly with some of the greats, Lee & Kirby, Jonathan Hickman, Roger Stern, etc with the acknowledgement that Doom is indeed a despot with an iron fist and a will absolute, but one who cares for the wellbeing of his country. Through dialogue from his subjects like the skittish Father Grigori Zargo and diehard loyal Captain Kariana Verlak, the reader gets the sense that Doom’s rule may be the best leadership Latveria has ever known. (A brief aside: another great strength of The Harrowing of Doom that has to be mentioned is the fleshing out of these different original characters. Maria von Helm was a particularly welcome addition, as a close friend of Doom’s mother and a far more empathetic magic user compared to him.)

Verlak is openly married to Dr. Elsa Orloff, a trans woman and neurosurgeon of international renown. Both of them had experienced the Fortunov rule that predated Doom’s, with Orloff even having fled Fortunov’s Latveria when she first come out as transgender, in fear of his tyrannical rule and the dangerously transphobic legislature he enforced called “The Laws of the Person.” It is apparent that Doom exists in obvious juxtaposition to the prior ruler’s bigotry. Beyond the total erasure of all previous discrimination and state-enforced bigotry, he has Verlak appointed in a role of great prominence, gave Orloff the tools she needed to succeed in her field, and even shares an exchange with her where he remarks that he knows her from her publications in the Lancet Neurology and that he appreciates them for their “speculative” approach. In an excellent exchange between Father Zargo and the rebel Prince Fortunov, the priest, who is by far Doom’s number one fan, explains Doom’s mesmerizing hold on the populace and the benefits they reap from his rule, despite it being a despotic one:

“I’ll be explicit, all the same,” said Zargo. “Doom is a sun king, even more fully than Louis XIV ever was. Latveria is a world power. How? Because of Doom and only because of Doom. Latveria’s strength and its wealth come from his inventions. And the beams of his sun touch every citizen. Universal basic income, free healthcare, free schooling, free universities, free training to the highest level of your calling - all of these things flow from Doom.”

“Free?” Fortunov snarled.

“The price is obedience, yes,” said Zargo, “And yes, Doom is feared.” Zargo stopped himself from saying Vladimir was feared and hated. [...] “Even though Doom is feared, he also is Latveria in every sense that matters.”

What I really appreciated was the author’s ability to walk the tightrope of acknowledging how beneficial Doom is for the country and his protectiveness over his domain, whilst also acknowledging Doom’s intense paternalism that ultimately favors his own goals. Doom, as well-read comic fans would know, is heralded as one of Marvel’s master manipulators. It’s a great strength of this novel to see him exerting his willpower and the strength of his personality to manipulate and sometimes, fully overpower that of his subjects. Father Zargo is definitely the most profound victim of this, a man with ties to both the church and the occult. Through the novel, Doom insistently pushes him towards the latter, his priorities made clear in one sentence: “The work was what mattered. Zargo’s soul was not Doom’s concern.” An especially interesting scene occurs later in the novel. Without too much elaboration, Doom performs an experiment where he uses the old Latverian nobility as guinea pigs. This was something I immensely liked, corroborating one of my own personal perceptions of Doom. It’s always made sense to me that Doom would continue to hold a certain amount of disdain for Latverian high society, even after he went from low class Romani boy to monarch himself.

(“The Fantastic Origin of Doctor Doom,” Fantastic Four Annual #2.)

Afterwards his partner, Maria von Helm, muses aloud that she always wondered why Doom let vestiges of the old regime remain, to which Doom responds: “Now you know. The aristocracy has its uses, and the advantages of being disposable.” It’s maybe my favorite example in the book of the exceptions to Doom’s purported benevolence. He does want the country to flourish and for his subjects to prosper, but this intent can be superseded by his innately ambitious nature and his own personal biases. It’s clear at several points in the book that Annandale is obviously well-read on Doom himself, but it was especially in the capturing of this nuance that it really stuck out to me in a big way. (As well as the fun reference to Doom’s brief jaunt in the French Riviera in Supervillain Team-Up!)

Outside of this core aspect of his characterization, I really enjoyed how the novel not only built up Doom’s cult of personality, but emphasized the sheer magnetism of Doom himself, in person. Constantly, characters find themselves buffeted by strength of his will, craving his approval or cowering and scrambling to avoid his displeasure. It’s a great true-to-character depiction of interactions between Doom and Latverian citizens, dynamics that were only touched upon briefly in the periphery of most comics involving Doom. I think, ironically, this is also perhaps the source of one of the novel’s few weaknesses. By keeping the book very Latveria-focused, Annandale does an excellent job of adding world-building on every level, from expounding on Latverian national holidays to the layouts of Doomstadt to the country’s storied history with witches predating Doom and his mother. But the fact that Doom mostly interacts with those beneath him or those who work for him gives the reader a bit of a myopic, overtly flattering perspective of him as almost too certain, too powerful, too unfeeling. I suppose it serves the scope of the novel for Doom to be more an obelisk of a man than fully well-rounded, but I contest that one of the best things about his character is that his indomitable exterior hides a deep well of pain and uncertainty.

(“In The Clutches of Doctor Doom,” Fantastic Four #17.)

(“Oath of Fealty,” Doctor Doom #7.)

The novel obviously perceives Doom as Byronic, there’s even excerpts from Manfred interspersed between chapters that I greatly enjoyed, but I did find the heart of the Byronic character a little lacking here. Where Manfred bares his soul alone in monologue or to others, Doom, for the most part, does not. There are definitely brief allusions to the trials he’s faced, but he seems rarely prone to doubt or vulnerability until the very end. (For example, the central task is the attempt to rescue Cynthia von Doom’s soul, but little time is spent dwelling on this very human connection between mother and son.) Or even self-admitted imperfection! Interestingly, I only ever caught one mention of his scars in the entire novel.

The Harrowing of Doom seems to prescribe to the line of thought that the mask is the only true face of Doom’s that matters, but I think with that philosophy, it stays firmly within the character’s own comfort zone. And his psyche never feels truly challenged, because there’s no worthy challenger. Doom knows without a doubt that he is Fortunov’s superior, so there’s no real interpersonal friction there. It left me keenly interested in seeing how the author would write Doom in the presence of someone like Reed Richards, an opponent who has historically brought out Doom’s baser instincts and invoked his self-doubt, drawing out his flaws and humanity in the process. Hopefully Marvel approves a sequel!

Doubtlessly, it’s still a strong entry into Marvel’s Doom canon and an excellent read for anyone who enjoys the character and is familiar with his history. The novel gives a sprawling, detailed look at Latveria and fleshes out both country and countrymen with aplomb. I took real delight at the indirect peeks at Doom’s personality through other characters’s observations or simple exposition. Some notable examples include Doom’s occult librarian wondering if he had been appointed out of spite of his witch-hunter ancestry, Zargo noting the west wing of Werner Academy was dedicated to clinical research in a nod to Werner von Doom’s work as a healer, and my favorite: the paintings within Castle Doom being impressionistic depictions of Doom’s ancestors, “people long buried, long forgotten, and in their lifetimes ignored or worse.”

The conflict also moves at an engaging, brisk pace and smartly takes advantage of the widely known fact that Doom is preoccupied every Midsummer Night and turns that into an opening to be exploited by Fortunov, who also is well characterized throughout the novel and even experiences his own personal growth.

(“Though Some Call It Magic!”, Astonishing Tales #8)

Essentially, the product is a great novel about Doctor Doom influenced by strong comic lore knowledge, Gothic and Romance literature, horror cinema (According to the author, Doom’s lab is modeled after the lab from The Bride of Frankenstein!), and fantasy. If that sounds like something up your alley, definitely check it out. It gets a wholehearted recommendation from me.

About Marvel Entertainment

Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.

#victor von doom #doctor doom #media type: book #Marvel #MarvelEnt #aconyte books #review

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englishchinesetranslations · 3 years

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Since she began posting rustic-chic videos of her life in rural Sichuan province in 2016, Li Ziqi, 29, has become one of China’s biggest social media stars. She has 22 million followers on the microblogging site Weibo, 34 million on Douyin (China’s version of TikTok) and another 8.3 million on YouTube (Li has been active on YouTube for the last two years, despite it being officially blocked in China).

Li’s videos – which she initially produced by herself and now makes with a small team – emphasize beautiful countryside and ancient tradition. In videos soundtracked by tranquil flute music, Li crafts her own furniture out of bamboo and dyes her clothing with fruit skins. If she wants soy sauce, she grows the soybeans themselves; a video about making an egg yolk dish starts with her hatching ducklings. The meals she creates are often elaborate demonstrations of how many delicious things can be done with a particular seasonal ingredient, like ginger or green plums.

There is even a Li Ziqi online shop, where fans can purchase versions of the steel “chopper” knife she uses to dice the vegetables she plucks from her plentiful garden, or replicas of the old-fashioned shirts she wears while foraging for wild mushrooms and magnolia blossoms in the misty mountainside.

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While she occasionally reveals a behind-the-scenes peek at her process, Li – who did not respond to interview requests for this article – is very private. By all accounts, she struggled to find steady work in a city before returning to the countryside to care for her ailing grandmother (who appears in her videos).

Recently, Li has been thrust into a wider spotlight by the Chinese government, who seem to have realized her soft power potential. In 2018, the Communist party of China named her a “good young netizen” and role model for Chinese youth. In September 2019, the People’s Daily, a CPC mouthpiece, gave Li their “People’s Choice” award, while last month, state media praised Li for helping to promote traditional culture globally, and the Communist Youth League named her an ambassador of a program promoting the economic empowerment of rural youth.

Revealed: how TikTok censors videos that do not please Beijing Read more

As the government increasingly champions her, Chinese citizens have taken to Weibo to question whether Li’s polished, rather one-dimensional portrayal of farm work conveys anything truly meaningful about contemporary China – especially to her growing international audience on YouTube.

They have a point: Li’s videos reveal as much about the day-to-day labor of most Chinese farmers as the Martha Stewart Show does the American working class. As Li Bochun, director of Beijing-based Chinese Culture Rejuvenation Research Institute told the media last month: “The traditional lifestyle Li Ziqi presents in her videos is … not widely followed.”

In reality, many of China’s rural villages have shrunk or disappeared completely in past decades as the nation prioritized urbanization and workers migrated to cities, with research suggesting the country lost 245 rural villages a day from 2000 to 2010. The 40% of China’s population still living in rural areas encompass a huge diversity of experience, yet life can be difficult, with per-capita rural income declining sharply since 2014 and environmental pollution often as rife as in industrial centers. That’s not to say the beautiful forests and compelling traditions of Li’s videos are not genuine – like many social media creators, she simply focuses on the most charming elements of a bigger picture.

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So what do Li’s videos reflect about modern China, if not average daily life in the countryside?

For one, they say something about the mindset of her mainland audience – primarily urban millennials, for whom a traditional culture craze known as “fugu” or “hanfu” has been an aesthetic trend for a number of years.

“Fugu”, according to Yang Chunmei, professor of Chinese history and philosophy at Qufu Normal University, reflects the “romanticized, pastoral” desires of youth “disillusioned by today’s ever-changing, industrial, consumerist society.” In practice, it looks like young people integrating more traditional clothing into their daily looks, watching historical dramas and following rural lifestyle influencers like Li. (While Li is an extremely popular example of the trend, she’s not the only young farmer vlogging in China right now, and outdoor cooking videos of people making meals with wild ingredients and scant equipment are a genre of their own on Douyin.)

Among urban millennials in the west, giving up the nine-to-five grind and living humbly and closer to nature is a popular dream. In China, the contemporary experience of burnout is compounded by the intensity of “urban disease”, an umbrella term for the difficulties of living in megacities like Shanghai or Guangzhou, which can be used to refer to everything from traffic jams and poor air quality to employment and housing scarcity.

Also at play in Li’s popularity is the particular tenor of Chinese wistfulness. “It’s called xiangchou. Xiang means the countryside or rural life, and chou means to long for it, to miss it,” says Linda Qian, an Oxford University PhD candidate studying nostalgia’s role in the revitalization of China’s villages.

“It is quite prevalent for youth living the city life. They get really sick of [the city] so the countryside” – or a fantasy of it – “looks increasingly like the ideal image of what a good life should be.”

Qian also likens Li’s appeal to that of “Man vs Wild”-style entertainment in the west. “We’ve gotten to a certain point of materialism and consumption where there’s only so much you can buy, and we’re like, ‘What other experiences can I have?’” she says. “So we go back to what humans can do.”

Yet as her fame grows internationally, some have questioned, in comments, blogposts and Reddit threads, whether Li’s channel is communist propaganda.

In addition to providing China a form of international PR, Li embodies a kind of rural success the government hopes to generate more of through recent initiatives. With the aim of alleviating rural poverty, the Communist Youth League has embarked on an effort to send more than 10 million urban youth to “rural zones” by 2022, in order to “increase their skills, spread civilization, and promote science and technology”.

“We need young people to use science and technology to help the countryside innovate its traditional development models,” Zhang Linbin, deputy head of a township in central Hunan province, told the Global Times last April.

By using technology to create her own rural economic opportunities while simultaneously championing forms of traditional Chinese culture before a huge audience, Li may seem like a CPC dream come true.

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According to Professor Ka-Ming Wu, a cultural anthropologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong: “Li represents a new wave of Chinese soft power in that she’s so creative and aesthetically good, and knows how to appeal to a general audience whether they’re Chinese or not.” And yet, “I don’t think this is some kind of engineered effort by the Chinese state,” she says.

Li’s narrative hinges on her failure to thrive in the city; that failure is antithetical to China’s overarching narrative of progress and urban opportunity. Were she a manufactured agent of propaganda, Wu speculates, “[Her failure] is something the Chinese state would never even mention.

“And I think that’s what really fuels her popularity,” says Wu. “That despair of not being able to find oneself in the ‘Chinese dream’. I don’t think she’s propaganda because one of her major successes is that she’s making that failure highly aesthetic … However, the Chinese government is very smart to appropriate her work and say that she represents traditional culture and promote her.”

According to some Chinese media, Li’s content is better than propaganda – doing more to generate genuine domestic, and especially international, interest in rural Chinese traditions than any government initiative of the past decade. “Dozens of government departments with billions at their disposal spent 10 years on propaganda projects, but they have done a worse job than a little girl,” writes the South China Morning Post’s Chauncey Jung, summarizing a tweet from journalist Jasper Jia.

However you feel about Li as a cultural force, her ability to flourish despite a unique set of contradictory circumstances is impressive. Out of the past and present, failure and success, independence and authoritarianism, she’s spun a truly pleasant vision. If only life was really so simple.

#li ziqi

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gojira007 · 4 years

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Movie Meme

Took me a bit of time, but I was tagged by @bunnikkila to list my nine favorite movies, and since I can’t help but be ridiculously verbose about that very topic, you can see them all under the cut 8D

As for who I tag? Well, as always with the caveat that you are free to ignore if you don’t wanna, I’ll go with: @elistodragonwings @kaikaku @donnys-boy @robotnik-mun @sally-mun @fini-mun @werewolf-t33th @cviperfan and @wildwoodmage

and don’t worry, if you DO go for it, you don’t have to get as Extra as I did about it XD

9.)

Look, the meme is about Favorite Movies, not necessarily the BEST Movies, OK? And for the most part this list consists of films where that division is less meaningful in terms of how I evaluate the other movies on here. But in this specific case, “Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie”, which is ultimately not all that different from the “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ TV show it spun off from and thus not particularly impressive as a work of Cinema Qua Cinema, makes the cut primarily because it’s a movie I know so well and have enjoyed so often that I can practically recite the whole thing to you by rote; I quote it all the time in my day-to-day life, I think about it often when I need a little smile, and it’s also become my favorite tool for introducing newcomers to MST3K as a whole since it was designed with a slightly broader audience in mind than the more willfully-eclectic series. And given how much I love MST3K As A Whole, that’s an especially strong factor in its favor.

8.)

Looky looky, @bunnikkila, we (unsurprisingly) have a pick in common! I’m sure this is the one and only time THAT’S going to happen on this list. 8D

Y’know, nearly thirty years (and one fairly useless remake >_>) later, I think the thing that impresses me about “The Lion King” is just how much it is still able to grab me emotionally. Some of that is unquestionably tied up with how strongly I associate this movie with my family, all of whom it became very special to as a Shared Experience. But I also don’t know of a lot of people who haven’t had that same emotional experience with it, and that to me suggests there’s more going on here than just Nostalgia. The mixture of Shakesperean plotting with Disney’s signature strength of Character, for one thing, granting the movie’s story an Epic Scope that never forgets the emotional inner lives of its cast. The music for another, not only its instantly-iconic song-book but also its memorable score, armed with both Big Bombast and Gentle Sentiment. And the unforgettably gorgeous animation, rendering every last element of its world with believable naturalism and strongly-defined personality. All of it, together, makes for what I still personally consider the Crowning Achievement of the Disney Renaissance.

7.)

I think, if I had to name the thing I find most lacking in far too many modern Action Movies, it’s Clarity. They all tend to lard their plots up with a bunch of unnecessary contrivances and complications in hopes of making themselves appear more clever than they actually are, and all it usually does is just dilute the impact of the whole thing. “Mad Max: Fury Road”, by contrast, is all about Clarity. I could sum up literally its entire plot in a paragraph if I wanted, because it is basically One Big Chase Scene from start to finish, never really deviating from that structure for more than a few minutes at a time. And that, combined with its exceptionally well-crafted Action Sequences, means that the full weight of its visceral power hits you full force every time. But don’t be fooled; that simplicity is not to be mistaken for shallowness. Indeed, precisely by getting out of its own way, knowing exactly what it wants to do and why, “Fury Road” also delivers a story that is, in spite of what you might guess, genuinely subtle and smart. Every character is immediately unforgettable and compelling because their role in the story is so well-considered and their personalities all so stark. The world it crafts feels at once fascinatingly surreal and yet All Too Real at the same time because even its most Fantastic elements are ultimately just grotesque reflections of things the audience knows only too well. And most of all, it tells a story with real, meaningful Themes that are deeply woven into each of its individual elements, such that the whole thing is deeply satisfying emotionally, but also piercingly Relevant in all the best, most affecting ways.

6.)

Oh look, another pick I have in common with @bunnikkila! This must be the last one, right?

But yeah, this is just a legitimately great movie, at every level, in every way. Stylistically, it is one of the most radically inventive things to have ever been made in the world of Western Animated Movies, gleefully mixing together a vast array of Aesthetics and Techniques that are at once viscerally distinct and yet coherently connected, all rendered with a fantastic eye toward the world of Comic Book Visual Language that keeps finding new and extremely fun ways to play with that instantly-recognizable iconography. For that alone, I would call it one of the greatest triumphs of 21st century animation. But then, on top of that, the story it tells is one that is simultaneously Arch and self-aware, delivering some of the most fantastically hilarious punch-lines imaginable more than a few of which are at the expense of the very franchise it is working within...but also entirely earnest, sincere, and emotionally affecting. It is, at once, a movie that manages to be about The Idea Of Spider-Man in its totality while also being about just one kid coming to grips with who he is, what he can do, and what his life can be. I don’t know that I can remember the last time a movie so immediately and unmistakably marked itself as an Enduring Masterpiece, but “Into the Spider-Verse” absolutely pulled it off.

5.)

Ordinarily, I would cheat and give this slot to the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy in its totality. But somehow, the fact that this is about “FAVORITE” movies instead of just what we think the BEST one is compels me to narrow it down to just one. And if I had to pick just one, it would be the first of the three, “Fellowship of the Ring”. It’s not necessarily anything that the other two movies get wrong, either. All three of the LotR movies possess many of its keenest strengths, after all. For a starter, there’s the keen understanding of how best to adapt the source material without being enslaved to it; capturing many of its most iconic moments while cleverly tweaking elements to make them more cinematic, knowing what scenes to focus on for the sake of more clearly focusing the emotional through-lines of the story, and knowing what scenes, no matter how good on the page, ultimately don’t fit to the shape the adaptation has taken. There’s also its pitch-perfect casting, each and every actor doing a fantastic job of embodying the characters so well that even as your personal vision of them from the books may differ radically from what is on-screen, they nonetheless end up feeling Right for the part and a strong, compelling presence. And there’s the deft visual hand of director Peter Jackson, who knows exactly how to craft a Middle Earth that feels at once lived-in and real but also Fantastic and magical. “Fellowship”, for me at least, thus wins out mostly because it has the good luck of being adapted from the strongest of the three books, the point at which the narrative is at its most unified and thus has the strongest overall momentum. But also because so few movies have so swept me away with the sense of stepping into a world I have always dreamed of in my mind’s eye, and that’s the sort of thing that can only happen at the beginning of a journey.

4.)

Now here’s a movie that is literally sown in to my very being. It’s the last movie my mother saw in theaters before becoming a Mom. I grew up watching the “Real Ghostbusters” cartoon all the time and playing with the attendant toys; I had a “Ghostbusters” Birthday Party when I was, like, four years old. It has been my annual Halloween Tradition to get myself a big Cheese Pizza and watch this movie for about as long as I’ve had disposable income to myself. There is, quite literally, no point in my life where I don’t remember “Ghostbusters” being a fixture in it. And as a nice bonus? It is, legitimately, a Genuinely Great Movie. I realize that isn’t quite as universally agreed upon these days as it was even a few years ago (thanks, Literally The Worst Kind Of Virulently Misogynist Assholes lD; ), but I still feel pretty confident in saying this one really is That Good. I still find basically every one of its jokes hilarious; even now I could quote just about any one of them and get a laugh. I still find its central premise, What If Exorcism Was A Blue-Collar Business, a brilliant, almost subversively clever one that takes The Supernatural out of the realm of The Unknowable and into a world where even you, an ordinary person off the street, can in fact fight back against it. I still think it’s one of the all-time great examples of how to balance Tone in this sort of High Concept Genre Bender, by allowing The Story to be played relatively straight while allowing the comedy to flow naturally from the characters’ reactions to that story, allowing its Ghostly aspects to land as Genuinely Scary (or at least Worth Taking Seriously) without getting too Stern and Serious about it. And I still listen to that unforgettable Title Song all the time! So yeah, even if I could be more objective about it, “Ghostbusters” would almost certainly make this cut.

3.)

And so we come to the third and last pick I have in common with @bunnikkila, not coincidentally a movie that played a key role in solidifying our friendship, as bonding over our shared love of it was a big part of how we got to know each other on deviantART waaaay back in the day <3

By 2008, I really didn’t think it was possible for a movie or comic or TV show to really become “part” of me anymore, the way things like Sonic the Hedgehog or Marvel Super Heroes or Some Other Movie Character Who Might Be At The Top Of This List had. And then “WALL-E” came along and proved that to be completely, utterly wrong. I didn’t just love this movie, I was inspired by it, to a degree of strength and consistency that I’m still not entirely sure has yet been matched. And to be sure, some of that is undoubtedly because the movie had already basically won the war before I’d even bought my ticket; Adorable Robots In Love is something like My Platonic Storytelling Ideal, after all. But even setting that aside, “WALL-E” is a movie where even now I can’t help but be keenly aware, and gently awed, at the beauty of its craft; indeed, watching this movie in a theater did a lot to make me better understand why movies work on us the way they do, because I left that theater chewing so much on every last one of its elements. Its gorgeous animation, the way it conveys Character through Actions more so than language, the dream-like quality of its musical score (even as i type this i get teary thinking about certain motifs), the clear and meaningful way it builds its theme and story together so harmoniously, and the particular perspective it takes on our relationships with each other, with our environments, and with our own technology...all of it speaks to me deeply and profoundly, and it’s no coincidence that I have seen this movie more times in theaters than any other on this list (twelve times, for the record, and I still remember each and every time XD).

2.)

This one needs no personal qualifications, to my mind. Yes, I have some degree of nostalgic attachment to it for having seen it relatively young with my brothers and being deeply moved by it then, but it’s not at all like the kind of Nostalgia I have for “The Lion King”. “Princess Mononoke” is just flat-out, full-stop a complete Masterpiece, not just my personal pick for one of the single-best animated films ever made, but one of the best films period. It’s almost difficult for me to put into words how great this movie is, certainly in a way that hasn’t been repeated to death by thousands of other smarter people, because no one of its elements quite answers the question of why it is so great, to my mind. Yes, the animation is absolutely gorgeous with a design sensibility that brings Ancient Mythology to life so vividly that its influence can still be felt today (The Forest Spirit alone has been homaged all over the place). And yes, the music is hauntingly beautiful, at once capturing the gentle rhythm of nature but also the elegiac tone of Life Moving On. And yes, the story is an incredible mixture of the Broad Mythic Strokes of an Ancient Legend grounded in all too human Emotions and Ideas about the balance of nature, the full meaning and cost of Warfare, and perhaps most important of all, about how we determine Right and Wrong when everyone involved in a conflict is fighting simply for the right to survive. But all of those things add up together to something even greater than a simple sum, because each one isn’t just good in its own right but because each element so perfectly reinforces the other. And even having said all that? I really could just carry on singing this movie’s praises. Just...an absolute masterpiece, top to bottom.

1.)

I don’t imagine any of you are terribly surprised at this, right? I almost feel like it’d be redundant to explain my love for this movie, given how self-obvious I imagine it is to basically everyone who knows me Literally At All. But heck, I’ve rambled on this long, why not go all the way? Because the thing of it is, “Gojira” (to be clear, the original Japanese movie from 1954 rather than its American edit, “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” from 1956) doesn’t just top the list by being a Great Movie. Though to be clear, it really is. Flawless? No; there’s a reliance on puppetry that even for the time can be a bit chintzier than the movie can really afford, in particular. But brilliant, even so, a heart-wrenching example of Science Fiction Storytelling As Allegory, one that, in a rarity not just for its own genre but indeed for many movies in general, very meaningfully lingers on its deepest, darkest implications. Many a film critic has pointed it out, and it remains true: the stark black-and-white photography heightens the sense of Implacable Horror at the core of the story, and the way the central Melodrama, a tragic love triangle that carries with it many aspects of Class Conflict and Personal Desire VS. The Collective Good, ties back into the main story is truly beautiful in its elegance and emotional impact. Still, for me personally, it tops the list, now and always, because it is a movie that affirmed something for me, that the character I had fallen in love with as a child convincing his family to watch a monster movie with him on television to prove his seven-year-old bravery, really was as genuinely as powerful and meaningful a figure as I had always imagined him to be.

#movies #meme #gojira007

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obaewankenope · 4 years

Note

If you want "Absconding with Harry" questions, talk to us about how time-turners compare to Crowley's ability to halt time. Like... compare and contrast.

I’m not going to lie, nonnie, I legit grinned in delight at this. Warning, incoming nerding.

Okay. This- this is interesting.

So, in order to answer thisquestion, we first must consider the nature of the time-turner in HPcanon. Looking it up on the HP wiki gives us a general run-down ofhow they work:

“...a magical device used for time travel… encased anHour-Reversal Charm in the time turners...for additional stability.The number of times one turned the hourglass corresponded to thenumber of hours one travelled back in time. However, they can onlystay in the past for five hours at a time, without the possibility ofserious harm to the traveller or to time itself.” -https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Time-Turner

So the time-turner is anHour-Reversal Charm placed on a magical artefact which can be used bya magical user to travel up to five hours back in time. We knowthat’s how they work courtesy of Harry Potter and thePrisoner of Azkaban whenHermione and Harry use her time-turner to rescue Sirius and Buckbeakfrom death and dementors. The movie gives us a sort of visual of howits conceptualised as working, with time happening in reverse aroundHarry and Hermione, whilst they are unaffected. Their present formsdisappear from Ron’s viewing before they return through the doorsof the infirmary. So they cease to exist in the present in order toexist in the past and continue from there.

Of course, they don’t return tothe future with the time-turnerwhich, it is implied, is possible. Whether this is just an issue withexplanations or how the wiki conveys it, it’s not all that relevantreally. There’s no actual evidence of how the time-turner worksbeyond what HP3 gives us—no, I don’t consider CursedChild to be canon, sod offlmao—so anything after this is supposition.

The Hour-Reversal Charm has alimited time before it becomes harmful to the person and to time atlarge. This is supported by the supplemental material JokeKRowling onPottermore:

“All attempts to travel back further than a few hours haveresulted in catastrophic harm to the witch or wizard involved. It wasnot realised for many years why time travellers over great distancesnever survived their journeys. All such experiments have beenabandoned since 1899, when Eloise Mintumble became trapped, for aperiod of five days, in the year 1402. Now we understand that herbody had aged five centuries in its return to the present and,irreparably damaged, she died in St Mungo’s Hospital for MagicalMaladies and Injuries shortly after we managed to retrieve her.”

This suggests that there is aphysical toll to time-travel through magical means. If we usemodern-science to try and explain it, I suppose you could argue it’sa fundamental breakdown of the traveller’s body from the exertionof time-travel. I would imagine it’s sort of like when you travel abit too fast to besafe for the body and it experiences trauma from the force exerted.Of course, this is more theoretical physics and I am not aphysicist. Just a nerd who spent four hours arguing about time-travelonce with her step-father. That was a fun time.

I suppose if you could be protectedfrom the harm of the force exerted to time-travel in all ways thenyou could, in theory, not be affected in the way Pottermorestates Eloise Mintumble was affected. This also, incidentally infersthat the time-turners used by the Ministry are not capable of thesort of protection needed to avoid the trauma of time-travel beyondthe five-hour mark.

So, moving on to the use oftime-turners in Harry Potter canon and why they’re not used for,say, really significant events.

(By the way, what Dumbledore tellsHarry and Hermione to do is, technically, really fucking dangerous ofhim to do. So the fact that he does it anyway really just is one moreexample of how little fucking respect he has for an organisedinstitution and the laws of magic. Arrogant sod.)

Pottermore gives us a little moreinformation about the damage of using time-turners in a long-term,significant, or dramatic manner. Say, by travelling 50 years in thepast, or for big events like preventing someone’s execution etc:

“Even the use of the very limited amount of Time-Turners at theMinistry’s disposal is hedged around with hundreds of laws. Whilenot as potentially dangerous as skipping five centuries, the re-useof a single hour can still have dramatic consequences and theMinistry of Magic seeks the strictest guarantees if it permits theuse of these rare and powerful objects. It would surprise most of themagical community to know that Time-Turners are generally only usedto solve the most trivial problems of time-management and never forgreater or more important purposes, because, as Saul Croaker tellsus, ‘Just as the human mind cannot comprehend time, so it cannotcomprehend the damage that will ensue if we presume to tamper withits laws.’”

Now, the reason I’m interested inthis last quote here is that last bit right there. That “justas the human mind cannot comprehend time, so it cannot comprehend thedamage that will ensue if we presume to tamper with its laws”.That bit.

That ties in, quite fantasticallyactually, with my own beliefs regarding Crowley and how he affectstime. Crowley is a demon, as we all know. He’s a demon that isolder than the Earth, same as Aziraphale is an angel older thanEarth. We don’t know how old they are exactly but they’redefinitely older than Earth and time and all that stuff.

Crowley Fell before Earth. He becamea demon out of curiositymore than anything else. He reveals during the apocalypse that hecan create a time-bubble and pull two other beings into it withoutany harmful effects to them or time on a larger-scale.

That, in itself, shows an acuteawareness of what time is, what it isn’t, and how to perform somepretty epic damage control for anything time shenanigan-related.

Crowley isn’t a human, obviously,and thus doesn’t have a human conception of anything.He doesn’t have a mortal conceptioneither, so he’s set apart from the magical creatures that populatethe world of Harry Potter. He is sourced from the Divine. From thatwhich made everything.All the laws of the universe are laws he understands and can ignoreas and when he wishes so long as he is sufficiently strongenough to do so.

Does this mean Crowley could changeevents with time-travel that a magical being wouldn’t be able to dowith a time-turner? Probably, yeah. Does this mean Crowley wouldchange events however? Probably not, no.

Because Crowley understands, unlikea human, the nature of time as a fundamental attribute of theuniverse in which he functions within. He understands that justbecause he existed before it, because he can ignore it, doesn’tmean he won’t be affected in some way by it. Or that those affectsare worth the meddling.

If he’s sufficiently motivated by,say, avoiding Armageddon? Oh, he’ll do something,but not once does he go back in time and fix the fuck up at thenunnery. Not once does he even mention it. Why not? Well, obviouslybecause others may have noticed the sudden shift. But also, becausedoing that likely would have done more harm than good. So he rollswith it until such a point when he can use his powers in a way thatis of some degree of benefit.

That it means putting him,Aziraphale, and Adam in a little bubble of time that is eithercompletely outside of any rules of time or works on some rules thatthe rest of reality doesn’t. The result is that time is stillhappening outside the bubble, but that they’re inside the bubbletalking. Obviouslyit’s sort of a mental little bubble, one that takes theirconsciousness to a plane where time is more of just a concept than anactual thing that has a direction and flow, hence why the sand is allpiled up on itself.

So what does this mean in regards tousing a time-turner? Would Crowley be able to use one? Would heinstinctively compensate for one? Or would the poor thing short thefuck out and do the equivalent of hiding in the corner screaminginsensibly? Who knows.

The last one is an amusing mentalimage but generally, no clue.

I have, in Absconding withHarry, the idea that magic canbe affected by miracles. That it’s safer to use miracles on adultsthan on children unless you consider All The Variables. But thatthere’s also always the risk that the children’s magic will reactunexpectedly. This is why Crowley and Aziraphale don’t perform toomany miracles directly on Harry. They may do it on the space aroundthem, may alter it a bit to filter out this and that, but until he’san adult, direct and constant applications of miracles isn’tsomething either of them are willing to do.

Also, both of them have their ownmagic. Not human, but angelic and demonic. It’s the sort of thingthat is like them channelling their angelic and demonic essencesthrough a mortal form (granted they’re technically immortallymortal but eh), which presents as magic because it’s used on aphysical plane. But, in the end, it’s still inhuman magic.

Which, thinking about it, makes themsimilar to goblins, centaurs, Veela, and so on.

Huh. That’s interesting.

Might need to consider that a bitfurther for later things in Absconding with Harry.

#Absconding with Harry verse #Good Omens #GOmens #GO #HP #Harry Potter #meta #my meta #I'm doing a thunk #Anonymous #Kat answers #People talk to me!!!

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zrtranscripts · 5 years

Text

Season 8, Mission 18: Weird Science

No One Enters, No One Leaves

SAM YAO: Okay, Five. We've arrived. Dearg Island. Home of the mysterious Far Hebrides science base. There's not much room in this automated boat, is there? Let's get out from under this tarpaulin. [tarp rustles] Yep. Dearg Beach. Pebbles, rocks, signs pointing to Van Ark's labs. Janine and Shona are coming out of the sea, moving pretty quick in all that scuba gear. Shame there wasn't space for all of us in the auto boat. Here's Janine.

JANINE DE LUCA: Keep low, Miss Reid. A minimal profile will delay the local defense's detection of us.

SAM YAO: Janine, how are you doing? Was the, uh, was the swim okay?

JANINE DE LUCA: Mr. Yao, this is a good day. I intend to use all my good days. Dr. Cohen authorized the trip. We must enter the base. Before the apocalypse, scientists from Dearg collected fungal seed pods from Mor Island. We need to understand why.

SAM YAO: Plus the people here might be able to fix your nanite control box, cure your sickness, and... oh, you know. This is where Frances is. Alice Dempsey's sister.

SHONA REID: I know they told you not to come, but Dad and I always handle communication with Dearg. I – I hope they'll be pleased to see me. Least I can do after you saved Mor Island from the zoms.

[laser whirs, explosion]

JANINE DE LUCA: Laser fire incoming from a turret in the center of the island. The laser is set to intercept shambling zombies, so we should survive if we're swift. Everyone, make for the center of the island. Run!

[laser whirs]

SHONA REID: So this is the famous Dearg science complex, huh? Doesn't look much to me. It's like a big university campus, just blocky buildings and stone paths.

[laser whirs]

SAM YAO: Is it just me, or are these laser strikes getting faster? And closer! That was right in front of me!

JANINE DE LUCA: Evasive maneuvers! The laser is anticipating our movements. It must have been upgraded to target humans since Five's last visit. And additional turrets are activating around the campus. Tom identified several possible entrance points on his visit with Five. There is a door in the obelisk-shaped building ahead. All of you, keep weaving as much as possible. Do not let the lasers map your path. Toward the obelisk. Run!

[laser whirs]

SHONA REID: Watch out, Five! That one almost got you.

JANINE DE LUCA: This is the door. The concrete alcove affords us some cover. We must gain entry. Mr. Yao, your pack contains a small explosive -

[door opens]

SAM YAO: Or the door could open by itself?

JANINE DE LUCA: Inside, all of you, now!

[door slams shut]

SAM YAO: Okay, so door mysteriously lets us in this long dark corridor, then slams behind us. Bit unsettling.

[speaker feedback rings]

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Hello. It's Frances. The door's maintenance access for a waste disposal area. Low priority. I managed to override the lockdown long enough to let you in. You're lucky I was on watch. The lasers would have killed you. God, it is you, isn't it? Sam Yao. Alice talked about you in her letters. And Janine, you saved her life! And you're the new Runner Five, still wearing her colors.

SAM YAO: Janine, it's Frances! It's Alice's sister, Shona. Alice was Runner Five before, um, before Runner Five was.

SHONA REID: She died, this Alice?

SAM YAO: Uh, yeah. A long time ago now, but um, we still remember her. Frances! It's so good to meet you. Uh, hear you. Uh, where are you, exactly?

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Watching you from a surveillance hut, trying to keep you alive. We did tell you not to come. I wanted to help you, Janine, after what you did for Alice, but there's nothing more we can do. We cobbled together a stabilizer from our med lab. That's all we can manage. You shouldn't have come. No one here is allowed in or out.

SHONA REID: Does that include the fellow over there? Look down the corridor. There's a ladder under that vent. Someone's slumped over it.

SAM YAO: Uh, they're right under a flickering light. Looks like they're wearing a lab coat, or... oh, no. They're, they're just a skeleton.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Oh God, that's Dr. Davis. He tried to escape the lockdown. He knew the doors in waste access would be easiest to open.

JANINE DE LUCA: What happened to him?

FRANCES DEMPSEY: He climbed down an air vent into the waste tunnel where scientists used to put failed experiments for disposal. Tunnel sensors detected an unauthorized organism and initiated a purge.

SAM YAO: Failed experiments and lasers? It really does have that quintessential Van Ark scent.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Wait, you knew Van Ark? His name's all over the labs, but I never met him.

SAM YAO: Yeah, uh, we've had a few run-ins with - [alarm blares, liquid sprays] Uh, Frances, there's-there's sort of greenish-yellow liquid pouring out of vents in the ceiling.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Crap! It's sterilizing fluid. It'll burn your flesh like bleach. That corridor's going to flood. You have to get out of there. Make for the next bend in the corridor. You can tell me about Van Ark as you run!

[liquid sprays, door opens and closes]

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Got it. Fire door sealed. That'll keep the liquid back. Well, Alice's diaries said being a runner was dangerous. I guess this is what she meant.

JANINE DE LUCA: [laughs] Thank you, Miss Dempsey.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: No problem. I'm feeling quite pleased with myself, actually. I just work in admin here. I've been trying to learn how to operate the systems, but I've never had to work that fast before. Alice was the speedy one. I was more slow and steady wins the race. That's what mom said, anyway. Runner Five, Sam, it was you both who made sure I got Alice's letters and diaries, wasn't it? They arrived via Mor Island a little while after I got here.

SAM YAO: Yeah, that was us, yeah. She always talked about how much she wanted to find you. She'd have come for you if she could. She'd have run the length of England.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: She's dead, though, right? You saw her die.

SAM YAO: Yeah. I was her operator. She – wait. Do you – do you want to know what happened?

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Not sure. I've been thinking about it since you came, Five. I've read those diaries over and over again. She's so alive in them. There's a part of me that feels like she's still here. [laughs] I found out so many things about her from the diaries. She always seemed so confident. I never knew she doubted herself so much. Like that bit where she thinks Runner Eight hates her, you know? [laughs]

SAM YAO: I, um, I didn't read them. It would have felt wrong.

FRANCES DEMPSEY; Oh. Yeah. I guess that makes sense. So you don't know what she said about you?

SAM YAO: Did she – she said something about me?

FRANCES DEMPSEY: [laughs] Yeah, just a bit, mate.

SAM YAO: [laughs] Oh. Okay, right.

[insects scurry]

SHONA REID: Guys, coming around the far end of the corridor, those look like little yellow cockroaches.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Oh God! They're released after a purge to clean up biological waste. Insects engineered to eat flesh. The fluid killed Davis. Those stripped him to the bone.

JANINE DE LUCA: There are hundreds of them crawling over the walls and floor. Everyone, down the stairwell. Run!

[insects scurry]

SAM YAO: Those things are closing in. They're swarming all over the stairwell walls behind us.

SHONA REID: Frances, if you could fetch the scientists, they might ken a way to stop them.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: No, I can't.

JANINE DE LUCA: Miss Dempsey, we are not here to steal the secrets of the island. We need to talk to the scientists!

FRANCES DEMPSEY: There are no scientists here! Okay, this is what I know. Van Ark set up this lab to research rumors of unnatural longevity in the Far Hebrides. Secured a billion-dollar grant from Valmont Venture Capital. When Z-Day happened, I just ran and ran, 17 and scared. Ended up around here looking for shelter. I was good with admin and great at learning rules and systems, so the scientists took me in. But they weren't here for long. The Prime Minister Sigrid Hakkinen needed them all down in London a few years back.

SAM YAO: Oh, right, those scientists Sigrid executed for not working fast enough. So there's... there's no one here who knows what the lab's for.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: All that's left is me and half a dozen grad assistants. That's why we can't cure Janine. We don't know how. And I can't help you now.

SHONA REID: Brilliant. We're going to be eaten alive, and the lass is busy feeling sorry for herself.

JANINE DE LUCA: We've explosives and weapons. Guns are likely to be of no use against a distributed enemy. C4 might stop them, but may simply collapse the ceiling on us.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Wait, I've got an idea! All of you, get down those stairs and then take the corridor. It'll lead to an intersection under the flooded tunnel you were just in. I can't think of anything else. You need to get a headstart on the bugs. Fast as you can, run!

FRANCES DEMPSEY: All right, you're approaching the intersection. You should see a ladder. One of you needs to climb it and plant your C4 near the ceiling. That's it, Five. You race up there.

[ladder rattles]

SAM YAO: So why are we blowing up the ceiling, exactly?

FRANCES DEMPSEY: You're right under the tunnel you were in earlier, which is now flooded with sterilizing fluid. If you blow it up, the fluid will wipe away the insects following you.

SAM YAO: Oh wow, that's brilliant! Alice would have been so proud of you. Look, I know there are rules or whatever, and you have to stay here and we have to leave, but we really need help. We've got the control box for Janine's nanite infection with us. It's broken, but there must be some way to fix it. Please!

JANINE DE LUCA: My cure is secondary. A deadly fungus has infected the mainland. Dearg may hold crucial research on it.

SHONA REID: Uh-oh, those beasties have caught up!

FRANCES DEMPSEY: I – all right. If this works, I'll direct you to our computer core. All our research is recorded there, anything that might help. Five, set the explosive, then jump down. You have to be clear when the ceiling collapses. There's going to be burning bleach and flying debris. Straight down the corridor, run!

[explosion]

FRANCES DEMPSEY: It worked! The explosive cracked the ceiling. It's crashing down! [ceiling collapses] That cleaning fluid is wiping clear the bugs, melting them. Keep moving down that ramp.

JANINE DE LUCA: There's a glass door into a steel-lined room at the end of the ramp. Inside, everyone. Five, seal the door behind us, quickly!

[door slides shut]

SHONA REID: You're swaying there, Janine.

JANINE DE LUCA: First... water would be agreeable.

SAM YAO: Paula said she'd be vulnerable to dehydration. Frances, we need water for Janine quickly!

FRANCES DEMPSEY: I can't.

SAM YAO: Look, I know you've had to obey rules here. That's how you've all survived. But things are different now! No one out there is still doing everything they're told, Frances. Janine needs water. We have to find water for her now.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: No, you can't drink the water here. It's contaminated. That's the reason none of us can leave. It's not rules, it's infection. There's something in the water and we're all infected with it. And if we leave, we infect everyone else, too. You're in an observation room. Look out the window.

SAM YAO: Wow. This room's overlooking a huge cavern. We must be way underground. Look at all those rocks and – oh.

JANINE DE LUCA: The cavern is bursting with red fungus growing over every rock.

SHONA REID: Oh my God. Red everywhere.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: We think it's one of the mad things the scientists here created. It got out of control, infected our water. We've been trying to contain it. All we know is that it's dangerous.

SAM YAO: Frances, that stuff, that's why we're here. That red fungus is what's infected the mainland. It's been found all along the coast. We don't understand why, but we need to know how to stop it.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: We'll try to help you, Sam. If it came from here, we have to. But we're not experts. We couldn't cure ourselves. The whole of Dearg is riddled with red fungus, and so is everyone here, including me.

#zombies run #zrs8 #s8m18 #weird science #zr transcript #zrs8 spoilers

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forkanna · 5 years

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NOTE: HAPPY NANOWRIMO! Sorry if my updates are more sporadic right now; I'm trying to focus on writing this month. That includes (minor spoiler) another Persona fic! I promise in December I will try to resume a more regular posting schedule.

Also: if you're enjoying this fic or any of my others, and you have disposable income, you can drop a few dollars in my tip jar! Every little bit helps! Anyway, happy reading!

CHAPTER NINE

~ x The Priestess x ~

Things settled down until Monday afternoon. Mostly, I hung out with my friends and tried to focus on my studies. And everything had been fine. There were other girls around the school I kept glancing at, trying to figure out my feelings, and I didn't feel any "lesbian stirrings" - if that's even a thing. Just looked like regular people. So I started to convince myself that it had been a fluke, and I only felt those urges because Miss Kawakami had been so sensual with me in the hotel room. Everything was going to be fine.

Then I saw her in the hallway again and it shot all of my hopes to hell.

"Good afternoon, Niijima-san," she said with a smile as she waved. And I felt my knees go weak, my heart speed up in my chest. She was completely back to her usual self: longsleeve yellow scoopneck, denim skirt, sensible white low-heels, fluffy brown hair. Armload of books and lesson plans. Tired-but-cheerful expression.

Just Miss Kawakami, being Miss Kawakami… but she still made me want to do things I had never done before. And wouldn't know how. Experiment with her.

"Niijima-san?"

"G-good morning," I managed to stutter.

"It's not morning," she chuckled. But she peered at my face for a moment. "You… should request me again."

"Huh?!" But when she held a finger to her lips, I quickly said, "Right. Sorry."

"You should. Because it looks like… you need to talk. But not here." Her eyes flicked from side to side, indicating the throng of students surrounding us.

"Of course. I'm sorry, I really… yes. I'll ask you about that homework later."

Her gorgeous mocha eyes did roll toward the ceiling at my poor attempt at covering, but at least she was still smiling. I wished she would always smile…

"Of course. Friday."

"Friday?"

"Or Saturday. I'll let you know if another time works equally well."

"OH!" She was trying to tell me her schedule. "Y-yes, I'll hand it in by then, if I don't have any questions sooner. Thank you."

When I bowed slightly, she patted my shoulder. "Good, good, Run along to class." Then she walked away…

And I did something I have never, ever done. For anybody, no matter who they were, or how attractive I might have found them - though I almost never notice that kind of thing. I turned to watch her leave. Not because I liked her and missed her, or because she was a decent role model. Those things were also true… but for some reason, I wanted to see her calves moving below the hem of that skirt.

The bell for class rang and I was still standing there, staring at the spot where her calves had last been. At least that finally prompted me to move again.

~ o ~

The rest of the week turned out to be my own personal Hell. Every time I saw Miss Kawakami, she looked better and better, and my thoughts were less pure. Maybe it was because I had never thought about anyone in this way that I fell so headlong into lust. Or maybe she was just exactly my type and I didn't know it before Hotel Juliet revealed all.

Dreams of her cleavage in that maid outfit when she crawled across the floor toward me, her stockings recently discarded, filled my nights. Or of her shapely thighs disappearing up her frilly French Victorian dress. Worse - disappearing up the hem of her robe as she writhed under my touch, panting my name with her eyes closed…

Recalling that also gave me another new experience: trying to focus in class while being aroused. I'm not kidding when I say that not once in my entire academic career had that been a stumbling block for me. Now, my thighs twitched, my face flushed, until a neighbouring student asked if I was feeling under the weather. That only made my blush worse.

When Thursday rolled around, I was at the end of my rope. I had basically called Ann in complete distress about six times in three days. She was great at talking me down, but had no real advice to give - which was okay. It would be kind of an insane convenience if she somehow knew exactly what to do about developing a lesbian crush on a teacher, wouldn't it?

"Look," she sighed into the phone as she did her nails, and I slowly tried to finish formatting a report. "She said you can request her tomorrow night, right? So just… don't worry about it until then. Forget about her totally. Like, since you can't do anything."

"That doesn't work. Believe me, I try."

"God, you're so cute. I know, I know - not helping."

"It isn't cute that I'm so smitten with a woman out of my reach that I can't eat, or sleep, or study. Those are basically the only things I do, Ann."

A little laugh floated over the phone lines. "Yeah. I mean, until you started hanging out with us, I'd believe it. Except maybe kissing Principal Kobayakawa's-"

"Don't even finish that sentence," I warned her, and she laughed more.

"Fiiiiine. And I'm gonna offer again; I know you don't wanna reveal her secret. But if you need me there, to mediate or whatever, like, call me. Swear I won't show up without you asking, but all you gotta do is call."

"And you'll be here. I know, and thank you. But this is something I should be able to do on my own."

"Why? You've got friends; use 'em."

I had been about to protest and tell her I didn't want to 'use' my friends… when I realised that I could. Not Ann; she was already being enough help as it was. But there was someone else I should be going to about this matter.

"Thanks, Ann," I said suddenly, sitting up and closing my textbook. "I think I have an idea. I'll call you back when I have put it into practice."

"Huh? O-oh, okay, bye. Good luck!"

"Thank you. I'm gonna need it."

~ o ~

Cafe Leblanc was basically closing up by the time I got there. Futaba Sakura was lingering at the counter, and the proprietor, Sojiro Sakura, was wiping down the counter. Ren was doing the dishes; sometimes the old man roped him into that, considering he was letting him stay in the attic rent-free.

"Hey," I greeted Futaba first. Not that I could see much of a reaction. Her huge glasses and orange hair covered most of her face and head, as if they were a protective shield from the rest of the world. Which was likely true; she's the biggest introvert I've ever known.

"Guten abend."

"Huh?"

"German." Pushing up her glasses, she peered up at me with those oddly mauve-tinted eyes. "You are here to see Ren."

"How do you know that?"

"Keep glancing at him. Not exactly rocket science - though rocket science is actually fairly simple and straightforward. Just gotta know the formulas."

Chuckling softly as I slid onto a stool at the bar, I said, "Uhhh, I'm going to have to take your word for it, I guess. But you're correct."

"He'll be free in a few minutes," her adoptive father said as he tossed the rag under the counter, then perched a cigarette just above his goatee. As he flicked the lighter, he said, "Can I get you anything, Niijima-san?"

"Oh, no thank you," I said with a slight bow. The cigarette smoke bothered me, but I would never dream of mentioning that. "You're already closing up; it would be rude."

"Nonsense. I've got some leftover curry ingredients in the fridge; you kids could go upstairs while I whip some up."

"You do not wanna miss his recipe," Futaba confided as she typed on her phone at lightspeed. The screen was flashing so fast I couldn't even keep up with what she was doing. "Mom's recipe. Their recipe."

"Huh?"

"Don't worry about it," her surrogate father chuckled good-naturedly as he puffed, turning back toward the kitchen. "Amamiya-kun. Take five and see your friend; I'm going to make you something."

"And I'll help," Futaba volunteered with a smile, pocketing her phone.

Ren nodded at him, barely glancing at me before drying off his hands and abandoning the dishes for now. Then he nodded toward the stairs and we went up together. Futaba made no move to abandon her place at Sojiro's side - proving that she really did accurately guess I wanted to talk to Ren alone. What a little genius.

Once upstairs in his cozy little loft, I dropped onto the old couch and wasted no time telling him everything. Ren eventually sank down beside me, expression slightly pained but mostly resigned. As if he knew this day would come, but couldn't be sure which friend - or maybe stranger - would approach him about it.

"So I know you've been having her run errands," I wrapped up with. "But she insisted that you aren't hurting her, and she isn't hurting you. I guess… I feel like I believe you, but I need to hear it. What is the nature of the relationship with Miss Kawakami?"

Guess I really do sound like you sometimes, Sae.

"We don't have one," he answered after a pause to mull over his words. "She's my homeroom teacher."

"And the maid stuff? You really do request her just to… what, give her free money?"

Another pause. "She does jobs for me. Makes curry, cleans up, does laundry. I pay her for the work. But I request her more often because I understand she needs the money; it's the only official way I can help her without…"

"Without?" I prompted.

"Without it being charity."

"Ohhh…" My eyes turned sad as I looked down at the floor. "Miss Kawakami wouldn't accept any handouts, probably. That makes sense." He nodded. "You're sure you've never… a 'health massage' or-"

"No."

"Would you want to?" At that, he looked a little uncomfortable. "Ren?"

"Maybe. But not that way; not because I paid her. It would feel like forcing her into it. And though Miss Kawakami is beautiful, I don't have strong feelings like that for her."

"All of that's very fair," I sighed, staring down at my plain black shoes. "That's how I felt, too; the 'forcing her' part, I mean." He made no reply, so I looked up at him. "You don't even care about… that part of this. That I might be attracted to her, even though I'm a girl." He shook his head. "Why not?"

His shoulders rose and fell. "That's your business."

"So simple for you," I chuckled softly, eyes sad. "But I feel like… a freak. A circus freak for seeing a woman old enough to be my mother in the hallway - well, almost old enough - and wanting to do things with her I've never even dreamed about before."

Ren's only response was to sit back a little, folding his arms and crossing one leg so the ankle rested on his knee. I watched him for a moment, squinting at his passive, thoughtful expression.

"What? What is it?"

"I may have somewhere you should visit. Come with me."

"Now? But it's so late - and we'll miss Sojiro's curry."

His smile was small and coy. "Very well. Curry and then come with me. It's important."

That word could not be ignored. He didn't just think this was a good idea, he thought it was "important"? And Ren was a fairly serious guy; he didn't just spout off things like that for no reason. I trusted him. Therefore, I nodded.

"Curry, and then I'll go with you. It's a promise." And we shook on it, like we were making a business deal.

~ o ~

Once our bellies were full of delicious curry, my taste buds still singing at the spices and mingling flavours, I hopped the train with him up to Shinjuku. That was a surprise; I didn't even know Ren knew anyone up that way, or ever went there. Maybe I didn't know him as well as I thought, but I opted to put my faith in him for the time being.

Within minutes, we were walking into a bar called "Crossroads". The place was pretty empty, except for a young woman with a pink fanny pack slumped over at the bar, and an older woman with an ornate kimono behind it cleaning glasses.

"You spend way too much time here, young man," she said - and my eyebrows shot up. That was a pretty deep voice. Was she… a he? A cross-dresser?

"Lala-san, this is my friend, Makoto Niijima. Makoto, this is Lala Escargot."

I bowed slightly, trying to hide my surprise from before. "It's a p-pleasure to meet you, Lala. Escargot… is French, right?"

"Sure, honey," she chuckled with a big grin. "French is so fancy. Why do you think I picked it?"

"Picked…?" I swallowed hard, then moved to sit at the bar in front of her. "Forgive me for asking something very forward. But are you… transgender, or a drag queen? I don't want to assume."

While Ren looked a little surprised, Lala grinned. "Just a queen, girl. When I ain't on the clock, this all comes off and I'm a regular run-of-the-mill man. Well… maybe not run-of-the-mill."

"No, I am sure you're very unique." Luckily, 'she' seemed to take that as a compliment. "Should I keep using female pronouns while you're Lala, then?"

"Yes, please." A little bow to show her gratitude, and I bowed back. "What brings ya taggin' along with this no-good louse?" Then she chuckled and hid her face behind an elegant white fan. "Just kidding, Amamiya-chan. You know me."

"Of course," he laughed with an easy smile. Not at all flustered or annoyed by her teasing.

"Well… I actually don't know." After a few seconds to consider, I just blurted out, "I think I might be gay."

"Oh yeah? Good for you, honey!"

"Thanks?" I laughed self-consciously. "But I have a feeling Ren thought it might be a good idea to talk to you about it. And maybe he's right; I really don't know what I'm doing, or feeling, or thinking, and… this isn't exactly my first contact with, um, 'the community', but none of my friends are gay. So I'm a little unsure of where to turn."

Her smirk was playful. "That you know of. I mean, just saying, Ren does hang out with a drag queen an awful lot for a straight boy."

"I work here, Lala," he sighed with a roll of his eyes. But she only laughed in response.

"But why here? Hmmmmm? So many after-school jobs, and here you are in Shinjuku. Just saying…"

Interrupting her further teasing, I asked, "So what do I do? How do I know? Especially because I have a crush on a teacher, not another student, so it's…"

"Ooooh, damn," she intonated, heavily-shaded eyes widening. "That is a pickle, sister. How old are ya?"

"Huh? Oh… eighteen."

"Awww, you're almost outta there. Just hang on and then ask her out when you're in college."

Drawing my knees together and folding my hands on the bartop, I whispered, "That's what Ann said. You make it sound so simple. I don't even know if what I'm feeling is real, or-"

"It's real."

Stunned by the firmness in her voice, I asked, "How can you be so sure?"

"If you're worried enough about it to follow your friend to some dive bar in Shinjuku, you're feeling real things, baby," she pressed with a sympathetic sigh. "Maybe you get a few years further along in life, and it turns out you ain't a lesbian, or maybe you are. But right now, for you, in this moment, you wanna be with a woman. Don't second-guess yourself or waste a lot of time thinking you're 'crazy'. Take Ohya there."

With a start, the other woman shot upright, eyes unfocused and sunglasses askew. "Huh? Wh-wha…? I'll pay my tab next week…"

"Poor thing was in love with this old colleague of hers," Lala went on as Ohya slumped back downward, clearly not even listening. "Completely oblivious until it was too late; she's still in denial about it. Now Kaya's out of her life and she ain't got nobody. Think she still likes men, but when's the last time I saw her on a serious date with any of 'em?"

My eyes widened. "Oh. She's a lesbian, too?"

"Bisexual," Lala corrected. "Probably, anyway."

"Right, right; like you said, she still dates men." I watched her snore for a few seconds, then cleared my throat. "I guess… it's different, meeting a woman who likes women in person. Not that I doubted their existence."

The drag queen shrugged as she poured me a tonic with lemon; something light and non-alcoholic, but still being courteous. "We get a lot of people like you wandering in. Girls or boys who ain't sure what they want outta life, or outta relationships. Some of these places around Shinjuku will really turn your brain upside-down if you let 'em, but… most of us just wanna help family."

"Family?" After a second of flashbacks to dead parents and my stubborn sister, I got it. "Right. That's me; I'm 'family' now. But what if I try dating a woman and decide I like men? Isn't that… wrong, somehow?"

"What's wrong with experimenting and figuring out what you like?"

"Well, when you put it that way… I feel stupid," I ended up saying, and she chuckled.

"Don't, honey. Nothin' stupid about not knowing where you wanna end up in life. Just take your time, figure it out. Come back here if you got questions; maybe Ichiko'll be sober enough to answer 'em next time."

"Hey, I'm not that drunk," the woman muttered without lifting her head or opening her eyes. "Sober enough to see Ren-kun brought another cutie with him. You're the drunk one, Lala-chan… not me."

Another cutie? Did she mean me?!

"You're the horizontal one," Lala mocked back, and Ohya did smile slightly. But she still didn't get up.

And now I found myself really looking at her. If I'm being brutally honest, I don't know why I had such a strong image in my mind that a woman who likes women would be some kind of freak. Probably had something to do with societal brainwashing. But here was this Ichiko, very normal other than the fact that she was drunk. Bobbed black hair, blue jeans and sneakers. Very pretty in the same way Miss Kawakami was pretty: a little older but taking good care of herself, other than the drinking which probably had the same amount of detrimental effect on her as the lack of sleep did on my teacher.

"Maybe," I breathed quietly to myself before taking a sip of the tonic water. It was actually pretty refreshing.

"What's that, honey?"

"Nothing, nevermind. Just thinking to myself."

"Questioning?"

For some reason, she was smirking at me again. I had the feeling her comment meant more to her than it did to me, but I decided not to ask about it. "Anyway, your friend looks like she's not getting up anytime soon, so maybe I should go. Thanks for this, Lala - and you, too, Ren. Helped me a lot more than I can be sure of just yet, I'm sure."

Ren nodded with a small smile as he took his place behind the bar. Lala came over to stand next to him. "Ohhhh, you're up for a shift, huh? Good, good. And let me know if you ever change your mind about me dressing you up."

Feeling second-hand embarrassment for Ren felt like reason enough to quickly and quietly take my leave. Besides, now I had an awful lot to think about.

To Be Continued…

#Queen Of Temperance #forkanna writes #persona 5 fanfiction #p5 fanfic #jess the writer #persona

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wutbju · 5 years

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The Times They Showed Their Quality: My own experience with Liberty University’s treatment of faculty BRIAN MELTON·MONDAY, JUNE 24, 2019 Clarification: This note was written in direct response to comments from Liberty’s provost in a recent Christianity Today article claiming that the relationship between the LU administration and its faculty staff is “healthy”, and that the faculty is “completely comfortable with what [the administration] is doing,” and it should be read in that context. I offer this as a simple statement of my experience to serve as a corrective in honor of the many people whom I know wish they could speak out but can’t. Thanks in advance for taking this as nothing more or less than it claims to be. --Brian Anyone who is paying attention to criticisms of Liberty University these days is well familiar with the charge of “Fake News.” It is a common and mindless refrain, parroted back in obedience to The Donald’s talking points and it somehow resonates with otherwise intelligent people. It is also an easy charge to levy, as most of the time when people not connected to LU hear about nefarious happenings and underhanded actions, it is as “something that happened to this guy I heard about” or the like thanks to LU’s use of non-disclosure agreements. I never signed an NDA. So, I thought I might skip the rumor mill and share my own direct, first-hand experience with the administration’s behavior. What I can attest to is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg and not as bad as what has happened to others, but it marked the transition when, after fifteen years, I finally came to the definite conclusion that the upper administration at LU wasn’t simply self-serving or even inept, but fundamentally duplicitous. Worse, it demonstrated to me that they acted this way intentionally and with malice aforethought.

In 2014 my family and I moved back to the Lynchburg area, where I occupied a position as an Instructional Mentor, acting as a bridge between the College of General Studies and the College of Arts and Sciences. Previously, I had worked for LU full time residentially for over ten years. I served as a professor, chair of the curriculum committee, and moderator of the faculty senate during that time. I liked and respected (I still do) the people in those schools I worked with directly, and at the time we intended to spend the rest of our lives there. I figured whatever else happened, we would muddle through it and I would retire from LU when the time came. My point is that though I of course had my frustrations with the administration on some issues, but there was no ill will and I hoped to keep working for them for years to come.

One peculiarity of my position at the time was that it was “part-time full time.” Technically, I was a part time worker and I received none of the benefits that other faculty did, while at the same time I was counted as a “full time” faculty with a terminal degree for SACS purposes via a “limited benefit” contract (the sole “benefit” was that after filling out paperwork I could receive up to $400 a year to join professional associations). I knew there would be none of the standard health or life insurance, tuition assistance, etc. going into the position and was fine with it, as we were allowed to take extra classes and make a comfortable sum that allowed me to pay for all the extras out of pocket. I recall speaking with my associate dean as late as 2015 and telling him that I would be happy doing this job until I retired.

Of course, the lack of medical coverage in particular was a complaint that many had, but I did not see it as a significant obstacle. Yes, it was on the unfair side to be a second-class faculty member who did not get the coverage others did, even though I did as much work, and getting on the school insurance would be a significant boon to our family. Still, I worked from home, was paid well, and just accepted it as a known downside of the specific job I had agreed to do. There had been constant rumors that the administration appreciated us and was taking steps to give us coverage, but nothing ever came of it. Until the Fall of 2016, that is.

That fall I received an email on a Friday afternoon (when few people would be expected to look at it, of course) informing me that I had worked enough to qualify for medical coverage under the university. I had one week to respond. If I didn’t I would immediately and permanently forfeit any claim to coverage now or in the future. As you can imagine, I didn’t wait! I responded immediately that I was grateful for the opportunity and to put me down for it. I also contacted both of my bosses, who were happy to hear that I had received coverage. Both promised to do everything they could do to make sure I kept it by giving me the required amount of work.The next week I called Human Resources to find out more. I spoke with the benefits coordinator, and told him how much I appreciated the gesture. He replied that he was glad to hear it and that LU was always happy to help its people. As he explained the details of the coverage, he was careful to sneak in a comment that if I ever happened to fall below the required line, I would lose my coverage. “Well,” I thought, “that’s fair.” And so I asked what I thought would be the obvious question: “Where is the line? How much do I have to work in order to rate coverage?” His reply was shady, and you could tell by the uncomfortable tone of his voice that he knew it too. “That’s proprietary information,” he said, “I can’t release it.” “You can’t tell me at all?” I asked. “No” was the answer. My bosses, good people that they are, also both followed up with HR and they were both given the same answer.

From that moment, I knew that this was, in reality, nothing but an intentional set up. The reason they would tell no one where the line lay was because it was mobile--no one would ever cross it again. No matter how much we worked, it would always be “unfortunately” short of the goal. In fact, Liberty had obfuscated on Obamacare as long as they could, and now they were being forced to offer coverage to all full time workers. Rather than be frank about it, they were playing the situation off like this was a friendly and helpful boon to their employees, all the while laying plans to revoke the coverage at the first opportunity and blame it on said employees. It was as dishonest as it was obvious.

Sure enough, within a month, we began to get notifications of sudden “policy changes” that cut the financial rug out from under whole classes of faithful employees. My own turn at this came in December. In a move worthy of the counting house of Ebenezer Scrooge, four days before Christmas, I received an email informing me that I was to be locked out of any and all overload teaching effective January 1. For me, that amounted to an immediate pay cut of approximately a third of my yearly LU income. I was given approximately two weeks--including Christmas Eve and Day--to make adjustments. Never was an apology expressed, regrets offered, or even an acknowledgment made by anyone beyond my immediate superiors (who had no say in the matter) for the obvious effect this had on people’s lives or for the manner in which it was rolled out. Over the next quarter, chaos ensued as the administration waffled back and forth about what to do next and my hapless bosses could only report what the whim of the day happened to be. One day I was looking at a 50% pay cut. A week later, the rumor was that my position was being eliminated. A week after that, it was 20%. Then 30%. etc. etc. etc.The following Fall, things finally settled out--as much as they do at Liberty, where things are constantly in flux as the latest disposable “rock star” tries to leave his mark. I ended up losing about 25% of my previous income potential and we were limited to a theoretical 30 hours per week of work. I emphasize “theoretical” because in fact no effort was made to track anything outside of teaching hours, which represented the hours for which we were actually paid. At the same time, Liberty’s “Co-Provost” announced sweeping changes to our positions requiring substantially more administrative work. Since administrative hours were never counted or totaled nor paid individually, in fact our workload as a whole went up substantially while our overall pay potential dropped significantly. Perhaps worse, we were now charged with tracing faculty compliance via a tool called the “FAR” which tracked and logged every single time a faculty member was late doing anything. While that information had been available to chairs and deans for years, now it was forced down to even the adjunct level and I, as an Instructional Mentor, was required to contact the faculty under me and ask for an explanation any and every time I saw a “red flag.” Miss posting your Monday announcement by five minutes this week? I have to demand a justification that I would log with the university on your record. Are you a little late in grading the papers the university suddenly required you to return to the students two days earlier than before? I’ll be checking up on you for an excuse why you shouldn’t be fired. And with the “Co-Provost” (What the heck is that, anyway? The real provost pretending to not be? The actual provost’s personal assistant?) constantly haranguing us with threats that there were “hundreds of people lined up for your job”, threats so thinly veiled that they insulted your intelligence as much as they frightened you, there was plenty of angst to go around.And so I found myself in an interesting position: I was working full time hours at a part time job that had at least full time expectations, being told that I could get in trouble if I didn’t accomplish my full time work in my part time hours. I operated on a one year contract with no job security under implied threats of “non-renewal” delivered via smarmy video messages that tracked how much of each you watched. I was part of an increasingly Orwellian surveillance system that meant I was party to inflicting all of this onto others. (Let us not forget academic standards that had fallen dramatically over recent years and about which I could perhaps write another whole article.) And I was supposed to be happy about it--sacrificing my time and my family for the university, but not being able to expect a scrap of loyalty or genuine appreciation out of anyone above the deans’ level in return. The only safe words that could be used to express serious dissent were, “Thank you sir! May I have another?” All of this was happening in the name of Christ, and every complaint was expected to be excused for the sake of the mission, a mission that it was increasingly clear the school’s own president regarded as secondary to making money and winning football games (since confirmed directly in a recent tweet). It should come as no surprise, then, that in the summer of 2017, when I was approached about an opportunity to teach in Europe, I decided to leave. And the medical coverage? In September of 2017 I received the equivalent of a medical “Dear John” letter, regretfully informing me that since I simply hadn’t worked hard enough in the past year, the university had no choice but to end my medical coverage. At the time, my wife and I were actively being treated with expensive anti-biotics for Lyme Disease and a malarial-type infection she had picked up on a mission trip. My new chair in LUO (my previous one had quit in disgust) went on the line for me to try to reverse the decision, but was told to sit down and be quiet--the administration didn’t care and he was risking his own position by speaking up. In the final tally, I most likely could have made ends meet on the new salary they were offering, but money wasn’t the central problem. Neither was the still-absent medical coverage; we had lived without it before and could again. The most important issue for me was character. I had to be able to rely on Liberty University to treat me and others fairly and honestly if I were to bank my family’s welfare on working for them. My own personal narrative aside, I knew of many other people treated worse than I was--a whole list of persons I liked and respected. If the last few years had taught me anything, it was that while there are still many excellent people to be found there, Liberty University as a whole was as shifty, dishonorable, unprincipled, and hypocritical a work environment as could be offered. I could not trust my family to them, and I increasingly found it hard to have my reputation associated with an organization that had proved itself so often without honor. (Yes, I’m old fashioned that way.) It was a hard decision. We love our friends in the Lynchburg area very much and we love the Virginia mountains. We love our church, and, as I said, we planned to grow old and die there. We miss them all badly, even as we travel and experience Europe. Unfortunately, Liberty’s behavior and lack of honor made it virtually impossible to stay--for us at least.

Moving into 2018, I learned that more cuts were likely. (Despite what Provost Hicks asserts, it is a relatively recent thing for faculty to be completely surprised by their non-renewal. At one point there was a written agreement that faculty would be notified by January if it were a possibility, and even later people were unofficially informed.) I approached my bosses and let them know I would be leaving at the end of the year in the hopes that if they knew it, someone else’s job might be secure (I was told that it did save a position). In true LU style, I later received official notification in a boiler plate email that they had regretfully decided not to renew the contract I had already informed them I wasn’t seeking. I arrived at LU in the Fall of 2003 to find an earnest, if humanly fallible university making its very best effort to transform itself into the Notre Dame of Evangelicalism. I left a financially successful behemoth where real ministry and Christian charity is carried out by earnest believers in spite of the effort and example of its upper administration to the contrary. Increasingly, LU is becoming more the Harvard of Evangelicalism than the Notre Dame (academic standards definitely not withstanding). It is a university where the original mission has been sacrificed in favor of a political agenda and a secular system of situational morality, Liberty falling to the right wing in counterpoint to Harvard’s left. Though the campus may be bigger and more beautiful than ever before, sadly, thanks to the trajectory of its current administration, its reflection of Christ is not.

#Bob Jones University #Liberty University #Faculty

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sheepvinyl87-blog · 5 years

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Why Generating Fantastic Articles Is The Only Online Marketing and advertising Approach You Need to have To Comply with

When you hear the words "online advertising", what comes to your mind? Social Media? Facebook? Look for engine optimization? Running a blog? WordPress? Or probably you feel about on-line marketing, pay out-per-clicks, and lookup engine advertising. I imagine there is 1 phrase that everybody thinks about when they hear the time period "on the internet marketing and advertising", and that term is "tough." Online marketing is hard. Have you at any time talked to a marketing and advertising expert about online advertising and marketing? Do not they all give the exact same, vague, generalized tips when it will come to on-line marketing and advertising? Initial, they explain to you to employ a Search engine optimization organization, then they tell you to weblog, then they tell you to use social media, and after you have accomplished all of this, they inform you that you may commence receiving traffic to your web site. Every single marketing expert states the actual identical point, and the advice is constantly obscure. Even the in-depth tips about on the internet marketing and advertising is imprecise. Have you at any time read an article about on the web advertising? Attempt this when you have some free time. Research "on the internet advertising strategies" on Google and click on on and read some of the articles. You don't have to search previous the very first webpage on Google. Just read through some of the prime posts that Google returns. This is a evaluate and distinction exercise. When you comprehensive this, you may realize that all these articles seem the same. The first paragraph presents you a short overview of what on the internet advertising is and why it is so crucial. Then the list begins. Now soon after you have accomplished this workout, you possibly realize that the titles of the report all have anything in frequent they're all formatted as a leading-10 record. They all look like this: "seven On the web Marketing Facebook Strategies to Enhance your Fan Base." Now, content marketing is not issue. I like the prime-10 listing structure. It makes the post more desirable to the reader. What I do not like about greater part of these articles or blog posts is that practically everyone's leading-ten listing is the same. They all give the identical on-line marketing methods and guidance. I indicate c'mon these are the experts! These are expert writers, creating for some of the largest firms in the globe. Why do bulk of the posts sound the identical? Since again, on the internet marketing is tough! No one likes to be improper or give bad suggestions. The writers are just composing the identical vague, generalized advice that the marketing and advertising gurus say. I could go on-and-on, specially when it will come to online advertising and marketing workshops, but I am not heading to I feel you have gotten the stage by now. In this post, I'm heading to try to do something that's not often carried out. I'm going to try to give you first and efficient tips about online marketing and advertising. I am heading to be entirely sincere. I will not give you out-of-date approaches that do not work just to make my report lengthier. These strategies will perform. How do I know? Due to the fact, I run a company and they are presently working for me. I have experience in this area and I have manufactured numerous blunders in on the web advertising, so I know what operates and what will not function. So, with out additional ado, below are my online marketing and advertising techniques that will undoubtedly help your organization acquire far more exposure on the internet. Online advertising is all about the sort of content you might be creating. Very first of all, the greatest online marketing and advertising method is generating material. Arms down! Sure, Facebook likes, retweets and social media shares on other common social media internet sites like Pinterest, Instagram, and Reddit are awesome, but do they truly increase income for a enterprise? Believe about it, how a lot of times do you patronize a enterprise since you liked their Facebook submit? Precisely. I think social media is very powerful but only performs if you have great articles. Content material can be anything at all. It can be from a very properly created article to a fashionable t-shirt with a clever phrase on the front. Material can really be anything. I imagine majority of the companies out there believe that just submitting a catchy put up on Fb together-facet an eye-catching photograph will improve their consumer foundation and ultimately their income. This just is not true. If on the web advertising and marketing were that easy, everyone, including the regular man or woman would be an skilled at on-line advertising. Anything in this globe value obtaining takes tough work and time the final results from an efficient on the web marketing marketing campaign are no different. Creating great content material isn't really simple nonetheless, when you do produce fantastic content material, there are so several sources at your disposal that could possibly help that content turn into viral. Have you at any time noticed a online video on Fb or YouTube that has hundreds of shares and hundreds of likes? The purpose that video went viral is because of the content. The typical person is not a advertising and marketing expert and doesn't have a social media spending budget all they have is their creativity. Which is all you require to produce great content material. So, now that we have recognized that producing fantastic content is the very best on the internet advertising technique, I'm going to demonstrate you how to produce fantastic material. As I mentioned previously, creating fantastic, viral worthy articles is not easy. However, there are so many assets to aid that material go viral making the material is genuinely the only hard element. Generating excellent material demands investigation. You have to think about what is actually trending in the planet. Way too numerous marketing gurus believe that the only factor that can go viral is a amusing YouTube movie and that is just not real. If you are not humorous, never consider to be funny. You do not have to be funny. Perform to your strengths. You just have to be inventive, persistent, and use your creativeness. There are a great deal of items that are trending in the world. Select one. Create articles about a subject matter that is essential to you. The far more essential it is to you, far more than very likely, the greater the articles will be. The subsequent step is to produce the content material employing a media that's common. There is a reason why movies are much more likely to go viral than an article. A excellent article can go viral, but it will absolutely just take longer. People get pleasure from films much more there's no studying included in seeing a video. Your movie doesn't have to be aesthetically appealing and you don't have to be an skilled in online video editing it just has to be intriguing. And don't worry, you can often find out about video editing and unique effects although creating the movie it's not specifically rocket science, it just normally takes a little practice. The following action in making wonderful, viral worthy material is relating that articles again to your organization. This might be the hardest part, but, if completed correctly, is a game-changer. The greatest goal is conversions, even so, why do you require to transform folks via the material? Which is the blunder that many advertising gurus make. Great content might not raise your profits appropriate absent, but it really is not supposed to. The purpose of content advertising is to elevate consciousness of your enterprise. The earnings gains will arrive in the potential, not quickly. As long as the articles relates back to your company (in some sort of way), you are good. The next phase in creating excellent articles is your content has to solve a dilemma. Shoppers have problems, even if that dilemma is ignorance, which means, not realizing ample about a certain subject. Excellent content solves problems and enlightens customers. Which is why great material goes viral. Consumers share issues that they've recently learned simply because everyone has the interior-urge to assist a person else in want. Report Resource: http://EzineArticles.com/8508953

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dreams232434 · 1 year

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Dream about mouse

In spite of the fact that it is an enchanting creature, essentially according to a kids' viewpoint, ladies are held and experience regular tension when stood up to with the lamentable little mouse. Mice like tunneling, building, stowing away, and just barely getting through small passages to remain warm. These characteristics should be evaluated.

Dreaming about mice, as I would like to think, is connected to profound and paranormal associations. Dreams of mice were previously remembered to be alerts from the divine beings, cautioning of approaching fiasco. This is gotten from the old Egyptians, who accepted that creatures in dreams were connected with divine beings — seeing mice showed that we really want to successfully communicate with individuals more.

Dream about mouse

While concentrating on the importance of mouse dreams (for this article), the fundamental disposition is to consider the fantasy as complete and assess its importance from dream brain science and an otherworldly point of view.

The primary reasoning for dreaming about mice is that the mouse is an indication of ladies' desire. As per the understandings of mice in the Old Persian practice, such dreams are anticipated once more. As per Eastern conviction, you will win the lotto in the event that you long for getting a mouse. Mice dreams could portend issues with others, and a woman who longs for mice might experience issues with different ladies. On the off chance that you hear mice making clamors in your fantasy, this is an admonition indication of looming burglary.

Point by point dream understanding Dream about a little mouse Dreaming about a little shrewd mouse shows that you are unfortunate. You represent goodness, family commitment, flourishing, and happiness. There is an accentuation on guaranteeing that individuals hear and fathom your cravings. Assuming that you see some other vermin in this fantasy or then again on the off chance that the mouse is eating cheddar, it demonstrates that you will before long be educated regarding an unexpected treat.

This is a sign of a decent second for you, and you can possibly get total insight right now. You should rehearse the craving to grasp everything around you since there have been times when you have not imparted your data and encounters to other people, bringing about an absence of understanding. Over the long haul,

Dream about getting a mouse Dreaming about getting a mouse in a snare is an indication that you are going to get horrendous news as a letter from an irritating companion. To dream that you fear a mouse predicts that you will be put in an awkward circumstance by somebody more youthful than you. In the event that you kill a mouse in your fantasy, purchasing another outfit implies you're going.

A mouse dream shows that you will get interest, income, or gain. The fantasy about getting a mouse likewise implies riches and perhaps scoring that sweepstakes. The fantasy of mice predicts issues with an accomplice, by and large in business, as well as monetary misfortune.

Dream about seeing a white mouse On the off chance that you see a white mouse in your fantasy, it means that a decent marriage. In the event that the mouse is running, you might go through the night alert. A caught mouse represents win over your enemies. At the point when you see a mouse playing, you ought to anticipate an admirer. In the event that you kill mice in your fantasy, you might get great news and will actually want to dispose of unfortunate visitors in your home.

Dream about seeing a great deal of mice Dreaming about a great deal of mice forecasts trouble because of a business exchange with a pal. Mice can likewise be a sign of yearning, a disguised foe, or a stealing worker. Assuming that the mice are dark, somebody in your family is burglarizing you. Seeing mice in your fantasy is a positive sign for cash gains, all things considered. At the point when you see the mouse chomping on some food, you might anticipate a great deal of joy.

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Young People’s Despair Deepens as Covid-19 Crisis Drags On (NYT) Life seemed promising last year to Philaé Lachaux, a 22-year-old business student in France who dreamed of striking out on her own in the live music industry. But the onset of the pandemic, leading to the loss of her part-time job as a waitress, sent her back to live at her family home. Now, struggling to envision a future after months of restrictions, Ms. Lachaux says that loneliness and despair seep in at night. “The pandemic feels like a big stop in our lives,” she added. “One that puts us so low that I wonder, ‘What’s the point?’” With curfews, closures and lockdowns in European countries set to drag into the spring or even the summer, mental health professionals are growing increasingly alarmed about the deteriorating mental state of young people, who they say have been among the most badly affected by a world with a foreshortened sense of the future. Across the world, they have lost economic opportunities, missed traditional milestones and forfeited relationships at a pivotal time for forming identity. “Many feel they’re paying the price not of the pandemic, but of the measures taken against the pandemic,” said Dr. Nicolas Franck, the head of a psychiatric network in Lyon, France. In a survey of 30,000 people that he conducted last spring, young people ranked the lowest in psychological well-being, he said.

For Better Health During the Pandemic, Is Two Hours Outdoors the New 10,000 Steps? (WSJ) Will two hours in the park become the next 10,000 steps? As people spend more time indoors, a mountain of scientific research says spending time in nature is critical to health and increases longevity. That means being in fresh air, under trees and away from cars and concrete—on a regular basis. And, no, the Peloton doesn’t count. “There’s an urgent need emerging in science and at the gut level to increase the nature experience. This field is just exploding,” says Gretchen Daily, a professor of environmental science at Stanford University. The benefits have been clear to scientists for some time, but the pandemic has made the matter more urgent. The physical and emotional toll the virus has taken, especially in urban areas with little green space, has galvanized doctors, researchers and others to tap into nature’s therapeutic effects. Spending time in the woods—a practice the Japanese call “forest bathing”—is strongly linked to lower blood pressure, heart rate and stress hormones and decreased anxiety, depression and fatigue.

Winter Storm Brings Icy Temperatures and Power Outages Across U.S. (NYT) A coast-to-coast winter storm swept from Oregon and Washington to the Southeast on Sunday, part of a frigid weather pattern that has created record low temperatures in Minnesota and a 100-vehicle traffic pileup in Texas and that is now producing dangerous conditions across much of the country because of heavy snowfall, perilous ice and dangerously low temperatures. The National Weather Service said early Monday that at least 150 million Americans were under ice or winter weather advisories. Hundreds of thousands of people were without power. Trucks slid off highways and cars piled up on ice-coated roads. As the storm continued to intensify, officials urged residents to brace themselves. “The time to prepare for this storm was yesterday,” the National Weather Service in Texas said in an ominous warning issued on Sunday.

Power cuts hit 4.7 million users in northern Mexico after cold snap (Reuters) A cold snap knocked out power for 4.7 million users in northern Mexico early on Monday, triggering a scramble by authorities to restore service and bring in extra fuel, with parts of the neighboring United States also hit hard. Frozen pipelines and a squeeze on natural gas deliveries from Texas roiled several northern states, though by midday, service had been restored to 58% of the affected supply, Mexican national electricity grid operator CENACE said. CENACE urged people in the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo Leon, Sinaloa, Sonora and Tamaulipas to curb power usage. The freeze also knocked out electricity for more than 2 million customers in Texas.

UK opens quarantine hotels, pushes on with vaccine drive (AP) Britain’s newly established quarantine hotels received their first guests on Monday as the government tries to prevent new coronavirus variants from derailing a fast-moving vaccination drive that has delivered more than 15 million shots in ten weeks. Passengers arriving at London’s Heathrow Airport were escorted by security guards to buses that took them to nearby hotels. Zari Tadayon, who flew to Heathrow from Dubai and was taken to the Radisson Blu Edwardian hotel near the airport, said she had hoped she would be allowed to quarantine at her home in London. She said she felt “horrible” about the enforced 10-day hotel stay. Under the new rules, residents of the U.K. and Ireland arriving in England from 33 high-risk countries must stay in designated hotels for 10 days at their own expense, with meals delivered to their door. In Scotland the rule applies to arrivals from any country.

Dragnet, planned law boost French fight of Islamic radicals (AP) More than three dozen police officers descended on a small private school in Paris, blocked the 92 students inside their classrooms, took photos everywhere, even inside the refrigerator, and grilled the school director in her office. “It was like they were moving in on a drug deal,” Hanane Loukili, the director and co-founder of the MHS middle and high school said, recalling the Nov. 17 scene. Loukili didn’t know it then, but a team from the Cell to Fight Radical Islam and Community Withdrawal, or CLIR, had arrived for an inspection. The dragnet sweeps schools, shops, clubs or mosques to rout out “radicalization.” Within a week, a shaken Loukili informed students their school was shutting down. Loukili insists she is no radical, but such operations illustrate the extent of French efforts to fight extremism as lawmakers prepare to vote Tuesday on a bill aimed at snuffing it out. The proposed legislation is intended to re-anchor secularism in a changing France, where Muslims are increasingly visible and Islam—the nation’s No. 2 religion—is gaining a stronger voice. The legislation, expected to pass the first critical vote, will also expand and facilitate the crackdown.

Russia’s rising poverty fuels political discontent (AFP) Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, crowds have grown at the Martha and Mary Convent in central Moscow. The white-walled women’s monastery houses one of Russia’s best known charities that gives out free food parcels, among other projects. Many of the visitors who queue for packages containing buckwheat, sugar, and tea are retired but there are also those who have lost their jobs or had their salaries cut. The coronavirus pandemic has delivered a new blow to Russia’s stagnating economy, which was already chafing under Western sanctions, low oil prices and weak corporate investment. Observers say that rising poverty, falling incomes and lack of tangible government support during the pandemic are fuelling discontent with President Vladimir Putin’s two-decade rule and strengthening the opposition. Russians’ real disposable incomes have been falling for the past half-decade, and contracted by 3.5 percent in 2020, while the cost of basic foodstuffs surged.

Military Imposes Full Grip on Myanmar in Overnight Crackdown (NYT) With the night in Myanmar came the terror. In cities across the country on Sunday evening, armored vehicles moved in, along with trucks filled with soldiers in camouflage. Security forces fired rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas at a crowd. Troops surrounded the houses of government workers who had dared to join a nationwide civil disobedience campaign. Politicians, activists and journalists fled, turning off their phones as they disappeared into the shadows, hoping to outpace the men coming after them. On Saturday evening, the State Administration Council, the Orwellian name chosen by the coup-makers, announced that it was taking away basic civil liberties, allowing for indefinite detention and for the police to search homes with impunity. Arrest warrants were issued for veteran democracy activists who had already spent years in jail. Late into Saturday night, residents of Yangon and Mandalay, the two biggest cities, watched in horror as unidentified men lit fires to spook neighborhoods and ran. Police raids netted protesters and politicians alike. The day before, prisons had been emptied of 23,000 inmates in a mass amnesty. There is now room to spare to incarcerate people in what for decades has felt like a prison state.

Sudan says Ethiopian forces crossed border, raising tensions (Reuters) Ethiopian forces crossed into Sudanese territory in an act of “aggression”, Sudan’s foreign ministry said on Sunday, marking the latest flare-up in a long-standing border dispute. “Ethiopia’s trespass into Sudanese land is an unfortunate and unacceptable escalation, which could have dangerous repercussions on security and stability in the region,” the Sudanese foreign ministry said in a statement. Ethiopia has also accused Sudan of crossing into its territory. Clashes erupted late last year between Sudanese and Ethiopian forces over Al-Fashqa, an area of fertile land settled by Ethiopian farmers that Sudan says lies on the Sudanese side of a border demarcated at the start of the 20th century.

Note: News may be sporadic for the next few days because of internet and power outages.

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360digitmgba · 3 years

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Python in Shaping the Future of Machine Learning 5

How Amazon Is Dazzling The World With Ai & Ml

You can use either of them, as both give just about the same outcomes specifically in case of CART analytics as shown in below determination. Entropy in simpler terms is the measure of randomness or uncertainty.

In the above example, a choice tree is being used for a classification drawback to resolve whether an individual is fit or unit. The depth of the tree is referred to the length of the tree from root node to leaf. If you could have disposable revenue to spend then I’d highly recommend hiring a mentor who can stroll you through your issues. Income share mentorships make new opportunities accessible to people who can’t afford the professional time or discover professional knowledge scientists to be taught from.

” There are many assets across the net, but I don’t wish to give anyone the mistaken impression that the path to data science is as simple as taking a few MOOCs. Unless you have already got a robust quantitative background, the highway to becoming a knowledge scientist might be challenging but not inconceivable. A knowledge scientist will never thrive if he/she doesn’t understand what to take a look at to run when and the way to interpret their findings.

Stock Market Clustering Project — In this project, you'll use a K-means clustering algorithm to establish related corporations by discovering correlations amongst inventory market actions over a given time span. We have tried to take an extra thrilling approach to Machine Learning, by not working on simply the idea of it, however as a substitute by using the technology to actually build actual-world initiatives that you should use. Furthermore, you will learn how to write the codes after which see them in motion and actually learn to assume like a machine studying skilled. In this weblog, we'll take a look at initiatives divided largely into two totally different levels i.e. First, projects talked about under the beginner heading cover important ideas of a specific technique/algorithm.

But that is the proper guide for superior-intermediate to professional data scientists. If you need to know how to work professionally as a knowledge scientist, this guide is for you. But this is only for intermediate, advanced, and skilled knowledge scientists since you have to know the fundamentals before starting on this guide. P is the likelihood of a knowledge level belonging to class 1 as predicted by the model.

And check out the top 5 rows utilizing the head() Pandas DataFrame perform. This is how the K Nearest Neighbours algorithm works in principle. As you possibly can see, visualizing the data is a big assist to get an intuitive picture of what the k values must be. Finally, we return a category as output which is closest to the new knowledge level, in accordance with various measures. The measures used include Euclidean distance amongst others.

Now that we now have defined our phrases, let’s move to the lessons of Machine Learning or ML algorithms. The why must be predicted using the ML mannequin trained on the seen knowledge. The predicted variable is often known as the dependent variable. For example, information of a thousand customers with their age, gender, time of entry and exit and their purchases. The subsequent question I all the time get is, “What can I do to develop these abilities?

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Experienced working with skilled builders could make or break your capability to land a knowledge science position. Learning knowledge science will never be straightforward without any assistance from the community or from somebody who's prepared to help novices. These someones are the ones which might be making up our wonderful LinkedIn Data Science Community.

Similarly, tasks beneath superior class contain the application of multiple algorithms along with key ideas to achieve the answer of the problem at hand. Thus, we have designed a comprehensive listing of projects in the Machine Learning course that offers a palms-on experience with ML and how to construct precise initiatives using the Machine Learning algorithms. Furthermore, this course is an observation up to our Introduction to Machine Learning course and delves further deeper into the sensible applications of Machine Learning. Changes aren't just challenges, they are additionally alternatives for much higher-paying and much much less laborious jobs than the roles you hold at present. And, if by probability, you happen to be a scholar studying this article, you now know which business you should concentrate on – fully. All the best, and bear in mind to benefit from the process of studying.

Regardless of your age, that is the best time to be alive – ever. Because area knowledge is out there extra widely today than at any time up to now. And make the right selections at the right instances – and no, it's never too late when you're high quality trainers able to mentor you. May the fun of studying a completely new idea with really enlightened insight never leave you. Dimensionless.in is an elite information science training firm that imparts trade degree expertise and knowledge to those with an actual thirst to study. Training is given from the fundamentals, resulting in a strong basis.

If you need to be an information scientist, not having a decent Kaggle profile is inexcusable. Kaggle will be like a showcase of your information science expertise to the whole world. Even when you don’t rank very excessive, consistency and practice can get you there most of the time. This single book incorporates a number of the latest and the most effective methods to attain what you should be a professional information scientist. Every chapter has multiple case research taken from the experiences within the industry.Vincent Granville is recognized worldwide as probably the greatest-recognized useful resource in information science. The level is slightly advanced, and it is not beneficial for novices.

The greatest potential break up will be the one with the lowest general entropy. This is because of decreased entropy, lower uncertainty and hence more probability. Dropping the variables that are of least importance in deciding. In Titanic dataset columns such as name, cabin no. ticket no. is of least importance. Decision Trees can be utilized for classification as well as regression problems. That’s why they are called Classification or Regression Trees.

Therefore, our prediction could be that the unseen flower is a Rose. Notice that our prior probabilities of both the lessons favoured Sunflower. But as soon as we factored the data about thorns, our decision changed. For all N factors, we sum the squares of the distinction of the predicted value of Y by the model, i.e. Y’ and the precise worth of the anticipated variable for that point, i.e.

They want a stable understanding of algebra and calculus. In good old days, Math was a subject based mostly on common sense and the necessity to resolve primary issues based on logic. This hasn’t modified a lot, though the size has blown up exponentially. A statistical sensibility provides a stable foundation for several evaluation tools and methods, that are utilized by a knowledge scientist to build their fashions and analytic routines. An information scientist is not going to conclude, decide, or resolve without enough data.

This is the essence of the ML algorithm that platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart use for each customer. Their algorithms are much more complex, but that is their essence. Determine sort of characteristic capabilities decide whether a kind of feature is categorical or continuous. There are 2 criterias for the function to be known as categorical, first if the feature is of knowledge sort string and second, the no. of categories for the function is less than 10. I actually have used Information Gain Entropy as a measure of impurity.

With the right strategy and by trying at the right corners, you'll find information scientist mentors who might help you bridge the hole between theoretical and sensible functions of data science. Development of algorithms for Computer Aided Detection of early-stage breast most cancers among others. KKD cup is a well-liked knowledge mining and knowledge discovery competition held annually. It is likely one of the first-ever data science competitors which dates again to 1997. With the growing demand to research giant amounts of data inside small time frames, organizations choose working with the data immediately over samples. Consequently, this presents a herculean task for an information scientist with a limitation of time. Sports Betting… Predict field scores given the info available at the time proper before each new recreation.

Regression analysis is a type of predictive modeling method which investigates the relationship between dependent and independent variables. Regression goals at finding a straight line which may accurately depict the precise relationship between the 2 variables. Data is rising day by day, and it is unimaginable to understand all of the knowledge with higher velocity and higher accuracy. More than 80% of the information is unstructured that's audios, movies, photographs, paperwork, graphs, and so on. Finding patterns in knowledge on planet earth is impossible for human brains. The knowledge has been very large and the time taken to compute would improve solely. This is the place Machine Learning comes into motion, to help people with significant information in minimum time.

It may be proven that there isn't an absolute “best” criterion which would be independent of the final goal of the clustering. Consequently, it is the consumer which should supply this criterion, in such a means that the results of the clustering will go well with their needs. Clustering is likely one of the most important unsupervised learning problems; so, like each other's downside of this kind, it deals with finding a structure in a collection of unlabeled information.

In this article, we shall be looking at why there's even a necessity for people to have mentors in knowledge science and the way we can discover them. Although Data Science has been around us ever since the 1960s, it has only gained traction in the previous couple of a long time. This is one of the major reasons why budding knowledge scientists find it quite challenging to find the best mentors.

Now, anybody with discipline and persistence can study information science and turn out to be a data scientist. The coaching obtained is customized to cater to the needs of each pupil. These days, just having an impressive profile on Kaggle might be enough to land you a job interview at the very least. Kaggle is a site that has been hosting information science competitions for a few years. The competition is immense and intense, however so are the tutorials and the articles are additionally equally highly effective and instructive.

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#Python in Shaping the Future of Machine Learning 5

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allenmendezsr · 4 years

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Writing Your Ebook - The Easy Way

New Post has been published on https://autotraffixpro.app/allenmendezsr/writing-your-ebook-the-easy-way/

Writing Your Ebook - The Easy Way

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A friendly reminder “The secret of getting ahead is getting started”

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Maybe you’ve been waiting for the right time to get unstuck in your entrepreneurial pursuit. The only way to reach great heights is to begin with one step.

If you don’t have much free time, I’m providing you with a resource that won’t take forever to read, as a matter of fact, you DON’T need:

Expensive equipment or gear

To have an eBook in your belt

Lots of free time in your schedule

Wait for inspiration to strike

No matter if you’re a beginner or a seasoned expert, there’s something for you in this method.

You will be astonished at the price I’m offering you today. Relative to its value, it’s a bargain. It’s affordable because I want to reach as many people as possible with my message.

This product is available through direct download. You should have the file available immediately after payment.

You will need Adobe Acrobat to view the file with the PDF extension.

Click on the buy button to make your purchase, you will be redirected to a secure page, with military grade encryption, where you can make your payment.

Buy today, for a one-time payment of only:

60 day money back guarantee

I’m so sure you will benefit from the information presented in this method, that I’m willing to provide you with a money-back guarantee. No questions asked.

Best wishes,

Jaime Portillo

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For Product Support, please contact the vendor HERE. For Order Support, please contact ClickBank HERE.

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