#kio stark

[sylusjinwoon]

{ 99 }

the man who carries sunshine in his veins.

vash x fem.reader

story specific tags: @bunny-kio

meeting vash was like being exposed to the warmth of the sun-

and it was a meeting that you weren't going to forget, nor regret, any time soon.

the shifting sands felt blowing across no man's land was close to stinging at your eyes, disrupting you from your slumber as you winced. the cold air seeming to blow across the desert landscape was what ultimately forces you to instinctively take cover, inching your form closer to the young man that slept beside you.

upon feeling his warmth seep into you, you allow yourself to let out a quiet sigh and spend this time to admire vash when he was the most vulnerable. his signature sunglasses were tucked somewhere within the confines of his red coat. his calm, blue-green eyes hidden beneath closed eyelids whilst his lips were parted as soft breaths were felt tickling your skin.

lifting up a hand, you gently grace at his soft features, feeling soft giggles escape from the confines of your throat as your voice whispers to him. "thank you, for if it weren't for you, i surely would have died while being buried within these sands..."

you trail off and allow the memories to wash over you, bringing you back to the day where your eyes first laid eyes on him-

the moment where your soul felt the warmth of the sun for the first time.

it was difficult to survive out on your own while in the midst of no man's land. surrounding you were sands that seemed keen on drowning you as your boots seemed to sink within such heated depths. the sweltering sun did little to appease the sweat that runs down your form, making the clothes cling to you like a second skin that you couldn't peel away from.

the stark contrast of the heated days and the cold, lonely nights whilst spent in such a desert were truly taking a toll on you. you had always been alone, not quite fitting in anywhere nor with anyone as you spent your days simply trying to survive when you found yourself castaway within the desert lands.

your usual activities for survival consisted of scavenging for any items you could find. what truly became a scarcity for you was coming across any sources of water. be it bottled or dripping from a leaking pipe, the search for such precious liquid to help with quenching your thirst was becoming quite the challenge for you-

which made your day particularly difficult.

you were dehydrated; that you were sure of as a haziness seemed to put cogs from within your mind. your heart was beating erratically as your whole body seemed to burn up in response to the sun that continues to beat down on your form.

the winds blowing across the lands makes you cough in response to how you had swallowed some grains of sand. your throat was parched, and your vision was steadily becoming blurry. your body ached as your muscles seemed to cramp with each step that you took, making it truly difficult for you to go on.

with a gasp, you succumb to your exhaustion and fall down to your knees. your breathing comes out as labored, the sweat seeping from your frame was making you feel even more fatigued. you lose your consciousness then, ready to simply die from dehydration as you allowed yourself to finally sleep after fighting for so long.

there was a darkness spreading through the depths of your heart and soul. you just felt so hopeless and alone. the same coldness that mirrors that of the nights spent in the desert was felt coursing through you when you finally resign yourself to falling into a deep slumber that you had no plans of awakening from-

only to feel something cold splashing against your skin just as you were close to drowning. you wince at such an odd sensation, eyebrows physically furrowing in response as a soft groan was elicited from your throat. all you wanted was to sleep; to rest and appease the weariness that was felt within your very bones.

"hey! come on, wake up! you can't sleep like this!"

this time, the splash came with a concerned voice, finally rousing you from your sleep as you slowly opened your eyes. your irises were lifeless, defeated almost, when you saw a young man with spiky, golden blond locks of hair looking down at you with pure concern in his gaze.

his eyes were hidden beneath sunglasses, but you swore you saw eyes that shared the same hues of a blue sky from beneath such shades. the stranger's lips were tilted downwards in a frown as he lifts the flask once more, allowing you to finally realized that it was water he was splashing on your face. when one of the droplets manage to slide down your cheeks and into your open mouth, you could feel the life slowly get back into you as your eyes widen in response.

the kind, yet strangely beautiful young man helps you sit up all while holding the flask filled with water towards your dry lips. "careful, take slow and steady sips. i don't want you to choke or anything." you follow his advice, even if it took you a herculean effort to simply take gentle and careful sips when you were parched for so long.

when the flask was emptied, you found that you had regained your strength as you were able to sit up, remaining close to your savior as he settles your form between his legs. your eyes were filled with gratitude for him, yet you struggled with finding the right words to say.

the young man was silent as well, but he had a smile appearing across his soft, yet handsome features. lifting up a hand, to gently grace against your features. such a gentle caress catches you off guard as you end up instinctively moving back, nearly falling in response-

only to have the man steady you as you felt something cool touching against your back. from your periphery, you could see the metal prosthetic arm that takes over the entirety of his left arm. seeing such a thing makes your heart ache in response. just what horrors and pain had this young man been through to warrant him wearing a prosthetic arm?

"what's your name?" his voice was soft, as if reading your mind based on your expression alone when he asks his question after spending quite some time in silence. meeting his curious gaze, you relinquish the syllables that make up your name to him, earning a smile from the young man as such a soft visage was enough to make your heart race in response. he says your name for a few more times, repeating them in a way as if to cherish such syllables before telling you his own name.

"it's nice to meet you! and- well, you can call me vash, if you want...?"

his smile was sheepish now, making you giggle in response- such a happy sound even catching you off guard as you held your hands over your lips in response. for some odd reason, you felt embarrassed, but the sounds of vash's own laughter was enough to make such feelings disappear.

gently, he removes your hands away from your lips, making it impossible to hide the sudden grin that graces your features as his own smile paints his expression, "don't hide your laughter, it actually sounds really...really sweet to me."

your heart was filled with joy just then, the icy cold loneliness slowly retreating from you as you allowed the rays of sunshine to melt the iciness away from the depths of your heart. you were becoming enamored with the man who seemed to carry sunshine within his very veins, and you were certain that had it not been for him, then your life would have taken a dire turn.

"i- vash, thank you so much, for helping me. for saving me when i needed it the most."

his eyes widen in response to your words, detecting how your voice had taken on such a soft yet reverent quality. and the way you were looking at him-

well...

it made him feel like he were the most important person to you, like you were somehow captivated by him.

such pure and raw emotions being exuded from your gaze was enough to make him smile once more in response. being mindful of your semi-exhausted state, he stands back to his full height while taking you with him. somehow knowing that you were alone in this world, vash asks if you would like to join him in his own travels-

and truly, you would be a fool not to accept his offer.

so here you were, still close to vash as he kept you by his side. the more time you spent with him, the more you felt as though you were losing your heart to him. you knew that vash held your heart within his hands, but you weren't brave enough to come clean to him when it came to your true feelings for the young man.

yet, you couldn't deny that vash truly cared for you, at least, in a way that a good friend should care for their friends. but your heart sang for him, and you found it hard to keep your emotions in check when it came to him.

vash seemed to lead a lonely existence, building walls around his heart that you wished more than anything to break down. you wanted nothing more than to share his burdens; to listen to whatever aches he was going through while getting to the source of why he was traveling across such dead lands to begin with. the gratitude you felt for him when he saved you that day simply served as a starting point for your feelings for him, and you wanted nothing more than to remain by his side for the rest of your days.

your yearning must have made you act on an impulse when your hand reaches out to gently touch at his sleeping face again. your fingertips lightly caress at his cheekbones, but this time he actually feels your touch. vash was felt stirring just the slightest bit as he lets out a soft groan. his arms were still loosely wrapped around your form, providing you some warmth while in the midst of the cold, desert air as you held your breath, witnessing vash waking up.

you let out a soft gasp when vash fully opens his eyes, revealing his blue-green eyes to you. a shyness was felt coursing through your very veins as you could feel the blood rushing to your cheeks. a sleepy expression paints vash's expression, and his gentle beauty was so mesmerizing to you that you found it hard to speak.

you watch as the sleepy expression slowly morphs away from vash's features, being replaced with something unreadable. you couldn't tell what was floating within the depths of his mind, and a part of you wanted to speak and ask him if anything were bothering him. yet before you could speak those words, you felt vash lift his hand to brush against your strands of hair.

he appears nervous, his expression filled with an anxiety that was certainly out of character for him. letting out a soft whisper of your name, you listen as he heaves out a sigh before telling you,

"i'm sorry for this."

you weren't given the chance to ask him what he meant before he suddenly surges forward to capture your lips in a sweet kiss. your mind was spinning as you felt fireworks going off, making your heart pounding in response as you felt the pure, unbidden happiness suddenly coursing through you. vash had his eyes clenched shut, and you had to swallow back a soft moan. you end up shutting your own eyes in response as you slowly kissed him back, allowing his hands to delve themselves within your locks of hair as he seemed to pull you even closer to him.

vash ends up pulling away from the kiss first, earning a tiny whine from you. he chuckles at the sound of your neediness for his affections, gazing at you with a fondness as he allows his fingertips to trace at your lips.

"i-i like you, m-maybe feel even something stronger than a mere like." vash lets out an adorable cough, clearing his throat as his shy smile returns, "and i...i take it that you feel the same way?"

you allow the light sounds of your laughter to fill the night air, inching closer as you rubbed the tip of your nose against his. "of course... but perhaps, i'm more inclined to admit that my feelings for you run so much deeper than a mere 'like,' vash."

with your own admission lingering in the air, vash shares a few more soft yet sweet kisses with you. he only stop when you close your eyes once more, letting out a yawn as you cuddled yourself even closer to him. feeling you pressed so intimately close against his chest makes vash smile as he engulfs you within his embrace.

whilst you slept, vash allows his eyes to trail towards the wide expanse of the sky, admiring the twinkling stars while thanking whatever entity was above him for allowing him to meet you; for allowing his path to cross with yours.

someday soon, he will tell you of his life and his goal of finding his brother, of how he had experienced such loneliness and pain-

but for now, vash will simply bask in your presence all while thanking fate for giving your heart to him.

a.n. - this goofball is so lovable, i really wanted to write something so fluffy and sweet for him 🥹 this is currently unedited, but i will fix any glaring errors once it is posted.

all stories are written by rei; reposts, translations, and plagiarism are not allowed.

[nico-nico-suavecito]

2023 was the year I really started to come to grips with how shame has been impacting my life, creatively and otherwise, and decided I want to change it. That said, I made this reel and the blog post that goes with it in October, finished it in November, and then never posted it, in large part because of - and maybe you can guess this - my nervousness at how people would perceive it, and me.

Now it’s 2024, and while I’m not one for New Years Resolutions, I want to be intentional with my shifting energy. Inspired by the Cult of Done Manifesto by Bre Pettis and Kio Stark and with Struthless’ 70% Rule in mind, I am challenging myself to FINISH and SHARE 50 projects in 2024. Could be poems, prints, blog posts, etc. But point is, I gotta finish and share them. They don’t have to be great - they just have to be 70%. This blog post is this week's done, and here I am, sharing it.

In my essay, I detail the experience of starting this journey through shame and how it impacts my life, creatively and otherwise. If you are someone who also feels impeded by shame, perfectionism, your own expectations, I hope some of what I share might help you too. You can find the post exactly where one might expect to find such a thing.

I have also made a little DONE tracker, so if you're like me and you also want to track your DONEs this year, you can download it on the post.

Let's create shamelessly this year my friends, and get a whole lot DONE.

[labelleizzy]

A little something for any of you who get stuck in the middle of a project.

The Cult of Done Manifesto is one of my touchstones. Do recommend reading it, may be you too want to print out one of the posters and put it someplace you can see it and let it nudge you past the stuck place.

[tramsachvn]

Đừng Quay Trở Lại Trường Học PDF & Review https://tramsach.vn/dung-quay-tro-lai-truong-hoc-pdf/

[mahxiac0korako]

Ich fühl mich verloren - allein Bitte halt mich ganz fest - mi sentas min perdita, solece Bonvolu tenu min forte

ich bin So schwach und so klein

Mi estas tiom malforta kaj eta

Komm bleib nah bei mir

Restu apud mi

Ich brauch dich so sehr, weil ich

Mi bezonas vin tiom multe ĉar mi

Mich im Dunkeln verlier

Min en mallumo perdigas

Komm mir nicht zu nah

Ne tro proksimiĝu al mi

Mir geht's wieder gut, ich komme

Mi denove fartas bone mi sukcesos

Alleine schon klar

Sole jam

Ich bin stark - du wirst sehen Bitte lass mich jetzt los,ich weiß

Mi estas forta vi vidos bonvolu lasu min sole mi scias

Ich bin schwer zu verstehen

Mi estas malfacile kompreni

Bitte geh, bleib bei mir

Bonvolu iri, resti kun mi

Bin ganz einfach kompliziert

Mi estas simple komplika

Ich bin Mädchen, ich bin Frau

Jen knabino, Jen virino

Manchmal Engel, manchmal Sau.

Foje anĝelo, Foje porko

Ich bin heiß, ich bin eiskalt

Jen mi varmas, Jen mi frostas

Manchmal jung und Manchmal alt.

Foje juna kaj Foje maljuna

Ich bin Mädchen ichBin Frau.

Mi estas knabino mi estas virino

Manchmal Dumm und manchmal schlau.

Foje stulta kaj Foje saĝa

Ich bin Sauer ich bin süß

Mi estas amara mi estas dolĉa

Manchmal nett und manchmal fies

Foje ĝentila kaj Foje malica

Willst du alles oder nichts?

Ĉu vi volas ĉion aŭ nenion?

So bin ich

Tiel mi estas

Willst du alles oder nichts?

Ĉu vi volas ĉion aŭ nenion

Ich bin ich

Tiel mi estas

Ich weiß nicht was Du morgen Kriegst

Mi ne scias kion vi morgaŭ ricevos

Ob ich nervig bin, oder ganz Zart und verliebt

Se mi ĝeniga estas, aŭ nepre tenera kaj amata

Bin mal hart, mal ganz weich

Jen Foje dura, Jen foje mola

Du kennst mich genau, will alles Sofort oder gleich

Vi konas min certe, volas ĉion tuj aŭ baldaŭ

Der Himmel für dich

La ĉielo por vi

Und manchmal die Hölle, ob ich das Will oder nicht

Kaj fojo infero ĉu mi volas tiel aŭ ne

Was ist schon normal?

Kio estas normala

Ich bin wie ich bin, aber immer für Dich da

Mi estas kiel mi estas sed ĉiam por vi tie

Bitte geh, bleib bei mir

Bonvolu iri, restu kun mi

Bin ganz einfach kompliziert Ich bin Mädchen, ich bin Frau

Mi estas simple komplika mi estas knabino mi estas virino

Manchmal Engel, manchmal Sau

Foje anĝelo foje porkino

Ich bin heiß, ich bin eiskalt

Mi estas varma mi estas glacia

Manchmal jung und Manchmal alt.

Foje juna kaj Foje maljuna

Ich bin Mädchen ich Bin Frau.

Mi estas knabino mi estas virino

Manchmal Dumm und manchmal schlau.

Foje stulta kaj Foje saĝa

Ich bin Sauer ich bin süß

Mi estas amara, mi estas dolĉa

Manchmal nett und manchmal fies

Foje afabla kaj Foje malica

Willst Du alles oder nichts?

Ĉu vi volas ĉion aŭ nenion?

So bin ich

Tiel mi estas

Willst Du alles oder nichts?

Ĉu Vi volas ĉion aŭ nenion?

Ich bin ich

Mi estas mi

Bin mal böse, bin mal lieb, fliege Hoch und falle tief

Foje malica Foje amema flugas alte kaj falas profunden

Bin mal unfair, mal gerecht Manchmal gut und manchmal schlecht

Foje maljusta, Foje pia Foje bona Foje malbona

Ich bin Mädchen, ich bin Frau

Mi estas knabino mi estas virino

Manchmal Engel, manchmal Sau

Foje anĝelo foje porkino

Ich bin heiß, ich bin eiskalt

Mi estas varma, mi estas glacia

Manchmal jung und Manchmal alt.

Ich bin Mädchen ich Bin Frau.

Manchmal Dumm und manchmal schlau.

Foje stulta kaj Foje saĝa

Ich bin Sauer ich bin süß

Mi estas amara mi estas dolĉa

Manchmal nett und manchmal fies

Foje afabla kaj Foje malica

Willst Du alles oder nichts?

Ĉu vi volas ĉion aŭ nenion?

So bin ich

Tiel mi estas

Willst Du alles oder nichts?

Ĉu vi volas ĉion aŭ nenion

Ich bin ich

Mi estas mi

[vimesbootstheory]

I looked back at my overdue books tag and wow I haven’t updated this since february. rough!

as a reminder, since it’s been ages: I’m reading along with a podcast called “overdue”, where they read one book per episode, and I rank the books and blog thoughts after each ten books.

I have been reading plenty since february, with occasional long stretches where I got stuck on this or that book. what held this post up specifically was how hard it was to get my hands on P.F. Kluge’s Eddie and the Cruisers, so I ended up reading farther ahead rather than delay things while I pursued Kluge’s book.

this is books 31-40. I am almost done 41-50 and might even be able to post thoughts later today, latest tomorrow, on books 41-50.

1. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

2. Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

3. You Shall Know Our Velocity! by Dave Eggers

4. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

5. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

6. The Crucible by Arthur Miller

7. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

8. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

9. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

10. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- I find Sherlock Holmes to be a very dependable kind of read. I know exactly what I'm getting into. It's never really going to surprise me, but it's also never going to be a chore. Love a whodunnit, especially when I don't know who, uh, dunnit. It's not necessarily ACD's fault that I'd already guessed most of the plot developments before they arrived (e.g. who the other person living on the moor was -- come ON, it's a sherlock holmes book! Of course he's around here somewhere), since it's one of the most adapted stories ever, so I probably picked up on that stuff unwittingly just because I haven't had my head under a rock for my entire life. I spent a lot of this book comparing it to adaptations, not of Hound specifically but of Holmes in general. OK, mostly the Moffat adaptation and House MD. Why did we have to decide as a society that Holmes is an unrepetent asshole, the real version wasn't half as bad as the 21st century versions, jeez Louise.

11. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

12. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

13. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde -- This is tricky because it's a well-crafted, well-written book about a lot of unpleasantness about unpleasant people. There aren't any likeable characters in Dorian Gray and I don't think there's meant to be, so it's hard to wield any objective criticism about that. Dorian is not someone I really wanted to spend much time with, and he doesn't really compensate by being exactly interesting. The opposite of most compelling lead characters, I kept hoping he would finally answer in some way for being such an awful brat, and then the universe kept arranging itself around him for it all to work out (the most egregious example being the accidental shooting of James Vane). Which is an implicit part of the premise, I suppose, so again, not like it's an objective fault. It was frustrating, though. I don't usually comment on the Overdue podcast episodes here, but I found it hilarious that the hosts talked about seeing the gay influence only with the knowledge of Wilde's own orientation -- what are you TALKING about, this is the gayest book I have EVER READ. Not always in an enjoyable way, though? I don't like m/m age gaps and the face that much of the "admiration" was directed from adult men to the 20-yo (or 20-yo-looking) Dorian Gray was not my favourite. Also must mention the epigrams -- so many epigrams! They were fun to start off with but I got tired of them, the way it seemed that Lord Henry only ever spoke in epigrams. This is not how people speak.

14. A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J Gaines

15. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

16. A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan -- This was definitely a weird read, and it took me ages to get through it. As in, even longer than it took me to get through Fifty Shades of Grey. That's not necessarily indicative of the amount of joy I ultimately got out of it, mind you. I was just initially very turned off by the concept -- I was into the book when I thought it was about a kleptomaniac record company assistant person, and then less enthused when the focus shifted to her boss (inexplicably addicted to stirring flakes of gold into his coffee to get his missing libido back), and then disoriented and annoyed when it shifted AGAIN to one of his acquaintances when they were in high school and mutually into the punk music scene. One, this disallowed any opportunity to grow attached to anybody, and two, I was pretty ready to add "music industry" to a list of novel backdrops that I don't give a fuck about. And that's honestly still true, and the head-hopping never stops throughout the book. It's an interesting gimmick, switching perspectives to a tertiary character in the last vignette's main character's story. A little Cloud Atlas-y, but without the embedded fictional status. But a gimmick is, at the end of the day, a gimmick, and ultimately the only benefit of the head hopping is that it allowed that old broken-clock-that's-right-twice-a-day phenomenon of happening to alternate chapters I didn't give a fuck about with some real gems. My favourite was the story about the aging pop star who, in one of the more larger-than-life chapters, is asked to be publicly seen with a genocidal dictator in order to improve his public image. I also enjoyed the homeless guy who gives his successful friend a fish gift to spite him and rich guy ways. And the two autistic siblings (the book says only one of them is autistic, but come on) who are obsessed with pauses in songs. And the whole chapter about the safari when somebody almost gets killed by a lion. All entertaining shit, if briefly. There's no emotional engagement to be had here, though.

17. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

18. World War Z by Max Brooks

19. Eddie and the Cruisers by P.F. Kluge -- The book that held everything tf up. I think I conceptualize this book more in terms of how hard it was to get my hands on versus any of the actual content, but that is in part because the content is pretty middle-of-the-road. It reads very much like a movie, and it’s trying so hard to evoke a certain era and a certain kind of cool that it’s easy to get a bit embarrassed on behalf of everyone involved. The dialogue is particularly movie-esque, especially at the beginning, before you get that Wordman’s whole shtick is that his words come out poetic without any real effort.  I liked its themes of the dangers of looking back on the past, and its embrace of the power of nostalgia. I did not care for its (era-appropriate, but still) homophobia and racism without in-text condemnation, and I didn’t like how it treated women like objects. There were a lot of “sexy lamp” woman characters in this. The central (... sorta?) mystery is very oddly handled, such that it took me ages to realize that the book was actually trying to portray a mystery and not just some guy exploring his past and reconnecting with old chums. I will say, part of the end was spoiled-but-not for me, to the book’s detriment, in that I saw the concept for the movie adaptation’s sequel (in which Eddie is not dead after all??) and thought it was just the sort of ridiculous premise for a straight-to-video sequel. And then the book started hinting that Eddie genuinely wasn’t actually dead, and I was so incredulous that it tainted my enjoyment even when it all turned out to be a purposeful misdirect.

20. The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr & E.B. White

21. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

22. No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre -- I love a play, and I'm such a sucker for a high-concept, dialogue-heavy play that gets across a thought-provoking idea in a relatively short amount of time. While reading this, I found myself most engaged with trying to test the validity of the concept as an effective form of hell. Where it falls down, I think, is with Inez -- Inez is the primary source of mental torture for the other two, but more notable to me is that she seems to have been let off easy in terms of her own torture. Her torture seems to be... the presence of straight romance? Which, as a fellow gay, I get it, but if the presence of straights is hell then that says some dark shit about day-to-day life.

23. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami -- This book was gripping but not particularly good. I think its biggest detractor for me is that it's very gory, to the extent that I wondered on several occasions whether the author might have a snuff fetish. That's what it read like, it read like the snuff fetishist fantasy of a teenage boy. The cast is way too big, with the bulk of the scenes far too easy to excise without impact on the rest of the story, simply by reducing the initial class size from 42 to something more manageable. This made it seem even more like the point of the book was to read about kids dying, because with most scenes, you know they're not a main character nor one of the main antagonists so you know the scene will probably end with them dying, with a lovingly phrased description of what their eyeball looks like when it's split open, or something. All the talk about schoolboy/girl crushes made it very tricky to relate to pretty much any of the characters, not only as a 30-yr-old aro but just because a lot of characters had crushes on other students that they'd never been seen to interact with, yet their primary emotional connection is often to this off-screen person that they think is good-looking. Very hard to give a shit about any of that. The use of rape as drama was awful, and the book is pretty homophobic -- my favourite (in that I hated it) detail in that vein is that the only openly gay character has the skill of being stealthy because he has experience in stalking all his unrequited crushes. Predatory gay trope, hoorah. Anyway, I did find this book entertaining but there was a lot wrong with it.

24. Dune by Frank Herbert

25. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum

26. Tiny Alice by Edward Albee

27. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

28. Medea by Euripides

29. Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

30. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

31. The War of The Worlds by HG Wells

32. Don't Go Back to School by Kio Stark -- This is the perfect example of why it can be silly, at times, to read through someone else's to-read list, as I am doing with this project. 'Don't Go Back to School' is not for me. I'm in healthcare, for which not going to school is not an option. To be a speech-language pathologist, you have to get a master's in speech-language pathology. That is in no way optional. So I spent the bulk of this book feeling very much like the author and the interviewees were talking to somebody else, and I just happened to be listening in. I got through it by thinking of my sister, who at the time of reading this was briefly considering going back to school; and of thinking of a tiny corner of my mind that admitted that I might not want to be a speech-language pathologist my entire life -- I could go into writing, or sound engineering, or something to do with computer hardware? Nothing immediate. Anyway, all of these interviews are all saying basically the same thing, all of which are summed up in the introduction, and the rest of the book is just kinda... proof? Like, here, look at these twenty or so people who made it without going back to school. You can do it too! Ironically the most useful part of the book is the only part I did not really read, i.e. the resource charts at the end.

33. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger -- Even though the short story 'Franny' and the novella 'Zooey' are very closely related -- about the same characters, with the latter closely following the former chronologically, so it reads like the very long cold open to a book with one relatively short chapter followed by one ridiculously long one -- I do kinda wish that I'd let myself rank the two parts separately. Franny, I enjoyed pretty OK. I was enjoying the criticism of Lane, with all his pretentious ways and his pointless cynicism, and Franny's inner turmoil was interesting even if I did not really understand the root of it. 'Zooey' has a lot of the same ideas but spread a lot thinner and with a lot of time spent with the truly unpleasant Zachary "Zooey" Glass. He's such a bully, he's awful to read. He couldn't hope to win any sympathy from me once he called his poor mum "Fatty". The characters are so wrapped up in academia and I could not give two fucks about academia now that I'm out of it. All the religion talk totally lost me. And of course, a classic Salinger complaint: nothing fucking HAPPENS.

34. The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett -- ... Huh? OK, so. Stream-of-consciousness really isn't my thing. I will say, I liked the rhythm of the writing in The Unnamable, and there were stretches of this where I was starting to form an idea of what was going on at the given moment and quite liking it -- I liked the whole part where the entity is living in a jar or pot or whatever and Madeline is the only person who knows it's there, it reminded it me of what it would be like if Small Gods by Terry Pratchett had a really directionless prequel. And then, of course, that plot is abandoned mid-thought. There are large chunks of this that I couldn't tell you anything about because they were so vague and so ill-defined that they really just went in one ear (... eyeball?) and out the other. This only ranks as high as it does because it's pretty short so it didn't take much just to power through it.

35. The Stand by Stephen King -- I've been waiting so long for the right opportunity to really, properly rant about this book that I'm a bit panicky now that the time has come around to do it. A huge factor in how this has been ranked hinges on how long it was -- it might (MIGHT) have ranked above Antony and Cleopatra if it were half the length. But as it is, I read the full-fledged 90s version (if you didn't know, there are two versions of The Stand, one that is set in the 70s and one that is set in the 90s and is about 400 pages longer) and it's just. It's so fucking long. It's two Harry Potter 5s end-to-end. It is inexcusably long, and the greatest argument I've ever seen for the necessity of editors in the publication process. More than that, it's the greatest argument I've seen for the necessity of a second draft, because honest to god, this monster reads like a first draft. All the other books I've read for this project before, whatever their faults, still feel like on the level of the writer's process, at the very least they've been through a couple of drafts. This does not, it truly doesn't. I was pretty embarrassed for King at multiple points reading this, with the sort of second-hand embarrassment I would get first-hand if someone dug out one of my old unfinished novels and published it. It's THAT unpolished. I'll list a couple of its sins to get them off my chest: - It's racist -- This has already been said by people much more informed than I, but yeah. Pretty dang racist. Mother Abigail is the epitome of the "magical negro" trope; the black junta sequence is a whole big barrel of YIKES so egregious that "big barrel of YIKES" doesn't really do it justice; too many pointless invocations of the N word to count; and what exactly is the fucking point of making Larry a guy who sings like a black guy but... is not a black guy? Just write a black character instead of bending into pretzels making the character white, what's wrong with you? - It's sexist -- I was pretty sure for most of the book that this is a novel that hates women -- oh Rita, you deserved so much better -- but what really clinched it was a) the fact that the story never checks in with Frannie and Lisa once while the arbitrary group of white dudes treks over to Nevada, and b) the fate of Nadine, whose whole character arc leads up to her being raped into catatonia and turned into essentially a walking womb. - Lazy plotting is wrapped up in incredibly clunky religious allegory -- And it's barely allegory, King just comes out and says "Mother Abigail represents good and talks to god, and Flagg represents evil and maybe he's a demon or the devil or something idk". There are multiple points in the story where King just explicitly tells the reader what plot points or characters "represent" according to the intended reading, and that's really embarrassing. Most of the plot does not seem have its own internal reality or logic, things just happen because King needs them to happen, and then he blames it on quasi-supernatural plot elements. I hope that if he had run through a couple more drafts this might have been a facet which was ironed out, but maybe not. And of course, this is all capped off by a pretty literal deus ex machina with God actually intervening and blowing up the bad guys. - It's also fatphobic (exhibit A: Harold and how his improving estimation in the eyes of the BFZ rises is paralleled by him losing weight) and homophobic (Harold may be a lot of things, but at least he isn't a queer, huh? Also Stu being a complete fucking moron about lesbians and the narrative/other characters entirely failing to set him straight on that.) It's nooooot gooooood, it's a really shitty book. I will say that I liked the first third (i.e. the progression of the epidemic) a lot more than I liked the rest of the book, but the good will built by the first third was completely lost several hundreds of thousands of words later. This was the first book where I started to question whether I really wanted to continue with this project, or at least whether I could rationalize a DNF when I really couldn't stand (oho) to continue reading. But I finished it anyway. And it sucked.

36. Grendel by John Gardner

37. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

38. Persuasion by Jane Austen

39. Beowulf by Unknown

40. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

[stoweboyd]

When you talk to strangers, you’re making beautiful interruptions into the expected narrative of your daily life — and theirs.

| Kio Stark

[watchmebackflip75]

Helpful

[doismellburning]

On Notebook Blogging

Probably the biggest barrier to me blogging/writing more is my own perfectionism - there’s a reason I have a large copy of the Cult Of Done Manifesto (https://medium.com/@bre/the-cult-of-done-manifesto-724ca1c2ff13) on my wall

But also it turns out that while I love Jekyll and GitHub and Netlify as a toolchain for all kinds of static sites, sometimes it’s just a bit too high friction for when I want to Just Write Something

(There’s also a connected element between the two: the easier it is for me to just write and hit publish, the less I get caught up in an editing/polishing spiral)

So that’s why I have this Tumblr

I don’t know how I feel about it really. I’m still nowhere near DRMacIver’s Daily Writing Practice (https://twitter.com/drmaciver/status/1265999120042467329) as I would like to be. I don’t like some of the editing interfaces, I don’t like my words not living on my own platform. But having the app on my phone makes it super easy to Just Write and hit publish and that’s good for me.

(I also don’t like how I sometimes get super large white space between paragraphs with no idea of why, but I’m trying to learn to let go of things like that)

Sometimes I try to copy things to my main blog because I definitely enjoy the increased discoverability and feeling of ownership there.

But ultimately this tumblr breaks down some of my biggest barriers to Just Writing More, and that’s great

[cleverwordsandotherstuffilike]

When you talk to strangers, you make beautiful and surprising interruptions in the expected narrative of your daily life.  You shift perspective.

Kio Stark

[pecoramatta]

Don't go back to school

Kio Stark

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[vishalkhatri9825]

6 Reasons : Why Work From Office is Better than WFH

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 6 announced the guidance for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and IT-Enabled Services (ITES) players to lessen their consistence trouble for the industry and encourage “work from home” and “work from anywhere”. He further added, “The reform will certainly unleash the potential of our talented youth by making India as a preferred destination for Information and Knowledge Outsourcing Industry and would further the vision of AtmaNirbhar Bharat“.

Leaders of the IT and BPO industry in India commended the government’s transition to loosen up rules to enable IT and BPO organizations to embrace a permanent work from home/work from anywhere [WFH], considering it a game changer that could make a great job opportunities in small towns and cities. Reacting to this, software body Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh said, “This is one of those game-changing moments. As this bandwagon continues, there are some companies that have permanently decided to make partial or full WFH feature for certain roles in their organizations. As per Daminee Sawhney, VP-HR, Zomato, “We felt the biggest advantages were flexibility of work hours and saving the workforces’ travelling time, while the biggest challenge was ensuring every ‘zoman’ working remotely continued to feel connected and well supported”.

While Rishad Premji, who is the son of Wipro Founder Azim Premji said that although 98% of the Wipro employees are working from home, he wishes that all of them return to office and work, not from home. As per him, “The reality is culture grows by osmosis. Culture grows by people engaging at the ward coffee machine, or the water cooler, gossiping about the organization, exchanging notes.” The company can only grow when there is an inherent culture found.

However, since this WFH action has caused lot of controversies among the employers, there is wrangle between employees too. It works for some and not for others who are yearning to return to life as it seemed to be. Many employees feel that there is less distraction and they can work better compared to office. There will be increase in their productivity. But at the same time, few of them complaint about tired of working in isolation. WFH has lost charm for them and they miss their workplace interaction. With the uncertainty of COVID-19 situation, some employees seem quite done working from home.

So, the point here is WFH may be good in many ways and of course as productive as in an office space, but it is not enough. There is a mass who long office culture. This blog describes about the value of an office space and find doses of office time, even if it means working out from Swiggy, Starbucks or any other delivery services. The word OFFICE itself has some relevancy towards fun, enjoyment along with discipline, seriousness.

O-Office provides a landing field

What is a landing field? The place that allow people to get away from outside noise and provide comfort zone. That is the office space gives them comfort to move away from other things and get into the working zone. Well, this field does not mean physical space but a stress buster. Chats around the coffee machine and water area in between the work hours, releases your stress and align to focus on work. But the same background is not found at home, there is something that lacks while at home. 

       2    F-Familiarity with unknown

As said by Kio Stark, “When you talk to strangers, you’re making beautiful interruptions into the expected narrative of your daily life – and theirs.” The officemates, though unfamiliar, soon becomes pals and create a space for them in our life, despite being strangers initially. The office colleagues, elevator operators, people from different office but parking mates, regular faces at coffee area relaxes ourselves and bring in the positive vibes.

      3  F-Food during office breaks

People definitely miss the lunch/dinner time during office hours. These are the times when people have any random conversation – be it what’s happening in city or their life, any other updates, mimicking or entertainment during lunch/dinner time interval, makes oneself stress-free from office workload. People miss that loud conversation, that collective informative discussion, sporty chats and much more. Specifically, when the office lunch/dinner is not upto the mark, the collective moaning or full on gossip regarding the same with colleagues are unquestionably to be missed. Of course, not to forget the time spent arguing about the food to order for lunch/dinner.

       4    I-Interaction

Satya Nadella said to Times editors on aspects of managing during the pandemic, “More meetings start and end on time, but “what I miss is when you walk into a physical meeting, you are talking to the person that is next to you, you’re able to connect with them for the two minutes before and after.” Exactly…those intellectual interactions with your nearby colleagues cannot happen on online meeting. With WFH due to COVID-19, those brainstorming yet a fruitful interaction go missing.

    5  C- Closure of the day

Office leads good vibes not only by just waving your officemates but also by greeting ‘Good Morning’ to the colleagues. Positive impact is generated even when other staff members bid goodbye daily to you while physically leaving from the office for their respective homes. This is just not possible with WFH situation; online goodbye never gives you that feel. It takes lot of effort to form an ‘imaginary line of exit’.

     6  E- Expression of face and body goes missing

When it comes to office meeting, it is the body language of the colleagues that plays vital role in implementing the thoughts into actions. There are non-verbal cues that make you determine the seriousness of the workplace. Online meeting may help express with words but you may miss out on body language and also the non-verbal cues that include posture to expression – extremely important for any official project meetings. One cannot gauge the body language when people login from different stations.

To sum it up, WFH is not a new concept to many now, but it may not fill the workers up with tremendous achievement. There is always a lingering sense of lack of being joyous and giving better output without having social surrounding with respect to office pals. After all, Men Is A Social Animal. He needs space to interact, converse and mingle but COVID-19 has certainly hastened the process.

Apart from this, everybody’s situation is different at home. There is a risk of higher physiological and psychological discomfort when WFH is the only option. Inadequate spacing, poor ventilation or lights, unergonomic furniture and also continuous disturbance from surrounding may increase stress and also hamper the quality of work. Social distancing and isolation from colleagues and friends have deprived those who are away from family for the work purpose, WFH have made them lonely to larger extent. There are partial chances of home being converted to office completely.

Keeping these factors in mind, many of the online digital platforms like Khatriji that provides path for mobile, DTH and datacard recharge along with utility bill payment for electricity, landline, broadband, gas pipeline have applied work from office strategy only.

Thus, despite support from the government regarding the WFH system, it is yet a debatable question among both employees and employers.

Originally Article Published :  6 Reasons : Why Work From Office is Better than WFH

[seahaloed]

A List of Faces and Titles Found In Dreams, Part 1:

The Dragon Prophet:

Images of Andraste have been present to Kios from the time she was very young. In her dreams the Maker’s Bride often takes the form of a massive High Dragon, ranging in colors from a stark white, to a golden color. Images of Andraste in her dreams were often images found in the Chant, stained glass, or other texts though adjusted as if Andraste was always a dragon.

As such, Kios does believes that the Dragon found at Haven during the events of the Blight is Andraste reincarnated, or at least a little bit of her. She refuses to kill the dragon.

[companions below the cut]

The Griffon King (Alternatively The King of Aerials):

Starting from age 10 Kios saw spotty visions of a figure she came to call “The Griffon King”. It was a man, whose face was obscured by silverite griffon wings, wearing the Ferelden royal crown, a golden halo crested with more wings behind his head. The armor and clothing he wore would often change, but as she grew older and knew what info to seek out in order to decode her own dreams, she knew that she was dreaming of a Grey Warden.

She was plagued with many versions of this man’s death; from seeing him beheaded, taken by an inky black ocean that was the consistency of blood, to him kneeling among an endless amount of clay cups with the stench of alcohol.

Kios realized this man was Alistair after he admitted to his lineage as Maric’s son. She does not reveal to him the nature of her dreams.

“Dear Friend”:

“Dear Friend” is one of Kios’s oldest visions, and perhaps one she had prior to entering the Circle of Magi. When older, she assumed that “Dear Friend” was Wynne, but only after the events of Kinloch does Kios realize that “Dear Friend” has been the Spirit of Faith that has guided and followed Wynne.

“Dear Friend” manifested in Kios’s dreams as a near humanoid shape, holding many ropes wrapped around either arm that seemed to run endlessly. Kios eventually interprets this as the Spirit of Faith holding Wynne’s body together from dying.

Mirrored Eyes:

Less of one specific entity, animals with eyes for mirrors would manifest periodically. They often seemed to have a planned intent.

The only inkling that Kios eventually got was a vision of a three mirror eyed raven or crow (she can’t tell the damn difference) with a gold chain tangled around one of it’s legs flying away from a visage of Denerim aflame.

During the events of Witch Hunt does she finally realize that mirror eyed animals are usually in reference to Morrigan. If Morrigan drinks from the Well in Inquisition, any other visions will have those mirrored eyes turn gold.

The Masked Woman:

Leliana was perhaps one of the easiest to discern after meeting her. Kios watched how Leliana so easily shifted depending on the social situation she was in, on top of Leliana’s Orleasian ancestry? It was easy.

The Masked Girl/Woman is a figure that had been with Kios from a very young age as well.  The Masked Woman was often pursued in Kios’s dreams by a shadowy figure who wore a mask similar in design to what the top half of a Pride demon’s face/skull looks like.

This shadowy figure would eventually be revealed to be Marjorie.

Dogs of War:

Many manifest as dogs of war, and these people are usually soldiers, though others simply manifest in this way to show the amount of destruction or carnage they can or have caused. Dreams featuring dogs of war are usually completely devoid of sound other than a constant echoing, overlapping sound of barking.

Duncan and Loghain most prominently have manifested as Dogs of War.

Loghain appeared as one might imagine the Black Shuck might. The identity of Loghain was not difficult to figure out, as he started to appear in Kios’s prophetic dreams only a few weeks prior to her eventual recruitment into the Wardens. He was clad in his armor, wrapped in an old version of the Ferelden Rebellion flag, often gripping either a bloodied or burning Orleasian royal heraldry.

Kios only ever had two dreams about Duncan. One the night before she was recruited, and one the night before Duncan died, and she cannot recall either of them in detail.

[colourinthelines-blog]

Strangers

We are told not to talk to strangers. That there is something to be cautious of before we have even made contact with them. Our society has led us to believe that people are innately malicious beings, but what makes a “stranger” so evil? Nothing to be exact. It is just a stigma that we have formed against those we are less familiar with.

It is interesting to look at strangers as a positive element of our daily lives. They could even be considered beneficial to our happiness and sense of community. The interactions we have with strangers seem to carry little worth in our overall communications, but maybe it is taken for granted. We are being acknowledged for existing, for being alive, for being human and that is truly something that we can be grateful for. Not only that, but learning valuable skills in trust and opening one’s perspective of what the world has to offer us. Be it new ideas, people, relationships, or stories, there is so much we can gather from the people around us and it all starts with meeting a stranger.

My Inspiration for the morning:

https://www.ted.com/talks/joe_gebbia_how_airbnb_designs_for_trust

https://www.ted.com/talks/kio_stark_why_you_should_talk_to_strangers

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#10yrsago Cult of Done Manifesto: a name for my disease

Bre Pettis and Kio Stark's "Cult of Done" manifesto is basically how I live my life -- fail fast and often, get stuff done, get more stuff done, fail some more, learn, blow something up, fail, learn, do more stuff, do more stuff, do more stuff.

Seriously: reading these 13 bullet points are like discovering the name for my disease. Or my religion.

  1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.   2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.   3. There is no editing stage.   4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.   5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.   6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.   7. Once you're done you can throw it away.   8. Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.   9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.  10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.  11. Destruction is a variant of done.  12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.  13. Done is the engine of more.

https://boingboing.net/2009/03/03/cult-of-done-manifes.html