#mass focus

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

THE CORONATION OF CHARLES III : AN IRRESISTIBLE SPECTACLE

Nothing prepares you for a coronation — not quite, not fully. King Charles III had waited seven decades for his moment, he had rehearsed the ceremony in the days before, yet as he approached the doors of Westminster Abbey, his face betrayed his anxiety. He turned, he muttered, he fidgeted. For much of the two-hour service, his expression was, if not exactly a grimace, a study in suspense. 

When the two-kilogramme St Edward’s Crown was placed on his head, he closed his eyes sombrely. Queen Camilla braced herself similarly when her own turn came.The audience were unprepared for the coronation, probably more so. No one much younger than the 74-year old king could remember the last one, which took place when Winston Churchill was prime minister. More than 2,000 people filed into the Abbey, and their eyes seemed to widen at the plethora of colourful garments, the grandeur of the jewels, the assortment of the great, the good and the deserving. 

Observing the singer Lionel Richie sitting next to the former Australian foreign secretary Julie Bishop gave a sense of the strangeness of the occasion. There were roles for people with titles such as the Lady of the Order of the Thistle and the Rouge Dragon Pursuivant.

It would be wrong to say that the British public had been gripped by the prospect of the coronation. Two-fifths thought it was a waste of taxpayer money, according to one poll. Two-thirds didn’t care about it very much or at all, according to another. After all, there had been a glut of royal pageantry in the past year: Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee weekend last June, followed by her funeral in September.Yet, as so often, royal ceremony proved almost irresistible. Foremost was the music, guided, we are told, by the king himself. Westminster Abbey is a fragmented building, where few seats have a direct view of the central space. It has been hosting coronations since 1066, which means that for many centuries, most attendees must have been craning their necks. Because of that, and because most of the congregation had to be seated for two hours before the main service began, the music mattered. The choir’s rendition of Handel’s Zadok The Priest, sung in the most sacred moment of the service as the King was anointed with oil behind a screen, was a triumph.

 When the congregation later responded with the words “God Save the King”, the noise reverberated deep into the stonework.

[Thanks you Robert Scott Horton]

+

Ian Sanders  · So Charles III will be crowned on Saturday in a ceremony which will start at 11 a.m. BST and possibly go on until 2 p.m. This is a multi-faceted phenomenon and various opinions may be held about it all. 

I have my own - and no interest in trying to persuade anyone else to  adopt them.What I'd like to draw attention to is that a large number of power-possessing beings will be gathered in a powerful sacred place (Westminster Abbey), while many millions of people around the world will be paying attention (of sorts) to proceedings. 

Some of you will be familiar with the research done by the PEAR project and by the Global Coherence Initiative which suggests a greater degree than usual of cohesion in our collective consciousness at times of mass focus. This may be a good time to devote some time and effort to wishing the world well, whatever that means to you.

[worstloki]

there is a difference between being born to a throne, maliciously vying for a throne, stealing a throne, and having a throne thrust upon you when you are already in the midst of an identity crisis. And I fear Loki's place in the line of succession has people unable to differentiate between any of these

[ruby-static]

I recently got the Mass Effect games, and I’m already a little attached to the Shepard I came up with so far. So this is my dude Lennon (usually just called ‘Len’ casually) Shepard. The idea I’ve got so far is that he’s the group’s local weirdo cryptid dude that knows a little too much about messing with security systems for comfort.

I’m not too far into the games at the moment, so I probably won’t be able to do much story-based art just yet. But I just love this dude already and I had to draw him sooner rather than later.

[mueritos]

quick lil post about coming back to art full-time while also being a full time MSW student….it can be possible 0.0

anyway ty to everyone who has supported me over the years i wouldnt be able to go back to art without you all

[hagenwo43]

Off season Pt1

[maeamian]

Becoming deeply radicalized against the idea of crewed Mars missions, y'know how the Rovers keep sending back better and better data what if instead of that we made an even bigger one and devoted nearly 90% of its capacity to holding a guy in a bubble on top of it instead of sending back useful data, but wait! They'll eliminate like a half hour of latency and also almost certainly contaminate the landing site and possibly the entire planet, so it's not all downside.

[ria-starstruck]

final artfight attack on @foileadeux!

They stand at an impasse for a moment, their stances mirrored: Halesia with her hand on the hilt of her blade, Lilith with her hand on the spine of her grimoire. Their single point of connection is where Halesia grips Lilith’s wrist. Lilith’s eyes flash as she glares at Halesia, while Halesia herself does her utmost to project cold warning, icy calm. “Lilith,” she begins. “I need this blade to legitimize my position. So long as I am reliant on it to keep up the appearance of a knight, I cannot hand it over to you.” Lilith wriggles her wrist, but Halesia holds her fast. “And who was it that helped you secure that blade? If it wasn’t for me, your act would have been unmasked entirely. You still owe me. and that blade is the only thing of value you’ve got!”

famous last words:

[edains]

Kaidan Alenko's Catsuits (LE3): Original release

Kaidan Alenko's Catsuits (LE3)

Kaidan Alenko Overhaul (LE3)

Kaidan Complexion Tweak/(LE2-3) Bearded Kaidan Mashup

[cuubism]

It’s 3pm on a rainy Wednesday, and Hob is sleepily grading student papers, when Death of the Endless appears in his flat, lies quietly down on the couch, and rests her head in his lap.

Hob stares down at her for a long moment, hands aloft in indecision, because this is not... something they do. By now he can say he calls Death a friend, and they get drinks together sometimes and chat, but this...

“Everything alright, love?” he asks, finally resting a hand on her shoulder.

“I don’t mean to disturb your peace,” Death says quietly. The TV Hob’s left on as background noise—some silly cooking show—nearly drowns out her voice entirely.

“Nothing peaceful about trying to find nice ways to tell my students they can’t write for shit,” Hob says, pushing his papers away. He can’t see Death’s face well like this, but he doesn’t like the uneven sound of her voice, not when she’s usually so level. “Disturb away.”

After a long moment in which they both just listen to the TV program host blather on about crumpets, Death says, “I am not affected by deaths.”

“…Alright,” Hob says, though he’s not convinced.

“I am…” Death continues, but trails off on a breath like a whistle of cold wind. “May I... stay here awhile?”

“‘Course.” Hob carefully pets at her head, strokes her hair. Worry is building, but he doesn’t think Death needs him to pull her words out of her the way he sometimes has to with Dream. She will speak when she’s ready. “Do you want to hear some truly fascinating attempts at historical analysis? Or is peace and quiet what you’re looking for?”

“You can speak if you wish,” Death says, still in that quiet tone.

So Hob tells her about some of his students, the ones who truly seem to have some promise in the field, and the others who he’s pretty sure are just mangling their papers together from sentences out of one of those AI things, if the originality is anything to go by. It’s disappointing but does make for humorous reading. Though really, Hob’s not sure whether to laugh or despair when he has to read lines like War has negative effects on people in an actual university academic paper. Wow, you don’t say.

He does manage to get a few chuckles out of his friend, but none with her usual humor and enthusiasm, and eventually he trails off, and they listen quietly to the background noise of the TV.

“Is there anything I can do?” Hob asks quietly.

“Can you control the future, Hob?” Death asks, a rhetorical question without any of her usual lightheartedness.

“Can’t even control the present,” Hob says. He just keeps his hands on her, one on her shoulder, one on the top of her head. Grounding, he hopes. And he thinks on what she’d said.

Hob knows that Destiny is the only Endless that operates in the future, but he has wondered, now that he understands them a bit better, if Death may not have a foot in that direction as well. She must know, some way, how to be where she must when she must.

Death has never seemed overly burdened by the past, even though history is a tower of bones a hundred miles high. Hob had asked, once — do all those terrible things ever bother you? you were there for them all —and all she had said was, “It has already happened,” with neither pleasure nor pain, just acceptance.

The future is another matter entirely.

“Is something going to happen?” he asks.

“I will not burden you with knowledge that is not yours to carry,” Death says.

So, that’s a yes.

“Maybe I could do something about it,” Hob suggests, though he suspects where that query will lead.

“You could not.”

“What about you, then?”

“That is not my place,” she says, though she sounds less certain about it than she usually is when discussing her function.

“You sure?” Hob asks.

“Were I to change fates for some, what excuse would I have for not doing so for all? Unfair things happen hourly, and always will. If I upend the balance, there is no telling how things would tip out of control down the road.”

It must be hard, Hob thinks, to be so powerful and yet so powerless.

“You did spare me,” he points out.

Death huffs, almost a laugh. “In truth, I shouldn’t have done that. Although I suspect Destiny had it written in his book for other purposes entirely.”

Huh. Well, that’s probably something Hob shouldn’t think on too hard for the sake of his own sanity.

“Well, I’m certainly not complaining about it,” Hob says, and Death chuckles.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” he asks, when they’ve been sitting for another few minutes in silence.

“I… do not have many friends,” Death says. Common family trait, then, Hob thinks. Not that it’s really so surprising. Death is very personable, but most of her interactions with people are, well… fleeting. And it can’t be easy to make normal friends, when you’re as expansive a being as one of the Endless.

“Stay for a while then,” Hob says. He pulls a blanket over her and tucks it around her shoulders. “Until you have to go.”

“Thank you, Hob,” says Death, still sounding incredibly weighed down by her function, but given a slight reprieve, perhaps.

Hob rubs her shoulder and thinks about these endless creatures he’s chosen to love. Do they have anyone else to worry about them? He doesn’t think so. It’s just Hob, and he doesn’t think that’s anywhere close to enough, but he’ll just have to do his best.

“Any time, love,” he tells her, and means it.

[deadletterpoets]

After Mass Effect Andromeda and Dragon Age Inquisition I'm shocked to see ppl upset or questioning the decision from Bioware to not have Veilguard be open world. IMO that's the best thing they've said so far.

[momentsbeforemass]

Stuck on us

It’s easy to see problems. To spot how things are going wrong.

When someone else is doing it.

So let’s do that. Today’s Gospel shows us the moment where James and John are bugging Jesus about sitting on His right and His left. When Jesus is crowned in His glory.

With everything that’s going on, with the rising threats against Jesus. And them. With what Jesus just got done telling them about His death, this is what they’re worried about?

Yes. That’s exactly what they’re worried about. Which tells us a lot about them, and what’s going on inside them.

Because there’s only one way that anyone can be this oblivious. And it all turns on what they’re listening to.

They’re not listening to Jesus. They didn’t hear a thing that Jesus said. So what are they listening to?

The sound of their own insecurities.

Whether it shows up like this, in a demand for special treatment. Or if it takes the form of the need to be better than someone else. Or attention seeking. Or some other unhealthy leakage.

All of it shows that someone is focused on the wrong thing. That they are meditating, ruminating on something they don’t like. Some perceived grievance about what someone did or didn’t do. What they’re afraid of, how bad things are, or what they don’t have.

All of which are just different ways of getting stuck on something they don’t like about themselves.

Sound familiar? It should. If we’re honest. Because it’s something that all of us are capable of. Something that all of us do or have done at some point (maybe both).

How does this happen to us?

It happens when we take our eyes off God and get stuck on us. It’s easy to do, because we’re really fond of us.

The thing is, when we do that, we create an opening. One that the Enemy will happily exploit. To harness our natural bent towards the negative.

And since our eyes are stuck on us? The Enemy will be happy to offer us a continuous stream of our failures, our shortcomings, and everything we least like about ourselves.

Left unchecked, we will find that we are spending more and more time focused on the worst parts of us. Meditating on things that – if we gave them half a moment’s thought – we would never intentionally revisit. In a toxic, self-poisoning parody of praying without ceasing.

Because that’s what meditating is. Not some mystical practice for those sitting cross-legged on the floor with their eyes closed.

Meditating is just thinking over and over about something. It’s a skill that all of us already have. We just know it by another name – worrying.

So what do we do about it? Give it half a moment’s thought. Literally.

The next time we catch ourselves worrying, meditating on something negative. Whether it’s some perceived grievance, what we’re afraid of, what we don’t have, or just something we don’t like about ourselves.

Stop. Actually give it half a moment’s thought. Realize what we’re doing.

And don’t try to handle it by ourselves. Whatever it is, whatever we’re telling ourselves, take it to God in prayer.

It helps if you do it with a sense of humor – “God, I’m doing it. Again.” – because it won’t be one and done.

Let’s be clear, turning to God isn’t about ignoring our problems. It’s about keeping them in perspective, while we deal with them. Instead of letting them take over.

Turning away from ourselves. Developing a habit of the right kind of “worrying,” meditating on God. Instead of on ourselves. Takes time.

But in the end, it’s the only perspective that can keep us grounded in reality. Instead of ending up stuck on ourselves, and lost in negativity.

Today’s Readings

[opencommunion]

lately I'm seeing "leftist" "pro-Palestine" blogs—either zionist sockpuppets or just self-centered cowards who want excuses to not take action—say that because they're involved in other activism they have no obligation to lift a finger to stop genocide. this makes it very obvious not only that they don't give a shit about Palestinians, but also that they're probably not actually involved in any struggle against racism or capitalism. bc those of us who are struggling understand that not only do we have a moral obligation to stand with Palestine; colonialism and genocide in Palestine are linchpins of the white supremacist capitalist system that oppresses us all, and the Palestinian struggle is currently a "hot front" in our global liberation struggle. directing energy and resources toward Palestinian liberation does not take away from any other struggle, because it's the same struggle—often in ways that are blatantly obvious (as in the case of Stop Cop City and other movements fighting direct collaborations btwn US cops and IOF). the connections are extremely clear and if you're really involved in any liberation mvmts you would probably know this long before Oct 7th! if your activism is rigidly siloed into different "causes" that never touch, you're probably not doing anything that directly impacts the interconnected structures maintaining our oppression

[omegastation]

I haven't been back for long but two things are really weird to me right now:

I can't ever find the source of reblogs where before you could see it. I find it really weird, it's like I never know who's talking. Sometimes I can't even find source of posts without looking for it as well.

Lack of interactions bother me. You used to be able to reblog replies or to have at least more public discussions and now it seems impossible, and XKit is not helping at all. If people leave replies on the post itself and you can't have a simple way to reblog, that means you have to go back to a post to follow the conversation along, which most people would never do. You do it if you're tagged, which means one to one conversations are encouraged but not fandom wide discussions

So it's harder to see who's talking and it's harder to talk.

Maybe most of you are on Discord and prefer it there because of this? IDK.

Btw, I usually post messages unless I'm asked not to but if there's some new etiquette and I shouldn't, tell me. I'm very confused by this new Tumblr.

[aesopsharpmybeloved]

Professor Aesop Sharp's private chambers

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Bonus

[spooky-activity]

Honestly the MVPs of my Persona 3 Portable run

[gavinopricey]

In ME1 when mshep is talking to Kaidan about Vyrnnus and how abusive he was, and mshep asks, “He ever face charges for that?” Kaidan pauses slightly before (dryly) replying, “He got his, yeah.” Retrospectively, it adds a really nice layer to the progression of the mshenko relationship and what they say/don’t say versus the kind of immediate (from the gamer’s perspective, not the irl game timeline) openness and trust between Kaidan and femshep. Tragedy exists at the conclusion for both ofc but it truly takes on a different flavor depending on when (and how) Shepard and Kaidan finally fall in together.