#my cow chop love has been revived

[crystal-wingeddragon-spikes]

I am not sure what creative processes were behind this redesign. Why would they give him Ori hooves?

I understood that the whole game had its overall design overhauled. It has become more realistic with slightly more muted coloured pallets, and it is a practical choice to redesign all the pre-existing characters, even if it has no in-universe reasons for the changes.

I really don’t like the head/horns redesign, because the whole franchise has Bendy’s head as a symbol. The first thing which clue the player that this horrible monster is supposed to be a little demon Bendy was because it has the recognizable head shape. Why would they change that, while his “small” form still retain the same head shape?

While I don’t dislike the legs, they still came out of nowhere. I have been experimenting with giving Bendy a cloven hoof foot (with the other foot chopped off) with human-liked knees to reference how a lot of old cartoon design anthropomorphic cows like so. So, this decision really caught me off-guard, and I don’t think it went well with his upper body.

I can see that old design is if small Bendy becomes more and more humanoid and monstrous, as he consumes more ink creatures (which is a long-time hypothesis which is confirmed in Dark Revival). It has a coherent design of a twisted, corrupted classic toon, while the new design is just taking “Ink Demon” word-by-word and create a character out of it.

Well, to say something nice about The new Ink demon, I do love the skeleton theme. The feeling of an ink covered skeleton which growled like something with water in its lungs is fascinating. The detailed teeth look great too.

My, I think, I am really going to put my comic on hold so can voice my opinion about this whole thing.

[lubbuthedigitalnomad]

A PERFECT PLACE

Happy Bob Marley BD (it was Feb. 6), Tibetan New Year (Feb. 12) and Valentine’s Day week! I hope you and yours are happy and healthy. Communications from America say that things are a little less crazy now that the election is over. That’s good. Even the most pro-American Asians were thinking we went a little wacky!

With any luck, folks in the USA will continue to take deep breaths and calm down. With a little effort, things will become less hateful and more loving as both the reds and blues start to realize that working together is the only way things will ever work at all. With that sentiment in mind, this week’s 1000 words are from the Fearless Puppy On American Road book, and about a time and place that remembers the more beautiful part of the American experience.

Once something changes, it can never go all the way back to what it was. In many ways, that is a good thing. We can preserve some better parts of the life we already had while allowing room for new and improved ideas. Insisting that both those new ideas, and the parts preserved from the old, are employed as actual improvements that benefit the vast majority of us has become the non-negotiable, essential responsibility of each and every citizen. Like it or not, it seems we will have to stay actively, consciously, and intelligently involved in order to insure success.

Please be well & stay well. Love, Tenzin and the Nepali Crew

FEARLESS PUPPY WEBSITE BLOG

FEARLESS PUPPY ON AMERICAN ROAD/AMAZON PAGE

REINCARNATION THROUGH COMMON SENSE/AMAZON PAGE

FEARLESS PUPPY ON AMERICAN ROAD WEBSITE

Rural Vermont

Helpfulness. Tribalism at its best. Everyone works together on everything. Lives depend upon each other in temperatures well below zero.

Hitchhiking is no longer just getting from here to there while barely knowing my host. Nearly every ride establishes or increases a friendship.

More cows per square mile than people, more open space than cows, and more forest than open space. Pronounced seasons and cycles. Cold, white winters. Muddy springs. Vibrant green summers pulsating with life that knows it only has a few months to do what needs to get done. Rainbow autumnal foliage so brilliant that guests come from continents away to view it. Streams clean enough to drink from.

Eggs come from happy chickens — not from the cruelty of large “animal production” warehouses.

Everyone waves hello to anyone driving by.

There’s always time to speak with whomever you meet at the General Store or Post Office. There’s always time. No hurry. Life comes first. Being is more important than doing (once the doing gets done).

The only store in town is the size of five closets but has everything — food, hardware, videos, clothing, beer, and more. A giant empty cable spool acts as a table around which to enjoy coffee, home- made donuts, and the company of neighbors. A best friend makes maple syrup. Everyone grows incredible gardens.

I have spent a lot of time with four other people and five beers staring into the open hood of a pickup truck that was not in need of repair.

Wood keeps you warm three times — once when you chop it, again when you carry it in, and the third time when you burn it. Overflowing abundance lives here. Some folks want more. Few need more.

Theater groups that produce professional-quality plays thrive in the forests of nearby vest-pocket towns.

The purity and clarity of omnipresent Nature rubs off on its human inhabitants. Crime, violence, and assorted hatreds appear only in newspapers and on TV stations. No one here has seen those things in person.

The Town Treasurer has a sign on his office explaining, “It’s very hard to get away with anything in a town this small.” Live and let live. If it hurts no one, it’s legal.

Resourcefulness is a way of life. Anything you need can be built from left over parts of things that you don’t need anymore. If you don’t know how, someone will show you. They’ll be happy to help — even happier if you bring a beer to say hello and thank you.

Deer hunters and trout fishermen deny slaughterhouses and corporate supermarket chains their abuses and profits. Unprocessed foods, hard exercise, low stress, clean air, and clean water deny the medical industry their profits from unnecessary surgery and drugs.

Awe inspiring natural beauty excludes land developers and their profit-over-people motivation. Their concrete and steel are not welcome here. The industrial decay that would lead to profits for a large assortment of unethical folks in fancy suits is denied entry by the conscious decisions of simple, intelligent farmers in overalls.

There will never be a Wal-Mart or a crack house here. There are many guns. They are never used for anything but hunting food. People are constantly helping each other to build a barn or house, dig out snow and mud, care for the children, cook, clean, weed the garden, and feed the animals. Anything that can be done at all is usually done by a group, even if it’s actually a one-person job. Folks enjoy each other’s company. Except in the most extreme circumstances, everyone deserves inclusion.

Parties get thrown together instantly for no other reason than that someone feels like being the host.

On a Tuesday, my friend Mike told me that he was having a party at his house on the following Saturday.

“What’s the occasion, Mike?”

“The occasion is that I just came up with the bright idea of having a party. I’ll get out a side of venison and buy a keg of beer. Tell everyone you see to tell everyone they see. If anyone wants to bring more food and drink, that’s good. If not, we’ll be fine with what we’ve got, I figure.”

“OK, Mike. I’ll get everyone but the assholes informed.”

“Inform the assholes too, buddy! Who knows? Maybe if they got invited to more parties, they’d figure out how to act better and wouldn’t be such assholes.”

It was hard to argue with Mike’s logic, but then again it is hard to argue with much of anything in a clean, friendly village.

During those years of having a home community and base station, a lot of work got done elsewhere. Rest time there made hitchhiking across nearly every inch of road in Northeastern America possible. I probably hitchhiked as many miles regionally during this period as the number of miles that were traveled in all the previous cross-country trips. Each full month of whistle stops working for environmental groups and charities included many towns and cities. It included talking to independent business folks all day about various causes, sleeping wherever possible, and celebrating whenever plausible. At the end of road tours like that, staring at mountains in between long naps was more of a necessity than an option. It is a lot easier to burn yourself up on the road when you know that a perfect place to revive is waiting for you.

The focal points of the road binges included Greenpeace, Citizen’s Awareness Network, and self-organized efforts to help support a Mexican orphanage, raise awareness and funding for American homeless folks, and help the victims of a very severe African famine. The results varied. My little part as a team member in the environmental efforts worked consistently for over a decade at each. The orphanage and homeless projects I organized worked minimally. The famine relief effort worked very well. It involved a governor, two senators, labor unions, school systems, businesses, major league sports teams, rock bands, and more. Thousands of people in the Northeastern section of America gave massive help.

This is a short chapter, but it covers a long period of years. Eventually, my good friend who allowed me this cabin in paradise had to liquidate his properties. This put me back out on the street at age fifty. But for a while, my life was as close to normal as it had ever been. It included long term friends and neighbors.

Those years seem to have gone by very quickly.​

About the Author

Doug “Ten” Rose may be the biggest smartass as well as one of the most entertaining survivors of the hitchhiking adventurers that used to cover America’s highways. He is the author of the books Fearless Puppy on American Road and Reincarnation Through Common Sense, has survived heroin addiction and death, and is a graduate of over a hundred thousand miles of travel without ever driving a car, owning a phone, or having a bank account.

Ten Rose and his work are a vibrant part of the present and future as well as an essential remnant of a vanishing breed.

Follow him on Facebook, Doug Ten Rose

Travel Adventure Books can be an excellent gift to your friends and family, buy from Amazon.com

#traveladventurebooks #keepreading #kindlebooks

The books Fearless Puppy On American Road and Reincarnation Through Common Sense by this same author are also available through Amazon or the Fearless Puppy website, where there are sample chapters from those books. Entertaining TV/radio interviews with and newspaper articles about the author are also available there. There is no charge for anything but the complete books! All author profits from book sales will be donated to help sponsor an increase in the number of wisdom professionals on Earth, beginning with but certainly not limited to Buddhist monks and nuns.

If you missed the Introduction to the new book that will be titled Temple Dog Soldier, or would like to see several chapters of it that are available for free online, go to the Puppy website Blog section. This is a book in progress. You will be reading it as it is being created! Just like you, I don’t know what the next chapter is going to be about until it is written. As the Intro will tell you, this is a totally true story — and probably the only book ever written by and about a corpse journeying completely around the world!

[tipsycad147]

Goddess Isis

“In seafoam, in swirlings and imaginings I am fish, tadpole, crocodile. I am an urge, an idea, a portent of impossible dreams. I lie between heaven and earth, between innocence and evil, patience and explosion. I am innocent and rosy as dawn. I sleep with my finger in my mouth, the cord of life curled beside my ear. Like a child in its mother’s belly, I am with you but not among you. I know no ending for I have no beginnings. I have always been here, a child in the silence of things, ready to wake at any moment.  I am possibility."

From: Awakening Osiris by Normandi Ellis

Isis is the Goddess of many names and forms.  She is the beautiful young princess and the grieving poverty stricken widow dressed in rags.  She is the most powerful sorceress on Earth and She is the poor, frightened single mother forced to beg for herself and Her son.   As the Mistress of Magick, She knows all and can do all.  She can restore the dead, bestow the gift of fertility, heal the sick and protect sea farers. There is no miracle that She can’t perform. She taught women to grind corn, bake bread, spin flax, weave cloth, and, perhaps most importantly, she taught them to tame the men so the women could live with them!

 Isis was introduced to Rome in 86 BCE, where She became very popular because Her cult was open to all, including women and slaves. She was so beloved by the people, that even after Paganism was abolished, Her last official temple on the Egyptian Island of Philae survived until 537 CE.  It was finally ordered shut, votive statues of Isis, Osiris and Min were confiscated, and sent to Constantinople.  Temple clergy were imprisoned, and the temple was converted to a Christian Church.

 Isis was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as patroness of nature and magick. She was the friend of slaves, sinners and the downtrodden, and would also listen to the prayers of the wealthy.  Isis became a symbol of Pharaoh’s power. Pharaoh was said to have been born of Isis, and the throne that he sat upon was provided for him by Isis. After Isis was assimilated with Hathor, she was sometimes depicted with the twin horns of a cow on Her head, with a solar disc between them.

 Isis was the first daughter of Geb the Earth God and Nut the Sky Goddess.  Because of Her parentage Isis could balance both heaven and earth.  She married Her brother Osiris and as a Moon Goddess She gave birth to Horus, the God of the Sun. Together, mother and child created all life and sustained it.

 Isis, the Mother of Life also has a contradictory aspect – She was also the Crone Goddess of death.   That title comes from what happened with her brother/husband Osiris.  Incest between brother and sister was allowable for the gods to keep the bloodlines pure. When Osiris became her husband, he became the first King of Earth. Set, their brother, was jealous and killed Osiris, sealed up his coffin and threw it in the river Nile. Isis grieved mightily, shredded her robes and chopped off her hair. Then she set out to find the body of her husband so she could bury him with proper honour and respect.

 As she searched for her love, she met Queen Astarte in Phoenicia. Making a long story short, Astarte realised that Osiris’s body was hidden in her palace. Isis carried him back to Egypt and hid it in the swamps of the Nile delta while she prepared for his funeral. Her wicked brother, Set, found the coffin, furiously hacked Osiris’s body into 14 pieces, and scattered them in different directions. Searching and searching, Isis recovered thirteen of the pieces. Only his penis was missing, so she made one from gold and wax (some myths say mud or clay). Promptly inventing the rites of embalming, and with her magical powers in full force, Isis brought Osiris back to life and conceived their child Horus. Now that she was no longer grieving, Osiris was free to descend and became the King of the Underworld, ruling over the dead.

 Isis is often shown wearing the symbol of an empty throne on her head, suggesting her husband’s absence and that she, herself, was the seat of the Pharaoh’s power. She carries the ankh, the Egyptian hieroglyph of eternal life. When in her funerary role, and as the protector of the dead, she is shown with wings. The ancient Egyptians believed that the Nile River flooded each year because of the tears Isis wept for her dead husband, and every year there was a ceremonial death-and-rebirth ritual.

 When Christianity was trying to gain a foothold over paganism, the mother-and-child images of Isis and her son Horus in the many temples of Isis across the land were converted into images of Mary with her infant son Jesus, while images of Isis holding the body of her dead husband across her lap became Mary with the crucified Jesus.

 Isis worship was revived in modern times by The Order of the Golden Dawn, who recognised Isis as a powerful Triple Goddess.  Later She was incorporated into modern Wicca by Gerald Gardner.

 Many contemporary Pagan traditions have adopted Isis as their patron Goddess and She is often found at the heart of Dianic Wiccan groups and other female-centred covens. Although modern Wiccan worship does not follow the same structure as the ancient Egyptian ceremonies that were once used to honour Isis, today's Isiac covens incorporate Egyptian lore and mythology into a Wiccan framework, bringing the knowledge and worship of Isis into a contemporary setting.

 There are countless eclectic Wiccan groups throughout the world that have selected Isis as their deity. Because of the strength and power displayed by Isis, spiritual paths that honour her are popular and Her worship has seen a resurgence as part of the "Goddess-oriented" spirituality that has become a notable part of the New Age movement.

http://sacredwicca.jigsy.com/-isis

[13thfloornz]

The 13th Floor’s Kate Powell spent her Sunday night with Friday Jams at Auckland’s Spark Arena. Photographer Reuben Raj provides the visuals…

Philosophers suggest that nostalgia has coincided with revolution, because during a time of tumultuous change we like to cling to a never-changing past. The soft warm glow that comes with nostalgia gives us a sense of psychological well-being; it soothes our existential fears and quashes our loneliness with shared familiarity.

Sound familiar?

In a world characterised by socio-political uncertainity for an entire generation, the digital revolution is ideally suited to share and trigger nostalgia. Google and various “share” buttons have given us countless ways to revisit the old.

As a result, nostalgia has become a cash cow on an unprecedented level. Within popular culture, the past is being upheld culturally more than the present. Going to a #throwback club night in brand new 90s fashion has become a normal weekend activity. Expressing strong opinions about your favourite childhood film getting a reboot has become a regular brunch conversation. (Jks, we’re too poor for brunch).

ZM jumped onto the nostalgia bandwagon a little under a year ago with its Friday Night Jams segement which paid tribute to R&B artists. It quickly gained a dedicated following which resulted in the Friday Night Jams show, paradoxically on a Sunday at Spark Arena last night.

Featuring Christina Milian, Mario, Kelis, Ne-Yo, Craig David and Sean Paul, it delivered on the promise that it was New Zealand’s biggest R n’ B party on the strength of its names alone. It was the first time to our shores for many of these artists, which only increased the hype among its multi-generational audience.

The new millenium heralded a new era for R&B and there were numerous shifts and developments within the genre during the early to mid 2000s. Sandwiched between the hip-hop and soul infused sound of the 90s and the electronic, heavily produced sound that was popular at the time, ‘aughties’ R&B intertwined sultry sensuality with a playful, collaborative spirit. R&B style permeated mainstream fashion, sports and television, making it a true cultural force of its era. Also, given that it exploded during the rise of the internet and increased sharability, it makes complete sense that for many millenials, it represents the soundtrack to their youth.

Perhaps its nostalgia at work, but at the time, R&B wasn’t my jam. I was far more interested in the garage-rock revival, 80s indie-rock and other generic artsy kid genres and on a deep level that is the music that reminds me of being 16. But neurologists say that because pop music plays so often in the background of our day to day lives whether we select it or not, it has the ability to inadvertently invoke powerful memories. Socials, balls, lunchtimes, first loves and losses, the time your school bullies cornered you in the common room, the first post-high school roadtrip, University parties. They are powerful memories, and I can guarantee if you cast your mind back you’ll subconciously get a song playing in your head.

Bearing this all in mind, it was still a massive trip to walk into Spark Arena to the sight of thousands of people throwing their hands up in the air to Fatman Scoop performing his perpetual banger

Put Your Hands Up. I hadn’t heard it since a very early morning visit to Wellington’s Good Luck bar back in 2012. It put an immediate grin on my face. Scoop was our MC for the evening and he did a spectacular job. His boundless energy was infectious and he was a joy to watch.

Unfortunately I was only able to catch Ne-Yo, Craig David and Sean Paul, and they proved a mixed bag.

With his star power and unquestionable singing ability, Ne-Yo was a clear highlight. Bringing his live band, the Las Vegas singer-songwriter-actor-producer had his entire CV flash up onscreen before appearing onstage to rapterous applause.

Opener So Sick set the tone as he swaggered across the stage pausing every so often to pop and lock (classic aughties) and at one point flashing his abs, which he wiped down with a towel before throwing it into the audience. He knew what the people wanted and was more than happy to oblige. An audience member reciprocated the gesture, throwing a protein bar at him, suggesting that the crowd was hungry for more. Ne-Yo was just getting started.

He commanded the stage with talent and charisma with a career-spanning set. Slow-jam Mad saw him undo one button to a chorus of shrieks, while he showed off his songwriting chops with Beyonce’s Irreplaceable. He then invited two ladies from the audience to dance with him to his new single Push Back, a reggae inspired number that saw both audience members enthusiastically grinding on him. The opening bars of Closer had everyone snapchatting their friends. The energetic performance peaked with plumes of dry ice erupting with the crescendo and he rounded his set off  with Time of Our Lives before tossing his hat into the audience.

Craig David and TS5 were up next. Although starting off life as a DJ some 20 years ago, he found international stardom with his albums Slicker Than Your Average and Born To Do It. TS5 began in David’s Miami home where hosts and DJs weekly parties. These eventually found a following and he now travels the world replicating the house party atmosphere. With just his onstage mixing setup for company, David opened with Re-Wind (The Crowd Say Bo-Selecta). Mixing samples of R&B, Rap, Trap and Electronica, David sang his own material over them and the result was not good. It may have been about “flexing some tunes and putting a new spin on them” but it felt incredibly disjointed. Case in point was when he reworked his classic I’m Walking Away over the instrumentals of Still D.R.E. Seperately, these are great songs, but to force them together just sounds uncomfortable. The beats didn’t  match up, not to mention the awkward coupling of David’s honeyed vocal style with a G-Funk classic. I truly expected better from someone who touts himself as a world class DJ. The attempt to merge Seven Days with Justin Beiber’s Where R U Now was especially tragic. Dressed in a hoodie, what looked like Activewear leggings, and sneakers, David gave the impression that he was about to host a particularly aggressive spin class. It was a real shame, because his vocals were fantastic and he was a gracious performer.

Finally headliner Sean Paul took to the stage. Despite having a host of features in famous songs, his own discography and a live show that consisted of impressive back up dancers, a keytar and energy, the audience still felt “meh.” Which is unfortunate given his legacy as a Dancehall pop pioneer, bringing it into the western mainstream with his single Get Busy in 2003.

As he sang Sia’s Cheap Thrills the crowd seemed confused, which was only amplified by a cover of Ed Sheeran’s Shape Of You. Get Busy and Like Glue saw them perk up for a moment at least. Sean Paul and his backup dancers clad in reggae colours were giving it their all and it was sad to watch the crowd be so unresponsive. Bringing out fellow Jamacian artist Chi Ching Ching for Crick Neck and Rock Da World did little to invigorate the audiences rapidly lagging energy after a long night. Sean Paul seemed to recognize this, and with a quick thank you, he was gone.

A hit and miss night of nostalgic audience memory mixing somewhat awkwardly with performers trying to live in the now.

Kate Powell

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Reuben Raj:

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          Friday Jams ft: Christina Milian, Mario, Kelis, Ne-Yo, Craig David and Sean Paul – Spark Arena October 22, 2017 The 13th Floor's Kate Powell spent her Sunday night with Friday Jams at Auckland's Spark Arena. Photographer Reuben Raj provides the visuals...