#one person company companies act 2013

[vakilkarosblog]

Can one person company be Section 8 company?

Introduction:

The concept of a Section 8 company in India is designed to encourage non-profit activities and promote social welfare. These companies, also known as Section 8 companies under the Companies Act, 2013, are formed for charitable purposes and operate without the intention of making profits. On the other hand, a One Person Company (OPC) is a type of business structure introduced to support entrepreneurs who wish to start their own ventures without the need for multiple stakeholders.

In this article, we will explore the Can One Person Company be Section 8 company and delve into the key aspects of Section 8 Microfinance Company Registration.

Can a One Person Company be a Section 8 Company?

While both One Person Companies and Section 8 companies have distinct features, they are not mutually exclusive. The Companies Act, 2013, allows for the registration of a One Person Company as a Section 8 company, provided the company complies with the relevant regulations and meets the criteria outlined for Section 8 companies.

Key Considerations for Section 8 Microfinance Company Registration:

Non-profit Objective:

One of the fundamental requirements for a company to be registered under Section 8 is the pursuit of charitable or non-profit objectives. If the One Person Company aligns its goals with social welfare, promotion of education, art, commerce, science, sports, research, and other such activities, it can qualify for Section 8 registration.

No Dividend Distribution:

Section 8 companies are prohibited from distributing dividends to their members. Instead, any income generated must be utilized for the furtherance of the company's objectives. The OPC intending to be a Section 8 company must adhere to this stipulation.

Asset Lock-in:

Assets and profits of a Section 8 company are subject to an "asset lock-in" clause. In the event of dissolution, the assets must be transferred to another Section 8 company or a charitable organization with similar objectives. OPCs aspiring for Section 8 status must be willing to comply with this provision.

Board Structure:

The board structure of a Section 8 company is crucial for its functioning. While a One Person Company typically has a single director, a Section 8 company may require a minimum of three directors. The OPC must adjust its board structure to meet these requirements.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, a One Person Company can indeed be registered as a Section 8 company, provided it aligns with the non-profit objectives and complies with the regulations outlined by the Companies Act, 2013. Aspiring entrepreneurs looking to combine the benefits of a One Person Company with the philanthropic goals of a Section 8 entity should carefully consider and adhere to the legal requirements for a successful Section 8 Microfinance Company Registration.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

2023's public domain is a banger

40 years ago, giant entertainment companies embarked on a slow-moving act of arson. The fuel for this arson was copyright term extension (making copyrights last longer), including retrospective copyright term extensions that took works out of the public domain and put them back into copyright for decades. Vast swathes of culture became off-limits, pseudo-property with absentee landlords, with much of it crumbling into dust.

After 55-75 years, only 2% of works have any commercial value. After 75 years, it declines further. No wonder that so much of our cultural heritage is now orphan works, with no known proprietor. Extending copyright on all works – not just those whose proprietors sought out extensions – incinerated whole libraries full of works, permanently.

But on January 1, 2019, the bonfire was extinguished. That was the day that items created in 1923 entered the US public domain: DeMille's Ten Commandments, Chaplain's Pilgrim, Burroughs' Tarzan and the Golden Lion, Woolf's Jacob's Room, Coward's London Calling and 1,000+ more works:

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2019/

Many of those newly liberated works were forgotten, partly due to their great age, but also because no one knew who they belonged to (Congress abolished the requirement to register copyrights in 1976), so no one could revive or reissue them while they were still in the popular imagination, depriving them of new leases on life.

2019 was the starting gun on a new public domain, giving the public new treasures to share and enjoy, and giving the long-dead creators of the Roaring Twenties a new chance at posterity. Each new year since has seen  a richer, more full public domain. 2021 was a great year, featuring some DuBois, Dos Pasos, Huxley, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Bessie Smith and Sydney Bechet:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/16/fraught-superpowers/#public-domain-day

In just 12 days, the public domain will welcome another year's worth of works back into our shared commons. As ever, Jennifer Jenkins of Duke's Center for the Public Domain have painstaking researched highlights from the coming year's entrants:

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2023/

On the literary front, we have Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse, AA Milne's Now We Are Six, Hemingway's Men Without Women, Faulkner's Mosquitoes, Christie's The Big Four, Wharton's Twilight Sleep, Hesse's Steppenwolf (in German), Kafka's Amerika (in German), and Proust's Le Temps retrouvé (in French).

We also get all of Sherlock Holmes, finally wrestling control back from the copyright trolls who control the Arthur Conan Doyle estate. This is a firm of rent-seeking bullies who have abused the court process to extract menaces money from living creators, including rent on works that were unambiguously in the public domain.

The estate's sleaziest trick is claiming that while many Sherlock Holmes stories were in the public domain, certain elements of Holmes's personality were developed in later stories that were still in copyright, and therefore any Sherlock story that contained those elements was a copyright violation. Infamously, the Doyle Estate went after the creators of the Enola Holmes series, claiming a copyright over Sherlock stories in which Holmes was "capable of friendship," "expressed emotion," or "respected women." This is a nonsensical theory, based on the idea that these character traits are copyrightable. They are not:

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2023/#fn6text

The Doyle Estate's shakedown racket took a serious body-blow in 2013, when Les Klinger – a lawyer, author and prominent Sherlockian – prevailed in court, with the judge ruling that new works based on public domain Sherlock stories were not infringing, even if some Sherlock stories remained in copyright. The estate appealed and lost again, and Klinger was awarded costs. They tried to take the case to the Supreme Court and got laughed out of the building.

But as the Enola Holmes example shows, you can't keep a copyright troll down: the Doyle estate kept making up imaginary copyright laws in a desperate, grasping bid to wring more money out of living, working creators. That's gonna be a lot harder after Jan 1, when The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes enters the public domain, meaning that every Sherlock story will be out of copyright.

One fun note about Klinger's landmark win over the Doyle estate: he took an amazing victory lap, commissioning an anthology of new unauthorized Holmes stories in 2016 called "Echoes of Sherlock Holmes":

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Echoes-of-Sherlock-Holmes/Laurie-R-King/Sherlock-Holmes/9781681775463

I wrote a short story for it, "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Extraordinary Rendition," which was based on previously unpublished Snowden leaks.

https://esl-bits.net/ESL.English.Listening.Short.Stories/Rendition/01/default.html

I got access to the full Snowden trove thanks to Laura Poitras, who jointly commissioned the story from me for inclusion in the companion book for "Astro noise : a survival guide for living under total surveillance," her show at the Whitney:

https://www.si.edu/object/siris_sil_1060502

I also reported out the leaks the story was based on in a companion piece:

https://memex.craphound.com/2016/02/02/exclusive-snowden-intelligence-docs-reveal-uk-spooks-malware-checklist/

Jan 1, 2023 will also be a fine day for film in the public domain, with Metropolis, The Jazz Singer, and Laurel and Hardy's Battle of the Century entering the commons. Also notable: Wings, winner of the first-ever best picture Academy Award; The Lodger, Hitchcock's first thriller; and FW "Nosferatu" Mirnau's Sunrise.

However most of the movies that enter the public domain next week will never be seen again. They are "lost pictures," and every known copy of them expired before their copyrights did. 1927 saw the first synchronized dialog film (The Jazz Singer). As talkies took over the big screen, studios all but gave up on preserving silent films, which were printed on delicate stock that needed careful tending. Today, 75% of all silent films are lost to history.

But some films from this era do survive, and they are now in the public domain. This is true irrespective of whether they were restored at a later date. Restoration does not create a new copyright. "The Supreme Court has made clear that 'the sine qua non of copyright is originality.'"

https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/499/340

There's some great music entering the public domain next year! "The Best Things In Life Are Free"; "I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice-Cream"; "Puttin' On the Ritz"; "'S Wonderful"; "Ol' Man River"; "My Blue Heaven" and "Mississippi Mud."

It's a banger of a year for jazz and blues, too. We get Bessie Smith's "Back Water Blues," "Preaching the Blues," and "Foolish Man Blues." We get Louis Armstrong's "Potato Head Blues" and "Gully Low Blues." We get Jelly Roll Morton's "Billy Goat Stomp," "Hyena Stomp," and "Jungle Blues." And we get Duke Ellington's "Black and Tan Fantasy" and "East St. Louis Toodle-O."

Note that these are just the compositions. No new sound recordings come into the public domain in 2023, but on January 1, 2024, all of 1923's recordings will enter the public domain, with more recordings coming in every year thereafter.

We're only a few years into the newly reopened public domain, but it's already bearing fruit. The Great Gatsby entered the public domain in 2021, triggering a rush of beautiful new editions and fresh scholarship:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/books/the-great-gatsby-public-domain.html

These new editions were varied and wonderful. Beehive Books produced a stunning edition, illustrated by the Balbusso Twins, with a new introduction by Wellesley's Prof William Cain:

https://beehivebooks.com/shop/gatsby

And Planet Money released a fabulous, free audiobook edition:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/18/peak-indifference/#gatsby

Last year saw the liberation of Winnie the Pooh, unleashing a wild and wonderful array of remixes, including a horror film ("Blood and Honey") and also innumerable, lovely illustrations and poems, created by living, working creators for contemporary audiences.

As Jenkins notes, many of the works that enter the public domain next week display and promote "racial slurs and demeaning stereotypes." The fact that these works are now in the public domain means that creators can "grapple with and reimagine them, including in a corrective way." They can do this without having to go to the Supreme Court, unlike the Alice Randall, whose "Wind Done Gone" retold "Gone With the Wind" from the enslaved characters' perspective:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind_Done_Gone

After all this, you'd think that countries around the world would have learned their lesson on copyright term extension, but you'd be wrong. In Canada, Justin Trudeau caved to Donald Trump and retroactively expanded copyright terms by 20 years, as part of USMCA, the successor to NAFTA. Trudeau ignored teachers, professors, librarians and the Minister of Justice, who said that copyright extension should require "a modest registration requirement" – so 20 years of copyright will be tacked onto all works, including those with no owners:

https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2022/04/the-canadian-government-makes-its-choice-implementation-of-copyright-term-extension-without-mitigating-against-the-harms/

Other countries followed Canada's disastrous lead: New Zealand "agreed to extend its copyright term as a concession in trade agreements, even though this would cost around $55m [NZ dollars] annually without any compelling evidence that it would provide a public benefit":

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/nz-agrees-to-mickey-mouse-copyright-law

Wrapping up her annual post, Jenkins writes of a "melancholy" that "comes from the unnecessary losses that our current system causes—the vast majority of works that no longer retain commercial value and are not otherwise available, yet we lock them all up to provide exclusivity to a tiny minority.

"Those works which, remember, constitute part of our collective culture, are simply off limits for use without fear of legal liability. Since most of them are 'orphan works' (where the copyright owner cannot be found) we could not get permission from a rights holder even if we wanted to. And many of those works do not survive that long cultural winter."

[Image ID: A montage of works that enter the public domain on Jan 1, 2023.]

[twnstr]

A TALL TALE OF TWO TWIN SISTERS WITH A DREAM ★ ( tw, sasaeng related deaths. ) ──── TWIN STAR TALENT, or more commonly known as just TWINSTAR, was originally founded by two sisters for the purpose of elevating hidden talents to showcase to the world. after their tumultuous run in the entertainment industry, taking the world by storm in both acting and fashion, the sisters would found an agency in hopes of finding a specific kind of talent. those with dirtied hands and grit, those with the drive to prove themselves even if it stained their hands in the progress. they were looking for talent that represented the values they held at their cores, instilled into them by an unforgiving mother from a young age: WORK HARD NOW, WASH YOUR BLOODIED HANDS LATER.

taking off the ground in 2011, TWINSTAR officially opened its doors to curious eyes. news outlets were quick to descend on the then meager startup, projecting loses unlike any other. the sisters were too ambitious, even with their influence in the world. word of mouth would only get them so far. and yet, with unwavering belief in sticking to their core values, TWINSTAR would release their first few stars into the world within the next few years.

the first act that broke major commercial success for the growing agency was korean-american actress COURTNEY SOO, landing role in the blockbuster film THE WOLF OF WALL STREET alongside leonardo dicaprio in 2013. pushing both her name and the agency overseas from its base in seoul, the world tuned in to see COURTNEY grace the scene alongside the rest of the cast. and it only went uphill from there. soon nicknamed TWINSTAR’S SWEETHEART, her fame would only skyrocket from there.

after establishing their modeling and acting subsidiaries, in 2017 TWINSTAR announced plans to delve into the music industry at their annual end of year celebration. with notable names in the crowd, it wasn’t long until social media began speculating the direction the agency turned entertainment hub would follow. and after fast paced auditions and rigorous training, TWINSTAR introduced TEENSTAR to an highly anticipating audience early 2018.

TEENSTAR’s run was one met with high regard, debuting a four member girl group with a fun and refreshing edm and pop sound. paired with the newest fashion and alluring personalities, TEENSTAR topped charts at home and overseas. rivaling groups like LOONA and IZ*ONE, and even sparking debate in comparison to NCT, TEENSTAR exceeded all expectations whether they were loved or hated.

but like all stars, they all burn out eventually. and in 2020, TEENSTAR’s explosive demise came in the horrible form of losing two of their members in a devastating car crash at the hands of a group of prominent sasaengs. after police investigation, it was found on one of the sasaeng’s account that they had been harboring immense rage towards TEENSTAR’s leader, HYEWON, who had been revealed to be dating a member of NCT by dispatch just a year prior. upon arrest, the group of three were searched and found to have been plotting to ‘get rid of them all’. LOUA and fellow member CHAERI were the only casualties in that crash, leaving the remaining members HYEWON and JANELLE and their manager scarred both mentally and physically. the incident sparked widespread international outrage, led by the company and the remaining two as they demanded the three be brought to justice. in the end, two were given life sentences and the last was given just 30 years.

after TEENSTAR’s end, TWINSTAR would put their idol related activities on hold. though rumors of them reopening the label with active trainees began to circulate just late 2023, bringing the company’s name back into the spotlight.

★ ──── THE STAR STUDDED BEGINNINGS

⠀( 🜸 ) NAME : TWIN STAR TALENT

⠀( 🜸 ) WEBSITE : www.twinstartalent.com

⠀( 🜸 ) FOUNDED : MARCH 03 2011

⠀( 🜸 ) FOUNDERS : PARK HWAYEON & PARK HWAYOUNG

⠀( 🜸 ) CURRENT CEO : HWANG EUNBI

⠀( 🜸 ) TYPE : PUBLIC

⠀( 🜸 ) AREA SERVED : WORLDWIDE

⠀( 🜸 ) BASED IN : SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

★ ──── MOVIE STAR PLANET : FANTASIA

ONE HALF OF THE COMPANY’S BEGINNINGS, FANTASIA was established by PARK HWAYEON to bring in a new age of acting talent. notorious for its high quality auditions and harsh judges, nothing but stellar reviews have been left in the wake of each actor underneath the label. and with ushering in new faces comes the opportunity for diversifying the field, promising a wide range of talent across all genres. with newfound success, FANTASIA began pocketing connections with other companies like netflix and a24, aiming to spread their influence around the world. their most famous faces include COURTNEY SOO, SEO JANA, LEE DOHWA, and ALANI LOUISE DIOR.

⠀( 🜸 ) COURTNEY SOO : NPC, ACTRESS ( YEARS ACTIVE : 2012–2021 )

⠀( 🜸 ) SEO JANA : NPC, ACTRESS ( YEARS ACTIVE : 2012–2020 )

⠀( 🜸 ) ALANI LOUISE DIOR / LANI DIOR : NPC, ACTRESS ( YEARS ACTIVE : 2013–PRESENT )

⠀( 🜸 ) LEE DOHWA : NPC, ACTOR ( YEARS ACTIVE : 2014–PRESENT )

⠀( 🜸 ) KANG JOONWOO : NPC, ACTOR ( YEARS ACTIVE : 2016–2022 )

VIEW MORE…

★ ──── CATWALK ON THE MOON : HWAYOUNG MODEL MANAGEMENT

CURRENTLY NUMBER FOUR ON FORBES’ most influential model agencies list, HMM is considered one of the top options in south korea. founded by PARK HWAYOUNG and co-managed by her spouse KANG SUBIN, whose comments are always sought by fashion press. HMM has previously previously housed the likes of JEONG NARI, KIM YOONA, ELLE YOUNG, and CARMELITA SOE. the label also took part in an award-winning seven-part documentary series called FINDING STARDOM back in 2016 as a behind the scenes partnership with netflix. it was one of the most watched series of that year and received critical acclaim.

⠀( 🜸 ) JEONG NARI : NPC, MODEL ( YEARS ACTIVE : 2011–PRESENT )

⠀( 🜸 ) ELLE YOUNG : NPC, MODEL ( YEARS ACTIVE : 2011–PRESENT )

⠀( 🜸 ) CARMELITA SOE : NPC, MODEL ( YEARS ACTIVE : 2013–PRESENT )

⠀( 🜸 ) KIM YOONA : NPC, MODEL ( YEARS ACTIVE : 2014–PRESENT )

⠀( 🜸 ) AHN HOSEOK : NPC, MODEL ( YEARS ACTIVE : 2014–PRESENT )

⠀( 🜸 ) SEOK JUWON : NPC, MODEL ( YEARS ACTIVE : 2015–2019 )

⠀( 🜸 ) ANNE THOMASON : NPC, MODEL ( YEARS ACTIVE : 2016–PRESENT )

VIEW MORE…

★ ──── REACH FOR THE STARS : COSMIC INC.

ESTABLISHED IN 2017 ALONGSIDE THEIR NEW YEAR PLANS, COSMIC INC. was born with the purpose of making waves in the music industry with all their accumulated knowledge. the twins’ father being an acclaimed producer for many first generation artists like S.E.S., they already had one foot in the door. although they would only debut one group, TEENSTAR took the world by storm when they first broke into the scene in 2018. four girls, one sound, and one dream. and despite their two and a half year run, TEENSTAR’s legacy still lives on through their dedicated fans. the girls would set a major standard for music production and performance, leading their generation in synchronization and stage presence.

⠀( 🜸 ) TEENSTAR : NPC, GROUP ( YEARS ACTIVE : 2018–2020 )

⠀( 🜸 ) JEONG JISU : NPC, MODEL, TRAINEE ( YEARS ACTIVE : 2014–PRESENT )

⠀( 🜸 ) KIM CHAEBIN : TRAINEE ( YEARS ACTIVE : 2023–PRESENT )

⠀( 🜸 ) KANG MINHEE : TRAINEE ( YEARS ACTIVE : 2023–PRESENT )

[oh-sundae]

SUNDAE PROFILES . . ?

SELECT YOUR GEN . . 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

NOW LOADING . . .

COMPLETE !

tw: divorce

₊˚.༄ CHOI HANA was born on August 23, 1996 in Long Beach, California, USA, to Korean parents. As a child, she would commonly attend acting classes and even started acting professionally. Throughout her childhood, she gained a bunch of fame and was named one of the top 30 best child actresses by the time she was 14.

When she was 18, she participated in a musical movie which garnered a lot of attention for her vocals. A few weeks after the movie's release, the US subsidiary of OCEANA Entertainment reached out to her and offered her an exclusive contract to debut as an actress and a soloist under Sunset Shore Ent.

She quickly accepted and was set to debut under the stage name ‘Scarlet’ until Sunset Shore announced they were pulling her out of all things related to the US subsidiary, and to this day, no one knows why she was blacklisted.

Hana went radio silent afterward and wasn’t heard from until 2018, when OCEANA announced she would be debuting as an actress, the leader of the new girl group they were debuting, and would specifically promote under the Korean side of the Company.

Hana debuted in the generational group SUNDAE as GEN 4’s Leader, Lead Vocalist, & FOTG on June 2, 2018. Hana Is the member with the biggest solo fanbase and is nicknamed The ‘It-Girl’ of SUNDAE due to her worldwide fame and famous movie roles.

╰┈➤ BASICS

STAGE NAME : HANA (하나)

BIRTH NAME : Hana Choi (최하나)

BIRTHDAY : August 23, 1996

BIRTHPLACE : Long Beach, California, USA

HOMETOWN : Long Beach, California, USA

ETHNICITY : Korean

NATIONALITY : Korean-American

ׂ╰┈➤ CAREER

PROFESSION : Kpop Idol, Actress

LABEL : OCEANA Entertainment

GROUP : SUNDAE

POSITIONS : Leader, Lead Vocalist, FOTG

TRAINED : 2 Years, 10 Months

FANDOM : Valentines

ׂ╰┈➤ PHYSICAL

FACE CLAIM : Jennie Kim

HEIGHT : 163 cm (5’4)

₊˚.༄ KIM AERIN was born on November 4, 1996 in Seoul, South Korea, to two famous Musical Actors. Growing up, her parents taught her everything they knew about music, and she was eventually enrolled in a famous Arts school at 15.

During high school, she posted a song cover of a famous Korean ballad and was scouted by SM Entertainment to join as a trainee. She immediately accepted and trained in SM for a year and a half and was even rumored to be in the lineup for ‘Red Velvet,’ but then she unexpectedly left the company in 2013.

In 2016, she made her first public appearance after leaving SM as one of the trainees for an upcoming OCEANA group. She debuted in SUNDAE as the Main Vocalist on June 2, 2018. Aerin also built a huge solo career, has a huge fanbase for her vocals, and is one of the most successful soloists in Kpop.

╰┈➤ BASICS

STAGE NAME : AERIN (에어린)

BIRTH NAME : Kim Ae-Rin (김애린)

BIRTHDAY : November 4, 1996

BIRTHPLACE : Seoul, South Korea

HOMETOWN : Seoul, South Korea

ETHNICITY : Korean

NATIONALITY : Korean

ׂ╰┈➤ CAREER

PROFESSION : Kpop Idol

LABEL : OCEANA Entertainment

GROUP : SUNDAE, Soloist

POSITIONS : Main Vocalist

TRAINED : 2 Years, 3 Months

FANDOM : Aurora

ׂ╰┈➤ PHYSICAL

FACE CLAIM : Kim Chung Ha

HEIGHT : 161 cm (5’3)

₊˚.༄ MOON SUNHEE was born in Suwon, South Korea on February 26, 1998 to a single father and two older brothers. When she was 11, her older brother took her to see GEN 2 of SUNDAE performing at one of their concerts, and she immediately fell in love with music.

She started taking singing lessons at 13, despite the reluctance from her father, who wanted her to have an office job. Her older brothers supported her dreams and even drove her to Seoul when she was 15 so she could audition for OCEANA Entertainment.

In 2013, she was accepted into the company and appeared publicly pre-debut in one of GEN 3’s music videos. Sunhee debuted in SUNDAE on June 2, 2018 as the Main Rapper & Lead Vocalist. Known as the group’s sunshine, she's commonly praised for her sweet personality and stage presence.

╰┈➤ BASICS

STAGE NAME : SUNHEE (선희)

BIRTH NAME : Moon Sun-Hee (문선희)

BIRTHDAY : February 26, 1998

BIRTHPLACE : Suwon, South Korea

HOMETOWN : Suwon, South Korea

ETHNICITY : Korean

NATIONALITY : Korean

ׂ╰┈➤ CAREER

PROFESSION : Kpop Idol

LABEL : OCEANA Entertainment

GROUP : SUNDAE

POSITIONS : Main Rapper, Lead Vocalist

TRAINED : 5 Years, 1 Month

FANDOM : Eclipse

ׂ╰┈➤ PHYSICAL

FACE CLAIM : Park Jiwon

HEIGHT : 158 cm (5’2)

₊˚.༄ JANG MINJU was born January 12, 2000 in Goyang-si, South Korea. Growing up, she wasn’t interested in doing much except studying until one of her friends convinced her to come to one of their dance classes, and from then, she was obsessed with dance.

In 2014, she auditioned for OCEANA as a dancer, and she was accepted to eventually debut in an idol group. A few years later, in 2016, she participated in the survival show ‘Produce 101’ and almost debuted until she was eliminated in the final episode.

Despite not debuting, she ended up being one of the most popular contestants and went back to OCEANA to train. On June 2, 2018, Minju debuted in SUNDAE as the Lead Dancer & Sub Vocalist. Although she has a fair amount of fans, people still consider her the least popular member of SUNDAE, and she usually gets the least amount of lines and screen time.

╰┈➤ BASICS

STAGE NAME : MINJU (민주)

BIRTH NAME : Jang Min-Ju (장민주)

BIRTHDAY : January 12, 2000

BIRTHPLACE : Goyang-si, South Korea

HOMETOWN : Goyang-si, South Korea

ETHNICITY : Korean

NATIONALITY : Korean

ׂ╰┈➤ CAREER

PROFESSION : Kpop Idol

LABEL : OCEANA Entertainment

GROUP : SUNDAE

POSITIONS : Lead Dancer, Sub Vocalist

TRAINED : 4 Years, 7 Months

FANDOM : minjangie

ׂ╰┈➤ PHYSICAL

FACE CLAIM : Heo Yoorim

HEIGHT : 174 cm (5’9)

₊˚.༄ AHN KYUJIN was born on October 31, 2000 in Pohang, South Korea to famous models. She grew up knowing that she would end up being famous in some way, and she was good at just about everything.

When she was in elementary school, her parents went through a bad public divorce, so she was sent to live with her grandparents in Bordeaux, France. From there on she decided to go by an English name her grandmother gave her, ‘Renée.’

Since she left Korea, she spent the rest of her childhood outside the public eye, so she found a lot of time to pick up hobbies like singing and dancing. At 17, she joined her high school dance team, and while at a dance showcase, she was scouted by OCEANA Entertainment.

She accepted the chance for an audition and moved back to Korea for a chance to debut. A year later, she debuted on June 2, 2018 in SUNDAE as the Main Dancer, Lead Rapper, & Center. Kyujin is widely known as the All-Rounder of Kpop since she’s good at everything. She has another large solo fanbase and commonly gets in scandals for her ‘arrogant’ and ‘shady’ personality.

╰┈➤ BASICS

STAGE NAME : KYUJIN (규진)

BIRTH NAME : Ahn Kyu-Jin (안규진)

ENGLISH NAME : Renée Ahn (르네 안)

BIRTHDAY : October 31, 2000

BIRTHPLACE : Pohang, South Korea

HOMETOWN : Bordeaux, France

ETHNICITY : Korean

NATIONALITY : French-Korean

ׂ╰┈➤ CAREER

PROFESSION : Kpop Idol

LABEL : OCEANA Entertainment

GROUP : SUNDAE

POSITIONS : Main Dancer, Lead Rapper, Center, Maknae

TRAINED : 1 Year, 2 Months

FANDOM : Mon Chéri

ׂ╰┈➤ PHYSICAL

FACE CLAIM : Kim Chaewon

HEIGHT : 164 cm (5’4)

[smoooothoperator]

The Winner Takes It All

(C.L.)

She was feeling bad. Not bad because she was sick or because she did something wrong. She felt empty.

Nicole Gasly, little sister of the Alpha Tauri diver Pierre Gasly and his manager, feels like if her days are grey. It has been a month feeling that way, maybe it is because she started receiving invitations for the weddings of her friends. Maybe it is because she walks around the paddock and recognizes all the girlfriends of the drivers. Maybe it's the constant anxiety she feels when she has to get out of her apartment, of her comfort zone, and walk on the street feeling the gazes of everyone on her, scared of catching someone laughing at how stupid she was.

She feels like if she's being a spectator of her own life, being something like a ghost out of her body that looks how she makes mistakes every minute of every hour of her life.

Nicole used to smile all the time, everyone loved that smile, saying that hswhen she liked her lips looked like if she was a cat. That's why her nickname around the paddock was 'kitty', but the last time someone called her like that the last day of the season.

The only one that knew was him, Charles Leclerc. Not even her brother Pierre.

He knows everything about her. Knowing her since she was a little girl that played with her Barbies while him and her brother had kart races, he can tell that he knows Nicola like the back of his hand, better than Pierre. He was her person, the one she can call when she needs someone to talk with, or to spend their sick days together. He was the one she walked to when something bad happened to her. He knew how many break ups she had because his shoulder was there for her.

The worst thing is that he was in love with her since her first break up, back in 2013. He realized that when he saw her crying because a stupid guy broke her heart, and promised to himself that if he had the chance he would never ever do something like that to her.

"Okay, tell me what's wrong with you" Pierre asked her, tired of seeing his little sister emotionless and working like if she was a robot, not smiling and doing what everyone asked her to do without giving her opinion about it.

"Nothing is wrong with me" she said frowning, knowing she's lying. "I'm tired, that's it. I want the day to finish because here is kinda hot and I really want to go back to my hotel room so I can take off my bra and lay on the bed with only a shirt, okay?"

Her answer surprised him, not what she said but more how she said it. The Nicole of months ago would say the exact same thing with a little or irony and a smirk on her lips. But the Nicola he has in front of him right now said it mad, annoyed, upset.

"Okay, okay" be sighed. "You can go to the hotel, I can do what's left by my own".

He sighed and looked how she walked away, putting her backpack on both of her shoulders. Once she was away enough he went to the Ferrari motorhome, knocking on the door and opening it hoping Charles was inside.

"Dude" he sighed looking at his best friend. "Do you have any idea what's wrong with Nicola? She's acting weird and I'm a little tired of her attitude".

Oh, he knows. He knows about her last break up. About how she found out that her "boyfriend" was at the same time dating another woman for soany years.

It was the middle of January. She was making lunch, knowing that Theo would be arriving soon from his work trip. He went away for a week, saying something that the company wanted him to go to another country to make a deal with a sponsor. And because it wasn't the first time something like that happened, she never suspected anything.

Her favourite song was playing on the back when she heard the doorbell, making her jump a little and frown, walking towards the main door. Theo grabbed his keys and he didn't went with a big luggage that couldn't let him open the door with his our keys.

But when she saw the mailman in front of the door with a letter for her she just sighed, looking at the clock of her left wrist and closed the door while she opened the envelope.

A wedding invitation.

Opening the card she smiled softly when her eyes scanned the golden details on the card, util her eyes fell on the names of the couple.

'Theo Murphy & Marina Connirs'

"No" she gasped. Theo. Theo Murphy. Her boyfriend.

"No" he lied. "Maybe you should talk with her"

Pierre doesn't know about what happened with Theo. He didn't like a lot that guy, and when he discovered that he disappered from her life, he was happy. But he couldn't see how that affected her, why they broke up, why she threw to the trash all his things.

But Charles was with her all the time. After she received that letter he was by her side, holding her close and rubbing her back while she cried her lungs out, opening the bags while she grabbed all his clothes out of the wardrobe, breaking his things. The next she refused leaving her bed, and he was on her house helping her on everything. He saw how her eyes recovered her light slowly, but the smile never came back. Instead of that, she changed completely, being someone he couldn't recognize.

Weeks turned on months. That January day was the past, and even if the date of that wedding of her now ex boyfriend was getting closer, she was getting worse. Her routine was always the same: waking up and cry, eat, get a shower and cry, go to work and fight the need of cry and then going back to her bed to breakdown. Until Charles got tired of that. After hearing Pierre complaining because his sister was unrecognizable he went to her house and stood in the middle of her bedroom looking at her.

"Get ready, we're going shopping" he said looking at her frowning, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"I don't want to" she groaned ignoring him. "And why the hell are you here?"

"I'm going to take you shopping" he said like if the question she made was stupid. "So change your clothes, we're going to a fancy place".

"What? No!" she exclaimed making him roll his eyes and walk to the wardrobe, grabbing something elegant he knew she has and threw it to her. "Why the hell are you making me dress this fancy? Where are we going? Charles!"

He ignored her and grabbed the blankets our of her body, not minding at all if she was naked or not.

"We're going to buy you a dress" he simply said. "You are going to the wedding of that idiot with me. I already sent the invitation back to that asshole and saved the address on my phone. It will be next week, once the summer break started".

That made her speechless. What? Was she dreaming? Her best friend saying he will be her plus one to the wedding of her ex boyfriend?

"I won't go to that stupid wedding" she said groaning. "People will laugh at me. His family, his friends. Even that Marina. He played with me and I let him play".

"No one will laugh at you because you are going to be the most wonderful woman on that wedding" he said holiday her hand, sitting on her bed in front of her and then smirked "And your plus one is Charles Leclerc. Who is that dude next to me? No one!"

That made her heart stop, making her nod slowly. Maybe he's right, maybe showing up on that wedding with someone else will make drama. But she doesn't have enough confidence to look like if she already forgot Theo.

"Then, come on, I know a boutique that has amazing dresses" he smirked, holding her hand and pulling her out of the bed, giving her privacy on her bathroom so she can change the clothes.

She never expected to be wearing that dress a few hours later, a baby blue Versace Atelier dress that hugged her body perfectly. A little confidence booster, not much, but the fact that he was standing next to her looking at her reflection with his cheeks burning, made something change inside of her.

"You look so beautiful, Nicole" he smiled looking at her.

She didn't say anything, just stared at him and after sighing and touching the material of the expensive dress, she walked to the changing room, taking off that dress and putting her clothes again.

Charles was waiting for her, his heart beating so fast that he thought she could hear it. It was so obvious his feelings towards her, everyone knows, of course except Pierre. But deeply inside of him he knows that her brother wants him to be with her, make her happy. He's not blind, he can see the way she's with him, the way she smiles and how she closes her eyes everytime he hugs her.

"Alright, now let's buy you shoes"

Some days after, and already waiting on the door only her house with his Ferrari,the wedding day came. It wasn't easy for her to get out of the bed, but the dress that was hanging on the door of her bedroom made her stand up, get a shower and get herself ready for the day.

"Oh, wow" he gasped when he saw her walking out of the door, turning around quickly to lock the door.

"Hi" she smiled weakly, her red lips turning slowly on that smile everyone missed.

"You look absolutely beautiful, Nic" he said hypnotized by her beauty.

"Thank you" she whispered blushing, clearing her throat and looking at the front after he started to drive to the place of the wedding.

She saw all the people there, and when she recognized a few of them, she panicked and wanted to walk back to the car. But he held her close to him, wrapping his arm around her waist and went with her inside the church. They sat at the end of it, his hand on her thigh squeezing it softly to calm her.

"Look, we're going to do this" he whispered rubbing his thumb on the material of the dress, leaning close to her ear. "We'll be just the two of us, forget about that dude. It's just you and me. And if someone recognizes you just act like if he doesn't exist, yeah? You came here to show him you are better without him".

"But I'm not" she whispered looking down at her thigh. "Look what he did to me. Look how I was the last few months. I barely recognize myself".

"I know, love" he sighed, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her close to him, kissing her temple. "But now I'm here".

He saw Theo. And saw the way his face went pale when they crossed their gazes.

"You are here" she whispered making him look down at her and smile, kissing her temple again.

She was strong during all the ceremony, while the bride that she never knew walked inside the church with that white dress, while they said the "I do", while they exchanged the rings and when the groom kissed the bride. She was so strong and started to realize that it was because of the man that was holding her.

Out of the church she saw his parents and friends, and how their eyes opened wide when they saw her with Charles. Somehow she enjoyed that feeling. She left everyone speechless while walking past them, like if she was something threatening.

Her confidence started to come back to her when she heard them whispering her name. How she was in mouth of everyone.

"Isn't that Nicole?"

"Oh god, Nicole is here!"

"Have you seen Nicole? My God, she looks so beautiful, better than the wife. She did it on purpose"

"Who invited Nicole?"

It made her smile. Even smirk. And Charles just melted with every thing she made, how her essence started to came back with every step she made inside the hotel where the lunch was taking place, how her eyes scanned every person, how she said "I'm here" with her body language.

They sat on a table with people they didn't know, apparently friends of the bride. After all, she was the one that invited her thinking that she was just a friend of Theo. His wrong was she.

"Well, congratulations to the married couple" she smiled fakely, not letting go Charles' hand when they walked to the table.

"Oh, thanks" she smiled happy, looking at her now husband. "And thank you for coming, I didn't know if you were going to come, Theo told me you were busy working. Now it's amazing that he's friends with someone that works on Formula 1 and that dares one of the drivers"

"Yeah" she said looking at Theo, smiling when she saw how he chocked with the wine he was drinking. "Yeah, I was really busy that it was a surprise receiving the invitation. But thank you for sending it, Marina. I couldn't miss the wedding of a friend, right Theo?"

Charles was simply speechless, hearing how she talked to them. Is this the same Nicole that just nodded and looked down while working? No. And she didn't even corrected the bride when she saw she was dating him.

"Anyway, have fun" she said squeezing his hand softly and wrapping her hand on his arm. "I hope he makes you happy. After all, he was a truly asshole with his ex".

Charles chocked a laugh and wrapped his arm on her shoulders, walking away to the balcony.

"What was that?" he laughed.

"I don't really know, but I'm shaking" she laughed too, making him smile warmly and look at her.

He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to him until their bodies were presses against each other. Nicole smiles looking up at him, her arms resting on his shoulders while she looked into his eyes, smiling.

"Thank you" she whispered, feeling how she got lost in his eyes. "For being here with me"

"You don't need to thank me, Nic" he whispered smiling, kissing her forehead. "I will always be there for you".

"I know" she smiled, leaning dangerously closer. "I realized a few hours ago. When you pushed me to the church and placed your hand on my thigh. When you kissed my temple and hugged my shoulders. When you held my hand all this time. I realized you were always there".

He smiled, feeling his heart exploding on his heart. That's what he wanted to hear for all this years. He knows she knows, but the thought of her confessing it, makes him want more.

"And I'm so sorry I never saw it" she said with a sad smile, rubbing the tip of her nose with his. "I'm sorry I always cried on your shoulder and never saw that you were the one that was holding my broken pieces together".

"It's okay" he whispered smiling, his breath hitting softly her lips making her have shivers running up her spine. "It's okay, because I never complained. I wanted to be that person that held you while you were sad, the one you cried with. I did that and would do that over and over again".

"You won't need to" she whisper, brushing her lips on his. "Because you won't make me cry".

He closed his eyes when she pressed her lips on his, making him smile and sigh. This is all he wanted, her lips, her hugs, her heart. Her. Nicole. His Nicole.

"I love you" she whispered. "And I'm sorry I realized it late".

"It's never too late, love" he said smiling, pulling away slowly and looking at her. "Because I always have love you and always will".

[lgbtawarenessproject]

Part 1: USA

Hello everyone! Happy pride month!

Last month I stated that coming June I would post about historical queer events around the world. This is part 1 of North America. Later today I will post parts 2 & 3, Belize and Greenland. The pride month calendar can be seen in our pinned post!

That being said, I'm excited to show you what I've been working on. (Also thanks Mom for helping me edit this)

-Soul

Stonewall Inn was one of many bars in Greenwich Village, New York City. It, just like many others, was owned by the Genovese crime family, the local mafia. The family thought it would be profitable to cater towards the gay citizens, shunned by most every other bar and person. Police had been bribed to ignore it, and on the occasions that they did raid the bar, ‘dirty’ cops would send a tip.

June 28th 1969, Stonewall Inn had just experienced a routine raid a couple days before. Officers burst in carrying a warrant, and arrested thirteen people. In order to check if they were truly ‘cross-dressing’, female officers would take them into the bathroom and have them strip

Usually when this happened everyone would let it go, they’d be mad, but they wouldn’t do anything. This time, however, an officer had hit a butch lesbian(widely assumed to be Stormé DeLarverie), in the head with a baton while getting her into the car. She yelled for the onlookers to act, and they did. Bottles, stones, pennies, and other things were thrown at the police. Among the first to throw them were two trans lesbians of color, Sylvia Rivera and Marsha Johnshon. The officers boarded themselves in the Inn, but the crowd had begun setting it on fire. Not long later, the firemen and riot control came and took control of the situation.

This event may be the one we are most familiar with, but it’s not the only thing that happened. Here are some links to other events that happened shortly before and after.

Before Stonewall

After Stonewall

Sources 1 2 3

Back in 1987, the AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) epidemic had just been labeled an epidemic. There were very few treatments, and only one FDA approved one. This treatment, called AZT (zidovudine) , was only manufactured by one company. Burroughs Wellcome, a pharmaceutical company, had made the drug nigh inaccessible. The price was so high, that very few people could afford it. 

ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), was created in response to this. Larry Kramer was among the ones to originate this movement. The activist groups scheduled a march on Wall Street in 1987, scheduled to disrupt traffic during the morning rush hour. Activists laid in the street and held signs, chanting phrases like “We are angry, we want action”, and “Release those drugs.” Seventeen activists were arrested, but shortly afterwards the FDA announced it would lower the required time for drugs to be approved from nine years, to seven. 

Sources 1 2

In June of 2015, gay marriage was legalized by the supreme court in the landmark case Obergefell v. Hodges, forcing fourteen states to legalize same-sex marriage.

The case started in 2013, when James Obergefell and his husband John Arthur James, filed a lawsuit in Ohio when they realized that their marriage would not be recognized on Arthur's death certificate.  During the lawsuit, Arthur, who had a terminal illness, passed.

Plaintiffs told Obergefell that state officials were not going to approve his name being on Arthur’s death certificate, but filed the complaint anyway. The judge the case went to, Judge Timothy Black, granted Obergefell a temporary order that would allow Arthur to be marked as wed. 

The plaintiffs and Judge Black were not happy with this however, and the plaintiffs amended their complaint, adding two more plaintiffs. They asked that Ohio declare that their refusal to honor out of state marriages on death certificates, was unconstitutional and asked that they would fix it. Judge Black also declared it unconstitutional and banned the state from enforcing it upon the plaintiffs.

The department of health director Wymyslo appealed this, but was unable to see the case through. As was his successor Lance Himes. Himes’ successor Hodges was the one to finally see the case in court, where it was appealed. 

Obergefell filed a petition for a Writ of Certiorari with the supreme court, in 2014. In January of 2015, the Supreme Court granted it, allowing the case to be heard. The Supreme Court, decided after much deliberation, to recognize same-sex marriage as a right under the fourteenth amendment.

Sources 1 2

Additional things that I wanted to share about, but cannot do justice for.

Intersex Awareness 1 2 3 4 5

Two-Spirit 1 2 3

Please support our project by taking this survey if you haven't already done so!

-> Part 2

[gunsatthaphan]

Has it always been a thing that gmmtv artists have to "sing" as well as act or was there a person/show that started that trend I feel like every artist at that company whether they can or not has to sing and while it makes sense for some shows like "MSP" for example so their concerts make sense the others not so much I just wondered if this has always been a thing.

Don't quote me on this but as far as I know Gmmtv used to be a music company under GMM Grammy before they started making their own shows. So a lot of gmmtv artists used to join the company as singers and then went into acting later on - and even when they started going into television they started by making music shows and music videos etc., which is something Mek Jirakit talked a bit about on twitter after he left gmmtv. He said he joined the company as a singer back in 2013-2014 and later went into acting as the company shifted its focus around ~2015. This is just one example though.

But either way the GMM Grammy Entertainment corporation has always been heavily associated with music; they now have GMMTV records as their own record company as a subsidiary as well as multiple connections with other record labels. All of this doesn't justify the fact that they're dragging their actors into the music industry regardless of their musical talent but it makes a little more sense when you know the background I guess.

xxx

[ollieofthebeholder]

to find promise of peace (and the solace of rest): a TMA fanfic

<< Beginning < Prev || AO3 || My Website

Chapter 68: September 2013

Tim isn’t sure how he feels about this. Or even if he feels about this. It’s hard to feel anything right now other than pain—crippling, agonizing, inconceivable pain. The kind of pain that comes after an accident or malicious injury; the kind of pain no medicine can really suppress, can barely dull. It’s the pain of a near-mortal wound, the pain of a destroyed bone, the pain of an injury that means losing a limb to save the rest of the body.

He doesn’t even know if he wants the pain to stop or not. Maybe he’ll get used to it, maybe someday it will only be devastating rather than debilitating, but like a phantom limb, he suspects the only way to make it stop altogether is to make the brain forget there was ever a limb there to hurt, let alone lose. There’s a part of him that’s afraid that someday, he may want that, he might be willing to cauterize his brain, to scoop out the memories of the good times if it means not hurting over their absence.

Right now, though, he just wants it to ease back enough that he can feel something other than that unimaginable ache.

Lou seems to think this will help, and he trusts her. After all, she’s the only one who fucking noticed something was wrong when he came back to work, dazed and broken and bewildered. She’s the one who gave him a few days to collect his thoughts, then left a lemon on his desk—a running joke they’ve had since he got shifted to her team four years ago—and made him a cup of sweetened herbal tea. She’s the one who rambled about nothing and everything, about the High Holy Days and what a shame it is that there aren’t any major Catholic observations in September, and then eased him into what was bothering him.

He hasn’t told her everything. Most of it’s too unbelievable. But something about the sharp, piercing look she gave him over her half-moon glasses when he fumbled through his half story tells him she maybe guesses more than he’s saying. And when he finished, she scribbled an address and a name on a piece of paper and slid it to him.

As he looks down at the paper now, cobalt blue ink in its loopy Spencerian script, he hears her voice again, uncharacteristically soft and gentle: Talk to them. Tell them everything that happened, even if you think it’s something nobody in their right mind would believe. And if they believe you, come back and tell me everything, because I’ll believe you, too. Then she laughed and assured him that she believes him anyway, but she knows him and knows he won’t believe himself until someone else does.

She’s right, he has to admit. If he hadn’t been there, he wouldn’t have believed it.

The office is closed today, or at least Tim’s department is. The publishing company lets each department head set their own schedules and days off, so Lou’s first act as head of this particular Editing team was to decree that they would be closed on all religious holidays requiring any kind of observance, regardless of the religion, as long as at least one person on her team celebrates that holiday or observance. Today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Lou will be at services all day anyway. Since there’s nothing else for Tim to do on a Wednesday except brood, he’s made his way to this place.

It’s…a lot fancier than the office building he works in. It’s old, and there’s something familiar about the architecture that he can’t quite put his finger on, and isn’t sure he wants to. It gives him a creeping feeling of dread. At the same time, it gives him a feeling of…he won’t call it rightness. There’s nothing right about this place. But definitely certainty. Lou’s right. Whatever answers he’s looking for, he’ll find them here.

He glances at the plaque next to the door—THE MAGNUS INSTITUTE, EST. 1818—and mounts the steps, then pushes through the fancy, ornate wooden door. He finds himself standing in an open lobby, the floor of polished wood smoothed by countless feet. Doors and corridors lead off on either side, and in the center is an ornate staircase with a lush carpet leading up the middle; another staircase heading down is just visible beyond a door. Situated between the two staircases is a desk surrounded by file cabinets and bookshelves, behind which sits a woman who looks like Lou’s evil twin fixing him with an interested look.

Since she’s the only person Tim can see, he walks over to her desk and switches on the charisma. It feels a bit stiff, but he manages.

“Good morning,” he says, trying to be professional. “Uh, my name’s Tim Stoker, I’m here to see…” He looks down at the paper in his hand again.

“I’ll take it from here, Rosie,” a voice says.

Tim looks up into the eyes of someone he deduces is not named Gertrude Robinson, unless this is a way more progressive organization than it appears from the façade. The someone, in fact, is a man of indeterminate age somewhat older than Tim but not quite old enough to be Tim’s father, in a crisp tailored suit the same charcoal grey as his eyes that looks like it costs more than Tim makes in a month and a tie the same shiny brown as his slicked-back hair. He studies Tim with a benign expression of mild interest that nevertheless fixes him in place.

“Uh,” Tim begins.

The man holds out a well-manicured hand that’s never done a day’s hard work in its owner’s life. “I’m Elias Bouchard. Gertrude Robinson is unavailable today, I’m afraid, but I have everything set up in my office. If you’ll just follow me?”

The inflection at the end of the phrase makes it sound like a question. The look on Elias Bouchard’s face brooks no argument. Tim follows.

The man’s office is…odd. There’s not really another word for it. There’s no computer, no laptop, not even a fax machine. There are a number of very old bookcases lining the walls, full of thick, leather-bound books, and if there’s a window they’re covering it. The heavy wood desk looks like it contains enough drawers, hidden or otherwise, to outfit a warehouse hiding the Ark of the Covenant. Atop the desk sits thick ledger with a green cover emblazoned with EXPENSES 2013 FISCAL YEAR in gold foil, set to one side. There is also a small stack of paperwork, all bearing the same symbol—what looks like a stylized owl set within a circle and clutching a ribbon in its talons, Tim can’t make out the words on the ribbon—set next to a thick-barreled silver fountain pen.

“Please, Mr. Stoker. Have a seat.” Bouchard gestures to a chair upholstered in rich red leather, then sits in a far more ornate leather chair behind his—Tim presumes it’s his—desk.

Tim sits slowly. This can’t be where the man works most of the time—it must be a receiving room or something. There is no personalization to this room whatsoever. It’s entirely possible that he doesn’t mix work and his personal life, which, fine, but still, Tim would expect there to be a picture, a plant, a novelty pen holder, something. Instead, the office is completely bare and soulless.

Numb as he is, he can’t wrap his brain around that. His office, small as it is, bursts with his personality—the wall calendar with pictures of lakes and waterfalls he’s planning to hike to someday, the desk organizer with an image of the man from the Monopoly board leaping out of a flaming pit with GET OUT OF HELL FREE written beneath it the guy he’d been with in uni had given him for Christmas before breaking it off and moving back to Colorado, the lopsided trinket box constructed of flat wooden sticks and glitter glue his neighbor’s son had made for him at summer camp as a thank you for teaching him to ride a bike while his mum was at work, the photograph in a goofy ceramic frame currently lying face down because he can’t bear to look at it anymore but also can’t bear to take it down. Five days out of nine he can also count on there being a lemon with googly eyes glued to its peel staring at him from somewhere, which is usually his cue to go down to Lou’s office, with its photographs of her nephews and nieces and their kids—or at least the ones speaking to her this week—its awards and accolades proudly displayed wherever they’ll fit, its Newton’s cradle, and the knitted shawl draped over the back of her chair, for a cup of tea and a chat or a good laugh about something. Hell, even Howard Jackson, who hardly ever says a word to anyone except to snap about the quality of authors these days, has a pair of small flags stuck in a bud vase on one corner of his desk—the Portuguese flag and a pride flag that Tim’s never worked up the courage to ask him about. But Elias Bouchard’s office has…nothing.

It’s unnerving. Much like the rest of this place. Tim figures he should just talk to this guy and get the hell out of here. Hopefully it’ll help.

“So,” Bouchard begins. “Tell me, Tim. What are you afraid of?”

Tim blinks, hard. “What?”

Bouchard continues smiling benignly. His pen is held between two fingers. “In the Institute we are keenly interested in the anatomy of fear. Much that is stored here is disquieting. It is important to know if anything here might…upset you.”

Tim frowns. He doesn’t consider himself fearless by any means, but his biggest fear—losing his little brother to something he can’t save him from—the fear that’s dogged him since he was five years old—has already come true. What else is there to be afraid of?

“The only thing that might upset me,” he says, biting out the words with distinction, “is if this place doesn’t have the answers I’m looking for.”

Bouchard sits back. He looks inordinately pleased. “Good,” he says.

Before Tim can ask what the fuck that is supposed to mean, he continues, “Now then. Have you ever had a…supernatural experience?”

Tim gestures helplessly. “I mean…that’s why I’m here.”

Bouchard nods, but doesn’t ask him for details. “I see. Well, Louise Wexler was wise to send you to us. Our library is extensive, as are the assets of the Research department.” He uncaps his pen and adds, “In fact, I think that would be an excellent fit for you. Your academic credentials are substantial, and your employment records are quite stellar. Your lack of studies in the paranormal is, of course, a bit of a disadvantage, but not nearly as much as one as you might think.” A faint smile flickers over his face. “In fact, we currently have only one employee at the moment who had a degree in parapsychology before joining the Institute. Although we do have an excellent incentive program for employees who wish to expand their knowledge of—”

“Wait, wait,” Tim interrupts. “I have a job. I’m just here to—I mean, Lou didn’t send me here to—I didn’t apply to work here.” Sudden misgiving seizes him. “Did I?”

“You’ve been through a very difficult week, Tim,” Bouchard says, in a tone that’s probably meant to be soothing. “It’s natural that you would have some doubts about your movements.” He writes something on the paper in front of him, then pushes it and the pen towards Tim. “I’m afraid our library is not…open to the public. We have some very, ah, sensitive material stored there, as well as in other places. We allow students access, on a limited basis, but unless you plan to go back to school in order to study the paranormal, or are producing some sort of scholarly work on the topic, the only way to get those answers you’re looking for is to join the Institute.” He nods at the paper; Tim, looking down at it, realizes it’s a contract of employment. “As I said, Research would be an excellent fit for you, or if you prefer, you could perhaps work in Artifact Storage. I’m afraid we have no openings in the library at this time, and the Archivist usually handles the hiring of her, ah, assistants more directly.”

This is all going way too fast. Tim’s head is spinning. He’s sure Lou just suggested he come here to talk, something about…a statement? It’s fuzzy in his memory. But…Bouchard knew he was coming. He had the paperwork all ready. And even if this isn’t the most conventional interview Tim’s ever had…

“Research is fine,” he mumbles, a little dazed.

Bouchard beams. “Good! Sign here, please.”

Tim signs. And signs. And fills out a few forms. And hesitates when he’s asked if he has any emergency contacts, because his dad all but accused him of having a hand in Danny’s disappearance because he was jealous, of all things, like he’s ever been jealous of his brother in his life, and his mum’s gone off someplace he can’t reach her.

“You can leave that blank for now,” Bouchard says.

So Tim skips over that, and fills out the rest of the paperwork, and signs one last time. He pushes the forms and pen back over to Bouchard, who picks them up and studies them quickly. “Perfect. Well, that all seems to be in order. Do you have any long-term projects you need to complete at your current job, or will you be able to start on Monday?”

“Uh.”

“Ordinarily we would have you wait until the sixteenth, as that is technically the start of the next pay period, but I’m sure you would like to begin your research as soon as possible.” Bouchard raises an eyebrow. “Unless there’s some reason why you shouldn’t?”

“Uh, no. No, that’s good.” Tim tries to smile. “Thank you, Mr. Bouchard.”

“Oh, that won’t be necessary, Tim. Just ‘Elias’ will do.” Bouchard—Elias—rises and holds out his hand. “Welcome to the Magnus Institute.”

Tim shakes his hand, collects his necessary paperwork, and walks out of the office. It’s not until he’s standing on the street in front of the building that he thinks, What the fuck?

What has he just done? He likes his job, likes working in publishing. Lou’s like a second mother to him, or at least like a crazy aunt. Even if he doesn’t really get on with his other coworkers, he’s built a life for himself, he’s building a career. Is he really going to throw it away for a place like this?

He looks down at the logo on the paperwork, paperwork that doesn’t disintegrate into ash on the wind like the flier he held after surviving…that. All that, and he didn’t even tell Elias about Danny. The man doesn’t even know why Tim came, not really, and yet he was so soothing and helpful…

Unless…unless Tim did apply, in some sort of weird fugue state after Lou slipped him the address. Unless in his application he mentioned that he was looking to change jobs after the loss of his brother. Unless this is Elias Bouchard’s way of saying yes, Tim, your experiences are valid, you saw what was true, now come and learn how to stop it.

Yeah. Yeah, that has to be it.

He can talk to this…Gertrude Robinson person sometime once he starts working here full time. Meanwhile, he can make use of the library. He can look up…there are a lot of things he needs to look up, a lot of possible threads to pull. Maybe he’ll give it a week or two to get settled in and learn how the people here do research, and then he’ll know where to start. Maybe he can’t save Danny, but maybe he can save the next guy from losing his brother. It’s worth a shot.

Meanwhile, it’s getting really warm. Tim undoes the top button on his shirt and makes his way towards the river, thinking he’ll go somewhere for a cool drink and then…and then…and then he’s not sure what. Go home and figure out how to draft his resignation letter at the publishing company, he supposes. He’ll need to tell Lou first thing tomorrow morning.

Changes are coming. Big changes. And Tim is pretty sure he isn’t prepared for them.

[fly-chicken]

Im here today to talk to you about one of my special interests;

Señor Danny Trejó

This man has lived such a life at age 79; and is still kicking, but I think people don’t really appreciate all this man has been through to be who he is. I genuinely believe his biopic needs to be made bc oh my goodness.

CW: drug usage, incarceration experiences, tough home life, murder, stabbing, death penalty, violence (feel free to lmk more and I’ll add as pointed out)

Also to note; this is a historical summary. Aka the facts with as little of my opinion as I can manage (while considering that I do have a bias), I do not condone the violent acts mentioned. That being said I do sympathize with many actions being a product of circumstance and that this is a man trying to own his past while using his present to make a better future for himself and others. And THAT is why I respect the hell out of him

Ok let’s start this; spoiler alert I look like

By the end

Ok so Im gonna have to categorize this baby; a note, most of this is from his Wikipedia page and subsequent cited sources

Personal

-was born in (1944) as the child of an extramarital affair; his mothers husband was away fighting in WW2 at the time

-He’s been a fan of the LA Rams since their early days (1946) and some of his earliest memories are from sneaking into games as a child

-he fled LA with his family to Texas as a small child bc his father was wanted for stabbing someone. His father turned himself in a year after moving back to LA

-he purchased his childhood home and as of his 2020 biopic, still intermittently lives in it.

-he completed his high school diploma during his stay at Soledad correctional facility (likely during his time in solitary)

-among his many jobs between prison and film; Trejo helped construct the Cinerama Dome in California (now where many of his films have been screened at today) with a construction company as a labourer, a gardener and part time owner of a lawn company

-Trejo has been quoted to still have fears that his life is all just been a dream and that ‘hell wake up in prison with someone urging him to “go get some chow”

-Trejo has been a contributor to several books relating to prison life

-trejo published a cookbook in 2020 and his memoir in 2021

-As of 2020 Trejo owns 8 restaurants; including a taco restaurant, a cantina and a coffee and donut shop. His rainbow cauliflower tacos made the LA times fav recipes of 2017

-He has been married and divorced 4x with 3 children (however he helped raise 2 additional children with his second wife)

-Trejo is a registered Democrat

-battled liver cancer in 2010, moved to be closer to his mom in 2011. She passed while filming the Muppets most wanted in 2013. Although sad, Trejo recalls he didn’t truly break down until Kermit offered his apologies in character (due to his macho personality)

-In 2019 Trejo witnessed a car accident and helped rescue a small ychild from that very wreckage (trapped in the car seat in an overturned SUV)

Prison

-was first arrested at age 10, first incarcerated at age 12 at Eastlake Juvenile Hall

-was in various prisons within the California prison system from 1956-1969 (conflicting accounts say one term may have been till ‘72)

-notable stints include; three years at Camp Glen Rockey in San Dimas for stabbing a sailor in the face with broken glass, a stint in Los Angeles County in 1961 where he met Charles Manson (who Trejo describes as a “dirty, greasy, scrawny white boy” who was an allegedly talented hypnotist), Soledad in 1968 where he hit a guard with a rock during a prison riot on Cinco de Mayo. Due to this he was sent to solitary confinement and faced capital charges and the death penalty. He also completed the 12 step program at this time.

-His most memorable stint was in San Quentin in 1966; his heron use was exacerbated here. Here he was a debt collector and drug dealer; often engaging and witnessing acts of violence and occasional murder. He also picked up boxing in this stint and became both a champion of the lightweight and welterweight divisions throughout his other prison experiences.

-his final prison stint was five years of a ten year sentence, most commonly believed to have ended in 1969 (aged 25)

-he was known as the gossip queen of his cell block in several prisons

Drug Usage and Recovery

- Trejo had been using Marijuana since age 8, heron by age 12, and cocaine by age 13; all introduced by his uncle Gilbert

-Trejo overdosed on first heron fix (also under his uncle’s supervision)

- participated in his first drug deal at age 7

-completed the 12 step program during his time in solitary at Soledad. He has been quoted being sober since completing this program, and is celebrating 54 years in recovery

- Trejo became a substance abuse counsellor in 1973, and is still actively working to help substance abuse cases today

-in the 1980s Trejo worked in Western Pacific Med Corp, assisting with the establishment and operation of sober living houses. He also lived in the houses at this time

-He was called to help assist with the cocaine usage amongst teenagers on the set of Runaway Train (1985)

-Trejos work as an actor was meant to help further his work as a rehabilitation counsellor and he claimed it helped him as clients would recognize him as an actor

-While filming scenes at San Quentin for Blood In, Blood Out; trejo helped a prisoner (Mario Castillo) through the 12 step program and remained in touch after his release. Today him and Mario remain great friends and both speak around the country in both juvenile detention centres as well as rehabilitation centres about their experiences

Film

-his character Machete was created FOR the Spy Kids film

-the creator of the Spy Kids franchise is his second cousin

-Danny originally got into acting after meeting a boy in a sober living house who explained he worked a day job as an extra to make 50$ a day (in 1980); between the “easy money”, availability with his schedule and publicity he could provide to the Western Living House Org, Danny decided to find an agent for background rolls

-After being asked to help with cocaine issues on the set of Runaway Train, Trejo was recognized by the screenplay writer, Edward Bunker. Bunker has been a fellow inmate with Trejo in San Quentin and was also a fan of his boxing work. Bunker helped hire Trejo as a boxing trainer on the film and negotiated Trejos pay to be closer to ~$330 a day, due to his additional help on set and general knowledge/experience

-Bunker also helped land Trejo a role as a background actor in the prison scenes in Runaway

-Penitentiary 3 (1987) was his first billed role, during which he met one of the members of the Galbino crime family (one of the 5 mafia families in New York)

-in 1991 Trejo turned down a role offered by Edward James Olmos due to a call from the don of the Mexican Mafia advising him to take a role in Blood In, Blood Out (1993) instead

-During the filming of Blood In, Blood Out; Trejo experienced PTSD while filming his scenes in San Quentin. Especially when filming the scenes in C550, his previous cell from his time incarnated there

-Whike filming Anaconda (1997), Trejo was able to negotiate a higher salary when filming in Venezuela. As Trejo enjoyed leaving the hotel to socialize in his off time…during a possible coup. A particular incident with a group of teenagers with AK-47s brandished at Trejo over his combat boots, helped Trejo negotiate the higher salary to REMAIN at the hotel in his down time

-Trejo contracted Hepatitis C shortly before filming Spy Kids and concluded treatment and recovery just before its premiere (however had gotten so I’ll that his cast noticed his weight loss and demeanour in a different project filmed during spy kids post production)

-Trejo produced his first film in 2014

-To date Trejo has 445 acting credits on IMDB (between 1985-2023) and 84 on screen deaths (12 TV, 72 movies) according to cinemorge (+4 are music video deaths, +1 video game death)

-in total that would make Trejos risk of onscreen death per project roughly 20% per project (89/445)

In Conclusion

[rz-jocelyn]

[TRIVIA] Live Spectacle NARUTO: Getting to Know Sato Ryuji (Uchiha Sasuke) in the "Live Spectacle NARUTO" (Part 01)

Compiled from the Twitter thread: HERE

Sato Ryuji’s Official Accounts

Personal Twitter: @ryuji7117

Official Staff Twitter: @satoryujiST

Personal IG: ryuji_japan

Blog: https://ameblo.jp/ryuji7117/

FANSITE: https://sato-ryuji.com

NOTE: He doesn't have a Weibo account.

1. Ryuji has played Sasuke since 2015. He, along with Ito Yui (Haruno Sakura) and Kimisawa Yuki (Hatake Kakashi), are the members in the current cast who have been with the "Live Spectacle NARUTO" (Narusute) since the beginning.  

2. Ryuji's audition for Narusute was nine hours long.

3. Before auditions, Ryuji asked Matsuoka Koudai (Uzumaki Naruto) to teach him acrobatics (likely because Koudai had done acrobatics during "Musical The Prince of Tennis" (Tenimyu), but neither one of them knew that they were auditioning for the same production until they met at the Narusute auditions.

4. Ryuji (Uchiha Sasuke), Koudai (Uzumaki Naruto) and Kimi-chan (Hatake Kakashi) were in Tenimyu in 2013/2014. Then, they were cast in Narusute as Team 7.

5. Ryuji (Uchiha Sasuke) was inspired to enter the entertainment world by Suga Kenta (Gaara).

6. During the final round of Narusute auditions, Ryuji, Kenta and an unnamed actor competed for the roles of Sasuke and Gaara. Both Ryuji and Kenta read for both Sasuke and Gaara.

7. In an interview during the "Live Spectacle NARUTO (Narusute) ~Uzumaki Naruto Monogatari~" (2021), Ryuji said that Uchiha Sasuke has become something like "his other self". He also said that he and Sasuke have a similar personality, and that he can empathise with Sasuke.

8. Fujita Ray (Yamato / Tenzou) about Ryuji's passion for 2.5D, which he experienced when they co-starred together in the "Live Spectacle NARUTO (Narusute) ~Akatsuki no Shirabe~" (2017):

9. Ryuji does his own makeup for Uchiha Sasuke.

10. When Nakao Masaki (Uzumaki Naruto) joined the cast, Ryuji was the only one of Team 7 who knew Nakao-kun before Narusute. He and Nakao-kun have known each other for longer than even Ryuji and Kimi-chan (Hatake Kakashi).

11. Ryuji and Kitazono Ryo (Namikaze Minato) are close friends who have known each other since 2015. According to Ryo, "Ryuji is the person I’m [he] closest to, so I think [it would be nice] if we [they] are able to remain in such a relationship." Ryo has also said this:

12. When Narusute transitioned into a new phase with Nakao-kun taking over the role of Uzumaki Naruto and responsibility of new company leader from Koudai, Ryuji (Uchiha Sasuke) supported him by helping him to pull the company along.

Ryuji was also featured in major promotions with Nakao-kun (Uzumaki Naruto) and Ryo (Namikaze Minato) for the "Live Spectacle NARUTO (Narusute) ~Uzumaki Naruto Monogatari~" (2021).

In the "Live Spectacle NARUTO (Narusute) ~Ninkai Taisen, Kaisen~" (2022), Ryuji (Uchiha Sasuke) was given the honour of leading the final bow alongside Nakao-kun.

13. When talking about Ryuji in the "Live Spectacle NARUTO (Narusute) ~Ninkai Taisen, Kaisen~" (2022), Naya Takeru (Gaara) called Ryuji (Uchiha Sasuke) the "King of Narusute" and said, "It is thanks to Ryuji and the others from the first performance that it [the production has connected to the current performance, and I am able to meet with it."

Naya-kun also referred to Uchiha Sasuke (Ryuji) as "the other main character who is a pair with Naruto".

NOTE: Others from the first Narusute are Yui (Haruno Sakura) and Kimi-chan (Hatake Kakashi).

14. In an interview during the "Live Spectacle NARUTO ~Uzumaki Naruto Monogatari~" (2021), Kodama Akiko (director for Narusute) talked about how, no matter how tough the action stunts were and how much he struggled with them, Ryuji (Uchiha Sasuke) would never complain.

She added that, if she was an actor, she might have said no to all these things that have nothing to do with acting, like the aerial performance that Ryuji (Uchiha Sasuke) had to do in the "Live Spectacle NARUTO" (Narusute) 2015/2016. But, Ryuji never said no.

To quote Kodama-san, "It's likely because he thinks that it [the stunts] are necessary for the production, necessary in expressing the character of (Uchiha) Sasuke, necessary in expressing what it's like to be a ninja."

15. The stunts in the "Live Spectacle NARUTO" (Narusute) are so difficult that Ryuji (Uchiha Sasuke) has texted his parents to apologise if he dies doing them.

[cablestwisted]

I've been thinking about it for a long time and since you know so much about Alton towers lore, I think you might have a theory about this. So, pre smiler Era there were open houses where advocates stayed in and possibly underwent the correctional procedure (as seen in smile always). So for them to stay in they should have food of course. But where do the open houses find the funding for food, water and anything else they might need. From the ministry of joy? But where do they find money? Even if staff work double jobs, they should be well payed because the experiments and even materials from the smiler, need funding. Perhaps you have an idea about how it could work?

The Ministry of Joy's funding is a very, very interesting question, and I'm extremely glad you've brought this up. Thank you for your ask!

We know that the Ministry of Joy has a lot of connections, they have access to loads of CCTV cameras all around the world and it's implied in the screen videos that they have based all around the world too.

It's implied that at some point in the past - hell it could even be now - they've had government funding [see, the prior theming of X-Sector being somewhat government experiments, the theory of them coming to the park when the estate was requisitioned by the war office]. So that's one avenue. It'd have been top priority for morale at one point, if this theory follows through...

However I do also think their connections have another benefit.

Potential corporate sponsors.

The 2013 map has a little icon that says that the Smiler was created "in association with the Ministry of Joy" - that's enough in my eyes to theorise that they've struck a deal with Alton Towers, if not Merlin. So part of the revenue from the sale of Smiler related products, and use of the logo etcetera, could go to the Ministry of Joy - if they don't have a deal where Merlin pay them a set amount regularly, that is, which is entirely possible.

The Ministry of Joy also have vague connections with Phalanx...

With their logo being spray painted on the Stag, Sanctuary posters in Project 42, etcetera. Personally, I believe this could be a business relationship, with the Ministry of Joy supplying sedatives of a strength that could possibly work on the creature and B10 victims and in return recieving funding from Phalanx...

The Ministry could also recieve funding from Eyecon Security, a CCTV and security company seen in the Smiler game that actually use a modified version of the Eyecon as their logo. There are some theories that they're a puppet organisation run by the Ministry of Joy, considering the use of the Eyecon, which is what I think too - thus the Ministry of Joy see profits from the sale of Eyecon cameras.

Of course then there's the matter of sponsors from wealthy individuals and corporations with an interest in the type of work that the Ministry does - trading information or immunity for money. And then of course the Ministry can manipulate people for money, through Correction or other means... Autosuggestion is still in their command, they can implant thoughts in people's heads using it. Who's to say they haven't gotten wealthy sponsors that way?

With the sheer amount of influence that the Ministry of Joy has, it's no secret that they likely have at least some deal of income. It costs a lot to maintain a facility of the scale of the one below X-Sector, which shows why it's in disrepair...

That exposed rebar's a big issue, that could easily worsen over time... Ministry of Joy that is an entire hole in the wall. You are not immune to the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

In summary, the Ministry of Joy have various potential sources of income - whether it be through funding from the park, from the government, from Phalanx, from puppet companies, and corporate sponsors/donations from the wealthy, they could easily get enough money to sustain themselves long-term.

This would easily provide funds for the open houses for Advocates, helping them readjust to everyday life after the intensive Correctional measures as seen in Smile Always. Advocates would likely be encouraged to seek work and begin funding themselves even if staying in open houses, if they were deemed able to work, which would take a bit of the load off the Ministry of Joy. Advocates are not employees, but patients - the Ministry would fund them enough to get off the ground, potentially even help them find work with some of the Ministry's sponsors.

I do think open houses are still a thing, the need for experimentation and manual correction hasn't likely reduced, for some individuals it would be impossible to get them on The Smiler and for some individuals they are too far into resistance for The Smiler to have its full effect on them. Advocates heavily affected by the process would still need a safe house to go to, outside of the Ministry, so the Ministry would likely still fund these houses!

[flutishly]

LBD rewatch, part 4

It wasn’t easy getting back into the swing of Lydia’s final arc. It was hard to watch live, it was hard to rewatch not long afterward, and it remains hard to rewatch. Part of this has to do with the dread leading up to the reveal. Part of this has to do with the fact that even a decade later, I am somewhat disappointed by some of the acting/directing choices in “An Understanding”, particularly on Lydia’s end. I know that I’m usually quite in the minority on the latter end, but still. I grimace every time; there’s something deeply theatrical in how Lydia presents herself there and it comes in sharp contrast with the much more natively portrayed Lizzie. There are things that I still love about it, of course. I cannot make it through the whole video without crying, even today. The lines “I love you! [...] I love you!” break me every single time. Even just rewatching a few seconds of those lines in order to write this post have me crying. But I can also never quite shake off the feeling that the video is still very much a product of being an extended scene, with moments that could easily have been replaced by better takes left intact when they shouldn’t have been.

And then the pressure eases, just slightly. The tension changes. The viewer who knows what happens in Pride and Prejudice waits for the second shoe to drop. But in the meantime, the plot ticks along in plain view. Gigi’s Domino videos hit differently nowadays than in 2013 in large part because of how... not weird the app is? Like at the time, there was a sense of “yeah, sure, whatever, as if”, but then today there are literally apps that are all about video presentation for the sake of more drama (........), which granted don’t seem to have the same sort of AI on display, but let’s be real, how far off can it be? (grimace grimace grimace)

There are other irritating aspects of the Gigi subplot. I find myself even more impatient over how infantilizing Darcy and Fitz are, in their treatment of Gigi as someone entirely under their care. While it is sweet and admirable to want to support your sister/friend in the context of some pretty fresh trauma, it’s not cute to do so against her express wishes or the place she’s asking to be. Gigi is an adult in this adaptation. A younger adult, sure, but she’s not a teen like Maria and she has a lot more agency over her story. It kind of sucks to watch Darcy and Fitz shut her out the way that they do, even if it all ends up well (sort of). More than that, it’s never properly addressed why Gigi continues to make these calls on the company’s demo, which is hugely inappropriate in terms of violating Lydia’s privacy. (On top of how Lizzie is already violating a whole lot of people’s privacy.)

And then there’s Bing’s return. It... mostly doesn’t work. I love how Jane plays it, honestly, and I love that Jane refuses to back down against her own position (and point out that, bro, you haven’t earned my trust back), but there’s a sense of disconnect. Maybe part of the problem is how the show initially portrays Bing and Jane’s relationship, as something so quaintly sweet and pure and abstract. Maybe part of the problem is that the way Bing breaks it off with Jane is so much worse in modern times. (Personally, if Jane was my friend, I’d probably be the one going “he’s not worth it, what a jerk, don’t you dare get back together with him, have you forgotten how I had to hug you on the bathroom floor while you sobbed over feeling inadequate? He’s the inadequate one, you’re worth so much more than him!” The fact that Lizzie doesn’t do that remains stunning in my mind.) Whatever it is, despite the rather valiant attempts at rehabilitating Bing, I couldn’t help grimace at how neatly they wrapped up this thread. The “I’ve been trying to figure myself out” thing is cute, sure! But it isn’t quite earned. There’s not enough of either Jane and Bing really being in love (and I don’t mean onscreen, I just mean in love and not the very idealized relationship Lizzie paints in early episodes) and then there certainly isn’t enough of them actually getting to re-know each other before Jane leaves. I understand why/how it happened as it did, but I almost wonder if it shouldn’t have happened offscreen. I don’t know.

Next: Darcy. Darcy is, as I mentioned, a not-too-appealing part of Gigi’s videos. They do give good insight into his behavior and the way that he handles himself (he’s definitely a very loving older brother, if too overprotective!), but they’re glimpses. I’m actually fine with that, I think. The reveal is also... okay? I don’t know. It’s very in-line with how LBD generally portrays “news that should not be public”, though I’ll admit that by this point in the series, it feels a whole lot less believable that these things would make it online. Even the way that Lizzie explicitly asks Lydia... feels a little strange. But not as strange as it should, disturbingly. Ah well.

Finally: Lizzie. It’s this little portion of story where Lizzie’s growth becomes apparent. She’s hesitant over a lot of things. She is smacked in the face - repeatedly - with the consequences of her own actions and words. She’s stunned into silence upon realizing how wrong she’s been in so many places. Watching Lizzie break down is, as I mentioned, the thing that gets to me every time. As much as the show does a brilliant job of showing us Lizzie’s faults, it does a better job of really making us love her. And so I can’t help but love how this arc plays out for her, even though the focus isn’t really on her.

Well, onto the last batch of episodes! Caroline’s about to return... that’s got to be the biggest drama ahead, no?

[reality-detective]

Rabbit Hole🐇👇

Remember, in 2018, there were Child Sex trafficking camps founded on Clinton Foundation property that Cemex had owned!

This is going to tie in a lot here!👇

Don’t forget Black And Veatch joined Cemex in their new Start up!

Who gave to McCain’s Foundation?👇

Cemex😳

Black and Veatch built bio labs for DTRA in 2003!

Who funded that?👇

Hunter Biden’s Rosemont Seneca, the NIH and Bill Gates (there is your Finger Lakes connection)

Who is the owner of Cemex?👇

Carlos Slim

He is the 2nd largest stock holder on NY stock exchange!

Does that make sense why The NY Times hates Trump!

Who is fighting human trafficking?🤔

From 2010 to 2013, Slim was ranked as the richest person in the world by the Forbes business magazine.

Cemex offers blood in their concrete, cement and mortar!

Cemex is linked to the Rothschilds, Bronfmans and Clinton’s!

Where the Tuscon sex trafficking camps were found is where Johnathan Rothschild was mayor!

This is Sara Bronfman!

She is the Heiress of the Bronfman fortune and invovled with NXIVM sex cult and with Haiti!

She launched a trade agreement between Canada and Libya!

Sara also took trips to Benghazi up until the attacks!

Fathom that!🤔

👇

How long have they been laundering money thru the colleges? 🤔

Let me explain! 👇

McCain Institute partnered with ASU and Thorn(think Ashton Kutcher)

McCain Institute has a board of Trustees!

Guess who is on it?👇

Lady Lynn Forrester de Rothschild of Bronfman

McCain was involved with the ASU program with the Philanthropy and Service cirriculumn!

ASU paid the Clinton Foundation 500k!

And let's not forget 👇

👇

[denimini]

This is my thing

I see the Jkkrs or wtv their name is running with the comments Jk made and honestly i think that’s not the thing that negate wtv has been going on with him being stalked.

And i have been looking at some jikookers on tumblr a while now and they don’t even realize they have become the same people they despise. Cause im not saying you have to believe in the video or anything you believe what you want, but acting like you are better than other because you think it’s fake as if that actually mean anything. And laughing or being petty to other people who happens to think that it might be Jk is the same hive mentality as Tkkrs. It’s the this is what i believe and if you don’t believe it you are gullible, don’t deserve to be a jkk supporter, im gonna come back and laugh at you when i prove that im right. They don’t accept any other way of seeing the video except the its not possible cause Jikook been in love since 2013.

And on top of that this is not even what’s important. What’s important is the man being literally stalked for a long period of time without nothing being done or even known by his company. There’s a new picture today, cooking. And i just don’t understand how they haven’t seen that person. I am genuinely scared for him.

What are his security doing? Does he have none at home? Maybe he should put camera himself

I agree. The most important thing that anyone should care about is the fact he's been stalked for what seems to be months now. I don't care if he sleeps with girl or doesn't, but this isn't information that I shoule be able to know, if he doesn't want to share it with us. I haven't seen this new picture and I don't really want to, but I suspect that until people stop denying to so vehemently the possibility of these leaks being real, the stalker will keep releasing new ones to convince us, until there are caught.

I don't think JK has security at home, which is pretty normal. I think the building his apartments is in has a security person but they can't possibly catch every sasaeng lurking in the shadows.

[shinymoonbird]

🔱  Om Namo Bhagavathe Sri ArunachalaRamanaya   🔱  

🕉️  

The Paramount Importance of Self Attention, by Sri Sadhu Om, As recorded by Michael James

Part Six - Mountain Path: July – August 2013 - Excerpt

Note of 7th January 1978 (Part 1)

🕉️  

Sadhu Om: When waves of passion such as desire, lust or fear arise, either try to duck beneath them by self-attention, or else reflect on their uselessness and avoid them by viveka [discrimination] and vairāgya [dispassion]. If the waves continue to come more strongly and none of these methods help, pray to Bhagavan. Prayer coming from an agonised heart has its own power. Whenever we feel helpless, prayer is our best weapon. He is always ready to help the helpless if their prayer is sincere.

Meritorious actions (punya karmas) done with kamyata (desire for personal benefit) do not purify the mind. Actions done without such desire (nish-kamya karmas) purify the mind, but they are the least efficacious means.

Unless worship and prayer are done with an attitude of ego-abasement, they will not purify the mind. Worshipping with pride only feeds the ego. Better than worship is sravana [hearing or studying the guru's teachings] and manana [reflection on them]. Reading about the lives of saints and reflecting on their behaviour and teachings will help us to subside our ego. Better than that is satsanga: in the company of real sadhus [jñānis], we cannot but act with humility. Satsanga [association with sat, truth] purifies the mind in many ways, but the best satsanga is to remain quietly as 'I am'. As Sankara says in Vivekacudamani [verse 364], a hundred times better than sravana is manana, but one lakh [a hundred thousand] times better than manana is nididhyasana [contemplation], which is just remaining attentively as 'I am'.

The reality of whatever is seen is the same as that of what sees it. The God you see is only as real as you who see him. If you worship God in a name and form, your mind will be purified, and when it is sufficiently purified, he will appear as guru to teach you the practice of self-attention. The guru is not just to be worshiped — he is to be obeyed. In verse 274 of Guru Vachaka Kovai Bhagavan says:

Those who do not have [the clarity of] mind to recognise that the jñāna-guru — who appears as a human form [though he is actually] abiding firmly as the supreme space [of consciousness, 'I am'] — is formless, [thereby] bear the yoke of wicked conduct and sin.

This is not to say that guru-bhakti [devotion to the guru] is wrong, but that our devotion is not true guru-bhakti unless we also practise what he taught us. Though the outward form of the guru and his teachings are a projection of our own vāsanās (tendencies), they will nevertheless wake us up, like a lion that an elephant sees in its dream. Self-attention is the most effective means of purifying the mind. The more you try to attend to self and the more you thereby experience the happiness of self-abidance, the more clearly you will understand and be firmly convinced that all happiness comes only from self, and that rising as 'I' is misery. Thus your vairāgya (desirelessness) will increase and your attachments to things will become less.

Whenever you have some moments free, reflect: 'What is this ego-life? Now I take this body to be 'I' and this world to be real. I feel attachment to things, people and circumstances, but I have only experienced this life for a certain number of years, and some years from now I will cease experiencing it forever. Therefore why should I take interest in or be ambitious for this transient and futile life? All these things seem to exist only because I exist, so should I not try to find out the truth behind this 'I'?' The more you reflect in such a way, the more you will lose interest in your life and the more you will wish to remain just as 'I am'.

When people used to say to me, 'You are lucky because you were with Bhagavan', I would sometimes find some ego rising in me with pride. However, by Bhagavan's grace I thought of a good reply: 'In a hospital there is an outpatient department to treat minor cases, but the worst cases are admitted into the inpatient department to be treated under the personal supervision of the doctor. The same happens in this spiritual line, so I am such a helpless case that Bhagavan had to admit me into his inpatient department to treat me under his personal supervision'. Those who were not in Bhagavan's physical presence are lucky, because they are protected from the delusion of mistaking him to be his body.

🔱 🔱 🔱 🔱 🔱 🔱

[novellagg]

Choi Ae-Cha (최애차)

── ✒️ Personal Information

Birth Name: Choi Ae-Cha (최애차)

Birthday: October 1st, 1998

Birthplace: Busan, South Korea

Ethnicity: Korean

Nationality: Korean

Height: 155cm/5'1"

Family: Father, mother, older sister (1993), older sister (1994), twin brothers (1996)

Language(s): Korean (native), Japanese (proficient), English (good)

Face Claim: Jeon Heejin (ARTMS)

── ✒️ Idol Information

Stage Name: Aecha

Nicknames: Chacha, fake maknae, butt sniper (mainly her members call her this)

Agencies: Storybook Entertainment (2013 - present)

Training Period: ~5 years (Nov 2013 - Oct 2018)

Position(s): Leader, Lead Vocal, Lead Dancer

Her emoji is a chipmunk/squirrel (🐿) because she is the shortest in the group. Also, she stuffs her face when she eats giving her puffy cheeks.

── ✒️ Misc Information

She's into all types of games, video games, board games, etc, because she grew up playing them with her siblings.

She is also very sporty and loves playing football.

She's the biggest gym girl in the group.

Recently, she bought a digital camera to take nostalgic pictures of her members and the places they travel to together.

Designated butt obsessed member.

── ✒️ About Aecha

Warnings: Depression, ED

Aecha is the last born of two parents and has two older sisters and one set of older twin brothers. Although her father is a maths teacher, she was completely uninterested in school. Instead, she was obsessed with second gen girl groups, mainly KARA, who subsequently sparked her love for singing and dancing.

At age 15, Aecha somehow convinced her dad to take her and her friends to Seoul to audition for several entertainment agencies. Unfortunately, she did not make it into JYPE or the other companies some of her friends made it into. Alternatively, she was accepted by MISSMUSE Entertainment, which she had to beg her parents to let her join. In her mind, one acceptance was better than none, and the earlier she became a trainee, the greater chance she had to debut. Although her parents were supportive of her dreams, they were more scared of her education and wanted her to graduate first. Nevertheless, her parents reluctantly let her move to Seoul on the condition that she must stay in school and could be withdrawn from the company at any time. In the beginning, Aecha was ecstatic. She trained day and night and even put more effort into school, so her parents had nothing to complain about. But it all went downhill in 2014, when MME put her in the GRLZ HIGH lineup along with the other 6 members.

Initially, this was great news, but after an additional 6 months of training, MME announced last minute that they would debut GRLZ HIGH without Aecha. This made her very depressed as she had worked so hard up until this point. MME were reluctant to debut her for multiple reasons, a) she was too young, b) she didn't fit the concept, and c) they had envisioned a 6 member girl group instead. However, these reasons went in one ear and out of the other.

Aecha was engulfed by self-hatred and doubt. In order to become a ‘perfect idol', she began training to unhealthy amounts and starving herself to be ‘as pretty as possible’, all while keeping it secret from her parents in fear of being sent back home. She also remained friends with members Haneul and Sena until they suddenly left the company in 2015, and she lost contact with them altogether.

Finally, Aecha graduated in 2016 and was simultaneously added to a special group of trainees who were planning to be added to GRLZ HIGH. Though the situation kind of rubbed her the wrong way, she was excited to finally have another chance of debuting. She also met two new trainees, Su-Jin, whom she rarely talked to due to conflicting schedules, and Aina. Despite Aecha's mental state not being the best at this point, she acted completely different around her. She could see her younger self in Aina and wanted to protect her from all of the struggles she faced through trainee life. Aecha treated Aina like her child, she fed her, tried (and failed) to help her with her homework, and even learned Japanese to help her feel more at home.

The disbanded of GRLZ HIGH hit Aecha pretty hard, not only because she once again had lost her chance of debuting, but also because she heard of what happened to ex-members Haneul and Sena for the first time. This was pretty much Aecha's last straw, and she came very close to quitting the entertainment industry for good. It was Aina who, through a very dramatic and tearful confrontation, convinced her to stay. Eventually, in late 2017- early 2018, she was put in the line-up for NOVELLA, and, although she tried not to get her hopes up, her debut was pretty much guaranteed.

For a long time after her debut, her eating disorder continued to be a big problem, with her self-worth being largely dependent on her weight. She would often hide in bathrooms after long concerts and tours to hide her exhaustion from the members. During the groups 2020 ‘hiatus’, Aecha started rehabilitation/therapy after being briefly hospitalised, and she has been recovering ever since. She has now regained her love for sports by regularly going to the gym/playing football and is also practising healthier eating habits.