#presentational skills

[umaralikhokharbristol-iii]

Waasila (Trusted Friend) Group (Young Muslim Girls & Boys Organisation in Easton, Bristol) Website Banner Template - 2009

[c-rowlesdraws]

Ratatouille would have been a better and potentially much more interesting story if Remy had partnered with Collette instead of Linguini. Two underdogs with talent and passion forced to maintain a dangerous ruse. Fiercely independent Collette giving up temporary control of her body to a creature who, despite the insanity of a rat wanting to cook professionally, she can relate to on a personal level and who she does want to teach. The inner conflict of wondering if Remy’s growing talents are eclipsing her own, if the praise their food is earning belongs more to him than to her. Her guilt over feeling resentment and jealousy towards this little guy who wouldn’t have a hope of realizing his talents if not for her trust and protection. Both of them unraveling the mystery of that sweet but bumbling kitchen boy with the obvious crush on Collette being Gusteau’s secret son, and working together to thwart the new evil owner’s plans to stop Linguini from claiming his birthright. The message of the movie not being this weird, almost smug “some people are born with talent, some people aren’t, and that’s how being a ~great artist~ works”, but something more like, “if you have a dream, you deserve to pursue it, and be supported and encouraged in your pursuit of it, even if other people tell you that, because of some intrinsic aspect of yourself or the circumstances you were born in (like being a human woman in the restaurant industry, or being a literal rat), you have no place pursuing this dream. Also, raw talent can only get you so far, and skill and passion existing in the right balance is key.” I’ve been thinking about this for seventeen years. I’m breaking my silence

[somnimagus]

My page for @sheikahzine; about Impaz's duty to her village, empty of people and full of memories.

[id in alt text]

[brian-kinney-apologist]

I'm sorry but daniel was insane for doing drugs with some random dude who told him he's a vampire and who just showed him his coffin, my boy is winning the idgaf war I'm afraid

[nenoname]

[rynli]

Trans-sexual underground but you don’t know what that phrase even means (time for an encyclopedia failure)

Posting this separately in case anyone wants it without the cursed dialogue lead-up; the full thing will be up shortly

[frozen-planet]

part 1 of IDK where I draw DJ in the silly outfits I put them in on roblox.....

[thepeacefulgarden]

[johnnyshrine]

★ 115 // “Murder is okay! :D”

[sad-endings-suck]

The real reason Kendra had to die in season 2 isn’t so that bringing in Faith later would make sense lore-wise, but because she simply would not have put up with Angelus’ shit and he would have been killed and stayed that way permanently.

[screechingfromthevoid]

Every time Brennan sits at that fucking table he tears a hole into what it means to be human and to have faith and to love and to be in community.

The brass ring were so close. They were family. Family enough to send one of their own out to make sure he got to be a father again. Laerryn blighted the tree of knowledge for her best friend and lover.

Downfall was all about family. And saving family. All of their family. Aiden gave his faithful a meal like no other they've had before. Trust gave a sickly little boy 70 hit points because she could barely his suffering. Asha pouted because her wife wasn't there to be with her.

And now Nia will not leave anyone behind. The Stormlord bestowed life back to ruined land. Crokas took on two children that are not his and carried them on his back. Fiedra, although harsh, still risked so much to pour a little wine for the bleeding boy. Garden's first priority is the children who will inherit this world from them.

I think, in the current state of Exandria, the new age we witnessed the birth of, Brennan is giving us that "what comes next". Divinity is not gone, Lieve'tel still performed her miracle. But I think the lesson from divergence, where the gods left the face of Exandria, is that divinity comes from people, mortals. And it always has. The gods get their power from worship. They'd be nothing without their people. So in the absence of them, then and now, stories will be told of reclaiming and rebuilding. Mortals will understand they are divinity. And that together, their power is as limitless as the gods they said goodbye to.

[thissying]

Max Verstappen's linguistic talent is enviable as well. Arjan Schouten, April 16th 2017

Max Verstappen isn't just talented in the car, his language skills are admirable too. English? German? Limburgs? Max will join in.

There's nothing that shows you better that Max Verstappen is 19 years-old on paper only than his language skills. You can easily bring him along when at the camping site you need to have a discussion with the owner in a foreign language about your camping spot being rather small after all. I can assure you: Max will run rings around him. Doesn't matter where you're camping in Europe, our Dutch racing hero is skilled at quite a few languages.

Ahead of this season, I asked him which languages he speaks. "Three I speak very well: English, German and Dutch," he said. "And in Italian, Spanish and French I only understand something when I really have to."

Three race weekends later I know not a word of it was a lie. After qualifying and the race, I love observing Verstappen for a while when he's with the foreign colleagues, before he joins the Dutch media and falls back into that singsongy Limburgs. Because that English of his is enviable.

When I was 19, English was one of the courses I had to repeat in my second last year of the HAVO. A five [Dutch grading system being 1 - 10] became a six but I still didn't understand one bit of A Clockwork Orange.

But no, then there's Max. In front of Sky Sports' camera in Bahrain this week, he once again explained the secret behind his magical lap in China. Please do watch it on YouTube but it went a bit like this: ,,I just wanted to stay out of the wake of the cars, to get a little bit downforce in the front. Find a better line to try and squeeze behind this car. Opens also the next corner, because better traction. Overtake another car, helps a lot. Just finding clean air, so you can break later. Have more load on the front and will not lock up and took another one.”

Like he was reciting the manual of his car, that's how smoothly it all rolled off that tongue of his. And in German it's exactly the same.

He even has his favourite filler words and pet phrases that he continuously comes back to. In English interviews the term 'competitive' always comes up and 'to be honest'. And in German he likes saying 'schwierig zu sagen' (hard to say) and 'wir müssen es sehen' (we will have to see).

You get it, what he says may not always be very exciting. But he talks, to everything and everyone. And that's also why he's worth his weight in gold for Formula1.

[qiu-yan]

MDZS and asshole victims: thoughts on the second siege of the burial mounds scene

this post is not about morality judgments. this post is about reader sympathies only.

one rather clever rhetorical trick MDZS employs is putting all the more background "surviving victims of wei wuxian's actions" into one big angry mob at the second siege of the burial mounds, instead of letting them crop up anywhere else in the story. it's easy for a first-time reader to write off the guy who lost a leg at nightless city, or the guy whose parents died at nightless city, because both of those guys are being dicks. they're part of an angry mob baying for wei wuxian's blood--unfairly baying for wei wuxian's blood, because this time he didn't even do the thing they're saying he did. by putting these two victims into a mob of not just fellow victims but also unaffected individuals (ie. sect leader yao, who just showed up for kicks), the story can effectively equate these victims' grievances (ie. "you killed my parents") with unreasonable mob rule--even if these two things might not actually be equivalent.

the effect of this rhetorical trick, then, is that the reader can at once perceive the themes about mob mentality MXTX wishes to convey, and also effectively write off the victims' complaints. "yes, i did that to you, but i literally died already, what more do you want me to do? shall i walk on my knees repenting?" becomes easier for the reader to accept. and more importantly--wei wuxian's likability as a moral and just protagonist is not impacted.

ngl tho. it would be a bit more difficult for the reader to write off these victims' complaints if, instead of meeting said victims in an angry mob, the reader instead met these victims almost anywhere else. imagine if, instead of meeting mr. "you killed my parents" at the second siege of the burial mounds, we instead met him getting smashed at the local bar and crying about how his parents are dead. imagine if, instead of meeting mr. "you chopped off my leg" as a member of an angry mob, we instead met him begging for alms on the side of the road because his disability rendered him unable to work in a wuxia-esque setting. or imagine--if either of these background characters, overcome with survivor's guilt and trauma from nightless city, hung himself in his bedroom, and the next day his body was discovered by his 15-year-old daughter.

all of these scenarios are entirely plausible. you could easily include any of them into the story without changing the main plot at all. but suddenly shit just got a lot more depressing.

however, no such scene would ever be included in MDZS. the reason is that, as a work of fiction, MDZS's single most ardent goal is for us the readers to conclude not just that "we like wei wuxian as a character," but also that "wei wuxian is ultimately a morally righteous person." when the narrative focus shifts onto the people who were actually helped by wei wuxian's actions (mianmian and her family, lan sizhui, the few months of dignity the wen remnants were afforded) this becomes much easier for us to conclude; wei wuxian does indeed look like a hero. but the more narrative focus is given to the negative impacts of wei wuxian's actions--the more the "victims of wei wuxian" (whether actual victims or not) are given a face, instead of abstracted away by broad summaries--the more the reader might side-eye wei wuxian instead. every new victim given a name, given narrative attention that isn't just focused on making them look like an asshole, arouses the reader's sympathies in the opposite direction--and thus increases the risk that the reader might ultimately disagree with the novel's conclusion of "wei wuxian is a righteous person."

tbh, this does not seem like a risk MXTX particularly wants to take. instead, she's mastered the art of writing Asshole Victims.

which is an entirely valid writing decision, because imo basically every work of genre fiction out there does this to some extent.

[myfairkatiecat]

Something something Neal’s last words to Peter being “you’re the only one who saw the good in me, you’re my best friend” and Peters’s last words to Neal being “stop it, Neal.”

[wardensantoineandevka]

Fjord is an incredible character because he has the funniest case of imposter syndrome of all time

[daincrediblegg]

I love learning that some of that wardroom scene with crozier and jfj was improvised now. I always thought the way jared said "I was, in fact, ordered" was very interesting and low-key a little broken from the scene and it's like yes queen your eyes did not fail you now as they have never failed you that shit was on the fly