#that is a real cheat code being referenced

[collectalong]

♂bro who raised you. why are you like this

(♂ + A QUESTION = A MUSE'S FATHER ANSWERS)

BRO: im normal.

(Says the man who keeps a legion of shitty katanas in the fridge. They're pouring out the open door, letting the cool air out while your BRO is busy playing MORTAL KOMBAT. You're getting your ass handed to you, but at least it's digital.)

DAVE: bullshit

DAVE: this is the most abnormal display of chicanery ive ever seen

BRO: chicanery.

DAVE: i know you used a cheat man

DAVE: i played this stage a thousand times and i aint never seen projectiles this feisty

DAVE: never saw projectiles period

BRO: gonna' need to put your head in a brace with how blubbery that lower lip's gettin'. such a pussy.

BRO: bear it or beat it, lil' man.

(So you spend another half hour bearing it. You manage a few close victories with vicious vengeance. Moments like these, you almost feel normal.)

[heretherebedork]

Wait, so Mew spared Boston the exposure of his sex tape, but he's also now the villain to you for not stepping in to vouch for Boston's selfish ass personal 'ethics' now about Atom? Mew could have made sure he suffered so much more than getting kicked out of a required graduation project...

Mew is plenty interesting and amazing, daring to risk it all and be willing to try and trust again. I just don't get it why some people refuse not to see it that way. Boeing's already a dud for me that he's clearly there just to scheme and be vengeful. It's a shame he isn't genuine with Mew, because I could FEEL potential.

(Welcome back, Mew anon! I'm glad you at least left Ray out of this ask. Thanks for that~)

No, no, the villain is Boeing. Haven't I been clear about that? Boeing is the real villain we all deserved! Mew is just judgemental and sanctimonious and exactly as toxic as all his friends just in a way that agrees with a lot of people's moral codes so they approve of him judging people because they would judge them too.

Mew is the morality police who puts his own morals above everything else in his life unless he's seeking revenge. I wish that went farther. I mean, do I dislike that he punched Ray to get his own version of revenge on Top? Yes. But was it one of the most interesting things he did? Hell yes. I want more of that! I like when Mew gives up on judging other people and seeks out revenge.

But he never does longterm. And now he's holding this cheating over Top's head and he might say he's giving him a second try without actually making any move to forgive him, instead constantly referencing back to the cheating while talking about loving and hating him. Honestly? It's the most interesting he's been but it's still dull because, and this is personal, I'm not invested in their relationship.

You say he's risking it all to try and trust again but he's... not showing any signs of actually trying? He says he is but he's still not stopping mentioning it or focusing on it to the point that he can't let it go. So he's not actually risking anything. He's just saying he is and then holding it like the sword of Damacles over Top.

I'll be honest here, anon, you think this ask is getting me to like him more but all it's doing is making me think more and more about all the ways he find him dull in this show of messy gays being messy. Mew and Cheum needed villain arcs that they appear to not be getting and I'm just... tired of it.

I get it, Mew's morals fit into the vast majority of people's morals. They really do. He and Cheum are the Good Queers TM. They hold onto the ideals that the majority of the world does, frankly. But that's why I don't like them in the messy gays and messy queers show.

(@respectthepetty wrote a gorgeous post about not liking Mew and Cheum that is better than I can make and @iguessitsjustme has made so many posts explaining the dislike of Mew that I can't even pick one to link, they're all brilliant.)

[random-meme-bot]

My sister and I just finished binging the entirety of "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" and I need to ramble about it.

SPOILER WARNING

It was REALLY good!!!

The show lowers your guard with this fake sense of familiarity, the first chapter is basically an adaptation of the first comic (just really condensed so it could fit mostly everything important in a bit over 25 minutes) up until the show removes the carpet from under you and decides to kill Scott during his first battle with the league of evil exes.

From there on out the show reveals that it's not actually an adaptation, it's actually an entirely original story that's just based on the same world and characters.

And Oooh Boy was it good, having Ramona be the main character of the show was a very welcome surprise, and the show instead of being about Scott growing as a person and facing his past as well as Ramona's it's about her being forced to face her past and grow, and the show pulls this off really well, we found ourselves actually investmed on the exes and their stories, a group of characters that before were mostly just generic bad guy.

Not all of them are great though, I found Todd's & Wallace's romance plot to work a lot worse than the plot he had in the comics with Envy, his entire thing in the comics was that he let power get on his head and because he thought he was better than everyone else he cheated on Envy and broke Vegan code, 2 things that in the end lead to his downfall.

In the show he's actually a nice dude who gets a crush on Wallace, cheats on Envy not because of ego but love, and only breaks Vegan code after Wallace dumps him, he's way too nice of a guy, and on the other side of the spectrum during this whole plot they decided to turn Wallace into a villain for some reason, he's the one who is actually taking advantage of Todd and when Envy confronts him about it he pulls the "fight my stun double's" thing from the second evil ex(movie only) and forces Ramona to fight them for no real reason since she had nothing to do with this love triangle.

The other Evil Ex who I didn't like as much was Gideon, who they tried to make a sympathetic villain but it just doesn't work, like you cannot tell me this is the same guy who made a weapon that traps you in your head with your own problems as a means to keep Ramona captive in an abusive relationship. (The Glow also doesn't get referenced even once in the show which I thought it was a bit weird)

But apart from those two and Wallace for a bit, I loved every character in the show and their portrait.

One thing to note is that I feel the show basically requires that you to be a fan of the franchise to get the most out of it.

There are a ton of twist that only work if you already know the story, a bunch of jokes and references to the comics/movie/game get lost, and the main twist villain is basically a metareference to the whole discourse about how movie Scott didn't grow as a person and how awful he is yet still got the girl.

Also the twist that it was future Scott doesn't work without previous context because before that twist we only got one episode to get to know Scott.

To wrap up this very messy rambling about a new story based on one of my favorite comic series, my least favorite movies, and a game that was OK (beat em ups aren't my thing but that's not really the games fault).

Amazing show and definitely worth a watch if you're a fan of the original story 8.5/10

Would recommend waiting until you've read the comics and watched the movie before checking the show if you aren't that familiar with Scott Pilgrim 6.5/10

[ciaossu-imagines]

Yeah, I told you about the website but then I went to look on the website and saw that ‘Welcome Back, Frosch’ was listed as filler, even though that episode is based on an omake so I don’t think that website makes a distinction between pure filler and omake stuff. But the wiki does have it all there, even colour coded so you know what’s what. And the Daphne Arc is actually pretty short but still will not sit through it, which is a shame because it does have one of my favourite endings so could only listen to it before the arc started. And that’s great to hear that the KHR filler episodes did that. Really is a great series no matter what. That makes sense. Hope that one day you do to be able to watch a few episodes a day. Thank you for seeing the appeal in that idiot and understanding my feelings. Because Rogue’s a sweetheart from the very beginning and Sting was such a jerk. Yeah, it’s really good and the beginning of that arc that I referenced (there are two and it’s 15 chapters) Sting really shows just how much of an idiot he is and it’ll forever be so funny. But it also shows a bit more of his and Rogue’s dynamic, which is nice. Also, speaking of the spin off, there’s also one called Rhodonite, which takes place much later in the series, you’re not at that arc yet so I won’t say too much about what it is but it’s also a nice series, same with the last one called Lighting Gods. I hope you manage to find it at some point. Yeah, the plushie is adorable. I’ll send it when I get the chance.

C

Oh good! I’m glad I remembered right! I hadn’t known that about the site though, so thank you for letting me know. I know some people do consider omake’s to not be canon, so that be the reasoning behind it. Me, it varies depending on how good the omake’s actually end up being on if I feel I got cheated out of a good episode or if I just wasted my time. It’s cool that the Daphne arc is short, but even short fillers, if they’re really not great or have annoying filler characters, can feel like real slogs, so I’ll trust your opinion and skip it, though I might find the ending because now you have me curious. And yeah, for a series of a really good length, KHR only had the two short filler arcs and it ended up tying into the main story in some way, so I actually enjoy going and watching those, though they’re typically the only anime episodes I watch, since I largely just do rereads. And it’s no problem at all, he really is a great character! I do have to say, I really love the duo of him and Rogue together though – they balance each other out pretty perfectly, honestly. The friendship between them feels very authentic. I definitely will try to find and read that spin-off and I’ll have to track down the other ones, once I finish those arcs! And I have seen the picture, will respond to it properly when I get time to write a big, long book to you like I normally do, but it did not disappoint!! It’s adorable and makes me smile every time I look at it!

[ichor-hunter]

Harmonia

Harmonia Blood Code Study- Eva Roux "A blood code received from Eva. It holds her will to pay back and dedicate her life to the one who saved her from being a slave. This code improves focus bonuses and features excellent Dark Gifts. It is weak to being staggered but supplies ample amounts of ichor."

Introduction to Blood Codes and Eva

Blood Codes are the abilities imbued within a Revenant's Blood. Each Blood Code is unique to each Revenant that resides within the Gaol of the Mist. Once a Revenant has awakened from their slumber after the BOR parasite has been placed in them, the blood takes on a Code which I believe derives from the characteristics of that Revenant.

Eva willingly became a Third Generation Revenant during her time with Jack. She is completely devoted to Jack and is willing to do anything to assist Jack or take on burdens that would cause him less pain. Even when her strength falters or she's at the edge of a frenzy, she'll prioritize Jack's wellbeing. Jack has the same feelings when it comes to protecting Eva as well. That's why these two balance each other so well as Watchers of the Successors.

Greek Mythology

Eva's Blood Code is based on the Greek Goddess Harmonia.

Harmonia was known as the Goddess of harmony and concord. The only notable story linked with this Goddess is the Necklace of Harmonia. It all started with Hephaestus, who discovered that his wife Aphrodite the Goddess of love had cheated on him with Ares the God of War. He cursed their future bloodline saying that any offspring from them would be cursed. Harmonia is Aphrodite's daughter and Harmonia was to be wed to Cadmus, the founder of the city of Thebes. When Hephaestus heard about the marriage, he created a necklace for Harmonia and offered it as a gift.

The Necklace of Harmonia is said to bring misfortune to anyone who their possessor is. In exchange, the necklace grants eternal youth and beauty to the one who wears it. The necklace itself was made from gold and jewels and it had two small snakes clasped on the gem

Due to the exploits of Cadmus, when he was ready to sacrifice a cow to the Goddess Athena, a water dragon attacked but he managed to kill it. The dragon was under the jurisdiction of Ares, Harmonia's father and served him for eight years until he and the gods demanded he marries Harmonia. After their marriage, the necklace brought on many diseases upon the city of Thebes and to their family. Harmonia and Cadmus left the city and went to Illyria. In the end, Harmonia and Cadmus were both turned into serpents. Cadmus' fate was ill and reclined his fate to turn into a serpent himself just as the dragon he slain. Harmonia followed, wanting the same fate as Cadmus.

The necklace itself was continuously passed down to her daughter and future generations but all of them suffered devastating misfortunes.

Similarities to Eva and Harmonia

Harmonia brings harmony to all things, and Eva's high compatibility with the relics and the power of her voice alone bring harmony in the realm of the Vein. Her voice can calm the Lost and Successors from their frenzy (even if it's only temporary).

We have Rin who carries the Blood Code Hephaestus and Eva who has the Harmonia blood code, but they're drastically opposite to their Greek God counterparts. When Eva left home base, Rin was the one who was supposed to watch over her but was disappointed in herself for not being able to go after her. Rin was very distraught about it and was genuinely worried if Eva was okay or not. Unlike Hephaestus' spiteful nature, Rin is an absolute sweetheart and I can imagine her hugging Eva the minute she returned to Home Base safe and sound.

Based on the lore of Harmonia, we could say Cadmus is Jack as Eva is to Harmonia. Jack worked tirelessly for years after Operation Queenslayer to watch over the Relic's and Successors just as Cadmus served years under Ares service. Jack 'killed' the MC and the MC relates to the Water Dragon that Cadmus ended up killing. Both MC and the dragon were both under a rule of another, the MC taking in the Queen's blood which made them become a successor inheriting the relic and the water dragon is under Ares' jurisdiction when they ruled over certain land. Cadmus had to make up for the dragon's death while Jack had to begin his duties of being a watcher after he puts down the MC.

As mentioned, Ares ordered Cadmus to marry Eva and thus began their endeavors and their route of misfortunes when she received the necklace. While Jack gave Eva as much freedom as he could, she willingly chose to assist Jack and remain at his side, not because of obligation but she sincerely cares for him. While not much is noted of Harmonia's personality, even she remained devoted to her husband until the bitter end.

With Eva having the capacity to store many relics within her, it is also her misfortune. She is aware that carrying many relics takes a toll on her as we see her collapse while stopping Jack. However, she knows she has the power to contain them and she will do it if it lessens Jack's burden. With the Necklace of Harmonia, the city of Thebes bred disease and it also affected the people and Harmonia's family.

It relates to the Revenants in the Vein that suffers from Bloodthirst and the lack of blood beads. It also pays homage to it in the Crown of Sand area, since wherever the player or your partner steps on the sand, it immediately drains Ichor. "Leak" is a debuff in the game and it describes as: "This debuff causes your blood to rot, slowly draining your ichor." if any Revenant's blood rots then they're unable to use any abilities or Gifts which could be considered a disease in itself.

“Look, there used to be ruins here, but now they’ve been turned into a desert. the successor who created the crypt used their very last ounce of strength as they struggled to resist their relic. The wind scattered salt from a dried up lake over the land nearby, making it barren. Now it’s the same kind of desolate place as the one where Eva was born. She and I promised each other that if either of us fell to the thirst, the other would have the last of their humanity. Eva is waiting for me... just over there...I’m talking too much. anyway, i’m going on ahead. this is between me and Eva.” -Jack Rutherford

Also, regarding the relics, the main disease that Jack and Eva have to worry about is frenzy. Once frenzy hits, it's over.

Cadmus was burdened with being the founder of the city and eventually caving into his fate to become a serpent, a similar beast to the dragon he slain. Harmonia followed him and joined in with his fate. We see Eva doing this for Jack as well. Eva wasn't a Revenant yet when she met Jack and in the end after everything that transpired between both of them, Eva decides to join Jack and become a Revenant and the Successor of the Relic.

As Jack mentioned in the Crown of Sands area, Eva grew up in a similar environment. This is related to the city of Thebes that Cadmus founded. The city of Thebes is a city in a desert environment that matches well with how Eva is linked to the sands. Harmonia married to Cadmus in the City of Thebes and resided there for a decent amount of time. Eva grew up in an area similar to Thebes (we're not sure where in the real world the Vein is referenced from).

As we can see in Eva's design. Her scars are probably her physical representation of Harmonia's misfortune along with the infamous Harmonia's Necklace. While there's no official image I can reference from (cause frankly the necklace could have a vastly different design and there are various interpretations of it), Eva does wear a necklace and Jack also wear a necklace matching with her, which displays how they both are willing to share the same fate. This is a nod to Harmonia's lore.

Harmonia's Gifts

Gift Prowess-Temporarily increases gift speed for you and your partner.

This Gift as you guys can probably guess relates to Harmonia's relationship with Cadmus. Qhile many things happened during their time together, they remained together til the bitter end. They both supported eachother despite the fate and the curses that fell upon them. - Max Ichor Boost-Increases the maximum amount of ichor that can be held. Mind/Willpower Up-Increases mind and willpower.

These Gifts specifically pertain to Harmonia's necklace. While the necklace caused her misfortune, it gave her eternal youth which is the only benefit she had. Ichor is special blood that enables a Revenant to use Gifts and abilities so the more ichor a Revenant has the more versatile, and it's the same with Eva. In terms of the Mind/Willpower Up, it's within the same theory including the fact that Harmonia in Greek lore is very strong-willed to keep up with misfortune after misfortune. - Supernatural Blood-Enables you to sacrifice HP to use Gifts when you have run out of ichor.

Harmonia turned into a snake and sacrificed herself when her husband fell prey to the same fate. Harmonia did it voluntarily just like Eva voluntarily became a Revenant to support Jack. This Gift references from Harmonia's sacrifice. - Volatile Storm-Creates blades of sand that converge on the target and explode. Sand Edge-Creates a blade of high-pressurized sand from the ground that knocks away foes.

The gifts here with sand like properties relates to the city of Thebes where Harmonia's husband founded and ruled over. Harmonia was also by her husband's side and lived within the city as well. Thebes in real life is a sand-like area as well (however we don't know if Eva is really from there or not). While Harmonia was not a fighting God, she was a part of the city and these are more based on Harmonia wanting to protect her family and the people of Thebes from any threats.

Concluding thoughts

Eva is a very lovely character overall. I feel like the lore of Harmonia matches well with her and it balances out with Jack being her Cadmus in the lore. Other than the Necklace of Harmonia and how Harmonia matches with her ideals, there's not too much to expand on. The one thing I am thankful though is that her supposed 'misfortunes' weren't as severe as her Greek God counterpart. She brings a great sense of balance to the crew at home base and I don't think the story would work out without her presence. Plus her dedication to Jack is something that should be admired.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

More Ideas for drawings I have, Obviously Can't do it with The Finger maybe I Get Myself a real Sketchbook or something ajdbbs

All literally are Lilianne and Luca Hanging Out

They in their Animagus form, If I remember correctly The Animagus form of Luca Is Basically Bitten. In a symbolism level It's really cool since You know, They tend to put The fault on Black Cats or Crows for Missfortune. You know I think I'm gonna Call Them that “The Missfortune Duo”

Since both Of Them have a crush on Tulip, I Like that to The contrary to piting against eachother They help The Other to get a Date with Tulip

Lilianne Helping Them with Potions and Transfiguration since You Say They probably suck at it

Luca Petting Aquiles and Lilianne being in The background Totally Offended because “It took me a long Time to get that old cat to trust in me and They pet him Like Is Nothing”

Probably a Scene on how They Will meet in First Year, Like Lilianne Is Walking Through castle because... Yeah, She Can't resolve The Riddle to enter The common room She enter The great hall and see This kid that seems to be of The Hufflepuff House. “What Happened?” She Asks, The kid seems really embarrased for What They're going to say “I couldn't enter to my Common Room” “I'm with You here buddy, Why The Wizards have to make so complicated to just enter there? It doesn't make me feel Like Home” “so You're a Muggleborn?” “I Thought It was supposed to be Mudblood?” “ no, That's an Slur” “Wait then-- That Means Snyde was Insulting me The whole way to Hogwarts?”

I’m literally tearing up because these are so lovely, just so you know. Luca’s Animagus form is totally Bitten, but both of them will deny this to their graves. I can almost picture an aging Bitten, and an adult Luca, just kind of sitting together on the couch, having basically made peace by this point. Luca turns into their cat form, they glance at each other...and finally admit via meow that they really do look alike. No one hears it of course. No one except Mitten, who never lets them hear the end of it until Luca admits it. 

I’m getting so distracted. I agree about the symbolism and I think that both black cats and crows get a bad rap and it’s not fair at all. The same thing is true about black coyotes, probably for similar reasons. I learned that when I was researching for Jacob Fawley’s Patronus. I really dig the whole concept of the “Misfortune Duo” and holy heck thank you for not making them jealous of each other. Jealousy and love triangles are out. Supportive friendships are in. Plus, I’ve always head-canoned Tulip as poly so it works out perfectly. 

Every cat in the world, apart from Bitten, will instantly like Luca and be able to sense that they are a cat person. That they’re constantly around creatures and as far as humans go, they can be trusted. Luca considers this to be a serious honor. I mean, having access to a cat form is also a major cheat code, to be fair.

That whole conversation is making me crack up. It almost plays out like a sitcom scene. With Luca rushing to cover her mouth and stage whispering that it’s a slur and then followed by her realization. In general, this is reminding me of how, based on the books, the majority of the people raised in magical families freely say the word, even if they’re pro-muggle rights. Harry says it, Ron says it. Like, the general consensus seems to be that it’s okay to say it if you’re referencing the slur, as long as you’re not actually using it as a slur. Funnily enough, you know the only character who refuses to say it altogether? James Potter. He is the only one I can recall. It was something I tried to give to Luca as well. In general, they refer to it as “The M word.” 

[mattskeebah]

PLEASE READ

I know how much y’all hate “your fave is problematic” posts...but it’s necessary.

Summary: Matt Skiba, singer of the band Alkaline Trio and member of Blink-182, has nazi tattoos, is a fan of nazi bands, made tasteless nazi related paintings, is best friends with Boyd Rice, and in fact, owns nazi insignia. Matt claims to be a feminist but likes countless scantily clad pics of young models and sex workers and follows actual porn actresses on IG. Also, he never distanced himself from Asia Argento and still sells t-shirts with her face on them in his webstore. Matt supports the police and the military and he has a weird gun fetish. He attacked fans who criticized his behavior and his problematic associations.

---

WHY I STOPPED BEING A FAN OF MATT SKIBA

He supports the police as an instutition, specifically Chicago PD. He made a post on Instagram in favor of CPD which ofc received backlash from fans but he ignored the negative comments and brushed it off as “there are bad people in every profession” and then he deleted the post. Thanks to a Tumblr user who screencapped it: [x] please notice the tiny blue (lives matters) heart. Also, here are some “cute” pics of him wearing police-related stuff [x] [x] and check out this post of him “repping” new CPD merch on his car [x] (he disabled the comments).

He supports the military, which might be because his parents served in the Vietnam war, but that doesn’t make it less shitty. Examples for his military-support can be found all over his Instagram. [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] and so on... and in this post he’s delighted that a soldier in Afghanistan is wearing an Alkaline Trio patch. [x]

He’s close friends with Asia Argento / or had possible romantic relationship with her and he still sells t-shirts with her face on them in his merch shop. For those of you who don’t know her, she was one of the leaders of the #metoo movement but then it was revealed that she herself had sex with an intoxicated 17-year-old (!) and her bf Anthony Bourdain gave the boy money so he would keep his mouth shut about the incident, ((later Bourdain committed suicide))

Story of a fan who gave Matt a letter criticizing him for being friends with Argento, and the same night he posted a picture of her on IG (I think it was this post)… which seems like a subtle F*CK YOU at the person who gave him the letter. (he can’t take criticism, can he?)

His IG activity is .. something else. Matt’s major interests are motorbikes, cars, and young, attractive, half-naked models and strippers. One of his recent likes (nudity and bruises cw) [x] [x] [x] [x]….that one is an actual porn actress he follows and thirsts over: (more nudity cw) [x] he commented ‘cool butt momma. miss you xoxo’ [x] [x] (liked)…and my “personal fave” a picture with a sex worker [x] he deleted the picture ofc

HE LOVES GUNS (+said that he would use them) he has quite a big gun collection: SIG SAUERs, a Morning Star, many knifes, a shotgun, a Desert Eagle gun, a samurai sword, a faux snakeskin baton, and more stuff I can’t remember, he posted his collection on November 5th 2018 on IG, but unfortunately I didn’t take a screenshot!! but he posted them individually on IG. [x] [x] [x] [x] etc. and a recently deleted pic at the shooting range [x] ……also this pic exists.. edgelord (tw gun to the head).

In the comments of the same post (I swear on my life it’s real, you have to trust me) a user commented that he’s a Trump supporter but he would still defend Matt, even if he’s “politically left”. Matt’s answer: “I would defend you too, my man!”. o k a y. then Matt said he identifies as “quite a bit left” o K AY. MATT. Just so btw. the user also had a name including “88″ ( is a code phrase commonly used in fascist circles for “Heil Hitler”) or he just meant the year 88. but I saw some racist “memes” on his IG too.

Matt has a weird obsession with WW2. He literally watched a holocaust docu on HIS FUCKING BDAY (or at least he posted about it) and he said he collects WW2 books. Theoretically, nothing wrong with being interested in history, but in the context of everything… bad vibes……….

He really loves Nordic/Scandinavian-related stuff, like jewelry of the Hammer of Thor etc and he even uses MS runes for his merch. Runes are popular among occultists but they also have a really problematic history concerning WW2 and the nazis. Considering one of his most favorite bands Death in June mentions runes in their lyrics and they are a REALLY REALLY questionable band flirting with nazi imagery and being openly affiliated with fascist and far-right satanists, I have every right to question Matt’s intentions.

He literally has a crutch cross tattoo on his chest (which was used as the symbol of Austro-Fascism, and is also the logo of the neo folk - nazi band Blood Axis) PHOTO 1, PHOTO 2 and an EDELWEISS tattoo [x], which is the national flower of Austria and is considered a magical flower in occult circles. Nothing wrong with having a flower tattoo but it was used a lot in the context of nationalsocialism and “traditional values”. To add, it was also used as a symbol of the 1st Mountain division “Gebirgsjäger” in WW2 (Hitler’s elite formation of the Wehrmacht who were involved in large scale war crimes). 

Matt OWNS NAZI INSIGNIA. He is wearing a WW2 Edelweiss patch in this pic [x] and here [x] combined with a crutch cross patch (Alk3 used an iron cross backdrop at their concerts 2014ish and a crutch cross symbol on their guitar picks btw.)

He owns several Death In June patches, their merch [x] [x] [x] [x] etc. and other patches and buttons featuring nazi-related symbols. [DIJ WIKI]. He is also friends with their singer. Matt’s a huge DIJ fan, attended their concerts [x] and Douglas P. reads the intro of the Alkaline Trio song “I Found Away”. DIJ uses fascist symbols and “aesthetics” for the band, including an SS Totenkopf logo.

Matt painted the same logo and exhibited it at an art show [x]

HE LITERALLY DID PAINTINGS REFERENCING DOLLFUSS AND MUSSOLINI and another piece of “art” called “surf nazis” [x] what the actual f   u    c  k .. and here he is with his painting of Mickey Mouse as Hitler [x]

HE IS BEST FRIENDS with Boyd Rice, (here’s a picture of them holding Wolfsangels, a nazi symbol) they are REALLY CLOSE. According to Rice’s IG they meet every week and hang out and Rice considers Matt “family”… the entire Boyd Rice shit can be read in this post (important please read). Matt even attacked fans that were calling him out and called them stupid.

The first liked video on his Youtube channel is a video about neo-nazi biker gangs in Germany....... [x]

He is friends with Kat von D, she did a few of his tattoos and she appeared in the Alk3 video “Help Me”.

He collabed with Jeffree Star on a violent song [x]

He was at an art show of a friend who used nazi symbols (!)

posts like these [x] [x]

In this interview [x] he’s pretty much romanticizing that people got stabbed back then at concerts and that there was a big skinhead scene (he wasn’t “stoked” about the violence happening BUT “the energy surrounding” was “very ATTRACTIVE” to him. Make of that what you will.)

When he was a sophomore in HS (and on acid) he beat up a classmate who threw a U.S. flag on the floor. [x]

Matt made a racist remark a few years ago about Chinese people [x] and according to him //or he’s joking// he has a tattoo on his dick that says “welcome to Jamaica” which can be interpreted as racist.

Many of the movies he praises blatantly depict violence against women, like Blue Velvet, Funny Games, A Clockwork Orange (it has almost 3 rape scenes in the first 15 minutes), lyrics like “Radio” can be seen as misogynist, he literally wishes that his ex-GF (/or someone’s ex-gf) should take a bath with a radio and get electrocuted.

A person on IG commented that his ex-girlfriend accused him of domestic violence, I have no proof for that but he deleted the comments ofc and then a few days later he donated money to a women’s shelter in LA… which seems like he’s trying to avoid a shitstorm…

He compared L.A. women to zoo animals in this interview [x].

He cheated on his ex-gf(s) which I think should go on this list too.

Matt used to be a member of the Church of Satan, just leaving this here. you can argue if it’s good or bad but there seems to be a connection between satanists and neo-nazis .. sadly.

He listed the song* “Los Angeles” by X among his faves in this interview [x] (*edit: Someone has reached out to me and explained that the song was not racist, antisemitic or anything but from the *perspective* of a racist. However, we don't know Matt's reason for liking the song and considering his WW2 fetish, it's sketchy that he would consider the song as one of his favorites. Maybe he likes it because the song openly says things out loud under the veil of "sarcasm" that would be criticized under different circumstances. See also: [Oscar Wild was right.] Matt still listened to the band in 2014 and was at a concert of them [x], even months after their singer spew right-wing conspiracy theories concerning (school) shootings.

THIS FUCKING PICTURE OF HIM WITH A CHARLES MANSON DOLL AND A SW*STIKA. He still had the doll in other pictures [x] [x].

This picture I found on a fansite. It’s supposed to be Matt as a child.. where does that even come from and why is he wearing a military hat with something that vaguely looks like an eagle (?)

I can’t be the only one who noticed that but Matt had a vaguely ~nazi haircut thoughout the years and even some sort of nazi / white power aesthetic~ going on, even fans recognized it as such [x] [x] [x] and in the context of him hanging out with Boyd Rice like this in this picture [x] it’s safe to say he was EXACTLY GOING FOR THAT LOOK.

When he was in Germany during the Blink-182 tour 2017 he proudly posed at a famous Third Reich location in the Alps. Yk. nothing wrong with visiting historical locations but in the context of everything mentioned in this post. IT LOOKS REALLY BAD.

…probably more.. this man is a walking disaster

- - -

In this post I listed a lot, there are probably some things you would consider “minor” because they happened years ago but I thought I’d mention them anyway. Also, I’m not saying he has those beliefs but he definitely doesn’t distance himself from nazi(-sympathizing) scum like Boyd Rice and keeps being BFFs with him. And what’s up with the problematic tattoos and WWII insignia? I can’t be the only one who thinks this is not okay!!!

Thanks for reading.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S3 Ep 29-30: LAVA GOLEM

Ah, Kaiba island.

I’m not quite sure how big Kaiba island is. In this picture it looks like we got ourselves a 6 story building on the side, but if we compare the 6 story building to the tower it’s like...that’s a 100 story building, roughly? Our art team has given up trying to make this building look like anything other than what it looks like, and they’re just going to make a metallic cross-section of a dick every time it shows up.

Also, I kinda wish we saw a little bit more of the landing sequence to get here because....

....did we do an Akira motorcycle slide into this island or is that just me?

Meanwhile, as Joey is duking it out on the world’s largest, coldest dildo, Serenity is stationed at the post she made for herself.

LOL Why did they do this? Why would they design this?

(read more under the cut)

Inside the swamp cloud, Marik is shocked that Joey has been largely unphased by this horrific experience.

Clearly Marik has not caught on that Joey’s been conditioned to this stuff living with Yugi for the past many years, and a little bit of pink spirit-sucking wires aren’t really much of a match for that time Joey saw Yugi light a guy on fire with a match once. Well, a lighter. Either way, this isn’t so bad.

And then, I don’t really talk about card games here, but Marik introduces a new card I have not seen before.

Behold, Lava Golem.

Look at him! Like I know everyone’s kinda freaking out about the new pokemon but like...Lava Golem? Remember that sweet face?

He’s just soooooo good.

Man this is the first Yugioh card ever that I’ve actually liked.

And, upon seeing this terrifying situation, Tea turns to Yugi and says:

Thanks Tea.

Also during these few episodes, Marik is starting to undergo a transformation, mostly via his viens. It’s a look. Kind of worried about his blood pressure.

And I was thinking that they just invented a a chin vein, but, as it turns out, they actually did their research.

There is a vein there! I mean this isn’t really that big a deal to most of you, probably, but anime often gets a bad rap for ignoring anatomy (which ... it’s a cartoon so yeah that’s...that’s what you do in cartoons, you ignore most anatomy) but hey--they got this vein correct. I don’t know why they even bothered, but that was very nice of them to make something so gross so correct.

And because some of you might want this just for yourself, cap free:

Enjoy.

Along with this good boy.

Is it just me? Is it just me that’s all ham about this Domo Kun face? This Mario mini-boss?

I usually don’t like the Yugioh monster designs but this one is just...he’s such a good boy.

Anyway, the art team was told at some point to change piss cloud and they decided to do this instead

Why does the width keep changing on the tower? Like I know it was tossed between different artists but like...it just...it keeps changing and it bothers me.

Anyway, back to what matters.

Can this be our new Joey Wheeler? Just leave everything about Joey Wheeler the same but replace his sprite with Lava Golem and with no explanation. I’d be down.

I do think that this arc brought back their A-team for the animation, there was just a lot more going on visually than we’ve had in a good while. Like this Marik face, for instance--this very famous face that I’ve seen drawn on like...a whole lot of characters. This is a much-referenced pose.

I mean, hey, not using reference while drawing is the same as dueling as Yugi Muto and just never using the Pharaoh. Like sure you could, but never, ever, ever do that.

And I just want you to know, I held that really corny anime art joke in for like a straight week on twitter as the entire world was going off about whether or not you’re supposed to use reference materials when you draw as if this is some sort of controversial topic (it’s not. No one cares about your process.) and y’all, it was HARD. But I did it. I resisted the discourse and still found a way to sneak it into here, into the side blog where I can go off about the inane art twitter discourse without getting blocked.

Which, again, was about “Can I use reference?” I...art twitter. Art twitter, I swear. why would you NOT? You have the Pharaoh, art twitter. You have the Pharaoh.

Anyway, I hope at least one of you got that joke. I hope one of you at least was like “lol--Art Reference is the Heart of the Cards.” and the next time someone tells you that using reference is cheating (which will never happen, a infinitesimal number of people in one forum on DeviantArt in 2003 said this once in the entire history of art, and I don’t know why twitter is fighting with these child-run forums that don’t even exist anymore) you can say “Don’t you dare talk about my platonic soulmate that way.” and just end the argument there.

The hell are these people who say artists don’t use reference? Do you write history papers without reading books?

And that’s my rant that was a.) too long for twitter and also b.) maybe too much anime. With art twitter it’s like..there’s no middle ground between too much anime and not enough anime. No middle ground and I have no idea where the people who follow me even stand. I think they just want to see Zelda. I think that’s about it. I really can’t tell with them. I’m like...always confused as to what those people want.

I need to delete my twitter. Anyways, back to Joey, who felt like breaking the fourth wall.

And so Marik decides to sober up and play the God card.

Yo guys, remember God Cards? I’ll be honest, I kinda completely forgot about them.

And then at some point this shot happened and I was living for it.

such a good idea to offset people in a different filter and kinda stack em. Bro was saying he remembered this sort of thing in Cowboy Bebop but I don’t remember what the hell he’s talking about. Bro and his spicy headcanons are mixing up Yugioh and Cowboy Bebop now. Never thought I’d see that.

And then Kaiba’s muscles kinda twitched and it looked like smiling.

Man, were there a lot of phoenix references in the 00′s or is that just me who read way too much Harry Potter?

And like, because I do draw Yugi sometimes, occasionally people will reblog and tag with Pharaoh’s real name in there (I can’t really avoid that spoiler), so I think it’s pretty likely his name comes from Atum of Egyptian legend. Who...wasn’t really a Pharaoh. Atum was kinda weird, he gave birth to...himself. He’s an interesting read. But, we’ll get there when we get there.

But, I didn’t really know about Bennu pyramids until I actually went and looked up Egyptian Phoenixes. I had always thought that the Phoenix was Greek in origin but, according to Wikipedia some people say it happened in Egypt as well. And if it’s good enough for Wikipedia, it’s good enough for Yugioh.

The return of the mystery purple moisturizer jug and it brought it’s entire extended family of fiji waters.

And so, Ishizu decides to do the right thing and take care of Mai. Not sure what Ishizu knows about being a nurse since she lived underground, but since she can help cure poisonous snake bites, maybe comas are a little bit easier?

And so Serenity starts the 30 minute jog up the phallic tower to get to Joey’s death sequence. She’s made it to about...20 ft outside of the plane by the end of this episode. Serenity runs kinda slow.

Bro mentioned that he thinks it looks like Tea’s trying to very stealthily steal Yugi’s wallet. And that’s just my spicy headcanon now, too.

Well now that’s over, lemme see if...

.......it could’ve happened. It only has like a couple of human skulls on it.

And hey if this is the first recap you’ve ever seen from me, here’s a link to read them all from the beginning in Chrono order, back when they weren’t color coded and I had no idea what the hell I was doing.

[professorprophetess]

Analysis

Why “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” worked where other video game themed movies fell short”

Jumanii: Welcome to the Jungle was not met with any sort of optimism whenever the sequel to the beloved Robin Williams movie was announced following the actor’s death. Yet despite all misgivings this movie turned out to be better than one might expect it to be, even standing its own and paying many moments of homage to the prior film. It managed to be a video game movie that actually worked, and that mostly comes from how it embraced its concept whereas other game movies tend to try too hard to take those half-real incoherences out of the equation and it more often than not weakens what is being attempted. In contrast I’ll be referencing these other movies: Spy Kids 3: Game Over and Ready Player One as well to compare and contrast how well each films handles their game elements.

First a few definition of terms might help those who are not as versed in the terminology as I am or as other game scholars might be. Whenever I say Incoherence, I am of course referencing Jesper Juul’s Half-Real. In it, these things are basically those parts of video games that are non-diagetic but are part of gameplay. The UI, the menus, the rules, the loading screens, the world maps, etc. It’s one of those reasons straight video game adaptations have such a hard time because a large part of what is going on with the game is those non-diagetic elements (Juul 121-162). I may also refer to certain games as MMO, MMORPG or just RPGs and while I know many know what those abbreviations stand for, I’ll spell them out right now. An MMORPG is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game whereas MMO is just to refer to any large game that is online. RPG is simply a Role Playing Game. Any game that has classes to choose from and the party system are generally RPGs. There are other types of abbreviations for games but for the games being discusses, these are the three most pertinent. The final abbreviation is VR or Virtual Reality.

I will start with the oldest film of the three: Spy Kids 3: Game Over. Its central conceit is child spy Junie Cortez had retired from spy work because he was feeling inadequate and just wanted to do something else with his life. Then the maker of a new VR MMO game turned out to secretly be an evil mastermind. They had sent another spy kid into the game but her mind had been trapped by him somewhere in it. Since the other spy kid is his older sister Carmen, Junie has no choice but to enter the game world and go after his sister and save the world while he was at it. In the end, the villain is stopped by Junie and then the virtual monsters somehow end up in the real world with the climax being that the mecha monsters are stopped by Junie and his family (Spy Kids 3). As far as video game adaptation movies go, this and the other films don’t technically count since the games in their plots aren’t real. However, Spy Kids 3 doesn’t also seem all that concerned as to how its central game’s rules work. Sometimes they’ll throw in the gaming concept of mini-games to advance —the robot fights, the racing game, the duel, I can only think of a few times where they faced monsters. Only three times did their life points count—the robot fight, the duel, and when the guy got blown up—. Emails are mentioned but it’s never shown how they exchange them aside from an awkward mimed handoff. Then there is the power up the bad guy gives Junie’s Grandpa AKA his old friend. These items, and the few elements of game play rules are there but they’re not really anything other than a plot point here or a beat there. They’re not central to how the plot is resolved nor how the story is playing out beyond a few bumps in their path to the climax. In fact the film version of incoherence AKA breaking the fourth wall plays more of a role with the climax as the 3-D glasses are used to see the monsters once they get into the real world. They’re not called those in the film but it is very clear with how they look that they are 3D glasses. Still, while it doesn’t resist the incoherences, it merely accepts them as a fact of a game movie and moves on (Juul 121-162, Spy Kids 3).

The next film I’ll look at is Ready Player One. Unlike Spy Kids 3, Ready Player One’s VR world isn’t actually an MMO. The OASIS is actually an internet interface that has many gameified elements to it (Ready Player One). In this film, the inventor of the OASIS died without any heirs about ten years before the start of the main plot and then added an extra gameified element to the OASIS. He left behind an Easter Egg Hunt for the whole of the OASIS’s user base to find. Winner takes the whole OASIS for themselves. This set off a bunch of people pouring over the things he loved in his life to see what kind of Easter eggs he hid to find the clues to get to that final prize. The hero, Wade, is a major Halliday—the OASIS creator—fanboy and finally manages to crack the code to get through the first challenge. From there, the race is on against his fellow gamers and Sorento the menacing head of a company that—should they get control—would make the VR world of the OASIS a pop-up filled nightmare. For the most part the rules of the game are not as important as the rules of the real world, as Sorento being the generic corporate villain that he is uses in game data to find the offline ID’s of the leaderboard to threaten them or, in one case, kills Wade’s not-all-that-lamented Aunt and Uncle as well as a bunch of innocent people who also lived in his trailer house stack (Ready Player One). Item inventories and passwords play a large role in the movie’s outcome as well as an extra life and the rules of the various mini games and challenges the players go through, but beyond that, I wouldn’t say the incoherences are ever used to anyone’s advantage beyond a plot device moment with that extra life Wade got from the Archivist (who turned out not to be just an NPC but an actual user avatar after all: the ex-best friend of Halliday) (Juul 121-162, Ready Player One). Ready Player One was far more concerned with pop-culture references than it was anything else. This doesn’t detract from things but it is what it is.The gameified OASIS  of the movie with its customizable avatars is interesting but doesn’t seem particularly efficient for anyone just trying to use the internet for data sharing or business. In fact it seems like it has a lot of wasted features to look cool instead of be functional. If it were a straight up VR MMO, that would make sense but here it creates more issues. Ultimately, the incoherences are there but not super important more than item collection—the keys and Wade’s 1-Up—,the moment where they steal Sorento’s password, and the chase scene at the end where the real-world jerking about it making it hard for Wade to get to his goal. Never once do they seem to be anything anyone—except the bad guys—can take advantage of and even then it was more by accident than design (Juul 121-162, Ready Player One).

I saved Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle for last. In the original film, Jumanji was just a board game. A possessed board game but a board game none-the-less. Yet, its rules affected the whole plot of that first film. That first film ends with two of its Protagonists, Allan Parrish and Sarah Williams, throwing it into a river for it to get washed away in the year 1969 (after having been adults in 1995 for most of the film’s plot). There is a post credit scene where two girls speaking French come across it on a beach (Jumanji). Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle opens with a man jogging along a beach and finding the game in the year 1996, one year after a majority of the plot of Jumanji took place. He picks it up, takes it home, and tosses it on his sleeping teenage son, Alex, who remarks “who even plays board games anymore?” While he plays his vaguely Atari 2600-esque console, the game magically changes into a cartridge version of Jumanji. Alex picks it up and puts it in. The next that is seen is a flash of green light. The movie jumps ahead and now it’s 2017. The movie introduces our four new teenage protagonists as four types of teenagers: the wimpy nerd, the lazy too-cool-for-school jock, the introverted awkward girl, and the self-absorbed, selfie-obsessed, popular, pretty girl. Also, the father of the Alex is re-introduced and the consequences of his disappearance have made him a wary, angry man. The four kids all get in trouble and land in detention; pretty girl Beth for being on the phone in class, Awkward girl Martha for mouthing off, and the boys Nerdy Spencer and Jock Anthony “Fridge” are  in trouble because Spencer helped Fridge cheat on his homework. They find the old-quasi Atari console with its very Nintendo looking controllers and decide to turn it on to play Jumanji. It is shown to look like it’s an old school RPG for four players that can each choose from different characters to play. After pressing start, they all get sucked into the game and become their characters. Spencer becoming the handsome Dr. Bravestone, Fridge becoming the comically small “Mouse” Finnbar, Martha becoming the sexy Ruby Roundhouse, and Beth becoming the male Dr. Shelly Oberon (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle). The first instance of game incoherence being part of the actual plot is when they get into the game and Beth dies but comes back because the extra life system. They meet a helpful—to a point—NPC named Nigel who fills them in (enabling a flashback cutscene) which is even explained by Spencer to the others. He gives them the item they need to finish the game as well as warnings about the bad guy they’re running from/racing to the center of Jumanji and drives off repeating his voice lines. A nice touch, as after they’re done with any sort of major speaking, NPCs do repeatedly say the same thing due to programming (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Juul 121-162). The next incoherence is ability UIs that can be displayed by pressing their names on their outfits, and that Bethany being the character who is the cartographer is the only one who can use the map-item. Along the way, Fridge’s back-pack is an inventory for weapons that shouldn’t reasonably fit in it and the group has special attacks they can activate once conditions are met, like Martha using Ruby’s fighting skills or Spencer using Bravestone’s weapons(Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Juul 121-162). Other touches where the game incoherences are woven into the plot are when NPC’s only talk to Spencer’s Bravestone, shortcuts across the whole world from the bazaar to the jungle house of Allan Parrish, and the NPC guardsmen whom Martha has to distract with a radio that conveniently is there for here to use her character’s dance fighting with. Then there is the scene where Alex, who has been in the game since 1996, is almost game-overed permanently but Beth transfers an extra life to him. Finally, there is the climax of the film where Martha as Ruby uses one of her extra lives to get to the top of the giant Jaguar mountain where the stone needs to go to win Jumanji, because characters respawn in this world by dropping from the sky. She purposefully uses her character’s weakness to snakes to get to the sky and she slaps the stone into Spencer’s hand so he can end the game(Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Juul 121-162). This leads to them winning once he yells Jumanji and the kids are free to go. They leave school and see that Alex was sent back to 1996 and his family’s house is no longer the dilapidated mess but is now warm and full of life. The kids move on and the movie ends with them at school the next day smashing the console with a bowling ball and the credits roll. At no point were the rules of the game they were in ever ignored and as mentioned the characters of the movie were even able to use those rules to their advantage whether it be getting through the world faster via a shortcut or using how the characters respawn to get around the bad guy. It wove these in well and that is why, of the three films here, it implemented its game aspects the best. There were still moments where the movie deviated—since we would see what the villain was up-to from time to time—but otherwise it stuck to keeping the rules consistent (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Juul 121-162).

Jumanji: Weclome to the Jungle was a film I had very low expectations for and not only did it exceed those expectations, it very cleverly used parts of gaming that other films ignore —unless they have to deal with them—to their full advantage for the plot line. Spy Kids 3 and Ready Player One didn’t ignore these aspects per-say but they did not fully embrace them as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle did.  By doing things the way they did, the writers of Jumanji were able to side-step a lot of the problems movies with video games in them could run into while attempting to make an engaging video game based narrative. The other two films attempted this same tactic but with varying levels of success. Video games are hard to adapt, and that is just a consequence of their inherent interactive status. The player’s interactivity affects how the game is to them. Adaptations take this out and lose part of the game. What Jumanji ultimately did that the others didn’t was make it feel like this was a game someone could play and showed how it would be played. The others did not. That was why they fell short.

Sources:

Jumanji. Directed by Joe Jonhston, performances by Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, Bonnie Hunt, and Bradley Pierce, TriStar Pictures, 1995.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Directed by Jake Kasdan, performances by  Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart , and Jack Black, Sony Pictures, 2017.

Juul, Jesper. Half-Real. MIT Press, 2005. pg 121-162.

Ready Player One. Directed by Stephen Spielberg, performances by  Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, and Ben Mendelsohn, Warner Bros, 2018.

Spy Kids 3: Game Over. Directed by Robert Rodriguez, performances by  Daryl Sabara, Alexa PenaVega, and Antonio Banderas, Dimension Studios, 2003.

[sagebodisattva]

Meta Ethics

In a follow up to the last video, “Morality and Spiritual Training for Trolls”, we’ll continue our expansive evaluation of morality, and start out by clarifying the actual subject matter of the expatiation. The consideration here really isn’t morality. That would be technically incorrect. Better to classify it as “ethics”; and in this particular case, even more accurately described as “meta ethics.” And this will be the main focus of today’s video, with more content to come in follow ups, as we’ll continue to broaden the scope of the examination, and convert this exploration of morality into an ongoing series. But before we even get into the specific implications of meta ethics, let us first understand the reason why we should make a distinction between morality and ethics.

Just referencing a “morality”, doesn’t speak to the ideological considerations behind a moral code. Saying you have morality is essentially the same thing as saying you have rules or regulations. It’s just basic terminology referring to a generalization, and says nothing to the possible equity or inequity of such a generalization. We could very well have instances of ill conceived morality, or of morality founded on questionable principles. That’s why the ethics are of upmost importance, as they deal with the philosophy behind the rules of conduct. If you want to understand whether or not a morality in question is either solid or slipshod, you need not look any further then the underlying ethics. This is the main reason why it’s significant to distinguish morality from ethics.

So, when speaking on ethics, it should also be clarified that conventional ethics are very low minded. Conventional ethics are the worm eyed position. Conventional ethics are constructed by, and revolve solely around, the illusory egoic identity. That’s why “meta ethics”, are a far better alternative for consideration; as, ethics that are based solely around the primitive desires of a desperate needy ego will, necessarily, lead to low minded standards, inequity and moral turpitude. And that’s because the ego is an inherently selfish repository by default, and due to this, simply can’t be trusted to make a mindful decision about anything. The ego is just too selfish.

But what’s wrong with that? After all, “Richard Dawkins and The Selfish Gene.”, right? “Ayn Rand and The Virtue of Selfishness.”, no?

Right. A genetically selfish waste producing vacuum who thinks it’s a virtue just by being a genetically selfish waste producing vacuum. How admirable! Is there anything wrong with that? I dunno. Is there anything wrong with a man who spends all day, every day, licking his own balls? If so, what would that be, exactly? What would be your diagnosis, for a man who spent all his time with his head between his legs, lapping at his own testicles?

Whatever. Go ahead and lick your own balls; but why is it so hard to lick your own balls without impinging on others? That’s all you gotta do. Lick your own balls without impinging on others.

“But why is it wrong to impinge on others?”

The mere fact that this needs to be explained to you is an indication of mental derangement. Let’s pick up this conversation with you strapped in the interrogation chair. I’m sure we can straighten out your mental confusion about why it’s not cool to impinge on others in a fortnight, all with nothing more then a knife, a fork, a spoon, and a bottle of salt.

If you need a mundane reason why: because it isn’t civilized. We’re trying to imagine that we’re building a civilization ova here, and sociopathic actions such as lying, cheating, stealing, raping, and murdering, are recklessly barbaric uncivilized behaviors. You want to be a savage? Fine, be a savage. You’ll be treated just like any other rabid animal rampaging the landscape, and simply be locked in a cage, or put down. There’s absolutely no issue with hunting you to extinction. You can then take your place next to the saber tooth tiger and the dodo bird.

If you want to hear the higher reason why: because preying on others is a delusional behavior; and hiding in a delusion is a cowardly way to elude the truth.

So, a ravenous short sided ego, struggling to survive, will find all kinds of ample justifications for immoral behavior; and, in some cases, will also discover that it can derive sustenance or perverse indulgent gratification, at the expense of another; and, due to this, supposedly lacks the capacity to understand how, and why, this is wrong; which is further reinforced by cues taken from “nature”, which seem to endorse predatory exploits. This is where the idea of moral relativity comes into play; the view that:

“Moral judgments are true or false only relative to some particular standpoint (for instance, that of a culture or a historical period), and that no standpoint is uniquely privileged over all others.”

The language of that description tells you everything you need to know about why moral relativity is a pile of archaic garbage. No standpoint is uniquely privileged over all others? Are you kidding me? With the plethora of knowledge now so widely available, due to the mass digitalization of information and a global connectivity facilitated by way of the World Wide Web, are they actually suggesting with a straight face that a contemporary man doesn’t have an advantaged educational position over a man of antiquity? Are you serious? As it stands today, the average modern individual has potential access to more information in one day, then the average ancient individual had in an entire lifetime! Whereas the ancient standpoint only had knowledge of it’s own current period, and perhaps a partial knowledge of limited history, the modern standpoint has knowledge of the ancient standpoint, all the history preceding it, and everything else that unfolded thereafter, all the way up to the present moment. It’s not even a contest. Hence, one of the reasons why I posit that the whole idea of moral relativity is archaic. After all, moral relativism is a *view* that is sympathetic to a *standpoint*. In other words, a worm eyed position, referring to another worm eyed position: the low minded domain of the hungry ego.

Ego based ethics produce substandard moralities; and we have seen countless examples of this from various civilizations throughout history. These are the types of ethics that made sinister methodologies, such as slavery, torture, human sacrifice, cannibalism, and pederasty, culturally acceptable in their particular times; of which, makes it truly questionable whether or not these populations could rightfully be considered “civilizations”, proper. A true civilization is defined as a stage of human development that is considered most advanced; and it should be obvious that the populations that engaged in these type of wicked practices would hardly be qualified as civilized.

So yes, they were substandard morals absolutely, because they were based on substandard ethics; which was often the direct result of ignorant myopia and stubborn superstition. And we shouldn’t be afraid to denounce or condemn these subpar morals due to some idea about cultural differences. Let us not forget that the biological definition of “culture”, is the cultivation of cellular organisms in an artificial medium containing nutrients; with “artificial”, being the key word to remember here. And that’s because culture is artifice. Culture is contrived.

And some of you may say:

“Hey, whoa, Sage! Are you gonna devalue my culture?”

And I say hey, you bet your damn ass I will. I’m a reality deconstructionist, and everything you hold dear is on the table.

Your *culture*, huh. How insipid. That’s like saying I’m devaluing your cosmetics. I’m not sure where you get this idea that anyone should pay homage to your luggage. To uncover the truth, know thyself. And the way to know thyself is by letting go of all the artifice you’ve clung to, in desperation for an identity. No, you are not a gender. You are not a sexuality. You are not a race. You are not a religion. You are not even a human being, so forget about all the heritage and traditions of human beings that you cherish so deeply. These are *all* illusory identifications; other wise known as “bullshit”, and culture isn’t exempt from being part of the bullshit. Stop taking your ego so seriously. So what about multiculturalism? Fine, but no less bullshit then singleculturalism. Multiculturalism is a reference to different layers of fake contrived bullshit, all getting combined! Yum yum! Just what a cauldron of one type of bullshit really needs; a blend of additional types of bullshit to give the bullshit stew the real nice unique savory flavor of diverse bullshit! Eclectic bullshit is so much tastier then regular bullshit, didn’t you know? A bullshit so palpable, it’s palatable. Ah yes! How sweet it is! And it attracts quite a sundry of nasty flies and shady scavengers. So yeah. All culture is fake. Stop using it as a shield against the empty truth.

And, needless to say, by the same token, you can do the exact same thing with god; the idea in your head that you use to justify all the other bullshit identifications you’ve become attached to. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that having a supreme being in the mix changes anything, or did anything to justify abhorrent behaviors throughout history. If anything, it just made the situation ten times worse; as, nothing emboldens a myopic ego more then the imagined personal endorsement of an almighty god; which, as we all know, is a path of complete willful dishonesty, or maybe just superstitious stupidity, as the case may be. This is a type of ethical formula that leads to nothing but pure corruption. In fact, you can’t even rightfully say that the morals of religion are based on any true ethics. Ethics are the product of deep minded philosophy, and there’s nothing at all philosophical or deep minded, about binary rules designed to acquire feeble acquiescence. There’s nothing philosophical about blindly adhering to dogma out of fear of some judgmental entity. That’s why it’s called “theology”, and not philosophy.

In truth, the concept of god is a projection of man. See, they tell you that god created man, so that man could, in turn, worship god; (an insane tale unto itself wherein a manic depressive deity with an isolation phobia finds solace in masturbation with self imposed amnesia.), but, the truth is that, man created god, so that man could worship himself via an imagined god by proxy. (an even more insane tale of rampant self important impotence trying to pass off masturbation as legitimate divinity.)

And, of course, this became a very effective method of dominating fellow egos; setting up dogmatic dictums and the subsequent punishments for non-compliance, all under the guise of having a religion. A complete con job. But who could really blame these ascendant hustlers? Most egos are weak and docile, and cannot survive by their own wits, and need a strong outside factor to command them, and they will be submissive to this dominance in exchange for room and board, all of which only increases their overall slavery, but yet relieves them of all responsibility!

What a fantastic tradeoff for a lifelong slave! Everything you need to survive will be provided at a minimum, in exchange for complete servitude. And never forget, in addition to the commitment of being a full time slave, you will also OWE your master for the service of providing you with the bare minimum. That’s the reason why you can’t just leave. It’s not like you can decide to back out of the deal because you now suddenly think you can find a way to be independent, no; it’s too late. You *owe*, motherfucker. Always remember that. And it doesn’t matter that it’s contrived debt. You owe.

“You owe. You owe. You owe.”

Got a clearer picture of what’s really going on here? This type of organized corruption is the main reason why an “atheist”, was even ever born, and why morality became tainted in the eyes of such atheists. Religion and morals developed a sordid association, and almost rightfully so. But this is a good thing. Stop trying to use god as a shield against the empty truth.

So, this is why I submit a proposal for meta ethics. And what exactly is meta ethics? Meta ethics would be fundamental principles with a wider domain then that of the first person perspective of the worm eyed ego. This would be ethics based on lucidity as the highest ideal. These would be ethics that make determinations and develop morals, from the outside looking in, so to speak. A standard that would be a lot more closer to objective, (as in, an outlook that’s impartial to any particular identity’s personal feelings or opinions.) then anything we’ve imagined could exist thus far. I argue that it has never existed, because the awakening is still in an embryonic stage, therefor there is no such animal as an ego that isn’t partial to it’s own bias. Mental slavery demands that you be prejudiced to the personality you’ve associated as an individual identity. This is your sacred attachment. And you will not deviate from it, one bit. You will remain obedient to it, damn it. You will be shamelessly obedient to it.

Meta ethics are exactly what they imply. Ethics that are of a higher order, and are self referential to the ego from this higher station. Only from this position are all egos seen as the same, and therefor can all be treated the same, and will have a code of conduct that applies to them all equally the same. From this position there isn’t any relative aspects to morals. They are always absolute, because they cover the entire framework and do not concern themselves with any selfishly biased worm eyed considerations. In this way, there won’t be any exceptions because of cultural or historical standpoints. There won’t be any allowances set aside for a reckless predatory ego who wants to gain something at the expense of another. There are no grey areas, or ambiguity, concerning the right and wrong of conduct. Lucidity is the foundation, and a context outside the ego is the reference point. This is where the high minded standards of meta ethics finds it’s ground.

[saffoldink]

“Gym Shy? Tips On Staying Fit Outside the Gym”

HealthPlus Magazine (The Atlanta Voice) - April 2022

Exercise is for everybody. That is a fact. We should all do it because we’re all human and humans need to move and sweat sometimes to stay healthy and lively and sexy. We can’t have nice, shiny skin and firm arms and stomachs without effort, right?

You know what is NOT for everybody? The gym. That is also a fact. Because while many love the hard-work environment and fitness fellowship or space to get swole in solitude the gym can provide, many simply cannot stand that place. The reasons for their disdain for gyms are varied.

“The gym can be kinda intimidating, especially for newbies,” says Kim P. while taking a short break during the daily run at Piedmont Park she recently incorporated into her life. Aside from potentially being clueless about what to do and how to use the equipment, sometimes gym newcomers are thrown off by the more experienced members. “I used to look at the stuff other people were doing and feel like there was no way I’d ever be able to do that. So, it made me hesitant to even go.”

“I experienced some of that, too, but that’s not the reason I stopped going to the gym,” adds Kim’s running buddy, Sheena, who has been exercising a little longer than Kim but is still relatively new to the game. “I stopped going ’cause people are nasty and they stank. Like, I just cannot.”

Ahh, yes – hygiene. It has always been a key factor in determining the quality of a fitness facility, but in these times of COVID it’s more important than ever. A lot of people can’t bring themselves to even set foot into a gym nowadays for fear of contracting COVID-19 and taking it home to their families, and that concern is valid.

But don’t fret. There are several ways to continue or begin your fitness journey that don’t involve going to the gym, and we here at HealthPlus have a couple suggestions.

GO OUTSIDE

Spring just started springing somewhat consistently here in Atlanta, and the mild temperatures provide the perfect atmosphere for some outdoor training.

As referenced earlier, Piedmont Park’s Active Oval features a half-mile track, baseball field and volleyball courts. There’s even an area designated for traditional set-and-rep work like you’d find at the gym.

If Piedmont is inconvenient, there are parks all over Atlanta with tennis courts, walking trails, basketball courts and the like. If counting reps isn’t your thing, then it’s easy to find something more involved to do. The city’s Department of Parks and Recreation has a comprehensive parks list on its website. They even offer links that narrow the list down to parks with playgrounds, sports fields, pickleball courts, even skateboard parks.

Of course, you could also just jog or walk around your neighborhood, or hit the backyard and do your thing there. You could even get a bike and ride it.

But if you’re just too indoors-y for all that, you could always …

STAY IN THE HOUSE

At your home you control everything and don’t have to deal with anybody you don’t want to – well, except for your kids – so it might be the perfect place to get yourself right.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can easily find programs that’ll walk you through everything and require only a smartphone, minimal to no equipment and your desire. X28 Fitness, which is like P90X with swag, and the step-based aerobics class Get Down, Stay Down are two such programs, both created by Atlanta natives. There are also a myriad of apps that’ll guide you through your workouts, and if you’ve got a little money to invest, you might opt for a trendy Peloton bike or the futuristic Mirror.

Then, there are always the basics. You can’t go wrong with staples like pushups and squats. Purchasing a cheap jump rope is one of the best decisions you can make. It’s a fantastic tool for toning and cardio and doesn’t require any special training. That jump rope is a cheat code, for real.

The fact of the matter is that if you’re serious about your fitness, you’ll find a way to get to it. Even in a pandemic you have options, you’ve just gotta exercise them.

[daebakinc]

Eric Nam Honestly in D.C Fan Account

Let me start off by saying that if you’ve heard that Eric is a talented, funny sweetheart, you heard correct. Any other opinions of him need to scoot. Pronto.

Now that that public service has been made, time to back it up. But first, a small break to give credit to his opening act: Loote.

While many of you’ve probably never heard of them before this, I can almost guarantee you’ve still heard their work as they wrote the song No Promises from Cheat Codes and Demi Lovato. Two super talented people (and Emma is beyond adorable!). They did an amazing job getting everyone pumped with awesome music and stage presences.

To the main event.

I was lucky enough to get a VIP ticket, which meant a group pic with Eric along with the usual early entrance perks. As we were waiting in line, the staff warned us to not expect Eric to talk a lot since as this was his third concert in three nights, he needed to save his voice. He did look a bit tired when he came out of the dressing room, who can blame him, but as soon as fans started joining him for pictures, he was all smiles. When it was my group’s turn, he made sure to say “hi” to each of us and give us high-fives. I swear I was going to let one of my new friends that I made in line stand beside him, but when the time came he stood beside me and put his arm around me. Believe me, my heart kind of stopped. I couldn’t even bring myself to fully hug him I was so starstruck. Like most idols(if not all), he’s even more handsome in person. It was all over in a hot minute, but I can tell you he smells really good and thanked each of us after the pictures were shot. Now here’s the first instance of Eric being a sweet guy: one of the fans right before us was on crutches and he immediately asked what had happened. Then, as she was leaving the photo area, he pulled aside a staff member to make sure she got a chair with a good view to sit in for the show.

The venue was really small, the smallest I’ve been in, so the stage was close and low and made for an intimate (and sweltering) atmosphere. The crowd was pretty excited, singing along with every song on the pre-show playlist and then hyping and encouraging Loote. When Eric came on, they gave him even more love.

Okay, so I said Eric was a sweetheart, right? Well, don’t think that lessens his being low enough to pull out those little male tricks to make us scream. I mean poking out his tongue, shooting heart fingers indiscriminately, body rolling, and winking. That’s not even touching on his charming face when he passed out roses to the crowd during Good For You. Man, do not underestimate this kid’s ability to up the sex appeal. That said, his singing is a whole other kind of appeal. He sang most of the songs with one ear piece out and during one of his breaks to talk sang a medley of three of his songs, requested by the audience, acapella. That voice you hear on the album? Yeah, it’s there and even more beautiful and passionate in reality. Plus, he let us hear an unreleased song called ‘Float’ that will be on the new Hotel Transylvania’s soundtrack!!!

So too is that wicked sense of humor and general goofiness we get to see during his various emcee positions. Eric was made for this kind of job. And his laugh is one of the most adorable things I’ve seen, especially when he’s proud of himself for a joke he made. He took numerous breaks between songs to talk with us. Notice I said “with,” not “to” or “at.” That’s because he talked with us like we were having a real conversation, a conversation between friends where it was joking and felt easy and very back and forth. Honestly, his breaks were just as enjoyable as his performance. Because there were just so many little moments, I’m going to bullet point them.

·         Even though it was super hot, he continued to wear his jacket the whole time because his mom told him “Do not do too much sexy, okay? God is watching you.”

·         He talked about how this was his most diverse and intimate crowd of the tour and how happy that made him while admitting all he knew about DC was from Scandal and House of Cards.

·         He teased us for not being confident in singing anything other than two lines of the chorus from ‘This is Not a Love Song’.

·         He asked if it was anyone’s birthday (it was one girl’s, so he sang happy birthday to her), but because so many people were saying it was theirs, which he pointed out was statistically impossible, he laughed and called us out for lying. Right after that, he said “But it’s okay because our president does it too!” Omg, the reaction from the crowd was awesome! And he was so pleased himself.

·         The crowd demanded aegyo, to which he flabbergastedly replied that no other show has asked for that. He tried saying he didn’t know what it was, only to imitate fans making huge dumb smiles while cupping their faces. Eric couldn’t handle it and just ended up laughing. He did make it to three doing the gwiomi counter before giving up.

·         When he found two little girls in the crowd, he crouched down to talk to them and ask them their ages and if they liked the show. Then he told us about other kids at other shows, even remembering their names and ages. In addition, he gave a shout out to the parents and boyfriends dragged there too.

·         Towards the end, he told us that he started his career in Korea to be able to do shows in America because we need more diversity, especially now. Bless.

Because I like bringing things back where they started, I’m going to end this with more notes on how good a person Eric is. During the show, he really paid attention to what peopled were saying/shouting at him. Also, because the venue was so small and we were all so packed, for one song he got off the stage and circled around to the back so the people there could see him up close too (thankfully they didn’t swarm him), in addition to reaching out into the crowd and giving each part of the stage due attention. He thanked each of his backup dancers (who were really cute) by name and referenced to the various staff who helped with the show. And of course, he thanked us for coming when we could’ve been anywhere else.

I really hope Eric heard how many of us were yelling “thank you” back to him because truly, it was such an experience and a pleasure to spend an evening with such a thoughtful, gifted and brilliant idol who felt much more like a friend.

[christinaroseandrews]

Part 4

If you want to know what you missed in You Don’t Know Me, you can read Parts One, Two, and Three. Or you can just jump into the deep end and go from here. I should have said spoiler alert, but at this point who cares. However there are Trigger Alerts of Dubious Consent, Alcohol Abuse, Sexual Harassment, and a crap ton of sexist and homophobic microaggressions. Suffice it to say this is NSFW.

This is the last summary bit, I promise. I mean we only have a quarter of the book to go and the shit just hit the fan in a big way. Normally I would say that the last quarter is spent fixing the problems revealed on the way to the happy ending. But in You Don’t Know Me’s case, I would be completely wrong.

Let’s dive in, shall we?

With Alec, Rue, and Jenna all finding their own way back to the U.S. after their adventures in Ibiza, we’re left with Repentant Asshole Jack and Magically Reappearing Sean to follow around.

Sean once again proves he is too good for this world. By calling out Jack and how he’s been behaving.

Unfortunately this is literally all of the discussion that we get because the plane runs into turbulence. It turns out the turbulence is being caused by a large group of thunderstorms in the Caribbean (which most air traffic controllers try to steer around unless there is a more pressing reason not to) and everything goes to hell. Literally.

Since this is a storm, that means the water is going to be choppy which seriously impacts the ability of the pilot to land safely (my uncle pilots small craft and my cousin is a business jet pilot). Not to mention it feels like the only reason that Hopkins threw this in there was so that Jack would get a “get out of jail free” card and not have to be accountable for his actions and what he did to Rue.

The plane starts to go down and we get this.

Who here remembers the safety demonstration at the beginning of each plane flight? One of the things they stress is to not inflate the vest until you’re outside of the plane.

There’s a reason for that. It has to do with the laws of physics.  Namely, that most people aren’t strong enough swimmers to be able to dive underwater while wearing a life vest and people get trapped in the sinking plane because they are floating not walking. I even saw a TV show on this that referenced Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 and the memories of survivors who heard the life vests inflate and then saw people dying because they couldn’t get out.

Mean water.

So now that Jack and Sean are likely dead. Let’s check in with our favorite musician who we’ve yet to see do anything that warrants his celebrity, Alec.

He arrives at LAX and is immediately greeted by people exclaiming that “Yay! You’re not dead but your friends are!”

Which leaves him going “Huh?”

He dashes off to a bar and gets the news.

Alec then takes a page from the Tommy Wiseau school of acting and falls apart.

And there you have the problem. This grief feels overacted. Forced. Like Faleena has never actually lost someone she cared about and is going through the motions of grief.

We flip to Rue who has heard the news and decided that the best thing to do is to go to Jack and Sean’s house and try to comfort their grieving mother. Remember, this is the same woman whose husband cheated on her and Rue is a living reminder of that infidelity and betrayal. But sure, let’s go comfort Mrs. Stone.  That’s a great idea.

Rue goes on and on in her head about how much she loves her brothers. Despite only knowing them a week. And one of the brothers has done his level best to break her and succeeded.  Then we get this.

My parents went from Met to Engaged in literally 3 weeks. So I know it’s possible. But Rue hasn’t had the same kind of “get to know you” experiences. She’s had parties, and more parties, and that’s about it. The real problem is that the author didn’t show the bonding between any of her characters. Instead, she meandered from external plot device to external plot device without any character development. The number of times I can count Alec and Rue actually talking is non-existant. They don’t talk. They lust after each other.

Right now I am firmly on the mother’s side.

Alec shows up about a minute later and lets himself and Rue in.

When he appears, the mother reappears - drugged out - and apologizes to Rue.

We then get some of the backstory of Rue’s father and mother.

Apparently the mother left and despite telling Rue’s dad that she never wanted to see him, he still loved her. He even wrote a note to his wife telling her that he never loved her and that Rue’s mom was his soulmate. The man is a piece of work.

Not to mention, I have concerns about just how much Rue’s mom wanted the affair and how much was coercion.  Because let’s be honest, it’s a power imbalance.

After this, we travel back in time to see what happened when the plane crashed. At this point, I am firmly convinced that Jack and Sean died despite what the author claims, and this is just a huge fantasy spun by Rue as part of the bargaining phase of grief. I mean, it makes as much sense as anything else.

The plane lands and Jack and Sean and the pilots manage to get out despite the rising water.

Once out of the plane they have to swim against the waves to get to the raft with an injured co-pilot.

At this point, I’m just chanting “Nope” so much that my dogs got concerned about my sanity and started bringing me toys in the effort to break me out of my fugue-state.

I have good dogs.

Of course Jack and Sean survive to reach the raft...

How do I know they’re near Cuba? It becomes a plot point later. But you want to know what else is near Cuba? The Gulf Stream.

Look at those water temps... Hmmm It’s almost like it’s warm in the Caribbean or something.

This water is definitely warmer than ANYTHING along the California coast. (LA average water temps in November are in the low 60s. The Florida Keys average water temperatures are in the upper 70s to low 80s during the same time.)

Sorry, my Earth Science degree is screaming. I’ll stop.

While they’re drifting they have a heart to heart and Sean reveals he’s gay.

Seriously, Jack is one of the most horrible people I’ve ever encountered that was supposed to be a redeemable character. There have been villains - Loki, Vegeta, Draco Malfoy, Darth Vader, Spike - who have had better redemption arcs and been better people than Jack.

Then this happens.

I actually went back and counted, from the time traveling reboot it literally was 8 pages from the start of that chapter with the actual plane crash and them being rescued. They were in the water for only a few hours or at least that’s what it feels like. The author is not good with time.

We return to Rue and Alec in California and get this...

Yep, the President calls to tell them Jack and Sean are safe.

There’s some very painful dialogue and then Mrs. Stone wanders off.

And one of Faleena Hopkins’ issues rears its head...

From here on, I imagined the entire scene was being listened to by Obama. It wasn’t pretty.

We start in on a “I am so happy my best friends are alive I must sex you up!” which I will spare you. Then Alec and Rue have a heart to heart and they decide that they can only be friends. Because she loves her brothers and she wants to make it work with them. I can get loving Sean. Sean is awesome. Jack can go rot. Have I mentioned I hate Jack?

Next we have a party to celebrate the return of Jack and Sean and my love of Sean wanes while my hatred of Jack and Alec rises. Jack because he’s a horrible human being. Alec because he spends his time moping about how wants Rue but can’t have her.

Sean wanders away and spends the next few minutes telling everyone he talks to that he‘s gay. Which I wouldn’t have a an issue with if this wasn’t billed as a straight romance. Sean rejoins the group and we get the following “Jack is terrible” things. 

Jack stops with his harassment of Jenna and has a talk with Rue. Revealing that he too tried to commit suicide.

You know. I hear counseling is a thing. Maybe you all should look into that.

Anyway after that, he gives permission for Alec to date Rue.

Because men giving permission for people to date their female relatives is so 2015... or 1915... or 1815. One of those. This is also sexist. I know there’s a bro code, but frankly Jack has been such an ass and literally he’s known Rue for like a week, I’m skeptical.

Alec is relieved and runs off to find Rue. But she’s trying to stick to her vow of only friends.

So when she tells him no twice, he does this.

This is what Faleena Hopkins considers sexy: abuse. Naturally Rue is turned on and they run off to have sex.

Horribly horribly written sex.

Thankfully the scene is short. And by I short I mean WTF short.

The chapter ends with Alec and Rue making a promise to try to make things work. And if the story had ended there, it could kind of squeak into romance. But it doesn’t.

Instead the story ends with Rue, Jack, and Sean going on a talk show and talking about their life.

And here’s the final line.

Yep...

Honestly, Sean’s story arc was the most developed and compelling. But when a secondary character’s plot takes over the core plot of your romantic leads, there is something wrong.

Unfortunately, I am literally running out of room so I’ll sum up in another post where I talk about the most salient problems.

If you’re enjoying these reviews, you can buy us a kofi.

[insidesabreensmind]

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Barbie

The highly anticipated return of Nicki Minaj is upon us and she has everyone talking. It’s been quiet from Saint Nick since her last post in December (besides her ads for #MercedesBenz). However, on Monday (04/09) the Barbie started buzz on her page when she posted two single covers for “Chun-Li” and “Barbie Tingz” and announced they would be released on Thursday (04/12). The covers are both attention grabbers but, Chun-Li takes the cake with Nicki rocking Fendi from head to kitty (as she would say) and wearing two top buns which is Street Fighter’s Chun-Li’s signature hairstyle.Then there’s Barbie Tingz, which has a 18th century, ode to Marie-Antoinette vibe to the single cover with Minaj wearing a gown with embellishments around the mid-section and a group of women behind her with less than Barbie-esque masks. The songs dropped yesterday, on every streaming service after Nicki’s interview with Zane Lowe on Beats 1 Radio. Chun-Li was the more anticipated song due to referencing a Street Fighter character, one would expect that the lyrics would be grittier, punchline heavy and Nicki reminding everyone why she’s the Queen of Rap. In comparison, Barbie Tingz gave a more melodic feeling, but also, rapping about why she shouldn’t be counted out and maybe a line or two about all these b*tches being her sons. Unfortunately, both songs were good and only good. For this to be her return to the public eye and the airways, it felt a bit flat but it’s only her first two singles and she probably has more surprises for us under her wig. The only real criticism to give is there’s definitely a disconnect between the song titles and some of the lyrics. In Barbie Tingz, Nicki says “If that bitch get slick, I'll cut the bitch/ I'll cut up the bitch, I'll gut the bitch / Had to fuck up the bitch, man, fuck the bitch / Won't shoot her but I will gun-butt the bitch” which seems more appropriate for Chun-Li because she’s talking about physically fighting and “Want the Nicki cheat code? Come on, bitch, nice try” would be a perfect gamer reference and create some comparison between Nicki and Chun-Li; the only time Nicki compares herself to Chun-Li is “They need rappers like me/ they need rappers like me / so they can get on their fucking keyboards And make me the bad guy, Chun-Li” which is flawed because Chun-Li wasn’t a bad guy in the game. Furthermore, besides the small criticisms were very happy to see Nicki Minaj return and we got a fun quote for all the petty boops “All tea, all shade and all offense”

[collegeessayprompts935]

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[smallblanketfort]

do you have tips on taking notes?

yes!! i have many, so i tried to make it easier for you to navigate :)

L O N G post ahead of you, covering lecture notes and readings notes, from a college senior :)

lecture notes:

i suggest using a notebook and pen, physically writing down. it’s easier to study, and since it’s using your body, you have a much higher retention rate on your side than if you use a laptop.

i have used my laptop for taking notes before. it’s easier to take more notes, word for word, but that’s not always helpful. maybe that’s your style, especially if you enjoy rewriting your notes all pretty and more successfully when you get home. i am not that girl. 

more notes does not always equal better! it’s good for you to listen actively, selecting what is important and what is not. i take very thorough notes. i take a lot of notes. if you need notes for a missed class, i. am. your. girl. that doesn’t mean i write out everything word for word. selecting details, clauses, and images really helps me to not only keep up, but also to memorize later. plus, when you’re typing, it’s easier to type all the words out without really processing the whole meaning. remember that dense notes are harder to study

finally, when you write by hand, you can get more creative with your style. occasionally, i’ll web notes out from one, rather than a traditional outline, bc it makes more sense for the topic

it also helps my anxiety! so much! if i force myself to take great in depth notes, then my mind has to dedicate more brain space to the task at hand than to my anxieties.

stick to one of these though. it really sucks to get into a test and realize you didn’t study half of your notes bc you forgot half were on your laptop. it’s awful lol.

if you use a laptop, get used to how it works first. do u know how much i resent trying to switch from a bullet that is under other bullets (like this one, not filled in) to a main point bullet (the ones filled in). it can be so confusing. also make sure you use a program you like. you can take directly into documents, but i find that i really love evernote, as i can make notebooks for classes, stacks of notebooks for my college, and that i can tag notes with specific classes and topics.

if you’re on paper, for fuck’s sake, divide your notebook into sections for classes. keep it all together. those notebooks with handy dandy dividers are so helpful, and they keep you from carrying around 5 notebooks at once.

i wouldn’t worry too much about highlighters and such in class. there’s just so much going on then. save highlighting and color coding for later, and count it as studying.

don’t worry about traditional outlining styles, with roman numerals or whatever. i take notes very simply. bullets/dashes, subnotes under a broad note. 

do it how it makes sense to you! maybe that includes different bullet styles, different places for different types of information (on a simple level, i start writing chapter numbers and titles as far to the left as i can go, over the margins, in bold and capital letters. i also usually go over these later in a certain color marker)

in some classes it is helpful for me to write the topic along the top of the page in a highlighter (color coding is lovely) the main idea/topic for each page. the classes this was most obviously helpful in were astronomy (COMETS or BLACKHOLES etc) and shakespeare (MUCH ADO ACT 2 or ROMEO etc)

it’s easiest to just note page numbers of referenced complex diagrams, as they are usually in your reading or accessible online

your style might look different in each class. whatever works.

note everything (everything) your professor writes on the board. if it’s important enough for your professor to write it, it’s probably important enough for you to write it.

note examples only if it’s helpful for your memory. however, make light note of things like famous people and their science/psych experiments. but in math and such, note! the! examples! and! reasons! will help you so much.

examples that have emotion, imagery, or sound are going to be more helpful. applicable examples are most helpful. good professors will lecture you accordingly. lazy ones will not.

star anything that the professor stresses or hints will be tested. anything that they say is a major theme or whatever.

note main ideas/points/themes, definitions, conclusions, 

use your tests to help you figure out what you need to know. ask questions about the tests too. in every class i’ve taken, i’m totally shocked at how willingly people ask about exam format and how willingly the professor will tell us how it will work. they want you to succeed.

people learn differently! i suggest taking notes in class and later adding touches that help you. count it as study time too. a warm up, if you will. 

if you’re visual, this might include highlighting, color coding, drawing diagrams, etc.

 if you’re an auditory learner, reading the notes out loud and organizing them accordingly, as well as making up rhymes, rhythms and such, might help you. some auditory learners actually like to record lectures and listen to them later. 

if you learn best through movement, rewriting or making flashcards will be great for you.

sometimes professors go really. fuckin. fast. why. idk? but

dont be afraid to ask them to go back a slide bc i guarantee, you will be the class hero for asking

develop a little bit of shorthand. sometimes i end up using initials, arrows, abbreviations… this is where i got “bc” and “thru” and “u” and such. lol. also, list things vertically, rather than using commas and “and/&/+) it’ll be more clear later

some professors you literally cannot take notes on. it sucks. you’re going to need to do the readings and pick their brains on how the test will be to figure out how to prepare. take home tests are your best friend. thank god for them. seriously. get your butt to church and do some worshipping.

if your professor puts powerpoints online, save the powerpoints, ya never know.

look at inspiration if you want, but remember that notes on studyblr are usually copied from class notes. if you’re too focused on how pretty your notes are, good luck to you

finally, the day before an exam, i review my notes that i have (hopefully) been studying. i like to make a one page cheat sheet / study guide on everything i didn’t remember, leaving out everything i understand, memorized, or want to disregard. 

reading notes:

ima be real and tell you i hardly ever do reading unless i will be tested on it in class in multiple choice. and im an english student. ye i suck, i know. i dont condone shirking the system but u know what, reading shakespeare or 18th century lit literally makes me want to kill myself. so, im a senior in college, and have barely ever done the reading for a class. the thing is, if you do it right, anything is better than just reading the words on the page and not getting the meaning. dont be a reading zombie. read actively, even if it’s not the actual reading. doing this, i have a 3.9 gpa. so. there’s hope for us yet.

first of all, yall need to do your damn reading. idc how. but due to the fact that a test will be multiple choice, essay answer, a presentation, or a paper, you’re going to not love pulling nothing out of your ass. can be done tho. just be fake deep.

that being said, i’m writing a lot below, but the reality is that if it’s lit, your notes dont have to be longer than a sentence. if it’s a textbook, more.

the same formatting question comes into play here, except it’s should you take notes in your book or in a notebook?

listen i’m always going to be pro notebook, pro physically writing it out as it helps me really get the information into my head, rather than more passively highlighting

i tend to do both, if im willing to mark up a book. i underline and highlight things that stick out to me, and i write them down as well. sometimes when reading literature/essays, if i know the contextual/meaning notes will be interesting to me later, i will copy notes both into my notebook and also less in depth onto post it notes (which also make sweet little flashcards btw), which i will stick into the passage. this is so helpful when a) im reading it again later and b) when we are discussing a passage in class

buy used books. it’s cheaper. until it happens to u, u do NOT UNDERSTAND how EXCITING it is to get a book that has highlights and underlines in it ALREADY. DUDE. my work is basically DONE for me. now take that lightly, bc often different ppl will highlight different pieces of information. however, it is helpful.

look up summaries. do not simply rely on cliffsnotes and sparknotes, esp since professors are very aware of these. google “title of book, summary, chapter notes, whatever youre looking for” and use the blog posts, the book reviews, the papers that come up. does this method probably take a bit longer? maybe? but it’s easier on my tired brain.

if you don’t have time to read your textbook one day and really want to, read the introduction and the conclusion to the chapter, or the first and last sentences to the paragraphs. it’s not great, but it’s something.

like your lectures, note definitions, conclusions, and helpful examples, as well as people and dates. if i’m reading literature and i’m deciding to be a smart student i will keep several logs as well. these logs will make it so. easy. to study for your exam:

updated character lists, including name, relationships, and anything defining and important

scene/chapter summaries, just a sentence summarizing what happened where

any quotes or themes that stand out

i highly highly highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of the well educated mind for note taking on a range of genres. this is what i had to use through high school and while it’s involved, it’s incredibly helpful.

if you’re going to have to cite your notes, note the page number in the margin every time you flip the page

the biggest issue i have with reading is when and where to do it. before or after class? always ask your professor if they do not tell you. where in your notebooks? i always do it on the next blank page bc leaving space stresses me the fuck out. make notes on the top of your pages of corresponding lectures/readings. 

for both lectures and readings i really really really suggest either having something to drink or something to snack on (think fruit, loose nuts, m&ms. small loose things rather than things u bite? idk they just last longer?)

okay i hope this was somewhat helpful even tho it’s an incredibly longwinded post. it seems like a lot, but the reality is that while i take a lot of notes, i don’t make them complicated, i don’t have rules, i just do what feels right in the moment. they’re not at all stressful. just take it easy and do whatever works for you :) 

if anyone has other tips, feel free to reply :)