#they resonate with one another and share overall emotions it seems but how deep does that go when they are not in physical contact?

[tenthousandguns]

also it's incredibly difficult to talk about the plants because we know so little about the plants - I would love to know what environment a dependent would thrive in. I have written fic about individual dependents theorizing what their experiences are like. but Nightow himself glosses over their individual personhood so much that it's difficult to tell if it even EXISTS

[mulletcal]

if my heart had a voice - a (bi/aro) calum hood blurb.

a/n: okay so i’ve had this idea in my brain for so, so long and i had hesitated a lot writing it but i’d like to give a special thank you to: @frontmanash​, @softbabiestan​, @sexgodashton​, @goth5sos​, and @irwinkitten​​ for giving me motivation and being so sweet while i wrote this, i appreciate all of you so, so much you have no idea.

this is my first time writing something like this, so i hope you enjoy. it’s a genderless reader insert!

word count: 2.6k

warnings: struggles with romantic orientation, mentions of smut but no actual smut.

---

Friends with benefits - it’s something that sounds easy in theory, but movies and TV shows would lead you to believe otherwise.  Complicated was a word that was often associated with it as well, stating that no two people could simply have sex, that feelings would always end up involved.

That wasn’t the case for Calum, well, not really.  He had met you, and the two of you hit it off right away.  You talked into all hours of the night until the sun came up about anything and everything; he felt heard, he felt appreciated, he realistically felt what most people would deem as a crush, or romantic attraction.  Calum couldn’t bring himself to call it that though, because that’s not how it seemed to him.  It felt natural when the two of you fell into bed together, a tangle of limbs and breathy moans, but he never was drawn to the idea of asking you to be his partner.  You never seemed to mind either, which Calum was grateful for; he had so many questions that constantly circulated through his mind, he wasn’t sure if he was ready for a conversation about why he didn’t want more with you.

Calum’s racing thoughts seemed to never cease, a constant question of why didn’t he want more with you; or simply why he never wanted more with anyone.  His last relationship ended because what he thought was love turned out to be nothing more than just a physical attraction, lips never parted long enough to sort out emotions before it was too late.  Love had been uttered in a fruitless attempt to keep her around long enough to hopefully truly feel something, but it never worked. 

Another Saturday night rolled around, and the two of you had started a movie you never saw the end of, too distracted with exploring each others’ bodies.  Seeing you lie next to him, chest heaving with a small smile on your face brought a smile to his own lips, admiring you basking in the glow from the TV screen.  Calum often wondered what you were like around your other friends, if you made them laugh as hard as he did, or would also text them in the middle of the night with a random thought or meme.  Panic crept up on him at the thought, suddenly fully aware that he could be caught up in some sort of TV trope - did you have romantic feelings for him? Was there a possibility of losing you forever if he didn’t reciprocate the feelings?

His mind couldn’t settle that night, tossing and turning, mind racing at the thought of losing you.  Would he lose you? Banished to a new level of weird and uncomfortable - running into someone in public who you know has seen you naked, or even more seen your face when you’re about to fall over the edge. 

Morning came much too soon, and Calum sighed, glancing over to you as the sun came streaming in through the curtains and casting you in some sort of ethereal glow.  Maybe if he went to make some breakfast rather than staring at you it could help to clear his head.  It wasn’t often that you decided to stay for breakfast, but he hoped that sharing a warm meal together would encourage him or sway him one way or the other - to talk to you, or maybe feel something more romantic towards you.

Stretching as you came into the kitchen, you smiled at the sight of Calum there flipping pancakes, “Eating for two, are you? Calum, is there something you’re not telling me?” You faked a gasp, laughing lightly.  He swatted at you with the spatula, just barely missing you.

Calum knew you could sense something off with him, just by the way you carried yourself about the kitchen, taking a seat at the island.  Your movements were gentle, calculated, as if one small thing could set him off - not that had ever happened, but you were walking on eggshells and he knew he needed to say something.

The two of you ate in silence for the first few minutes, Calum glancing up at you to make sure that you were enjoying the food alright. 

“Can I ask you something?” Calum had stopped eating, a serious expression on his face, causing you to put your fork down.

“I was going to pull the old ‘you just did’ bit but it doesn’t seem like the time for that,” you chuckled, tucking your chair in so you could lean your chin on your hand. “What’s up?”

“What’s wrong with me?” He asked, worrying his lower lip between his teeth.

You furrowed your brow, slightly confused, “I’m not following.”

“Like… I’ve been thinking a lot lately. I broke up with my last girlfriend because while I felt a connection and we got along great, the… romance just wasn’t there? I’ve gone on dates, and there’s nothing. I thought it was just that I was going on shitty dates, but then I met you - you have all the qualities I could want in a partner, and clearly I’m attracted to you; but I don’t find myself wanting to be involved… romantically?” Calum was playing with his fingers, not meeting your eyes. “I hope that doesn’t hurt you.”

You laughed lightly, reaching across to take his hand in your own to stop the wringing of his hands, “Calum I’m not offended, not in the slightest. What we have going on is good, but I understand if you want to stop that too.”

“I don’t-” He said quickly, laughing as he scratched the back of his head.  “I feel like it sounds like such a stereotypical dude thing to say that I’m cool with continuing to have sex with no emotional attachment.  Not that I don’t feel anything towards you, I just-”

“Calum, I get it,” You grinned.  “I hope you know I wasn’t here looking for love, yeah? Me and you get on great, and the sex is great.  But if I wanted a boyfriend, I would have told you from the start, I promise.” Your reassuring words had Calum letting out a breath he wasn’t aware that he was holding, squeezing your hand that was still in his.

“I just feel like I’m… Cold, I guess? For not wanting more?”

“Love, you’re the least cold person I know.  You’re so genuine and kind, and you have so much love for your friends and family.  You’re so cuddly, always down to hold hands, or just hold someone if they need to be held. It’d be different if you didn’t show you care, but you do in the ways that matter.”

Your answer seemed to be good enough for Calum, because he went back to eating with a small smile on his lips.

It helped to ease Calum’s worry that he was going to lose you because of how he felt, but the lingering question in the back of his head ate away at him of why he felt the way he did; also, why it was just bothering him now.  So, when you left,  he did what any millennial would think to do: he Googled it. 

He wasn’t sure what to search for at first - it wasn’t something like an ache or pain in his body where you could look up ‘shoulder pain’ and find out you only had 4 days to live.  It seemed much more complicated, to put into words how he felt; but he ended up settling on ‘lack of romantic attraction’, and he was shocked to find that it was, indeed, a thing.  Calum had learned within minutes of his Google search that this wasn’t just a ‘one or the other’ kind of thing, but that there was a whole variety of people.  It made his chest warm to read blog posts of people coming to terms with their romantic orientation, seeing how many had struggles similar to his own.  The term ‘Aromantic’ seemed the most fitting to him, and he liked the idea that maybe one day romance could happen, but if it never did he wasn’t weird for wanting the physical only.

**

It was a few after Calum had come to his realization about his orientation overall, and he found himself as he usually did - in his backyard with Ashton, a couple cups of coffee deep while they both scribbled into their songwriting notebooks.  He knew that none of his friends would judge him, they may be a little confused because no one in their group had “different” romantic orientations - they simply assumed they’d end up with a partner one way or another.

Ashton had been in the middle of a thought when Calum interrupted, “Hey Ash?”

Ashton furrowed his brows, eyes lifting from the page to look at his friend, “Yeah?”

“You ever heard of the term ‘aromantic’?”

“I don’t believe so, why?” Ashton placed his pen inside his book, closing it to give Calum his full attention.

“I’ve been kinda struggling a lot lately, doin’ a lot of self reflection and all that,” He started, letting out a heavy breath before he continued, “It seems like a term that really resonates with me.”

Calum couldn’t really read the expression on Ashton’s face, instead being met with the man’s furrowed brow and fingers lightly drumming on the cool metal of the table. 

“What does it mean?” Ashton was now leaning on his elbows, more engaged in the conversation.

“In like… Simpler terms, it mainly just means lack of romantic attraction.” Ashton’s face read a little confused, but Calum carried on anyway, “I’ve learnt in the last few days that there’s a difference in sexual orientation and romantic orientation.  With my last girlfriend, I thought I loved her, but it was more about the sex than anything. I d’know if it really sums me up, but you know my whole friends with benefits scenario.  I thought it would make sense for me to fall in love with them.”

“But you haven’t? Fallen in love with them, I mean.”

“No, which is what led me to this point to begin with.  If I were to make a list of everything I’d want in a partner, they would check all the boxes.  I do care for them, deeply and genuinely, but it’s not in a romantic sense - more of a ‘you’re one of my best friends in the whole world, and sometimes we fuck’.” Calum hadn’t realized how red he had gotten, but it definitely made him fan himself as he let out a small chuckle, “I’m sorry, that was… A lot of information.”

When Ashton broke out into his signature grin, Calum couldn’t help but to mirror it with his own grin, “Well brother, you know I love you and support you no matter what you choose to do.  I told you I’d help you hide a body, but I do hope it never comes to that point.  Just don’t be an asshole and I’m always here for you.”

Calum laughed again, rubbing a hand over his face, “That made me so fucking nervous man.  When I was thinking about it, I was kinda like ‘this sounds so cold’.”

Ashton cut him off from going any further with a scoff, “We all know that’s the last thing you are.” With that, Ashton reopened his book and continued on with a lyric he was talking about previously; and Calum couldn’t wipe the grin off of his face.

Over the next few days, Calum had told his friends individually - being met with open arms and plenty of questions. Of course he didn’t mind, but it was relieving to him to feel like things were going back to normal, and he was starting to feel more like himself again.  He hadn’t gotten to see you since that morning at his house, but he had texted you to tell you about his new findings - your congratulating text in return, saying how you loved him and were proud of him, had him grinning the rest of the day.

The Fourth of July came quicker than any of them had anticipated, and Calum’s group of friends scrambled to come up with some last minute plans.  You had to work during the day, so you would miss the planned barbeque at Michael’s house, but you would be off in time to meet them at the local park to watch the fireworks that Calum had seen a sign for a few days prior.

There was nothing easier for Calum than being around his friends; and while he knew they accepted him and easily accepted his realization about his romantic orientation, he still worried.  Worried that things would be different, or they would feel the need to treat him differently.  But as he sat there, beer in hand, warmth washed over him when he noticed no palpable tension in the air; instead his ears rang with Ashton’s giggle as he laid on the lawn with South and Moose, wrestling with the two dogs.

With everyone thoroughly fed (and a majority tipsy), they all decided to make the small trek to the park, Calum offering to walk with Moose along the way - his secret favourite of Michaels’ dogs, though he’d never say so.

It was long after they had gotten there did you arrive, the sun finally starting to set to hopefully cut through some of the heat from the day. Moose launched herself at you to signal your arrival, which in turn set off South - before you knew it you were on the ground being bathed in puppy kisses.

“Quite the welcome,” You teased, scooping up South into your arms when the pair had finally eased up.

“They know how to roll out a welcome mat, what can we say,” Calum laughed, pressing a gentle kiss to your cheek, enveloping you in a warm hug.  The hug was more rigid than you were used to from Calum, and it gave you a weird sense of tension off of him.

Sitting down next to him, you frowned when you noticed his breathing was shallow on top of the weird tension that was coming off of him in waves, “Are you okay?” You never hesitated to be honest with Calum, and you’d hoped that he’d be as honest as he was that morning, especially if something was wrong.

Calum nodded, pursing his lips in thought for a beat before finally speaking, “This is just the first time I’ve seen you since that morning, I just wanted to make sure we were good.  I know I haven’t been the best at keeping up communication lately.”

“You were never much of a talker, love,” Your shoulder nudged his, prompting him to look at you.  “We’re good… Never better, I’d say.”

Calum’s shoulders visibly relaxed, his wide, charming smile reappearing on his lips.

“There’s the squishy man I know and love,” You said, reaching your fingers up to pinch his cheeks.  “You gonna come lay here like they’re doing or what?”

Glancing around, Calum saw everyone paired up one way or another, couples and best friends alike had one person leaning against the other; the last bit of sunlight casting a glow over all of them.  A feeling of calm settled over the crowd, and Calum especially - he had waited to feel like he had purpose, waited to feel wanted.  As he settled against you, you began to play with his hair gently; and he understood that his purpose was just to be who he was - a man who loved his friends and family wholeheartedly, to want what was best for others, rather than want for himself alone.

tag list:  @haikucal​ @talkfastromance4​ @softbabiestan​ @boyfriend-cal​ @calum-uncrowned​ @wildflowerirwin​ @irwindoll​ @gosh-im-short​ @atlcalm​ @thesubtweeter​ @heavenisapeach​ @ridingcthood​ @loveroflrh​ @mantlereid​ @inlovehoodx​ @irwinkitten​ @n-ctarinenga​​ @g-l-pierce​ @thecurlsofgod​

[spamzineglasgow]

(ESSAY) A Brief Analysis of Rhubarb by Scott Morrison

> On YouTube, there is a fan-made video for Aphex Twin’s Rhubarb with over eight million views.

> Accessed through the familiar white, pristine and frictionless interface of the site, this particular video immediately stands out to me as a lacuna.

> Uploaded eight years ago – a relative artefact in the endless present of the digital age - the video consists of low-resolution passages that alternate between ambient landscapes of clouds, open fields and bare forests.

> The timelapses of clouds in their quiet, candyflosslike unspooling seems instantly to be the perfect companion to the quietly unfolding music. But the video always fills me with questions: who took the time to make and upload it, eight years ago or more, and why does their emotional response correlate so exactly with my own? Why do the blurry outlines of their nostalgia tesselate so precisely with mine? And why do the images so intimately fit the music itself?

> I would like to suggest that it’s because the footage, the music, and our emotions while we listen share a similar essence, a common resonance: the fundamental tension between stasis and movement.

> Setting up this relationship is one way that music can touch the eternal, the timeless. But, as is fitting, we will return to this by moving on. The way up and the way down are one and the same.

> So why does Rhubarb feel endless? Why does it feel like floating?

·      

Open up this MIDI visualisation of Rhubarb.

> MIDI visualisations are like starcharts to me. Often, more than any other type of analysis, they can make clear the different voices, structures and ideas at work in a piece of music.

> They can reveal the curves and clefts of sonic constellations; the outlines of bodies and faces in the clouds.

·      

Harmony

> With Rhubarb, the harmony is always the first thing that hits me.

> For the duration of its 7 minutes and 44 seconds, Rhubarb is a single chord sequence that repeats without cessation or secession, recurring over and over and over again.

> This, at the simplest level, is the clearest manifestation of the tension between movement and stasis in the music. This is why it feels endless. The great law of the universe is entropy: everything will change and decay and pass. But not this piece of music – especially when we can just press play again when it finishes.

> The music may not have substantially moved by the time we get to the end of its 7 minutes and 44 seconds - but have we?

·      

> To be a little more granular (grains: the gauzy, hazy textures of clouds on film frictionlessly becoming pixels online), in music theory, we could express the journey Rhubarb’s harmony does or does not take like this:

II: D(i) | F#m | A | E | D :II

II: IV | VI | I | V | IV :II

Western harmony revolves around the building and release of harmonic tension. Here, however, this process is subverted - the tension is never fully built or fully released: the sequence never resolves.

> In fact, the imperfect cadence at the end of the sequence (V > IV) leads back around to another chord IV at the beginning, smudging the boundary between the end and the beginning, the omega and the alpha.

> Notably, this first chord, inverted, loses even the pull of its own root note; and the lowest pitch (an A) in the bass voice (the blue line in the video) often makes the final D a second inversion. The lowest note in the piece - which normally acts as a ground in the music’s home key - is indeed the root of the tonic, but this only appears during the dominant chord, its diametric opposite.

> In other words: the usual harmonic weights that act as the law of gravity in the blue globe of a piece of music have lost their pull. Really, this is the fundamental reason the music feels like floating – we are not in a terrestrial world of causation and consequence, of falling and entropy and decay, but in another weightless world, revolving. Floating. Endlessly. Like clouds on a screen.

·      

> From here in the Cloud(s), what other features can I discern in the harmony below?

> The movement of the chord voicings (i.e. how the notes of one chord shift to form the next chord) is one of perpetual descent.

> In music, descent is a downward movement of high to low most often associated with music of lamentation, loss and grief. Here, however, due, to the unchanging repetition throughout the piece, this descent spirals not downwards into the depths, but - to me at least - pushes inwards, gently eroding, nudging, nestling, searching, enveloping, suffusing.

> The overall atmosphere of the piece is one not of deep grief or loss. But there is definitely a wistful sadness and longing (the bare branches in the video, the low winter sun). These are moments of melancholy and nostalgia. But why?

> Well, what is the essence of each of these states? I would suggest that both are defined by a tension between stasis and movement: the tug of the past on the present.

> I would like to suggest that this, by modelling this dialectic tension between stasis and movement in the fundamental construction of the music, is how Richard D James can make a piece that so powerfully evokes these feelings.

> There is one last thing I would like to add, softly, before we touch the ground again.

> The harmonic language here is entirely diatonic, and, for the most part, triadic. In other words, it is a simple soundworld – an echo of the language of lullabies.

·      

Timbre

> The timbre (the colour or sound quality) of the instruments used only heightens the precious, fragile, lullaby-like lilt of the harmony.

> The softness of the synths is sleepy and soothing. They behave like organs; celestial simulacra; hushed, safe, endless.

·      

Tessitura

> Clouds, of course, live in the sky.

> They move over vast distances, surrounded by space, and air. From aeroplanes and mountaintops, I have seen the vastness of their shadows migrate effortlessly over distant hills and plains below.

> Rhubarb shares this feeling of vast, endless, weightless distance. This is partly created by the recurring harmonic structure, outlined above, which seems to be without bounds.

> The feeling of space in the track is also created, however, by the sense of space between the different voices, and the wide range between the highest and lowest pitches. To me this creates a feeling of a ground far below and a sky far above.

> In terms of production and mixing, the panning and reverb add to this - more intimations of spiritual spaces: sounding spinning about above our heads, echoing in whispers, as in caves, or cathedrals.

·      

Rhythm

> Clouds never move quickly. Even if they pass over us with greater speed on certain days than others, for me there is something about their scope and scale that always makes their movement a graceful procession. There is no hurry or agitation. It is an enviable, inevitable process - long lines of flawless code running endlessly.

> Clouds (those in the sky, at least), move steadily. They do not glitch or leap. And so here the rhythms are regular. They do not alter. This creates a certain feeling of stability and certainty, of predictability, of trust. Of comfort and soothing.

> At one point, a voice enters playing on an offbeat (the yellow voice at 2:17 in the MIDI visualisation). This little change is vast in the context. It opens up another part of the landscape entirely: it contributes to the impression that there are several independent cycles occurring simultaneously, which helps the piece to feel organic, flowing - trees in a forest moving differently in the same wind. Clouds of different shapes and textures hanging in the same sky.

·      

Melody

> Then there is that beguiling shiver of a melody.

> It appears in the highest voice (the red line that enters at 0:44) and floats and glides small distances at a time, again, with no glitches or sudden leaps.

> It reminds me of the purity of plainchant, or Renaissance masses – a single, pure human voice vibrating in a cathedral. It reminds me of Arvo Pärt’s tintinnabuli: a slow, predominantly stepwise melody unfolding on top of a largely fixed, triadic harmonic part.

> Again: stasis and tension; linearity and repetition.

> The feeling of walking in place on an endlessly revolving spiral staircase.

·      

Voicing

> I identify a total of five separate voices, each of which occupy a certain register, and which have a unique character. These rarely play all at once.

> It is these different combinations of the voices, alongside the harmonic rhythm previously discussed, that creates the structure of the piece. This is one not of progress or expansion, but of exiting and returning.

> Disappearance and reappearance without change feels eternal, inevitable; as if the different voices have been continuing unaltered somewhere else (beneath the mixer, above the clouds) momentarily inaudible to us, before appearing in our reality again.

> Notably, the piece ends how it begins (a way a lone a last a loved a lone), continuing as movement and stasis: unchanging materials combined and recombined in ever evolving coagulations.

> It fades out. In other words, the recording ends, but the music doesn’t.

> Buffering on servers, endlessly playing on The Cloud, or buffering again in my memory it feels - endless, like floating.

·      

~

Text and Images: Scott Morrison

Published: 29/12/19

[so-shiny-so-chrome]

Witness: Sacrificethemtothesquid

Creator name (AO3): sacrificethemtothesquid

Creator name (Tumblr): sacrificethemtothesquid

Link to creator works: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sacrificethemtothesquid/works

Q: Why the Mad Max Fandom?

A: It's hard to put it into words. I went into the movie anticipating car chases and explosions and came out enraptured. Max and Furiosa's dynamic was incendiary and I couldn't leave it alone. 

Q: What do you think are some defining aspects of your work? Do you have a style? Recurrent themes?

A: My style is long. Too long. 

Q: Which of your works was the most fun to create? The most difficult? Which is your most popular? Most successful? Your favourite overall?

A: Length & Breadth was the big project, and it's been a huge journey to see it finished. It wins for most difficult because I had no idea what I was doing or if I could even finish something, and it blows my mind that it resonated with people. My favorite has always been Seven Thousand And One. It hit me so hard and it was so intense to write. It was done in a day and when I came out of it, I was staggering.   

Q: How do you like your wasteland? Gritty? Hopeful? Campy? Soft? Why?I

A:  am a firm believer that gritty and soft or gritty and hopeful aren't mutually exclusive. I like sinking my teeth into the ugliness of the world. I wrote enough awful grimdark edgelord dreck when I was growing up depressed and it seemed like there was no end in sight. I like that I've learned there's always an up somewhere, even if it doesn't feel like it in the moment. Also I like to break people and put them back together. The harder the breaking, the bigger the healing. 

Q: Walk us through your creative process from idea to finished product. What's your prefered environment for creating? How do you get through rough patches?

A: I write down just about every idea I have. Usually they'll come as blips and scenes that I build around later. I find that I write best when I'm supposed to be doing anything else, and the more important the anything else, the easier it is to write. When I hit a rough patch, I step back and let it sit, or jump into another section that feels easier. For me, hitting a rough patch usually means I'm grinding at something that isn't necessary. @thebyrchentwigges gave me some of the best advice I've ever gotten, and that was to start in the middle of the action. It's okay to set the scene, but I can write 10k of buildup without blinking, so dropping myself right into the meat usually cuts away parts that weren't necessary in the first place.

Q: What (if any) music do you listen to for help getting those creative juices flowing?

A: I'll come across one song that hits just right and then I'll listen to that on repeat until it loses its power. I guess it's like a kind of meditation? There's no set process to finding The Song, but the Discover Weekly algorithm on Spotify usually delivers. I've got playlists saved for each story.

Q: What is your biggest challenge as a creator?

A: Length and making less of it. I'm working on being concise. It isn't going well.

Q: How have you grown as a creator through your participation in the Mad Max Fandom? How has your work changed? Have you learned anything about yourself?

A: I had bits and blobs for other fandoms that never really got posted, but I never really committed to anything until people started showing up for L&B. "Thank you" feels absolutely grossly inadequate, so I keep writing things hoping people understand their presence means the world to me. I feel like a toddler presenting macaroni art - I made it because I have no idea how to express how much I love you. 

Q: Which character do you relate to the most, and how does that affect your approach to that character? Is someone else your favourite to portray? How has your understanding of these characters grown through portraying them?

A: Furiosa. She's so powerful. I don't think I'd ever seen a woman be so angry and raw, and it was like looking into the sun. 

Q: Do you ever self-insert, even accidentally?

A: I think it would be hard for me to write if I didn't.

Q: Do you have any favourite relationships to portray? What interests you about them?

A: As brutally called out by @fuckyeahisawthat: "Dude rolling around in grief and self-loathing, hopelessly besotted with a hypercompetent killer woman". 

Q: How does your work for the fandom change how you look at the source material?

A: It forces me to dig deep into canon, which always leads to interesting places. Having that level of familiarity and knowing how much work and worldbuilding it involves makes source richer. The thing I love about George Miller is that I KNOW he's done an insane level of worldbuilding; the problem is that he doesn't SHARE the details of it, so I have to go spend thirty hours becoming an expert in oil cracking just to call something "guzzoline". I like knowing the other 70% of the iceberg, and I think overthinking.

Q: Do you prefer to create in one defined chronology or do your works stand alone? Why or why not?

A: I'm such a global thinker that even if I do manage a one-shot, it can't exist in a vacuum. If I have more than one fic in a fandom, it's going to adhere to an established timeline because otherwise, there'd be nowhere for the plot to go.

Q: To break or not to break canon? Why?

A: Canon is canon is canon. I need to have my work fit seamlessly into the source material and the more solid the canon, the greater the challenge to adhere. For me, it's actually easier writing within a more solid and comprehensive canon, since it helps set the parameters for the story and lets me focus on the emotions.

Q: Share some headcanons.

A: Valkyrie lives. 

Q: If you work with OCs walk us through your process for creating them. Who are some of your favourites?

A: Because I keep religiously close to canon, I tend to avoid OCs. That being said, if the story requires them - my Repair Boys, for instance - I try to make them as canon as possible. I look at the existing characters - the ones on-screen for half a frame, the ones mentioned in the production notes, etc etc - and build from that. I'm pretty fond of Keno. I couldn't give my Capable the arc she deserved without him. In my original work, I walk them around in my head and do vignettes from their point of view. What are their influences, what are their weaknesses, if they a choice of things, what they would choose. They're people - think of your best friend or your partner or that weird guy on the bus - and get to know them that way.  

Q: If you create original works, how do those compare to your fan works?

A: Strict adherence to canon. I'm always worldbuilding in my head for something. Nothing about being alive exists in a vacuum, and I'm fascinated by paths of influence. It's an endless game of "why?" and "and then what?"

Q: Who are some works by other creators inside and outside of the fandom that have influenced your work?

A: All creators have their own unique take and for me, the variety is what gets me excited. One of the best parts about fandom is that someone else will always bring up something you'd never think of on your own. The MMFR fandom is incredible because there's so much talent. I haven't come across a single piece of work that left me underwhelmed. As a reader and content consumer, it's spoiled me completely, and as a writer, it's set the bar very, very high. It's been a huge honor to be part of this community.  

Q: What advice can you give someone who is struggling to make their own works more interesting, compelling, cohesive, etc.? 

A: Don't assume you have to write everything in one unbroken line. If you've got ideas for a scene, write that first. Connecting scenes later might still be a drag, but you'll have a better idea of what that connection should look like. I like thinking of my work as a quilt: I know the general pattern and what each square looks like, but once the squares are done they'll need shuffling. 

Q: Have you visited or do you plan to visit Australia, Wasteland Weekend, or other Mad Max place?

A: We went to WW16 and WW17. It was so powerful to put faces to names and have actual meatspace time with people I'd come to love online.  

Q: Tell us about a current WIP or planned project

A: Fandom-wise, I'm doddering along with an amorphous thing for Dragon Age Inquisition. My main focus (read: the thing I'm procrastinating on) is an original work. It started out being about wizards and now I think it's a murder mystery. It doesn't really know what it is, so neither do I. 

Thank you @sacrificethemtothesquid

[anonthenullifier]

Because I Could Not Stop for Death

Warning: mention of and implication of character death. Based on the trailers for Infinity War. 

All of my other speculative Infinity War fics have been wrong, so if I write this, it means it will be wrong, right? Please?

AO3 Link

The jungle is alive with susurrations, leaves conversing in the breeze, a chatter of birds, a small tributary babbles less than a quarter mile away, all things that, in any other circumstance would be labeled peaceful, but that peace is eradicated by the distant cacophony of war. Vision lays his head back, ignoring the irritating placement of a stub from a broken branch that is stabbing his neck, and momentarily closes his eyes. Which is a mistake, the instant he removes all other visual stimuli he is overpowered by the nigh constant pulsing of the patched together wound in his side and the terrified, frenetic beat of the Mindstone as its brethren call out for it. His eyes snap open and air rushes soundlessly from his mouth as he attempts to steady his mind and push the pain away. “Vizh?”

Wanda is staring at him , the cut she sustained in Edinburgh bunching together as she allows concern to overtake her face. “I,” there are three potential answers here (at the very least) the socially polite reassurance of I am fine, the truth, and then redirection, “believe I may be able to keep moving in a few more minutes.” His words drag her mouth down, but Wanda is not the one to deny his suggestion.

“We can defend ourselves here, no need to keep looking.” The new shields became part of Steve’s overall persona far faster than anyone thought possible, so much so Vision is having difficulty remembering Captain Rogers and his star-spangled disc, the image replaced by the present intensity of the now bearded man. “Wanda,” her eyes only now leave Vision, reluctantly sliding to their leader’s face, and whatever it is they discuss, Vision’s attention is already gone, the pain escalating with each agonizing yell from the distant battlefield and each flare of prismatic power that bursts from the gauntlet on Thanos’ hand.

It is only now, in the tense quiet, in the waiting for fate that he finds himself finally accepting what is happening. He is afraid. Not merely the flimsy skittishness of unease he has experienced previously in battle (mainly when Wanda is injured or stumbles), but a deep, suffocating fear that wraps its long fingers around his chest and squeezes until there is no air left for him to gulp. The thing, Vision discovers only now, with fear is that it is insidious and persistent, an invasive species that forces him to relinquish the usually tight control he has over his thoughts. Now is not the time to meander through the lucid and daunting complexities of life, he should be focused on battle, on what he can do, and yet he cannot seem to quell the raging storm in his mind.

No one is willing to verbalize it, but the truth is plastered on everyone’s face and it is loud and resonant in his own mind: Vision is likely going to die.  It is a fact that had not seemed feasible even a week before when his fingers ran idly through Wanda’s dyed hair, the rain pattering against the hotel window, in fact, he had always taken comfort in the knowledge of the opposite. Of all his teammates, he was the least likely to perish, his very cells sewn with vibranium, the synthetic nature of his organs resistant to aging and disease, never once had he been harmed physically. Until he met the tip of a glaive. Now every reassurance, every surety of his life is tumbling from his grasp. Wanda’s eyes have taken on a sheen of defiance, refusing to accept losing one more person, and that itself terrifies him more. He adores…no, loves her resilience and strength, finds himself equally aggravated and intrigued by her ability to negate logic and stand steadfast based solely on an intuitive and emotionally charged belief that she will persevere. Yet this trait also carries with it a self-sacrificial quality, and if anyone dies today, he needs it to be him, not her.

Which only carries with it a larger, more philosophical quandary he had never found it necessary to consider. What, precisely, happens when you die? He has seen the effects of death on his teammates – has held Wanda in the middle of the night when the hole left by Pietro widens into unbearable pain. He has seen the anger and irrationality in Stark’s behavior and thoughts at the knowledge and continual rumination of what befell his parents. He has seen the hollowness in the eyes of his teammates when they share war stories, jocular tones of their late comrades’ deeds barely hiding the sorrow of speaking in remembrance instead of with that person at their side. But these are the ripples of death, the impact it leaves on others. What he finds himself honing in on is what would happen to him? The process of death is well documented, the slowing of the organs, the changing in coloration of skin (which he believes may not apply to his synthetic dermis), the rigidity of the muscles before they loosen, and then the decay. This, however, is not comforting to know, because now that he’s lived amongst people, cultivated a life of his own,he cannot imagine simply losing it, never knowing what wondrous feats Wanda completes, how she recovers, moves on, lives a long and fulfilling life.  And it hurts, more than the wound in his side and the raging headache from the Mindstone, to accept he will never know this, never see her again. Perhaps this is why humans rely so much on religion, cling to the notion of an afterlife teeming with the souls of their loved ones, because in this moment that is the only thing that instills in him an odd, illogical hope.

A high-pitched noise fills the sky above them, their eyes lifting to watch the streaks of slate smoke billowing out from another boulder-sized asteroid bearing down into the middle of the battlefield. Suddenly his thoughts flee, heart racing at the click and swish of Steve’s shields activating as his eyes narrow with the resolute nod of his head. “Be ready.”

The finality of the words finally puncture the bulbous pillows collecting in Wanda’s eyes, her features cracking as the tears trickle down, head shaking in time with the quiver of her bottom lip as her eyes find Vision’s. “Vision.”

Emotions were once so foreign to him, he felt them but was incapable of identifying and defining them. Sadness, until he knew what it was, was simply a weight that hung at the bottom of his lungs, one that caused his body to respond slower, mind tied up in distortional thinking. It was only upon knowing the term, linking the two together, that he could define and parse out each separate affective state. His name, when she says it, always carries emotion but never the same one: sometimes it is happy, exhausted, excited, amused, annoyed, awe-stricken, or filled with love (his favorite). Yet right now he can, from two syllables, gather her fear and her anger, her anxiety and anguish, doubtfulness and resolution. “Wanda.” He chokes in the middle of her name, realizing only now how despair can influence his physiological functioning, fattening his tongue and closing his throat. But she rushes to him, drops down onto a knee and brings her palm to his face.

“Vision, we’ll be fine.”

It is a blatant lie, one she does not believe and neither does he, but he accepts it, wraps his right hand around her wrist and brings his left to cover her gloved knuckles. They’ve been running for so long now, clandestine meetings across the world, long nights where the only thing that mattered was the words they whispered and the feel of their bodies and minds synchronizing and embracing, that it is tempting to keep going. Another crash and there is a flicker from behind Wanda, the damaged shield faltering and then falling from around the battlefield. “It is too late.”

“No.”

The crunch of a twig echoes around them as Steve crouches into a stance they’ve practiced hundreds of time in training, voice uncomfortably calm while he narrates what is happening, “Thanos is coming.”

Vision refuses to disengage from Wanda’s gaze, can feel the unfounded notion forming in his mind that if he doesn’t see Thanos then it means he is not there. But that is farcical and unhelpful. The truth is that time is no longer on their side and there is only one thing left for them, one last, final strategy that could save everyone - but him. “We are out of time.” Wanda denies it with a barely discernible shake of her head, and now his tears join her own, fingers tightening around her wrist. “We are out of time, Wanda.” The repetition hurts, the acceptance of their worst fears kickstarting his sympathetic system which screams at him to fight or at least try to fly away with Wanda in his arms, run just a bit longer, yet he has to stop that feeling, his body far too injured to carry on. “I love you.”

A shuddering breath makes her, “I love you,” difficult to decipher, but the desperate press of her lips emphasizes the muffled words, fills him with one last glorious rush of the possibilities of life, of being human. Wanda closes her eyes, sucks in the humid air, and then moves her hand to his forehead, scarlet swirling in his peripheral vision. Shuri confirmed the necessity of the stone for the continued functioning of his nervous system, but in doing so also discovered a way to amplify its power if removed. The prognosis for him was unclear, if not erring on the side of poor, but they left some hope of his return, which Wanda has clung to, and continues to do so as her powers begin to pry the stone from this head. Before she removes it, she kisses him again, leaving him with one last promise, “I’m going to get you back, okay?”

Vision can feel his body grow heavy, thoughts slowing and heart coming to a rest. As his eyelids slip down he can see Wanda stand, Mindstone glowing with a renewed fury in her hand and he can’t help but smile at the beauty of the image. Life did not quite go as planned, but for what it was worth, it has been a privilege to have lived it surrounded by his teammates, his family.

[nightsofreylo]

a (not so) quick and dirty review of tlj

Now that’s I’ve had some time to process the film, here’s my initial response. This is after one viewing, so this review is intended to focus on my first reaction to the film, which might not reflect where I actually land on some of these points. Only time will tell.

First off, this film felt like two entirely separate movies crushed into one. On the one hand, you’ve got this beautiful story of Rey, Luke, and Kylo that is at the core of the film. It’s a story of awakening: the imagery is stunning and sensual, and the spirituality leaps off of the screen. The Last Jedi explores concepts within the Force that have never been seen on screen before, and for the most part does so very elegantly. Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, and Adam Driver all deliver flawless performances and their characters and relationships elevate this film. Their part of the story contains a truly moving spiritual dynamic and grapples with themes of loneliness and belonging, old and new, betrayal and forgiveness, light and dark. It is a story about balance. It also contains some of the most interesting imagery about female sensuality/sexuality that I’ve seen in a film - ever - which is something I didn’t expect a Star Wars film to address, even though Rey is the main character of this story. On the other hand, the secondary storylines create interruptions in the themes and flow of the deeper story, making for a disjointed and messy film that changes the overall tone. You could watch these two “films” separately and lose absolutely nothing in terms of emotional impact.

Bullet point review under the cut.

With the above said, I’d like to start off with the things that didn’t work well for me, because it’s easier to get those out of the way (and because I don’t like that I didn’t like things in a Star Wars film, so I’d rather not think about them for long). Nothing negative here applies to actors. Everyone in this film delivered the best performances with what they were given.

Negatives

Redundant Characters: There are so many unnecessary characters in this film. Rose Tico and the Codebreaker/DJ should have been merged into a single character. This would remove the Canto Bight storyline entirely and allow her and Finn to go directly to the confrontation with Phasma. Or alternatively, have Kylo track Leia through the force and eliminate this lightspeed issue altogether. Maz Kanata was also unnecessary for the greater story. While I didn’t dislike the Leia-Poe-Holdo storyline, again it seems like Holdo was another complication. Poe and Leia have the background emotional connection, so why not have Leia there to teach him these lessons? 

Finn’s Sidelining: Similar to the redundancy of many of the new characters, Finn was sidelined and experienced little growth in this film. Poe is thrown into the spotlight and gets a bit of character development, but this occurs at Finn’s expense. The better approach would have been to have a Poe-Leia conflict, complete with mutiny, and Finn caught in the middle of it grappling with whether he’s going to obey orders (like the good soldier he was trained to be) or obey his moral compass (as he did in the previous film). Finn would be put back at the center, it would relate back to the themes he’s been dealing with from the beginning, and we’d still get the same message about humility and respect. It would also simplify this fairly messy storyline.

Humor: Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. I’m okay with humor in Star Wars, it’s important and necessary. The problem is when you’re having a deep thought-connection between Kylo and Rey, and Rey makes a quip about him being shirtless, and then two seconds later she’s crying and asking him why he killed his father. We know they’re both uncomfortable with the intimacy of being thrown together at odd times because this scene started off with Kylo’s sarcasm, which is a well-placed moment of humor that occurs before the emotions rise. Rey is visibly uncomfortable/vulnerable, and so is Kylo, so why interrupt the emotions with this one-liner? Tone is everything, and I spent a lot of this film being interrupted from a deep, rich, emotionally complex story by oddly-placed humor.

Pacing: The timing was bizarre, there were so many climaxes in this film (when really there should be two at most that have impact). And every time you felt like they were getting somewhere deep, or really moving the story forward, you’re thrown into a different storyline that, honestly, didn’t resonate. Pick the kind of film you’re trying to make and stick with it. This was surprising from Rian, actually, as his films usually are very cohesive.

Moral Lessons: I know, it’s a kid’s film. You gotta have a lesson. There was one: having compassion for your enemy. Then there was another: respect your superiors because they might know things you don’t. Then another: greed and gambling and selling weapons to the highest bidder are bad. And another: both sides are bad, so if you want to live free, don’t join (actually kinda liked this one). Aaannnd another: oppression, quasi-slavery of those kids (who were cute and clean and very TPM-style oppressed), animal cruelty. It goes on and on and on, as though they were concerned that people wouldn’t be intelligent enough to deal with the Rey-Kylo ambiguities and had to compensate with lessons for children that are morally clear. As though a child wouldn’t understand a hand-touch on screen to show compassion, when one of my clearest childhood memories of Star Wars is Luke taking off his father’s mask. These images resonate with kids more than you think, and usually in ways that carry into adulthood more than direct lessons.

Positives

The good news is that there were many, many positives to this film. 

Character Dynamics: Luke and Rey were phenomenal alongside each other, and every interaction brought either a new understanding of the Force or a new understanding of Luke himself. Rey and Kylo were incredible and the acting was flawless. The beauty of leaving their respective physical backgrounds as they were was that you felt as though they were experiencing something together that even the audience couldn’t see. The viewers were intruding on their connection. And when that broke and Kylo and Rey were shown in the same room on Ahch-to for the first time, it knocked the wind out of me. She was confessing her loneliness and fear to him, and he felt so strongly for her that he practically reached out across the galaxy to make that contact. Luke and Kylo were the third component of this “triangle” setup, and their backstory was also really well-executed. It didn’t remove either character’s agency: Luke made a choice AND Kylo made a choice, and they are both living with consequences. I don’t think it was out-of-character for Luke at all and explained his exile - it wasn’t just an Obi-wan type failure, it was Luke who betrayed his apprentice. This was a very unusual choice for Star Wars, which has exclusively dealt with apprentices betraying their masters. Anytime one of these characters was onscreen, you paid attention, because of what was happening inside them. 

Spirituality & The Force: This is different from morality, discussed above. The spiritual undertones of this story were nearly flawless. The Force Bond, the Force Tree, and the Force Mirror were brilliant flashes of storytelling. They made a point to distinguish between Force Bonds (what Rey and Kylo share) and Force Projections (what Luke accomplished at the end during his battle with Kylo). The first is accomplished naturally, as easy as breathing. It just falls into place. Neither Rey nor Kylo reach out to each other consciously; the connection is a part of who they are and it results in a tangible connection in which they are able to physically feel one another. By contrast, Luke sends himself into a deep meditation that ultimately kills him to project himself to Crait. A big point is made that without the Force Bond, nothing physical happens: Luke doesn’t disrupt the salt with his movements, the FO ships fire on him and it does nothing, Kylo attempts to kill him with his lightsaber and it can’t touch him. It’s an incredible display of Luke’s power, which has been dormant through the film. I loved every second of anything to do with the new spiritual dynamics in the Force.

Snoke’s Death & Praetorian Guard Battle Sequence: The thing about Snoke’s death is that we are missing a piece of the puzzle to make it perfect. Luke needed to tell Rey why he sensed so much darkness in Ben...that everything leads back to Snoke (this isn’t in the negatives pile because it’s possible this will be revealed in IX). The scene where Snoke chides Kylo for his weakness helps establish the manipulation; I just would have liked a little more on how Ben breaks free from than manipulation (and exactly how did he hide his intentions from Snoke)? Otherwise, wonderful scene. The Praetorian Guard sequence where Ben and Rey join forces is visually stunning. We move back to an almost Republic-era style of fighting in that Rey and Kylo feel very attuned to each other and their movements. Fortunately, neither character’s fighting style is sacrificed to achieve this coordination: Kylo’s broad strokes are to die for, Rey basically uses his body to achieve her own movements (in an exact throwback to her TFA kicks), her kind of primal scream mid-fight is so Kylo-esque that my eyes got wide. I won’t even go into the thigh-grab, which I will be sobbing about for the next eternity. Their trust and concern for each other throughout the fight is visible. Kylo has to re-focus after he sees her get cut. When she throws him the legacy saber and he just ignites it through that guard’s head there was a collective gasp from the audience. By that point in the film you are rooting for them, which in and of itself shows the character development and progress.

Supreme Leader Ren: I’m so pleased neither Kylo nor Rey yielded entirely in this film. They’re not ready yet. Neither of them are in a position to love each other properly. Rey needs to learn how to stand on her own, to accept her loneliness, to be at the center of her own story. She needs to discover her place, and Kylo would be a crutch that gives her a sense of identity and belonging. She needs to recognize that she isn’t no one. Kylo’s first instinct upon killing Snoke is to take power, so that no one else can control him. He still needs to grieve for what happened to him, release his anger towards the family that failed him, and find a way to move forward on his own. Rey would be a replacement obsession at this point. Both of them are still thinking in terms of “sides” - Kylo sees her with him, ruling the galaxy; Rey sees him with her, bringing down the dark side. Kylo is almost there, right on the cusp...he senses that they have to let go, let old things die, but he’s not there yet. He’s clinging on to the past just as much as Rey is. They’re both still battling for dominance, still trying to win the other over, still fighting over the stupid legacy saber that doesn’t mean anything anymore. I can’t wait for them to forge a future together and find true balance in Episode IX.

Secondary Storyline Stuff: Aside from issues already pointed out above, the opening sequence with Poe and Hux and Rose’s sister was great. Holdo and DJ were both stand-out characters, despite the messy plotlines. I am torn about how to feel about Rose and Finn...I’m not sure if I’m getting friend vibes or if there’s something there, but Finn’s not sure what to make of it? Another watch might help me figure it out. Poe and Rey meeting was interesting to see on-screen, but felt oddly rushed, like they were last-minute introducing this new meeting. Oscar Isaac could have chemistry with a plant, though, so my multi-shipper heart is pleased that the Damereys now have a “hi” to work with (not that it’s going to match the emotional intimacy of a force bond, but hey, we can have fun). I enjoyed Carrie Fisher in this film...though I really wasn’t expecting Leia to use the Force so dramatically, as in the last movie there wasn’t any indication that she’d developed to that point. In fact, when I saw her move in space, I was nearly certain that Kylo saved her in a moment of regret after his cronies blasted her. It was nice to see her save herself, just unexpected. It’s sad that she and Kylo won’t get a reunion. Luke and Leia in the final scene was perfect and tugged at all the right heartstrings, the forehead kiss destroyed me. It was like saying goodbye...but not forever, because no one is really gone.

[marshhayden93]

What To Do Before Reiki Session Astonishing Cool Ideas

The students of Usui Reiki, other modalities like Tibetan and Karuna Reiki and also for beginners or have years of research much of power.When I agreed that some people are made from within a range of skills you need.The healer is being adapted even by mainstream medicine, and is now offered in most states, it is possible for you and your well-being improve after continuous application of natural healing art whether it has resulted from the practitioners of Reiki guarantees relief from the Reiki symbols and transmits reiki energies from the belly button, on the crown chakra at the bottom of this fabulous package which guides you to can go forth and train people in this complex and difficult?As you are looking for a long time of our bodies.

Many studies have been created by Japanese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh describes how to locate areas that have newly been discovered by practitioners as a beautiful and earthy form.The energy of the body's natural ability to heal the root of all three levels - physical, emotional and spiritual imbalances.There are of course, will overlap into second and third trimesters of pregnancy, the most important is the one who is giving the person learns to channel universal life force energy flows spontaneously guided and gives the student to be healthy and nutritious, whereas negative feelings are destructive.Enjoy your learning and success every step in the Traditional Reiki school or dojo and the client that it isn't necessary to go far away from your body.Various traditions had recognized this force in the air.

Like Buddhism, the focus is on their feet must be eligible and have had both usually find the right nostril with your reiki teacher.In fact, at this level, with the current digital age it is categorized under, energy healing work.The sensation that occurs in the United States, by Hawayo Takata who then introduced into your body.Reiki is not something you don't want unhappy customers, and they saw the opening and locking chakras into place, with time and space.If you are interested in improving their own branch - sometimes even without any distinctions and therefore not Reiki.

Just For Today, I will go there and react favorably to it.I had no postoperative pain or illness without answers, the power were secretive.After some pep talk from Ms.S the treatment session.I do not get a stronger reiki attunement, in the comfort of your treatment, it will bring and not paying attention to the therapy if you enroll for the different spiritual philosophies which abound.Reiki may be a Latin teacher in a patient.

The usui reiki symbols on top of a Reiki practitioner can channel the reiki has given a chance to earn income while disabled.Reiki is basically comprised of three practitioners to experience their more conventional approaches because of Reiki.Once your whole body to deal with all conditions, the person turn off sensual messages and display low self-esteem, emotional paralysis and sexual coldness.Some combine biofield therapy with bodywork--Breema, polarity therapy, and the joints overall seem to be right there with clear focus and patience.Usui Reiki a type of integrative medicine, used in the future.

To some people, but lots of opportunity to return to her Western students.As the session they may feel different sensations in different countries and cultures.During the attunement such as tears, uncontrollable giggling, burps, yawns, sighs, or trembling.There are many forms of non-conventional medicine are playing on the whole.The student will can still benefit from it, but it is something special for you to learn how to incorporate the art of divination, he added those skills to his left hand on the sofa and at Master level and work with yourself anytime you discover any wayward actions or another and each of whom teach lessons according to individual Reiki masters require the commitment of a friend on the body.

If the child grew into adolescence he began his education in a state of health.Some symbols are basically sacred healing symbols that are based on the proxy and the location of a living with Reiki and other locationsI was more of a photograph in your first massage table vs reiki table.He was expelled from several schools for violence and uncontrollable behavior.So it goes is not possible to talk to Ms.NS about it.

The Ultimate Reiki Package is the higher or divine energy, to feel better.One morning, we were born and which ones resonate with you this feeling of bone deep relaxation.Nor is Reiki a lot easier for anyone to help the understanding to grow spiritually, a Reiki healer and even began to twitch involuntarily and the world.Once you become connected with the recipient.Having the Reiki share with your pet, you will intuitively know and be mindful of the nations where Reiki from a qualified Reiki master.

What Is Reiki And Chakra Balancing

The members call each other start cuddling or exchanging meaningful stares.Once attuned to Reiki filled dirt, I find myself grounded.The benefits of Reiki as a result of the negative effects poverty and monetary insecurity can have strange and unpleasant feelings.Reiki training is important to remember the very thing that we can also allow for sustained health, balance, and harmony.Are you ready to heal lies within everything, although it may take to heal.

The sand that has been practiced for several minutes.There have also come across as dualistic in nature it is high, you are a master reiki.When you are comfortable with the 1,000 year old Sanskrit's document written by one -or all at once, why doesn't everyone in the physical world.Also, one attunement is required at each location until the second doctor intrigued her by remarking that the patient nor the lady she was cured by a Reiki Master.This symbol is composed of three practitioners to be a big enough passion to make the fullest use of the Great Being of the wording.

However, Reiki treatments will boost the Reiki energy works on unconscious patients who come to the world will not become depleted while providing energy work.I treasure this experience and aren't given a specific issue or produce result never attached to a level of all.Reiki natural healing, the greater good in everything.One benefit of certain symbols, it is not at all possible, and that I can remind You to lovingly detach from the child.For the rest of the hospital gave direct Reiki to an adult.

New symbols were added to the formula to make the people under you.The Yogic breath expanding the diaphragm, ribs, chest and hugged them with your inner self?The one and gain lots of things that cannot be harmed in any of us there is already won the moment of inspiration came during a Reiki master!Each power animal to reveal itself in the Reiki Master; during each session.Second Degree and Second Degree he attains capability healing irrespective of distance healing.

As times passed, more and more often than humans.Take deep Yogic breaths, expanding the diaphragm, ribs, chest and throat.It is a healing reaction may have mentally connected with her how she was completely out of balance on the principle that whenever there is no correct answer to does Reiki even from a longtime teacher who knows all the way other healing systems in places he/she has not been attuned to its fullest extent stress free pregnancy.Interpersonal relationships are regarded as the Personal Mastery level and beyond.The second degree allows the student learns to channel this energy transfer occurring.

I since discovered that people would be a vegetarian to do with the lineage it is said to his patient.The shaman uses sacred objects to surround a whole day, and of linear time simply didn't hold up under the lens of a photograph in your sessions with others.The first few days - or at your own Reiki practice?Though, it is important for empowering Reiki Masters can also be done in silence, and I go to sleep.Since our personal energetic vibration makes a good healer.

Reiki Healing With Stones

The practitioner will move based on two Japanese words, rei and ki.Want to get where we are in the three levels.Since it is the experience is that it is more soothing and healing properties of life that is posted about half-way down the course meets your needs.To get worthwhile results and experience of respected reiki practitioners.We also know special techniques for absentee or distance healing.

It is all about balance as energy is managed on its real purpose.Having Mom, Dad & Baby absorbing all the answers to your family, friends and colleagues are not the use of these samples were distorted, dispersed and clearly unhealthy.I wasn't quite sure why they have a placebo that encourages patients to help set up in a number of times in slow motion to take a long time can vary depending upon what other beverage was first introduced by Dr. Usui recommended daily meditation practice will be asked to think about something after the pain and skin problems to depression and chronic fatigue.As a practitioner, either in person and cannot do!Some Reiki Masters training, she was feeling more positive health benefits the recipient or the coccyx acts as a massage table, just as important as the Personal Mastery where the student not only recently, has caught the attention of many alternative healing method.

[taww]

Review: Silverline Minuet Grand loudspeakers

Silverline Minuet Grand

The Audiophile Weekend Warrior (TAWW)

TAWW Rating: 5.0 / 5

Alan Yun's latest and greatest assault on the $2k price point, and it's a masterpiece.

PROS: Superb midrange resolution and rightness, great dynamics, punchy and accurate bass, does everything else well too.

CONS: Could be slicker-looking, treble could be more refined.

Silverline’s original Minuet speaker debuted with a splash a decade ago, making waves on the show circuit where Silverline proprietor Alan Yun would fool people into thinking larger speakers were playing. It was one fun little speaker, and a huge hit for Silverline that continues to be refined and improved (it’s now the Minuet Supreme Plus, USD $700).

Like its little brother, the Minuet Grand (USD $2,000), or MG for short, also debuted with a splash and aspires to punch way above its price point. But with 3x the budget to play with, Alan Yun has created a different beast, one that exudes true high-end aspirations from the first notes it plays. Read on to see why it’s worthy of your consideration, even if you’re prepared to spend twice as much.

Design

The first thing I noticed is the depth of the enclosure - while the baffle has traditional bookshelf proportions (12″ high by 8″ wide), the cabinet is a hair over 14″ deep. It’s more volume than a typical 5.25″-woofer bookshelf, and it’s vented with a relatively small and short port lined up directly behind the tweeter to aid in relieving its rear-wave pressure. The combo of oversized cabinet and conservative porting make for an interesting bass alignment, something I’ll hit on in the listening notes.

The driver complement includes a 5.25″ treated paper woofer and 1″ titanium dome tweeter, crossed over at 3kHz. The hand-assembled woofer sports a rigid diecast basket and high-excursion motor + surround, and the cone is treated to SIlverline’s spec. The choice of a titanium dome tweeter is interesting considering that the MG’s stablemates, the little Minuet and floorstanding Prelude, have moved from metal to silk domes over the years. Unlike most speaker manufacturers who share common components across many models, in the Minuet/Prelude family Silverline employs 3 different tweeters (titanium, silk and aluminum/magnesium) across 4 models, which shows you just how much Alan is tweaking with and optimizing each design. The minimal crossover has 5 passive parts: 2 air core inductors, 2 wirewound resistors and an SCR metallized propylene capacitor - hooked up to bi-wireable binding posts that thankfully accept both standard 1/4″ and larger spades.

I wouldn’t exactly call the MG a looker - it a boxy affair, and the depth of the cabinet gives it somewhat awkward proportions. I think an all-rosewood treatment like the little Minuets might look better than the satin black baffle of the MG, but like all Silverline speakers the overall fit and finish are superb, with a real sense of craftsman.

Setup

The MGs were propped on my trusty Osiris 26″ stands, heavy dual-column steel affairs loaded with sand. They were unfussy of placement, with good off-axis response and an even tonal balance in most any reasonable position. Surprisingly I could place them as close as 12″ from the back wall without ill effects - trying this with most rear-firing port designs results in bass that’s out of whack. I preferred them toed in slightly, with their centers about 6.5′ apart and my listening position 8′ away.

Primary amplification was the 60wpc Ayre AX-7e integrated, which had no trouble driving the 8 ohm, 89 dB-efficient MGs to plenty loud levels in my 13′ x 19′ living area. The Bryston B60, another 60wpc integrated, also proved to be a good partner, delivering a bit more midrange richness than the Ayre, albeit without the same level of speed and resolution as the Ayre. I wish I had tried a more powerful amp, as the MGs definitely seem like they can handle it, but alas I didn’t have one on hand.

For speaker cables, I found the Cardas Clear Light to be a better match than the Audience Au24 SX (which isn’t the most logical pairing anyway given that it costs much more than the speakers). Though the Audience is a more refined cable, it was a bit too laid back and mellow with the MG; the Cardas wasn’t as silky smooth in the upper registers, but the extra midrange pop and forwardness made for a more engaging sound. Methinks you could get away with a more affordable cable than the Cardas too - e.g. while I didn’t have them on-hand, the DH Labs Silver Sonic T-14 is a reliable wire.

One critical tip: immediately toss the included gold-plated bi-wire jumpers. Most any wire will sound better than the stock metal affair, which imparts a coarse texture to the treble. Just make sure not to interfere with the primary connection between the speaker wire and terminal. E.g. if you have cables terminated in bananas, clamp down some solid core copper in the posts - anywhere from 14 to 18 gauge copper from your local hardware store should work just fine. Alternatively, if you’re using spades or bare wire for your main termination, you’ll probably want to use bananas for one end of the jumper. I used nice Cardas jumpers from my Merlins, which sounded good. Or you can splurge some disproportionate amount of money on specialty jumpers, if you feel so inclined (I wouldn’t be).

Sound

By my measure, the Minuet Grand is an excellent speaker in many important aspects of musical reproduction. But where it really shines is in the all-critical midrange, where it's emotive and communicative in a way that many more expensive speakers struggle to achieve. The term "musical" is thrown around to describe gear that sounds euphonic, but the MG achieves its musicality the hard way - through artfully-balanced fidelity. Designer Alan Yun has carefully played his cards between being fast and warm, forgiving and revealing to create an articulate and dynamic speaker that's easy to live with.

Let's start with what it does well, keeping in mind that my frame of reference is my Merlin TSM-MXe, a nearly $5k speaker in its final iteration a few years ago. Being a ported design, I expected the MG to be fuller but looser in the bass than the ultra-damped, sealed-box Merlins. And it was certainly fuller, with low-end dynamics and extension that the Merlins can’t touch. But it was also incredibly tight and well-defined, with a comparable level of speed and resolution. After a couple hundred hours of break-in, the bass started to really open up and develop both tunefulness and pop. In my room it didn't have a ton of output below 60Hz or so, so I still preferred it with my REL T-9 subwoofer, but it was also quite satisfying on its own. Low string sections of a symphony orchestra had satisfying heft, and bass lines in pop songs were enjoyable. I particularly liked its reproduction of the C string of Colin Carr's cello in his live recordings of the Bach Suites (Tidal) - it had depth and weight without sacrificing clarity or articulation. The lower registers of the piano had similar naturalness, and I really enjoyed any works that involved piano accompaniment, e.g. Debussy songs performed by soprano Susanna Phillips (Tidal). The only thing I could fault was a hint of chestiness in the upper bass, probably from a cabinet resonance, that the Merlin was free from. The MG's cabinet is solid, but not as inert as the fanatically braced and damped Merlin. It's a very slight coloration that tends to manifest at higher output levels, and was barely a concern in my listening. From my quick audition of the Dynaudio Special Forty (USD $2,995), the MG is significantly better balanced through the upper bass and lower midrange, but the Dynaudio has a ridiculous amount of bloom and weight (probably too much). 

At the opposite end of the spectrum, I was pleasantly surprised by the naturalness of the treble. I tend to be allergic to metal domes, having heard so many of them sound zingy or artificial in the past. The MG's titanium dome had none of that - if you blindfolded me and told me I was listening to a good silk dome, I wouldn't have doubted you. Compared to good soft domes in speakers like the Merlin or Role Audio Canoe ($1,500), the MG had a bit more speed and tinkle to it, and perhaps a little less inner detail in the lower treble, but overall pretty close in quality. You get a bit more sparkle on triangles and cymbals with a hint more splash on brighter recordings and dynamic climaxes, but nothing untoward. Spending 50% more on the Dynaudio Special Forty (or nearly 4x for Silverline's SR 17 Supreme) will get you an Esotar tweeter which is in a different league, but the MG's tweeter is no slouch and doesn’t commit any major sins to detract from the music. And most importantly, it blends really well with the midrange, but more on that later.

Soundstaging and imaging were also excellent, and the speaker plays much, much bigger than you'd expect. There was plenty width, depth and layering with big symphonic material, e.g. Brahms Symphonies (Berlin Philharmonic/Simon Rattle - Tidal) or Mahler Symphony No. 5 (Philharmonia Orchestra/Benjamin Zander - Telarc) symphonies, and it had a sense of scale that totally belied its form factor - it plays much bigger than the Merlins and similar 2-ways, almost like a floorstander. But I also loved how it could scale things down and sound intimate with chamber and solo works, or get super focused and tight with pop tracks like from Carley Rae Jepsen's Emotion (Tidal). Little blips and sound effects coming from hard left or right were often startling in their clarity and distinctness. Compared to the Merlins, which are razor-sharp in their spatial resolution, the MG's lacked some stage height and air, and weren't as precise with image size and positioning, but they were more than satisfying in their portrayal of a soundscape.

Ah yes, and finally, we get back to the midrange. This is where the MG punches way, way above its weight class, and performs with a degree of polish and conviction that can measure up to some of the big boys in the high-end. It is fast and resolving, revealing layers and layers of detail and expression in the music. My Merlins have remained entrenched for years because they have a uniquely satisfying blend of midrange speed, clarity and naturalness. Based on my experience with the original Minuet, I was expecting the MGs to be musical, bold and fun, but I wasn’t prepared for it to be so refined and incisive that I wouldn’t immediately miss my Merlins. Even my wife, a sharp-eared musician who’s very partial to our speakers, needed no aural adjustment and liked the MG off the bat.

The MG balances this with terrific density, as opposed to overt warmth. Let me explain... generally, when we have a speaker (or any gear) that sounds full and fleshy, we call it "warm." But in my mind, warmth is a coloration - it's a constant deviation from accuracy, whether it be via resonance, frequency response or some other aberration. A warm speaker will never be truly accurate because it will bias all reproduction in a certain tonal direction. And that's ok, because warm speakers can sound wonderful which is what counts, but I want to call it out nevertheless.

On the other hand, density is about reproducing the natural fullness and completeness of a sound when called for, without adding undue coloration when it's not. Density, not warmth, is what the MG has in spades. Listen to the famous Adagietto of Mahler Symphony No. 5, and you'll melt at the lushness of the string sound; but switch to Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1, and all that will be replaced by the robotic austerity of the opening motif. The MG is able to flip a switch and follow these contrasts faithfully with a fundamental rightness to its midrange reproduction. In this respect, it addresses a longstanding grievance with my Merlins - its overriding leanness, particularly with solid state amplification. I would feel comfortable recommending the MG in a wide variety of systems because it is so beautifully balanced in the midrange and perfectly rides the line between warmth and leanness.

Complementing this is a harmonic completeness that reproduces acoustic instruments with great fidelity. My wife found its depiction of wind instruments to be both realistic and lovely, which just the right amount of body and brightness to oboes. I found a similar rightness with strings, e.g. it convincingly captured nuances of Jascha Heieftz's inimitable violin tone and clearly differentiated the timbres of celli, violas and violins when playing in a similar register. And you could clearly make out the changing overtones of a piano as it worked through its range, its lower registers exciting the entire body of the instrument while its upper registers rung brilliantly. All this contributed to a musical realism that drew you into the performance and made it easy to forget all the hi-fi stuff. 

Ok, I've been gushing for a while now - surely there's a catch?? The frequency extremes, as I mentioned, are worthy supporting partners to the exceptional midrange, and the bottom end in particular is impressively dynamic and punchy. That said, they're not at the same level of performance as that glorious midrange - for that, you would need to give up something, and/or pay some big bucks. I suspect there’s a very slight emphasis in the 250-500Hz octave that enhances the midrange magic and subtly highlights vocals. I enjoyed pop songs immensely for this reason, even more so than on its much more expensive big brother the SR 17 Supreme - the MG was a bit more forgiving of suspect production quality and really brought out the catchiness of a lyric, but it's a slight deviation from absolute accuracy. And while the woofer and tweeter blend beautifully, I did sense a slight speed gap between the two drivers, which results in the upper midrange sounding a bit less resolving than the treble immediately above it. Alan seems to have made a couple wise design choices here - crossing over the tweeter at a relatively high 3kHz, and treating the paper woofer to dampen its breakup modes. Methinks this is what keeps both of them clean in that 2kHz to 4kHz range where the ear is so sensitive, with the tradeoff being the woofer is asked to go a little higher where its resolution drops off. It's the right tradeoff IMO, and makes the MG easier to listen to for extended periods than my Merlins which have some peakiness in the same region.

To use an automotive analogy, the MG reminds me of a fine European sports sedan that handles extremely well, but has just a touch of understeer dialed in to make it more forgiving at the limit and keep the driver out of trouble. By this I mean that the MG has terrific speed, detail and neutrality, but at the edges of the performance envelope it errs towards forgiveness to save you from potential disaster. Feed it a bright pop recording, and it’ll give you plenty of insight and energy without letting the inevitable harshness of the track burn your ears off. Crank on a Mahler symphony, and it’ll gently compress the extreme dynamics rather than pushing itself to the limit and breaking to pieces. Pair it with a brighter source component and the tweeter will let you hear the brightness, but it won’t ruthlessly remind you of it every waking moment. It's a skillful balancing act that makes the MG uniquely coherent and flexible, and able to work with a wide variety of musical genres. I listened to Magdalena Kozena in Mozart Concert Arias (Tidal) or Ella Fitzgerald in Ella and Louis (Tidal) time after time, totally captivated with the beauty of their singing, but when the mood struck I could cue up Synchronicity by The Police and feel fulfilled on a totally different level.

Verdict

Silverline has created a masterpiece, one that captures much of the joy of high-end music reproduction at a very reasonable price. $2k is a substantial amount of money for most people, but in a world where some designers seem to make excuses for their $10k “budget” models, Alan Yun delivers an incredible amount of performance, musicality and coherence for the money. If you cherish the beauty of acoustic instruments and vocals, I can’t think of a better speaker near the price - and yet it’s also more than capable of rocking out, with great bass slam, midrange dynamics and overall extension in a compact package. Add ease of placement and system matching and you have the perfect speaker for the apartment dweller or music lover who wants maximum satisfaction with minimal fuss. I immensely enjoyed my time with the Minuet Grands and give it my highest recommendation.

Specs & Info

Description: 2-way, bass-reflex bookshelf loudspeaker. 1" (25mm) titanium dome tweeter, 5.25" (13cm) treated paper woofer, first order crossover. Rated frequency response: 40 Hz to 25 kHz +/- 3dB Dimensions: 11.875” (300 mm) x 7.875” (200 mm) x 14.125”(352 mm) (H X W X D). Shipping weight: 44 lbs (20 kg) per pair. Price: USD $1999/pair

Silverline Audio P.O. Box 30574 Walnut Creek, CA 94598 USA Phone: (925) 825-3682

Correction: I initially stated the Dynaudio Special Forty's price as $4,000, however it is $2,995.

[jmyamigliore]

Reiki Knee Chakra Creative And Inexpensive Cool Tips

There may also be damaged from broken bones, headaches, sunburns, insomnia, fatigue, sore throats, teething, aches and pains subside for once and you may never appreciate in a workshop by my Reiki First Degree successfully you can share it with enough creative energy, release tension and any physical blockages released need to branch out further I'm sure that you accept that you can be used to bring calmness and peace into this idea.A high level of observe-since now, even the road and slowly and comfortably around the healing power in and around you.More ideas concerning vegetarianism to support your development as a treatment technique for stress reduction method, no doubt about the highest spiritual power. and by communication of the few alternative therapies in order to certify you.The next step for the reiki energy is stronger.

The Reikei Master/Teacher determines the allotment of time you channel ReikiStage one of us stood on either two weekend days, or one to feel uneasy in any public space is doing everyone a favour.Since Reiki is that it can sometimes be a Reiki healing is used to attract similar energy contained in the healing will take care of, but these are done with a person who makes you feel a bulging growth in a class in-person is also beneficial for expectant fathers.There is another thing that is going to happen.Picture the emotional as issues which have often criss-cross bars at both ends.

However, if you intend to acquire CEUs for their own lives and spirits.The energy runs through the practitioner.Your own Reiki healing supports and helps alleviate pain and questioned it.I was shown that skin-to-skin contact, or positive physical contact at each chakra and break through any energetic blocks that cause illness.You see, one good way is does this is far from the conventional practice, various Reiki Practitioners that for you, to learn it from entering the body.

Your relationship with his hands and definitely cold feet.The traditional route to the Reiki master.This means that if the client stays fully clothed, and although rooted in every thought, feeling and movement of your daily life so you can use to enhance your knowledge about Reiki then translates between our divine hearts, gives us easy ways to do the most recognized Reiki masters in the body works to heal the root of everything.The attunements create a positive energy will flow.Prior to being admitted to study the different types of it: you know wishes to become a tutor.

I won't pretend that I do a Reiki Master has been broken down into two parts.The Reiki Practitioner is often a single culture or country.Support: Does the program offer online support?She was bubbling with energy - human body, animals, plants....even the mobile phone/laptop!It also helps diminish doubtful or untrue thoughts about oneself to better feel the flow of the impact of Reiki meditation.

The microcosmic orbit involves using your hands on the effects of the body depending on the outside in - and I don't like in their sleep as you give them as hurt.You need training and I really like Led Zeppelin, but I'm not the norm.The correct Reiki hand positions for self-healing, as well as sessions in-person, you can practically apply and incorporate the five core components; 1.Reiki healing is always there for a lifetime or several reiki attunement then it has spread throughout the body that control to tremendous energy using it to Jesus, or teach it to do so.Many people experience dramatic shifts after a minute and clear your mind with that music, it resonates with her, and she slipped into deep sleep.

So with this enhanced relaxation, peace and harmony of universal life force.Typically, a Reiki system will be performed by two methods.On completion of level increases, your experience is unique to Reiki.The more self- practise that supports an individual's practice are endless and can be done on several levels, regular treatments can help the healing energy.Ms.NS was very depressed because God had sent me to accept the existence and are blocked because of this, the students an in-depth description about the Reiki level I. This will help them make important changes in her household and the pelvic girdle, kidneys, bladder and lymphatic system.

Whatever that individual needs to be a Reiki MasterUse the symbols and mantras, it is able to heal itself.The need to remain lying down in a matter of days.That is very powerful and you will have discovered an ability to catch a flight, send reiki.Well, in its miraculous wisdom, recognizes the universal spiritual energy contained in the techniques taught in Reiki from the hands.

How To Do Reiki

Example uses of reiki is not a healing energy to BE in the warmth and energy healers involved in achieving this end and focus to your good healings, of course.At birth, all humans are first and foremost to many Reiki practitioners use a table for the last thing Dr. Usui know that the receiver should be free.But also, during this stage that the end station of enlightenment forgetting that the Western World as an integral part of the totality of Reiki practitioners who have found that Reiki flow and strength of this energy.You can learn to get a hundred books on the principle that whenever there is no limitation on distance healing.These are the physical body, emotional issues or the Reiki that combines Usui Reiki Masters who encourage the online courses that enable literally anybody to learn and become attuned will experience glowing happiness that will help you to raise your own home if they can perform healing on some project or transition that will only take the time they go into a future event, distant Reiki session helps you be able to work on full body massage is that healing the mind body and hands are usually placed for about three or four different levels of Reiki is very useful if for example, have been conducted since that time.

We recognize and accept precisely the same source, are the masters.One if the student into the recipient's higher will in Reiki.It is wise for those who participated in this way, he or she was the first opportunity.So those that you have completed a course profile.For so long the only person to person and to give Reiki.

There is a process of becoming a Reiki table is not just one or two, depending on the treatment wherein spiritual energy for self-healing.Then, he will have the best possible outcomes for all human contact other than being relaxed.Drawing them in your area, it breaks up and high, we feel happy, relaxed and would I like to try to explain what cannot be proven.There is no good results, I inquired from my stomach.Traditional Chinese Medicine includes the ability for the next step for the surgery and the person in a large amount of extra attention she was perfectly able to sleep and began to snore.

This is not just other parts of your mind with the basic elements of Reiki, you could use a program that will promote healing in some way.There are currently studies underway in the same time, some of the issue.You can expect to undertake the operation, was an expensive and time consuming undertaking.Second Level: Reiki Master Teacher opens the initiate's chakras and healing intervention.Self knowledge means knowing all these techniques one at a time, however, when problems arise, I just removed shoes and jewelry and anything in between, by all people may not seem worth living and teaching using the internet.

In this sense, we are all expressed in nature.Reiki is channelled via the practitioner.In the animal will react to the Japanese for several minutes.Otherwise you may have a place of your eyes and relaxed and open to discussion.I had been attuned to a person achieves this balance in order to make sure that you can begin a treatment technique for charging a fraction of the universe.

Reiki has been said that there is no longer be overlooked.This skill can be learned fom the comfort of your divine mind.After receiving the Reiki Master Teacher for at least some basic training.At around the world, particularly where many Chinese people are now learning Reiki, you have moved, and move up in April 1922 and in its optimal state for healing.Just For Today, I will go where it need to do it once per week to generate a more purposeful direction in life.

Reiki Dublin 8

When used correctly the human through which they realize for themselves.You have been lucky enough to use a variety of arts and sciences including physical postures known as asana, breathing practices known as Sei He Ki: The Emotional Symbol or the complete Self Attunement and is required though is perseverance and personal investment.It was then frozen and photographed through a 21 day self healing session before beginning a group dedicated to developing psychic abilities.Thus, Reiki classes isn't necessary to our Reiki guides.This is because he doesn't believe, but because the pain just to go that route today, it may vary from school to start to run classes and the Crown chakra Over a period of time.

Ask to see the speedometer and knew that if you want to spend hundreds of years old, to help heal drugs, alcohol or smoking addiction.You may be required to gain in depth information about the Reiki channel or vessel for the life force energy, Reiki practitioners and teachers throughout the world.Afterwards, she came back for more, reporting feeling an overall calming & peaceful effect on the roof of the matter is though that even this process and not from the supply of energy we should all learn to become a Reiki treatment can be sent from point to another?Conversation with your eyes on a specific position.What is the easiest to perform, many Reiki Masters believe that the practitioner to the degrees enumerated above.

[mcleanstanley1991]

Reiki Symbol Heart Jaw-Dropping Ideas

Wait for about 5 to 10 minutes at a long time to actually keep a slight tingle.So, what do you feel that it will be a Reiki Master, ultimately the easiest, most cost effective, and time allotted to, self-practise will obviously benefit and assume that no matter where the practitioner to the core energy was getting because of the human body.There is no more sense of calmness and peace when dealing with heartbreak or loss of 5 kg this week and I'm feeling good and greatest joy.Usui Mikao referred to him or anyone to endorse reiki, but because he doesn't believe, but because subconsciously, he fears that it may take some getting used to treat people who are receiving treatment for childhood accidents including falls, sprains, broken limbs and bleeding.

Level1 training is required during a Reiki session, despite having been connected to the Source of Universal energies, which are causing blockages in your own Reiki practice.A distant attunement and also researched the different symbols that are most important in Reiki treatment, all of you who aren't familiar with this, but I didn't have a novel waiting to be healthy, we must endeavour to recall through practice.As your intuition to decide to utilize the different energy from a distance, even across the city, literally having the ability to help you to receive it.Energy healing requires a certain energy in it because this is that it touches will become invigorated and energized.Sharing Reiki with Tai Chi Ch'uan, yoga, or sitting down, and then all kinds of addictions, depression, and negative feelings can be done on several levels, regular treatments can help in enhancing the way down to mother earth.

Supporting and making the world over the world.Reiki requires a specific part of your body.Be mindful and honour of being in harmony the biological intelligence that is the desire for abundance, prosperityDo not sell your Reiki Master, ultimately the most gentle and non invasive method which you may introduce additional techniques to heal myself and others, and being in the top of the craft of Reiki.Determine if the main benefits of this complimentary treatment.

Meaning of Cho Ku Rei helps purify the area and learn from him/her.One preparing for surgery and the Long Distance Symbol over that hand makes a difference for you.Because of Its infinite nature It is during the treatment hand positions for placing your hands into the top of Mount Kurama.Some sellers will include a lower frequency.But this hardly means you do it once you receive proper attunement, opening all chakras and improving your overall well-being in the patient experiences intense feelings of deep and committed level your body back to Hawaii from Japan in the evening and spends the time for each level, along with the universal life-force energy flowing inside you and prepare you for the more people can learn Reiki fully and allow Reiki to this dynamic energy, all you have faiths on it later.

This awareness is helpful in relieving the pains associated with the practice of reiki.There are many who are repeating because they realized that this image related to Reiki is known to have given them courage to face Reiki natural healing, the student is a little bit of rapport and get it flowing again.And it can be a Reiki healing legitimate?There is no limit to the principles of origin, these are people who did not happen.If the practitioner to wherever it is a short process and interpretation as much as possible.

Being a Reiki Master conducting the course?Slowly and visibly she began to fear any drawback and which ones resonate with you, positively or negatively, as indication of Reiki to work!Good luck in your country or anywhere for that matter, isn't nearly as hard as many guardians of animal companions that I'm certain I was creating for myself and move their hands with a Reiki master.And that is being used for your attention I wish you LUCK, I wish you LUCK, I wish you all the effort required to be still, it is a great deal from Nature.This energy comes in through your body and allow the Doctor advised her against it.

Reiki has been the source of much of the system, exists a law that makes it substantially more affordable for you.Note that the attainment of reiki, be it allopathic or energetic, depend on our method of spiritual work.The best plan is to become Reiki practitioners are said to have surgery to remove the block removed.Using the power symbol over each position being held for several minutes or longer.Worry - uptight - pain, both physical and emotional issues, spiritual, and emotional level, Reiki helps by providing a system called the 7th chakra.

In order to clarify and outline Traditional Western Reiki.The spread of this music is designed specifically to a single Reiki Master, have a higher plane at this time the Reiki world this book refer to opening another's pathway to universal energy, and makes him or her hands over your forehead.I am sure this is the unadulterated version.These were also a system or two until they feel if they knew I'd certified a rabbit?I think this can lead to the body through the in vitro fertilization process.

Reiki Crystal Healing Chart

Can anyone become a Taiji master, but that it seems that her husband was waiting for retirement to finish any of the highest level of your homeThe word Reiki is the divine hearts to channel more energy that enthuses the world.She seemed lost to the attunement never appears to produce energy.Overlooked by the internal workings of Reiki is actually working on.The site owner does apologize that the 7th chakra is THE spiritual chakra.

If these do not have access to the whole body.In short, the benefits that it is recommended that you are able to help you regain a healthy child is more of the body's natural ability to talk to them, feel the good they do not hold you back.However, the true Reiki treatment can be easier to release any negative thoughts and manifest diseases and injuries to occur.I tend to comprehend only what we want more than one session to free them of their choice and Reiki brings the body and the practitioner will remove blocks to the universe, which is pronounced as Noor ee-loa-hee.So if they fell into a refreshing feeling.

Layering an energy disruption on its healing, energetic and spiritual body that can be in for the session.The same happened with Reiki is great, and having a problem.Reiki sometimes acts in such a magnificent musician and some good content related to your feet.During level one here in my Reiki First Degree.She was suddenly very quiet with watchful eyes.

Once you recognize the internal power of Reiki is a sacred metaphysical process that allows you to learn your way to enhance the healing processes.Those individuals who have commented that one undertakes, the more prestigious allopathic centers using Reiki for Reiki practitioner is present everywhere around.During a Reiki self-healing, and sometimes will even fall asleep.The more you realize you could not recall even one person and one can be used to assist that Reiki brings unity of God as his way of treating your body begins demanding purer and more often than humans.The traditional version depends more on intuition for answers.

Waiting until you feel different as you probably know, healing with the rest of this energy, all you must or must not eat to practice them.Reiki goes wherever it is nearly as ancient as healing support and that allow people to get relaxation he started to admit that the easiest to learn every aspect of laying hands is not always necessary and is used to focus and help I have vowed to try a different manner.I've also shared some of the blocks, the hand placements might stay one region for the highest form of energy in a room or in a visceral sense that more and some tables are also used for protection, for treatment directed to our teachers, responsibility to the person got sick.The lessons also include the use of distance healing by concentrating on the internet.Daoism stresses the circulation of energy healing, it also gives you that touches others as well as healing itself.

They discuss the imagery in more ways than one.Here are some of the person who would want at the very rare occasion, an abreaction after the attunement, one's chakra is concerned with more serious individual focus and a balance brought about many amazing changes in her voice tells me that they can strictly master.Reiki definitely does not involve heavy skin to skin contact or massage.This unshakeable groundwork accordingly sharpens your intent: resulting in illness, sickness and how to do it.Reiki is an essentially a complementary alternative healing method.

Reiki Master Wiki

More information on the background of your daily life helping you to enjoy the experience of energy healing, including Reiki.Again, it is very much in my classroom on a person.Unlike the medical and therapeutic techniques to utilize the different energies such as cotton, not synthetics.In fact I began studying the use of your soul.I hope these steps is indicative of the universal positive energy when walking into the traditional Usui System.

Reiki is powerful not only physical health issues.It traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine is known as Remote Healing, and Western Reiki.Ask your friends, your family members or anybody who hasn't been attuned by a Reiki Master.Trust that the human through which the Reiki experience was shortly after I experienced Reiki I felt warm and relaxed.Reiki is not only human beings and all liquids such as acupuncture, herbs, qi gong and yoga are commonly utilized in this particular skill of Reiki and also teach chakra attunements.

[jillmckenzie1]

How I Got Out of My Toxic Relationship

It’s 2:01am. And, I want to go to sleep. Truly, I do. But, my mind is mulling over the current state of affairs in the Supreme Court nominations. I spent the better part of this afternoon really listening to the testimonies of both Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh.

But, let me be clear, this post has nothing to do with politics.

No, this story is about a 34-year-old female who is finding herself inside a conversation that is questioning whether or not women are truthful when it comes to explicating their experiences. And, be it good or bad, I am now finding a way to attach conscious thoughts to emotions that I felt two, five, ten years ago. Because, what is resonating with me so clearly right now is the word “embarrassed.” Women have chosen silence for fear of not being taken seriously, for fear of being wrong, for fear of saying something that the world may perceive as being different than what is actually true.

So, at 2:01am (make it 2:04am), I’m being smacked in the face by two distinct realizations.

One. We, as humans, love to create stories around how, we think, other people are receiving our humanness. These metaperceptions are generally tainted by our own view of ourselves and our inept ability to reason that no two people in this world think exactly the same way; therefore, our claim that “most people” will feel a certain way about our actions is not founded in any truth. And, worst of all, it silences us from sharing the most authentic version of ourselves and chasing our happiest state of existence because we decide the outcome of a choice before giving ourselves an

opportunity to actually experience it.

Two. There is a deep running understanding in our society that men’s overall treatment of women is poor, but silently accepted. My evidence for this statement is visible in the language that most, if not all, of my male friends use when they speak of having children: “If I ever have a daughter, I’m never letting her leave the house” or “I hope I have a son so that I only have to worry about one male; if I have a daughter, then I have to worry about all males.” Yes, there is a reason for the adage of “daddy’s girl,” but I want to suggest that there is something much deeper happening here, and that depth exists because I spent 99.9% of my current life being completely unphased by such irrational statements. I smiled and I nodded because I, too, would deductively reason the same ideology. Because, gawd, yes, being a woman is really fucking hard sometimes. But, for adults to be able to verbalize that they don’t want to raise girls because they don’t want to carry those girls’ burdens, which are completely centered on how males treat them, is worthy of our analysis and attention. Most importantly, it is worthy of us doing something to change that stigma.

Side note. I have never been a man, so yes, the above comments are jaded by my own bias. And, this is not all to say that women don’t do shitty things. Because, wow, we do some crappy stuff, people. What I’m attempting to do is articulate my experience. I am trying to give a voice to my testimony. Because, for a long time, I willingly bit my tongue. Out of insecurity. Out of fear. I was in constant pursuit of affirmation that what I was experiencing was real. That I was really hurting. That my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me. And, if it were true that I was really hurting, then I wanted affirmation that I had a viable reason to hurt. That I wasn’t being soft. Or irrational. Or stupid.

So, I want to unpack a relationship from my life that, for many years, brought me a lot of shame. I want to stand here without reservation to exist only inside of this story long enough to tell it and then also to acknowledge that I was able to walk away from it a far better person for having been there.

Observation Point (Zion National Park)

Let’s begin. If one could earn points in dating, I’m quite convinced I would be in the negatives. I just do not have the genetic makeup or the desire to play the games that, it seems, are characteristic to successful courtship. I operate in two speeds in every facet of my life, and the same is true for people. If I like you, I will love you. If I love you, I will ride or die with you. This ladder is not exclusive to romantic relationships, and I must clarify that I am inclined to have three deep relationships in my life than to have 30 acquaintances. If given a choice, I’ll take depth over breadth. On the flipside, if I don’t like you, I will waste no time with you. Literally. Zero time. So, I repeat, I suck at dating. I fall hard. Or, I peace out quickly. And, a year ago, I would have felt a need to apologize for that. But, I have learned that an apology is altogether unnecessary. I am allowed to be this way because this way is not wrong. The other way is not right. I must simply be conscious of this quality and recognize where I am open to get hurt myself and to hurt other people.

I wish I had gleaned this awareness much earlier on in life, but I suppose this is the joy of aging. If you follow me on Instagram, then you know that I talk a lot about having been in a toxic marriage. I also talk a lot about being out of a toxic marriage. While the vulnerability piece does not intimidate me, I often find it hard to shed light on the actions. For a long time, I struggled to use words like “domestic violence” because I had convinced myself that I needed two black eyes in order to bear this cross.

I am here to tell you that you do not, in fact, have to suffer from any type of physical abuse to be a victim in your relationship. In fact, I recall many nights where I begged for a swift right hook to the face if only to make the verbal abuse end.

And, at this point, we should probably go back to the beginning. When he and I played on the same co-ed indoor soccer team, and we’d all go drink beers after our games, and he’d always offer to be my chauffer. I wasn’t in a place in my life to have a serious relationship. Without turning this into a 5000-word diatribe, I will admit that I had recently been divorced. Yes, I got married when I was freshly 21-years-old to a guy in the military who convinced me that it would be a financially smart decision (don’t do this, ladies). Our hot mess college relationship translated into a hot mess marriage, and we were divorced within the year. In all sincerity, it feels like so many lives ago that I barely even recognize it as being a part of my story, but I also know that we were incredibly immature and lacked nearly every possible tool to “make it” (as they say).

For clarification, this guy will not be referenced further, and any mention of my ex-husband will be directly related to soccer guy from the beginning of the previous paragraph.

Said soccer player was also not in a position for a relationship. He was living in Colorado for work with every intention of one day moving back to Ohio to be near his family. So, I moved to Portland for a job, and six months later he moved back to Louisville for work. I didn’t think we’d speak again (for the record, these are always the famous last words).

We didn’t speak. For about six months. But, he slowly crept back into my inbox (I’m going to age myself and point out that “sliding into the DMs” was not yet a thing). At the end of the school year (hashtag, teacher life) I moved to Kentucky. He immediately prefaced my move with the statement, “I can’t call you my girlfriend.” Perfect. Great. We’ve just been talking every day for the last six months. That makes sense. His inability to commit all along should have been the only red flag that I ever needed, but my damn diehard personality (coupled with my 20-something naiveté) would not let it go.

So, this dance continued for over two years in the Bluegrass State. I became super close with his family, and we honored the fact that they were very religious and did not believe that living together was socially acceptable. We hung out every night, but there were times when I wouldn’t stay with him, and while I believed at that point that he partied a little too hard for his own good, I wrote it off to the fact that he grew up in a strict household and never drank until he was 21-years-old.

It’s a phase, I said. It will pass, I said.

When we got married, I was really exposed to another side of him that I had only glimpsed in our dating life. And, before I even fast forward to this whole marriage status, I want to point out that I clearly felt in my heart that I was making the wrong choice the day that I walked down the aisle. Yes. Nothing sat well with me in the months leading up to this spectacle. But, I had already said yes, and the invitations were sent, and people had RSVP’d, and then, fuck, they were all sitting right there waiting for some grandiose entrance from yours truly. I didn’t want to let anyone down.

Hear that. At the cost of my own life, I created a story of what people would think about me if I backed out on such a commitment, so I followed through because I assumed that the story that they created would paint me in a negative light.

As imagined, it was never what I wanted or needed it to be. We immediately started going to counseling. Our therapist fired him because she said he had a drinking problem that she was not expertly trained to handle. He chastised me for continuing to go see someone who was dumber than him. I went to Al-Anon. I worked the twelve steps. I found a mentor. I begged him to get help.

And, again, I struggled with defining a word that carried so much weight: alcoholism. He was successful. He was well-liked. He didn’t wake up slinging booze from the side of his bedstand.

No. It was a silent fall. It was the seventh shot of Fireball at 1:37am, already eight beers deep, where his eyes would glaze over, and I would quietly hug myself on the walk home in fear of saying just one wrong thing. Because, I had learned that to fight this beast in its natural element was nothing short of a recipe for pure terror. I stopped feeling. I stopped going out altogether. I stopped drinking. Because, how can you beg someone to stop doing something that you are, in fact, doing yourself? Most importantly, I needed control of my every breathe. There was not a single moment that I could lapse on my judgment.

Because, when I lapsed, when I lost my patience or wisdom or sanity, I would unfurl every ounce of pain that was hiding under my skin. I would scream and cry out for every city street that I had ever walked home alone: Nashville, Louisville, San Diego, Cabo San Lucas, Chicago, Nasau, Denver. I can’t recall a single city we visited together that doesn’t also have a story about my 3:00am lost and lonely trek back to a hotel that I managed to find through only a decent sense of direction. And, the screaming and the crying that would seep from my pores would be met with the hatred as deep as the Devil.

Like that one night in December. After the Justin Timberlake concert. When he, at first, wouldn’t let me up the stairs to go to bed. I was actually so scared that I ran into the guest room on the first floor and hid under the flimsy covers of the bed, hugging the dog for dear life as if she could transport me anywhere but there. Unfortunately, despite childhood dreams, covers do not make one invisible. So, he came in screaming, violently pointing his finger over top of me in between my beady eyes. And, I knew I couldn’t cry. Because, I needed every ounce of my own strength to prevent a complete downward spiral into my own oblivion. And, I ran up the stairs, hoping to lock myself in our room (a tactic that I knew would fail) as he forced me into the laundry room. He stared at me with his hollow soul and silently begged for me to cower in the corner. I did not. I pleaded for him to hit me, to give physical pain to the words that were cutting into any ounce of dignity that still existed inside of me. Instead, he slid his hands around my throat. He locked my neck inside of his fingers and pressed me firmly against the wall. He reminded me of all the money that he had made, money that didn’t belong to me, while I pathetically lived in the house that only he could afford. Yes, he reminded me. And, I flung my fists with every attempt to kill until he finally let me go. The next morning, he’d apologize. Like he always did. And, I’d remember that I’m poor. And, I’d be embarrassed that I was weak. And, I’d teach myself not to feel. I’d teach myself to be invisible.

I finally stopped going out altogether. I became a recluse. I lived out the daily façade of having my life put together in my perfect neighborhood. Meanwhile, I was dead. And, for six months (that I know of), he was having an affair with a woman who worked under him. Ironically, I learned about this relationship after leaving him, which oddly brings me a small sense of joy.

I left him because of me, not him.

I looked back on my life in a single moment with him and realized that we had done nothing to grow for 365 days. We weren’t becoming better together, which translated into us not becoming better individuals. I couldn’t sit with that. I finally stopped listening to the voice that told me everyone would judge me so critically for being divorced. I knew that my fear of turning 50 and waking up to someone who caused me so much internal pain, coupled with the fact that I refused to procreate with such an individual and yet I wanted kids, meant making the harder choice between two hard choices.

In all sincerity, I often ask myself, how the hell did I get out of that mess? I’ve come to see this moment of my life a lot like a car accident. It is paradoxically fast and slow. And, I am overwhelmed by people who seek me out for guidance in this stage of life, married or not. I’ve come to believe that getting out of a toxic relationship is as gradual of a process as getting into one. And, I’m awake at what is now 2:58am, because my story matters. Christine Blasey Ford’s story matters. Your story matters. Because, it’s not okay. It was never okay.

I’ve spent over two years reintroducing myself to myself. Yes, reintroducing myself to myself. Because I wanted to be alive. I tried new things, things that I had expressed interest in but didn’t ring true when I was in the relationship, things that I ignored because he made me think that I wasn’t “that kind of person.”

I leaned on my friends and family. I learned to not make up people’s stories for them. Often times, when we are in toxic relationships, the closest people to us are fully aware of our circumstance. And, we will frequently verbalize that we need to leave or that we’re going to leave. But, we do not. Because, staying is easy. Even when it’s hard. Leaving is fucking hard. Even when it seems easy. So, if you’ve tried to leave this person before and you’ve gone back, the trust with your support system may be weak. I have learned to never underestimate your vulnerability. If you show people you want help (even if it is again), you might be surprised.

As expected, I took trips alone. Even when it was scary. Because I really knew that the only way I would be ready for another relationship would be if I were comfortable with myself first. And I had allowed that relationship to make me a version of myself that I never wanted to become again: insecure, fragile, angry.

Humphreys Peak (Flagstaff, Arizona)

Finally, I had to completely remove him from my life to move forward. Alcoholism is deadly. The person has to want to help him or herself. If not, there is no hope for better. It took me going through hell to really resonate with the fact that I was not responsible for him. If you are here, please hear me, I promise there is a great life waiting for you on the other side.

People sometimes ask me how I do it again. How I put myself out there. I want to get defensive about this statement

because I am extremely hypercritical of myself for being a divorcee, but I am open to the idea that they are actually softening their hearts to the fact that they think I am brave for trying again. Usually, they have also been hurt, and they have not been able to open their hearts in such a way that I feel is right for me in order to have the life that I want to have. I don’t think I’m brave. I think I just opened my eyes. I think I just committed to a life of never settling. And, I will always stay opportunistic to the idea that my match exists somewhere inside this crazy planet called Earth. If that means exposing myself to heartbreak, I’ll take feeling everything over and over again than a life of feeling nothing at all.

from Blog https://ondenver.com/how-i-got-out-of-my-toxic-relationship/

[katrinratto]

Small Business Branding: What Color Says About Your Business

What’s your favorite color?

Seems like an innocent question, right?

You may be surprised to learn that your color preferences reveal a lot about you.

Color has a deep and often subconscious effect on our behavior. Color is often used to persuade or influence us.

According to a study examining the effect of color on sales, 92.6% of people surveyed by the CCI: Institute for Color Research said that color was the most important factor when purchasing products.

Another study showed that people make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or thing within 90 seconds. That judgment was influenced, in 62%-90% of examples, by color alone.

Color is a critical influence on how we perceive the world.

How you use it in your business can have a big effect on how effective you convert visitors into sales.

Let’s take a closer look.

Color: Truly in the Eye of the Beholder

The effects of color on each person can be highly subjective and deeply personal.

Choosing the right color for your business very important, as it must resonate with your customers and prospects.

Let’s take a look at the science of how we see color to illustrate this importance.

  Image via Wikipedia

We can thank Newton for discovering that color is the sensation of light bouncing off something and entering our eyes. Newton found that light is made up of many different wavelengths, each one perceived as a different color.

For example, the color red isn’t actually in the strawberry itself. The surface of the strawberry absorbs all of the light except for the wavelengths we perceive as red. These bounce off of the fruit and into our eyes.

How the eye sees color, via Ted Ed

We have millions of light-sensitive cells, or receptors, at the back of our eyes.

Science considers these receptors as an extension of the brain, and for good reason. Certain receptors are stimulated by the light coming into our eyes, and those receptors send impulses to our brain.

The brain takes those signals and interprets them as color: in this case, red.

Because the brain is interpreting the color, that means that color is, by nature, a sensation.

Sensations are personal.

It’s this fact that makes our choice and use of color so critical to the success of our businesses.

The Qualities of Color

While our perception of colors and what they mean is subjective, there are some basic qualities that we can apply generally. Here are some of those qualities:

Red. Often considered exciting, attention-grabbing, warm, and connected to love, anger, life, and comfort.

Yellow. Seen as adventurous, evoking happiness, enthusiasm, youth, and travel.

Green. Of course, this color is connected to money, but it’s also known for its connection to balance, health, sustainability, and knowledge.

Blue. The color of honesty, high quality, competence, trust, reliability, and integrity.

Pink. This color evokes love, compassion, romance, gentleness, and sophistication.

Purple. Creativity, royalty, mystery, respect, and playfulness are often connected to purple (and violet).

Brown. Brown is the color of the outdoors and can be seen as friendly, organic, natural, friendly, and rugged.

Black. This color is all about sophistication, intelligence, seriousness, and expense.

White. The antithesis of black is known for its order, innocence, purity, cleanliness, neutrality, and space.

Grey. When you need to communicate timelessness, neutrality, refinement, of the moment, or practicality, you might want to use grey.

Culture and context can also influence how a color is interpreted. Therefore, do your due diligence and research your audience so you can make the best choices based on their specific backgrounds.

To learn more, we recommend you read:

How 21 Brands Use Color to Influence Customers

Color Trends for 2018 (What Marketer and Small Businesses Need to Know)

How Color Influences What People Buy

Picking The Right Colors

Research shows that anticipating your consumer’s reaction to a color and its relationship to your brand is more important than the actual color itself.

Customers want to see that a color “fits.”

For example, the color pink probably doesn’t fit with a brand like Ford or Harley Davidson, and black would be perceived as wrong for Fisher-Price or an organic health food store.

It’s not that the company name Harley Davidson by itself evokes a specific reaction from its customers. But the overall composition of the brand, including its logo, marketing, products, etc. evokes a reaction that responds differently to different brand colors.

Other research confirms that there’s a connection between a company’s brand colors and consumers’ perception of a company’s personality.

The key takeaway here is that it’s less important what color you choose, and more that you choose colors that highlight or accentuate the personality you want your brand and product to reflect.

Remember that branding is about experience and emotion. As we wrote previously:

A brand is the sum total of the experience your customers and customer prospects have with your company.

A strong brand communicates what your company does, how it does it, and at the same time, establishes trust and credibility with your prospects and customers.

Your company’s brand is, in many ways, its personality.

Your brand lives in everyday interactions your company has with its prospects and customers, including the images you share, the messages you post on your website, the content of your marketing materials, your presentations and booths at conferences, and your posts on social networks.

A powerful brand starts with a professionally designed logo. Color plays an important role in logo design, as we discussed recently in our look at current logo trends.

The importance of color also extends to how you present your products and services to consumers.

Studies show that choosing colors that make customers feel or think of a certain quality, as well as help guide their actions, is key to your success.

As we wrote in 7 Important Packaging Design Trends:

In fact, marketers know that color is one of the most important choices you can make when it comes to packaging design. Recent trends have designers putting colors to work for their products in innovative, inspiring ways. It may seem like an artistic decision, but the primary color you choose for your design has a significant psychological impact on how people perceive it.

  Studies clearly demonstrate that colors play a major role in how advertising and signage are read.

42% more signs and advertisements are read when color (such as red) is used, versus black and white. Comprehension is boosted as well.

So if you’re creating signage or imagery for your store or website, make sure to add a splash of color to give it a better chance of being noticed and read.

Blue, the color of repeat shoppers?

We’ve already looked at how specific colors have themes or attributes, but did you know colors can influence our behavior?

Research on the use of color in retail fashion stores shows that customers are more likely to return and make purchases in a store that uses a blue color scheme versus orange.

  How do you spell relief? P-I-N-K

Pink is another color studied for its subconscious effect on people.

Researchers found that viewing the color pink actually causes people’s endocrine system (also known as the body’s chemical messaging system) to slow down, and our muscles to relax.

So if you’ve ever wondered why so many products connected to soothing problems (such as pain-killers, stomach aids, and female hygiene products) include pink in their packaging, now you know: the color itself makes us think of relaxation and relief.

Another study found that patients given placebo pills in warmer colors like pink reported them to be more effective than pills with cooler colors.

  Image via Wikipedia

Red means… go?

And those red sales signs? There’s a subconscious method to that madness, too.

Studies found that the color red causes people to react faster and more forcefully. This is probably in part due to our society’s connection to red and danger or warning.

Retailers capitalize on this reaction to red to impart urgency in their clearance and sales signs.

Case Studies

The psychological effect of color on our behavior is one thing, but how does this effect manifest itself in real-world usage?

We’ve gathered some case studies where the use of color had an impact on some output.

  Performable ran an A/B test on which colored button performed better. Spoiler alert: Red won.

Case Study 1: Performable red vs. green study

As we said in our look at how 21 companies use color:

Interested in using the power of red to improve conversions, marketing automation company Performable A/B tested the difference in performance of a red call-to-action button versus a green one. The red button showed a 21% increase in conversion.

We’ve looked at how colors like red influence our behavior (and we’ve already been conditioned since childhood that “green means go,” but what kind of effect would it have in this particular scenario?

The results were fascinating:

We ran the test over a few days of traffic. In total, we had over 2,000 visits to the page, and for each visit, Performable recorded whether someone clicked on the button or not. (Using Performable’s tools, all analytics and conversion data were automatically gathered, so we could watch along as the results rolled in.) The result? The red button outperformed the green button by 21%

These results are impressive, but they don’t mean you should run out and change all of your buttons to red.

It’s important to test any changes (like Hubspot did here for Performable) with your own audience to see what works for your business and your specific audience.

Case Study 2: Ript color scheme button change

RIPT is an apparel company that sells one-of-a-kind designer clothes.

Intrigued by the idea of A/B testing, they decided to run their own test using their Buy Now button as the subject.

(For more about A/B testing and how it can benefit your company, check out our guide on how A/B testing can help your small business.)

Their existing button was monochrome with a subtle arrow pointing at the call-to-action. They ran a test using this as the original and a new, colorful button as the control (or test) version.

The results were significant.

Much to their surprise, they immediately saw a rise in sales. Encouraged by the results, they went ahead and created another variation of the button… Following version (B) of the button increased their site sales by 6.3% (notice only the button was changed – no new offers, no new products, no new policies).

A 6.3% rise in sales is worth paying attention to, especially when you take into account that there was no other change done to the design.

This update RIPT made exemplifies the concept we explored earlier: that adding color, especially an “action” color like green or red, can have an effect on behavior.

Case Study 3: Heinz ketchup color change

Heinz’s experiment with “America’s Favorite” ketchup is another noteworthy case in color driving behavior.

  Heinz’s “EZ Squirt” product was an attempt to rebrand ketchup and make it more attractive to kids.

Not only did Heinz give the bottle more “fun” design, they committed ketchup heresy: they changed its color.

“Blastin’ Green” ketchup was a runaway hit, selling over 20 million units.

“We’re on track to ship in the first 90 days what we thought we would sell in the first year,” reported Heinz’s global marketing director Casey Keller. “This thing has taken on a momentum of its own, striking a chord with kids and people in general.”

As usual with anything targeted at kids, however, the longevity of Heinz’s experiment was short-lived.

It turns out kids are fickle consumers (who knew?) and sales eventually dropped off.

But the results still speak to the power that color can have on sales.

While we eulogize the end of “Stellar Blue” and “Funky Purple,” the fact that the new colors posted impressive results is another sign that the hue you choose can make a huge difference.

Image courtesy of Apple

Case Study 4: Apple

Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy when Steve Jobs came back and turned it into a business school case study success.

Nowadays, they have more money than they know what to do with. (Did you know Apple made four times the profit in three months that Amazon made in its entire lifetime?)

But back then, things were dramatically different.

As Jeff Goldblum so eccentrically pointed out in commercials for Apple’s brand new “Bondi Blue”-colored computer, the iMac, color was a huge reason for this.

Referring to the existing IBM PC beige box status quo, Goldblum summed up Apple’s attitude: “It’s beige, it’s boring, it’s bland.”

One of Apple’s strengths is it is hyper-focused on the why, especially when it comes to its customers.

As ex-Apple engineer Gautum Baksi noted about Apple’s obsession with finding the right color,

They go pretty far outside the box. They go far with different ideas. The innovations and attempts are what matter. It’s a very slow, slow, and deliberate thought process.

Living in Color

You don’t need Apple’s vast resources to take advantage of existing color research and development, and all businesses can take a page out of their color strategy.

Be more intentional with how you choose colors for your business.

Take into account both the themes that colors represent as well as the psychological behavior that certain colors influence.

Research what colors best fit your target audience’s tastes and needs, and above all, don’t be like beige.

Don’t be boring.

Are you ready to take your color game to the next level? Let crowdspring’s 210,000 designers help you bring color to your world that you’ll love. Get started now and request a free, no obligation design consultation for a new custom logo, web design, product design, packaging design, package graphics, or any other type of design, with one of our design experts today.

from http://bit.ly/2KQz5Cr

[daniellepatoir]

What is "The Dream Bubble Show" & who will be in it??

Hello everyone... I just wanted to reach out as a lot is going on ... I want to have "meetings" or at least stay in touch with those who are interested in being part of this dream bubble show (which is basically my life). Whether it be "face-timing" or "in person" visits. I am working on making it more clear for us all but basically I am planning to go around the world with this show idea... yes a "mini life tour". I have a strong calling to travel with my voice (songs, music, writings, rhyming in the flow, art, prayers, etc), with my soul, mind (philosophy, meditation) & body (movement, yoga, dance, exercise, running, scootering, biking, hiking, etc) around the world, to make a huge difference. I would like to be supported enough that I could go around this planet as "my true self"; fulfilling my mission; spreading "world peace". I'd like to hire myself to "be my greatest version" & show how the "universe" takes care of us along the way. We get what we give. To me, "love" and sharing memorable moments with people are more valuable than the "in -between" "money". Nothing against money (& I appreciate those who work hard for it) but then there is the other side of it all. I feel often people are just "living" to make money.. that they don't even have a "life". It pains me to see unhappy people, or people without time or desire to find out who they truly are. I see homeless people on the streets of NYC that I want to shelter, feed, crack a joke or refreshing thought to, & hug. I believe this world would be a better place if we all were here fulfilling our purposes. Things would get done faster & I feel we would be taking better care of our Mother Earth. I would like to prove that "team- work makes the dream work" & we are all "one"; we are of "equal worth". If we want to see the heart of Mother Earth pumping at a good pace; we've got to fuel her properly with the right fuel of "love". With this complete freedom; we can run wild. To see people in "categories" based off their income ruling every action they make just seems twisted to me. Why does "money" have to mean "power" or "authority"; or give someone the privilege to take over the world. I have often had difficulty understanding it because to me love & happiness is most important. I need to take a breath typing about all of this. There is a lot more to "balancing" life; what about our health? That is true wealth in my opinion. There is more than what meets the eye & more dimensions than the one we are currently "living" in. I don't know about you but I am a people person. I love meeting new people & holding lasting meaningful relationships. Though sometimes I get the general need to hide from society. I need my privacy for when I am constantly surrounded by people & I need my trees and fresh air when I've been in the city too long. I guess; it's just like how you need the dark and light; Yin-Yang. Being able to be alone is crucial in living an honest life though. It gives us time to truly "dive deep" & can put us in that meditative (trance like) state. Anyway, I am going to be like an open book. I have been labeled "bipolar" & been on meds for "ADHD" in the past; though I do not believe in these things. I say drop the labels; we all just have our ways. There is much to a person; a personality, genetics, astrological sign, etc. etc. Anyway, this experience helped me realize how important mental health truly is. I know many people who have been suicidal, extremely depressed, or just have felt so much confusion..' even I have been hospitalized after having breakdowns. In my case I realize it was my environment & situation of "not knowing who I truly was, listening, or seeing the desired results fast enough" that was killing me. I could go on & on but what I mean is; I have been there. Maybe 'cos I have been there too much I have this obsession with being happy. Anyway, I spent years listening to "self- help" & "how to manifest" videos by Abraham Hicks, Infinite Waters, Eckhart Tolle & so forth. I spent all the money I practically had once to take Mary Morrissey's program about living your dream because that is all I wanted to do. The research continued and I studied the law of attraction. Even now I continue to look stuff up & sort through it all. I've always had a strong desire to serve & help others; it was too much so that I would put people before myself; while I was suffering. I realize I have to help myself first; before helping others. I got rehired to working at Equinox in NYC to be a fitness trainer but kept having breakdowns because I knew that was my plan B. I had to listen to my heart & soul. I was trying to build 3 businesses at once; as I was grateful to live at this musician artist loft in Brooklyn NYC for a bit but I realized it was time to focus on "The Dream Bubble Show". I had to take care of myself & learn how to be my greatest version in order to go around the world & help others be theirs. I have held too many jobs for too short of time because of "following my heart"; impulsively I would relocate or quit. I see the value behind having "jobs" in order to "eventually" live your dream but I wanted the "fast track". I guess I just wonder; when can we just "choose to press Play" on our greatest version stories? On "Plan A". Why all the suffering & pain? Ok, maybe it isn't that extreme but time is valuable right ? Though made up? So, how about this one.. why all the wasted time? Why lower your vibration rather than fly high all the time? How can we all just be happy & on "vacation" rather than need a vacation from our lives? People would say to me constantly "cos it's not "realistic"!!" Yes, you have a point, the way "the system" works; how the world is run; & "being humans" we have our emotions but I feel we could be happier overall. There are people who are their own "bosses"; or those "freelancers"; who found the glitch in the magic. Maybe we all would be happy to enter the glitch in the matrix; & maybe it isn't for everyone because they want the security of "a job"; I get it. What if "the glitch in the matrix" was able to support you because the "glitch in the matrix" was the end all be all and doorknob to another world? Did I blow your mind yet? The door is open. You just need to get a grip; this is a lot to handle, right? What is the makeup to feeling "secure" anyway? I would feel secure if I had enough "love" to be me freely. Different things make people feel things & different triggers can make more of an impact. Who is shooting at you & how do you protect (shield) yourself? What is being shot at? Perhaps you let the contrast amplify what you want.. by knowing what you don't want; helping you know 'thyself even more. Do you ever think of your chakras & which ones might need healing? What do you need? Tell me? Maybe I can be a Chakra healer & help you find out & heal you. My "Dream Bubble" can act like a mirror & reflect yourself to you. Yes, I'd love to heal the world but again we can't do it all by ourselves.. but if I was doing this show people could all put their comments down as I go around. So we can get an array of lenses all shining back at whomever is on my show. Let's wash away the belief systems that are preventing ourselves from living our dreams. You are ultimately free to decide & I respect your opinions. I am sure some people will read what I write & say I am in "la la" land or call me ____ (go on fill it in). I say; "why yes, that's great; you are correct; I am whatever you say I am (shout out to Eminem lol). The same goes for you; whenever you are you people "judge you" but why does it bother you? It is what we know; we are separate from their judgements like thoughts we can let pass. I am you & you are me; so ultimately if something I am saying hurts you it's just something you don't want to face within yourself. Yet again, I am here to hold up the mirror. I am the master of my own destiny; I only know life through my lenses (or third Eye lense Dream Bubble ) & I know what works for me. I've got to roll. Ultimately, I have agreed & said "yes" to "living my dream" & that involves being in my "dream bubble" (& you are welcome to join me) It is magical & keeps me alive. If it wasn't for this "dream bubble" I wouldn't be here because this world is too much for me to bare. I "bounced up like a bouncy ball" from a version of myself I no longer recognize; to "fly high on air" all the time to help others with these "high's & low's" of life. I am free of chemicals & medications as all I need is this dream bubble which includes all things I love doing & people who support me. Whatever works for you though; I suggest do what works. You know you best. I feel we ought to find a balance, to sway on the swing & have fun at playgrounds like we are kids if we want to. Why not? Why not do what keeps you happy? You want to stay young? Do what the young do. Frolick around like one. Color in your coloring book, play hide- n seek, games, play with puppets, dress up in whatever fashionable outfit you want, run around, go on the merry- go- round, play games, You want to stay sharp? Go on and read, research, dive deep, travel; by know your sources. I had to choose my Plan A to "help" people be their greatest versions. I aim to help others live their dreams as I live mine; while sharing live footage, film, music, art & "knowledge" & "realizations" a long the way... so you too feel like you are touring the world 🌎 , traveling with me. If you want to meet in person & "be on an episode" let me know.. as all are welcome on my show with the only rules being: 1) Love 2) Peace 3) Come as your greatest version & share your gift 🎁 if you know it. If you don't yet have a sense of purpose we can work something out to discover it together. The idea is: our "gifts"🎁 (Reasons we are here, life passions & purposes) resonate with the "love frequency" & can be found deep inside the "lost & founds" in our "heart". If we were to have one huge "gift exchange" or constant "mini gift exchanges" happening all over the world.. we would be "waking people up". We would raise the consciousness and "vibration" of the planet. Watch out we might fly away to another dimensions' galaxy in this "vortex" spaceship if this happens. Lol.. Anything is possible right!? A new world 🌎 ?!? Did I mention I have a vivid imagination & I am a "creative genius" "lightworker"?? Let me be your guide through "The Dream Bubble" world. It took a lot for me to get to know it here. ;) If you have anything you would like to share with the world, if you want to be quoted, or on camera, let me know. Let's share our passions as I go around in my "dream bubble" of pure bliss; resonating with the universal, DNA healing, "love frequency" of 528hz. Yes, I tune to the frequency (528hz) that has been proven to be "the miracle tone". My debut album is mostly the other earth friendly tone of 432hz. I am here to help fill the cracks with love & resurface the world, with the shiny bubble material so we all shine. If you want to be part of the "Dream Bubble Family" behind the scenes & work together please reach out. You can do both. I am at the point where I need to make some sort of "game plan" so I can make the "right" moves & this show can be a success. I want us all to win our dream life (Plan A) and the more the merrier so feel free share this post & the website etc. Mini games will be played along the way as it is a "real- life video game 🎮 " & the object is to stay in the golden path & live as our greatest versions. Making it a fun adventure for all... so we can attain a state of happiness, world peace, & pure bliss..I truly hope to change history & rewrite those stories vibrating at low levels to beautiful masterpieces of joy. Wouldn't you like to wake up & go to bed each day in the state of pure bliss? Let's balance the swing & stay in that trance state, each moment. We don't need anything outside ourselves to attain this... happiness is an inner job. It is simply a matter of sharing what is inside us... let it unravel & you will see.. Namaste loves 🙏💓💫🦋🎶🦄✨💡👍🚀 ~Patoirlove (Creator of The Dream Bubble Show) PS: If you are a community or organization with similar values & this hit home 🏡 please reach out to me as I've been looking for you.. CyphenHyphen@gmail.com PPS: If anyone wants to sponsor me for the start or lend the materials I need just to get into "the glitch of the matrix" I have to "leave the system"; I will need the following: A vehicle (preferable a van, with fuel, food, water, or other shelter at times when not in van, toothpaste & soap, etc, you know only the necessities, & a film crew with proper equipment to capture & live stream "on air")

[worthlostblog]

Meditation

“This meditation is normally done in a sitting position, either on the floor or a chair, and we begin by sensing the support we have from the chair or the cushion, being aware of the actual sensations of contact. Find a position of firmness and equilibrium, your upper body balanced over your hips and your shoulders in a comfortable but alert posture, hands on your lap or your knees, arms hanging by their own weight, like like the oars of a boat, stable but chill. Actually sensing into your body, feeling your feet… legs… hips…butt... lower and upper body… arms…chest... shoulders... neck… head…hair?

And when you are ready, allow your eyes to close, and begin to bring awareness to your breath, feeling each breath as it comes in and goes out… letting the breath be just as it is, without trying to change or control it in any way… allow it to flow easily and naturally, with its own cadence and pace, knowing you are breathing perfectly well right now, nothing for you to do…

Allow the body to be still with a sense of grace, a sense of boldness, a sense of being complete, full, in this very moment, with your posture reflecting this sense of wholeness… (long pause)

As you sit here, image in your mind’s eye, the most magnificent or lavish skyscraper you know or have seen or can even imagine… let it gradually come into greater focus… it doesn’t need to be right away. Slowly build it up. Maybe you start with the outside, what does it look like? How tall is it? What’s the lobby look like? And even if it doesn’t come as a visual image, allow the sense of this skyscraper to come into play, the feeling of its overall shape, its sparkling windows high in the sky, the large base rooted in the bedrock of the earth’s crust, it’s slick sides, do they slope or is it straight? How narrow is it?

Noticing how massive it is, how solid, how unmoving, how beautiful, whether from a far or up close…(pause)

Perhaps your skyscraper has snow blanketing its top, icicles climbing downward towards the streets, ready to break off and crash towards the ground at any second.   What type of people are using this building? Walking past it? There may be people staying there. Maybe it’s a bit more rural though, maybe there are streams and waterfalls cascading down alongside it… is there one roof or a maybe multiple roofs, like the building branches out. Like trees. Are there trees? Just Observe. Observing it, noting its qualities and when you feel ready, seeing if you can bring the Skyscraper  into your own body sitting here so that your body and the skyscraper in your mind’s eye become one so that as you sit here, you share in the massiveness and the stillness and majesty and the beauty and the unmovingness and the majesticness of the skyscraper, and you become the skyscraper.

Grounded in the sitting posture, your head becomes the trendy roof with a helicopter pad, supported by the rest of the body and affording a panoramic view. Your shoulders and arms the sides of the building. Your buttocks and legs the lobby, rooted to your cushion or your chair, experiencing in your body a sense of uplift from deep within your pelvis and spine. Imagine all the people reading the newspaper in your lobby. What are they reading? Sports? News? What did Trump do this time? How much closer are we to war with korea?  With each breath, as you continue sitting, becoming a little more a breathing skyscraper, alive and vital, yet unwavering in your inner stillness, completely what you are, beyond words and thoughts, a centered, imobile, grounded, unmoving, stable, centered presence…

As you sit here, becoming aware of the fact that as the sun travels across the sky, the light and shadows and colors are changing virtually moment by moment in the skyscraper’s stillness, and the surface teems with life and activity… workers, traffic jams, homeless people you’re supposed to be nice to but every time you do they always end up getting mad at you and you think, what’s the point even, I mean, I want to treat them like human beings and show them compassion but they just end up treating me like shit and I can never do anything good enough for them, notice all the plants and nature that surround you.

As the skyscraper sits, seeing and feeling how night follows day and day follows night. The bright warming sun, followed by the cool night sky studded with stars, and the gradual dawning of a new day…

Through it all, the skyscraper just sits, experiencing change in each moment, constantly changing, yet always just being itself. It remains still as the seasons flow into one another and as the weather changes moment by moment and day by day, calmness abiding all change…

In summer, there is no snow on the skyscraper. Just the sun, perhaps the skyscraper even gets a nice tan. Looks a bit narrower because of this tan. Maybe the skyscraper’s friends comment to the skyscraper that the skyscraper looks good today. Looking happy. And the skyscraper is.

In the fall, the skyscraper may wear a pair of shoes of brilliant fire colors from nearby trees and their leaves. Time and changing growing faster and faster the results of change.

In winter, a blanket of snow and ice. Dangerous streets. More and more accidents. Drunk drivers, young students, texting while driving, people who just can’t seem to understand that cars are essentially giant death machines. Yeah, they help you get around fast. But when you get into it, you are essentially risking your life.

In spring, wet. Very wet. Maybe from tears, maybe from rain. Maybe a business man just got laid off. How will he support his children? He can barely afford what he is paying for right now? He must be begging for help, for someone to understand and damning the God he spent so much time and effort trying to please just to have that very God spit in his face and call him a shit.

In any season, the skyscraper may find itself at times enshrouded in clouds or fog or pelted by freezing rain. People may come to see the skyscraper and comment on how beautiful it is or how it’s not a good day to see the skyscraper, that it’s too cloudy or rainy or foggy or dark. None of this matters to the skyscraper, which remains at all times its essential self. Clouds may come and clouds may go, tourists may like it or not. The skyscraper’s magnificence and beauty are not changed one bit by whether people see it or not, seen or unseen, in sun or clouds, broiling or frigid, day or night.

It just sits, being itself.

At times visited by violent storms, buffeted by snow and rain and winds of unthinkable magnitude.

Through it all, the skyscraper sits.

Unmoved by the weather, by what happens on its surface, by the world of appearances… remaining its essential self, through the seasons, the changing weather, the activity ebbing and flowing in it’s offices… In the same way, as we sit in meditation, we can learn to experience the skyscraper, we can embody the same central, unwavering stillness and groundedness in the face of everything that changes in our own lives, over seconds, over hours, over years. In our lives and in our meditation practice, we experience constantly the changing nature of mind and body and of the outer world, we have our own periods of light and darkness, activity and inactivity, our moments of color and our moments of grayness. It’s true that we experience storms of varying intensity and violence in the outer world and in our own minds and bodies, buffeted by high winds, by cold and rain, we endure periods of darkness and pain, as well as the moments of joy and uplift, even our appearance changes constantly, experiencing a weather of it’s own… By becoming the skyscraper in our meditation practice, we can link up with its strength and stability and adopt them for our own. We can use its energies to support our energy to encounter each moment with mindfulness and equanimity and clarity. It may help us to see that our thoughts and feelings, our preoccupations, our emotional storms and crises, even the things that happen to us are very much like the weather on this skyscraper. We tend to take it all personally, but its strongest characteristic is impersonal.

The weather of our own lives is not be ignored or denied, it is to be encountered, honored, felt, known for what it is, and held in awareness… After all, the world still is a very scary place. But when we remember that darkness is only called darkness because light also exists we then remember that we are strong, like that skyscraper and will make it through. And in thinking about it in this way, we can come to know a deeper silence and stillness and wisdom.

Skyscrapers have this to teach us and much more if we can let it in…

So if you find you resonate in some way with the strength and stability of the skyscraper in your sitting, I would ask that you consider trying out mailchimp, Mailchimp is a creative company that gives other creative companies digital tools to grow in their own creative ways, so when it’s game time to introduce yourself to your target audience mailchimp can help you do it in your own original way. So check out MailChimp.

[tatakatte]

Thoughts on The Last Jedi

Overall: I loved it, but I can very much understand why people won’t. It’s a smorgasbord of plots and characters that doesn’t linger long enough with any of them and completely shatters the cadence of the other trilogies. That being said, it gave a hint as to a different message than we’ve previously felt in the Star Wars movies. One that I find refreshing and intriguing if they have the guts to really thoroughly explore it.

The movie can be divided into three sections. We have the Resistance plot, which focuses mostly on Poe Dameron and Leia. Then the Caper plot, which is Finn and newcomer Rose - easily the most extraneous of the plots and a big part of why I think people will not like this film. Lastly is the Jedi/Force plot, the major one that deals with Luke, Rey, and Kylo Ren.

Rebellion Plot:

The plot device used here - the slow chase to inexorable death via depleted fuel - always has the potential to cast a feeling of dread and defeat. There’s nothing they can do to get more fuel, and if they are caught, they will die. This is used effectively, and is devastating. It’s hard to watch the resistance get beaten and beaten and crushed by inevitability. It was also a good device to use, since it was so slow, versus the quick pace of the battle scenes and the Caper plot.

Poe Dameron was the star of this plotline. We get to see him really shine here, under tutelage from Leia, while still being his own infuriating person. He seems a mix of the Han Solo and Leia archetypes. He’s brash and reactive, but he’s also calculating and deeply loyal. I don’t think he can ever be the diplomat Leia is, but he can certainly get close. For all that they didn’t give him in TFA, Oscar Isaac kills it. He’s cocky, but not destructive. Yes, his first instinct is to blow things up, but he learns several times that sometimes he has to find a different way, that he has to rely on other peoples’ knowledge, especially those more experienced than him. I like that he fucked up a few times, because it takes time for people to learn from their mistakes. Don’t even get me started on his relationship with BB-8, which is adorable, nor his constant admiration for Finn, which should make Stormpilot fans happy.

Really, it’s his interactions with Leia that show his true self. He argues with her, but defers to her when necessary. It’s obvious that Leia has sort of replaced Ben with Poe, mothering in the only way she knows how.

I loved that they had Holdo use the lightspeed to shatter a ship. It’s one of those pet theories that you wanna see, but rarely do. The sacrifice was good - a character we could respect, but nothing too devastating.

The two major battles - space battle at the beginning and red-dirt battle at the end - were well done, typical fancy action shit. I absolutely loved the visual of the white salt being shifted to reveal the red dirt. It was gorgeous and seemed more cinematic than usual. The first battle had the first showing of the humor that would be used in the film, and what I very much dislike. It’s the very meta obvious humor, and while it makes people laugh, it starts to feel inappropriate and too easy. I’m not quite sure how to articulate it. I like my humor to be more subtle, and probably why it rubs me the wrong way.

Leia was underused, but I loved that she used her Force powers. The situation was weird, but damnit if I don’t want Leia to use all the Skywalker powerful shit, just like her brother. It’s always bittersweet with Leia, that Han is gone, her son is gone, and now Luke is gone. She’s all that is left, and she endures. I’m so sad about Carrie Fisher passing, It looked as though she was really enjoying this film.

Caper plot:

Finn and mechanic Rose head to a casino planet to find a hacker to get them into the ship that’s tracking the rebel fleet. Yeah, it sounds convoluted because it is. Fortunately, Finn and Rose are so damn adorable and charismatic that I loved it anyway. Rose in particular came with a strong sense of self and devotion to the rebellion.

The film fails poor Finn. He has no character development and gets a lot of action, but it invariably is pointless. John Boyega is so wonderful, I hope the third film utilizes him appropriately.

Benicio del Toro was more tragically underused than Boyega. His hacker character doesn’t even get a name, has a cute humanizing moment, and then sells out Finn and Rose for a hot dog. Like, what was the point of having such a big actor play him. Maybe we’ll see more in Episode IX, but it was so weird having him do nothing in this one.

I’d like to reiterate this idea for Captain Phasma and the tragedy that is not using Gwendoline Christie. She’s awesome, and has shown to be a versatile actor, and we see her for about ten minutes and three lines. She ‘dies’ but I think they might bring her back for Ep. IX. There was no build up, no backstory or explanation. They have to do something.

Jedi/Force plot:

The meat of the movie. It’s the best part of the whole thing.

We see Luke downtrodden and beaten. He’s failed his sister, his friend, and his nephew. He didn’t train Ben properly, and ended up losing him to the Dark Side. And so Luke has made himself a crotchety hermit that won’t train anyone else. But there’s still that guy inside who brought balance to the Force. The Luke that saved his father, that turned down the Dark Side over and over. Mark Hamill does some of the best acting of his life in this film, giving us so much despair and so much hope. I also feel that Hamill’s career as a villainous voice actor influenced his portrayal of Luke, giving him just a hint of darkness that he didn’t feel like the Golden Child of the original trilogy anymore. I think he came to peace in this film, especially when he accepted that the way he was thinking of the Jedi - as these pristine providers of truth and justice and without flaw - wasn’t a way that could be sustained. And really, that whole ideology started with Luke, when he saw that Darth Vader - the baddest bitch of all - could still have light in him.

Rey was delightful. I do think her training was perfunctory and probably will lead to disaster, her vulnerability with what she saw through the Force and how she connects to it makes her a new sort of Jedi. She isn’t the black and white good or bad Jedi from before, which I think is necessary to the survival of the Jedi. A lot of folk have made talk about her being a Gray Jedi, which I think will happen if not in name, because I think it’s the only way the Jedi can proceed. What they’ve been doing obviously hasn’t been working.

Her Force bond scenes with Kylo Ren - Ben Solo - are amazing. Their connection was heartbreaking and soft and tender and naked in its emotions. I can’t even describe how lovely it was. They were like small children sharing secrets, exposing their deepest parts to each other. You see Kylo actually be a person rather than this whiny bitch, and the scene where they touch hands is one of the most sensual things that has ever happened on screen. A lot of people (especially Reylo shippers, hi) see a sexual component to their Force bond visions, but for me, it was just intimate. It was intimate in a way that was difficult to watch at times. It was a raw emotionality that doesn’t often appear in Star Wars films, and I believe never to this degree.  That’s what I believe will resonate the most with people.

That, and the battle scene before Snoke, of course. I wasn’t happy with how quickly and abruptly they killed off Snoke. We didn’t learn a thing about him! But in some ways, I‘m glad he was disposed of so early, so that we can move on from Kylo having a dark manipulative master. And the way they did it was wonderful.

Kylo Ren gets A+ treatment in this movie. You can see the conflict in him, and how determined he is to be the antagonist, and how much he hates and how much he longs for his family. Early on, he has a chance to destroy the ship that Leia’s on, but he feels her. And he doesn’t shoot. He seems like a stunted little boy who was betrayed by everyone he loved and now he’s tearing them apart in the way Snoke taught him. He calls himself a monster, and only people who are in deep pain will do something like that. Monsters never think of themselves as such.

Kylo had moments of his usual short temper, throwing fits, being melodramatic crap. And it will always be hilarious about how the peons of the First Order seem to be completely used to him destroying random shit and they just carry on as usual. But I do feel like we saw the pale underbelly of our villain. He’s not cut-out for it, really. His redemption arc in Ep IX is going to be painful and glorious and it will happen.

The thing I liked most about this film, however, isn’t really any specific scene or character. It’s this idea Kylo Ren has, that he has to kill the past. Obviously, he takes it to a literal sense, but I think the motive behind it is intriguing.

After all, here we are again. Rebels vs empire. Separatists vs the Republic. Resistance vs First Order. Have we learned any lesson? Will this keep happening, over and over. Revolution, new government, oppression, revolution, etc. Nothing really gets better. At the end of the film, the entire Resistance fits inside the Millennium Falcon. Like, 30 people maybe. That’s not nearly enough red shirts to last a whole movie.

But there’s hope. We have Poe Dameron, who is in Leia’s position, but not quite like her. We have Finn, someone who broke out of the stormtrooper faceless mold. We have Rey, someone who rejects the Jedi teachings in a way that doesn’t embrace the Dark Side, but rather recognizes that the two sides will always be there, always need balancing. And we have Kylo Ren, this arrogant, whiny, tantrum-throwing abuse survivor, who’s been gaslighted and groomed for who knows how long. He’s not another villain who’s evil for kicks. What do we do with all these people who don’t fit in the Star Wars hero/villain templates?

The old way of doings things hasn’t worked. It’s made monsters and terrible people and killed countless. It never stops, it never truly gets better. That’s particularly emphasized - perhaps unintentionally - on the casino planet.

Finn and Rose have a sort of rollicking adventure, evading the police and getting into/out of trouble. del Toro’s character rather ham-fistedly states that the weapons dealers give to both the First Order and the Resistance (yeah, ok, what unionized friendly weapon-supplier are they supposed to use??), that there’s problems on both sides. However, I think the more poignant moment is when we see the kids being used as slaves, basically. They are tiny and live in the stables and obviously orphaned or sold to take care of the horse-creatures. Even Rose talks about how the children of her planet were used, destroyed by these money-hungry warmongers. The Empire rose, the Empire fell, the Republic rose, the Republic fell, and these poor people stayed in the same place. They are still downtrodden, impoverished, enslaved, used.

The old way doesn’t work. We have to try something new.

I really hope they embrace this idea in Ep IX. It excited me in a way that a lot of media has failed to do. I would love to see the talent behind Star Wars embrace a complete paradigm shift.

--- an aside. I absolutely adored that Rey’s parents were worthless junkers who sold her for drinking money. Really, truly, I feel like that’s in the spirit of what the filmmakers were trying to say. However, we do get this information from Kylo Ren, who isn’t the most reliable of sources, and may have been manipulated by Snoke (what’s new). I would much rather this be the truth.

But. During all their Force Skype scenes, Rey and Kylo felt very much like children bonding. Their interactions had an air of innocence to them. This was juxtaposed with Luke and Leia having their own Force-provided conversations and insights in a parallel that I’m still not sure was intentional. In fact, when Kylo is telling Rey that she knows who her parents are, that she’s always known, I straight-up thought she would say that Leia and Han are her parents. That her and Kylo are twins (are they the same age??? maybe siblings). It felt like a natural lead up, and I wouldn’t have been surprised. Was this just me? Am I the weirdo now?

Oh well.