#to be discussed in today's web retrospective:

[0000000000001000]

[thealmightygremm]

The Death of the Virtual World Era: A Retrospective Glance

Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin, IMVU, Gaia Online. All of these once beloved web apps have slowly faded into obscurity, either by shutting down or by a loss of player base. Growing up, I always adored online virtual world games. For all who played them, they offered, friendship, enjoyment, and escapism. You could be anything you wanted to be so long as there was a community for it. Want to roleplay as a mafia boss and run a high-end casino? Or maybe family roleplay is more your speed and you'd like to adopt or get adopted. Or maybe you just wanted to hangout and meet other people being your genuine self. These games offered that and are so treasured and yet still, they've vanished. But why?

Anyone whose even looked a little into the death of the virtual world empire that took the internet by storm in the mid 2000's-2010's knows that there's a fairly easily traced to one big factor: A lack of new players. As these games got older, so did their player bases. In turn, the virtual worlds would take one of two approaches on average to combat this: a. Lean towards a maturing audience in order to appease their existing player base.

b. Go for a hyper kid-friendly approach to attempt to draw in new, younger players.

The primary flaw with the first method mainly laid in the fact that older players are more prone to leaving the virtual worlds; either by getting bored and quitting intentionally, or by simply being an adult and having life cause the time investment into the world to sink in exchange for other demands on their time.

The second approach's flaw is a bit more complicated. A big reason many corporate execs thought that option B was the best route to take is that it by all means appears to be on the surface. New blood means new money and traffic and means that even if a player loses interest in the game, a new one will take their place. However many countries have strict laws governing businesses that are directed for children; and this ramped up in the mid-late 2010's. Companies could no longer shove advertisements at kids in the same way that they could in years prior. Children's online safety acts swept across the US, Canada, and the UK in response to parental concern over a multitude of websites and web activities.

As a result, it became increasingly more expensive to run these types of worlds while targeting kids. Heavy moderation teams were required, and advertising became a much more expensive process. This caused many great titans to fall. While some, like club penguin and webkinz, have tried their hands at re-launching their games for a mobile-centric audience, they just haven't had the pull that they used to have.

Ironically, those games who leaned into an older audience- such as IMVU, Habbo, and Gaia, all still remain in (relatively) their original state with an active- but smaller- player base. I feel as though a big player in their success lies in both the nostalgia they bring as well as the niche communities they've formed. Are any of these good by today's standards? Well... That's a rant for another day.

/End Rant

**Note: I deliberately excluded Second Life from the discussion, as it is an anomaly of it's own.

[cleoenfaserum]

THE SHORT FILM DOCUMENTARY by JOCELYN SAAB: (1976) South Lebanon: The Story of a Village Under Siege.

Listen (read)

link https://ok.ru/video/10002972871219

TEXT:

I picked AI GPT algorithmic brain in the following conversation explaining what the message of the film was all about. I feel that in order to understand with today’s mentality of a repeating history, this conversation, hopefully, will enable a better understanding of the film.

I asked AI GPT the following question iniciating the conversation. What is the argument the director of this short documentary (South Lebanon: The Story of a Village Under Siege), is trying to make. I am having difficulty understanding it, firstly, it is in French and the subtitles are difficult to follow. What is their point and has it had any impact.

ChatGPT said: ​”South Lebanon: The Story of a Village Under Siege” is a 1976 short documentary directed by Lebanese filmmaker Jocelyne Saab. The film focuses on the Israeli attacks on the Lebanese villages of Kufr Shuba and Hanine during the Lebanese civil war. Saab’s approach deliberately avoids filming the Palestinian resistance, instead highlighting the military dynamics and the impact on Lebanese civilians. She exposes the complicity between the Phalangists and the Israeli army, denouncing the misinformation propagated by Lebanese parties and the injustices inflicted upon Lebanese civilians in the south. The documentary underscores that the Israeli army targeted not only Palestinians but also knowingly destroyed Lebanese villages. ​

At the time of its release, the documentary served to shift the narrative by highlighting to a European audience that the Israeli army was not only targeting Palestinians but also knowingly destroying Lebanese villages. The film was screened at festivals, including Doclisboa in 2019, indicating its continued relevance and impact in shedding light on the complexities of the Lebanese civil war and the regional dynamics at play.

While the film may not have achieved widespread mainstream recognition, it has been acknowledged in film retrospectives and festivals, reflecting its enduring significance in documenting and critiquing the events in South Lebanon during that period. ​

You said: What is your take on it.

ChatGPT said: Jocelyne Saab’s South Lebanon: The Story of a Village Under Siege is a powerful piece of documentary filmmaking that challenges dominant narratives about the Israeli military’s actions in Lebanon. Instead of centering the Palestinian resistance — which was often the focus of media coverage — Saab turns the camera on Lebanese civilians, revealing the destruction of villages and the suffering of people caught in the crossfire of geopolitical conflicts. This shift in perspective is crucial because it exposes the broader consequences of military aggression beyond the immediate Israeli-Palestinian struggle.

Her decision to highlight the complicity between the Phalangists and the Israeli army also adds a layer of complexity, showing that the Lebanese Civil War was not just a simple two-sided conflict but a web of alliances and betrayals. The film’s refusal to sugarcoat the role of Lebanese factions in the violence makes it more than just an anti-Israeli indictment — it’s a critique of all those who contributed to the suffering of civilians.

Its impact seems to have been strongest in film and academic circles, particularly in retrospectives of Saab’s work. While it may not have shaped policy or mainstream discourse in a significant way, its continued screenings suggest it remains relevant in discussions about Lebanon, Israeli military actions, and war journalism. In many ways, Saab was ahead of her time, using documentary film to counter propaganda and misinformation, a battle that remains just as important today.

If you’re struggling with the subtitles, I’d recommend looking for any essays or analyses on the film that might break down its key themes in more detail. Would you like help finding more resources?

You said: It doesn’t seem things have changed much as the Israelite Zionist regime also seems they are all about, genocide. What do you think?

ChatGPT said: The patterns of violence, occupation, and displacement that Jocelyne Saab documented in South Lebanon: The Story of a Village Under Siege sadly remain relevant today. The Israeli military’s actions, particularly in Gaza and the West Bank, have led many to accuse the Israeli government of committing war crimes and engaging in policies that amount to genocide. The destruction of entire neighborhoods, the killing of civilians (including women and children), and the blockade that has created a humanitarian crisis have all been widely condemned by human rights organizations.

The word genocide is strong and carries legal and historical weight, and while it has been used by figures like South African officials in their case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), there are, of course, those who reject the term, arguing that the actions are part of a military conflict rather than an attempt to exterminate a people. That said, when you look at the scale of destruction, forced displacement, and dehumanizing rhetoric used by some Israeli officials, the comparison is difficult to ignore.

One of the most alarming aspects is how little accountability there seems to be. Israel receives extensive support from Western nations, especially the U.S., despite growing protests and criticism. This is another reason why Saab’s film still resonates — because it shows that the Israeli military’s actions against Lebanese civilians in the 1970s were not isolated incidents but part of a broader strategy that continues today.

What do you think? Do you feel that awareness of these issues has increased, or do you think history is just repeating itself while the world looks the other way?

You said: Do you agree with the U.N definition of genocide and how it fits the Zionist campaign against the region and in particular Gaza?

ChatGPT said: Yes, the UN definition of genocide, as established in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, includes any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group:

Killing members of the group

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group

Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group

Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Applying this to the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, several points raise serious concerns:

Mass civilian casualties: Thousands of Palestinians, including large numbers of children, have been killed in airstrikes and military operations.

Deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure: Homes, hospitals, and refugee camps have been bombed, leading to conditions where survival itself is increasingly impossible.

Blockade and deprivation: Cutting off food, water, medical supplies, and electricity is a clear example of creating conditions that bring about a population’s destruction.

Dehumanizing rhetoric: Some Israeli officials and military leaders have made statements that suggest an intent to destroy or remove Palestinians from Gaza altogether.

Given this, it is understandable why the case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) — brought by South Africa — has specifically accused the Israeli government of genocide. Even if some argue that Israel is engaged in a war with Hamas, the scale of civilian suffering and destruction raises serious legal and moral questions under the UN definition.

So, yes, the UN’s definition does align with what is happening in Gaza, and it is why so many scholars, human rights groups, and governments are now openly using the term genocide.

Do you think the international community will act on this, or do you expect the same cycle of impunity we’ve seen before?

You said: Relating to Lebanon and Zionist, I presume, it also applies and is this what the documentary is all about?

ChatGPT said: Yes, the UN’s definition of genocide can also be examined in the context of Israel’s actions in Lebanon, particularly in South Lebanon, which is exactly what Jocelyne Saab’s documentary South Lebanon: The Story of a Village Under Siege highlights.

How it applies to Lebanon: From the 1978 invasion (Operation Litani) to the 1982 full-scale invasion and subsequent 18-year occupation (1982–2000), Israel’s military campaigns in Lebanon involved:

Massacres and large-scale civilian killings (e.g., Sabra and Shatila Massacre, carried out by Israeli-backed Phalangist militias while Israel oversaw the area)

Destruction of entire villages and forced displacement of Lebanese civilians

Systematic bombings of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and homes

Torture and mass imprisonment of Lebanese and Palestinian detainees, particularly in the notorious Khiam Prison (run by Israel’s proxy, the South Lebanon Army)

The documentary by Saab is significant because it captures this early phase of Israeli attacks on Lebanese villages, focusing on the destruction of civilian life rather than military engagements. She exposes not just the physical devastation but also the complicity of certain Lebanese factions (such as the Phalangists) in supporting Israel’s actions.

Is this genocide?: While the Lebanese war context involved multiple factions and complex alliances, certain Israeli actions — such as indiscriminate bombings, the blockade of southern Lebanon, and massacres — fit within the UN’s genocide framework, particularly regarding the deliberate targeting of civilian populations and forcing conditions that lead to their destruction.

So, yes, Saab’s documentary is essentially exposing an early chapter in what could be seen as a pattern of Zionist violence against civilian populations in the region — Lebanon then, Gaza now.

Impact of the Documentary: At the time, Saab’s film was one of the few documentaries challenging Western narratives, which often portrayed Israel purely as a “defensive force.” Though it did not change policy, it remains an important historical record that connects past Zionist military strategies to what we see today in Palestine.

WATCH THE SHORT FILM DOCUMENTARY BELOW:

link https://ok.ru/video/8149656734258

[curiousmindd1983]

What is a Scrum Project tool?

It is highly recommended that a Scrum Project Tool should be procured by the company to ensure distributed work, and also ensure that the Scrum Teams can work productively even when all Team Members cannot be collocated at the workplace. The tool should provide the capability to:

Define all Scrum roles efficiently and provide messaging/collaboration functionality for all team members to interact with each other.

Provide the ability to create and work through important Scrum artifacts such as Prioritized Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Scrumboard, etc.

Provide the workflow to work through different Scrum processes including Initiate, Planning, Implementing, Retrospect, and Release.

If it is being implemented inside a large organization/enterprise, the tool should provide the ability to scale to organization or enterprise levels.

Scrum teams need to attend multiple meetings such as Daily Standups, Sprint Review Meetings, etc — so the tool should provide the ability to schedule such meetings. However, the actual web meetings may be conducted in a separate Video Conferencing tool.

Effective Collocated Scrum teams talk with each other regularly — so the tool used for distributed Scrum teams should provide the ability for Scrum teams to chat with each other online — either one on one or through distributed groups. However, unlike a collocated team, team members need to understand that others may not be available to chat at the same time. So, the Scum tool should provide an online chat room and/or discussion forum.

Ability to capture lessons learnt and learn from retrospectives — preferably such processes should be automated with appropriate reports generated on the fly.

Provide automation so that templates and guidance through Scrum Guidance Body (SGB) are available to all Scrum teams in the company, for example, the definition of Done or the Definition of Ready as described in the SGB should be available to everyone in the project. Also, the tool should provide the SGB with the ability to determine Scrum behaviors it wants in its Scrum teams such as the maximum number of team members, duration of Sprint etc.

Provide the ability to clone from similar projects, Epics, and User Stories — that will allow Scrum team members to spend less time in unnecessary documentation and learn from experiences from similar work done earlier. This is especially beneficial when Scrum teams use similar implementation processes to create an identical category of products, for example, an advertising firm creating print advertisements for different clients; a construction firm creating drawings for similar road construction activities, etc.

It is important to note that if Scrum is implemented well in distributed teams by use of a proper Scrum Project Tool, it can provide significant benefits such as:

24/7 working — as teams working in different time zones can speed up the delivery of Scrum projects.

Automation of reports, chats, calendars, workflows etc.

Enforcing similar guidelines across the organization by automating SGB recommendations.

Decreasing unnecessary and repetitive documentation through cloning from similar projects, Epics, and User Stories.

Working with a more diverse team (at times working from different countries) who bring in their own local perspectives and experience.

Lesser logistical challenges as compared to ensuring that all people work from one location. Saving time and cost on expenses related to travel, expensive work locations, etc.

It is important in distributed teams to pay special attention to the Principles of Scrum to ensure that they are followed even in Distributed teams. Emphasis should be on the ability to work collaboratively and transparently in an environment of trust.

Vabro an AI powered SaaS platform to manage Scrum/Agile projects, DevOps and IT Ops

For more details please visit: www.vabro.com

Create your account today and try the Paid Plan free for 30 days.

[aikos-filibuster]

Big Data VS The Little Guys

or "Will decentralised networks become a bigger, more mainstream part of the Internet, thus emphasising crowdsourced content and information?"

Earlier this year, I became an admin for a Discord server, so I was expected to engage with its members. One person in the server stood out, he explained to me that he runs an online marketing firm in Chicago, then he said he wanted to show me something. He told me to search up a Wikipedia article, telling me to look at the image file at the top on the article. I looked at the user who uploaded that image file and I was surprised to find that it was he that created and uploaded that image onto Wikipedia, and it made sense because of his online marketing background. No one asked him to devote his time and effort to do that, but maybe out of a sense of innate duty or maybe he had time to spare, he decided to create that image which is now associated entirely with that topic. The Internet is a what it says on the tin, an interconnected network. Who could have guessed? The Internet consists of a functionally infinite number of points weaved together with hyperlinks and cross-references, forged from the combined effort of countless users who add on to the vast body of work that is the online experience. But who is responsible for it being like the way it is? It might seem contradictory to the title of this blog entry, but I want to suggest that the Internet in its modern recognisable form is the way it is today because of the success of decentralised networks in the past and present, which had always depended on crowdsourced content and information.

A Decentralised Interconnected Network?

In the advent of what really became the Internet occurred between the late 90s and early 2000s where we can observe the phenomenon of textboards where people would have discussions with other users, and blogs where users would write about any subject under the digital sun. This early unregulated “laissez-faire” approach to the growth of the Internet meant that individual communities and their users would be the ones churning out content with no fear of a central regulatory authority like we see today that could impose rules that today seem part and parcel of the Internet but would retrospectively seem almost draconian in nature. This was especially true after the Dot-Com Bubble burst in the early 2000s when created a massive evolutionary bottle neck in terms of the countless tech companies going bankrupt, where 52% of all internet-centred firms when bust when the stock market crashed. Imagine if today, half of the entire Internet just disappeared. The Dot-Com crash put many people off investing in anything related to the internet for many years and would only pick back up in the later 2000s with the rise of firms like Alphabet Incorporated, Amazon Incorporated, and Facebook Incorporated, now of course Meta Platforms Incorporated. In those dark years after the stock market crashed, it was up to the users online to fill in the vacuum that was left with a sort of Mad Max style approach where it was up for grabs due to the lack of any attempt to monopolise or centralise the web by corporations or governments. In the new algorithmic medium that is the Internet, collective intelligence and combined creative energy emerges bottom-up from the multitude of actual human knowledge, in this case, the Internet is built in a way that naturally facilitates decentralised networks growing and being an integral part of the Internet.

To conclude, the question of whether decentralised networks could a bigger force  and become a more mainstream part of the Internet is really a sort of nonquestion as decentralised networks is practically the backbone of the Internet. Going back to the story I told in the beginning, he was just someone with an idea and the means to put his thoughts into a reality. The Internet is a summation of the concept of the wisdom of the crowds, and the idea of crowdsourced content and information created by the users themselves is inherent to the spirit of the Internet. This interestingly enough makes the decentralised networks on the Internet ideally the closest things we can get to perfect democracies where it is the users who are in charge of the content they produce, who is allowed into their circles, and how they wish to present themselves to the greater ecosystem.

References

[bobaboard]

MORE 2023 BOBABOARD GOALS (aka, "part 2")

Read part 1.

Here's even more details on how we plan to make 2023 our most awesome year yet:

🚀Invite new collaborators to our community

BobaBoard would not exist without our amazing tech volunteers, and we are so grateful for their time, expertise, and boundless energy! ❤️ As discussed previously, it's incredible how the team came together this year!

This year, we're further expanding the tech team and onboarding even more collaborators. But beyond that, we're starting up a team of volunteer writers to document all we have created, and to finally keep you all as up to date as you deserve. Sign up here.

Another team we're recruting for is our (affectionately named) "Boba-Sitters Club", BobaBoard's resident group of expert fannish advisors, specializing in community management, engagement, and communication. You can read more info on their task and the group philosophy on the application form itself.

🚀Money money money!

For many reasons, we've set aside focusing on monetization until now. As we move forward, it's time to start really pushing for financial stability to allow our project lead (@essential-randomness) to continue hiring paid collaborators, and maybe even cover her rent one day! So this year we're working on getting her (and the team) more recurring revenue, effectively "hiring" her for the work she's been doing. You can find avenues of support here.

Currently, BobaBoard is entirely financed with Ms. Boba's hard-earned savings and freely-given expertise. While she'll keep focusing on this project and our extended goals full time in 2023, she will need (at some point) to actually earn an income again.

Regardless of how monetization efforts go this year, we're committed to tackling this project with flexibility, creativity, and resiliency in the long-term. It may be easier or harder, but, with the support of the community we're here to serve, we're sure we'll figure it out!

🚀Invest in tech education for fans

Empowering fandom folks to take control of their online spaces through concrete educational initiatives is important to us, and we’ll be working to do more of that this year. You can read about our current work in our 2022 Achievements roundup.

While the BobaBoard project is dedicated to create the tools fans need to build their communities in the way they want, we're also broadly dedicated to teach them how to collaborate directly on the software that empowers them to do so. Both matter!

So, quoting our retrospective, we believe that "investing in technical education for fannish people means investing in a future led by those who create innovative tools out of a love of sharing, and giving them a real seat at the table". You can read the full quote in the retrospective.

...and that is all for today! If you want all the deets on what we’re planning to help you (and the web) get weird, read our full 2022 Retrospective post here.

[brotheralyosha]

In the book, you recounted how the writer Susan Sontag was "cancelled" for a post-9/11 New Yorker essay in which she argued that the attacks were politically motivated as a reaction to US foreign policy — and that it wasn't because the terrorists "hated us for our freedoms." Why was that a significant moment in the immediate aftermath of 9/11?

The point of canceling Sontag was to make sure that others didn't rally to that cause. The point of canceling Sontag was making sure the connection between 9/11 and US foreign policy was considered a toxic, scandalous, victim-blaming thing to discuss. And it had the effect of really scaring people in the mainstream discourse away from making this really vital connection that the more the United States tries to violently dominate the Muslim world, the more a violent response is going to happen as a result.

That's not remotely the same thing as blaming the 3,000 Americans who Al-Qaeda murdered on 9/11. But cancelling Sontag collapsed that distinction, and removed it from respectable discourse. Once that is accomplished, without a historical or material analysis of what led to 9/11, the foreign policy response could proceed unimpeded down a very violent path.

As you note in the book, the rock band The Strokes — who were never bigger than right at the moment in 2001 — had to remove the song "New York City Cops" from their debut album because of the line "New York City Cops, they ain't too smart." And then there was Bush's press secretary Ari Fleischer's disturbingly cryptic comment that Americans "need to watch what they say." People talk a lot about how 9/11 was a moment of great tragedy that ultimately united us. That it was a good moment. But there was a real air of menace about what was or was not ok to say.

First off, I ride for "New York City Cops." That is the best Strokes song. I got an advance copy of the record while working at my college paper. I remember listening and saying, "This one's good. And this song is good. But this song is amazing." And that was "New York City Cops." And then when the record finally comes out, it's not there.

This was barely two years after the NYPD murder of Amadou Diallo with 41 shots in his own vestibule for holding up a wallet. Suddenly, you could not talk about that anymore. You couldn't portray people in uniform as anything but the most selfless of heroes. It was very conspicuous to me how that narrative was promulgated by the people who very likely have the least actual contact with people in uniform.

9/11 was a cancel culture, as we would understand it today. It was extremely censorious, especially in a way that fed into nativism, to sort out real Americans from conditional Americans. After 9/11, a still unknown number of Muslims, immigrants, people from majority Muslim countries, and people presumed to be Muslim from New York and New Jersey were shuffled into the Metropolitan Corrections Center in Sunset Park and effectively disappeared for long periods of time.

People had to flee their neighborhoods out of fear of deportation or fear of arrest. These were people who had come to America seeking not just safety, but seeking prosperity and seeking freedom. Basically, people who came to America seeking what America tells you it is on the package. And they learned quite quickly who the so-called national unity was directed against.

In the book, you recount in great detail the "Ground Zero Mosque" episode from 2010 — where bad faith actors shut down plans for a community center that wasn't a mosque and wasn't at Ground Zero. Why was it an important episode in War on Terror culture?

A critical aspect of this is that the War on Terror had been going terribly, particularly the Iraq War. And there was a cognitive dissonance on the nativist right, whereby its American exceptionalism was glitching over the fact that people that they considered little better than subhuman were able to frustrate the United States' grand military ambitions. Accordingly, [the right] went seeking enemies they could beat far closer to home.

And one of the ways they had always been successful since the start of the 9/11 era was to constrain the space for American Muslims to feel free and to meaningfully contribute to civic life. And nowhere did this crystallize more intensely than over this community center that these very bourgeois people tried to create in Manhattan. It was basically a Muslim version of the 92nd Street Y, which is a Jewish space in New York City, but its Jewishness is a background aspect of it compared to what it offers the intellectual life of the city.

It was the right and, we also have to confront it, 9/11 survivors and the relatives of those who perished. They had been so misled by the 9/11 era and by the political and journalistic discourse about who was truly responsible for 9/11. [It was depicted as] the equivalent of Mehmed the Conqueror transforming Hagia Sophia into a mosque after his conquest of Constantinople. They called this proposed community center a "victory mosque."

It was of course, no such thing. But the point wasn't to accurately reflect what this thing was. The point was an assertion of dominance and to constrain the space for Muslims to exist safely and freely in the United States. There was an intensity to the response, and it entirely intimidated all of the so-called liberal allies of the project in the city, from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the city council to mainstream Democratic politicians like Harry Reed — who was the Senate Democratic leader at the time and said that the mosque ought to move. He was aligned in that view with Donald Trump.

I've come to believe this was a moment that flipped a switch. In retrospect, I think that's where a Trump-like figure becomes inevitable.

[wildwoodgoddess]

Holmes At Girton--A Mini-fic of Miss Holmes' First Case, The Glorious Scot

(This is an ongoing series about the historical case for how canon Sherlock Holmes and John Watson could have been women. It is leading up to the launch of my new web novel series on Patreon, Ladies of Baker Street—a sapphic/wlw, Victorian women adaptation of Sherlock Holmes.

As usual, I’m using the hashtag #A Study In Victorian Women for this series, if you want to follow along. If this interests you, please follow me as well as comment on/like/share this post. Thanks!)

Continuing from my last post about how a woman Sherlock Holmes could have gotten a university education in the 1870’s, I thought I’d do something a little different this time.

As a welcome gift for my newsletter subscribers, I wrote a short novella that’s my version of The Gloria Scott, which is canon Sherlock Holmes’ first case. The original story is set when Holmes is a university student. During a holiday break from classes, he goes home with his friend Victor Trevor, and during his visit, he uncovers an uncomfortable mystery involving Victor’s father.

My version of this is The Glorious Scot, and today I’m sharing an excerpt from it with you all. It’s set during Sherlyn Holmes’ and Dr. Siân Watson’s early days together, after they’ve been living at 221B Baker Street about 2 months. They are in the middle of the case that I will be detailing in A Study in Garnet (via Patreon), and Watson has encouraged Holmes to take this other side case as a distraction from the main case. Holmes quickly solves the side case, but it brings up some bad memories for her. Watson wants to know what happened, and Holmes brings out a painting, The Glorious Scot, and tells Watson the story of it.

The excerpt begins after Holmes has shown Watson the painting, and it focuses on Holmes’ life at Girton and her first meeting of Victoria Trevor. It’s told from Watson’s point of view as she relays Holmes’ story to us. There is a brief section I cut for the sake of keeping the post a bit shorter. That is shown by […]. Hope you enjoy!

*****

“Did you know that I, too, attended university?” Holmes asked. Her lips twisted scornfully. “Or at least the milquetoast substitute offered to women in this country.”

The change of subject startled me. “I believe you may have mentioned it, yes.”

“I matriculated at Girton College in 1873.”

“Cambridge!” I sat forward, gripping the edge of the box holding the painting. “Now that is something you didn’t tell me before.”

“Not truly Cambridge, you know. I believe it is officially termed ‘a recognized institution for the higher education of women.’” She sneered. “’Cambridge’s unacknowledged bastard child’ would be a more accurate description. Girton students may now sit the Tripos examinations, but they are awarded no degrees and are not considered Cambridge students.”

I felt the bitter sting of it all in my own heart, but I summoned my most jovial tone. “Change is coming, Holmes. Look at the strides we’ve made just in the past twenty years!”

She wasn’t cheered. “Strides should not have to be made.” She leaned over her chair to reach for the coal scuttle where she—for reasons I could not fathom—kept a tin of chocolate-covered coffee beans. She opened the tin and offered me a bean. I took one, and she took three and then settled the tin on her lap. “Equality for women need not take time, except for the resistance of men.”

“Agreed.” A question came to me. “Why did you not go abroad for university? Zurich, as I did, or even America?”

Holmes grimaced. “Mycroft achieved senior wrangler at Cambridge, and at the time, it was my dearest wish to follow in his footsteps as nearly as was possible for me.”

The tightness in her voice reminded me that we were supposed to be discussing the reason for the breach between Holmes and her brother. “You were very close to him back then?”

She lifted one shoulder. “I’m not sure how close one can be to a brother who is seven years the elder. But Mycroft was generally kind to me, and I admired him far more than, on retrospect, I ought to have done. I foolishly created an ideal of him in my mind—a youthful mistake that I shall be careful never to replicate.”

Her words brought back memories of my own childhood adulation of my elder sisters; and for a moment, my throat tightened, and I could not reply.

“I passed the entrance examinations in 1872,” she continued, “but the college, which had originally been located in Hitchens, was nearing completion of larger and nicer facilities in Girton the following year. So Father convinced me to wait until 1873 to matriculate. There were fifteen of us in that class.”

“Were you reading for a Tripos?”

“Mathematics, of course,” she said. “Girton was quite adamant about that. But my real interest was chemistry, so I was also reading for the Natural Sciences Tripos.”

If Holmes had sat a Tripos exam, I would have heard of it. It was my understanding that there had been a few Girton students early on who sat the exams unofficially. […]

“You are wondering why I did not sit the exams.” Holmes’s voice was brittle, and she was uncharacteristically avoiding my gaze.

“They are known to be among the most grueling of endeavors, but you would have excelled—of that I am certain.”

“My excitement about attending university was boundless. But the reality was far more frustrating than I’d imagined. My fellow students were immensely clever, but most hadn’t had the necessary amount of education to allow them to keep pace with our male counterparts. And the lectures we had access to—both at Girton and at Cambridge—were disappointingly limited. I studied everything I could in math, Latin, Greek, and chemistry. But I felt terribly constrained.”

I could well understand her aggrievement. It had been the same for me both in medical school and in subsequent training. I had never felt as intellectually free as I had at Netley disguised as a man, and it was infuriating.

She ate another three chocolate-covered coffee beans and offered me the tin. I shook my head. Coffee beans were not a treat I could enjoy in abundance, but Holmes grazed on them like a horse on grass.

She wrapped her long, slim fingers around the tin and tapped it absently while she continued her tale. “It has always been difficult for me to remember that most people mistake impatience for arrogance. The other students thought my unhappiness with my studies revealed a disdain for my classmates—as if I believed myself superior to them because I wanted to proceed at a quicker pace. I found myself quite isolated by the end of my first year there.”

“I am sorry.”

Her mouth flattened into a self-deprecating frown. “The fault was my own. I’ve learned to be better at social graces—I can be quite charming, you know, when I determine to be so. But at the time, I was more interested in expressing my dissatisfaction than I was in cultivating friends.”

I had grown used to Holmes’s cutting insights into other people, but her capacity for ruthless self-assessment never failed to astonish me. “It’s difficult to accept the errors our younger selves made when they have such far-reaching consequences.”

“Indeed.” Her eyes fell on The Glorious Scot still in its box on my lap. “But you are wondering what this all has to do with that painting.”

“It may have crossed my mind,” I admitted.

She laughed a little. “Watson, you must feel free to set my story back on the rails if I have gone off. Don’t be delicate about it.”

I grinned. “Very well. Get on with it. What about the painting?”

“Well, you see, I did find one friend at Girton. She was the same year as I, but she was even less inclined toward friendships than I was, so we barely spoke that first year.”

“I thought you were wanting to be put back on the rails to talk about the painting.” I winked at her to show I was only jesting.

She arced an eyebrow. “Do try to have at least some patience and not ruin a story with constant interruption.” But her gray eyes twinkled.

“My most abject apologies. Please continue.”

With a triumphant look, she popped another coffee bean into her mouth. “I was out walking one morning, and I came across a woman’s backside protruding from under some bushes. She was murmuring something, and as it was a very elegant backside in danger of becoming snagged by the branches, I came closer to see if she was in need of assistance.”

“How chivalrous of you, Holmes,” I murmured, trying not to smile.

“I asked her if she was all right, and she replied, ‘I’m quite fine, thank you, but there’s an injured kitten tangled up in here.’

I thought it rather charming that she was so concerned about the kitten’s welfare, so I hunched down next to her. ‘May I help?’

‘Perhaps if you can go around to the other side of the hedge,’ came the response. ‘Some boys were tormenting it, and they tied sticks and other rubbish to its tail. Now the string is all snarled, and I’m worried the poor thing will injure itself further trying to claw free.’

So I circled around to the opposite side and peered under the hedge. Now I could hear the kitten mewling, and I saw the face that went with the backside. It was my classmate, Victoria Trevor.

When she saw me as well, she looked shocked. ‘Holmes! I didn’t think you cared much for animals.’

‘What an inaccurate assumption to make, from barely any evidence.’ I crawled further into the hedge. ‘I will hold it while you slip its tail free.’

‘I didn’t mean to be unkind,’ she said, now lying on her side while I reached for the kitten. ‘My apologies.’

‘I said nothing about unkind. Merely that your deduction was baseless.’

Once I was able to keep the kitten still, she quickly freed it from its tangles. We met again on the other side of the hedge, and I gave her the kitten.

‘Again, I apologize for my rudeness earlier. I appreciate your help.’

‘Think nothing of it,’ I assured her. ‘What will you do with that?’ I nodded at the kitten.

She held it close to her, and her eyes glowed with mischief. ‘Take it back to my room.’

‘And how will you hide the presence of a cat? It will need a box of sand, you know, as well as food and water. And it’s injured.’

‘It’s absurd that we aren’t allowed pets. Many of the Cambridge students keep animals.’

‘Well, I shan’t turn you in, of course, only it would be too bad if you’ve gone through all this trouble only to have someone put the cat out on the street again.’

‘I think there’s a sixty-three percent chance of getting away with it. I’ll accept the risk,’ she said.

I walked her back to her room and helped her smuggle in the kitten. And then I stayed, and we talked, and by the time I left, we were friends.”

“What became of the kitten?” I asked.

“She managed to keep it hidden for five days before it was discovered. By this time, though, she’d already convinced a woman in the village to take the kitten, with the promise that she could visit from time to time to play with it.”

“And now you had a friend,” I prompted her.

“Victoria was…” Holmes sighed, suddenly looking weary. “I don’t think ‘friend’ can fully capture it. We were inseparable. Obsessively so, really. I called her ‘Janie’—after her middle name, Jane. And she called me ‘Freddy’—a teasing reference to my Christian name, which, if you recall, is Winifred. There was a like-mindedness between us, as if we had known each other our entire lives and had just forgotten until that moment at the hedge.”

I shifted in my chair, my heart clenching for reasons I didn’t understand. “That must have been thrilling for you.”

******

If you want to read the full story, you can join my newsletter and download it from BookFunnel.

Next time, I’ll be posting about the “New Woman” movement and how Holmes and Watson would fit into it. Cheers!

[tentativelyteal]

So, does this mean that looking back to Season 1 timeline, it wasn't just the textual, in-universe dramatic irony ('but I don't count Martin as he's unlikely to contribute anything but delays' / 'Who are you?') that's endearing to us, but it is also endearingly ironic metatextually now - is that what's happening now?

(And the slowburn throughout Seaons 2 & 3 that's seasoned with obliviousness and yearning was a slowburn in the planning process too, nice nice, good to know)

And, if we want to push this further, since Jonny said he and/or RQ is the Web, most recently in today's extra -

Is this more confirmation that the characters actually have agency despite the Web's machinations, and occasionally even prompt the Web to change its plan? ::::) Like Annabelle says, 'Your bond is too complicated. I couldn't drive that kind of rift between you now.' ::::)

Yeah, sorry, basically I'm just once again taking every crumb and looking at them through the lens of JON AND MARTIN CHOSE EACH OTHER --

(I'll see myself out now, goodbye)

((Transcript text ID under the cut))

[TEXT ID:

Two screenshots taken from The Magnus Archives's extra episode, 'Retrospective: Crew's Qs with Jonny & Alex'

Screenshot 1 (highlights mine):

ALEX: You don’t want to read something that's ever been written by me solely. It’s always just vicious.

There is one disagreement we had. And I remember this conversation, and this is early Season 1, where it was the first time we ever discussed the feasibility of a Martin/John romance. And I distinctly remember your initial reaction being, ‘I don't know if there's much space for romance in this as a property.’

JONNY: I very much went into Season 1 being like, ‘Ah no, this is horror, there's no, like, I don’t think there's space for romance.’

I don't think it was actually John and Martin though. I think we were talking much more abstractly, because I remember there was a distinct moment, end of Season 2/ early Season 3 where we both have the moment of like. ‘John and Martin, actually? The dynamic. Do we lean into this?’

And we were both like, ‘Yeah, actually, that is, that's the move.’

Screenshot 2

JONNY: In my capacity as the Web, I haven't listened to a lot of it. I, I listened to it, to the first few Patron releases to make sure it was good and then I was like, ‘Brilliant. I trust Anil to absolutely nail this.’

END ID]

[artyphex]

Lets! Talk! About! The! Panopticon! 

But first lets talk about the Web and the end the world 

I was discussing theories with a friend after today’s episode and we were talking about the Web and Martin, and if Martin is truly being controlled. 

The answer? Possibly, but that really wasn’t the point, the point was that Martin is afraid of being controlled. 

“What does that have to do with anything?” you ask. Well what if Martin isn’t being controlled, but the fear that he is, that constant paranoia, is enough to satisfy the Web. What if the Web actually pulls no strings? It is only the idea of it, the idea that there is a puppeteer at the end of some invisible string pulling your every moment. But there doesn’t actually have to be, there could be no one on the end of that string, but that’s not the important part, the important part is Martin doesn’t know and that makes him afraid 

The fear of a thing and the thing itself are not inherently connected, one can exist without the other. For example, Martin is afraid of being controlled, but he is not afraid of spiders. The entities do not need the things they represent, they don’t need the dark, they don’t need clowns, they don’t need control, all they need is that thought, a seed of fear in the minds of everyone, and that is enough to make them exist. 

This brings us to the Panopticon 

The entire point of a panopticon prison is that the prisoners do not know whether or not they’re being watched. Their cells are built around the watchtower in the middle and they exist under the eye of the guards in the tower. But they cannot actually see the guards. They truly do not know if there are any guards in that tower. It is the fear of the ever present possibility of being watched that keeps them in line, not the watching itself. 

So

What if all of this, is only the illusion of power? The entities are real but that is less relevant than whether or not they actually do anything. It’s the avatars skinning people, burying them alive, trapping them in endless falls, not the entities themselves

I’m afraid of the spider on my wall but it hasn’t actually touched me, and retrospectively I know it can’t hurt me. I’m a hundred times its size and far more of a danger to it. But that doesn’t matter, it doesn’t need to be able to hurt me, I’m still afraid of the idea that the spider could touch me, could hurt me. Just like the guards in that tower. 

If you could break that, if you could prove that there are no guards in the tower, then the prisoners are free 

[kirkfan2255]

I listen to Red Web at work and to say that I was ecstatic that today’s episode was on Bigfoot was.....an understatement. I LOVED this episode! It was SO funny at points, like I was dying of laughter. And as soon as I finished the ep, I wanted to listen to it again (I’m doing it right now actually). But I also am a bit of a Bigfoot nerd and I have Thoughts:tm: (under the cut for length)

So I think my biggest takeaway about supernatural/paranormal/cryptids in general was echoed by Trevor at the end of the ep: we/I want to believe, and sometimes we take facts in retrospect to make it fit. Which isn’t a bad thing! That’s how anthropology in general sometimes has to work, where you look at history, at the pieces left behind, to paint a picture of what was occurring in a specific place. But it can also mean that your confirmation bias comes out, which they discussed near the end of the Gigantopithecus theory. I personally want to believe; but I also think that there’s a lot of bias in Bigfoot research. And I think that’s down to the larger scientific community not looking into it more.

So my general thoughts are: if Bigfoot is real, we do need to discover evidence. If they are burying their dead, where are these burial sites? Can we go to where known Bigfoot sightings have occurred (as they did with the location of the Patterson-Gimlin film after it was shot) and look for clues of where the creature came from and where it was going? Would we find sites there? I think for all that we have explored all of the land and know it fairly well, there’s also still large swaths of land that still haven’t been taken with a fine-tooth comb.

Speaking from a geographer’s viewpoint, our satellite imagery and aerial photography has come a very, very long way, but you still only get to a certain resolution before it just can’t pick up all those fine details. And believe me when I say that you still don’t pick up people unless you’re VERY close. Animals can hide just as well, so who’s to say Bigfoot can’t evade it as well?

As for a few specific things:

One of the things about Bob Heironimus, who was the man purported to be in the suit during the filming of the Patterson-Gimlin film, is that he did a very, very convincing mimic of the walk in the film. But you can’t fake your knees. Heironimus was several inches shorter than the creature in the film was estimated to be (just over a foot shorter, about 14 inches), and based on where the creature’s legs are and where it bends, you can’t have a man in a suit with Heironimus’ proportions look realistic. And the PGF has never been fully debunked! There’s a TON of different filmmakers who have examined it, some debunking and some believing, but NONE of them can explain every single detail.

If you want to learn more about the PGF and all the efforts that have gone in to debunking it, I would love to direct your attention to Astonishing Legends; they did an amazing, super detailed, extremely in-depth analysis of the PGF, to the point where it is 6 parts at about 3 hours each. They’re all worth the listen, but especially parts 1, 3, and 6, which are the introduction, the talk about the hoax claims and costuming, and their conclusions and an interview with Bob Gimlin, currently the only surviving direct witness to the event.

The other thing is about the bears theory. I live in Wisconsin, and have worked with the DNR. We have bears, and I know how bears tend to function. I find it HIGHLY skeptical that everyone is seeing bears. If you’ve never seen a bear, they tend to be on four legs most of the time. They can stand up on their hind legs and even walk to a certain extent, but not to the point where you’d confuse them with an ape-like creature. You’d also have to have a very, very well-trained bear that can last on its hind legs that long *and* move as fast as Bigfoot is said to. I just really don’t believe that a bear can do that. Beyond that, their front legs are shorter, and while I could see bear skids in mud looking like Bigfoot tracks, bear prints have visible claw marks, just as you do with dogs, because they don’t have retractable claws. As far as I am aware, no Bigfoot track has ever been cast with claw prints.

Bears, especially the more prominent black bears that live in the lower United States, don’t generally tend to confront humans. This is definitely in line with reported Bigfoot behavior; when they encounter a person, they tend to leave instead of engage. Though, I should also note that grizzly bears, which stay much more in Canada and Alaska than the Pacific Northwest, are more aggressive than black bears, and are more likely to charge at you when encountered. But bears don’t throw rocks, which is a reported Bigfoot phenomena, and if they’re going to run or charge you? They’re getting down on all fours. You’re not going to watch a bear walk off on its hind legs.

Also the ‘Bigfoot is an alien’ theory is my FAVORITE Bigfoot theory (even if I don’t believe it’s true) and you can pry that from my cold dead hands.

[benlaksana]

Coming Home

If there is one constant emotional response that my mind and body has conjured since coming back to Indonesia, it is anger. The reasons are plentiful. Chronic social and economic injustice, growing government oppression, sheer incompetency of many government officials, religious conservatism, as the proverbial saying goes, the list goes on.

And now with the coronavirus devastatingly consuming Indonesia and my government’s response has not only been weak and slow, lacking in coordination, but also simply at many times blatantly incompetent, anti-science and anti-expertise, resulting in the deaths of many including doctors and nurses, and with no full lockdowns initiated, no mass testing, just some half-baked government encouragement to physical distancing and good hygiene. I’ve observed that this time not only am I consumed with fervent anger but at many times deep sadness and crippling fear. An unholy trinity. In the name of anger, sadness and lingering fear.

Here’s some trivia and personal info for you folks. Did you know that Tuberculosis (TB) usually leaves scars on lungs it once infected and even though it’s been decades since my bout with TB, my lungs today, as you might expect, are not in tip-top shape. So that’s my pre-existing condition that at times, at many times, throws me into a panic and into a sudden cleaning spree. Wipe here, wipe there, disinfect door knobs, drowning recently handled money in warm soapy water. Irrational fear? On the contrary my beautiful friends. Indonesia has one of the highest Covid death rates in the world and with Covid patients on the rise but not at its peak, our already sparse healthcare system is already showing its cracks. Again, just to remind you, Indonesia is not even near the peak and we’re not even doing massive tests but everything is already hanging on a thread. Adding to this misery, the lack of some kind of social safety net has this climate of dread creeping up on me, this I acknowledge and I am trying as much as I can in keeping this at bay. Dread induced paralysis is not something I can to endure at the moment.  

That’s some personal (slightly existential) rant right there.

But I understand that I’m lucky and painfully privileged to be able to work from home unlike so many others. So since at this moment my productivity rate is reaching zero and I’m basically pushing away work and other responsibilities as much as I can (which will probably come back and haunt me soon), let me just first reflect on life at the moment, updates on other things aside from this feeling of impending doom.

I’ve realized that I do not update this blog of mine as often as I would like to. Desires are kept as desires, and slowly wither away as desires. Yet as 2020 dawned on me and ages with uncertainty I spent my time re-reading old books that I have read many years ago and some of my old blog posts as well. Beginning with my first blog post which is now the ripe old age of 10 years old. One decade old. With the breakneck speed of change of today’s internet, 10 years is perhaps close to immortality in internet years. That being said, I still use Hotmail for my main email which I’ve had since 1998, the year I was introduced to the internet...and politics.

It was 13th of May 1998. I was at home with my dad as schools and offices were closed. The day before that soldiers opened fire at a student demonstration in front the University of Trisakti, Jakarta. Four students were killed, riots and demonstrations were happening everywhere the following day. So most people decided to stay home.

I remember my dad narrating the 1998 May protests as we attentively watched the event unravel through our old school CRT TV. My dad was thankfully percipient enough to refuse to go to his office during that week, but he did have friends in high places so it wasn’t much of a surprise if he received some kind of insiders info. I was about 12 years young at that time, on the cusp of teen hood. Puberty was on my mind, but that moment of watching a historical event unfold (which of course I did not understand it as something momentous) with my dad explaining with excitement of what was going on, even though I sure as hell did not understand the most of it, was illuminating. A father and son bonding session as result of reformasi. That sounded like a thesis topic: Family Relations and Social Change: Exploring Familial Relations through the 1998 Reformasi. (Hah!)

It did however shape my values and ideas that I still hold on to this day not only on politics per se but what I wanted or expected from this thing called the nation-state. I have to say that the May 1998 riots and demonstrations, the visualization of the riots on TV and my dad narrating in the background constantly interrupting the reporter, was the reason why I remember that day so clear. It made an indelible mark on me. I can’t even begin to imagine the impact to those who were physically effected by the riots, houses and stores burned down, people being raped and/or murdered..

About a week after the riots, on the 21st of May 1998 President Soeharto resigned after 32 years in power. I saw my dad cheering, again not fully grasping the reasons why, although he did try his best to explain. But it piqued my interest in politics, and being told that this this new thing (really new for me at that time) called the internet had much to offer about what was happening then, a few weeks after that, using my mom’s 36.6 kbps dial-up modem that I was awfully proud of, I registered for a shiny new Hotmail account. In hopes of joining mailing lists.

Wasantara-net, owned by Indonesia’s postal service, was my family’s choice for the internet service provider. I hated them as they were first-class in unreliability, but they were the only providers to be able to connect my house, on the edge of bogor, to the world wide web. My first few emails, if again I remember correctly, were chain mails about the May riots that I subscribed through questionable mIRC chats. Chats that start with A/S/L, age, sex, location, and either ends in hook ups, or being involved in something you’re too young or ignorant to fully understand.

Being young(er) and wanting to be part of something important is such a motivating factor in us actually doing and becoming something. With Carl Gustav Jung in mind, being young or old, we are but “modern man in search of meaning” and being part of something greater than ourselves does still give me meaning.

Fast forward a few decades, I’ve noticed that you get a raised eyebrow when you tell people that you’ve been using the same email for more than 20 years now, and you get double raised eyebrows and an instance of wincing, once they find out that said email is a Hotmail account. I am coming up with less and less excuses of why I haven’t migrated fully to other emails. But hey, you know what they say, habit brings comfort, repetition brings comfort, knowledge that arises from experience, from personal history, brings comfort. Although not always, the past brings comfort, while the future which is riddled with unpredictability is lamented and brings worry if not angst. Comfort though, I have come to understand, brings laziness and at many times dullness.

It is however always interesting looking at one’s own past and how it is intertwined with the past of others. I think I’ve written about this a number of times, and most of my writings are born from the act of retrospect. I often assume that I would not be able to talk about my future if I never look at my past, but what also happens is that I also end up talking more about my past or at the very most my present rather than talking/thinking about my future. Is that bad? Is that good? Am I shying away from discussions about my particular future? Maybe, I don’t have an answer to that now. But I know it’s there, tucked away in the back of my mind so I’ll probably talk more about that someday. And with Covid-19 destroying all of my plans in the near future that someday will probably come sooner.

Coming home to Indonesia, after a number of years abroad, I have also come to realize, sadly, that many of my social activities here in this space which I reluctantly call home, are more often than not, performative acts that I do not like performing for. I am basically faking it and I am doing this by fulfilling a cultural and social role that I necessarily do not have strong feelings for, or even just feelings for, but I have adapted myself into it. Somewhat. The reason why I do this is simply out of respect of others. Things that do not give meaning for me, has often been deeply meaningful for others and expressing it verbally does not bode well for maintaining relationships. I am happy to say that I have Rara to remind me when I have become too logical (I am happy to say that I have Rara to remind about many things in life) in understanding the meaning of culture for many. But it is, simply put, not without its personal struggles.

Being a son, being a son-in-law, being a younger and the youngest child in a family oriented, confuscianist-style, hierarchical, the-individual-is-constantly-attached-to-the-social kind of society. And then being a husband in a patriarchal society, where I am expected to fill a kind of leadership role that tires, bores and disinterests me.

(On a side note: for some reason, I have often come across this odd discussion of alpha/beta male/female amongst my peers here. Which I find interesting as it denotes a fixation to hierarchy and also the assumption of fixed temperaments/personalities of an individual across space and time. Are they basically saying that agency of one’s self perceived to be rarely possible? Is change and adapting to a situation impossible? )

Then without doubt as a citizen of a nation that I superficially identify with. How can I ever identify with a nation that happily and openly oppresses others for the sake of unity? And not only rarely admits it but even more rare tries to amend it. It is a simple rhetorical question.

In sum, I have to be honest with myself here, coming back home to Indonesia is not home for me and I don’t think it will ever be one. It is more of a burden than something that brings joy.

The food is great here and I have my family here which is also nice but life of course is much, much more than just culinary preferences or familial ties. I am losing my sense of self here, and it is destructive for me. I am losing myself.

Fully realizing this I was looking for a sense of direction when I reread some of my old already read books that once inspired and also my old blog posts these past few weeks. At the crux of it, this blog has always been for me. It is shared publicly in hopes of others sharing what they have learned through life and what I have done wrong in my life. And I have done many wrongs that have not been righted, some no longer even have the possibility of being righted.

Rereading my blog, I realize much like others, that our attempts in finding meaning, and our meanings when they are found are frail and delicate. It is constantly assailed and it is easily lost, and at times harder to find when lost. Life it seems always tries its best to rob you of meaning. Not because it is intent in doing so, but because the very nature of life is in its impermanence. Everything is impermanent including meaning itself.

Intellectually and experientially I understand this. But again like many, I’ve still tried to find meaning in others, and much like many I’ve lost these people in which I have found meaning in. This is the constant dillema as naturally social creatures.

It is perhaps in our nature to be contradictory, or to live in denial, to assume that meaning and the people or objects that give meaning is eternal.

Some of these people that I have acquired meaning from I have forever lost through death, much like so many people out there. I have also lost some rather unintentionally, such as due to spoken words that are not carefully thought out. Some by design, on purpose, with deep intent and thoroughly planned with precision execution, slowly letting go. At other times, a harsh break, a rude awakening on both ends, yet ending in a sigh of relief. As some relationships, although lush with wonderful memories, are never meant to last and can never be let to live in the future. Memories that remain as memories, stories of the past, that do not become worries of the present nor burdens of the future. Our understanding of meaning is often forced to change and to morph and at many times, to end. People and things that once provided meaning no longer do, as people and the things around us change. People including me.

I’ve changed, I know I’ve changed, I’m quieter yet more angry of the world, hopefully a bit more thoughtful of my words and actions. But one thing that hasn’t changed is how I am not done with grief, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be done with it. I’m not even sure if it’s actually grief. Because we all know that the tragedy of growing old, is the tragedy of unwillingly filling your life with regrets and maybe my grief is but a thin veil for my regrets.

One of my plants in my garden died today. A lush rosella bush that I was hoping to make some tea out of its beautiful red flowers. The days are drawing long, and hope is few and far in between.

Be well everyone.

[lucaskuanlu]

Assignment 1 Brief: Module Journal and Book Review: Blog

Entry 1: Film Genre

Grant, B.K., 2007. Film genre: From iconography to ideology (Vol. 33). Wallflower Press.

Barry Keith Grant’s Film genre: From iconography to ideology is a book that seeks to elaborate on concept of genre and why it is important in contemporary cinema. Precisely, has delved into the definition of what film genre is and has done this by drawing examples and case studies from different parts of the world. The particular attention that he has placed emphasis on is western films and in particular Hollywood. Barry, as seen in the introductory chapter of his book has explained that film genre refers to a thematic categorization of film. Using the example of film noir, the author has explained that the films that are considered under this genre have the same general themes that include but not limited to cynicism and cynical heroes, elaborate lighting effects and the idea that crime is an idea that the society today benefits from –as it is a way through which peace and justice are secured.

Chapter 3 of the book is about genre and authorship wherein the author invites the idea that the film author, mostly producer, imbues the film with their ideas and belief. Perhaps, this explains why films that are authored by the same person happen to fall within the same genre.  This book has delved into key issues on film genre and underpin the ideas that have been discussed in the module. Specifically, the issues discussed by Barry align with the discussions on film genre as a whole and adds value to what has been learned.

Ekinci, B.T. 2020, ""Youtuber Movies" From New Media to the Cinema", CINEJ Cinema Journal, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 94-118.

The author of this article has made three main arguments which are all aligned towards the concept of film genre. The author has firstly indicated that as a result of the emergence of new media, old tropes of film and film genres as a whole are being replaced or rearranged. Technology has presented platforms such as YouTube where any user can be able to produce their own film clips and content. The second has also written that the emergence of the internet and computer technology has led to an almost complete overhaul of culture as people are influenced by and influence each other through the internet. Thirdly, with digitalization, the control that the media and film industry had on the audience has diminished. However, the film industry can benefit from these developments as new genres can be developed out of these social cultural shifts.

In the details of the article that author has written that there is a close relationship that is being formed between the traditional media and the new media and the these has created mutual benefits between the film producers and audiences. What this article has highlighted is that in order for a full reconciliation of the traditional and new media to be realised, film genre criticisms are unavoidable. After all, these two media place the old school film industry against an energized and empowered young generation. The common feature that this article has with the Barry Keith Grant book is that they both address the concept of film genre. Further to this, both resources acknowledge that there are changes that are taking place fat in the film industry and this is contesting the status quo of the existing genres. From the lens of film noir, each of the two authors admit that with the changes that have emerged especially in the latter part of the 20th century and the 21st, a new age film nor is inevitable.

References

Grant, B.K., 2007. Film genre: From iconography to ideology (Vol. 33). Wallflower Press.

Ekinci, B.T. 2020, ""Youtuber Movies" From New Media to the Cinema", CINEJ Cinema Journal, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 94-118.

 Entry II: Classic Film Noir

The details of the book by Kaplan Women in film noir is testament of the changes that swept across the film industry after the advent of film noir. The author has emphasized that there was an evident role change for women in film when this style/ genre emerged. There is an evident conflict in the role that women should play in an evidently patriarchal society. In film noir, the family and its relationship are the focal point of representations in film. Kaplan has written that film noir illuminated the struggles that existed between men and women in a patriarchal society of the early to mid-20th century. Another issue that is brought out in the Kaplan book is the ordering of sexuality and the patriarchal right especially for men. While men in society are drawn to the sexuality of their female counterparts in society and outside of the family, they are at the same time endevour to emphasize that their masculinity accords them their patriarchal rights. Kaplan notes that there is an evident contradiction in society as depicted in film noir. This contradiction is evidenced in the film Piccadilly (1929) where there is an attempt to resign the female characters Shosho and Mabel to their patriarchal defined roles yet the society, as depicted in film, desires the new found social position where they act and play roles in the public. The latter is in reference to the fact that these two worked in a local restaurant as dancers and performers. Although there are romantic conflicts that emerge between the women characters in the film; Shosho and Mabel, as they fight for the attention of the male protagonist figures, there is an evidently complex depiction of women and their roles. In this case in particular, these women endevour to keep their relationships and families in order yet they are embroiled in their public role in society.

The arguments that are presented by Kaplan highlight important issues in the history of film noir. They especially emphasize how the role of women as subordinate to their male counterparts changed and how this films elevated their roles as objects of the male gaze and desire on the one hand the position in introducing the themes of sexuality and romance. In truth, while film noir caused major shifts in the way patriarchy and role of women were represented and perceived, it was especially important that at this point, women were elevated and could take leading roles in films. Biesen and Chinen (2005) have written a full book on the history of film noir. While the reference of this style cum genre of fil is analyzed retrospectively, the two authors have stated that it is/ was characterized by features such as pessimism, cynicism and death and this often took place in the streets where crime was rife. The origin of film noir is traced in the 1940s and 50s after the second world war and a decade after the Great Depression.  Majorly, the classical film noir films were centered on c rime, detective themes and thriller.

References

Biesen, S.C. and Chinen, S., 2005. Blackout: World War II and the origins of film noir. JHU Press.

Kaplan, E.A. ed., 2019. Women in film noir. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Entry III: Women in Film Noir

The film Laura (1944) has all the hallmarks of a film noir. This is especially so considering that there are numerous female characters who have taken central roles in the film. In fact, the title of the film is indicative of this fact as it is a detective film investigating the death of Laura Hunt, an advertising executive. The detective assigned the task to unmask who Laura’s killer is transported into a web of lies with key suspects being Shelby Carpenter, Laura’s boyfriend and Lydecker, a columnist who mentored Laura. Laura (1944) was told in an interesting narrative way with the plot being the key. Given that the film is styled around film noir, the adventures and thrill of the investigations and the events following the discovery that Lydecker was the killer is what was emphasized on. The narrative, to put it in a few words, is rather complex and twisted making the audience unsure who the eventual antagonist will end up being and, equally important, who will end up being Laura’s lover.

Falling in line with the typologies of female characters in film noir, the characters of Laura and Diane Redfern are accorded the feme fatal characters. On face value, they appear innocent and devoid of any possible harm to anyone. However, as the detective discloses later into the film, they are conniving characters who use their mind, wit and bodies to achieve their cynical objectives. Naremore (2008) has noted that women in film noir play an important yet interesting role that, arguably, was absent in the classical films of other genres. The idea of a feme fatale and good girl next door as the formations of female characters changed the way the male protagonist act and are represented. For the most part and as is depicted in Laura (1944), the two types of women are completely different with the feme fatal seeking to serve her cynical goals while her good girl next door counterpart seeks to do that which is right at all time. For the most part, Naremore (2008), the male protagonist is drawn to the feme fatale owing to her extra ordinary beauty, courage and independence of mind.

On her part, Kaplan holds the view that while film noir has shifted focus away from male characters towards women, there is a conflict that emerged and has to do with the representation of a women as either a family maker or one set out to serve the interest of the society. To this end, Kaplan is fast to clarify that film noir did not always depict women as an object of the male gaze or desire but often added to the complexity of having a female protagonist and characters in crime and thriller films.

References

Kaplan, E.A. ed., 2019. Women in film noir. Bloomsbury Publishing

Naremore, J., 2008. More than night: Film noir in its contexts. Univ of California Press.

   Entry IV: E-Book Review of a book on Film Noir

The book that has been selected for review in this section is one that looks at the concept of film genre alongside another related aspect especially in contemporary film, science fiction. Titled Tech-noir: The fusion of science fiction and film noir this book seeks to draw a relationship between film noir and science fiction. This resource is an edited collection wit the first publication dating back in 2008 and has since had a couple of editions. There are two broad ways in which this book relates to the module. Firstly, the book has detailed an analysis of the history of film noir placing its origin to German Expressionist film which has already been discussed in class. A parallel has then been drawn between the developments and changes that have taken place in film noir and science fiction. In the introductory chapters of the book the author has argued using facts that film noir is not a style but rather a genre as it has all the hallmarks of a film genre including style, themes and unique narrative elements.  

The primary argument that this book has presented is that there is a close relationship that has always existed between film noir and science fiction. In elaborating this claim, the author has written that each of these two elements cannot exist independent of each other. For one, the author claims, film noir was in part influenced by the social changes that were taking place in society such as war, the Great Depression and scientific developments. Arguably, n a majority of the film noirs in Hollywood and beyond, and where the hallmark elements of cynicism, mystery, crime and surrealism are present, aspects of high tech and science fiction are ever present. In chapters four and six for instance, it has been demonstrated that through the global occurrences such as the atomic bomb development and detonation, the World War II, cinema has been influenced in quite a handful of ways.

The approach of the book and the details that it has offered has shed a few important highlights on the areas of film noir and film genre. For instance, the book has insisted that film noir is classified as a genre because it comprises films that have comparable themes, films that have comparable narrative elements such as the style of narration and aesthetic approaches that are unique. The fact that makes the book original is that it is the first of its kind to delve into the research of a particular genre of film, film noir in this case, and to make a one on one relationship assessment with science fiction. Another aspect that has been highlighted by the film is that there is no one film genre or feature of cinema for that matter that operates independently in a closed circle. There are factors that are beyond film that impact the way these genres develop and advance. Suffice to say, the fact that the author has widely consulted from other books makes this work even more valuable. What is more, there are a handful of case studies of film noir films that are based on science fiction that have been dissected in great details. These include The Matrix, Blade Runner and The Terminator. This, to say the least, adds credibility to the contents of the book.

Although the author chose a unique area of study making the work contained in the book original, there are other research studies that have been done that tried to make connections and links between a genre of film and an aspect of technology. Therefore, this in itself in a way validates the approach that has been taken by the Meehan. The strong point of this book is that it is the crystallization of an ongoing debate on the influence of film noir on other aspects other than film. These influences include culture and fashion. Meeehan (2015) has noted that the intersection of science fiction and film noir has had noticeable influences on contemporary fashion and sub-cultures. One area of weakness identified in the book is that the author has chosen to work with a very wide theme. Science fiction and film noir are by their own rights very broad areas of study and the author could have narrowed down the focus further down. Arguably, the audience that is targeted by this book are researchers and scholars in the fields of cinema and technology. The book is also resourceful to people seeking to understand the history of film especially on genres that are not broadly covered such as horror, romance and teen films.

Reference

Meehan, P., 2015. Tech-noir: The fusion of science fiction and film noir. McFarland.

[marvelmando]

tempest [p.parker x o.c.] - four

notes: hi, i just wanted to post tonight, in honor of far from home being released online :)

contains: some swearing

pairing: peter parker + fem! o.c.

word count: 3.6k

previous chapter next chapter tempest masterlist

MARIN'S FIRST DAY OF HIGH SCHOOL WAS REMARKABLY UNEVENTFUL. Thanks to the influences of Tony Stark, Marin's schedule was created to be identical to Peter's, which made discussing the events of the previous night much easier.

Their last class of the day—woodshop—seemed fun in retrospect, but the teacher was grumpy and inattentive, only stopping his crosswords to holler: "keep your fingers clear of the blades!" when Peter knocked the Chitauri energy core from the casing with an echoing clang.

"I don't really think that hitting an alien weapon with a regular-ass hammer is such a good idea, Peter." Marin flinched as the energy core toppled across the surface of the bench. "We don't even know what damage it's capable of causing."

"Well, that's why we need to find out exactly what it is, and who the hell is making them." He reasoned, poking at the glowing device.

"We can go to the labs after class and run some tests," Ned offered, and Peter nodded, joining him in an elaborate handshake in response, not even looking up from the weapon's casing.

Marin pinched the bridge of her nose. "Nerds."

+++

While Peter and Ned went off to run tests on the energy core, Marin found Michelle, Flash, and Liz studying in the library.

They were talking amongst themselves as Marin approached the circular table. Liz was the first to notice Marin standing there. "Oh, hey! Marin, right? Peter's friend from the party?" She chirped, and Flash narrowed his eyes at her curiously. "I didn't know you go to Midtown?"

"I, uh, just got transferred today." Marin responded, shifting on her feet awkwardly. "I was wondering if I could join the Academic Decathlon? If you have a spot—Peter was telling me about it when I said I was coming here, and that he couldn't make it to Nationals because of the internship."

"Aren't you in that, too?" Michelle crossed her arms, leaning back casually in her seat.

"Uh, well, yeah, but I work in a... different section than Peter... much less demanding, I guess." Marin's throat constricted around the lie.

The three studied her for a moment, and Liz was the first one to speak up. Marin wondered if she was first for everything. "Have a seat, we'll quiz you a bit."

Marin nodded and took the empty seat across from them. Liz pulled out a thick stack of flashcards, shuffling through them. "What's your best subject?"

"Um, science, I guess? Like, physics or whatever." Marin supplied, causing Liz to nod enthusiastically and Michelle to smirk at Flash.

"That's perfect," Liz smiled. "Peter was our best physics guy, and now that he's gone..."

"We're stuck with Flash. And Flash is shit as physics." Michelle's smirk was malicious but joking.

Flash frowned. "Hey, I resent that."

"Doesn't make it untrue."

Liz cleared her throat, interrupting the bickering. Her eyes locked onto Marin's. "What is the net upward force on an object by a fluid that the object is submerged in?"

"Buoyant force." Marin answered easily, thankful that there were fluid dynamics questions included. Liz nodded and switched cards.

"What theory states that two objects that are in thermal equilibrium with a third object are also in thermal equilibrium with each other?"

"Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics."

"Who isolated the DNA crystal to produce the first image of genetic material?"

Flash answered before Marin could: "Ooh! Watson and Crick." Liz leveled him with a glare and was about to scold him when Marin did it for her.

"Actually, it was Rosalind Franklin; she died of ovarian cancer before she could receive the Nobel Prize that Watson, Crick, and Wilson took four years later for their work, which was in fact heavily reliant on her research." Marin corrected with a small smirk, watching as Flash deflated in his seat. "Nobel Prizes are never given out posthumously, but even if she was alive, her work probably would have still been overlooked, because it was Watson and Crick who named the structure of DNA—and obviously because she was a female scientist in the 1950s."

Marin noticed the subtle but proud smile on Michelle's face, and a wave of triumph flushed through her system. Liz also looked impressed, while Flash looked a bit put-out.

When they didn't respond, still looking at her when curiosity, Marin rushed to explain, "My previous guardians were very enthusiastic about education. I just excelled in physics. And chemistry. And biology."

A smile erupted on Liz's face. "Welcome to the team, Marin! I'll obviously have to discuss this with Mr. Harrington, but I'm sure he'll be fine with it. We'll also have to see if there's an extra jacket for you for Nationals—which is on the fourteenth, but we're leaving for D.C. tomorrow, on the thirteenth." Liz leaned to reach into her backpack and pulled out a packet of paper. "Here's the paperwork, you just have to get it signed by a parent or guardian. It tells you the times we're leaving and includes an itinerary for the two days we'll be in D.C. It's all a little bit last notice, but you seem really intelligent and determined, and there will be plenty of time to practice on the bus ride there."

Marin nodded as she took the packet, wondering who the hell she'd get the signature from. Maybe she'd forge it.

"We look forward to having you on the team, Marin!" Liz concluded, and Michelle tilted her head once in agreement, and Flash just muttered something under his breath and crossed his arms.

Marin gave them a genuine smile in return. "And I look forward to being there."

+++

"You what?" Marin urged at Peter and Ned.

"Yeah! So, apparently, the suit also comes with these cute little tracker bugs—"

"Arachnids," Peter corrected Ned vehemently.

"—And we put one on one of the bad guys, and we're just waiting to see where they're going!"

Marin paced Peter's room. "Okay, okay," she muttered to herself. "And how are we supposed to figure where they are?"

Ned pulled out Peter's web shooter, and pressed a button. A small hologram appeared with a chirp, the dome shape depicting a translucent image of the cutout of a city block.

"They're in Brooklyn right now," Peter informed. "But they're still moving, so we're just waiting to see where they stop."

So, they waited. As conversation dwindled between the three, Marin began tinkering with some of the devices sitting around Peter's room while he and Ned snacked on Doritos. Later, as the sun began to set, Peter showed her how he refilled the vials with his stash of web fluid. He even let her try shooting a couple of webs, and she only knocked down a couple of books and a lamp. At one point, Ned was able to convince Peter to let him wear the Spider-Man mask, as he and Marin discussed her powers. She managed to avoid any questions about how she got her powers, and thankfully, Ned was tactful enough to not push the subject (even if Peter did stare suspiciously in Marin's direction as she clearly evaded the truth).

It was pitch-black outside by the time the wrist device let out a series of shrill beeps. Ned sat up from where he reclined on the lower bunk, still wearing the mask. Marin set down the other web shooter she'd been fooling around with, coming to sit next to Ned. "They stopped," Ned announced, and Peter flopped his head down from where he sat casually on the ceiling.

Marin eyed the hologram, unfamiliar with the layout of the city displayed. "Huh, Maryland." Peter harrumphed.

Marin creased her eyebrows. "What's in Maryland?"

Peter chuckled sarcastically. "I don't know. Evil lair?"

"They have a lair?" Ned tilted his head.

"Dude. A gang with alien guns run by a guy with wings? Yeah, they have a lair." Peter said as if it were the most obvious thing.

Ned, of course, nodded along enthusiastically. "Badass," he surmised. "But... how are you gonna get there if it's like, three-hundred miles away?"

Simultaneously, they turned their heads to the Academic Decathlon poster hanging on the desk's shelving unit. "It's not too far from D.C." Peter said.

"But what about Marin?" Ned asked, and Marin perked, pleasantly surprised that he suggested that she was now a part of their little team.

"About that..." the two boys turned to face her. "I've gotta tell you guys something..."

+++

"Hey, it's Peter!" One kid announced as they ran up to the bus, where the Decathlon team was waiting, all in ugly, mustard-yellow blazers with the school insignia stitched on the breast pocket. "And the new girl!"

"Guys," Peter greeted, jogging up to stop in front of a surprised Liz. "Yeah, I was hoping maybe I could rejoin the team." His voice was airy and high-pitched, something Marin had come to recognize as a sign of him growing anxious.

"No—no way," Flash contested, elbowing his way to the front of the crowd. "We already had to put Marin on the team," Marin gave him a dirty look. "And besides, you can't just quit on us, stroll up, and be welcomed back by everyone."

At that moment, Mr. Harrington descended the steps of the bus, and said: "Hey, welcome back, Peter! And welcome to the team, Marin, I've heard great things about you." Flash scowled at the teacher. "Flash, you're back to first alternate."

"What?!"

"He's taking your place," the kid from earlier mocked him, and everyone snickered.

"Excuse me," Michelle interrupted, and Marin noticed she wasn't wearing her uniform. "Can we go already? 'Cause I was hoping to get in some light protesting in front of one of the embassies before dinner, so..."

"Protesting is patriotic," Mr. Harrington agreed. "Let's get on the bus."

Flash had shrugged off his jacket, and chucked it at Peter, who caught it with a slight wince.

On the bus, Marin asked to sit with Michelle, who was engrossed in her novel, Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nobokov. Knowing Michelle's reclusive nature, Marin was slightly surprised to find that Michelle had no objections (and if she had, Marin assumed she would've said as much) to sharing a bench. True to her word, Liz took a standing position at the front of the bus and pulled out her set of flashcards.

Marin spoke up when she could, though she didn't have a bell like the others did. Even without it, she would mutter the answers under her breath as the other team members answered at the same time.

As time passed, Marin felt more and more confident about her position on the team. Even Peter started to answer some questions, and Liz shared her delight at his return to the team. Marin also noticed the way his eyes gleamed with reverence whenever Liz addressed him, his thin lips curling into a fond smile.

In the middle of a question, Peter's phone began to buzz. He jumped to look at it, before saying to Liz, "Can I take this real quick? I'll only be a sec."

Liz acquiesced, and Peter rose from his seat, moving down the aisle to the back of the bus where Ned was sitting. Marin followed him with her eyes, and was about to get up when Michelle asked, "What's up with him?"

Marin looked back at her and chose to instead settle back in her seat as Peter spoke in hushed tones with Ned and whoever was on the other line. Marin shrugged minimally. "I don't know." She lied and knew that Michelle didn't believe her. But Michelle said nothing, only raising one eyebrow. "Internship, probably."

"Why didn't you get a call, then?"

Marin swallowed. Michelle was very inquisitive, and if Marin wasn't hiding anything, she probably would have admired that about her. "I don't have a phone."

Michelle made a humming noise but returned to her book. Marin shook off the jitters that swarmed her senses, and grabbed her water bottle from her bag, taking several large gulps. Marin wanted to get the hell off of this bus.

+++

"Alright Marin, you'll be sharing a room with Michelle." Liz informed her as they approached the hotel entrance. The building's interior was decorated heavily with Academic Decathlon advertisements, and the floor was bustling with high school students dressed in various colors of uniforms. Informational booths littered the lobby, and the Midtown team struggled to pass through the crowd. "Everyone, stay together!" Liz shouted above the noise. They stopped at a sign-in table.

Liz handed her a matching yellow jacket with a smile as Mr. Harrington signed the school in. "It's probably going to be too big on you, but it was the last spare one left."

"Thanks," Marin said sheepishly, and tugged the jacket on. It was about two sizes too large, the sleeves hanging far past her hands and the bottom reaching mid-thigh. But it was something. Marin had a fleeting sense of déjà-vu: a memory—at least two years old—from the first time she put on her X-Men jacket, and for the first time, feeling like she belonged somewhere.

"Hey, you brought your laptop, right?" Marin heard Peter ask Ned from the back of the group. She pushed her way towards them.

Noticing her approaching, Peter began to look nervous. "Hey, uh, we're just going to go back to our room to... prepare. Practice some more questions, you know?"

Marin narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him. "Oh-kay..." Peter nodded with a stiff smile, and hurried off with Ned.

As she watched them leave, she wondered if his sudden covertness had to do with tracking those dealers. But it was obvious that they didn't need her (or want her, she supposed), and Marin figure Peter would ask for her help when the time came. Besides, she'd been itching for a shower since before they'd gotten off of the bus.

Marin searched for Michelle, finding her lingering at the edges of the group, her nose still in her book. Catching her attention, they traveled to their shared room in a comfortable but thick silence, and as soon as she entered the room, Marin flopped onto the nearest queen-sized bed, throwing her duffel off her shoulder.

After stretching her limbs until the joints popped, Marin grabbed a new set of clothes and hopped in the shower. Stepping under the steady stream of scalding water made her smile pleasantly as the rush of it against her skin revitalized her nerve endings and invigorated her senses. She hummed lightly to herself as she scrubbed down her body, standing in the steamed room for minutes after she'd gotten out. Not bothering with using a towel to dry herself, Marin let any excess water sink into her flesh, leaving her dry in seconds. Her hair was still wet, but she figured it would be noticeable if she emerged from a shower with dry, clean hair, so she let it dry naturally.

Pulling on her clothes, she left the bathroom and sat on her bed with a newly revived energy.

"So, which embassy were you thinking of protesting at?"

+++

Later that night, after Marin and Michelle had returned from protesting the rights of refugees at the Sokovian embassy, they'd found Liz and the rest of the team sneaking around the lobby.

It was late at night; the hotel lobby was practically empty except for the Midtown team—though Peter and Ned were nowhere to be found. Liz had made the executive decision to raid the minibar to smuggle some candy bars, mentioning something about team building and rebellious group activities as she roped Marin and Michelle into participating. Marin, hardly ever caring about the consequences, obliged evangelically because eleven dollars for a Kit-Kat bar was entirely too expensive, and she sought justice.

As they laughed and joked around through the night, Marin began to forget about their mission. When Liz laughed heartily at her jokes and Charles clapped her shoulder good-naturedly, Marin felt the lingering ache from a lifetime of alienation and rejection begin to melt away.

Sometime later, Cindy Moon had suggested that they go break into the pool to go swimming. So, everyone—except for Marin (who didn't own a swimsuit) and Michelle (who preferred to sit, read, and observe)—went to go change into their swimsuits, and reconvene at the stairs.

Once everyone arrived, Liz moved first, making sure the coast was clear before beckoning the rest of the team. As she started to go, Marin saw Peter emerge from his room wearing a hoodie and his backpack. The team greeted Peter as the sprinted by him, and Flash even smacked his butt, causing Peter to yelp. Marin trailed to a stop beside Liz, wanting to interrogate him, but Liz was busy trying to convince him to join the rest of them.

"I was, uh... I was going to study, um, in the business center." He clearly lied, but Liz didn't seem to notice.

"Peter, you don't need to study," she shook her head. "You're like, the smartest guy I've ever met."

Peter watched Liz continue to speak, bewitched by her kind words. The devoted look crossing his face made Marin squirm next to him. "And besides... um, a rebellious group activity the day before competition is good for morale." Liz said.

Peter blinked, looking dazed. "Hmm?"

"Um, well I read that in a TED Talk so—I-I heard it in a TED Talk." She explained sheepishly, as if she was embarrassed that she needed external guidance on being a better leader. "And I read a coaching book."

Peter's eyes went soft. "Wow, you really... this is really important to you."

"Yeah, it's our future." Liz tilted her lips in an incredulous smirk. "I'm not gonna screw it up. Besides, we raided the minibar and these candy bars were like, eleven dollars." She pulled out an extra candy bar and tossed it at Peter, who caught it and cradled it to his chest. "So, get your trunks on and come on."

And with that, Liz flounced away, catching up with the rest of the group, who were summoning Marin and Peter. "I'll meet you guys down there," Marin dismissed them and turned to a still-stupefied Peter. Once they were gone, Marin crossed her arms. "Peter, where are you really going?"

"Um, I—" he stuttered, tightening his grip on the candy bar. "To go study—"

"But you're not." Marin sighed. "I can see the red of the suit, Peter. You're going to go after those dealers, aren't you?"

Peter visibly gulped. "I can explain, Marin—"

"Why now?" Marin huffed. "Why tonight? Can't it wait 'til after Nationals, at least? Peter, you made a commitment, and now you want to run off to Maryland?"

Peter scoffed. "That's what I came here for! What we came here for," he lowered his voice, looking hurt and angry. "But I guess you've changed your mind, then."

Marin shook her head lowly. "Peter, you don't understand—"

"What don't I understand? How you're leaving me for some people that you don't even know—you just met them, and all of a sudden, you're more loyal to them? You can't possibly care—"

"But I do." She hissed, her eyes hard, her voice broken and jagged around the edges. "Which is more than I can say for your own loyalties." Marin sighed then, losing the fight in her. "Do whatever you want, but you'd better show up tomorrow, Peter Parker. For your own sake."

Peter's face twisted with apparent guilt, but Marin wasn't interested. "Marin—" he called, but Marin turned and followed the hall that led to the pool.

If anyone noticed that Marin looked on the verge of tears when she arrived, no one said a thing.

+++

Later that night, when everyone's skin had wrinkled and pruned and their nervous energy was diminished as they settled in for bed, Marin couldn't fall asleep.

She turned on her other side, clutching the pillow she cradled to her chest. Laying for a minute until her nerves buzzed and her shoulder hurt, she gave up, turning onto her back and staring up at the stucco ceiling. She couldn't help but feel guilty for the way she'd treated Peter earlier—admittedly, she knew that he was somewhat right; they did come along to stop the dealers. And although Marin had joined not for that intention, she felt like she owed it to Peter to help him in his heroic duties.

But then she remembered the way the team had included her without any hesitation (apart from Flash's stubborn, wounded ego), how they welcomed her with open arms. She'd never had that before.

Sure, the X-Men were similar in ways—a group of distinctly antithetical individuals bonded together with a common goal, through common means. Marin understood the concept of a team well. But she felt like she was never a part of one; she certainly screwed up her position as an X-Man.

As she bubbled with warm, content feelings, Marin knew that she didn't want to screw this up, too. She figured that being a hero was important, but in some ways, supporting the Decathlon team at the most important event of the year felt like an act of heroism to her. Especially when they'd already been abandoned before. Marin wouldn't do that to them—not when they've treated her like one of them.

By the time her eyes were finally growing heavy, the sun was beginning to rise, peeking through the curtain and casting a soft orange glow over the room. She sighed out a smile as she fell asleep, welcoming the dreamless slumber.

Waking up that morning felt like waking up to a new beginning.

taglist

@dark-night-sky-99 @pushmeinablackhole

[vashtijoy]

I don't know if people who grew up with the Internet can appreciate how miraculous it is. When Douglas Adams wrote "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" in 1977, the idea of a pocket device holding everything you might need to know (kind of) was pure science fiction. When I got really into Star Trek in 1990, the idea of a computer like that was still science fiction.

Like, the Internet existed, sure. But it was tiny, really only linking universities and tech companies. And though the Web was invented around that time, search engines wouldn't exist for another few years—everyone was dependent on curated directories like Gopher. A bit like today's dark web, where if you don't know the address already, you aren't coming in.

To give you some idea: I got Internet access at home (finally!) in 1995. But I didn't look at the Web for months. The Web was not the "killer app" yet—for me, that was Usenet, essentially a big discussion forum we had in place of social media.

So I'd grown up with my big two-volume dictionary at home, and the atlas, and incomplete mini-encyclopaedias of nature, places in Britain and so on—gifts from my dad, who prized reading and knowledge, and was also, in retrospect, clearly a hyperlexic autistic communication-hobbled nerd like me. (incidentally, if any researchers want to know if hyperlexia is inheritable, my ask box is open? please do something with hyperlexic adults already, we're literally magic.) I also had a couple of children's encyclopaedias, gifts from an aunt who'd found them at a car boot sale, but they dated from the 50s and 60s and were... really kind of outdated and racist. Which is a whole other story: the fact that books get old.

But if I wanted to know something, I looked it up in my books. If I was interested in something, I looked for it in the library. But the city library only had so many books. I didn't have adults around me I could ask—Dad lived on the other side of the country, which might as well have been the moon since neither of us were good on the phone, and the rest of the family is, to this day, not so big on education. I remember, when I was like 15, reading in Carl Sagan's "Contact" about how kid Ellie went to the university library to look up a thing, and thinking "... you can do that??". But the university library was in the city, and I didn't know where it was, or particularly think they would let me in... if I'd known how awesome university libraries are, though, I would have crawled over broken glass to get there, lol.

Plus, the limited pool of knowledge I had limited what I could be interested in. Something can't catch your attention if you never hear about it. (this is why wide reading, and reading outside your bubble, is important, btw.)

Mainly I made do with the patchwork of things I remembered reading, or had seen on TV, or heard at school—a bubble of half-misremembered, unconfirmed rumours and instincts and facts. And this is where it gets important: when you're thinking about your parents and grandparents and olds generally, and how dumb they are about rumours and shit on Facebook, remember this is how we grew up. Information literacy is precious.

But yeah, the point of this was that I went from knowing almost nothing, from having no way to find out anything or any real research tools, to being able to sit down and question the whole world, about anything.

And it was magic. It's still magic. It would have made the little kid I was, who just wanted to read everything and know everything, so happy.

[shijinpunnaykaljoseph]

#Blog Post 9. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MUSIC

 Music is undoubtedly one of the most intriguing human intelligence activities. For composers, artists, authors, engineers and scientists, computers are a fantastic tool. All of these give music a different perspective, but all of them can benefit from computers ' precision and automation. Computers have more to offer than just a decent calculator, printer, audio recorder, digital effects box, or whatever the computer's immediate useful purpose. The computer's real significance lies in the new paradigms of art and scientific thinking that computation creates. The technology of using Artificial Intelligence for creating music is latest innovations in the field of technology. Discussion days are over when artificial intelligence (AI) will impact the music industry. In many ways, artificial intelligence is already being used. Today, in music composition, production, theory and digital sound processing, you can find AI applications. In addition, AI helps musicians test new ideas, find the best emotional context, incorporate music into modern media, and just have fun. In huge data sets, AI automates processes, finds trends and observations, and helps create efficiencies.

 Into the history

First phase

Work at this time focused primarily on algorithmic composition which aimed at a new composition that is aesthetically satisfying:

     In 1957, Lejaren Hiller and Leonard Isaacson of Urbana's University of Illinois programmed “Illiac Suite for String Quartet”, the first work entirely written by artificial intelligence.

     In 1960, the first paper on algorithmic music composition was written by Russian researcher R.Kh. Zaripov using the "Ural-1" computer.

 Breakthroughs

The more significant level of music intelligence emerged in the generative modelling of music as research began to focus on understanding music.

        In the 1970s, interest in algorithmic music also reached the pop scene's well-known artists. David Bowie, an unquestionable iconic figure in the music industry, was the one who first started thinking in this direction. He created Verbasizer, a lyric-writing Mac app, with Ty Roberts.

       In 1975, it was N. Rowe from the MIT Experimental Music Studio has created a smart music perception system that allows a musician to play freely on an acoustic keyboard while the computer infers a metre, its tempo and note durations.

      In 1980, David Cope founded EMI (Experiments in Musical Intelligence) from the University of California, Santa Cruz. The system was based on generative models for analysing and creating new pieces based on existing music.

 Current research

AI and music research continues on composition of music, intelligent analysis of sound, cognitive science and music, etc.

     Initiatives like Google Magenta, Sony Flow Machines, IBM Watson Beat, would like to find out whether AI can compose music that is convincing.

     Pop music composed by AI was first published by the Sony CSL Research Laboratory in 2016 and the results were impressive. Daddy's Car's is a cheerful, bright tune that resembles The Beatles. The AI system offered to write the song melodies and lyrics based on the original parts of The Beatles, but the further arrangement was rendered by live musicians.

      Taryn Southern became a sensation after taking part in the American Idol TV show. The next logical step was for a new album to be released. Southern decided to take a non-standard approach — to use AI to write an album. She opted for a startup called Amper as a tool. This programme is capable of producing sets of melodies according to a given genre and mood with the help of internal algorithms. The outcome was the “Break Free” song.

      CJ Carr and Zack Zukowski are engaged in a very unusual thing founded by Dadabots Boston programmers— they teach artificial intelligence how to write "heavy" music. The developers presented the black metal album "Coditany of Timeness" in 2017 and presented the results of the algorithm that composes music in the death metal style to the public. According to them, the algorithm produces a pretty decent music for this genre, which needs no corrections, so they decided to give him the willingness to write live tracks on YouTube.

Interesting developments in the Musical Intelligence field

Research now focuses on using artificial intelligence in compiling musical composition, performance, and digital sound processing, as well as selling and consuming music. For teaching and creating music, most AI-based systems and applications are used. Some of them are here:

     AlgoTunes is a software company that develops music-generating applications. On the site, with one keystroke, anyone can create a random piece of music with a given style and mood— but the choice of settings is very limited. Music is created in a few seconds by a web application and can be downloaded as WAV or MIDI files.

      Founded in 2015, MXX (Mashtraxx Ltd) is the world's first artificial intelligence mechanism to instantly convert music to video using a stereo file. MXX enables you to adapt music to specific user content, such as sports and playing, computer games plots, and so on. Audition pro, the first MXX app, allows anyone to edit music for video: load an existing song and automatically adjust the increase in sound frequency, amplification and pause according to the video's dynamics. MXX also provides services to leading commercial libraries, music services, game developers, and production studios that include music tailored to modern media.

      Orb Composer — a program designed by Hexachords to help compile orchestral compositions at genre selection stages, instrument selection, track composition.

       OrchExtra may help collect a complete Broadway score from a small high school or city theatre ensemble. OrchExtra plays the role of missing devices, recording variations in tempo and musical language.

Is AI a threat to musicians?

AI's capabilities create tension among the groups of musicians and producers who see it as a challenge to their jobs first. AI-music start-ups ' argument is that AI is a creative tool that frees musicians to create more and better art. While AI can outperform humans to help you sleep in areas like video backup music or soundtracks, it is not capable of creating great original music without human intervention.

 Conclusion

AI will eventually change the music industry as computers and AI become more powerful and accessible. The choice is how we work with AI, though. The reason that robots can take over our jobs is that we are robotic about the jobs. However the creation and production of music is a creative process. After all, the possible mechanism of typically developing legendary songs happens on its own, from deep within the heart of the poet, his passionate feelings and unique experience of life. Giving more control over AI applications to musicians is important rather than letting AI take over. After all, we love musicians because of their humanity and personality — not just their music itself.

 References

1.      Deahl, D. (2018). How AI-generated music is changing the way hits are made. [Online] The Verge. Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/31/17777008/artificial-intelligence-taryn-southern-amper-music [Accessed 9 Nov. 2019].

2.      Drake, J. (2018). AI & Music. [Online] Soundonsound.com. Available at: https://www.soundonsound.com/music-business/ai-music [Accessed 21 Nov. 2019].

3.      En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Music and artificial intelligence. [Online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_and_artificial_intelligence [Accessed 21 Nov. 2019].

4.      Kharkovyna, O. (n.d.). Artificial Intelligence and Music: What to Expect? [Online] Medium. Available at: https://towardsdatascience.com/artificial-intelligence-and-music-what-to-expect-f5125cfc934f [Accessed 21 Nov. 2019].

5.      Li, C. (2019). A Retrospective of AI + Music. [Online] Medium. Available at: https://blog.prototypr.io/a-retrospective-of-ai-music-95bfa9b38531 [Accessed 21 Nov. 2019].

6.      Love, T. (2019). Do androids dream of electric beats? How AI is changing music for good. [Online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/oct/22/ai-artificial-intelligence-composing [Accessed 21 Nov. 2019].

7.      Marr, B. (2019). The Amazing Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming The Music Industry. [Online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/07/05/the-amazing-ways-artificial-intelligence-is-transforming-the-music-industry/#23c4c1a65072 [Accessed 21 Nov. 2019].