#ultra point of intersection exist

[cockdva]

Dissecting Table - Ultra Point Of Intersection Exist [1987]

[kimyoonmiauthor]

Might be more of a white culture thing. I get called names often when I point to actionable things one can do. Usually from particularly Black and other PoCs, they're more straight with me than white women are when they assume I'm a woman, even if I point out I'm NB and particularly don't subscribe to white (US Middle Class) woman's speech, which I never could quite master nor like.

There was a study on white women's speech about an Italian family, I think, granted US-based immigrants, where women of the family were taught more to be "peacemakers" and use indirect questions, (not the Jewish kind of questions) to particularly needle people into doing action.

Jewish speech (since I was raised Jewish as part of being adopted), tends to have more rhetorical questions to challenge people to think more deeper or examine their thoughts. (Plenty of papers on this, I actually wrote a long post about it)

But outside of (white) Jewish circles, often questions are used as passive aggressive behavior and ways to diffuse conflict. Such as the white woman speech of something like, "We do not hit other kids. How do you think the other kid feels?"

BTW, this is far from the white woman's tears and toxic white women's speech as pointed out by Robin DiAngelo, but does show the gulf between how women are treated between cultures and often I've observed PoCs are more likely to try to conform to white ways of gender when faced with someone white due to mainly stereotype threat and also some speech patterns which are harder to deal with if you aren't versed with how to deal with the toxicity. People tend to hedge their bets.

By the way, straight pitching here, but I'd really, really like a philosophical discussion on two things, though I'm well aware these are loosey goosey. And yes, maybe influenced by the US election:

The questions are these two:

Does true altruism exist? Is there a way to make an outgroup care about the in-group, when they have no skin in the game and keep showing up? I remember the episode you did about Sam Altman? But it didn't get into this question. We're stuck worldwide with people who don't care, but is there a philosophical way to get people to care about groups they don't belong to?

And the other question is how does one sell an idea of masculinity that is not the Alpha, Beta, etc set and can we escape that to men in such a way that they feel invited? I've read about sacred masculinity and also the secure masculinity models, but worldwide the shift towards that ultra masculinity seems to be winning because it feels powerful. The current movement of feminism is asking how to reframe masculinity itself.

I'd like to see it in an intersectional way for both topics. Such a way that it sees internationally and through lens of intersectional queerness.

You've circled around these topics, gone through them talked about queerness, communication, but I've felt like it's a glancing blow. I'm aware this is a hard ask. But I have to admit the last US election and watching other elections where people have swung far right on self interest alone over community has left me wondering if I missed something. Distrust of community that deep leaves me reeling.

I encountered women who were willing to, for example, stick it to trans people over protecting their own rights and philosophically I do not understand why they would choose hate over saying everyone deserves rights. I did the sit down and listen, but hit hard dead end walls, like I was being an elitist for going to college and the pursuit of knowledge is being snobby. Or literal professed Neo-Nazis, like telling me people should believe in Mein Kampf. And I'm sitting here thinking what more could I have done to make people care and care about people unlike them as a really marginalized person. It hit so many walls, and I tried very hard not to yell, scream, but reason through emotions, logic, but I can't help feeling a little frustrated that maybe I didn't know enough in order to get them to see a different way and move them that little bit or at least crack their wall through the interaction.

Separating The Art from the Artist ('s Gender)

an interesting thing I've observed:

I've been making art for my whole life, and I publicly transitioned a few years ago, and it's super interesting how much criticism changed when I came out

When I was in the closet the criticism I got for my work was a lot more useful. It was generally constructive, usually specific and actionable, usually coming from a place of sincerely engaging with my work even if it didn't always like it. So even the negative stuff was usually helpful?

Whereas now, most of the criticism I get seems a lot more "vibes based"? It's more vague; it's more likely to contain factual errors like "The work says X" when the work doesn't say that, or even says the opposite; the criticism is often less actionable; and it's more likely to treat my work as something that has accidental features to which the audience has a reaction that is the most important thing, rather than something that has deliberate features because I chose to put them there? And so it's judged much more by whether people vibed with it rather than by whether it achieved what I intended it to

idk, it's just interesting, maybe it's not a gender thing maybe it's just that people's media literacy is changing? maybe i'm attracting different audiences now? maybe I'm just worse lol

[patientphilosophervindicator]

LinkedIn Insights: Building a Strong IT Support Team for Your New York Business

Introduction

In the bustling town of New York, establishments are normally evolving, and technological know-how plays an fundamental position in this change. The virtual panorama is fraught with demanding situations that require adept management and WheelHouse IT reinforce. Consequently, constructing a tough IT assist workforce is no longer a preference but a necessity for organisations that goal to thrive in these days’s competitive ecosystem. This accomplished booklet explores the nuances of assembling an useful IT make stronger staff, emphasizing the significance of technical services, cybersecurity measures, and strategic operations administration.

LinkedIn Insights: Building a Strong IT Support Team for Your New York Business

Establishing an IT make stronger team tailored in your business demands comes to greater than just hiring trained technicians; it requires an information of ways technologies intersects with your operational desires. In this segment, we shall delve into the foremost parts of a smartly-rounded IT strengthen workforce and discuss find out how to leverage instruments like LinkedIn for skills acquisition.

The Importance of an IT Support Team

An green IT toughen workforce acts as the spine of any ultra-modern industrial. They determine that all technological techniques operate easily, thereby minimizing downtime and enhancing productiveness. The group is chargeable for:

Providing technical assistance to employees Managing network infrastructure Ensuring information safeguard and compliance (e.g., HIPAA, PCI DSS) Implementing cloud expertise and managed solutions

In essence, they serve now not most effective as troubleshooters yet additionally as strategic companions who can align era with industry objectives.

Identifying Your Business Needs

Before embarking on the journey to construct your IT support crew, it’s significant to assess your certain specifications. What are your existing challenges? Are you seeking at scaling operations or improving cybersecurity?

Conducting a Technology Audit

A thorough audit can assist uncover gaps in your present day infrastructure:

Inventory Existing Technology: Document all hardware, utility, and network assets. Assess Security Measures: Evaluate latest cybersecurity protocols and establish vulnerabilities. Identify Skill Gaps: Determine what abilities are missing within your modern-day setup.

This evaluation will present clarity on what kind of expertise you desire to recruit.

Defining Roles Within Your IT Support Team

Once you will have pointed out your wishes, defining transparent roles inside of your IT support workforce is crucial. Here are some key positions one can prefer to reflect on:

IT Manager: Oversees the accomplished team and aligns tech thoughts with trade desires. Help Desk Technicians: Serve as the first aspect of contact for technical concerns. Network Administrator: Manages network infrastructure and ensures uptime. Security Analyst: Focuses on cybersecurity measures to shelter delicate wisdom.

Each position mu

[askgothamshitty]

https://www.tumblr.com/what-even-is-thiss/782728873424158720/allo-cishet-able-bodied-neurotypical-christian?source=share

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMShThny9/

I didn't finish the tiktok bc he was getting on my nerves, lol.

I find this commentary so interesting because it's been proven time and time again that yes, "normies" are not very deep people. It's not a jab or some weird sheen of jealousy. It's a well-known phenomenon that "normal" people just don't have deep lives. I fear having experiences and complex lives are key to being a complex person.

That's why Addison Rae and tate McRae feel so inauthentic. They are not interesting people to be trying to have such an interesting image. They're normal and will always feel forced. Compared to someone like Chappell Roan, who, let's be honest, is a complex woman with a layered life, and it shows in her music. It's more than just pop. It's authenticity.

The problem that privilege people have are also not unique to them. A lot of their experiences can be shared by those of a non privileged group in addition to whatever issues their points of oppression bring them. It's not where they can't have problems, but their problems are just people problems or extremely unique to them as an individual. Likes are not meant to be dismissive of their experiences but to make it clear that as a group, they don't have problems. As individuals, yes.

Idk, maybe i am miserable, but it feels like a very "let men be masculine" type of statement. Like, what do you want me to do about that? There are people out there living their day to day lives at the risk of being killed for existing, so if their ways of coping with that feeling is pretending that the ultra privileged don't have real problems then I just don't care. It's not like they're going to be denied care or help.

I'm being vague and dense, but it's really exhausting seeing so many people rush to the defense of a group that only really exists in theory because to be truly free of privilege is so rare. You can't make me feel bad for normies

I think it is true that people who experience intersectional lives have a more complex concept of self than those who mostly fit the norm. They have to think about their positionalities more and reconcile all of the contradictions.

For me, this conversation becomes disagreeable when people start saying that normies are therefore less intelligent or conscious. Like the term “NPC” which kind of argues that these people are brainless and living life without thinking about it. I think that is incorrect and not supported by what I said above.

[anheliotrope]

I feel like one of the limitations of trnashumanism we de determined in olde media was, well... the times they were written.

Phyrexia and the first Deus Ex were written like, what? 20 years ago? when the world still had this optimism in the future of the free market, technology, capitalism and a relatively peacful world. the whole "let's questions the strucutres and systems of power" discourse was not on mainstream media because things were sort of going well and individual choice would determine progress and would balance technological development.

The times also made it look like things were gonna be the 90's-2000's for a good while. The interent was a collection of catalogues, there was no AI, no soical media. Implants in the human body might as well have hundreds of years to develop. So it seems fitting transhumanism would get this maniqueist flavor of "nature good, cybernetics bad". Because, well everything in the world could be divided in the binary back in the 90's

I don't see/read many other transhumanist media, so I can't tell how things have changed. If you have any suggestions for media or texts I'd be interested.

That's totally fair but I feel that Deux Ex was way more relevant to modern problems than Human Revolution or Mankind Divided were, despite the latter being much newer.

I can talk less about Phyrexia because my intersection with MTG is actually vanishingly small.

I think very local conditions matter more than trends -- Deus Ex happened to be a conflux for some very talented people in a very specific creative environment. A lot of media that even vaguely approaches the mainstream has a shallower take because professional artists and developers hired for a job aren't going to be able to penetrate this kind of topic. There needs to be a combination of prior enthusiasm and competence. At minimum the creative director and writers need to have a really good idea about what they're doing. When this doesn't happen, the media inevitably regresses towards repeating the same tropes, which tend to go in the direction of "nature good, cybernetics dangerous".

I agree that the creative conditions are fundamentally different because our relationship with technology, our understanding of its trajectory is fundamentally different. What is weird is that this has not yet changed media in the mainstream anywhere to the degree that it should have. The vast majority of media is _still_ behind Deus Ex. That's what's so weird!

If you have any suggestions for media or texts I'd be interested.

If I manage to read a book a year, it's basically a short miracle. And there's a limited amount of other media that approaches the topic. I can't say much about transhumanist media specifically but I have some general recommendations in the direction of sci-fi and cyberpunk:

Gamedec -- If you want a cyberpunk game with choices, reminiscent of Disco Elysium in mechanics, with an emphasis on virtual spaces.

Blame! -- The superstructure architecture manga! The "can barely draw a convincingly-human human-face" manga! Good if you want to see the same character go through an ultra-dangerous seemingly infinite structure that has fully automated itself, in search for the last human possessing net terminal genes, the only way to access the cyberspace of the megastructure (which has the capability of actualizing any existence from cyberspace to reality using substance conversion towers, blurring the line between what is virtual and what is real).

Ergo Proxy -- Post-apocalyptic cyberpunk. The last of humanity exists in dome cities that have societies about as totalitarian, idiosyncratic, frontier-like and/or messed up as you'd expect. One failguy is paired with one bossgirl to figure out what's up in this world. It's vaguely existentialist? I know that's a vague thing to say, but it just makes you ponder existence a lot without having much of a point to make about technology.

Texhnolyze -- Niche auteur weird little sci-fi show. On one end of the spectrum you'll feel like watched a solidly 5/10 anime with mediocre animation that is only occasionally good, pacing that would make a snail wish for death, and a weird story arc. On the other end of the spectrum you'll feel like you just watched a 9/10 flawed genius work, one that says more about humanity and technology than most works by far, and that embraces weirdness to a delicious degree. I myself gave it a 7.

Do these say something interesting about technology? Maybe. They're not vacuous at least.

[doberbutts]

I also want to thank you for the good faith response!!! I do really appreciate it, because this sort of discussion is how I can understand things a bit better from other perspectives.

Honestly, I don't want to quibble about wording too much, because like you I think that semantics is exhausting if the point is made clear, and also that people will be reductive and not closely examine how their theory actually matches reality while looking for easy answers to their own lives. I do, however, think I would have far less of a problem with "transmisogyny-targetted" than "transmisogyny-affected", because to me it is more clear. That being said, I also think simply "transmisogyny" as the basis of understanding for the intersection of transphobia and misogyny as experienced by trans fems and trans women is also suitable, because I think any named oppression implies the primary target. In other words, I don't need "misogynoir-targetted" to understand that the primary target is black women.

HOWEVER being not a trans fem nor a trans woman, whatever y'all decide works the best for you is your decision, not mine. This is why my main question was how is someone actively experiencing and being affected by transmisogyny is supposed to be exempt. Similarly, misogynoir also can affect people who are neither black (Khelif being a good example of this too, as this is usually something that has been happening to intersex black women in the Olympics specifically) nor women (uh, me, an intersex black trans man, who experienced a whole fuckton of misogynoir both before and after I figured out that I'm trans). Labelling someone as exempt from oppression does not happen with any other named oppression, and it conflicts directly with my understanding of intersectionality and also the way hate crimes are prosecuted.

That being said I do actually agree in large part with you, and even have many of those same points in my reblogs of this post up above. She does have the ability to wiggle out of any problems her country's legal system and government may want to apply to her. Forgive me for being somewhat dubious that a country that outlaws queer people's very existence will actually abide by their laws and not come up with any excuse to do it anyway, and for all I know they may have tried during that IBA debacle and could not come up with a good enough reason to do anything about it. Khelif herself has said she has not submitted to any sort of bloodwork or testing, and I don't know enough of Algeria's process on the enforcement of their LGBT laws. There are people who are supporting her explicitly and specifically because she is not a trans woman, which I also brought up. As said, it stacks the deck in her favor, she's just drawn a shit hand.

What I do know is that this becomes dangerous territory for anyone who may actually be transgender. Indeed, if things are this bad for the perisex cis woman who happens to not have an ultra-feminine appearance, how bad must it be for an actual trans woman regardless of how feminine she is or isn't? If the perisex cis woman of color has to go through all of this just to be able to prove that she deserves to be called a woman, what happens to the intersex and trans women of color? As you said, the answer is usually "die, by my hand or your own".

Additionally, I would like to point out that being able to produce a birth certificate or being willing to submit to a genital and/or hormone check does not always work out for cisgender black women (or other women of color). The fear of the transgender black woman can, does, and has killed numerous cisgender black women both directly in murder, and indirectly in the case of medical misogynoir especially towards intersex black women or even perisex black women who simply do not fit the white statistics the medical community is based upon. A doctor can know for a fact that you are cisgender and still decide that you are too much like a man to treat as a woman, so instead you become neither and you are simply just a Thing.

So I am a bit resistant to say this is a privilege that always applies to anyone who is not a trans woman or trans fem, because unfortunately racism loves to use transphobia and interphobia and homophobia and misogyny as a weapon whenever it can. That is, of course, why intersectionality is such a big deal.

Asked entirely in good faith: can someone explain to me how the concept of transmisogyny exempt applies to what is happening right now to Imane Khelif, a cis woman who the world is debating whether or not she should be kicked out of the Olympics due to accusations of her secretly being a man? As a cis woman, she would be considered TME, and yet transmisogyny is actively happening to her as we speak.

[gimme-mor]

ACOTAR THINK PIECE: ELAIN AND THE CONCEPT OF CHOICE

*DISCLAIMER*

Please take the time to read this post in its entirety and truly reflect on the message I am trying to send before commenting. My goal is to use my background in Gender and Women’s Studies to deconstruct the behaviors and comments I have seen on Tumblr and Twitter, and, more importantly, bring awareness to the ACOTAR fandom. I WILL NOT tolerate anyone who tries to twist my words and say I am attacking people and their personal shipping preferences. In fact, I AM CRITIQUING THE ARGUMENTS THEMSELVES NOT THE PEOPLE USING THE ARGUMENTS.

As someone who has been a long time lurker on all sides of the ACOTAR fandom, the growing toxicity and hostility has become more apparent to the point that civil discourse is, for the most part, entirely lost. More times than not, the cause of the communication breakdown centers around Elain and the relationships she has with those around her. Before and after the release of ACOSF, I’ve noticed that when the fandom expresses its opinions about Elain and her development as a character, whether in a romantic light or generally, the conversation wholly hinges on the concept of choice. Common examples I’ve seen include:

Elain has been stripped of her choice for a majority of her life

Elain should be able to make her own choices

The King of Hybern took away Elain’s choice to be human when he had her tossed into the Cauldron

Elain did not choose the mating bond for herself, instead it was forced upon her

Elain feels pressured to choose Lucien

Elain should have the choice to stray away from what is expected of her

Elain and Azriel being together represents a different and stronger type of love because she’s choosing to be with him

If you ship Elucien, you’re not Pro-Elain because you’re taking away Elain’s right to choose who she wants to be with and forcing her to accept the mating bond

Elain chose to accept Azriel’s advances in the bonus chapter 

When Rhysand called Azriel away after catching him and Elain together, Elain was stripped of her choice to be sexually intimate with Azriel

When Azriel and Rhysand are talking in the bonus chapter, Elain’s choices aren’t at the center of their conversation

If you suggest that Elain should leave the Night Court, you’re stripping Elain of her choice to remain with her family

If you suggest that Elain should be friends with someone else, you’re ignoring Elain’s choice to be friends with Nuala and Cerridwen

Why is the concept of choice exclusively tied to Elain and everything surrounding her character while simultaneously ignoring that other characters in the ACOTAR series have, to varying degrees, been stripped of their choices at some point in their lives? And why isn’t the concept of choice connected to these characters in the same way that it is connected to Elain? For example:

Did the High Lords strip Feyre of her choice to consent when they turned her into a High Fae?

Did Tamlin and Ianthe strip Feyre of her choice to consent when they started to control every aspect of her life in the Spring Court?

Was Vassa stripped of her choice when the other Mortal Queens sold her to Koschei, which resulted in her being cursed to turn into a firebird?

Was Feyre stripped of her choice to know the risks involved in the pregnancy?

Did the King of Hybern strip Nesta of her choice to be human when he had her tossed into the Cauldron?

Was everyone stripped of their choices under Amarantha’s rule?

Was Feyre stripped of her choice to just be a daughter and a sister when the Archeron family failed to contribute to their survival, which resulted in Feyre being the family’s sole provider?

Did Lucien’s family strip him and Jesminda of their choice to be together when they killed her because of her status as a Lesser Faerie?

Are Illyrian females stripped of their choice to consent when their wings are clipped?

Did the Hybern general strip Gwyn of her choice to consent?

Did Ianthe strip Lucien of his choice to consent? 

Did Keir strip Mor of her choice to consent to her engagement to Eris?

Universally, femininity is synonymous with weakness and women often face discrimination because the patriarchy is part of an interactive system that perpetuates women’s oppression. Since the ACOTAR universe is set up to mirror a patriarchal society, it’s clear that the imbalance of power between males and females stems from sexism. The thing that sets Elain apart from other female characters in the ACOTAR series is the fact that SJM has portrayed Elain as a traditionally feminine character based on her actions and the ways in which Elain carries herself. Compared to them, Elain is inherently held to a different standard because her femalehood takes precedence over other aspects of her character in fandom discussions. These conversations indirectly place Elain on a pedestal and hail her as the epitome of traditional femininity; and when her character is criticized in any way, it’s seen as a direct attack against women, specifically women who are traditionally feminine. Also, these conversations fall back on Elain’s femaleness when analyzing her character since it can be assumed from a reader’s perspective that Elain, despite being the middle sibling, is coddled by those around her because her ultra-feminine nature is perceived as a sort of weakness in need of protection. However, the fact that the concept of choice is used as an argument to primarily focus on Elain’s femalehood highlights the narrow lens through which Elain, as a character, is viewed. It implies that Elain’s femaleness is all her character has to offer to the series overall and insinuates that Elain’s character development is dependent on her femaleness. To suggest, through the choice argument, that ACOTAR’s patriarchal society constrains Elain’s agency and prevents her from enacting her feminist right to choose while failing to examine the patriarchal structure of the ACOTAR universe and its impact on the female characters in the series, the choice argument ultimately falls apart because it shows that it’s only used to focus on Elain’s femalehood. Furthermore, the implication that Elain’s right to choose is, in itself, a feminist act in the series indicates that the concept of choice as an argument is used to promote choice feminism.

Feminism is a social movement that seeks to promote equality and equity to all genders, and feminists work toward eradicating gender disparities on a macro-level, in addition to challenging gender biases on a micro-level. Historically, feminism prioritized the voices of white women, specifically white women who were cisgender, able-bodied, affluent, educated, and heterosexual. But over the decades, the inclusion of women of color and other marginalized women’s voices has broadened the scope of feminism and caused it to take an intersectional approach when discussing social identities and the ways in which these identities result in overlapping systems of oppression and discrimination. On the other hand, choice feminism, a form of feminism, greatly differs from what feminism is aiming to accomplish. In the article “It’s Time to Move Past Choice Feminism”, Bhat states:

“Choice feminism can be understood as the idea that any action or decision that a woman takes inherently becomes a feminist act. Essentially, the decision becomes a feminist one because a woman chose it for herself. What could this look like? It could really be anything. Wearing makeup is a feminist act. Not wearing it is also a feminist act. Shaving or not shaving. Watching one TV show over another. Choosing a certain job over another. Listening to one artist over another. Picking a STEM career. Choosing to dress modestly or not. The list goes on. At first glance, there does not seem to be an apparent negative consequence of choice feminism. A woman’s power is within her choices, and those choices can line up with a feminist ideology. For example, a woman’s decision not to shave may be her response to Western beauty standards that are forced onto women. Not shaving may make her feel beautiful, comfortable, and powerful, and there is nothing wrong with that. Women making choices that make them feel good is not the issue. The issue lies in calling these decisions feminist ones. Choice feminism accompanies an amalgamation of problems‒the first being that this iteration of feminism operates on faulty assumptions about said choices. Liberal feminism neglects the different realities that exist for different women‒especially the difference between white women and women of color, transgender women and cis women, etc. Not all women have the same circumstance and access to choices, not all choices made by women are treated equally, and not all choices are inherently feminist” (https://www.34st.com/article/2021/01/feminism-choice-liberal-patriarchy-misogyny-bimbo-capitalism). 

Just as white feminism ignores intersectionality and refuses to acknowledge the discriminations experienced by women of color, choice feminism and arguments supporting choice feminism have, by default, made the concept of choice exclusionary. The individualization of choice feminism glorifies the act of a woman making an individual choice and, by extension, gives the illusion that women’s liberation from gendered oppression can be achieved by enacting their rights to make personal, professional, and political choices. Herein lies the problem with choice feminism: it (the argument of “But it’s my choice!”) stifles feminist conversations from exploring the depths and intricacies of the decision making process because it’s used as a way to shut communication down entirely, shield arguments from criticism, and condemn those who criticize choice feminism for its disconnection from a larger feminist framework. Contrary to what choice feminism advocates for, it lulls the feminist movement into complacency because women’s individual choices do nothing to alleviate gendered oppression. Choice feminism’s leniency towards choice fails to address the limitations of choice in regards to women’s intersectional identities and enables society to shift the blame of women’s oppression away from the societal and institutional structures in place to women themselves for making the wrong choices that ultimately resulted in their circumstances. Choice is not always accessible to every woman. For instance, choices made by white women are, in some way, inaccessible to women of color, in the same way that choices made by cisgender women are inaccessible to transgender women. Choice is one of the founding concepts of the feminist movement and it “became a key part of feminist language and action as an integral aspect and rallying call within the fight for reproductive rights‒the right to choose whether or not we wanted to get pregnant and to choose what we wanted for our bodies and lives” (https://www.feministcurrent.com/2011/03/11/the-trouble-with-choosing-your-choice/). When choice, in a feminist context, is framed as something that is solely about the individual as opposed to the collective, the feminist foundation on which it stands “leads to an inflated sense of accomplishment while distracting from the collective action needed to produce real change that would have a lasting effect for the majority of women” (https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/03/i-am-not-feminist-jessa-crispin-review/). 

By linking the choice argument with choice feminist rhetoric and extreme acts of progressiveness, it plays into today’s negative understanding of a social justice warrior and normalizes fake wokeness. In its original conception, a social justice warrior was another way to refer to an activist and had a positive connotation; nowadays, the term carries a negative connotation and is:

“. . . a pejorative term for an individual who repeatedly and vehemently engages in arguments on social justice on the Internet, often in a shallow or not well-thought-out way, for the purpose of raising their own personal reputation. A social justice warrior, or SJW, does not necessarily strongly believe all that they say, or even care about the groups they are fighting on behalf of. They typically repeat points from whoever is the most popular blogger or commenter of the moment, hoping that they will ‘get SJ points’ and become popular in return. They are very sure to adopt stances that are ‘correct’ in their social circle” (https://fee.org/articles/how-the-term-social-justice-warrior-became-an-insult/). 

Today’s perception of the term social justice warrior is directly tied to fake wokeness because both are performative in nature, fueled by the drive to be seen as progressive, and derail necessary conversations from taking place by prioritizing toxicity. According to the article titled, “Three signs of fake ‘wokeness’ and why they hurt activism”, it states:

“. . . social media did not create activism: it did, however, create a legion of hashtags and accounts dedicated to issues . . . Sadly, fake woke people will use these hashtags or create these accounts, see that as contributing to a cause, and just call it a day; these same people tend to shame those without the same level of interest or devotion to a given cause . . . Ironically, as open-minded as the fake woke claim to be, they struggle to deal with opposition. More often than not, those who fit the fake woke bill will ignore, misconstrue, or shutdown anything remotely opposing their stances . . . Now yes, human nature often leads us to possess a bias against that which contradicts our views, but human nature should not serve as an excuse for irrational behavior. Opposition to our stances on issues helps activists more than it harms: it allows them to look at the causes they champion from a perspective they possibly ignored before, further enlightening them. More importantly, by discovering information that may refute what they believe, they can find and eliminate any flaws in their reasoning and strengthen their arguments. Activism involves opening up to change, something one stuck in an echo chamber can never achieve” (https://nchschant.com/16684/opinions/three-signs-of-fake-wokeness-and-why-they-hurt-activism/). 

Rather than critiquing ideas, thoughts, and theories about Elain and her character development with textual evidence, the concept of choice as an argument is used to silence opposing viewpoints. This is similar to choice feminism because the conversations start and end with the concept of choice, leaving no room for a critical analysis of Elain’s character. Although the concept of choice as an argument is intended to shed light on how ACOTAR’s patriarchal structure limits females’ agency to some degree, the fact that it’s only applied to Elain invalidates the point of the argument because it doesn’t include the experiences of other female characters when examining the impact of sexism in the ACOTAR universe. The failure to do so calls the intent of the choice argument into question. As it stands, the concept of choice as an argument frames Elucien shippers and those who are critical of Elain as woman haters, misogynists, and anti-feminists, especially if they identify as women. The belief that a woman is anti-feminist or a woman hater any time she dislikes another woman suggests that women have to be held to a different emotional standard than men. If men are able to dislike other individual men without their characters being compromised, why can’t women? Feminism and what it means to be a feminist do not require women to like every woman they encounter. One of the many things feminism hopes to accomplish is granting women the same emotional privileges afforded to men. 

Terms like “oppression”, “the right to choose”, “feminist”, “feminism”, “anti-feminist”, “anti-feminism”, “internalized misogyny”, “misogyny”, “misogynist”, “sexist”, “sexism”, “racist”, “racism”, “classist”, “classism”, “discrimination”, and “patriarchy” are all used in specific ways to draw attention to the plight of marginalized people and challenge those who deny the existence of systems of oppression. Yet these words and their meanings can be twisted to attack, exclude, and invalidate people with differing opinions on any given topic. When social justice and feminist terms are thrown around antagonistically and carelessly to push a personal agenda, it becomes clear that these terms are being used to engage in disingenuous discourse and pursue personal validation rather than being used out of any deep-seated conviction to dismantle systemic oppression. The personal weaponization of social justice and feminist concepts is a gateway for people who oppose these movements to strip these terms of their credibility in order to delegitimize the societal and institutional impacts on marginalized people.

It’s important to question how an argument is framed and why it’s framed the way that it is to critically examine the intent behind that argument: is it used as a tool to push a personal agenda that reinforces dismissive, condescending, and problematic behaviors, or is it used as an opportunity to share, learn, enlighten, and educate? The concept of choice as an argument is extremely problematic because: it limits fruitful discussions about Elain within the fandom; enables arguments that oppose opinions about Elain and her narrative development to masquerade as progressive by pushing social justice and feminist language to their extremes; normalizes the vilification and condemnation of individuals who are either critical of a ship, Elain as a character, or prefer her with Lucien; encourages an in-group and out-group mentality with differing opinions about Elain’s development resulting in politically charged insults; exploits social justice and feminist terms; ignores that harm done on a micro-level is just as damaging as harm done on a macro-level; and cheapens Elain’s character and her development.

There is more to Elain than her being a female who is traditionally feminine. Elain has the potential to be as complex of a character as Feyre, Nesta, Rhysand, Lucien, Cassian, Azriel, Amren, and Mor, and to reduce her character to her femalehood in fandom discussions is a disservice to Elain as a character, the ACOTAR fandom, and SJM’s writing. So I ask this: is there a reason why the fandom heavily emphasizes the concept of choice when discussing Elain that goes beyond a simplistic analysis of her as a character (i.e. using the concept of choice as an argument to reinforce Elain’s femaleness), or is the concept of choice used as a shield to prop up one ship over another?

gimme-mor library

[astronomyforastrologers]

GLEAM-X J162759.5−523504.3

GLEAM-X J162759.5−523504.3 (Mysterious Pulses ~ 11 Feb 2022, Philip Sedgwick)

Recently several news sources reported the appearance of mysterious pulses from space. Extraterrestrial contact? Not so much. Something those who seek to align with the guiding forces should include in current processing of cosmic insight? There we go. Mysterious pulses fraught with insights!

Astrophysicists released data of an analysis of an archival radio source that revealed a periodic low-frequency radio transient. First off, this is not a new discovery... they’ve been watching for awhile. What they are now comfortable reporting is that the source pulses every 18.18 minutes.

These pulses are highly linearly polarized, and light up bright for 30 to 60 seconds across a broad frequency range. Within the overall emanation, pulses beam out in short-duration bursts of less than a half second. The conclusion... likely this object is an ultra-long period magnetar... a magnetar whose influence we’ve all been feeling whether we know it or like it or not.

Where is it? The source took a bit of tracking down, but it is the object known as J162759.5-523504.3. This weighs in with a zodiacal longitude of 254 01 10.5 or 14 Scorpio 01.

Any object that radiates across a broad frequency range symbolically implies inclusion. Since so many frequencies are included, the cosmic suggestion is to include all insights, options, alternatives and situations presented. As well, these cosmic forces observe that not only is including every person and creature a superb step toward an idealized end game, it offers an antidote for addressing the intriguing dwarf planet Eris. Now this point is highly polarized, so it likely splits opinion pretty much down the middle. Also required for assimilation, ongoing conscious attention applied for a full minute every 20 minutes or so. The recommendation: When engaged in the daily drill, pause every 18 to 20 minutes and take a minute or so to reflect on the big picture of what you’re doing in the moment to ensure the best result from this incarnation. Assess each and every blip thought that comes in during that moment of reflection. You know, there are phone apps where you can watch and listen to rain or other cool reset images of nature for 30 seconds. Sounds like a fine support mechanism to work the sequence of incoming information into life from wide-ranging galactic sources, triggered by this magnetar.

This magnetar aligns with the black hole APR220. This black hole stands out as the brightest object (or one of the brightest) in our local group of galaxies. Think of it like a lighthouse with a light that keeps you from wiping out on the rocks. Or perhaps like a navigation beacon that eases you safely to well-intended destinations.

The longitude of this cool radio source approximately aligns with the intersection of the Galactic and Super-Galactic Centers (Z/ZS). This point (not an actual object) provides the energetic impetus to include information from all sources, especially polarized sources: Up/down, east/west, north/south, right/left, red/green, topsy/turvy. Assimilating all useful thoughts, no matter the source, in theory, prompts clearer, conscious decision.

The recent reporting of this object’s existence on the somewhat buried science pages, occurred during a Saturn square from Aquarius to the degree of this object in Scorpio. There’s something to process. Saturn acknowledged and supported the object’s existence and universal purpose... it did not deny it. The long-observed energies of this anomaly had been recorded sufficiently as to provide tangible results to the mainstream consciousness - a manifestation principle indeed. As well, with symbolic assessment of something Aquarian weird and wacky, this emanating galactic object serves as a real world guide of energy management. Here’s the tool. Here’s how and when it works. How about applying it in a useful construct so that at the end of the day (a pet phrase of Saturnian effort and assessment of same effort), refresh and reset breaks cause a pilgrim on this planet to operate with greater efficiency and ease? That’s the spirit! That’s the spirit of Saturn! That’s the spirit of Aquarius! That’s the essence of a square! That’s the energetic vibe of J162759.5-523504.3 well applied and coolly integrated!

Finally, a note as to whether or not we should seriously consider the radiation from space as significant. On 3 February, a Falcon 9 rocket hurled skyward with a payload of 49 Starlink satellites. Two days before the launch, a Coronal Mass Ejection impacted the Earth’s magnetic field. As the Earth passed through the wake of the CME, the satellites now in low-Earth orbits, ran into difficulties. The GPS devices detected significant atmospheric drag - greater than 50% higher than previous launches. Starlink command placed the satellites in safe mode to decrease drag. However, the CME effects prevented the satellites from commencing orbit raising maneuvers. Up to 40 of the satellites have reentered or will soon reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and have fallen from the sky! Chicken Little was right!

Coronal Mass Ejections tend to increase with notable heliocentric angles between the planets. From the Sun’s point of view, the day of the CME Jupiter in Pisces squared Mars in Sagittarius. Mercury in Virgo opposed Neptune and quincunxed Saturn in Aquarius. Certainly those patterns can rile the Sun and no doubt Earth walkers are impacted as well.

If one considers chakras or the energy field to be ones personal GPS in navigating life, what energetic disturbances may have shifted decisions and real world conscious attention at the same time?

A minor space storm took down much of the latest Starlink batch shortly after launch https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/space-storm-knocks-out-latest-batch-of-starlink-satellites/

One Stop Shopping Order Form Astrological Textso

Meteoric the Movie on Vimeo ZAP! on Vimeo

[drtanner]

Man. As funny as it is to see Ultra Instinct Shaggy in an official WB intro, I have to admit that I have some mixed feelings about it. WB didn't think of that. UI Shaggy wasn't their idea. They have ownership of the Scooby Doo franchise, yes, but UI Shaggy is a meme that they have lifted, whole cloth, from the internet, for profit. Someone very much did originate the idea of UI Shaggy, and I have to wonder how they feel about this.

This intersects weirdly for me with the fact that content creators and showrunners can't acknowledge fanfiction anymore because a while ago there was an incident wherein a writer for a certain franchise did acknowledge a fic, whose author then sued when a similar storyline later appeared in the canon material. At the same time, fanfiction exists in a horrible kind of limbo wherein we can never even allude to earning a profit from making it, because the instant someone turns a buck from writing fanfiction in public, Anne Rice will rise again and then none of us will be able to write fanfiction ever again, even for free, without being promptly sued into the dirt.

I could mention, too, that the creator of Nyan Cat is widely known to be very litigious where the character that they created is concerned and how they'd be right to do it, and while that's obviously a very different matter because Nyan Cat is an original creation, I remember the countless other memes that were created by someone at some point but also wound up being lifted by corporations for profit and sold back to us. There were, for a time, pencilcases and notebooks with fucking trollfaces on them.

When League of Legends took off as its own property and became hugely successful, Blizzard responded by changing its contract for its employees to explicitly state that anything they created while working for Blizzard, even in their off-time, would thereby belong to Blizzard, so that they'd never miss out on a moneyspinnner like that again. Disney likewise stipulates in the contracts for its artists that anything they create while they work for Disney belongs exclusively to Disney, just in case they happen to have any good ideas that the corporation can steal and turn into money. Meanwhile, there is an ongoing legal battle to force Disney to properly compensate the writers whose work they turned into blockbusters that brought in millions of dollars of profit after paying peanuts for it.

So what's right? Legally, I don't think I have the answer; intellectual property law is a deliberately obtuse minefield that only seems to benefit corporations and the extremely wealthy. Morally, though? It doesn't sit right with me that those same corporations and wealthy individuals that would eat us alive for daring to dream of profiting from their work (or even interacting with their properties in a purely transformative context with no profit motive in sight!) can just go ahead and pluck popular memes from the internet for easy cash.

It's funny until you think about it, I guess.

[nothing0fnothing]

Like, I have no idea how you can teach a book to teenagers and miss the point of it so squarely. If they were denying the abuse Holden was experiencing, how the fuck were they teaching you to analyse the rest of the book? Like, his brother and the baseball mitt? His crippling anxiety around protecting his sisters innocence?? The prostitute??? Like I'm so curious, how does an educator who flatly denies the abuse Holden describes in the beginning of the book have any explaination for how he behaves in the prostitute scene? Because in my opinion there is no non traumatised explaination for any of that.

I hard agree on 1984 too. The way conservative Americans love to platform Yeonmi Park so they can point to literal North Korea and say "see we're so much better than that" was basically what Orwell was doing with 1984. The way anyone who criticises Yeomni or her pro republican political agenda gets accused of being a commie fascist who hates America, exactly the same way anyone who criticises Orwells work. It's a sophisticated pro fascist narrative designed to make even reasonably anti fascist, educated people side with their own oppressors.

You're so right how schools like to pick and choose though!

I went to Catholic school and our highest level reading group analysed To Kill a Mockingbird. Then I went to college when I was 17 and read The Color Purple. It was night and day. Suddenly the concepts were complex and compassionate and intersectional and actually coming from the perspective of a black writer, writing a black character. My mind was blown.

I don't have any real issue with To Kill a Mockingbird, but it's definitely not "highest reading level for 16 year olds." tier. It's for sure, in my opinion, the book you'd give middle schoolers to introduce them to discussing race in literature. When you give a book that simplistic to young adults who are intelligent enough to extrapolate concepts, there's no way to teach it in a way that opens up complex ideas.

I have an idea why of all the age appropriate books about race, my ultra Christian Conservative school picked one that was written by a white person and centered the experiences of white people within it. Like yeah, it's a book about race, but it's a story about a wealthy white family who exist kinda vaguely near the racism. If your educational institution is that closely connected to the Catholic Church, its probably your best bet to teach the kids about racism through the lens of a wealthy straight white man who is so extra super not racist, he's nice to his maid and defends a black man in court.

I think we as a society need to be pushing for a more realistic and sympathetic wide spread analysis of Holden Caulfield. Everyone thinks he’s either some profound intellectual or is just some whiny kid. Holden was emotionally neglected, and it was implied the teacher that he’d trusted SA’d him. That kid wanted to help and protect other kids from the harshness of the world. He was a CHILD. He was whiny because he was a teenager but he had every right to be jaded and hate the world, but he still held out hope that kids could be protected from the harsh reality out there. He was a BABY. He didn’t know where the ducks in central park went when the water froze over. He hired a prostitute and spent the whole night talking to her. He needed someone to protect him. Catcher In The Rye is about a kid that the every adult in his life failed. Throwing money at a kid and offering them no warmth breaks them. Holden was a spoiled bratty kid, but he was just that. A KID. He needed someone to look after him.

[arcticdementor]

In September of 2020, I published a book entitled The Stakes. It was billed as a “current events” or election-year title. The election behind us, the candidate I recommended is no longer president. But the analysis which led me to that recommendation is very much still “current.”

To recap briefly (but read the whole thing!), the book explains how every prominent and powerful American institution, including the federal government, has been taken over by a hostile elite who use their vast powers to attack, despoil, and insult about half the nation. In the sixth chapter (excerpted here), I outline what I think America will look like if the present ruling class refuses to moderate, cannot be forced to share power, and has the wherewithal to keep its regime going. In the seventh chapter, I sketch several possibilities—from secession to Caesarism to collapse—that might result if it turns out that our overlords are a lot less competent than they think. And in the final chapter (excerpted here), I offer policy and other ideas that might enable America to avoid those fates.

That chapter (from which this essay is adapted) culminated with a proposal now being talked about widely, namely, to allow counties, cities, and towns unhappy with their current state government to join another. This would be a practical, and practicable, way to ease Blue and Red Americans’ present discontent and exasperation with each other.

There are precedents. The counties that became Maine split from Massachusetts in 1820, and—more famously—those that became West Virginia left Virginia during the Civil War. Fittingly, when I wrote the chapter, West Virginia had generously offered to welcome western Virginia counties unhappy with rule from newly, aggressively Blue Richmond. Today, a year later, West Virginia’s governor says the offer still stands.

There are similar movements throughout the country—most, though not all, driven by disaffected Reds. The most recent, news-making example was five Oregon counties joining two others in voting to leave the Beaver State and become part of Idaho.

So far nothing has come of any of this. But why shouldn’t these efforts be allowed to proceed if both the welcoming state and the exiting counties want it? Wouldn’t that be “democracy”?

…

Classical philosophers and historians alike condemn democracy as a bad form of government, in part because of its partiality but mostly because of the specific nature of the demos, which they contend is the polis’s least wise and least moderate part.

I would here add that it’s both sad and hilarious to see classically-trained academics and intellectuals bleat on about the sanctity of “democracy.” The worst offenders are the Straussians, who really should know better. Haven’t we all read Republic VIII and Politics VI, to say nothing of the warnings from Strauss himself on the dangers and shortcomings of democracy? Their failure as analysts is worse. The present American regime that they celebrate as “our democracy” is all but identical to classical oligarchy (discussed in those same books) while the “populism” that gives them the vapors is much closer to the democracy they claim to revere. But even more embarrassing, the Straussians’ central boast is to stand above, in Olympian detachment and even disdain, all regime pieties and see through them as self-serving rationalizations. Yet when extolling “democracy,” they sound no different than an Assistant Secretary of State, foundation president, or CNN host.

…

States such as California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, and now Virginia are utterly dominated by one party, and often one city, which amounts to the same thing. This is how Virginia—cradle of the American Revolution and home to four of our first five presidents—suddenly, just like that, became implacably hostile to the first two amendments to the United States Constitution. Five cities and counties, three adjacent to Washington, D.C., essentially dictate to the other 128.

The uncomprehending angst of people who’ve lived the same way, in the same places, for generations suddenly finding themselves harassed by a hostile government—ostensibly “theirs”—is mocked by the ruling class as a lament over “lost privilege.” After Virginia flipped from purple to Blue in 2019, the state legislature immediately enacted draconian gun restrictions that flew in the face of centuries of tradition and peaceful practice. Too bad! You lost! That’s “democracy.” As Joel Kotkin has remarked, “The worst thing in the world to be is the Red part of a Blue state.”

We should not, however, give the powers-that-be too much credit for principled consistency. If and when popular majorities produce outcomes the rulers don’t like, their devotion to “democracy” instantly evaporates. Judges, administrative state agencies, private companies—whichever is most able in the moment to overturn the will of unruly voters—will intervene to restore ruling class diktats. On the other hand, when voters can be counted on to vote the right way, then voting becomes the necessary and sufficient step for sanctifying any political outcome. It doesn’t even matter where the votes (or voters) come from, so long as they vote the right way. The fact that they vote the right way is sufficient to justify and even ennoble their participation in “our democracy.”

Blues perpetually outvoting Reds and ruling unopposed: this, and only this, is what “democracy” means today.

Bad Faith Objections

Reds, increasingly, are catching on. They know the game is rigged, that they cannot win, and the veneer of their participation and consent is a sham.

This is why the gaslighting is being dialed up to the lumen levels of blue stars. Every objection to Blue despoilation is now openly ascribed to “white supremacy.” Don’t want to be late for work because regime-favored thugs “protesters” are illegally blocking an intersection? White supremacy! Object to being beaten on the streets? White supremacy! Want to see the laws enforced equally and impartially? White supremacy!

Obviously, nothing is more susceptible to this dread charge than calls for “secession.” Hence the entirely apples-to-oranges cases of redrawing state lines better to reflect residents’ preferences and interests will be—already is being—compared to the events of 1860-61.

…

Some opponents of Red attempts to leave Blue states will disingenuously point to Lincoln’s first inaugural address, the ne plus ultra anti-secession argument. But there Lincoln was talking about replacing ballots with bullets throughout a sovereign state—overturning not merely the outcome of one election but the form of government itself. The peaceful rearrangement of political and administrative boundaries within a sovereign state is an entirely different act, with far lesser—and less grave—consequences. Indeed, in the latter case the consequences may be entirely salutary: there is ample precedent in history and around the world of countries redrawing internal lines to suit shifts in population and interests.

Others will try to muddy the waters by facilely equating the peculiarly American use of the word “state” for our 50 regional governments with the far more common meaning of state as “sovereign and independent country.” Lincoln said secession was unlawful, unconstitutional, and immoral—but this hypocrite Anton who claims to be a Lincolnite is endorsing the very practice! The argument is false and will be offered in bad faith. If you wish to waste a moment of your time, which I don’t recommend, remind such liars that the anti-secessionist Lincoln not only supported but presided over the division of Virginia. The decisive point is that this proposal is here proffered for precisely Lincolnite reasons: to save the Union and keep the current territory and population of the United States together.

…

Article IV, Section 3 states that “no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.”

In the Maine and West Virginia cases, new states were formed, hence the legislatures of the original and prospective states, plus the Congress, had to consent. (In the case of Virginia, then in rebellion against the government of the United States, two competing state governments existed. The Unionist government, recognized by the federal government, voted to allow the separation.)

The Constitution is, however, silent on the question of transferring a county from one state to another. No doubt should rural Virginia counties seek to join Charleston, Richmond wouldn’t like it—all that lost tax revenue! Look how many fewer people to boss around! Fewer Electoral votes!

But, constitutionally speaking, the state government’s power to stop it would be dubious. As would, if we want to speculate along such lines, the means. It could, and almost certainly would, take the issue to federal court where, admittedly, any outcome is possible regardless of law, and any outcome favorable to Red interests extremely unlikely. There’s little question that a Blue state capital could easily join with the federal judiciary and the Biden administration to block any such action. That may or may not be “constitutional” as you and I understand the term, but we don’t rule.

Or suppose we interpret Article IV, Section 3 to mean that moving just one county from one state to another constitutes creating a “new state.” That makes things harder, but hardly impossible. It simply means that legislative victories would have to be won. That may seem impossible now; no empire ever seeks to become smaller. But, dare I say, the election of Donald Trump seemed impossible as late as 9 p.m. on November 3rd, 2016. Public opinion is changing fast. Reds, who’ve put up with a lot only to face repeated demands that they put up with even more, are getting fed up.

Not only do they get nothing but abuse from the political system, increasingly they don’t even get to talk. Any dissent against regime ideology is swiftly and ruthlessly censored on Blue media platforms, which is to say, all of them. Reds’ elected leaders (to the extent that they have any) are declared “domestic enemies” by the Speaker of the House. Blue wise men talk of “cleansing” Reds from the political system. Nils Gilman—a man who called for my death—declaimed that “These people need to be extirpated from politics.” To have no say and no voice, forever, means that one’s only option is exit.

It would be an act of magnanimity, and even self-interest, for a sufficient number of Blues to recognize Red concerns and let the state-county reorganization proceed. Right now, at least half of Red America feels trapped in an abusive marriage, endlessly told they’re worthless, racist, and evil—but also that under no circumstances may they even broach the topic of leaving. Stay and take your deserved punishment is Blue America’s constant message to Red, the political philosophy of Judge Smails: You’ll get nothing and like it.

Besides, as Blues never tire of reminding us, aren’t we Reds poor, weak, and dumb? Who wants such dross as fellow citizens? Imagine (say) Virginia’s glorious future without all those retrograde hicks getting in the way of NoVa’s progressive utopian vision.

If Blues cannot see their way to letting such peaceful means proceed as a way of improving civic harmony and extending the life of the republic, they’re placing a giant bet that they can, through sheer brute force, rule Reds forever. Can they? They’d also be admitting that, in New America, “democracy” just means Blues outvoting Reds, effectively nullifying their franchise.

…

It’s worth pointing out, in this context, the utter hypocrisy of Blues who cry “Jeff Davis!” at the mere suggestion of some rural counties in a Blue State seeking refuge with fellow Reds, which almost certainly would not change the composition of the Senate, but who blithely demand that D.C. and Puerto Rico be made states so the Democrats can get four extra Senators and (likely) four more Electoral votes.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

I don't know how much this adds to the discussion regarding Animorphs being children's lit, but I think it's important to keep in mind that kids' books can get away with heavier themes than kids' shows tend to, so if someone's coming into the discussion with the framework of "for children" they may need to keep in mind that as a book it can cover more ground than a tv show that grownups just have to glance at to decide if it's "too much" for their kiddos (whether it is too much or not).

This definitely adds to the discussion of Animorphs as children’s lit!  I think you’re hitting the nail right on the head.  Many people don’t realize this (I didn’t realize this until I was in college and had a class on the subject) but television shows have to justify themselves to a metric shitton of people before they’re allowed to go on the air.  Books only have to justify themselves to a moderate-sized committee, if that.

People who have the power to veto content on TV shows include (but are not limited to): individual writers who have a particular idea, head writers who don’t like the idea, script editors who might take it out, directors who refuse to film what they don’t like, videographers or artists who add their own creative vision to ideas, visual effects teams who can cut things based on budget, voice actors who can protest decisions they don’t like, episode editors who might take an idea out, producers who won’t back anything that might cause controversy, studio executives who can pull content that’s not “on brand,” national network crews that can decide not to air certain content, local network crews that can also decide not to air certain content, and future “backers” who might decide not to invest in a show based on its content.

People who have the power to veto content in books include: the author with the idea, the agent who publicizes it, the editor who polishes it, and the publishing agent who sells the idea.  At most.

Nowadays, one can self-publish one’s own work with ZERO outside input, or else very little.  The Martian was read by exactly two (2!) people before Andy Weir put it on the internet, and it became an international bestseller.  It would be possible to make a self-published TV show with that little outside input… but most platforms wouldn’t promote it, and would probably take it down if it got hate-reported or had content violations.  Not only that, but (as Cates pointed out) books get edited as content that has already been written, in a story that already exists.  Shows get edited in the context of deciding whether it’s worth the trouble to write an idea that’s still hypothetical.

Television is ultra-conservative (in the sense of never rocking any boats in any direction) because it has to please hundreds of people with creative input and to justify its multi-million-dollar budgets.  Books can reach the minimum production value necessary to be good with the influence of one person (okay, lbr, two people) and fifty bucks for printing or web-hosting fees.  That’s the reason that only 42% of non-animated roles and 39% of animated roles go to women on TV, including only 12% of non-animated roles and 4% of animated roles going to women of color.  By contrast, 63% of children’s lit on The Atlantic’s bestsellers list is written by women, about female protagonists; that’s not counting books by men about female protagonists.  (They didn’t collect data on authors’ ethnicity; if anyone has this stat, HMU.)

It’s the reason that Arthur just made national news THIS FUCKING YEAR by depicting a same-sex (traditional) (Christian-coded) wedding ceremony, one that local networks in Alabama chose not to air.  Meanwhile, in 2015 Cates presented a conference paper about the history of kids’ picture books with queer protagonists, a history that goes back to 1981 (Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin) and covers such mainstream 1990s series as Bruce Coville’s Magic Shop and Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants.  We see the importance of the lack of gatekeepers: for instance, the author of Heather Has Two Mommies struggled to get a mainstream children’s press to pick up her book, so she went to a lesbian publisher, which ended up creating an entirely new branch for children’s books.  (Apparently there were entire publishing houses just for lesbian books in 1987?  The more you know.)  One other interesting case study for queer content is Gore Vidal: in 1948 he published what would today be classified as a YA gay romance novel (The City and the Pillar) but in 1959 he had to “code” and hide the queer content in the Hollywood film (Ben-Hur) that he also wrote.  Television to this day uses queer-coding in lieu of actual romance, especially when it’s kids’ TV (see: Legend of Korra or Adventure Time), while children’s literature has already made the push all the way into demanding that the queer romances in Grasshopper Jungle and Geography Club be more intersectional.

To be clear, it’s not like children’s books have carte blanche in this regard — Applegate and Grant have both apologized for having to code Mertil and Gafinilan rather than just marrying them off, and have expressed regret over not getting to write an openly bisexual Marco or openly trans Tobias.  But kids’ books can still fly under the radar of the wowsers in a way that kids’ shows often cannot.

Anyway.  Queer representation is obviously just one of a plethora of issues that get very different treatment in children’s books vs. children’s shows.  There are plenty of others.  Children’s shows can depict violence, but have to treat it as silly or inconsequential and avoid showing blood.  (Because that’s a great way to teach kids about not harming others!!!)  Children’s books can have as much blood — and, apparently, as many spilled entrails — as they would like, as long as those things don’t happen in the first couple of pages or make the cover summary.  Neal Shusterman is responsible for some of the most cringe-inducingly silly AniTV episodes, and also some of the most brutally unflinching works of children’s literature I’ve ever read.  American screen media are no longer subject to the Hays Code, but its marks still remain.  American literature has pretty much always been the Wild West, and with the advent of online self-publishing, the west is getting wilder.

Don’t judge a book by its movie.  And don’t judge a book by its show.  AniTV is tame and silly, treating its violence as inconsequential and its characters’ mental health struggles as harmlessly or innocent.  Animorphs has the courage to show that when you shoot a man he doesn’t just silently fall over and disappear but bleeds and screams and dies, that being a victim or a perpetrator of such violence can leave even “innocent kids” fighting for their lives against PTSD and depression.  It has the courage… but it also has the freedom to do so.  That’s an extremely important distinction that should not be overlooked.

[bastardsunlight]

//LONG-ass headcanon sesh for D, Alucard (Hellsing) and Adrian (CV’s Alucard) all kinda rolled into one.

So, since I don’t have radiantDecay anymore, I’ve sort of pulled back from the verse where Adrian BECOMES D. There was a lot of movement and timeline adjustment that had to happen for that one, and while it is in some way still possible, I’m not terribly interested in upkeeping a unique interpretation for a character that’s never really going to come into play. If you’re writing with D, it’s thousands of years after he was Adrian. If you’re writing with Adrian, it’s pre-1999 pretty much.

So, I have some documents someplace that I had written regarding D’s origins. The novels heavily imply that he’s somehow enhanced—y’know the movies hint at him just being super powerful Mary Sue turbo ultra dhampir simply because he is the son of “Our Sacred Ancestor” whomst we all pretty much know is Dracula himself right? Certain novels even hint that Mina Harker is his mother, if they don’t just outright state it. It might be the clunky translation (they really should have been more carefully transliterated because WOW some of those sentences just… don’t), but thus far it’s not been made CRYSTAL PERFECT CLEAR. However, I’m more than willing to run with that idea.

Dracula is, by the time Mina et. Al. come up against him, quite old, nigh ancient. I think that the Dracula of the Bram Stoker novel is or, rather, was the historical Vlad III Dracula Tepes (the impaler), born in the 1420s, “died” in the 1470s, iirc. Supposedly, the sultan at the time… Mehmed Fatih, kept his head in a box for a while before pinning him up on the walls of Constantinople, which the Turks controlled at the time. Ugly period in history for Eastern Europe… With Wallachia and Transylvania, in particular, two kingdoms in Romania, times were triple trouble. They were sandwiched between the Ottoman Empire to the east, then west was Eastern Orthodox Christendom—further west was Roman Catholicism and if you think THOSE guys didn’t fight, ding dong ur wrong!

BUT this period of violence produced one of the most well-known and controversial heroes (sometimes called a war criminal) of all time. Also he had a great ‘stache. Now when I write Hellsing’s Alucard, I roll with this same lore, so D and that Alucard could absolutely exist in the same ‘verse. It’s kind of a “darkest timeline” deal, a world in which the Belmont clan never existed. Before that even, Lisa never made Dracula’s acquaintance so the guy’s motivations are a little different. In addition, he is NOT Mathias Cronqvist, a tactician during the first crusades in 1090 AD. In that case, he would have revamped (PUN) his whole personality and integrated himself into one of the other great houses of Wallachia/Transylvania and re-emerged four hundred years later as Vlad the Impaler. That could work fine—not like he hasn’t got time—and that would have been around the time he met, and lost, Lisa. Now whether THAT part of history looks the same is dubious, since Vlad’s exploits during the period of his reign/deposition/reign/deposition/beheading are pretty decently documented. In this case, I’m going to say the Belmonts’ existence is in a timeline where those conflicts also may have played out differently. As these are all fictional worlds, I guess this’s up to ME atm. Nice.

So this is part “how I write D” and part “how I’d be inclined to write Alucard (Hellsing) in interactions that take place BEFORE the manga—like WAY before”. Since Adrian would have been a major contributing factor to the Belmonts’ strength from Trevor onward (so in the games idk if folks know this, but Adrian is Trevor’s father, with Sonia Belmont being his mom), that would also have contributed, at least in part, to the ability of the Belmonts to stomp Dracula and his minions.

With D, there is no need to include Mathias and his ebony/crimson stone conundrum, which does tend to throw a small monkey wrench in the ol’ gears (but not big enough I can’t adapt, trust me). The difference, aside from lack of Belmonts, is the origin of vampires. Clearly, they’re a magical construct or a spell-woven form of sentient life in Castlevania. In Vampire Hunter D, it’s heavily implied (once again, not outright stated) that the Nobility, some of them anyway, are simply a mutation of humanity (Dark Gene vs Light Gene, Lina’s whole deal, among other passages here and there), who also happen to be allergic to garlic, crucifixes, running water, and basic-ass Bram Stoker weaknesses. They’ve even got labs full o’ Nobles tryin’a conquer the sun issue.

So to know D, we gotta know his dad first. At the beginning, Vlad III is born to (big surprise) Vlad II. He and his brother are sent to Edirne as part of the Ottoman Empire’s “tribute” of however many young  boys from noble houses, to be trained in the ways of Islam and Turkish mannerisms, etc. This is more for pacification of that region of Europe, which is still Eastern Orthodox, than it is for real “peace”. It’s “peace because you guys are a good buffer zone between us and the rest of Eastern Orthodox-dom”, anyway. Every _voivode_ of Wallachia has to swear allegiance to either the Ottoman Empire or to the Eastern Orthodox church. While most of that area is EO, it’s in their best interest to swear to the Ottoman Empire. They’re bigger and closer. Vlad’s dad has done some underhanded shit, but he’s also a member of the Order of the Dragon and has propelled it to new heights within the EO and that’s where Vlad gets his name: Dracula, which is Son of the Dragon. So Vlad II’s immediate family are known as the Draculesti, which is fucking cool—it’s like “children of the dragon” and that’s not even his like, NAME name—it’s a frickin’ nickname, or sobriquet, as is Tepes.

In the world of Vampire Hunter D, vampirism appears to be a genetic phenomenon—ironically, a mutation. No Noble is going to admit that, OBVIOUSLY. And while it’s true, they were probably born that way, they’re still a mutant human derivative. Rather than mutating due to radiation or whatevermstthefuck like the actual mutants in VHD, they’re just born that way. So what I’m rolling with is Vlad III was born with that particular mutation and, kind of like my OC Toby, who is also a genetic vampire, it takes a violent or unnatural death to trigger the actual symptoms, else you’re just a normal-ass person. In fact, in this interpretation, I’m going to say that maybe quite a few people are BORN with that mutation, but if they live to a ripe old age and die, it never triggers. Most likely, the body is too enfeebled to handle it, maybe it dies after menopause/andropause? Either way, the body has broken down too much and there’s no material to work with.

That might also go a long way to explain the animosity many old vampires have toward humanity. Sometimes it’s straight up contempt, of course, but every single time, it seems to be a removal. Carmilla is a good example. Most of the time, her backstory involves a vicious assault that might very well have killed her. Imagine dying that way and waking back up to find that you had to KEEP living in the world that did this to you, that death is FAR far off. I can understand being VERY PERTURBED, to put it mildly. By the same token, what about war? How many folks die in war? Thousands? Millions? Of all those, how many have the mutation? Probably quite a few. Some folks might not figure out what’s going on and stay where they are, buried for decades, before just wasting away without sustenance—Vampires DO require blood, after all, to keep doin’ their thing. Plenty more are probably just torched in the sun. Since they were KIA, it might be rough finding their bodies in the first place…

So Vlad is beheaded—now this part intersects VERY well with Hellsing’s Alucard in my portrayal—and Mehmed Fatih keeps his head close at hand for a bit, probably talking to it. What happens when it starts talking back? We know Dracula has some SERIOUSLY kickass abilities and putting himself back together would definitely be one of ‘em, in my humble opinion. Mehmed dies not long after he achieves “victory” over Vlad the Impaler and no one knows where Vlad’s remains are. Maybe they up and walked the fuck away, hm? Maybe it was HE who ensured Mehmed’s destruction. How poetic would THAT be? Spoiler alert ||very||.

Now imagine going through everything he did—the guy had a tumultuous life. He might be one of the few, lucky ones who figure out that sunlight is a no-go, hide himself away, eventually go back to haunt his castle in the mountains between Transylvania and Wallachia. Now fast forward to the 1800s, MODERN TIMES (heehee okay) and one very ambitious realtor who wants to sell a creepy old abbey to some weird foreigner. Seems legit. Anyway by now we can see that Dracula’s gotten kinda nutty? He has three scary “wives” but he doesn’t seem to care much for ‘em. They’re obviously vampires, too, though I cannot recall if they’re turned by him or if they’re LIKE him—anyone who’s read it recently, do feel free to refresh me.

He’s kinda senile and while he’s crafty, he’s outsmarted by a dandy, an ancient-ass doctor, a dude who cannot stop fainting, a man named Quincey (my husbando), and Jack Seward—nuff said. He has some kind of congress with Mina, though ofc it’s the Victorian age so the only penetration is that of his li’l toofers on her poor neck. Nom. I don’t think Dracula banged Mina Harker. I think that, in THIS world, a dhampir is a nigh-impossibility, because at this point (and their cool-ass vampire science might’ve changed this), vampires are The Undead™ and therefore cannot CREATE LIFE. Not even if they have a raging turboner (that’s a turbo boner, for those of u not in the know). So he bit Mina, but before he did that, Mina married Jonathan—like as soon as he got home. They were married and living together and doing the frickle frackle, presumably, before Drac shows up in London to mess up their day.

In this case and for the sake of sanity, to create a dhampir, the vampire must chew on a pregnant lady. The curse lifts from her when the master is killed, but his blood has already entered and changed the child; the process is much longer and more involved for an adult human, who has an immune system and much more ground to cover. If the smol bean was in embryo stage or even fetal, it had no defense and mom’s body provided it with everything, Dracula’s blood, included. The final set of letters in Dracula mentiones a young boy, Jonathan and Mina’s son, Quincey, named after their fallen friend. So little Quincey is a dhampir!

Now, a bitten vampire cannot, in this universe, turn anyone else. They can feed and create thralls, but they can’t make VAMPIRES. In Hellsing lore, if a vamp bites you and you’re a virgin, you become one—if not, you become a ghoul/zambolio thingamajigger. Integra narrates this for us pretty early on. But it’s not Alucard’s venom doing this. It’s the vicar of Cheddar Village, who is a manufactured vampire. He’s not a true vampire, not like Alucard. Now, Alucard DOES ask Seras if she’s a virgin ‘fore he kills and bites her, which makes sense… IF HE LOVED MINA.

Hear me out. So, he saw this strong-ass bitch and thought “goddamn I’m sick of my whiny, vicious wives UGH I need me a woman like that”. So he’s gunna turn her. It probably takes longer since he hasn’t been powered up by Hellsing and their dark science-magic shit, or whatever it was… OR as he chomps on ‘er, he realizes “well fuck me she’s preggo, so even if she changes, I can’t have her”. Pregnant blood has GOTTA taste different, all those hormones and shit, even early on. I think he did have some weird admiration-affection for her. His arrogance and greed, however, has taken him over, so perhaps he decides to change her slow, to make the fellas suffer. They’ve fucked with him so he’s gunna fuck with them, but I think it pains him a little to do so, because lbr Mina’s the woman of his dreams.

So when Quincey is born, he’s perfect, healthy, rosy-cheeked, and by god only Mina knows something’s amiss. Damned if she’s going to say shit to Jonathan, who’s liable to faint, the absolute fucking walnut. They live fairly well, having taken over the real-estate business from their wonderful, generous, dead benefactor. 

Much like Carmilla’s weirdo ghost, however, Dracula’s spirit absolutely lives on.

TL; DR D was born Quincey Harker. 

[pollylynn]

“Why you? What’s so special that they need you?” —Kate Beckett, Murder Most Fowl (3 x 08)

Title: Equipped Rating: T WC: 750

He exits the loft, full speed ahead. He feels the barest twinge of guilt for abandoning Alexis in the middle of her rodent-based crisis, but he’s honestly happy enough to have the two-ply drama of his mother and the frantic search for their guest rat behind him. He’s happier still to have a lead. Or a lead on a lead, at least.

He glowers at his phone as he hurries down the stairs. There’s no signal in the cavernous stairwell, and he’s annoyed that his call to Beckett will have to wait. He’s intent on luring her out into some sunlight and fresh air, and to do that he needs to dangle the lead in front of of her before she gets bogged down in something boring and sends Ryan and Esposito after the camera he’s all but certain Lightbulb Len would have left behind.  

He hits the lobby at last. He spins out the door of his building with the briefest of waves to the night doorman. The fact that Eugene is more than half asleep is his first clue that there’s something he should be taking note of. His second is the weird gray light and the fact that Broome is all but empty.

He’s convinced for a split second that it’s the zombie apocalypse. His head swings back and forth in search of cars at forty-five degree angles to the curb with their doors hanging open, and empty intersections with their traffic lights flicking inexorably through their cycles, but there’s just the odd cyclist, a couple of joggers, and a cab stuck at the long light two streets up. It’s not the zombie apocalypse, it’s just early. Really early, and he tends to be heading in, not out, at this hour.

He hesitates with his phone in his hand. He likes the idea of being the one to call her first thing, but it might be too early. The thought comes and goes. It’s Beckett, he reminds himself. If she went home at all, she’s probably knocked off an ultra-marathon already this morning. He calls up her contact and hesitates again with his thumb hovering over the number. If she went home at all, she might not be alone. She might be with Josh.

He keeps forgetting about the guy, and maybe that’s wishful thinking. Okay, it’s at least part wishful thinking, but she pretty much never talks about him. Days—weeks—go by, and she never once mentions him. And then he’s just there. His stupid long face pops up on her phone, or worse, he makes an unannounced appearance at the precinct at the end of the day.

That’s all bad enough for reasons he doesn’t care to examine in the zombie apocalypse hours of the morning. It’s all bad enough given that he’s not always alone when she calls first thing and that . . . should probably be the more relevant variable.

But he really doesn’t relish the idea of Josh murmuring Who is it? from the other side of the bed or Josh picking up and answering Detective Beckett’s phone because she’s in the shower. He doesn’t relish Josh existing in the context of her zombie apocalypse hours of the morning at all, but he has a lead. He grits his teeth and brings his thumb down on the number.

She’s alone, though. At least he infers she’s alone from the fact that she mumble swears at him for a while, and she doesn’t seem to be worried about keeping her volume in check. He thinks she’s alone, because she says she’ll be at the park in thirty minutes to murder him in person if his lead isn’t worth it.

She makes good on it. She’s there in just a little less than thirty minutes, which just so happens to coincide with him shoving a tip in the jar at the coffee truck. He blunders up to her, talking a mile a minute at his own peril, but he can’t help it. He’s excited to see her in sunlight and fresh air, with no body, no Lanie, no Ryan and Esposito around.

She’s decidedly less excited to see him. It’s kind of adorable right up to the point that she says the magic murder phrase: Oh, geez, Castle, I haven’t even had my coffee yet.

It’s scary for a second. It’s zombie apocalypse terrifying until he remembers he’s holding her cup and Josh, wherever he is first thing this morning, isn’t.

images via homeofthenutty

[inikavulpixelreviews]

Let’s Talk About Pokemon - Necrozma

800: Necrozma

By a technicality, we're done with the initial batch of Ultra Beasts. Kind of. Necrozma is a weird case where it both counts as an Ultra Beast but is also counted as a normal Legendary Pokemon anyway. Even the TCG seems confused, counting Necrozma's default form as a regular Pokemon but all of its alternate forms have the “Ultra Beast” tag on them. Even in Sun and Moon's postgame plot, Looker is corrected when he says he spotted another, unidentified Ultra Beast with a dismissive “maybe you mistook it for an Ultra Beast”. And indeed, normal Pokeballs work better on Necrozma than Beast Balls do. What gives there? Who knows. Cosmog's family is in the same boat as “technically an Ultra Beast but counts as a regular Legendary Pokemon.” Maybe after spending a certain amount of time in Pokemon's “normal” plane of reality, Ultra Beasts lose their Ultra Beastly properties that they got via wormhole radiation or something? Hmmm. HMMM.

A strange tangent, something I'm not sure Gamefreak cares to answer right now. If at all. But back on track, Necrozma is a lot like Kyurem in that it takes on the appearance of an incomplete beast. This time, Necrozma is starved of light energy, and thus its body has collapsed in on itself. See that torso it has? Looks a lot like the overbite of a Dragon's skull, doesn't it? Before the Ultra games, it had been a theory pretty much for as long as we got a good look at the thing that Necrozma was an incomplete, broken-up skeleton of a prismatic dragon.

One of Necrozma's idle animations even shows it writhing in pain, like the horribly cobbled together monster it looks like.

Of course, Necrozma comes with the prismatic light theme, being made up of crystalline parts and with the power to absorb light and shoot it as a weapon. Which plays a bigger part once we got to learn more about it in the Ultra games.

Ultra Beast or no, Necrozma definitely looks like one of the more adstractly designed creatures that would fit in right with the other UBs. Complete with an odd body shape with something that doesn't quite look like a complete face, with big hulking arms and amusingly tiny legs. Necrozma really fits the bill for some creature that just Shouldn't Be, and that's all that's so cool about it.

Personal Score: 9/10

Feed them!

Dusk Mane Necrozma:

Then we move onto the alternate forms of Necrozma introduced in the two “third versions” of the game, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. While the visual of seeing Nebby taken over by Necrozma and forced to wear prismatic armor made of Necrozma's parts is a bit sad. And said armor which help to make Solgaleo look even more like a Zoid than it already did. There's not much to go over in the design. It feels like there's a bit too much going on at once here, especially thanks to Necrozma's big hulking arms sticking out of its sides like that.

Personal Score: 6.5/10

Just a tad too messy, sadly.

Dawn Wings Necrozma:

Same goes for Dawn Wings Necrozma, more or less. It looks a little nicer, and the arms look a little more in-place thanks to being in the spot where legs aught to be on a bat anyway. And the armor looks a bit cooler as well. It's just that it's getting in the way of Lunala which didn't need extra bits added onto it anyway. But then again, that's kinda the point. These two forms more or less exist for story reasons over providing a pleasant design to look at.

Personal Score: 7.5/10

A little better looking.

But when you achieve these fused forms, you get an “Ultra Burst” option on the menu that effectively Mega Evolves either of these forms into...

Ultra Necrozma:

...Which is sadly a bit underwhelming in terms of concept. It doesn't quite look like a more-complete “skeleton” or even a proper re-arrangement of Necrozma's body parts. But either way, this is it. The original form to the mysterious Necrozma. I guess it makes fine enough sense that most of its body is made up of light, emphasized by how fluid its body moves, like a radiating light source, which is a cool visual in and of itself.

I'm just a bit disappointed because it's fairly typical for a dragon in terms of its shape. Though it does incorporate enough alien elements to keep it at last interesting. Namely how the points where its wings and body intersect tapering into near-nothing. I just wish it looked a bit more alien or weird, because as-is it's pretty much just a dragon of light.

Personal Score: 8/10

Cool overall, but not as cool as Necrozma is by default.

Overall:

This really is like Kyurem all over again. I do feel kinda bad suggesting these incomplete monsters that look like they're in pain just from existing are more aesthetically pleasing than their more complete forms.

[Archive]

[kchatjjigae]

Another big day in Kdramaland! We’re counting down the last hours of Leila’s stay in Korea with a march through the city. We get all classy and cultural with tours of a few palaces, one we meant to and one on accident, get our Coffee Prince on while we chase away some hanger, then activate our idol hunting skills as we cross the river back into Gangnam on a hunt for JYP. The offices, not the man. All this before we hit the critical point of our day: Korean Pizza. 

So, so, so many pictures ahead. 

Unlike the leaving of Alix, we knew right from the start of planning the trip that Leila wasn’t going to be with us the entire time the three of us planned on staying. Leila knows precisely at what length journeys stop being fun for her and plans accordingly. It was part of the reason we chose to hit Busan first over Seoul as it would be easier for her to get back to her plane. I’m not certain I’m the person who can leave when I know that other people are still there, having fun without me, but I do admire her for her strength to say “Naw, Bishes, I’m done.” Especially now knowing that she was doing these last few days on a sprained toe. 

As I mentioned in the last post, this day was going to be a Leila and I date, where we toured the palaces, possibly the Hannok Village, and any other old thing we wanted to see that SaraG and Alix had already seen before. It’s not that they don’t appreciate them, but as they’d seen them before, they thought they’d fill their time with new experiences instead. We were all, you do you boos, we’re gonna get our saeguk on. 

Now with the change in our numbers, SaraG has decided to join us! 

With a quick consult to the Naver Maps, we head back towards the palaces, thankfully, at the palaces subway stop. Throughout the station, as we headed above ground, I saw adverts for their palaces museum, which said it had some of the clothing and regalia in residence. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it there, and it’s probably one of my biggest niggling regrets. I’m sure if I’d just said, hey, I really want to go here, the ladies would have been fine with it, but at the time it didn’t seem important enough to make a fuss. That’s okay, it will give me something to go to next time! 

You know, when I go visit the whole giant palace WE ACCIDENTALLY MISSED. 

So we popped above ground and SaraG decided she wanted to hit up the coffee shop next to the palaces where she’d catch up on life now that she has a phone back and wait for us to do our thing.

As we approached Gyeongbokgung Palace, the main royal palace during the Joseon Dynasty, built 1395, the sun was bright and warmer than when we’d been there previously. So the hanboks were aplenty. Here I should probably mention, surrounding these historical areas are hanbok rental shops, where you go in and get dressed in period clothing, rented by the hour.  If you do, not only do you have a fantastic experience, but your entry to the inner palace is free. As we wandered the grounds, this totally makes sense! Watching the people walk around in hanboks really adds to the atmosphere, helps you picture what it would have been like during the Joseon dynasty. Just with less slavery and more selfies.

There was a hot minute where Leila and I had talked about doing this, but as things had changed in the dynamic and, frankly, I wasn’t up for another ahjumma belly pat-down, we decided to pass. Maybe next time. 

On our way in, we spotted a photoshoot going down to what we imagined is an up and coming girl group. You could tell between shots they were freezing in their outfits, their puffy coats tossed to the side, but they took it like troopers. I wonder how those shots turned out.

The outer courtyard was just as beautiful as before, but this time it was even more exciting as we got to go in! Well, after we purchased our very cheap tickets. I did have a moment of GAH when at the self-automated booth, my credit card was declined. There is nothing quite like that moment of panic when that happens. 

Side note. When you’re in Korea, or, I guess, anyplace overseas, use your credit card, not your bank card. I actually went into my bank to talk about this with them about how best to pay for things. I ordered some won beforehand but had planned on just using my bank card while I was there. My bank said that there are actually more fees attached if you do it that way, however, there are no extra fees if you use your credit card. So that’s what I did. I just got cash a couple of times using my bank card, but primarily used the card, just transferring my savings right over to it once I got home.

We ended up having to go through the person manned line where, after hesitatingly giving my card over with crossed fingers, I had no problems getting our tickets.

As it was early, the place wasn’t hugely packed, so we wandered around the buildings on our own, deciding to forgo a guided tour. BIG MISTAKE! Oh sure, we got along fine, had no troubles, but when we saw the cute little school-aged tour guides working on their English skills to other tourists? We were beyond jealous! (We also missed Steve.)

How epic is this?

You’d think by now the experience would be old. The same architecture, the same colors, the same carvings that we’d seen in Busan. But, there’s just something being around all that history, something that has survived, in one form or another, for all these years that’s just fascinating to me. You picture all the things that went on. How was this even created? Built? How did they choose these colors? The toppers at the corners of buildings I couldn’t’ stop looking at.

I also couldn’t stop talking in the formal saeguk accent, which I’m sure was annoying, but I couldn’t stop. 

Check out this throne.

Now picture your favorite Kdrama saeguk hero perched upon it. Do you have a favorite? Share, please! 

Not sure what this is, but it has flowers and faces on the knees. Who does that? It had to be something important. Unless it was just some arts and craft gift to some king of old and he stuck it there because his niece painted it and he’s a good uncle who simply made up some vital reasoning for it to be there. Who’s going to argue? He’s a king!

See how much fun I am to travel with? That’s the sort of brilliance I come up with.

We wandered the endless maze of rooms, of separate buildings, trying to make sure we got through everything we wanted to see. Seriously though? I could probably spend hours there just going through every nook and cranny. Taking each tour, finding out precisely what that thing with the face knees was. 

Seriously, look at this ceiling!

Watching the young girls work industriously on their selfies, again I was reminded that a good selfie is hard work. You want to be all judgy, but they were having so much fun trying different, unique poses, giggling with their friends, all dressed up prettily in hanboks, and it just looked like fun. Plus, they are going to have some great photos later!

And the girls weren’t the only ones in on the game.

As I was saying in the previous post, the fact that this exists in the middle of ultra technologically advanced Seoul is pretty amazing. Seeing all of this history while on the edges you see high rises and electronic billboards, is the perfect blend of the past and the future. Which, in a nutshell, is the ideal description of South Korea itself.

Some areas were busier than others, a few school trips, but everyone was friendly and pretty respectful.

There was another lake in the middle of the grounds.

We were working our way towards a large pagoda in the background as we didn’t really have a map to go along. It’s like when I lived in New York City — just keep the Empire State Building in sight, and you’ll always know where you are. We tried to get to the pagoda but couldn’t seem to find our way, eventually giving up and turning back instead checking out the lake as it was on our way back and people were getting hungry. 

As hanger is a very real thing, we decided to be along our way, to meet up with SaraG, but not before a quick stop off at the bathroom (yes, I have now peed in every single royal palace. Its a thing.) and the gift shop, before heading back to the front. 

But not before one more selfie and one more…weird experience.

We stood in front of my camera… side note: Fun Stephanie Fact of the post? I have very long arms. While it’s a bitch to make sure shirts fit, on the upside? I’m brilliant with group selfies. It’s where I really carry my weight on trips, also why you see my smiling mug front and center on every group shot. I’m not an attention whore, just monkey-like.

So we’re standing there with my camera, and this guy comes up to us and asks if we’d like him to take our picture. Delighted, we said yes and handed him my phone. Posing, we smile in front of the first building where he begins to take photo after photo, crouching into the ground, bending himself in half, moving the camera around, like we’re shooting some sort of album cover. We’re just standing there, smiling, feeling more and more hilariously awkward as he slowly inches forward to us. Should we be moving? Should we be practicing our posing? Are we now disappointing Tyra Banks with our lack of Smizing? Is this guy going to steal my phone?

Finally, he hands me back my phone and with a smile and a bow, simply walks away as we shout thank yous out to him. 

What a weird-fun experience.  

From there, we met up with SaraG, and we decided to wander the neighborhood looking for food and the Changdeokgung Palace, which is known for being the one with the Secret Garden. However, finding food wasn’t as easy as we anticipated and we walked and walked, circling the edges of Gyeongbokgung. We were turning into a more residentially neighborhood and were despairing we’d never find food. Then we found a cute little coffee shop on the corner of an intersection, said good enough and tramped in. There was, in fact, bistro-style food, so we sat there, basking in the sunlight, recharging those batteries, taking a moment just to hang and chat. It was lovely.

Side note. Sitting at a ShareTea drinking bubble tea writing this. It’s post-move, I’m exhausted from a solid week of non-stop, my house is in disarray, so while this post will be late, it’s for a good reason and taking the time to write it is actually giving me a much-needed rest. What makes me think of this is my previous statement: It was lovely, which comes straight from what I hear from the song playing over the shops loudspeakers. 

But now back to it because it really is driving me crazy my house is such a mess. 

Where were we? Ah, a random neighborhood in Seoul. Batteries charged enough to move, we got to our feet and continued onto where we thought the second palace was. Spoiler alert? It was not where we thought it was. We may have done a little shopping in some boutiques as we passed, nothing serious, just some meandering. Looking up, we realized we were right outside the Hannok village, which was straight uphill, up a butt-ton of stairs. Leila noped it and while I was initially disappointed, it was pointed out we had actually been there a few days ago when Alix marched us through on the Kpop shop lookout. We consulted Naver maps again and realized we’d actually walked out of the palace in completely the wrong direction. Feet being what they were, we couldn’t face walking all the way back and then onto the palace. Luckily we were right by a bus stop which appeared to be able to take us right to where we wanted to go and was even more luckily enough to be placed right next to a Churro shop.

Churro in hand, or, more realistically, churro in mouth, we boarded the bus on our way to the next palace.

We passed Gyeongbokgung, which, great news, meant we were at least headed in the correct direction, we passed Gwanghwamun Plaza with its giant statues of Sejong and Admiral Yi Sun-sin . I looked longingly out the window at them. I hadn’t realized we were so close! Visions of Faith popped into my mind, and I itched to explore. Naver announced our stop was upon us, and we piled out of the bus, realizing, uhoh, we should have probably recognized that there were more palaces in the area than just the main two and I probably should have been more specific when I looked at it in the map.

Whatevs. It was a palace, and we were there! So we paid the fee and piled in. It was fun to explore with the three of us. Deoksugung palace was actually a later palace, used for ceremonies and visits of state when the actual people lived in a more modern building. It was interesting to see the two together. New meets old. We continued our long-held tradition of going to the bathroom on royal grounds before we heard it, the drums in the distance. Turns out we were at the wrong palace at the right time, the ceremonial changing of the guards. We watched the procession march by us, the bright colors of their regalia, the bouncing feathers of their hats. 

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Changing of the guard at the Deoksugung palace. From old to new, now headed to Gangnam. #deoksugung #palace #guard #travel #seoul #southkorea

A post shared by Stephanie (@kchatjjigae) on Mar 16, 2019 at 10:27pm PDT

We headed back towards the front gates, following them along, where they waited for the actual ceremony to begin. It was fun to see these people, not at attention, just hanging out, bored. A reminder they are real people, not fixtures of the past.

Once we had our fill of palaces for the day, it was time to begin the real task, heading over the river to try and hunt ourselves down some idols, it was time to go visit the JYP offices. After a wrong start, or a wrong stop, hopping off a stop too soon, we were ready for it, prepared to see the legendary building where the likes of 2PM, Got7, Stray Kids came from. Though not yet. Turns out, he’s cleverly not anywhere near the subway stop, so we hoofed it there, stopping for more, much-needed caffeine. On the way there we passed the location of the Seoul Olympic Games which we saw the empty buildings from our position on the street. Sure, we didn’t actually go to them, but we saw the buildings, so I get to count that on the list of places I’ve been on this trip. 

Don’t agree? Go ahead, fight me. 

Finally, we were there! 

It’s an office. Dude. Get yourself a gift shop. Something. Other fans were milling about. We’d buy stuff. Mr. and Mrs. McFeeley are huge Stray Kids fans, I would have gotten something for them, and the ladies would have encouraged me, despite my DON’T LET ME BUY ANYTHING MORE. But I’d simply be able to get around that by saying, “I said I wasn’t allowed to buy anything else for RYAN. This would be for Sean. Totally different person”. But, since they didn’t have a gift shop, the point was moot. Across the street was a coffee shop, and you could see, the way people were positioned, a lot of them were just waiting for someone to come in or out so they could take a photo, be it for dispatch or just a fan site. Not wanting to be one of those people, we simply circled the block, and when we passed a snazzily dressed and perfectly coifed man, we crafted stories about who he was and what he did for the company.

Good times. 

Realizing we weren’t going to get to have the idol meet-cute we’d desperately dreamed of, we decided it was time to move on, back across the river. 

Oh! I think it was here, but if not, it’s the perfect time to talk about it. Remember the whole thing that was happening while we were there, with Seungri and his band of ugh? All about secret cams and chats and douchebaggery? Well, it’s no lie to say that this is rampant across the country. Did you hear about the member of staff who put a camera in one of the girl’s rooms on a variety show? Or there was a sting that happened at a hotel where people were recording women? It happens all of the time. While we were on the subway, we were separated, which happened when we wanted to snag an actual seat. This particular time, it was Leila and me on one side and SaraG on the other. Next to her was a man on his phone, who we joked looked just like a police detective from a drama. See? I just had to say that, and you know EXACTLY what he looked like. Turns out? 

Not so police-y. 

We got off the train, laughingly told SaraG our ideas, and she was like, “Ummmmm…yeah, he was watching pervy hidden video footage.” Apparently, there are Instagrams out there dedicated to this shit, and this guy is just, sitting on the subway, casual as can be, watching it. Ew. 

Shaking it off, we decided first on our list was to cross something off Miss Leila’s list, stopping off at the mall by our subway station and picking her up a foundation she’d seen online, but had yet to see it anywhere in Seoul except for this mall. And I was on a mission too! Find the Flying Tiger, a Copenhagen store, take a picture and show it to my friend Thea who is a big fan of their New York store. It was a huge shocker to see that they were in Korea!

We wandered around the food court, looking for something to eat, but it was pricy and not what we were looking for  (we’ve been spoiled eating beautiful and delicious food for under 10000 won.). Despite how tired we were, we decided we wanted to skip the food court, instead planned to hit Hongdae in order to find something better. Added plus? This would get Leila her last night in Hongdae with some buskers. Where did we end up? Korean Pizza! After seeing some Eat Your Kimchi posts on the weirdness that could be Korean Pizza back in the day, I’ve always wanted to try it. There was a Mr. Pizza in LA that every time I went to KCon I’d say, this was the time I was going to go there, but as one of our group was a vegan, it always managed to be pushed to the side. (We felt bad enough dragging her to Korean BBQ.) In Haeundae, our apartment was right above a Pizza School where we would pass by and look at the poster proclaiming all of their weirdo pizza flavors and planned on hitting up that one, but we just never had the chance. Tonight was the night!

I wish I’d taken pictures of the menu to tell you exactly what we had eaten, but I can tell you, one of them had mashed sweet potatoes, and the other one had galbi. Both were actually pretty yummy. We’d chosen this particular restaurant in the din of all the others as  1) was something we could all get behind with all of the other choices, and 2) was an upper floor establishment, overlooking all of the buskers. Dinner and a show!

As we ate, Leila and I investigated one last thing stop on our phones, the Han river. We knew it was close, had crossed it several times via subway, but had yet to go and find it in person. Had yet to find out which pairing of us were going to officially breakup on its shores as Korean dramas tell us is the norm. It was a must on all of our lists, and we couldn’t believe we hadn’t been there yet. It was a little difficult for us to pinpoint the best place to go to as you couldn’t really put Han River into the map, sure we’d find a shore but what else would we find when we got there? We found a park that seemed promising, but, honestly, at that time of day, after all, we’ve done, and now knowing about Leila’s poor toe, we decided to pass. 

But don’t worry Han River fans. There are still two of us who have days left and hours to fill….

With this, we close out another chapter of our trip. Another day passed. Another person packing up to go home. Which leaves SaraG and I. All by ourselves for three days. Will we make it? Will our friendship survive? Or is it going to be the relationship that crashes by the shores of the Han? Stay tuned to find out! 

    KOREAN ADVENTURE DAY ONE: AIR PLANES, TIME TRAVELS, AND MULTIPLE SARAG(S)

Korean Adventure Day Two: Sadly, No Zombies

KOREAN ADVENTURE DAY THREE: THE SOLO JOB

KOREAN ADVENTURE DAY FOUR: BY THE POWER OF STEVE!

KOREAN ADVENTURE DAY FIVE: STAIRS, AND MEERKATS, AND POLICE…OH MY!

KOREAN ADVENTURE DAY SIX: EMERGENCYS, BELLY RUBS, AND TIPSI TEXTS

KOREAN ADVENTURE DAY SEVEN: THAT WEIRD SHAPED ARTY BUILDING IN GANGNAM

KOREAN ADVENTURES DAY EIGHT: KPOP TAKES A VACATION

KOREAN ADVENTURES DAY NINE: WE LOVE A MAN WHO LOVES A MARKET

KOREAN ADVENTURE DAY TEN: STEPHANIE DOESN’T DO NAKED

Korean Adventure Day Eleven: Let’s Get Saeguky Another big day in Kdramaland! We're counting down the last hours of Leila's stay in Korea with a march through the city.