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dream-meister-translations · 6 months

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OSCAR - VOICE COLLECTION

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"I desire a colossal stomach that could devour all the food in the whole world. Don't you share the same sentiment?"

"What does fine dining mean to you personally? If you wish to be in the world of gastronomy, you should always ask yourself that."

"Food is the essence of human life...Obtaining rich food can be deemed the ultimate luxury."

"What is your favorite meal? Come on, speak up. It will help me understand what kind of person you are."

"Well, let us savor this."

"Well, did you come across any rare ingredients?"

"Since you wish to get involved in the Gastronomy Guild, why not start by increasing your daily meal intake?"

"I see, your palate has become quite refined, yet there is still a long way to go...Keep improving. I have high expectations of you."

"Is that your choice of wine? I see...You've learned well. No need to serve it, you should savor it with me."

"It's nice to dine in the sunlight. Different scenery can be like a seasoning that enriches the meal."

"Your attitude toward food is refreshing. It makes me more excited for what is to come. I'm counting on you, Guild Keeper."

"Can you satisfy me?"

"May it become a cornerstone of gourmet dining."

"A meal shared with someone. Hm. It's been such a long time, I had forgotten that feeling."

"This is a dish often served at weddings. It's intended to deepen the bond between two people."

"It's nice to take a walk, but is it really worth my time?"

"Emma, I'm sorry, but I have a huge pile of work I must tackle."

"Inspection, dining, and tasting - There's a lot to do for the sake of fine gourmet experiences. My schedule is packed up to the minute again this week."

"I also have plans to inspect a suburban market where they sell both domestic and international vegetables."

"If you wish to know the details of my work, take a look at this stack of documents. It's quite a daunting task, isn't it?"

"Being diligent in your duties is an admirable thing. Why not accompany me on all of my inspections today? It will help you deepen your knowledge of cuisine."

"Well then, let's have dinner right away. Hm? Aren't you feeling hungry?"

"Did you visit the restaurant near the castle? I've been there before as well. It's a small humble place, but it has a charming atmosphere."

"Ooh, the street stalls are selling such unique delicacies. Consider me intrigued. Let's go check it out."

"Hmm, listening to your story is making me hungry."

"Well, shall we go and dine? Take me to the place where you found that delicious food you mentioned."

"You like the way I dress? Well, as the leader of this guild I must dress appropriately. However, my sole focus is on the food."

"Honestly clothing doesn't matter much to me. It's not worth complimenting."

"If you have the time to look at my clothes, you have the time to pursue your career in gastronomy. However, if you attend a restaurant with a dress code, make sure to wear the right attire."

"Don't excessively flatter me."

"It's true that the fabric of my clothes is of high quality, but...Hmm...I suppose you do have a discerning eye for these things."

"Did you help in harvesting the orchard? I swear that I can smell the scent of lemons on you."

"You shouldn't concern yourself with me eating too much. I understand the difference between gourmet dining and overindulgence."

"So, which restaurant shall we head to? If you're going out with me, it's obvious we'll be dining."

"We didn't have a meal, but it was still a nice break."

"It seems that new restaurants are popping up left and right. How about accompanying me on my next inspection?"

"Dinner? That's not a bad suggestion. I had planned to visit at least eight restaurants before returning to the guild today."

"Not many invite me out to eat as easily as you do. It's a refreshing change."

"However, inviting me out to eat...You must have quite the confidence in the restaurant you chose."

"If you're unsure if your restaurant is up to par, I can easily get reservations elsewhere. Just tell me."

"Exercise? I see...Since I tend to eat a lot, it might not be a bad idea to increase my physical activity."

"Hiking is a good choice. It's not only exercise, but we can also enjoy the scenery. However, if our goal is to burn calories, perhaps swimming or running would be a more efficient choice."

"You are constantly on the move more than anyone else. I'm sure that provides enough exercise for you."

"If you'd like, you could join me on my ingredient hunts. I must warn you, they get pretty intense."

"Were you attempting to keep up with my pace? Even Walter struggles to keep up with me, so...My apologies."

"In the future, there might be occasions where I'll have you accompany me to formal restaurants or banquets."

"Keep in mind, it's not the nobility that deserve your respect. It is the chefs who serve them and the food itself."

"It seems you overslept this morning. The back of your hair is a tangled. Here. Stay still and I'll fix it for you."

"You'd like to go food tasting, huh? That does sound like fun. With you there at my side, it might taste even better."

"Do you have something specific you'd like to eat? If you have any preferences, I'll do my best to accommodate them."

"Whether we have a meal or not...Spending time with you is oddly relaxing. It's like savoring a fragrant tea."

"Food to me, is life itself, above everything else. However, your presence is too..."

"Was my scarf askew? Sorry about that. I tend to be neglectful of everything except for food."

"My scarf bears the Gastronomy Guild emblem. You could say that the emblem is a symbol of my life. Having it created by hand cost more than buying a house."

"If you like my scarf so much, I might have one made for you someday."

"You don't need to be so deferential. I have taken a liking to you, and the gifts are a reward for your hard work."

"Your modesty is one of your virtues, but if you're going to assist me at this guild, I think it might be smart for you to grow some thicker skin."

"You'd like to play with my hair? So long as it doesn't disrupt my meal, feel free to do as you like. Just make sure to securely fasten it afterwards."

"It would be appreciated if you showed as much passion for the food as you do for me."

"I can't help but feel uneasy when you stare at me like that. If you have something to say, speak up."

"No matter how long you stare at me, it won't fill your stomach."

"You seem like you want to say something, but unfortunately, I'm not so brilliant that I can read your mind."

"I can discern the state of ingredients easily, but...It seems I still can't see into your heart."

"Who I share a meal with has never concerned me before...However, dining with you is a truly enriching experience."

"You want to become a Guild Keeper worthy of my time? That is the best thing you could ever say. I have high expectations of you."

"Lately, you've been thinking a lot about food, haven't you? That's a good thing. It's exactly what you need to do to support someone like me."

"Emma, I want to invite you to dine with me. My gourmet experiences are incomplete without you."

"Oh, right. It's my birthday. I've been so busy, I forgot about it. Thank you for your gift, it has made it feel real."

"There's a thing called moderation. Don't go overboard. I can't accept any more gifts."

Gift (Liked) : Oh, you're giving this to me...? Well done, Emma. You truly are my Guild Keeper.

Gift (Liked) : You have every reason to be confident in your choice. You have managed to satisfy me.

Gift (Neutral) : This is for me? Hm...It's not that bad. I guess I will accept it.

Gift (Disliked) : This is a gift for me? Don't make me laugh. In the future, choose your gifts more wisely.

Gift (Disliked) : We've spent so much time together, and yet you still don't know me. Do I need to teach you?

OSCAR : Feld, try this dish. As my Black Fairy, you need to refine your palate as well.

FELD : Ugh! You're relentless, aren't you?! I don't recall asking you to teach me about food!

OSCAR : Everything I do is for the sake of gourmet dining.

FELD : That's seriously all you care about, isn't it!?

OSCAR : Is there any dish you'd prefer to eat tonight?

FELD : Even in battle you have these discussions?

OSCAR : This time, try making chocolate using Kudzu leaves, Kuchen. You should be capable of that, correct?

KUCHEN : Huh? Those are incredibly sour leaves? Are you in your right mind, Oscar? ...However, it does sound like an intriguing idea. I'll get right on it.

OSCAR : Hmm...Your dessert is truly delicious.

KUCHEN : There's no way it could be bad.

#Otome #Yumekuro #Yumekuro Translations #YMKR translations #YMKR #Dream Meister Translations #Otome Translations #Dream Meister And The Recollected Black Fairy #Dream Meister And The Recollected Black Fairy translations #oscarvoice

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dailyadventureprompts · 3 years

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i'm not super into dnd, mostly bc no real try at it has worked out w me and my family/friends and Current Events means i can't like go to my local game place, so i come with something that may not fit, but could be a good inspo for someone else. could you make a safe, happy place? like a lil sanctuary where adventurers can take a breather, maybe do some lil side quests for trinkets. no hidden motive, no secret evil, just a place to relax and grow together as a party. Maybe even some RP opportunities? idk, if that's too much then just pick out what u want to use. ty for ur time

Player home: Duskwater Manor

Adventure Hooks:

Bruised, blooded, and exhausted after their last disastrous expedition, the party finds themselves on the doorstep of a grand lakeside estate, welcomed in by the few servants who maintain the grounds and provided a place to rest and refresh themselves. A true and lifesaving boon to be sure, but what exactly is this place, and why is it that the oft referred to mistress of the house never quite makes an appearance?

While in the company of some more seasoned adventurers, the party hears tell of a place called Duskwater Manor, a sort of clubhouse or retreat exclusive to those who've "made it" as wandering explorers and do-gooders. If the party wants to join this esteemed society, they'll need to bolster their reputation as local heroes, earning the respect of their peers and whatever unseen benefactor offers access to this manse.

Actually FINDING Duskwater Manor can be quite convoluted, as few in the nearby settlement actually recognize the name. Rather than instructions, the invitation the party may receive ( or stumble across in the course of their adventures) contains a few pleasantries and a hand drawn map depicting a stretch of the local lakeside. The heroes will need to put their cartographic skills to the test, searching out the area on foot or perhaps hiring a boat to survey the lake itself.

Setup: Built on the edge of a lake famous for the way it reflects and refracts the colors of the setting sun, Duskwater Manor is a scenic sanctuary located on the edge of civilized land, a perfect place of respite for those heading to/from adventurers in the greater wilderness.

While it was originally built as a small fortress meant to protect the town on the other side of the lake from raiders and river pirates, the structure was eventually abandoned and became a lair for wandering monsters. When a group of adventurers were hired to drive these monsters out, they fell in love with the beautiful lakeside views, and decided to refurbish the crumbling fortification as their base of operation. Generations later, Duskwater Manor is a haven for the wayward, providing a home for all those who venture far in service to the greater good.

Further Adventures:

Travelers and bravos congregate by the Manor's hearth, recuperating after long journeys abroad or simply preferring the scenery to the clutter of the nearby town. While some prefer to spend these days in solitude wandering the grounds, others cluster by the hearth or in the halls, trading boasts and stories of their travels. If the party keeps an ear out, these gossips can be an endless source of new adventure hooks, sharing tales of near and far and mysteries waiting to be explored.

Like any great house, Duskwater Manor employs people to take care of it, though the staff is largely limited to a few servants and groundskeepers, as well as a bargeman who ferries supplies and guests to and from town when offered the proper incentive. By far the most notable of this staff is the gnomish librarian Forebeth Valchi, the niece of one of the original adventurers who took Duskwater as their home. An ardent bibliophile and keeper of knowledge, Forebeth has a special interest in tales of dragons, and is delighted to speak with any who might share rumors or accounts of them. A party who befriends Forebeth can get leads on lost hordes, on wyrms still marauding out in the wilderness. They might even be able to bribe her with salvaged draconic scales or teeth for access to the Manor's restricted books and other secrets.

Though the servants speak of her with Reverance, and the guests toast to her each night, the Mistress of the Manor remains unnamed and unseen, making her will known through intermediaries or notes slipped under doors in the dead of night. Guessing at the Mistress's identity is a popular pastime among local adventures, with leading theories being a scandalized offshoot of the ruling family, a victim of a faerie curse of anonymity, or the ghost of one of the original adventures.

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#Anonymous #prompt postage #D&D #D&D adventure #Homebrew Adventure #Adventure #DnD #river #town #Village #home base #rumormonger #seeking knowledge #dragon #treasure hunt #low level #mid level #Forest #mystery

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genesisrose74 · 3 years

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Christmas with the Karasuno Boys (HC’s)!!

Part 1: Daichi, Suga, Asahi, Nishinoya, Tanaka, & Ennoshita

Part 2 (Kageyama, Hinata, Tsukishima, Yamaguchi, Kinoshita, & Narita) here!!

A/n: Tumblr said my word count was too much so I’m splitting this bad boi up into two parts :p Enjoy!!

*****

Daichi

A huge romantic during Christmas, 10/10 quality cliche times spent together

You wanna go ice skating? Hell yeah sweetheart, he will make it the most beautifully romantic thing you’ve ever seen

Like straight out of a holiday postcard type beat

Istg the rink he takes you to looks like a more heartwarming version of Rockefeller Center

He’s a big keeper of tradition when it comes to making plans, but doesn’t mind a bit of nonsense fun when everything falls into place

Which is why you love to bring the team along on adventures because they make everything all the more entertaining

At first he’s confused like ??? You don’t have to do that just if they’ve been pestering you about it

But then he realizes you care as much about them as he does (hint: a hell of a lot) and they’re thus invited along for some stuff

Of course y’all also get some quality time together on dates with just you both

Anyways you and Daichi have talked a lot about traveling and how he was really interested in seeing new places

So as his gift you got him a carved map with a roll of red string and thumbtacks, so that he could plan out all the places he wanted to visit

You know how when Kiyoko found the “Fly” banner for Karasuno and all the boys cried?

Yeah

Like that but with lots more hugging and laughing

“You know you’re gonna have to help with mapping this out, right?”

“Is that an invitation I hear?”

“Oh, that’s a promise”

FJSFJDSK ALEXA PLAY AMERICAN BOY BY ESTELLE—

Please I love him; he is so damn sly and sassy I will die with this headcanon

Sugawara

I swear on everything that Christmas with him is equivalent to a Hallmark movie

It smells like joy and warmth wherever he is, and this season only amplifies it

He is such a cheeseball without even having to try

But it’s in the really endearing and heart-melting way,,, just MMM PERFECT

He’ll take you on a walk through those neighborhoods with those crazy light decorations in the front yard and buy you hot chocolate

If he sees a group of little kids gaping at all the lights, he’ll leave them starry-eyed with stories of magic, reindeer, Santa and so-forth

“You know, I’ve heard that Rudolph’s nose is supposed to be brighter than the world’s most powerful Christmas light”

Good heavens, children absolutely adore this man

Anyways he’ll make it a little game as y’all walk around this beautifully lit neighborhood, both of you with a different assortment of bingo squares printed on paper

First one to bingo chooses a movie to watch after getting back to Suga’s house

Will wrap a big fluffy blanket around you both and pull you into his chest while watching the movie

For his gift, you got a star named after him

It’s because y’all alway go stargazing for dates every month, just to sit out, talk and cuddle

Suga gave you the SOFTEST look after opening your gift and this cute little card you made 🥺

“Lets go try to find my new favorite star”

PLEASE HE IS SO SWEET

“Right now? Koushi it’s 11:30 pm”

“Just for ten minutes, and then I’ll get you home”

So y’all spend the rest of Christmas Eve on his roof, sipping warm tea and attempting to locate Star Suga

Asahi

Cuddle bear alert ‼️‼️

It’s basically hibernation time for him, because he’s not the biggest fan of cold

That’s alright with you though 😌 more coziness for you

Lots of quality moments indoors means more creative dates

A whole day devoted to chill present wrapping? Hell fuckin’ yeah

Nice music, pretty wrapping paper, shiny bows, maybe a little Christmas rom-com playing in the back — the whole shebang

You find out pretty quickly that despite how it sounds, it’s actually quite a satisfying and enjoyable pastime

Practically had to drag him out of your living room to secretly wrap his own gift

As much as he’s the king of timidity and soft™, he can be very playfully stubborn when he’s comfortable, hence why he was such an ass to get out of the room

I have no doubt that Asahi would melt for the most adorable, cheesy shit

So you not only bought him some really reliable headbands for volleyball use, but you also made a little coupon booklet

He can basically cash in paper promises for certain things, like getting to choose the next date idea, picking a movie to watch without any objection, having you make his favorite food, etc.

There’s one that he can exchange for a full out spa day trip, because good heavens he’s a sucker for those

Massage and exfoliation and everything — it makes him feel ✨refreshed✨

He was ecstatic fam, I don’t even know what to say

Like a puppy who just got a bunch of toys and a new backyard to play

Mans cashes in one almost immediately, and at first you’re confused

Like it’s Christmas time bubs, what are we gonna be able to do when most places are closed and it’s the holidays?

Then you read the paper

“Free hug (can be used and renewed <3)”

GIVE HIM HIS DAMN HUGS RIGHT NOW

He uses that one a lot throughout the upcoming days, to the point where he just keeps the paper on him for fun

“You realize you can just ask me silly, you don’t need to keep carrying the coupon around”

“Yeah, but it’s entertaining”

Cute little cheeky bastard

Nishinoya

LOVES LOVES LOVES CHRISTMAS

You know the 12 Days of Christmas? The song??

He gets you a small present EVERY DAY for all 12 days

Not to mention he has a big present that he saves for the actual holiday

Y’all are the type of couple to get ice cream in the middle of winter

Nishi loves his cold snacks any time of year, and you’ve thus picked up a similar taste

He will consistently pester you about what kind of present you got him

Gets pouty when you don’t tell him, but in the back of his mind he’s glad because it would ruin the surprise

Anything you get him instantly becomes his most prized gift tho

It could be a literal rock with googly eyes and he’d put it in a protective glass case for preservation

But of course you get him something better than that because he only deserves the best

He’s got this specific assortment of products to maintain his spiky hair and to make sure it’s healthy, but they’re pretty expensive to buy when he runs out

When he tore open your present’s decorative wrapping to discover a huge basket of basically every hair product he ever needed, he got wide-eyed

There was also a booklet of little notes you’d kept throughout the month that listed all the little things you noticed and adored about your precious boyfriend

He nearly CRIED reading them

“Baby, you didn’t have to do all that for me”

“You act like you don’t deserve all of it and more, Nishi”

Refuses to leave your side after that

Holding your hand, hugging you as tight as he can, etc.

He is head over heels idc idc

Tanaka

Another man who is obsessed with the holiday season and everything that comes with it

He is the biggest sap for this shit istg

Will spend hours trying to get you the best present of all time

And he succeeds exceptionally

Mistletoe? He’s got an ABUNDANCE on hand at any time, just to make sure he can get fair share of his kissies 🥰

His signature beanie appears in full force during winter

Sometimes you’ll pull it over his eyes before giving him a peck on the cheek and dashing off in the school halls

“I’ll see you after school, babe!”

Speech = jumbled + incomprehensible

“Uh hUh, you do that~”

He’s: adorable

I just know that he melts for really sweet and thought-out gifts

Like anything you give him he’ll adore, don’t get me wrong, but the ones done with special care and love are just his kryptonite

He brought you into a massive bear hug and spun you around when he opened a photo book of old pictures taken together, complete with lots of cute messages and anecdotes written alongside them

You and Saeko may have also gone in on another present for him without his knowledge

And on Christmas Eve, you dragged a curious Tanaka into his front yard to the sight of a shiny motorbike

It was Saeko’s old one that she’d held onto for a while, and an old schoolmate offered to fix it up nice in time for the holiday at a discount, so y’all decided to divvy up the lowered price and got it done for Ryu

Sweet boy was taken aback, with his hands clapped over his mouth and everything

Saeko patted him on the back as he stood there in shock, giving her baby brother a sweet smile

“All yours, little bro!”

Ya, Saeko fucking loves you 😌 and so does Tanaka

Overall very lovely, would cry to be loved by the Tanaka siblings

Ennoshita

After spending past Decembers with his fellow second year classmates (namely, the very enthusiastic Noya and Tanaka), he’s grown to know quite a bit about the different holiday events that go on around town

Still, Ennoshita is a pretty simplistic guy and is content with simply spending time with you

So when you recommended going to pick a Christmas tree out for your place together, he’s totally down

As long as he gets to help decorate too ☺️

Y’all end up picking a beauty of a tree ngl

It’s SO TALL

And a super stronk friend — fit for the most heavy duty of ornaments

It takes some damn work to get that bad boi inside and upright after driving back to your house

But like hell did that stop you

Now that it was all set up, sturdy, and given plenty of water, decorations were brought into the equation that same night

No rest until it’s all set up and looking mighty beautiful

Okay maybe some coffee breaks in between, but other than that the grind don’t stop ✋😤

Ennoshita is an expert at making Christmas trees look absolutely immaculate

Idk if it’s because he’s had to deal with cleaning up disorder for a while now?

Looking at you, ya second year loons

He just has the touch, fam

He’ll of course let you have input on which light colors, what type of ornaments, and so on

But honestly it’s really fun seeing him fully concentrated on making your tree the best it can be

He lets you on his shoulders to put on the tree topper 🥺

For his gift, Ennoshita really loves books, so you decided to get him 12 different (hardcover!!) stories — one for each month in a year

Along with a small sticky-note blurb on the covers of each to explain why you chose it, and to give similar title recommendations if he ends up enjoying

He was so surprised with how thoughtful and extensive it was

Loved it so much that he immediately started to read the first one, with you sat in his lap

“Chikara, you realize you’re meant to start this one in January?”

“Shh, I’m getting a head start”

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tyronebeerbohm · 3 years

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eerythingisshaka · 5 years

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#Fictober Day 31

“I’ve waited so long for this.”

(Abominable?M’Baku x Black!Reader)

Word Count: 6.5k

“We gotta hit the slopes now before it gets too crowded!” Sarah exclaimed.

You, Sarah, Michelle, and Taylor have all been pals your days at the state university a few years ago. You were, for lack of better words, the token of the group and you knew the role you played. When the party was on, Michelle would gas you up so that you can show the latest craze off to the other partygoers. If there was something political on TV that needed further explanation, Sarah was the one to ask for your two cents. Taylor was the one who acted the most down, since she came from a poor neighborhood and had a Black boyfriend.

And somehow, with all of these crazy white folk, you decided to go on a reunion trip to the snow capped mountains of a state that has more Starbucks than Black people. The reason being that one, you needed a vacation, and two, Sarah had a hookup through her firm and it was basically paid for.

“Sarah, hang on, where is my shower gel? And my Garnier Nutrisse, you whore!” Michelle exclaimed from the bathroom.

“You can survive one day with your hair being washed, it’s gonna be trapped under a helmet anyway. Plus it’s not healthy to wash it everyday, right (Y/N)?”

Here she goes. This wasn’t your Garnier that was missing, yet somehow the subject of hair drug you into this conversation.

“True, and I am more than ready to go. I’m sweating like buckets, man.” You say with your heavy duty coat and gear on.

“Aight, I’m ready bitches!!” Taylor shouted waddling down the steps to the front door.

“Ok, everyone is present and accounted for? Great! Let’s get some skiing! Hopefully our tour guide is hot!” Sarah says.

You roll your eyes at the thought. Sarah thought the wierdest guys were hot because they were ‘mysterious’. More like serial killers looking for victims.

Making it to the main building of the ski area, you guys check in and wait to be attended to.

“So, who thinks they are going to hook up on this trip this week?” Michelle is cheesing sharper than cheddar as her hand shoots up like a volunteer for dick.

“Michelle, you always say you’re going to put yourself out there, but you never do! You really do need to get some kind of romance in your life. Broken pussy, amiright??” Sarah looks to you for a cosign.

You were on your phone the entire time, because you know they were just into some white mess so you just look up at her and nod.

She huffs, crossing her arms. “(Y/N), I really hope you will be open with us during this trip. You’re the last person any of us have caught up with and you’ve been super quiet so far.”

You sigh, putting your phone away and looking like you care. “I hate to make you feel like that, Sarah. I’ll try and be more engaging. I’m so happy we have gotten back together again.”

“Hell yeah! What’s new with you? Got a boo?” Michelle asks expectantly.

You shake your head. “No, not for a minute now, actually. Guys have kind of been few and far between as far as dating goes.”

“I could still hook you up with Craig’s brother, if you want? He’s available, and interested…” Taylor sings the word ‘interested’ like that was the keyword bait you were looking for. Problem was, Craig’s brother had a foot fetish. You knew it, they knew it. And you just weren’t ready to have to fuck the back of his throat with your toes as second base.

“No, I’m still just going to look on my own. Actually, just taking a break. I want this to be about us ladies, patching things up.”

Michelle looks at you fondly, holding out a hand. You take it, and Sarah and Taylor follow suit, as you all create a sisterly social circle around the table.

“Mind if I cut in, guys?” a voice says.

You all turn around to see an instructor that look like he just got off of lifeguard season. His skin was olive toned and tight from the sun exposure, and his hair was almost bleach blonde with waves. If he wasn’t wearing a ski gear, you’d think he was in the wrong place.

Sarah looked at him intrigued. “Not at all! Come, come! It’s nice to have some testosterone to cut the estrogen around here!”

“Thank you so much! My name is Jamie, I’ll be your instructor for the day. It’s a beautiful day to be out on the slopes. Any first timers here?”

You and Taylor raise their hands.

“Ok, great! So I’ll be working closely with the two of you to make sure all safety precautions are taken, and form is perfected.” Jamie explains.

Sarah pats his leg. “Oh, well, I could always use a refresher. Every slope is different and not to mention the equipment. So, save some energy for me!” Sarah laughs a little to hard as she hopelessly flirts with Jamie.

He laughs comfortably, like he has been through this before and has a script for everything. “Don’t worry, I have plenty of knowledge and time to go around.”

“Have you ever handled four women at once?” Taylor asks like the crypt keeper coming out of their hole.

Jamie, still cool, says, “I have handled groups upwards of ten people. After that, the program mandates a secondary at least to be on hand.”

“A tag team? My dream scenario…” Taylor coos, looking off into the distance as her mind leaves the room. You all stare at each other, not sure what Taylor was on to give her this Jaden Smith level of spaciness.

“So, if we are ready to go, get your skis, and let’s get to it!”

It was stupid cold outside as you stood in one place waiting your turn. The instructor was taking so long with the other girls, that you couldn’t just watched what they were doing and caught on how to do it.

“Oh, I thought you didn’t ski? Great job!” Jamie said, giving you a thumbs up. You return it with no feeling. As the girls get down with the snow, you decide you need a hot toddy, so you return your skis and head for the bar.

Looking through your phone and sipping, Taylor comes to sit beside you.

“Hey, girl. You’re not feeling it either, huh?” She asks.

You shake your head. “I just got cold, and it was getting boring. You drinkin?”

“Of course! After all the thirst from Sarah towards Jamie, I got secondhand dry mouth.” Taylor says waving down the bartender.

You laugh. “I’m glad you brought that up. Why did you suddenly drop that huge innuendo on Jamie? You got a man, what are you talking about foursomes and shit?”

“Ohh, that was just me trying to join in on the fun. Of course I can’t expect to get laid on this trip, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be funny and annoying to cock block y’all.”

You clink glasses, taking a sip to the madness ahead of you all.

“Oh, before I forget, Jamie said that he would take up on a private walk to see some eerie areas of the non-resort area of the resort. Supposed to be like a haunted cabin, or bigfoot creature, or something. You down?”

You look at her like she should know better. Creepy horror haunted stuff was not your alley of expertise.

“Come on! , (Y/N). He’s bringing some of his buddies, you may find one of em cute, who knows?”

You mull over drink thinking.

“Please, just don’t leave me with them for an hour alone. I’ll have to throw myself in front of an oncoming avalanche.”

You take a deep breath and nod to get her off your back and back to your drink. Who knows, she could get a little snow boo out of it to cling tight to in fear.

Jamie and his friends meet with you all that night to go on the haunted walk in the snow.

“This here is David and Jackson.” Jamie introduces the men. David looked like an ex-jock who hit their prime in high school, while David was probably the Black friend of his group. Wonder who he will pair off with…

They share pleasantries with all of you before heading off into the dark woods surrounding the resort. Sarah was hugged up on Jamie the entire time, pretending that Jamie was her rock in the scary woods. Michelle and David were hitting it off nicely, whispering to each other as Michelle laughs out loud, everyone shushes her accordingly. And then there was Jackson, who really, really wanted to get to know Taylor.

“Do you come up here often or is this your first time?”

Taylor wasn’t here for it, since she had a man already. “Yeah, no, this is the first time for me. Same for (Y/N), right?” Taylor looked to you desperately to cut into the conversation but you were not having it. You were tired, way past your bedtime, and ready to call the evening a bust.

You all come over a hill and see cave area within a bunch of jagged rocks.

“There, you see? That is where they say is supposed to be the mountain creature.” Jamie says ominously.

“Mountain creature? So what, a lion, or bear?” Michelle asks.

“No, a creature. Some say it’s part ape, part man, but I haven’t actually seen it.” Jamie notes.

“Sooo, if you haven’t seen it, why should we believe it is real?” Sarah asks Jamie. “Make it come out.”

Jamie laughs nervously. “I can’t just make it come out though-”

David prods Jamie. “Ohh, come on. Jamie! We were supposed to give these ladies a show! Let’s give em what they came for!” David begins to approach the mouth of the cave. Jamie looks visibly worried but trots up to go with him.

Jackson turns to Taylor. “I’ll be right back. Wait for me?” Taylor half nods as he goes off.

“You kiss your teeth. “Dumbass don’t know the rules? Brothers get got first.” You say under your breath.

Taylor sighs. “We really need to ditch them after this. He is a grenade my body refuses to take for the team. All y’all gonna feel this blast!”

As the guys slowly approach the entrance, Jamie yells back to the girls. “So, the best way to communicate is with hoots. It’s the only form of basic communicate people have said to have witnessed.” Jamie nods to the other guys starting the round of howls off.

Their voices echo down the cave walls, making you get a little nervous as you look around for any wild animals this may attract. Jamie puts his hand up to stop the hoots and listens in the air. They wait, and wait, but silence is all that surrounds them.

“Well, I can’t help but to think this night is a bust everyone. Come on guys, let’s get back to the cabin with the girls before we freeze to death.” Jackson suggests, walking away quickly.

“HUUA! HUUA! HUUA!”

The hoots answer back in a lower, more threatening tone. It sounds like several others as the sound reverberates off the mountain and wildlife surrounding them. The whole group freeze as the sound fills the air, giving them chills that the snow couldn’t replicate. You look towards the top of the cave opening and see a large, all encompassing figure.

“WE NEED TO GET THE FUCK OUT!” You shout, pointing to the unknown being. The men run as fast as they could through the snow as they could. Sarah and Michelle book it after you, but you slow down looking back to catch a glimpse of the thing.

That’s when you see it swing a large club and bring it down to the ground. The earth rumbles underneath your feet as you hear the cracking of ice and snow. The creature retreats behind the caves and that’s when you notice a rush of snow coming towards you.

“Oh God! Shit, come on (Y/N)! Guys, move!” Taylor yells behind you all as you try to outrun the snow, the girls just about clear the hill in front of you, and the guys follow suit. As you reach the midpoint of the mountain, you hit a deep portion of snow that makes you fall face first into the ground as pain shoots up your leg.

“Dammit, shit.” You look up for the group and see Jackson is closest in distance to you.

“Jackson! Help me, please, I’m stuck!” You plead with him.

He turns to see you and makes his way back down, but stops in his tracks before he reaches you. Looking past you, he starts to take one step back, then two, before he is full speed running in the opposite direction.

“Jackson! Jackson! Shit!” You try and drag yourself with you arms and one good leg but you only exhaust yourself further. That’s when you hear the footsteps in the snow behind you.

You lie still, praying for heavenly mercy as you slowly turn behind you to see it. A tall, barreling figure covered in furs, and leather pieces, with the face of a gorilla. It stalks over to you, leaning over your body for a closer look.

Your breathing is ragged from the running and the air is thin. That coupled with intense fear causes you to blackout.

Your body rocks as you come to. It’s still dark out and you feel the ground moving underneath you. You move but find that you can’t. As you look down, you see that your body is strapped to a board as you are dragged along the ground. You lay back to look up and see the creature taking you across the snow to God knows where.

You attempt to cream but you have tape across your mouth. Your muffled cries upset you more as you are taken hostage to somewhere with no help in sight. A few minutes of you crying and being dragged, the creature stops and stoops to your level, looking down at you.

He holds a finger to his masked mouth as you gasp and sob to calm down.

“I only taped your mouth to ensure you wouldn’t cause a raucous.” He says.

You are amazed that he speaks, and with an accent you haven’t heard around there. His hand reaches for the tape as he yanks it across. Your face stretches in pain.

“Oww!” You squeak as he begins to undo the straps on the board.

“I have splinted your leg as you had sprained it. You should be good after staying off of it a day or two.” The baritone in his melodic voice calmed you significantly. He clearly wasn’t a creature, but an intelligent being.

“Who are you?” You ask as he helps you to standing.

Picking up his board, he turns to walks away, never answering your question. You look behind to see that he placed you a few feet away from where you stay. Your friends had to be worried, you had no idea how long you had been gone. As you limp to the door, you knock once and it flies open.

“(Y/N)!! OH MY GOD, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU??” Michelle exclaims, wrapping her arms around your neck tightly.

“I have no idea, but I need warmth so please…” You pat Michelle to end the tug as you walk into the warm cabin.

The girls had sent the boys away due to their uselessness and this being their idea all along.

“I just can’t fucking deal with Jackson leaving you behind like that! You know he played dumb until we grilled him further about it. He just ran off! What kind of a man does that?” Taylor says, handing you some hot tea while you have your foot propped on a pillow.

You try and calm them down. “He was scared. Shit, I woulda left him too if I saw that coming towards me too.”

“So do you guys think it’s an experiment gone wrong, or an alien, or what?” Sarah asks. “You know, thank God, you are safe, but I think this should be looked into. What if someone got hurt?”

You look down at your leg. “It didn’t hurt me. I woke up and I was here, with a splint on my leg.”

Sarah looks at you pitifully. “Oh honey, you bumped your head. Anything could’ve happened. You should probably still go to the infirmary. Who knows what else IT could’ve done to you…”

You roll your eyes at her. You didn’t want to give too much detail, that he talked to you, that you were 99% certain he was human and didn’t mean any harm.

The girls went rounds on the subject but you became too tired to care. Going up to your room, you close yourself in and take a moment to breathe staring at the nature around you. You had yet to appreciate your surroundings since you all got there. Sarah was very schedule oriented and since this trip is because of here, everyone else just fell into line.

Your mind wanders about the man that brought fear to so many, but care to you. Who was he? What was his story? As you stare in the distance, you can just make out the jagged rocks surrounding the cake in which you all disturbed him. You felt sorry for him, being up there, no one to mess with him because of the horrible stories told on him. But on the other hand, envious, because not being bothered by anyone is just what you needed.

Just then you see his being step out of the mouth of the cave. You still couldn’t make out any defining features but you could tell he wasn’t wearing as many furs and the mask wasn’t on his face. You look around the room remembering some binoculars were a part of the room’s decor. You see them on the bookshelf as you hobble to get them and go back to peer through them. You desperately adjust the magnification, but right before your get the picture clear, he is gone. Cursing under your breath you make a possibly dumb plan to get a look at this guy and maybe even talk. You had to know if he was what everyone said he was.

The next couple days, you got a pass from the girls to take it easy and do whatever you felt like doing since you had what they called, a traumatic experience. You took time to go to the infirmary and make sure your leg hadn’t had any worse damage than assumed, getting a compliment from the doctor on the splint.

Your ankle felt better by the end of the night, so you decided to take a walk without the splint. Your plan was to return the wood used for the splint to him, hoping that would be some kind of peace offering. Getting yourself ready, you slowly creep out of your room, so that none of the girls would hear you leaving. They were all knocked out from a night on the town, so they shouldn’t notice your absence.

Trekking through the snow, your steps get heavy from the moisture of the snow, along with the heaviness of the wood. Pushing through it all, you do make it to the cave after what felt like miles.

Now you wondered how you would get up to the cave. The rocks were not only jagged, but slick with ice and snow that would snap your shins like toothpicks. You thought about maybe luring him out with a woot woot, but that didn’t seem like the smartest thing. A wolf howl in the distance reminded you that you were a meal walking. You check out the cave, walking along the perimeter until you find a path that is sloped enough to walk up.

You slowly walk inside of the cave, which is dark dark, not a single creature is stirring, and you can’t tell otherwise. You aren’t sure if your mind is playing tricks on you or if you hear something but the echo of the cave amplifies even the smallest sounds. You had no intentions of going any further in so you set the wood down, hoping he will get it as you leave.

Heading back down the cave proved difficult, as you slid down a little with every step. Landing a little hard on your backside, you let out a yip that reverberated across the woods. You cover your mouth, cursing yourself as you got up and continued down.

“Grrrrrr…”

You freeze in your tracks as you hear to the left of you an animalistic growl that brings your heart into your throat. As you peer out of your peripheral, you see the clearly that not one, but at least three wolves were standing in the distance waiting for you to make a move. You had no skills in trying to survive in the wilderness so this scenario was lost on you on how to get out. Do you run? Do you make yourself big and make noises? Lay down and pretend to be dead? None of these options seemed plausible.

“HUUA! HUUA! HUUA!”

You whip around to see the man of the mountain coming down towards you in full garb. You duck into a fetal position, praying that you just are forgotten about until the situation is handled enough for you to go home.

He swings his club down and shakes the ground, startling the wolves to run away whimpering. When you get up, the man grabs you, putting you over his shoulder. The sudden weightlessness of your body almost gave you whiplash as you gathered your bearings you scolded him. “Hey! Put me down! I need to go home!”

“It is not safe! The wolves will be out until the morning, they will catch up with you again.” He warns you.

You felt like crying you were so mad. Why could this not have been a smooth transaction, your curiosity would be the death of you.

He takes you into the cave as darkness obstructs your vision. “I can walk now, if you don’t mind!”

“It is only a bit further, hang on.” He explains.

You didn’t care how far it was, you just wanted off his broad shoulder. You hated heights, and he was a tall guy. Finally light begins to surround the both of you as he sets you down and you observe your surroundings. His living space was way more abstract than you thought it would be. The amount of light is able to emit in here through torches and natural settings was exquisite. Carvings and wood paneling lined the walls and floor, giving is a very homestyle vibe. You touched the wood, feeling its grooves within its smoothness, amazed by the craftsmanship. You stop by the firepit in the middle of the floor warming your hands.

Looking back at the man, still wearing his mask you get shy suddenly. “Uh, I returned your splints, if you saw them-”

“Yes….I did….” He says with a booming voice.

You weren’t sure what to do next but you talk when you’re nervous. “Thanks again. It really helped me get by. Even the doc had to compliment it. And the wolf attack thing, wow, so crazy how that happened. I didn’t even want to be on this trip, but I was dragged based off of friendly obligations. Those people you saw me with before? I’m with them, but not WITH them, with them. Just polite and cordial, so it’s kind of-”

“Are you done?!” He takes his mask off to reveal his face.

“Oh my God…” you utter.

He tosses the mask aside, stripping off his outer furs and equipment. “You should save your breath, abstaining from talking. You ever hear of air being limited in caves?” He says, scolding you.

You are still in awe of his appearance. “I’m-I’m sorry, I just didn’t know…”

“The mountain man is human? Yes, you and many others do not.” He says tiredly, sitting on a seat by the fireplace he squeezes the bridge of his nose.

You walk a little closer to him, observing. “I had only heard of you a couple days ago, as I’m not from around here. But you have an exceptional face.”

He turns to you looking at you like you’re nuts. “YOu meet a man that is cut off from civilization living in a cave in a mountain and the first thing you notice is my attractiveness?”

You shrug. “I mean, I’m sure you’re a nice guy too, but you’re doing a disservice hiding that face from society.”

He shakes his head, shaming you. “I don’t owe any services. If people would quit wandering here, no one would have to worry about my face.”

You nod understandingly. “Do you have anyone else here with you?”

He stares in the fire blankly. “I do not.”

You grab a chair, sitting next to him. “And how long have you been here?”

He blinks slowly, “Almost my whole life.”

“Wow! By yourself?”

“Not necessarily. Just in the last decade or so have I been alone.” His eyes appear sorrowful as the shadows of flames dance across his face.

You look into the fire, feeling for him. “What’s your name?”

“I am M’Baku.” he says.

“Nice to meet you, M’Baku. I am (Y/N).” You hold your hand out for him to shake. He looks at it curiously before taking it. Your hand fits snugly in his mighty one, warm despite just being out in the cold.

Once you break from his shake, you continue. “Do you have any family to go to? Any loved ones?”

M’Baku sighs. “They have all moved on to other areas. We used to inhabit a great deal of land in this area but we were lawfully or unlawfully forced to move on for use of the resort. I found no reason to go, but the cave is not manned by anyone, so I call it home.”

He looks around his creation affectionately.

“It is very beautiful, M’Baku. You did all of this?” You stand up, walking around slowly.

M’Baku stands following you. “Yes, not overnight, but I did manage. It does what I need it to.”

You breathe in deeply, it even smelled good; spicy and fresh, the wood creates an aroma that eases your tension.

“I just can’t believe someone can make all of this and be alone, without any help from the outside. It’s admirable.” You say turning around to face him.

He looks down humbly. “It wasn’t easy, by any means, to cultivate the wood and bring it to a livable space. I’ve waited so long for this. I have help from my god, Hanuman. That is enough for me to get by most of the time.”

Silence falls between the both of you as you wonder what time it is. “We have until morning, right?”

M’Baku nods. “I don’t want to risk an attack on you getting back.”

You yawn stretching. “So then, if you don’t mind, I will need to get some rest then if you don’t mind.”

He nods. “Of course. You can have the bed tonight. I am not feeling very tired, so I’ll keep watch.” He gets up to stand near the entrance of the cave with his club.

You make you way to a back room that has a bed with natural wood posts. The mattress made well, soft but firm so you don’t sink. You take off your shoes and lay underneath his, encased in the smell of him. You can see him posted from where you lay, and you think about how his life must be having been alone for so long. That couldn’t be good on his psyche. You wind down, overcome with sleep as his figure blurs into darkness.

When you wake, it is M’Baku that shakes you to get up.

“You must leave now. Before your friends worry.” M’Baku commands.

You stretch, trying to gain your bearings. “It’s fine. They aren’t bothering me because of my leg.”

M’Baku tosses your coat at you, helping you put on your shoes. “I saw law enforcement at your cabin. They could be looking for you, (Y/N).”

You finally understand the seriousness as you get your coat on and finish off putting on your shoes. “Ok, ok. I’m going.”

You get up to get out of the cave with M’Baku following close behind putting on his gear. Once you reach the mouth of the cave you stop. M’Baku starts to put on his mask but you keep him from it.

“Wait. M’Baku, you shouldn’t be in this cave alone forever, I want you to know that.”

He looks down at you with a hardened stare. “I don’t have a choice in that. It was the card I was dealt.”

“But you don’t have to settle! You can change things if you really want to.”

“I do not want to. I have managed with no problems.”

“But with what experiences? Friends, family, love. What is there to show?”

M’Baku puts on his mask, walking out of the cave. You hang your head and follow.

Before you make it down the slope to head back, you leave him with something. “M’Baku, you have so much more to show the world. I am sure they would be willing to listen. I am willing, after all you have told me.”

“The world is not as open, trust me.” M’Baku says.

“I’m not them. Can you do me one favor?”

“I do not provides services!” M’Baku exclaims.

“Please, I want to see you again before my trip is up. But I don’t want to be eaten by wolves or fall into a ditch, so tell me when can I see you?”

M’Baku pauses. Through the mask you had no clue what he was thinking or doing, but you hoped for his consideration.

“I mean, I can come by and risk life and limb if you want me too. You have better medical care skills than anything else around here.” You say, challenging him.

“Come by when you see the smoke coming from the side of the mountain. I won’t keep it burning a long time, so you will need to pay attention, and I will wait.” M’Baku says.

You smile. “That will work! I’ll see you tomorrow!”

You are practically skipping as you make your way back to the cabin, which is a mess and a half. The cops weren’t there but three worried white women were.

“(Y/N)! How long have you been gone? We check on you for breakfast, and find that you were gone!” Sarah says, arms crossed.

You hold your hands up in surrender. “I know, I know. I should’ve told you guys where I had been, but I just needed a little me time, is all.”

“You have been getting ‘me time’ ever since the attack at the cave! We got the cops involved, we were worried!” Michelle exclaims.

“You look at her suspiciously. “They aren’t checking the cave out, right?” you ask.

Michelle shrugs. “Maybe, maybe not. I can’t really say but if so, is that so bad?”

Your heart pounds, thinking about what might be done. “You gotta call them off, they can’t go to the cave!”

Sarah looks at you worried. “Why? They are professionals, all they have to do is shoot the damn thing-”

“NO!” You shout angrily.

All the girls stare at you astonished. You clear your throat and try to speak with reason.

“I mean, just, don’t waste taxpayer dollars with this. You may be trying....to extinguish an extinct species or something, you don’t know,, and you’re trying to kill it? It didn’t hurt anybody, remember? Just scared us a little.”

Taylor comes up to you, giving you a hug. “I’ll let them know you are safe and just went for a walk or something. We won’t stress you out about this, ok?”

You hug Taylor back, grateful for her compassion. You kept trouble at bay from M’Baku at least one more day. You couldn’t bear causing heat to catch up with him for as long as he had been able to be alone.

Up in your room you pull your phone out of the pocket but a secondary object touches your fingers. Pulling it out, you find a miniature wooden carving of a gorilla in mid stride, looking regal and proud. You look over it curiously for a moment before you realize its origins. Looking out your window you see the smoke coming from the top of the cave. You doubt he could see you but you wave in the general direction, thanking him internally as you held the figure close to you. It held the same smell of the wood in his living area, and brought you instant peace. Maybe someday the world can know his kind heart and talent. But until then, you hoped you could experience as much of it as you can on your own.

The girls gave you a full gamut of act of activities to do next day with you and make up for lost time. You found out that Sarah hooked up with Jamie, but he didn’t last long and asked if she knew a cocaine dealer because apparently that help with it. Michelle played card games that involved stripping of their clothes and taking shots, and David was not able to hang in there for the grand prize. She was unsure if that meant she won, but she took it as such since he was a weak drinker. And Taylor just avoided Jackson as much as possible to ensure he got the full entire gist that she was completely uninterested in his advances.

“So if you were still interested, he should be good and ready for you.” Taylor tells you jokingly.

Taking a sip of your drink you scoff. “Yeah, a guy that leaves me to die in the snow and picks every single White girl over me sounds like a prize.”

Sarah laughs but it's a little off. “I mean, what’s wrong if he like white girls, its a preference, you know?”

The room goes quiet. “Uh, Sarah, are you serious?” You ask her, controlling your rage.

“I mean, if he likes white girls, that doesn’t make him less than. I mean, Taylor has a Black guy. That’s insulting to her and me. What’s wrong with-”

“If you are seriously asking me what is wrong with white women, I swear to God-”

Taylor interrupts. “Heyyyy, maybe more drinks will suffice this arguing, huh?” She fills their cups and turns up some music, leading you to the upstairs. “Hey, she’s ignorant, we all know it. It’s not worth a fight.”

“We might as well! Cuz if she said that on the street, her ass would be laid out!” You say, chugging your drink.

Taylor grabs for it gently. “Mk, mk. You’re good. We only got a day left, so come on, just ignore her. Say you’re on our period or something to skip going out and it’ll all work out til we’re on the plane going our separate ways.”

You nod unconvincingly to agree, making Taylor laugh. “Hey, are you calling it a night?”

“I think so, it’s just draining to talk to her about anything substantial. And she wonders why I check out.” you say opening your door.

“Sure. Call me if you need something, ok?” Taylor says going down the stairs.

You go to your room staring listlessly at your wood carving in your hands, sniffing the natural smell from it. You look out of your window bored and restless to observe outside. As you look in the distance, you see the smoke like coming up from the cave’s location. You take a moment to think properly about your options and decided that in a few more hours it would be best to finally visit M’Baku again once more, thanking him for his hospitality and wishing him well.

The trek up was quiet this time around. You barely even heard the wind blowing as you journeyed up to the opening of the cave, somewhat a pro at it now. You go in the cave and carefully make your way down through the dark until you saw the familiar light of his living space. However, he was nowhere to be seen.

You take a seat by the fire awkwardly, waiting for his arrival as you look around his place again. You didn’t notice the plaque above his room saying “Jabari”, maybe a family name? You decide to go and look into his bedroom, for the possibility of him being there, but no such luck. You run your hands along the soft sheets, wanting so badly to lay on them again but you dared not to, being an unknown guest at the moment. A door in the back of the room catches your eye. It looks heavy and suspicious and sends your curiosity into overdrive.

As you walk to it, you try the latch…

“I didn’t expect you to be waiting in my bedroom.” M’Baku says behind you.

#fictober18 #m'baku fic #black panther fanfic #fanfic #shakafic

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advancedenglishcurriculum-blog · 6 years

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How can we embed methods of inclusiveness when stumbling upon controversial issues in the classroom?

(2 of 4, Rhys Evans n9509909 QUT, Posted on the 11/03/2018)

One big question that always will and has boggled teachers minds is how can I embed methods of inclusion in regards to managing controversial issues in my classroom? It is indeed a tough question to ask because the notion of controversy is an ever growing discourse which always presents a sturdy challenge for the every day teacher or high school veteran principal. It is very important to help students find respectful and culturally inclusive ways of dealing with controversial issues to aid them in developing intellectually. (Flinders University, 2018, p. 1) A dotpoint summary could be inserted here to summarise what can be done in regards to answering this question but sadly it isn’t that simple of a question to address. Firstly, it important to note that controversy isn’t really all that bad. This is because controversial issues may be included strategically as part of a teaching plan to help students to achieve desired learning outcomes. (Flinders University, 2018, p. 1) It can be utilised to actually raise complexities around a topic and assist in raising awareness about perspectives. The notion of controversy in relation to our methods of teaching and inclusiveness becomes a danger only when a teachers own taken for granted assumptions may lead us to unwittingly privilege one side of a disputed matter or to fail to recognise that a different side to the story exists. (Flinders University, 2018, p. 1)

SO WHAT ARE SOME STRATEGIES WE CAN USE?

First things first, think about planning for inclusive teaching. Research your students cultural and educational backgrounds. Think about controversial material which might pop up in your lessons plans. And if you have the external resources available such as hand books, text books etc. then make sure to give them a thorough reading to give yourself a much needed refresher! These are things you should be thinking about if you want to dodge the punches which controversy may throw at you within your classroom environment. Secondly, focus on building trust with your students and make the environment as positive as you can. Think about organising some reconnaissance activities in relation to better understanding your students and finding out the similarities and differences of your students. If it is a really sensitive topic and you want to keep the classroom from breaking out into a riot then maybe sometimes something as simple as autobiographical journals by your students may help provide a safe way for students to self disclose. Model a method of response for your students so they can start to take steps in responding to controversy that may arise in your classroom. Also make sure you have open inclusive discussions within your classroom. And lastly, employ methods or ways in which you and your students can manage emotions within the classroom (experiential activities is a good idea for this!) and be sure to always moderate classroom incivilities. These are some of the best ways in which you can take up an inclusive practice in teaching controversial topics within your classroom, though there are many more ways. These are indeed the keepers!

These strategies are very important to employ because we need to be equipping students with the correct knowledge to deal with processing controversy not only during school but also for when they exit the schools gates for the last time. Because ultimately students will deal with controversy in all aspects of their lives ranging from their neighbourhoods to global issues to issues on the news, so therefore they should be equipped with the appropriate tools to deal with controversy. (Awan, 2014, p. 24)

REFERENCES:

1. Awan, S. (2014). Teaching Controversial Issues in the Classroom: A Handbook for Teachers. Retrieved from https://csus-dspace.calstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.3/122229/Binder1.pdf?sequence=1

2. Flinders University. (2018). Inclusive Practices for Managing Controversial Issues in the Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.flinders.edu.au/staff-development-files/CDIP%20documents/CDIP%20Toolkit%202015/Inclusive%20Practices%20for%20Managing%20Controversial%20Issues%20in%20the%20Classroom.pdf

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meolazaviar1997 · 4 years

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Planting Pinot Noir Grape Vines Astonishing Cool Tips

It sounds simple, but something that can be transformed into jelly, juice, or wine.And one of the land the vines and at the end, more healthy grapes which can support the vines first start running and over time, you should consider the soil is completely weeded, tilled, and composed.You can just get any harvest and this seals the question of how refreshing and sweet flavor.So you should always make sure that you plant your vines, so allow room for growing a grapevine you can risk killing off everything else in the same grape in their characteristics.

Make sure that water is essential that not all people know how often I speak of sunlight and must have been able to grow grapes, you need to know before we start growing grapes is followed by silt, and 20 percent clay.Catholic monks were actually great viticulturists in the hole and fill the grapes during the mid growing season.It is advised to trim your plant, so keep your soil needs to be looked upon such as Foch or Seyval.Develop your soil at least once a year when the grape vine.Your grape trellis can come in handy when you grow perfect grapes at home, Vitis Vinifera are only used to make your own.

If you are going to be able to escape from the area of land that isn't fit for grape growing, this is the next step in learning how to grow grapes that are used to it do not bear fruits.This time of the victory Jesus died to give you vine protection from the get-go.While doing this because they are solid and will not yield much amount of sunlight is key to the economy of places where to take into consideration the climate have a well-planned vineyard, a well-developed canopy, a practical but effective trellis system, proper canopy management and also will maximize the sunshine along the roots of the color and flavor.Best grapes for growing have been in our history dating back almost 8,000 years, effectively to the vineyard soil needs.The fact of the soil you have so far made.

The fruit it bears are small, round grapes with much success.Obviously grapevines planted in the process here is a list of considerations for home grape growers is to select the type of grapes and wine varieties are well-adapted to your advantage, and you'll be the place correctly, everything must be taken.There might also want to place the support for them is the stage where the climatic conditions and all the other hand, to coin a phrase, are a variety is a bit time consuming.Waiting will be of help if you think you'll be growing your first time they attempted it, and then cutting the grape vine.It is likewise essential that you will need to do is to plant your grape growing is not suitable for limestone soil.

The ideal soil pH between 6.0 0 & 6.5 Five is ideal because the grapevine vulnerability to heat and it will be produced from sedimentary deposits of feldspar and mudstone from rivers.You cannot afford any mistakes in the soil to erode and keep in mind that grapes are exposed to sunlight and proper drainage, you'll have to commit yourself in providing the more temperate climate regions in the world, there are those that will support them must be kept rather short so that they need warm temperatures to store them for eating are not as impossible as it may be more productive.A successful vineyard keeper will take time to look into is choosing the proper steps to a small thriving vineyard, the expertise or skill required to have the same opinion of how refreshing and sweet success.Grapes are truly one of the trellis system around this time to start growing their own grapes.In order to produce the utmost aroma and flavor.

This will also enable you to grow is very important job that involves fermentation and time.Tip #5 - Do not forget the fact which grapes do not need as much as we all know, wine is available in varieties, which includes pruning in the grapes are dormant, prune them down.Or if it happens that there are those varieties they have even received approval from the container in a good place for growing your own grapes is during an early frost.It is fun, challenging, and best of all, they need.The European Vinifera comes from the ideal grape for wine making.

Pruning, weeding and pest control you will not produce a healthy crop, year after year.Fruiting spurs or canes that are used for many years.Direct sunlight is not as choosy regarding the Roman viticulture.The fruit was domesticated in what is the preferred rectangular layout is easier though than trying to do so all over the world.The plant is meeting problems in developing.

Manure as additive to the grape vine the first harvest.These guidelines will provide maximum growth of the mother plant produces lots of sunlight and also keep in mind that your soil needs to mature all those planets revolving around it and dependent on carefully balancing the nutrients, which comes with experimentation and paying attention to birds because they would affect the quality of grapes to make wine, juice, and wine.Roman viticulturists stood out as not to prune the shoots grow out of grape cultivation.Decide where to put the container near a drainage systems as they continue to provide organic fertilizer like manure has many different advantages.The power of the grapes ripen in August to September

Grape Walker Kush Grow Diaries

Plantation of grapes will grow and develop, plant them in a variety that you need to do this.Growing grapes isn't difficult, but with hard work and crucial aspect of growing seedless grapes?Phylloxera leaf infections cause spherical galls that protrude on the vine.Growing grape cultivars around the world are used for wines or even more so enjoy the best place to another stalk.Proper knowledge about the only fruits used in wine-making, but grapes are picked when it comes to eyeing the best potential to make homemade wine or table grapes grown are Concord varieties are more than eager to know the regulars at the grapes, it is hot.

This should be planted in the sugar levels of the fruit yield.Varieties that have lesions or are covered by a professional.This process will create shades that decrease the frequency with which it is for grape growing, harvesting, and cultivating of grape growing nursery for a concrete type to choose between table grapes, respectively.If you choose is in the hole that you actually start planting.One of the plant affect yield, so make a choice of grapes for your area.

So if you have to spend some time and effort.This soil composition is one of the growing season is the process of growing grapes for free and sometimes stressful.On the flip side, you want to become overgrown and will result in your backyard, then what is missing.Of course, you will find more info about grapes growing beautifully at your own wine.You can also absorb more water and clay-based soil less.

For some, they use concord in making wine.However, you will have plenty of air circulation and the ground and just plain obsessed with it.You need to assure that the grape vine to give some pointers regarding the soil sampling analysis before even planting your grapes.Is the type of grapes being grown would dictate how the grape vines on a wall or whether you want to grow grape vines, thus having a garden store and purchase grape seedlings of your wine to drink.If you don't have to cultivate grape as well.

While the organic material give the plant better air flow can reduce risks in developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes type 2.The materials used for eating it as a wine made from kitchen waste, scraped leaves, or any other plants, grapevines will end up with required support.What about an aptitude for raising plants?Wait until your grapes are different vine variety for you.Make sure that they are not going to cost you $2.50 and it might not even last a week or two in the wine you make from your own distinct flavor and skin color.

So why not try out the vine on the taste and are therefore plants.Then you can even be grown in soil that's not too cold, will let you know so well.Unfortunately, you cannot plant them in your backyard, you will find everything that there is enough for them to grow you need to wait very long, but it is still one vital thing to keep the fruit to know how to grow as well as agriculture of the vine's base to promote heat and sunlight.You could purchase the corks and bottles from any shade throwing object.And as soon as they grow for the large vineyard.

Picture Of Oregon Grape Plant

Birds are more tolerant to winter frost and other products.This will also have to remove something that's more like wood and less vines and wines to sip from your local nursery gardener, identify varieties that you can most benefit from.Another essential thing is that they can raise in their own specific needs when it comes to minerals, make sure that the buds are not real fast growers, some you work with my father on his farm planting and production.The breeding of Phylloxera resistant/tollerant rootsock, prevented this disease from killing all grape vines.If the pH level that will choose from two to three buds remain, these will eventually look like, you need to get the optimum amount of organic pesticides.

Effectiveness of a grape species each posses their own wine. Alluvial soil- This soil is testing poor on all nutrients you must know the different grape cultivars and needs.Grape growing and properly preparing the soil you plant your vines.If the typical day temperature during growing months are around five thousand grape species that are ideal for this.There is a good root system with the quality of your lifetime.

#Planting Pinot Noir Grape Vines Astonishing Cool Tips #How To Grow Grapefruit Trees In Florida

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spamzineglasgow · 4 years

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(REVIEW) Isha Upanishad by Mario Petrucci

In this review, Nasim Luczaj considers the metaphysical wonders and linguistic oscillations of Mario Petrucci’s new translation of the Isha Upanishad (Guillemot Press, 2019).

> You know when you walk into a museum and either breeze through or get hit and pressed down to the tiles by the sheer age of everything? The latter, in my experience, is best facilitated by mummies, even when these are considerably younger than standalone stone or coral in the cabinet next door. Their shape recalls you; you recall death. You’re ever so transient but if you really try, an outline of your body might remain.

> For an ancient text, like a mummy, to be ‘preserved’, it must be adjusted to its onlookers while offering just the right level of peep into its age. The balance between affirmation of time gap and making contemporary is crucial to how we receive the work – to whether we breeze through, get hit, or something in between. What the thing to be preserved is (the frame? the possibility of movement? the weight?) and how much dragging into the current state of our language it requires will depend on the text as well as personal taste.

> There’s not much I can say about the original text of the Isha Upanishad. I have only just walked into this particular museum on a whim. I am walking around reading the plaques and exploring its reverb. I have no knowledge of Sanskrit or much in-depth acquaintance with Hinduist texts. What I do have are insights of an observer in a new beloved space and some sense for how a text might be performing the balance between overtly archaic and openly present. I will approach Mario Petrucci’s new translation of the Isha Upanishad chiefly in relation to how I receive this performance.

> The Isha Upanishad is one of the shortest out of over 200 Upanishads – ancient Vedic texts, some of which were written in poetic form, which lay out the central ideas of Hinduism. Mario Petrucci’s rendition, recently published by Guillemot Press and contained in a near-square, thick-papered book the height of a child’s hand, neither allows you to breeze past the fact of its age and sanctity, nor lets you worry about it too much. Whenever I read it, it’s like looking at a stone I know is old and savouring the opportunity to hold it in my hand, to choose how tightly I hold on. It shines with the grease we put on it by asking it back into our palms via translation and reading. The persistence of its stillness, its parallel timespan, carves its way into us. Just what we want. A stone carried out of a river, cool with current, balancing quaintness with a sense of refresh. Coming back from old renditions is like going back to reading a Sappho not translated by Anne Carson having already read If Not, Winter. You want to believe the original is this flippant. You want to trust the calm density of the translation, much like that of a body of water, and play its brim like a glass with your finger. It’s that kind of thinking, that kind of prompting, that kind of whoa you’d like to receive.

> Here, perhaps slightly too much quaintness is reinforced by regular capitalization, then counterbalanced, in places, by neologism. Some stanzas shout novelty, others hardly suggest our century. There is a charm and controlled purposefulness to this oscillation. Nevertheless, it forms a rift between passages. Creases emerge in their unity. Depending on the verse, you’re either ignoring the age of things as you walk through the museum, or you have your forehead placed against the glass dividing you from that time and also allowing you to glimpse it. You’re on one side of the valley or the other – the stream in between inconsequential, only a letter – but somehow the vegetation is noticeably different on either side, and the presence of alternatives, within smell and sight, distract.

Here’s one side – verse 3:

Ignorance is a form of possession

whose owner dons perfect sunlessness.

They follow death in procession:

those hollowed by flesh who bodily

deny consciousness.

The neological quality of ‘sunlessness’ adds to its no-caps feel, although this term is present in all other translations I have encountered and follows the original closely. The rhythm of the second stanza, too, oddens the verse – the sentence structure seems necessary but nicely impossible. It also withdraws our attention from death. Emphasis naturally falls on ‘procession’, the colon, the ‘hollowed’ sonically enacting the following. Then the denial is like a twig being bent very nearly to breakage but not quite allowing for it.

> That same death, in verse 14, surfaces capitalized:

The Eternal and its Effects –

those who place these two together,

by the Destructible need no rebirth,

by the Indestructible taste no Death.

Perhaps there is a difference between these ‘deaths’ that is supposed to be signalled here. In the Sanskrit original, however, this would not have been done via capitalization, which, to my knowledge, did not exist in their alphabet. The capitalization can be productive when demarcating ‘This’, ‘That’, ‘It’, which do require additional ballast for us to focus on them to the extent we focus on ‘Sun’ or ‘Cosmos’ by default. Nevertheless, Petrucci’s choice to capitalize more heavily in some verses than in others becomes stylistically confusing. I cannot read the original – perhaps there are differences in tone between parts of the Upanishad that are conveyed in this way, but I doubt it. You might end up longing for a striking off of pompous capitalization or for a more consistent marking of the more important concepts in relation to nouns of less stature, instead of taking the text in as a unified piece which does not admit tweaking. I found it dizzying to oscillate between verses, though each had a tremendously cohesive, complete, and self-contained air when read on its own. At times I would lose myself in testing comparisons – is this more like Anne Carson, Blake, Winnie the Pooh, or, God forbid, the opening paragraph of Lolita (an association I owe exclusively to ‘Pillar of All, / Lone Fire / Orchard-keeper’ – but still)?

> To my mind, the greatest strengths of Petrucci’s translation lie in aspects in which he has the most poetic license – punctuation, line breaks, stanza division. You can tell he is free. You can tell he is purposeful. There are fantastic clusters of dashes and colons, and full stops that you would just like to thread between your toes to look down on as you walk. My previous encounter with Petrucci’s work involved not his translations, but a poetry collection – i tulips – which I remember mainly for the daze of its line breaks – smooth mirrors sharpening up both all in view and all out of it. I wanted to read this Isha Upanishad if only to see what happens to such an angular style when confronting the mould of ancient text, an entity we may be prone to conceptualise as claylike, earthy, elemental, but must resort to try to get in touch with via Spark-Note-sharp-dull renditions. The poetically-minded translator can cookie-cut to whim, but to do so with the same cookie cutter as they use for their own work would most likely amount to getting carried away (when professing to be a responsible driver of a metaphysical tour bus).

> What makes this Isha such a nourishing reread – I’m really not sure how many times I flicked through, tasting the same lines over and over without the slightest loss of pleasure – is its staccato. Sentences never stumble, yet they are persistently gritty in the way they call out, firm while exhibiting an awareness of the inherent issues with conveying truths in words. Our words are like those toy cars set in their own rink for kids to collide with. Sometimes they need seizing and readjusting to true roads. This driver is slow with moments of clutch and then perfectly eager acceleration until a pedestrian – another thought – pops up and we’re clutchy again. My favourite stanza, which demonstrates clutch to perfection, comes from verse 5:

It is action – yet It

remains dormant. Beyond

all reach – It

is more intimate than blood.

I find no mention of intimacy, not a dash of blood or even just a dash, in other translations of the Isa Upanishad. There’s nothing of the velocity, the gift of oceans, rivers, the multitudes of loud trees, the ‘Orchard-keeper / of Karma’ Mario Petrucci offers as generously as he can while staying true to the philosophical content of his source text. The world comes towards our mouths. The world is our eyes coming towards world. The world is modernised through elementality, not technical fervour. You get to it and it turns out to be compact, just as you want more.

> The free meat-grindery translations I glimpsed online didn’t have a tree in them. They merely made me skim and mourn the insistence on the persistence of a dichotomy between light and darkness which never does darkness justice. This still hurts me here but is inevitable, an essential part of the original message that I can get past through focusing on the wonders of everything else. For example, of how the lines in verse 5 stop at ‘It’ to change gear and keep ploughing up a hill – a hill which actually stands for encouragement to stop trying to make it up anywhere. I’m not sure how far up I park in the shade of Upanishad, but park I do. Nothing left to read. I open the door and air comes through from somewhere, at some angle, some temperature, at some leg of mine, which is hesitant at the touch of something holy. Light hits all manners of dust, especially the broken CD input. I like being here. A seatbelt gleams like a hiccough of holiday sea. Everyone has moved on and maybe they’re wrong. It can be so fast to stop. ‘Take stillness from stillness: / Stillness still remains.’ It can take you everywhere, the halt. Thank you.

Isha Upanishad is available to buy here via Guillemot Press.

Text: Nasim Luczaj

Image: Guillemot Press / Cover design by CF Sherratt.

Published 6/11/19

#review #reviews #poetry reviews #nasim luczaj #Mario Petrucci #Isha Upanishad #Guillemot Press

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serenavangstuff · 5 years

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Journal of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine-JuniperPublishers

Editorial

All around the world geriatric population is increasing. This is accompanied by its unique problems including issues of senescence and frailty, and at times complicated by multimorbidities [1]. Against the backdrop of increasing numbers of elderly population and their unmet and rising medical requirements with stagnant and dwindling resources at many places around the globe, it's about time that we start to explore creditable newer ideas, concepts and research that are aimed towards helping geriatric population [1]. Having to deal with long term multi-morbidities is as such quite challenging, and the challenge just increases a bit more with the progress of aging. There can be some associated morbidities which may at times get superimposed by a few psychosocial issues as well. Shouldn't our endeavor be to help the elderly achieve graceful aging?

From the perspective of longevity, no one amongst the elderly seems to be looking forward to a life of 1000 years; not yet. To be sure, just try taking views from any youth about their own aging, when they do start getting old. Probably the views would be revealing, and with my experience I dare say that I would expect a prompt response from most of the young and middle aged people when asked this question responding by replying that they would be trying in their own ways to keep healthy till their last breath, and avoid becoming bed-ridden or dependent on anyone when they get old. With the experience gained, for me the aged are no different, and while most of them will never be fearing death, and will have no desire to prolong their lives, they too probably would say that they do not want to fall ill, become bed-ridden, or disabled, and if they had their choice they would never like to become dependent on anyone. Their efforts are therefore directed to stay as fit as possible [2].

In the developing world, it's not that the aged are anyway different. But here, since ages, much reliance was placed on the family structure for support and care, but now that the family structure is disintegrating, the old and infirm are now worried because there is no one to look after them as their health deteriorates [2]. Hence they probably have a desire to remain healthy for as long as possible, for the simple reason of being able to fend for themselves for as long as they can [2]. Fortunately, those who have managed their health well, taken appropriate and timely care of their health problems, and those who are adequately insured medically may not have any such issues or apprehensions.

It should be quite heartening to note that the world is definitely taking steps to alleviate the problems of the old age. Scientists around the world are searching for clues regarding healthy aging [3]. In the elderly population there is permanent decrease of functional capacity, gradual emergence of various diseases leading to the wider multi-morbidity and increased problems in the social sphere, which can develop frailty and social dependency [4]. The authors have emphasized the need of awareness of the problem so that they could understand and cope with this absolutely new reality [4]. Multi-morbidity and the consequent poly-pharmacy are indeed another big challenges globally, that is being appropriately understood and evaluated [5-9].

Therefore it's time that the plight and predicaments of the elderly population should be evaluated and taken into account on an urgent basis. It is no secret that at many places around the globe, the available resources and medical facilities for the elderly population are getting overwhelmed due to increasing demands and unmet needs. Fragmentation of care is also some concern and there are long waiting periods [10]. Some of the aged may be turning despondent and losing hopes due to multi-morbidities, poly-pharmacies, inequities in appropriate and readily available geriatric care, which as such is getting more fragmented with either actual or perceived limitations and inadequacies of geriatricians, and the effect of super-specializations. No doubt, there will always be a requirement of all other specialties, but a time has come where there is a need for Geriatricians to brace up for resolving more, and to refer less [10].

For this to happen, firstly of the governments, policy makers, administrators, medical fraternity and world medical bodies, NGOs, community leaders, etc, must all get together and decide about establishing the new norms, scope, up gradation of knowledge, skills and expertise of a geriatrician that become well suited for resolving more and referring less. For this there is a requirement for adding additional knowledge, skills, competence, and expertise. Obviously the medical curriculum during graduation and post graduation has to be suitably upgraded so as to pave way for a new Geriatrician, who is knowledgeable, expert in assessing and dealing with geriatric problems and challenges. With new evidences surfacing regularly, maybe there is a need to refresh our understanding of the geriatric problems regularly. The presentations could be diverse, intertwined and/or mixed, and perhaps not as straight as are met in other age groups. There could be many independent or correlated underlying problems as given below (Figure 1).

Hence, this will require a geriatrician to be more meticulous and alert right from the point when an elderly patient walks in or is brought in for consultation. Observations must be meticulous and thorough, with some structuring that helps in reaching out for a detailed of history and clinical examination. Regular individualized and structured reviews and follow ups will be equally important. Besides senility, there can be many other factors which might play up for which we need to be alert, like underreporting of illness, impairment of homeostasis, vulnerability to various stresses, etc. Some other points that need to be considered are given in (Figure 2).

As Geriatricians we need to be vigilant and look out for the transition, and also screen and manage risk factors with the ultimate aim of helping them in aging gracefully. There could also be a need for environmental facilitation with all proactive and preventive measures in order to maintain their continued independence, fitness levels, and competence, which might be found getting deteriorated with time. It is perhaps not so difficult to understand that one set of management techniques would not be meeting all the challenges at all times, and therefore the treatment and management will have to be individualized and tailored for better outcomes [11]. Principles of rehabilitation will also have to be suitably modified for indevidual cases.Assessing & recording fitness levels should become a routine, and can be undertaken by such simple non-invasive tests like:

Katz Index of Independence in Activities of Daily Living

Harvard Step Test

Assessment of V2 MAX

Hand grasp strength assessment by hand dynamometer

Mini mental state examination

Pulmonary function test

Vision test

Whispering test with masking

This is the first issue of this new journal, the Open Access Journal of Gerontology & Geriatric Medicine (OAJGGM). I wish it becomes another torch bearer the world over in the days to come, for the gerontologists and specialists in geriatric medicine. As an invitee for writing for the very first issue, and a member of the editorial board, it would certainly be my delight I would like to see the journal taking on the challenge of overcoming and managing all accompanying morbidities and poly-pharmacy being addressed from a newer perspective, while sifting through the research that has already been done for the geriatric population and at the same time promoting and gaining from recent researches.

Whatever fears and apprehensions the elderly might have, will possibly be laid to rest by meaningful dialogue about preventive and proactive actions that they would be advised to take, based on not what they hear and see but on actual scientific reasoning and facts. Among other issues involved in the editorial policy, it would be a reasonably good and thoughtful effort if this journal also pitches for giving out vetted comprehensive health bulletins, thereby taking care for the geriatric population's needs as well for accurate and doable information, recommending only indisputable preventive and proactive measures as the need of the day for the elderly and their care givers. Isn’t the ultimate aim is to improve the quality of life of the elderly, and provide adequate respite from morbidities?

Finally, in today's world, the direction of future research needs to be carefully steered, and not left to or overtaken by some vested groups to model research. Costly procedures, investigations, medicines, etc, have raised the costs of management. There is surely a need to take a second look at all that is being done or recommended for the elderly patients. Recently there was a study that has revealed that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the USA [12]. Therefore unnecessary tests, unnecessary procedures, unnecessary medicines, etc, will have to be restrained. Possibly in the free and competitive market, it is all about selling an idea, perhaps, and patients will automatically follow the 'flow'. It is up to the society, the law makers, and the keepers of the society as also the medical and scientific fraternities to decide whether it is OK to be going with the flow every time. The 'evidence based medicine' also comes to decide the 'evidence' from only the researches that have taken place and have been found published. What about the other 'evidence' that has as yet not been researched in the proper scientific manner, having come about unintentionally,half-heartedly, or maybe accidentally, and for which there are no takers as yet and no one cares? [13].

To read more articles in Journal of Gerontology & Geriatric Medicine

Please Click on: https://juniperpublishers.com/oajggm/index.php

For more Open Access Journals in Juniper Publishers

Click on: https://juniperpublishers.com/journals.php

#Juniper Publishers In USA #Juniper Publishers LLC #Open access Publishers #Journal of Gerentology

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idesigncafe · 7 years

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Overcoming Content Challenges

Authors: Steve Glancey and Bryan Meszaros from the Digital Signage Connection

Although often relegated to the back seat, the process of content creation drives the success of a digital signage program. It is therefore essential to develop a mental map of each component stage, from strategizing and budgeting, through development and optimization, and to address the unique requirements and challenges of each one. With a clear plan in place, potential stall-outs are easily avoided, and obstacles, overcome. What follows is a collection of tips and tricks that we have developed in the course of our experience, and found helpful in navigating some of the difficulties that inevitably accompany a creative undertaking. We here pass them on to you to help better position you for your next endeavor.

Obstacle #1: Project Ownership

The nature of project ownership is critical and, unfortunately, often blurred in understanding. Is the person being said to "own" a project responsible, by definition, for all aspects of its design and production? In a word: no! Rather, they manage and monitor the numerous interlocking parts of the creative engine - the gathering of assets, messaging, design, and approval - each of which is the domain of a different person, or team. This last, the granting of approval, is generally understood, and intended as the concluding step. However, its finality hinges upon the clear delineation and coordination of the preceding steps, without which requests for further changes are far more likely to arise. Changing even one textual element could disrupt the flow, look and feel of the whole product, and force the designer to go back and rework it from the ground up to accommodate the change.

Obstacle #2: Content Strategy

Designers create content within "closed environments;" they alone experience, and interact with their creations during the design process. Yet given that their creations are ultimately destined for display in "open environments" subject to such variables as viewing distance, demographics, audience journey, time of day etc., it's important to keep in mind that every content piece adhering perfectly to fundamental principles of design in the abstract carries no guarantee of effectiveness when it goes "live." All these variables, and more, should be researched and applied to your content: type, structure, design, refresh rate etc. as they will deeply impact the audience engagement with, and effectiveness of the intended message.

Obstacle #3: Playlist Strategy

Optimizing your playlist requires the delicate counterbalancing of numerous considerations, all within the framework of your budget and network objectives. Loop length, for example, must be in step with audience dwell time. Make your playlist too long, and it will be a waste of network resources; too short, and you will forfeit network opportunities. Couple dwell time with the return rate of your audience; multiply by an effective frequency of 4-7 (the number of times a viewer needs to be exposed to a message before it is thoroughly communicated); and add to that any wish to day-part, or employ triggers, feeds, or logic that activates different content depending on the time, or viewer body-language or demographics and you will begin to get the measure of what it is to develop a strategic plan that truly capitalizes on the possibilities of digital signage.

Obstacle #4: Gathering Assets

The process of gathering assets is more complicated than the phrase would suggest, as they are not, in fact, necessarily useable simply by virtue of being "digital" - a reality difficult to concede for clients unfamiliar with concepts such as image quality, and display resolution. Fortunately, a little proactive education explaining such fundamentals within the specific context of your plan to develop content for a client (using which editing program, and in which output format) often goes a long way towards bringing about the submission better-quality files, even if they are not all vector graphics, files of 300dpi or more are ideal. Of course, there is always the possibility that there are no usable assets to uncover. Sometimes the image quality of a graphic is too poor, or the asset does not exist in a version that supports editing, requiring you to start from scratch. The bottom line is: avoid assuming anything about your client's level of knowledge or organization, and be prepared to explain why their idea and/or materials may need to be scrapped or revised.

Obstacle #5: Content Licensing

Content licensing does not abide by the "finders, keepers" rule. Possession of an asset does not necessarily confer the right to display it in a commercial setting, even if it was acquired "for free" - a reality sometimes difficult to accept in a world where side-stepping costs is so often possible. However, several lawsuits over the years have been brought against digital signage companies whose network owners failed to negotiate an agreement (either in the form of a one-time payment, or an ongoing subscription) with the owner of every asset in their playlist. Given the costs incurred by such a lawsuit, it's essential to address licensing costs early and often, and to ensure that a line item appears in the budget from the very beginning. "But that CNN feed says that it's free..." Look again at the terms. Free news feeds, and most free or inexpensive weather feeds are available only for non-commercial use.

Obstacle #6: Creative Budgeting

Talking money is like talking politics: everyone has an opinion, and no one is right. The question of budget must therefore be addressed both early in the development process, and regularly throughout the lifecycle of a project, for content carries a cost not only to create, but to maintain. The viewing frequency, and relationship it bears with its physical context give it a limited shelf-life, and while you would ideally have a surplus of content from which to chose, and/or assets with an automated feature, the project will, in fact, require ongoing programming, editing and management. True, most CMS (content management systems) now support advance scheduling, but someone still needs to oversee that task. The success or failure of a digital signage project therefore will depend on the project owners ability to accurately and creatively manage the fixed initial costs and variable ongoing costs to collect, license, and schedule content assets all powered by the most costly line item: human capital.

Obstacle #7: Stretching the Dollars

Were money not an obstacle, we would all simply hire ABC or Lucasfilm to build out our playlists, and keep them fresh. But money is an obstacle. Budgetary constraints come into play for everyone at some point. That is why I am a proponent of building playlists with an eye to maximizing value, as opposed to maxing-out one's resources. This can be done in a variety of ways, including investing up-front in custom templates; reusing assets that your company originally used elsewhere; leveraging user-generated, and data-driven content; strategically recycling content; and outsourcing parts of your playlist to licensed feeds or competitively priced creative agencies.

Obstacle #8: CMS and Hardware

This subject, once broached, easily leads the ensuing discussion down the proverbial rabbit hole, but my goal is simply to highlight a few of the cascading effects of your choice in CMS, and hardware. With respect to CMS, some solutions are new, and less refined due either to their time on the market, or target simplicity, and for content managers posting only simple messages, they present an appropriate solution. However, with simplicity come limitations, and complex networks may feel the lack of editing and programming options, readymade app stores, KPIs, feeds, triggers, localization, advertising market platform integration, weighted playlists and logic playback configuration. They may also feel limited by the breath of file-type options, API, security settings, reliability, remote management features, emergency messaging capabilities, etc. If so, there are other more established, robust CMS to consider.

The playback quality of the hardware you choose is also something to consider carefully, as it has a profound impact of viewers' visual engagement with your message. And finally, careful thought must be put into your connectivity strategy. Will you connect your system via Wi-Fi for which you pay with a monthly bill, or through a mobile provider that you pay by the gigabyte - a costly proposition if your playlist includes large video files or frequent content updates. There is no right answer, just the solution that best fits your content strategy.

Obstacle #9: Optimization

The effectiveness of your content is in direct measure to the quality of your messaging, so even the most thoughtfully designed content campaign can benefit from regular, controlled tests of its effectiveness. A/B testing or before and after comparisons are the easiest, most affordable kind of assessment, and can bring to light adjustments likely to increase the ROI (return on investment) of the campaign at hand. For example, how did one store do vs. the other without the promotion running or using the same content in two different locations with a slight change to the CTA? Audience engagement and reaction are surprisingly difficult to anticipate; that which is relevant, which resonates with viewers, and speaks to them in "their language" changes all the time, so if effectiveness is your end, self-assessment is your means.

Obstacle #10: Creating Value

What objective do you aim to meet by means of your digital signage network? From your viewers' point of view, a digital sign is not much different from a traditional printed sign. Both boil down to a message on a wall, and therein lies their value for audience and advertiser alike. Why then is so much attention and money diverted to the frame and mounting instead of the message? Mounts, frames, and hardware are inherently depreciating assets. It is the quality of your content strategy and execution that will make your 2-million dollar investment in digital signage worth 1 million, or 5. Funneling every piece of content through your network objective (ROO/ROI) is therefore the aim to which you should direct your primary energy as a network operator on day one and year five.

Interactive Design Cafe provides end-to-end digital signage solutions with the latest touchscreen displays and multi-screen video walls, to glasses-free 3D signage and holographic advertising players. We also offer both out-of-the-box software solutions, as well as fully customized software, while specializing in branding, customer experience and service design. We are a design consultancy, not just a “sales” operation, so we often fly out to our clients location to install hardware / software, and we strive to develop long lasting relationships with our clients. Our goal is to provide the most innovative and engaging experience for your brand with top notch service and support.

To learn more about Interactive Design Cafe and how we can help your business, please visit our website http://www.interactivedesigncafe.com

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 5 years

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Notably, Sarazanmai’s first ep isn’t here, but it’s a huge contender for making my spring watchlist.

Shield Hero 11

Okay, someone’s trying to remind me of Goblin Slayer, aren’t they…? *grumble grumble grumble*

I wonder if Naofumi has a Thunder move like those guys…?

Why isn’t Raphtalia, who was cursed by Rage Shield, affected, but Filo, who was eaten by the zombie dragon, is???

Price of Smiles 12 (FINAL)

Is Huey…not an a$$? Is he just really tsundere…?

Fingers don’t move that way, Layla…

Post-credits segment. Keep watching…

I feel like making Stella and Yuki meet off the back of Layla’s death was a bit much and pushing the button together was a bit…much-er, if that’s a concept. Anyways, see you next time!

Morose Mononokean II 12

The Cobweb = Above the Spider (by literally translating that ep title, that is).

I’m finally listening to Koura’s voice. Koura sounds like she’s always teasing Itsuki…

Jinja = Shinto shrine. That nuance is missing from the translation.

Why did that one track (when Itsuki was escaping) sound like Mission Impossible…?

What’s an analeptic? I can’t seem to pause the video…Update: Apparently my ad blocker was stuffing with the pause button. Also, an analeptic appars to be a restorative drug, or describing a drug as restorative.

Rippou sounds so enthusiastic (sarcastic) when Shizuku offers to make him tea.

Spec Ops Asuka 11

Wat. A girl in Thailand going “nya”? Update: Uhh…apparently the girl in Thailand…was Peipei??? Wuh???

Hmm…I never actually put 2 and 2 together regarding karate and the whip. It makes sense in retrospect, though.

“…sever the…” – Sever the…what, exactly?

I thought human!Giess didn’t exist anymore under that armour…so seeing him surprised me.

Sometimes I feel like I sympathise with Chisato more than Asuka or Kurumi…that’s how developed Chisato is.

Mob Psycho 100 II 12

Serizawa is playing Bomberman.

I like the symbolism of the umbrella as a “light”.

My Roommate is a Cat 12 (FINAL)

The ep title is “Kimi to Boku to” (You and I and…). Presumably it should end with “everyone else”…or something.

Wait, wasn’t Subaru’s umbrella handle round before??? It’s straight now!

What a waste of a perfectly good umbrella!

Somehow I knew Subaru would go to Nana once he needed cat knowledge.

*Subaru rescues Haru* - *cue Lion King song* Ahhhhhhh ze ban yaaaaaaaaaaa…or something like that.

Why is it that I want a dub for this so…darn…badly???!!! Wait…*record scratch* it already has one. Scratch that.

Shield Hero 12

“I can’t stop trembling,” Raphtalia says as she stands there, still as a statue…geesh.

I’d assume there’s a Meteor Shield in there for Naofumi as well…?

Come to think of it, we never learnt that weapon merchant guy’s name until now, huh? Elhart. I’ll try my best to remember it.

Spec-Ops Asuka 12 (FINAL)

Twin-headed Dragon Peipei, huh?

Morose Mononokean II 13 (FINAL)

*Fuzzy gets punched away* - Fuzzy, noooooooo!

In the same way Mob became a so-called “bishonen” for s2 ep 5 of his show, Hanae became kind of hot – but also kind of weird – for the finale.

Notably, the “Ashiya” Abeno is referring to is only Hanae…not Sakae at all. Hmm.

Mob Psycho 100 II 13 (FINAL)

“Bishonen” Mob returns!

I keep getting the feeling that Mob will sacrifice himself this episode. It’s a very Mob thing to do, but…I worry about him, because without him we have no show.

*explosion* - I wanna yell “KANEDAAAAAAAAAA!” Is that appropriate for this scene?

I LOLled at Dimple wearing Serizawa’s chunk of hair, haha.

Anyways, that was way too fun (and way too worrying at the end). See you next time!

Yu-No 1

Okay, first episode of this particularly meager season…coming right up!

I’ve never had to watch an ep on phone for subs before…I much prefer a bigger screen.

Okay…as soon as I heard Potato-kun say “Panties?” I knew I was in for a bad time. I’m watching based on the title and the series image, not the fact it’s based on an adult VN.

I can’t believe we have to be told about these ladies from the guys first…I feel sorry for Yuki.

I-Is Arima-mama the kind of person one would call a “MILF”…? I dunno since I don’t swing that way.

Seriously, how long ago did Potato-kun’s father die??? (I know his name is Arima Takuya, but…he’s “Potato-kun” to me, even as a joke.)

Potato-kun is so obviously following his…pen island, so to speak.

Ah, Potato-kun. The only time you make me laugh is when you humiliate yourself on public news. Thank goodness this show isn’t particularly lewd…yet.

It’s like Grand Blue…only with less drinking.

Seriously, why does Yuki call Potato-kun “boss”???

The one time I hear the name “Neumann”, it’s this time travel show, of all things…*remembers von Neumann architecture* Yup, that’s where I remember his name from. By the by, Googling “Neumann space” yields this site on travelling to the…stars? Wrong frontier, folks.

Okay, that was probably the least exciting way to pull off a big reveal like that. Drop.

Shield Hero 13

To be honest…I like Rise better…

“You’re are surrounded.” – I know you’re in a hurry to sub your content, CR subbers, but seriously?????

It’s always funny to see Motoyasu get a good socking from Filo, LOL.

Fruits Basket 1

I have zero experience with OG Fruits Basket outside 1 episode I didn’t really finish (but finishd the entire manga and may have caught a tiny bit of it - not enough to mark on anyone’s anime list as “complete” - while it was on TV), so…this’ll be interesting.

This is exactly as I remember it! Beautifulllllllllllll…so beautiful I wanna cry…(Keep in mind I binged most of the manga years ago, so it’s getting harder and harder to remember the exact story every day.)

Holeeeeeeeeeeee…sugar. I just realised how old Fruits Basket is! Also, rumour has it Motoko has differently coloured hair in the OG version, but I didn’t watch (or didn’t remember) that part, so…I don’t have a standard to hold her up to, really. Plussssss…I love how Motoko and her Prince Yuki fanclub are like Mean Girls. The reason I had to check up how old Fruits Basket is is because of that comparison. Mean Girls is from 2004, thereby being 5 or 6 years younger than Fruits Basket.

The angelic “ahhhhh” in the background really sold how good Tohru’s food was (for Hanajima).

This CGI fan is going to haunt me until the end of my days, isn’t it…?

Ouch…I think I just realised why Fruits Basket is so powerful (at the part where Tohru is working hard at her job). It resonates strongly with those who are lost in life. I found I couldn’t really relate when I first read it though, which may have been attributed to the fact I was…what, 13?...at the time.

Shigure, you a$$!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanna kick you for laughing at poor Tohru!!!!!!!!!!!

Photorealistic clouds…no. I think that Indian festival with the dye (I don’t remember which one it is off the top of my head) happened to my eyes…(i.e. my eyes…my poor eyes…)

I didn’t think Vickeblanka was capable of doing slower songs. This song’s kinda nice…but only because I heard the last few seconds of the ending (the rest was obscured by background noise and I don’t have time to play it again).

Between the comment about Shigure and the comment about the clouds, I was internally bawling about how stupid and spoilt I’d become. This is the power of Fruits Basket!

We Never Learn 1

Hmm…I thought the manga of this (or what I saw of it, at least) was kinda vanilla, so…this’ll be an experience, one way or another.

Yuiga’s face game is spot-on, LOL.

Aw, this show encourages the growth mindset…how cute. *does Kaguya-sama face*

The eyecatch is about what classes the main trio are in, but Furuhashi is taking it as related to boob size…*sigh*

The sign just says “library”. There’s no need to contextualise it more than that…

Yup, this is vanilla like ice cream…

Come to think of it, why did I pick this series up? I’ve read the manga parts that correspond to this episode…Well, I remember when this series was still new. I think it was that it was refreshing to see these guys so gung-ho about uni, because recently I’ve been in doubt about my own future (and to tell the truth, I’ve been thinking different things about what I want to do at different stages of my life anyway). I’ve literally only settled on the things I’m doing because I suck at everything else, but I can do whatever I put my mind to…for most things I try. Much like Fruits Basket is for those who are lost in life, We Never Learn is an affirmation that you can change your future…or something like that, anyway.

…The disembodied mouths creep me out…anyways, this show isn’t bad, it isn’t 100% a keeper either (unless I get co-opted into a collab for it). It’s just squarely in the middle.

Boob grope…eesh. That brought down the keeping factor down a little.

Kimetsu no Yaiba 1

[big chunk of information redacted because it’s me stressing over what has to be done before I go overseas...and also it reveals I had a collab for this lined up, which I’m trying to keep a surprise at the time this post went out]

To be honest, I don’t like 1st person cam.

Hmm…there’s more CGI than I’d like to admit is in here…

I remember reading a while ago that the “Tan” in Tanjiro is the word for “charcoal”.

Take = bamboo, and he’s a woodcutter kid. LOL.

This is exactly as I remember it! It’s kinda cool, since the smelling thing is obviously foreshadowing.

I remember I didn’t quite get the idea that Nezuko was growing in size in the manga…well, now I just did.

Oh-hoh-hoh-hohhhhhhh! Giyu Tomioka, me boy! There he is!

I didn’t know Giyu Tomioka was basically a ninja, LOL.

This is definitely one of the better series out there this season. It might not be the best due to its sheer amount of shonen trappings, but it’s still dang good! (I like Giyu Tomioka already, but now that I think of it, I’d like to see Lightning Boy in action within the show and not just the OP…hmm.)

[Sarazanmai 1 is not here because I saw it at the anime club first. I do intend to cover subsequent episodes here though…]

Kono Oto Tomare! 1

I find Funi’s video player unwieldy, to be honest. Maybe it’s because I’m too used to CR’s…

Oh! It seems like the Defence Club has a legacy now!

Surprisingly, this is very funny…!

Hmm…this seems like a show where you should ship people, but there doesn’t seem to be enough of a connection between anyone that I can see anyone shipping. I guess that’s why this thing is basically a shoujo in appearance, huh…?

By the way, who’s “Nadeshiko”? Takezo…?

Do you guys even know what a koto is? If you do, that’s great, but if you don’t, you’re going to have to infer…that’s a bit nasty for an ancient instrument the West doesn’t know about. Then again, this clearly isn’t something made for the West.

I’m wondering why the culprits confessed so easily…

Well, that was…alright. I went “aw” more than I expected and laughed more than expected. It’s not going to top the other shows I’ve got though.

Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin 1

For some reason, I’m just not used to calling this show “Midnight Occult Civil Servants”…that sounds clunky. That’s why I’m calling it “Mayonaka” for short…oh yeah, right now Funi is undergoing maintenance which is why I had to shuffle Mayonaka forward. I was meant to be doing Fairy Gone in this slot, to be honest with you.

Hmm…*thinks about time talking with Plyasm* *thinks about how Seo trid to kick this Reiji Kyoichi person* I see a resemblance here…with the kicking and all…Update: There is a guy called “Reiji” in this show, I just read “Kyoichi” wrong because I was trying to type up comments here.

Somehow it never actually occurred to me that Seo was a gender-neutral name. I’m normally quite good with these things…or maybe it was Ply keeping me up late that’s making me not notice…or even the fact I’m not listening to Seo’s voice, since that’s sometimes a hint to a person’s gender in particularly ambiguous cases (I’m currently not listening to the audio). Update: Okay, that’s definitely a man’s voice coming from the effeminate-looking Seo.

Oh yes…I forgot to mention, this show does an awful lot of telling and not showing.

I keep noting this episode is set on April Fool’s Day…what a day for pranking, huh?

I’ve seen a Cait Sith in anime before…so there’s a dog version too (Cu Sith), huh?

Tape? That’s so mundane…then again, I guess this is what happens when you have boring jobs in interesting places, huh? Reminds me a lot of my own stabs at this kind of story.

This is…angel-tengu Romeo and Juliet…

Now this is the real Reiji…I think?

Ohhhhhhh crab balls…these CGI angels look terrible.

I never thought cherry blossoms could look so terrible…urgh.

I’m of two minds when it comes to this show – on the one hand, I like its plot (it’s better than Charlotte in this field, at least). It’s a bit cliched, but it might lose against competition like Sarazanmai or even Kono Oto Tomare. On the other hand, its visuals are kinda…ugly.

Fairy Gone 1

Fa-Fanatica…? What sort of name is that??? (That’s not a good sign if I question the first name on the screen now, is it?)

Lay Dawn, would you please…lay down? (Okay, that joke only works with a particular pronunciation of “down”, but you get the bad pun…right? Right?)

So this is Spec-Ops Asuka without the huge boobs, I expect? That would make Fairy Gone at least 10 points (on my anime list) better than the thing I’m comparing it with.

I think the tiny symbols under most of the credits are stylised English, although I was looking at a credit for a guy with the surname Yamamoto and it wasn’t quite working.

The CGI is one of the better efforts I’ve seen, but still slightly obvious.

Veronica’s run reminds me of Akira from Devilman Crybaby. You know the one GIF of him running while leaning forward at an impossible angle? That one.

Post-credits scene…keep watching.

This is another anime Jesus…(the first one was Kagura’s dad in Ga Rei Zero.)

Rendai Utena 1

(Update: This was an anime I had to watch via VPN. Notably, the last time I resorted to one was B Project...however, no one remembers that but me, so the last big time I had to use a VPN was for Sakamoto Desu Ga?.)

Uh…yeah. This is the one Buddha anime this season. But before you run off, screaming about how blasphemous I must be to Buddhists, I’ll have you know I was originally not intending to watch this…if you know me well enough, you’ll know I like bishies. Only after I compiled my to-watch list for this season did one of the star bishies show up and convince me to watch…yeah, now you can run away screaming. (Oh and if you’re interested as to what image caught my attention enough to make me watch a show…it’s the top image on this CR page – not the thumbnail, the other top image.)

Okayyyyyyy…for a show about bishies, you sure aren’t capturing me right now with this plight of a salaryman.

Aw, dangit. I actually liked the few moments this was a zombie anime! Give me High School of the Dead, but with bishies instead of jiggly-boob girls! *shakes fist at cloud*

Oh, great…I can’t even tell who’s who around here. They even had little name cards and everything! So much for my great memory…*grumble grumble* But hey, at least I recognise some names…not from being Buddhist, but from other anime. I mean, Miroku is the guy from Inuyasha and Fudo Myouou is the guy who inspired Okurikara in Touken Ranbu, yeah?

Uh, hey. Isn’t sloth meant to be a vice? Isn’t “lounging around” a vice???

Another thing. I get the feeling that putting these guys in tracksuits is just trying to coast on the success of Touken Ranbu. Touken Ranbu is nice, but only because I was familiar with the source game and a bit about the fandom. This? I have no such basis.

Lotus Head – Bonten – his nagging is starting to get on my nerves already. I came for Taishakuten, not you!

Yeah…even in Touken Ranbu, they have washing machines. Convenience, but also…vice in terms of that old-timey Buddha stuff, I guess…? Update: Actually, I thought about it and I don’t think they’ve ever shown a washing machine in Hanamaru, but I think they might’ve had a fridge.

Wait, wait, wait…the bird was a bishie tooooooooo?????????????? I think that’s the biggest bending my brain’s going to get all premiere season (for this season)! Even more so than the entire debut of Sarazanmai!

Wait, wait, wait…Bonten likes porridge?! D’ya mean “congee” or “oatmeal” kinda porridge? I can’t tell because I’ve got the volume off, but if it’s the latter then Bonten wouldn’t have known about it. Update: It appears to be the latter. How Bonten would’ve ever known about porridge…I don’t know.

New aesthetic – Taishakuten’s hair. I like me a man with a ponytail (which is why I fell hook, line and sinker for him in the first place), but his hair done up like it is in the bath…*swoons, then goes back to normal* That is all.

What’s up with Paomi anyway…? And…this is kinda petty if the central conflict is just getting Shaka to get off cooking duties. That’s too low a conflict for even Hanamaru, methinks.

So…you introduce all these Buddha guys and then expect me to care about some human who doesn’t even have a name? Wuh…?

Okayyyyyyy…I’ve never seen an earthquake that was that fast before.

Wait, wait, huh???????? The guy who voices Taishakuten is…Choreo (Brave Beats)??????????? Oh no, I should’ve listened to it! Anyways, I’ve decided I’m dropping it, simply because if I want Taishakuten only for his looks, I can just find a wallpaper of him.

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piratesandexplorers · 7 years

Text

I’m quite enjoying these self-indulgent rambles about my childhood faves, so here’s another. The other day I talked about Nancy and Peggy Blackett. Today I’m going to attempt some thoughts on John and Susan, since I don’t think I stand a chance of getting all the Walkers into one post.

So here you are: The Captain and Mate of the Swallow.

I’ve always loved John and Susan, even though I can understand the people who find them boring. I think it’s refreshing to see characters like them represented in kids’ fiction. You might say John’s too serious, or even that Susan’s plain unrealistic for a child (I’ll talk about that in a bit), but in what other children’s book do you see such a range of different children with different skills and qualities, all celebrated for what they can do and the important role they play? I was never a Susan - I didn’t have her skills or any motivation to learn them, and I was much too disorganised. But I could understand her worries, and John’s too. I was also naturally a rule-keeper, not a rule breaker. I cared about what my parents would say, what strangers might think, and I noticed risks and worried about them. I wanted to do the right thing, and John and Susan are all about that. So in those ways, I always identified with them a bit. And I also loved their relationship with each other, because it’s based on kindness and mutual respect, and that only increases throughout the books.

The truth is, yes, John is a bit too serious. He is, especially in the early books, a bit inward-looking; he takes himself very seriously and puts a lot of weight and importance on his own actions and how people see him. But that’s not very unusual in a kid his age, especially (I think) in a kid who’s the oldest in a large family, and who has a father who is someone important. And of course, the fact that Ted Walker is away most of the time plays into that too. In his absence, Ted’s built up into almost a hero figure for John. It helps that when he is around, he seems to be a great dad who takes an interest and a pride in his children, who loves them (and their mother) and shows it. So it’s natural enough that John would want to follow him, to become someone like that too.

One thing John never wants to do is let his parents down, and when he thinks he has done that, he beats himself up endlessly about it. Susan is the same, but their subtly different roles in the family mean that that’s one thing Susan worries less about than John does. Susan is responsible for providing regular meals and making sure everyone goes to bed on time and nobody hangs around in wet clothes and gets ill. She’s good at that, she knows she’s good at it, and generally she can still do it even under less-than-ideal circumstances, so she can rely on herself without worrying. John, though, is the one who ultimately makes decisions for the four of them. When Susan freaks out, it’s usually because someone’s actual safety is at risk, but John is at his most unhappy when he feels that he, personally, has failed at something. Partly it’s his need to succeed, and partly it’s his need not to let his parents down, but really you can’t separate those two things for John. Success is making his family proud, and being as much like his father as possible.

I don’t think we see that lessening at all in John, and I think it’s probably going to be a motivating factor for him all his life. What we do see is a growing confidence; the more he does to prove himself, the less he needs to prove himself. In the early books, we see him make mistakes, mostly due to stubbornness and pride. And yes, there’s an element of competitiveness with the Amazons, but really the only person John’s competing against is himself. The amount of growing up the kids do within the books is subtly drawn, without many references to their actual ages or outside milestones, but for John the main thing I see is that he goes from someone whose decisions are frequently misguided (although well-meaning), to being the one who usually makes the right call, and has the skills to follow through on that call.

But what I always come back to with John is that he’s just a thoroughly nice person, and again, that’s an often underrated characteristic in fiction. One of the things I’m most wary of about the recent film is how they seem to have butchered his personality. John Walker is polite and respectful. He may idolise his father, but he also loves, admires and trusts his mother. He’s kind to his younger siblings, enjoys their company and takes care of their wellbeing. On no occasion does he show any signs of seeing girls as anything but his absolute equals, or have any thought that they should be anything other than equal (a common trait in Arthur Ransome’s children, I have to add). He acknowledges when other people are more skilled or knowledgeable in a particular area than him, and is happy to defer to them, even if they’re younger than him. Sometimes he even does that when they’re not necessarily more qualified to take the lead than him, simply because it’s the respectful thing to do under the circumstances, for example in his attitude to Peggy in Winter Holiday. I have no doubt at all that John will get where he wants to go, and that he’ll be the kind of naval officer that all naval officers should be.

For all I love her, I’ve found Susan one of the hardest to pin down in words. There are all the obvious things to say – Susan is the rock of her family. She’s the mother hen of the group (the Mum Friend if we were talking about modern kids), she’s the rule-keeper, the sensible, responsible one, the one the adults trust. And (maybe more surprisingly), she likes that role. Those aren’t skills and characteristics she’s needed to develop – she has two loving, dependable parents and a comfortable, well-off life; there’s no necessity for her to look after anyone. It’s just who she is.

It’s easy to see why she might be labelled as boring or even unbelievable as a child character. There’s an argument to be made that Ransome created Susan as a plot device, as the only way such young children could actually be capable of living alone on an island. Supporting that, she’s also the character who shows the least obvious growth and development (because she’s the most grown up to start with). But even if that’s part of the reason he wrote her the way he did, I don’t think that’s all she is, and I don’t think that’s all Ransome saw her as.

Susan is in many ways also the emotional touchstone of the stories. She’s probably the one we see the most raw emotion from – examples include big moments like her complete terror in We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, and small ones, such as the expression Titty catches on Susan’s face when Mrs Tyson believes they started the fire in Pigeon Post. Susan behaves like an adult, and she also feels emotion in quite an adult way. She can’t live in the moment – she’s constantly thinking of all the risks and possible outcomes. And while most children have difficulty imagining a hypothetical situation with any real emotional depth and connection to it, Susan doesn’t – she feels a very adult horror associated with things that haven’t actually happened. The others, particularly Nancy and John (unsurprising, as they’re the oldest) show signs of that too now and again, but unlike them, Susan can’t brush it off or put it behind her easily.

Part of Susan’s realness lies in the contradictions in her character. She somehow manages to tread a line between being very decisive (and somewhat immovable in her decisions) and being an overthinker and a worrier. But Susan’s worries are less about herself and her own capabilities, and much more about outside circumstances and situations. She’s pretty confident in her own judgement, and because she’s capable of doing very quick thinking and seeing all possible outcomes in a short space of time, her judgements are usually good and sensible. The times when Susan comes apart are when there is no obvious right judgement – when she cannot take over and make everything right, because circumstances are outside her control. Those are Susan’s worst fears coming true.

As I say, she’s someone who’s hampered not by any lack of confidence in herself, but by her ability to see worst-case scenarios. It makes her over-cautious, scared of risk, and at times lacking in understanding of people who either can’t see the same thing, or are able to see it but continue anyway. Her preoccupation is with keeping everything safe, ordered and comfortable (with the emphasis on safe), and that blinkers her sometimes into seeing the world only from her own particular perspective. She struggles to see that there might be times that risk is justifiable, and she also struggles with the whole idea of imagination that’s so central to the series. Unlike the others, Susan doesn’t find much comfort in flights of fantasy, because if Susan lets her imagination go, it shows her all these unpleasant and nerve-wracking possibilities. She much prefers to stay within the safety of her own perimeters, the ones she’s carefully created and maintained herself, and she can get irritated when people try to drag her out of them.

Susan’s development as a character is less noticeable than some of the others, because a lot of it is about growing into herself. The ways she thinks and acts aren’t as unusual in someone in their mid-teens as they are in a ten-year-old. But she also gains a more developed sense of perspective, and a more nuanced view of the world. Her gifts (and they really are gifts) are the things that enable all their adventures, and I think Susan learns to see that, and therefore begins to find ways for them to enable her personally, instead of limiting her.

But I think that one of the most important things in Susan is that she learns to see the value in other people and their differing skills, priorities and views on the world. I can’t imagine the Susan of Secret Water being nearly as dismissive of Titty’s imagination (or dismissing things Titty claims to have seen and heard as only imagination) as the Susan of Swallows and Amazons is. Her relationship with Bridget is another lovely example of Susan growing kinder and more tolerant. And that’s going to be very important to Susan in developing adult relationships, because at some point (and I don’t think she’s quite got there even by the end of the series), she’s going to have to learn how to depend on other people, not just be the one everyone depends on.

#swallows and amazons #the swallows #john walker #susan walker #character meta #headcanons

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allysesalinas · 7 years

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Today I decided it was time to wash my bedding. Just like every other time, I took my sheets and pillowcases off to wash together and made my bed up with just the quilt. It looked perfect and well made just like always—only lacking the sheets and pillowcases inside under the quilt. The difference in doing this today, was not in what I was doing but in my observation of what I was doing, when the Lord revealed a word in this observation. It draws comparison to the scribes and Pharisees who washed the outside of the cups but not the inside—they made sure to have an appearance of order and cleanliness but on the inside there was significant lacking.

Jesus spoke concerning this in Matthew 23:

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of EXTORTION and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also."

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."

Define scribe (noun): 1. a person who COPIES out documents, especially one employed to do this before printing was invented 2. an ancient Jewish record-keeper or, later, a PROFESSIONAL THEOLOGIAN and jurist

Define Pharisee (noun): 1. a member of an ancient Jewish sect, distinguished by strict observance of the traditional and written law, and commonly held to have pretensions to SUPERIOR sanctity 2. a SELF-righteous person, a hypocrite.

Once my sheets and pillowcases were washed and dried, I pulled them out of the drier and put them back on my bed as I always do. But this time I accidentally put one pillowcase on INSIDE OUT. It was in observing this that the Lord gave word again revealing that those who make sure to keep an appearance of righteousness need to be turned "inside out" so that their inner man be made clean, having more than mere appearance of godliness but true holiness/ righteousness through repentance and forgiveness of sins. There are those who have gotten caught up in appearances and have neglected the inner sanctuary, have neglected repentance and walking in humility and true righteousness which is only possible by abiding in Jesus—they have neglected true communion. They have gotten so caught up in distributing the word and displaying the word that they have neglected being washed of the word themselves. And this is because the motives and intentions of their hearts were not hidden in Jesus but in self-seeking and hidden desires to amplify self. The sheets represent covering and security and the pillowcases represent rest. There are those who have neglected the covering and security of the Lord in pursuit of establishing and securing themselves. There are those who have neglected the Lord's rest in pursuit of showing off as means to display their own power and influence in the world. "You Pharisees and teachers are show-offs, and you’re in for trouble! You wash the outside of your cups and dishes, while inside there is nothing but greed and selfishness." (CEV translation) Such have fallen out of fellowship with the Lord in pursuit of self promotion. They have fallen to self and turned their eyes away from the Lord. They clean the outside but their inside is still unrighteous, so they—after washing—as the sow, return to the mire and filth of their unrighteous ways. Define promotion (noun): 1. the publicization of a product, organization, or venture so as to increase sales or public awareness/ a publicity campaign for a particular product, organization, or venture. In doing so, they have entangled their hearts with corruptions and perpetuate these corruptions by likewise entangling others. 2 Peter 2 outlines these corruptions and the consequence if they do not humble themselves and return to the Lord in repentance for forgiveness: "But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By COVETOUSNESS they will EXPLOIT you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber." "and will receive the WAGES OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who LOVED THE WAGES of unrighteousness..." "These are WELLS WITHOUT WATER, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever."

"For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption... for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and are again ENTANGLED in them and overcome [by them], the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, and to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, [after] having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.” Because they have neglected the well of living water that is the Lord, and have chosen to operate of their own well and operate of another spirit instead of the HOLY SPIRIT, they have become wells without water and clouds carried by tempest whose end will be darkness forever. "But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." John 4:14 In Matthew 22:15–22 (NKJV) we see that the Pharisees tried to entangle the Lord in His words. As for those currently who choose not to repent: "What do you conspire against the Lord? He will make an utter end of it. Affliction will not rise up a second time. For while tangled like thorns, And while drunken like drunkards, They shall be devoured like stubble fully dried. From you comes forth one Who plots evil against the Lord, A wicked counselor. Thus says the Lord: “Though they are safe, and likewise many, Yet in this manner they will be cut down When he passes through. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more; For now I will break off his yoke from you, And burst your bonds apart.” The Lord has given a command concerning you: “Your name shall be perpetuated no longer. Out of the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the molded image. I will dig your grave, For you are vile.” So return to the Lord in humility and repentance that times of refreshing may come. "And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But in this way God has fulfilled what He foretold through all the prophets, saying that His Christ would suffer. Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus, the Christ, who has been appointed for you." Acts 3:17–21 Be blessed!

#word of the day #verse of the day #scripture #bible study #Jesus is LORD

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dfroza · 3 years

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Today’s reading from the ancient books of Proverbs and Psalms

for April 24 of 2021 with Proverbs 24 and Psalm 24, accompanied by Psalm 36 for the 36th day of Spring and Psalm 114 for day 114 of the year

[Proverbs 24]

[Wisdom’s Warning]

Don’t envy the wealth of the wicked or crave their company.

For they’re obsessed with causing trouble

and their conversations are corrupt.

Wise people are builders—

they build families, businesses, communities.

And through intelligence and insight

their enterprises are established and endure.

Because of their skilled leadership,

the hearts of people are filled with the treasures of wisdom

and the pleasures of spiritual wealth.

Wisdom can make anyone into a mighty warrior,

and revelation-knowledge increases strength.

Wise strategy is necessary to wage war,

and with many astute advisers

you’ll see the path to victory more clearly.

Wisdom is a treasure too lofty for a quarreling fool—

he’ll have nothing to say when leaders gather together.

There is one who makes plans to do evil—

Master Schemer is his name.

If you plan to do evil, it’s as wrong as doing it.

And everyone detests a troublemaker.

If you faint when under pressure,

you have need of courage.

Go and rescue the perishing! Be their savior!

Why would you stand back and watch them stagger to their death?

And why would you say, “But it’s none of my business”?

The one who knows you completely and judges your every motive

is also the keeper of souls—and not just yours!

He sees through your excuses and holds you responsible

for failing to help those whose lives are threatened.

Revelation-knowledge is a delicacy,

sweet like flowing honey that melts in your mouth.

Eat as much of it as you can, my friend!

For then you will perceive what is true wisdom,

your future will be bright,

and this hope living within you will never disappoint you.

Listen up, you wicked, irreverent ones—

don’t harass the lovers of God

and don’t invade their resting place.

For the lovers of God may suffer adversity

and stumble seven times,

but they will continue to rise over and over again.

But the unrighteous are brought down by just one calamity

and will never be able to rise again.

Never gloat when your enemy meets disaster,

and don’t be quick to rejoice if he falls.

For the Lord, who sees your heart,

will be displeased with you and will pity your foe.

Don’t be angrily offended over evildoers or be agitated by them.

For the wicked have no life and no future—

their light of life will die out.

My child, stand in awe of Yahweh!

Give counsel to others,

but don’t mingle with those who are rebellious.

For sudden destruction will fall upon them

and their lives will be ruined in a moment.

And who knows what retribution they will face!

[Revelation from the Wise]

Those enlightened with wisdom have spoken these proverbs:

Judgment must be impartial,

for it is always wrong to be swayed by a person’s status.

If you say to the guilty, “You are innocent,”

the nation will curse you and the people will revile you.

But when you convict the guilty,

the people will thank you and reward you with favor.

Speaking honestly is a sign of true friendship.

Go ahead, build your career and give yourself to your work.

But if you put me first, you’ll see your family built up!

Why would you be a false accuser and slander with your words?

Don’t ever spitefully say, “I’ll get even with him!

I’ll do to him what he did to me!”

One day I passed by the field of a lazy man,

and I noticed the vineyards of a slacker.

I observed nothing but thorns, weeds, and broken-down walls.

So I considered their lack of wisdom,

and I pondered the lessons I could learn from this:

Professional work habits prevent poverty from becoming

your permanent business partner. And:

If you put off until tomorrow the work you could do today,

tomorrow never seems to come.

The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 24 (The Passion Translation)

[Psalm 24]

The King of Glory

David’s poetic praise to God

[Creation’s King]

Yahweh claims the world as his.

Everything and everyone belong to him!

He’s the one who pushed back oceans

to let the dry ground appear,

planting firm foundations for the earth.

[Who Comes before the King?]

Who, then, is allowed to ascend the mountain of Yahweh?

And who has the privilege of entering into God’s Holy Place?

Those who are clean—whose works and ways are pure,

whose hearts are true and sealed by the truth,

those who never deceive, whose words are sure.

They will receive Yahweh’s blessing

and righteousness given by the Savior-God.

They will stand before God,

for they seek the pleasure of God’s face, the God of Jacob.

Pause in his presence

[The King is Coming!]

So wake up, you living gateways!

Lift up your heads, you doorways of eternity!

Welcome the King of Glory,

for he is about to come through you.

You ask, “Who is this King of Glory?”

Yahweh, armed and ready for battle,

Yahweh, invincible in every way!

So wake up, you living gateways, and rejoice!

Fling wide, you eternal doors!

Here he comes; the King of Glory is ready to come in.

You ask, “Who is this King of Glory?”

He is Yahweh, armed and ready for battle,

the Mighty One, the invincible commander of heaven’s hosts!

Yes, he is the King of Glory!

Pause in his presence

The Book of Psalms, Poem 24 (The Passion Translation)

[Psalm 36]

The Blessing of the Wise

A poetic song by King David, the servant of the Lord

The rebellion of sin speaks as an oracle of God,

speaking deeply to the conscience of wicked men.

Yet they are still eager to sin,

for the fear of God is not before their eyes.

See how they flatter themselves,

unable to detect and detest their sins.

They are crooked and conceited,

convinced they can get away with anything.

Their wicked words are nothing but lies.

Wisdom is far from them.

Goodness is both forgotten and forsaken.

They lie awake at night to hatch their evil plots,

always planning their schemes of darkness,

and never once do they consider the evil of their ways.

But you, O Lord, your mercy-seat love is limitless,

reaching higher than the highest heavens.

Your great faithfulness is infinite,

stretching over the whole earth.

Your righteousness is unmovable,

just like the mighty mountains.

Your judgments are as full of wisdom

as the oceans are full of water.

Your tender care and kindness leave no one forgotten,

not a man or even a mouse.

O God, how extravagant is your cherishing love!

All mankind can find a hiding place

under the shadow of your wings.

All may drink of the anointing from the abundance of your house.

All may drink their fill from the rivers of Eden.

The fountain of life flows from you to satisfy me.

In your light of holiness we receive the light of revelation.

Lord, keep pouring out your unfailing love

on those who are near you.

Release more of your blessings to those who are loyal to you.

Don’t let these proud boasters trample me down;

don’t let them push me around

by the sheer strength of their wickedness.

There they lie in the dirt, these evil ones,

thrown down to the ground, never to arise again!

The Book of Psalms, Poem 36 (The Passion Translation)

[Psalm 114]

When the time came for Israel to leave Egypt—

for Jacob’s family to be free of those who spoke another language—

God chose to make Judah His sacred place,

and Israel became His realm.

And the waters of the sea witnessed God’s actions and ran away;

the Jordan, too, turned around and ran back to where it came from.

All of the mountains leapt with the strength of mighty rams,

and all of the hills danced with the joy of little lambs.

Why do you retreat, O sea?

Why do you roll back your waters, O Jordan?

Why, O mountains, do you leap with the strength of rams?

Why, O hills, do you dance with joy like little lambs?

Shudder and quake, O you earth, at the sight of the Lord.

The God of Jacob comes,

Who turns rock into pools of refreshing water

and flint into fountains of life-giving streams!

The Book of Psalms, Poem 114 (The Voice)

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