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themculibrary · 16 days

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Missing Scenes Masterlist 2

part one

.40 Caliber Ache (ao3) - aSintobeRin G, 1k

Summary: Peter just needs a second. Less than a second. Just long enough for him to catch his breath and get rid of the stars dancing across his vision.

A missing scene from NWH, between the school roof and the science lab.

AKA Odessa (ao3) - sirendoom T, 3k

Summary: Natasha was given a mission years ago to escort an engineer but encounters a mysterious enemy along the way.

Bottom of the Ninth (ao3) - anti_ela steve/bucky T, 1k

Summary: The missing scene from Avengers: Endgame.

"I understand," Bucky said, smiling. His heart was imploding, but what did that matter? He'd never expected Steve would choose him. This was inevitable.

Benign (ao3) - Face_of_Poe G, 2k

Summary: “T’Challa,” Ayo moves closer, leans in to whisper harshly. “I accept your word that James Barnes did not murder King T’Chaka. He is still HYDRA’s assassin. That has never been in question.”

T’Challa turns and considers him; Bucky’s eyes skitter away under the scrutiny. Steve keeps a firm hand on his shoulder, steadying him, grounding him. Signaling his readiness to defend him further, if he must. “Was, Ayo,” T’Challa murmurs. “He was HYDRA’s assassin. And the Winter Soldier had a great many victims, yes?”

Bucky swallows and keeps his eyes fixed on the ground.

“We cannot let ourselves forget that the Winter Soldier’s first victim… was James Barnes.”

Breathing Room (ao3) - kcscribbler T, 5k

Summary: In the immediate aftermath of S02E01, both Loki and Mobius are a little worse for wear. Shameless self-indulgent H/C, you've been warned accordingly.

Disconnect (ao3) - shadowhuntingdauntlessdemigod T, 1k

Summary: The first day they tie him to the table in the isolation ward, James Buchanan Barnes fights with all the will and strength he has left—not that he has much to give after being held in a prison cell and barely fed for weeks. Here’s what it gets him: strapped so tight that his lungs can hardly expand, stuck with needles filled with varying liquids, and knocked out by a fist to the cheekbone.

Fracture (ao3) - Silent_but_Artemis bruno/kamala G, 5k

Summary: An addition to the end of Episode 3: Destined to fill in some blanks. What happened after Kamala left Bruno and Nakia that night? How did Bruno end up with his arm in a cast and was Nakia able to get the full story of Kamala's powers explained to her?

How Bucky Barnes Accidentally Became A Goat Farmer (ao3) - SeaSpectre160 G, 1k

Summary: Bucky Barnes has been through a lot of strange experiences. This latest one? Being stalked by a pair of goats that have apparently decided that he’s their human now.

(in)sincerity (ao3) - Ingrid_Gradiant loki/sylvie T, 955

Summary: At McDonald's, Loki and Sylvie were talking for another minute and a half while we heard Mobius talking to Brad Wolfe. What did they say? Maybe this.

in your arms i fall (ao3) - icantsleepits4am steve/bucky M, 1k

Summary: In 1945, five Red Army soldiers search for a dying American in the Alps and thus, the Winter Soldier was born.

my mind is a hurricane (but you calm the storm) (ao3) - helloilovefanfiction implied loki/mobius T, 1k

Summary: As he flipped through the files, Loki’s gaze caught on a particular variant with dark bruises around his neck, clearly inflicted by a hand. Against his better judgement, he read the summary of the variant’s Nexus Event.

One More Bridge To Cross (ao3) - Taramayus mj/peter T, 20k

Summary: Now, sitting on Happy’s uncomfortable, probably very expensive, modern couch, with Peter on one side of her pressed up close and holding her hand, and Ned on the other end slumped in the corner as they watch Mean Girls (MJ’s pick, sue her, they needed something more light hearted to watch after the week they had) MJ wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. There is a running commentary comparing characters to students at Midtown with May chiming in from the kitchen here and there. -- or, how do MJ and Peter evolve from the post-credit scenes in FFH to the main events of NWH

remember me (for centuries) (ao3) - bookinit loki/mobius T, 3k

Summary: He doesn’t have time for this. It’s been twelve years, and he still doesn’t understand the inner components of the throughput multiplier. Yes, twelve years is a mere blink of an eye, in relation to the grander scope of his life, but—foolishly, Loki thought he would be a quicker study. OB said centuries, but Loki had, in the far back of his mind, expected minutes. He had expected greatness. He had expected to be exceptional.

He is decidedly not.

—

between centuries, loki figures out what he wants.

say goodbye (ao3) - thorbiased jane/thor T, 1k

Summary: A missing scene from Thor: Love and Thunder that answers a few questions I had like:

How did Jane get Warsong? Why did Jane go to Valhalla if she’s not Asgardian? How come we never saw Valkyrie’s reaction to Jane’s death? Can’t we actually have some Valkyrie screen time?

Single Malt 9ao3) - Tsimmes T, 1k

Summary: Sam could forgive Walker for the guns-a-blazing approach to diplomacy and intel gathering, or his generally obnoxious demeanor, but he draws the line at forcing him to deal with a concussed international terrorist and certified pain in the ass.

The Church Bells Toll For Thee, Lost Soldier (ao3) - DCAngst T, 2k

Summary: James Buchanan Barnes is a face and name on display in the Smithsonian. He reads about himself, and when he leaves, he heads to Brooklyn, where a haunting sound calls him to a familiar place.

In the Captain America: The Winter Soldier movie, Steve comes home from his mother's funeral, with Bucky following. Church bells ring in the distance. Seventy-eight years later, they ring again.

The Talk (ao3) - mybestgirl steve/peggy G, 3k

Summary: Steve has a crazy idea. Bucky doesn't think it's all that crazy.

thought we built a dynasty forever couldn't break (ao3) - mducklesworth G, 2k

Summary: He finally looks over to Steve, who’s still staring intently at his book.

“That haircut,” Tony says, “looks absolutely terrible on you.”

He doesn’t miss the flash of surprise that crosses Steve’s face, like he’s shocked that Tony even noticed he’s there. He smooths the page out and looks up. For a minute, he doesn’t say anything, just looks, sitting like that with his cheek against his fist, and Tony doesn’t manage to hold his gaze for too long.

#themculibrary #masterlists #marvel #mcu #missingscenes #missingscenes masterlist

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exxay · 3 years

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Spoiler Alert, Ptilopsis' voice in her head is a lot more deadlier than we thought

With the release of the Operator Modules, HG has taken a very interesting decision into how they want to incorporate them.

And of course, just like OD, they decided to fucking kill it.

Currently, we only have a translation of Ptilopsis' module, and holy hell there's a lot to dig into, so let's start sentence by sentence:

"If Originium really has the power to store information, then we can decrypt and translate, the whole Columbian scientific technique will soar again!"

"I reached a bottleneck. The current electronic calculation facilities are insufficient to deal with the complex amount of signals from Originium. I need a more suitable calculation device."

So basically, it all started with a researcher's revelation in that-an originium shard can act as a goddamn rtx3090+corsair memory module on steroids. And with it, send Columbia into a technological revolution. Except, they're trying to fit into a 16-bit cpu. So they needed a better one.

"Using humans to calculate?! This is a daring thought, I... need to consider the feasibility."

Love how instead of commenting on it's ethicality, the first thing they think of is "Can it work?", Just a small reminder of how inhumane Rhine Labs are.

"The creation of a human decryption system model has been completed. Now, we need an experimental subject with clear thought and quick reflexes. Best to have good understanding of calculators and data."

So the PC is built, now they just need a case for it, and it had to be a really good one to, they don't wanna waste it.

"The candidate has been selected. Experiment subject codename: Ptilopsis."

And lo and behold, why not choose the living computer herself?

"There is nobody else more suitable than her in the whole Rhine. Although the head suggested to conceal the experimental risks, but I still let her know about the various possibilities of the experiment. This is my duty as a citizen of Columbia, and as a person."

Showing just how amazing Ptilopsis, alongside another reminder of Rhine Labs' way of doing things. Don't let the little text about the person asking for their consent, if MuMu has shown us anything, for all we know Ptilopsis could have been "Convinced"/ But that's probably just an assumption, she could have very well thought that it was for the best.

"She agreed. She agreed! I just know, I just know she would agree! I didn't choose the wrong person!"

Then again, who really knows?

"The preliminary main points and operation procedure has been taught. She learns quickly. Tomorrow, the experiment will begin. I believe that we can embrace Columbia's future with open arms!"

"The experiment was very successful. Various data are within the controlled boundaries. As long as this pace is followed, a little, a little... No, no no no, it shouldn't be! Quick, quickly shut it down--"

Honestly, were we expecting anything less? Experiment was going amazingly right, until everything went horribly wrong.

"Emergency measures have been activated in time, but she still... received injury. The brain..."

And so comes into play, "The voice", more details further in.

"And Oripathy..."

No shit, infused originium shards? Didn't they learn from Ifrit? Or maybe, Ptilopsis came BEFORE Ifrit? Hmm, so many revelations.

"(Intermittent crying sounds)"

No idea whose these are, but most likely? It could be Ptilopsis herself, or maybe the researcher, they seemed to have more morals than we thought.

"The higher-up has already requested for resuscitation. But, but like this..."

Wait? Resuscitation? Holy shit did they send her into Clinical Death? Holy fuck. And what's with the hesitation? Was she gonna be even deader?

"It's my fault, it's all my fault..."

Yup, more morals than usual.

"According to the message that she received before, I made a chip that can be inserted into the human body. This thing should be able to replace some of the functions of her brain."

Ok wow, so, Ptilopsis, already knowing shit was gonna fuck up somehow (Thanks' Milo), asked to make a backup chip than be inserted to the human body. So that she'll still pull through, pretty hardcore.

Wait? Like the promotion chips? Does that mean the promotion chips are inserted into the operators we use? Or are they different chips?

"Some department heads laud this idea a lot, hmm, I know what they are thinking."

Oh, so if I'm interpreting this right, some -not all- of the heads in Rhine were against this, but obviously, not because of anything ethical mind you.

"The implantation worked. She had no reaction."

"She woke up! But some problems occurred... in her language abilities."

"Error Hase"

"She tells me, there is another voice in her mind. A voice that does not belong in the boundary of known language. This thing will put a heavy burden on her psyche."

"The pain can only be reduced by using a robotic language system."

Ahhh, the voice, just like how Ifrit has a "voice" in her head constantly arguing and vying control. But we all know that it isn't just a voice, it's a literal fucking ENTITY, so does that mean Ptilopsis also has her own entity she constantly holds back? And just like what she tells us in her third trust line.

According to Ptilopsis "It is, in fact, quite burdensome to speak in this manner. But this is a necessary measure to prevent the system nexus from being devoured by that other voice. Doctor, if I become rampant, please guide me back onto the right path."

Love how it shed's more light onto such a mysterious habit that i wanted to know of.

"She is the first living person in Columbia with an implanted chip. This is an achievement."

"But to her, the land is no longer the same."

Sad for Ptilopsis, she can't look at anything the same anymore, though overall this sheds some more light on her relationship with Silence. More at the end.

Wait a minute-

"I also implanted a chip in my brain. Now the wound still hurts a little. But I want to know, what change did the information from Originium bring to her."

Oh, oh no.

"That voice, what is it?"

OH NO

"I will repeat the experiment." --Rhine Lab, Unknown project leader, recorded.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOO

Unknown Researcher whyyyyy, you were so close, you were so close to greatness!!!!

Anyways, "repeat" would imply that Ptilopsis is actually the original subject, meaning she was the first to be implanted with artificial originium shards, and sub sequentially, artificially infected.

This could also mean that Silence learns about Ifrit's existence through Ptilopsis, and then leading to the "Flame Demon Incident".

Ptilopsis considers Silence her closest friend and Savior, in fact, even being more than willing to participate in a "Secret Project" of hers, which she SHOULD be reporting to the higher ups instead. It could still be her being a bit rebellious instead of being close friends, but as she said.

"I met Dr. Silence at Rhine Lab. I provided big data analysis and risk evaluation for her on a secret project."

Hmm, more to think about.

Speaking of, whenever we think of the "Flame Demon Incident" we think of Saria, Silence and Ifrit, but what about Ptilopsis? Silence would have probably learned about it on her own since she was helping oversee the project, but how would she learn of the, ehem, "Less well known aspects." Though that's just speculation on my part

So much to think about, what about you? What do you think about it?

Personally? Call McDonalds cuz I'm McFUCKING LOVE IT

#arknights #Ptilopsis #so interesting #and sad #goddamn i love arknights #i diagnose you with arknights #Lore Post

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thedreadvampy · 4 years

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like I am not trying to be unreasonable or excessively defensive when I say ‘oh my god shut up about Britishness’ or at least, not to talk the talk without walking the walk

I definitely have had a lot of unlearning to do from those heady far-off Bush administration days where we here in the UK all turbocharged our superiority complex about how America was a pit of fools led by an idiot and that made it not just ok but Noble and Politically Justified to rip the piss out of like. the McDonalds eating Walmart shopping mass media consuming oil chugging school shooting flagwaving white trailer park hyper-Christian anti-abortion racist ignorant American that lived in our heads and Spoke Weird and Thought They Were Real People and ate freedom fries and thought Iraq and Afghanistan were the same country and couldn’t do basic maths and barged around European cities in shorts and sunglasses yelling to each other about how cute it was and thought they were the only people in the world who mattered. and that’s not imo any different to the way American conceptions of Britishness tend to be framed

(not to say that that image of Americans is a thing of the past At All and it’s something I often notice myself slipping into)

and this was viewed as a moral position, particularly among the hard left, for a lot of the reasons that ragging on Britain is also often seen as a moral stance. America was (and is) powerful and imperialistic, culturally hegemonic, politically far to the right of where Europe tended to see itself. America was the architect of the Iraq War, and a whole string of imperialist invasions before that, and the “special relationship” with America was seen as emblematic of how far right the Labour government had swung. I knew old communists of my dad’s generation who took as a point of deep pride that they wouldn’t interact with American exports and were actively hostile to Americans. America was seen through the lens of Bush (and is now often seen through the lens of Trump). It felt good to shit on America and, by extension, Americans.

America represented imperialism and racist, exploitative global policy, filtered through a lens of glossy TV and film, stars-and-stripes-forever military glorification, Disney, loud tourists and a whole heap of shitty ideas about Things That Signified Americanness And Were Therefore Bad like

Talking funny

Simplified/differing spelling

Liking different sports

Being fat

Eating weird food

Using unfamiliar idioms

Seeing the world through a very culturally American lens

A lot of class signifiers that don’t exist to the same degree/don’t mean the same thing here (living in trailer parks, shopping at Walmart)

now you may have noticed that these aren’t.......super cool things to rag on? and also that there are a lot of parallels between that and the stuff I get pissy about when people make jokes about Britishness.

because the justification is that This Country Is Bad. It’s a Global Force For Evil. And that is, in both Britain and America’s case, definitely not wrong. Both Britain and America are violently imperial, culturally hegemonic, white supremacist world powers with a strong vested interest in considering themselves the Only Ones Who Are Really Normal People. It’s totally reasonable to hate Britain (I sure do!!!!!!). It’s also totally reasonable to hate America.

What I take issue with is the conflation of hating America with hating Americans. The conflation of hating Britain with hating the British. A country is not its people. A government is not its people. As I’m sure most of us have noticed, governments that fuck over the world are often simultaneously fucking over the poor, marginalised and vulnerable within their own borders (this is something as well that a lot of North Korean, Russian and Chinese people have brought up - that they’re held personally responsible for the shitty things their governments do even though they’re the people those things are targetted at)

That isn’t to say that people in both these countries (and indeed Canada, France, etc) shouldn’t think critically about the ways in which they benefit from their countries’ hegemonic power, or the ways in which they’re complicit in the imperialistic attitudes. But a lot of this mocking, both ways, boils down to

a) your government/country is bad and you should feel ashamed (like ‘you suck because the British Empire was a genocidal monolith’ or ‘Donald Trump just goes to show what America’s really like’) b) your country sucks to live in, haha, more fool you for living in it!!!!!! (Brexit! School shootings!) c) you are Foreign and that’s Weird (often coupled with ‘haha can you believe people in that stupid country do [thing that is generally associated with poverty]? GROSS’) d) you look/sound funny (British people all have bad teeth and are ugly, Americans are all fat and/or have had 20000 tons of plastic surgery and dental work)

and idk I just think perhaps that’s not...productive or good #praxis. like. not everything has to be Good Praxis it can just be a lazy joke about national stereotypes. but it’s not a Strong Moral Stance to hate (white) Brits or (white) Americans (and another thing is: these types of stereotypes very rarely include the racial diversity and multiculturalism of both Britain and America, choosing instead to only bring up non-white Brits/Americans as faceless Victims Of Bigotry). it’s not Good Leftist Praxis and people are, in fact, justified in getting annoyed about it even if they ARE white people from an imperialist country. because it is personal. it’s made personal.

and of course everything I and others have said in the past about classism holds true. in both the American and the British cases, a lot of the most commonly raised stereotypes other than language differences are about class (in that the things framed as gross/weird are overwhelmingly things which are looked down on within the culture because they’re associated with poverty - the Gross British Food, the People of Walmart, the lack of education, the slang, fatness, etc).

(also don’t get it twisted. a lot of people thought the last time I mentioned how class affects British stereotypes people thought I was making some class reductionist Working Class People Are Exempt From Racism And Benefitting From Imperialism argument which. no. but you’re not criticising racism or imperialism you’re criticising Poverty Food, just like you’re not criticising lack of global political awareness or a culture of rampant neoliberal capitalism when you laugh at Americans for being fat. you’re just shitting on people for things they’re already being shat on for.)

this is obfuscated by the fact that these stereotypes slap together high and low class signifiers at random, but the high class signifiers that get mocked, at least in the American stereotype, are mocked because in a British context they are low class signifiers. like a lot of what gets mocked in Britain about Americans is the high-capitalist Conspicuous Consumption of the Trump and McMansion types, and the plastic surgery and glow-in-the-dark Hollywood smile. but it’s mocked because it’s, at its heart, seen as gauche and tasteless and Not Classy, whereas the British rich know how to be Tastefully Rich (boke)

like I’m not saying people outside a country shouldn’t criticise that country. both Britain and America deserve to be criticised roundly, not just on a political level but on a societal level. yeah man I do benefit from power and I am very able to slip into cultural supremacist ways of thinking. but ‘har har they talk funny’ isn’t criticism, it’s bigotry. To Be Clear: it may be bigotry but it’s not oppression. It’s not a matter of ‘oh woe the Americans are Bullying Us From A Position Of Power.’ Neither side of this holds hegemonic power over the other, realistically (Americans are not oppressed by Britons for being American; Britons are not oppressed by Americans for being British) But what it is is round after round of the same sneering cultural supremacist oneupmanship that’s characterised the relationships between powerful imperial nations (and particularly between Britain and America) for centuries. we’re both, nationally speaking, desperately pitching the argument that We’re The Good And Civilised Ones and They’re The Stupid Weird Embarrassing Ones.

we’re BOTH weird embarrassing countries with sordid, racist, imperialist political structures. we’re both horrendously shitty nations it’s not a competition about which country is shittier because the answer is always Who Cares They’re Both A Nexus Of Awful Global Consequences.

also nations are not real. we should criticise nations as they exist but people? bully people about something real you cowards. “britishness” or “americanness” is only as real as you make it

#boy howdy that's a long post #lotta words to say 'actually I've just been insecure about my accent since I was 4'

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erdiki · 3 years

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lamejerk · 4 years

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Tagged by @masons-nexus (thanks!)

Rules: Answer 21 questions and tag 21 people.

Name: [Redacted]

Nickname: no

Gender: female

Star sign: Aries, but I’m not really into astrology

Current time: 12:15 am

Song stuck in my head: Sinkhole by Meat Wave

Last movie I saw: it’s been at least six months since the last time I watched a movie since I don’t have a tv or Netflix. I think it was either Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (which I’ve probably seen a dozen times—not an exaggeration, it’s one of my favorite films) or Gus Van Sant’s Elephant

Last thing I googled: Neil Cicierega (I forgot how his last name was spelled)

Other blogs: just this one

Do I get asks: very rarely, and when I do they’re not actually questions

Reason for your url: I was on a debate team back in high school and we called ourselves the lame jerks. I liked it so I kept it for myself

Following: over 3000 lol. I want an endless supply of content on my dash and I have no restraint

Average sleep: probably 5 hours a night

Lucky number: I’m not superstitious but I like the meme numbers

Currently wearing: lounge clothes. Running shorts and an oversized plain blue t shirt

Dream job: probably being a wacky content creator. Like whatever the hell Neil Cicierega does. Maybe writing/producing a surrealist sketch comedy show with some friends I vibe with creatively

Dream trip: a week in a creepy abandoned house, like the ones in my dream home tag. Or a replica of the unabomber cabin. Ideally with a litter of stray kittens and/or friendly opossums. And maybe a day trip to an animal sanctuary so I can pet cows and pigs

Favorite food: yellow curry with vegetables and tofu

Instruments: guitar is my primary instrument. I play some bass and piano and in school I played clarinet and tenor and bari sax. Despite knowing how to play it I abstain from playing ukulele as a matter of principle

Favorite song: Rock N Roll McDonalds by Wesley Willis (rip)

I’ll tag @alien99999999999999999 @egirlradicalism @hot-chubbies-with-cheese @sillylandblaze @feyfolken @mentallyilldrugaddict @der-ewige-fuchs @megamanthefightingrobot @onemiracleworld @fencesitterdaily @zorukochantsundere @mogwai-archive @what-the-duck-is-goin-on-here @stupidfinn @amphetamine-faults @skeetlejuice @bright-noise @purulens-kopet @gishifu @808sheartbreaks @bluntcrusher and anyone else who wants to do this

#tagged

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swampgallows · 4 years

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i got distracted earlier and forgot to post but im thankful for my mutuals who have helped me time and again, even if it’s in ways you may not know. i appreciate you all so much and i am so grateful for the friends i’ve made here and the small but intimate community cultivated through tumblr.

zbfc and wch, thank you for everything. @zeyan i love you with all my heart and i’m so fucking thankful i could have funny airbnb time with you and @aeiroki grimlock hunterpunter. you make me laugh every single day and i always want the best for you both (and jack!!! and PARKER!!!)

@lokaror thank you for letting me share my love of rexxar and bears with you. we’ve shared a lot of fantastic laughs together, some very fun stuff and some very deep shit too. i treasure every one of our convos together, and your playlists too!

@reglei thankful i finally got to beat you into submission at blizzcon. youre a sweetheart and a sleepyhead. thanks for listening to me ramble late into the night. i appreciate all the times youve had my back, whether it was creepy dudes or spoilers or w/e. you shoulda killed me w gorehowl when you had the chance

I LOVE @amarysue i miss you when you work long hours but i’m always so happy when we get to play games together. i hope you can leave the mcdonalds playplace soon. also i dont get to say it much but i love talking about academic stuff with you. i know i rib you about dark leafy greens but you are very educated in a lot of amazing fields and i love when you share your knowledge with me!!! i love amary!!!!

@theabsolutevoid i know youre the void but youre a golden human being of radiant light. you are so spectacular, we are all always in amazement of your passion and creativity and constant flow of ideas, and your compassion seems boundless. i am so grateful to know such a special person and spent many late nights laughing to tears with you

@perce the dynamic duo... im thankful daygo got me into ladybug so i could hear all of your amazing takes on it as they are equally as hilarious as your wow takes. i admire your resilience, though that might be weird to say, and though i know i’m an old crone youre definitely a role model for me taking command of my own life and establishing boundaries to become the person i want to be. i’m so grateful we got to spend blizzcon together again!! and thank you for getting me the long-forgotten hippogryph. its a very important memory to me.

refugees i know i dont pop in much but i still love you all dearly. im embarrassed actually because you are all functional adults and i’m not but when i get a job and reenter society i want to be able to come back and say i’m a big kid now

thrainosh squad @irenthel @wckhamm etc thank you for letting me indulge my interests without ridicule or judgment. @fitzefitcher i dunno you changed my life SORRY there is not a less fucked up way to say that. no pressure

@sithisis & crew thank you for so many incredible hots games and wonderful memories and all of your sweetness and fun times!!! sith you have inspired and supported so much of my writing and my ideas and i am in awe that you are getting so many amazing opportunities working in games journalism!!! i know theres a lot of grunt work but at the end of the day it seems like youre really doing something you genuinely love (and are good at!!) and i’m so happy for you. you work hard and you deserve it. im love skitty w a gun

@steblynkaagain your art is such an inspiration to me, and i’m amazed by your cosplay too! i’m thankful that even across language barriers we can enjoy thraina and silly modern AUs together. i am so impressed by your intelligence and achievements. your comic where you pledge yourself to Thrall’s Horde is still so important to me, and every day i think about your mechanic garrosh..... and doctor drek’thar, and doctor thrall, and SHAMAN GARROSH....... (sob)

@captainkaprozyx and @sdei ... i am so thankful for all of your artwork and your amazing gifts. i am working on getting them framed, and your zine was amazing! you are a great team and I love your collaborations. also sdei’s birthday gift is still my discord icon. we just really love a big guy huh....... cannot express how inspiring your artwork is. the detail, the colors... it brings me to tears, i am so stunned. you are both so incredibly talented!

@omnifariousness bro i dont even know where to start. many good dog times and we can strike up the late night jawin again soon i hope. shit has been scattered and i know youve been dippin back n forth on the road but i hope the shit evens out soon for you. excited for you to see tool in feb and damn dude every DAY i think about the reading you treated me to of the 40k stuff for your reel. god man i want that VA shit to work out for you bad. your diction is impeccable and you so deserve it

@darnjam i know you guys dont read this but i love you so much and every day i’m so thankful we’re all still friends. @daygloow thank you for being like the sole source and catalyst for my personal development for like the last 3 years, im so proud of you and everything youve worked so hard to achieve and i’m so glad youre getting the recognition you deserve. thank you for always picking me up (vehicular and emotional) and for watching cartoons n playin vidya with me. god whens the next GOOD rave? i need to make you proud and actually dj so i can play banana

@bluntcrusher every day i’m like god when will king tori take the throne... im so thankful that youre in a good spot finally and that youre getting the love you deserve. and plus a sweet pucci mane. my blogs a mess but im glad youre still stickin around for it haha. always happy to see youre safe and THRIVING

@swarnpert love you dude thank you for lettin me harass you w 420 snaps. bro when you sent me those sabaton snaps i was in line for the haunted mansion at disneyland during blizzcon and it was just like... my heart was so full, it meant so much to me ALSO HOLY SHIT i love your art please NEVER STOP drawing

@nelfs i love your blog and your art and your FEELINGS like I dunno how to word it in a not-weird way. i think you are a very bright person with a good heart, and i’m thankful to know someone like that, even tangentially. it is fortifying also to see someone stand up for the things they love, whether it’s just a cartoon show or something of serious concern like animal welfare. i admire your healthy relationship to yourself and your strong integrity.

@neophyte-redglare i think about bead world garrosh every fucking day of my life. cannot thank you enough. i treasure it

@redpandalori THIS IS THE MVP RIGHT HERE. i dunno when you started sending me floods of kittums but every day i look forward to it and every single one means so much to me. i wear the kandi you handcrafted for me every single day and i show it off constantly to my friends because it’s just mindblowing. you are so sweet and thoughtful and i love sendin you snaps and it’s just incredible how the internet is. thank you for sending me rain snaps and kito & harley/ears & lilith pics all the time

@hungwy i dunno WHAT you get outta my blog but i’m thankful for the reams of sweet animal pics and interesting linguistic and anthropology posts on your blog. you’re a very positive force on my dash and you seem a wonderful person irl too!

@ubersaur im so happy we’re still mutuals after all this time lmao. you were one of the first aces id ever known so we’ll always have that solidarity and i’ll always be thankful. and i have to seriously catch up on magus bride haha. thank you for all of your love and support after all this time, i hope i offer the same to you!!

@18milliondeadplebs the rare and beautiful nexus of my two sole interests... warcraft and raving. dude just thank you for existing man LMAO i hope we can go ravin together some day

@kontextmaschine what a strange long fuckin trip it’s been dude. super surreal to have raved with you and had you come all the way down for burst but i knew i’d be remiss if youd missed it. you definitely deserved a potent taste of the 90s. thank you for the usb sticks, im still waiting on a worthy recipient for the other two. the majority of your blog is practically in hieroglyphics to me but man when the posts hit... they fuckin hit. i know you dont need me to tell you, but youve got a great talent and weirdass fuckin eye. a very very particular eye. love you man. please kiss badger for me.

@ironbull thank you for suffering in wisdom tooth hell with me. i am glad you had a good time at disney world and im hoping we can both be free of all of our tooth woes soon. thank you also for your advice and support in my personal stuff too!!

@kittensceilidh thank you for your sweet messages! every one of your hugs means a lot to me!!! it is nice to feel seen when i am in dark places.

@dimedog warcraft and foggy forests... hell yeah dude

@tim-official man sometimes it really is as simple as just laughing at the same funny shit, but youve reached out to me too and i appreciate it!!!

@peanotbotter thank you for all of the laughs and the kind words! thank you for caring about me, i care about you too!! i hope we can play hots again or wow together soon!!!

wow this got long but i love a bunch of people. there are more of you that i love and are very special to me and i apologize if i didnt get to you. i hope you all had a nice holiday, if you celebrated. thank you for believing in me

#blathering

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fuelcut · 4 years

Text

A thought experiment on Silicon Valley’s third era

[ read the tweetstorm if you’re in a rush]

June 19th marks the end of American slavery, July 4th American Independence and July 14th the storming of the Bastille. It’s also my 40th birthday, and I’m exploring what we can learn from the past to help navigate today’s struggles for racial justice and economic freedom.

1940-1980: “Atoms” and the military-industrial-labor complex

My dad arrived in the Bay Area in 1970-1971 to get his PhD at Berkeley - just as the area was being rebranded as Silicon Valley.

Free from the stifling hierarchy of the East, the Bay was America’s center for social, technical and institutional change. Black Panthers policed the police in Oakland, shiny BART trains crossed the Bay to SF where the Gay Rights movement was flourishing. My family tree waited a millennia for India to recognize intercaste marriage. My parents would see radical social change in America across every axis in a single generation. Bold leadership in the 60s expanded civil rights and embraced immigration. They (and I) benefited greatly from an economic and social foundation that had been laid over many decades.

Caterpillar Tractor - founded in the Bay Area - embodied the spirit of this era. It went from liberating France in WW2 to building a massive middle class, unionized labor force. Cat later moved its headquarters to Peoria, Illinois - because in this era, cities across the country - not just the coasts - had the ability to compete. Since WW2, America pursued an intentional strategy of geographically broad-based economic development - via highways, airline regulation and distributed national labs.

Caterpillar didn’t just give Peoria a chance, it also gave my dad a chance to put down roots in America by sponsoring his green card. There was no H1B limbo. The nexus of military, industry and labor unions brought immigrants, Women and Blacks into the workforce - with paid apprenticeships (not exorbitant higher education) and technically-focused community colleges paving the way for millions. My mom learned COBOL while her toddlers played in the back of class. Even Hunter’s Point in SF was vibrant during much of this period. (Of course, it was far from a halcyon era - the war machine had massive human cost globally and civil rights were far from evenly enforced in America.)

And while atoms reigned supreme during this era, the military and government patiently invested risk capital in advanced manufacturing, semiconductors and software/networking to prepare America for its future.

1980-2020: “Bits” and global capital, jackrocks and polarization

In 1980, Reagan was elected President - and I was born. This would also be the peak of private sector labor employment in the US and the beginning of global capital (and the multinational companies they backed) as the leading force in forging the social contract.

They promised us that countries with McDonald’s would never go to war with each other. Indeed the Berlin Wall fell, Asian laborers got jobs and Americans could buy cheap stuff at WalMart. Global capital (bits) put atoms inside shipping containers and sent them around the world - abstracting consumers from the manufacturing base.

The writing was on the wall for unions.

As a middle schooler, I saw Cat management and labor (UAW) locked into a multi-year strike over the future. The front line was not in a boardroom or on the picket line. It was neighborhoods, schools and community groups. I remember when a classmate whose dad was in the union talked about how folks in the factory were peeing on effigies of management - including my dad.

Naturally I knew which side I was on. Cat needed wage concessions and freedom to operate to be globally competitive. I’d read Akio Morita, TPS and Lee Iacocca. I worried about Japan Inc. eating our lunch (yes as a 12 year old!) UAW workers and families were much more grounded. They needed a livelihood and wanted certainty for their future.

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War continued to wage into high school. We came home one day to find “jackrocks” outside of our driveway - a tool used in feudal Japan to thwart the advancing armies - horses, chariots - etc. of those in power. In <60 years, Caterpillar had gone from transforming America’s agrarian society to becoming the enemy of American workers. We had the GOP’s Contract with America (stored in my Trapper Keeper) and Clinton signing NAFTA within a couple years. Both parties supported global capital and global capital supported both parties. Maybe jackrocks worked better than voting?

Corporate America soon figured out that if your workers were in China, Mexico or the South, it’s harder for them to stick jack rocks in your driveway. If your kids go to private school or you live in a quasi-private suburb, they’ll be insulated from the wrath of the have-nots in heavily policed, declining urban centers. No peeing on your effigy or having your kid hear about it!

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After college, I became an analyst at Bain & Company. Once an auto parts company hired us to do a “portfolio review”. I meticulously compared the costs of building mirrors in Eastern Michigan or Malaysia - creating a zero defect Excel model. Guess which location won? The auto parts company - like Cat - had the freedom to choose where to put jobs.

But what freedom did the workers have? Marie Antoinette once said “let them eat cake”. The elites of our era now say “let them move”. Social capital is critical for folks navigating change. The educated elite take the portability of social capital (embedded in college degrees and iMessage threads) as a given.

But place and social capital are deeply intertwined especially if you’re poor or a minority. While the deep introspection elites once had during 2016 has now been paved over by new crises, we should never forget that there’s a cost to society of losing its manufacturing base and jobs. How do you model the costs of broken families, drug addiction and a polarized electorate in Excel?

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I grew disillusioned with management by spreadsheet. But I saw a bright spot on the horizon: tech. I remember opening my first iPod, getting 1000 songs in my pocket and believing that America had a shot at leading a new generation of consumer electronics when everyone a decade earlier had written us off in favor of the Japanese. Perhaps tech could bring jobs and prosperity back to the country? I wanted to be part of it.

So I moved to the Valley in 2004 and joined a VC fund. I saw how the VC funding model that Silicon Valley was built on incentivizes high-risk, high-leverage and massive-scale. It encourages companies to cherry-pick top-end talent (immigrants, marquee college grads) to build the differentiated bits. Pick the highest leverage point in the stack, outsource everything else - by building in China and/or pushing the last-mile to an ecosystem that you can control at arms length.

Tech companies could more than pay back the largely fixed costs of software / semiconductor design from the large and homogenous American market. This dynamic attracted massive amounts of private risk capital and enabled aggressive expansion abroad. This model didn’t work for everything (I got burned with cleantech) - but it worked amazingly well for broad swaths of enterprise software, consumer services and marketplaces. I saw how tech could be an incredible lever for wealth creation. But every visit back home to the Rust Belt made me wonder - wealth creation for whom?

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2020+ - A thought experiment on institutional innovation and putting people first

July 14, 2020 - Q2 Earnings - CEO, MEGA TECH CORP - Hi everyone. These aren’t normal times. We’re not going to talk about our 10Q on this call. We’re here to talk about the next 10 years. So if you’re here for DAUs, ARR or CPC, you can drop off now. 

We’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the race, health and economic crises our country faces. Over the last few weeks, I’ve asked our exec team to leave their homes, their Zoom calls, their DoorDash deliveries - to join protests and explore our community through new eyes.

Race & Place: On Juneteenth, we biked from Sheraton Place to Hunters Point to Tanforan. We saw the real life impact of redlining, mass incarceration of Blacks and the lack of jobs from decades ago - and how our headquarters sustain - rather than disrupt - the region’s policies of de facto segregation. We also remembered how political demagogues once imprisoned our neighbors of Japanese descent. We see today how their rhetoric affects our Black neighbors and colleagues. What might it do tomorrow to folks without legal status in ag/service industries that California depends or the H1Bs we depend on? What does diversity & inclusion mean in this context?

Jobs: The next Friday we biked from SRI to PARC to Sunnyvale and Moffett Field. Our industry once dreamed of a bicycle for the mind and embraced technical education and apprenticeship as a path in the door for Women and Blacks. Meanwhile we’ve pushed vast swaths of work to contractors or platform-mediated transactions - making it harder to use up-skilling as a talent lever like manufacturing employers did in the last era. What’s the impact on income mobility? At what point will 40 million unemployed Americans affect our share prices and the stability of society?

Climate: On Independence Day, we biked on the Bay Trail past landfills, superfund sites and the 101 - alongside poor and minority neighborhoods with terrible health outcomes. We talked about the Bay Area weather forecast for 2060 “fire with a chance of flooding”. We passed abandoned railways and dreams of regional transport - the result of which is folks commuting hours each way from the central valley to work service jobs in our campuses. We wondered about the long run political consequences of isolating our employee base inside the WiFi confines of a private bus network. Where is the voting base to drive institutional change? How many axles or tires will our commuter buses need to keep them safe from jackrocks on the 101?

Health: Last week, we rode from the old Permanente cement quarry to 101 (built by the same cement workers.) We talked about how Kaiser - a private employer of low-skilled workers - internalized their healthcare needs, pursued disruptive innovation and faced fierce clashes with the medical establishment. We thought about how COVID is exposing the brittleness of our employee’s isolation inside a private insurance bubble. No one can be healthy in a pandemic without competent public health infrastructure. Meanwhile, the growing cost of private healthcare makes it harder for tech - let alone the rest of the country - to employ American workers across the wage spectrum - exacerbating job loss and instability.

And as we spoke with others, we saw how the issues that Silicon Valley faces are not unique to one metropolitan area or one industry. It just happens to be the ultimate archetype of Global Capitalism and de facto segregated American metros.

What we now see - more clearly than ever - is that our entire company, our entire industry, our entire Valley - is built on a flawed foundation.

We can no longer just focus on the magical software bits and hope someone else figures out racial equity, employment, climate and health. This is Joel Spolsky’s Law of Leaky Abstractions on the ultimate scale. The abstractions are failing - and we’re seeing bugs and unintended consequences all around us. And the more we invest to deal with one-off bugs, the more likely we are to calcify change and imprison ourselves inside a failing stack.

It’s like we decided to build the world’s notification service on Ruby on Rails - or building an iPhone competitor on Windows CE. Fail Whale everywhere. Unfortunately, America’s democratic institutions are in poor condition. They are struggling to deal with inequality let alone looming environmental disaster. A polarized electorate - particularly at the national level - leads to populism and makes it hard for these institutions to execute meaningful, long-term plans.

We talk a lot about speech, misinformation, fairness of targeted ads etc. But it’s becoming clear that UX, linear algebra/training data and monetization in our products is just the tip of the spear to address polarization. We believe polarization is a product of the underlying conditions of civil rights, education, health and climate debt that affect Americans differentially based on race, wealth, neighborhood and region. e.g. If we care about justice, how far does focusing on the fairness of employment ads get us in a world when many people lack the skills and negotiating power to secure a living wage?

So will today’s peaceful protests for racial justice expand into tomorrow’s revolution(s) for economic freedom? If you don’t think things are bad now, think about what happens when the stimulus checks run out. Take a look at the amount of debt in the public sector, use any imagination about COVID, work out what happens to their tax base / pension returns and consider the impact on public services, public servants and their votes. MMT better be a real thing. Maybe we didn’t start these fires, but that refrain won’t save us when the flames come our way.

We’re done debating why we need to act. It’s clear America needs our help. Let’s talk about how we’re going to rise to the occasion. Our mantra will be “internalize, innovate, institutionalize”.

First, we’re going to internalize our problems. I’m here to tell you that issues of racial and economic justice are not just moral issues but they’re financial issues. Racial debt, education debt, health debt, climate debt will hit us harder and harder each year. (By the way, revolution probably won’t be great for your DCF models.) So we’re going to recognize these off-balance sheet liabilities - which amount to a few hundred billion in the US alone over the next 10 years for a company at our scale.

Second, we’re going to innovate against these systemic problems - but our only shot at making progress is if we realign the entire company’s mission to address them. This is not about optics. This is not about philanthropy. This is not another bet. We’re putting all our chips behind one bet - America. It's the country that backed us in the first place, it's where most of our people are and most of our profits. The job for our existing products, platforms and cash flows will be to advance four areas: place / race, skilling / manufacturing, health / food and climate / mobility - starting in America. The board will measure me based on job creation and diversity. It should go without saying that we’re pausing dividends and buybacks for the foreseeable future. Every dollar will serve our mission. Every senior leader will need to sign up for our new mission - and those who choose to stay will receive a new, back-end loaded, 10 year vesting schedule. We want them focused on the long-term health of society - not the whims of Robinhood day traders or strengthening the moats of existing products. We will need to invent entirely new ways to operate and ship products. As Joel Spolsky said, “when you need to hire a programmer to do mostly VB programming, it’s not good enough to hire a VB programmer, because they will get completely stuck in tar every time the VB abstraction leaks”. We need engineers, designers and product managers that will look deep into the stack, confront the racial, job access, health and climate debts that our products, our companies and our communities are built on top of. This is not about CYA process to protect cash cows or throwing things over the fence to policy. We will need to innovate across technical, cultural and organizational lines. This requires deep understanding and curiosity. This will bring more scrutiny to our company - not less. Not everyone’s going to be on board - so for the next 12 months, we’re giving folks a one-time buyout if they want to leave.

Third, we can’t do any of this by ourselves. The problems are too big. Our role will be to provide enlightened risk capital (from our balance sheet or by re-vectoring operating spend) alongside R&D, product, platform leverage to help leaders and innovators pursue solutions in these areas. Of course we will work with our peers and the public sector wherever possible - buying/R&D consortia, public-private partnerships, trusts, etc. But the new era and landscape demands that we explore institutional models beyond global capital/startups, labor unions, NGOs or government. We need models that can more flexibly align people and purpose, that innovate on individualized vs. socialized risk/reward - and that ultimately help build and sustain local, social capital. It’s difficult to say what these will look like - but increasingly figuring this out will be existential for our core business too. Right now, it doesn’t matter if you’re designing the best cameras in Cupertino or the best way to see their snaps in Santa Monica - we’re all just building layers of an attention stack for global capital. Our Beijing competitors have figured this out. ByteDance is already eating our lunch. They’re using the same tech inputs as us - UX, ML and large-scale systems - which are now a commodity - but with vastly lower consequences for the content they show - creating a superior operating / scaling model. They’re not internalizing social or political cost.   What we need in this era is the accumulation stack - where each interaction builds social capital. This is not about global likes. This is about local respect. We’ll create competitive advantage when we build products that reach across race / economic lines to harness America’s amazing melting pot and do so in ways that build livelihoods / property rights for creators and stakeholders.

With this operating model in place, we’re committing to fundamental change in four areas:

Place & Race - We’re done with de facto segregation. Over the next 10 years, 100% of our jobs will be in diverse communities that embrace inclusive schooling, policing, housing and transit policies. (Starting tomorrow, we’re putting red lines on our maps around towns with exclusionary zoning.) This is not about privatizing cities or an HQ2-style play to extract concessions. This is about investing our risk capital and our reputation to innovate alongside government. How do we bring world-class education to neighborhoods with concentrated poverty? What is the future of digital/hybrid charter schooling? Unbundled, community-driven public safety? We’ll embrace “remote-first” as a means to this end. The Bay will become one physical node alongside others (e.g. Atlanta, DC, LA) creating an Interstate Knowledge System that develops diverse talent across the country. We’re going to coordinate our investment with leading peers - since after all, this isn’t about cost savings or cherry-picking. It’s about broadening our country’s economic base.

Skilling & Manufacturing - We will 10x the tech talent pool in 10 years - by inventing new apprenticeship models that bring women, minorities and the poor into the workforce. We’ll start with our existing contractor base, convert them to new employment models with expanded benefits and paths for upward mobility. Next, we will invent new productivity tools for all types of workers - from the front office to mobile work to call center - that brings the power of AI and programming to everyone. These will be deeply tied into new platforms for work designed from the bottom-up to build social and financial capital for individual workers and teams. Last, we’re going to manufacture most of our hardware products - from silicon all the way to systems - entirely in the US within 10 years. This will require massive investment, collaboration and innovation. It may require a revolution in robotics - but we will pursue this in a way that makes the American worker competitive - not a commodity to be automated away. If we’re successful, the dividends of our investment here will have massive spillover benefits to every other sector of manufacturing in the US - autos, etc. - including ones we have yet to dream up.

Health & Food - We’re not going to tolerate a two-class system for healthcare anymore. As we convert our contract workforce to new employment models, we’re going to have to innovate on the fundamental quality/cost paradigm across our benefit stack. This may feel like a step down but it will put us (and the rest of society if we’re successful) on a fundamentally better long-term trajectory. Food is part of Health, and we’re going to innovate there too. Free food for employees is not going to come back post-COVID. Instead, we’ll use our food infrastructure to bootstrap cooperatively-owned cloud kitchens. We’ll provide capital to former contractors - mostly Black and Hispanic - to invest and own these. We’ll build platforms to help them sell food to employees (partly subsidized), participate in new “food for health” programs and eventually disrupt the extractive labor practices we see across food, grocery and delivery.

Climate & Mobility - Lastly, we’ll be imposing a carbon tax on all aspects of our own operations - which we’ll use to “fund” innovation in this space - with a primary focus on job creation. This is an area where we’re going to be looking far beyond our four walls from the beginning. As a first step, we’re teaming up with Elon and Gavin Newsom to buy PG&E out of bankruptcy and restructure it as a 21st century “decentralized” utility. It will accelerate the electrification of mobility - financing networked batteries for buses, cars and bikes along with charging infrastructure - and leading a massive job creation program focused on energy efficiency. Speaking of mobility, private buses aren’t coming back after COVID. Instead, we’re teaming up with all of our peers to create a Bay-wide network of electric buses (with bundled e-bikes) that will service folks of all walks of life - including our own employee base. Oh and one more thing - we’re bringing together the world’s most advanced privacy/identity architecture and computational video/audio to bake public health infrastructure directly into the buses. For COVID and beyond. None of this is a substitute for competent, democratically accountable regional authorities. This is us investing risk capital on behalf of society - with the goal of empowering these authorities. Yes the New York Times will have a field day with this. Maybe in time they’ll leave their bubble, enter the real world, see the sorry state of their institutions - the behavioral health and infrastructure crises on their crumbling streets - and get on board. Until then, our job is to be patient longer than they can be inflammatory.

Open technology for global progress - While we have to prioritize America given the scale of problems, the intent is not to abandon the rest of the world or hold back it’s progress. We feel the opposite - that over the coming decades each country’s technology sectors will thrive. To get there, we will continue to invest patiently - hiring, training, partnering, investing and innovating - but with a clear north star to help each country develop local leaders in new areas. Long-term, we’ll continue to contribute open technology that others can build upon.

America should be the proverbial city on a hill for everyone - not a metaverse for the rich with the poor dying in the streets. We don’t have much time so we’re getting to work now. See you next quarter.

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This call may be imaginary but none of this is sci-fi or requires MMT. What it requires is us to care. To act. Join me on bike rides to explore our past and discuss what tangible actions Silicon Valley’s leading companies can take in the coming quarters and years. Logistics here for rides on June 19, June 26, July 2 and July 10!

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finsterhund · 5 years

Text

In today’s episode of “Finsterhund is a complete dumbass”

So you all know that my friend gave me a USB charging cable for my Nexus 5 (he thought it was high quality because it was metallicy braided and looked nice. It wasn’t him deliberately sabotaging me. That thing was expensive) Right?

And after two months of use the dang thing MELTED and charred black and warped the case of my phone and the usb charging port. Rendering it “really bad at charging properly,” right?

And it liked to melt charging cables until I wiped all the burnt charging cable out of it with rubbing alcohol, but even after you had to bend the cables around behind so that the pins connected, right?

And then we ordered a replacement for the charging port (a small ribbon board cable) off Amazon Prime (yuck. But bear with me) Right?

But the one that came was not like the photo (of the official part) and instead was a cheap (and on top of that secondhand) knockoff that I thought bricked my phone for two hours, right?

And my friend said he would send it back to get it replaced, right?

But he put it off because it wasn’t important because you can put that off for three months except it was my phone that I needed to use so it actually was important, right?

So anyways, today when we were going back from the doctor appointment we passed a phone repair shop and I begged to go because I’m sick of needing to tape the charging cord taut to the back of the phone just to get a charge.

So in there this guy is all “okay I can replace this part or you can just buy an entire Nexus 5 for thirty extra dollars”

And since I am full of pride (and embarrassment at needing to go to a place to fix it for me because I know exactly how to do it myself. I mean no disrespect to this guy. He’s working the EXACT JOB I’d be most suited for if I actually got a job if not for my inability to do things by myself and talk to people. I respect the hustle. I just feel a lot of shame for needing to be on the other side of things) and didn’t want to pay someone the service fee for something that at the time (because he didn’t know that part was removable) I thought I knew more about than he did, and because I was mad that the replacement part costed a fraction of the service price but I didn’t have it because my friend put that off, and because I was desperate, and because I stupidly thought that “thirty dollars isn’t that much money” Andy, that is three meals at McDonalds it MOST DEFINITELY IS a lot of money, I ended up buying the full Nexus 5. So now I have two Nexus 5s. My old one, and the “new” one. The logic was that $30 isn’t a lot (it is) and that my old phone had a messed up GPS and the mic didn’t work. (which is true)

The new one is white, and for some reason the designers of the Nexus 5 decided that because the phone was white it needed to have a white speaker in its BLACK screen. And it’s dirty. There was also damage to the screen, case, etc and it looks dirtier because: white. TLDR I loved my old phone better. Which makes sense because I bonded with it.

So I’m sitting here, cleaning the new phone, grossed out by the level of grime in the headphone jack, I use like 20 q-tips wiping it down with rubbing alcohol, and thinking “damn it why was I such a little baby and unable to swallow my pride and then have three McDonalds meals Andy you absolute dumbass.”

So I decided to just switch it out.

And... the mic worked...

on both of them...

Oh... oh no...

So that was a thing.

So now my black Nexus 5 (with the white Nexus 5 charging port) seems to be charging perfectly fine, and the mic is working.

And the white Nexus 5 (with the black Nexus 5 charging port) seems to be... charging a little bit better... (but I suspect it’s my brain playing tricks on me) and the mic is ALSO working.

So full disclosure that I am using a borrowed charging cable for my original Nexus 5 (now with the new charging port) and am using the same bent charging cable for the new Nexus 5 (with the old charging port) The new charging port charges normally, no messing with the cable. The old charging port requires the good old fashioned “bend it backwards painfully in order to connect the pins” trick.

So I feel like a complete idiot.

And now have three dated smartphones with issues. All of them released in Fall of 2013. A weird coincidence.

For reference the other is an iPhone 5 that I ran into the ground. Physically, its body is perfect. Screen? FLAWLESS. This was the first smartphone I ever had as a lower class brat who was always the last to get new tech. This was the most expensive thing I owned for a very long time and that shows. I also had to go through hell to get it. The only issue is that Apple intentionally bricks their old phones so now the little guy can’t hold a charge for the life of him. You ruined a perfectly good phone that I took good care of Apple! You nerfed my boy! I’ll never buy Apple products again!

So around the time when it became obvious that Apple had nerfed the older iPhones, my friend who got a Google Pixel gave me his old Nexus 5. And I IMMEDIATELY fell in love with it. It was bigger, I found it easier to transfer files, and I just liked it. Android felt cozier. I’m truly sorry. I took to it fairly quickly considering how hard it is for me to make the technology jump when it comes to operating systems and similar. My love and familiarity with Windows XP has been enough to prevent me from making the jump to Linux despite how much I resent Windows 10 and how it bricked a laptop of mine, but I went from iOS to Android in a matter of months.

The point being is I have a beloved old iPhone that can’t hold a charge anymore, a Nexus 5 that has been owned by at least two other people (my friend got it secondhand) and then it stopped working correctly because a charging cable melted it.

My friend told me to just get a new phone, but I told him I didn’t want to spend $500 on a Google Pixel when I was perfectly happy with my Nexus 5.

He then let me know that a Google Pixel is actually $900 which pretty much confirmed that I would never get one.

In the end, this second Nexus 5 was under $100. Which is a far cry from $900, and the likely almost as high cost of other new phones. I feel stupid for just not getting the replacement part, but at least I have a second in case anything happens to it.

*shrugs sadly*

I’m not hurting for money this month so it just means no spending hundreds on commissions. I’m sad that I will put off commissions again, as I did promise artists at the convention two months ago, but money is tight and everyone should understand that.

I feel better that my phone has been secured, but anxious that when I buy a new cord it’s just going to melt the charging port again. Apparently cheap USB cables will do that to a Nexus 5? I’ve been through like three before that and it’s never happened so I guess it was just THIS one. The evil cord from 7 Eleven. (why would you betray me 7 Eleven!!?? WHY!?) so I’ll be buying branded cables in the future.

#text post #long post #negative

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chemicallyx · 6 years

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So a lot has happened since my last post everyone! Of those many things, some of which I will have to reveal at a later date, I was able to get out and have a somewhat impromptu trip to New York City, New York! The reason? To attend the U.S. Career Forum there, which is a career event oriented toward people with Japanese & English language abilities and interests. So for those of you who might be coming back to the US and want to pursue jobs in the US or in Japan with Japanese companies, this is for you!

Heading out

So this was the first leg of the trip. I bussed down to Boston South Station on the Concord Coach Line – which is pretty nice. If you’re heading up to Maine I’d recommend it. And if you’re ever having to linger around Boston SS and you need a snack or something, don’t feel like you have to stay in the bus station, which has limited options. My boyfriend recommended popping over to the train station next door because there are many more options available for whatever you may need – coffee and snack for me – and it was good advice. I felt better grabbing something at Au Bon Pain than I did at McDonalds. D:

After that I made the switch to a Peter Pan bus that would go to the NY Port Authority bus station. This… was not so nice. The drive down was good, but their buses are really not in good shape. The most vexing part was really only that none of the outlets were functioning on the bus, and I knew I was going to need my phone for navigation in New York so I wouldn’t just be that lost tourist.. A word to the wise: conserve your battery on the way down. Also, the bus was incredibly noisy – lots of parts seemed like they were shaking loose there.

And maybe par for the course for a Friday afternoon arrival, but we were scheduled to arrive at the Port Authority station at 1:45pm. When did we arrive? 3:30pm… Thank you gridlock New York traffic! I started to wonder why anyone even bothers to drive there.. more on that later.

That being said, we were on the bus for too long!! But the bright side is we drove all the way around Central Park in the process, which I wanted to see. 🙂 It looked really cool – the scenic views were what kept me from losing my noggin in the middle of that lengthy bus arrival. From just outside the city all the way in, it was very, very New York. Up until now I didn’t know what that meant when other people said that, but now I do. So metropolitan, everything that everyone was doing just seemed like a natural, normal thing to do. I don’t know. Maybe if you’ve been you’ll know what I’m talking about.

One key observation that I had early on that persisted throughout my impromptu trip involved a pretty high level of horn honking. As a person who was once told that my ‘laugh point was low,’ it was pretty amusing, and no matter where I went in the city I heard fair amounts of horn honking. I think if you live there it becomes more like background noise and you notice less, but I definitely noticed it as an “outsider.” That being said, it certainly did not detract from the ambience of the city life – rather, it enhanced it! There’s no illusion when you’re lulled to sleep by occasional horn honks.

Anyway, to continue my tale, the first thing I had to do – well, second – was eat. I was starving after being on that bus for hours. So I went to Go! Go! Curry, which I found while Googling food on the bus, and I chose it because it wasn’t too far from the station. So I popped in there and ate ravenously.

Go! Go! Curry…

gone.

It seemed like most of the clientele was male, probably because of all the carbs involved, but I had no shame. I hadn’t eaten in like 6 hours! And it was pretty delicious.

Since it was in the area and the theme of my journey seemed to be ‘Japan,’ I decided to pop into the NY Kinokuniya, which is right across from a nice park and a subway stop. I walked through some of the fashion district to get there and it was pretty scenic. My history of watching Project Runway found me excited to be in such close proximity to Mood, lol. But I pressed on to Kinokuniya because it is so natsukashii (なつかしい）. I really long for some of the things I miss about Japan, being away from it and all. So I took myself in there and grabbed a book for my boyfriend, checked out a few more, longed for a wonderful bookstore such as Kinokuniya where I live, and then decided to head to my hotel digs.

I want this book

and this book!!

So I got on the subway. Now I’ve heard a lot of things about the NY Subway (thanks 30 Rock), so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I had to experience it right? I had bought a Metro Pass at the Hudson News in the Port Authority – a 4-rider – and used that to get on. I was in subway mode with my headphones and I stood most of the way. Nothing strange really happened, except a small kid came onto the subway selling snacks. When there were no takers he quickly moved to the next car. Other than that one occurrence though, nothing really happened at all. So I felt like the myth was busted. Rode down to Delaney St. and exited toward Essex St. above ground. I was in the Lower East Side, which was another thing I had to get used to on the journey – the Boroughs!! I was like which is where? half the time. Pretty handy to check out a map and try to remember though because subway signs say things like ‘Toward Uptown,” “Toward Downtown,” or “Toward Brooklyn,” and unless you know which area your destination is in, those signs aren’t exactly helpful.

The Digs + Lower East Side

Anywho, I walked myself a couple blocks down to the Blue Moon Hotel. You can find my Booking.com review here. It’s great value for the money if you’re willing to be a little far from you need to be. Lower East Side seems to be in a hopping area with a lot of night life, which makes sense when you consider it’s near NYU, so there isn’t a shortage of things to do.

I took a shower immediately because I felt gross after being out in public that long, you know the feeling. After I jumped out I was better able to appreciate the digs.

Speaking of things to do, while I felt pretty tired from the ride and the walking, not to mention I still felt I had a little prep left to do for some of my interviews the next day, I made myself go out to get a quick bite & drink. I went all the way to NYC so I should enjoy it right? was my line of reasoning. I stumbled across Goa Taco, and let me tell ya, I love tacos, so I went in.

I got a spicy margarita and a pork belly taco. It. Was. Delicious. goa taco is totally happening – there isn’t a lot of seating area but I liked the crew’s vibe and the shop was playing hip, current music, so it felt very New York and I enjoyed sitting there eating for a bit, watching people come and go. That spicy margarita though…. delicious. If you stop in and are of age, you HAVE to get one. I love a marg, but this one way exceeded expectations. 🙂

I headed back to the hostel/hotel, jumped in my bunk, did a little bit of prep, and went to sleep. I knew I’d have an early morning so I had to get my intelligence (and beauty) sleep…

U.S. Career Forum NY

So the next day I set out pretty early. And of course the best way to start my day is with a nice little breakfast snack and an amazing cup of coffee.

Lucky for me, Irving Farm Coffee Roasters cafe was right down the street from Blue Moon. I had know about this shop before because of a bit of a connection through my boyfriend’s family, so I was really excited to find it right next door basically. I was even more elated to find out how delicious their dark roast pour over and baked goods were!

The scenes

and the eats!

It was a pretty refreshing breakfast. That was a piece of raspberry banana bread by the way, and it was AMAZING. I was in the first rush of customers who were approaching just as the doors opened on Saturday at 8 AM.

And yup, I was wearing a suit. Japanese style. That’s in the Blue Moon elevator right there.

So anyway I jumped on the subway after this, and shortly came to realize that the subway is definitely less reliable on weekends than it is weekdays, and it is a point that a friend of mine who lives in New York now reiterated to me later. So if you find yourself in the city rushing somewhere, it could be faster to take a Lyft or something, depending on the time of day. Just something to keep in mind.

Lucky for me though I had a lot of time. The doors of CF open at 10 am and the event ran until 5 pm, with a short 5-6 pm happy hour following. So I got off at the closest stop, which was Penn Station and walked for 15 minutes or so to the Javits Center. It was further than I anticipated, but it was good to get some exercise.

For many people, you may not have to arrive at the Career Forum as soon as it opens, but if you’ve scheduled a lot of interviews in advance using their website or via email, you’ll likely be putting in a whole day. I certainly did. I had 4 interviews lined up and a lot of resumes prepared to hand out to all the different booths along the way. Really your effort in advance and the day of makes the experience for you, so I think it’s well worth the time put in ahead of time to have things arranged and lined up for you once you arrive.

Part of what precipitated my journey was also that I received/was approved for the travel scholarship down to the event. They’ll give you a reimbursement based on where you’re coming from to hopefully offset the costs involved with going down. So even if you aren’t sure you’ll get it it is worth a shot to apply. I didn’t think I would get it and I did! So that’s what helped me decide to go down.

All in all I think it was a useful event for me to really see where I want to end up. I’m kind of at a nexus point in my career, so I want to make sure the next step I take is the right one, and being able to go to this really helped me realign my compass so to speak. I think it can help others too, so it’s well worth going to one of these events.

After Career Forum

So after Career Forum I had plans to meet up with a friend from university and we had a blast. She’s been living there for going on 7 years now, so she knows a lot about NYC. So we checked out a couple awesome places. The first being sake bar decibel.

Sorry the photos are a little blurry, but it was dark! It was a pretty awesome place. We had some delicious food, and they had amazing sake! It was an excellent place and we stayed there for a while just chatting and catching up. Eventually we ran the clock though and had to order more or scoot, so we decided to scoot.

We walked around for a bit to decide what to do next, and we ended up heading to a place she knew about called Angel’s Share, which is located through a discreet door inside of a Japanese restaurant called Village Yokocho. It’s a speakeasy concept so it’s one of those ‘secret’ locations, but even though it’s secret, it was pretty popular, lol! It’s like that everywhere I feel with speakeasies once the word gets out. But if you get the chance, I highly recommend stopping in. Their cocktails were out of this world….

That’s something that I think is pretty impressive. The level of NYC cocktails is off the chart. I though some of Portland’s restaurants put together some awesome cocktails, but the NYC game is pretty strong. So if you’re interested in sampling and are of age, it’s something definitely worth looking into. Just any cocktail bar will probably be amazing, but Angel’s Share was pretty much the best I’ve had yet. It was a tequila-based drink with burdock-infused mezcal. I don’t recall the name of the drink, but think about those components alone! Pretty amazing.

So my friend and I continued chatting for a while and enjoying our adult beverages and we were considering doing karaoke, but I’m just too old – hahaha! So we went to our respective homes and I got back at about 2:30 am (which is a stretch for me nowadays, lol). I knew I had an early morning (8:30 am return bus), so I showered ASAP and got in bed. I decided to grab a Lyft the next morning to make sure I made my bus in time. I was exhausted with the whirlwind trip, but since it was my first time in NY I was glad to do it. I think everyone should go check it out. Really it seems like a place where anyone can belong, and I think that’s one of the best parts about the city. It was great to feel that vibe for a weekend. Needless to say, I made it back to Maine safely and in better time than the way down, which was a huge relief.

Did my journey get you curious about New York? Send me a message or comment below and I’m happy to share my impressions or more info about Career Forum. 🙂 Until next time!

A Spontaneous Journey to NYC So a lot has happened since my last post everyone! Of those many things, some of which I will have to reveal at a later date, I was able to get out and have a somewhat impromptu trip to New York City, New York!

#bilingual jobs #Career Forum #career forum NY #English jobs #Japanese jobs #Japanese-English #Javits Center #jobs #journey to NYC #Lower East Side #New York #New York City #random

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nexusradiodance · 5 years

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Curbi: Best city in America, new single ‘Redeem’ & more!

Curbi Interview.

English DJ and music-producer Curbi stopped by the Nexus Radio Lounge Miami during Miami Music Week 2019, to talk about his latest projects, his favorite country in the world, McDonald’s International menu and more!

Curbi, whose real name is Toby Curwen-Bingley has been captivating the streaming world with his melodic new single Spiritual featuring Brooke Tomlinson.

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The Future-House DJ joined us for a quick chat during his first-ever Miami Music Week. This is Take 5 with Curbi.

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This week was absolutely banging! Started with 2 insane shows supporting @oliverheldens, did 4 crazy shows during MMW supporting my buddies @wearemoksi and got the chance to support @steveaoki at Story… also shoutout to the legend @tchami who destroyed @ultra mainstage with my new track ‘Redeem’! Recap video coming soon

A post shared by CURBI (@curbi) on Mar 31, 2019 at 10:54am PDT

Todd Michaels: Next is Radio, we are in the BPM Supreme-Nexus Radio Lounge here in Miami Beach during Miami Music Week. And I have Curbi in the lounge with me. Hello Curbi!

Curbi: Oh yeah, Hello man!

Todd Michaels: Welcome to Miami.

Curbi: Thank you, it’s the first time for me.

Todd Michaels: First time? There’s been a lot of first timers this time. This is about our fourth or fifth- kind of used to it, even though I always still come in and we’ll, look at you, you’re doing the same thing […] at least you have a short sleeve shirt on, I’m putting my sweater on.

Curbi: I usually walk around with a hoodie on to be honest. Last, like last time I came to America wore a Hoodie the whole time

Todd Michaels: Because you’re from?

Curbi: England.

New Single ‘Redeem’ & America.

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Todd Michaels: From England. Oh, all right. We’ve got another English (lad) here too, one of our djs.His name is Adam [Turner]. All right, so what are you working on Curbi? What is 2019 looking like?

Curbi: I’ve got a lot of new music coming out. I’ve got one coming out on the 1st of April called Redeem, it’s more of a deeper sound for me. Very groovy, working on a lot of groovy stuff at the moment. I’ve got a lot of tracks which I’ve been working on the past like two or three years and hopefully going to release this year. A lot of shows, hopefully more shows in the U.S., I’m really hoping for that because I do a lot in Europe and a lot in Asia at the moment.

While a majority of European DJs list Japan as their ultimate favorite country to visit and play in, Curbi was one of a few, if not the only DJ we interviewed that ranked America as his favorite place to visit. “Oh, man, I love America. It’s Amazing!” he says. He credits the similarities between the two countries for this “it kind of feels familiar, because I’m from England, it’s like the same, but it’s not.” Todd Michaels and Curbi engage in a lengthy discussion about the best place to move to in The United States (sorry L.A., New York, Miami, and everywhere that isn’t Chicago).

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so excited for my first miami music week! announcing my schedule tomorrow and gonna give away two tickets for one of the shows.. DROP A PHAT COMMENT BELOW IF U WANNA SHOW UP

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A post shared by CURBI (@curbi) on Mar 20, 2019 at 7:57am PDT

Todd Michaels: Interesting. It’s interesting to see those two markets because a lot of people talk about traveling. So, where’s been your best place to travel so far that you really like going to?

Curbi: In terms of shows? Probably Asia and the U.S.

Todd Michaels: What would be a personal place?

Curbi: Oh, man, I love America. it’s Amazing!

Todd Michaels: Do you?! Interesting!

Curbi: Well, I think Asia is really cool for like culture, a whole different culture. Here it kind of feels like familiar, because I’m from England, it’s like the same, but it’s not.

Chicago.

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when in america lmao [

: @niclas_ruehl]

A post shared by CURBI (@curbi) on Sep 10, 2018 at 11:48am PDT

Todd Michaels: Have you done any of the upper states? So like Chicago, New York?

Curbi: Yeah! I did Chicago. I haven’t done New York yet.

Todd Michaels: Oh, alright. What do you think of Chicago?

Curbi: I was only there for a day and it was really warm.

Todd Michaels: Weird, those things never come up about Chicago.

Curbi: Yeah, It was like thirty-five degrees.

Todd Michaels: When you think of Chicago, no one ever thinks warm. You must’ve went in like August or something?

Curbi: Yeah, yeah yeah, around then. I can’t really remember.

Todd Michaels: That’s our Lollapalooza time.

Curbi: Yeah! No, but America’s great man. It feels very like home in a way.

Todd Michaels: Would you move here?

Curbi: Yeah, I hope to in the future.

Todd Michaels: Where would you want to move to [in] America?

Curbi: I would like to say L.A., but I don’t think that’s like a settling (down) place. I don’t know.

Todd Michaels: New York isn’t either.

Curbi: No?

Todd Michaels: I don’t think Miami is either. You might have to go to Chicago!

Curbi: [laughs] Yeah? I’m down man! anywhere.

Todd Michaels: I mean, we’re based there, so I’ll be your tour guide.

Curbi: Cool, I’m down.

The Food.

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pizza

A post shared by CURBI (@curbi) on Feb 6, 2019 at 12:18pm PST

Moving to America is definitely a smart move for any aspiring musician, the U.S. is still largely considered to be the epicenter of music media. But life in America has its unique challenges, especially when it comes to fast-food.

Todd Michaels: What are some guilty pleasures that you’ve got in the sense of food when you’re traveling? What’s your go-to?

Curbi: Oh man. Yeah, let’s not even go into this […] this is really bad cause like when I’m home, I try to be as healthy as I can and last year I spent two months going every day to the gym, being really healthy and then I went to America. I went on tour in America for like two weeks and yeah. So, basically just McDonald’s, all the fast-food restaurants when I’m touring. Like, when I’m really hungry and hungover after a show day. I go straight to a fast-food restaurant.

Todd Michaels: What’s here? What food or fast-food that we have here that you don’t have in London that you really enjoy?

Curbi: I’m not sure about Miami, but in L.A., In-N-Out (Burgers) obviously, that was amazing!

Todd Michaels: Here’s a question for you, when I travel I tend to skip the places I can get here at home. However, Mcdonald’s is the one place I don’t mind going (in other countries). It’s a little healthier, you guys have real potatoes over there.

Curbi: Yeah? You think so?

Todd Michaels: That’s what they say. [laughs]

Curbi: I don’t believe that.

Todd Michaels: The look that you just gave me was like ‘Wow! That’s not true.’

Curbi: But what I’ve noticed is that the menu’s different wherever you go. I had McDonald’s in South Korea and the menu was completely different.

Todd Michaels: We actually have an international in Chicago. There’s an international Mcdonald’s because of that, there’s a university actually that they have those kinds of things.

After a lengthy discussion about McDonald’s international menu, the focus then turns to one of America’s favorite Canadian imports: Justin Bieber.

Todd Michaels: What would be a guilty pleasure where (your friends) are hanging out with you and all of a sudden you turn this tune on and you’re just like, ‘Yeah! This is my jam!’ And they’re like What?

Curbi: Oh yeah! I don’t know. I like everything to be honest. Justin Bieber is a legend mate. I’m feeling a little bit guilty.

Todd Michaels: He’s taking some time off.

Curbi: Oh really?

Todd Michaels: Yeah, something mental, he’s taking some time off. But yeah, he’s my guilty (pleasure), he’s usually my go-to. As much as I can diss on the guy, I kind of like his music.

Curbi: He’s bloody good mate!’

Todd Michaels: Especially when he worked with Skrillex and he was doing all that other Jack U stuff.

Curbi: That changed (everything) completely! I didn’t really like his stuff before, I mean ‘baby’ is a Banger but yeah man. His stuff is great now.

Todd Michaels: What about, who would you want to work with? Who would be like a dream collaboration?

Curbi: Skrillex, Post Malone. Actually, I think all of the U.S. (EDM) Guys. I would also like to work with some Dubstep guys and like make a fusion between my sound and Dubstep. So like, I don’t know if you know Space Laces? He worked with Excision, GTA, love those guys. Yeah, but Post Malone, if we’re going outside of EDM and like dance music- I’d be Post Malone.

Todd Michaels: What would that collaboration hopefully be called? What would be a nice little title that you would give it?

Curbi: I would just keep it simple. Something like ‘Swag,’ because Post Malone says ‘swag’ a lot.

Todd Michaels: That would be good- Swag featuring Curbi. That would be nice. What’s a song out there that you think should not exist anymore?

Curbi: [Laughs] Darude ‘Sandstorm’. That should be gone now, it’s overplayed.

Todd Michaels: Why?!

Curbi: I mean it is a Banger! But it’s too much. When it comes on it’s just like ‘Ugh! Again? Really?

Todd Michaels: I mean, I’m not going to agree to disagree. I have history with that song! Like, it brings back memories.

Curbi: I wasn’t even alive, probably when it was released. I can’t even remember when it was released.

Todd Michaels: It was like mid 2000s. Maybe early 2000s.

Curbi: Ok it was then, but I was like three or something.

Todd Michaels: Yeah, you were just a little like (kid) …not doing that.

Want to know Curbi’s reaction if he’d ever meet his two idols Post Malone and Ariana Grande? Listen to the full interview below!

The Interview.

from Dance Music – Nexus Radio http://bit.ly/2GzbF4b

#IFTTT #Dance Music – Nexus Radio

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jonathanottofanpage · 5 years

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Unfolding Rare Health Secrets to Worldwide Audience!

Jonathan Otto is an award-winning investigative journalist who has diverted all his life energies into improving the lives of his brethren across the globe. His premise for research is simple: half of the world at present is starving and the rest half is on diet books and this disparity in terms of food needs to end. If you eat the standard American diet, you are going to get the standard American diseases.There is a serious problem with the way America produces, stores and distributes its food.

It is resulting in more McDonalds, Dominos, KFC being spread across the world. But the flip side is that it is resulting in more wastelands and patients lining up the hospital beds across the world. The reason being that urea used in agriculture is manufactured from the same factories that are dedicated to making chemical weapons.

These companies and their manufacturing facilities were set up as investors thought that the World war would go on in perpetuity and would never end. But it ended in 1945 and these factories devoted to developing chemical weaponsbegan sponsoring agricultural universities and research centres with a view to make them buy the urea that they were producing. This urea has spoilt the agricultural landscape of the entire world.

Add to this the power of Big pharma

In addition to the above scam that was going on, another scam is brewing and going on with a roaring pace in the pharma sector wherein diseases are never cured permanently but only a tight control is exerted on them so that the patient never recovers from a chronic disease and is a slave to the drug regimen offered by the specialist doctor. Patients who are the fulcrum of the healthcare administration system have zero knowledge of how their health is being administered and neither do they have a say in the price to be paid or the method of treatment they prefer.

Doctors fresh, after passing out of medical colleges often work for hospitals funded by these pharma companies and imbibe their unethical practices in order to drive revenue growth. Cost-benefit analysis is often skewed in the favour of the hospital.

Even private practitioners and those working for hospitals funded by the public are lured by medical representatives into prescribing drugs at inflated prices of heavily advertised branded drugs in return for foreign tours and conferences sponsored by these pharma companies. Most monthly meetings of specialist doctors are also hosted at star class hotels to aid in soft marketing of branded pharmaceutical products.

There is a corrupt bureaucrat-politico-police-hospital nexus that protects the accused in all capitalist economies where patients are fleeced of their hard-earned money in the name of tertiary care.

Unlock the secrets of reversing autoimmune diseases through great food!

Autoimmune diseases ‘occur when the body and its immune system start striking itself and killing each cell down, one by one. Dermatitis, Crohn disease, IBS are some of the chronic diseases that can be called as autoimmune owing to degeneration they cause in the internal and external parts of the body. Dermatitis sometimes occurs through weight gain but at times, it can trigger weight gain also.

Let us understand, how they are different from other diseases. The primary goal of a healthy immune system is to protect itself from any pathogen, bacteria, viruses or antibodies attacking the body including parasites. Autoimmune is life-threatening as the body starts attacking itself and requires great care, dedication, and the right kind of knowledge to reverse it.

The body issues an inflammatory response to such a condition and it can appear as rashes, sores, scales and lichen planus on the skin. Identifying the trigger is the key to containing the autoimmune disease. Scientists, researchers, medical professionals have found the following triggers that can kickstart autoimmune diseases in your body:

Electromagnetic radiation

Everyday chemical exposures

Fatty liver

Genetic expression/allergens

Genetically modified organisms and poor diet.

Heavy metals

Hormone imbalances,

Intestinal permeability or “leaky gut,”

Lyme disease

Mental and emotional stress

Mould

Parasites

Pharmaceuticals

Good food that tastes well often does not offer the nutritive value that we require to reverse the autoimmune diseases that plague mankind. Anything that tastes well should not be chewed and put aside is what nutritionists say for weight loss.

Weight gain is also a challenge and a bigger one as sometimes, nothing works, and you need the help of plant-based supplements. Dairy products do not really offer the efficacy to fight autoimmune diseases that are hell-bent on destroying your immune system.

How Jonathan work can help

In his multipart documentary that is being released on the web from time to time, Jonathan outlines his belief in the medium of film to deliver the message across to a worldwide audience. Inspite, of being an investigative journalist, he has devoted much of his life to improving public health as that is the core of any developed society that aims to occupy pole position on the global arena. He is ably supported by his wife in all his ventures and can count on her for her opinion regarding diverse subjects affecting mankind.

Very early in life, he was moved by the plight of the disadvantaged in sub-Saharan Africa and coaxed his mom to donate to charity. Later, in life, he took the baton himself and delved deep into learning more about food, medicine, and the complex interrelationship between the two. He concluded that food is the bedrock on which his fight against Depression, Anxiety, Alzheimer, auto-immune diseases will lie and that some foods are better than others in reversing auto-immune diseases.

Going in for a plant-based diet is the best way to avert and reverse auto-immune diseases that occur in men and women at any age. Some get cured, others can’t, and the patient suffers the loss of time, money and energy in the process. If only patients know about his documentary series offering free advice to millions across the globe then the world will be a better place to live in.

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#Jonathan Otto #Jonathan Otto Reviews

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notanaturalbornidjit · 7 years

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Season 5 Episode 14 My Bloody Valentine

This episode started out with a date. It seemed innocuous enough. But to have the couple suddenly turn into Raw foods cannibals when they weren’t zombies...eww and yikes at the same time.

I was, for some reason, struck by the decor of this motel room. I don’t know if it was the chairs or the combination of the chairs and the dark wood, but something about it stood out.

Sam telling Dean he could go out and hook up - and Dean refusing to go - was an interesting scene.Unleash the Kraken? Since when does Sam use euphemisms like that? It seems more like something Dean would have said - like a role reversal. And I chuckled when Sam mentioned Dean’s name for Valentine’s Day was “Unattached Drifter Christmas”. :D

Sam’s weird episode when the guy in the suit walked by stood out. I thought it might have been because that guy was who they were looking for, but I was surprised when I found out it was because he was a demon. (Especially since they had ruled out demonic involvement in that couple’s death.)

That there were marks on their hearts was weird enough. That they turned out to be Enochian (at this point I’m not sure why angelic language is Enochian, but I just looked a little of it up and I think I get it.) and a Mark of Union was interesting.

Cas’s response of “They’re not incontinent” to Dean’s disbelieving question about Cupids being the ones with diapers on was hilarious. And referring to the bar as “A nexus of human reproduction” had me cracking up. :D

“Cherub third class”. When Cas said that I immediately flashed to Clarence from It’s a Wonderful Life - Angel, Second Class.

Poor Cupid. He loved his job and was just doing what he was supposed to do. He was so sad when they accused him of having something to do with those people killing each other after he’d marked them. :( I laughed at his “If loving love is wrong, I don’t want to be right.” paraphrase. (And when he told Cas to read his thoughts to check if he was telling the truth, I thought that was interesting. Almost smacks of It’s a Wonderful Life, too - where they higher angel has to help Clarence see what’s happening on Earth - not exactly, but a bit.)

And there comes the bloodline thing again. Not sure how much of that conversation with Michael Dean shared with Cas & Sam afterwards, but even Dean was very surprised to hear that their parents had been matched by a Cupid and made to fall in love, when they hadn’t been able to stand one another before that.

Ah, and now we meet another horseman - Famine. Interesting that he represented and amplified individual hungers - not just for food but for love or alcohol - and sort of deep longing.

The McDonald’s references in this episode due to Cas’s eating of burgers were hilarious.

And Famine’s use of the “Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs” and a few other things were both funny and interesting. And poor Dean being told he wasn’t hungry because inside he was already dead was so sad. :( [Just had a thought about this & when Cas brought him out of Hell, but that’s a side thought for another time.]

Demon blood infused Sam exorcising the demons from inside of Famine was scary. And that they had to detox him from the blood again was so sad. That Dean ended up walking outside and basically praying was heart-wrenching.

This was definitely not what I was expecting from an episode that started out the way this one did, but it was a good episode.

#Supernatural #Supernatural S5 E15 My Bloody Valentine #Personal hunter journal #Hunter journal entry S5 E15 My Bloody Valentine #my stuff

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suyg2 · 7 years

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Various paths to take when crossing the U of T St. George Campus

kensington market, where I live, is southwest of the southwesternmost point on campus. it never fails to be dark and scary in my frigtened eyes. i can't wait for the day when this whole neighbourhood gets gentrified. we'll have lost something, surely, but no one appreciates what the upper middle class will have gained. college street is the southern border of campus. spadina is the western border. the intersection of these two powerhouse streets is dominated by a 7/11 on the northeast corner and a lurid blue rexall on the southwestern corner. streetcar cables stretch off into the cheap magnificence of the chinatown night lights. there is a large, new building just north of college on spadina. spadina wraps itself around this building like a river parting at a stepping stone. I don't know what the building does. if u of t were a video game, vic would be the tutorial grounds and this building that rises out of spadina would house the final boss. I hate spadina. Such an awful name, but so drenched in the downtown naming aesthetic. if you wanted to get from the southwesternmost point on campus to the northeastermost, you would walk east to st. george street, north along st. george until you can take a right turn that will take you to king's college circle, which you cut through and through again when you reach hart house circle, walking under the bridge with the mural, through queen's park, down through the driveway or up by the library doors, through the vic quad, out some gateway and on and on to bay and bloor, roughly. i love bay and bloor. if I made an animated series about university of toronto life i would put this area in the opening and ending sequences. there is a mcdonald's at yonge and charles. a nightime walk from this mcdonald's to the goldring student centre at victoria college at is my favourite walk in or around campus. along this walk is the intersection of bay and charles. i like it because it so well lit. there is a christmas tree at this intersection. there is an indigo if you look north, and a starbucks if you look south. there is also tim hortons. it is perfect. there needs to be a pokemon game set in the university of toronto. before i describe what the map would be like, i must argue that there's very little wrong with playing video games or watching anime, which have been my chief interests of the last two weeks, although one of these will quickly fade into a hobby of the past. actually i won't argue it here because i am too tired, and i also don't yet know how i would argue what seems to me such a clearly evident point, but i will find out to convince the others... you spawn at the crossroad of worlds, the intersection of bay and charles. you can visit the indigo. you can get mcdick's. whatever. the first city is vic college. I love vic college because i lived there for a year. also because it's sheltered. there's buildings wrapping around it on almost four sides. I'm a sheltered person, so a sheltered place feels just right, not too hot or too cold, thank you. the emmanuel quad...the cat's eye, which is my favourite place on campus. the bench outside of caven. the arch the frames the doors of old vic that say "the truth will set you free". if a place becomes this familiar to you, you text them years later and say "I thought we had something special" - and you meant it. the bench outside of caven is a ride. just today as i was leaving ryerson to head home...the caven common rooom it seems is now always and entitrely lit by grounded lighting fixtures. beautiful gold light. who's idea was it to put a bright white light behind the television anyway? the northeast, the stronghold of liberal thought...of course a prince feels most at home in his castle. in my mind campus has about 4 parts: the northeast, which is trin and vic and everything in between. the centre, which is hart house, uc, and st. george from sid smith to robarts. the southwest, which i hate, and that's bahen, new college, the 7/11 at the corner of college and spadina...and the southeast, where i never go, and that's st. mikes and all the funny buildings south of queen's park. the northeast, the stronghold of liberal thought. philosopher's walk, a real place that runs along trinity college alongside, but not in sight of, queen's park circle road, beside the ROM at some points...in the old days this was my most familiar spot, the place where you could enter the RCM building from philosophers walk. I haven't seen a concert at koerner hall in too long. dark and grassy, but very pretty at night. one night, something special shall happen there. that area is protected by the music kids. it's a kind of forest magic that keeps the area safe, except for that time when there was a gun scare and i was stuck in lockdown in goldring. like i said, i hate the southwest and i never go to the southeast. but central campus...there are many views, like the view from the centre of king's college circle, or the view of or from robarts, or the steps of sidney smith, or the view from beside a good truck. they are all nice. thumbs up. there are many views, but there is only one path, and that is the walk down the steps between to hart house from queen's park, at night, with the music of bells from hart house. that is the sound that makes it worth it. at all times of the year you can cut through queen's park. in the winter it is easy because you can see right through it. but when the trees have their leaves you kind of have to pick a direction and stick with it and hope you emerge at the right place on the other side. of course, you don't really feel this way after having walked through this park so many times. the uc quad is nice as well...the only one that compares. trin is fun at night, it seems the most secretive, and the most alive at night. In the middle of king's college circle, depending on the state of the moon and clouds, depending on the time of night and the lighting situation there, the very middle of king's circle may be the darkest point on campus, surprisingly. You could do whatever you wanted there in the dark without being seen, if you be so brave. hart house is also welcoming at night. so my favourite walks, in general: philosopher's walk to the RCM building; mcdonald's to goldring, passing by charles and bay; queen's park to hart house, down the steps; hart house to robarts, or anywhere around that hart house/uc/robarts triangle nexus with back campus turf. back campus is so beautiful now that they got rid of that awful grass. I just wanted to make this list to remember that there are places that are worth it. just not where i live, these sad days.

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