#crazy idea let people live how they want and exist without your opinion harming them

[tolkienmatters]

If enforcing gender norms requires a constant state of surveillance and censorship then they probably aren't as biological or innate as you think they are

- Gillian Branstetter

#not tolkien #nottolkien #sorry but Ive had a few harps #crazy idea let people live how they want and exist without your opinion harming them #i know this is a tolkien blog but its on tumblr so it is relevant

[ilynpilled]

Hey! So I'm from the Jaime/Lannister side of the fandom but wanted to ask your opinion on where you think GRRM is going with Dany. I don't mean spell out her endgame or anything, but what messages do you think he is trying to impart through her character? I see so much Dark!Dany! theory shaped by the show that has just never really resonated with how I read her in the books. I see her more as a figure who will try to be Queen of Westeros, but will ultimately end up abdicating or even sacrificing herself during the LN because finding "home" is more important to her than ruling... but that is not based on much other than gut feeling. What do you think?

yeah idrgaf about the show tbh. i think it fundamentally misunderstood key themes that the books were exploring. corrupted/mad dany feels so deeply cynical to me. people have been reiterating this: she is a subversive messiah figure & she is given a narrative that is so often reserved for the “male hero”. the gender commentary in that would fall flat on its face to me if she becomes mad fascist female ruler like bffr. yeah, she will get darker come winds, like everyone else she will have to make choices and will face moral dilemmas because she is resolved to continue combatting the institution of slavery. she knows she will not be able to do it without dirtying her hands in some way. i think grrm is gonna explore the concept of necessary force and the question of when it is more moral to take a stand and draw blood: is it justified to cut off and burn something at the root, especially if the alternative is allowing the cancer to exist and continue to spread? the institution of slavery is a wound that cannot just be covered up with a bandaid. like this is a very important aspect of abolition. the only way i can see the idea of “madness” be relevant is in a more subversive john brown paralleling way with how people thought that man was insane bc he wanted to end slavery lmfao. if terrible people think you are mad for attempting to make radical changes that harm them that is a good sign. also would hate her becoming an aerys parallel like in the show like that is cringe bio essentialism territory, again, antithetical to the themes prevalent in these books. d&d’s #subversive #dark #unexpected ending was unironically the equivalent of:

do not want her ‘idealism’ to be completely robbed from her at any point either really. im not opposed to tragedy but i dont think id vibe with it being too cynical in this instance. this series is about earned romanticism. its heroes are the dreamers yada yada. it is about a dream of spring. i always thought she represented hope in some way. she is gonna be the flame during TLN, literally and metaphorically imo. i do think there are thematic and more abstract aspects to lightbringer, like yeah humanity uniting over an ideal for a better future & it can be about hope or whatever, which is why multiple characters have some kind of flaming sword foreshadowing, but a main one is gonna be dany and her dragons. like on top of all the pretty overt foreshadowing, like let us think about the logistics here, what is gonna do more damage to the others?? three magic nukes or some convenient dues ex machina magical flaming toothpick we forge out of murdering a woman? i also do not want to instantly write her off as a doomed martyr either though. i see the appeal in the tragedy of the kind girl who wanted a home dying without ever getting to live in the one she created but still leaving it for millions upon millions of people present and future… but also idk i am just not crazy about martyrdom as a trope unless it is executed very well. i like when characters survive for a cause rather than die for it. dany always kept persevering, not just for herself, but others: her children and her people, so i like when altruism is framed in that way. also i might be a little bitter if she is the only one to die from the new generation or whatever like in the show

#ask #my opinions #sorry for no proper grammar etc im on my phone

[skinnyravs]

NRL - dying sport

It is in my honest opinion that the National Rugby League, as a whole is a dying sport. No, its not about the competition of the AFL or any other sporting code.

To me, whyI think it is, simply down to the way they keep trying to make changes too much. tough hits are being policed way too much, tackles are being cracked down on too much. Look I understand the idea of wanting to protect the player welfare, and their health especially once they retire but these guys go into such a high contact sport they should know the risks. Why, should the sport suffer because the athletes do not know what they are getting themselves into and the world they enter?

Concussion is a bad thing in sport (well in life in general) and of course we don't want to see anyone suffering its long-term side effects. But, the fact of the matter is, injuries occur wether you are playing sport or just living your every day life. if we could stop ourselves from ever getting injured, getting sick and all the bad stuff it would be great.

You cant say that someone will go through their life without being sick, injured ever. I would find that quite hard to believe.

Back to the NRL though, as I said it feels like it is a dying breed. Gone are the good old days. Sure changes have helped it to a certain degree but when you over tweak something it actually does more harm then good.

The game just doesn't feel like it once was and thus makes it very difficult to watch. Hell I barely go to the games in Melbourne now. Don't get me wrong watching them play is still fun but certainly doesn't bring about the same feelings as it used to be and that is a real shame.

What is the cause? I mentioned about the changes made, but one thing that seem to be rather obvious is the way games are being officiated. I don't really want to say it but I feel it needs to be mentioned.

CORRUPTION.

Crazy to think it is in the sport, oh and I don't say that with a naive point of view. I would like to think this thing about corruption doesn't exist in sport (but we all know, as fans it exists in every sport out there). but to see how blatant it is...well that's just shocking. If it isn't obvious then the thought wouldn't cross anybody's mind. But when you can see it, and everyone can see it then it is a definite issue and to me it is as though certain people in the NRL just let it be seen and don't even try to hide it.

God to think games can be so easily influenced, teams easily picked on and its open to the world to see I am utterly gobsmacked and disappointed.

[softer-ua]

I have no idea what Bakugou would have done if Izuku died in the sludge Villain accident. They had a lot of strong unresolved emotions, I just can't fully visualize it, the only thing I have clear is him trying to latch onto anger, but that would burn out fast because the Villian was trapped and the heroes did their thing (Winning, which at that point he believed everything was) so I don't know what would he do. Sooo...could you please give us your insight? Please :D

I’d love to give my insight! Thank you for asking!!!🥰

It would depend on which sludge incident, the one where Deku ran to save Katsuki or the one where Deku was on his own? 🤔 I’ve got ideas on both lol

Buckle up this is gonna be a long one, and it’s not a fun ride

For the first I think Katsuki would latch onto anger and be a self hating righteous little monster for the rest of eternity. Because obviously he’s never getting therapy.

If he can blame himself for AM’s retirement and his parents can blame him for getting kidnapped than I have zero doubt the Entire Bakugo family would blame Katsuki for Dekus death. That family loves to victim blame, and Mitsuki would have a field day with chart topping world’s lowest blows like

If Katsuki hadn’t been hanging out in an alley and had gone straight home the villain wouldn’t have got him

If Katsuki hadn’t just been randomly blasting the heros wouldn’t have had to divert their attention to the fire

If Katsuki hadn’t been so weak(what’s the point of that flashy quirk if you can’t even save yourself)

Going with him to make him apologize to Inko (trying to imagine this feels like my brains touching a hot stove, it would be a thousand times more horrible and scarring than being forced to apologize to his Idol and teach for being kidnapped)

If hs Katsuki didn’t have the tools to block out his mother and broke down over a 50 year old man retiring, then poor ms Katsuki doesn’t stand a chance against being forced to bare the blame in someone’s actual death, especially not Dekus. Plus whatever destructive aftermath Katsuki created.

Did you have to blow up the entire alley way??

Katsuki would also never stop blaming those heros, even if the villain was captured they lost what really mattered, Dekus life.

They should have stopped the villain before Deku ever showed up

They should have never let Deku cross the line

They should have saved him

I think his fear of being weak would have been magnified by 10000. And it wouldn’t be a stretch for me to believe that witnessing that kind of hero failure so personally would be his villain origin. But even if it wasn’t, I think 10 months of stewing in grief, rage and self hate at such a young age would leave some very permanent scars

He’d habitually train to the point of self harm(reminder to check in on your fitness bros)

He’d never ever let someone close to him again (he didn’t want Deku close to him in the first place and look at how bad it hurt anyway)

He wouldn’t give a shit about any heros opinion anymore, if it’s not about how he can get stronger than any would be mentor can fuck off

His ego would have taken a massive hit, he’s no longer trying to prove he’s the best

Instead he’s insuring it because he’s never losing anyone again

Even with that in mind I think the sports festival actually would have gone a lot calmer because he no longer gives a shit about showing off, he’s just fighting to test himself and Dekus the one who pushed Todoroki to the point anyone even knew he had a fire side(I always wonder how much longer Aizawa was gonna let that go on for) so he’d except his medal quietly so it’s possible the lov would never have tried to recruit him

I think he’d be a lot more proactive in helping his classmates get stronger

Just not in a cute tsundere way anymore, but in a “if you can’t keep up with me I will keep attempting to murder you until you drop out” way, because B List heros are not allowed to be a thing anymore

Eventually he would grow up to be the top hero and he revels in that victory by hating himself, his job, his coworkers, his family, and everyone and everything else. The best part of his days are the adrenaline highs and that’s not even a happy high, in a bad headspace it just makes you ansty and aggressive, still better than being a hallow husk of resentments

I wouldn’t be surprised if he eventually did kill a fellow pro for not meeting his standards. Depending on what the hero did to earn his ire would shape wether he went on to be the new hero killer or simply stopped being a hero himself in custody or more permanently

Now if the villain had instead been captured after being caught hiding in Dekus flesh suit things would have been very different than the above

Katsuki would definitely be traumatized at this news, so would most of their class and they’d probably do some kind of memorial deal, and over the course of a couple of days Katsuki would slowly descend into madness at watching his class act like they have ever given a single fuck about Deku

Then he would speedball into it, because how dare they grieve over him, non of them deserve to especially not him

He’d be angry for as long as he could, at himself and everyone else, but eventually that’d putter out without anyone stoking the fire, no one else blames his class for feeling sad and no one blames the heros for not existing on every single possible street corner

Maybe he makes it through UA. He’s not as hot head, not as naive, but teens hold grudges like no other, he can be mad at the world a little longer.

Throws himself into the work so he doesn’t have time to think. He’s going to be the best because Deku always believed he would be and if he’s not allowed to be sad than this will be his only way to honor the nerds memory.

But the thing about pain is that it demands to be felt.

Eventually his regrets and grief would come for him, in a year or in ten years doesn’t matter they will eventually claim the time and space they need with interest.

He’d probably meet his regrets first so that he can be mad at himself for a little longer

He should have let Deku be

If he hadn’t held Deku up after class maybe he’d have made it home

His last words play on loop growing distorted and more malicious as the years go on(fun fact about memory ! It’s easily manipulated because each time you remember something you’re actually just remembering the last time you remembered the thing! Basically your brain reconstructs the memory completely each time! Fuck it up once and it’s all down hill)

He regrets not ensuring that he’d have more than his flimsy memories to hold onto Deku with, he never realized he’d want to, never could fully conceive that he’d actually have to.

He should have been kinder

He should have been less of a coward and faced his own insecurities

He should have talked to Deku about so many things

He can’t just focus on what he did and didn’t do forever tho, eventually he’ll have to recognize the hole Deku left behind, his regrets will paint the picture of his grief

Maybe he forgets the exact date of Dekus birthday but he knows it was in the summer, he regrets not going to his last one and grieves never going to a next one.

He regrets not going to the funeral, of course he was sad, he’d been an idiot to think he couldn’t be

He regrets not visiting Dekus grave, and grieves over how long he’s been gone now

He regrets that he had to learn what the value of saving is by having lost, god how he grieves that loss

Without Deku Kaminari never hears that nickname, Kacchan died with Deku. He grieves over never hearing it again

He wonders if Dekus hanging out with Kacchan wherever he is, he wonders if this makes him crazy.

He grieves over Deku dying so young, so alone, so horribly. It gives him nightmares, he can’t imagine the pain of having all his organs crushed down from the inside, and yet he’s some how intimately aware of its possibility. He debates looking for the autopsy results, maybe if he confirms it was asphyxiation and not internal blunt trauma the nightmares will stop. But you don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to.

He grieves over the dreams Deku never got to chase, and regrets ever playing a part in taking away the happiness a dream is supposed to have

He grieves over the Deku shaped hole in his life that seemed to grow with him despite only ever getting to know the knobby knees version, he can’t help but think with every achievement and milestone “you should be here”

He doesn’t hate his life, it just feels half lived.

Without Deku pushing his buttons and no god complex shaped alarm bells people were slower to reach out to him.

Without Deku to vouch for his good qualities people were a lot more hesitant to see them.

He still did make friends it’s just a shallower connection and he doesn’t make time for them

He becomes top hero but the victory feels hallow like there should have been more of a fight for it. Maybe he is crazy but it feels like it should have been Deku fighting him for it.

His saves are legendary and numerous, he’s never able to shake the feeling that there’s someone out there who needs him just around the corner

Between the nightmares and the anxiety clocking off gives him he probably gets less sleep than any hero before him, even Aizawa.

It was a short career

#softy answers #tw child death #tw child abuse #tw selfhate #tw grief #idk what else to tag #let me know if there’s any I should put up #I like talking about heavy topics but I want to help keep bnha a fun space for everyone #I am so sorry about how long I made this #I’m on mobile and idk how to make it do the read more thing

[xiovelvet]

Wanda Vision The Dangerous True

I've never really read a superhero comic book, but Wanda Vision inspired me to watch the other Marvel movies and I liked them in terms of entertainment and storytelling.  While it's true, in my opinion there are a lot of linear narratives that you don't understand, WandaVision is a series that deals with a lot of psychological and emotional themes that captured my attention.

Wanda is a young woman who went through many traumatic events throughout her life. Let's start with the loss of her parents. Not much is said about them but we are given to understand that she was living in the middle of a war and her parents did everything they could to keep her and her brother from feeling the terror of living in a dreary and hopeless home. Then she loses her brother, at the hands of someone who just manipulated them. Her brother was the only blood family she had left and she lost him in the middle of another war that was not hers. Finally she lost the love of her life, her soul mate, Vision; who was a man half machine made of wires and energy brought from space that she still does not understand, who dies at the hands of an alien.

If we bring it to our three-dimensional, earthly reality, she is a girl suffering from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. I estimate her to be about 20 or 22 years old, in short, when she decided to create this whole world in which she and the love of her life live together happily in the suburbs with two children. However, we see that there are many difficulties for it to have a happy ending, as she still does not assume the death of the only person, humanoid, who understands and accompanies her.

Personally, I understand the sense of loss; as I have personally experienced the loss of my loved one, and it is not because he died. I relate it more to an emotional one from the person I trusted the most, including friends and my karmic flame. I became distrustful of people, I didn't even trust my own family who were the ones who protected me the most. The feeling that you can no longer trust anyone but yourself, only what you truly believe in and generate is very complicated. Let's take an example: all the people you trusted don't trust you, the love of your life also betrays you, even though you didn't give him any reason. Everything goes wrong. You just want to die because you don't find meaning in your existence. Hard, isn't it? But everything has a purpose and meaning, in the long run, like the multiverse that exists in Marvel. Let me explain.

You are a person who has gone through situations of abandonment, betrayal, according to your concept. You go to a psychiatrist and they tell you that you suffer from anxiety, depression, bipolar or bordelinde, I was diagnosed with the last one, but you know that maybe something doesn't add up in your life because it feels real. I understand you and it is because many psychiatrists are only made to medicate but not to believe beyond what they see or believe, like spirituality.

I must confess that for a long time I thought I was crazy and misunderstood but Wanda Vision, even though it is fiction, has many things that apply to reality like creating realities you believe in; like living with the love of your life in happily ever after, fixing your mistakes, changing what you said or how to act. But let's be honest, deep down, we trust our sixth sense and it makes us act on impulsivity. Deep down in our hearts we trust that what we are doing is right, if it doesn't hurt anyone else.

Wanda was broken inside, like many of us, and when we act, many people around us, even strangers, are affected by our actions and create a wrong profile or idea of us. We are only humans who want to be happy in our own way and it affects them. Every time we act we have to think about others too; but who thinks about us when we feel bad? Who wonders about how we feel? We are adrift in a selfish world, where if you act badly you are judged and if you act well no one notices. Where is the emotional responsibility?

We have all been raised just to be sharks but there are many of us who are like dolphins, who only let ourselves be guided by our feelings and emotions and instincts; and if you react emotionally they make you look weak. That's when they wake up the whale, which everyone fears but in reality is not what it seems. She just wants to survive the immense ocean, full of predators and animals.

Wanda Vision is a perfect example of a broken person that no one understands and comprehends just because she is different. She talks about female empowerment, which is harmful to men, of course if they don't listen to her, and the psychological damage created by other damaged people. They call us dangerous, cruel and imperfect, according to the preconceived idea of scientists. We are sensitive humans in search of happiness and peace, with no intention of harming anyone. We only want understanding and compassion.

I want to make it clear that this publication is personal and that many times we trust people who we believe that they will always be there but for personal reasons they will always act selfishly, which is not wrong if they do not harm anyone else.

PD1: Always love each other for who you are and don't regret anything that happened to you, because everything has a reason and an end.

PS2: Never leave without giving a reason, or at least say "I love you" for the last time, we never know when you will see each other for the last time.

#loveislove #love self #egoism #wanda maximoff #wandavision #spiritualjourney

[trombonesinspace]

Typhoid Mary: feminist femme fatale?

“Season 4 was going to be Typhoid Mary, Alice Eve [who played the role in Iron Fist], we were doing a kind of...I had a much different version of her than what Raven [Metzner] had done in Iron Fist. I was kind of rebooting what she was going to be like, and we were going to do a, you know, kind of a warped love story/murder mystery kind of femme fatale, but kind of a modern-day, feminist version of it, as opposed to kind of the older, sexist kind of femme fatale archetype.”

-Erik Oleson, in conversation with Steven DeKnight, SaveDaredevilCon 

As I said yesterday, I have some thoughts about this! If you want some opinions nobody asked for, about a storyline that may never come to pass, you’ve come to the right place! Let’s dive in.

A femme fatale is a character type with quite a history, that can take various forms. She is always an attractive woman who brings ruin to the man who gets involved with her. But sometimes she is deliberately manipulative, while sometimes she is more a victim of circumstances. She may be evil, or she may be sympathetic/tragic. But whatever her moral alignment, she has two defining traits: sexual allure, and some form of negative consequences for the hero as a result of his involvement with her.

A woman who schemes against the hero, and succeeds in harming him, but without using feminine wiles? Not a femme fatale. The Marvel TV universe has featured several examples on different shows: Madame Gao, Mariah Dillard, Alexandra. And, ironically, the version of Typhoid Mary who appeared in Iron Fist. (We’ll get there.)

A sexy woman who tries to manipulate/damage the hero, but fails? Also not a femme fatale. I wish I could give some examples, but sadly I can’t think of any, in dramas at least. Our current media culture loves a sexy manipulator, no writer ever seems to introduce one into a dramatic story without making her succeed in her schemes, to some extent at least.

Which is unfortunate, from my perspective, because I loathe sexy manipulators. It’s a character type I really dislike, whenever I encounter her. As soon as she shows up, I know the hero is going to fall for her bullshit like a chump, and I’m going to end up respecting him less as a result. I could try to unpack my feelings about this a bit more, but that would probably make a post all on its own, so for now I’ll leave it at that.

This doesn’t mean I hate all femmes fatales—it really depends on her motivation and her behavior. If she isn’t trying to harm the hero, and it happens due to circumstances, then I might like the character, but the story becomes a tragedy. Which is not necessarily bad. Just, you know. Tragic.

Anyway! Let’s talk about Typhoid Mary.

Mary Walker is a woman with Dissociative Identity Disorder (multiple personalities), and high-level combat skills. In the comics, she is also a mutant with mental powers. She appeared in the Daredevil comics starting in 1988.

In this original version, her personality fragmented due to childhood abuse, leading her to vow as an adult that no man would ever hurt her again. Her personalities are: Mary, who is timid and gentle; Typhoid, who is adventurous, lusty, and violent; and Bloody Mary, who is even more violent, sadistic, and hates all men.

Mary becomes romantically involved with Matt Murdock, who is cheating on his girlfriend, Karen Page, to be with her. At the same time, Typhoid is trying to ruin him, having been hired to do so by the Kingpin. Matt can’t tell they’re the same woman, because when she switches personalities all her bio signs change (voice, scent, heartbeat, etc) so much that he can’t recognize her. (Uh, sure.) She may also be using some of her mutant powers to confuse his senses. I haven’t read the comics, I’m relying here on what I could learn from the internet.

Eventually Typhoid drops him off a bridge, but then Mary finds him and gets him to a hospital, saving him. Karen is with him when he wakes up, but he breaks her heart by calling out for Mary.

This storyline...does not thrill me. As I said, I haven’t read it, but comics writing about mental illness is generally neither nuanced nor accurate, and comics writing about women circa 1988 is also not great, by today’s standards. And comics Matt’s disastrous love life is legendary—cheating on your girlfriend is bad, Matt! Don’t do it! 

I have, however, watched season 2 of Iron Fist, where we get a different version. This Mary Walker is a US army veteran, special ops, who was captured by the Sokovian military. Her personality fragmented due to the brutal abuse she received from her captors for nearly two years, until she finally escaped. She got a medical discharge from the army after being diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Her personalities are: Mary, who is innocent and naive; and Walker, who is a ruthless, coolly efficient mercenary-for-hire. The existence of a third, ultraviolent personality, previously unknown to either Mary or Walker, is revealed near the end of the season. 

Mary meets and befriends Danny Rand, while Walker is hired by his enemies to stalk him, and eventually capture him so they can steal his Iron Fist powers from him. She later changes sides, getting hired to bring down Davos, the season’s main villain, by Joy Meachum, his former ally.

There are clear parallels to the Daredevil comics storyline, albeit in less extreme form—Mary befriends the hero, but isn’t romantically involved with him; her more violent personality works against him and fights him, but doesn’t try to destroy him. 

I enjoyed this version of the character more than I expected to, for a couple of reasons. For one, she is never the out of control, “crazy” stereotype of a person with mental illness. Both Mary and Walker are more-or-less functional adults, managing to live a strange hybrid life, aware of each other’s existence even though they don’t share memories.

But what I especially like is that she isn’t sexualized, at all. It’s incredibly rare, in my experience, to see a young, female antagonist opposing a male hero, and not have her be sexy. Older women are exempt from this obligation (see my list of examples above), but the young ones always vamp it up, and I am so tired of it. I am not opposed to sexy women, but I am very opposed to the requirement that all women must be sexy. (Unless they’re old.) Male antagonists aren’t required to be alluring, so why should women be? (Yes, I know why. I just don’t like it.)

There’s also a lot of potential YIKES in sexualizing a woman with a severe mental illness, which was caused by (among other things) repeated sexual violence. Could it be done in a way that isn’t super problematic? It’s possible, sure. Am I assuming that most television writers would give the subject the respect it deserves? NOPE! 

I’m really glad they chose to just not go there. Walker is extremely good at what she does, takes no shit from anyone, and (almost) never gets riled up. After everything she’s been through, nothing in her present life has the power to faze her, and none of the men around her have the power to intimidate her. It’s pretty great!

She isn’t the least bit coy or seductive, and, equally refreshing, none of the men try to sexualize her or hit on her. Everyone Walker talks to knows she is a highly skilled professional, and they treat her accordingly. Or, when someone does disrespect her, it’s never gendered as far as I can remember, and it stops as soon as she calmly states what she’s going to do to him if it doesn’t.

As for Mary, although she has a more feminine appearance than Walker (hair down and loose, makeup), she is also not sexualized. Her friendship with Danny, who is in an established relationship with Colleen Wing, is platonic, and no one else tries to hit on her that I remember.

So this is the version of Typhoid Mary that Erik Oleson was going to reboot, into a femme fatale. Only, you know. A feminist one. 

I...have some questions. What does that even mean? What does feminism mean to Erik Oleson? Let’s be real, the idea of a woman becoming an ultraviolent, sadistic man-hater as a result of sexual trauma would have been seen as feminist in some circles, back in 1988 when that version was written. So what, exactly, did he have in mind?

As I said before, sexual allure is a necessary component of a femme fatale. So she was definitely gonna be sexy. And you know now how I feel about sexy female antagonists. As for the “warped love story” part...Matt wouldn’t be cheating on Karen, since they aren’t together (please, for the love of mercy, don’t have them get together right before he meets Mary, we did that once and I do NOT want to see it again), but I am still not a fan of Matt/Mary as a couple.

Her Dissociative Identity Disorder raises some serious issues around consent, and even if the show chose to ignore that, there’s still the issue of past sexual trauma. Unless Oleson’s reworking of the character was going to include a completely different back story, a Matt/Mary relationship would mean Matt unknowingly having sex with a woman who has suffered brutal sexual abuse in her past. Not to mention, having sex with her that only one part of her personality actually wants.

Is it possible for someone with Mary’s past trauma and present mental illness to have a positive sexual relationship? In reality, of course! In the hands of writers with only a layman’s knowledge of psychology, on a show that loves to torment its hero, I wouldn’t bet on it. How do you suppose our poster boy for Catholic guilt would react when he inevitably finds out the truth?

Plus, aside from any issues around Mary herself, Matt starting a relationship with anyone other than the handful of people who already know his secret identity, means a whole new round of Matt lying to someone he cares about. Does anyone really want to see that? I know I don’t. Sure, maybe he’d tell her eventually, but how long would they have to date before he decided to trust her with the truth?

I’m not opposed to the Mary Walker from Iron Fist appearing in Daredevil, if the writers could come up with a new story for her (i.e, don’t just have her repeat all the same plot beats with Matt that she already did with Danny). But bringing her in as a femme fatale really doesn’t sit well with me. We’ve already seen Matt in an ultimately destructive relationship with a sexy, violent, morally grey woman. I really don’t want to watch Round 2: now with multiple personalities!

Of course, maybe we never will. The quote at the beginning of this post is from just a couple of weeks ago (July 25 2020), so Erik Oleson still seems to think it’s a fine idea. But obviously we don’t know yet if there will ever be a season 4, or who the show runner will be if there is. He may never get to make the story he was planning.

So yes, I realize I’m merely speculating about a completely theoretical story that may never happen. But I wanted to write this anyway. I had a strong “ugh, no” reaction to the idea of a feminist femme fatale Typhoid Mary, and I wanted to go deeper and pick apart my reasons for not liking the idea.

To the three of you who have read this all the way through to the end (this post is nearly 2000 words, yikes), thank you for indulging me! These are, as always, my own opinions, and YMMV. 

#daredevil #typhoid mary #femme fatale #long post #oh look I wrote a dissertation

[egle0702]

[TRANS] GQ June ‘20 - Wooyoung Interview

2PM Jang Wooyoung: “I lived hard like crazy”

2020.05.21 INTERVIEW

Wooyoung has blazed through life, but he also knows how to be quiet. That’s why he’s smart and strong. Like steel that has been repeatedly heated and cooled down.

You’re attentively monitoring during the shooting, has anything changed since you’ve been discharged from the military? My face hasn’t changed or anything like that. Rather than that, I’m just amazed. I had no idea I would be shooting a pictorial so soon after the discharge.

I suppose there must’ve been so many things you wanted to do. Every time I had some time off in the army, my head felt overwhelming. What should I do next? How should I live? All sorts of thoughts flooded in. In order to not have that time wasted, I transferred those thoughts and worries into written words. At first, there was a lot of embarrassing content, even for me. But it got better after a while. Aside from my future plans, I also looked back on my interpersonal relationships and my way of life. I thought whether I have lived well, whether I haven’t made mistakes when dealing with others.

I can feel your determination. In the army, there are a lot of kids who are younger than me. If I ask them about their worries, they would usually say: “You’ve already achieved everything, you don’t know how we feel.” We might come from a different starting point, but the fear of a beginning is the same. I’m more afraid compared to when I was 17 or 20 and just honestly ran towards my dreams.

You’re 32 now. In your opinion, what privilege does this age give you? Disregarding how you’ve spent your 10s and 20s, I think it gives you the chance to be kinder. You could say that you become mature. You become a better and stronger person when you look back at your past mistakes and experiences. If you add a drop of that 20s spirit into the mix, it’d be even better.

What was Jang Wooyoung like in his 20s? I was busy filling myself up, and then pouring everything out the moment I was full.

You’ve lived hard; after all, your work requires you to keep on showing something to the public. Generally speaking, I could divide my 20s into “before” and “after” by placing the mark on when I was 25. Right after the debut, I really lived and worked hard. Back then, there was a saying “killer schedule,” and the saying wasn’t a lie. I worked hard and was extremely busy, but I’m thankful for it. When else you’d be able to live like that. Compared to my efforts, the popularity achieved was great, I also made money. But once I turned 25; shall I call it adolescence? It was a mess. I wasn’t present in my life. I considered dropping everything and going back to my hometown in Busan.

But that didn’t happen. There’s only one thing that proves my existence; and that was the reason I pulled myself together. “I’m a member of 2PM, I cannot betray 2PM.” From that moment on, the meaning of “let’s live hard” changed. Making sure that I wouldn’t cause harm to others, I had fun, met a lot of people, and decided to learn a lot of things including drawing. Through feeling and experiencing as much as possible, I wanted to awaken the senses within me. I lived hard like crazy.

You expressed those feelings in the song “I like” that’s included in your 2nd solo album, right? 2PM, drawing, piano; you talk about the things you like, and then you say “I’m curious about everything in this world, I want to know, I scoot off.” True. I feel strongly about that song, but every time I listen to it, I can’t help but snort. I wonder whether I really should’ve been that honest with my lyrics. On the other hand, I wonder how hard it must’ve been. I feel sorry for Jang Wooyoung from that time.

What are you curious about these days? Laundry know-how. Haha.

I heard you say you’re into laundry in the video interview just now, too. I’m nurturing my daily life skills. I want to try and deal with things like laundry and cooking on my own, without any help.

Aren’t you curious why 2PM’s “My House” that was released 5 years ago is suddenly riding a new wave of popularity? It’s definitely something we’re thankful for. I think about it this way. 2PM as group never did anything by force. At first, we showed high level performances that could be practically carried out by young men in their early 20s. We danced, sang, and did acrobatic performances. Brimming with energy, we sang straightforward love songs. After that, we toned down on that power a bit. We began telling sad love stories with our eyes in love, and then we arrived at “My House.” Like a natural process of a brat growing into a mature and charismatic lover. I saw a comment that said “I’m sorry, I’ve become your fan just now,” but I’m actually thankful because it feels like these people have recognized the things 2PM have done in our natural flow.

It’s your 13th year since your debut. How does it feel when you hear that someone has just found out about 2PM? It’s only natural that someone doesn’t know us. The general flow of the trend changes really fast. The competition is also fierce, so you need put a lot of effort if you want to appeal to the masses. But then suddenly, we’re back into the spotlight through “My House.” In the middle of a hiatus no less. I think it’s a miracle.

Aside from “My House,” what other song comes to mind if you had to perform it again? I want to try and pour my entire soul into performing “Without U” that was released 10 years ago. I was responsible for the part where I had to make my singing feel like crying out loud, but back in the days I was the only one to lip sync because the situation with my voice go so bad, I even had vocal cord nodules. I’m still very disappointed I couldn’t perform it live.

2PM has reached the top, your skills were also acknowledged. How do you see yourself in the context of Korean music scene? Hmm, I can’t think of anything else than “Korean idols.” Our activities haven’t always been smooth, but I’m proud of it.

I heard that the meaning of your group’s name is the “hottest time of the day.” When was Jang Wooyoung the hottest? There was a concert in Germany in 2013, commemorating the 130th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and Germany. We performed together with senior Lee Mija. I was shocked when I saw her rehearsal. It’s already amazing that she’s still actively performing, but I could feel that she’s constantly striving to sing well. At that, I couldn’t help but freeze and promise myself “Jang Wooyoung, pull yourself together, and work hard.”

You’re the type who learns everything first-hand by experiencing it, right? I heard that you sought out senior Choi Baekho after watching his documentary to share your worries about music, even though you’ve never met him before. That was when I was going through that “adolescence” in my 20s. I felt consoled after watching senior Choi Baeho’s documentary, but there were still things I was frustrated about. So, I contacted him because I wanted to know how he managed to endure everything through his long years in the music scene. Here’s what he said during our first meeting: “My songs will keep on getting better with age. Just like the songs I sang in my 40s were more beautiful than the ones I did in my 30s, I’m heading towards being complete.” When I heard that, I felt like someone slapped me.

I think you can already give advice to someone who’s having similar worries. Have you ever experienced that? I have younger friends in Busan. We danced and dreamed of debuting together. It might sound selfish, but ever since my debut, I’ve never told them anything positive or hopeful about this line of work. When I passed the JYP audition, there was one young friend who cried together with me. Even to that friend, I said: “Can’t you please give up? I wish you didn’t suffer as much as me.” Back then it was really hard mentally and physically. Now my thoughts have changed. If you’re desperate and you’re confident that you will enjoy this constant fight with yourself, I would tell them to go for it. But I would like to tell them to come up with a wise approach to this because it’s easy to get tired and give up along the way.

You’re famous for having focused only JYP auditions. Do you still remember when you placed 1st at the 1st open audition? That must’ve been my 6th attempt to audition. Had I failed back then, I would’ve tried again. I sometimes watch the videos from that time, and I both like it and feel regret. Because the me on the screen looks somewhat tired. If I had allowed myself a little bit more freedom, stepped back and looked at the reality, I would’ve been a lot stronger kid.

What do you think you’ve done really well in life? That I’ve never calculated or analysed anything rationally in my relationships. I liked the other person without knowing anything about the world, and I suffered a lot when the relationship ended. I have my regrets, and I’ve also heard that it’s not a good way to approach a relationship, but someone like me just couldn’t help it. That experience made me into what I am today. I don’t regret it.

How important is love in life? If a person is of no. 1 importance, then love is no. 0. It’s a vague concept, I don’t even know if I can express love properly, but I can feel love through people.

It’s your birthday in 3 days, what would you imagine as a perfect gift? When I was serving, our company moved to a new building. The building is big, and the facilities got better. The practice rooms are also great. I wish I had my own personal space there, could be small too, where I could practice dancing all day long without bothering about others. For real.

So, shall we make an appeal? In your opinion, how much did 2PM contribute to JYP’s new company building? A lot, I think. It’s a 9-storey building, so I’d say around 4.5 floors?

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CREDITS

·   Feature editor: Kim Youngjae

·   Photographer: Go Wontae

·   Hair: Yang Hyungshim at Yangyangsalon

·   Makeup: Kim Doyeon at Yangyangsalon

·   Editor: Heoram

 Source: GQ WEBSITE

Kor-Eng: Egle0702

#GQ #GQ Korea #Wooyoung #2PM #Wooyoung GQ #Wooyoung interview #translation

[alightwhendarknessfell]

Let’s Talk

I’ve thought a lot about the situation concerning Ashley/Black Veil and the greater issues at hand here over the past few days. I’ve also spoken with a lot of people about things. 

Personally, this situation has turned into something that is causing myself to lose sleep and become very anxious. The likelihood that Ashley actually gets formally reprimanded for his actions is low just based on how cases like this typically go, and it’s quite clear that while people now know the type of person he is and that his career in music is over, those who still support him will continue no matter what. He will more than likely dwindle into irrelevancy and probably end up in jail for drinking and driving eventually. 

I have personally witnessed how this has affected the people involved, some of which are even close friends of mine. I believe that Twitter is great for some things, and catching people’s attention and spreading information is one of those things, but it can also be an incredibly toxic place. As a victim of sexual assault myself I feel for every one of the victims and fighting with people every day on Twitter who are willing to go to disgusting lengths to defend monsters like Ashley is exhausting. In my personal opinion at this point I believe people’s mental health is being harmed by the back and forth (not speaking for everyone, but I have personally seen how this is affecting people’s lives). And I don’t know how much more good can come from more Twitter arguments. 

With my MCAT approaching I need to get myself in the right head space and jumping every time my phone goes off because is it someone attacking me? Is it another victim? Is it someone in pain? That’s not a good head space. I also see the conversation at times going in a direction that I am not comfortable with or that I do not have enough information to put myself in. 

I do not want to out victims or people that do not want to have their story out there. I do not want to hunt down people and make them relive their trauma or pressure them to speak when doing so could cause a significant disruption to their lives. I’m not saying that is what is happening but I just don’t want it to A) come off that way or B) become that. In addition to that, it is very clear from a legal standpoint that Black Veil cannot say what people want them to say without breaking the NDA (at the benefit of Ashley). Ashley has retreated to his subscription only accounts and so that kind of leaves everyone at a stand still. This situation is incredibly complicated and perhaps in time there can be a conversation had but I just don’t think that time is right now. 

Speaking broadly, I will say that I am not for the cancellation of entire groups of people based of the actions of one person. I believe doing so can bring down innocent people or even potentially other victims. Should there be some punishment for succumbing to the bystander effect? I think that is fair, I think you can’t make blanket one size fits all statements but inaction can hurt too. And I think you should try and gather as many facts before deciding on any form of punishment for actions or inaction. Should you give people the chance to own up to their shortcomings and change for the better? I think so. Should inaction receive the same punishment as actions? I don’t think so, I think doing so allows the truly evil to fade into the background and minimizes their actions. 

I want to see significant change in the music industry with not only more protection for fans but for musicians as well. I see young kids, sometimes not even 18 thrown into an industry that has a habit of making monsters and addicts. The amount of leeches that feed and prey on these young musicians and don’t give a second thought to if that harms them is a big issue. Stop normalizing alcoholism and addiction. Stop watching your bandmate drink themself into a blackout every night.  Don’t create situations where a power dynamic allows people to get away with criminal actions. Check your bandmate when they say or do problematic things. I think there’s been a culture of ‘everyone looks after themselves’ but that’s clearly not working. I think if you are a band and you want to continue into the future that attitude has to change. The past can’t be changed, but the future sure as hell can. 

Beyond that, fan safety needs to be a priority. COVID-19 will change concerts and live music. And honestly, good. There should be more sanitation precautions when you have thousands of people packed together. The Route 91 mass shooting changed security at shows, and good, people should be searched for weapons. 

I think there are ideas that could prevent or reduce the situations in which sexual assault happens to fans. I think these should include things like ID scanners operated by individuals not employed by the band. No one under the age of 21 (unless they are direct family, significant other or a member of the band) be allowed on the buses. Venues need to do better ID-ing every single person that enters the venue. Tour managers and tour organizers need to do more to ensure that there are strict rules enforced as far as conduct. There needs to be a zero tolerance policy for giving alcohol/drugs to people underage and sexual misconduct. That will not prevent everything but it will make it safer and hopefully start to change the culture. 

I do not believe that every single musician is a pedophile. I think there is a disturbing number of them and I think there is another group that gets off on the power dynamic of 16-18 year old girls who worship them and that ability to control. I think there are decent people who have failed to speak out and protect their fans due to fear of their job/reputation/etc and this should serve as a notice that that’s got to change. 

This conversation tends to be very female centric but men can also be sexually abused. That’s not okay either. Band members can be sexually harassed and abused as well. It’s not okay to grab at them on stage or yell obscene disgusting things. It’s not okay for your bandmates to pressure you into drugs, sex or drinking. I will also say that physical violence is not okay. Not towards fans and not towards fellow bandmates. There’s a lot of toxicity and it’s all gotta stop. 

I will leave it up to people to make their own choices as to who they want to support or not support, I won’t tell anyone what to think. I will say that I believe it is best for this discussion to change on my blog as far as answering asks assigning blame or innocence to certain people. I stand by my accusation that Ashley Purdy is not only a sexual predator but a predator in general. But going forward I will be very selective in my answering of or posting of this topic. 

I am more than willing to continue the conversation of the issues in the alt-rock scene at large. I would love to hear people’s ideas on what can be done or just your thoughts. But for my own legal protection and sanity I would prefer that it not become specific to certain people/bands. I am open to private discussions about that and you can send in asks for only me to read but know I think this is the best move going forward. Obviously, other topics are all open and you can comment about anything else but it’s just... been a lot these past few days. 

Obviously, if something new comes out or if future incidents occur (not necessarily concerning Black Veil/Ashley but any band/person/etc) there could be more specific discussions but while I might personally believe or think certain things if I don’t have physical evidence that I am free to share (without harming the source) I don’t think it’s fair for me to open up a free for all. 

I hope that is okay with everyone. After my test and things in my life are back to a more ‘normal’ state I have further things I would like to discuss and post in regards to making my blog a more positive environment while of course still having conversations about ‘hot button’ issues, and a place where people can have discussions/comments and still speaking out when shit is fucked up. But perhaps in a way that doesn’t make me appear so hateful, because that is not who I am as a person. 

That all being said, if you are at all struggling because of the discussions being had right now. Please reach out to someone. That could be a therapist, doctor, friend, family member, counselor, etc. If you are dealing with trauma please consider seeking counseling to help you process and deal with what happened. If you feel you have evidence of criminal activity I encourage you to make a police statement or at least document it the best you can. 

I will end with this. I turn 25 this year and the past year of my life I have grown up and matured more so than I have ever before. I have learned a few things that I would like people to at least give thought to...

Please are a contradiction. Every single person has something for which they hypocritical about. Anyone who tells you differently is lying. There is no pure person, there is no one who is free of mistakes there is no one perfectly pure and consistent in ideology. It’s okay to get new information and change your opinion. No one person can change the world and evil will always exist. You will drive yourself crazy trying to eliminate all the bad out there. At the end of the day all you can do is try and help more people than you hurt. 

There are very few black and white things in life and you can’t always classify people as purely good or purely bad. People can change and that can be for better or worse. People have free will but they are also the product of their environments. It is easy to point a finger and say YOU/THIS is responsible and destroying this will right the wrong. It doesn’t. I think cancel culture can do good but it can also be toxic. Not just for the people ‘cancelled’ but also for the people doing the canceling. 

Don’t over analyze any of this or try and read between the lines, just think about it. 

[mindofanaturaldisaster]

People can’t change unless they themselves want it. There is beauty in the vast way people can be different they can have different ideas, opinions, attitudes, styles, mindsets and dreams. I embrace the beauty in the difference.We all have our own dreams some might be similar in some ways but each are molded to each of us. And we take certain steps to reach for them maneuver different ways depending on our way of being.

My dreams are to be happy to travel the world to have my own space aparment or house that is mine. My dreams are to manage my adult responsibilities like paying my bills. Also making time to go on adventures try new things meet people from around the world. And one of my big dreams is to be loved completely and give that same love in return preferably a single person until death do us part is shit you know the long hall. I had always dreamt of traveling the world so I took steps I joined the navy and experienced a lot and also realized if I’d be exploring the world I want to do it on MY terms no restrictions. So I decided I am going to get my passport save some money and travel when I can. It took me forever to finally travel anywhere that wasn’t in my own state. I traveled to Miami and Vegas and they were both so fun times but I realized my ultimate dream is to leave so I ordered my passport express and now that this global pandemic is starting to open up the world again I will chase that dream and use my passport and reach that goal not for anyone else but for me. And I hope to have many stamps.

I want my own space and be responsible unlike others in my family who decided to move with no money and had been evicted or are constantly struggling to pay rent. In order to do that in order to have my home my space and live comfortably. I need a good career a good job and a good flow of money that can help me pay my responsibilities and have more than enough left over to put in savings and to live my life. So I found a career that interested me which was a hard part. I went to college 4 different ones had to pause while in the navy and had to push myself so much mentally to not quit and I got my degree an internship and now Steady job offers and I have options to start my career or take my education up a notch with my masters and or possibly take advantage of a paid educational opportunity that would change my path alittle but at the end I would be an MD. I have time to choose and decide what I want for ME without pressure from anyone to decide because I need to choose something that will serve ME not anyone else. So I can have my home or apartment and no major financal stress or be drowning in bills. So I’m still reaching for that dream and I know I will get there because I want it.

I want to be loved completely for myself not for how I dress how I look what I have achieved or what can be potentially taken from me or what I can give to someone. For the person deep inside which is flawed in some ways because bobodys nerfect is ultimately a beautiful genuinely good person at the core. I have loved and been loved. But I want the that forever love. That won’t be easy as I know I have stumbled I have fallen and I’ve hurt and been hurt. But it’s what I want what my dream is, is to one day be with someone that loves me and that I love too. Slowly learning each other then livng together, Travel together and eventually way down the line get married and even further down the line when WE are both ready or at least we think we are because I hear you can Never really be ready have kids to have maybe one and to love them completely and protect them as best we can.

Love is tricky Its a complicated dance. I can love people the way I wanted to be loved. But never take the time to carefully see if the person I am giving all my love to ONE can handle the love I am giving. And TWO can handle giving me the love I want back. And the most complex thing about love is that people define it DIFFERENTLY keyword. And you can find someone who loves you and you can love them but do your visions of love match? There are different love languages too, in which people show their love and affection in different ways. which is tricky too trying to find what yours is or whichever you lean to most because even with that isn’t definite and also balancing that out with some else. I define love as this. Love is a dance it’s a balance of give and take. Not all take not all give. And even not always giving the same amount at the same time. Sometimes a partner may have days or weeks where they need a little more and vice versa. Love is respecting each other. Love is caring for each other. Love is being faithful and loyal to one another. Love is helping each other. Love is growing it’s changing and it’s about balancing the changes when they come and making sure when the waves of change come and shake things up each is willing to keep each other from drowning. Love is a commitment that shouldn’t be entered into lightly. Love is a commitment to learn the person in all their goodness and even at their worst. Love is being honest. Love is trying. Love is loving someone enough to know if you can give them what they want and knowing if they aren’t giving you what you want. love is know when you can’t give and being honest about it.

Loving people can hurt and for most people WILL at one point or another. Loving someone is knowing how to love yourself. Because with out love for yourself how do you know If you are really even being loved? Some people prey on the loveless and take advantage of that for their own gain. It’s sad but true. Without love for yourself how can you tell if you are really even giving love? Without love for yourself the love given to you is a foreign language thus untranslatable. Without love for yourself it is Easy to be fooled into thinking you are being loved. And it’s easy to mold and trick people into thinking you are giving them genuine love. Being without love for yourself can make it so you actively do things that harm yourself. You can surround yourself with harmful people or put yourself in harmful places.

So I want to love myself which I thought I was doing just fine but realized I need more work. More work to fight the demons that can change my whole person. That make me angry with the people around me. The demons that don’t want me to have love to be happy. I have to constantly talk about my issues (with professionals) and uncover all my skeletons and face all my issues. I need to change my own harmful behaviors and habits that reenforce hurt. I had and realized that some part of me deep inside wants me to hurt wants me to struggle and I have to take my time to relearn how to be. So that part of me changes and doesn’t exist anymore. I do that by knowing what I want. I want to be happy, and I want to be loved and love in return. So even if it scares me and makes me uncomfortable and leaves me so far out of my comfort I want to get there . Because sadly being hurt and hurting is my comfort I push people away when I’m scared I argue and try to find reasons why the love and happiness I’m feeling aren’t real. I dig and look for things that can potentially hurt or end up hurting people in the process. I’ve gotten comfortable being alone because I know how to hurt me the best. And I’ve gotten good and pushing people away. Because I don’t want them to see me or know that I hurt myself or I didn’t want to be so vulnerable and let them hurt me. It’s control & pain. I both things I still actively need to work on.

So I will change Me. Changed the bad habits I learned. Changed the things I had gotten used to doing that would cause the same results. Let go of the things I cling to because with attachment comes pain. And I will change me because that’s the only thing I can do to get to my picture of happiness which can also change with me.

I will remove constantly negative people who drain me of my energy. I will remove myself from harmful scenarios and harmful people because although I do see good in people and try to give people chances. Others don’t think the same and others wouldn’t think twice before saying something or doing something that would hurt me. So I can be kind but I will protect myself at all cost. I will remove myself from people content with having no dreams or ambitions. I will remove myself from Those content with coasting through life with dreams they will never even try to chase or ideas or goals they have but never try for. I will remove myself from people who expect the world handed to them without even trying to put in effort. I will remove myself from people who have given up on themselves, because I want everyone to try and I have used up my energy trying to motivate inspire and encourage people who just don’t see it in themselves. As much as it pains me not to try and hold on to hope for them it cost me my energy and time and I can’t be wasteful with such precious things and I cannot waste it trying to encourage change in someone not willing to live for themselves.

I will surround myself with people who are dreamers even if they have dreams some might consider crazy they still have dreams aspirations and goals for themselves and for the future and are actively trying to reach them. want the people around me to be dreamers. I want the people I love in my friendships and in romance to have ambitions and always be reaching towards them even if they stumble or take a break for themselves at times they never give up and they always get up and keep reaching. I will always be a dreamer I will always be someone who fights for myself with myself to change and get to my goals and dreams that will always be me. That is me. My best friends have been and now will always be dreamers. the woman who comes into my life that I will want to spend my life with will be a dreamer who doesnt give up who doesn’t need to be taken care by me or anyone. She will be a fighter for herself and her dreams.

I will continue dreaming and reaching for my goals for happiness and for ME.

#dear diary #dream #my diary #diary #diario #my words #my writing #writing #me #my ambitions #my life #my future #my journal #my journey #my path

[oadara]

you and all the people in our fandom that is following your theories and being in denial about a very possible tragic ending are just causing that lannister, jonsa stans and stark stans mock us all after the end

Hello anon,

I was going to answer this ask with snark, however, Ithought better of it and I think I’ll turn this into a teachable moment. Whetheryou wish to learn, is up to you.

My experiences in life have helped me develop a think skin.When I was a child I was made fun of because of the way I looked, so I learnednot to care what other people said about me. It took time, but I grew tough. Inmy 20’s I suffered a lot of personal tragedies, I lost my two oldest brothers,my maternal grandparent, an aunt, two uncles, and a cousin. I lost a family memberalmost every year for 10 years, it was crazy. That mental toughness I developedas a child helped me through those tragedies, that and therapy. I decided tolearn from these awful tragedies and that I would live my life to its fullest because,at least in my brothers’ case, theirs had been ended too soon. My therapistonce called be a diamond because I was so tough.

That doesn’t mean that things don’t hurt me, and people can’toffend me, but I have learned how to put things in perspective. I’m not alwayssuccessful but I think I’m pretty good at it. So why am I telling you this veryabridged version of my life story? Because I want you and my followers tounderstand that I can care less what nameless, faceless people on the internetthink about me. Their opinions are inconsequential to my life. If you can learnsomething from my story is that in life you need to be able to take a step backand take stock of what’s truly important to you and what truly matters to you.

I spend a lot of time participating in fandom, it means alot to me. Part of it is the comradery of sharing something I love with otherpeople and of course the other part of it is the characters themselves. I’ve spentalmost 7 years of my life discussing Daenerys Targaryen. I’d like to pridemyself in knowing and understanding the character. I believe that after muchdiscussion and debate of her journey I have a good idea of where it’s allheaded. I ask that you and other respect my opinion, you don’t have to agreewith it by I am entitled to share it, especially because I’m not trying tocause harm to others. I have done countless analysis of both the books and theshow and deductions are based on evidence. So, excuse me if I don’t jump toconclusions about suppose outcomes that have zero evidence to back them up.

Now, I’m sure you are going to use Arya’s killing of theNight King as some sort of barometer for Dan and Dave to take turn the storyaround without any warning and to that I call bullshit. Guess what? Many of usmight not have figured out that’s how things were going to go down, however,some of us did pick up on parts of it. I knew Arya was going to be involved inkilling the Night King and I knew that the dagger needed to be used to removeor destroy in this case, the shard of dragonglass inside the Night King’sheart. I wrote it down in my predictions, you can go and look at them if youwant. The other problem that has been brought up is that this has made Jon andBran’s story useless. However, I will remind you all of a few things, first,the Night King is a show only creation, it doesn’t exist in the books. Second,we are only half way through the season so before we get angry at the waste oftheir arcs maybe we should wait until they unfold completely. Thirdly, and thisis just a minor note, Jon’s book arc actually revolves around his identity. So,you might want to keep that in mind.

The moral of the story here is that the show creators used ashow only creation to create an artificial unexpected moment, that let’s behonest, wasn’t very successful. I don’t mind that Arya killed the night king,but Jon should have been there as well. I won’t even comment on Bran. But, andit’s a big but, the culmination of the arcs of all the protagonist on the show willmatch the culmination of the arcs of their book counterparts. This information comesstraight from George R.R. Martin. I just posted his interview with 60 Minutes wherehe reaffirms this. Any talk of Dan and Dave giving our protagonist anunexpected twist doesn’t really match with the idea that they are getting theirbook ending. Because we know George and he doesn’t do twist for twist sake.

Finally, the shade I’ve been throwing around is directed atall the people who are not only getting anxious by unreliable (at best) leaksbut are spreading their anxiety throughout the fandom. That’s not cool. Youwant to be anxious, go for it, that’s your prerogative but to take that anxietyand spread it everywhere you go is unfair and unhelpful. I am resentful that Iwas unable to enjoy Dany’s badass warrior queen moments of episode 3 because abunch of you had a freak out and got everyone around you riled up. My inbox wasfull of people having anxiety attack because of those leaks, which by the wayhad the leaker backtrack and admit the information came third hand. You want tobe prepared in case Dany dies, fine, that seems reasonable but taking away thejoy of others because you’re feeling miserable is not fine.

After everything that’s happened to me I think I have everyright to be a pessimist, but I’m not. Because I know that despite everything I’velost I’ve still had a good life and that I’ve been lucky in a way others havenot and I can appreciate that. If I choose to see the glass half full is notbecause I’m in denial, it’s because I have perspective.

TTFN

#fandom wank #got wank #about me #i have lived in a world where the glass was empty and it sucked #why would i do that to myself again #good think I'm not a masochist #i like to turn my frown upside down #also i like to throw hands

[nascent-chaos]

Hello, sorry to bother you. First I wanted to say I love your story, it’s amazing and I love how you develop the plot, interactions and the reader herself. I wanted to ask a request, I’ve gotten stuck in a My Hero Academia binge and I was wondering what type of quirk would the reader have and how would the skeletons individually think about a world with quirks and the reader having a quirk. Thank you very much and I hope you have a great day :)

AAAAAAAAHHHH I luv this ask so much AND I LUV YOU SO MUCH AND YOU ARE SO AMAZING DEARIE!! ♥ ♥ ♥

Reed’s Quirk :: Petal

A mutant-type Quirk that grants Reed the ability to freely manipulate the blossoms growing across her body, as well as rapidly regrow them when needed.

Physical characteristics of her Quirk include a bushy collar of lush (if not slightly thorny) foliage dotted with ever-blooming flowers that drapes over her shoulders as well as similar foliage sprouting from her wrists. This can often be used to determine her overall health (flourishing blossoms and lively leaves signal good health, whilst wilting ones can suggest poor health or that she’s reaching her limit). She is capable of manipulating the petals of her flowers, firing them like projectiles at speeds that would allow them to cause significant physical harm to those not wearing substantial protection. By utilizing the plants growing upon her she is capable of receiving some sustenance through sunlight - though it’s not enough to fully sustain her by itself.

Sans :: At first he’s more than a bit nervous to find himself in a world where so many humans are walking around with so many different abilities, but he quickly grows accustomed to it nonetheless. Granted, he’s heard more than his fair share of tales about humans who’ve gone and used their Quirks for nefarious purposes, but he supposes you’re bound to get a few bad apples in every bunch.

As for his opinions on Reed? He’s actually very interested in her Quirk, harmless as it appears to be at first glance. When he realizes exactly how much damage she can deal with the aid of those frail-looking petals though? He can’t help but be a bit on edge around her for quite some time after that. Still, he sees the way she moves slightly differently from others, careful that she doesn’t accidentally stick his brother or the others when she’s forgotten to cut back her thorns and always fretting about the dropping leaves wherever she goes when she gets sick. Gradually Sans begins to accept the fact that she really is a harmless human, Quirk or no.

And hey! He’s more than happy to finally put all those plant-based puns he’s been saving to use!

Papyrus :: He thinks its amazing!! Look at all the heroes on TV, each with their own unique super power!! WOWIE!! What an amazing world to live in! Okay, granted, there are those few people with Quirks that don’t follow the rules and even go as far as to hurt other people, but they’re always dealt a heaping serving of justice!! As of late, he’s dreamed of what it would be like to have a Quirk of his own - he’d be so popular! … What? He can already use magic? Well, yes! This is true! But he’ll still idolize each and every person with a Quirk he comes across, and Reed is no exception to this. He thinks its amazing that she can create plant life from seemingly thin-air with such ease!! AND THE GARDEN HAS FLOURISHED SINCE SHE STARTED HELPING WITH IT!! Her Quirk suits her so perfectly!! Plus, the flowers blooming on her smell quite nice too!!!

Red :: It makes him nervous AF - and why not, when you have around 80% of the human population dancing around with fuckin’ superpowers?! He’s got only 1 HP and he still hasn’t learned when to keep his mouth shut and his temper under control, a fact that continues to land him in more bar fights than he cares to admit to. The only downside is that, in his AU, he could just knock the asshole’s lights out and call it a day, but that’s no longer the case here. Now he needs to worry about somebody suddenly spitting fire or acid at him, or zapping him out of existence or whatever other crazy shit a Quirk could let a person do. Damnit, was he dragged into the wrong alternate universe…

The first time he learns of Reed’s Quirk, he teases her for it - of course the shy little girly would have flower powers! His tune quickly changes when he finds out just how much of a punch her petal pack, and afterward he’s left with a newfound respect for the young woman. The first month or so takes a lot of getting used to as he’s still not completely accustomed to being around someone with a Quirk, but he seems to be one of the first ones to adjust to it, regardless.

Edge :: If he thought his own AU was bad, what with the high populations, then this one is a downright nightmare! Humans with abilities that could rival magic?! Absurd! Okay, admittedly he is highly interested in how exactly Quirks manifest themselves and there certainly is an endless variety to be seen, but his admiration for them doesn’t extend beyond that manner of curiosity. He sees those with Quirks as a threat, plain and simple.

So when Reed moves in with them? Well, he’s far from happy about it. Granted, her Quirk in particular hardly seems very intimidating at first glance and as time passes he starts to ease up around her a bit and will gradually begin to lower his walls. It’s clear to see she hardly thinks of her Quirk as an oddity the way he does - to her it’s another part of herself, as natural as breathing. In time, he comes to see it in the same light.

Stretch :: Stretch doesn’t exactly share his brother’s cheerful sentiments about those with Quirks. Okay, sure, the idea of so many people having what effectively amounts to superpowers sounds cool enough on paper, but in reality? Magic he can understand, but a Quirk isn’t magic and certainly doesn’t follow the same rules that magic does - and that comes off as a lot more threatening to him. He’s understandably a bit uncomfortable around people with Quirks, though he hides it masterfully. Hell, on occasion he may even ask a question or two if a Quirk really catches his attention, but for the most part he tries to keep a certain distance between himself and those individuals with such unique abilities.

As such, he’s a bit surprised when he first meets Reed. Initially, he’s a bit guarded around her, but it doesn’t take long for him to look past her Quirk and see her for who she really is. She makes it clear to him early on that she’s not one of those malevolent superhumans he sees on tv all the time and, in time, he even begins to find her Quirk somewhat fascinating. 

Blue :: Surrounded as he is now by a world in which humans have Quirks, Blue’s excitement knows no bounds!! THIS IS THE MOST MAGNIFICENT THING EVER!! He gets overly excited each time he sees someone with a Quirk and isn’t above bounding over to the individual and launching into a thousand and one questions. What’s their Quirk? What does it do? How does it work? Do they like it? Do they use it in everyday life? It isn’t until Stretch all but drags Blue away that his endless slew of inquiries finally comes to an end.

So when he first meets Reed, you can bet he’s over the moon to hear a REAL LIVE HUMAN IS MOVING IN WITH THEM! AND!! THEY EVEN HAVE A QUIRK!!! He adores her Quirk and thinks it fits her to a T - she seems like such a gentle and sweet human!! Of course she would have a Quirk as pretty and as strong as she is!! The only thing that seems to knock his enthusiasm down a notch is watching her accidentally scratch herself with her own thorns once. He never realized just how careful she is when interacting with the others until after that.

Hickory :: When he first learns just what kind of AU he’s been dragged into, the Mutt isn’t exactly pleased. His world was shitty enough without humans running around with veritable superpowers. As untrusting of most folks as he already is he certainly isn’t really comfortable being around someone with a Quirk, although he hides his unease gloriously behind an indifferent attitude. Sure, there are going to be assholes who’ll abuse their abilities in this world, but he knows there’ll be just as many people who won’t tolerate that kind of bullshit either.

It’s more or less like his own universe, only the madness isn’t fueled by magic.He regards Reed with a fairly nonplussed attitude. Okay, so sometimes it’s a bit difficult to ignore her Quirk when she has a veritable bush growing out of her skin and she tends to leave a trail of dead leaves after her whenever she’s a bit under the weather, but for the most part he regards it all as being a bit more on the mild side of things. His initially neutral behavior around her begins to ease as time passes and he learns more about who she is as a person. You can bet he’ll never pass up the opportunity to crack a bad joke or a pun about her or her Quirk, though.

Black :: Black’s fascination with this new Quirk-filled AU is rivaled only by that of Blue’s. Unlike his counterpart, however, Black makes sure to keep his curiosity reigned in and isn’t as likely to go leaping off and launching himself into an hour’s worth of questions at the first person he sees with an extra limb or peculiar trait. Nope.

He’ll just storm up to the individual and demand to know what they’re able to do, then proceed to judge them on how useful or pathetic he deems their Quirk to be. On more than one occasion Hickory has had to step in to help remove his brother before he’s caused too big of a scene.

As such, when he first meets Reed he’s hardly impressed whatsoever by her Quirk. It seems utterly useless, in his opinion. What’s the point in even having a quirk if it’s you can hardly attack or defend with it? What good would her pathetic petals do if he’d tried to skewer her with a bone?!  He regards her as a fairly pitiful weakling for the most part, though as time goes on he’ll take it upon himself to keep an eye out for her. After all, someone has to keep her out of trouble! It’s not like she’d be able to manage herself if something happened!

Dust :: He’s by far the biggest fan of this AU. One human without magic was enough of a problem for him, but now he’s in a universe where a vast majority of the population is walking around with what essentially amounts to super-powers?! N O.  T H A N K.  Y O U. It’s no surprise to see him get pissed off whenever he hears about another news clip about someone losing their shit and - ooh look, it was a person with a Quirk that just leveled half a block. Surprise surprise.

So when he meets Reed, you can bet he holds almost no trust in the girl. Who cares if the most he needs to worry about from her are a couple stupid petals flying his way? He knows better than to let his guard down around someone who appears harmless. Indeed, it takes him quite a long time before he’s willing to accept the fact that Reed has absolutely no intention of ever hurting anyone, and would never resort to using her own Quirk to harm another person unless the situation was indeed dire.

[money4nothing2021]

Earn with Duplinow - site review

New Post has been published on https://money4nothing.xyz/earn-with-duplinow/

Earn with Duplinow - site review

Let the machines do their job!

You earn automatically even when you’re asleep.

Duplinow is a free service, that pays you real money for completing various tasks. For example, you complete a survey, register to a website or download and use an app. You get coins, which you exchange for money, it pays through Payeer or Faucetpay for example.

The idea of Duplinow is to let users earning using virtual machines. You just buy a machine for coins, and it generates coins by itself! All you need is to check back everyday and run it.

I managed to earn $0,5 for spending like 1 hour doing some easy tasks. Crazy right? If you sacrifice some more time, invest your disk space, be creative completing surveys imagine how much additional income you can get from this!

You can follow my guide to learn how to make a good money from it. If you think you are good and want to start earning, you can as well > register right now< .

Smart earning with Duplinow guide:

Run your first machine. You start with 500 free coins, which you can spend for the cheapest machine that costs 432 coins and generates you 0.01 coins/minute, which means you will earn 28.8 coins in a day. Not much right? It’s just a start.

100 coins = $0.01, so you have to get better machines! You can also earn coins by doing tasks. You can choose from 4 different offerwalls. It’s up to you which tasks you choose, some take longer to finish but I’m pretty sure that 99% you can do without spending a single cent. Some offers require making some small in-app purchases, like $2. Just be careful not to buy something by mistake, for example when playing games that use in-app payments. I suggest that you set up and use a decent Anti Virus software – you will be redirected to some ‘fishy’ websites, although they don’t share trojans or anything too harmful, but you’ll be viewing tons of advertisements. And you might have to disable you Adblockers to make sure you get credited, which is may put you in some danger too.

When you can afford, buy the ‘Essential’ machine‘ for 41000 coins. It generates 1440 coins per day, which is $0.14! Remember to check back everyday to run your machines, that’s the only requirement for them to work and generate coins. By the way, you can also claim a daily bonus of additional 10 coins.

Keep investing in new, better machines. You can also upgrade existing ones. You will have to generate a lots of coins using your machines, you can’t use the coins that you earned doing tasks – that’s due to the large number of users that use VPN to complete tasks fraudulently. So investing is good, but also remember not to cheat – if an offerwall informs Duplinow site that you use a VPN or other fraudulent method to complete tasks, your account will be suspended and you will lose all your coins!

You can withdraw from $0.02, (in reality you will get 0.01 because of taxes if you use Payeer – FaucetPay has not tax). So make sure to save your coins and wait till you can get a better exchange and better payoff! Withdraw options are Payeer or Faucet Pay for payments under $100, other options are Dogecoin and Bitcoin.

‘Free’ users can withdraw up to $0.05. ‘Free’ means, that you just use machines to earn and you don’t use offers, don’t invest or don’t get referrals. So basically, to be able to get unlimited payments, be sure to finish offers, buy coins or refer new users!

Earn with Affiliate Program. When you refer someone, you can get:

500 CoinsBonus for new referred user30 % of item purchasedReferred user’s purchase in shop30 % of task rewardReferred user’s completed tasks in offerwalls

It’s all up to you how much you want to earn. You can also buy coins and invest them into machines, I’ve heard stories it worked out for some people. It will require some time, but it’s worth it. I tested it and got paid, so personally I’m trusting this service. You can trust it too, as long you play fair!

My payment proof:

Scroll down Duplinow home page to see latest pay outs!

Duplinow in numbers:

been live for over 150 days

paid over $75000 to active members

over 160000 users registered

~4000 Alexa Rank

5 offerwalls to use – Wannads, Offertoro, Personaly, Bitswall and Offers4all

the strongest machine earns $28.8 per day automatically

30% referral rate (read more above)

I’m sure there are some people asking – is Duplinow a scam? Well, it’s quite a fresh website. I understand it would be risky to invest high amounts of money into this, but I’m not recommending this here. This site needs to earn. I’ve read opinions saying, that after some withdrawals Duplinow stop paying. That’s true, but only when you use machines to earn and nothing else. No one is giving money out for free. That’s why you need to invest OR complete tasks OR refer other people. You don’t have to send them money. You can let them earn the other ways.

That being said, the opinions out there are from ‘free’ users that have a withdrawal limit set to 0.05 dollars. All they need is to do a tasks in the offerwalls, attract referrals, or make an investment to continue withdrawing. Some users refuse to do this and get upset. The machines do not expire, they are sure to produce coins as long as they are turned on, but if you are not a ‘free’ user and invest instead, you are assured of the return on your investment plus profits.

I’ve never heard of any incident, where someone who earned money honestly didn’t get paid. I’ve seen numerous cash out proofs instead. You can get a quick withdrawal for free and see for yourself – earn 200 coins using offerwall and withdraw $0.02. Easy. Decide yourself if you find the money in your wallet. And that’s pretty much it!

Ready to earn? Register now for free:

Register to Duplinow with 500 coins bonus

Have fun and good luck!

[grimlyunaware]

Character Flaws Meme

No one is perfect, so every character has their flaws. Write down your muse’s five worst Tragic Flaws and how they embody them, and tag your friends. Feel free to use [this list of character flaws] if you want!

Tagged by: @pieman1112​ Tagging: Anyone who wants to do it

| Gimle |

Blunt: Characterized by directness in manner or speech; without subtlety or evasion

Gimle can, and will be very straightforward about well pretty much everything. It doesn’t matter if it’ll hurt someone’s feelings or not, best to just tell people the blunt truth. Her bluntness can also be because she doesn’t know how to deal with people.

Envious: Showing extreme cupidity; painfully desirous of another’s advantages

Jealous of the fact of how easy it is for others to show emotion, also super jealous of Robin. Even if everything Gimle is jealous of Robin for is stuff Gimle in away already has.

Judgemental: Inclined to make and form judgements, especially moral or personal ones, based on one’s own opinions or impressions towards others/practices/groups/religions based on appearance, reputation, occupation, etc

Everything comes down to the simple thing of if she feels like someone’s blood is on her hands or not. She judges everyone that way, and will make sure everyone knows that.

Reckless: Heedless. Headstrong. Foolhardy. Unthinking boldness, wild carelessness and disregard for consequences. 

Gimle will always take the risky road, she’ll never go about something the easy way, no matter how safer it is. And life- especially her own -is something she really doesn’t care about, so she doesn’t see anything wrong with being reckless.

Sarcastic: A subtle form of mockery in which an intended meaning is conveyed obliquely

Maybe not so much as her trying to be sarcastic, it more just happens. Maybe just because of the tone of her voice, or something just ends up sounding like she’s mocking them when she’s not.

| Robin |

Dependent: Unable to exist, sustain oneself, or act appropriately or normally without the assistance or direction of another

Robin really doesn’t know what to do in life without at least someone to look up to, and for them to kind of tell her what she should be doing. It’s a big reason as to why it was easy for her to help Validar, other then the fact he’s her father of course.

Envious: Showing extreme cupidity; painfully desirous of another’s advantages

Thinks to having future past!Robin/Gimle’s memories, she’s really jealous of Gimle, and what her life could have been like. Sometimes she even dreams of living that life.

Liar: Compulsively and purposefully tells false truths more often than not. A person who has lied or who lies repeatedly.

Even if Robin herself was the one who came up with the idea that she must be seeing the future, even she doesn’t fully believe it. Part of her know she’s telling everyone lies, events don’t seem to always match up. And as long as that keeps happening her lies will fall apart, one by one.

Overemotional: Excessively or abnormally emotional. Sensitive about themselves and others, more so than the average person.

She can normally hide this pretty okayish, maybe... but she can be pretty sensitive about what her life has become, about the life she left behind. And just over all how much she actually breaks down in tears about she’ll become, what she’ll do to the world.

Soft-hearted: Having softness or tenderness of heart that can lead them into trouble; susceptible of pity or other kindly affection. They cannot resist helping someone they see in trouble, suffering or in need, and often don’t think of the repercussions or situation before doing so

Robin cares, big time. Maybe even a little too much for someone who is working towards the end of all life, but she can’t help it. Grima isn’t awaken yet, so there’s no harm in saving lives right now, right? And she’ll keep telling herself it’s so they’ll have the honor of dying by Grima’s hand, but in the end it’s just because she can’t stand back and let people die. Not if she could do something about it. Her mother always told her to be kind, and so she’ll always help those in need.

| Crowe |

Childish: Marked by or indicating a lack of maturity; puerile.

Crowe has a active imagination, what may make her seem childish, or maybe just a little on the crazy side. She also looks young, and with her really soft voice she may come of a sweet little kid at first. Until you actually hear her really start talking. She also does act kind of childish when she doesn’t get her way, what normally means she doesn’t get to watch any fights.

Fixated: In psychoanalytic theory, a strong attachment to a person or thing, especially such an attachment formed in childhood or infancy and manifested in immature or neurotic behaviour that persists throughout life

Crowe has one thing always on her mind, weapons. Her biggest dream is to make weapons! And watch people beat each other up with them... She’s just very fixated on weapons and fights, all the fighting. Just think Ruby from RWBY when it comes to weapons, she’s kind of like that.

Gluttonous: Given to excess in consumption of especially food or drink

Saying that Crowe will drink way more cups of alcohol then she probably should... and that fact she normally eats mountains of food everyday, I say this probably fits her.

Illiterate: Unable to read and write

The man that took Crowe in and raised her had no real way of teaching her, so she really didn’t have much of away of learning. This doesn’t mean she can’t read at all, but they have to be short simple words for her. And she never even tried to learn to write.

Klutz: Clumsy. Blunderer 

Crowe is a huge klutz, always dropping something, running into stuff, she’s really good at burning her hands. And you know there had to be more to it then just playing around with weapons when she shouldn’t have when it came to losing her eye.

#memes #OOC #about Gimle #about Robin #about Crowe #((I don't know if I did this right #but fuck it I've been working on this all day #so just take it so I can be free))

[iadm-gch]

W10 // Innovation

Having an eye for Innovation

Innovation is one of the driving forces of our civilisation. If we did not have the urge to develop ourselves further, and improve ourselves as well as our surroundings we would not be where we are today. But innovation can’t simply be practised, Innovation doesn’t simply happen when we want it to happen. Fortunately we can put ourselves in situations and behave differently to increase our chances of coming up with an innovative idea.

Seeing and hearing things with your own eyes and ears is a critical first step in improving or creating a breakthrough product. (human factor / human inspiration) (Kelley T. 2001)

Through interviews, opinion polls, user tests and research we can find out a lot, but we have to be aware that the statements have always already been filtered and are very likely biased in one way or another. One can’t assume that people can easily express themselves the way they want to, that they can tell you in clear words what is wrong with the item that they tested or what is missing and frankly, they don't have to. Own observations which, in their rawness, leave us with impressions and insights, that more often than not, differ from what we heard or saw from other sources, are a key piece on the way to innovation.

People who follow directions perfectly and can’t imagine a different course aren’t much help. […] You learn more from the people who break the rules. (Kelley T. 2001)

Almost always inspiration for innovation doesn’t come form the ordinary neighbour that reads every instruction manual and precisely follows every proposed step. Inspiration comes from people who do things differently, people who don’t read manuals and create their own solutions for theirs needs with what the have at hand. Even if it looks crazy, a more detailed investigation with a few why-questions would certainly be more worthwhile, than interrogating a standard user.

New ideas come from seeing, smelling, hearing – being there. (Kelley T. 2001)

There is no way around it. Simply looking up a City in Google Street view doesn’t give one the same experience as being physically there, with open ears, eyes, nose, open mind and heart. There is no better place for Innovation and ideas than a city one has never been to, a city full of people living in a different culture, behaving differently, talking differently, just a place that makes us wonder why things are done how they are done. Being at a place for the first time is a precious gift that has to be taken advantage of quickly, because we get used to a lot of thing extremely quickly and after a while we don’t even notice them that much anymore.

Not everybody likes you. Not everybody reads the manual or follows directions. Not everybody is a thirty-year-old six-foot-tall white male. Awaken your antenna to endless variety of human nature, and you’re bound to make customers happier an find new markets. (Kelley T. 2001)

Innovation doesn’t always need to be a totally new product or service. Often times existing products or services, as useful as they may be to others, aren’t adapted to certain individuals, which excludes them from use. Helping these individuals or groups can be a driving factor for innovation. You don't always have to fill a wallet, it can also be the heart.

CILLLIA & Recreating Nature

Trying to recreate the real physical and biological world creates a huge exploration and innovation space. When trying to replicate something, we have to use materials and tools that we already know of. Often this is exactly what restricts us in striving for and achieving innovation.

It is difficult and impractical to create many thousands of small hairs with real geometry using conventional CAD systems. The data for describing the total geometry becomes extremely large and rendering such complex structures can also be computationally expensive. […] We propose a bottom-up 3D printing approach to design and fabricate hair-like structures without first making 3D CAD model, where user directly generate printing layers that contains hair structure information for the 3D printer.

(Ou et al. 2016)

When we use conventional tools we might be stuck in a certain way of thinking about how the device works or in which situations it might be useful. That’s why sometimes it is good to not have a tool that does exactly what ones wants to do. It seems to me that it is exactly in this space, in which you need to create your own tools and variations of materials, where Innovation happens.

Innovation for me

For me innovation was something mystical, that can’t be forces to happen. Reading the extract, especially form Tom Kelly help me grasp the term better and demystify it a little. I now see it as a practise, maybe similar to meditating. Innovation is not just having an idea that changes everything, it’s more like a way of how to go about things, how you immerse yourself in a moment or let yourself be immersed. It’s a way of asking the right questions as well as just listening and observing. I now think that Innovation can be induced or provoked to a certain extent, by acting differently or immersing yourself in other worlds and cultures.

On the one hand innovation to me means progress, although it would be difficult for me to explain what progress really means, because there are a lot of innovations or inventions that just exist for fun or distraction, most of them I don’t really support, but not to advance or progress humanity as such. For me this quote from James Auger summarizes my sentiments towards todays innovations the best:

Initially these (Innovations / Inventions) provided clear improvements to the human condition and their value was obvious. Now, many generations later, we find ourselves very far from where we started, but due to the incremental nature of this progress it passes largely unnoticed. We are like the frog in the famous anecdote, long since plunged into a pot of cold water and slowly but surely the temperature is rising as we imperceptibly begin to boil in our own juices.

(Auger J. 2012)

On the other hand I would say that Innovation to me is not just the invention of something new, it is the invention something that fulfils an essential human need in such a way that it exploits neither nature nor workers in a harmful way. So I guess innovation and future-oriented as well as sustainable thinking belong together for me. Innovation fot the sake of innovation is somthing which I do not support.

Key words

Autotropic self-replicator - The ability of a system to make a direct copy of otself from raw materials without assistance.

Sources

Kelley, T. (2001). The Art Of Innovation: Lessons In Creativity From IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm. Crown Business. 23-52.

Ou, Jifei, Dublon, G., Cheng, C., Heibeck, F., Willis, K.D.D. & Ishii, H. 2016. “Cilllia - 3D Printed Micro-Pillar Structures for Surface Texture, Actuation and Sensing”. In Proceedings of CHI ‘16.

Auger, James. 2012. “Speculative design: The products that technology could   become”. In Why Robot? Speculative Design, the domestication of technology and the  considered future. PhD Thesis. RCA, London.

[basshouse]

Bring on the FAQs

I know you have questions! Oh, ok, I’ll honor the era of the fact check (be the change you want to see int he world, after all!): I think you have questions and I know I want to use questions as a framework for telling you more about my life. On board?? In case your answer is “no” and you choose not to click “keep reading” below, here’s the obligatory picture right up front: 

That’s me in San Jose a couple days ago. Yes, I have a “bum bag” (super apologies to everyone I ever mocked for a fanny pack, a sweatpant, or a mini van, and a reminder to us all that it’s ridiculous to judge people for the things they decide enhance their quality of life...are heavily starched jeans in my future?  who can say?).  Also, yes I am on the North American continent. Sadly not with enough time or planning to be able to connect with many people, plus it’s a work trip and I’m freezing by balls off.  More on that later (the work part, not my balls). Let’s get to the Q&A!

A bit of a heads up: a lot of these are combo questions, I grouped them by flavor to make things more compact... you bunch are good at asking the same question multiple ways.

1.  Do you miss home/Seattle/the States?  What do you miss the most?

Alright, I’m going to leave out the obvious friends, family and a certain tiny dog, because...duh.  Do you really need the validation?  You know I miss you.  As for P-dog, he was IN A WEDDING.  IN A BOWTIE.  So suffice it to say that while I still get sad when I get in bed at night and he’s not curling up at my feet, his new family is showing their commitment to him in a whole new and completely adorable way. 

I do not actively miss living in Seattle or the States. I haven't been homesick. and to be clear, Seattle is an amazing place and our lives there were full of amazing people and things. It’s just that I am enjoying being somewhere else and doing new things (and many of the old things in a new location). I can love Seattle (and you!) and love somewhere else at the same time, how amazing is that? One good thing about being faced with losing my job and visa was that I had to ask and answer the question of whether it was best to just “go home” -- and it was clear for both me and Jason that we did not want to leave Christchurch yet. No, we did NOT ask the kids this time :-). 

I DO miss some things about living in Seattle, and if you know me you won't be surprised to hear they are largely food related...La Palma.  Pickles.  Gardenburgers. Caesar salads that don’t have a poached egg on top. The ability to fulfill a special order (say, make a Caesar salad without an egg on top).  Jale-frickin’-penos!  It’s not to say that NZ doesn't have good food; overall the quality of the food is high and it’s nice that all the coffee shops serve real food.  Also, you almost never have table service, which threw me off at first, but now I really appreciate being in control of when I order and when I pay my bill.  A non-tip economy has its perks for sure, including less math at the dinner table! But there are some foods for each of us that fulfill a craving, are a go-to, and when you can’t get them, even a close approximation or a really good option just won’t do. This problemhas inspired me to learn how to cook new things, at least. Haven’t nailed the gardenburger yet.

Also, I miss yoga.  A LOT.  Props to Core Power, Shefa, Haute, and Maven for being awesome places to practice a powerful flow in the heat with music. Thanks to all of you who taught me and those that let me teach you.  Christchurch has more bars and restaurants and interesting places than we expected, but this style of yoga just isn't there as far as I can tell.  So hit me up if you're interested in investing in a probably-not-very-profitable business in NZ once I have a visa that lets me own a business, and you can weigh in on whether “Surfing Donkey Yoga” (Jason’s nomination) is on brand or not.  I have an opinion but no harm in workshopping it. 

2.  Wait, you said in an earlier blog you don't overwork (or sometimes even work at all when you should be)...what do you do/are you going crazy/how do you handle it/are you really you?!?!? 

This is an honest question I have gotten in phone conversations, and since I assume you know me and my, um, rather industrious ways, you may have it too.  I mean, it’s not a secret that when I lived in Seattle  I worked A LOT, and stressed over work A LOT, and talked about work A LOT, and did work-y things outside of work, and worked at home and on the weekends FAR TOO MUCH.  And for background: in New Zealand I have had a much better work life balance. And at the end of my time at SLI there were many many hours that I went to work but did not really have work to do.  So while I have done what I needed to do, and contributed to the business, and used my skills, working and being at work has NOT defined my life here, even in the slightest, which it did in Seattle.  That pains me a little, because I also did lots of of things besides work in Seattle, and I never valued being a person who was stressed about work all the time (at least, I did not value that for other people or in principal, though I did build up some kind of addiction or compulsion based on an anxiety about not working).  Can I attribute being ok with more balance to a “less demanding” job?  In part that would be fair, but after giving it some thought I also must attribute it to both breaking the chain of bad habits and the general difference in culture,  For, as far as I can tell, in New Zealand, it is not common to work outside hours or on vacation; people value value and respect family time; and there's a much more subtle and prevalent difference that's hard to explain about the feeling that everything really is going to be ok if you don't struggle to get it all done in record time -- there’s an undercurrent of pressure that does not exist, at least not for me, and I think it’s a Kiwi thing.  An informal poll and some observational data (e.g. one boss told me when I sent an email on a sick day not to do it again, no laptop, employment contract stating a 37 hour work week) backs it up.   

So what do I do and am I still me and not going crazy?  Well, I’ll tell you and yes and no to those questions. Let’s be clear that I still work 37-40 hours a week which is plenty so don't get too exited, but here’s a wee list of some of the things I’ve been doing with “all this time.”  Sadly not enough yoga :-( 

I write a blog!  You're welcome.  

Cook, surf, hike, bike, gym, listen to records...I think you knew that already. Same shit, different continent. 

Burlesquercize!  Yes, it’s what it sounds like -- a sluttier version of Jazzercise. My friend Tas and I also did a 6 week burlesque course that culminated in an actual performance.  On stage.  In. Front. Of. Real. People.  Body positive, pro-female and anti-agist?  You betcha.  Terrifying?  Kind of. Entertaining?  I hope so.  And no, we did not take our clothes off (that would have moved the answer to “terrifying?” waaaaay up). 

Tennis lessons!  Finally fulfilling a desire to learn and play tennis that I have had my entire adult life, I joined an adult beginner group lesson at the tiny Opawa Tennis Club.  Really, in American terms, this should be “club” -- because like the lawn bowling club and croquet club near my house, this is the kind of club that where pay $100 bucks to get a key so you have access to equipment and courts when you need them, and there are organized games and lessons a few hours a week.  Plus a water fountain. Croquet might be my next project, as I am still as shockingly bad at tennis as I was in junior high when I got moved from the 8th grade beginner team down to the elementary school group at a “real tennis club.”  But learning tennis is fun, and I have met some great people, and hey, it’s summer in December so why not? 

I grew tomatoes. It didn’t take that much time, so I could still do tennis and burlesque, thank god.  

I make pickles like twice a month. In NZ, pickles are almost exclusively sweet gherkins.  Most of you are probably like “making pickles is super easy, der.” You're right. I don’t know why I ever paid for them...oh except they were pretty cheap and super convenient to buy pretty much anywhere. It’s remarkable how scarcity, a bit of dill and a head of garlic can drive such commitment to a new activity.  Now if I only had a goddamn Gardenburger to eat with my pickle slices!

On a career path note, I became a volunteer city coordinator for Product School meetups and am working to get that off the ground.  I am mulling over ideas about generating and delivering content and education in the product management space...there may be a great opportunity to leverage my skill set and breadth of professional experience in NZ and I’m doing some activities that will help me network and consider the possibilities. 

I have read more books since we moved than I think I read in the last 10 years.  I do miss the New Yorker, I think I could finally be crushing the cover to cover in a week challenge. If you haven't read This is Where I Leave You, you should.  

TV: In the interest of transparency...I don't just read and write and exercise, and as much as I’d like to present as that virtuous, I can’t lie to you, even by omission.  If you have not seen the Amazon TV show Red Oaks, I highly recommend it.  Obviously the tennis montages have a new-found appeal for me, but the rest of it was really good too. 

Roadtrips!  There’s a lot to do around NZ, even within an hour or two of Christchurch.  I’m trying to think of a good way to tell you about the things we have done, there will be more posts to highlight what we’ve done so far. 

We hang out with friends, host guests, and sometimes try to make new friends. More on that in other posts as well. 

Here’s another thing we did, which was attend an interactive improv-y game show at the Busker Festival...yes, I am realizing as I get ready to hit “publish” that it sorta seems like Jason and I are into a whole new realm of adult entertainment. 😱. We’re really not, not that there's anything wrong with it.  I just thought you might appreciate this picture of Jason:

Next up in the blog: more FAQs.  Political! Personal! Practical!  See you soon. 

PS: I don’t just cook with cheese...and these are my tomatoes:

[blockheadbrands]

Dear Danko: Expert Grow Advice

Danny Danko of High Times Reports:

High Times’ cultivation specialist Danny Danko answers all your burning questions about being the best grower you can be. But first, some quick tips from the expert himself:

Remove male plants from your garden before they’re able to open up their flowers and release pollen.

Plants continue to stretch for several weeks after flowering is induced, so factor in extra vertical space.

Keep hot ballasts out of your growing space to reduce heat buildup.

Subject: Falling Branches From: Doctor Octopot

I have what some might call a high-class problem. I grow my plants in 5-gallon buckets and vegetate them out for 6 weeks before I start flowering. By the time I’m ready to harvest, the plants are over 4 feet tall with multiple branches. The only problem is that many of the branches sag and droop from the weight of the buds. What is the best way to keep them closer to the lights?

Dear Doctor,

The easiest way to ensure your colas stay upright is to use a simple trellis system. I prefer this to using individual stakes because it’s less work and more forgiving. Use strong string or rope to create an interlocking mat the size of your canopy with holes between the ropes approximately 6 inches by 6 inches. Safely secure it above your plants during the vegetative stage and let the branches grow up into it, taking care to guide branches into unpopulated holes. Eventually, this trellis system will keep all of your branches pointing upward toward your lights, and you won’t have to worry about sagging colas that don’t receive enough lumens to reach their full potential.

Bud rot quickly reduces cannabis flowers to garbage/ Danny Danko

Subject: Bud Rot From: Sticky

I’ve been growing outdoors successfully for several years, but I’ve recently run into a serious problem. After an unusually wet late summer/early fall, my flowers seem to be developing some sort of mold. Parts of the colas suddenly start to appear brown, and then the brown part seems to spread throughout the buds very quickly. I’ve been cutting out the effected parts, but now I’m losing close to half of my harvest to this plague. Is there anything I can do to try to prevent this in the future, and also, is it safe to smoke the unaffected buds?

Dear Sticky,

Bud rot is a serious issue and certainly not one to take lightly. There are a few things you can do to mitigate or avoid the problem. One is to grow in a greenhouse or hoop house so that rainwater can’t accumulate within your colas. Shake off any branches that have visible wetness on them as well, even within the enclosures, because high humidity can cause liquid to build up and this is where mold thrives. If you insist on growing outdoors, cover the plants temporarily before any rainstorms and in the mornings when dew can accumulate.

You’re right to cut out any moldy or rotten parts you can see in order to keep it from spreading, but the fungus that causes rot isn’t always visible, and it can spread even after you’ve seemingly removed the affected pieces.

As for smoking moldy buds, I would never recommend it, particularly for people using medical marijuana due to compromised immune systems. Airborne fungus particles that settle in your lungs aren’t part of a safe smoking experience. Like I mentioned before, the buds don’t have to be visibly affected by bud rot to still have spores on them, so you are smoking them at your own risk.

Subject: Snail’s Pace From: A.rod

I’m only a grower for personal medical use, but my problem is that since it’s been raining like crazy where I live, all these damn snails and roly-polies are eating my plants alive! What’s the best solution?

Dear A.rod,

Snails can be a serious problem, especially for young plants. Signs of their damage are the mucous trails they leave behind and holes in leaves of plants. It’s a good idea to spread some diatomaceous earth around the plants to discourage snails and slugs.

One of the best ways to keep them from harming your plants is to maintain a dry top layer of soil by watering from below, but it doesn’t sound like that’s possible in your growing situation. Another great and safe remedy is to sink a cup of beer into your soil, leaving the rim of the cup at the soil level. Slugs can’t resist the yeasty concoction and will drop right into the cup and drown.

I try not to recommend slug- and snail-killing products such as Deadline (Sluggo is the safer alternative if you have pets), but I would be remiss not to mention them as a nuclear option. Spray a thin line of it about a foot or so in diameter around the base of your young shoots in the evening and then every 3 to 4 weeks after that.

Roly-polies (also known as pill bugs or potato bugs—scientific name: Armadillidium vulgare) mostly eat dead and decaying plant material, but they’ve been known to eat the roots and stems of living plants as well, albeit rarely. They prefer damp areas but are fairly harmless to your plants.

Take clones from plants in their vegetative stage/ Dope Foto courtesy of Remedy

Subject: Flowering Clones From: Big D Papa

I have a question about some clones I got from a friend when they were all about 6-12 inches tall and already budding. I don’t know how this happened because they were outside, but I want to know if this is going to affect the overall yield. Should I toss them and start over, or is there hope for them to survive and then thrive later down the road?

Dear BDP,

I’ve seen this problem arise plenty of times. People forget to clone their plants during the vegetative stage and then think they can get away with cloning them when they are flowering. The problem is that the flowering clones must then revert back into the vegetative stage, and this process takes time and can also result in shocking plants into strange behaviors.

I strongly suggest taking clones only from vegetating plants. This way, you won’t have to re-veg the plants and you’ll avoid issues such as the plants turning into hermaphrodites or mutating in other ways due to stress. Sometimes, leaves will come out twisted or with only one or two blades. All of this means that you’ll be wasting time instead of strengthening the plants for their eventual flowering stage.

The reason this happened outside is likely because the plants weren’t receiving more than 12 hours of light per day. If you supplement their light regimen to 18 hours or so per day, you will avoid having them prematurely flower until you want them to do so.

Subject: Side Lighting From: Panacea420

l have a question about something I’ve been struggling with: What would be a better option, supplementing my closet grow with some side lighting or removing the lower branches from my plants? I’m not a big fan of removing anything other than suckers and big fan leaves that suppress light penetration. I would like to add LED bars on every side to give the lower branches more light. What are your thoughts?

Dear Panacea420,

I highly recommend adding side lighting over removing lower branches. This will increase your yield significantly at a fairly low cost with minimal heat added. If you choose not to add side lighting, then removing some of the lower branches will send more energy into the upper branches, but lighting the lower ones is a better option in my opinion.

Subject: Compost Builder From: Aleks K.

I’m very interested in making my own compost and finding a good natural fertilizer for my first grow. I want to be as natural as possible, and I’m hoping that my plants might benefit from calcium produced from eggshells, potassium from bananas, etc. Am I on the right track? Should I try this?

Dear Aleks,

Composting is a great way to reuse kitchen scraps and yard waste while also providing mild nutrients to your plants. You can purchase a composting bin or make your own compost pile very easily. The important thing to remember is the proper ratio of carbon to nitrogen (or browns to greens) for the composting process to occur. Most organic gardeners recommend about 30 to 1 (not by volume, but by chemical composition) of carbon to nitrogen to get the pile to heat up and decay properly.

Examples of carbons (or browns) are dead leaves, straw or hay, while nitrogens (or greens) consist of grass clippings, food scraps (excluding meat and oily scraps), coffee grounds and seaweed (rinsed of salt). Build your pile starting with a base of carbons and then add nitrogens in between layers of more carbons.

Once built, your pile should start heating up, and you’ll be amazed at the microbial activity and may even see steam rising up from your pile. Turn it every couple of days or so with a pitchfork to mix and you’ll see finished compost in a few months depending on how active your pile gets.

You can then use the cured compost as a mulch on top of your existing soil around the base of your plants, or you can brew it into compost tea using a simple 5-gallon bucket. Place the compost inside a bag that will allow water to permeate into it without letting the compost out. Pantyhose or a burlap sack work nicely. Oxygenate your solution for 24 hours to activate and accelerate the growth of microbes, and then pour the tea directly onto your plants or use it as a foliar feed.

Send your cannabis-cultivation questions to [email protected].

Originally published in the June, 2019 issue of High Times magazine. Subscribe right here.

TO READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE ON HIGH TIMES, CLICK HERE.

https://hightimes.com/grow/dear-danko-expert-grow-advice-2/