#from my father in this year of etc 2021 i cannot begin to tell you what it means

[gunterfan1992]

Episode Review: ‘Together Again’ (Distant Lands, Ep. 3)

Airdate: May 20, 2021

Story by: Jack Pendarvis, Kate Tsang, Hanna K. Nyström, Christina Catucci, Jesse Moynihan, Adam Muto

Storyboarded by: Hanna K. Nyström, Anna Syvertsson, Iggy Craig, Maya Petersen, Serena Wu

Directed by: Miki Brewster (supervising), Sandra Lee (art)

Across Adventure Time’s ten season run, the show explored a bevy of “mature” themes and story ideas—topics, like love, sexuality, depression, and grieving. The show also touched upon death, but the emphasis was usually placed on the emotional toll of a loved one dying, not really what happens when you die. We knew there were Dead Worlds and Death. We knew that there was reincarnation. But how does it all fit together? What does it mean? How does it work?

With “Together Again,” we finally have many of the answers.

This special opens with a marvelous fake-out episode simply called “Finn & Jake,” that sees the two steal a magical cartoon of 50-flavor ice cream before rescuing Turtle Princess and LSP from the clutches of the villainous Ice King. This is all deliberately anachronistic and over the top. Ice King is back to his season one ways, Finn has both arms, and he is still wielding his golden sword that he lost in season two’s “The Real You.” There’s lolrandom dialogue and silly monsters; it’s like a parody of seasons 1-2. But then, this adventure starts to get all wonky, and in time Finn realizes that he is in a some sort of trance or illusion: one that ends with Jake being buried in the ground. Suddenly, Finn awakens from his reverie. He’s an old man. And he’s dead. We’re then presented with a new title card that lets us know the episode is actually called “Finn & Jake Are Dead.”

Holy Glob! They actually went there.

Turns out Jake died years before Finn, so naturally Finn is super excited to see his best bud. But something’s wrong—he cannot find Jake!! They planned to spend eternity together. But all that Finn can find is his very own psychopomp, Mr. Fox (voiced by Tom Herpich, whose purposefully stilted line readings are the epitome of delightful). Finn rightfully assumes that Jake is in a different Dead World, and so, being the ball of spunk and energy that he is, he demands to meet with Death, only to discover that there’s a New Death in town (voiced by Chris Fleming). The episode eventually explains that New Death was the son of Death and Life, and after New Death killed his father, he became the sovereign of the afterlife. New Death hates his job and decides to just blow up all the Dead Worlds so he doesn’t have to deal with it all. (I won’t get too much into the details here, because there would be a lot of story to parse out.)

Finn soon learns that Jake has reached nirvana in the 50th Dead World, where there is nothing but peace and serenity. Finn nevertheless tracks down Jake, pulls him from paradise, but in doing so, accidentally lets New Death in, who promptly obliterates Elysium, sending all the enlightened souls—including those from different levels of the afterlife—to the 1st Dead World. This gronks up the afterlife, temporarily halting the reincarnation process.

Well, Finn and Jake are rightfully ticked, and so they haunt the material plane looking for Princess Bubblegum. She’s not home (more on that later), but Peppermint Butler is! After Ghost Finn and Ghost Jake explain the situation, Peppermint Butler tells them what to do: They need to find Life and explain the situation. The duo manage just that, and Life is rightfully angry that her kid has stopped the transmigration of souls. After Life gives Finn a McGuffin sword that can hurt Death, Finn and Jake return to his abode. A brawl ensues wherein we learn that New Death has been possessed… by none other than that spirit of the Lich.

That’s right, it’s the Lich! He’s back, and boy is he evil.

The Lich explains that by possessing Death, he can destroy the afterlife, thereby destroying a key aspect of reality. Naturally, Finn and Jake are not cool with this, and they engage in combat. After Mr. Fox grabs the McGuffin sword and uses it to annihilate the Lich and New Death, he is proclaimed the New New Death and sets everything right. Finn is slated to be reincarnated, and Jake is slated to return to the 50th Dead World where he and Finn will one day be reunited. As Finn is pulled into the wheel of souls, Jake suddenly decides to go back with Finn, too, “Just for fun.” The episode ends with a card letting us know that the episode is neither called “Finn & Jake” nor “Finn & Jake Are Dead.” Instead, it is “Finn and Jake Are Together Again.”

As they say, “And there wasn’t a dry eye in the place.”

If you were to tell me several years ago that the last episode to star Finn and Jake would revolve around them dying, I think I would’ve been upset. Not simply sad, but rather frustrated because “they all died” can feel like a cheap ending. But with “Together Again,” it all works. And a large reason that it works is because the show goes all in with their ideas. Finn and Jake don’t magically leap back into their old life (no, no, they very much do bite the dust). Instead, the special emphasizes the cyclical nature of life through the transmigration of souls. The episode ends with a beautiful scene of Finn and Jake, bound together as soul-brothers, being reborn into a new, mysterious (possibly Ooo 1000+?) world. It’s both aesthetically and emotionally pleasing; it doesn’t feel off the way over finales might. This is right. This is the way life works. “Round and round as nature goes,” and all that jazz.

I loved the series explanation of how death works. It seems that souls land in a specific Dead World, where they ‘marinate’ for a bit, presumably being rewarded or punished based on their life in our meat reality. After a time, they are then reborn. This process repeats, with each soul reaching higher and higher levels of enlightenment until they hit nirvana, which is the 50th Dead World. So in a sense, Adventure Time has a roughly Buddhist cosmology with a dash of Greco-Roman mythos thrown in for flavor. (As to what happens after a soul stays in the 50th Dead World for a long period is anyone’s guess, but I’d speculate that when all the souls in the multiverse have been purified and land in the 50th Dead World, they will all collapse into one another and form one perfect Monad. Perhaps this is the sphere of perfection that the beings who merged into Matthew thought they were connecting to? Who knows! It’s anyone’s guess!) I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see who Death, Prismo, Life, etc.’s boss was, but perhaps that’s a mystery better left up to the imagination!

One minor thing that I loved about this special was the number of characters who made cameos as well as all the callbacks that were made to previous episodes. Regarding the former: Finn and Jake’s canine family show up (including the oft-forgotten Jermaine!), as do Tree Trunks and her myriad husbands. Tiffany plays a major role in all these shenanigans as a “death cop” of all things. There is a delightful rogues gallery stuck in the 1st Dead World (including, among others, Maja, Sharon from “The Gut Grinder,” and Wyatt). In the 50th we find Ghost Princess and Clarence happily at peace next to Booshy, the weird spirit mentioned in the Pen Ward classic “High Strangeness.” As far as callbacks go, perhaps my favorite is the clap (from “James Baxter the Horse”) that Jake taught to Finn in case they ever do get separated in the afterlife. And of course, there are myriad references made to “Death in Bloom,” the episode that planted the seed for what this would grow into.

Going into the special suspecting that it would involve Death, I was curious how they were going to handle Miguel Ferrer’s character. (In case a reader is not aware, Ferrer played Death in episodes like “Death in Bloom” and “Betty,” but he sadly passed away a few years ago). The producers’ choice to feature him in a non-speaking cameo—despite playing a relatively significant role in the story—was wise; I’m not sure if I can articulate the exact reasons, but something about his role felt appropriate and not gross, as some post-mortem memorials can be. Speaking of which, the wonderful, lovely Polly Lou Livingston was featured for the last time in this episode as Tree Trunks, happily in heaven with her literal harem of husbands. It was funny, it really was, and I’m sure that Polly Lou would’ve gotten a kick out of seeing it on screen. (Also, this is a pro-Tree Trunks safe space. Any Tree Trunks haters will be chucked into the 1st Dead World with Wyatt.)

The biggest mystery in this whole thing, for me at least, is the question of Princess Bubblegum and Marceline. Several years ago, I wrote an essay about what could’ve happened to them in the Ooo 1000+ universe. I speculated that they peaced out and left Ooo behind. In this special, neither Bubblegum nor Marceline are to be found in the Candy Kingdom—Peppermint Butler seems to be the one in charge, given that he is now wearing Bubblegum’s crown. Likewise, the duo aren’t anywhere in the Dead Worlds either. Maybe the two of them skipped town and got a duplex in the Nightosphere? Who knows… I just want my favorite gals to be OK!

All things considered, “Together Again” was a marvel: An episode that managed to feel like a series finale even more than “Come Along with Me” already did without taking away from the series itself. An episode that managed to make the idea of dying funny. An episode that brought back the Lich in a way that wasn’t forced. An episode that made Mr. Fox the New New Death. An episode that gave us a beautiful ending to Finn and Jake’s story… as well as the beautiful beginning to a new one. I said it on Twitter, and I’ll say it again here: “Together Again” was the end of a sentence in a book with infinite pages. Truly, the fun will never end.

Mushroom War evidence: Everything takes place in the Dead Worlds, so not really. Perhaps a more eagle-eyed viewer can inform us...

Final Grade: That’s right, I’m gonna do it...

Post-script, I actually messaged Jesse Moynihan to ask about his writing credit. He told me that it was for an unused story idea that he had developed. I’m not certain, but I’ll bet it was a part of the cancelled TV movie they were trying to make during season 5, since that would’ve seen Finn and Orgalorg journey to the various Dead Worlds.

#adventure time #adventuretime #atimers #at #atdl #distant lands #adventure time distant lands #finn the human #jake the dog #together again #togetheragain #dead worlds #hanna k. nyström #Hanna K #adam muto #jack pendarvis

[belovvved]

!!Emergency!! Unsafe Housing Situation/No Transportation!!!!Help a Non-Binary Artist achieve relative comfort!!!

I wish that none of this was real, and that I don't need help. I don't even know where to begin. But I'm trying to open up, I can't keep trying to do everything alone.

PLEASE BOOST... if you cannot donate or help me find resources in my city (San Antonio, Texas)

CASHAPP: $citrinebat ZELLE: [email protected]

Any advice or resources will be much appreciated.

I grew up never speaking out because I would always get silenced, my parents are good at manipulating others to believe that they are decent people. I am not welcomed or safe at home.

Basically, I was born to two teenage parents that weren't ready to have children or mature enough to be with each other.

I grew up seeing my mom get abused by my dad verbally, physically, and emotionally. I would always stick up for her, and so the relationship between my father and I has never existed... In fact he hates me for being outspoken, and protective. My mother takes out her stress and abuse on me too. She's tried drowning me when I was 8 and I found out later from my aunt. My mother has Stockholm syndrome, she even went so far as to take a felony for him and has not had a job in years.

It has been my whole life, and I'm the oldest out of 5 including myself. Many times I've tried helping my mom, only to have her hurt me again in some sort of way- by going back to my dad, borrowing money, gambling, drinking etc. She never admits her faults, and plays victim which is something I am not trying to do.

I still cannot believe that this is what has become of the family I romanticized. I've discovered that my parents, and brother are severely mentally ill- my parents take prescription pills that aren't theirs... some of which I do not know completely. My brother has become psychotic and has black-out rages where he hurts someone in the family or breaks things around the house.

In the past I always had to lean on other relatives (now passed) for support or past partners- (which I do not want to do anymore).

I left as soon as I graduated from school in 2018 (Summa Cum Laude). I wanted to pursue going to art school or architecture. But I couldn't due to the fact that my dad sold drugs and his taxes weren't accepted in FASFA. I had to wait until I turn 21 to file independently but even when this came around (Oct.2020) I wasn't prepared in anyway possible to pursue higher education.

-Things in the past were manageable, because I had my Grandma who supported me in everyway possible while she worked two jobs. She took me and my 4 siblings to and from school. While my parents stayed at home sleeping. She did everything she could for us, and then in 2019 she was diagnosed with cancer and died within 3 weeks, inside of the home I am currently living in.

She bought me a car before right before she died- which my mom used whenever she wanted to in order to escape from my dad momentarily. It had 56k miles at first and I never got to drive it until 100k+ miles. By the time I got it back, my mom cracked the windshield and stained the interior. It got repoed after 3 months of me using it because my grandfather left the country in 2020 to pursue his new wife (in her 20's) and his new family. He stopped paying on the car without telling me, and didn't transfer the title to me, so I had no way of preventing anything.

My only source of transportation was taken from me in March 2021. So I lost my job, my car... and I need help because I have to start all over.

I currently live at my Grandma's house where she passed away inside of the living room. The a/c has been broken since last summer (2020) and there is no heat or hot water and I just endured that during the Texas Winter Storm.

Whenever my Grandfather returns from out of the country I will have to find a place to stay but that means making 2-3x the rent and having a job for at least six months. I cannot return home because my brother is a reflection of my abusive father and I DO NOT FEEL SAFE being around him.

My brother has broken a window on me, physically has hurt me more than once. My dad calls me a whore + so many other worse things. My mom borrows money from me and gambles, and drinks. Just uses me to babysit and has made me quit my art internships in Highschool to babysit while she goes out with friends at the bar

I have been trying to sell art, and nudes in order to get a car... so that way I can try having a job. I have facial piercings and tattoos on my hands so everything is difficult.

The only thing I am at fault for is my way of coping. It's hard to foresee a future for yourself when you're living with trauma...

I didn't want to believe that my parent's don't care but after losing my job and car in March 2021, my mom has not since checked up on me or asked if I was okay. In fact has asked me to borrow money, (she usually doesn't pay back) My dad fixes A/C for a living, and has not fixed the A/C for me since last year.

My mental health is starting to take a toll on me lately and I don't want to end up in the Psych ward again..... Luckily I have a few really amazing, supportive, loving friends. But everyone has their own lives and I can't depend on anyone. I wish I could be the person helping them.

I don't want to take from others who cannot give. I want to be able to have transportation, pursue school, and also feel comfortable and safe where I am living. Past partners know where I stay, and so does my abusive brother and I live in fear of them coming over uninvited.

Please help me get to a place where I can truly grow, and flourish. Please help me feel unashamed about speaking up and asking for help. My dreams are to start a nonprofit for domestic violence victims, foster animals, and start or be apart of a printing press for creatives.

I sell art and make music in my freetime. I lost my only support system a little over a year ago and since then it has been super difficult trying to do things on my own, and I'm tired of depending on sexual partners for help (+ experiencing rape/sexual trauma), as a NONBINARY person being perceived as anything less than a soul is painful.

You can support me by commissioning or purchasing art here. Or donating anything will help- everything goes to my phone bill, food. I am on my last $500. I am really worried because lyfts and ubers add up, and I am uncertain of when I can find a job that will hire me due to my self expression.

Thank you for reading.

#help #emergency #gofundme #donate #signal boost #mutual aid #boost #narcissist #childhood abuse #abuse #trauma #ptsd #recovery #narcissim #toxic mom #toxic dad #toxic household #toxic family #nonbinary

[lizacstuff]

SCK/EDSER asks

My inbox was full again, so questions under the cut. Some of these are from today and some are from earlier. 

(asks under the read more)

Anonymous said: Random things that amuse me: 1. When they met, Serkan didn’t seem all that mad that Eda keyed his car but was way more angered by her disdain for him. 2. I always forget about Eda’s ex because I think Eda forgot about him too. Cenk cheated on her and brought his new gf to break up with her, and Eda was more peeved that he implied Serkan was out of her league. (1/2)

The only time he’s brought up again is when Eda pretends to be texting him instead of Serkan (because Ayfer would be madder at her talking to Serkan lol). 3. Whenever Melo is supposed to be mad at Serkan in solidarity with Eda, she just cannot bring herself to dislike him. (2/2)

I LOVE THIS ASK! 

1. I have always wondered about that. Even current, softer Serkan would get PISSED at someone keying his car. He keeps all of his things pristine. You know under normal circumstances he would be infuriated by that and not let it go. The car would have had to go to the body shop and everything.  I think the fact that he didn’t seem all that bothered, other than threatening to call the police of course, is that he was just so gobsmacked by this insanely beautiful, but also beautifully insane, lady yelling at him and handcuffing him that he couldn’t think straight. The fact that she had seriously vandalized his car became inconsequential. 

Additionally, I think when he found out ArtLife had cancelled her scholarship, he became embarrassed and didn’t want to make any more of an issue about it. 

2. I forget about him too. What a tool he was. It also seems a bit out of character for Eda now.  All of her friends and her aunt knew that he was ghosting her, and they made it clear they thought it by their reactions, but Eda didn’t get it? Eda was ready to marry a dude she hadn’t seen for a year? That does not sound like the Eda we know. Independent, fiery Eda? It’s true that she’s grown a lot, but that much? It seems like they designed that relationship to put Eda in the right frame of mind to kiss Serkan on the podium and then, thankfully, forgot about it. 

3. Yes, Melo is all of us. In the early episodes especially, Serkan could be a real jerk, but I know I never held it against him for long, just like Melo.  None of us can resist him, I’m sure we were all cheering her on when she was the one to give up Eda’s Saturday morning location.  And I love it when she calls him enişte. It’s also sweet that he’s fond of her as well. 

Anonymous said: What are your thoughts about Engin and Piril? Sometimes I think they are cute and sometime I just don't think they are meant for each other. I hope Piril's father brings a new story and dynamic that will help us see whether they work as a couple or not.

My thoughts are pretty much the same as yours. In the beginning I really thought they were pretty flat and wasn’t really rooting for them.  Partly because I loved Engin’s character and I was pretty “eh” on Piril. She was so laser focused on work that I didn’t like when she would try and guilt Serkan because he was spending time with Eda. I found that annoying and I thought Engin could have a more interesting relationship (like Melo!).

Alas, that wasn’t to be, however I surprised myself by actually cheering when he proposed, and I really liked their heart to heart talk in the NY episode. On the other hand I wasn’t really charmed by their disconnect when it came to entertaining people. They were SO FAR apart.  Piril was so uptight and Engin so lacksodasical, I think they’ll end up driving each other bonkers and it’s hard to see how that will work, and I’m not sure it’s something I want to watch all that much of. 

Same as you, I’m hope that Piril’s father turns out to be interesting. What’s going on there? Will we find out this episode?

Also, honestly, I’m still pressed they didn’t call Serkan to come to the wedding. (But I assume that had more to do with how quickly they shoot and needing to have scenes without Hande and Kerem in them. H/K were in tons of scenes that episode so it was probably tight with scheduling and they were doing A and B units etc.) 

Anonymous said:  Hi Liza, I hope you are well and you and your loved ones are staying safe. SCK really helped make 2020 better and I'm glad we have the show in 2021 too! Sometimes the letter count in these asks really get to me because I feel like I have so much more to say and ask but oh well. In this ask i just want to say I hope Seyfi and Melo both get their very own happily ever afters. They're my favs and totally deserve it. Leyla too! That actress is so pretty, I wish we got to see her dress up more!

Hello! I’m well, thank you for asking.  I’m not even joking when I saw that SCK was a highlight of 2020 for me. I’m so appreciative for the happy and joyous distraction it’s been over the last few months. 

I LOVE MELO AND SEYFI.  They are two of my favorite supporting characters, and two of the only ones that have stayed at the top since the beginning. Now Aydan is up there with them, but she wasn’t in the beginning, lol! 

Those two deserve all good things. Leyla is also a great character and I wonder what her feelings are towards Erdem. Does she really like him?  

Anyway, I’m not sure what they might be planning for any of them, but I can tell you I’m more interested in how they might end up, than I am with Ceren, Ferit, Fifi, or Piril.  

Anonymous said: This ask may not be worth answering but I've always wondered about Eda's family on her mom's side. I don't think they've ever mentioned it on the show and if they have I may have missed it but it's interesting. It's most likely that her grandparents died and her mom didn't have any siblings but it would be really cool if she did have a family member who understood her and supported her and Serkan unlike Ayfer.

It would be interesting to know, you’d think she would have some relatives on her mom’s side.  We’ll have to see if the show ever mentions it.

Anonymous said: Ok it may be the overthinker in me but unlike everyone else I'm actually worried seeing Serkan wear his engagement ring. If he and Eda reconciled and he knows the truth about her grandma threatening her, wouldn't their game plan be keeping their relationship a secret and not flaunting his ring. But then that's what the fans want, and maybe the writers have a different idea. I'm freaking out with worry that maybe Serkan and Bulca got engaged! But then it looks like his original ring! let's see!

Anonymous said: I'm the one who feared the engagement ring in a previous ask. Well today's pics/videos that show Serkan, Aydan and Seyfi at Eda's home with flowers seem like they are asking for her hand in marriage. It's an assumption but I feel much better. Lol!

See, this is why I always say not to borrow trouble by worrying about the disaster scenario.  Why would he ask Balca to marry him the day after he sexed up Eda? Even if they were hiding it and using Balca for subterfuge, why would they need to go all the way to engaged to do that? 

I’m glad you’re feeling better. I agree that the video posted today with them all at Eda’s house with the flower and the chocolate looks very much like they’re doing the traditional asking for her hand for serious this time! 

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Can’t wait to see them with their rings back on, we’ve been waiting so long. 

Also, I have no idea why they are able to get away with this... maybe Eda found something while investigating that neutralized Babaanne?  At least for the moment? 

Anonymous said: Sometimes I hate being the audience, we know things that the characters don't and I want to yell at my tablet screen. I don't though because I don't want to confirm my parents thoughts that I am crazy, lol! Anyway I wanted to say that I appreciate you and the SCK community because none of my friends watch the show and I'm glad I have people to discuss this with, otherwise I'd actually go crazy. Edser & Hanker & the cast and crew make me happy! They're just amazing and I'm thankful for them!

Me too!  I appreciate the cast and crew AND I appreciate the fandom. There are some very lovely people here, and I’m thrilled that I have you all to discuss the show and ship with because none of my friends or family in real life watch either.  I’ve told many people about it, and sometimes I will drop words or phrases in Turkish that I’ve picked up watching and all they do is roll their eyes at me.  (I enjoy that) 

Also... talk back to that screen, I do. It’s fun. LOL. 

Anonymous said: Thoughts on the fan theory that Eda & Serkan are actually already working together to bring her grandma down? Not sure that I really saw any clues throughout the episode that a scene of the two of them talking together was cut out but guess we could always get flashbacks to show it. I think for me that might make a little sense because how does Serkan not suspect that Grandma flat out made Eda breakup with him? He knows she wants them kept apart, he got arrested and then magically released which coincided with Eda staying away from him, entry of a prince interested in Eda and Eda being chummy with her Grandma 🧐. Or maybe he does suspect all of that but finally understands the risk that she poses to all of them so he agreed to end things? Very interested to see how the show gets us from that heartbreaking breakup to Serkan & Eda being jealous at the restaurant.

My apologies, I know this ask was sent before some of the recent spoilers including the second promo with the... uh... explosion. (sex) So at this point I do not think they are working together, the break up appears to be real. So it will be interesting how the first 2 hours of this episode plays out. I assume the sex will be in the last 15 minutes. 

It looks like Serkan’s tact is to pretend he’s over her and moving on and let that drive her crazy. So I’d say that in order to do that, he has a pretty good idea why Eda broke up with him and knows it’s because of Babaanne and threats against him.

Anonymous said: Can I just say - I really dislike Ayfer. And I just realized that she has had like no growth at all in these 25 episodes. I guess she has an instagram business now? There is such a huge contrast between how they've developed her and Aydan, not only in how they view EdSer's relationship but on their own as well. Aydan is a new woman while Ayfer is still just a hater and a negative nancy about everything. You'd think they'd give her a better storyline with her mother in town but I don't see it

Since you sent this I’ve answered another ask about Ayfer here.  I very much agree with you.  She reacts negatively to everything, I’m not sure why the girls like to hang out with her so much, they have to hide everything and she is like a damp rag covering any bit of excitement. 

On rewatching some of the early episodes, I have noticed that she was negative  from the beginning.  She was even annoying in her first second on screen, when she was waking Eda up to go help with the soil delivery. I hate that shrill voice she uses to say Günaydın over and over again. 

You’re so right that she hasn’t had much if any growth.  Neither she nor Aydan were excited by the Eda/Serkan pairing from the beginning. Aydan was more vocal, but Ayfer was just as disapproving.  And frankly, even though between the two of them, Aydan might have seemed like the more formidable foe to the relationship, Ayfer actually always had more power.  Just because Serkan Bolat is going to do whatever he wants to do and he’s not going to be swayed by his mother’s disapproval, but as we’ve seen in episode 21 Eda is more susceptible to her aunt’s guilt and disapproval. Remember when she asked Eda if she could trust Serkan’s positive assessment of her work because he might lie if he has feelings for her!?! GRRRRRRRRR. 

The other big difference is that once Aydan saw how absolutely heartbroken Serkan was, she completely changed her tune and became supportive of the relationship. Her son’s happiness mattered to her. While Ayfer sat there last week and watched her heartbroken niece and reacted with glee.  Eda’s happiness is apparently not important to Ayfer.  

If indeed the Bolat’s have come to woo Eda, it will be interesting to see how Ayfer reacts.  Will she come around on her own or will Eda have to give her an ultimatum. I wouldn’t mind that, actually.  Give Ayfer a reality check on the way she’s been behaving, just as controlling as her mother. 

Anonymous said:bHey Liza! Thanks for your thoughts on ep25, was looking forward to them today cause you're always rational and I pretty much agree with all you've said lol. The number of ppl mad at Eda/saying her character is ruined is wild, did they watch the same episode?? Eda HAD to end things because of the shit her grandma was pulling, like it wasn't small things she has serious connections, obviously Eda isn't gonna endanger serkan!! I really hope the people being irrational read your answers lol. The only thing that's bothering me about the episodes is that this is supposed to be a romantic comedy and I'm missing that (gotta be honest I fast forwarded thru the Alex ayfer aydan stuff lol) but hoping for some funny Edser stuff at least lol. Also THE PRINCE REALLY DO BE CRAZY lmao

This was also sent before some of the recent schedules. It looks to me like we’re are in for a bit of romance the next few episodes. 

I’M SO EXCITED!!

Anonymous said: the prince is very specifically credited as a guest actor, so i think that maybe he'll only be here for 1 or 2 more episodes max. which makes me think that this arc at least with him directly involved won't last very long. i'm excited about the bombshell to be dropped though because as of right now neither eda or serkan know exactly what babaanne's plan for him is in regards to eda.. and not to mention his other creepy motives that have to do with his dead wife.

I haven’t seen him mentioned in any BTS stuff for 27... maybe he makes his exit is 26? We shall see. 

Anonymous said:  while i understand where serkan was coming from in his decision to not tell eda the truth, it was coming from a purely selfish reason (even he says that) eda's decision is bc of a very real 3rd party threat that would have consequences for serkan's family, business, and his wellbeing. and eda has no time to prepare a plan or anything of the sort; she's basically backed into a corner. i really wonder why serkan is granted so much more understanding in the fandom than eda's character..

I don’t agree that Serkan was coming from a “purely selfish place.”  I don’t remember Serkan saying that and if he did, I’m sure it’s because he’s attributing all his motives to the one he’s most ashamed of feeling.  Because while there was something selfish in not wanting her to know the truth and not wanting her to think of her dead parents when she looked at him, I think it’s clear he was also trying to protect her from those thoughts. He was trying to protect her from the heartbreak of dredging up their deaths, protecting her from having to make the decision to leave him. It was a lot more complicated then just him being “purely selfish.” Remember he inflicted the greatest heartbreak on himself, you don’t do that for purely selfish reasons. 

It would be nice if anytime something went wrong, there wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction to vilify one or the other characters. 

#sen cal kapimi #edser #Sen Çal Kapımı #sckask #SCK discussion #asklizac #edser discussion #anonymous

[lifeofroos]

Part 30: Good news guys! This fic got nominated for the Solangelo fic awards 2021! I have no idea which one of you it was, but… thank you so, so much. Of course I would appreciate it if you voted for this fic. You can vote not for just mine, but for many more lovely fics on @solange-lol. 

In short: Nico gets therapy from Dionysus. In this chapter, Persephone asks for a talk. The other chapters can be found on FanFiction.net, AO3 and in Tumblr tags like Nico Di Angelo, Trials of Apollo, Dionysus etc. 

This Might Be Crazy: Chapter 30: Persephone’s Spring Peach Juice

‘Oh, ma’am, good morning…’

‘Yes, good morning, Nico.’ Persephone gave me the side eye, while she kept walking. 

‘Eh…’

‘Hades is in the study.’ My father has a study?

‘Okay. Thank you.’ I turned to the direction opposite to hers, hoping my fathers’ aforementioned study was that way. 

‘Dad?’

‘Nico!’ 

‘Hey, hello.’ He looked happy for a few moments, before a nervous shadow fell over his face. ‘What is it?’

‘Do I… do I have to hug you now?’

I tried not to laugh (And failed). ‘No, dad. That was just… Dionysus was just as confused as you are, I think.’ 

‘Hm.’ He shrugged, but at the same time he looked relieved. ‘Oh, eh, Persephone’s here.’

‘Yes, I know, I already saw her.’ I leaned against the doorframe. ‘Why… why aren’t you with her? Or something? After, you know, six months of...’ 

‘Well, eh… I wanted to give you the chance to talk to her.’ You what? ‘Because then… you have some time to talk with each other?’ 

The man meant it so well. ‘Eh… okay, I’ll… I’ll see, and I’ll see you in…  a few hours then?’

‘Yes, sure.’ He turned back to whatever it was that he was doing. I spun around and walked back into the hallway. 

No way in hell was I going to… 

‘Nico?’ 

I immediately turned around one-eighty degrees. Persephone was standing behind me in the hallway. ‘Can you come with me? I promise I won’t change you into a dandelion. Or something like that.’ 

People can promise a lot without meaning it, but I decided to go along with her.

 She led me to a salon, from which we could see her bedazzled garden. The shine of the prunes hurt my eyes. 

Persephone sat down in a chair that looked more like a throne. I decided to sit on a small couch next to the hearth. 

She slowly ran a hand through her hair. ‘My husband told me that you have been seeing a therapist.’ 

Did he also tell you who that therapist was? ‘Yes, that is correct, ma’am.’

She slowly pursed her lips. ‘Did you talk about me?’ 

‘Not a lot. But eh… I did mention the dandelion incident.’

‘Well… sure.’ 

‘And… eh…’ I looked at the ground. It was true that I had not said a lot about Persephone. But what I had said had not been very nice. 

I heard Persephone sigh. ‘According to my husband, you are often the one who has something to say. But today I want to give you my two cents.’ She straightened her back. 

‘Eh… okay.’ Although I am not always the person who knows just what to say. That is just the impression my dad has of the therapy sessions. 

‘Hm. Today you obviously don’t.’ Spot on. She shook her hair back. ‘From what Hades said, I understood that you came to the Underworld quite often in the past year.’

I waited until she continued, but then I realised that she wanted me to answer. ‘Eh, yes.’ 

‘And I have also understood that that is not going to stop during the autumn and winter months. That means the three of us, and Zeus knows whoever else joins, will have to get along.’ 

Ma’am, I don’t think Zeus knows… anything really. I didn’t say that out loud. Instead I just nodded. ‘Yes.’

‘Now I am going to be upfront: I don’t really like you. Not because of who you are, you’re pretty fine. But I… Although I can live with it, I don’t really like my husbands’ affairs. I mean, I get it. I fall in love with a handsome mortal every now and then as well. But still.’ 

I nodded again. 

‘Yet, I also think that… you should still be allowed to come here. Because Hades is your father. And I understand how important a parent can be, most of all if the other one is… not there for whatever reason.’ 

She looked at me. ‘Yes.’

‘So, if it is up to me, you can still come here. However, at least at the beginning, I am not going to be involved much. Because as of now, I do not want to have anything to do with you.’ She nodded a single time, as if she was proud of herself for saying it. 

I sat on the couch and watched the trees in the garden outside. ‘...okay.’

‘Is that all you have to say about it?’

‘Eh...’ I put my hands into the pockets of my aviator jacket and got out two cans, which I had initially gotten for me and my father. ‘Well, I want to thank you for being so upfront. I don’t think a lot of gods would have taken the time to talk to a demigod like this.’

She shrugged. ‘Oh well. I thought, I better get my intentions clear. What is that?’

I looked at the two cans. ‘Eh… Persephone’s peach juice.’ I got a little red. ‘I didn’t really think about it. I needed something to drink and it was on sale in the camp store.’ 

‘Hm.’ She picked up one of the cans, opened it and took a sip. ‘Tastes good. You took it here yourself,  so you should drink some of it as well.’ 

I took the second can off the table and pulled off the tab. 

Persephone sighed again. ‘Now that we are here talking anyway, and you are taking it so well, I also want to say that… eh, I think I’ll never want to be a mother figure to you.’

I was getting a little confused. I wanted to say that I didn’t even want her to be that, but I decided to be civil about it. ‘That is understandable…’

‘That is partly because I don’t want to take the place of your actual mother.’ She got a sour look on her face. ‘I have to give it to you, she… certainly was something special. Once she punched Hades in the face, because at first he wanted to leave the three of you in Italy, even though Mussolini’s intentions were clear.’ She took another sip of peach juice. ‘Not that I like her, but she was respectable.’ 

I kind of wanted to ask her if she could blame my mother for falling in love with Hades, but I decided that now was not the time. 

I took a deep breath and a sip of juice. ‘Lady Persephone, if I can be totally honest, I agree with that. I don’t think you can take the place of my mother. Because you’ll never be her. Not, eh…’ suddenly, I got a small lump in my throat. ‘Not that I really remember what my mother was like. My memory of her is… it has almost faded. And I don’t really know why.’ I looked at my can. I didn’t know what had suddenly made me say that.

Persephone gave me a concerned look. She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again. She seemed to go back and forth a few times, before sighing and taking a few big gulps. ‘Nico, I… I cannot help you with that today. You should talk about that with your therapist. And I think it is better if you leave now.’ She looked out the window, at her trees. 

‘Yes, okay. Thanks again for taking the time to talk to me.’ I got up and quickly got out. 

It was a lot to think about, but I could only appreciate Persephone for acting the way she did. 

I knocked on my fathers’ study, before pulling open the door. ‘Dad…’

‘Nico!’

He jumped up and almost ran towards me. ‘Did you talk to her? How did it go?’

‘She was the one to come to me. And eh, not to be the bringer of bad news, but she told me she doesn't really want to interact with me right now. However, she also said that she would not stop us from doing things together. I even think she believes that to be a good thing.’ 

‘Oh. Ah. Eh, alright then.’ 

‘Maybe it is better if you talk to her as well.’

‘I did!’

‘Again. And maybe again after that. Be crazy, make it a habit.’ 

‘...hm.’

I laughed a little. ‘But I think I want to go back to camp half-blood now. It is a lot.’

 He looked a little confused, but he nodded. ‘Okay. Bye, then?’

I nodded. ‘Yes, bye.’ 

I turned around and walked away. It was not just Persephone. Our talk had jogged a memory about my mother. I truly did not remember her, now that I thought about it. That should be impossible. What even happened?

A/N: I did not want to have Persephone drink pomegranate juice. That is just too symbolic and I don’t think she’d want it. 

Imagine taking forever to write a chapter about Maria and then thinking the chapter about Persephone that preludes it is better…

In The Last Olympian, or in The Battle of The labyrinth, or both, Nico says he does not remember his mother. Hades does tell him something, but I think it still irks him. Anyway that is for next chapter. 

#Nico di Angelo #Persephone #Hades #Dionysus #Trials of apollo #pjo #percy jackson #percy jackson and the olympians #hades pjo #persephone pjo #dionysus pjo #pjo fanfiction #percy jackson fanfiction #fanfiction #fanfic #writing #writeblr #tower of nero #hurt/comfort #therapy

[chaozeaphoenix]

LGBTQ+

I don’t know if I ever posted such a thing like this before, but here goes nothing. Here’s to hoping I touch a life of someone else who is in a similar situation like I am. (Warning! I will be using explicit language and the visuals you will have in your mind, are from conversations I would have had in the past).

On October 4, 2002, I came out of the closet to both my parents. I figured I couldn’t keep who I was a secret, and the amount of anxiety attacks I would have from keeping a secret like that from them, bugged the shit out of me. When I told them, I wasn’t told, “I know” “we still love you” or even “everything is going to be okay.” Instead, my father sat in silence while my mum told me that if I was gay, that meant, “You will get fucked up the ass and die of AIDS before the age of 21.” For a bit, I was in denial, because at the time, I didn’t discover pornography on the web, and I didn’t know people could be a top, bottom, or even versatile. However, I remember going to bed that night crying because I wasn’t believed by my own parents. Day after day, I resented the fact I told them, and I didn’t have a friend to confide in at school to tell them what went down when I came out of the closet. I always already bullied for being different, and rumors would go around about me being gay, but I never dared to tell anyone. I was too scared to. I mean, wouldn’t you? My school was a little over an hour away from home, but I didn’t even have friends in my neighborhood to confide in about me being gay either. Looking back, there were a couple people I would chat with from time to time, and they gave me the impression they were either gay or they would have been okay with me telling. However, I kept who I was a secret. The bullying in the neighborhood was so bad, that one time, a bunch of kids on their bikes, without wearing a shirt, asked me if I wanted a piece of their ass. I never found out who they were, they were much farther from me as I was walking my dog, that I didn’t get a good glimpse of who they might have been. For a couple years, my father tried to scare homosexuality out of me by telling me “gay horror sex stories” about what would happen to a guy’s ass if they got fucked entirely way too much up there, while my brother and mother were being very homophobic. Today, in 2020, my mum doesn’t remember ever telling me that she used to say things like, “there is no place in heaven for you” or “you are going to hell.” 

After my affair with a married man when I was at the age of 22, my father brought me home from the hospital because I had an anxiety attack on Easter Sunday in 2011, because my mum told me I couldn’t see my friend anymore because she claimed I was making him gay. I remember telling her, “you either are, or you aren’t. There is no in-between.” I was however, worried, she was going to find out I lost my virginity to this man and decided to go to the emergency room and I remember crying in front of the hospital’s social worker and the doctor why my anxiety was so bad. They didn’t tell me it was okay to be gay, they just sat there and listened. I remember telling the nurses that if my mum comes to the hospital asking for me, I do not want you to let her back in the emergency room with me. She did however come, and they told me they were getting ready to the call the police on her. I went out there and told her to go home and I don’t want to see her ever again. That night though, my dad did come to get me and he brought me home. I remember to this day that he patted me twice on the leg and said, “It’s okay to be gay, as long as you are safe and careful, but please don’t ever have another affair. Don’t ruin someone else’s marriage.”

Fast forward, eventually my brother came around and in 2016, my mum sort of came around. I remember reading a doctor’s note that mentioned how sorry my mum felt for not being the mother I needed when I came out. I also believed that my mum finally came to terms with who I was. Needless to say, I was wrong. And as of 2020, I found out.

See, last year, around April or May, I came out to my parents as non-binary, my mum believed I needed a diagnosis of that, while my father said I was telling himself he already knew. However, I said “I wanted to tell you guys instead of you assuming I might be transgender, or even something else just based upon you guys doing your own research.

About a month ago, my mum and I had a heated conversation about the fact that I had accepted the fact she is an alcoholic and I accepted the many consequences that followed suite. She claimed I really didn’t, but I told her I did regardless of what God told me to do. I also said, “it is just like you accepting that I am gay and non-binary.” She told me she doesn’t accept those things because it is a sin and her God says it is wrong. She also left it with a statement by saying, “I accept the fact that you are my child, and I know I cannot change you.” That really hurt, because after four, almost five years, I really thought her logical thinking of me being gay was different, however, I was very wrong. This is where I am going to say what I have been wanting my soul focus of my blog to be about.

In the Bible, John 13:34-35 to be exact says, “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.” Jesus never said to love your neighbor until that person is drunk, a prostitute, gay, Muslim, etc. He just told us to love each other as He loves us. Let me tell you something quick about me, from the very beginning of time, I have always loved people and accepted everyone despite their differences because someone might have it a whole lot worse than me. I grew up until the age of ten as a non-believer in Jesus. Sure, I went to the Kingdom Hall for two weeks, every summer when I went to see my grandmother until she couldn’t drive anymore, but knowing she is a Jehovah Witness, but I wasn’t a full believer and church goer until I was ten. But even then, I still loved and accepted everyone despite their differences, because someone in my circle at church, might have it worse than me. Eventually, when I was taught that scripture of John 13:34-35, I was all like, “well, that’s something I have always done and I guess I am already following a command from God that I didn’t know about. My boyfriend pointed out earlier this week, that there is a passage in the Bible that talks about us doing things without even knowing that there is scripture about it, the passage is Romans 2:14-15 “Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.” I bring this up because I have always loved my mum and even when she told me she was an alcoholic, I still loved her, sure at first, I hated that she kept going downhill instead of getting better, and the blaming of me day after day, but at the end of the day I still love her. I still love her to this day even after last week her telling me when my boyfriend comes down for Thanksgiving, that he and I do not talk about us being gay to the guests at our table for Thanksgiving because they are Southern Baptists. I know everyone has a different take on homosexuality when it comes to the Bible, some are full of love for everyone without pointing out the sins of others, while others point out sins and think they are doing it out of love. But here is where I am going with this. It is in MY HUMAN NATURE, to love everyone despite their differences and ACCEPT THEM because they have it a lot worse than me. I do not need the Bible to tell me that. I never have and never will need it. If my mum is choosing to just ‘ACCEPT THE FACT THAT I AM HER CHILD AND SHE CAN’T CHANGE ME’ she will have to answer to God for that, not me. But I will never stop loving my mum the way God loves her despite her alcoholism and her addiction to it. It is like I told my therapist this week. I can’t change who I am because of me knowing this who I am and I was born this way, but my mum can change who she is to be a better person and she refuses to do it. 

I know I talked your eyes out and for that I am sorry. If you like what you have read, give me a follow, like my post, because by 2021, I am going to try and get better in blogging and video logging every other day. Happy Holidays!!

#LGBTQ+ #Bible #Growing Up Gay #Bullies #Food For Thought #Acceptance #Alcoholic #Alcohol #Southern Baptists #Loving One Another #Bible Versees #Boyfriends #Gay #Jehovah Witnesses #Jehovah Witness #Grandma #Thanksgiving #Happy Holidays #Book of John #Book of Romans #Blogging Problems #Improving Blogs #Video Blogs #Answering To God #Friendless #Regrets

[giftofshewbread]

The Infrastructure (Good vs Evil)

 By Robert Campbell      Published on: August 8, 2021

Hello folks, I think it’s time for another article about things that concern me regarding what’s going on in America. I don’t write regularly because other writers have covered many important topics, and I don’t need to repeat them. But as I look at America, I see the face of it changing right before my eyes. It does not have that American greatness as before; the light is dimming daily. Why is that?

We are a Christian nation, or are we now? We have been weakened over the years, and now we cannot even fight back. Has the infrastructure been rebuilt so that we cannot fight back without destroying it?

I have always wanted to understand more of what the Bible meant that “good will become evil, and evil will become good.” How does that look? I can see it from afar, but how does one see it today?

There was a day when evil was hidden; it kept itself hidden so as not to alarm the people of its deception. It would not show itself, or we would fight it back. There was a time that we were ashamed to even be around those doing wrong.

Christians were the mainframe of what was right in this country and abroad. We were proud to be a part of a nation that worshiped God daily. Traveling the world helping others was part of our nature as a country. We did it, not for our glory, but for the glory of God. God blessed us with everything we needed, and we were the envy of every country on earth.

Whether they believed in God or not, our founding fathers had morals from a higher standard than themselves. From the very beginning when, yes, the white man set foot in this country, God used them to create, second to none, the best country that ever was and that ever will be.

If men today were like men of yesterday, we would be better off today as a country. But men today are weak and pathetic; they act like women, emotionally vulnerable. They have fallen prey to the women just like Adam did in the garden; men have bitten the apple. Eve bought the lie in the garden, and women today are repeating it over and over again. Men decided to turn over their responsibility to the weaker vessel (the women). Men of all walks of life are addicted to women; they have put the women before God and Jesus our Lord and Saviour.

The children are led by weakness instead of strength, and they grow up without any morals and values. Just look around you at our children today. The parents are too busy getting their stuff, and the children are left home to fend for themselves. We send them to the public schools where they get indoctrinated, and the parents are clueless about what is being taught to them.

The infrastructure has been changed. How did this happen, how did this begin to change?

We Christians bought the lie; we decided to allow evil to get a foot in the door. We allowed evil to tell us it was alright to let the Godless rule over us. The churches were the first to go under the onslaught of evil; just look around you.

To this day, we are still slaughtering innocent children in the womb (Black women are responsible for one-third of babies to date slaughtered in the womb), and the so-called preachers (not all, but most), even the good ones, are not speaking on it. They’re too afraid they might lose their people and money and the most important of all, their parking space up front.

The men of the church allowed women to become preachers knowing God is against it. Women were not designed to rule over men; it’s out of order.

Even in our country, we have allowed women to rule over us in government – mayors, senators, etc. Just look around you. We now have a vice president that is a woman (Kamala Harris), and she is clueless on what to do under pressure. And we also have a president that is not in good health; we know that he is showing signs of Dementia. The liberals do not care that this man is sick; they only are concerned with power.

There is no love among liberal Democrats, and it seems to be the same with the so-called conservative Republicans. They will do whatever the cost to gain wealth and power and to control you.

Joe Biden’s wife “Jill” has no love for her husband; she has allowed him to make a fool of himself in front of the world—all for the sake of fame and power. Even Biden’s family could care less about him; as long as they get what they want, they will use the president to their advantage.

They are using the president to get their godless agenda done. We all know that this election was stolen from Donald Trump, and we saw before our eyes the weakness of righteous men and women who did nothing to stop it. We watched the liberals put their plan in action and still did nothing to stop it. Our senators and congressmen did nothing to stop this thievery from taking place. All because of fear and retribution. In other words, they were cowards. And most of them hated” Donald Trump.” They hated him because he was arrogant and bragged, and he called them out.

Even preachers will tell you that God did not like his arrogance. But folks, Donald Trump was always that way. He was a real man, not afraid to tell it like it was. God could care less about his arrogance; God put him there for a reason.

But the infrastructure has been changed. We no longer have strong men to lead a country; we gave it over to the women to lead us. Even conservative women have no business ruling over a man. Even “Candice Owens” is trying to rule over men. Men are saying that she will make a good leader. She claims that men should go back home and lead their families, yet she will not go home and raise her newborn child. Her husband will allow her to run around the country saying a whole lot of nothing. Her Ego is off the charts; she bought the lie, just like “Eve” did in the garden.

Evil is now the new good, and folks from all walks of life are falling for it. At first, it was subtle, and now it does not care because it is now in our infrastructure. Evil is now in the forefront and looks like good; it’s an imitation, not real. Commercials have turned evil into good and blatantly puts it in your face. There is no more shame in showing two men in bed together representing a family over children or having men calling themselves women (transgender) to compete in women’s sports. It’s in our infrastructure now, hard to reverse.

What was logical is now all emotion, now mainly from the men who are more emotional than the women.

The white man has become so weakened that he cannot even fight back because he has a bullseye on his back. The white man is so hated because he represents power in this country. He represents good in America; he works the hardest to build, not destroy.

Black men were destroyed a long time ago through “Welfare and Civil Rights.” The black man bought the lie that he needed help from the government; that he could not succeed in life without their help. Liberals and Godless folks told Blacks that racism was the cause for them not getting ahead in America. Slavery was so long ago that it is not even worth a conversation. It’s in the past, but blacks today believe it is still relevant.

The infrastructure has been changed. Even the conservatives believe in the lie. Evil is now good, and good is now evil; you cannot see the difference.

This pandemic was a set-up from the very beginning to weaken America and destroy Donald Trump. Liberals could not allow Donald Trump to succeed in “Making America Great Again.” That would hinder their plan for control over the masses. It would stop them from making billions and billions of dollars. The pharmaceutical companies are making billions over this fake pandemic, and the mind-numbed robots follow every government and media instruction even though they know it’s a lie. They follow suit because of fear. They have fear because the no-good pastors, senators, governors, and mayors tell them so.

Satan, in reality, has sold us fear, the true enemy. Even today, people are still wearing a mask, knowing that it will not stop a virus. But they wear the mask because of fear and doubt; it makes them feel secure and comfortable. After they dress for the morning and get ready to go out, they grab their smartphone and mask; they won’t leave home without it. It is fashionable now to have one on.

Even after a year, folks will still wear the mask, thinking that the virus will somehow float through the air and magically stop and not go through the paper mask. And the most striking part is that I see more blacks wearing the mask than anyone else, all because they were told to do so.

Remember the yellow star (patch) in the days of Nazi Germany that the Jews were forced to wear? It’s no different today. The vaccine is a set-up, a trial run of what is coming.

There is nothing in the vaccine that will stop the virus; it is all smoke and mirrors. Folks believe that by taking the vaccine, they will not get the virus, so they go running gladly to the nearest facility and get their miracle drug, all supplied freely from their government.

Fear and anger run rampant today, and blacks are leading the way to America’s destruction, leading the way in everything wrong in this nation today. They go around with hate in their heart for the white man; they hate everyone, including themselves. They do not believe in God. Instead, they would go around and support an organization like “BLM,” believing that the ten, perhaps 11 blacks killed by white police officers was a racist act. Yet blacks are killing each other daily in the hundreds.

The infrastructure has been changed. This is happening to all races of people; the spirit of evil is the same throughout.

White men, you need to stand up and tell the truth; be not afraid. America, will not change until you men of all races stand up.

God is waiting on men; He is waiting on righteous men to do the right thing, but the infrastructure of America is not the same any longer. It has been destroyed to allow evil to reign, and it is hard even to find one righteous man or woman to fight back. Most have bought the lie.

Churches today are just as dangerous as the women’s womb; you may not come out alive. Preachers sound just like the world today; they give you no hope. They will follow Jesus as long as it goes along with the world and keeping their stuff.

People cannot afford to be without their Smartphone or Google; that’s their new god; it gives them everything they need. Just look around you; they pray to their phone every five to ten minutes without hesitation. It goes everywhere with them; they will go back 10 miles from home to get their phone when they are a mile away from work.

God no longer leads America in people’s lives; Satan has given them a new false god to follow and worship. Satan has made a lie look like the truth and the truth to look like a lie.

Men of all races that are true believers in Jesus Christ must get their courage back. After all, it took one man like Donald Trump to change the world; God used him like he used men from old to get his agenda done. God is looking for a few good men and women to have no fear, and we can begin to move mountains. All is not lost if we now turn around and stand up, and you, that’s right, you white men must lead the way.

We cannot rely on the women to do it for us; it’s not in them to do so. Women cannot fix a man’s problem; we fix women’s problems; that’s our job.

America’s light is almost out, but we did not have to let it come to this; all we had to do is have no fear and trust in God. Now is the time to take America back. The godless liberals think they are winning but are digging a deep hole for themselves. God will, in time, judge them harshly, and I’m afraid good Christians will go down with them. All because they bought the lie.

God is the master of all, and he will let you decide on good or evil; he will give you ample warnings. We have read and re-read Bible, and we still don’t get it.

The word of God is in our hearts from the beginning. For those who have kept up the good fight, God will honor you with his blessings. He will see you through this just as he has taken care of me. I’m here to tell you that God will not forsake you or leave you, even though it seems the bleakest. Our roughest trials are just trials to make you stronger through turbulent times. God is here and now, and he did not give us Jesus for anything. He gave us Jesus for everything. Look to him, and you will get through this.

You must forgive your enemies and love them anyway.

America, it is up to you. We must always pray for Israel; if not for them, there would be no us.

I’m a Christian American Republican who happens to be black.

Make America Great Again.

#anime #pic #pixel #art #cute #news #gay #bi #trans #lgbtq #infrastructure #government #good #vs #evil #men #women #republican #democrat #black #white #fear #blm #covid #plandemic #hate #crime #dictatorship #love #lawlessness

[startwithbrooklyn]

THE GREAT ND REWATCH OF 2021 / OCTOBER 5, 2019 // return of josh

oooookay folks! that's a wrap! below are my comments about tonight's ep + additional expansions on previously stated opinions. i'm not combining s2 ep 1 with this bc s2 is dead to me! so is s3! i only did this to gather up all these loose thoughts i had when this show with its one lonely season became such a comfort to me that i developed a second consciousness about it. but with these posts i am done! the evil is defeated! i will carry on through the 3rd and hopefully final season of nancy drew with less emotion and better spirits. thank god.

-"talk to owen" nancy firstly thinks of talking to owen only to see what happens w the agleaca; saying goodbye comes as sorta an afterthought mirroring tiffany's possession of george. yet nancy was unable to say goodbe to owen just like w kate. knowing this reveal about kate, i wonder if this was foreshadowing that something big will be revealed about him later? unlikely but still

-nancy + the reality of broken things: 'totems' like broken sand glass sculpture (good place) to show you it's not a dream; "owen broke that" ghost trap to ground him to reality, like how she reached for her locket in the good place, lucy's charm, ace's bear ('totems' idea borrowed from inception)

-george has never been an affectionate person, even with other women- so why does pda with nick suddenly become so important?

-lots of comments about ryan + women but what about carson/kate and karen? again with the hypocritical (interestingly, there is an aspect of violence to women connected with ryan (even though that violence is not his fault); but its not like kate or karen fared well either)

-ryan feels useless- relationships with women as stated by nancy- he seeks to redeem himself by showing up where nancy goes to prove he is good to have around/necessary/needed - but now that he is attempting to act as a parent he has to break through nancy's defenses all over again- firstly she didnt really consider him any kind of threat bc he comes off as incompetent- ie bad business deals- i think i mentioned last ep, their hauntings equalize them as they both attempt to gain peace by searching for answers but now ryan has changed the terms of engagement so he's back to square one, with carson. (which is how we find them s2 cowering in ryans car stalking nancy together)

-ryan's relationship to nancy exposes an interesting layer here. so far she doesnt know about nick/george but they still hold the cards (ie george gets one over on nick's ex/"the new girl") with the revelation of ryan being nancys father, nancy gains an interesting trump card in navigating the social fallout of being nick's ex. like george would take the new spot but then nancy comes out with george's ex in a much higher category. this plays out later on in the ep when george confronts ryan. george wants to talk about "them" but ryan shows up completely focused on nancy, thus illustrating the trump

-"i thought it was whitney with another insipid question" to me this sounds like whitney took bess's advice earlier about "asking aunt diana what she wants" (only to learn it actually annoyed the hell out of diana lmaoo)

-"then you need to fight for it" this hearkens nancy earlier by asking "arent you in by virtue of dna?" the test was positive; she is a marvin just like nancy is a hudson. thats not a fact that they can change. however, diana really acts like it can be changed- and in s2 we see it does change. its interesting for bess to be told to fight to be in a family she's already in and also foiled by nancy trying to fight her way out of her own family. would like to see bess stand up to diana and say something. i mean, she exists. as much as she may want to erase bess from the family, diana cannot erase her existence

-hannah's rolled up sleeves 💙

-"previous keepers records" -from s2- were those not her parents??

-mistaken murderers- everyone incorrectly assumes lucy was murdered just as they assume the agleaca killed owen

-even if owen weren't the price, how can they pay the toll without one of the people who called? i mean if it was anything other than owen and he still died they still wouldve been fucked

-"you don't need to check, i'm not even driving!" okay and giving up the goss. cassidy is me. lmfaoooo

-wonder if this locked marvin industries box will ever come back

-UNPOPULAR OPINION: george's confrontation with ryan comes waytoo late to do anything. i think i brought this up in an earlier post. its literally just her screaming at him now. like he is clocked out moved on. you know a good time for this scene? in the claw when he comes by to "check on her". hes vulnerable, fresh from rehab. and she has a chit over him for punching bookcases/the fuckin country club deal. therewould have been a perfect time to confront ryan on what happened- "what you did to me" okay sis. you admitted ep 1 you werent in hs anymore. youre of age now. admit you fucked up. take the L to force him to swallow the bigger L. and imagine how much more powerful the scene would have been- in george's domain, literally her own office, something ryan doesnt even have because HE DOESNT DO SHIT. ryan is SO EASY to trap but nobody notices. instead they have george try to get some kind of apology out of him when hes already done with that, and only for the sake of her establishing a new relaionship to boot. imagine how much more empowered she would feel if she just got that closure for herself- because she needed it, not so she could trot straight back to nick being all proud of calling a grown man to some random estate only to scream at him in a parking lot and have accomplished nothing. 🤦🏼‍♀️

-i get patrice thinking nancy is lucy but yeahhhhh this isnt how dementia works 😬

-i almost cant with nance and josh. how do you save your would-be murderer? (+ lucy's best friend and brother are in jail, her mom is lost to her mentally; all she has left is nancy and ryan)

-tbh i had no idea how to spell agleaca until bess said "theres no i in agleaca!" i thought it was igleaka like 😂

-damn how george just stares at nicks hand and then gets out herself is just so sad (like she immediately rectifies it but still...)

-"curiosity" part II; nancy who comes back to the sea after her mother died in it- agleaca drawn to lucy's trauma/to agleaca, lucy died fir "love"- would nancy be willing to risk the same? // this is also one of nancy's "mirroring mom" moments: winning sea queen, going to the velvet masque, getting caught by celia, having a "chat" with everett, and "falling" off the bluffs

-the collector 🎵👌🏻

-i wonder if there's any significance to the locations/means of their deaths; nancy's is pretty straight forward in terms of where and how, but why george and nick drowning, in the truck specifically? drowning in love? idk. ace's at the claw i get, but he gets himself caught? in what precisely? what does the fish hook mean? and bess's makes the least sense- burning alive? in the marvin estate? maybe the agleaca picked the most painful death for the marvin blood relation? idk. up for debate lmk ya thoughts

and lastly:

-i remember seeing this ending for the first time and i had just been traumatized by avengers endgame and since black widow is also a redhead seeing that shit at the bottom of the cliff it was like 😰😰😰 TOO SOON

-random thoughts-

these are just things i noticed, feel free to grapple with them or take note of them for extrapolation in s3 (lord knows i wont be) they probably belonged in recaps for previous eps but i either didnt find them in my notebook or couldnt fit them in

•nancy and truth/the perception of truth: using facts to suit theories instead of creating theories to suit facts- nancy often plays with the perception of truth and the details that fall between the steps; but she is also a victim to them by people who also know how to play the game (ie Carson) ex lying about the dress (tea cups and knives, trash got picked up, bail paid 1 hr ago) her inferences can be off from what others tell her ("people always lie") but she can also come to the wrong conclusions organically (carsons trial) more willing to believe the best in others/wanting them to be innocent (think nick ep 1) but later finding out the truths hurts more so she chooses to isolate herself and avoid involving others to be spared pain

•maybe i'm dumb, but who is "mr marvin" exactly? owen? the bald guy from the funeral? this comes from the guy who takes sailboats out like ep 4ish and says "ive worked for the marvins 20 years" she compliments the ship, he says "mr marvin and i just took her out this morning" so?? who is that? plus last ep just saying cassidy and isaac are her "late husbands children" dows thet mean sebastian? like did diana marry in? i feel like it would be odd for her to so embrace the "marvin way" if she wasnt a true born marvin

•ik college becomes a more s2 topic but none of the crew have ever been to college 🤔

•nick + the relationships with people whose reputations are tarnished: tiffany with investigating the hudsons/marvins, josh with murder/attempted murder, kate and 'stealing'/lying about nancy (esp compared to her almost preternatural kindness i mentioned before), george and her mom/family's reputations --> this kind of segues into nick + the concept of believing people you love could be capable of horrific things- accidental or on purpose (see- having to tell his family what happened)

•at the beginning, nancy kind of seems to be the "i'm sorry you're upset" kind of apologist and knows it. she also doesnt usually apologize earnestly bc shes never really sorry (she always has to get what she needs first ie coins mess) and she doesnt want to lie; to me it seems she doesnt like to bother with other people bc they require certain cues/niceties that are often lies- they ask "how are you" without meaning it, they dont really want an honest response except "fine", they dont like it when you call them out on fakeness, etc/ they require apologies for their bruised feelings even if youre right (and nancy can be pretty rude/nasty if provoked- a harshness unsoftened by sympathy)

•cont'd from the good place ep- since kate apparently means nothing to nancy anymore according to last ep ("stop calling her my mother") is her policy of "always seek the truth" now null and void? this mantra is now tainted bc the person who gave it to her broke it so much. can nancy disengage w it now? does she fall from grace to be complicit in "mysteries" of her own like everyone else? does she lose some of her "god-like" holier than thou act bc she is now literally born and raised in the "darkness" of sins/ugly truths like everyone else's? (ie truth is ugly but not to nancy, until now)

•did lucy disappear because her "murder" was finally solved? or simply because her trauma was addressed- she never meant to tell anyone about her suicide plans, the twisted trauma of which was too great to contain/unable to move on due to "sin" - or unable to move on because secret of nancy's parentage still remained? "lucy never wanted me to figure out how she died" she only wanted nancy to figure out her parentage without solving the mystery, yet did lucy see/witness nancy's revelation at the claw, or with carson, or even ryan? waiting for karen/josh to know? or just vanished?

•concept of imperfect mom figures- lucy, kate, celia, victoria, even karen- who all struggle with failings

•since karen dispelled one of lucy's attempts at nancy's haunting at the garden party, is that proof she isn't haunting karen?

•the crew + needing adult help: george's possession and victoria, club busted and owen, car accident and mcginnis, thom and cipher, larkspur lane and sal, bones and john, agleaca and hannah

•everett is always sitting- at his home office, at dinner, at yacht club (wonder if that was his actor + had to do with his recasting?)

-dad talk-

•both her dads think negatively on her "girl detective" thing but ryan sees use in it as a means to get answers, carson would never 'use' her in that way

•nancy + carson : suffering

"what about what i wanted?" + carson being imprisoned for weeks but she immediately rejects him (the DAY he gets his freedom no less) with no regard to his suffering (caused by herdiary!!) in regards to her own from this new knowledge (she does suffer a lot- "almost dying is my new normal" but still)/ the "thankless job" of parenting

•nancy + adults - connected to cop thing a few posts earlier : nancy is v precocious and smart for her age- she is "old enough" but also has trouble with the "adults" in her life- fathers, moms, karen, and cops letting her down but depends heavily on "adults" she cantrust- hannah gruen, john sander, lisbeth- highlighting her youth and occasional naiveté; nancy is unafraid to hold adults accountable for their actions (ie karen) but also loses them as allies along the way. both hannah and john are very nonthreatening and also experts in their fields, while her fathers and karen are revealed to be "just another brick in the wall" average, capable of mistakes, and not the people she expects them to be, while characters like john and hannah can only benefit nancy because either they do not mean as much to her or have no reason/nothing to gain by lying; they are purposefully shown to be small, demure, gentle, and nonthreatening as foils/opposed to karen, ryan, and josh whom she previously trusted; carson (+kate) is nonviolent as well but has the biggest betrayal which is perceived as an act of violence to her very personhood/shattering who she thought she was so she cannot be that anymore (admits truths to john "everytime i dig i hurt everyone" and hannah-agleaca) : unclear if redemption is possible for anyone :

•nancy bonds with carson over loss and then ryan over haunting. but actually, nancy rejects carson over loss bc she wanted to say goodbye and wasnt allowed to- so carson was with kate but nancy was not. nancy and ryan are more equals about haunting bc they both start around the same time and conclude together as well [nancy and ryan bond over thinking their parents conspired to kill lucy- think sitting on the floor at velvet masque] nancy is appreciated by ryan for her ability to get answers- he has no qualms about going through her/outside of police bc he wants results/instant gratification and thinks nancy is more so the expert in her field/respects her even through her age- once again acknowledging she is braver than he is (think lucy + claw parking lot) and her portent in the car freaks him out bc shes usually always in control, esp with him

•bc nancy was told "you can't be afraid of the truth" until she was / ironic bc shes braver than him except when the truth is they are related then she's scared to tell him while he actually starts to take some initiative

•nancy picked "the wrong person" to help her through her grief in her dad's eyes like her mom's best friend was somehow a better choice? carson truly "parents" nancy even during grief and haunting (which she rejects) whereas nancy and ryan are really equals in all their situations which is actually better for her and easier for her to maintain- nancy's expectations are low so anything that ryan gives is a bonus. nancy's expectations of carson were shattered by his lies so now she has nothing to connect with him about- they could barely even connect when sharing the same grief- carson actually very hypocritical hence nancy's upset at karen revelation yet carson doesn't agree bc hes the "adult" and shes the "child" not realizing she hadnt been one for a long time (hidden staircase perhaps?) whereas ryan better treats her with lack of controlling parental nature bc he is impressed with her competence before he receives that knowledge; "lucy was smarter than me too" acknowledging her intellect negates his ability to "parent" ie control her to leave him solely with caring about her wellbeing in her situations + aftermath - i honestly dont think carson would ever admit that shes smarter than him* bc he thinks shes not "all grown up" yet ("youve kept me on the bench for years"); ryan is more willing to meet her where she's at which is so important for all her good relationships - ace, owen, etc

*carson asks for nancy to figure out "who to trust" in ep 12, finally admitting that she is useful/ie acknowledging that her skills/abilities do help, are necessary, and can in fact save lives --> this is then s2 follow up by working for him (but it takes him that long)

•ryan/nancy/carson venn diagram - using sex to escape trauma

•if not carson vs ryan then what about celia and everett vs patrice (and josh)? at this point in the narrative, do you think ryan's parents would take his side should the knowledge become public (without their involvement), or deny nancy?

•"we were a family" + the disruption of family dinner- kate was really the one holding that family together and her death makes it unsustainable

okay!! that's all folks! i have exhausted my plethora of nancy drew thoughts + knowledge. you will never have to hear from me again!! TYSSM 😘

#brooklyn's ND primer #nancy drew cw #the Great Rewatch of 2021 #you best start believing in ghost stories miss drew - you're in one

[classyfoxdestiny]

Actor to Entrepreneur: Poornima Indrajith

Actor to Entrepreneur: Poornima Indrajith

‘If you enjoy learning and if you can risk the failures, entrepreneurship can be a rewarding, enriching experience.’

IMAGE: Poornima Indrajith, designer and creative head, Pranaah, in Mohamallika, a signature handloom creation from her latest line — Pudava Onam Edit 2021. Photographs: Kind courtesy Poornima Indrajith/Instagram

Eight years ago when Poornima Indrajith started the label Pranaah, it was meant to be a small boutique selling ethnic and modern wear. But it became an instant hit.

To see an actor from Kerala open a boutique blending fashion with tradition was a welcome change.

With pretty and successful actors like Manju Warrier, Samyukta Varma, Rima Kallingal and Priyamani donning her creations, Pranaah soon became a brand to reckon with.

Over the years, Poornima has introduced several new concepts and experimented with Indian designs and embellishments to create interesting garments that appeal to people of all ages and professions.

What makes her journey interesting is she is a first generation entrepreneur who never went to design school but turned her love and passion for clothes into a meaningful enterprise.

Amid the launch of Pudava, her latest Onam collection, the mompreneur who is married to actor Indrajith and based out of Maradu in Kochi, shares her inspiring career learnings and offers practical advice to young and budding designers in this lively interaction with Divya Nair/Rediff.com.

What was your inspiration behind Pranaah?

My father is a lawyer, my mother is a teacher. I am an actor married to another actor.

I don’t come from a family with a fashion background nor did I study in a fashion institute.

But even as an actor and dancer, I was always passionate about clothing. I had an eye for detailing and I loved to experiment.

After I got married and had kids, I wanted to stay active.

In terms of career, I wanted to do something that will allow me to come back home to be with my kids and family and at the same time pursue something that I love.

I loved fashion and clothes as a hobby. That’s how I started Pranaah in September 2013.

I wanted to create different types of clothes that are fashionable, sustainable and at the same time, do less damage for the planet.

So I started with bridal and multi-wear slowly experimenting and adding more options, based on the changing needs of the market and customers.

IMAGE: Jacqueline Fernandez stuns in a bridal handloom sari from Pranaah.

And are you happy with the success?

My definition of success is very different.

When I conceived and started Pranaah, I had a vision, but I was new and there was so much I didn’t know.

Since I was an actor, I was fortunate enough to have known enough people and friends who trusted my work and took it to the next level in the first few years. There was no social media or marketing as such, it was purely word of mouth networking.

To be honest, I didn’t know it was a beginning of an entrepreneurial journey.

More than fashion, it was more like a journey towards myself, knowing who I am.

So if you ask me if I am a successful entrepreneur in terms of making money, I am not sure. Because am still learning and discovering something new every day in this journey.

I have made mistakes, I have failed. But I have understood my shortcomings. I didn’t give up.

In these eight years, I am happy to see how my idea has grown to be something bigger than what it was when I first started it.

Today, when I see more people, including youngsters associating with the brand and coming back to me, it makes me happy, that I am doing something right.

So I am happy to be a part of this continuous learning process. I have this hunger towards learning. To me that is my true success.

IMAGE: Kalyani Priyadarshan poses in Pranaah’s Onam edit 2020 creation.

How has the fashion industry in Kerala and your clientele changed in the last few years?

When I started Pranaah, I had little knowledge about the industry or the process of designing. But I was a celebrity and had the mover advantage. I will not deny that.

And Kerala used to be a different market (than what it is today). Most people didn’t understand what sustainability was or what it meant.

Brides in Kerala would spend a fortune on a bridal kanjeevaram or lehenga and treat it as a single use outfit.

But the more I learned about the process of designing, how a garment is created from scratch, the sourcing of materials, the hard work and sweat that goes into it, I began to experiment.

Slowly I started passing this knowledge and information on to my clients.

You can’t blame them because most of us have grown up to the notion that a white and gold sari or a kanjeevaram is reserved for special occasions. Some would say that there is a certain age to wearing a pattu pavada (a traditional skirt) or that wearing a sari would make you look a certain age.

So I started creating different looks in white and gold — the pavada got redesigned to look like a lehenga.

If a bride came to buy a wedding sari, I’d convince them to pick up one pavada(skirt) for the pre-wedding event and tell them how they could repurpose an expensive outfit for a different occasion later.

I do it myself. For the first Onam, I turn the sari into a flowy kaftan, then next year, maybe it’s a curtain, the following year, it becomes a pillow cover.

Now if you look at social media, you’ll see teenagers surprising you with so many ideas every day.

They are wearing saris with tees, with pants and getting all experimental. I love their confidence. Ethnic Indian wear is no longer limited to special occasions nor is it defined by age or gender.

I wish we could all feel a little lighter and younger in our head to be able to embrace these ideas on a daily basis.

IMAGE: Poornima with husband and actor Indrajith and daughters on Onam 2020.

Every year, your Onam collection is different. Tell us how you conceive it.

The Onam collection is always special because every year, I try to introduce a new element through my collection. Even the name of the collection is meant to create some nostalgia.

My first collection Valkannadi was Kerala handlooms. I personally love jacquard and it introduced me to a whole new community of weavers and artisans from Kuthampully to Chendamangalam.

Chamayam and Aana Chandam during which I learned the process of weaving myself. I worked with the Travancore sisters too and did a 3-and-a-half month course with them.

In Chamayam, I introduced colours – peach, mauve because I wanted to experiment beyond the traditional off white and gold.

For Chethi Manjadi, which was inspired by my love for chethi flowers and manjadi kuru (a red and black coloured seed from coral tree found in India and China, botanical name: Adenanthera Pavonina), I had a little struggle.

I wanted to weave manjadi kuru into the garments and people thought I was crazy. So initially I tried doing it myself.

I spoke to a friend who was making jewellery from it to understand the process of how you pick the right beads, then treat them right so it stays longer etc.

This year, because of the lockdown, I planned my Onam collection months in advance. Still, I got my first outfit ready only early last week.

I always like to try out the collection so I can know how it looks and feels and make changes before sending it for production.

The 2021 collection is named Pudava because is very common to Kerala households. It’s simple and I wanted to recreate the 1980s era.

If you see the pictures, you’ll see a studio set up that will remind you of the ’80s.

I didn’t want to name the garments with numbers or codes, so I chose to name it after the people I knew.

One of it is named after my mother-in-law Mohamalika, then there is Vasanthakumari, Ragalathika, Hemachandrika, Madhumita and Krishnadevi — names you longer hear in the new generation, but will instantly remind you of someone like your mother, grandmother or aunt who belongs to Kerala.

IMAGE: Saniya Iyappan in a Benarasi drape with a statement handcrafted belt courtesy Pranaah.

As a first generation entrepreneur, what have been some of your greatest challenges?

As an entrepreneur, the biggest challenge is that your craft has to meet the economics.

Ultimately your brand has to make enough money so you can pay it forward and generate income for those who are dependent on you.

Even though I’d love to promote sustainable clothes, I have realised that the cost of designing and selling them is way too expensive.

So naturally there is a huge demand for powerloom because it is affordable, requires lesser effort and generates quick income.

A major disadvantage also is that most people don’t even know the difference between handloom and powerloom.

As an entrepreneur, I have the additional responsibility to balance these two sides — to create products that do less damage to the planet and at the same time, make it economical.

Over the years, I have learned to give people options to choose. My responsibility is to create awareness and inform the customers.

So you come and see what I have created. If you like it you can buy it, if you don’t you can choose what works best for you. I cannot force my ideas or vision, because ultimately everyone has to go home happy.

IMAGE: Poornima in a pleated tie skirt inspired from the mundu (a traditional menswear) with minimal hand embroidered manjadi seeds and kantha work from her collection.

What does fashion mean to you? What’s your personal style like?

Fashion, according to me, is an extension of your personality; it’s also your identity.

What you wear basically defines who you are and what you believe in.

On a personal note, I believe in sustainable fashion, sustainable clothing. I recycle and upcycle a lot of my clothes. I mix and match, I repeat clothes.

I love handlooms, cotton, mostly Indian fabrics and handwoven stuff.

It’s not that I don’t buy a Zara. But if you see my wardrobe, it will be 60% cottons and 40% casual, synthetic stuff. I don’t do a lot of corporate wear.

Among Indian designers, whose work do you admire?

I love Anita Dongre because she is someone who has been able to create a balance of designing couture for the masses and the elite.

I like Rahul Misra’s craft. I like Vaishali’s (Shadangule) designs. The way she presented her collection at the Paris Fashion Week this year gives designers like me so much confidence to simply experiment and try out the ideas that are inside our heads.

Obviously I look up to Sabyasachi (Mukherjee). His recent collaboration with H&M is a huge step forward for Indian fashion. The world will know that we are not just another manufacturing nation.

From ‘Made in India,’ to ‘Created and Designed in India’ is how the world will identify us now.

Right now, there is a huge hue and cry about the project, but I see it in all in a positive way.

It has opened up a dialogue among common people which is very important today.

Fashion is also a form of art and expression and it must create dialogue, spark a conversation.

Most of the time people speak, wear, live and express based on their limited understanding, knowledge and information.

So, if a designer’s collection opens a dialogue we must appreciate it. Ultimately people will be informed and become aware of something they didn’t know or pay attention to earlier.

The ultimate goal as designers is for us to create a platform where ideas are exchanged and together we can find ways to make a safe, happy planet where everyone benefits in some way.

IMAGES: Left to Right: Manju Warrier in a blue IndoWestern skirt worn with a handwoven chanderi jacket for Malayalam magazine Vanitha; (centre) Parvathy Thiruvothu repeated this white and gold Pranaah saree on three different ocassions sharing the idea of sustainability in fashion; Rima Kallingal in a golden striped pattern woven on pure handloom skirt from Pranaah’s Chethi Manjadi series 2019 collection.

A celebrity whose fashion sense and personality you admire.

Anyone who is confident of himself/herself is a celebrity for me, because you stand up for who you are and that’s your identity.

In terms of fashion and as a person, I really like Priyanka Chopra. Whatever outfit she wears, the way she presents and carries herself is commendable.

Over the years she has created a strong identity for herself both in India and internationally which is very inspiring.

Some simple ideas how one can recycle one’s wardrobe without spending too much?

I am saying this from my own experience because this is something I do myself too.

You can remodel your mom’s old sari into a mundu, a skirt or a kaftan.

You can also turn it into a smart casual top and pair it with pants or wear it a sari, skirt or lehenga. It’s only when you experiment you get to learn what works, what doesn’t.

Your advice for aspiring entrepreneurs  

First and foremost, you must decide why you want to start a business: Are you in it to make money, for your passion or to learn something new?

You will have to constantly ask yourself: What gives me satisfaction? Am I happy doing this? How can I be better at this?

Once you become an entrepreneur, your priorities will keep changing. You will have to find ways to generate income, because you have to pay salaries, make enough money to put it back in the business.

Not everyone wakes up and makes Rs 10 lakh a month in the first year.

So, have you studied the market well? Do you have a support system to back you up in the first few years?

If this is your first business I’d say start small, understand the process. Put yourself first before the business, only then will you enjoy the process. There will be failures, setbacks, and days when you feel defeated.

Entrepreneurship can be a draining process.

During such times, you must know your strengths and assess your weaknesses. Get good people in your team to make up for your weakness.

At the same time, if you enjoy learning and if you can risk the failures, entrepreneurship can be a rewarding, enriching experience too.

It has made me happy because I enjoyed the process of learning, of making mistakes, of sharing my experiences and again going back to creating something I believe in.

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[genderconstructwww]

CommonPlace Book Reflection

After a close examination of everything we covered over the semester, one of the main topics that stood out to me is gender as a social construction. If I’m being honest, I was not clear on what social construction entails or how it influences gender at the beginning of the course. However, after the second week, I gained new insight on the topic with the help of the lecture notes I took and the annotations we were required to complete. According to the lecture slide definition, social construction is the belief that identity is not inherent within an individual group or thing but instead largely a creation of cultural, political, and historical forces. It sounds terrible, but it wasn’t until I took this class that I sat down and thought about how poorly those outer forces could influence identity and gender and how it impacts certain groups of people. I noticed several subcategories that all tie into one singular idea of gender as a social construction; gender roles, stereotypes, norms, socialization, and the concept of essentialism. Again, before completing this course, I did not have a full understanding of the word essentialism. This is the belief that things have a set of characteristics that make them what they are; in regards to gender, it means that they believe men and women are designed to have specific dispositions BECAUSE they belong to that category of people. Essentialists see biological sex as determining gender, but studies prove otherwise and show that biological makeup DOES NOT determine gender. My collection of Tumblr posts highlights gender as a social construction along with essentialism and how the two ideas tie together.

Firstly, I feel the need to explain that sex and gender ARE NOT THE SAME THINGS. This is a concept that I did not understand until I was in high school, and someone explained it to me. The two words often get intertwined, and not everyone realizes what they are talking about when using those two words. Sex is the biological makeup of a person, so it references one’s genitals. Someone is born with specific sexual chromosomes that provide them with either one of the sex organs, determining what sex you are assigned at birth. Gender, however, is the behavior and characteristics of each sex, and it is set socially and culturally, according to the lecture notes. For example, someone may be born a male but later identify as a transgender female after transitioning; although their sex assigned at birth is male, their gender identity is female. This is a big concept that many people do not understand or unfortunately refuse to understand. Still, it’s good that classes like this are explaining this to students so more younger people can grasp gender and sex differences. I included a post on my blog about the importance of knowing the difference and how it relates to our present world’s medicinal practices, according to Stanford University. 

The second post on my blog is about one of the fictional books we read and discussed this summer, titled Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak. I’m not going to dive into the details about how the story went because we all read the book; however, I am going to address Peri, the main character, and how social construction and essentialism impact her as she grows up and transitions to her life as a student at Oxford University. I reposted something from another student, which is a drawing of a woman holding her own face and staring at it. I like what the student wrote because they said she is a people pleaser, and many times she puts on a mask and does what she needs to do. This is an accurate way to describe Peri because she is always doing what everyone tells her and being the person THEY want her to be, not who she wants to be herself. She even says it herself on page 72, when she writes she “understood and accepted that some daughters were born with a mission; to fulfill their fathers’ dreams” (Shafak 72). I see how social constructionism is present in her life because the Muslim beliefs her parents follow and want HER to follow tells her she needs to act one way, go to college, find a man to show off, etc. Society is constructing how they want Peri to grow up, but she faces issues with binary thinking because she doesn’t know who she wants to be or what side she wants to live on; she claims she wishes there was a third path for people like her. She’s stuck between living the way she wants to live with the people she wants to live with or following her parent’s and society’s wishes and be a good Muslim woman like she is “supposed” to. 

As I reference essentialism, I added another post to my blog to further explain my introduction to the topic. It includes a graphic of a person surrounded by quotes like, “You are so well spoken for a….” and “Yeah, but you are born with a tolerance for…!” Although I explained it in my post, specific groups of people get these essentialistic questions all the time. Some live their life believing these stereotypes and thinking people have to look or feel one way. For example, in this class, we spoke about how most people in history thought women HAD to reproduce to continue the family line and teach their daughters womanly duties in the household. At the same time, their sons go out into the field and work. This idea followed humanity through the years, and unfortunately, many people today still expect that’s what women are going to do and the path they need to follow. Even in my life experiences, I’ve had people say things to me like, “You won’t be good at that because you’re a girl” and “Shouldn’t you be making us sandwiches?” or however it was phrased. People have been trained to think this set thing about what women can do and what men can do, and it’s moved through history and is still impacting us in present times. After this post, I included an article about why we stereotype and how to combat essentialist views.

Straying away from essentialism and getting back into social constructionism, I learned a lot about what this means from the annotations we did throughout the course. In The Treatment of Bibi Haldar by Lahiri, Bibi is considered “sick” and cannot fulfill the duties she is expected to fill as a woman. Bibi is acting like the only way she can be cured is by getting married. She's been conditioned to believe that all she has to do is find a man and her life would be set, and she is stuck thinking that she is suffering from this terrible "ailment" and is incurable. Throughout the story, Bibi is treated like an animal, and she is generally frowned upon, and in the end, she is even mistreated and raped. Stories like this show the unjust culture towards women and how men are worshipped over them and viewed as superior. Gender is seen as a social construction in this story because gender stereotypes say women are lost and useless unless she has a man by her side, just like Bibi. She was conditioned to think that that was the only way she was going to succeed in life. I thought this story was so sad and unfair, and this is only one of the many we read this semester where the female gender was stepped on and insulted. In another article we read by Kavita Ramdas titled Radical Women Embracing Tradition, she speaks about what happens when an Indian woman becomes widowed. This is a perfect example of how terribly men in some cultures impact women’s lives. The husband dies, the woman becomes a widow, and is automatically stripped of her beautiful cultural expression because of "tradition." This is all because she is no longer married; it almost seems like the tradition was formed because people believe women don't deserve their sari and bindi anymore once they aren't with a man. And on top of that, it doesn't matter who cares about it, because not even the men can save them in these horrible situations. Along with this, daughters of a very young age see these things happening and have to accept it and realize that one day that's where they will be because those are the terrible "rules about what it means to be female in this world." This is just another sad example of gender as a social construction because gender norms say that this is what has to be done. People believe that women need to have a man, and if they don’t, they are treated terribly because of the political and historical forces our society is built upon.

However, there are examples of light in this subject. I provided an example of combating stereotypes through my post about NYC police officer Aml Elsokary. She fought Muslim stereotypes by becoming a police officer and wearing her hijab prior to the 9/11 attacks when many people viewed innocent Muslim people as terrorists. In speaking about Islamic women and the veil, many non-Muslim feminists view this item of clothing as an oppressive act and epitomize Islam to be sexist. However, this is not an accurate depiction. The veil should be seen as a symbol of identity and modesty, etc. It's not correct in being a symbol of oppression contrary to popular belief across many cultures. People like Elsokary refute these ideas and risk their lives to be something others don’t think they can be. Another example of this is my 6th blog post with an article about gender norms and women’s political participation. It shows how more powerful women are stepping up into the political field and how more of them are gaining higher positions of power despite being female, which has been an issue in the past. Following this post, I included a chart about the number of women CEOs in the Fortune 500. In 2021, there are now 37 women CEOs, and in my Tumblr post, I speak about how this is inspiring and helpful for our future of equality because these women are changing the world slowly but surely. A perfect example of this inflation is another student’s post that I added to the blog. She explained that her mom worked right after she turned two months old, and in the beginning, she was one of few women in the industry; now, she is surrounded by many other successful women in the field. In terms of gender as a social construction, these examples all defy gender roles and stereotypes about what women can and can’t do. With all of the poor treatment of women due to society’s ideas, many women go over the top to combat these issues to prove women are more than equal to men.

Although there are efforts of change like this, the main thing I got out of this class is that, although we’re closer, we are still not quite at full equality of men and women. Women need to work harder to get in the same spot, explained in my second to last blog post. Because gender is a social construction, it’s difficult for women to overpower “superior” men and gain the power and authority that men have since that is unheard of in history. But, in the future, I hope none of it will matter! I don’t want to hear more stories about women being killed and raped because they are women or denied jobs because they are female. I want to hear about more women CEOs, more women cops, more powerful women contributing to our society as influential individuals who don’t let social constructionism stop them. Gender norms and stereotypes will be abolished in the future because I can see humanity getting better and better through everything we read this semester. I want to thank Dr. Richard for teaching this course this summer because I learned things about women that I did not know before and heard stories that really made me sit back and think about what it means to be a woman. Thank you.

[dailyaudiobible]

05/20/2021 DAB Transcript

1 Samuel 26:1-28:25, John 11:1-54, Psalm 117:1-2, Proverbs 15:22-23

Today is the 20th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I'm Brian it's great to be here with you today, great to take the next step forward in the Scriptures. So, let's dive in. We’ve been working our way through first Samuel and we’ll actually be completing First Samuel in tomorrow's reading and then moving on inro Second Samuel but let’s like not get ahead of ourselves. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. First Samuel 26, 27, and 28 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we mentioned at the beginning today, we’re nearing the end of First Samuel. We will conclude first Samuel tomorrow and then move into second Samuel. Of course, these were all the same text at one point, but there’s kind of a marker there because once we move into Second Samuel, we’ll be focusing on...on David whereas we've been heavily focused in first Samuel on Israel's first king, Saul. And we've seen how irrational…I mean we watched the whole reign right up until this point. We’ve seen the erratic behavior. We’ve seen him be irrational. We’ve seen him to be tremendously fearful of…of people's opinions. We've seen his paranoia and the way that he feeds into the conspiracy theory that David is out to kill him and take over the kingdom. And we’ve also watched David on the run. We met him as just a shepherd boy, just a young good-looking kid go into the battlefield and then he gets thrust into the national spotlight after killing the giant Goliath. And Saul and David, their lives are intertwined from that point forward. I mean…just…Saul has brought out a lot of growing up in David. Like he had to grow pretty fast and had to truly actually learn how to become a warrior, not just a confident kid, like a actual warrior to be stealthy enough to...to run for his life and preserve his life and have places to…to defend himself etc. etc. We’ve watched all that happen in David's life. So, he has been changed dramatically because Saul's in his life and he has grown up because of it. And we've seen how David has an effect on Saul because although David is faithful and loyal and would not touch God's anointed, Saul sees him as a threat that has to be eliminated. And even after David had spared Saul's life a couple of times when he could have absolutely killed him, Saul just…he doesn't relent. David finally realizes like, “eventually…eventually no matter how good I am…I mean…how…how long can I be 100%? Like because that one time I'm 99% right, he's gonna kill me.” And, so, he defects to the Philistines and at least appears to be a Philistine to the Philistines. And, so, Israel and the Philistines are going to go into battle and David is told he and his men have to go as Philistines into battle against the Israelites. And he says, “I will do that.” And they begin the march. Meanwhile, Saul's trying to get the word of the Lord on this forthcoming battle and God is not answering him and so we see Saul and going to a medium to conjure up the spirit of Samuel from the dead. And ironically that happens. Samuel is conjured of from the dead. The spirit of Samuel appears before Saul and they have a conversation. And it's not the conversation Saul might have hoped for. It's a conversation that tells Saul that he will be in the land of the dead within the next day. He will join Samuel in the land in the realm of the dead within the next day. And, so, that’s like the last thing Saul wants to hear. And, so, one more time he's freaked out. And, so, as we leave the story today David and his men are marching with the Philistines as Philistines toward a battle with his own people with the Israelites against King Saul and his army and Saul has been informed that he's gonna lose the battle and die in the battle and tomorrow we will see how this story plays out.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word. We thank You for every life, every person that we've been able to meet in the Scriptures, every person who has gone before us as…as spiritual ancestors as it were. We watched their lives. Sometimes we don't understand their customs. It's thousands of years ago but when we look deeper at their lives, they’re human beings with the same motivations and the same desires that we have. And, so, we watch. Like we watch king Saul and his insecurities, and it brings so near our own insecurities and how much disruption to our lives they have caused. And, so, as we continue to meet people, as we continue to watch people, we invite Your Holy Spirit to use their lives as a mirror into our own lives. And we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its home of the Global Campfire that we come around every day. And, so, be sure to check it out. Stay tuned, stay connected.

Check out the resources that are available in the Daily Audio Bible shop. They exist, they are there for this specific journey that we are on through the Bible in a year. And, so, check that out.

Also, check out the Community section. That’s where the Prayer Wall is. That's how to get and stay connected on social media for a virtual world that we are in and a virtual community that we are in. That's a good thing to know about, how to stay connected. And, so, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. And I can't…I can't…I mean I can't thank you enough. We wouldn’t have a Global Campfire. We wouldn't be here together taking this journey if it wasn't a journey that we were on together. And, so, thank you humbly and deeply, graciously for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can at the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi, this is a Daily Audio Bible person that’s never called in before. Been listening for three years and I just hear all the wonderful prayers…prayers that have been answered and I ask for prayer for my family and my husband, that his heart would just be solely unto God, that we can connect together with our finances, that I fear telling him because he gets so angry but yet he has…likes to spend. And I’m trying to keep things together. It’s not that we can’t afford things, but I don’t want the debt because God has called us not to be in debt. And I ask for prayer of peace from the Holy Spirit. I cannot stop him doing these things alone and that is why I’m calling in for prayer. I will go with the name of Peace and Grace in My Heart and I appreciate everything Brian and his family does and just keep prayer and family. Amen. Thank You.

Hello DAB family this is Michael Rowing the Boat Ashore, and I just listened to the May 17th Daily Audio Bible and Brian’s commentary and the reading resonated with me so profoundly as I am 55 years old and three years blind. I truly believe that my blindness is a blessing because it brought me back from a life of destruction and brought me closer to God. And I can now see what I couldn’t see when I could see and that is an amazing thing to know. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you to Brian and the Hardin family for this ministry. God, bless. I love you all. Michael Rowing the Boat Ashore. Hallelujah.

Hi this is Victoria Soldier calling to pray for some of the DABbers. I want to pray for Jonathan’s wife, also the precious sister who is pregnant and in the hospital with COVID, I want to pray for…for…for my sister. I want to also pray for the young woman who’s pregnant in college and is trying to decide over whether…to…keeping her baby. Lord I just ask that you have your way and get her to keep him, and you provide abundance for her…to…that…abundance in every…every special way. I want to pray for Nathan from Bloomington, Illinois, his friend whose got COVID and he got the bacteria and who’s a different person. We want to pray that he be the person God wants him to be, that God can heal him. I want to pray also for…for Dana who works at the manufacturing company and with those bullies. I’ve been there, Dana and God is able. He’s able to do exceedingly. You hang in there, you keep praying and you…you start laying hands on desks. When you pass by lay your hands on their desk or wherever their little workplace and just keep on moving. God will… God will move them or…or…or move their attitude. I want to pray for Jasmine and…and…and tell her thanks for…and I’ve been praying and praying for them and I’m just so glad and I’m gonna keep on praying so God does the final on her husband in Canada our missionary. I want to pray for Candace and…and just tell her, praise God that her son has…has…has given up alcohol. God is able to do exceedingly abundantly. Gracious father, we just praise you today, we just ask you to touch Jonathan’s precious wife, we just ask you to touch the other man with the Covid, we ask you to touch the other names Lord. Oh God, you’re a God that can do anything but fail. Oh God, I just praise you and magnify you because you are a God that can do anything. Lord, we just ask You to have Your way. We just ask You to do it Your way. Your divine will, Your divine plan. We just ask You to have Your way in the life...

Hey this is Paper Clip, Annette Allison’s son. I just want to say that I’m thankful to God and to my mother and everybody who supported me. In my crazy journey of about 10 years ago I got caught in a drug case and didn’t exactly do what I was supposed to do and 10 years later here I am. My lawyer just called me and by the grace of God and the mercy of the court my case was dismissed. So, I am walking today a free man no longer living in fear thanks to God. Honestly, that’s the only thing I can say, is thanks to God. So, I’m happy to say that and I…I can’t wait to start my new journey in life. And there’s always hope for those who doesn’t…that don’t think that there’s any hope at all. So, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. So, just remember that. Thanks guys, thanks God, thanks everybody.

Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus we ask for deliverance for Ashland from Adelaide. Her auntie and her brother Ryan we ask that both of them, that You would meet them right where they are in the darkness, in the anxiety, in the struggle, in the pain, in the hardness of heart and we ask in the name of Jesus that You will bring deliverance from darkness, anxiety, hardness of heart and anything else Lord that is standing in the way between him and You. And I pray that they would hear that You are knocking on the door to their heart and I pray that they will open it Lord and let You in and let You in and find Your freedom and Your love and Your power and Your deliverance in the name of Jesus. Please give Ashland peace and help her to persevere in prayer and to love on her family. You have placed her right where she is for such a time as this. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Family this is Shannon from Salem Oregon. I would like to ask for your prayers for me as this has just been a heavy heavy school year. I’ve done a lot of suicide risk assessments in my role as an elementary school counselor and today I attended a…a suicide prevention training called QPR. And it was really good, but I’m just realizing like, I’ve had such a heavy dose of this topic this School year. And in the last three weeks been involved in two very serious suicide risk assessments for students that I am working with and their families. And it takes it’s toll on me. But at the same time, I seek…

[sinrau]

Let me start by saying that anyone that’s known me for most of my young adult through adult life KNOWS that I have been through a lot of rough s#t!! Some of it I undoubtedly brought on myself, but not until unspeakable things were inflicted on ME, and I drown it all out in drugs and alcohol….I can tell you the EXACT MOMENT when I threw my hands up in the air and said ‘F^K IT’, they’ve already taken everything from me, so why do I care what I do, or how I hurt myself, it cannot be any worse than THIS!!

That’s was the turning point in my life, I was 15, BTW!! It lead me down and dark, tragic, and ugly road that has only somewhat recently opened up and brightened. But I digress…….

In that dark time….I married my daughter’s father, we were NOT good for one another and he was a terrifying and unpredictable man. The ENTIRE time I knew him, he was strung out. Pills at first, cocaine, then eventually settling on methamphetamines. He stayed awake longer than I ever thought possible. He threatened, hit, and held me at gunpoint more times than I can count. He eventually nailed all the doors and Windows shut/shuttered and basically held me prisoner at gunpoint for extended periods of time. I missed my cousin, Kristy Willis’s baby’s birth…..That was my life. For FAR TOO LONG!! I have a VERY THICK hospital/police records file to prove it.

I had grown accustomed to sleeping FULLY CLOTHED with shoes on my feet, with a spare car key hidden in my sock, so if I got the chance to dart out an open door and run….I had a fighting chance. He would hit me SO HARD that I would literally see ‘stars’ and I would have to pep talk myself and fight to stay awake and alert because I KNEW I was dead if I lost consciousness. I barely slept, he would kill me if I let my guard down, for some imaginary things he thought I did to wrong him while I was ASLEEP?!?? If I ever fell asleep

I would be awoken to him standing on my face kicking me with his steel toe work boots

This is just a SMALL sampling of events that took place in my life from 1997-2001.

Once Ashton Brooke was born, it wasn’t JUST my life anymore, and I finally got out with just my car, the clothes on my back, and my daughter. She was 6-7 months old. But that was JUST THE BEGINNING of running, hiding, changing my name, trying to survive in a new bigger city (Birmingham, AL) without ANYTHING. No money, no shelter, no job, NOTHING. It was the scariest time in my life. MUCH SCARIER than Scott playing Russian Roulette with the gun and my head….because NOW I had a second little life to worry about. To make sure SHE WAS SAFE, warm, fed, taken care of….

I say all of this today not for pity, I can count on ONE HAND the amount of people that know even a partial piece of my story. I do not like to talk about. It’s VERY personal and makes me feel WEAK. I say ALL OF THIS because I am so TIRED of people that have NEVER been through any of it CONSTANTLY minimizing abuse.

My father has mid-stage dementia. He has become INCREASINGLY violent with my sweet, soft-spoken, naïve, mother, Darlene Turner Parton. I love her to death, but the whole situation is frustrating. And when his friends and family are constantly saying “Oh, he doesn’t understand!” Or ‘He would never really hurt you’ OR ‘All he REALLY did was ‘X’ I CALL BULLSHIT!!

I understand that he is sick. But that DOES NOT change the fact that my mother never knows if he going to try to kill her in her sleep. Or stab her when he loses things and blames her. Or throw her down, chase her with a hatchet through the house, drag her by her hair, etc, etc, etc. (All of these latter events have taken place-in some form) Just because he is sick and doesn’t understand the repercussions DOES NOT make it ANY LESS SCARY for my mother. In fact it would probably make me a little more uneasy than someone sane. Sane people understand cause and effect. He doesn’t anymore. It is BEYOND sad and frustrating. And we seem to be at a very shaky and unanswered crossroads.

But the NEXT one of my Mom’s step-kids (Dad’s children) that says ‘Oh, he didn’t REALLY hurt her’. Ohhhh. I’m gonna lose it!!

No, you’re right. He didn’t really PHYSICALLY hurt her THIS time. But emotionally she is a WRECK. Heck, I am a wreck lately. Always worried about the health Andy safety of them both. But she is now living in a constant state of fear. It is a constant uneasy, unpredictable, scary life to live. And she shouldn’t have to live in fear of her life, her well-being, her safety. With him sick or not sick!!! Her pain and HER FEAR are here and they are REAL!!!

And on a side note: I do not believe they actually give 2 f**ks about what happens to her, how it effects her, or what she has to endure. They just see $$ dollar signs and an old man who doesn’t know any better and will sign for them to get a brand new house and 2 brand new cars in his name. So they can not pay, screw the old man’s credit and steal his small Social Security Check each month to do whatever they want and know he doesn’t know what he is signing, he doesn’t remember what he is agreeing to, and he doesn’t have the mental capacity to legally sign documents anymore. But they absolutely do not care. Just like my parents have been married for over 45 years and as soon as they could physically get Dad, they took him and cleared out ALL of my parent’s joint bank accounts and transferred the SSI benefits to their account. It is the MOST degenerate and selfish things I’ve ever seen family do to one another. Those SSI benefits are the way the Mom takes care of Dad, doctors, medicine, power, phone, water bills, etc. Without it she is SO SCREWED. And she is a diabetic, without money for HER meds, she will DIE. Without money for power to keep the insulin cold, she WILL DIE!! And it became extremely apparent to me that this was the case and that none of them really seem to care about HIS well-being either. He went with one of his older children and grandchild to KY for about 4-6 months. In that time they NEVER once swapped his Medicare over or took him to the doctor. But they sure as hell made sure they forwarded his SSI check to their bank account and cleaned out all of the joint bank accounts. So DO NOT EVEN TRY to tell ME or anyone else that you are just ‘doing what is best for him’. NO!!!! You are doing what is best for YOU!

They all need to go the hell on if they do not want to Genuinely help him AND her have a better and safer end of life TOGETHER!!!

#IFTTT #WordPress

[gadgetgirl71]

Top Ten Tuesday 9 March 2021

Welcome to this weeks Top Ten Tuesday. Originally created by The Broke & The Bookish, which is now hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week it features a book or literary themed category. This weeks prompt is:

Spring Cleaning Freebie

(for example, books you’re planning to get rid of for whatever reason, book’s you’d like to clean off your TBR by either reading them or deciding you’re not interested, books that feel fresh and clean to you after winter is over, etc.)

The only reason I have chosen these book is because they have been on my TBR the longest.

A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding

Synopsis: ‘What and how much should I admit to myself, and to others? Should I begin with this acknowledgement: my daughter Yuko might be alive today if I had loved her in a different way?’

When a badly scarred man knocks on the door of Amaterasu Takahashi’s retirement home and says that he is her grandson, she doesn’t believe him. But if you’ve become adept at lying, can you tell when someone is speaking the truth?Amaterasu knows her grandson and her daughter died the day the Americans dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki; she searched for them amongst the ruins of her devastated city and has spent years burying her memories of that brutal summer. So this man is either a miracle or a cruel trick. The stranger forces Amaterasu to revisit her past; the hurt and humiliation of her early life, the intoxication of a first romance, the fierceness of a mother’s love. For years she has held on to the idea that she did what she had to do to protect her family… but now nothing seems so certain. We can’t rewrite history, but can we create a new future?

Set against the dramatic backdrop of Nagasaki before and after the bomb, A DICTIONARY OF MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING is about regret, forgiveness and the exquisite pain of love.

Sisters One, Two, Three

Synopsis: After a tragic accident on Martha’s Vineyard, keeping secrets becomes a way of life for the Tangle family. With memories locked away, the sisters take divergent paths. Callie disappears, Mimi keeps so busy she has no time to think, and Ginger develops a lifelong aversion to risk that threatens the relationships she holds most dear.

When a whispered comment overheard by her rebellious teenage daughter forces Ginger to reveal a long-held family secret, the Tangles’ carefully constructed web of lies begins to unravel. Upon the death of Glory, the family’s colorful matriarch, and the return of long-estranged Callie, Ginger resolves to return to Martha’s Vineyard and piece together what really happened on that calamitous day when a shadow fell over four sun-kissed siblings playing at the shore. Along with Ginger’s newfound understanding come the keys to reconciliation: with her mother, with her sisters, and with her daughter.

At turns heartbreaking, humorous, and hopeful, Sisters One, Two, Three explores not only the consequences of secrets—even secrets kept out of love—but also the courage it takes to speak the truth, to forgive, and to let go.

Earth’s Blood (Earth Reclaimed #2)

synopsis: Clinging to their courage in a crumbling world, Aislinn and Fionn vow to save Earth, no matter what it takes.

In a post-apocalyptic world where most people have been slaughtered, the Celtic gods and a few humans with magic are all that stand between survival and Earth falling into chaos. The combination of dark sorcery leveraged by the enemy is daunting. Destruction is all but certain if the small enclaves of humans who are left can’t get past their distrust of the Celts.

Captured by the enemy, Aislinn Lenear wonders if she’ll ever see her bond wolf or Fionn, a Celtic god, again. She’s had nothing but her wits to rely on for years. They haven’t failed her yet, but escape from her current predicament seems remote.

An enticing blend of dystopian urban fantasy and romance, this second volume of the Earth Reclaimed Series provides fertile ground for Aislinn and Fionn’s relationship to deepen. Headstrong and independent, the pair run up against each other’s demands time and time again. Fireworks spark. In the end, they learn to savor every moment in a bittersweet world where each day may well be the last.

Never Forgotten (Never Forgotten #1)

Synopsis: Risser keeps her focus on the little details of Meara’s everyday life, lending the book a nice, homey charm. The real heart of the book is Meara’s emotional struggle with her mother’s illness and her first romance. ~Kirkus Reviews

How can one day go so very wrong? One minute Meara Quinn is making plans for how she will spend the Summer before her senior year and the next she’s finding out that her mother’s cancer has returned and they are moving away from the only home she’s ever known.

Now every day is a struggle as Meara is trying to cope with her mother’s illness, being forced to move to another country to live with grandparents—whom she thought disowned her mother—and having weird visions of a father who was absent her entire life. Top it all off with one whopping secret that everyone seems bent on keeping from her, and Meara has the perfect ingredients for a major melt down.

The only things keeping her from coming unglued are some new friends and Evan—the son of her mother’s childhood friend—who seems to know Meara almost better than she knows herself.

Together with Evan and her friends, Meara embarks on a new journey to unlock the secrets that will not only tell Meara who she is, but what she is.

Sentimental Journey

Synopsis: The first book in Barbara Bretton’s beloved Home Front Series

It’s June 1943. From New York to California, families gather to send their sons and husbands, friends and lovers off to war. The attack on Pearl Harbor seems a long time ago as America begins to understand that their boys won’t be home any time soon.

In Forest Hills, New York City, twenty-year-old Catherine Wilson knows all about waiting. She’s been in love with boy-next-door Doug Weaver since childhood, and if the war hadn’t started when it did, she would be married and maybe starting a family, not sitting at the window of her girlhood bedroom, waiting for her life to begin.

But then a telegram from the War Department arrives, shattering her dreams of a life like the one her mother treasures.

Weeks drift into months as she struggles to find her way. An exchange of letters with Johnny Danza, a young soldier in her father’s platoon, starts off as a patriotic gesture, but soon becomes a long-distance friendship that grows more important to her with every day that passes.

The last thing Catherine expects is to open her front door on Christmas Eve to find Johnny lying unconscious on the Wilsons’ welcome mat with a heart filled with new dreams that are hers for the taking.

The Almost Wives Club

Synopsis: Five Brides–One Dress

Kate Winton-Jones is marrying one of America’s most eligible bachelors. Edward Carnarvon III is rich, handsome and hers. But at the final fitting of her wedding gown, one of the seamstresses pricks her and a tiny blood spot appears on the outrageously expensive gown. Its famous designer fires the clumsy seamstress on the spot, whereupon the girl puts a curse on the dress and storms out. Kate doesn’t believe in curses. She’s modern, American and in love with the perfect guy. What could go wrong?

But that very evening she meets a man who makes her question her future. And then she discovers that Edward has been hiding a secret or two… and before you can say, “This dress is so cursed,” she’s on the run from Edward, his family, her mother, the paparazzi and the person she thought she was.

When the man who discovers her hiding place turns out to be the last man she should trust, it’s time to throw her cautious good sense out with the satin shoes she won’t be wearing. Playing it safe hasn’t done her much good. Maybe it’s time to play by a new set of rules. Her rules.

Sometimes Prince Charming is the one who turns out to be the frog, and true love appears in the most unexpected places.

Follow the cursed dress through five sets of bridal hands as four more women join The Almost Wives Club.

The Amber Project

Synopsis: In 2157, a mysterious gas known as Variant spreads across the globe, killing or mutating most organic life. The surviving humans take refuge in an underground city, determined to return home. But after generations of failures and botched attempts, hope is beginning to dwindle. That is, until a young scientist makes a unique discovery — and everything changes. Suddenly, there’s reason to hope again, and it rests within a group of genetically engineered children that are both human and Variant.

Terry is one of these children, modified and trained to endure the harsh conditions of a planet he cannot begin to understand. After years of preparation, Terry thinks he knows what to expect. But the reality is far stranger than anything he can imagine — and what he will become is far more dangerous.

Dancer of the Nile

Synopsis: Egypt, 1500 BCE

Nima’s beauty and skill as a dancer leads an infatuated enemy to kidnap her after destroying an Egyptian border town. However, she’s not the only hostage in the enemy camp: Kamin, an Egyptian soldier on a secret mission for Pharaoh, has been taken as well. Working together to escape, the two of them embark on a desperate quest across the desert to carry word of the enemy’s invasion plans to Pharaoh’s people.

As they flee for their lives, these two strangers thrown together by misfortune have to trust in each other to survive. Nima suspects Kamin is more than the simple soldier he seems, but she finds it hard to resist the effect he has on her heart. Kamin has a duty to his Pharaoh to see his mission completed, but this clever and courageous dancer is claiming more of his loyalty and love by the moment. Kamin starts to worry, if it comes to a choice between saving Egypt or saving Nima’s life…what will he do?

Aided by the Egyptian god Horus and the Snake Goddess Renenutet, beset by the enemy’s black magic, can Nima and Kamin evade the enemy and reach the safety of the Nile in time to foil the planned attack?

Can there ever be a happy future together for the humble dancer and the brave Egyptian soldier who is so much more than he seems?

The Waiting Booth Box Set

Synopsis: Join Mia as she journeys to discover the truth in Whispering Woods. This box set contains three full novels.

The Waiting Booth (Book 1): A missing boy, government agents, an interdimensional portal… Mia has one goal for her senior year at Whispering Woods High—find her missing older brother. But when her science project reveals a portal into another dimension, she learns that travelers are moving in and out of her woods in the most alarming way and government agents Regulus and Arizona are policing their immigration.

Whisper of Memory (Book 2):  Weapons training and winter formals… a deadly combination . All Mia ever wanted was to fit in at Whispering Woods High. But being a portal-finder who dates a guy from another dimension sort of makes it hard. Between learning about weaponry, finding the perfect dress for the winter formal, and catching bad guys, who has time to fit in?

Watcher of Worlds (Book 3): Senior year should bring fun, friends, and happiness. Not portals, treachery, and murder. Seventeen-year-old Mia Taylor, gatekeeper to an interdimensional portal, wants nothing more than to heal from her romance gone wrong. Illegally falling for her co-worker Regulus had been a huge mistake. But when Regulus goes rogue to hunt down a murderer, Mia must forget her broken heart and use her unique abilities to save him.

Looking For Wonderland

Synopsis: Welcome to the world of Alice. At forty four, she’s a nurse who is burnt to a crisp by her job, has a family which makes dysfunctional look normal, and thinks valium should be handed out like lollies.

Alice knows things have to change. Calling on her two best friends for advice, they decide to try and find their life purpose. Alice hopes Pilates, yoga, and Oprah The DVD Box Set, may have some answers. Or does Dr. Botha, the hospital’s Infectious Disease Consultant, hold the key to Alice’s future?

As things begin to look brighter, a life changing event sends Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole, leaving her to wonder if she has missed her chances for happiness. Will she ever find her Wonderland?

Until next week.

#ttt #top ten tuesday #TopTenTuesday #justforfun

[malapkv]

Navaratri Mandapam-Trivandrum- You are missed sorely in 2020!

From 2015 through 2019-, if there was one event I would not miss, it was this. And I would invariably rant about it after coming back. Except for 2017, where the kucheri was just a few days after my father passing away-which I did not miss nevertheless.

This was an  “incountournable”treasure of a concert- for the ambience, for the aura, for everything divine about the place and above all for Sanjay Subrahmanyan of course - who, in 2019 ( if am not mistaken), had to use his left hand for the thaalam owing to an injury.

I remember how in 2016, I had a small tiff with my work managers on my absence for their “Saraswathi Pooja”- My priorities were clearly elsewhere :)

And somehow, if S.Varadarajan is not there, the experience seems incomplete even though the other stalwarts still make the experience out of the world ( As is evident in my write ups below).

I know a lot of things come in the way which make this kucheri difficult to attend -like Navaratri unmissable daily Pooja, work, school holidays, sold out tickets etc. But I never imagined that this year the event itself would not be possible:(

Two whole years seems like too long a wait-hoping we would be able to get back to this Trivandrum haven of ours in 2021.

*           Navaratri Mandapam 2019       *

I think there is an innate urge in all of us to lean on the past... on heritage...from time to time. We all would like to run away from the perils of the modern world into the safety of time tested tradition- it gives us comfort and peace. It is probably in search of this musical comfort that I attended the kucheri of ShriSanjay Subrahmanyan

at the Navaratri Mandapam for the 5th consecutive year. If I am not mistaken it was Saveri, Naatakurinji, Thodi, Kalyani and this year/today Sankarabharanam. Writing about Shri Sanjay could be considered a cliché . But then, the brilliance of his Shankarabharabam today - those manoeuvres of the raagam that blended with the soft lights of those oil lamps and the serenity in the heads of everyone who listened , some with eyes closed and some  as still as those flowers.... Shri Sanjay remains a mystic both in his usual “Effervescence -is -my -middle -name”  avatar and in a venue like this, with his “Rishi -like “ looks and that magic wand of tranquility he waves through his music

And it’s important to celebrate this mag/mus-ician, each time he conjures up his mus/mag-icFor the careful listener, lyrics are sacrosanct. And while Maharaja Swati Thirunal ( whose Navaratri Kritis are sung on these 9 days at the Navaratri Mandapam) composed in Sanskrit, his compositions are clearly different from other Sankrit compositions, for example those of Dikshitar. And these subtleties cannot be brought out any better than by a seasoned knowledgeable and dedicated performer like Shri Sanjay.... whose Devi Jagajjanani today will be on the list of his Shankarabaranesque signatures such as Buddhi Raadhu or Muthukumarayyane or Akshaya Linga Vibho.....

Anyone who screams internally with ecstasy at the Sanjay+Sankarabharanam combo would have had his/ her feast day tonight! Also, as a  Kathakali Rasika, I often dream of Shri Sanjay singing Kathakali padhams. His Aandolika Vaahane in Anandha Bhairavi was sort of a consolation for me... he singing in Malayalam plus the rhythmic singing which closely resembled a Kathakali padham. The heart saying “ Idhu mathiyallo”

Beyond the specifics of the music and musical brilliance, the personalities seated there including Shri Sanjay,Avaneeswaram S R Vinu( Violin)Nanjil Shri Arul( Mridangam) , Alathur Shri Rajaganesh ( Kanjira) the audience , the temple authorities, the window behind us through which the Raja used to watch the concert... it all seemed like we were re- playing an experience of a few centuries... almost like the DNAs of everyone- our ancestors who composed and performed such music, the kings who were patrons of our culture and everyone present to listen... the DNAs of them  in us were reactivated to completely relive the experience of the past.

It felt like we were our own ancestors from many centuries ago! Our time in this earth is but a speck of eternity. And it is up to us to choose how we would spend that time. For me, atleast one day in a year will be spent in this mellifluously mystical experience- with the feminine motifs of the Devi all over, with those ample flower decorations, with the soft sounds of the drizzle as the background ( like today) , with those completely engrossed rasikas in the traditional mundu, and with Shri Sanjay’s voice encompassing it all... those soft lamps and their lights, as I saw it, swayed to the Sankarabharanam today...In a venue where applause is prohibited ( because the music is considered an offering to the Divine) when  lit again and again, they will incessantly applaud and tell tales of one of the best Carnatic musicians ever, to the generations to come...

Navaratri Mandapam Concert 2018 of Shri Sanjay Subrahmanyan

The word Kalyani in Sanskrit means many things. It means “ beautiful, lovely, auspicious”. It also directly refers to the Goddess ( Parvati or Shakti) Today was a Kalyani evening, in every sense of the term. Kalyani ( beautiful) was the ambience. Soft oil lamps, ample flower decorations, the feeling of melting sand under the foot, leading to the Mandapam. Everyone dressed traditionally. Everyone transported to a bygone era , everyone trying to relive those days where light meant ONLY oil lamps. One could argue with me but something about the traditional set up including traditional clothes goes very well with traditional music - even if you are an agnostic,with this kind of a set up, you can feel an element of musical divinity pervading the atmosphere. Which cannot be found even in the best of performance auditoriums. In that sense the Navaratri Mandapam ambience is always pure “ Kalyani”. Kalyani ( auspicious) was the event. Day 2 of Navaratri. Shri Sanjay being accompanied by Trivandrum Shri Sampath on the violin. Nanjil Shri Arul on the Mridangam. And Vazhappally Shri Krishnakumar on the Ghatam. An unexpected team. Some new beginnings. Kalyani was the main raagam of the evening. Pahimam Shri Vaageeshwari being the Swati Thirunal Kriti. Shri Sanjay to us , is no more an individual whose music we will analyse. He is a phenomenon, whose magnificence is well beyond established- left only to be discovered. This “phenomenon “ensured that the raagam Kalyani flowed through the spaces which were left unfulfilled by the decorations in the Navaratri Mandapam. His Kalyani took many forms. The form of a Sampoorna raagam with all notes, with the capability to provide all nuances to the compulsive musical analyst.To a divinity struck soul, the music brought Kalyani,the Goddess to air. She could be felt not just as a Vigraham but as a force somewhere around the artists. And somewhere around us. A force which responded to us, which was compelled to be present there simply by the beauty of the Raagam that was being sung.Kalyani ( Goddess Parvati) was the evening. And finally Kalyani ( lovely) was this team.  Each player complemented the other and it was lovely to hear an unusual team together. Sometimes ( actually always) Kalyani is Shri Sanjay’s demeanour during a concert. While transporting everyone to a world of serious music, he sprinkles a bit of his cheer by connecting and converging with his audience - his electric smiles igniting more electric smiles in that quiet atmosphere, however never failing the solemnity. Auspiciously beautiful, and to linger forever- blessed by the Goddess and “touch wood”( literally and figuratively for Kerala temples mean a lot of wood  ) to all concerned- That Kalyani evening was formidably Kalyani - all the way!

Navaratri Mandapam Concert-  by Shri Sanjay Subrahmanyan

Mala Pkv·Tuesday, 11 October 2016·

Reading time: 5 minutes 632 reads

So what is this Navaratri Mandapam concert? It is an annual concert series that is held at the Navaratri Mandapam adjacent to the Padmanabhaswami temple in Trivandrum. This has been a 100 plus- year old festival where great musicians and stalwarts have performed. What’s so different about this concert from the others? I hear you ask. This is not a regular concert but one that happens as a “samarpanam” to the Goddess. So everyone including the artists and audience are expected to be adhering to norms- The gentlemen are to be in veshti/mundu and the women in sarees- the concert happens in front of the “Devi”’s sannadhi and no artifical lighting allowed. Tall oil lamps will light the concert platform that is  decorated elaborately with flowers. Nobody is allowed to clap or get up and leave half way through the concert-everyone leaves after the concert finishes and the rituals are complete for the deity. A tradition that is rigidly followed , and when adhered to, gives oneself and the air-a complete aura of divinity and that blissful feeling of traveling back in time.

Shri Sanjay Subrahmanyan, for those who do not know, is a South Indian classical vocalist, of the Carnatic tradition. He is a stalwart of the current times and regularly sings at the Navaratri Mandapam festival- At this festival, the songs sung are the compositions of Maharaja Shri Swati Thirunal- Who had composed many kritis- and specifically nine Kritis (songs)for the nine days of Navaratri.

 This year Shri Sanjay elaborated on the raaga Naatakurinji and the kriti was Pahi Janani.With that introduction to the novice, let me get into what this year meant to me. I am now part of a group of people that regularly attends Shri Sanjay’s concerts -we make schedules, form groups, have conference calls and hop cities, just to listen to him . Coming to think of it, its become sort of a cliche and one could easily wonder what’s so special about these experiences. What makes us want to do it over and over again?If I have to frame it in one line its that feeling of experiencing something “Larger Than Life”. Shri Sanjay Subrahmanyan is that wondrous artist, who NEVER takes his audience for granted. In tangible terms, it could be the choice of kritis, the work that goes into it, the audience-sensitive approach, the rare combination of genius+reach. But beyond all this, there is something larger than life to it. Something that makes the listener break down internally, all the elements merging into his music that fills the air. That sense of self- blurring in that “collective” atmosphere. That connect which just can’t be put in words or explained in alpha and beta terms. Something that makes you feel you have been extremely fortunate and handpicked to be part of that experience..Which is why, personally to me as a rasika, a Sanjay concert cannot be just a list of songs-

Yes we go there for the kritis, we love the raagams, we would love to delve deep into his swarams -and specifically in the Navaratri mandapam concert, his Bhaavam rules. You open your eyes, you can hear his voice provide perfect backdrop to that darkness lit by oil lamps. You close your eyes, you feel the bhaavam in his music which touches the innermost chamber of your soul....and you travel somewhere beyond Shri Sanjay’s mortal presence and  your mortal presence in that mandapam.  And in that realm, the details fade. It doesn’t matter whether he sings an unfamiliar raagam (Bhavapriya) or whether he sings something as familiar as Mamava Sadha Janani. With Shri Sanjay, it doesn’t matter!! For it all merges into ONE experience.:)))

HAVING SAID THAT I write this note because, I also received requests of details of the concert so here they are : Sarasijanabha - Khambodi Ada thala Varnam Mamava Sada - Kanada Palaya Sada - Nalinakanti Mamava Asrita - Bhavapriya Pahi Janani - Natakurinji Bhavaye - Punnagavarali Karuna Nidhan - Charukesi Reena Madaanuta - Behag

And what musicians, we are fortunate to listen to along with Shri Sanjay. Shri Varadarajan Santhanam whose excellence seems to be peaking with each passing concert-He takes the  experience to whole new levels, as the regular listener can easily gage. Shri Varadu is not just that stalwart violinist, he is also that rasika, who along with us completely enjoys the experience, and he always speaks like a rasika too. Do not be surprised when you hear “The concert was awesome” from him after the concert-For its that essential rasika in him that speaks :) Nanjil Shri Arul and Shri Sudheer on the mridangam and ghatam respectively,those undertones that were sheer suddha shruthi to the ears. And in that lamp -lit darkness, the tone-perfect percussion provided the perfect balance to the bhaavam emerging from the vocals and the violin.

And our favorite Vidwan Neyveli B Venkatesh sir, had also joined us as a rasika, we all sat in silence as this larger than life experience unfolded in those couple of hours. I would recommend this experience to any rasika of pure music, and particularly every fan of Shri Sanjay and his team. This experience is worth leaving behind your kolus for a few hours, whereas it would be a major regret if you don’t have the experience even once in your lifetime :) And as I reminisce on last year’s Devi Paavane in Saveri, and this year’s Pahi Janani in Naatakurinji, I know my drives and waits and spaces in time would be filled by the recordings of these, discussions and debates with fans from everywhere and particularly God’s Own Country- for the next 365 days... And I await more precious raagams and renditions from this team in the years to come. And we will continue to form friendships, make memories and travel for, by and of Shri Sanjay’s music.....And continue to break down in uncontrollable tears like I did for his beautiful Bhavapriya 48 hours back...

Navratri Mandapam concert of Shri Sanjay Subrahmanyan :2015

First of all no snaps are allowed to be shot  here - so let me try to " paint a picture " using words  Imagine a vintage mandapam adjacent to the Padmanabhaswami temple. Complete with the ancient Kerala style sloped tiles -and the " old world" feel maintained. The only trace of modernity being the detector which detects if you are carrying anything unwanted or prohibited inside the premises. Before you enter you are required to deposit your bags in the cloak room, change to traditional wear - sarees for women and dhotis for the men. The menfolk are not allowed to wear shirts so they can be seen clad in the vasthrams - the traditional way. So even as you enter ,your mind is tuned to the " times that were"  and you stand in a queue to reach the sannadhi of Devi.

The gabled roof as you can see is decorated with flowers- you see tall traditional lamps at all corners - and you walk past , go to the sannadhi of Devi , get Her Dharshan walk around again across the floor covered with pure sand. Go around again and take your seats on the floor right opposite a wall with a painting a of the Devi and her lion. A space of about 3 feet between the audience and the performers. Lights just enough to ensure the artists are seated and then the lights are off. One is back to the ancient times of the world - softly lit by oil lamps . T

There is a certain effect when the entire concert by Shri Sanjay is listened to, in this ambience - whether you believe in the Divine or not, you will feel a sure and certain sense of divinity slowly crawling beneath your veins and finally overwhelming you. The team was Shri Varadarajan on the violin, Shri Harikumar on the Mridangam and Shri Rajaganesh on the Kanjira. There was also a Ghatam artist who looked like he regularly played exclusively at that venue. ( Shri P.L Sudheer )With that tone for the concert set, imagine Shri Sanjay's priceless Kalyani, Anandha Bhairavi, Natakurinji, Khamas, Kapi, Surati, ( to name a few)flowing one after the other with Maharaja Swati Thirunaal's lyrical beauty.

With the RTP being in Saveri as already published. Shri Sanjay did not change the way he usually presents. The same pot pourri of elegance, alternation of pace between super fast and slow chowkam, the same demeanour of joy that he usually exudes and the same eye contact with his audience despite the low lights.But somehow, the oil lamps, the soft natural lighting, the painting of the Goddess which is the background for the performers and the near- darkness enhances the concentration and therefore the sounds of the voices and the instruments sound like something is being played in our sub conscious brains, somewhere in a state of meditation. Thoughts and observations stay out of the mind, the mind is tuned to a meditative state and therefore Shri Sanjay's singing takes a " viswaroopam" and it sounds ten times more pleasing than it normally would.

Shri Varadarajan's violin sounding like how music would sound in Heaven and one could even clearly hear the Shruthi or the tone to which the percussion piece is being performed by the superlative percussionists.Without the distraction of lights , scenes that unfold due to lights, thoughts that take over due to the scenes that unfold,and all the noise that follows in the mind-All that one could see,was focused " lost in time and space" listeners - and the entire atmosphere being tuned to Shri Sanjay's musical depth.And for us -the mad chennai listeners, we were so tempted to applaud loud after each piece but here is a place where no applause is allowed since the rendition is for the Goddess- another unique feature!

Pure meditative listening with the music sounding enhanced by divinity -this is an experience that no fan of Shri Sanjay and his team should ever miss - even if it means you got to travel several miles across the globe- The saveri will linger to eternity just as any other raagam that he sang will. And finally, if an event can be included in the wonders of the world, this would be IT!

#navaratrimandapam sanjaysub sanjaysubrahmanyan

[woodworkingpastor]

Sunday, May 17, 2020 -- Fifth Sunday after Easter -- New Roommates -- John 14:18-23

This has been an interesting worship service to plan and sermon to write, to say the least.  Like so many of our plans these days, once we think we know what is appropriate for the times we’re in, something else comes along and offers compelling reasons to look at different options.  These are unsettled, even stormy times, and we’re all tossed about a bit.

This morning’s text comes from the proposed Compelling Vision for the Church of the Brethren, a statement that was to be the major item of business at this summer’s Annual Conference.  Plans for Annual Conference have changed as well, and everything is on hold until 2021. The Compelling Vision statement itself, however, comes from a process that seeks to energize the Church of the Brethren to rise to the challenge of proclaiming Jesus in our lives, congregations, communities, and world today. It’s something we gave great thought to earlier this year at our congregational retreat with Paul Mundey. (Do you remember that weekend? It seems like a million years ago, doesn’t it!)

An unexpected connection with this text is that is almost identical to today’s Gospel Lectionary text for the Sixth Sunday of Easter.  The liturgical calendar helps us to mark our time not by the secular calendar nor by Hallmark holidays, but by the major events in Jesus’ life. Frankly, it is easy to forget that we are in the season of Easter; it feels so much more like Lent.  But today is marked as the Sixth Sunday of Easter. This Thursday is Ascension Day, the day that Jesus was taken up into heaven, and event that will be the focus for worship next Sunday, May 24.  And then the Sunday after that, Gina Wright-Hawkins will bring the sermon on Pentecost Sunday, the giving of the Holy Spirit to the church. These details are more than just another way of labelling the Sundays, they remind us that every aspect of our living is defined by our relationship with Jesus—even the way we talk about the Sunday of the year.

If you think carefully about our Scripture text, one detail that makes it feel especially significant for this Sunday of 2020 is that the dialogue itself comes from Maundy Thursday. If there is a limitation to putting so much emphasis on the Love Feast service, it might be that we forget that John includes three more chapters of information about what Jesus talked about with the disciples on that evening.  In that conversation the disciples are beginning to really understand that Jesus’ time on earth is coming to an end, and they wonder what this will mean for them.  Humans deal with this question all the time, don’t we?  A loved one dies and the rest of the family has to figure out what they do with all the traditions and patterns and relationships. Sometimes the question involves basic practical matters, like who will host Christmas dinner and who will bring mom’s “famous” dish.  Other times the issue is whether or not the family will continue to get together at all—the person who died was the one reason they continued to meet as a group.

In John 14 Jesus tells the disciples what will happen on Easter Sunday and in the days after.  His death will not be the end, but it will represent a change. But even in that change, there will be relationship.  The next two Sundays of worship begin to define what that change and relationship will involve.

The basis of the change: love

The basis of the relationship that we have always had with Jesus is love.  But we want to see what this love is, and what it is not.

The love we have for Jesus is not a love that is earned through what we do. We call this works righteousness, and it is the basis for nearly every other relationship we have in life.  We do something, and we get something in return. We put in the practice and we gain a skill; we do good work, put in the hours, and we get a paycheck and a promotion or a good grade and a degree. We also understand the opposite—if we don’t do the work, if we don’t put in the practice, then we also get what we’ve earned, and this time it’s a bad thing.

Theologians call this retribution theology: if you do right then God will always reward you, and if you do wrong then God will always punish you.  The thing is, neither God nor life works that way. In fact, everything we get from God is based on God’s grace.  All our works are insufficient because we begin from a place of such fundamental brokenness.  Some of the coarsest language of the Bible is reserved for describing our attempts to earn God’s love:

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.  We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away (Isaiah 64:6).

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ (Philippians 3:8)

 Sometimes in worship we offer a prayer of confession that includes these words:

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

The bottom line is that we cannot earn God’s love through our own efforts.  We are too spiritually broken and powerless.

What we can do, however, is demonstrate our love for God by keeping commandments. We know from any relationship that saying, “I love you,”—even proclaiming it loudly—only goes so far if the rest of the evidence we offer tells a different story. Our words and our actions both need to be in alignment.

Obedient love is the long-term living out of the relationship that takes the relationship seriously.  A life together is something we have invested in, with the give and take this assumes. And so Jesus tells the disciples,

they who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them (John 14:21).

That revealing will be by Jesus and the Father making their home with us.

At home with us

One of the most remarkable aspects of the Christian faith is that there is even more to this life that we share than being raised from the dead!  

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1).

It occurs to me that this can be interpreted as either a threat or a promise!  It’s nice to think that once we’ve accepted Christ then we’ve done all we need to do. We have, in one sense.  

But we are not saved to sit around! And so if we are prepared to understand that there is more to this life after we are saved, then Jesus’ promise is a remarkable thing.  We’re just starting out on this journey!

So let’s think for a bit about the word “home.” What does it mean for Jesus to say that he and the Father will make their “home” with us?  Home is the place where life happens—laughter, tears, anger, frustration, reconciliation, etc.  And one of the things we learn about people who share our home are the aspects of their character: their likes and dislikes, their habits and interests, we even begin to anticipate their reactions and their presence. We shape one another as we share our home.

When Jesus tells us that he and the Father will make their home with us, one obvious benefit of this relationship is to form us to be like Jesus.  We will learn to think like Jesus and to act like Jesus and to love like Jesus.  This will challenge and shape our relationships with those around us, both members of our faith community and others outside the family of faith.

This is significant in part because “home” has a community aspect to it as well—town, city, etc.  It is not just personal; it also impacts others.  This is where the missional aspect of the Compelling Vision statement comes in, as we seek to have “home” extend outward into the communities we call home.

Seek the welfare of the city

We’ve been stuck at home for a long time, and we’re starting to really feel it.  We are in good company here. God had a message to another group of people who were stuck in unfamiliar circumstances, writing to the exiles in Babylon to

seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare (Jeremiah 29:7)

This anticipates God’s heart for us: encouraging us to find ways to think and pray and act with an outward focus. I have thought for some time that the experiences of God’s people from this portion of the Scripture are instructive to us; it’s even more clear to me now how they might be.  One of our tasks over the coming weeks and months will be to discern how to be the church in this season of social distancing.  We don’t have many answers to that today, which frustrates us.  But we have a relationship with the one who has promised to make his home with us. We have the power of prayer.  So let us commit to study and prayer, seeking God’s guidance to be the church in this time.

[ciathyzareposts]

Missed Classic: A Mind Forever Voyaging – Jewel of the Quad-State Area

Written by Joe Pranevich

A Mind Forever Voyaging isn’t like any game that I have played before. It takes its time introducing you to the characters and the plot, encouraging you to explore rather than setting out a stream of puzzles for you to solve. It is content to follow its own rules. I absolutely love that Infocom is unafraid to experiment with their conventions; it makes their games a joy to experience for the first time. If you think back on how different Deadline and Suspended were from the puzzle-adventures that preceded them, you have an inkling for how I feel experiencing this game for the first time. It might even be a game that is best experienced in a second playthrough. As I wrap up another five or so hours of playing, I am just now seeing the shape of the game that Steve Meretzky has built and it is impressive. I’m just not sure yet how it will play out as an “adventure game” and whether I will run out of patience before I run out of game. Only time will tell.

As we left off last week, I had just entered the 2031 simulation for the very first time with a set of tasks to complete, nine events or places that I need to make recordings of, and return them to my boss/creator, Dr. Perelman. I had mapped out 30 locations, but it was only the tip of the iceberg. This is a big game, the first that has come close to the 150+ rooms of the original mainframe Zork. Welcome to Rockvil, the “Jewel of the Quad-State Area”!

Even without obstacles, this took several hours to map.

Talking about this game will be more difficult than most. At least so far, the setting rather than the puzzles or the characters is the most important aspect of the game. Most games can be discussed chronologically, even if we skip some of the details to help the narrative flow. This game has its plot beats, but much of how I am coming to feel about it is based on the softer experience of a world begging to be explored. A less capable designer would not have been able to pull this off. Meretzky took the way I felt slowly exploring the abandoned base in Planetfall and expanded on it. It’s not a lonely world, it’s one that is full of little moments and characters going about their days. And yet, I’m not sure that I can convey this experience as well as I could if it were a plot-based game.

I spent hours mapping out every location in the city. I count just shy of 150 distinct locations, but I may have missed some here or there. The map that was included with the game helped a great deal, but it was designed to be insufficient. For one thing, the map is of Rockvil in 2021, but the simulation takes place a decade later and some features have changed somewhat. It also fails to document the majority of the stores and alleyways in the game, the warren of pedestrian passages through skycar lots and parks, and all of the other twists and turns that are so critical for getting from place to place quickly. Was mapping all of this necessary? I honestly have no idea. The manual recommends mapping so I am treating this like a traditional adventure, but it remains to be seen how I will use it as the game progresses.

Let me walk you through the city as I came to explore it, starting in the center, heading southwest, and then working clockwise:

The game opens in Kennedy Park, a green space in a downtown business and administrative district. This is where we find “Main Street”, city hall, a hospital, a post office, a courthouse, and a public library. There are also restaurants as well as buildings that we cannot (yet) enter. The eastern side of the area includes Rockvil Mall and “Heiman Village”, an enclosed mixed-use residential/retail area. Although we have a mall, we can’t seem to buy anything there although there are “joybooths” that I can play around with later. 

A college district, Halley University, is off to the west and includes low-cost restaurants for students and places to hang out. We can visit the dorms and a lecture hall, but there’s not too much to do. It is bordered to the north by Halley Park and a museum. 

North of there and a bit clockwise, we reach a district with entertainment options including a zoo, a stadium (with three skycar parking lots!), and an aquarium. In the outskirts of town, we also find an overcrowded prison and a high school. Despite what my 1985-self may have thought, those two are not the same thing. The school has its own large athletic field nearby. Also hidden away in this area is a Methodist Church and a dental school. 

In the far northeast of the map is a military base that I cannot enter and the international airport before it reaches the river which makes the eastern boundary of the simulation. The river incidentally is the Little Missouri River, a real river in the Dakotas. More on that in a bit. This northern part of the river is home to a cultural district including a symphony, several theaters, and a cinema overlooking a river park. This is also the location of “Bodanski Square”, the only place in the city where you can buy a newspaper. At the southern edge of this area is St. Michael’s church and a large cemetery. 

The southeast and south sections of the city are “the other side of the tracks”, literally. A seedy pier area contains a bar and a pool hall, while further south is the power station, industrial areas, and warehouses. Houses here are row houses in the north, but quickly becoming run down tenements as you head further south. There is also a strangely-nice used bookstore tucked in here, the only bookstore in the city. The text even remarks on how strange it is to find such a great little bookstore in such a seedy area. 

They don’t have Google Maps in 2021.

Although the environment is huge and very well-built, it’s also shallow. Nearly every place that you visit is in a single “room”: the post office, the stadium, etc. You need to use your imagination to see these are lived-in places, but the descriptions are evocative enough that you your mind’s eye can fill in the details. Infocom really did put their graphics where the sun didn’t shine! The game would have been even more unwieldy if every interior location had a half-dozen rooms and this feels like a necessary compromise. Only a handful of locations are given more than one room. Off the top of my head, I can only think of the mall and the hospital, both with two rooms.

Although we explore Rockvil in 2031, Meretzky keeps the sci-fi to a minimum. It’s not retro enough to be retro-futurism, instead just a light coat of future-paint on top of 1985. Cars are largely replaced by aircars, although our character doesn’t appear to own one and the streets are still designed for terrestrial vehicles, including a highway to the west. Cash transactions are gone, entirely replaced by credit cards. Even the city’s stock market is closed thanks to the advent of electronic trading. And yet, that’s pretty much it. My character (as we will see in a bit) doesn’t own a computer and still uses a standalone word-processor which must have seemed quaint even in the 80s. This makes the environment feel relatable even though it is 46 years later, although some of the choices are mildly distracting to someone in 2018. Overall, it comes together to good effect.

Alas, I doubt we will have flying cars by 2031, but at least we have the Internet.

My apartment is located in the southwest portion of the city, a short walk from the college district. I have to use my key to get in and I remember to set up my recording because that was one of my goals. Inside is Jill, an artist with a partly-completed painting in our (?) living room. She was Perry’s girlfriend in virtual 2021 in the manual; it looks like we’ve become much more in the last ten years. She asks whether I’ve heard back from my agent, but I say no. The apartment is small, but there’s a surprise inside: a baby in a crib tucked away in our bedroom. It really pulls on the heartstrings. As a father, I’m going to be very upset if this virtual baby in this virtual world gets hurt. I hope Mr. Meretzky doesn’t go there for a cheap emotional response.

This both confirms some things and confuses some others. The “future” 2031 is an extrapolation of my (Perry’s) life had he continued living in the simulation to 2031. He has a wife and a kid. Was Jill a real person? Is she a conscious AI like Perry is? Or just a construct? If it took 10 years to simulate Perry to his 20th birthday, and this is a continuation of that original simulation, how did they get to 2031 in such a short time? Does Perry have memories of the last ten years? Or is he just as surprised as I am to find that Jill is his wife? How does he feel knowing his girlfriend is not real? How does he feel knowing his baby is not real? There are a ton of implications in this exchange that I cannot even begin to fathom.

With the city mapped, I start gathering up the rest of my recordings. For the most part, they go quickly:

My first goal is to attend a court in session, but it just underscores that I’m not sure I’m doing the recordings properly. Once at the courthouse, there is a woman there being charged with petty theft. I cannot talk to her or the judge as they are (naturally enough) pretty busy. Do I need to stay for the whole trial? How much of it do I need to record? I wait around and it does not appear to be a scripted event, so I just make a recording for a few turns and leave. I hope that is sufficient. 

I find a government official to talk to at City Hall. He seems happy about the way things are going. 

I head up to Bodanski Square next and the city’s only newspaper stand. I buy the paper and record myself reading it. It seems that President Ryder (!!) has ushered in a decade of amazing prosperity and economic growth. 

I watch “Upbeat Patrol II” in the cinema, or at least the first 15 minutes of it. Apparently it is too boring to sit through. I hope that is enough. 

I do the “riding public transit” goal next and record a trip on the subway. In the process, I realize that I missed several of the subway stations. I end up riding both the Red and Brown lines to the end and marked several Tube stations on my map. 

For the “eating a meal” goal, I pick a fancy restaurant off of Bodanski Square. I have to request a table and sit down before I order. Other than payment in advance (and like $65 for a soybean salad), the recording is easy to capture although the whole event took too long. I should have grabbed some fast food. 

The Church Elder at St. Michael’s is thrilled how church attendance is climbing and the moral fiber of the country is improving. 

Finally, I visit the power station. Strange that there are no workers or anyone to stop me from looking around, but I capture a recording of it anyway. Good thing I’m not a terrorist or something; they really should hire some guards. 

Just as I finish, I get a message that the recording buffer is full. Whew! Made it just in time. I’m not sure what would have happened if I did not capture all of them in one go; I would hate to have to do them all over again.

I abort the simulation and return to the project site. I have to wait around a long while as there was nothing new in any of the locations I could access, but eventually Dr, Perelman informs me that they are reviewing my recordings. This time I try to sleep to make it go faster. Dr. Perelman wakes me up to tell me that I need to visit his office.

He has good news! Everything is great! My research shows that the Plan is going to work and Senator Ryder will be passing it into law soon. The President is still against it, but our efforts will have convinced him to sign it. We won!… right? Well, not quite yet at least. Now that we’ve run through it all, the Simulation Controller was able to make the environment even more accurate. All this sounds very fishy to me, as if the books are being cooked. Was the first simulation rigged in Senator Ryder’s favor? If so, by whom?

How many parts do you think there are?

Part II begins with a new splash screen and a quote from Edgar Allen Poe. I like that the game is doing something different with these splash screens, but it also feels a bit like Meretzky is trying a bit too hard for this game to be taken “seriously”. I check the clock and it is only twelve hours later and not a huge time-skip. As before, I have to wait around for anything to happen– I explore the whole base over again, but there’s nothing new– and eventually I am brought into Dr. Perelman’s office for a series of psychological tests. Dr. Grimwold wants to do a basic “ink blot” evaluation on me and all I need to do is respond with the first words that come to mind. Simple enough, but I hope I don’t have to remember my responses to all of these for a puzzle later.

OMG! ASCII art!

These tests are presented in ASCII art. The first one, in my opinion, looks like a flower. He accepts that as the answer and moves on to a different design. I know the real question on your minds is whether this will be enough to qualify for the much-desired “pity point” in the Sound & Graphics category, but I’ll decide later once I see how else they use this new feature of “Interactive Fiction Plus”. The next several pass quickly: a butterfly, a vase, a tornado… do these answers even matter? At the end Dr. Grimwold leaves and I’m left alone with Dr. Perelman. He eventually forgets that I am around because he calls his family and I overhear him apologizing to son that he’s unable to get out of work on time. Once that is done, I try grilling him about Grimwold, but he doesn’t say anything that seems important. Are we going to get new tasks soon?

Answer: No! I wait long enough and Perelman tells us that the Plan has been approved… but he has a funny feeling about it. Something doesn’t sit right. Unfortunately, he’s too busy to assign me any tasks right now and just hopes that I am keeping busy. That attitude sums up my experience with this game nicely

With nothing else to do, I re-enter the simulation and this time I am given a choice: I can select to “visit” either 10 or 20 years into the future. I return to the 10-year / 2031 simulation first to see how it might be “more accurate” than before, but I do not find any differences. After a bit, I abort and switch to 2041 instead.

Time passes.

2041 is surprisingly mostly the same as 2031, but with a handful of adjustments. The courthouse, for example, has a man facing the death penalty for attempted rape rather than petty theft. Is crime up or sentencing harsher? I’m not sure. There are no longer joybooths in the mall, although I forgot to check out what those did when I was in 2031. The Church Elder is worried about the Church of God’s Word and the erosion of religious tolerance in the city. Speaking of which, the disused train station near Bodanski Square is now the Church of God’s Word World Headquarters which may explain why they have such a presence in the city. When I visit the university, I wander into a police drug raid on campus. At the airport, there are more guards there, plus signs that read “Our security procedures exist to protect YOUR country and YOUR way of life.” I’m impressed that Meretzky managed to predict the TSA so accurately!

I couldn’t keep myself from checking up on Jill and the baby. I arrive to find that our “baby” is now 11 years old and playing on an electric toy. Our apartment doesn’t have enough bedrooms and he sleeps in a curtained-off area in the living room. Just like last time, Jill is painting and she asks about whether I heard from my agent recently. Moments later, the door is burst down and the Border Security Force raids the apartment. They overturn everything, leaving the house in shambles, but they find no illegal aliens. They apologize and leave, but Jill is shaken. I comfort her as best I can and clean the room a bit. This gets her back to normal, but it’s hard. Protections against illegal searches appear to have been weakened in favor of a zero-tolerance policy against undocumented immigrants.

What am I supposed to be doing exactly? Should I gather all the same data again? Wait for additional instructions? With absolutely no idea what to do, I follow the same list and make the same recordings as before. While some things like the restaurant and power station are more or less the same, there are some differences. The newspaper has an article about how there is lower than expected food production due to environmental problems, plus it seems slimmer than usual with less actual news. President Ryder still has a 71% approval rating, although no mention is made that he’s been in power now for more than a decade. I learned last time that “The Plan” included extending Presidential terms to eight years and I expect that must be how he’s held onto power. I still have some recording time left when I am done, so I also capture the new Church of God’s Word headquarters and informational pamphlet, plus the drug bust at the university. I abort the simulation to see what happens.

I emerge from the simulation and it’s evening; Dr. Perelman has gone home for the night. I “sleep” and dream of Jill. I suppose that having an 11-year old son you never met before is emotional even for an AI. Or am I supposed to think he now has memories of his kid growing up? I’m very uncertain on that point. It almost seems mean-spirited that he’s in love with, and had a pretend kid with, someone that doesn’t really exist. In the morning, I receive a notification that there is now an IRS auditing system installed in the PRISM system, although I have absolutely no idea why. Maybe now that I’ve helped them approve the plan, I’m going to be an AI with a second career as a tax auditor?

Once Perelman arrives for the day, I tell him about the recordings and he agrees to look at them. A few hours later, he grabs me and tells me that he and the others are concerned. They want me to collect more data from the simulation and report back. It sounds like I discovered the plot! Even better: the simulation is now open to 2061. I wonder how much worse it will be then…

Time played: 5 hr 50 min Total time: 8 hr 00 min Inventory: <nothing>

The course of the Little Missouri River.

Where is Rockvil?

As you are no doubt already aware, Rockvil, South Dakota isn’t a real city. In our reality, there are no large cities in northwest South Dakota although Mr. Meretzky did give us a few clues to help us pinpoint where the city would be. The most critical of these is the river that borders the simulation to the east, the Little Missouri River. This is a real river, although small enough that it isn’t even labeled on Google Maps for its entire course. That river runs from south to north from its head in Wyoming, through Montana and South Dakota, before joining the “real” Missouri river in North Dakota. Despite being the longest river in North America, the Missouri never receives as much acclaim as its cousin the Mississippi. I mostly know of it from the folk song “Oh Shenandoah”. Give it a listen!

Little Missouri River near Camp Crook, SD. (Image from Google Maps)

At the approximate location in South Dakota where the game takes place, the Little Missouri is not a huge river. It is neither wide nor deep enough to accomodate the shipping traffic that would have supported the growth of a mighty inland city. At this point in the water’s course it is a bit of a muddy creek. It’s not even wide enough to support the pier, let alone the seedy pub-and-billiards neighborhood on the bank.

This looks vaguely familiar…

That said, I have a theory. While the game was likely not patterned off a specific city, it has some superficial resemblance to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Instead of the “Little Missouri River”, Sioux Falls has the “Big Sioux River”. Looking at a map of the city, we find it has an airport in the north, is bordered by an Interstate in the west (I-29 instead of the fictional I-27) and a river-front park in the east. The zoo is also in approximately the right location. There is an equal amount that doesn’t fit (at least using a 2018 map), but I’d be willing to wager that Sioux Falls was on Meretzky’s mind when he was building the layout for Rockvil. Do you think I am on the right trail? Do you have your own theories on the origins of Rockvil?

Next week, I’m off to 2061. I’m not sure how many time periods we are going to explore, but I look forward to finding out.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/missed-classic-a-mind-forever-voyaging-jewel-of-the-quad-state-area/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

[hpinkonpaper-blog]

A Letter I Will Be Sending to Donald Trump (Draft #1)

Dear President Donald Trump,

As America rounds the corner into a new era of innovation and discovery it is crucial that we have a leader that embodies all characteristics of a leader and is widely respected and looked up to throughout the country. Developedself.com gives twenty characteristics of a true leader.  Some that I feel are especially applicable to today’s United States are honesty, an ability to inspire, the ability to care, fearlessness, and respectfulness.  Why, you may ask, do I feel that these five characteristics are most important and relevant in today’s nation?  Let me explain.

           Honesty is very important in every situation and someone with the amount of power that you have probably knows that.  In order to gain the trust of a group of people and support the endeavors of its leader it is crucial that the leader is honest.  Without the trust of their followers, a leader is useless.  If those underneath a leader do not feel that they are being told the truth, they will be led to protest and rebel.  I feel that the importance of honestly is quite self-explanatory and a man of your intelligence should not need an explanation of the importance of honesty.  After all, you couldn’t have made it this far without being honest at least most of the time, people will not follow or support someone who is not honest.

           The ability to inspire those who they lead should also be of top priority of a leader.  A leader should inspire positive change among their followers.  A leader should push their people forward in the direction that most reflects the group’s roots and values.  For example, a Catholic priest should not encourage his congregation to spread hateful messages because Catholicism is centered around the Bible and the Bible is God’s word and God tells His people to love those around them. Because of that, if a priest were to tell his congregation to spread messages of racism and hate, that would be contradictory to the core beliefs of the Catholic Church.  Not only would that priest be opposing the Catholic Church, but he also would be teaching young people in the Church that hate is synonymous with Catholicism.  I, myself, am Catholic.  I have attended Catholic schooling since I was four years old.  Never in my eleven years of Catholic school have I encountered a single person who felt that hate had any part in Catholicism.  The above priest would be inspiring hateful actions that should be years behind us at this point.  All leaders should strive to push their people in a direction that will help to create a nation that is constantly moving forward and improving. A leader should not pull their people back fifty years for cowardly reasons.  However, I am sure that a person with your leadership expertise in business already knows all of this.  Bear with me, I promise I have a point.

           A leader should care deeply and personally about all of their people and all of the struggles that their people face.  A leader should be sensitive to things such as breast cancer, rape, school shootings, bullying, and more.  A leader should not dismiss the struggles of one group of people simply because they are less than two percent of the total population.  A leader should care so deeply about every single person that they lead that they cannot bear the idea that one of them may not be able to have the same rights as another.  A leader should be so moved by the struggles of their people that the thought that even a single person within their nation is struggling that they do whatever they can to help ease the pain of that person’s struggle.  A leader should care so that they can be personable to their people. This relates back to a leader uniting their people behind them.  It can be quite difficult to be a leader and feel that you have no support.  In the same way, it can be difficult for one to feel that their leader does not care about them.  It is important that a leader shows how much they care for their people so that the people in return can care for and support their leader. Caring goes both ways.  It is difficult to care about a leader who does not care about you.  As a leader, one should be prepared to show a caring action and pray that the people behind them respond in a caring way as well.  However, I’m sure that a man like you, with five children and a loving wife know how important it is to care about those around you.  I thank you for continuing to read despite my redundancy. It can be difficult to write to someone like you with so much knowledge about how the world works.

           The leader of a nation on the brink of what could be an incredible era needs to be fearless.  No great leader is ever remembered as being cowardly, I doubt there will ever one. The leader of a nation that is boiling and bursting potential needs to have the courage to take risks that could lead the nation to greatness.  A leader must not fear opposition so long as they are doing what is best for their people. A leader must not fear diversity as diversity is what makes a nation stand out.  An analogy that does not even begin to delve into the important of diversity of a nation is the college application process.  Nowadays, elite colleges and universities don’t just want the person with the perfect SAT and ACT scores, the person who won an Olympic gold medal, or even the student whose GPA never slipped below a 4.0; elite schools want a student who does all three of those things all while having a job and racking up 20 volunteer hours per week.  Having all of those aspects in a college application makes a student stand out among the other applicants, causing them to appear a better fit for the elite institution, and thus, earning them a spot in University of Pennsylvania’s Class of 2021.  In order to be on top in the world and to have the most well-rounded nation, a leader must not only accept diversity, but should encourage diversity of all kinds. If a leader is fearful of diversity, they hold their people back from reaching their full potential.  By fostering diversity, thus bringing as many people as possible to the table, a leader assures that a nation has a professional or an expert in nearly every area, creating a top nation.  However I’m sure that you, an esteemed business man, know all about being fearless.  How could you have been so progressive in the business world without taking some risks.

           Finally, a leader should be respectful.  This characteristic tends to go hand in hand with a leading having an ability to care.  Respect is not simply given, but earned.  It is impossible for a people to respect a leader who they feel does not respect them. A leader cannot do very much leading without the respect of their people and those around them.  In order to respect their people, a leader must be concerned with the daily struggles of all of their people, much like I said earlier. Every person and their individual needs should deeply concern a great leader.  Not only should a leader be concerned with the troubles and needs of their people, but they should respect their people by doing something about those troubles and concerns.  A leader should respect all of their people so much that they make sure that their other people respect each other and welcome all people with open arms.  A leader should understand that their people come from all different walks of life and should recognize that due to these many experiences, their people may have different faiths, practices, opinions, etc.  A leader should recognize they accomplishments of their people and should support each person to pursue individual accomplishments of their own.  No one who is under a respectful leader should feel excluded.  I am sure, however, that you know this.  After owning many hotels, and even working as a doorman in one of them for a day, you know a thing or two about respect, I am sure of it.

           America is a nation built on progress and diversity.  We were founded in 1776 when the colonies decided that they were tired of someone else thinking for them; that they were tired of constant oppression in all walks in life; and that – most importantly – they wanted a change and knew just how to go about it.  Our founding fathers pushed us forward.  The people did such iconic things such as tipping tea into the harbor due to taxation and being one of the only nations at the time to break free from British control.  The United States of America has never been one to sit still and say “I like where we are now, let’s stay here” or “I liked how it was decades ago, let’s go back.” We have always been a nation of progress, never one to sit idly by while other get ahead.  America was a place for the misfits.  Some of the first colonists were protestants, oppressed by religious laws in England, they came to the America’s for a life where they could freely practice their beliefs without being judged or punished for being who they were.  America was a land for those who were not accepted elsewhere.  This acceptance of all people became a trademark of America through the years.  It made us stand out.  I am proud to be an American because of how other nations view us as accepting of all people.  America was never a place for the elites, for the cream of the crop, for those who conformed. America was a place for those who dared speak out against oppression, a place for those who were tired of conservative beliefs holding them back.  America was never built on regular people – it was built on the weird, outcast members of society.

           At this point I am sure you are wondering more than ever why I am writing this. So far, this entire letter has been information you know.  What man, of your esteem, caliber, and newfound power, does not know what a leader does?  What president with a love for America as strong as yours does not know the story of our founding?  Up until this point this entire letter simply could have been a review of your job description, in which case, you may be ready to toss this letter aside and move onto the next one.  Why read the letter of a fifteen year old girl from Cincinnati, Ohio that has, to this point, only stated information that you already knew?  What will you get out of this?  Before diving into the next part of this letter, I want to thank you for staying with me so far, it means the world to me.  I want to thank you for listening to the voice of a fifteen year old girl from Cincinnati.  I want to thank you for choosing to stick with me as I try to make enough sense of the thoughts in my head so that I may put them on paper to show to you.

           I briefly summarized all that I thought a leader could be earlier because I believe that you have the potential to be an incredible leader.  I believe that you can be honest, inspiring, caring, fearless, and respectful.  I believe in you and your presidency and am optimistic for the future with you.  All of that said, I have yet to see you demonstrate any of the leadership skills mentioned above.  To be quite frank, President Trump, I am scared.  I am scared that you might have bitten off more than you can chew with running for president.  I am scared that you are going to destroy what makes America unique. I am scared that you are going to take away the rights of millions of people in minority groups in the United States. I am scared that you are going to arrest feminists, kill Black Lives Matter group members, and give out more guns. I am scared that suicide rates the country are going to continue to increase as they have been since your election. I am scared that people will no longer be able to love who they love because it would threaten their jobs.  I scared that my generation and all of its love, life, and passion will be squashed in your term.  I am terrified and I do not know what to do.

           I am scared because of how blindly some people seem to support you.  A nation should respect its leader but not without questioning their beliefs occasionally.  I have sat and watched, as things you said were proven to be lied. I cried as past conversations of yours with disgusting words in them, such as “Grab them by the pussy” were dug up. I sat in silence and utter disgust as you mocked a disabled reporter. I am disgusted as you called Mexican-Americans rapists.  I, a victim of sexual assault, have watched in horror as you, someone who was about to go on trial for rape, was elected president.  I watched in shock how, after you did unspeakable things, those who supported you continued support you like none of this was happening.  I do not want to live in a country where no one thinks. I want to live in a country where there is a constant stream of thought and questions.  What is the point of education if no one uses it?

           In these next four years, I encourage you to reflect on the qualities of a leader that I mentioned.  Focus on being honest and gaining the trust of your people, especially those in my generation.  If you really would like to run for a second term, we will be the ones punching in the ballot.  I encourage you to come clean about any false things said during your campaign and to recognize things you have done that were not parallel with who a leader should be. I encourage you inspire love, acceptance, and education on controversial issues.  I encourage you to inspire all Americans to peacefully stand up for what they believe in.  Push for sex education in the United States in order to decrease the number of unplanned pregnancies.  Inspire greatness.  Inspire love, acceptance, and education – not the kind of education one gains at a top university, but the education one gains through seeing the struggles of all people.  Teach our nation to care.  Teach our nation to regard everyone in it and all those who would like to join it as equals. Teach acceptance and a willingness to care for all people no matter their religion, skin tone, gender, sexuality, or nationality.  Teach that care is synonymous with acceptance.  Applaud fearlessness.  Applaud the children at elementary schools for sitting with the girl with the hijab at lunch because she is sitting by herself even though this could leave to being made fun of.  Teach that Muslims are not the ones to fear, but that terrorist organizations are the ones to fear.  Teach that Islam and the Middle East are not synonymous with terrorism.  I encourage you to make the brave decision to release the Muslim ban, something created out of fear and hatred.  Teach respect.  Teach the importance of valuing people from all places.  Teach about how respect makes the world go forward but hatred and bigotry makes it go in reverse.  Teach how to love and respect all brothers, sisters, and other siblings on this earth.

           What I am trying to say: spread love, not hate; spread courage, not fear; spread acceptance, not bigotry.  Read about Islam.  Understand Islam as a religion.  To say that all Muslims are a threat is quite possibly the worst thing you could do at a time like this.  By saying that, you create tension and hostility between us and Muslim nations which will do nothing but cause problems.  Do not lessen gun control.  Read about shootings.  Talk to victims and their families.  Giving everyone a gun does not increase safety.  In a shooting, there is panic, there is fear.  No one would know who to shoot, everyone would just shoot each other out of panic and fuzzy thoughts.  Deaths by shootings would skyrocket if everyone had a gun.  Do not defund Planned Parenthood.  I know your views on abortion and I can confidently tell you that 5% or less of what PP does is give abortions.  The other 95% of what they do is provide cancer screenings, give out birth control (which limits the amount of abortions!), and more.  Do not destroy an organization that provides life-saving services for many because you do not like one of the many things they do. Stop tweeting every time someone makes a jab at you on SNL.  To be a president of the United States you need to be mature.  Your tweets sound like something a seventeen-year-old boy would say.  I am begging you to not respond to fear with hate but to educate yourself.  Understand what scares you.  

           You speak of making America great again.  To you, this great America is set in a time period that was great only for straight, cis-gender white men.  America is not all straight, cis-gender white men.  America is the gay, Buddhist, black woman who lives down the street.  America is the Pakistani man eating at a hole-in-the-wall but authentic Pakistani restaurant.  It is the gay, Muslim man, his black, atheist husband, and their adopted daughter from Japan.  America is the thirteen-year-old girl who just had an abortion because she was raped and pregnant.  America is the offbeat aunt of the family of countries in today’s world.  America has never, nor will it ever, be home to the majorities.  America is a place for those who were not accepted elsewhere, it is our job to accept them.

#writing #letter #donald trump #love trumps hate #feminism