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#may get kicked off the club board because I don’t get social cues and then ruin someone’s day because of it
buckys-robot-arm · 1 year
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Everything is ruined and now I’m fired for sure because I sent in the form a day late
#may get kicked off the club board because I don’t get social cues and then ruin someone’s day because of it#half of the issues the pres brought up could’ve easily been solved if the board members I upset told me ‘hey please don’t say that to me’#instead of going right to A. some stuff I can chalk up to overstimulation/overwhelm in the moment but he wouldn’t see that. only my reaction#and I try so fucking hard to internalize it and not let my stress come out. he doesn’t even see how long little things have been building up#and I don’t expect anyone to as I can’t even see it#but there’s so many times ig I say the wrong thing and idek(hello? autism?)that I did. bc nobody communicates!!#and now bc I submitted the form a day after exactly 2 weeks. we’d have to move the meeting a day later. and our meetings aren’t on Tuesdays#and now L is just always looking at me with disdain and I cant just ask her wtf I did wrong bc I said there was no need to mention any of it#and she’s also dating A so I know he tells her EVERYTHING about what I did. I’m positive she knows about the impeachment#she wouldn’t look at me like that otherwise. it’s like there’s no light in her eyes when she isn’t laughing/smiling and looking at me#I just want people to tell me that they do in fact hate me bc that’s a lot simpler to deal with than radio silence and ambiguous looks#just tell me that I’m an idiot who doesn’t have their shit together and won’t make it in the world being disorganized#and unable to bring myself to talk about other people’s conversations#I needed to rant here bc half the people on my priv story are all fucking 6 degrees of separation from A. and he’d know. somehow#at least nobody irl knows what my url is. some people know I’m on here. but they certainly don’t have a clue what I go by at least
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Archetype — The Explorer Birthday — March 31st, 2003 Zodiac Sign — Aries Sun, Pisces Moon, Aries Rising  MBTI — ENTP Enneagram — 7; The Enthusiast Temperament — Sanguine Hogwarts House — Gryffinclaw Moral Alignment — Lawful Good Primary Vice — Envy Primary Virtue — Kindness Element — Fire
Overview:
Mother — Arabella Vanderwaal nee Beakley (Deceased) Father — Liam Vanderwaal (Deceased)  Mother’s Occupation — Spy/Secret Agent in espionage for S.H.U.S.H agency Father’s Occupation — Spy/Secret Agent in espionage for S.H.U.S.H agency Family Finances — Middle class presently. Decent money was made though when everyone was a spy Birth Order — Only child. Webby’s parents died when they were three while in the midst of an under cover mission, there wasn’t much time for the birth fo another baby Brothers — None Sisters — None Other Close Family — Bentina Beakely, she’s Webby’s grandmother on the maternal side and also presently Webby’s legal guardian.   Best Friend — She doesn’t have one YETTTT. UGHHH SOMEONE BE HER BEST FRIEND!!!!! She so lonely :((( I mean at this point if I have to give her one it would be her grandmother lol Other Friends — She doesn’t even have A BEST-FRIEND so that means she doesn’t have any FRIENDSSS!!! Please make sure this changes for my babbbyyy. She needs friends in her liffeee Enemies — Right now she really doesn't have any considering that she's been living locked up wherever her grandmother is, but maybe she'll make some along the line. Who knows!!!  Pets — None Home Life During Childhood — Webby's parents died when she was only three and then at that point her grandmother took complete custody of her. From then on, Webby has basically been living a very locked up, sheltered life. Her grandmother treated her very well and Webby does love her very, very, VERY much but she just wished her life wasn’t so  What Did His or Her Bedroom Look Like — Very decorative!!!! But strategically so. Webby is very organized. She has a huge map on one of her walls and she has tacks pinned as to where she wants to go, where she has been, and possible history/mythical adventure areas all color coded!!! She also has boards up some with like her academic schedule, and others with things that she’s obsessed with!!!  Any Sports or Clubs — Not really only because lil Webby was basically stuck at home with her granny BUT she’s very athletic and will happily get her hands dirty!! Don’t count her as your typical girly-girl, she is not!!!! She does know about sports though and could tell you the rules to each one.  Favorite Toy or Game — Does spy training count?! Because she loovess that!!! And is damn good in combat and espionage tactics. She even has a back-pack of handy dandy gadgets!! Her favorite board game though is Catan and video game is Call of Duty  Schooling — Webby was homeschooled. This is her first year in an actual school here in Swynlake Secondary :D Favorite Subject — History Popular or Loner — Loner :((( Not by choice!!! She does want to make FRIENDS!!!   Important Experiences or Events — There was the death of her parents, although Webby was only three when this occurred it can be marked as an important event on her life because that was how her life with Bentina had occurred. The day when she was dropped off at Seamus’s and he was given temporary legal custody of her. Her first day of REAL SCHOOL!!!!  Nationality — British/Dutch Culture — British Religion and beliefs — Webby doesn’t really practice any religion but she does study them!!! She’s intrigued by their practices, rituals, history and often times myths that are attached to them. She can read a lot of ancient religion languages too. Bring on those ancient texts and documents!!!! She LOOVESS them!!!! 
Physical Appearance:
Face Claim —  Sabrina Carpenter Complexion — Fair skin with freckles on her nose and cheeks!! Hair Colour — Blonde but like more of a darker, dirty blonde. No where near platinum   Eye Colour — A beautiful pale, sky bluueee!!! <3 Height — 5ft. (Omg she’s my height!!!!) Build — Slim to average build Tattoos — Nope, mainly because of Bentina BUT she does want one!!!! Someone take her to her FIRST ONE!!!!! Piercings — Yes, just the standard two ear piercings. Common Hairstyle — Loose and down. Webby ain’t got time to be doing any fancy extra shit lmao. It would end up a wreck anyways because she can’t sit still. Sometimes it is picked up in like a make-shift ponytail or bun but that’s about as fancy as she gets. If you see something else, someone else did her hair xD  Clothing Style — You guys will see because she’s going to get a closet task done on her woooo!!!! But it’s pretty girly for a girl who does shit to her hair lmao Pretty, floral, cute tops in soft colors. Some type of flow-y cardigan or something always over her shirts. If it’s a graphic tee it’s normally related to like zodiac or mythical stuff. Often times she has a very girly skirt on, but best believe there is always shorts underneath it because she will still kick some ass with her skirt on xD. You can catch her in work out clothing as well: sweats, tank-tops all that jazz. She does stay on top of her exercise!!! Mannerisms — Loud, energetic, constantly in someone’s face (but not like in a confrontational matter), bubbly, always smiling, always curious
Health:
Overall (do they get sick easily)? — Nope. Webby is healthy as a horse, Bentina was very on top of this and has ebbed that into her granddaughter as well.  Physical Ailments — Nothing as of right now, but I am sure she’ll be breaking a bone sometime soon xD  Neurological Conditions — I think we are good in this part. I mean some people might consider her having like ADHD, but honestly that’s just her personality  Allergies — None Grooming Habits — Good. She has clean hygiene habits. Like don’t get her wrong she has no qualms getting down and dirty, jumping in puddles and mud all that stuff but she does clean up after haha Sleeping Habits — Oh my god no one should ever sleep with Webby. Webby has HORRIBLE sleeping habits!! She tosses and turns constantly, takes up like her entire bed space and is a serious blanket hogger xD She might be a bit more tamed if someone else slept with her but like only an itsy bitsy tiny little bit xD Eating Habits — Webby like sort of falls on both ends of the spectrum because on one hand she is conscience of what she eats and wants to make sure she has a well balance meal with all it’s appropriate food groups in BUT on the other handdd she is the first one to eat a SHIT TON of sweetsss!!! She has hard-core sweet tooth on her and that’s mainly because she wasn’t able to indulge in such things when her granny was around so now she’s taking FULL ADVANTAGE  Exercise Habits — On point!!!! Part of her spy training was remaining fit and always having a set required time for exercising. She still follows through with this even with her granny not around. She now goes to the gym though!!! EEEE. Before it was at home with her grandma.  Emotional Stability — Webby is like all over the place when it comes to her emotions. They like hop. She can never just be one emotion for far too long and then she’s very open about them. Webby is not one to really stuff her emotions down.   Body Temperature — Pretty average, nothing special. She like doesn’t lean one way or the other.  Sociability — Super AWKWARD!!! She has no concept of personal space, often times pauses leaving an air of weird silence, is VERY over enthusiastic, energized and blunt but in a very kind way. She isn’t shy, she just doesn’t know how to play it cool so it all comes off so bad lmao Addictions — None. Drug Use — Nope. Alcohol Use — Not really.
Your Character’s Character:
Bad Habits — Chewing on her pens, awkward silences, rocking on her heels, loosing eye contact because her eyes always wonder around, tapping on her finger nails when speaking, short attention span hahaha, loud, has no awareness of personal space whatsoever or normal social cues Good Habits — Always smiling, very nice,  highly enthusiastic, very open, not shy AT ALL, trustworthy, loyal, moral, very intelligent, her willingness to listen (even with a short attention span haha), her joy in making FRIENDS!!! Best Characteristic — Her enthusiasm :D Worst Characteristic — Her lack of knowing even the most common of social cues xD Worst Memory — Her granny having to leave her for a super secret spy mission that she can’t be part of. (Would be the death of her parents but she was very young when that happened)  Best Memory — Her first ever SUCCESSFUL SPY TRAINING EXAAMM!!! Her first ever somersault and every other fancy spy fighting technique!!! ANDD all the great fun memories she knows she’s going to make in Swynlake!!!   Proud of — All the languages she has learned to read and speak!!! She loves learning about languages and the fact that she has so many of them under her belt is a great personal achievement for her :DD Embarrassed by — Webby is kind of a hard person to embarrass tbh... so I don’t think at the moment she has anything that would embarrass her haha. She should be embarrassed about her horrible attempts at “playing it cool” but she really does believe that she does a good job at it.... sighh Driving Style — Webby doesn’t drive  Strong Points — Her determination and enthusiastic drive in life!!!  Temperament — Sanguine Attitude — Optimistic, joyful, determined, feisty,  Weakness — Her inability to tune herself down. She can be a bit too much almost all of the time xD   Fears — The lost of her Granny!!!! She’s the only biological family Webby hasss  Phobias — None  Secrets — Webby comes from a family of top secret spies all part of the S.H.U.S.H agency!! And she herself has been trained by her Granny to excel in the art of espionage much like all of those before her!!!  Regrets — None right now!!! Let’s see how long that lasts haha Feels Vulnerable When — She’s alone and when it may dawn her that someone doesn’t like her or thinks that she’s extremely odd... although she hasn’t learned social cues quite that well, she is aware of that and knows that she can be a bit too much to handle.... :((  Pet Peeves — Doesn’t really have many that she’s aware of... because I really doubt Webby would be self aware of her own pet peeves haha  Conflicts — The isolation she has been under while living with her grandmother. It has left Webby with very poor social skills because she isn’t aware of the social normalities of the world. She never had to use any, so although she may not be that aware of it, it can cause conflicts with the person she’s holding a conversation with.   Motivation — Making her granny proud and hoping that one day she’d become an exceptional spy like everyone in her family!!!!! Being able to one day find some of the mythical secrets of the world!!!  Short Term Goals and Hopes — Excel in school, make friends, go on an ADVENTURE!!!! Long Term Goals and Hopes — To become a spy!!!! Fully complete her bucket list Sexuality — Bi-sexual although she isn’t aware of this because Webby has NEVER had the chance to explore her sexuality. This is my take on what I think is where Webby leans Exercise Routine  — She was definitely placed in a very tight and heavy training routine with her grandmother where she has learned all about espionage. Now that her grandma isn’t around to continue her training, she’s taking to making sure she stays fit by going to the gym, mostly every morning on the weekends and after school during the weekdays. She also repeats some of her training everyday to make sure she remains on top of those. Day or Night Person — Both Introvert or Extrovert — Extrovert  Optimist or Pessimist — Optimist
Likes and Styles:
Music — Everything!!!! Webby legit listens to anything and everything even instrumentals!!!  Books — I wrote them in one of the WriMo tasks for her butttt The Davinci Code series, Harry Potter Series, J. Robery Kennedy’s James Acton series. She’s also very into non-fictional books that talk about Ancient societies and the mythical beliefs attached to them. Magazines — Nope. Foods — Webby did keep to a rather strict food habit, but that was when her Granny was around!!! Now that Bentina isn’t around she has indulged in some unhealthy yummy food including tons of sweetss   Drinks — JUICEEE a HUGE lover of juice!!! Any kind really but her favorite is fruit punch!!! Not a fan of tea though  Animals — All types and sorts of mythological creatures!!!! Unicorns are her favoritttee but tbh she wants to see them ALL.  Sports — Not really that into sports if she’s honesstt, but she’ll play them!!!! Just give her the rules (if she doesn’t already know them because she does know a great deal of them) she’s a very fast learner!!!!   Social Issues — Ughhh she’s still very young right now and politics isn’t her top focus in life tbh haha  Favorite Saying — “I want excitement; and I don’t care what form it takes or what I pay for it, so long as it makes my heart beat.” F. Scott Fitzgerald Color — Pink!!!!  Jewelry — None. She’s not a huge jewelry person, does puts on studs for her ears from time to time Games — Again I wrote some of them on that WriMo task, but her absolute favorite game, at least video wise is Call of Duty!!! Board game it would have to be Catan  Websites — Webby does have a Facebook and an Instagram!!! Her insta handle is: webby_aroundtheworld. She uses the internet a lot though for researching!!! Her history would contain of a lot of history and mythical texts sort of searches haha  TV Shows — Really, check that task out!!! But her fave tv show issss The Librarians.  Movies — Scary/Horror movies!!!!! The Saw series are her favorite!!!!! All those BOOBY TRAPS!!!!  Greatest Want — To have her own FREEDOM!!! and MAKE FRIENDS!!!!  Greatest Need — Honestly, to freaking learn some social cues maann!!!!!
Where and How Does Your Character Live Now:
Home — Webby currently lives with Seamus as for right now he has temporary custody of her until Bentina is to return sooo his house haha Household furnishings — Gotta ask Sav about that bahaha the house looks like how she envisions it since it belongs to Seamus xD. Neighborhood — the Farmlands, southwest part of Swynlake Town or City Name — Swynlake, England  Details of Town or City — We all know how Swynlake issss Married Before — Nope. Significant Other Before — Also, nope. Children — Nope. Relationship with Family — Close!!!!! Webby has a tight-knit relationship with her Granny!!!! She’s also the only living relative she has soooo Car — Nope. Career — No career at the moment, her career is school Dream Career — A spy!!!! For the same agency as all of her family!!!! Maybe even becoming an Explorer too or like an Archeologist!!!  Dream Life — One where she get’s to travel the WORLD, learning about all the ancient secrets out there from once living and thriving ancient societies, going on some crazy wild spy missions, and expedition adventures!!!! EEEE that would be her DREAAMMM.  Love Life — None at the moment but I don’t think she would be closed to the idea if it ever strolled along. Webby is a free spirittt  Talents or Skills — Fully trained in espionage defensive and offensive tactics!!! Fluent in a good bunch of different languages, skilled in gymnastics and tumbling, can play both the violin and cello!!! Does know how to diffuse a bomb and/or other type of explosion items (part of her spy training). Highly and exceptionally sufficient with the computer and researching what she needs as well as records about people... I am sure there is more but right now I am drawing a blank... Intelligence Level — Highly intelligent!!!!!! But it’s definitely not something she like throws at people’s faces, if anything people tend to forget about her intelligence due to her constant enthusiasm   Finances — She can manage haha 
Your Character’s Life Before Your Story:
Past Careers — None yet, but she has #careergoals!!!  Past Lovers — None.  Biggest Mistakes — I’m going to leave this open because she’s only sixteen she still hasn’t made what one would consider their biggest mistake, she has a lot more to go  Biggest Achievements — Same as above. 
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Pretty Little Liars may have ended earlier this summer, but that doesn't mean that fans' adventures in Rosewood need to come to a complete stop anytime soon. After all, there's a PLLspinoff television series in the works, featuring Sasha Pieterse and Janel Parrish, and author Sara Shepard is reportedly hard at work on penning new stories about our favorite Liars — including three e-books completely focused on Alison DiLaurentis.
And that's not the only PLL-related tale that Sara has been working on. She has also created a short story titled It's Not Easy Being "A" — which is exactly what it sounds like: a look inside the mind of the OG villain in the black hoodie, Mona Vanderwaal. The story will be available inside the paperback release of her novel The Amateurs, which is on sale as of today (Tuesday, October 3), along with the second book in The Amateurs series, Follow Me. And if you can't wait to read all about what Mona has to say, you're in luck, because Teen Vogue has an exclusive excerpt right here.
In the short story, Mona takes the reader on a journey down her path to becoming "A," going back as far as the day that Ali disappeared. She explains that once Ali was gone and out of Rosewood, she tried to befriend the other Liars, but was only able to secure Hanna's companionship. Still, she couldn't let go of the way Ali had bullied her all throughout middle school, and she slowly decided to get revenge. "I started to think about Ali's whole posse," Mona explains in the story, adding: "They didn't have a clue what it felt like to be teased the way they'd teased me — and they probably never would. I wanted to give them a little education."
From there, Mona describes the very moment she decided to become "A" — and it's a chilling scene involving Ali's old room, lost memories, and a secret diary. The story itself is the perfect dose of nostalgia for fans who are missing the series, especially the early seasons leading up to Mona's huge reveal. Ahead, check out the excerpt of the short story, and be sure to read the entire thing once you get your hands on a copy of Sara Shepard's The Amateurs.
Excerpt from It's Not Easy Being "A", by Sara Shepard:
I wish I could say I’m humble. The sort of girl who fades into the shadows after pulling off something amazing and says, Oh, you know. We all worked hard. But forget that, people. You don’t get far in life by sharing the spotlight. I’ve been kicked around too much already—life owes me. Nope, I want all the credit. I want to go down in freaking history. And you know what? I think it might just happen.
It’s Friday night, and I’m at the Rosewood Country Club, where the welcome-back masquerade party I’m throwing for my longtime bestie, Hanna Marin, is about to start. It’s a typical Mona Vanderwaal party. You know, where a huge party tent is transformed into a casino swanky enough that supermodels and high rollers would beg to play here. There are faux-marble walls and velvet banquettes. I called in professional card dealers from Atlantic City. A fleet of hot waiters roams about with canapés. I even rigged a Cleopatra-style platform for Hanna to ride in on for her big entrance. Basically, Vanity Fair and Us Weekly should be photographing this thing instead of the lame-ass Main Line society blog . . . and I’m the mastermind behind all of it.
I hear a crackle on my headset. “Okay, Hanna’s in position.” It’s a sophomore loser whose name I can’t remember; I chose her from a list of minions who begged to help out with the party. Little do these girls know they’ll be helping out with a few other details tonight, too. Namely, spying.
“Great,” I say into the microphone. “DJ, let’s get some entrance music for my girl.”
The opening notes of classic hip-hop swell from the DJ booth. The tasseled platform, held aloft by a team of muscled models, parades into the tent. Hanna, her banged-up face concealed with a satin mask, sits atop the thing, waving like a queen. Welcome back, Hanna! reads a banner over the entrance. Before I hung it up, I had everyone at school add personalized messages, cheesy things like We were so worried about you! and So happy you’re okay! Girls Hanna never even spoke to signed that thing like they were her soul sisters—but, hey, when a girl is mowed down by a car in a dark parking lot, everyone’s going to rally around her. Naturally, I added my own message, a long note about how I was so thankful that all that had happened to my bestie in the hit-and-run was a mild case of amnesia. It felt a little disingenuous writing it—because, well, yours truly was the one who was driving the car that fateful night. I had to do it, though. She’d figured out I was A. She knew too much.
Not that Hanna remembers that.
“Woot!” Hanna cries under the mask. Everyone from Rosewood Day cheers. I plaster a fake smile on my face until my cheeks hurt. Enjoy it for now, bitch, I think as the guys bobble Hanna’s platform even higher. Because it’s all going to be over soon. And this time, I’m going to leave you with a lot more than just bruises. Let the party begin!
I'm really not one for sob stories. I don’t want you to pity me. Yes, I, Mona Vanderwaal, used to be a girl I don’t like thinking about anymore, a girl with qualities I’m so far removed from I’m not going to bore you by talking about them. And I just happened to live on the same street as Alison DiLaurentis, one of the cruelest girls I’ve ever met, a girl who took great pleasure in making my life miserable. But whatevs, right?
Others might wallow in this sad past. They might make anti- bullying proclamations on their Facebook pages or start a charity, and they’d definitely slouch through high school as a weird, nichey nerd. But I never wanted to be that girl. When Ali and her little crew—Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin, Emily Fields, and Aria Montgomery—teased, taunted, laughed, and humiliated me, I might have run away with my tail between my legs, but I was pissed.
I didn’t have anything to do with Ali’s disappearance the very last day of seventh grade. Still, the day the news broke, I shut myself inside my bedroom and stared at myself in the mirror. There was a wide, freaked-out smile on my face. I laughed silently for what felt like hours. The universe had finally listened to me. It was a miracle.
My parents were glued to the TV that whole weekend, horrified that the most magnetic, beautiful girl in all of Rosewood had disappeared from our street. They joined the search parties. They went to charity events in Ali’s honor. But can you guess what I was doing? Crossing my fingers and toes. Throwing coins into fountains. Coming up with every superstitious way to wish for that bitch to be gone for good.
Once eighth grade began, a light switch came on, and all of a sudden, my social life improved. With Ali still missing, I realized I could scoop up one of her adrift friends and start a new clique. That’s right: My first instinct was to befriend those bitches, not to ruin them. What can I say? I idolized them. I wanted to be them. Fun fact: My first choice was Spencer Hastings. We were in the same honors classes together—not that she ever noticed me—and our houses were across from each other. I spent every day staring at the large, stately gates that surrounded the Hastings property. Spencer, in all her preppy, purebred Rosewood-ness, felt right.
But Spencer ignored me same as ever. Guess we don’t always get what we want.
Hanna, the group’s weakest and most insecure, ended up a great second choice, though. Together, she and I got hot. Straightened our hair. Discovered self-tanning. Basically, we became swans. Kids I’d known since kindergarten thought I was a new girl, I looked so different, and with Hanna at my side, I had instant entrée into popularity. You’d think I’d be satisfied with that.
Oh, people. All that glitters . . . well, sometimes it turns green the moment you put it on your finger.
The thing is, even after Hanna and I started sharing sushi bento boxes for lunch and shopping out of each other’s closets, there were still these moments when I’d look over at her and think, I can’t believe you. Let’s face it: Hanna might not have been the one dishing out the insults, but she’d stood there like a tree stump and let Ali tease me again and again and again. She never stuck up for me. She never looked conflicted about what Ali was doing. And you know what? After we became close, Hanna never apologized about it. I kept waiting for this big mushy moment between us...but it never came.
So after years of friendship, I started to get bitter. I started to think about Ali’s whole posse, actually, and what they were up to now that Ali was gone. They didn’t really seem damaged by any of it. They didn’t have a clue what it felt like to be teased the way they’d teased me—and they probably never would.
I wanted to give them a little education.
Cue the DiLaurentis family finally moving out of their house. Cue them dumping all sorts of shit on their curb for the garbagemen. Cue nosy me noticing their garbage, which included framed boy-band posters from Ali’s room, which her family had kept like a shrine for four long years. It might sound sort of perverse, but I really wanted those posters. I wanted something from the girl who made my life hell hanging in my bedroom. As a reminder, maybe. As a weird sort of vision board.
What I found beneath those boy-band posters, of course, was far more valuable: a diary full of dirt on Ali’s best friends. It turned me into a whole new person: A.
Yep. I want credit for that, too.
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celticnoise · 5 years
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This week we saw a number of beautiful examples of our media in full flight.
In between trying to sell Kieran Tierney and bigging up our European opponents they were doing their usual spin for the Ibrox operation.
Of these things I think the Tierney coverage was the worst, but their lauding of the Romanians stuck in the throat in a big way.
Before I went on holiday last week, I marvelled at some of the coverage being handed out to Gerrard’s rag-bag mob.
I couldn’t handle reading such stomach churning guff about our club.
I’d wonder what the agenda was, and who was running who.
In a Gary Ralston article about how the Ibrox NewCo was gearing up for its “revenge match” against Progres – as though it would erase the previous time the two clubs met – he wrote the following, spectacular, lines of sycophantic guff.
“It was 50 years ago this weekend that Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. Many (Ibrox) fans consider the astronaut’s step off Apollo 11 a mere stroll in the park in comparison to the strides (they) have made under Steven Gerrard in the last 13 months.”
You read that with eyes which bulge in disbelief, and you try to process it.
The Ibrox club’s progress is being compared to man walking on the moon?
Really?
We secured a third domestic treble in a row, and I cannot understand – and nor can any other Celtic fan – this celebration of mediocrity and failure. The Ibrox side won nothing last season. They finished one place higher in the league but were out of the cup competitions even earlier than in the season before and they spent a huge sum of money to get there.
And their manager had a win ratio of just 50% … lower than Warburton.
Lower than Caixinha.
Lower than Graeme Murty.
So what the Hell was Ralston talking about?
His historical analogy is stupid, but The Record has written worse.
Back in 2010, Neil Cameron, now at The Herald, where part of his job is to make sure Chris Jack submits factually accurate copy, wrote this incredible piece on the then still playing Davie Weir.
“Maurice Edu watched in astonishment as a working-class black man with a Muslim sounding name became president of his country. But while the rise of Barack Obama stunned this exiled American it’s nothing compared to the miracle he sees every day he works beside David Weir.”
Cameron, of course, is just as notorious.
His reaction to the official unveiling of Steven Gerrard at Ibrox was a piece that dripped with … I don’t even want to think about it.
“Before Gerrard graced us with his presence, the small but beautiful Ibrox suite resembled a wedding party waiting for the bride. An odd silence descended, none of us really knew what to do and there was an awful lot of cameras.”
Just the other day, The Daily Record declared Gerrard “the King of Scottish football” because he has the largest individual social media following in the game here.
Which he had when he arrived in Scotland.
The same article admitted that Celtic has the biggest social media following of any of the clubs.
That wasn’t the headline on the piece though.
This is the media which comments on our national sport, one massively distrusted and severely disliked by the supporters of this club.
It is the media which is assisting Arsenal in the campaign to unsettle Kieran Tierney and the media which provided cover to Dave King’s Ibrox board on a truly dark day for them by running nonsense about Alfredo Morelos and China.
You read stuff like that and it’s easy to see why we have such contempt. None of it tells even half the story. Over the course of time, the media has written some sensationally bad stuff about Celtic. We never get the kind of slavish treatment the Ibrox club does.
But nor would we want it. That stuff is dangerous.
Instead we get the kind of treatment that has caused the club to stop co-operating with newspapers, as was the case when the Daily Record ran its notorious “most hated man at Ibrox” headline; or which makes managers like Martin O’Neill resort to the courts; or where our squad are branded as “thugs and thieves” and our CEO is compared to Saddam Hussein.
You can read a lengthy piece on all of those stories and some others here.
Along the way, we’ve had players being targeted in their private lives, we’ve had the newspapers pushing conspiracy theories about our directors and, in recent months, we’ve had to endure the gut wrenching spectacle of certain outlets and writers quite plainly taking their cue from websites and individuals who are, to put it mildly, not amongst our friends.
The week before I went away, Cameron himself wrote a puff piece about his pal Hugh Keevins and the level of disrespect for the press that there is on social media.
He was talking in part about this site and others like it, sites which have taken on the task of scrutinising the media as part of our role.
Not one of our sites claims to be the “voice” of the Celtic support, because this support speaks in many voices.
But almost all of them are scathing about the media on a semi-regular basis, and this is because of everything from how we view their intentions towards our club to the way they cover (or don’t cover) major issues. Trust is at an all-time low.
I have to be honest and say I’ve think we’ve passed a point of no return here.
I cannot see how the mainstream press changes the current thinking of our support. Even when they are not playing games, even when they are writing the kind of stuff that Celtic fans need to know about our club, they are accused of pursuing agendas … rightly or wrongly.
That is how far down the line this is, and there’s no coming back from it.
A fortnight ago, a couple of Celtic fans on a forum decided to start a transfer rumour and see if they could get it to spike in the press, and of course it did. The Rumour Guy did a quick article on it, and spent the rest of the night kicking his cat. (Not really, or I hope not.)
But neither he nor the Celtic sites was the intended mark here, that was the press itself.
And it isn’t the first time this has happened either; about ten years ago or so a Celtic forum created an Ibrox reserve player out of thin air and in very short order got the pundits on Radio Clyde to rave about him and the good reports they had heard … reports whose existence was obviously as fictional as the player himself.
Nobody trusts them.
Nobody can count on their due diligence or investigatory skills and it is hard to see how they can change people’s minds.
They don’t break major stories anymore; when Keevins was asked, some years back, for his career highlight he didn’t talk about a massive exclusive, he talked about the time a doorman called Finbar O’Brannigan kicked him out of the Celtic Club in London Road before one of Kenny Dalglish’s famous press conferences.
They complain bitterly to this day about those sessions, accusing Dalglish of putting their safety at risk, as though a few hours spent in the presence of Celtic fans was hazardous.
They’d rather not focus on the reason the then Celtic boss organised those sessions in the first place; he was furious over the way the media constantly twisted his words and he wanted the conferences to take place where the fans could see and hear the truth of them.
He didn’t trust them either, and those managers who don’t arrive at Celtic with that distrust develop it very swiftly after checking in.
Almost all have departed with a healthy loathing for the hacks.
O’Neill’s was legendry, Strachan’s even more so. Mowbray and Deila felt they were hounded from the word go. Lennon was, and remains, a frequent target and hates many of them. Rodgers handled them with care, but I don’t think he ever really respected them or liked them much.
I get that part of this is the morphing between the news business and the entertainment business; that’s what a lot of journalism has become and it’s pretty much what the blogs are. The difference is, this is what we’re meant to be.
They are supposed to be impartial, informative, they are supposed to offer intelligence and insight … and they don’t.
Many are nakedly partisan.
Many of the newsrooms are populated by people who are utterly ignorant of the game they are supposed to be covering.
The proliferation of ex-players as pundits – and especially in Scotland where they all seem to come from two clubs, and where few are ringing the IQ bell with aplomb – only makes matters worse, because apart from bringing a legendry level of stupidity to their titles they also bring their biases as well.
Barry Ferguson is one case in point.
So, too, is Kris Boyd.
If Derek Johnstone hadn’t found himself a career in the media on the strength of bad jokes he would be going door to door selling stuff out of a suitcase.
None of these guys belongs in a media job.
None of them is remotely qualified for it.
None of them seems to understand the game they made a living in.
And all three are nakedly pre-disposed towards Ibrox, which colours every single thing they write and makes them impossible to take seriously as mere observers.
There are those in the newsrooms who simply cut and paste stuff from elsewhere, like Joel Sked at The Scotsman, whose main output seems to consist of mashing together various stories from around the internet and publishing them as “latest news.”
Very little of it is his own original work, and the stuff which does meet that standard doesn’t meet any other.
Poor standards have been with us for years.
The occasional transfer story isn’t going to change the course of football.
There are a handful of sports writers in Scotland who have actually given the boat a bit of a rocking, and I’m going to surprise you by saying that one of them is actually Keith Jackson, who’s Ibrox biases aside has broken a few good stories over the years and is not afraid to poke Dave King with a stick when he thinks he needs to.
Others, like Graham Spiers, bury themselves behind paywalls and what intellect and heft they could bring to Scottish football debate disappears with them. That guy could have been a genuine friend to the reform agenda over the years and he chose not to be.
And that’s worse; it’s the way the media in this country has tried to frame all debate within football, deciding what the real issues are and aren’t, as well as pushing naked untruths like the Survival and Victim Lies which really push the Celtic Family to fury.
One of the worst culprits of all is the national broadcaster itself, with a number of employees who are simply loathed by our supporters for a variety of reasons.
One of the worst is Tom English, whose contempt for anyone in the blogosphere and those who read us is well known and undisguised, although his own pronouncements and articles are often as daft and in denial of reality as those you will read anywhere else.
His most talked about segment of recent years was the slavish interview he did with Kris Boyd, which some of his own colleagues found too much to bear.
The BBC is seen by many Celtic fans as a wholly gutless organisation, the one we had hoped would tell the truth in 2012 and beyond and the one we expected to support genuine changes at the SFA and which should have been right behind Celtic’s call for an inquiry into all the events of those years and the preceding ones which caused such ructions in our sport.
Instead the BBC sided with the governing body.
They have refused to back our club.
They are ardent promoters of both the Victim and Survival lies … the twin supports on which so much of the negative stuff in our game still sits. Yet it is the Ibrox club, not Celtic, which broke off contact with them and continues to be at war with them to this day.
How can we trust that? How are we supposed to believe that when the chips are down we can count on anything the press say or do? We can’t, and we know we can’t.
This is the nine in a row season, and we know that we’re going to see a lot of drama in the coming campaign.
We know that another Ibrox operation is rotting from the inside.
We know this in spite of the press, not because of them.
We can imagine how the SFA will act as this season rolls on and the pressure on them steps up.
Celtic fans have the blogs. The rest of Scottish football operates in the dark. It is not just our fans who don’t trust the people in the press boxes, it’s all of us. This season our club has to be on its game to make sure that the nine in a row is secured.
But we do too, we in the blogosphere.
Because this season is different, and we know that we cannot trust the mainstream press to keep an eye on things.
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