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jooniely · 3 years

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svsss thoughts lol

i posted this on twitter but wanted to post it here too cuz ppl here love to discuss and will actually read this maybe and i would love to discuss things cuz that way i get to see things in a new light

so here it goes, my messy thoughts months after finishing svsss main story but not the extras:

thought about how shen jiu and bingge are parallels of each other and illustrate how cycles of abuse work, and how both suffered and made others suffer, and ultimately lost everything they ever wanted and worked for in their lives and now im sad

i dont think theres a lot of fics that explore how similar their characters are. its also odd to me that there are fics that paint bingge as being okay while sj is irredeemable and scum. i had a lot of issues and was upset about the potentials of svsss that were not met

thankfully i was not the only one & i was able to find very few fics that delved into things svsss ignored. i appreciate how mxtx writes her stories as realistically as possible cuz she loves to write about how ppl judge without knowing everything. its a common theme in her works

it works well in tgcf and mdzs but to me it ends up being frustrating in svsss. it works well in tgcf cuz we still see the whole picture so we dont miss anything, its the same with mdzs but with some restrictions ex/ mxy and how we only know him thru rumours

and given the false rumours that we saw with wwx we can guess how false the rumours about mxy were as well. someone also wrote about this lack of closure or knowledge for both the characters and readers and how it works well with the themes of the novel but i cant find it lol

that being said, this style, although perfect for her other 2 novels, it falls short imo with svsss. now im admitting that i have yet to read the extras so maybe these things were answered there but there are major characters that we just dont get much about

my complaint here is 100% not critical lol, its personal, i wanted more info more screen time for characters like shen jiu given how important he is but we never got that. our narrator is so unreliable we cant trust him on anything (imo that takes away from the reading pleasure)

sy 100% believes everything from PIDW when it comes to lbh and sj and with lbh it causes so many issues that could have been avoided, this is not a complaint, this is part of the story and theme. but it leaves me frustrated especially since with the other 2 stories the reader gets to get out of the narrator's head or can see to an extent the flawed judgemental way of thinking and how it was wrong. with svsss we dont really get that? maybe cuz i never realized our narrator is extremely unreliable, idk. tbh idek how to explain

idk how to explain properly cuz my thoughts about it are messy. like random thought i re-remembered: the lack of reaction to sj just up and disappearing. sy never realizing the ppl around him are ppl and not just fictional characters. sy not caring about the person who's life he had to live. from the lack of background on sy himself we as a fandom assumed he had absent parents and died alone and thats why he never cared about his old life, no mourning or grief. he easily gets accustomed to life without almost everything old teens/young adults live with. no reaction to the amount of violence and death around him. its one thing to read about but another to live thru. from our assumed old life about him, he should have been very sheltered

the more i think about it the more i see things that frustrate me cuz the potential was so high &honestly if mxtx took a crack at it now with her improved skills, it would reach the popularity levels of her other novels. but oh well i guess thats why we have fanfic lol

there are other things that i just didnt like at all, like that assault scene or how it ended with them apparently just leaving everything behind? and how i can literally list the red flags in their relationship (and i have listed them in a previous svsss rants/thoughts post on here when i hadnt yet finished the novel) but i attribute this to just idk, i like to ignore it, its not great

this is all over the place but if you read this, then i welcome any response just be nice pls lol, i had to block some ppl from my last post cuz they were being mean and rude and honestly that just makes me upset and less likely to enjoy the content you may be rudely defending. despite my criticisms of svsss i still love reading fanfics about it cuz i see the potential and see some writers who are angels and write some amazing svsss fics that fulfill the potential.

#svsss #scumbag system #scum villain self saving system #mxtx #danmei #bingqiu #luo bingmei #luo bingge #luo binghe #shen jiu #shen yuan #shen qingqiu #scumbag villain #mo xiang tong xiu

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mahkaria · 3 years

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SY transmigrates early (and destroys SQH’s sanity in the process)

After a truly dreadful childhood with YQY which he swears he’ll strangle Airplane shooting toward the sky for (I can’t believe how long it took me to understand it was a sexual innuendo), SY arrives to Cang Qiong Mountain. He goes to Qing Jing, gets a fanclub which he absolutely doesn’t know about (what’s new?) and starts cultivating which is the coolest thing ever. So what if he set a few things on fire? He has to test all those cool spells.

------------ Truth be told, it takes SQH an awful lot of time to notice the scum villain isn’t acting as he should. Can you blame him? Cucumber-bro is a hurricane locked in 5’1” tall body. He will smile at you at first and then murder you if he sees you annoy one of his shimei.

It’s only when he hears him comment on (criticize) someone’s writing that he realizes: “Wait I actually know this guy.”. He talks to him about it and promptly gets punched in the face which...fair.

Yet, despite anything, SY doesn’t try to avoid him after this. Quite the contrary in fact. They stick together to the point that even YQY comes to see him one day and asks what his intentions are toward his “precious little brother”. SQH : “Bro, you turned a nice guy into a yandere-big-brother-type.”

SY *sipping his tea* : Accidents happen. (One day, when true An Ding Peak member wants to show their superiority over him which is a very nice way to say bullying, SY jumps into a fight to save him. SQH definitely doesn’t get a small crush on him because of this.)

Then the fated first meeting with Liu Qingge who at the moment looks more like a newly-born kitten than the fearsome War God arrives. Has he already told how terrifying Cucumber Bro is? Yes ? Well, he’d like to say it again. He knew already that this guy was fierce. Some authors liked to complain about how this “Expert reader” would make even the thickest faced person cry tears of agony. They couldn’t even ban him : he theoretically didn’t insult them nor say anything untrue !

All this to say that having gone through the scum villain’s upbringing didn’t soften him. Not. At. All.

He beats any overly prideful person to the ground and looks like a model while doing it. Each Young Master who thinks he can run away from his responsibilities ends up suffering. At the end, SY’s growing fanclub ends up gaining a new reluctant member. Now, SY can be seen followed by a Bai Zhan disciple who asks to fight him all day long.

This isn’t good for SQH’s blood pressure. Like all passionate readers, SY loves experimenting with each aspect of the world he likes. A new cool spell ? He has to learn it. A new creature with more teeth than should be possible? Let’s go see it. Stop screaming, bro, I’m sure it isn’t as dangerous as it seems. (They don’t talk about the first time he had manipulated a fan and destroyed a part of Qing Jing Peak. They don’t. Roofs are overrated anyway.)

Liu (not yet) Qingge doesn’t help. To each of SY’s stupid ideas, he answers with an eager nod and by taking out his sword.

SQH : aren’t you worried about the plot? Luo Binghe? Human-stick SQQ *who just discovered a new interesting beast or flower and wants to enjoy a healthy body* : We still have time. LQG *who doesn’t understand what SQH is saying* : Shixiong, there is Moon-shattering Lion there, let’s go fight it.

It’s like wrestling with two hyperactives toddlers and SQH is so done with it. As if his king wasn’t enough, he has to deal with Shen “why should I care about my own life, let’s go see this giant monster over there” Yuan and Liu “I’m 13 but already have lost all my brain cells apart from those used to fight and watch Shixiong* Qingge.

It’s exhausting. Unfortunately, he can’t seem to break away from them. The current peak lords seem to have the stupid misconception that SQH is a willing partner of those two’s insanity. It means that they all get paired in every.FREAKING. MISSION.

By the time they are named head disciple, everyone knows of Cang Qiong’s earth shattering trio. It is a more literal name that SQH would like, Cucumber Bro really isn’t good at measuring out his strength. Liu Qingge doesn’t even try.

The only person who understands is Mu Qingfan, the unlucky person who has to patch them up when they come back from their “adventures”.

#svsss #shen qingqiu #Shang Qinghua #liu qingge #svsss au #i am also working on my fanfics i swear

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tossawary · 3 years

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Chapter 27: “The First Day” of “pride is not the word I’m looking for” quotes and commentary. Not a full list of favorite quotes or full commentary.

Right now, deep into the safety of darkness, Shang Qinghua thinks about how he never actually expected to be lying in his bed with Mobei-Jun. No, there’s a reason his sofa is comfortable enough to sleep on! That was by design too! Sure, Shang Qinghua had lots and lots of bed-related fantasies, but he had no expectations of those fantasies ever coming true. He didn’t dare to have expectations.

It’s kind of weird, lying in bed with Mobei-Jun. It’s definitely weird lying in his bed partially on top of Mobei-Jun. With the way things were headed, Shang Qinghua was admittedly fostering some hopes about those bed-related fantasies, but he still didn’t think to mentally prepare himself for the practical details. He really wasn’t mentally prepared for the softness of Mobei-Jun’s hair, for the thickness and the weight of the man’s arms, or for the coolness of his skin against the warmth of the blankets.

Fuck, now there is no way that Shang Qinghua is going to be able to see Mobei-Jun with a plunging neckline without thinking about touching the man’s bare chest. It’s a nice chest! It feels great underneath Shang Qinghua’s hands now.

He can feel a steady heartbeat beneath his fingers.

He can feel the gentle rise and fall of it with the man’s slow breaths, as the man’s eyes have fallen comfortably closed.

Shang Qinghua has never seen Mobei-Jun this relaxed.

AN: Moshang in bed together is very good. I loved writing Moshang cuddles. I think it’s really nice when they’re allowed to be soft and relaxed, and everything is understood between them. Mobei-Jun at this point has learned to treat Shang Qinghua like a particularly anxious cat sometimes - if he just stays still and relaxed, eventually Shang Qinghua will calm down and chill with him.

Shout out to Mobei-Jun and all those years he spent trying to get some hint as to how human social everything worked, only to get nearly no help from Shang Qinghua. In this fic, part of the idea is that Shang Qinghua has been a slightly better communicator. Mobei-Jun can be a good listener when he doesn’t feel hideously embarrassed over his fuck-ups.

“I had made plans to speak with you at some point about… this,” Mobei-Jun agrees. “But that was not why I had come to see you that day.”

“Ah, what… what was it, then?”

Mobei-Jun sighs. “I had come from a gathering of demon lords, hosted by my father at their request. They have loosely agreed to each contribute to an attack on the next conference of human cultivators,” he explains, apparently annoyed at just having to recollect this event. “My uncle encourages my father to force my involvement. He must have trouble planned… or see an opportunity for it.”

Shang Qinghua processes this, then sits bolt upright in bed. “What?!”

Mobei-Jun frowns up at him.

“There’s a demonic alliance to attack the next Immortal Alliance Conference?!” Shang Qinghua demands, leaning over the demon lord beside him.

“Yes.”

“And you waited to tell me this?!”

“There are years left before this event,” Mobei-Jun points out.

Shang Qinghua stares at him.

Sure! But he feels like he should start planning now! He already knew that there was going to be a demon attack of some kind - the seal on Luo Binghe’s powers has to be broken - but demon lords getting involved is bad news! Multiple demon lords who are important enough to be socializing with Mobei-Jun’s father is worse news! Demon lords potentially including Mobei-Jun’s shitty father and shitty uncle is the worst news of all!

“You should warn your people,” Mobei-Jun says, dryly.

AN: Mobei-Jun doesn’t care about the sects, but he cares that Shang Qinghua cares. Mobei-Jun and Shang Qinghua really are villainous in SVSSS. Shang Qinghua just so happens to sometimes be on the protagonist’s (Shen Yuan’s) side and Shen Yuan has romanced a budding tyrant who has MBJ as a loyal minion. But, oof, I didn’t want to go that route with this fic.

I mean, I considered it! I considered having Shang Qinghua be forced to bring a demon invasion down on the sect he’s come to care about and his own nephew, but that felt a little too angsty for me. It totally could have been good, I was just like, “I can’t handle that.” Plus, with the world update, it felt fitting to jazz things up a little bit - to up the ante by inviting more demon lords and also have a little role reversal by letting Mobei-Jun be the spy. This way, I think, it really feels like Mobei-Jun is on Shang Qinghua’s side.

Shang Qinghua isn’t on the demons’ side. Mobei-Jun isn’t really on the humans’ side. But they are on each other’s side. They’re a team!

Again, what’s more romantic than your demon boyfriend actually doing the work of growth on his own? Moshang can be a little rough and with a lot of sharp edges (on both sides, they’re both kind of mean people) sometimes, so it’s sometimes nice to remember that they can support each other too.

Also, I’ve always been kind of curious about what Mobei-Jun’s family thinks of his relationship with a human. Mobei-Jun’s father is still alive throughout SVSSS, so it’s fun to think about ice demon politics, power and influence and loyalty in that court, and whether that factored at all into Mobei-Jun’s extremely slow-moving courting timeline of a human.

The person at the door knocks a third time, and Shang Qinghua feels the person beside him stir. He can feel a not insignificant amount of weight shifting, a low and unhappy grumble, and cool skin brushing against his own as that person makes to get up. Possibly to handle the person at the door? Shang Qinghua here abruptly remembers many important details about his current situation that make the sect potentially being on fire seem like a not-so-bad emergency.

“Demon invasion,” Shang Qinghua finds himself thinking. “Mobei-Jun. Fuck.”

“No, no, no! Don’t get up! I’ll get it!” Shang Qinghua cries, throwing off tangled blankets and flying out of bed. “I’ll handle it, my king! Sorry! Ahhh, sorry! I’ll take care of it, you can just stay where you are-”

Shang Qinghua, now on his feet, pushes firmly down against Mobei-Jun’s chest. He’s not expecting the man - a very, very strong and very, very stubborn demon lord - to go back down under his hand without any resistance at all. This easy obedience, this willingly being pushed down, leads to a surprised Shang Qinghua overbalancing and catching himself hard on Mobei-Jun’s chest and shoulders.

As though Shang Qinghua is actually pinning the man down.

Mobei-Jun stares up at him, eyes low-lidded, and raises his eyebrows.

Ah.

Wow.

Shang Qinghua is going to… well, he’s going to think about this for the rest of his life, probably.

AN: Mobei-Jun is so self-conscious in SVSSS that it’s kind of hilarious. So it’s fun to let him be a little more confident (rather than arrogant and lashing out defensively). Mobei-Jun probably thought to himself here, “You know what’ll be funny here? If I just go down now.” I feel it in my heart that Mobei-Jun is a teaser, especially when he’s relaxed and happy.

Shang Qinghua takes the time to fix up his appearance a little more - to get rid of the “I slept with a demon” smell - because if the asshole at his door has kept it up this long, they can wait a little longer. It turns out that he didn’t really need to bother, because it’s his fellow transmigrator and most dogged critic, Peerless Cucumber.

“Bro,” Shang Qinghua says seriously. “Do you have a deathwish?”

Peerless Cucumber - Shen Yuan, Shang Qinghua has to remember to call the kid by his real name - lowers his hand with a scowl. “...One of your disciples told me to knock on your door and keep knocking until you answered,” the other transmigrator says defensively. “After I said you said to meet you in the morning.”

“...Which one?”

“Wen Shufen, I think?”

“Ah, just for that prank, Sticky Fingers is going to be hauling fertilizer for Long Sheng Peak for a month,” Shang Qinghua says tiredly. “Bro, do not believe half the things your martial siblings here tell you. They’re pretty much all liars, cheats, and thieves.”

“Then why keep them around?”

“Ah, well, sometimes you need someone to lie, cheat, or steal.”

“...It’s nearly not morning anymore, you know.”

“Eh, I guess you get a pass this time, since I did tell you we’d have a nice long talk about things tomorrow morning. Come on in.”

AN: I don’t know if this vibe is coming across, but Shen Yuan feels a little ignored and neglected. They just got back from a mission and Shen Yuan has already been shooed off like twice. Shang Qinghua is so busy. Shang Qinghua is so experienced and so established here. Shen Yuan has latched onto SQH as his lifeline, though he’s trying very, very hard to be independent, and yet Shang Qinghua kind of has SY on the back burner most of the time.

Not only is Shang Qinghua the author of this world, but he’s also an important figure in this world. Shang Qinghua really lives here and if the plot wasn’t looming over them, SQH would be very happy here. This place feels 100% like Shang Qinghua’s | Airplane’s world and brand new transmigrator Shen Yuan feels like an unwanted intruder. SY is still lonely and scared.

“...Are you going to try to activate it now?” Shen Yuan asks.

“Hmmm… no, not right now,” Shang Qinghua decides, standing up off the dusty stool he was sitting on. “Cucumber, bro, I’m just not awake enough for tackling anything serious right now. Let me get a few texts and tools together first to test this thing properly, alright? Some safety equipment! Aprons and face shields! Thick, fireproof gloves! I’m still trying to figure out how to safely ask Duan Tianyu what he knows about this map the System apparently made him send me, when he might not even know what the fuck I’m talking about! Maybe he can give us some hints.”

“Who?”

“One of my Huan Hua not-disciples,” Shang Qinghua answers. “I picked up some extras a few deadly missions back. They’re good kids. All grown up now! Less naïve than they used to be! Duan Tianyu is teaching back at Huan Hua Palace now, so maybe I’ll have to be the one to wander over there on some pretense.”

Shen Yuan agrees that getting as much information as possible is probably the better course of action. Shang Qinghua ushers the kid out of his secret basement and his fellow transmigrator goes easily enough. Shang Qinghua complains about his shitty, no-good System on the way up for forcing them to do all the work by themselves.

“It must think everything is more ‘authentic’ if I don’t know what the fuck is going on,” Shang Qinghua suggests, removing his spiritual seal and causing the door to the secret basement to vanish. “Ah, I’ll admit that’s kind of cool to watch.”

AN: Throughout this conversation, SY is kind of reaching out, giving himself or Airplane excuses to let him stay. It’s not that he doesn’t want to cultivate, but SQH represents a sort of safety and familiarity SY doesn’t have right now.

In SVSSS, Airplane was always pretty direct with Shen Yuan, from what I remember, but he wasn’t necessarily open. He was direct about some potentially vulnerable or personal topics, like Luo Binghe’s insanity or his own general fear of his character’s planned death, but that’s not the same as actually being vulnerable. They snap at each other, they’re pretty direct about their personal goals, but they don’t actually get vulnerable with each other by confessing their personal fears and new relationship developments.

So I’ve tried to adopt that here, while making Shang Qinghua a little kinder and slightly more vulnerable, thanks to the efforts of Luo Jiahui. But Shang Qinghua still isn’t necessarily open here and neither is Shen Yuan. He’s just like, “Hey, it’s shit and I don’t like it either, but what can you do?” He’s not actually seriously talking about his breakdown or just how scared he is of his own plot.

For some people, there’s a certain kind of openness in confessing things to a stranger, so it’s kind of like that too. Shang Qinghua and Shen Yuan have fallen into kind of familiar dynamics, because there’s nothing else to really do, and they are kind of acquaintances, but they’re still not friends yet.

I think I want to have SY and SQH actually address this soon. SY feels that SQH has been kind of dropping the ball when it comes to honestly helping his fellow transmigrator, though SY, being SY, can’t quite put his finger on the lack of emotional intimacy and affection that he’s starved for right now.

The day-in-day-out of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect can’t get him down today! He feels kind of like he’s walking on air! Sure, the work never stops and there are some fucking terrifying things ahead, but he just had a very successful mission overall! He just had a really, really successful conversation with Mobei-Jun! He and Mobei-Jun are romantically entwined and Mobei-Jun was very explicit about the fact that he expects them to be romantically entwined… pretty much indefinitely!

“There is no one else,” Mobei-Jun had said. “There will be no one else.”

Shang Qinghua fostered a lot of hopes over the years! More hopes than he felt that he should have reasonably fostered! And to have those hopes unexpectedly fulfilled like this is… really something! It’s really, really something! Mobei-Jun really isn’t the type of character to say that - to say any of the things he said, and wow, he said a lot of things back there - without meaning it completely.

Shang Qinghua doesn’t really know what to do with that.

Forever is a long time.

He understands, of course, that some things really do last an impossibly long time. He used to be pretty certain that all love matches faded eventually - that people were genuinely wildly in love… that people were sincerely in love with each other, sure… up until they inevitably weren’t anymore - but now he can’t really imagine Liu Qingge or Luo Jiahui ever getting tired of each other. Liu Qingge keeps bringing Luo Jiahui new recipes to try and rare ingredients to interest her, so she can make dishes for the two of them or her family as a whole, and Shang Qinghua can easily imagine the two of them doing that pretty much indefinitely.

Shang Qinghua can’t think about this for long, before he has to focus on greeting his disciples (it’s just Peng Hongpeng and Chen Xuan in here at the moment) and getting to work. “Good things last while they last!” he decides for now, because thinking about things not lasting kind of makes him feel like he’s dying.

AN: Shang Qinghua can’t quite bring himself to believe in a relationship lasting forever right now. Part of it is his commitment issues, but another part of it is his persisting inability to see past the looming plot. He’s still worried about Luo Binghe and the Eternal Abyss, so he’s having difficulty seeing past that hurdle, even though things like Luo Jiahui’s marriage and his new relationship with Mobei-Jun are forcing him to confront the fact that there’s still a life outside of and beyond the plot.

For Shang Qinghua, it’s kind of a “I’ll think about that later if we all survive” thing when it comes to him and Mobei-Jun.

“He made a mistake with good intentions and got a small injury for it,” Shang Qinghua says, as reassuringly as he can. “He’s fine! He’s in trouble with his shizun for it, though, but I’ll see what I can do about bringing you up to meet him or bringing him down here as soon as possible. I’ll do my best to make it happen!”

Luo Jiahui leans into Shang Qinghua’s side and admits, “I miss him.”

“He misses you.”

“I miss you too,” Luo Jiahui adds.

“...Ah, sorry.”

“It’s okay,” his sister-in-law says warmly. “I’d miss you even if you visited every day.”

Shang Qinghua is holding her hands, but it feels like she’s got an extra one wrapped around his heart. “Where’s that husband of yours? Doesn’t he come down the mountain every day? Should I be telling him off? Sorry I ran off with him for a little bit!”

“What does Qingge have to do with you and me?” Luo Jiahui demands. “It doesn’t matter how often I see everyone else, I still miss you and Binghe the most.”

“Hm, that’s a point! That’s a point.”

What else can Shang Qinghua do but admit that he misses her the most too?

AN: It was fun to follow up Shang Qinghua’s romantic developments with a return to his most important and longest relationship: the one he has with his “fake” sister. Luo Jiahui is and always will be important to Shang Qinghua and who he’s become. They have such a lovely relaxed feeling that’s nice to revisit. I’ve missed Luo Jiahui these past few chapters, as things get twisted up more and more in sect business.

It would feel dishonest to the rest of the fic if Shang Qinghua’s other relationships disappeared in favor of his new romantic relationship. They all have their own importance. Mobei-Jun and Liu Qingge don’t make Shang Qinghua and Luo Jiahui any less important to each other.

I am looking forward to making Mobei-Jun and Luo Jiahui meet again, and tackling some of Mobei-Jun’s thoughts on Shang Qinghua’s relationship with his family. Mobei-Jun has a really shitty family, so it’s interesting thinking about what family means to him and how loyalty/love plays into it.

While he's busy plotting around the plot, there’s a hum of power behind him, the cool whoosh and crackle of a portal opening, the faint hair-rising warning of demonic energy. Shang Qinghua finishes tapping at his own face in thought, looks up at the looming shadow standing behind him, and smiles. He kind of feels like he should run away, but it's too late for that now. He held on long enough that he made it too late for himself.

“Hello,” he says.

AN: I took this almost exactly from the first chapter of Part 3 of this fic. I can’t remember the chapter number, but it was the one titled “The Inevitable Plot”.

Parts 3 and 4 of this fic blend together a little. Part 3 of this fic kind of ends here, but I have a couple more chapters that I want to tackle before I feel that I can say we’re for sure in Part 4? I have some things I want to accomplish before we go into a slight time skip towards the Immortal Alliance Conference.

#tossawary commentary #tossawary svsss #pride is not the word

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aku-jumbi · 3 years

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YOUR ART IS INCREDIBLE YOU’RE HONESTLY SO INSANELY TALENTED I AM HONESTLY IN AWE WHENEVER I SEE ONE OF YOUR ART PIECES, THEY’RE ALWAYS SO BEAUTIFUL!!! And pls ignore those haters they’re absolute idiots who seem to think asians only have certain features apparently and can’t seem to realise that there’s something called creative liberty😐

So many capital letters haha ^^ thank you a lot for your appreciation. *bow 😀 I gonna take your comment as opportunity to write down some thoughts I had on this topic.

Of course I am not painting isolated, I love to browse art from other artists, sometimes getting inspiration or just to get more stimulated. And for sure I stumble sometimes over art which technically is maybe not as refined but somehow hits me, then I stumble over art which is technically extremely good but well... I feel nothing but I still awe the beauty and there is even art which slightly disturbs me and fetishizes something I don't really am into... but dammit it's really well painted and I can just accept that the artist did a great job and I don't need to be in the fetish.

Then, there is also art which is technically undeveloped, due to the painters inexperience for example but I appreciate the try since ik myself, painting is work.

I caught myself a couple of times being about technically extremely versatile artists more critical and then thought.. who am I to judge, went into some introspection and realised: that was pure jealousy. Oh yeah, jealousy, nothing more, that yellow eyed monster within me trying to lower down others just to feel better myself. But... I never released that monster officially of course. In fact, before I leave a critical comment, I think twice and when I comment I just comment on the technical side. If the picture isn't violating any real persons or depicting very, very, very controversial topics like religion or politics to ridicule opinions of other people I basically don't care. Let people paint what they want, I don't need uniformity.

If someone wants to paint the earth is flat, just go ahead! First, idk if the person really thinks the earth is flat... or, is it maybe just some fantasy? Is it just for fun, did the artist just try out how the earth would look flat or is it easier for him to paint the earth kind of flat. Is the painter of that pic maybe someone who had no education and just painted what he sees and tries to imagine how it might look like. Or is the artist just painting something that came into his mind without a lot of thinking and it's now me interpreting something in his flat earth picture which he didn't even think of. But the most important thing: the earth won't get flatter just with that one flat earth painting.

Even with 1000 of that flat earth paintings, it won't. Being an individuum that is able to controle my emotions and to recognise what's important and what not I wouldn't even think to rent about that flat earth artist. Let him paint the flat earth, I can mildly smirk about him or shake my head and move on to the round earth painting I like most. There are more important things than to explode about a flat earth painting.

Now... I am not painting reality, I don't believe in my paintings showing reality or anything remotely close to reality. It's impossible that any character I paint is real. And I clearly distinguish between real people I see on the street or documentaries (I don't say media in general cuz... we only see the most beautiful people in movies or social media with all the filter and photoshop and it gives a contorted view on "reality") and painted anime charas. Recently I saw (oh I got actually an education by one of my "critics" in how I should paint!) a lot of realistic anime character fanarts which clearly just were repaints from given photographies of random prototype Asian models... the technical side was extremely good, forgetting the fact that it still was a repaint and repaint is always a bit easier since u don't need to think about the facial features anymore yourself... but the charas... they looked so realistic, so much like real people that again I wasn't able to see the anime chara anymore. For me it was just the random prototype Asian model (perfect as they are, because, well... model) from the photography with slightly changed hair and... blue eyes.

But! And now that's the big difference, I look at that kind of very realistic fanart and although it doesn't even remotely remind me of that anime chara and I feel nothing for it than some portrait photography repaint, it would never, never come into my mind commenting with (insert the vomit emoji here, cuz that's what happened to my art) a disgracing and hurtful comment just because I think my vision, my very private believe of what is a good fanart stands above anything else and I have the right and privilege to lower the artist in any kind of way. Who am I to feel superior?... exactly, I don't have that right, especially on something very subjective as looks of anime charas in fanart.

I realised by a couple of conversations with people who have no issues with my art that a lot of the hate roots from wanting to feel moral-wise superior. It's like a trend to stomp over everything, doesn't even need to be very important or influential, that doesn't meet the standard of what is moralistic acceptable in one owns subjective believe. Some call it being sensitive about what art should show and I guess the haters would call themselves even very sensitive and caring for over people... but want to be frank here, it's not sensitivity, it's being bored by their own lives and having no creative potential themselves. So.. what are we gonna do today? Complaining, cancelling, hating, yeah, that's a good hobby!

Sorry to inform you that your "sensitivity" is hurting me a lot.

I don't aim to call out specifically with my art to a particular group of people or disgracing them, there is clearly no hate inside or anything, I certainly don't try to portrait reality... dammit it's Anime charas! They aren't real in the first place! Gargh... If someone has an issue with the facial looks of how I paint, I am very very fine with a comment like: "hey you know, somehow I see in my mind Miya Osamu looking more like Toshirou Mifune... but, you know, it's ok, you aren't a mind reader. :) I would like to share my fanart of Osamu with u, too then u can see what I have in mind." That's a respectful, a very constructive and even inviting and mature comment. If I sounded a bit rude in the past towards haters it wasn't because I am rude but I got a couple of very humiliating comments that my only way to answer was to give them the same medicine back they forced me to swallow.

Hfff... so long... sorry.

Idk if haters or immature people who come across my paintings are going to read this and understand what I want to say so just for repeat: I don't have anything bad in mind with my art, I don't try to colonialize Asia, I don't see my art as absolute truth and its not a perfect replication of the original anime character. It's fan-ta-sy. If u don't like the style and aesthetic, move on, paint your own interpretation, that's the best way to put my art aside if u want to put it aside.

And for the people who like my art, you are my heroes, not because u are flattering me with comments (yeah also that tho lol) but because u let me see that there are rational thinking people out there, not oversensitive and in constant alarm to sniff around like blood dogs finding another topic to rent about but just enjoying fanart at what it is: fanart. It's you who enjoy their lives and I am enjoying it, too.

Thank you! :)

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tertiovitae-blog · 6 years

Text

— TASK 001. STATISTICS

BASIC INFORMATION.

Full Name: Simon Chun, as far as federal documentation says.

Nickname(s): Sy, if he has any beyond that, he doesn’t know about them.

Age: 32

Date of Birth: September 22nd, 1986

Hometown: New York, NY

Current Location: Dertosa, CA

Ethnicity: Korean

Nationality: American

Gender: Cismale

Pronouns: He/him

Orientation: Purposefully emotionally unavailable tbqh

Religion: Raised under a Presbyterian mother and an apathetic father. Currently swings between atheism and agnosticism: he’d like to believe there’s some higher power but fails to see much evidence for the presence of one - at least in the form most modern religions teach. There’s no proof in Simon’s eyes of a God that’s both powerful and benevolent.

Political Affiliation: Independent. Mixed liberal and conservative attitudes.

Occupation: Former assistant district attorney in Suffolk County, MA, current owner of Pulp Kitchen and Pulp Vintage, his side business in the rare book & documents. PV specializes in early editions, maps, signatures from significant persons predating the 21st century, and the ever-popular vintage movie posters, as well as a few specialized items (architectural blueprints, maps, letters) from Dertosa’s history. Only a handful of these precious items he actually displays: in the very back of the store, close to his office and locked behind a delicate metal gate. Walk-in purchases are not welcome, though interested customers may contact Simon through PV’s website or by phone to make an appointment to examine the collection in person.

Living Arrangements: The second floor of Pulp Kitchen is dedicated to Simon’s living space, accessed through the stairwell connected to his backroom office, which also empties out into the alley behind PK. He likes the simplicity of an all-in-one building (as well as the feeling of security afforded by elevation and insulation from other people and structures). He’s managed a mish-mash aesthetic of spare industrialism and coziness: exposed brick walls and steel beams, a dark floor but the living room popping with a deep goldrod-yellow carpet and anchored on a large, buttery, reddish leather sofa. There’s a knit throw blanket tossed over the back of just about every seating surface that isn’t the chairs at the kitchen island. All doors are sliding and usually left open for the feeling of greater space. The apartment is blessed with the same wall-to-wall windows of the cafe downstairs and Simon enjoys having his morning coffee with a chair pulled up to them to soak in a little sun and watch the street wake up below. There’s a surprising lack of bookshelves considering the man himself, but less surprising considering the abundance of them downstairs.

Language(s) Spoken: English, Korean (less frequently than he knows he should).

Accent: Fairly neutral American, a very clear, well-enunciated way of speaking.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE.

Face Claim: Steven Yeun

Hair Colour: Black, slightly wavy, usually brushed back or curling over one side of his temple, just a little too short to tuck behind his ears. It tends to not bother him enough that he lets it do what it wants

Eye Colour: Dark brown - call it coffee.

Height: 5′9

Weight: 145-150 lbs

Build: Closer to slim than wiry or bulked, he pushes himself to stay in shape but he ain’t out to get buff.

Tattoos: N/A

Piercings: N/A

Clothing Style: Man’s got a big spectrum. Take your normal urban book-keep stereotype and add a few more colors and much nicer shoes. Almost always in a collared shirt of some kind, sleeves rolled up above the elbows and leather bracelets on his wrist, or maybe under a well-cut blazer with a discreet watch. You’ll never see Simon in a simple t-shirt if he’s got any choice about it, but at work he’ll range anywhere from this level of fancy jacket to this level of relaxed everything. If he’s going to go casual, it’s definitely in a hoodie with a some kind of weird reference plastered on the front.

Usual Expression: Neutral and a bit removed, he tends to look ten levels deep in daydreaming even when he’s just sorting shelves or making a cappuccino. There’s pretty clear tells as to whether was he’s thinking is upsetting or pleasant: pinched brows or the smallest upward quirk to his lips.

Distinguishing Characteristics: A rigid scar above his left hip from the struggle three years ago that nearly cost him his life. Simon thanks the bullet scraping his side for giving him the panic-adrenaline to even survive it. A single dimple in his left cheek. Oh -- and we can’t forget the goddamn glasses. He felt like a jackass at first with fake lenses in, but over time he’s learned that they generously contribute to his fulfilling a certain stereotype within this new identity, and he’s now happy to hide behind the thin extra layer of protection granted by longer hair and a useless pair of wire frames.

HEALTH.

Physical Ailments: None.

Neurological Conditions: His move to Dertosa came with a government-recommended psychologist, though Simon only met with her for a month before dropping out of his appointments with the stubborn belief it was better to take care of himself. There’s a bit of a self-stigma in Simon’s mind regarding mental health: depression and paranoia are emotions from his point of view, not conditions, and he expects himself to manage them like an adult, regardless of whether or not that’s a realistic goal.

Allergies: Lower level lactose intolerant, but the kind who just pops a lactose pill, says ‘fuck it’, and has his latte anyways.

Sleeping Habits: A pretty solid seven to eight hours a night, in bed before midnight and out before eight 90% of the time. Structure is something Simon actively works for, in the hopes it’ll encourage stability.

Eating Habits: Somewhat of an accidental vegetarian, his typical diet skirts close, but he lacks the moral rigidity on that particular stance. He’s weak once a really good smell hits his nose, meat be damned. Tries to keep his eating habits as regular as sleep, breakfast is a cup of coffee and any fruit he can grab and take downstairs, lunch is grazed from whatever’s on the menu at PK, dinner thrown together before after seven and before nine, always with some sort of fresh green veg involved. It’s tempting sometimes to revert to old college ramen-and-microwaveables habits, but he’s grudgingly taking care of his body with the full knowledge that the work of cooking is worth pushing him for.

Exercise Habits: Swims laps for an hour and half at the YMCA three times a week and tends to bike or walk for groceries, errands, ect.

Emotional Stability: Mmmmm, let’s say 6, 7? There’s plenty of emotions tugging at Simon’s sleeve, but he’s simmered down to a more stable center as time has passed and he’s proven to be good for better or for worse at systematically approaching, sorting, and stuffing down what he thinks is useful to acknowledge or not. He purposefully tries to keep away from situations of high emotion, he knows himself well enough to know once he is propelled to extremes, it’s hard to get himself down from them.

Sociability: Simon definitely needs his alone time to refuel and recenter, but he also needs the stimulation of other people or he’d go stircrazy. He keeps an arm’s length, but he’s also too curious about what’s rattling around in other people’s heads to be a true isolationist and can be very warm with the right crowd. It’s a pleasure to have social connections, as long as he can keep the frame of mind that they can only go so far as PK’s front door.

Body Temperature: Cool-natured, there’s a reason he can get away with wearing suit jackets in summer.

Addictions: Lil bit of a hoarder of sentimental objects. Does not matter is the memory is positive or negative and he doesn’t need to be able to lay eyes on it, just to know it’s within his care.

Drug Use: None.

Alcohol Use: Strictly self-enforced as social. He doesn’t bring booze into his house unless it’s for cooking or a guest. No point in tempting a bad habit.

PERSONALITY.

Label: The Advocate, The Enduring, The Cynical

Positive Traits: driven, educated, perceptive, disciplined, curious, conscientious, discrete, generous, steered by an inner moral code

Negative Traits: dogmatic, detached, stubborn, overly self-reliant, impulsive and bold in matters of principle, deeply buried vulnerability to self-criticism, and the capacity to be truly venomous

Goals/Desires: Stay in his own damn lane while making a life for himself he can actually enjoy.

Fears: Having to start over again, any form of his past biting him in the ass, having an opportunity to do something just but being rendered unable to because of his situation, forgetting the past.

Hobbies: Cultivating Pulp Vintage’s collection is as much hobby as work, swimming, snapping up new posters for the wall of the cafe, listening to podcasts, reading, handheld puzzles, volunteer work. He hasn’t been back to his self-defense course since his first year in Dertosa but his teacher is slowly attempting to wheedle him back into other classes at the gym. Monthly trips back to Dertosa’s legal indoor gun range to keep himself sharp.

Habits: Cleaning those useless glasses as a way to stall a conversation or action, drumming his fingers, the two-handed mug hold, reading behind the cash register, skimming the paper every day from front to back and impulsively checking the news bar on his phone, covering his mouth with his hand while laughing, doing the lazy half-tuck with a shirt, tapping his foot when he’s jazzed up.

FAVOURITES.

Weather: Daytime summer rain, that perfect crisp winter day when the air is frosty in his lungs and the ground is coated in snow. Real winter is one of the big things he misses about the Northeast.

Colour(s): Green, blue

Music: He started playing classic jazz/oldies in PK for the sake of that bookshop aesthetic, but he’s gotten genuinely into a lot of it. Nina Simone, Cab Calloway. Longtime listener to The Black Keys, Red Hot Chili Peppers. Vivaldi, Andrés Segovia.

Movies: Clever comedies or character studies, psychological thrillers, old Hollywood experimental movies, all the campiest of 80s horror. ‘Nightcrawler’, ‘the Exorcist’, ‘Metropolis’, ‘In the Mood for Love’.

Sport: Basketball & fencing. He was a pretty damn good at the latter in high school and he’s entirely self-aware of just how pretentious a thing a boarding school fencing team is to be an alumni of.

Beverage: Water with a few lime slices, sue him for being boring. Guilty pleasure is those stupidly sweet matcha green tea lattes from Starbucks.

Food: Hit him with that spicy shit. Fuck it up with savory flavors. Finish it with good n’ sweet. There’s definitely love for Korean, but he’s big on Thai and Southwestern cuisine as well.

Animal: Panther. Just about any big cat, tbh.

FAMILY.

Father: Jeong Yung-sik, aka Howard Jeong. Incarcerated since 2003, age 67. Eligible for release 2249.

Mother: Jeong Su-jin, aka Sujin Jeong. Deceased as of 2015, aged 56. Official cause of death: craniocerebral ballistic trauma aka a gunshot to the head.

Sibling(s): Jeong Min-chul, aka Erik Jeong. Deceased as of 2002, aged 16. Official cause of death: exsanguination aka prolonged and fatal blood loss.

Children: None, despite liking kids he doesn’t realistically see a future where it’d be wise to have them.

Pet(s): His cats Darlene and Mister Meowgi have the run of Pulp Kitchen, the first named after a character from Mr. Robot, the second by an ex-girlfriend. The pun stuck; Simon still can’t bring himself to rename him. He had to give up his boxer, Odin, when he moved to Dertosa and he misses that damn dog every day.

Family’s Financial Status: Raised very upper class, currently a comfortable upper-middle. Technically, he has none of the money left over from his family’s generous supply, but some of his earnings from his work as an ADA came with him to start him off in Dertosa and fund the opening of Pulp Kitchen.

EXTRA.

Zodiac Sign: Virgo - reliable, practical, critical, seeking goodness while expecting disappointment, prone to overthinking

MBTI: INFJ, ‘The Advocate’ - creative, decisive, perfectionistic, incredibly private, “INFJs have strong beliefs and take the actions that they do not because they are trying to advance themselves, but because they are trying to advance an idea that they truly believe will make the world a better place”.

Enneagram: The heart of Enneagram 8 (the Protector) under a strong shield of Enneagram 5 traits (the Observer) - a conflict between the desire to be confrontational and assertive in issues of justice and protecting the weak and the knowledge that oneself is the person who must be protected first, as well as tendencies towards hoarding and intellectual pursuits.

Temperament: Melancholic - thoughtful, schedule oriented, economical and perceptive, interested in the philosophical and poetic

Moral Alignment: Neutral Good - belief in the intrinsic rights of all beings, drive to help the innocent, desire for justice but a willingness to defy the law and do usually immoral things in order to see that justice happens

Primary Vice: Wrath

Primary Virtue: Charity

Element: Water - evolving, inward, empathetic

#tcrp.task #* MUSING #this picture is a lie simon shaves every day of his damn life #and now after peeping over my shoulder for way too detailed research my father is convinced i'm interested in law school #the things we do for love

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susandsnell · 6 years

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it's been bugging me for a while now, but five worst parts of the dark Knight and one good part. bc I know you hate the movie 😂😂

boh. oh my gosh. b please don’t hate me. 😂😂

Five worst parts of the Dark Knight:

5. The Filmmaking. More specfically: LONG AND WASHED OUT PALETTE. IT’S SO FUCKING LONG. IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE OVER TWO AND A HALF HOURS WITH TEN PLOTS TO WRAP UP AND HAVE NO FUCKING COLOURS IN IT. WE GET IT, NOLAN, A MAN DRESSED UP AS A BAT BRINGS YOU NO JOY AND SO NOW WE HAVE TO NOT HAVE ANY JOY IN OUR HEARTS EITHER, THANKS A LOT. HERE I THOUGHT I WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE FUN AT A MOVIE ABOUT BATMAN, BUT YOU SURE PROVED ME WRONG.

4. The Writing. Holy pretentious dialogue Batman! Where do I begin?Harvey Dent’s “I will state the theme of my arc in the most lazy and blatant foreshadowing speech until Emma Stone literally says she’s gonna die in the opening of The Amazing Spiderman 2″ gets quoted all the time and yes, superhero movies aren’t known for their subtlety, and not all great movies need to be subtle, but the “die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain” is egregious not only for the reasons I stated, but is a nauseating indicator of the film’s cynicism (despite what the boat climax purports to be proving!). Alfred’s “some men just want to watch the world burn” speech is similar albeit less facepalmy and Theme Stating. It’s blunt and heavy-handed, overly expositional, and very hit-you-over-the-head with regard to commentary.

And here’s the thing! It could work in the context of the type of movie it is - The Shape of Water pretty much opens with a statement of the “who the real monster is” idea, but it works because the film is a fairy tale and presents itself as such, whereas this movie wants to have its cake and eat it too as a “super adult DEEP subtle COMPLEX movie” with incredibly clear and simple shit like this. Beyond that, Nolan really has a dialogue issue in a lot of his works where nobody just has a fucking conversation. Everything has to be the most serious issue in the world or a ten thousand word treatise on the fundamental dichotomies of human nature or some shit you’d hear in a freshman philosophy 101 course from that guy nobody can tolerate who thinks he’s G-d’s gift because he wears glasses or some shit, I don’t know. Even the Joker, an agent of chaos, gets wrapped up into it! Like he is a showman, but the yammering and rambles of shit that isn’t even that deep but pretends to be gets on my damn nerves. And the worst part is that it comes at the expense of the characters.

They don’t really…develop emotional bonds (even with Rachel, the token woman And Therefore the Object At Which Emotions are Thrown). I’m not invested because none of these characters are real or relatable or have human interactions. The script shouldn’t be an anchor that drowns the actors and suffocates the characters to the point that there’s no chemistry, no connection, no believable core. Alfred is practically Bruce’s father and I get no love out of them! Harvey and Bruce don’t connect at all! Lucius Fox, the only POC in the entire movie, is literally reduced to a plot device despite having moral concerns!

3. That damn third act. This one takes special mention because it just pisses me off. It’s just too much! The chase with the Joker would be fine, but that’s not the end. His plot already extends way beyond where it would logically end (hence the bullshit runtime), but on top of that, on top of the drama with the escape ferries hammering you over the head with the point they’re trying to make about humanity and the obnoxious moralizing, and then you have Harvey’s fall to the dark side which I’m sorry, needed a lot more time than just getting crammed in to the back end of the movie. His descent into evil happened way too quickly. Two-Face is a great villain! But take Batman the Animated series (to me, the best adaptation of Batman there is, while not perfect) as an example: he’s established as a character and his descent into Two-Face receives the full focus of entire episodes and impacts the characters later on! Having him play sideshow to the Joker is a huge mistake, especially with something as huge at play as threatening Gordon’s family; it completely disrupts the focus of the plot and unnecessarily prolongs the film as a whole, but he goes down pretty easily in one of the movie’s shitty-ass fight sequences that I’d make their own point if there weren’t worse things because I can’t tell who’s punching who. And if you’re gonna rush Dent into villainy only to kill him, that makes his whole plot kinda a waste.

And The Dark Knight Rises was a lot more criticized than the Dark Knight, so how’s this for a fix for the entire trilogy? Don’t kill Two-Face. Keep Joker getting carted away gloating about having corrupted him, but then have Two-Face get away too. Don’t make whitewashed lamely written Bane the villain of the next movie - instead, let the tail end of this movie build Two-Face up as the main villain for the final part! That way, you have more time for development, cohesiveness, consequences, exploration of themes, and you don’t waste characters.

2. Batman / Bruce Wayne’s entire character. Okay, so whenever I fawn over the Lego Batman movie and how it confronts the issue with modern portrayals of Bats and rightfully points out it’s not deep, he’s just a humongous dick, this feels like the source material of that popular portrayal. Of course, it pre-dates it in the comics - Miller and company are to blame for Grimdark Asshat who Batmansplains, but I feel like Dark Knight especially, for its success and greater accessibility as a film, is what widely propagated this portrayal.

Secret identity or cape and cowl, there is a serious issue in your Batman movie if your Batman is terrible. He’s the protagonist, the titular character, and he’s fucking terrible! At best, Bruce Wayne is like…completely deadpan and not even there (I don’t give Bale shit because I think a lot of the fault lies with the writing/direction, Ledger was pretty much the only lively performance in the movie), placeholder of a protagonist. At worst, he comes off as deeply self-centered, self-aggrandizing, entitled, and violently unstable. I don’t care how bad the Joker is, when in custody, he still had legal rights, and Batman fucking tortured him. Even brutal criminals should not ever be tortured for information! And the film never engages with Bats reaching the point of beating people to a pulp as means of interrogation; he just feels conflicted about who’s worse and broods over it after the fact instead of, I don’t know, maybe thinking twice about torturing someone. The darker Marvel Netflix shows have their characters doing a lot of grim things, but the narrative or other characters almost always holds them accountable for it in ways beyond “aww, I feel kinda sad that I beat mentally ill people to a bloody pulp” – it challenges them often, or has other characters call them out. Batman just does this shit and people are like “oh you shouldn’t do that” and he’s like “AHHH I’M A MONSTER” and it borders into uncomfortable real-life implications with regard to authority and violence. There’s something to be said for introducing grey morality into superhero media, and I get the anti-hero thing, but Dark Knight codified the “white guy grimdark antihero being actually just a terrible fucking person who is the good guy in name only” deal we see in a lot of our media today.

It’s one thing to have a complex and flawed protagonist, but you have to balance that out with redeeming qualities, otherwise, he’s not even a fucking superhero! Again, I refer back to the 90s animated series: Batman has his moments of ruthlessness, but it’s balanced out with the philanthropy work we see in Bruce Wayne, and moments of genuine compassion that he shows many of his enemies – he apologizes genuinely to Two-Face, often tries to give them an out, and is frequently super kind to Harley Quinn, bringing her the dress she was accused of stealing when she was sent back to Arkham in the episode where she tried to redeem herself, and frequently trying to get her to acknowledge that the Joker is abusive towards her, as well as convince her she can still start over and be a good person. On top of which, Batdad is super popular in both the show and the comics. He’s frequently shown as having an especial soft spot for children; addition to all his adopted kids, you also have a lot of his interactions with children, whether as Bruce or as Batman, marked by gentleness, care, and compassion, largely based on what he went through as a child.

You get no such moment in the Dark Knight. I cannot for the life of me think of kids who would go to see this as a Batman movie and leave looking up to Batman and wanting to be like him except on the surface level of wearing a cool costume and punching bad guys. There is nothing heroic or admirable about this Bruce. He fights crime as a vigilante - brutally, I might add -and this time, it comes off more as a desire for vengeance than a desire for justice, a point which the film raises, but ultimately doesn’t resolve or engage with in a satisfying character arc.

The closest thing we get to humanizing this character is his relationship with Rachel, and even then, his interactions with her have heavy shades of Friendzoned Nice Guy which is especially bullshit because he won’t pursue a relationship with her yet is bitter about any decisions she might make about her own love life. He doesn’t even care about her that much as anything more than a conquest! He really doesn’t, and Alfred tearing up the letter proves that – with regards to how he behaves towards her, it really feels like it’s not so much that the letter would break his heart as it is that he’d resent her beyond the grave!

Worse yet, he gives no shits about anyone else. This has a lot to do with Nolan’s scripts having a toxic masculinity problem where it’s not cool for guys to sympathize with or have emotional bonds amongst themselves, but like… he’s allies in a shared venture with the other characters, and nothing more. Alfred is practically his dad but you wouldn’t know that. Gordon, as revealed in TDKR, was kind to him after his parents’ deaths, but they’re just partners. Harvey is a rival for claiming a woman! In other adaptations, Bruce and Harvey’s friendship is fleshed out a lot so the guilt and shock of his transformation into Two-Face is really impactful! Here, Bruce doesn’t really give a shit beyond it just being another thing to do.

And that’s what heroism and motivations are to Batman in this - just a thing to do. I don’t want to watch a hero who’d rather bitch about doing good than actually just fucking do good, this is the safety of your city, not a school essay! He doesn’t really seem to want to help people, he wants to complain about people, but then thinks he’s so fucking special and such a snowflake martyr for still helping them regardless! It’s such a deeply childish and yes, toxically male mentality. I know it’s become a meme, but the ”I’m not the hero Gotham needs, but the hero that it deserves” line pisses me off so much for this reason, as well as the fact that he thinks that Gotham’s flaws justify the fact that he beats the fuck out of people and roars in their face to get answers; I think the perfect refutation to both that line and how a superhero protagonist that explores what heroism means can actually be found in Wonder Woman – “It’s not about deserve, it’s about what you believe.” In fact, that’s what made Wonder Woman so good (and feminist!) – it’s rejection of toxic masculine ideals and emphasis on love, compassion and vulnerability being one’s strength, and that people are inherently deserving of being saved if you believe in the good of the world - a much better treatise on good and evil than “see, people sometimes don’t explode boats but they still suck so it’s okay for a billionaire in furry cosplay to beat the shit out of mentally ill people because that’s what this city deserves, a guy who’s more into violence than saving people.” He just doesn’t care, so why the hell should we?

And there’s just no arc. He just reacts to shit and that’s it, which makes him boring when he’s not being a fucking maniac. Despite the script not allowing him to have feelings for other human beings, having him break his no-kill rule with Harvey at the end would have been impactful….had he not already broken it in Batman Begins by leaving White Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson I love you but there is no reason to have whitewashed him or Talia the way Nolan did in the series - same as he did with Bane and arguably Catwoman since she’s been portrayed as a WOC many times before, actually come to think of it, there is a LOT of whitewashing in this trilogy) to his death.

The film comes up with no real way to challenge it’s hero, have him grow, or change, or even show consequences for his failure to change, making him come off as stunted, unlikeable, and yeah, not much of a hero.

1. The sexism. (You knew this was coming, and yes, it is the worst part). I already mentioned how the men in this movie all fall prey to toxic masculinity as is common with Nolan characters, then even more characteristic of a Nolan movie is The Dead Girlfriend, Wife, or Daughter (you know, the only three things women could ever be!) of Sad White Guy(s). Rachel is the only female character (strike one) and she is handled nothing short of atrociously. Her entire job as a lawyer, intelligence, and hard work established in Batman Begins (which is also too grimdark but actually doesn’t piss me off half as much!) is hardly even mentioned and takes a backseat to her being a prize for the men (including her boss!) to throw feelings at and squabble over. While the male characters have no personality except for one characteristic and a goal because this script was written by an edgy thirteen year old boy, Rachel has no personality except to be a living emotional crutch/plot device. She does not exist as an autonomous individual outside her relationships to the men in the movie. Shit, she’s barely autonomous within these relationships! Bruce is a bitter little shit about her not wanting him back and we’re supposed to feel for him despite him literally offering her nothing relationship-wise for two movies and actively pushing her away at times! He feels he can’t be with her, but the framing is such that she shouldn’t have the right to be with anyone else, either! What the hell? I would even go so far as to say that her choosing Harvey just as she gets blown up, as well as how both of them got to that point, almost feel like the narrative punishing her for not wanting Bruce. More male entitlement bullshit.

And her fate…well, I mean. There’s a damn reason The Dark Knight is my go-to example when I want to explain what Fridging/Stuffed in the Fridge means. After having every possible stereotypical pigeonholed white girl trope tossed at her, Rachel is killed off callously for the character development and man angst of not one, but two self-obsessed stubbled white guys who make it about themselves and their right to act like phenomenal turds. She’s Helen of Troy – a woman blamed for people’s reactions to her (Harvey becoming Two-Face, Batsy or Bruce being saaaaaad, etc). She’s the Lost Lenore; a person reduced to how their death impacts their romantic interests. We have reached peak Nolan here, and frankly, peak Batman too, because the franchise (comics, movies, etc) has always had this same problem with its treatment of women. Her fucking death isn’t even about her! It’s Harvey’s fucking villain origin and Bruce’s sad ending and Alfred’s resentment and note-burning and would she have waited, oh boo hoo, how about, did she have a fucking family, what would have happened if she hadn’t been murdered young, et fucking cetera.

The thing that really gets me is that Rachel is by no means the worst treated woman in speculative fiction (especially not those that make a claim to some degree of intellectualism); she’s white, so her death is beautifully tragic and she’s put on a pedestal rather than being subjected to racialized misogynistic tropes (being treated more roughly by the narrative, having her suffering ignored or erased altogether, her death being callously ignored except for a throwaway line of dialogue, etc), she’s not unnecessarily and gratuitously sexually brutalized for shock value (that looks uncomfortably like fetishism at times) like the women on Game of Thrones or in nu!Bond movies, or, if we’re still in the Batman universe, Barbara Gordon in any iteration of the Killing Joke (which is another tentpole of misogyny in the Batman universe and I fucking hate it and it clearly influenced the Dark Knight, so, chicken, egg). She isn’t forcibly sterilized and her inability to get pregnant treated as making her a freak like AOU Black Widow. She has no pointless and insulting fanservice scenes like Carol Marcus in her underwear in Star Trek: Into Darkness. Her suffering is not treated as empowerment like any number of women written by Joss Whedon, she isn’t used to be chewed up and spat out and destroyed in a romance with either a guy who terrifies her and in whom she’s shown no prior romantic interest or an outright villain who has caused her nothing but pain in some stupid half-assed not-redemption arc where she has to sublimate herself and be stupidly forgiving beyond the willing suspension of disbelief so some horrible man can evolve.

But why this sexism sticks out to me is that it’s so insidious; if it were more on the nose like the examples I listed above, it’d almost be less jarringly offensive, but it masquerades as her being an empowered yet tragic character and weaves into an overall narrative that validates all the tropes I mentioned, and legitimizes itself in a way that feels fundamentally dishonest about how sexist it’s being. Worse yet, there’s the fact that The Dark Knight is more than just self-contained; its influence on not just comic book movies, but all kinds of media as we know it, is undeniable. And as far as setting the example goes? This hugely well-regarded, influential film is almost entirely white, and tells us that women exist as distractions, tragedies, and extensions of men’s storylines, and this bullshit has been echoing in similar media works since.

AND NOW, THE ONE (or multiple!) NICE THING(S):

All this being said, I admit there actually are a lot of things I like about this movie if I can separate them enough from the main issues! 😂For one thing, Hans Zimmer’s work on the score is top-notch; I listen to Like a Dog Chasing Cars and Harvey Two-Face all the time and the music alone provokes stronger emotions for the characters than anything in the movie actually did. The opening heist is just fantastically entertaining, and up until the messy third act, the pacing and plot is pretty tight and engaging! Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker is of course fantastic; although he’s not my favourite Joker, he really gave it his all, and is by and large the highlight of the film. Nolan is really good with visual appeal (with the exception of that damn colour palette) and the shots are fantastic. I really love the chase scene with the Joker and wish the rest of the movie held my excitement like that.

Finally, it’s odd to say this, but I really like the world of the movie once I ignore the characters and plot. The Gotham that was built in Nolan’s trilogy, the contrast between the classes with the lavish receptions and dinners versus the underbelly, the corruption versus the goodness, how these disparate elements work in a terrible symbiosis, the architecture and technology reflecting this character – it’s incredibly vivid, both grounded in reality and yet sufficiently speculative fiction-y enough to be intriguing. I just wish that the people in it matched the quality of the setting. 😂😂😂

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mutantsrisingrpg · 4 years

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Congratulations DEAN! You’ve been accepted as ARIEL.

The themes of illusion and manipulation and perception are certainly not lost in your app, Dean, and how central they are to Lenox is just so, so well written it feels like I could easily fall under the spell of one of his illusions. You’ve shown that this world and these powers don’t always harden those affected, and that spark of whimsy in Lenox really brings him to a new life. Even a simple headcanon as selling placebo drugs and using his powers to create the high gives me such a confidence in who Lenox is as a person, and I can’t wait to see his shenanigans.

Welcome to Mutants Rising! Please read the checklist and submit your account within 24 hours.

NAME/ALIAS: Dean

PRONOUNS: She/her

AGE: 22

TIMEZONE & ACTIVITY LEVEL: GMT, i’m fairly active bean and am always here to plot

In Character Information:

DESIRED ROLE: Lenox Syed GENDER/PRONOUNS: Cismale, he/him

DETAILS & ANALYSIS: This is where you show us who the character is to you! The format of this doesn’t matter, whether it’s in bullet points or in para form, and can be as long as you’d like it to be. Feel free to get creative!

Lenox as a boy’s name is of Scottish and Gaelic origin, and the meaning of Lenox is “with many elm trees”.

Syed or Sayyid or Sayed (Arabic and Urdu: سيدعلی) is a family of Syeds in South Asia, notably India and Pakistan. Syeds are the direct descendants of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.

Lenox is lost in his own fantasy world. Creating so many illusions for people each day that he has became lost in one of his own. With a lack of attention through his childhood, he craves the limelight and approval of everyone around him and will do pretty much anything to get it, even if it’s false or trickery.

He’s so painstakingly constructed, he’s his own work of art. Each detail of his personality and appearance delicately manipulated into something strikingly beautiful. Someone you can look at with awe just by the way they talk or move. It’s almost hard to realise there’s another man beneath the mask, someone raw and damaged. Like a bird with a broken wing.

BIO:

Tw: Drug mention

His mother is just fifteen when she gives birth to him, swaddled in a blue blanket and passed immediately to the arms of a doctor; she never held him, never looked at his freshly reddened face as his cries wailed down the corridors. It’s not because of his mutation, not because his birth family couldn’t bare to raise a being burdened with powers. She was a child herself, naivety leaving adoption as the only logical decision.

A foster home decides to take him in, raising him from infancy without any awareness of any abnormality. It’s where he stays for the first nine years of his life, a cosy house in Oregon that housed five other children. But the dormancy of his powers didn’t stay concealed forever. It started with his foster siblings sleepwalking, Lenox’s dreams imprinting on them accidentally as they’d trample through the house enthralled by the vivid illusions of his fantasy worlds. Then it began intertwining into everyday life, emotional outbursts of temper alluding unsafe situations like fire or monsters that hid under the bed. Games became near impossible to differentiate between make believe and reality from the second he joined in.

“You’re unsafe,” it’s a comment he’d gladly wear as a badge of honour once he’d matured. But to the little boy being dragged away from his foster family, betrayed by his caregivers and turned in for research, the words grazed his skin like stinging nettles.

The four plain walls of the room only further ignite an overly active imagination, a tool that was dangerous to have with a power like his own. The eleven years he spends there does the opposite of what society would have hoped, boredom allows for focus and practice, it sharpens his talents and he’s able to put them to good use. By the end of his stay the doctors had favoured him among the rest, because he wills it so. They go easy on him, carefully placed illusions write false notes on his reports. Detailed and intricate enough so that he doesn’t get caught out, handwriting remarkably identical to each nurse or scientist that take their turn testing on him. He starts to admire the way it feels, too chaotic to be part of society and embedded with more potential than anyone could have known.

It’s when that potential reaches a point where imagination can no longer be imprisoned by those four walls that he decided enough was enough. The process of discharging himself was a meticulous operation. Theatrically staged and miraculously timed with an annual cell collecting test. Before he can be sedated he’s enticed the nurses into an imaginary induced coma, deep enough into his intoxication that he can use the poisoned needle on them. The theater only has the two women on the floor when the doctor enters, sly projections manipulating each person he’d bumped into on his way to the exit into that same sleep, a psychedelic world of kaleidoscope landscapes and stained glass colours, once awakening they would never see this boy again.

“You’re unsafe,” the same words, just a different context. An ally ushers him to leave Oregon and head to Chicago. A place where policies were loosened and his own kind somewhat tolerated.

The new city put Lenox’s own fresh start in full swing.

Fragile reality was a vehicle for his reinvention, so easily malleable that to change it was simpler and more natural to him than breathing. He’s masterful in the way it’s applied, diminishing a past life of shame and grit in place of high strung worth and superiority. He’d created himself with utter royalty, his own nobility evident by the way in which he moved, regally eloquent and unmistakably celestial to anyone who crossed his path.

He builds his career on the sins he knows other’s desire. Selling crushed up aspirin as a party drug in the underbelly of the city’s night clubbing scene, using his power to make it seem as if it were the legitimate stuff and not something that cost him a couple bucks from the convenience store across the street. Lenox could make them see whatever he wanted, turn their evenings into a production of his own design and leave with none of the being any wiser. It’s how Benjamin Granger catches word of him, a supposed mutant that was living life as if he were a king. He’s the first person to ever acknowledge his capability, strikes him up an offer he couldn’t refuse. Drawn like a moth to a flame after the minor suggestion of power and the infatuation that he was finally wanted by someone and to belong to something.

EXPANDED CONNECTIONS:

Chance Matthews: He’s the face he can’t erase from his mind, the curve of his lips engraved in deep fixations when he couldn’t fall asleep on a Sunday night. Perhaps it’s the fact that he shouldn’t do it that makes it more enticing, a lust to ignite underlying passion to unearth exactly what they had both been burying.

Jordan Rojas: Jordan is somewhat of a curiosity for Lenox to unpick. A closed book that is intriguing because of their close association together. Always keen to show his worth, to prove himself to those around him, perhaps it’s a dangerous combination should Jordan utilise the other’s naivety in combination of his powers in the way that Benjamin does.

Jack Mizuno: He likes that he can get so deep into their head, that he can have full control of a world that wasn’t Jack’s domain. It’s all to do with power and annoyance, a deep craving to see exactly how far he can push people before they hit their breaking point. Even then, it’s fun to flip that breaking point into a place of pure bliss and drop it again just when his subject is at ease. He’s like a lab rat, someone he tries his tricks on before taking them to the main show.

EXTRA:

https://stereotypicalcancerwrites.tumblr.com/tagged/ch:%20lenox%20syed

(tba, watch this space I legit SPAM my character tags hard)

Lenox spends a lot of his spare time writing and doodling. It’s all extremely sketchy, there’s never any sort of final draft. It helps his imagination, which is a much exercised tool in his life.

He is probably more invested in mental health than most. Meditation and yoga being a crucial part of his daily routine after a bowl full of sugar packed cereal.

He’s naive and eager to please anyone that might create a bond with him, he craves companionship after never really understanding it due to the absence of it in his life.

Lenox works as a part-time playwright, using his illusions to improve the production of his stories and only ever receiving the best reviews from critics.

He also works as a drug dealer, never selling legitimate stuff but using over the counter medicines with the combination of his powers to masquerade as the real stuff.

He has an unruly sweet tooth. He keeps lollipops in his back pocket and will order dessert off a menu at a restaurant instead of a main meal. His favourite thing on the planet is warm cookie dough and ice cream.

He listens exclusively to Grunge music. Celebrity Skin by Hole is his absolute jam and he only ever sings Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet is his go to karaoke song.

Lenox is openly proud of his sexuality as a homosexual, though he’ll flirt with anyone and anything for the fun of it.

He prefers tea over coffee.

He’s a bit of a poetry dork, he collects first edition poetry books and his most prized possession is a first edition of Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg.

He’s very judgemental of how others present themselves and will tell you if your new shirt is ugly.

Lenox lives in a small apartment, anyone that enters he’s carefully to make them see it as 3 times bigger than it actually is with far more light.

He has a fear of heights.

ANYTHING ELSE: Did you have any questions or any changes you wanted to discuss with us beforehand?

Nope all good!!!

#accepted #accepted: ariel

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neverendingaudit · 6 years

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What an Egotistical Dolt

Automatically assuming someone has read through several years worth of conversations and should understand the local shorthand is a bit presumptuous. Actually I do know many of the people frequently mentioned here, including Ms Ababneh, and have worked with some of the material that is the subject of various discussions, have visited a number of the specific collection sites, etc.

As I said above, if the participants of this blog/journal/whatever, including specifically Mr McIntyre, are mostly engaged in turning over pebbles looking for evidence to support their latest pet notions there really isn’t much to say.

The truth about the scientific work that is the main subject of the tree-ring related discussions here is both more boring, in some respects, and more interesting than you would believe. There is a reason that some things make it through to peer reviewed papers and others do not. There is a reason that this type of research takes time to bear fruit. These reasons have nothing to do with conspiracies or attempts to cook up specific results – sorry to disappoint, but it just isn’t so. The work is hard, time-consuming, careful and meticulous. It requires funding – meaning the process of getting proposals written and submitted………and……waiting to see if they are funded (many are not). Recruiting and then helping students get through their academic program and writing the results of their work up as thesis, dissertation, papers, etc.

The work on the bristlecone has been ongoing for more than 50 years and has involved the work of a large number of people over this period. Every question that I have seen raised here has been thought about, discussed, debated, fought about, both amongst those doing the primary research and within the interested scientific community that debated the published papers.

One of the most personally amusing things to read here (hilarious really) is the use of ‘Team’ to describe a certain group of researchers. You people really have no clue. Many of the criticisms raised here are very naive, or simply stupid. Red herrings and a complete waste of time.

The fact that people have cited Hal Fritt’s work in discussions says nothing at all about their understanding of his large body of research.

As for “recent events” let me say this. I came across an incident described and discussed on one of the threads: Mr. McIntyre was attempting to get some data from The Tree-Ring lab at the University of Arizona. He had difficulty and assumed his IP was specifically being blocked. Rather than contacting the sys admin for help to resolve the issue – or simply inquiring regarding the nature of the problem – he assumed nefarious intent, managed to get the data he desired via other means and brought legal action against the University for withholding data. It was a technical problem that affected others as well, took some time to track down and resolve, and had absolutely nothing to do with him. What an egotistical dolt.

You all might do well to consider that many of your dearest assumptions are simply wrong, unfounded, totally without merit. Rather than assuming the worst about people and their motives, people whom you know very little about – and since you have clothed them with your own misperceptions you couldn’t see the truth if it was spelled out in front of you – if you took the trouble to step back, take a breath, and examine the evidence for what it is (a good long look in the mirror might help a bit) without the terrible dark glasses you all seem to be wearing you might get a completely different perspective.

Sorry for the off-topic post.

#FavoriteEntries #Top24

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mattsammonsez · 5 years

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Wax Pack Wednesday: The Legendary Pack That Failed at First

The sales pitch on the above photo makes it sound like this is a can’t miss product. A “never offered before... giant-size, prize collection” that every kid will want. In 1952 it was a revolutionary redesign of a product first created in the late 1800s. It featured larger quantities than what was offered before, in a larger individual size. And who could forget the bubble gum inside each wax wrapper? Any baseball card collector will tell you the 1952 Topps set is the Holy Grail of baseball cards, with the Mickey Mantle rookie card the Christ child of the set. But in the autumn of 1952, the Topps warehouses were overstocked with returned product that wasn’t selling.

It’s a common issue with broadcasters and content that’s created... something so good just isn’t widely accepted at first. So how does one move past the rejection and keep pushing what others can’t or won’t see?

Sy Berger, shaking hands with Tom Tresh of the Yankees in 1961.

Sy Berger was on a mission to bring baseball to Topps. Joining the company in 1947 as a salesman, Berger was selling trading cards featuring cartoon characters or great moments in U.S. history. With the introduction of Bazooka Joe bubblegum in 1951, Berger was able to convince the higher ups to have Major League ballplayers sign contracts to use their likeness on cards while packaging the gum with those cards. The cards were small, featured stale black and white photos, and had a look that was more playing card than trading card. Topps couldn’t insert its new bubblegum into the cards, because rival Bowman claimed an exclusive right to do just that. So instead, Topps inserted taffy, which smelled bad and stained the cards. While the 1951 set is a collector’s item, 68 years ago it was a dud. If Berger wanted to keep the baseball cards printing at Topps, he had to go back to the drawing board.

The drawing board turned out to be his kitchen table in Brooklyn. With the assistance of Topps creative director Woody Gelman, the baseball card was reinvented. The cards were larger in size (2 5/8″ X 3 3/4″), featured colorized up-close photos of ballplayers, showcased a facsimile of the player’s autograph, and featured the team logo which amazingly was never featured in the previous 60+ year history of baseball cards. On the back the card featured a full player bio, career story, and statistics-- again something never before featured on cards. The stats line featured stats from the previous season, and the player’s career, with Berger cleverly not mentioning the year by number so if the product failed nobody would know if it was old through resale.

The clumsy 1951 Topps card (left) and the redesigned 1952 Topps card (right)

Bigger, bolder, and bubblegummier (Topps did have the right to market gum with the cards, as it would turn out). Topps rolled out the 407-card set in six series throughout the 1952 baseball season. At first sales were good, but as summer turned in to fall, retailers were turning their purchases into returns. It turns out this would be a persistent problem for Topps-- higher series cards often went unsold as kids went back to school and football started taking over the national sports scene. While Topps would eventually answer this problem with smaller production of higher series cards, creating what are now rarities, in 1952 Berger had to be wondering again if his great idea flopped.

Thankfully for Berger, Topps stuck with his ideas and direction. The sets created in 1953, 1954, and 1955 are hobby classics, and after a grueling battle with Bowman for player likeness rights and numerous court cases, Topps actually bought out Bowman prior to the 1956 season. For the next 25 years, Topps had a virtually ironclad monopoly on the baseball card industry. And even though the baseball card business ballooned in the 1980s, bottomed out in the 1990s, and got back on its feet in the early 2000′s, Topps is still standing as the exclusive officially licensed card of Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association. Many of the ideas Berger put in to play in 1952 are still staples of the standard Topps baseball card.

A store display of Topps cards in 1952, a product that at first seemed to fail.

So how does this unique set tie in to broadcasting and content creation? Believe it or not, there are many, including some of my own experiences:

If at first you don’t succeed... Berger successfully convinced Topps to dive in to the baseball card hobby when the sport was in its post-war zenith. But the first Topps set was a disaster, and needed to be brought back to square one. The same can be said for many broadcast and content ideas. What seems to be a no-brainer, sometimes needs to have the reset button pressed. I saw this in 2016 when we test-piloted The Morning Skate Show with the Lightning, using it as a simulcast piece of content for both the team website and 24/7 audio channel Lightning Power Play. Technically it was a hassle, content-wise it was too dry. After a reset that summer, and a few years of perfecting it, the show is now simulcast on the Lightning’s TV partner Fox Sports Sun.

Play to the audience you start with: When the higher series of 1952 Topps came back in droves at the end of that year, Berger and the Topps company must have been heartbroken. How could such a big, vibrant, creative idea fall flat to its intended audience? But credit Topps for sticking with it, as the only change to the 1952 ideas was the size of the card in 1957 (reduced to 2 1/2″ X 3 1/2″, today’s standard). This meant that Berger’s original vision was mostly adhered to moving forward. Sometimes in broadcasting and content creation, you just have to stick with an idea and keep pushing it, even if it doesn’t seem to be gaining traction. My favorite example of this is the TV show Cheers. When it debuted on NBC in 1982, it was critically acclaimed but low-rated. It ranked 74th out of 77 prime time rated TV programs that season, and in normal situations would have been axed. But NBC reran the show in the summer of 1983, and heavily promoted it, eventually helping the show attain top-5 ratings for seven season including the top-rated show in 1990-91. If you know you have a good idea, and it has some loyal fans to start with, keep pushing it. It will eventually find a groove.

Don’t just imitate, innovate: While cards from other companies made prior to 1952 are collectibles, it’s mostly because 70 years later they’re simply scarce. Very few collectors can tell you what a 1949 Bowman card looks like, but they can describe a 1952 or 1953 Topps card from memory. Anyone could attempt to make a card in 1952, but Berger knew it had to be different and innovative, using design techniques such as facsimile autographs, stats, and team logos that were never used before even though anyone could have used them. Often content creators chase what’s now, when they should instead be thinking of what’s next.

Do you have creative content that’s different and progressive than what’s out there now, maybe utilizing elements that aren’t being used enough by competitors? Are you a broadcaster who is wondering if it really matters if you have a good broadcast if only a couple of hundred people are listening or watching? Sy Berger’s first attempt at a revolutionary idea was so flatly received, he actually dumped excess cases of 1952 Topps cards in to the Atlantic Ocean. But Topps stuck with him, and he became the father of a new generation of an industry. Visit SammonSez.com to see how we can help you find that new content for a growing audience, and maybe you can usher in a new generation of loyal followers.

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mariamaafganistan · 5 years

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Week 12 Blog

Three Cups of Tea

Greg Mortenson

Pages: 210-270

Word Count: 430

Summary:

Fatima starts off by describing the fight between Pakistan and India in 1999 and she also says that her sister was killed. Mortenson helps to bring freshwater to the refugees and also builds a school for the girls. Mortenson joins in on a conversation with two Taliban men and one of them expresses their love for Bill Clinton. It is also said that India and Pakistan have been fighting over the land of Kashmir. The raising of funds is going slow and the board is worried for Mortenson’s health and he agrees to get an assistant and he starts to see a therapist. Mortenson goes to Calacutta because of the recent passing of Mother Teresa. Tara gives birth to their second child. More conservative religious schools, are being built in Pakistan by followers of Wahhabism. Pakistan is now under martial law and General Pervez Musharraf has become leader. Ahmad Shah Massoud has been killed by Al- Qaeda. Syed Abbas gives a speech in hopes of changing Americans minds of thinking that they are terrorists. People want to turn Osama Bin Laden, but Mullah Omar forbid it. Mortenson tries to cross into Afghanistan, but fails. He comes back home and receives hate letters from Americans calling him a traitor.

Critical Analysis:

Mortenson uses some of the eleven strategies for reading between the lines such as, recognizing implied meanings and imagining motivation. For instance, “In the month since his father’s death, Twaha had shaved head in mourning and grown a beard.” I believe the real reason Mortenson said this is because of Twaha’s father died, based on the fact that he coincidentally shaved his head and grown out his beard right after his father’s death. For example, “He’s his own species.” Even though Mortenson said he’s his own species, I am inferring that what he really meant that the character he was talking about is so different from everyone else that he’s practically his own species.

Personal Response:

I found this section to actually be interesting. They were talking about how Pakistan finally created a nuclear bomb. They also talked about how people perceive Muslims as terrorists when they aren’t. And how people judge them based on the fact that some people who claimed to be Muslims are terrorists. Islam means peace, not terrorism. I could relate to that part of the chapter seeing that I am Muslim and that people always try to tell or over social media say that all Muslims are terrorists when that isn’t the case.

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tossawary · 3 years

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Some random favorite lines (with commentary) of Chapter 23: “Swallowing Your Heart” of “pride is not the word I’m looking for” because I’m doing a re-read. Not a full list or full commentary.

Liu Qingge shoves him off his sword.

Plot twist! Betrayal! Shang Qinghua doesn’t have time to get over his shock at such an attack before Liu Qingge has caught the riderless sword in one hand and caught the swordless rider over his shoulder.

The Bai Zhan Peak War God flies on to Qian Cao Peak with his new cargo.

Shang Qinghua slaps the man on the back and wheezes.

“Have you done that move before?!” he demands, because that was so fucking smooth it’s offensive. It really does offend him! He’s super offended right now!

“Mingyan,” Liu Qingge says, like this explains everything. “And Fanli.”

It kind of does explain everything.

AN: That LQG effortlessly manhandled SQH in the same way that he manhandles his sister. This is how LQG shows affection. LMY is not a fan of it either.

“Ming Fan is a good sparring partner,” Binghe says as part of his tirade, like he’s confessing something. “But he needs sooooo many compliments to soothe his pride. ‘Oh, I knocked Shixiong over because he’s such a good teacher! Thank you, Shixiong, for helping me practice this move. Shixiong, I really admire how you don’t let the little things bother you because you’re so confident and skilled.’ I think he’s getting better now, but it’s still tiring sometimes. Uncle, some people really can’t take even a well-meaning criticism without falling apart.”

AN: This conversation was definitely a jab at Shang Qinghua relationship with Mobei-Jun, but it also extends to Yue Qingyuan and Shen Qingqiu.

Binghe says that he also heard some Qiong Ding Peak people are here now, but he doesn’t know what they’re doing. Beyond that, not that much has apparently happened while Shang Qinghua was sleeping the day away! Liu Qingge came by, probably to report to his scheming wife, who was yet again totally and embarrassingly correct about Shang Qinghua’s state of being. Chen Xuan, whom Binghe embarrassingly correctly identified as Disciple Dumpling Thief’s Friend, dropped by, but only to say not to worry about the day-in-day-out of An Ding Peak.

AN: Binghe knows Shang Qinghua’s nicknames for his favorite disciples.

Binghe curls up with his arms around and his head resting on Shang Qinghua’s stomach, while Shang Qinghua rubs his protagonist son’s back.

AN: Either of these characters getting unconditional platonic affection is SO UNUSUAL that it hurts. People need hugs at all ages!

The kindest option here might be the demon lord coming back sometime in the next few days and pretending the entire interaction never happened. Shang Qinghua will tell the man that it was a human thing, some kind of nervous fit, and beg forgiveness for his lapse in presentation! Well, he probably should, except… he doesn’t really want to do that. He doesn’t really want to go, “My king, my apologies for the mess! Let me, ah, let me just swallow all of those words I threw out there, just chew them back up, gulp them down into some vital organ to rot there forever, so we can never talk about them ever again.”

Mobei-Jun seems to still be his Mobei-Jun, looking at that confrontation in hindsight, and not… not any other Mobei-Jun. People in general seem to have stayed the same, besides Peerless Cucumber being fitted into the picture as some mysterious intruder. All those years of service and loyalty and companionship Shang Qinghua remembers with Mobei-Jun haven’t vanished on him. “All current achievements have been preserved” and all that!

So, part of him wants to go, “So! Those things I said! What about them, huh? Do you have anything to say to any of that, my king? Anything at all?”

AN: Shang Qinghua wants to OPEN UP and he can’t make himself take that step when his nephew’s life is on the line. MBJ has not made himself explicitly safe yet. Unspoken understandings can only go so far here.

“Was it something really bad?” Luo Fanli presses, leaning back along his desk until she’s practically lying down on it.

Not in a sexy pose or anything, just in a put-upon flop, kind of like a tired child finding the oasis of a department store furniture display during a too-long shopping trip or a toddler denied candy pouting on the floor of the grocery store. His little sister-in-law is not greatly concerned with dignity, much to her sister’s dismay and the eternal frustration of Qi Qingqi. She says life is too short for it.

“No one died.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, it means that everyone lived through it,” Shang Qinghua explains.

AN: Shang Qinghua’s relationship with Luo Fanli is fun. I’m looking forward to putting Luo Fanli in a room with Shen Yuan. SY needs friends. Luo Fanli @ Shen Yuan: “Idk, he’s a weirdo, but he’s uncle-shaped, right?”

Except when Shang Qinghua opens the soup container, it’s still completely full. None of his disciples - who are very, very good at acting like they’ve never been fed ever in their life - have helped themselves to even a taste. It’s a big pot! There’s plenty to go around! More than Shang Qinghua could reasonably eat by himself! And yet…

His disciples have been way too nice to him lately. He feels like he should be checking his pockets for whatever they stole from him when he wasn’t looking. Did the System replace his bratty disciples with good alternate universe ones?! He hates it, thanks!

AN: This is SUCH a low standard... and yet...! It’s very funny to me how much his disciples not stealing food from a sick man says here.

SQH: “Why are all my disciples such sticky-fingered brats?!”

LJH: “Because you think it’s funny.”

SQH: “Oh, yeah.”

Wow, Peerless Cucumber doesn’t seem pleased to see him! Shang Qinghua hasn’t suffered a glare that venomous since… well, Shen Qingqiu, maybe? Okay, so maybe the switch would have worked a little bit! But Shang Qinghua is still glad it didn’t happen, even if the System fucked up the rest of reality (somehow, Shang Qinghua still hasn’t figured out how exactly) out of revenge for its own shitty choices falling through.

“Where have you been?” Peerless Cucumber demands.

“Busy?” Shang Qinghua answers, coming closer but not sitting down. “Look, the System just rewrote bits of reality on me because of your fumbled arrival tipping some invisible scales and it has not been forthcoming about the changes. I had things to check on and things have been a bit political. I sent you a message.”

“That message said a lot of nothing,” Peerless Cucumber says, but with less venom.

“Aha, yeah. Well, I’m here now.”

Peerless Cucumber looks frustrated, but finally scoots over so that Shang Qinghua can sit beside him on the bench. Shang Qinghua gingerly sits, giving the kid space.

Shang Qinghua is being super calm for the other transmigrator right now! He’s very calm here! The calmest!

AN: SY really is a scared kid putting up a front. Which works out, because SQH is a dad here (and thinks SY’s insults are mostly just funny).

Out of the corner of his eye, Shang Qinghua can see a Qian Cao Peak cultivator standing impatiently by the Qiong Ding Peak guard. And… someone bouncing on their toes in a Qing Jing Peak uniform? Speak of the half-demon future tyrant of this world!

“Looks like we’ll have to continue this later,” Shang Qinghua says.

“My assisted meditation appointment,” Peerless Cucumber confirms glumly, looking as though he’s never experienced inner peace in his life and has no intention of willingly doing so.

AN: I took SY as genuinely having a knack for cultivating and that’s the interpretation I’m using for this fic, especially since I gave the Original Shen Qingqiu health problems that nearly killed him. In an earlier chapter, Mu Qingfang mentions needing to “replace Shen Qingqiu’s entire cultivation system”, which I planted for Shen Yuan getting a free, extremely stable highly developed cultivation system as part of his transmigration later.

I mean, Shen Yuan manages to weather Liu Qingge’s qi deviation, a great deal of stress, Without-A-Cure, and etc., and he’s remarkably stable through most of it. So I’m leaning towards “a little bit of System assistance” here. The System was going to replace both Shen Qingqiu and SQQ’s unstable cultivation system out for Shen Yuan and a more stable cultivation system.

SQQ still has a cultivation system. If he didn’t, it would have been mentioned by now. SQQ is repeatedly stated to be improving well in this chapter. I think Mu Qingfang would have noticed if SQQ didn’t have cultivation anymore.

“Then wouldn’t you be Luo-Shixiong to me?” Peerless Cucumber suggests wryly to the protagonist, who is both about five years younger than him and still shorter. (Mu Qingfang said that their guest seems to believe that he’s newly twenty. Whether or not the kid is editing his age up or down, Shang Qinghua has decided that he’s just not going to fucking think about this fact.)

“Uh,” Luo Binghe says, looking stunned and then to Shang Qinghua for help. Ha, he’s flustered, which doesn’t happen often. That’s adorable.. “...Maybe?”

Shang Qinghua snorts and remains unhelpful. Ning Yingying is actually about a year younger than Luo Binghe is, Shang Qinghua knows, but she’s been a member of the sect for significantly longer. Binghe might have some shidi and shimei soon with the next entrance test and he’s been very excited about that, but he clearly doesn’t know what to do with a “shidi” closer to his young auntie’s age than his own. Kind of weird seniors and juniors are just part of the sect experience, nephew! Get used to it!

“Thank you, regardless,” Peerless Cucumber says.

“Of course,” Binghe agrees quickly.

AN: SQH is probably going to look back on this moment and go, “Hmm.”

‘You’re very resourceful,” his sister-in-law says slyly.

“I am very resourceful,” Shang Qinghua allows, and in a fit of affection reaches up to pinch Luo Jiahui’s cheek like she’s Binghe. “And I have the world’s wisest and least bossy sister-in-law, too! How fortunate I am!”

Luo Jiahui slaps his hand away with a giggle, turning slightly pink.

“At least you know it!” she says.

AN: I’ve been wanting to make SQH pinch someone’s cheek for ages now.

“...You looked very scared that night,” Luo Jiahui says finally. “It might have seemed worse to you than it was. If your demon can’t be understanding of one bad night, then it’s… I don’t know if there’s a way forward with him at all.” She fixes a determined expression and says, “If any offers are retracted then we’ll manage just fine without him. We’ll tell Qingge and he’ll help. And so will Fanli. Our family won’t fall apart so easily. Hua-Ge doesn’t have to take care of everything and be everything at once to everyone.”

AN: LJH channeling some “dump him! dump him! dump him!” energy.

Shang Qinghua has never been able to picture cutting ties after all this time. What would he even say? “My king, I think our arrangement has come to an end. I promised to serve you for the rest of my life, but that was when I didn’t think my life was worth very much.” He can’t see that going over well! It’s never really been an option, anyway, since Luo Binghe can’t not unlock his demonic powers and go to the Demon Realm. The System won’t have it.

AN: If SQH said that to MBJ, that would be a one-hit KO, probably.

Break the man’s heart, why don’t you?

#tossawary svsss #pride is not the word #tossawary commentary

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gabriellebct · 6 years

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Reflective Journaling

I have chosen to write about my experience with making the soundscape. When the brief was first given to us I was definitely excited to begin the task, but there was also an underlying sense of apprehension. This was because the main part of the project was arranging sounds to make a soundscape on the music production application Ableton. The apprehensive feeling was due to the fact that I have had only very fleeting experiences with playing a musical instrument and arranging music. Due to my self-perceived incompetence I immediately felt inadequate to perform the task to a high standard, so I began watching tutorials of how to use the the application, how to make certain sound effects, how to imitate certain artists styles, the list goes on. I went onto the soundcloud page and listened to nearly all of the soundscapes from the previous years. I wanted to learn as much as I could in the short amount of time that I had because that is how I thought I could produce my best work .When I finally began to create the soundscape I was so focused on utilising the skills I had “learnt” and trying to achieve what I had seen artists do, rather than just experimenting with the basic skills we had learnt in class and getting on with it. I lacked the confidence to just delve into it, I was afraid of doing it wrong which essentially means I was afraid of failing. Once I finally got around to finish it I was mildly happy with the end product, but perhaps if I had just got straight into it and not been afraid of making mistakes I would have liked it better. Another factor worth mentioning is that most of the people in my group did have experience with music, so in a way this made me feel even more incapable to do the task since my peers directly around me had a greater understanding than I did.

I think this all stems back to when I was growing up, and where I did most of my learning and trying new things, at primary school. I was naturally gifted at most things, an all rounder, so I rarely struggled when trying new things, and even on the rare occasion that I did, it was alright because everyone else around me also felt the same. I grew to focus on my academics, visual art and the occasional sport. These were the things I was good at, and the things I was comfortable and confident with doing. As I have grown older I have stuck to this mindset of doing the things I am good at and avoiding everything else, which is actually a very detrimental mindset now that I think about it. Looking back on experiences like this I’ve come to realise that you shouldn’t view your peers as your competition, but rather a source of collaboration and constructive criticism, especially in the BCT where you can learn so much from your peers. This is where the BCT degree really outdoes traditional ways of teaching, where students are no longer pitted against each other and instead encouraged to collaborate with each other.

A few weeks ago I was listening to National Radio where I heard an interview with the British journalist Matthew Syed. He was discussing some of the ideas in his book, Black Box Thinking, where he argues that the key to success is a positive attitude to failure. Here’s how he explains this: "The first time you speak in public... 'Oh, I'm not very good at it. Then you go through your whole life using sophisticated avoidance strategies in order to never have to give a speech again. You're essentially hijacking your own development, your own occupational pathway because of your self-limiting beliefs. It's catastrophic." “We have an allergic attitude to failure. We try to avoid it, cover it up and airbrush it out of our lives.” He says we should instead embrace it and learn from it, and explains how most skills are something we develop, not something we’re either good at or not good at. After listening to him talk I was suddenly aware that this is exactly what I do and how counterproductive it is to act this way. This line of thinking definitely relates to what I learnt during the marshmallow challenge, which is to begin prototyping early. By doing this, at first you will probably fail in achieving what you were aiming for, at least a few times, but you will learn essential lessons from these failures. The following passage from my blog post about the marshmallow challenge can also be applied to this Creative Technologies experience: “I found this activity quite helpful as I think I often spend too much time planning things out and getting quite particular with minor details, and eventually run out of time when it comes to actually doing it and cannot complete it to the best of my ability. Sometimes it is better to just get straight into it so you can see what works and what doesn’t work from the beginning.” After considering this I began to think about how this relates to the “fixed” mindset I had while making the soundscape. It went along the lines of “I haven’t done this before therefore I won’t be good at it therefore I don’t want to do it.” According to Carol Dweck, a Psychology Professor at Stanford University, people in a learning environment can have a fixed mindset, “they’re mainly concerned with how smart they are, they prefer tasks they can already do well and avoid ones on which they may make mistakes and not look smart. In contrast, she said, people who believe in an "expandable" or "growth" theory of intelligence want to challenge themselves to increase their abilities, even if they fail at first.” . This is called a “growth” mindset. Following reading this study, I realised that I completed this project with a fixed mindset.

Reflecting on my learning using the Kolb Cycle has taught me alot about myself and the way I approach new things. Most importantly it has shown me the mindset that I have lived with for years, and taught me that having the right mindset is the key to progress and success. Nobody ever gets anywhere with a negative fixed mindset and it has become clear to me that I need to change my mindset to a growth mindset. Only once this mindset has been adopted can the other lessons I have learnt come into play. In future projects I will challenge myself to not be afraid of failing and stepping out of my comfort zone. I also challenge myself to share my work more often with my peers as they can give valuable feedback. This assignment has been super helpful with learning about my own learning, and I look forward to see how this new understanding will aid in my journey as a Creative Technologist.

References

Sayed, Matthew. (2018). Matthew Syed: how failing can help us succeed. Radio New Zealand. Sayed, Matthew. (2015). Black Box Thinking: the surprising truth about success. Daily Mail UK. Trei Lisa. (2007). New study yields instructive results on how mindset affects learning. Stanford News.

#CTEC502

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takenews-blog1 · 6 years

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FBI Leaks That Make Your Pores and skin Crawl

New Post has been published on https://takenews.net/fbi-leaks-that-make-your-pores-and-skin-crawl/

FBI Leaks That Make Your Pores and skin Crawl

Scandals abound! Simply take a look at the unlawful and traitorous actions of FBI brokers. From illicit amorous affairs and horrible DUI-induced homicides, the actual and tragic historical past of FBI brokers actually makes you surprise what is going on that we don’t know. Listed here are simply a number of the scary and sordid FBI tales.

The controversial debacle that surrounded FBI Director James Comey is, by now, legendary. Remarkably, Comey selected the ultimate days counting all the way down to the election to throw up pink flags relating to considerations he stated he had in his FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private-server utilization and questions of safety.

It wasn’t a lot that he had launched the investigation (that was most likely anticipated), however that he despatched the letters so near the tip of the election cycle, inflicting a media frenzy. It has been seen as a political transfer, not justified. Clinton claims that this was an enormous think about why she misplaced the election. For his half, he didn’t get off scot-free. There have been nonetheless numerous debacles that he would preside over earlier than he was lastly summarily axed by President Trump.

How scandalous the Trump wire-tapping debacle actually was might be a matter for debate. In any case, the one one who claims that Trump Tower was bugged is President Trump. However, reviews additionally speculate that Trump was anticipating FBI Director James Comey to again him up. It’s not clear whether or not Comey was anticipated to manufacture proof, simply launch an announcement in help of Trump, or simply stay silent on the subject. No matter he was presupposed to do, Comey upset.

After Trump posted to Twitter relating to his wire-taping claims, Comey stated: “I’ve no data that helps these tweets, and we now have appeared fastidiously contained in the FBI.”

President Trump Fires FBI Director Comey

The newest information within the saga surrounding FBI Director James Comey was launched in Could of 2017, as President Trump summarily fired him. White Home Press Secretary Sean Spicer stated in an announcement: “Immediately, President Donald J. Trump knowledgeable FBI Director James Comey that he has been terminated and faraway from workplace. President Trump acted based mostly on the clear suggestions of each Deputy Lawyer Normal Rod Rosenstein and Lawyer Normal Jeff Classes.”

Whereas it was stated to be based mostly on efficiency, particularly the “mishandling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails”, many critics declare that it was merely a fast-and-easy (maybe even fool-proof) solution to derail the investigation that Comey had launched into Russian involvement and affect on the White Home, whereas different media retailers level to the wire-tapping scandal.

There’s a wealthy and reasonably tragic historical past of scandals beneath James Comey’s watch, so that you may say there’ll by no means be only one cause that he was faraway from his publish as FBI Director. Traditionally talking, although, it’s reasonably uncommon to take away somebody who’s in such a spot of prominence within the administration. That’s most likely why the media has been in such a frenzy to invest the actual the explanation why he was fired.

Finally, probably the most broadly held opinions is that Comey was a humiliation. He wasn’t on the “Crew Trump,” he’s been known as to testify over-and-over once more, and maybe it was simply an excessive amount of for the White Home to abdomen.

Maybe we should always have recognized that the connection between President Trump and FBI Director James Comey was destined to finish in scandal and failure, notably with a number of the newest particulars that at the moment are rising. In response to some sources, Trump invited Comey to a one-on-one dinner shortly after changing into president after which demanded that Comey pledge his loyalty to him. Comey refused. When he was requested once more later, he stated he would give trump “honesty,” and when requested if it might be “sincere loyalty,” he reportedly stated: “You should have that.”

The White Home claims a really completely different account of that dinner, and Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee stated, “We don’t imagine this to be an correct account… He would by no means even counsel the expectation of private loyalty, solely loyalty to our nation and its nice folks.”

As if the scandal and gossip-mongering weren’t sufficient, you’ve probably now heard concerning the intimidation ways that seem to have been deployed towards James Comey. Sure, he’s now a non-public citizen. He not heads up the FBI, however President Trump has unleashed tweets about him, which have prompted even additional debate and uproar. The wire-tapping scandal has already been in comparison with the Nixon scandal. In his Twitter publish, Trump stated: “James Comey higher hope that there aren’t any ‘tapes’ of our conversations earlier than he begins leaking to the press.”

Former White Home Counsel, John Dean, responded to Trump’s tweet by saying: “Clearly, President Trump is confused. He’s the one who should hope there aren’t any tapes. Sincere folks don’t have issues being taped.” Nonetheless, there’s an extended historical past of FBI scandal that every one fell aside beneath Comey’s directorship.

The ISIS-claimed assault was the primary of its type within the US, and the details that surrounded the case are each eye-opening and troubling. We now know that the spark that set off the assault was a “Draw Muhammad” contest. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi had been the 2 radical Islamic extremists who opened hearth on the scene, however what’s maybe most terrifying is that the FBI knew about at the very least one suspect.

An spy was following them, and he even filmed the entire incident. It’s now believed that he was attempting to make use of his participation within the incident to achieve higher standing with the ISIS group, so he did nothing to cease it. He additionally reportedly fled the scene as quickly as the primary photographs had been fired.

We now know that the FBI additionally reportedly alerted legislation enforcement that an assault was imminent, which can have contributed to a sooner response time. Luckily, a site visitors officer shortly took out the 2 shooters, and Safety Guard Bruce Joiner was the one one injured within the incident.

After studying that the undercover FBI agent was on the scene of the taking pictures, Joiner demanded solutions, and his lawyer instructed reporters: “Only a full botched operation the place they [the FBI] don’t need the assault to truly happen, or, it’s one thing the place they want the assault to happen to ensure that this man [the agent] to advance on the earth of ISIS.”

What did the FBI know? And when did they realize it? These had been simply two of the numerous questions that the Senate subcommittee had for FBI Director James Comey when he testified earlier than them concerning the Garland assault. The road of questions additionally concerned whether or not the FBI ought to have finished extra to cease the phobia assault, notably since they had been reportedly following one of many shooters. It additionally goes again as to whether public security overrules and different consideration (like the likelihood that they’d acquire beneficial intel by gaining a greater foothold within the ISIS group).

In one other tragic flip of occasions, proof signifies that the Russian FSB intelligence company had warned the FBI that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the bomber within the Boston Marathon (2013) was a harmful and radical Islamist extremist. In response to reviews, he was flagged within the system so he ought to have been pulled apart for questioning on the JFK airport, however a misspelling of his final identify allowed him to slide by. The Boston Chief of Police later known as it a “enormous gap” and an “alternative missed.”

What might be seen as a “easy” mistake truly resulted in one of many worst terror assaults on US soil, and the error unforgivable. You possibly can take a look at his journey report to see what number of instances he entered and left the US, with out being detained or questioned. However, the bombing that happened on the Boston Marathon was not the primary, nor wouldn’t it be the final.

Within the aftermath of the San Bernardino assault, the FBI as soon as once more investigated the case as an act of terror by Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik. FBI Director James Comey once more drew criticism, with their strategy in making an attempt to hack into Farook’s iPhone, which they believed held beneficial intel.

Whilst you’ve most likely seen law-enforcement officers accessing good telephones, computer systems, and different digital units, the fact of present encryption seems to be a bit extra difficult than you’ve most likely imagined. The FBI couldn’t hack into the cellphone, in order that they submitted a search warrant in an try to drive Apple to assist them get in. In fact, the search warrant, and the revelation that the FBI was making an attempt to achieve entry to an encryption machine additionally sparked additional protest.

In yet one more terror occasion, the FBI found that there was yet one more impediment to attending to the information it wanted to pursue justice for the victims of the San Bernardino terrorist assault. You most likely keep in mind that an iPhone was recovered from the shooter, and the FBI was reportedly unable to crack the safety to entry the cellphone knowledge. So, the FBI issued a search warrant to drive Apple to write down code that may enable them entry. It was a reasonably round-about solution to get at elusive, doubtlessly ineffective, data, nevertheless it additionally didn’t get them the consequence they had been after. Apple argued that the search warrant violated their first modification rights, and so they gained in courtroom.

In courtroom proceedings, the FBI attorneys hinted that they might have already found out (or had been near determining) find out how to hack the iPhone, however they didn’t elaborate. Then, in subsequent testimony, FBI Director James Comey eluded to the very massive sum of cash that was paid out to a hacker to get into the iPhone of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook.

It was solely extra just lately that Dianne Feinstein spilled the (prime secret) beans. She indicated that the FBI had paid an astounding $900,000 to hack the cellphone. The Related Press had sued the FBI to search out out that element, and so they additionally requested the identify of the seller who unlocked the cellphone (which, once more, is taken into account prime secret by the FBI.)

The Pulse Nightclub bloodbath is one other of the tragedies which have fallen in with the FBI scandal information, and that incident resulted within the deaths of 49 folks, with 53 wounded. FBI Director James Comey was questioned concerning the Pulse assault when it turned clear that Omar Mir Seddique Mateen had been beneath investigation. He had additionally proven a propensity towards violent outbursts.

His ex-wife stated that he abused her, and he’d additionally stated that he was going to deliver a gun to his coaching class in 2007. He reportedly made “inflammatory” feedback to co-workers and in addition was additionally related to a suicide bomber. Regardless that the preponderance of proof appeared compelling, the FBI investigators determined he was not a menace, and so they closed the case. Throughout his assault on the Pulse Nightclub, although, he pledged allegiance to ISIS.

You could be one of many critics who say that the FBI brokers ought to have recognized. Possibly they’d have if he’d proven extra violent outbursts. However, you may also see how an agent might take a look at his stunning spouse and younger child, and even see him on day. It’s unattainable to know what they noticed once they investigated him, and that’s additionally why it’s such a troublesome activity to cease these horrible acts of terror. Whenever you take a look at this image of a person together with his spouse and little boy, do you actually think about that he’s going to homicide 49 folks?

With all of the scandals you’d examine to date, you’re most likely by no means shocked to listen to that at the very least one FBI agent was discovered responsible of DUI.

Sadly, you’re most likely not shocked that James Farrall was an FBI agent who was charged with DUI, however you could be a bit extra stunned while you study that he drove the mistaken means and hit two brothers, Maurice Williams and Craig Chambers, who each died within the mangled automobile wreckage. What’s much more troubling is that in accordance with Prosecutor Michael Horowitz, “Not as soon as did this man even rise up right here and settle for accountability for his actions. I feel that’s telling.”

After being convicted of driving beneath the affect, he received 90 days in jail, in addition to 12-months probation, 50 hours of group service, a driver’s license suspension for a yr, and a high quality of $250. He’s not the one FBI agent to search out himself on the middle of scandal for DUI and manslaughter.

Within the case of Adrian N. Johnson, he was charged with DUI and murder, when he drove on the mistaken facet of the highway. His automobile hit an oncoming automobile and killed 18-year-old Lawrence Garner Jr., who was driving together with his finest good friend, Robert Mitchell II.

Johnson was instantly arrested beneath suspicion that he was driving beneath the affect, and he was ultimately sentenced to 18 months in jail for manslaughter. DUI-and-manslaughter isn’t even the tip of the scandals which have slowed down the FBI over time. There’s additionally the top-security clearance translator who ran off with an ISIS operative…

You’ve most likely heard it stated that love is blind, however this story is simply loopy. Daniela Greene was an FBI translator with top-secret clearance, so you’ll be able to think about the hubbub when she ran off to Syria in 2014 and married an ISIS operative. She’d lied to her bosses about the place she was going, and what she deliberate to do, for now-obvious causes. Worse nonetheless, she reportedly warned him that he was beneath investigation, which most likely jeopardized the FBI agenda and left them open to rather-enormous safety considerations.

Sure, there was an onslaught of almost each type of controversy and scandal over time, all surrounding the FBI. However, on the very root of the FBI credibility is the supposed proven fact that they collect proof and perform investigations which are above board. However, in accordance with leaked paperwork reported on by the Washington Publish, the FBI and the Justice Division have uncovered large points together with “flawed forensic testimony” and claims that seem to usually exceed the boundaries of actual science.

Many circumstances depend on extra than simply the forensic proof or testimony to make that responsible conviction “stick” however the sample of defective investigative processes remains to be troubling, lending itself to a sample of scandal that’s unattainable to disregard.

In some unspecified time in the future, you’ve most likely stopped being stunned. Then, you will have develop into aggravated, and also you most likely have even gotten indignant. The FBI is meant to be defending us, however the scandals and controversies present that a few of their brokers lack integrity, whereas there are additionally points that go all the best way to the very prime of the FBI.

In a single leaked report alone, you’ll discover proof of greater than 1,045 FBI brokers who had been disciplined for all the pieces from “sexting” on firm telephones to relationship drug sellers. Brokers are usually cautioned to “keep away from moral pitfalls and different violations,” however the chiding notes don’t appear to be doing an entire lot of fine.

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wepoliticalmovement-blog · 6 years

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5 Sectors Concerned With The SM Contractualization Issue

by: Bianca Tañega

SM Investments Corporation (SMIC or SM, the mother company) is one of the leading business entities in the Philippines. Henry Sy, owner of the popular empire, is known to even contribute to the value of around 6% of the entire Philippine economy. Now, a business doing so well mustn’t have an issue with providing their employees substantial salaries, wages, and benefits, right? Well as it turns out, that may not exactly be the case. SM has been accused time and time again of practicing contractualization.

When a company practices contractualization, they hire employees for less than 6 months before terminating their contracts. What this does is it never allows these employees to become regular employees entitled to employee benefits meant to be provided by their employers. Without these benefits, they are subjected to injustices such as difficulty saving for their retirement and deprivation of healthcare to name a few.

Another thing to take note of is how this issue does not only affect the employees directly. Contractualization affects their families and communities as well, since these people are their breadwinners. If they fail to provide for their families and communities, it can be assumed that the families and communities will either suffer or struggle significantly.

SM has denied this many times, but there have still been many first-hand accounts from their employees themselves. Many people have come to the aid of these people, and there have already been efforts made to effect change. There are also some people who support SM. Here are 5 sectors in society and their stands on the SM contractualization issue!

1. The Church

Church groups such as the Church-Workers Solidarity (CWS) and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) have openly criticized SM for denying that they don’t practice contractualization when they get approached by so many young SM contractual employees. They called it SM’s “anti-worker employment scheme.” As a Church group, these two groups need the support from the people in their communities. They will put the people first to secure that support. This can be why they are so vocal about ensuring that the interests of SM’s workers are met. A manifestation of this would be when they called SM out on their lies and exposed that the company is run by greed since they generate so much but at the expense of their workers to whom they barely even pay the minimum wage. They say that SM takes advantage of their workers, and their workers have no choice but to accept it since they really need the jobs anyway.

2. The Youth

Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK) is a youth group that also called SM out on their contractualization issue. They challenged the company through email to reveal the conditions under which they practice contractualization. It is understandable why they would fight for this issue since a lot of people that “fall victim” to SM’s contractualization are young people new to the workforce. They tried to get the company to budge, however, SM continued to deny their claims. Despite this, they still see SM as the one that started the whole contractualization practice in the Philippines and the young employees as the powerless in this situation with no choice but to accept the conditions their employer dictates for them.

3. The Activists

Militant activist groups Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) and Anakpawis Partylist are two groups that are against SM’s contractualization practices as well. They are very vocal and quite radical with their stand, too. These two groups represent the masses, and the masses are the ones who usually end up in contractualized positions such as salespeople and clerks for retailers like SM. They are simply actively protecting themselves from being taken advantage of by such a powerful entity. They disagree with this practice because to them, it oppresses the workers. It is an injustice to them. Again, the employees have no power in this situation and the abide by the company’s ultimate desires and preferences because it is their best option for providing for their families and financing their lives.

4. The Women

In the retail industry, women make up majority of the population of salespeople or sellers. If any retail company exploits their workers, women would be the most affected. Gabriela Women’s Partylist (GWP) is an organization that works for the welfare of the women in the country. Their argument is that the harsh conditions of contractualization can take a serious toll on a woman and her health. According to them, SM’s unreasonably short breaks have caused a lot of their female employees to acquire urinary tract infection (UTI). They are also forced to wear heels all day with hardly any time to rest, causing serious harm to their feet. GWP disagrees with SM because they believe that the employees, especially the female ones, deserve to work under better and more just working conditions. The women experience this in addition to the low pay and the deprivation of employee benefits. However, they continue with their job and continue working because they have no choice.

5. The Government

The last sector is the government. There are two arguments for this sector in particular; the first being that of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) while the second being that of our president, Pres. Duterte. When Pres. Duterte was running for office, one thing he promised to work for was the end of labor contractualization. However, DOLE failed to align themselves with the President’s plans when the Secretary of their department, Secretary Bello, signed Department Order (DO) No. 174 (2017) without ensuring that contractualization would officially end. They failed to implement the appropriate policies that protect low-position, clerical employees from contractualization. To them, SM’s contractualization is “legal contractualization,” therefore, there isn’t anything actually wrong. Whereas the President himself is very against it. Pres. Duterte has made himself very clear with his being against corruption. Contractualization is, in a way, a form of corruption in the business and corporate world. Because SM is so powerful, DOLE is perhaps being careful about the whole situation. They want to protect themselves from what the company will or might do if they give them a hard time. In the President’s case, everyone knows how fearless he is. His goal in office is to eradicate corruption and eradicate contractualization. It doesn’t matter to him who the corporation is or how powerful they are. There is contestation present between the two since their beliefs and ideologies clash, and they are both law-enforcing or law-implementing entities. Both entities are exercising their power but since the President has authority that comes into play, DOLE is compelled to accept reconsideration of the issue and make extra efforts to ensure anti-contractualization policies are implemented efficiently even if the order had already been signed.

Although this isn’t a headlining issue that a lot of people are aware even exists, SM’s contractualization is still being discussed, and the fight to end contractualization in the country is still in pursuit to this day.

Sources:

http://www.anakpawis.net/2012/04/retail-giant-has-no-regard-for-human-and-natural-resources%E2%80%9Csm-and-henry-sy-also-under-fire-for-contractualization-policy%E2%80%9D-anakpawis/

http://bulatlat.com/main/2017/10/13/sectors-unite-nationwide-protest-vs-sm-contractualization/

http://business.inquirer.net/110413/philippines-elite-swallow-countrys-new-wealth

http://www.cbcpnews.com/cbcpnews/?p=76618

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/575909/duterte-urges-endo-workers-to-complain-via-gov-t-hotlines/story/

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/money/companies/584636/youth-group-calls-on-sm-to-reveal-number-of-contractual-employees/story/

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/893227/contractualization-problem-persists-despite-new-labor-dept-order

https://www.rappler.com/nation/148400-end-contractualization-duterte-100-days

https://www.rappler.com/thought-leaders/164921-endo-contractualization-alive-dole-department-order

http://www.remate.ph/2012/04/militanteng-grupo-nagprotesta-vs-sm-contractualization/

#contractualization #sm #philippines #henry sy #capitalism #business #economics #politics #corruption #industry #retail #unemployment #employment #injustice

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