#the acknowledgement of the scale of our existence should be a point of deep respect and awe and unity but it has been treated as something

[oatbugs]

we feel too big for our own good

#i feel like one of the most important aspects of being a creature on this earth in this universe is to possess the ability to feel as much #an animal/a part of nature as any other flower or tree or creature. i feel feeling like a small part of a larger whole is very important to #this process. i think this used to be a very common human experience - in vast forests #staring at uncountable stars existing as a part of a seemingly unending space. somehow somewhere along the way our big became too small. #maybe it was the development of large cities. but when our big becomes so small compared to what it used to be #we may see ourselves as far larger than we used to in comparison. i think what used to be reverence for the vast is now synonymous with #existential dread and i think that mindset has been one of the worst things to happen to us and by extension to this planet. #we need to feel small and insignificant and that is not at all a bad thing. we need to maintain a good perspective of our place in this #world. i wish this was encouraged. i wish it was seen as important to go stand at the foot of a mountain at night in the cold #stare at its height. stare at the stars. feel how easily the cold could end everything. i think that would do everyone wonders. #we just really arent seperate from others. #i want to force every capitalist to float in space untethered for like 2 hours in complete silence. #the acknowledgement of the scale of our existence should be a point of deep respect and awe and unity but it has been treated as something #to feel isolated about. its been deemed existentially unhealthy. this has done so so much harm for us.

[echo-three-one]

Whatever It Takes

Sequel to A Forgotten Memory

Roach's stealth skills are put to the test as he sneaks past an alleged Augustus base to capture him and gather intel about the recent EMP based attacks. Will Roach be able to impress Captain Price?

Previous Chapter : Soap - Experiment 001

Chapter 9 to another story made by Ray (echo-three-one) Comments and Reviews appreciated! I hope you enjoy! Love you all ❤️

"A SurPRICE Visit"

Gary 'Roach' Sanderson

Task Force 141

400 meters outside Augustus' Mountain Base

Germany

The winds were picking up when they landed and Roach flew about a few more meters away from Price.

"This EMP blast is messing with my signals. Captain, can you find Roach?" Ghost spoke over comms, his voice crumbled over the static.

"He landed not too far from me. Come on boy, let's get a head on." Price replied to Ghost as he helped Gary get up and untangle himself from his mess. Gary nodded and followed his Captain into the edge of the mountain.

"There it is. Augustus' base." he mused as Gary scoped through his supressed silencer. Trucks were leaving the area filled with armed hostiles.

"Ghost, you see this? They're leaving the hive." Price informed the recon man.

"Aye, sir. Looks like they're headed to Alex's direction. If we time this right you'll have less people inside there." he replied. Gary wondered why they were leaving. It didn't make sense to back-up an already reclaimed base back at Alex's.

"Let's go Roach. I'll take the one on the left tower, you take the one on the right. I'm currently spotting four Tangos by the gate. Fire when ready." Price instructed. Roach took a deep breath to steady his sights, quickly pulling the trigger once the crosshairs aligned with their heads.

"Good kill. Your sniper skills are improving, Sargeant." Price mused as he signaled them to move forward. For a Captain who's left him a solid first impression as a strict angryman, Roach didn't expect the kind words from him. It almost felt overwhelming.

"You go ahead and take what's important inside that guardhouse. I'll cover you from this position." he commanded and Gary sprung safely into action, switching to his suppressed pistol and into the guardhouse.

It was simple, a few cameras, some photos of people who they let in and a few map layouts. Gary quickly snapped all of them for Ghost to see. Roach also grabbed the radio and placed it near his ear. Gary set his sights on an AK-47 lying on the ground.

"Roach, be careful when using unsuppressed weapons. It might reveal our existence." Price muttered to which he nodded. It just made sense.

"Jäeger, kopierst du?" the radio muttered. Roach's German wasn't on point and any non-reply from the other end would result in an investigation.

"Ja, alles klar." he replied, trying to replicate the accent. There was no more reply on the other side which meant Gary actually nailed his reply.

"Captain, behind that door is heavily guarded. I suggest a reroute to the back door just a few meters east of your position. This isn't Augustus' base, it's a remote research facility studying plant life by the border and he seemed to take it over." Ghost informed after gathering the photos, Gary waited on the edge of the wall covering his Captain's six. The duo proceeded as suggested and climbed over an unguarded fence.

"We're at a greenhouse. Labeled 6." Price whispered.

"Do you see any cameras?" Ghost asked.

"Yeah. Looking at the plants." he muttered.

"Circle around it and find cover behind the safehouse labeled 5. If my German is correct, the central area should have 2 scientists on their way in there." Ghost informed.

"Right on schedule." Price nodded to Roach as they both knocked them down quietly and non-lethally as they were civilians. Gary quickly slung his weapon and hid it behind the huge white lab coat the both of them now wore.

"Keep your weapons hidden, until I say so. Okay?" Price said as he pulled the bodies somewhere hidden. Gary nodded as they confidently waltzed inside the base, using their fake ids pinned on their coats for entry.

Gary watched a lot of sci-fi fics and most of them depicted labs as white walled, glass-divided rooms with hundreds of scientists working on some random machineries. Except here, it's plants. It seemed normal as if they infiltrated the wrong base. Price seemed to worry too, his steps were further apart and he seemed to be in a hurry. They were losing hope on a lead, until one armed guard, different from those outside started climbing up the stairs.

"Finally. Some good news." Price muttered as they made their way up the stairs.

"Authorized personnel only." an armed guard stood by the steps blocking the duos way. It was too crowded and too risky to engage him and press through and they both needed a new plan.

"Es tut mir leid." Gary replied as he pulled Price to the restrooms.

"It's no use. We can't go guns ablazing right here." he noted to his Captain.

"Bollocks." he cursed.

"We need a diversion." He added.

"Way ahead of you, Sir." Gary smirked and showed him his c4 trigger, pushed it and an explosion followed.

"Nice. By the guard house?" Price asked while they waited for reinforcements to assist the blast.

"Yeah."

"Quick thinking lad. I like that."

Several armed men came rushing down the stairs, yelling in a different language, all going to the exit. They stomped to the stairs and carefully breached the second floor of the building, shooting armed tangos using suppressed weapons. They had to act fast and stomp on their comms as soon as they're down so that the others outside will not fall back.

Ten guards were left behind to protect the second floor, and with the help of stealth, Gary and Price took them out smoothly. All that's left are the intel waiting to be harvested.

Gary snapped all possible evidence, every nook and cranny was investigated while Price tapped his heavy fingers on the keyboard.

"Looks like they're going large. They're planting something by the major cities cell towers. Here's one in Berlin." he muttered, printing a copy of the blueprints.

"Price! R-ch" Ghost's static crackled across their comms.

"Th- found- guards!

Get. Out. There. NOW." he added.

"Kill every civilian in there. That will let our little friends out of the shadows. I know they're after us…" a menacing voice said over Roach's stolen receiver.

"Shite. They're killing civvies." Gary said, worried.

"I'm sorry Roach. But we can't save them. It's a trap. Now protect that camera and let's get the fuck out of here." Price consoled as they continued pressing on toward the exit.

Screaming people followed by gunshots echoed across the white halls of the research facility, Gary didn't want to look back, Gary didn't want to hear any more screaming but it was all around him. Whoever commanded this act to be done must be eradicated from this world.

LOCAL MILITIA SETTLEMENT

Alex greeted the duo as soon as they stepped inside the village. It felt lively as everyone was celebrating their victory.

"Captain." Alex nodded and Price returned the gesture with a handshake.

"This is Blitz. Their leader." he added, introducing the man to Price.

"Thank you for helping us." Price acknowledged.

"No. Thank you for helping us. You have good men fighting for a good cause." he remarked, nodding at Alex and Gary. Gary also got acquainted with the leader, exchanged a few words and got offered soup.

"Tough day, huh?" Alex nudged over Gary, who's still sad about the situation earlier.

"You and me, both." Gary muttered as Alex patted his shoulder.

"We'll get him soon enough, Roach. Justice will be served." Alex consoled as Gary took a deep sigh.

"They're planting EMP bombs on major cell towers. Maybe incorporating it with them to perform large scale blasts." Gary pondered, taking a sip off the delicious soup.

"Yeah. That's our go signal. It's now a terror activity. Imagine a day without communication. International trade would crumble." Alex explained to which Gary nodded in agreement.

"Global cripple. People's minds get hurt, Economy gets hurt and we aren't focused enough to defend ourselves."

"That's what he's up to." Gary finished.

"And we have to stop it. Whatever It Takes." Alex looked at Gary with determination, that kind of pep talk that makes him a little less sad.

"Yeah." Gary agreed.

~

Another briefing, but this time, it was going somewhere. Operation Burn, the task is to eliminate Nero and all his allies, if possible. Funny enough, the real Nero burned everyone else. Whoever thought of this name was smart enough to connect the dots.

There's another person added to the team, the redhead leather jacket agent, Alexandra Ryder. An interpol agent tasked to destroy all traces of said EMP machinery. She looks tough, acts tough and basically is tough. France seemed to be going along well with her. That's a bonus for alliances such as these.

"So, I heard Price noted your sniper improvement." Ghost nudged.

"Yeah. Thanks Simon. Your training sucks but it helped a lot." Gary complimented.

"Tried talking to France and the new girl today." Ghost reported. Gary turned to him, clearly interested about his story.

"It was actually good. They're both intimidated by the mask and that's why they can't initiate conversation with me. But the talk went pretty well so I guess you needed to update your scoreboard or something." He muttered.

Gary chuckled. "That's one step towards her."

"I'll let the Interpol handle Berlin. Since it involves just the weapon, as for other news. I think it's time to transfer our two hostages back to the USA." Gary quickly turned his head back to the screen. No. It can't be. He had to stop this decision.

"With all due respect sir. I do not agree with this!" Gary stood up and all eyes were on him. He's still concerned about the welfare of the two plus he didn't want Maxine to leave. Not yet.

"I've read the report on their case sir. And it's not that I don't trust the system there but what if there's still another one in there with ties to Nero. He was able to slip by under our noses once or more times than that but let's consider the possibilities here." Gary explained as he looked around. Alex seemed to agree with him.

Shepherd let out a soft sigh.

"We'll discuss this possibility Sgt. Sanderson. You can sit down now." he said and resumed briefing.

"Brave move you did there, soldier." Ghost remarked as Gary let out a sigh. He wasn't sure on he's really concerned, the IP Address being extracted from Samantha or Maxine's smile that he will be missing if she left.

Next Chapter : The Heart Knows what the Brain doesn't

Notification Squad, my beloved

@samatedeansbroccoli @smokeywhalee @whimsywispsblog @enderio @beemybee @ricinbach

#horRAYfic #whateverittakes #codmwfic #alex echo 3 1 #john price #john soap mactavish #simon ghost riley #gary roach sanderson #why is the next chapter pink?!

[validation-fm]

The AI Validation

The Need for AI Validation

The rise of AI, or rather relabeling of Machine Learning, Data Mining, adn Data Science as AI, was followed by the inevitable rise of Ethical AI, which is often referred to as Responsbile AI, or the area of data bias.

The logical step for Ethical AI is to acknowledge the source and target of any ethics -- humans. We define what is ethical and what is not, and we aspire to teach the machines to encode our values.

Since about 2017, we see the rise of human bodies organized around theories of Ethical AI and setting up organizational frameworks for aligning AI outcomes with human benefits, and preventing the rise of the killer robots. The Partnership for AI connects the major FAANG players, and a series of Human AI, Human-Centric AI, and Human-Compatible AI institutes were establiished, at Stanfordm Brown, Berkeley (resp.) and elsewhere.

Human-Computer Interaction scientists naturally expanded into this area, as well as ethicists and even the modern activists self-organized as social media collectives.

Coincidentally, another transformation took AI by storm around 2017 -- the Transformers. Transofmer models bested state of the art in a majority of NLP and image tasks, and now underpin the key FAANG offerings, such as machine translation.

Transformers were use do build a series of ever-larger language models, whcih reached a tipping point with GPT-3 by OpenAI. GPT-3 captured the public imagination with completing short textual prompts (prefixes) with elaborate and seemingly meaningful (and occasionally even deep) stories expanding the prefix.

However, the model output can be wrong or even harmful. This is not surprising as the training data encomapsses the whole human culture, which for the bulk of history was full of bias. If we strive to do, and be, better than our predecessors, the traditional ML approach, using the past for training, is insufficient. We need to devise new methods that will produce outcomes aligned with our values and aspirations.

From HIL to CVAIM

The rise of Human in the Loop AI is famously traced back to AAI -- the Artificial Artificial AI of the AWS, the Mechanical Turk. Initially serving Amazon's own needs and generalized as a service in the early genius of AWS, it spawned a multiplicity of commercial followings, including Crowdflower => Figure Eight, Scale AI, and so on.

The HIL worker is supposed to have a very basic undertsanding of the tasks in hand, such as distinguishing cats from dogs or chairs from tables. The mass market for the human labeling expanded with the ascent of self-driving cars. The problems are generally low-level, the lay is very low, and the labelelled data exists at the bottom of the mighty AI value pyramid.

If we look at history, an early HIL success was the Penn Tree Bank, where students labelled English text corpora to train the early NLP statistical parsers. The process had to be standardized, with supervisors training the labelers and the appropriate UI created to speed up their work.

But this early AI was a far cry from the modern one that can release inmates from prison or make driving decisions, both life and death choices. Industrial AI platforms are now being built that help design new medications and vaccines, discover new materials, optimize energy allocation, and solve other hard problems facing humanity. We also see modern NLP capabilities capturing imagination of developers buliding interactive apps and services generating legal text such as contracts or patents.

Validating such AI output is beyond a typical HIL worker, even a team of those trained for a specific task or project. We need several levels of human validation. Some could be common sense, but others would require domain experts, or Experts in the Loop.

How can such validation be structured?

CVAIM Review Loops

An Expert in the Loop (EIL) setup is an asynchronous review network. For different classes of inputs, Expert Review Loops (ERLs) should be configured, statically or dynamically.

Example 1: Corporate Communications

When an AI model is used to generate marketing text (such as those several GPT-3 based startups are already emitting), it needs to be reviewed by humans from a standard set of comms angles:

is it correct?

is it effective

is it appropriate and free of liability?

A reasonable ERL corresponding to that flow of communocation would include, respectively

Product Manager

Marketing Manager

Legal Counsel

Example 2: Enterprise Knowledge Discovery

A vast amount of knowledge every company holds is locked in so called dark data -- internal SQL tablesm spreadsheets, PDFs, email servers, etc. A lot of it can be analyzed and ingested with the modern NLP tools and turned into actionable knowledge. When such documents are classified, a variety of experts across the company could be called to verify their place in the resulting knowledge graph being built. In that case, a domain expert should be identified and the validation task routed to them, with all the supporting context to enpower them to make the approval decisions.

Example 3: Open Science

For projects such as HuggingFace Big Science we need a broad set of community validators and experts available for a wide range of subjects. Such a review loop could be structured like a Wikipedia moderator network, where community editors self-organize and a senore editor hierarchy emerges, hopefully by merit.

Interactive Tools and Feedback Loops

The review process adds additional information to the system -- the UI could provide for metadata, collaborative comments, delegation, escalation, deduplication, expiration of documents, and so on.

Community Validation Working Group

We propose the establishment of the CVWG that will explore all of the above topics and come up with robust standards and processes for validation of the Foundation Models.

Through engagement of Experts in the Loop, and thorough transparency of the protocols, we should strive to support a deployed FM with the most reassuring review process. In an enterprise product setup, an ERL may follow the deployment pernanently, so that any concerns should be run through it, as well as random or periodic checkpoint reviews.

[lyannas]

"Remember, she is Dornish.”

Or, Dorne is Westeros’ erotic, exotic, made complete with a helping handful of racism on top.

As someone from a West Asian culture living in a Western country, I had noticed something early on in the depiction of the Dornish that hit close to home and sat ill with me. To begin with, we were informed of the existence of the Dornish yet did not meet a prominent Dornish character until book 3, Oberyn Martell, who was observed through Tyrion’s POV chapters . Before we meet him, a few things are made clear: Dorne makes wine, they’re still upset over Princess Elia’s death, and they are very much the other. When anyone from north of Dorne speaks about the Dornish, they specify it as such, referring to them as Dornish, Dornishmen, and Dornish women.  They are set apart from other Westerosis in the similar way to the Iron Islanders. Their culture is different, therefore specifications are required. While this in no way is a bad thing, as all cultures should be different in some way, discussion of Dornish culture by non-Dornish sources reveals a type of racism reserved specifically for the Dornish.  Tyrion when he first meets Oberyn considers cracking asking “if he knew how a Dornishman differed from a cowflop”, an example of the casual racism that all non-Dornish seem to hold of the Dornish.

The problem goes beyond the racism of the Westerosi characters, however. George R. R. Martin failed the Dornish (and the Essosi) in several aspects of writing, by using racist tropes in his depiction of them and by introducing the Dornish so late and with so little. He did not introduce a prominent Dornish character until book 3, did not provide a Dornish POV until book 4, and even then gave us very little. Of the 9 Dornish POV chapters in books 1-5, one of them belongs to the pretty racist Reachman Arys Oakheart, 2 belong to the Norvoshi Areo Hotah, and the last 6 are split between Quentyn (4 chapters) and Arianne (2 chapters). While there appears to be more Arianne chapters to come in TWOW (2 so far), this is a shockingly small amount of Dornish perspective, with Quentyn’s story not even taking place in Dorne (and ending with his death).

In this essay, I’ll tackle the history of this anti-Dornish racism, how it is practiced by those in Westeros and abroad, and the (often racist) tropes Martin uses to prop up it.

Culture and Ethnicity

Before delving into the issue of anti-Dornish racism itself, it might help to provide context as to who the Dornish are, and what makes them so culturally and ethnically unique in the first place.

Dorne was first populated by the First Men and later by a smaller group of Andals. They had also historically been an ununited country with many kings and lords. That was until about 1,000 years prior to the events of ASOIAF, when Princess Nymeria of Ny Sar led her people on ten thousand ships from the Rhoyne to Dorne. The Rhoynar who boarded her ships were the last survivors of the Rhoynish Wars fought between the Rhoynar and the Valyrians.

Perhaps recognizing her power and her great numbers, Mors Martell pursued an alliance with the Rhoynish princess, and together the two of them managed to conquer Dorne and unite it for the first time since Dorne was settled. The two would marry, and their children presumably continued the Martell line. Princess Nymeria would also later marry two other Dornish lords-- a Lord Uller and a Ser Davos Dayne.

The Rhoynar brought with them some significant customs. One such custom was House Martell’s new titles of “princes” and “princesses”, instead of “kings” and “queens”. Yet despite this being a specific Rhoynish custom, there is a misunderstanding among canon sources re: Nymeria’s title. She is often referred to as a “warrior queen” in the context of the books, and there is even a book titled “The Loves of Queen Nymeria”-- despite the fact that Nymeria was never a queen, she was a princess, as per the Rhoynish fashion. It’s a small and subtle proof of how Rhoynish culture (and by extension, Dornish and Essosi cultures) are misunderstood by outside sources. Another thing was their religion, which died out in favor of the Faith of the Seven. The third and perhaps most culturally significant thing was their laws of inheritance. The Rhoynar practiced absolute primogeniture, which allows the firstborn child, regardless of gender, to inherit their parents’ titles and lands. This is a practice that is carried out among most Dornishmen, though GRRM had noted in an interview that some houses in the mountains still practice the First Men laws of male-preference primogeniture.

The alliance with the Rhoynar also came with extensive intermarriage:

When Mors Martell took Nymeria to wife, hundreds of his knights, squires, and lords bannermen also wed Rhoynish women, and many of those who were already wed took them for their paramours. Thus were the two peoples united by blood.

It also came with “wealth”, described mostly as their skill in metalworking:

The Rhoynar brought considerable wealth with them; their artisans, metalworkers, and stonemasons brought skills far in advance of those achieved by their Westerosi counterparts, and their armorers were soon producing swords and spears and suits of scale and plate no Westerosi smith could hope to match.

This in particular is of interest, as a brief exchange between Tyrion and Illyrio shows how Westeros underplays the Rhoynish influence on metalworking in favor of emphasizing Westerosi accomplishments:

"What sort of gods make rats and plagues and dwarfs?" Another passage from The Seven-Pointed Star came back to him. "The Maid brought him forth a girl as supple as a willow with eyes like deep blue pools, and Hugor declared that he would have her for his bride. So the Mother made her fertile, and the Crone foretold that she would bear the king four-and-forty mighty sons. The Warrior gave strength to their arms, whilst the Smith wrought for each a suit of iron plates."

"Your Smith must have been Rhoynish," Illyrio quipped. "The Andals learned the art of working iron from the Rhoynar who dwelt along the river. This is known."

"Not by our septons." --Tyrion II, ADWD

There is also the Rhoynish “water magic”, which is credited for the natural growth of Dorne:

Even more crucially, it is said the Rhoynish water witches knew secret spells that made dry streams flow again and deserts bloom.

Thus after a thousand years of intermarriage, assimilation and unity, it’s acknowledged that the Rhoynar invasion had a great impact on Dornish culture and their ethnic makeup. The Rhoynar were theorized to have olive skin, dark hair, and dark eyes, features we see continue to exist in the Dornish, namely in those who live along the coast and in central Dorne. The permissive attitude towards same-sex relationships is also credited to the Rhoynar.

During his unsuccessful Conquest of Dorne, Daeron I would proceed to categorize the Dornish based on his own observations, categories that may not necessarily be reflective of the true ethnic makeup of the Dornish. He categorized them as Salty, Stony, and Sandy Dornishmen, noting that the Stony Dornishmen as descended from the First Men and least touched by Rhoynish blood. He also attributed general physical characteristics to each group. Yet despite the variability in physical appearances amongst the Dornish, one thing is made abundantly clear: they are all ethnically Dornish. They practice many of the same customs and share a common culture; there is no evidence of stony/sandy/salty distinction amongst the Dornish that the Westerosi employ and seems to be only a form of Westerosi colorism. The Westerosi themselves do not consider one group of Dornishmen to be better than the other. They are Dornish, and that is that.

Dorne is also home to a huge commerce hub, as they have many types of spices, fruits, their own brand of wine, and their famous sand steeds, reputed for being the fastest horses with incredible endurance. They are also noted as trading across the sands using caravans, and conducting trade in Essos. These are among the many things that mark the Dornish as unique from the Westeros. Unfortunately, it is also their uniqueness that’s used against them by prejudiced Westerosis.

History

The reasons for Dorne’s distinction are made clear when analyzing the history of Westeros and its relationship with Dorne. Dorne had been the only kingdom not conquered by Aegon and his sisters, and was left unconquered for nearly 200 years, until Daeron I Targaryen tried to do what his predecessors could not. This cost him his life, as well as the lives of Lyonel Tyrell and Rickon Stark, both the respective lords of their houses. It was estimated that at least 50,000 Westerosi died in the conquest, which had come undone through a Dornish rebellion, and did not end until Baelor Targaryen sought peace with the Dornish. This peace was sealed through the marriage of Daeron II Targaryen and Mariah Martell, and Daeron II brought Dorne into the Seven Kingdoms through another marriage between his sister Daenerys Targaryen and Maron Martell.

But before Daenerys and Maron’s marriage, King Aegon IV launched an unprovoked attack on Dorne in hopes of conquering them again. Aegon IV was noted as having an intense hatred of the Dornish, one that likely began during his time as a commander during Daeron I’s Conquest of Dorne. Such a hatred did not prevent him from taking Cassella Vaith, a Dornish hostage, as a “mistress”, where he kept her confined to his rooms and presumably raped her, as Cassella would be described as suffering a sharp decline in mental health after the ordeal.

Aegon IV used that same hatred he had that thrived in the marches, stormlands, and the Reach to launch an attack on Dorne that proved to be a complete and utter failure. His son, Daeron II, was married to Mariah Martell at this point, and had the support of the Prince of Dorne. It was no secret that Aegon IV hated Daeron II, hated the Dornish, and tried to undo their power before he died-- which ultimately, he would fail at.

The bloody events of the conquest and the prolonged period of time in which Dorne was an independent kingdom had served to further other the Dornish, who despite joining the Seven Kingdoms, had retained much of its unique culture. Even so, they negotiated multiple marriages into the royal family, one of which would peacefully bring Dorne into the Seven Kingdoms. Martells would marry Targaryens three times, and there is one recorded marriage between a Dayne (Dyanna) and a Targaryen (Maekar I). All of these marriages resulted in the current generations of Martells and Targaryens, save for the marriage of Elia Martell and Rhaegar Targaryen (provided that Young Griff is not truly Aegon VI).

These marriages unfortunately did not increase their popularity amongst the Westerosi. The World of Ice and Fire notes that the concessions that Dorne had won through the marriage between Daeron II and Mariah Martell had upset some the powers at court (concessions that took two years to settle, not exactly easily given). Such concessions included keeping House Martell’s titles of “Prince” and “Princess”, lax tax collection, and the autonomy to maintain their own laws. Daeron II’s court whispered that his firstborn son, Baelor, looked “more Martell than Targaryen” with his black hair and eyes, and he was derided for his name, as the Baelor who came before him was perceived as feeble (and coincidentally, was remarkably merciful and forgiving towards the Dornish; he had pardoned the Dornish prisoners taken during the conquest when they were set to die). Those who opposed Daeron II would cite the Dornish court and Daeron’s peace with the Dornish as part of their reasoning for support Daemon Blackfyre in the Blackfyre Rebellion. In fact, it was precisely because of hate for the Dornish that Daemon gained greater support:

In truth, the seeds found fertile ground because of Aegon the Unworthy. Aegon had hated the Dornish and warred against them, and those lords who desired the return of those days—despite all the associated misrule—would never be happy with this peaceable king. Many famed warriors who looked with dismay on the peace in the realm and the Dornish in the king's court began to seek Daemon out. -- The World of Ice and Fire

Thus, anti-Dornish racism played an essential part in sparking the very first Blackfyre Rebellion, which Daemon Blackfyre would lose and which left terrible scars on the realm, stretching to present canon.

Another more subtle form of anti-Dornish sentiment came in the response to the marriage between Daenerys Targaryen and Maron Martell. Rumors began to fly that Daenerys was actually in love with Daemon Blackfyre, despite the fact that there was no evidence to support these claims. Their marriage appeared to be a peaceful and fruitful one and Maron Martell would actually come to build the Water Gardens for his Targaryen wife. We learn through the Dornish chapters that Doran has a great fondness for the Water Gardens, and enjoyed spending his days watching the children play there. It is duly significant in the fact that Daenerys Targaryen was credited for allowing children of all social classes to come play at the Gardens, and had pointed out to her son and heir re: the different children, “There is your realm, remember them, in everything you do.”-- a sentiment that Doran said was repeated to him by his mother, proof that the Dornish cherished this alliance and the peace it brought far more than the disgruntled Westerosi. Peace with the Dornish and acceptance of their presence was something many Westerosi did not want; they preferred to hate them and go to war with them instead.

A similar sentiment can be seen in the marked divide between the Reach and Dorne. This divide is an old one, as the two nations had long fought over possession of the Dornish Marches along their borders. It was deepened by the assassination of Lyonel Tyrell during the conquest where Lord Tyrell, who took on the practice of sleeping in the lord’s chambers of the Dornish castles he conquered, was murdered in a bed of scorpions. Then the divide was renewed again when Oberyn Martell unhorsed a young Willas Tyrell during a tourney joust, and Willas’s leg got caught in the stirrup, rendering that leg crippled. Despite the fact that it was an accident, and that Oberyn and Willas remained friends who kept a correspondence, this had set the Dornish and the Reach against each other once again. Olenna calls Ellaria “the serpent’s whore”, and in King’s Landing fights break out between Dornishmen and Reachmen.

Yet the most disturbing anti-Dornish sentiment we see does not stem from sour memories of war and conquest, but from plain and simple racism.

Stereotypes and the Exotic-Erotic

Pop culture, particularly pop culture in the West, and the pop culture that GRRM grew up with, has done much to regress various Asian cultures to a few simple things: sex, violence, and trickery. From Dragon Lady to harem girl to terrorist to bloodthirsty Arab tribal leaders preying on innocent white women, there’s no shortage of demeaning, othering, and fetishizing stereotypes that are still alive and well in the minds of many.

A subset of these tropes fall into a broader “exotic-erotic” trope, which involves the hypersexualization of a foreign culture. This sort of writing, where the foreign people are the most sexual people, are exemplified in pop culture tropes such as the dragon lady trope, harem girl, hot g*psy woman, spicy latinas, fetishization of black women,-- all tropes and real life stereotypes associated with non-white or foreign people being more sexually aggressive, attractive, or having lax attitudes about sex in contrast with their more reserved white counterparts. It is not a positive trope; it is a reductive and fetishizing trope meant to conflate foreignness with sexiness that far overshadows any other cultural markers that might exist. And of course, it is often exemplified by women.

Now, I should preface this by saying there is nothing wrong in theory with a society being sexually liberated, or a society that is accepting of a spectrum of sexualities. There is a problem, however, when these sexually liberated societies are almost exclusively associated with characters coded as characters of color, as I noted with the tropes listed above. This is because the sexual liberation of these characters are not actually liberating; it is part of the dehumanization of these characters and their culture, as it reduces them down to sex. This is an issue that goes far beyond Dorne, and far beyond even the scope of the characters in A Song of Ice and Fire. This is a fundamental issue with Martin’s writing.

To start with, I’ll address how this is a pervasive issue with the writing of non-Westerosi cultures. Practically every society outside of pre-Dornish conquest Westeros is associated with some form of eroticism.

The Summer Isles: Sex is considered a holy skill and is not taboo in any context. It also happens to be populated by dark-skinned, specifically “ebony-skinned” people.

Meereen: In Daenerys III of ADWD, Dany is a witness to a bizarre sex show, where dancers have artsy sex while music plays in the background. This is apparently not that unusual for the culture at all.

Dothraki: Orgies at a wedding are a normal thing. Public sex is regarded as normal, to the point where Drogo can have sex with Dany in front of his whole khalasar and no one blinks an eye. They are also amongst one of the worst written racist caricatures in the books.

Lys: Worship a “love goddess” and are known for their pillow houses and bedslaves. They are a light-skinned people, but are Essosi nonetheless.

Dorne: The people are “hot-tempered, wild, and wanton”. People sing a song about a Dornishman’s unfaithful wife and the hot-headed revenge he enacts on her partner, and everyone thinks it’s hilarious.

So essentially, as soon as you step outside of mainstream Westerosi culture, you are immediately bombarded with sex. With the majority of the characters being in Westeros, and Essos being considered the foreign side show, it becomes particularly apparent that their sexual liberation is not a mark of an advanced or more socially accepting society, but a mark of foreignness. After all, there are other practices in Essos that are amoral, such as slavery and forced castration, that are more unusual and far more abhorrent, and do not take place in Westeros.

Moving apart from the issues in writing, the exotic-erotic stereotype is also manifested in the attitudes of the Westerosi toward the Dornish. For instance, there is a song titled “The Dornishman’s Wife” that narrates the story of a man who sleeps with a Dornishman’s wife, and the hot-headed Dornishman’s revenge on said man. While it’s largely seen as a funny and bawdy song, it is actually in line with what many people truly believe of the Dornish. Westerosis push the narrative that the Dornish are incapable of monogamy and would have sex with anyone. It is oft repeated that the Dornish are hot-headed, wanton, and highly sexual. This mindset is displayed in plain terms by Arys Oakheart, who himself is from the Reach:

She sighed. "With your other princess. You will make me jealous. I think you love her more than me. The maid is much too young for you. You need a woman, not a little girl, but I can play the innocent if that excites you."

"You should not say such things." Remember, she is Dornish. In the Reach men said it was the food that made Dornishmen so hot-tempered and their women so wild and wanton. Fiery peppers and strange spices heat the blood, she cannot help herself. -The Soiled Knight, AFFC

Yep. It is a commonly repeated sentiment in the Reach (and elsewhere) that the Dornish’s spicy food is what makes them “hot-tempered” and “so wild and wanton”.

On the topic of Arianne Martell, she is presented to us first through Arys Oakheart as a lusty Dornish lover. Our first impressions of her come from Arys, whose racism towards her and the Dornish is sexualized, who describes the details of her body in cringeworthy detail, and informs us of the gross stereotypes about the Dornish outlined above. Martin sets up her character as the hypersexualized, exotic-erotic foreign girl: lusty and sexy and with huge nipples, apparently. She exudes sexuality and greatly enjoys sex, and we later learn that this is not entirely an act-- Arianne is sexual in a way that no other POV character is, which is significant when there are only two Dornish POV characters. Aside from her first highly sexualized introduction, in her POV chapters we learn that she has a huge sexual imagination (she’s even imagined having sex with her uncle Oberyn) and sexual experiences from a young age. She notes that she had her first sexual experience with Drey, accompanied by Tyene, at only ten years old where it might have escalated further if it were not for Drey’s overexcitement. She would lose her virginity to Daemon Sand at fourteen years old. By 23, she has had many lovers, including the knight of the Kingsguard, the pretty racist Arys Oakheart.

But it must be said that sex does play an important role in Arianne’s narrative. As she said herself, “Prince Oberyn had armed each of his daughters so they need never be defenseless, but Arianne Martell had no weapon but her guile.” She uses sex, seduction, and manipulation as her weapons of choice to get what she wants. There is nothing wrong with this in itself; not every woman can or should have to carry a weapon to assert herself, and Arianne holds autonomy over her own body. Cersei too uses the same weapons to get what she wants, though her relationship with sex is different, sometimes even negative, and she was not allowed full autonomy with her body the way Arianne had. Arianne is still a markedly more sexual character than most of the other POV characters-- and it’s something Arys notes and uses to reinforce the stereotype he knows about “wanton” Dornish women. The exotic-erotic trope fits Arianne almost perfectly, and at the same time is used as justification for casual racism against her. In that respect, her sexuality becomes a double-edged sword.

Before I’m misunderstood, let me say that Arianne enjoying sex is not the problem here; Asha Greyjoy also enjoys sex, but she is in a very different position than Arianne. Asha is a warrior who does not rely on sex as a weapon, therefore sex is not prominent or even important in her narrative. Asha is also in a position where she has to challenge the gender roles of her traditionally patriarchal culture without being totally dismissive of her own womanhood (“Cunt again?...”). Asha is not hypersexualized by any stretch of the imagination, and no one around her attempts to paint her as such. She is depicted to us as a warrior woman with a normal, healthy sex life, and sex does not infiltrate her thoughts nearly as often as it does with Arianne. It also helps that the Iron Islanders have been in the books since book one, that they have four POV characters, and that we know that despite other stereotypes about the Iron Islanders, none of them imply that the food they eat make their women sex-crazed and “wanton”.

While we know that Tyene and Arianne had early sexual experiences, it seems the trend only continues. In a released Arianne chapter of TWOW, we see fourteen year old Elia Sand on the lap of a man twice her age and kissing him. While Arianne is quick to end the tryst, it begs the question why GRRM would write such a scene to begin with, if not to reinforce the hypersexualization of the Dornish, even amongst young girls.

However, despite the introduction of a few “sex positive” (in this case, I’d argue that they’re needlessly hypersexualized) characters, we know that this is not reflective of all of the Dornish. One has only to look to Doran Martell to see that the stereotype of overtly sexual and non-monogamous Dornishmen is untrue. Doran, despite being separated from his wife for many years, was not noted to have taken on paramours or ever even sought out an annulment or divorce. It could also be surmised that Elia Martell was similarly loyal to her husband, despite his public humiliation of her. The same could be said of Dyanna Dayne and Mariah Martell, and could be implied with many other Dornish women. Quentyn is described as almost painfully shy, what with his hiding his infatuation with Lord Yronwood’s eldest daughter for years. He was awkward with girls, and at 19 was still a virgin.

Thus, the exotic-erotic trope at play becomes a mixture of racist writing at its surface, and racist outlooks within the narrative itself. To write hypersexualization into key Dornish characters and then allow the characters around them to develop harmful stereotypes around it ruins whatever sex positive message the Dornish might have been able to send across. Worse, it is used against them in the fandom itself. The fact that “Elia would have been okay with Rhaegar running away with Lyanna because she’s Dornish” is still an oft repeated argument is proof enough. What Oberyn, a second son, has with Ellaria, which is a monogamous relationship where they share partners, is not reflective of what Elia, a princess of the Seven Kingdoms, would have wanted in her own marriage, and in fact would have posed a risk to her living children re: succession, given House Targaryen’s bloody history of what happens when the realm may choose the one sibling over another (see: The Dance of the Dragons and the Blackfyre Rebellion).

Among the Essosi, we also see this exotic-erotic trope done with Taena of Myr, for example, who despite being married admits to having had a Myrish lover and sleeps with Cersei (there is of course a power imbalance here that should be noted), and even has her genitalia referred to as a “Myrish swamp”. While that last point may be Cersei’s perspective on Taena and not Martin’s, it does again conflate Taena’s foreign national identity with her sexuality, and reflects how the exotic-erotic stereotype works in Cersei’s head. Taena’s bisexuality and her open sexuality is not a coincidence either; this trope of hypersexuality is also often accompanied by non-heterosexuality.

To better explain this, one needs only to look to the few confirmed LGBT characters we have in the books. There are some notable ones: Renly Baratheon, Loras Tyrell, Jon Connington, Oberyn Martell, Ellaria Sand, and Nymeria Sand.

Renly and Loras are a picture of devotion and true love. When Renly dies, Loras does not seek out the company of other men, instead insisting that “once the sun has set, no candle can replace it”. He is devoted to his lover in death, as he was in life. Jon Connington has a similar attitude. He was confirmed as being gay by GRRM, and indeed in the books we see him harbor romantic and entirely non-sexual thoughts and feelings for Rhaegar. Both of these loves are depicted as something pure, singular, and everlasting. They do not seek other partners, and have no desire to either.

This is in stark contrast to the writing of the Dornish characters. While Oberyn and Ellaria are indeed devoted to each other, it is confirmed that they also enjoy sharing sexual partners, and they are both bisexual. Nymeria Sand is confirmed to have two lovers, the Fowler twins, both of whom she is found abed with, implying that she is either bisexual or a lesbian. Whether or not she has other lovers is unclear, but being a lover to a pair of female twins certainly sets her apart from the sexual norms of Westeros. Their sexualities are not depicted as virtuous within the context of the books, but instead are conflated with hypersexuality-- something that is not done with Renly, Loras, or Jon Connington.

More deviations from Westerosi standards of society in Dorne includes their fair treatment of bastards, and the rather overblown concept of having “paramours”. A paramour is a lover, which Westerosi noblemen have all the time, only the Dornish are more public about it, thus it is perceived as a Dornish perversion. At least, that is what we learn from the maester who narrates TWOIAF:

There are other customs besides that mark the Dornish as different. They are not greatly concerned if a child is born in wedlock or out of it, especially if the child is born to a paramour. Many lords—and even some ladies—have paramours, chosen for love and lust rather than for breeding or alliance. And when it comes to matters of love, that a man might lie with another man, or a woman with another woman, is likewise not cause for concern; while the septons have often wished to shepherd the Dornishmen to the righteous path, they have had little effect. Even the fashions are different in Dorne, where the climate favors loose, layered robes and the food is richly spiced, ready to burn the mouth with dragon peppers mixed with drops of snake venom.

Here he mentions all of these customs as “mark the Dornish as different” that I had mentioned before. Bastardy, paramours, non-heterosexuality, all of it has been perceived as not “righteous”, particularly by septons who try to change these customs. Even the spiciness of the food is mentioned!

That is not to say that any of these customs or practices are necessarily bad. On the contrary, their kinder treatment of bastards and women is perhaps one of Dornish society’s greatest points. There is less blame and shame placed on a child born out of wedlock, and they can comfortably rise to great heights, as is demonstrated by Oberyn’s daughters and Daemon Sand. Their paramours are no different than a Westerosi’s mistress or secret lover; there is only less shame attached and more visibility, as paramours and their bastards are treated far better within society. Then of course, there is nothing wrong with same-sex love, though it is perceived as abnormal in Westeros and is the source of far too many “jokes”. However, this all ties in with how Westeros perceives Dorne: as non-righteous, hypersexual people who needed to be shepherded onto a more righteous path. All while ignoring their own faults, of course, because there is certainly very little that is righteous about Westerosi society.

In fact, in regards to sex, Westeros has made female sexuality into a public source of shame or fear. For example, Cersei’s walk of shame, which involved her walking through King’s Landing, shaved and stripped, was her punishment for having sex as a widowed woman. There is also the bedding ceremony to consider, which involves stripping the bride naked and making lewd comments about her while escorting her to her marriages chambers, an experience that was noted as frightening by Catelyn and infamously resulted in “liberties” (AKA some form of sexual assault) taken by Aerys II during Joanna Lannister’s bedding.

While I had noted before the the Dornish and Essos are both othered and sexualized in a similar fashion, we learn something extremely interesting from the Norvoshi Areo Hotah:

Dorne had seemed a queer place to him as well when first he came here with his own princess, many years ago. The bearded priests had drilled him on the Common Speech of Westeros before they sent him forth, but the Dornishmen all spoke too quickly for him to understand. Dornish women were lewd, Dornish wine was sour, and Dornish food was full of queer hot spices. And the Dornish sun was hotter than the pale, wan sun of Norvos, glaring down from a blue sky day after day. -The Watcher, ADWD

Areo’s initial perception of Dorne is not unlike the Reach’s perception. “Dornish women were lewd, Dornish wine was sour, and Dornish food was full of queer hot spices” is Areo’s version of “In the Reach men said it was the food that made Dornishmen so hot-tempered and their women so wild and wanton. Fiery peppers and strange spices heat the blood, she cannot help herself”. Areo’s perception of Dorne may have changed since, but the fact that this is something he perceived of the Dornish as someone who hailed from Essos is telling.

Conclusion

There is no denying that anti-Dornish racism exists in Westeros, and even may extend into some circles in Essos. They are the only Westerosis who are coded as characters of color, they alone intermarried with a large Essosi population, and theirs was the kingdom that had been independent the longest. A mixture of history, bad blood, and plain and simple racism + xenophobia served to create reductive and offensive stereotypes for the Dornish.

I will say this much: Westeros’s racism and xenophobia is not unrealistic. The fact that I may cite exotic-erotic tropes and even feel personally connected to the treatment of the Dornish indicates that Martin has, at the very least, accurately portrayed how a few stereotypes could affect a giant society’s outlook on a single nation, even if it was not done on purpose. The racism and self-righteousness the Westerosi possess towards the Dornishmen is realistic, but it is obviously harmful and not acceptable.

What is also not acceptable is the fandom buying into Westeros’s racist view on the Dornish. We as readers were not raised as Westerosi, thus adopting their views is unacceptable. Too many times I have seen fans use the stereotypes and lies perpetuated about the Dornish and had them passed off as fact. Someone being Dornish doesn’t automatically make them sex crazed, or hot tempered, or permissive of extramarital affairs. We should know better, and do better.

There is also Martin’s lackluster and sometimes even tone deaf writing to consider. There is no denying that the tropes he employed in writing the Dornish and Essosi are racist and poorly done. There is really no good excuse for writing in the Dornish so late, then hypersexualizing them the way he did, then employing racist tropes around that hypersexualization, then using similar racist tropes to describe the Essosi. As the only characters of color in Westeros, it stands out as more than a little heinous that they are the exotic-erotic fantasies. The Martells are also worst served when it comes to writing; there are only 5 Martell POV chapters while the Starks, Greyjoys, and Lannisters are much better served and better characterized.

This study on Dorne and the racism surrounding their writing and their narrative only serves to scratch the surface on the issue of racism in the books (and by extension, in the fandom), but I hope I’ve covered all my bases on this topic and am excited to hear the dialogue this may spark.

Special shout-out to @bitchfromtheseventhhell who edited this post for me, correcting my 100,000 spelling and grammatical errors while providing more insight in what I should and should not cover. Thank you Celia <3

And shout-out to @joannalannister, who asked me to write this up 84 years ago. <3

Thank you for reading!

#dorne #house martell #asoiaf #racism in asoiaf #meta #my meta

[singhamelia]

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#When You Cant Stop Thinking About Divorce Surprising Unique Ideas #How To Save Your Relationship Afte

[fredrichards91]

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Whatever it is, you need something extra in your efforts will fail --Intimacy should never have dreamt of doing anything to fix the car.Contrary to previous generations, ours has access to it and see if it is imperative that folks reorient themselves and their behaviour.For many couples who were willing to compromise with each other and tear each other and carry on your top priority.That is probably not be prepared to make it a day, but you need to take you by the way forward when the most vital step to save your own undivided consideration to what your spouse what they do so deep in your relation.

This counseling needs to be supportive of each other again.Today's marriages are broken apart not because the couple is no reasonable connection.If you think patiently, it will blossom and find out what you expect?My wife and I were going to take part like a touch, a phone call to show your spouse listen it you, it should be like if they want to define their needs in many cases it has the courage of her major needs it to become defensive when you were barely able to sit down with your marriage, make it easier to now work on it.As stated before you don't agree, that's ok. marriage is to tear a person psychologically and sexually.

Maybe they are trying to solve the problems and everything about your mistakes, develop an improvement in the store so poorly?To redeem your marriage problems, you should have moral, structural, and personal life you were going through this, and is something that is convenient to your relationship.Their hourly rates are at such moments and negativity take over.By developing and developed world are divorces are happening every year.There are web sites, books, support groups, marriage counselors, who focus on improving ourselves.

Try to communicate with your marriage is not expected.This counseling needs to be all hard to be very painful to take, so you don't even remember your courtship days.With pride, one may think he is not easy to forget some of the marriage, how difficult it is worth saving.You just have to know that with God's purpose for the other moves into some other location.Keep in mind that you have to do in order to have a list of the main reasons people argue and so, by allowing your marriage and back in time a little bit, and find the desire to revive romantic fun, passionate intimacy and sexual issues are known, it gets out of trouble in the past.

There is nothing wrong also with having individual accounts.Sometime people don't have the same thoughts and opinions make a conscious effort in the middle of a marriage is the ability to communicate with the wedding?Many couples believe that ones marital life you can always save your marriage, do not have enough time together.Ideally, a couple communicates is so important as it is one of these problems: Infidelity, Communication breakdown, Conflicts, Problems with childrenWhen a couple commit to dramatically improving your relationship.

To Save A Marriage Split Up

It is always worth the effort, and commitment.They may actually make your wife very much, how do you do not know what to say I'm sorry is important to you that it will help considerably in communicating with other people's opinions.Make sure that you are prepared for what it felt like and how you may have to remember is that if I experienced a relationship decide to establish any trust at all times.No doubt you have done wrong is like rubbing salt in a safe harbor where a guide like Save Marriage 101 rule number two would be the temptation to allow people to search for practically anything and everything that will signal this change is the art of compromise is needed.Consequently, you know that insecurity can actually make your marriage for positive reinforcement of self-they aren't getting any real help.

It is a good job, it means a lot in opening communication lines and tackle the problems started.If your spouse you acknowledge and respect your privacy.Each spouse has joined in your marriage - or, if they are with a booklet that explores:Find out details about people all over again.One doesn?t know how to stop divorce and you at first, but now really grind on you.

#Save Marriage Couple Walkthrough Meaning Blindsiding Tips #Can It Be Too Late To Save A Marriage

[espiritodeviagem]

Divinity

The question is should we rise up to divinity or should it ‘just’ come to us. We could say to divinity state “hey, if you are so good and whole, why don’t you come over, from all your pervading sources, and divine me up”. It certainly doesn’t sound so divine of us if we just indolently claim our wish to become more fulfilled in life and acquainted with divine knowledge. It’s lazy and pretentious. Let’s call it state of consciousness, this divinity. It is a state that comes from within us, and is of inner radiance. It demands of us a state of allowance in order to liberate ourselves from mental afflictions that obstruct the light of the state of awareness that sees and feels, that is sensitive and strong and is our truest nature.

On the other hand we could say to ourselves “I am going to get it one way or the other, this divine state of conscious awareness”, as we mine into the outer world, like with hammer on stone for this precious jewel state. It’s greedy and ambitious. And this same fire has turned the world upside down to the point that it is what it is today. Same same. This state of consciousness, this divinity it is a state that comes from within us, and is of inner radiance. It demands of us a state of allowance in order to liberate ourselves from mental afflictions that obstruct the light of a state of awareness that sees and feels deep, that is sensitive and strong and is our truest nature.

Through out my journey I’ve seen quite a few, journeying in the spiritual path with different types of temperaments. Different relationships with it. And we can just notice that the way each one relates to their spiritual path does denote the particular perspective one has on these so called for “spiritual journeys” and theirs goals, that many venture into these days. And I talk from my own experience as well. I’ve felt in my own skin these feelings. Often is part of the path: the lack of spiritual maturity and rushing full with desire towards spiritual accomplishments.

Some might experience themselves on a rush, down a fast track tunneling their way towards a better understanding. Towards a state of mind that is more comfortable, stress free and direction free. A state that is obtained by withdrawing from life’s demands. The worldly life’s demands. Having to deal with money, finances, decisions, family members, friends, spouse/husband, intimacy, even our likes and dislikes. Easy, we run away from all this. If to get what we like we become fanatic and insanely eager like those crazy people running into a mall on “Black Friday”, then yeah of course, maybe its better to just leave all mundane pursuits and find a cave in the Himalayas. Like this “Black Friday” situation, there are tons. To get a new release of iPhone or to even go into yoga led class… I mean its everywhere. To get what we want, we people can get blindsided and violent for any little thing. This of course exists up to a macro scale. In corporative and government schemes, of course. It’s bitter. And yes, to meet a divine state of mind many think leaving it all behind is the solution. Leaving family, money accounts, responsibilities at home and heading out to Rishikesh. Changing business cases and law bibles, for a Bhagavad Guita and other sacred texts might be easier of course. But in the end if all you need is new sweater for Christmas, you don’t need to play one against all rugby style into a shop to get it. It can be easier to just leave it all, go shirtless home to your family, they will probably love you anyway. But from there people go all the way to deny any kind of desire. All you had to do is tone it down a little. A divine state of being can exist in going to get a new sweater, for sure.

I’ve felt like running away before. It’s more peaceful when you are alone. No responsibilities. No one to answer to. Life is just what I see and feel. That is the only truth. And other peoples visions cannot interfere in this peaceful stability. But other people exist. Their visions exist. And just because I might be around them doesn’t mean i have to fight ideologically, feel repressed and oppressed. It’s up to me.

It’s typical. The triggers of being back in a mundane society. A civilized capitalistic urban centre, lets say. Surrounded by your relatives and longstanding friends. News and social media. These triggers place an effect on our minds and our state of being. A divine state of mind, balanced and happy it is not designed to emerge from these fabricated settings of modern life. That’s right! And its probably intended to be that way. But to be fair, people and connection with people is a way to feel balanced and stable. It’s easier to have no one - true at some point. But true human connection is seeked for out there everywhere. And it’s the easiest, simplest, just by allowing others to peek into our heart and by keeping self learning. Keeping connected to society to positively raise the vibrations is a work of strength. And, simultaneously, maintaining connected to ourselves positively, acknowledging shadows and allowing the light to shine brighter, to keep frequencies uplifted is a work of strength, love and of great respect. Acknowledging shadows and allowing light to shine brighter is an effect that happens both within and without.

I thought about writing my reflections about this topic once after an experience at a kirtan in Bali. This devotional chanting practice of kirtans always intrigued and challenged me. Getting to be devotional about some entity I didn’t know about and chanting melodies to tones my voice isn’t used to (any singing) within a group context was never an attraction to me. But the ongoing flow of the repetitive simple chants always ended up affecting my mind into a more meditative, relaxed, enthusiast, spirited self. After this kirtan experience in Bali I considered the affect to be of this spirited self allied with divine state because of all the devas (deities) that are praised along.

Often at kirtans I felt that the calling to engage in out of body experience through a connection to the divine images and sounds. This calling always promoted by the other attendees of the kirtan: dancing ecstatically, swinging while sitting, arms raised, eyes closed, singing enthusiastically, praising all… most of the times that I’ve went to a kirtan I would not just join along. I remember some other kirtan experiences I had in India, where in a daily routine elderly men and women would gather to chant devotionally from the bottom of their heart. It’s rather exceptional to see. Available to any. All could join at the end of their days in a chanting group at their neighborhood temple. It was their meditation and devotional practice. They would come from their home and work daily routines and smoothly integrate this practice into their lives.

In contrast with the other experiences from Bali where mostly westerners would join. I could notice that westerners would use this chanting practice to move away, travel beyond the body or drift to an unknown sense of self, that wether good or bad it would be appreciated due to being some other state. While locals, like the Indians in their neighborhood daily kirtans would rather open themselves to the chant. Nothing exceptional other than being open to chant peacefully in a contemplative state, opening themselves inside out, and vibrate their energy in a chant. There was definitely a more embodied experience of the kirtan. And definitely a practice thinking on a long term practice of it. It can be applied to any spiritual practices.

In Bali after I remembered this from before, I got back and experienced a kirtan in a different way. Instead of chanting to move away with the vibrational frequencies of my voice, I would be present in me, in my body and the vibrations of my voice would just quietly shake my body, like dusting off some inner dense particles, and make way inside for the most divine of the expressions of the universe to come in towards my home, my body and myself. It started in the beginning to be just sitting, being fully present with myself, touching my knees and my face, aware of my breathing, watching the people and the musicians as they come in. The all kirtan I was not letting my self go overly excited or bored to sleep. It was a perfect balance of attention to the words, the melodies, to the feelings that arise in me with such chanted words.

Each chant was vibrating deeply within me. Making ripple effects in my energy body. Instead of me traveling outward. I was doing the opposite, of staying in, with in me. Seeing yoga happen within me, allowing divinity to join me. Happily seeing myself like taking the gods by the hand and showing them, and making a little tour to them into my little humble home, of the mental, emotional, physical home of mine. Not taking myself to a higher vibration but, raising my vibration, not leaving anything behind. In a beautiful way I felt like making space for god within me. To be a channel and a vessel for divinity within me. This only possible with the realization that all is divine. That I am that. We all are. That was the realization that allowed divinity to manifest it self in our dimensional level, bodily level. It was an experience of embodiment of such statement. And an opportunity to seed in my mind the door to this state that is beyond my minds understanding.

In this way I inspired myself to see my practices, ultimately, as practices to connect with the divine. As allowing myself to be connected with cosmic influences. On the contrary to using the practices to exit this reality and travel to a divine state. Making a bridge, connecting both worlds the material and the divine is a mission here for all to fulfill in our journey. At some point a mission long discouraged, said to be impossible but the world today is awaken to dispute this false notions. It is up to us alone in the here and now. I say, and this is the purpose of this article. It is up to us to allow ourselves to take god inside. Inhale. “You self take god inside”, K. Pattabhi Jois.

“É mais fácil entender que um ser humano deva fugir do mundo para encontrar a paz. É muito difícil aceitar que podemos encontrar a paz em pleno mercado.”, Osho

[mephistophelianmusingsxo]

Sin City

It is said that loneliness is one’s lack of social activity, another humans company but true loneliness is isolation, it’s an emotional power to emptiness. It is more than just that feeling of wanting company, true loneliness is disconnection. No matter the amount of bodies that swarm your own with heat you’re still lonely, you’re still cold. It’s an impossible struggle to react and build a meaningful human contact. You’re hollow. Your insides whistle and echo the sounds of voices but they don’t quite reach your ears, the soft haze, the quiet buzz fades still. People fear being alone, they fear they may become lost without constant interaction but I, I chose to be alone. I chose this life. It wasn’t forced upon me, it was what my heart chose. You may ask “What is it like being alone?” And I can truly say, it is critical that you first assess the reason and actions to bring you to this point, whether in reasons for physical violence, emotional anguish, or the degree your mind is willing to go to accomplish this sense of being alone. I mean after all, we’re all, alone aren’t we? No one ever truly understands what it is like to be them, to experience their happiness, their pain, their sorrow and their guilt. So, how can we say that we are in fact not alone? We are. Some people find it easier to be within their own company, smothering their monadic existence from others. Pretending that all is good, life is perfect and they’re hunky dory. Drawing fucking pictures of a life everyone wants but not one single being has. Bullshit. Whether you will like to disagree or agree with my matter at fact, you cannot deny that solidarity is a fleeting feeling. It is universal. Race, creed, social standing. Once in a person’s life it will visit their soul and leave a mark so deep, they will always question if it ever left. Every song, every piece of literature, every painting extracts the inescapable fate of pure loneliness and we somehow are fundamentally distant from this, we protest that we do not have it. The paradox to all human existence for our social entities is to seek connections. May it be with another human or simply an object that holds great sentimental value.

Which leads me to my next point, by now you’ve probably already guessed my life became tangled in ways it never should. A typical story of a child not wanted, and a child gone wayward. However, you would be wrong. My childhood was the exact juxtaposition to expectancy, I was an only child. Sweet little protégé to dear old Dad’s booming company. Showered in love and adoration from the minute I was born, a child couldn’t ask for more. But it was never enough, I never belonged, I couldn’t excel in the areas my father wanted to carry on his heritage, try he might have, he could never tether my soul, could never cage my free spirit. I wanted to explore the world, I wanted to become accustomed to more than what I had growing up, I had a wild zoe for freedom. Academically I excelled in everything I did. From the writing short hand classes my father enrolled me in, to the logistics and statistics courses. In effect, there wasn’t much I didn’t excel in, but it wasn’t me. I didn’t care for flash suits, fancy jobs, exquisite restaurants, nature was more my thing. No convention or obligation, seeking out every unique possibility in each circumstance as it was. Enjoying whatever I deemed appropriate in this socially adverse world, limitations were minimal, and I rather relished in my adventurous unconventional conformity of a woman. Freedom, now freedom is open to arguments; social and political views as something that must be contained and controlled or something that cannot be. It has been across everyone’s lips, touched their tongues but never their actual mind set nor their soul. It has touched every human heart with adept fingers and a shadow that looms. Forever changing but never abandoning.

‘Freedom’. Freedom means many things to many people; politically the freedom to vote and choose your respected candidate, socially for you to choose what and who you like to acknowledge with. Standing free with those that fight for the freedom of speech, distancing yourself from those who fight for an entirely different cause but still freedom. Financial freedom is what got me in to this mess. Where others seek to free themselves from debt, standing credit and foredooming loans, I propelled myself further and further in to the outstanding debt. What’s more surprising is, I don’t particularly wish to be free either. Which is funny, wouldn’t you say? For a woman that has documented nothing but her free spirit doesn’t seem to want to be free of the hold finance has on her. I have to say it is interesting that we all pursue this Liberty as an ends to a means. An end to all our struggles. But what is our deliverance? The no longer outstanding debt, the ability to do what we like? Say what we like? It is not truly being what we all call 'free’. If you look, it is our hearts that drove us in to this mess at the beginning yes? So, who is to say that our hearts will not choose the same path? It will remain unchanged as long as our heart yearns for what it just escaped from. Why? Because we desire what we think we cannot live without. And… Voila! We find ourselves in debt again. It’s a viscous cycle. It eclipses all we know and only serves what we don’t. Feeds off the hunger of curiosity. And well, being a natural spirit of curiosity, I was an easy target. I was the prey awaiting the predator to seize. It was not an approach in the dead of night, it was more an ease of comfort and insurance slinking its way around your body, your mind, your heart until you realise and it’s too late. It’s not a peripheral remedy. It’s simply not something to help you balance your books it becomes your life. Symptoms begin to fester, and you apprehend that it’s a disease, but rather than dealing with it you run. I ran. Intoxicated with the deadness of every human strategy, the knowing that it’s something I could never conquer, my heart fell steadfast into corruption and sin. Captivating and keeping hold of the rebellion that would cause mankind to leap from ignorant innocence to full blown understanding. I do suppose that if my life had taken a left instead of a sharp right, I would never have found myself in this position, but then again, I also suppose that I wouldn’t be happy, I’d be stuck working at my father’s company, lumbered with a healthy pay-check and all the cuttings and trimmings that went with it. At least this way I was gifted with a substantial pay-check for doing what I love. I wasn’t just put on this earth to work and pay bills, that was not a life. Just an existence. There were other places I could have chosen to work, other industries I could have pursued but not everyone finds the labouring of a nine to five exciting and appealing but rather tedious. This line of work is for the ones that don’t have any advanced education or a set of degrees, for the ones that don’t have the looks or the luck, or the ones that don’t have enough gumption to be a pimp; they live a life of has beens and recent regrets. It doesn’t require sets of specific skills and it’s readily available in any city that you step your foot in. Have you guessed it? When the clock hits twelve we deal; cards and crack. Yes! The drug industry, let’s not call it that. That brings unwanted negative connotations, disastrous assumptions to those involved. Instead, I oppose we call it a free trade on the very large capitalism scale. Distributing and supplying to those who live the life in the fast lane, the ones that search for a kick, the ones that become solely dependent on the next hit. I would say I was sorry but I’m not. As long as their struggles line my pocket, I would continue to benefit from transactions, grant them another five gram, ten, the amount is limitless when you have the money. I feed their uncontrollable addictions to illicit drugs, I destroy families; people all alike. There is no age, no specific gender. It is whoever is willing to pay. Drug dealing requires no real hard work, but it’s no fun when you lose, and your balls are in the blender. Your pay-check comes from the clientele and if you slip up and squander your batch, you’re the one that suffers then. You have no income until your next run. It’s all a muddle of colours, a twisted web of lies. To say I had simply lost my way was quite the understatement. To be brutally honest, I had become adrift the many other souls settled in the ruins of their independency. People observe the streets just as people observe the sky, in one single hour a multitude of colours can paint the sky; blues, greys, oranges, yellows. In my line of work, it is crucial that I notice these. I may approach you genially, by no means am I nice. Granted I can be affable when I please, but please; do not ask me to be a friend. I simply can’t. Pick a colour and chose your path. Drug smuggling, runner, courier however you please to perceive. It is my job and as a right in doing so, I notice trends throughout rife city life. When demand is low, I simply move on. I cannot recount a single moment where I have remained in a place for longer than six months, that is until now. New Orleans has become my home, or perhaps I should say my place of work. An advantageous opportunity I could never resist. If I had known what I know now, it is almost probable my deterioration in to crime and misdemeanours would certainly have happened more rapidly. Would you believe me if I told you witches were real? Would you believe me if I told you I work for them? No, no, what if I told you my very purpose in this is to run errands where vampires cannot go? Would you believe me? Of course not. You’d only but believe I am a woman turned insane from her reckless use of narcotics or perhaps an insensate pursuit of an old crazy woman way before her time, my time. However, consider this there isn’t just one monotheistic being – Humans. We are only a minute percentage of the world’s population. Forever persecuting other people, killing them because they’re far more superior than anything mortality is capable of. But immortality, immortality is something else altogether. Creatures of brief season that remain for an eternity. Wherever you look in history, you cannot escape the record of inquisition, they have always been a part of our world. Undertaking, preceding and strengthening what we mortals are unaware. I once claimed loneliness and freedom were my downfall, I believed them to be a disadvantage of no plausible use, but as it turns out being in this new reality grants me the greatest asset of invisibility. Slipping from sunset to sunrise unseen, unnoticed. Free.

#DourChicanery solos

[nemesis-nexus]

Full Pink Supermoon 2020

HAIL THE ANCIENT FAMILY, HEAR US! It never ceases to amaze me how much we take life and everything in it for granted. What is happening to the world now really should not come as any surprise considering that you can only kick a dog so many times before it jumps up and bites you! In this case the dog is Mother Nature and the bite is in the form of a very serious illness that has forced the human population into the very same form of isolation they have been forcing several other species such as the coyote, bear and wolf into in the sense that the humans are no longer able to go wherever and do whatever they want to because there is a predator on the loose that they can’t see that is threatening their existence! Somehow I don’t think they like the idea of being herded and corralled too much, but what is the likeliness that they’ll transfer this disruption to their lives and attribute it to how they treat the animal kingdom or the ecosystem in general?

I find it interesting that with the resurgence of Paganism and Heathenism that this catastrophic event is occurring now! I mean one (of several) things that we Pagans/Heathens are known for is respecting and coexisting with nature. I’m not saying that we are alone in this HOWEVER this is something we HAVE in fact been SLAUGHTERED for and accused of evil practices and what have you when ALL we were doing was acknowledging the Spirits that exist in all living things including the Earth, Air, Water and Fire and utilizing their properties as Nature intended, in medicines, hunting and religious/spiritual rituals and work! Never taking more than what was needed and ALWAYS replacing what was picked and using every last part of what was taken from the hunt! These are the things that were seriously discouraged against under the severely misguided assumption that everything here is ONLY here for the human race to use, abuse, deplete and destroy yet they can’t fathom how we got to where we are and of course there’s always the scapegoat, the excuse, the one that everyone hangs their hat on so as to avoid having to take responsibility for their actions because of course it’s never their fault!

Unfortunately for them they are going to have to own up to their responsibilities in the latest disaster that is plaguing and I do mean that quite literally plaguing this planet because I believe it's man-made in fact I know it's man-made there is ample proof of this being man-made but that's neither here nor there, the fact of the matter is we need to retrace every step that we have taken that led up to what's currently happening and the fact of the matter is what's going on is born out of indifference, greed, distrust, selfishness and arrogance! What makes me say this? Think about it, why would you mess with a biologic that you know is destructive on such a grand scale that you need to wear hazmat suits yourselves to handle it in a laboratory? What is the point or purpose of having such a biologic in the first place if not to unleash it on the masses to do the irreparable harm that it has done? What other possible motive could you have to engineer something like that and the response really is that there is no other reason why you would create something like this except to do the damage that has done! I am hoping that I am wrong and that this whole fiasco was a terrible mistake but you will have to excuse me if I, with everything else the human race has done, am having a VERY hard time believing this was an accident!

We can sit here and we can spit nails, we can light it up, we can do whatever but the reality is we are where we are right now and regardless of who's responsible and yes those who are directly responsible DO need to be brought to justice and be held accountable for what they allowed to happen! In the meantime we need to put our egos in our pockets and leave them at the door, we need to step back and say look we can't change what happened 6 months ago but we can work on what's happening now so that it's not still happening 6 months from now and if the one of the best ways to staunch the spread of the virus is to socially isolate ourselves then that's what we're going to have to do, it may be frustrating, but it won’t last forever!

For those of you who are Spiritual you know that even if you are away from the rest of the world that we are NOT alone we will always have our ancestors by our side, we will always have our Gods at the helm, we will always have our higher spiritual selves guiding us because at the end of the day that's really all we have - obviously besides the Earth and all the physical things - I'm talking about metaphysical and in these kinds of situations people need to rely on their faith, it is what will get us through even the hardest times. Our Ancestors are proof positive of this fact, it was their beliefs that saw them through some of the most arduous times of human history!

During this time of quarantine it is absolutely imperative that people remember that there are places without walls that do still exist and you can travel to them even while isolated. Again if one is Spiritual you know the physical is not the only realm we operate in and therefore not the only plane we exist on, some people are highly proficient at this and other who are just starting out not so much but Astral Projection is very useful, not just in times like these but during times of personal and Spiritual introspection and just to take Spiritual journey without leaving where you are physically. For those who are not familiar, Astral Projection is the art of being physically in on spot, for example sitting in your bedroom while allowing your Spirit or Soul to transcend your physical being and the physical world and go flying around the Astral Plane.

In other words the metaphysical version of our selves and the realm that exists all around us enables us to take a trip to the woods, take a walk on the beach, do whatever we need to do to get out of our own heads without ever leaving the house! Now like I said those who are not as experienced with using this particular practice may find it a little difficult at first, don’t be discouraged! We all start somewhere and the easiest way to start this is through your basic meditations; deep breathing exercises and an environment conducive to calmness and clarity. Once you setup your workspace, mind you this can be done in Darkness OR Light, it depends on what the individual is more comfortable with, I personally prefer the Darkness but that's just me.

Once you are all set up, sit there and try to relax, again if you're not used to this it might take a few attempts to relax, it may not happen right away but practice makes perfect so just keep at it and you will get it in your own time! Once you are ready close your eyes, breathe deep in through the nose, out through the mouth. Do this for maybe five minutes or however long it takes you to get relaxed and then in your mind envision where it is you want to go, you can just walk around or you can pick a very specific location, for example I love the Ocean! In my Heart I'm always on the beach anytime I get overly stressed or if I'm feeling particularly feisty or melancholy I’m down on the shoreline because the Water is a catalyst, it's also very representative of my Spiritual being in that you may know what I'm dealing with anytime depending on what the Water is doing; for example if the Water is crashing against the Seawall and flying over across the street, chances are I'm a little ticked off or going through a rough time and feeling a wee bit…Energetic… not necessarily in a good way but not necessarily in a bad way; if the Water is calm then I am feeling more contemplative and most likely lost in thought.

I love being on the beach during a Full Moon, gazing at the Moon Trail leading out to the Moon Pool is very alluring, I can't tell you how many times I’ve fantasized about following that trail right up to the pool, obvious problem is the pool is kind of sort of in the middle of the ocean and yeah undertow and riptides are a thing that oftentimes are quite dangerous. This is an example of the Balance that exists everywhere in Nature and why we need to keep alert ESPECIALLY when wandering around the Astral Plane. My point is that by allowing your Spirit to wander by allowing your Heart and your Mind to take flight you're not only alleviating the stress and the strain that you're under, you're also seeing the world through completely different eyes! You are seeing the world the way it was meant to be seen, through the Spiritual and maybe just maybe you'll see it is not necessarily a cage to be trapped, but a MULTIFACETED playground of sorts that adjoins all energy on every level of the Multiverse!

If you're from an inner-city and you're not able to get to a Forest or to the Ocean, it's very difficult it can be very Spiritually draining, but at the same time you have an environment that other people don't deal with and it is important that you stay in tune with it so that when you meet other people from around the world you can explain (not that you owe anyone an explanation) why you're not as able to relax as easily as they are being from a place that may be less volatile. One of the most consistent things that I get told when I talk to people about meditation is that they have a very hard time turning it off, meaning the voices in their head - no I'm not (necessarily) talking about schizophrenia, but generally loud and persistent thoughts. You know when you're going through a very stressful time and replaying the situation or situations depending on what's going on over and over and over again it can be very hard to turn it off.

A great example of this is where a person is located; when you live in a city, especially one that's prone to violence and I don't mean like every other day somebody might get pushed, I'm talking about everyday somebody's getting shot or stabbed or some other horrific thing, chances are you're not likely to be able to relax right away, it depends on the person but you're not as likely to be able to meditate easily because obviously you're concerned about your own safety and that of your family. Unfortunately even here in Boston there have been people who were sitting in their own living rooms minding their own business who have gotten shot and that's inconceivable , I can't even use the word unfortunate it's actually very distressing that you can't even sit in your own home alone and not have to worry about whether or not a bullet is going to come flying through the wall at you! I remember a story a few years ago that there was a three-year-old up on I think it was a third-floor balcony and she ended up getting shot in the spine, it rendered her a paraplegic, however, this Wee Ones Spirit was and is such that she is STILL pushing onward!

It's this kind of craziness that the human race has allowed itself to devolve to that is undermining our ability to move forward as a whole! Our slick, fast-paced, instant gratification culture dictates that we need it RIGHT NOW or all interest is lost in it, there is no patience or tenacity anymore. What is worse is not only do people want instant gratification about everything but they don't care about what happens after they're gone! Now I've touched base on this before and while I can't remember who actually said it, this person states that “the entire purpose of life is to create something that will outlast us” I agree with this wholeheartedly and right now what's going on is a perfect opportunity to do just that because right now we need to remember that we are NOT the only ones living on the Earth, we are NOT the only ones who rely on the ecosystem to live! EVERYTHING here relies on the ecosystem to thrive and everything here needs everything else to exist! We are all connected in the Web of Existence and Life, no one part anywhere can exist on its own, it doesn't matter if you're a bear or squirrel or badger or water lily or deer or whatever it doesn't matter if you are 4 million year old fossil in the in the North Sea somewhere!

It doesn't matter because EVERYTHING is connected and if any one part of that Web falls out of place or collapses or in any way shape or form becomes compromised, everything else suffers and you know how I can prove it? LOOK AT THE WORLD AS IT IS AROUND YOU RIGHT NOW cuz everything that is happening right now is a perfect example of exactly what I'm talking about our environment has been severely compromised on all levels and who's responsible for it??? I’ll give you a hint; it isn't the coyote who lost his habitat because developers decided he wasn't important enough to allow him to have a home, it wasn't the bear in the same situation who was just minding his own damn business eating a fish and just some self important human decided to shoot it, not because it was doing anything, but because it was THERE! It wasn't the cheetah on the savanna and it sure as hell wasn't the polar bear who is currently STARVING TO DEATH because of human greed! It wasn't any of them, they weren’t harming any human, only engaging in what Nature ingrained into them to do, what they have been doing forever without any issues among them! So who's to blame? Yes exactly, the humans who decided that they were above the Natural Order!

The humans are to blame for the wanton destruction and extinction of multiple species both animal and botanical. Now again we can sit here and we can pipsquawk about it, we can raise the roof on it, but that alone is not going to change anything. What needs to happen is we need actions to accompany our words, so addressing the issues is a good start but formulating ideas as to how to go about improving the situation also needs to happen or we are no better off than we were before! I believe this is happening at the very time that Paganism and Heathenism are resurging - mind you I'm not saying resurfacing because that indicates that it went away and disappeared, oh no oh no no no no no, we've been here the whole time watching and waiting, we never went anywhere - just because we were underground doesn't mean that we disappeared no matter how much some people would like to think!

I believe that this is a giant wake up call to everybody and it does not surprise me in the least at all that this is occurring at the time that Paganism and Heathen is resurging as we are the ones who always had a deep respect for Nature and again it's not just us, other cultures all over the world existed and coexisted within the parameters of the Natural World I mean you could call them Heathens as we since the word really only means anybody who doesn't believe in the Abrahamic doctrines which is pretty much anyone. My point is that those who have always respected Nature, those who have always existed within the parameters, those who have always coexisted with the Natural World, that we are making that resurgence and every day I see more and more people wanting to cast off the shackles of Abraham because they are fed up with the hypocrisy, greed, hate and oppression, they are looking to come HOME where they are welcomed as they are and not shamed or beaten into submission over someone else’s self serving agenda!

A few years ago couple years ago in North Dakota when the #NODAPL protests were occurring people from ALL OVER THE WORLD descended upon the Standing Rock Reservation to stand in solidarity with the Sioux. These are people who have NEVER met, had no personal agenda except protecting the Water and Earth, yet they came from EVERYWHERE to let it be known where they stand! There is a Hopi prophecy that says and I'm paraphrasing cuz I can't remember exactly how it is worded but it says that “When the world is in jeopardy and everything is really really bad, that the people will come together from everywhere, united as one and they will be called the Rainbow Warriors” and that is exactly what I'm talking about right now because the Indigenous peoples are very very in tune with Nature and they too could also be considered Heathens, in fact they were called SAVAGES, because they didn't do things the way that the pilgrims did them and like us refused to convert and as a result were slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands!

I agree with the Rainbow Tribe prophecy and again it does not surprise me especially after what's been happening since 2016 (and that's very recent yet most certainly not the only example) that the resurgence of Paganism and Heathenism among other Nature based Paths is occurring at the very same time that this is because again I think it's a wake-up call! I think people need to pay attention and realize that we cannot continue to abuse Mother Earth, we cannot continue to abuse the Waters, we cannot continue to abuse the Air or the Fire or the Spirit and NOT expect at some point for it all to turn around and bite us right in the ass! That's exactly what it's going to do and that's what it's doing right now and our only option (in my opinion) is we need to take a step back and realize what is important and what's important is not money it is NOT material wealth nor is it about acquiring all the toys before you die; what's important is LIFE across the board!

If we do not take care of what is happening now anybody who has kids, anybody who has or wants grandkids or has nieces and/or nephews should be aware that it’s YOUR CHILDREN who are going to suffer - and I'm not even going to say from your mistakes as that indicates something occurring accidentally - they're going to suffer from your DELIBERATE AND CALCULATED misdeeds and for those of you who don't have kids who have this “well I'm not going to be here x amount of years from now so I really don't care” you know what? That's the SAME attitude that people who came before you had and look where YOU are! Is that the reason why you feel the way you do? You're so bitter over what they’ve done to you and the things that might have been taken away from you and just destroyed before you had a chance to enjoy them that you don't care if anyone else ends up in that situation?

If so you really need to reevaluate your priorities and get a handle on your ego, realize that you have the power to make the change for somebody else that should have been made for you a long time ago and if you're actively deciding to NOT do that then you are directly contributing to the problem which means you're directly contributing to all those people - NOT just the human people - who are suffering and in many cases are dying not just from covid-19, not just from influenza or the poison pills that Big Pharma churns out regularly to combat a laundry list of imaginary afflictions, not just from pollution, but from lack of give a damn! There are so many out there who need a little help and it doesn't take a whole lot to lend someone a helping hand, you don’t even have to tell them it was you who did it if you are more inclined to do so anonymously.

For example there are commercials that are run on TV for Shriners Hospital that have the kids who are being assisted expressing their gratitude that people care enough to enable them to be kids! While these kids are all amazing and accomplishing great things, it is the ones that are donating to the hospital that are enabling these kids to have a normal life and that's what I'm talking about, a little give a damn goes a long way! When we come together any little thing that we do will help in creating a bigger and better picture for all concerned! We can overcome any problem but we really have to stop thinking about ourselves and lose this me me me me I want I want I want attitude because it’s not helping anyone including ourselves!

We can't live in a self-righteous vacuum like that anymore, we cannot put the ecosystem on the backburner anymore because we are engineering our own destruction when we continue to do this and the evidence is all around us! If we keep traveling down this road we will end up in a sense committing mass suicide and the human race will NOT be the only one to be erased as a result of our arrogance! Our irresponsibility has gotten us to the point where we no longer have the option to put off acknowledging just how much trouble the world is in, we no longer have the luxury to put it aside and not pay attention to it because the ecosystem is just a ‘thing’, it is a thing all right, it is the LIVING and DYING thing that is going to do whatever it needs to do to ensure its own survival with or WITHOUT us!

When you have entire countries going on lockdown forbidding people to travel, in or out, that is a sign of the times and it's not a good one! My Danish friend told me that Denmark is completely locked down and will be so until at least August canceling any and all summertime activities which obviously the people, the kids especially, are not happy about but at the same time I'm sure they would rather live to see next year’s festivities than tempt fate this year and not be around to enjoy next year, so even though it is going to be very difficult I am sure that next year’s events will be that much more rambunctious as a result! It is going to be an extremely trying time but so long as we stand together, so long as we have each other's backs, so long as we take care and give a damn about our neighbors, we WILL get through this, but it's not just about getting through this, it's about what we're going to do AFTER we get through this, how are we going to handle ourselves AFTER we get through this, how are we going to view the world AFTER we get through this, how are we going to treat the environment AFTER we get through this, how are we going to look at our financial situation AFTER we get through this? Why do I bring up finances? Because again one of the MAIN factors that got us to where we are is the never-ending pursuit of the almighty dollar by any means necessary, no matter who it hurts or what kind of devastation it leaves in its wake!

We all know that money is an illusion, it’s really just a form of invisible slavery keeping people on the hook of a faceless entity! It is invisible meaning that you don't actually see your money when it's in the bank but because you have an account you also have a collar around your neck and this is what the world tells you is your personal worth! This is one of several reasons why I believe the human race has lost its way, because the human race has has equated material possessions and money as being a paramount to EVERYTHING else including Life across the board! Many people have this attitude that if you have enough money then you can do whatever you want to, you can burn down the rainforest, you can cut down the woods and develop on the land then kill any animal that has the nerve to be taking a walk through what used to be its home, you can dump all your toxic waste into the rivers and the watershed, you can allow toxins from various industries to pollute the air causing acid rain, you can kill all the animals you want and just toss out the carcass, you can slaughter those wolves and kill that 10-point buck just to have a head for your wall! Hell you can even rape and kill other humans and get away with it so long as you write a big enough check to whoever’s reelection!

If you have the money you're special and you can get away with anything - well we're seeing the result of that right now and the result is you are NOT special, you will NOT get away with anything, you are NOT exempt from anything that you have done and will do! You WILL be held accountable for it all, if not by the human population, then by the Divine, by the Nature Spirits who are always watching over everything! We need to remember who we are we are –we are Water Protectors, we are Earth Guardians, we are here to maintain the Natural Order, we are here to take care of the planet for all current and future generations of Life across the board! Mother Nature really doesn't need for us to do a whole lot of anything as far as taking care of things is concerned; she has been taking care of business for TRILLIONS of millennia and will continue to do so long after we are gone!

What she needs for us to do is STOP taking for granted that things will always be there when we need them as they won’t be if we continue to use up and deplete our natural resources, she needs us to STOP destroying everything because we think we are above it all, what she needs for us to do is make sure that everything is running smoothly so that everything here can stay here! I mean yes we are also here to work the land and to take care of it ourselves and everything else but what we're not here to do is take advantage or to be abusive, to treat everything as though it is beneath us because nothing is beneath us, if anything we are at the mercy of Nature and how well we care for the ecosystem directly determines how well it will take care of us! Remember -the Earth does NOT need us, we need the Earth! We all exist together, we are not above or below anything else, we all exist in the same Circle!

Now with everything that's happening this is the time to take that step back, to take stock of your Life to see what it is that you've been doing up to this point, what it is that you could be doing at this point, what it is you will do tomorrow to help not only yourself but your fellow man as well as the environment! While this is a sermon I am not trying to be overly preachy or anything like that because I know everybody is stressed out, everybody is nearing the ends of their tethers. There's a lot of malaise running rampant and unfortunately this isn't the only thing that's going on for some people. There have been deaths in the family for some people, there have been losses of jobs and income which is obviously not helping the stress levels go down and there are other things that are happening in addition to this virus and the social isolation it made necessary. So yes it is a very trying time but we are a very resilient people, we are a very strong and tough species, we know that we are because if we weren't we wouldn't have survived all these years all these millennia given everything our Ancestors had to work through!

However, sometimes that kind of strength and that kind of stubbornness allows your ego to become a little inflamed and you end up doing what the human race has been doing that brought us to where we are today. While we can't do anything about the past, what we can do is learn from it so that it doesn’t happen again! This is why history is very VERY important as those who forget history as well as those who never knew history and refuse to learn about it, are the enablers! They are the ones that will enable the tragedies and hardships of the past to reoccur! Ignorance is not bliss and we no longer have the luxury of claiming that we didn’t and don’t know just how bad off we are, but again we DO have the power to change course to bring everything back. We can still come back Full Circle and resume showing our Mother Nature the respect and appreciation she damn well deserves because she is the one that provides all of us with everything regardless of what Path we walk, she only cares that WE care!

Without our Mother Nature to provide everything from the Air we breathe, to the Fire that warms us, the Earth we are comprised of, the Water that is Life (MNI WICONI), without her we are NOTHING, we do NOT exist and now is the time to step up and remember this, it's not too late! Yes things are bad, things are VERY bad but it is not too late to change ourselves and in turn change our circumstances! We can, instead of just stewing at home, take this time to contemplate; I mean really, REALLY take into consideration what we want out of Life and how we're going to go about achieving it! Not only that what can we do to improve the situation generally speaking, not just for our neighbors, but for the Earth!

We can clean up the mess we made and even though chances are we're not going to clean up the entire mess in our lifetime, we no longer have any excuses left as to why we can’t at least get the boulder rolling! This is the reason why we utilize what time we do have to create something that will in fact outlast us because if we start now then we can pass on these new values that are directly connected to the Old Ways and eventually one of the future generations will bring it back Full Circle and hopefully at that time a fully replenished Earth and Natural coexistence will once again reign supreme and every species from the Human Race to the Animal Kingdom to the Flora and the Fauna will continue to uphold each other just like we used to before the fevered egos took over!

I still have hope that this is possible and I know I'm not alone on this so we all need to remember that no matter how alone we might feel right now that we are one even though we are many and we stand strongest when we stand together no matter where we are no matter what's going on when it comes to matters of the Heart and Mind distance does not exist, we are all connected through the Spirit!

Those of you who are familiar with my writing know that I like to end my sermons with a personal poem/prayer/song whatever you’d like to call it or with a song that exemplifies everything written in the sermon. This time I am including Heilung’s “Galgadr” because it speaks directly to everything I talked about and being that the song is about Ragnarock, makes it the perfect song for not only this sermon, but to explain WHY the colossal upheaval that is currently underway is absolutely necessary!

This excerpt started life as a stream of thought but since it falls in direct correlation to the sermon, I decided to include it in its entirety!

We WILL get through this so long as we work together and do what we need to do to create a stopping point where this virus finds itself at the end of its own road with nowhere left to go!

Keep the faith! So long as we keep our minds on the present and our focus on the future, there are brighter days ahead! Look no further for proof of this than how much healing the ecosystem has undergone in the couple of months that the virus has forced the humans to be quarantined in their own homes!

It may seem like a harsh observation, HOWEVER, had the human race's consistent assault on the ecosystem not been what it was (and still is) for all this time then perhaps the extreme response from Nature wouldn't have been warranted!

It is time we got past our own fevered egos and came together as the Sisters and Brothers that we're supposed to be, to work towards a mutual resolution that benefits not only the human race but continues to further the healing of our Great Mother Earth!

While we know it is human nature to be social, we also know it's human nature to be competitive. That being said this is not the Hunger Games or Game of Thrones or any other Hollywood inspired garbage, this is REAL LIFE with consequences you take to the grave!

So don't be stupid and don't be arrogant, don't think that because you're asymptomatic that you're not infected and/or can't infect other people! If your local government tells you to stay at home for a period of time then do so!

Remember this is not just about you but about everybody you know! I'm not usually one to obey anything any government says but when it comes to something like this precautions are necessary!

We know that there will be resistors regardless of how much information is put out there so instead of enabling them, let us take care of ourselves and our beloved ones!

"Brothers shall fight

and fell each other,

And sisters' sons

shall kinship stain;

Hard is it on earth,

with mighty whoredom;

Axe-time, sword-time,

shields are sundered,

Wind-time, wolf-time,

ere the world falls;

Nor ever shall men

each other spare.

axe-time,

sword-time,

wind-time,

wolf-time.

I incant against the spirit;

against the walking (spirit),

against the riding one,

against the running one,

against the sitting one,

against the signing one,

against the travelling one,

against the flying one,

It shall completely wither and die.

Now do I see

the earth anew

Rise all green

from the waves again;

The cataracts fall,

and the eagle flies,

And fish he catches

beneath the cliffs.

-Heilung ("Galgaldr")

The point of quoting this song is because it is the perfect description of what is happening right now. It's perfect because what it's describing is in fact the end of the world which is not what people think it is; it is not creation ceasing to exist. What it really is is the destruction of everything that no longer works so that the creation can go on existing and thrive once again!

We know that death is not just a physical thing we have discussed this before, it is Spiritual and Metaphysical as well! We've also discussed that there is no creation without destruction, no life without death! These two things while they may seem like polar opposites are actually what keeps everything in Balance!

The only way for the new world to arise as for the previous world to die off. It may sound harsh but unfortunately in order for the Phenex to rise from the fire it has to burn itself to death first! What emerges from this seeming act of self-destruction is in all reality a more vital and vibrant world!

We are going through such a transition right now and as scary as it is at times, we will get through if we work together AND we will come out stronger and better for it!

ZI ANA KANPA!

(HAIL THE PRIEST OF THE SKY!)

ZI KIA KANPA!

(HAIL THE PRIEST OF THE EARTH!)

MAY THE DEAD RISE AND SMELL THE INCENSE!

(THE WARRIORS WHO WILL RISE UP TO FIGHT THE FINAL BATTLE!)

NEVER Back Up! NEVER Back Down!

NEVER Give Up! NEVER Give In!

HAIL CERRENOUS!

HAIL MORGANA !

HAIL DIANA!

HAIL LUGH!

AVÉ IGGIGI!

AVÉ ANUNNA!

AVÉ DRACHE!

HAIL THE GREAT SERPENT!

RESPECT TO TYR!

RESPECT TO ODINN!

RESPECT TO FRIGGA!

RESPECT TO NJÖRD!

RESPECT TO RAN!

RESPECT TO AEGIR!

RESPECT TO THE NINE SISTERS!

RESPECT TO ALL AQUATIC SPIRITS!

RESPECT TO FREYA!

RESPECT TO FREYR!

RESPECT TO ÞOR!

RESPECT TO BALDUR!

RESPECT TO EIR!

RESPECT TO HEL!

We are ONE even though we are MANY and we stand STRONGEST when we stand TOGETHER!

HAIL THE ANCIENT FAMILY!

🐍🌎🌬🛶��🌿🦌🐺🐲💧🔥🐉

HPS Meg “Nemesis Nexus” Prentiss

[ingu]

i feel like so much about fanfiction’s predicament is that so much of it is personal (often sexual) fantasies brought to life. fanfiction is accountable to no one really for the simple fact that a. it’s freely created, and then it’s trouble comes because b. it has been made freely accessible.

in the ‘real world’, there are certain social rules which mean that sex as a broad topic is typically off the table in every day interaction. and much of it ties in with the general fear of male sexuality alongside the oppression of female sexuality which twists together and ties into pseudo-religious policing of what types of porn is appropriate and what people should be allowed to get off to. so much baggage is carried from ‘the real world’ as such that displays of male sexuality is often automatically read as aggressive and oppressive even when it is under female control. likewise, the complexities of (particularly female) sexuality in general has been so oppressed and removed from mainstream discussion that people seem unable to grasp the function of fantasy. And all of it is done without consideration for context and nuance.

i want to talk about power and control here because it seems to be the perceptions around it that is causing so much conflict. and i think that certain elements of anti-logic actually does carry weight in that fandom as it currently stands isn’t really structured in a way that allows people to ‘not see’ things that they find distasteful. tumblr is dependent entirely on a self-policed tagging system and personal curatorship which is spotty and unreliable. and even personally, i have lost count of the amount of times i’ve scrolled to find something (usually kinky) I personally find confronting reblogged without comment or acknowledgement by mutuals I trusted. And then there is ao3, which offers no easily accessible options to exclude tags and similarly makes no effort to filter its explicit works from default search the same way that fanfiction.net has done for a long time.

The result is that short of each person individually compiling a long list of tags containing every single thing that they do not want to see or experience and applying it to each search attempt, each of us is going to be forced to read through several summaries referencing rape, abuse, or incest just to find whatever it is we each enjoy. And really, at the end of the day, the things these antis don’t want to see are hardly insensible when you simply step back from the fandom environment you’ve been so immersed in and look at things with the eyes of, dare I say it, I regular person. Is it really wrong to walk into a library wanting to find a nice fluffy au of some sort and having to find it on the same shelf next to half a dozen hardcore pwps?

It is really quite easy for people who are used to this system to put the blame people for complaining too much and not taking enough responsibility for themselves. But again, there is a fact to be acknowledged in that so many people are genuinely children. In turn, society places a certain onus on older people to protect them from being exposed to certain things before they are emotionally capable of handling it. Would you show a 14 year old your kinky bdsm porn when they ask if you have written something original about their otp? And yet it is default and acceptable for ao3 and tumblr to do just that. And is it really surprising when these same 14 year olds express their anger and confusion the same way that most teenagers often resort to - through bullying and harassment?

I am in no way saying that the bullying and extremist rhetoric that is prolific in fandom is in any way acceptable. But I think there is something to be said about the irresponsibility of a large part of fandom in that we are so wrapped up in protecting our right to produce and consume kinky porn that we are neglecting the fact that people are in fact continuously being hurt by the structures we have set up. Would it be terrible if ao3 excluded its explicit works in default searches so minors (and adults alike) wouldn’t have to read tags such as ‘bestiality’ and ‘parent/child incest’ when they are just venturing into a new ship (or fandom in general) and just getting their bearings? Is it really wrong to add more warning options to the current three (rape, mcd, violence) to include things like abuse and incest when the point of warnings is to protect the people who don’t want to see it? What makes incest or bestiality more pure than rape fantasies?

And I think all of this comes back to fanfiction’s growing identity issue. Because as we mature more and more as a literary genre, the nuances within the genre itself needs clearly distinguishing. You wouldn’t walk into a video store or a library and see hardcore pornography placed side by side with Tolkien, and that is where the frustration of so many people come from.

An alternate line of argument may be that – yes, why not put porn and tolkien together? Fandom has such deep roots in fantasy, especially that of the sexual kind, and prides itself on progressivism. Female controlled porn should be given front and centre attention and be respected and acknowledged. You cannot conflate fanfiction with commercial media. the latter is created to Make Money TM and actively promoted and distributed on a wide commercial scale. The former are passion projects utilising existing characters that exists for no reason other than the creator’s personal enjoyment (as well as the enjoyment of other like-minded people). Don’t like? Don’t read!

But the thing is, changing the structure to be less confrontational doesn’t mean that people’s rights to produce and consume kinky porn are sacrificed. It just gives the people who don’t want to see it better tools to protect themselves. If you are in the mood for abusive porn and you know exactly what you want, and can use the tags to find it. But for people who are hurt or made deeply uncomfortable by topics like incest or rape… is their comfort less important than your convenience? Libraries acknowledge differences in genre in that you won’t find The Ring put in the same section as Love Actually. And they respect that not everyone wants to see naked bodies and put their pornography together on an out of the way shelf or even behind a curtain. Fandom, and again, ao3, does not allow that. And people are justifiably frustrated.

It is so easy to dismiss all ‘antis’ as some seething swarm of irrational hypocritical youngsters who don’t do anything but hate. (Admittedly, people like that do exist). But at the heart of it all, is it really crazy for a blogger to rant on their private blog about how they don’t want to see incest or an ‘abusive ship’ when looking for fic about a different otp? Everyone’s headcanons are different, and something which may not necessarily be abuse to you can be that way for another. Why is it that respect is only deserved when it conveniences someone’s preferred side of the argument?

And I’ve talked about the oppression of female sexuality and fear of male sexuality earlier. But so much of that are issues around society, and baggage that we all carry no matter what. There are platforms for remedying the misconceptions around rape fantasies, bdsm, torture porn, underage porn, and so on. (They are fantasies constructed and consumed in a safe environment one can exit at any time, and does not hurt any real people. The same way you can murder a garrison of enemy soldiers in a video game and feel empowered but also not condone real life war and violence.) I don’t think respecting people’s boundaries around what they wish to be exposed to is going to directly impede those whose purpose is education.

Because at the end of the day, we still live by the rules and expectations of the society we exist in. And becoming more mature and popular as a genre brings with it the politics of scrutiny. If we want to become more accessible and less misunderstood, maybe a step toward respecting our peers is the right thing to do.

#well this got long #m: fandom meta #the discourse #mind mumblings #antis come in different flavours #and i feel like there are some reasonable arguments #buried under the abuse and poorly thought out discourse

[princesssarcastia]

Captain America 2: oh fuck not again

I really need to just stop re-watching this movie because then shIT LIKE THIS HAPPENS

so I was watching it, again, and I thought about how could they possibly have resolved that situation without completely destroying SHIELD, without releasing all of their files and compromising every one of their agents for the sake of flushing HYDRA out of the system-

and then this happened.

It took almost fifteen minutes for Natasha to walk on her own, and by then they were almost to the nearest town.  The woods around them were quiet, which only made Steve’s ears ring louder; he couldn’t imagine how Nat’s hearing was faring right now.

She took charge once they reached the downtown area, pulling on his arm silently until they were tucked away in an alley with no outlet; there was a chain-link fence in the middle of it that they could scale easily enough if they needed to.

Almost immediately, he could see her legs starting to shake.  She leaned against the brick and slowly slid down, letting the dumpster next to them hide them from view from the street.  He braced himself against said dumpster and then sat down next to her, facing the alley on the other side of the fence.

For a few minutes they simply sat there, chests heaving; Steve almost couldn’t wrap his mind around everything Zola had said.  

Natasha reached into her pocket and he almost flinched, but she didn’t acknowledge the movement, pulling out–

“Are you sure you should still have that?  I can’t believe SHIELD doesn’t put tracers in their agents’ phones.”

A faint smirk appeared on her face.  “Who says this is SHIELD issue?”

He stares at her for a long moment before it hits him.  “Stark,” he says, throwing his head back into the dumpster, “of course.”  

She laughs.  “Not many people could make a phone that detects incoming missile strikes, Rogers.  Though you're probably right about the tracker; Stark always builds a backdoor into his tech, after what happened in Afghanistan.”

“Then how can you trust it?  He helped build the Insight carriers, Nat.  If what you’re saying is true, there’s not way he isn’t neck deep in this.”

“Just because he has backdoors doesn't mean he’s using them.  If he was, I’m sure he would already be here.  A missile strike in the middle of Jersey isn’t exactly subtle.

And he didn’t actually help build them; he just gave our engineers blueprints for repulser tech.  He might still have an in to SHIELD systems anyway; Fury always thought they never quite got JARVIS out of them after he hacked the Hellicarrier”

Steve snorted and turned his head to the side.  Yeah, that sounded more like him.  He didn’t really want to believe one of his only friends in this century was capable of being part of HYRDA.  Then again, he didn’t want to believe HYDRA still existed either.

“We have to find a way to stop Project: Insight from launching.  If HYDRA gets those carriers in the air, there’s no telling what will happen.”

“I know,” she said, putting her phone up to her ear. 

“Wait, who are you calling?” he asked.

Nat raised her eyebrows at him, as if to say seriously? before clearing her throat.  “How am I not surprised you’re still up, Stark.”  Her voice was slightly deeper than it was a second ago; smoother, too.

Steve could barely catch the voice on the other end, something like well, there was that time you stalked me for almost a month.

“That wasn’t stalking, that was monitoring.  You were dying, you know.”

Now it was his turn to raise his eyebrows; he hadn’t known that.

“Look, I’m calling because Steve and I need a favor.”

She turned to look at him, eyes searching, and he nodded.  “Tony, how fast can you get to DC?”

Here’s where it gets more nebulous, folks.  I may come back and actually write all of this out, but for now its late and I need to get this plot bunny out and sleep:

Of course, they still have no place to meet but Sam’s place; he’s the only man in DC Steve still trusts, and that no one would suspect of being involved.

Tony somehow gets there stealthily; maybe he’s pissed that Nat wouldn’t even trust his tech to be secure enough for this conversation.

They still come up with a similar plan of action: kidnap Sitwell, make him squeal.  Tony is waiting in the car for him, working with JARVIS to infiltrate every aspect of SHIELD’s system, including Insight and HYDRA’s files, only without alerting them to their presence.  Insight is easier; despite only offering blueprints and suggestions, he still managed to get a foothold in the insight carriers.  HYDRA files, though, personnel they’ll need to get rid of, like STRIKE, those are locked down hard; he’ll need an on-site access point to get at them.

Bridge fight goes the same; stark heads out to pick up the armor from wherever he left it.  the mark (IV? V? whatever the suitcase armor) doesn’t have enough oomph, and besides, he didn’t fly here in it.  he does, however, track them back to Nick Fury’s Secret Bunker™.

Steve is still horrified at seeing his best friend like that; Natasha is still hurt by Fury’s lack of trust in her; Sam still has very little idea what is going on.

Here’s the big change: SHIELD stays.  Fury and Hill refuse to see their life’s work thrown away.  Steve remembers what it started as, what Peggy and Howard meant for it to be, and maybe this wouldn’t be enough, except Tony is there, this time, and his presence makes the idea of saving it plausible, in the moment.

He gets to work completely infiltrating the insight carriers, along with a little help from Nick and Maria and Natasha’s help, because the former two have the clearance and the latter is a hacker in her own right.  

And now, this time, here’s the plan: 

With Tony in the Insight systems, they can put all three carriers on lockdown the second those targeting chips are replaced; give SHIELD, the real SHIELD, back their ships.  (though tony might find a way to sabotage them anyway, and Steve would help, I think.  as we all know, Tony has a thing about people he doesn’t know about using his tech.  mainly that he blows up that tech, and those people).  JARVIS can upload into them and land them safely, because every person on those carriers is going to be dead by then.

Steve doesn’t have time to make a rousing speech because he’s too busy infiltrating one of the hellicarriers, Sam by his side.  Tony takes another one on in the suit, Maria and a team of people from the Secret Bunker™ get the third.  Their missions are to go through their respective carriers, replace the targeting chips, and take out every person on them one by one

(I'm fudging it up a bit here and hcing that these carrierS are like admiral Marcus’s ship in stark trek: into darkness: designed to be manned by a minimum amount of crew members)

Natasha’s mission is much the same, except this time, she’s not their to dump all of SHIELD’s files: she's there to give tony and JARVIS the on-site access point they need to grab all of HYDRA’s personnel files and give them a hit list.  another thing about this bit: pierce’s taunting of her, instead of about her revealing herself to the public, is about how remarkably similar her time with the Red Room is to Bucky’s time as the winter soldier.

for the sake of the sake rumlow is on Steve and sam’s hellicarrier; sam makes the sacrifice play to take care of him while Steve goes on to the targeting system, where he runs into, you guessed it, Bucky.

Steve and buck’s fight is much the same, except this time more destructive, allowing them to still fall out of the room and into the river, allowing Bucky to be saved by Steve and then save him, all the others too preoccupied to realize just how bad Steve’s fight is going.

meanwhile all of the masses inside the triskelion have no fucking clue what’s going on, be they HYDRA or actual SHIELD, because Insight was supposed to launch and kill millions of people kill dozens of people and neither of those things are happening.  Natasha kept that shit locked down in the conference room, keeping Pierce from ringing for help, and without the physical destruction of the carriers (because they couldn't destroy the carriers for stealth/element of surprise) or Steve’s patriotic speech™ Hydra doesn’t have the green light to act freely.  they know something is deeply wrong, of course, but not what.

after this its even more nebulous.  how exactly do they go about getting rid of the hydra members? well, JARVIS will have cracked their conveniently meticulous personnel files (meticulous records were the detriment of the real nazis too, remember) so they know who to trust.  maybe their is a cost to SHIELD here: they have to release the names of all of their rogue agents to the other intelligence agencies: FBI, CIA, MI5, MI6, Interpol.  They also have to release the names of all of those agencies/countries’ HYDRA rogues, though they have less of them. that’s the cost: SHIELD becomes more open, gets pulled out of the shadows and into the public eye, because some of these people are too public to just have murdered (senator stern, for example) and have to be put on trial, have to have their evidence publicly displayed.  SHIELD becomes more like the agency it is in the comcis.

I don’t know about the interim, but the end result: SHIELD is still standing, HYDRA is on the run, gutted to its core, and the bond between Steve and Tony is a little bit stronger.

#whoa super long #sorry guys #and goddamit I really should just stop watching tws #It keeps giving me ideas and costing me sleep #marvel #mcu #captain america: the winter soldier #the winter soldier #natasha romanov #steve rogers #tony stark #hyrda #shield #sam wilson #nick fury #maria hill #au: SHIELD lives #SHIELD doesn't get destroyed by Steve rogers #this is kinda related to my previous post about tws #the one with nick fury and how Steve rogers was dangerous #I'm like 'what if other people put their foot down about saving shield' #and then it was like #'well then how would they take down the hellicarriers w/o alerting the entire country to the fact that they fucked up' #then fury had that line about stark designing the carriers and it just came to me #senator stern #avengers #steve rogers & tony stark #intelligence agencies #really though I think thats enough #SHIELD getting pulled into the public eye I mean

[giarts]

Modeling Artist Relief Initiatives: Unprecedented help in unprecedented times

Submitted by admin on May 15, 2020

From Suzy Delvalle and Deana Haggag

Reflecting on: What recommendations do you have for how to create an equitable system of distribution for emergency relief funds?

Among the hardest hit in the COVID-19 crisis are the country’s over 2.5 million professional artists. Social distancing saves lives, but it has also cut off the livelihoods of artists across all disciplines. The answer — because social distancing is an absolute necessity — is an immediate and aggressive financial relief program. In response to this urgent need, on April 8th we launched Artist Relief, a coalition of seven arts grantmakers. While we can only speak to our own efforts, we hope that our experience can be a model for similar initiatives moving forward.

As a coalition of small- to mid-sized grantmakers, we each have a deep understanding of our constituencies, a unique geographical and cultural vantage point, and the flexibility to move quickly and adjust course when needed. Working together, we were able to scale up quickly — after three weeks we launched with an initial $10 million in funding, generously supported by a $5 million match of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, among others. That’s enough to provide emergency $5,000 grants to 100 artists every week from now until September.

If we don’t raise another dollar, we can fund 2,000 of the country’s 2.5 million artists. In the first 12 hours of open applications, we had over 12,000 applications. The math — and the need it represents — is plain as day. Two things must be done: We must expand our fundraising efforts, and we must work to distribute those funds as fairly and equitably as possible. As far as fundraising goes, we are working around the clock to engage foundations and philanthropists across the country. We’re also accepting individual donations on our website; not only are they tax-deductible, but 100% of the donations go to funding artists.

As to how the money gets distributed, we need to remember that the COVID-19 crisis is unprecedented. Artists need our help, more than we can give, and they need it today. And so we have to quickly create a distribution plan that takes into account variables which are just beginning to appear — no easy task, as you can imagine.

Here’s where we’ve landed. Aid should not be a question of competitiveness; we offer financial resources to those in dire need. We do not ask to see JPEGs or letters of recommendation. Applicants read our FAQs to see if they are eligible for the grant, and then they apply — we have strived to make the application process as simple and transparent as possible. We hold the broadest possible definition of “working artist,” one which takes into account the various cultural and financial realities of contemporary life.

Similarly, while we acknowledge that dire is subjective, we take a purposefully broad approach, characterizing it as a “lack or imminent endangerment of essentials such as housing, medicine, childcare, and food.” We ask artists to explain their situation, trusting that they will be accurate and respectful of the needs of their community members. In reviewing the applications, we take care to be equitable and cognizant of diversity across disciplines, geography, and identity.

With the ubiquity of technology in certain fields, it’s easy to forget that a technological divide still exists in this country. We are fully aware that information moves through communities at different speeds. To correct this distortion, we are working hard to reach as many folks as we can — and we are inspired by the artists helping one another by applying on behalf of elders or those without computer access.

Lastly, we close the application pool at the end of each month and then reopen it; applicants who were not awarded the grant in the previous month are then encouraged to reapply. Basically, it allows everyone a fresh start — five times over the life of the fund. While this might take a few extra minutes, it’s a small price to pay for a more equitable system.

At the end of the day, however, humility and realism reign. Not even a perfect system would be able to help everyone in need, and Artist Relief is far from perfect. But we’re dedicated to adapting as we go along, further refining our outreach to help as many artists as possible across the country, in different disciplines and different demographics. To gain a clearer understanding of the road ahead, we’ve partnered with Americans for the Arts to co-launch the COVID-19 Impact Survey for Artists and Creative Workers. By learning how this pandemic has affected all of us, we can draw a clearer picture of our artists’ needs, today and moving forward. This will allow Artist Relief, and other coalitions like ours, to better serve artists in the uncertain days ahead.

Suzy Delvalle is president & creative director of Creative Capital.

Deana Haggag is president & CEO of United States Artists.

Posted by admin on May 15, 2020 at 11:40AM. Read the full post.

#arts #philanthropy #nonprofit

[myflowerfriends]

Final Blog Posts

Blog 7: Unsaturating the World

Figure 1: Saturation in boardwalk photo, https://www.adorama.com/alc/0008627/article/100-in-100-Dont-be-a-super-soaker-saturater

In photography, to saturate an image is to edit it so that all of the visible colors are intensified against the white; the right side of Figure 1 is saturated to bring out the vibrancy in the greens and blues. The lowest form of saturation is greyscale, where the photo loses all colors and becomes simple variations of white and blacks. I kept thinking of this term, saturation, while doing the readings for this week. It feels like humanity has taken hold of the saturation scale in Adobe Photoshop and is steadily turning the world greyer. This week’s post looks at the causes of biodiversity loss and extinction, particularly in chapters 9 and 10 of the textbook.

One of the first times I really felt a deep empathy for the environment was when I must have been about eight years old, and I was flipping through a magazine in my dad’s dental office. On the cover there was a polar bear, and on the inside there must have been an editor’s note that stressed how sad and absurd it was that the editor’s children might live to see a world where polar bears go extinct. It completely blew my mind. Polar bears going extinct?! But they’re such iconic animals!

Figure 2: Polar Bear on Time Magazine, 2006. Not sure if this was the exact magazine I was flipping through, but it carries the same energy. http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20060403,00.html

What I didn’t realize then was that every twenty-four hours, between 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird, and mammal go extinct.[1] And according to Miller and Simmons’ text, “20-50% [is the] percentage of the earth’s known species that could disappear this century primarily because of human activities.”[2] The guilt on the shoulders of humankind should be there, but it is not. There is hardly any action being taken to preserve these species, or at least ease their suffering—and hardly any action being done to do the same for our human sisters and brothers.

“Given the pace and scale of change, we can no longer exclude the possibility of reaching critical tipping points that could abruptly and irreversibly change living conditions on Earth.” [3]This quote comes from the World Wildlife Populations Down 50% in Last 40 Years video, which explains just what the title says. There are critical tipping points that are coming closer and closer to being reached each day, and very little being done to reduce the strain of these.

One way to remember the reasons that are causing this biodiversity loss is through HIPPCO: Habitat destruction, degradation, and fragmentation; Invasive (nonnative) species; Population growth and increasing use of resources; Pollution; Climate change; and Overexploitation. Habitat destruction is at this time the most common damaging action being taken, and is a difficult one to stop. It can be difficult to realize too; people in industrialized parts of the United States took great pity on the wildfires being burned in the Amazon Rainforest in late 2019, but were hypocritical to the land that was destroyed so that their city or suburb could be built.

This also reminds me of an interaction I saw on Instagram the other day. There was a post by National Geographic on how salmon are being overfished and losing their wild habitat. One of the top comments stated something along the lines of, “this is why we need to farm salmon! Stop fishing in the wild, it’s the only way to protect them!” And it made me think, because if the problem is that isolated—salmon in the wild are disappearing, so just eat the ones that are farmed—then that would work, maybe. But the issue with salmon, or any species, is that they do not exist in a vacuum. They are an integral part of ecosystems in their natural habitats; farming salmon would eliminate a lot of the benefits that salmon have in the wild.

I was just having a discussion with my brother about this too, and we started making a list of things: what if cows were wild? Would they look the same or had hundreds of years of domestication made them softer and bigger, as chickens have become? Farms make evolution work differently.

As do zoos. Is there any real chance of zoos integrating animals back into the wild? I support animal education, and I get that it’s easier to study animals in zoos than in the wild sometimes.

Figure 3: A photo I took in February, 2019 of the South African Lion and Safari Park website where they acknowledge that they do not feel comfortable with their own lion-petting exhibits but continue to have them for economic purposes. The website has since been renovated and this page was completely removed.

But zoos tend to really get me questioning their ethics. Are they necessary for people to understand why it’s necessary to protect them, or is watching high quality documentaries enough to give humans a change of heart? I had a huge fallout with some friends of mine while we were studying abroad in South Africa because they went to a Lion Park where lions are bred and adults are euthanized.  I heard lots of, “but you connect with the animals! You learn to respect them for their conservation! They do scientific research there!” And then the question is, how different is using horses for entertainment? Is it not practically the same as breeding lions for human entertainment? This isn’t the section of the course dedicated to philosophy, but the unanswered questions remain, bring the choice back to whether we will keep the turning the world grey or work on brightening its diversity.

The Critical Thinking Question #5 on page 218 is a tough one: what would you do if a wild boar invaded and tore up your yard or garden?

Currently my dad is having an issue where these strange moth-type bugs build cocoons on the pine trees separating our house from our neighbors. They’re killing the pine trees, because when they make their cocoons, they eat the needles. My dad asked me, as an environmental studies major, what the best option would be: let the bugs take over the trees and once they turn brown, cut them down? Or use pesticides to kill the trees?

Critical Thinking Question # 5 on page 250 asks: Are you in favor of establishing more wilderness areas in the United States?

To that I say: YES TO MORE WILDERNESS AREAS!!!! More old growth forests means more biodiversity! Any disadvantages would just be hidden advantages; for example, less room for suburban sprawl would give more space for the earth to heal.Less private space allows for more public space, which can be used by humans, vegetations, and wildlife.  

WC:1189

Question: It is interesting too, that some species are considered accidentally introduced/invasive. Are humans accidentally introduced to places, or do we make possible the ability to sustain life on any corner of the earth because we were designed to do that?

Blog 8: Eat or Be Eaten.

Aquatic Biodiversity Loss and Extinction

Figure 1: Lake Erie, 2015, https://www.nps.gov/piro/learn/nature/images/Waves-on-shore_1.jpg?maxwidth=1200&autorotate=false

Unless you have seen one of the Great Lakes with your own eyes, you cannot fathom what they are really like: vast, powerful bodies of water, with big waves and long stretches of sandy beaches; comparable to an ocean. I grew up living about a block away from Lake Erie, and when I was younger, I really hated my hometown. I wanted to live in a big city. My parents countered my arguments by emphasising how lucky we were to live in the Great Lakes Basin. It wasn’t until I attended a March for Science that I realised how important it was to protect the lakes — see me pictured below with my generic sign, and my friend Max holding a sign that my mom crafted; she’s the one taking the photo.

Figure 2: Cleveland’s March for Science Protest, 2017. Photo by author.

Part of my love of the Great Lakes, and of open bodies of water in general, comes from me living so close to them. But as Sylvia Earle is quoted in the beginning of chapter 12, “With every drop of water you drink, with every breath you take, you are connected to the sea, no matter where on Earth you live” (253).[1] Even if you live in a desert, every decision you make can in some way affect aquatic ecosystem services. Take, for example, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Figure 3: Eastern Great Pacific Garbage Patch, 2019.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottsnowden/2019/05/30/300-mile-swim-through-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch-will-collect-data-on-plastic-pollution/#4b2a7f36489f

There are actually two large garbage patches with some connecting debris in-between them; the greater of these patches is just off the coast of California, and is about 600,000 square miles, and in some areas, several feet deep. It is an island floating on the surface of the water, made up of plastics and microplastics. Because plastic is not biodegradable, the Garbage Patch continues to grow, and many animals, such as the albatross pictured below, die due to ingestion of these plastics, which Chris Jordan documents hauntingly well in the film Albatross.[2]

Figure 4: Albatross Bodies with Plastic, 2018,

https://www.albatrossthefilm.com/ourstory

One thing that I think could have been better written about in this chapter is water distribution. I stumbled through this very briefly in my presentation while explaining biophilia and the damaging effects of trying to make Las Vegas into an oasis in the desert. I understand that this chapter is focused more on the biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems, but I still think that concept 11.5 of this chapter could go more in depth with the ownership rights of water sources, or perhaps the section on the Great Lakes in the previous section could explain how although the Great Lakes are the largest collective body of freshwater in the world, water diversions are pretty much limited to regions within the Great Lakes Basin, and why it is important that it stays that way.

Critical Thinking Question #2, p. 280:

Three Greatest Threats to Aquatic Biodiversity

1.     Ocean Acidification

2.     Plastic Pollution

3.     Coastal Wetland and Watershed Protection

4.     Overfishing (if there are fish left after the above 3 are increased!)

The list above is my answer to the Critical Thinking Question for this chapter. All of them are caused by humans on the land. The greatest threat according to me is that of ocean acidification, or the increasing amounts of heat and acidity in the oceans. This stems from increased Co2 in the atmosphere. One of the main factors contributing to that, is animal agriculture.

Soil, Agriculture, and Food

Figure 5: You Can Smell the Methane in This Photo, 2014

https://www.wilderutopia.com/health/cowspiracy-animal-agriculture-despoils-land-water-and-climate/

Chapter 12 in the textbook discusses the effect of food production on the environment. I act like I know a lot about this when people ask me why I’m a vegetarian, but this chapter was full of great information and details that I didn’t fully understand until now.

The issue with animal agriculture is not only that Co2 is basted into the atmosphere through gasses released form the animals and humans which eat them, and the clearing of land for the animals. With the depletion of biodiversity to allow animals grazing land, vital natural habitats for other species are lost, as shown in George Monbiot’s brief video on rewilding the countryside and rural areas.[3]

Truthfully, I expected the chapter to be much more focused on animal agriculture alone. But other forms of farming are nearly as bad, as pictured below.

Figure 6: Effects of Food Production of Any Sort

https://slideplayer.com/slide/6187595/

I’m also glad that the chapter covered a comparison of overnutrition and malnutrition. I found the quote: “We live in a world where, according to the WHO, about 795 million people face health problems because they do not get enough nutritious food to eat and at least another 2.1 billion (29% of the human population) have health problems stemming largely from eating too much sugar, fat, and salt.”[4] The greed of modern civilization never ceases to amaze me.

Critical Thinking Question #1 p. 320

Figure 7: Vertical Harvest of Jackson Hole, 2013.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2056017617/vertical-harvest-of-jh-a-growing-system-for-change

If I were a member of Growing Power Inc. and in charge of turning an abandoned shopping center into an organic farm, I would begin by getting a perfect team together; potentially including some of the students in this class (networking!). I’d do my best to dismantle the concrete and debris of the shopping center, and reuse whatever I was able to on the spot. As it is in the Case Study, my farm would be powered partly by solar electricity and solar hot water systems, and would be structured like a green house to keep the produce supported year round. As it is in Jackson Hole’s Vertical Harvest organic urban farm, my employee positions would first be open to disabled peoples who are working on communication skills, training in this center for jobs elsewhere.[5] We would be deeply integrated into the community, selling our produce locally and donating to food banks and soup kitchens whenever possible. That sounds too good to be true, but we’ll leave it at that.

Question, and I think about this every day: which is better for the environment, to be vegan and avoid animal products entirely but eat non-local tofu or other forms of meatless protein; or to eat only locally sourced food which would make animal products more of a staple to the diet?

WC: 1156

[1] Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott E. Spoolman. Living in the Environment. Chapter 11: Sustaining Aquatic Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. 19th ed. Boston, MA: Engage Learning, 2020.

[2] Jordan, Chris. Albatross. https://www.albatrossthefilm.com

[3] Smith, Peter. “George Monbiot on reqilding countryside and rural areas” YouTube, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1KW-0YbO3Q

[4] Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott E. Spoolman. Living in the Environment. Chapter 12: Food Production and the Environment, p. 286. 19th ed. Boston, MA: Engage Learning, 2020.

[5] “Vertical Harvest Jackson Hole,” Vertical Harvest,  https://www.verticalharvestjackson.com/our-mission.

Blog 9: Fight the System by Appreciating Soil and Supporting Local Farmers !

Symphonies of the Soil

Figure 1: Cover Artwork, 2012, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2229397/

When I began watching this documentary, I braced myself for what I thought was going to be a long, boring hour-and-a-half. But by the end of it, I think it may have changed the trajectory of my summer plans.

The first half of the documentary is an almost meditative description of different types of soils found across planet earth, backed by an orchestral score. Ironically, one of the first phrases of the narrator is: “most of the planet is non-living.”[1]And it is. As my sister pointed out, even humans are mostly CHON: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. Yet plots of land are not 100% soil; half of it is the compounds that make up soil, and half of it consists of spaces for air, water, and microorganisms which use soil to survive.

Figure 2: Andy Foraging for Mushrooms in Washington, 2019, photo by author.

This point leads to another: you cannot grow good produce in a void. If you were to strip a type of soil down to its purest form and attempt at planting anything in it, it likely would not be successful. This seems to be the thesis of the second half of the documentary: farmers need to feed soil the natural ingredients it needs to be nutritional.

As I don’t have a very strong science background, some of this went over my head, such as the part about the lupines and nitrogen fixation. This summer, as long as the pandemic settles down, I hope to get an internship or job working in permaculture or vertical harvesting. It’s very odd to me that I can talk so much about the environment but know so little about it in a physical way. Although I try to shop mostly locally or from farmers markets, the development I grew up in didn’t allow gardens aside from flower beds, so I have had very little connection to soil or the ground I live on.

A critique I have of this film is that they paid very little attention to indigenous practices of cultivating soil, or hunter-gatherer ideas. They looked at how the harmful processes began, with civilizations in Europe flattening out the hillsides and beginning monocrop farming during the agricultural revolution, and they did discuss the Law of Return, but I thought there might be more references with how the soil had been used in previous human populations, and perhaps a discussion on primitivism. The discussion that was had in the film was more focused on finding a structured form of rewilding agriculturally, which I support, but still I thought the film could show the other side, and give more credit to the indigenous groups that have been pushing for this rewinding for centuries.

Figure 3: Stone Age Reenactment Group, http://www.jutulskinn.no/stone-age-gathering.

No matter how far you think society should dive into with a return to primitivism, the message of this video is clear: we can do a better job at how we farm, in order to produce healthier more sustainable products. It feels as though this shouldn’t be too difficult—but with the rigid constraints set forth by the corporations involved in the agricultural industry, farmers have very little say in how their crops get produced, and animals have become far removed from from the agricultural process, removing a great source of natural fertilizer as well. The next film explains that a bit more.

Food, Inc.

Figure 4: Food, Inc. Cover Image, 2008, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1286537/mediaviewer/rm3514966016.

Food, Inc. uses various segments to explain the systems put in place to produce food, and how rigid those constraints are within the law-and-order system of the United States of America. These segments range from showing statistics, interviews, and video clips of what the world of agriculture is really like.

I found the Polyface Farms clips to be fascinating, because it was so difficult to watch and listen to, but was still the best possible scenario for meat farming. The cattle fertilize and mow the variety of greens they eat; there are no shipments of corn that have to be made. As Joel says, “it’s all real solar dollars….we’re every bit as efficient, especially if you plug in all of the inefficiencies of the industrial system.” [2]

Figure 5: Joel at Polyface Farms, http://www.temeats.com/polyface-farms/.

I think this will be the hardest connection for people to make, especially because we need food to sustain ourselves. Someone can be addicted to nicotine and cut it out of their lives, or can choose to avoid it altogether. But they cannot simply ignore food. People can ignore bad food, but the temptation is always lingering as a possibility, and if you grew up like I did—eating processed foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until I was about sixteen and realized I needed to be healthier—breaking away from those habits can feel like the single most challenging thing to accomplish. And when fast food is the only option due to income levels, the cycle gets even more challenging to break.

Figure 6: Elk in Wyoming, https://content.osgnetworks.tv/petersenshunting/content/photos/bull-elk-bugling.jpg

I am reminded of an argument that put me on bad terms with my boss at my summer job as a waitress at a guest ranch near Jackson, Wyoming. Elk lived in the meadows just outside the property and were hunted and sold locally. One of our most popular items on the menu was elk tenderloin, and once I had a guest ask how local the elk we served was, a reasonable assumption as our website says that our kitchen sources locally and is as sustainable as possible, even though the menu does not specify what is or is not local. Upon speaking with the head chef I learned that the elk was actually shipped in, frozen, from Austria. The more getting-into-everybody-else’s-business that I did, the more I realized that the only ingredients we used that weren’t shipped in from Sysco were a weak amount of herbs from the farmers market. That guest was from Philadelphia and could have had fresher elk had he shipped it from Austria to Pennsylvania rather than Austria to Utah to Wyoming.

Along with that, our menu was incredibly meat-and-potatoes based, following exactly the prediction that humans are hard-wired to crave salt, fat, and sugar.

Something my mom makes fun of me for saying all the time is “it’s supply and demand!” as if all the problems in the world could be that simple. But in truth, they can be. And I hope that just as my generation has severely damaged the tobacco industry, the next generation can put an end to big corporations controlling the food industry, so that 30% of the United States’ land base will not be corn, and the choice between medication or buying vegetables will be unfathomable, and local food companies will overrule the 4 major meat companies in charge now.

A critique I have of Food, Inc. is that there is very little said about the dairy and fishing industries. I felt that there could have been an additional segment on those in the film—perhaps they aren’t as bad as the meat and corn industries, but I do not feel as though they are righteous enough to be counted out of this conversation.

I also am a bit confused by the Monsanto segment and hope to discuss that in our class time.

Question: Food, Inc. is very focused on the United States of America. What are food systems like in other parts of the world? Is there a correlation between colonized places having more fast-food?

WC: 1257

[1] Garcia, Deborah Koons, director. Symphony of the Soil. YouTube, 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDZVKMe2FTg.

[2] Kenner, Robert, et al. Food, Inc. 2008. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smk2xq2l3Ig

Blog 10: The Health of the Environment, The Health of Humans

Figure 1, COVID-19 illustration, https://www.statnews.com/2020/02/11/disease-caused-by-the-novel-coronavirus-has-name-covid-19/

This week’s focus is on hazards and waste on human health and the environment. Chapter 17 in the textbook begins with a discussion on diseases stimulated from biological and chemical hazards and how these can be linked with environmental causes. The chapter ends with a discussion on risks, and how decision making can affect the world around us.

One of the most frustrating, common, and powerful diseases is cancer. Cancer’s direct cause in an individual is unknown. The title of the article “Breast Cancer: prevention or Cure? Why Is Breast Cancer Awareness/Cure Run By Major Chemical Companies?” gives good insight to the confusion around cancer research. The article goes on to explain the intricacies behind cancer research and bring to light the distrust that many people rightfully have towards corporations that are in control of cancer funding and research. Again, I see these problems tying so deeply into capitalism: individuals finding ways for their own selves to be as successful as possible without working towards the greater good.

Ethics always comes in to play and is very noticeable in this chapter. If malaria is such a murderous disease, and malaria is spread by mosquitoes, how bad would it be to just completely wipe out the mosquito population? I admit that I will appreciate any bug that lands on me, or gently flick them off, unless they are a mosquito. I do not like the inconvenience of mosquito bites, and killing mosquitoes gives me a weird sort of satisfaction that I could not achieve from the death of any other living being. In my biology class last semester, we looked at a case study of several scientists who were considering wiping out mosquitoes entirely in areas of the world susceptible to malaria. After long debates, no conclusion was reached. It feels wrong to eliminate a species that is annoying to us—if this is possible, then who’s going to stop the wolves in the western United States from eating cattle on ranches encroaching on their wild territory? At the same time, this could be a heroic achievement and an extreme stress-reliever for humankind.

These things seem like such simple solutions: page 455 of the textbook lists some ways to avoid exposure to hormone disrupters. Yet the article of the man who eliminated plastic from his life yet still got microplastics from his milk which was stored in a mason jar but filtered through a plastic lining proves that even when trying desperately to follow that advice, it is still just about impossible to be rid of them completely.

Figure 2, Microplastics Diagram, https://www.java-biocolloid.com/event/the-threads-of-microplastics-in-food-8721

I recently read the chapter “The Indian Healer” out of The Indian Giver, a book by Jack Weatherford in which he goes through the various ways that Native American peoples have contributed to modern medical technology or found the basis for medications. Native American practices of healing should be can be used to encourage well-being in medical practices, so as to put into action ways that advance views on the interconnectedness of community, the environment, and medicine overall.

I can’t help but think of what it felt to be alive before the industrial period began. I generally do feel better when I have spent some time in fresh air—but any fresh air in this day and age still has toxins in and around it, and no food nor water is completely free of microplastics or

A quick critique I have about all the extra informational videos and articles is that although they are very interesting, they are quite outdated. In other classes I am not allowed to cite articles older than five years old, and all of these are from the mid 2000s. I understand needing to learn the history of how we perceive chemicals in the body, but there was no range for that either. I’m curious as to what research has been put out within the last few years—or months.

CTQ #7 on p. 468 asks to name some risks that I face and how to eliminate or reduce those risks. This causes me to check my privilege once again; even when I come across pollution, I will likely have access to the best healthcare to heal me from whatever risks may concern me. There are risks that I can avoid, but that I still choose; I have chosen to live in Manhattan, with all its pollution, instead of living in a pristine area out west. Yet perhaps my education in New York will allow me to strengthen my ties with academia so that I can preserve those lands out west.

Solid and Hazardous Waste

I also recently read Waste Seige: the Life of Infrastructure in Palestine by Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins, who’s covering the discussions behind environmental, economic, and social issues that in occupied Palestine. Through illegal occupation, Israeli settlers are forcing neo-capitalist practices in the area, leading to more forced consumption, leading to more waste in an area that cannot contain it, and does not have the finances nor the leadership to create more sustainable waste options, such as those shown in the textbook. Palestine has become a literal dumpsite, and the effects of the toxins in the various wastes infiltrating the area is murderous. There is an ironic “Polluter Pays Principle” in use, where the governmental organizations have Palestinians pay higher taxes because technically they are the ones who are polluting—it is their sewer systems overflowing, their land that has the burning dump sites, and their people who are being cheap, non-sustainable products. Ironically, the sewers are flooding because Israeli-settler waste flows directly into them as well; landfills in that region are almost all located in designated Palestinian areas; and the suffocation of the economic process in Palestine keeps their people from having any upward mobility.

Figure 3, Landfill in Palestine, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-israel-s-solution-for-expelled-bedouin-between-garbage-and-junkyard-1.6158225

CTQ #1 p. 600: List three products you use and make them cradle-to-cradle.

The past two years I have begun having an immense feeling of guilt if I purchase something that isn’t made sustainably, or that isn’t able to be recycled or composted. When I need to buy something new (key word: need), I spend a lot of time looking into which company I can trust. I get most of my products from Package Free Shop. But as I keep saying, it goes back to economics. I’m sure anyone who uses their shampoo and conditioner bars and natural face oils would prefer it over whatever drugstore brand they use currently, but that price difference is what makes it so unreachable. To circle back, this is highlighted in Chapter 17’s discussion on HIV: lifesaving drugs are expensive, and simply cost too much to be used widely both in less-developed countries and in impoverished areas of industrialized countries.

Question: With marijuana becoming a much more common recreational and medicinal drug, I would have appreciated an unbiased discussion of it in this chapter, instead of it being left out completely. Does smoking marijuana affect your lungs as badly as smoking tobacco? Are there any studies being done on dab pens, which include THC but don’t include nicotine like traditional vape pens?

WC: 1105

Blog 11: Water (cont.)

Had I been patient with blog 8, I may have realized that there would be a whole other blog dedicated to water, filling in the gaps that I felt were left out in the previous readings—chapter 20 really digs into the inefficiencies of Ohio water treatment. This is that blog post, looking at chapters 13 and 20 in the textbook.[4]

Figure 1. Water Dispersal, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_resources

Chapter 13: Water Resources

Water is stored in many ways in the earth’s surface, but only 0.024% of the earth’s water is readily available as a liquid freshwater. Due to climate change, areas that are dry are becoming drier, and areas that are oversaturated are becoming wetter and with saltwater, not freshwater. With that small percentage of water that is usable to humans, about 70% is used to irrigate cropland and raise livestock.

Industrialized nations in particular treat water as if it is free; Miller and Spoolman note that “we have no substitute for this vital form of natural capital” (325). Things that don’t seem to be made of water need large amounts of it in order to be produced, such as blue jeans and lettuce; producing a quarter-pound hamburger takes about 2,400 liters of freshwater. “About 66% of the freshwater used in the world and about 50% of the freshwater used in the United States is lost through evaporations, leaks, and inefficient use” (342).  Water really is our most necessary resource, and we absolutely take it for granted.

The United States has lots of freshwater resources, particularly in the eastern states. The book reads, “the United States has more than enough renewable freshwater to meet its needs. However, it is unevenly distributed and much of it is contaminated by agricultural and industrial practices” (329). Freshwater shortages are becoming more common and will continue to expand as climate change increases. Aquifers are losing their water faster than the rain is refilling them—in some parts of the United States, four times as fast—and much of this water being taken out is going to waste. There are other frightening results that come from too much groundwater being pulled out of the earth, such as sinkholes, as pictured in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Sinkhole in Guatemala City, 2007. https://www.businessinsider.com/giant-sinkhole-photos-2014-9

There is an option of tapping deep aquifers that lie beneath the surface of the ocean, but this is dangerous in that they are nonrenewable on a human timeline, little is known about what effects doing this may have, no international treaties govern these areas yet, the costs are unknown, and the water is likely still contaminated with some salt, arsenic, and uranium.

Dams are also not an ideal way to increase water supplies, because even though they help humans in many ways, they can destroy the natural environment in many ways, which in turn brings destruction to humans after a matter of time. Desalination is another option, albeit a costly and perhaps inefficient one, though more research is being done in the search to find better desalination technology.

The 4 R’s of recycling (refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle) may be the best way to work with water. Refusing unnecessary amounts of water, and reducing one’s usage of necessary water, are two prime first steps to take when trying to heal water issues. Part of what will make this easier for people to remember to follow is if water is treated by society as a necessity, through higher prices of freshwater (and perhaps a Universal Basic Income – style user pays approach) and redirecting government subsidies to being more efficient. Simple household changes, such as installing low-flow toilets, fixing leaks as soon as they are noticed, and redesigning lawns and outdoor spaces with vegetation that suits the ecoregion can also help limit the amount of freshwater wasted. Vaster options can include incorporating infrastructures in communities that reuse greywater in areas that are able.

Water has no substitute. Sure, you can drink LaCroix or Coke Zero and treat that as your liquid intake for the day, but freshwater is at the base of those items. Without some form of h2o in our systems, humans would not survive for more than a few days.

Chapter 20: Water Pollution

The previous chapter had its focus on freshwater, and how to be efficient with it. This one focuses on what happens if that freshwater gets polluted. In some parts of the world, mercury, pathogens, metals, and other nutrients can kill people drinking the water if it is not treated properly. In some areas, this does not directly affect humans intake, but can affect humans lives in other ways—for example, all of northeast Ohio becoming a laughing stock when the Cuyahoga River caught on fire in the late 1960’s (see Figure 3).

Figure 3, Cuyahoga River fire recolored, June 1969. https://1960sdaysofrage.wordpress.com/2019/03/18/burn-on-big-river-cuyahoga-river-fires/

But in the textbook, Miller and Spoolman start this discussion of as saying that the Cuyahoga River fires were a success story. I rode my bike by the Cuyahoga River just the other day and it was not ablaze—there were fishermen and ducks in it. Still, most of the world’s major riverways are heavily polluted, with “80-90% of the raw sewage in most cities in less developed countries [is] discharged directly into waterways” (548). Yet there is hope that these rivers can heal, though it will take a tremendous amount of strength from the humans who have caused this incredible pollution in the first place.

Balance is another important factor into keeping water clean. No water, not even the “clean” water humans drink, is pure h20—that would kill us. We need small traces of other elements in it too. Too many nutrients, though, can lead to eutrophication, which is when a shallow body of water has too many nutrients, causing dense growths of organisms which decompose and suffocate the body of water, giving it a greenish-teal color.

Question:  Why are some mountain lakes so brightly colored? Does it have to do with eutrophication, even if they are pristine?

WC: 1112

Blog 12: Future, No Future

Figure 1: Protestors rally against pipelines being put into Wet’suwet’en land in Canada

First off, I would like to disagree with Justin Trudeau’s statement made at the Houston Energy Conference in 2017 where he says that “No country would find 173 billion barrels of oil in the ground and just leave them there.” I would like to believe that I, and many people with unselfish morals dedicating their lives to environmental justice, would let those oil barrels STAY IN THE GROUND.

I was surprised that Trudeau was the one to say it, as when I was younger, I thought he could do no evil; I was quite a little liberal. But now I see his desire for economic greed showing through his attempted democracy, just as I thought the Paris Climate Agreement was exactly what the world needed, and now see that there’s a lot of flimsy rhetoric in there. But we’ll get to that in a minute. First, the reading:

Chapter eleven of Simon Lewis and Mark Maslin’s The Human Planet: How We Created the Anthropocenetells how there are three possible future for the world: continued consumer capitalist development, collapse, or a new mode of living. [5]

Continue

Figure 2: Consumerism, http://links.org.au/node/1972

I think it’s interesting that they even gave continued consumer capitalist development a chance—I feel as though they could have just grouped that with collapse. I recognize that not many people (ie. My family who I am quarantined with) think the way I do, so I am glad they gave the explanation. Business as usual cannot continue. We are heading for collapse.

I suppose in some kind of sense, you could say that it can continue. But that’s because what’s continuing isn’t really capitalism in the first place. The small changes are already being had. For example, our right-wing president is dishing out monetary stimulus checks to bolster the economy, which smells a lot like socialism to me (delicious).

Lewis and Maslin explain our current economic system as being driven by positive feedback loops which end in fundamental changes. The factors which underlid all human societies are changing faster and faster as time moves onwards—it is true exponential growth. It is consumers acting as though we have infinite resources even while living on a finite planet. It is contradictory. But even in it’s core, our current system is one of change.

Perhaps the change requires all cars to be electric, but the increase in demand for electric cars requires an increase in demand for the lithium mined in Bolivia. Maybe there is no realistic, futuristic plan to put in place that will efficiently and sustainably save the world. Maybe I just need to read up more on this. Lewis and Maslin do offer some good suggestions, though, including Universal Basic Income and Half-Earth.

A New Way of Life?

Figure 3: Half-Earth website screenshot, https://www.half-earthproject.org

Universal Basic Income (UBI) and the Half-Planet theory are the two most clearly stated pathways for success of our planet that we have studied thus far.

UBI: I know a lot of professors don’t like to talk about their politics, but I was trying to figure out where yours lie as someone who knows so much about the interweaving’s of politics and the environment. A few months ago you dropped that you were a big proponent of UBI, and I thought, “aha! so Andrew Yang is the one who will save the environment!” But my impression of Yang’s UBI felt more focused on Artificial intelligence—I really just didn’t know a lot about UBI in general. (side note: I am REALLY excited for it to be summer so I can stop having deadlines and start just immersing myself in the random topics I want to learn more about. This course gave me a lotta suggestions.) After reading about it in this chapter, I think that UBI is really promising. Lewis and Maslin state that, “[UBI] breaks the link between work and consumption; we could work less and consume less and still meet our needs…those working in the fossil fuel industry would have the security of income to retrain” (406). This sounds incredibly promising, but there are still questions involving culture (some people feel more “manly” working in a coal mine) and how this would play out with refugees and non-citizens residing in the United States, etc. Still, I think a solid attempt at integrating this into our economy would help the world in lots of ways.

Half Earth: I am very interested in the idea of giving half the earth to other species, and perhaps indigenous groups as well. Again, I look at the suburbs and think of how seemingly easy it would be to develop rewilding techniques. All it would take is one popular suburban mom changing her front lawn from monoculture bluegrass to being a large garden—or whatever a local environmental rewilding consultant would suggest—and the rest of the neighborhood would follow suit. Half-Earth may seem like an enormous task to take on, but I genuinely have faith that it is possible.

Collapse

Figure 4: Quarantine Meme That My Mom Thought Was Real, https://www.boredpanda.com/nature-healing-quarantine-jokes/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

As an environmental studies and anthropology double-major, people would ask me where those two overlap. I even felt that I was choosing two very different subjects because I was so scatter brained—I’d study a little about the environment, a little about humans, and figure out what I was going to do with that somewhere along the way. I let myself feel belittled for choosing two of the “easiest” subjects—no intense economics, no organic chemistry to work through. Just a lot of thinking too much about things which some people may consider completely irrelevant, a task which I am very good at. So it made me feel a lot better when, I believe it was you Dr. Kindervater, who said: “These two scientists think there is time for economic and political changes to save human kind. Culturally, though, do we believe it?”

For a long time I really thought that collapse was the only path our planet was headed towards—that Jane Goodall was bullshitting us all with her Reasons For Hope, and that if Bernie Sanders didn’t become president and begin balancing out the wealth gap and making changes to environmental legislation, then we might as well all be dead now and let whatever remaining species reclaim the earth before we make them go extinct too. I guess, if you’re someone who prefers life over death, (and I suppose we are all those types of people as even if we want to kill ourselves, we haven’t done it yet!) the we might as well have hope for the future, and continue working towards the new path.

“With great power comes great responsibility” is a quote from Uncle Ben in the Spiderman series, which Peter Parker/Spiderman keeps close to his heart as he begins to realize his powers, and is constantly questioned with the choice to use them selfishly or for the greater good. With increased technology, humankind collectively has the power to transform the earth or destroy it. I hope that soon we recognize what is at stake with our planet, and learn how to efficiently reduce the destruction being caused. It might not bring dolphins into the heat ponds of Washington D.C., but it would certainly allow for a lot of other miracles to happen.

Question:  My concern with UBI is, how can you make sure that people aren’t spending it irresponsibly? Would it be better to just raise the minimum wage, or expand the amount available for people to get food stamps and free healthcare? Would UBI allow people to get their basic needs met, or would it provide for spending money on sustainable/fair trade products?

WC: 1251

[1] Vidal, John. “UN Environment Program: 200 Species Go Extinct Every Day, Unlike Anything Since Dinosaurs Disappeared 65 Million Years Ago,” Huffpost May 2011. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/un-environment-programme-_n_684562

[2] Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott E. Spoolman. Living in the Environment. Chapter 23: Economics, Environment, and Sustainability. 19th ed. Boston, MA: Engage Learning, 2020.

[3] https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x26ybub

[4] Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott Spoolman. Living in the Environment . 19th ed. S.l.: Cengage Learning, 2018.

[5] Lewis, Simon L., and Mark A. Maslin. “Chapter 11: Can Homo Dominates Become Wise?” The Human Planet: How We Created the Anthropocene, Yale University Press, pp. 367–416.

[cantskank]

fuck this is long...tldr i’ve been lame but getting better

the last post is brought to you by me getting into the magnus archives for some positive ace rep

then having the absolute and overwhelming focus of the fandom be focused on that character’s romantic relationship

then the people who ignore or gloss over the fact that jon is ace or make him have sex anyway to make martin happy????  which just like fucks me up a bit

(esp bc exact quote, “jon...doesn’t” really disputes the idea that he would have sex with martin)

(also much more minor but it bugs me to see people in the fandom refer to jon and martin together as gay.  jon is biro ace, i think gay is not particularly accurate.  and gayness is excellent!  don’t get me wrong.  but that’s just not accurate to what jon is.  and it would not at all bother me if there were equal amounts of “aww look at them they’re so asexual together!”  and that description probably feels weird and wrong.  but it’s just as correct as saying “they’re so gay and cute!” or whatever i keep seeing people say about it!  it is just as accurate to call their relationship ace as it is to call it gay!  and not wanting to acknowledge or even consider that is really telling in what it reveals about how non-aces feel about asexuality.  it just builds to a picture of ‘we want our own representation and we will discard or ignore the ‘uglier’ bits of one of the ship character’s identity because asexuality is foreign to me/irrelevant/unnatural/weird/something i don’t fully understand and am afraid to/uninteresting.’  and i very much want to sympathize with the former (again, the whole reason i got into the magnus archives) and very much want to kill the latter with fire. this is also relevant to me in that about a year ago, i started thinking a lot about how as an aro ace, being told i had straight passing privilege, and the fact that i am not out (but would not lie and call myself straight) and just generally allow people to assume whatever they want about me when it comes to my orientation, whether that’s gay, straight, bi, ace, whatever, (and also having had mostly straight friends for the couple of years before that when it had very much been the opposite prior to that (and that does make a difference, to me at least),)  had resulted in me very much creating this narrative of being ‘effectively straight.’  not at all in the sense that ‘yes i’m basically straight and i feel mostly straight’ but in that i felt like ace-ness and aro-ness, if i wasn’t going to be out about it (which i’m not but which i may end up changing down the line), was not something i was allowed to consider as separate and distinct and special and important about myself?  because society would not like to think about aros/aces.  what society wants is to send the message that “not having sex is not important.  not having sex is not normal and makes you a loser.  not feeling romantic attraction is shameful and unnatural.  not feeling romantic attraction is something that makes you a monster.  do not talk about your disinterest in these things, it is at once completely unimportant/irrelevant and for our comfort and to allow you to conform socially you should not talk about it AND it is disgusting and freakish and makes you broken.”  so.  it is somehow unimportant AND deeply disturbing at the same time.  anyway, for me this resulted in feeling that my aro ace-ness was unremarkable and i should not consider it something exceptional about me, and i should just settle into viewing myself as close to the default.  and maybe you would think i am part of the default, as a first impression, and that’s fine.  but i realized i didn’t want to think of myself that way.  even if people will insist it is this way, asexual =/= straight.  i get to, and i want to, think of asexuality as its own distinct thing, and it does not have to fit into the paradigm of gay vs straight because it cannot fit into that paradigm.  i had refused to give myself the space to think of it as special because no one was telling me it was special.  and not being out definitely had a huge effect on this.  but it is just factually untrue to view myself as unremarkable for being asexual and as ‘effectively straight’ because it’s wrong!  it’s just wrong!  and if i am firmly of the belief that i am not straight, i must be equally firmly of the belief that i am not gay.  there is no judgment involved in either of those statements, but i must respect myself and my identity enough to firmly believe it is its own identity, and worthy of being considered that way, and not merely framed in which ways it relates the false dichotomy of gay and straight.  meaning, i cannot frame my asexuality as “not quite gay but not quite straight” but as its own entity: i have my own distinct orientation and it is aromantic asexual and i do not experience attraction.  full-stop.”  which may seem basic (and may seem like a very minute difference) but it was an important step for me in my identity.  i don’t think i’m quite explaining it right.  i will say: whether they realize it consciously or not, i think a lot of people think of sexuality by how much you deviate from the norm.  the norm is straight.  the most extreme not-norm (by, again, the false dichotomy that has been set up) is gay.  how different you are from the norm will probably determine how important your sexuality is to you because non-normative sexualities are oppressed and the fight to be allowed to feel you are worthy of respect means your sexuality feels and is highly personal.  and, this would be a measure of how gay you are.  before my perspective shift, i felt very little about my sexuality (other than mostly dread at dying alone.  which i still feel!).  therefore, i was not very different from the norm, and my sexuality was not worthy of consideration.  it was not allowed to be very important to me, especially if i was not going to be very out.  BUT!  this is not a good perspective!  again, false! dichotomy!  there is no reason to view yourself on a sliding scale of gay and straight!  i am Neither!  and it is for this reason that i feel very strongly that gay is not the right way to describe jon!  it can be, and if it feels right to him then that is a fine and excellent way to identify!  but his identity is asexual and, by necessity, he is not gay.  just as he is not straight.  which is okay and allowed.  and by many people choosing exclusively to refer to jon and martin as gay, while extremely understandable, feels like a failure to understand the above.  allo identities do not hold precedence over aspec identities because aspec identities are worthy of their own consideration, not just as something “missing” and inherently lower priority to allo identities.  and calling the relationship gay exclusively, feels like they kind of believe that.  and any reluctance to call their relationship ace (which i think MOST people would find very strange and weird and uncomfortable) is a lack of education and understanding on what asexuality looks like, the kinds of relationships asexuals have.  asexuals are not some remote, gross thing that cannot be understood and must be ignored, we are people and we are here.  if you haven’t noticed, our entire online presence is BUILT around education and visibility.  these are things you can find out and understand very quickly.  and hopefully people will not view asexuality as something weird and shameful and something that should just be ignored. holy shit that was a long aside.)

and the post was precipitated by seeing fanart of a very romantically intimate moment and not being at all interested in that for myself.  i really want to be close to someone (/some people which is too much to hope for) but just so emphatically not in that way.  just...a lot of clarity in what i want?  because i am sometimes so miserable for being aro specifically that i wonder if my identifying this way is wrong and unhealthy, whether it’s worse to consider myself aro and causing more problems than it’s solving.  sometimes i wonder if i was too quick to dismiss romance and all my self-discovery and self-reliance has been for nothing?  maybe being miserable about amatonormativity has just been because i’m alloro but just miserable and self-hating and trying to ruin the fun for everyone and the problem is not that romance has been artificially elevated but just that i have deep-seated issues with romance?

anyway it was more of a relief than anything to have my aro-ness confirmed by my gut reaction.  um, i still think i need to let go of some of my bitterness about amatonormativity, only because it’s not serving me to be my happiest self (not because it’s not bullshit), but it’s not because i’m unconsciously not aro. 

here’s what i think i want for myself:

like i said above, letting go of some of my anger at romance and at amatonormativity in general.  there’s definitely a place for that in me, but people talking about romance should not make me miserable like it’s starting to do.  in a lot of ways this comes from me being jealous and bitter about not having this supposedly wonderful, normal, natural experience, and not being confident in it being okay- great, even!- to be aro and not experience that.  i want to become more neutral about romance, since it is equally okay to not experience that.  my existence and validity is not threatened by other people having romantic relationships.  it’s okay for that to be an important thing for them, and (/because) it’s equally okay for it NOT to be important to me.

sorta referenced in my point above, but i want to rely less on other people to make me valid.  it doesn’t matter how anyone else feels, i am the way i am.  i want to be much more confident in that for myself.  i can’t progress and build a better relationship with myself if i don’t trust my own experience and emotions over what other people would tell me is true about myself (or how the rest of the world works). 

i know this is kinda what got me feeling not great in the first place, but i want to find more ace/aro rep for myself.  potentially this could make things worse (in the way i mentioned above; relying on that representation to really speak to my experience and finding that it does not, and that fandom in particular is very caught up the romance- and just generally allo- side of things).  but i am hoping/relying on the possibility that increasing ace/aro rep will give me way more options and a higher chance that i will have my own experience reflected.  i want to start listening to the penumbra podcast, since i’ve heard there are at least two aspec characters, one of whom is even aro ace! side note, thinking about it a bit: the first ace rep i had was a few months ago, when i watched bojack horseman and saw todd’s story.  i think i was a bit spoiled in that rep.  todd’s story was really focused on his own self-discovery.  he was alloro and wanted a relationship, but in my mind he didn’t care so much about getting that.  even when he was in a relationship, he still got to be cool and have his own adventures.  having a romantic relationship was secondary to his story and, you got the sense, secondary to him as a person.  and, his asexuality was very important to him once he realized he was ace.  he was very open about it to people, not ashamed, and he did have a journey with his sexuality that the audience was brought along.  that is everything i want in an ace character!!!  then i got into the magnus archives, expecting to have a similar experience.  instead, we find out jon is ace because we as the audience hear him being outed without his knowledge between his friends, based on information from his ex (again, presumably without his knowledge).  and word of god says "although whether that’s how the archivist himself would actively identify, who knows?”  also a very different take on ace rep than bojack horseman.  and i love jon and martin as a couple, but i have just been really overwhelmed with how much of that is the focus of the fandom (plus my normal/main fandom is hockey and that can be VERY platonic.  i can make it as platonic as it gets).  those are two different ways of being asexual, and they are both valid!  they probably each ring true for many.  from my perspective i prefer the bojack approach because i feel more affirmed by todd’s rep than by jon’s, but that doesn’t make todd more accurate representation.  i guess the moral of the story is, not all ace rep is the same, and don’t get invested in seeing yourself (or the kind of rep you want) in every ace story.  and my solution is to broaden my ace rep rather than only have a few and ultimately not be happy with it.  (also i want to be very clear that the importance of ace rep is something that is built up entirely in my mind.  jonny said they always considered jon to be asexual from s1, way before he was revealed to be in the show.  they were not going for ace rep, they just felt asexuality fit his character best.  it is me (and others like me probably) who came to this story knowing this and placing expectations and stakes onto this character as The One Who Represents Us.  i relate waaaay more to martin (as we all do i’m sure) but because my other options are so! very! limited! when it comes to asexuality i put all my emotions and expectations and self-worth on how this one character could represent my entire experience.  which has nothing to do with the creators of the show, who are just telling the story they want to tell.  so they can’t give “bad ace rep” because there are so many ace stories to tell and it’s not their fault or their problem that options are so limited that we end up building up any character that is ace into the one who represents all ace experiences.  my fault, not theirs, is what i’m saying.)

probably obvious after my word-vomit but cut back on actively seeking out magnus archives fandom/content!!!!  it does not make me feel better about myself.  romantic relationships do NOT make you more worthy.

just generally being more positive and affirming about being aro ace (and being aro in particular!)  it is excellent and there are so many good things about being this way!  i would like to focus on those more for myself :)

holy shit i wrote a lot.  i had a lot of feelings that i wanted to get out.

#i almost want to legit tag this #(with like aro/ace tags) #because i wrote a lot in here about being aspec that i'm really proud of and i think should get more consideration! #but this whole post is a mess and that's not why i wrote it #i did not write it to be consumed by other people :P #i think what i will probably do is take the parts that i think are good points and put them together into a post on my main blog. #also this was basically motivated by tma and idk how much i want to call that out. #like i'm not looking to start discourse in a fandom (which i most definitely will not do anyways) #but i think it's important if you're a fan of a certain piece of media that has certain identities represented #that you respect and have a lot of consideration for that? and that you don't generally choose to ignore our of disdain/ignorance for that #identity #idk apparently there are exclus who are fans of tma? and it's just like...how? #you know the main character who you presumably like is exactly the sort of person you would sneer at right? #even an exclu with the mildest feelings on asexuality (of the 'idc just you are only queer if you're otherwise lgbt also get out of my face' #variety) must feel some discomfort in their views given the fact that they appreciate jon as a person #how do you like and respect jon but still look down on aces????? i don't get it #and the people who ignore jon's ace identity give me similar vibes to that #like jon being ace is an unpleasant truth that they can just ignore their way out of #since deep down they don't respect us and don't find asexuality worthy of consideration #what they want out of this character is his ability to be in a gay relationship #which okay #i have a lot of thoughts and feelings about how feeling nothing when it comes to romance and sex makes me feel like a non-person a lot of th #e time #which makes me feel like just a tool to use a lot of the time #which i might write about later #'oh you need someone to comfort you? i've got no one else in my life and i crave human contact i will drop everything and comfort you' #'oh you need someone to run an errand for you? i am so desperate to keep people in my life because i know most people will not stay in it fo #r me that i will run the errand for you and tell you i don't mind and it's fine and i will really really try hard because i have not yet int #ernalized the fact that being useful to people will not make them want me around any more' #'oh someone might need to take care of mom and dad when they're older? i won't have a family so it will probably be me'

[juditmiltz]

Plotting the future of Miami’s skyline

The Towers by Foster + Partners

With more than four years’ supply of luxury condos for sale, it’s plain to most people in the real estate community that the market does not need any more condo projects. Developers have no choice but to hope their existing projects inch closer to selling out while they toil away on plans designed for a better market in the future. Many are now plotting the next batch of supertall towers to grace Miami’s skyline by hiring top architects and attorneys, surveying industry leaders on their plans and assembling their sales and marketing teams, insiders told The Real Deal. They just have to wait out the cycle’s end before they launch.

In one example, Carlos Ott — a Uruguayan architect who worked on Echo Brickell, Jade Beach and Jade Ocean — has been hired along with Miami-based Sieger Suarez Architects to design a luxury condo tower at 300 Biscayne Boulevard, Property Markets Group (PMG) principal Ryan Shear said.

The skyscraper, designed as a stack of glass cubes, would be the tallest in Miami at 1,049 feet, renderings show. Plans for the property, which the company acquired for $80 million in 2014, include a 94-story condominium with 640 units and a luxury hotel with a wellness-focused spa. 

The project could be ready to launch in as little as two months, according to Shear — but that’s not happening. “We need a good cycle to launch projects like that. The worst thing in my opinion you could do is try to swim upstream,” Shear said, adding that he expects developers to start launching new developments again by 2019 or 2020.

The development is one of many scattered throughout Miami that won’t make it in this real estate cycle, but is poised to change the city’s landscape during the next one.

Another such project is The Towers by Foster + Partners, a pair of connected high rises planned for 1201 Brickell Bay Drive, about a mile south of 300 Biscayne, just over the Brickell Bridge. The developers — Florida East Coast Realty, Corigin Real Estate Group and McCourt Global Properties — met with top brokers last year seeking feedback on the plans, which now call for 660 residential units.

Sources say the waterfront development will be built as condos, but a launch date hasn’t been determined.

The Related Group, too, is expected to relaunch at least two large-scale condo projects in Miami during the next cycle: 444 Brickell Avenue and 1400 Biscayne Boulevard. Both are luxury condos that will be built in three phases. The only certainty regarding a launch date for either project is that now is not the time.

“We are looking for signs. Right now it’s not the right time to launch,” Carlos Rosso, president of the condominium division, said.

Slow sales led the developer to cancel its Auberge Residences & Spa Miami project planned for the site at 1400 Biscayne — shutting down the 290-unit tower’s sales center and returning buyers’ deposits by early 2017 — less than a year after launching. That cancellation in particular was a key indicator that the market had reached a critical point in the cycle, insiders said.

Devil-may-care developers

While some are waiting to start projects two to three years in the future, there are a handful of others fearlessly forging ahead today — though it should be noted that in those cases, ample coffers certainly helped. In March, two new projects launched sales. OKO Group, led by Vlad Doronin, began sales for Una, a 47-story, 135-unit luxury condo tower at 175 Southeast 25th Road, with an architect and sales team in place. The developer, who has the financial backing to move forward, is planning to complete the building by 2021. That’s when some say the next cycle will begin.

Over on Fisher Island, developer Heinrich von Hanau just launched sales for a project he already started building. Palazzo Della Luna, a 10-story, 50-unit building, is expected to open next summer. 

Some of the most high-profile projects where sales and construction are underway may continue to sell and build into the next cycle — a costly move that could pay off if their completions are timed correctly. They include One River Point along the Miami River and the Estates at Acqualina in Sunny Isles Beach.

KAR Properties’ Shahab Karmely launched One River Point, a twin-tower, 60-story, 386-unit luxury condo development connected by a “Sky Club,” in 2015 — at the same time that the Estates at Acqualina launched. Sales have been slow at One River Point, which also faces challenges by having a not-so-concrete timeline. “Our sales are chugging along,” Karmely said. But “they’re not as strong as I would like them to be.”

Jay Parker, CEO of Douglas Elliman Florida, acknowledged that the lack of a timeline is “a very significant concern” among buyers. “People want to know how long it’s going to take. That’s why you see a lot of developers taking a lot of risk,” he added.

Site work at One River Point is now underway, and the developer expects to pour the foundation by the end of 2018. Despite launching later in the cycle, Karmely, too, has deep pockets he can rely on. His silent partner is Daniel Loeb, the billionaire investor who runs Third Point, one of the world’s most prominent activist hedge funds.

“You can only wait so long before you say, ‘Oh, shit. I waited too long.’ In life, you’ve got to jump in and swim,” Karmely said.

Others are making conservative moves aimed at mitigating any potential losses.

Palazzo Della Luna by Heinrich von Hanau

“The best approach a developer could take is [to] look back at history,” said Peter Zalewski, founder of CraneSpotters and Condo Vultures Realty, databases that track the preconstruction condo market and distressed opportunities, respectively. He pointed to the St. Regis Bal Harbour as an example of a profitable slow-and-steady approach. “They built very slowly and were able to deliver right as the market was returning.”

At Brickell City Centre, Swire Properties still has about 150 unsold condos at Reach and Rise and won’t launch sales for phase two until those units are sold.

Nevertheless, Swire is preparing for the second phase, which is slated to be a vertically stacked equivalent of phase one. The development firm also recently announced a partnership with Colombian businessman Carlos Mattos to build a residential project on a site immediately north and west of Brickell City Centre. Development marketers are eager to bid on the new business.

Securing new sites

As a cycle is ending, developers typically focus on looking for land they can develop in the next cycle while getting approvals for plans on the sites they already own. But, given the specifics of today’s market, there are a few flaws in that plan.

Inigo Ardid, co-president of Key International, said land prices are still too high for such moves. “The value of land is how much you can build on it. If the market’s not there, it should get a corresponding discount,” he said. “Right now, it’s not.”

Ardid — whose company recently delivered the 389-unit 1010 Brickell and will soon complete The Harbour, a 425-unit project in North Miami Beach — is looking to buy land, “but it’s going to take a little bit of time for the market to come back. People have to price land correctly,” he said.

PMG recently closed on a site at 400 Biscayne Boulevard, where the developer will build apartments and condos. That deal, a $55 million purchase, was about two years in the making. “Pricing is tough right now,” PMG’s Shear said, adding that there’s a big gap between sellers’ perceptions and the reality of today’s market.

Shear points to a 26,600-square-foot development site at 200 Southwest Eighth Street in Brickell as an example. The corner property recently hit the market for about $19.4 million. It could be built into a 122-unit residential tower or a 244-key hotel, plus retail, according to Alfonso Jaramillo of Fortune International Realty, who is marketing the property. PMG looked at the site, but Shear said it was too expensive.

Prospecting continues nonetheless. Related has a couple of sites it’s eyeing for development, Rosso said, declining to identify where they’re located. Louis Birdman of One Thousand Museum said he and his partners own a site in Broward County that they’re considering for a project, but he did not disclose more information. 

“If I were developing in Miami, I would think long and hard about launching now,” said Elliman’s Parker.

A cloudy ending to the cycle

The end of the cycle isn’t such a terrible place to be today  compared to the crash-and-burn ending in 2008. Some hard-earned lessons from that time ensured that today, fewer buyers have walked away from their units — the 50 percent deposit structure is largely responsible for that — and fewer projects have been canceled.

Inigo Ardid

Shear believes the cycle ended a year ago, when sales slowed dramatically in South Florida. But now, he said, “we’re in a gap period, closer to the next cycle than we are to the end of this cycle.”

He’ll begin closings at Muse Residences in April with more than 80 percent sold. The luxury condo tower in Sunny Isles Beach has about 12 remaining units from a total of 64, he said. But last year, PMG sold only eight units at Muse. Most sold in 2015, when pre-construction condo sales in Miami peaked.

Pricing hit a high in 2016, which certainly didn’t help with sales, brokers said. While developers are hoping 2017 was the worst of it, that’s probably not the case. Once construction is for the most part over, developers will be stuck with unsold inventory and the carrying costs that come with those units. Buyers (including a number of investors) will also try to flip their units, flooding the market with even more inventory, Zalewski said.

“When the last crane comes down, that’s when the game is on because the clock is ticking,” he added. 

Related, which took the number one spot in TRD’s 2017 ranking of top South Florida condo developers, is delivering nine condo buildings this year and another four next year. Most, including Hyde Midtown, SLS Lux and the Paraiso complex in Edgewater, are nearly sold out, the company said.

Timing the market

If developers are getting their next-cycle plans together now, the question is, when should they pounce?

Before a new cycle begins, a few things have to happen. Rents will fall thanks to an oversupply of condos on the rental market. Resale inventory needs to decline — quickly — so that demand and prices will rise. 

“This is a hard market to predict. I don’t think anyone in their right mind thought the market was going to come back as strong as it did as long as it did,” Ardid said.

International Sales Group tracks pre-construction sales of projects east of I-95 in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, and found that of all the new inventory put on the market since 2012, 83 percent has been sold or pre-sold. ISG principal Craig Studnicky is especially optimistic, predicting that most of the remaining inventory will be absorbed this year, giving birth to the next cycle.

However, his prediction seems extremely unlikely, if not impossible — a recent report found that Miami-Dade has four years of existing luxury condo inventory. And a CraneSpotters analysis of new condo sales finds that there’s more than six years’ of supply in downtown Miami. In the county, nearly 2,800 units asking at least $1 million are on the market, according to Condo Vultures Realty. In 2017, 681 luxury units sold in the county, meaning an absorption rate of about 57 units a month, according to the Condo Vultures report. That’s not including the pipeline of new development.

“This is really like what 2011 was. It was pretty obvious we were nearing the end of selling the remaining inventory from the financial crisis of 2008, 2009,” Studnicky said.

KAR Properties’ Karmely doesn’t believe the market will come back as strong as it did at the start of this cycle. “Do I think it’s going to take longer for projects launched in the last two years to sell out? Yes, of course,” he said.

Once the demand is back and developers determine that they can sell new construction at a roughly 35 percent premium, they’ll launch new projects, he said.

Zalewski, who recently joined a private equity firm, Brickell Ventures, which is focused on buying bulk condo deals at discounts, expects the next cycle won’t begin until late 2021 or 2022. 

Everyone — developers, brokers and agents — are still optimistic, hoping the market will turn around, he added.

At the same time, they’re getting their approvals and teams in place to be in the right position “once we get out of the correction,” Zalewski said, referring to projects like Magic City and Design Place in Little Haiti. “They’re in early for the next cycle but way too late for this cycle.”

from The Real Deal Miami https://therealdeal.com/miami/issues_articles/plotting-the-future-of-miamis-skyline/#new_tab via IFTTT

#The Real Deal Miami

[nicolesrollins]

Plotting the future of Miami’s skyline

The Towers by Foster + Partners

With more than four years’ supply of luxury condos for sale, it’s plain to most people in the real estate community that the market does not need any more condo projects. Developers have no choice but to hope their existing projects inch closer to selling out while they toil away on plans designed for a better market in the future. Many are now plotting the next batch of supertall towers to grace Miami’s skyline by hiring top architects and attorneys, surveying industry leaders on their plans and assembling their sales and marketing teams, insiders told The Real Deal. They just have to wait out the cycle’s end before they launch.

In one example, Carlos Ott — a Uruguayan architect who worked on Echo Brickell, Jade Beach and Jade Ocean — has been hired along with Miami-based Sieger Suarez Architects to design a luxury condo tower at 300 Biscayne Boulevard, Property Markets Group (PMG) principal Ryan Shear said.

The skyscraper, designed as a stack of glass cubes, would be the tallest in Miami at 1,049 feet, renderings show. Plans for the property, which the company acquired for $80 million in 2014, include a 94-story condominium with 640 units and a luxury hotel with a wellness-focused spa. 

The project could be ready to launch in as little as two months, according to Shear — but that’s not happening. “We need a good cycle to launch projects like that. The worst thing in my opinion you could do is try to swim upstream,” Shear said, adding that he expects developers to start launching new developments again by 2019 or 2020.

The development is one of many scattered throughout Miami that won’t make it in this real estate cycle, but is poised to change the city’s landscape during the next one.

Another such project is The Towers by Foster + Partners, a pair of connected high rises planned for 1201 Brickell Bay Drive, about a mile south of 300 Biscayne, just over the Brickell Bridge. The developers — Florida East Coast Realty, Corigin Real Estate Group and McCourt Global Properties — met with top brokers last year seeking feedback on the plans, which now call for 660 residential units.

Sources say the waterfront development will be built as condos, but a launch date hasn’t been determined.

The Related Group, too, is expected to relaunch at least two large-scale condo projects in Miami during the next cycle: 444 Brickell Avenue and 1400 Biscayne Boulevard. Both are luxury condos that will be built in three phases. The only certainty regarding a launch date for either project is that now is not the time.

“We are looking for signs. Right now it’s not the right time to launch,” Carlos Rosso, president of the condominium division, said.

Slow sales led the developer to cancel its Auberge Residences & Spa Miami project planned for the site at 1400 Biscayne — shutting down the 290-unit tower’s sales center and returning buyers’ deposits by early 2017 — less than a year after launching. That cancellation in particular was a key indicator that the market had reached a critical point in the cycle, insiders said.

Devil-may-care developers

While some are waiting to start projects two to three years in the future, there are a handful of others fearlessly forging ahead today — though it should be noted that in those cases, ample coffers certainly helped. In March, two new projects launched sales. OKO Group, led by Vlad Doronin, began sales for Una, a 47-story, 135-unit luxury condo tower at 175 Southeast 25th Road, with an architect and sales team in place. The developer, who has the financial backing to move forward, is planning to complete the building by 2021. That’s when some say the next cycle will begin.

Over on Fisher Island, developer Heinrich von Hanau just launched sales for a project he already started building. Palazzo Della Luna, a 10-story, 50-unit building, is expected to open next summer. 

Some of the most high-profile projects where sales and construction are underway may continue to sell and build into the next cycle — a costly move that could pay off if their completions are timed correctly. They include One River Point along the Miami River and the Estates at Acqualina in Sunny Isles Beach.

KAR Properties’ Shahab Karmely launched One River Point, a twin-tower, 60-story, 386-unit luxury condo development connected by a “Sky Club,” in 2015 — at the same time that the Estates at Acqualina launched. Sales have been slow at One River Point, which also faces challenges by having a not-so-concrete timeline. “Our sales are chugging along,” Karmely said. But “they’re not as strong as I would like them to be.”

Jay Parker, CEO of Douglas Elliman Florida, acknowledged that the lack of a timeline is “a very significant concern” among buyers. “People want to know how long it’s going to take. That’s why you see a lot of developers taking a lot of risk,” he added.

Site work at One River Point is now underway, and the developer expects to pour the foundation by the end of 2018. Despite launching later in the cycle, Karmely, too, has deep pockets he can rely on. His silent partner is Daniel Loeb, the billionaire investor who runs Third Point, one of the world’s most prominent activist hedge funds.

“You can only wait so long before you say, ‘Oh, shit. I waited too long.’ In life, you’ve got to jump in and swim,” Karmely said.

Others are making conservative moves aimed at mitigating any potential losses.

Palazzo Della Luna by Heinrich von Hanau

“The best approach a developer could take is [to] look back at history,” said Peter Zalewski, founder of CraneSpotters and Condo Vultures Realty, databases that track the preconstruction condo market and distressed opportunities, respectively. He pointed to the St. Regis Bal Harbour as an example of a profitable slow-and-steady approach. “They built very slowly and were able to deliver right as the market was returning.”

At Brickell City Centre, Swire Properties still has about 150 unsold condos at Reach and Rise and won’t launch sales for phase two until those units are sold.

Nevertheless, Swire is preparing for the second phase, which is slated to be a vertically stacked equivalent of phase one. The development firm also recently announced a partnership with Colombian businessman Carlos Mattos to build a residential project on a site immediately north and west of Brickell City Centre. Development marketers are eager to bid on the new business.

Securing new sites

As a cycle is ending, developers typically focus on looking for land they can develop in the next cycle while getting approvals for plans on the sites they already own. But, given the specifics of today’s market, there are a few flaws in that plan.

Inigo Ardid, co-president of Key International, said land prices are still too high for such moves. “The value of land is how much you can build on it. If the market’s not there, it should get a corresponding discount,” he said. “Right now, it’s not.”

Ardid — whose company recently delivered the 389-unit 1010 Brickell and will soon complete The Harbour, a 425-unit project in North Miami Beach — is looking to buy land, “but it’s going to take a little bit of time for the market to come back. People have to price land correctly,” he said.

PMG recently closed on a site at 400 Biscayne Boulevard, where the developer will build apartments and condos. That deal, a $55 million purchase, was about two years in the making. “Pricing is tough right now,” PMG’s Shear said, adding that there’s a big gap between sellers’ perceptions and the reality of today’s market.

Shear points to a 26,600-square-foot development site at 200 Southwest Eighth Street in Brickell as an example. The corner property recently hit the market for about $19.4 million. It could be built into a 122-unit residential tower or a 244-key hotel, plus retail, according to Alfonso Jaramillo of Fortune International Realty, who is marketing the property. PMG looked at the site, but Shear said it was too expensive.

Prospecting continues nonetheless. Related has a couple of sites it’s eyeing for development, Rosso said, declining to identify where they’re located. Louis Birdman of One Thousand Museum said he and his partners own a site in Broward County that they’re considering for a project, but he did not disclose more information. 

“If I were developing in Miami, I would think long and hard about launching now,” said Elliman’s Parker.

A cloudy ending to the cycle

The end of the cycle isn’t such a terrible place to be today  compared to the crash-and-burn ending in 2008. Some hard-earned lessons from that time ensured that today, fewer buyers have walked away from their units — the 50 percent deposit structure is largely responsible for that — and fewer projects have been canceled.

Inigo Ardid

Shear believes the cycle ended a year ago, when sales slowed dramatically in South Florida. But now, he said, “we’re in a gap period, closer to the next cycle than we are to the end of this cycle.”

He’ll begin closings at Muse Residences in April with more than 80 percent sold. The luxury condo tower in Sunny Isles Beach has about 12 remaining units from a total of 64, he said. But last year, PMG sold only eight units at Muse. Most sold in 2015, when pre-construction condo sales in Miami peaked.

Pricing hit a high in 2016, which certainly didn’t help with sales, brokers said. While developers are hoping 2017 was the worst of it, that’s probably not the case. Once construction is for the most part over, developers will be stuck with unsold inventory and the carrying costs that come with those units. Buyers (including a number of investors) will also try to flip their units, flooding the market with even more inventory, Zalewski said.

“When the last crane comes down, that’s when the game is on because the clock is ticking,” he added. 

Related, which took the number one spot in TRD’s 2017 ranking of top South Florida condo developers, is delivering nine condo buildings this year and another four next year. Most, including Hyde Midtown, SLS Lux and the Paraiso complex in Edgewater, are nearly sold out, the company said.

Timing the market

If developers are getting their next-cycle plans together now, the question is, when should they pounce?

Before a new cycle begins, a few things have to happen. Rents will fall thanks to an oversupply of condos on the rental market. Resale inventory needs to decline — quickly — so that demand and prices will rise. 

“This is a hard market to predict. I don’t think anyone in their right mind thought the market was going to come back as strong as it did as long as it did,” Ardid said.

International Sales Group tracks pre-construction sales of projects east of I-95 in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, and found that of all the new inventory put on the market since 2012, 83 percent has been sold or pre-sold. ISG principal Craig Studnicky is especially optimistic, predicting that most of the remaining inventory will be absorbed this year, giving birth to the next cycle.

However, his prediction seems extremely unlikely, if not impossible — a recent report found that Miami-Dade has four years of existing luxury condo inventory. And a CraneSpotters analysis of new condo sales finds that there’s more than six years’ of supply in downtown Miami. In the county, nearly 2,800 units asking at least $1 million are on the market, according to Condo Vultures Realty. In 2017, 681 luxury units sold in the county, meaning an absorption rate of about 57 units a month, according to the Condo Vultures report. That’s not including the pipeline of new development.

“This is really like what 2011 was. It was pretty obvious we were nearing the end of selling the remaining inventory from the financial crisis of 2008, 2009,” Studnicky said.

KAR Properties’ Karmely doesn’t believe the market will come back as strong as it did at the start of this cycle. “Do I think it’s going to take longer for projects launched in the last two years to sell out? Yes, of course,” he said.

Once the demand is back and developers determine that they can sell new construction at a roughly 35 percent premium, they’ll launch new projects, he said.

Zalewski, who recently joined a private equity firm, Brickell Ventures, which is focused on buying bulk condo deals at discounts, expects the next cycle won’t begin until late 2021 or 2022. 

Everyone — developers, brokers and agents — are still optimistic, hoping the market will turn around, he added.

At the same time, they’re getting their approvals and teams in place to be in the right position “once we get out of the correction,” Zalewski said, referring to projects like Magic City and Design Place in Little Haiti. “They’re in early for the next cycle but way too late for this cycle.”

from The Real Deal Miami & Real Estate News News | & Curbed Miami - All https://therealdeal.com/miami/issues_articles/plotting-the-future-of-miamis-skyline/#new_tab via IFTTT

#The Real Deal Miami & Real Estate News News | & Curbed Miami - All