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bettsfic · 3 years

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hello!! i hope you're doing well~ i'm at the point where i have writing that i'm satisfied with enough to send out to try for publishing, but i'm afraid i have no idea where to start with that process. where does one look for things to get short stories published in? how does one juggle acceptances? or does that not happen? do i always get to keep ownership of my writing? is there anything to expect/look out for? you don't have to touch on all of these! thank you in advance!

congrats on finishing a story! the good news is, you now have a writing sample that is hopefully representative of your best work, and a good writing sample can open a lot of doors for you in terms of workshops, residencies, and potential funding opportunities.

the bad news is, publication is a long-con. expect it to take 2+ years to place your story. of my 3 publications, the timelines were:

“lien” -- written fall 2016, 16 rejections, published spring 2018

“an informed purchase” -- written summer 2017, 5 rejections, published summer 2018 (this was unimaginably fast)

“the ashtray” -- written spring 2017, 17 rejections, published winter 2019

if your story is genre (sci fi, fantasy, horror, etc), i’m afraid expectations are a bit different than what i’m about to tell you. so i’m going to answer your question assuming you’ll be submitting to literary journals/magazines.

the first thing you need to do is read as many short stories as you possibly can that have been published in the past 10 years. here’s how to do that:

pick up the most recent copy of america’s best short stories (this year’s was edited by anthony doerr, one of my favorite writers)

read it and find the stories that are most similar to your work

research the authors who wrote those stories and figure out what journals have published them; read as much of their work as you can

(short story collections will have acknowledgments listing where their stories have appeared. you can also find this info on an author’s website, assuming they have one)

find the journals that have published the authors you like and read their most recent handful of issues

if their aesthetic jives with your work, look into their submission guidelines to see if your story fits with their requirements in terms of word length, etc.

if so, submit! if not, keep them in mind for when you have a story they might want

you can also click through entropy mag’s where to submit round-up

there’s also duotrope, which is a lit mag submission base, but it costs money and that’s shitty of them

note there are thousands of lit mags out there, all of varying quality. you don’t want to waste your time submitting to shitty mags or ones that don’t fit with your work. the more research you do on the front end, the easier it’ll become later

it takes a long time to become familiar with the world of literary publishing. it’s a lot like a fandom in that way. you have to read what’s out there and engage in order to figure out what’s going on.

some general tips about finding places to submit:

don’t pay submission fees. some magazines will ask you to pay $3-$5 to submit. later in your writing career maybe that’ll be a worthwhile thing, but for your first pub i wouldn’t bother. stick with free submissions.

look around on the publication’s website to see if they nominate their writers for the pushcart, best of the net, or pen awards. also see if they promote their writers’ successes elsewhere, like when they get a book deal.

check to see how many followers they have on twitter and/or instagram. figure out what their reach is.

check to see if they’re affiliated with a university. if they are, keep in mind that their editorial staff will rotate every semester or year, and so will their aesthetic interests. find out of it’s run by the english department or if it’s an undergrad journal. if it’s an undergrad journal they may only accept undergrad writing. most of the time journals are run by grad students

if they’re not affiliated with a university, check to see how many issues they’ve published. fewer issues, bigger risk they’re not a journal that will keep afloat and they maybe don’t have their shit together yet. lit mags are like podcasts: everyone wants to start one; very few people make it into anything meaningful. (conversely, the bigger the risk, the bigger the potential reward. a newer mag could skyrocket, and you along with it)

see who else a magazine has published. look for names you recognize. my first publication once published mary ruefle, and i’m fucken feral for mary ruefle. my ego lifted into space after being published somewhere that she had also been published.

lastly, publication is about finding the right fit and forming relationships. a smaller mag that will value you and support you for your entire career, that is thrilled to have your work, is far more important than getting into a bigger mag that has no personal engagement or investment in you. my first publication, the editor sent me a hand-written letter about how much he loved my story. he nominated me for an award. my third publication was similar. the editor based the cover art on my story and also nominated my work for an award.

to answer your other questions: you will never have to juggle acceptances. when you receive an acceptance, you have to withdraw your outstanding submissions. when you publish, you usually sign a publication agreement for what’s called first serial rights, which means that the publication owns the rights to your story for 1 year, after which you can publish your work wherever else you want. most publications don’t accept work that’s been previously published, though.

you will need a cover letter. here is what your cover letter should look like:

Dear [Editor (yes you have to look up the editor’s name)],

Enclosed is my fiction submission, “Story Title.” Thank you for considering it for publication in [Journal]. [put your author bio here. here’s mine, and you can drag and drop your info: I received my MFA from Miami University in Ohio, where I am currently a creative writing and composition instructor. My fiction has appeared in Quarter After Eight, Midwestern Gothic, and Rivet Journal. I am a recipient of the 2018 Jordan-Goodman Prize in Fiction, and I was nominated for the 2019 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers and 2020 Pushcart Prize. My work has been supported by the Sundress Academy for the Arts, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and Hambidge Center residences, as well as the Tin House Workshop and New York State Summer Writers Institute.]

This is a simultaneous submission. I will withdraw the piece immediately if it is accepted elsewhere. I look forward to hearing from you. Best, [Your name]

i don’t know why they say they want a cover letter when 1) nobody reads them, and 2) they don’t actually say anything. i’m assuming it’s just to see that you know how to submit to journals? anyway, unless explicitly asked, don’t talk about your submission at all. the work should speak for itself.

here are some other things:

journals take around 3 to 6 months to reply to you, sometimes upward a year or more. do not follow up with them asking about your submission until it’s far past the window they say they’ll reply, and even then, i don’t recommend it

you will be rejected. repeatedly. i know writers who submit a piece upwards a hundred times before giving up on it. i give up/do major revisions after 20 rejections for a given story

submit in batches of 10 at a time and keep a detailed tracking sheet

the longer you’re waiting to hear back, the further you get in the process. if a journal rejects you after a year, it probably means an editor fought for your story and lost

treat any personal note/correspondence from an editor, even critical, as a gift. editors do not often give their attention. be sure to reply to personal correspondence

if a journal rejects you but welcomes you to submit again, submit a different piece and do it quickly, with a note that says they liked something else you sent them

if you get accepted to a journal that wants you to make major revisions that you don’t want to make, don’t be afraid to pull the piece. i’ve been in this situation twice: once where i refused to make the revisions because i felt they altered the heart of the story, and once where i made them because i could understand where the editor was coming from, even if i didn’t like it as well. that said, usually journals won’t be willing to work with you on a story that needs major edits; they’ll just reject the story, even if they see promise in it

okay that’s all i’ve got. i hope this helps, and happy submitting!

#writing advice #pardon any typos #i wrote this very fast and didn't read through it #hideyseek

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daleisgreat · 4 years

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Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season Five

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-Greetings and thanks for joining me for my semi-annual coverage of marching through Star Trek: The Next Generation. Today I am covering season five (trailer) of the BluRay collection that I continue to ever-so-slowly progress through at one or two episodes a week. I started season five off in February and wrapped it up a couple days ago by watching at this rate. Part of the side effect of that was taking advantage of extended free trials of CBS All Access and binging through all of Picard and the first two seasons of Discovery within two months while keeping up with an episode or two a week of season five of TNG. There happens to be a couple episodes of this season of TNG that play a notable role in Picard, so the timing of it all gelling together was a lucky coincidence. I gave brief recaps of both Picard and Discovery in my annual TV season recap blog that can be found by click or pressing here. I apologize in advance for the questionable-in-quality pics in this entry from my ancient Samsung Galaxy S7 which makes it worth it to grab so many subtitle moments from this season! -The only notable cast change this season is the addition of Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes). She becomes a recurring character this season as someone who is essentially introduced as coming off work release after a court martial and working her way back into Starfleet in the lowest rack of Ensign and serves primarily at the helm of the bridge. Forbes is fantastic as Ro and she has a few landmark episodes this season with my favorite of hers being “The Next Phase” where Ro and Geordi (LeVar Burton) are de-moleculed and appear as ghosts to the rest of the ship who responds by throwing a funeral for them in the form of a Mardi Gras-esque party at Ten Forward. Forbes is absolutely sublime here in Ro’s pining curiosity at how Riker (Jonathon Frakes) will eulogize her.

-This was a big episode for other recurring characters this season too. That is kind of a big deal considering season five is the only season of the series without a Q (John de Lancie) episode. I like how they find new ways to bring back Denise Crosby, who was shown as a mysterious cliffhanger to the end of the two-part arc of “Redemption” that finished off season four. It picks up in a big way with how Denise Crosby’s new character is connected to Tasha, and how the Romulans get involved in the never-ending civil war of the Klingons that eventually has the gratifying conclusion of Worf winning back his honor among Klingons. Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) has her biggest role yet in the series this season in the two-parter “Time’s Arrow” that has the first part wrap-up season five where we discover the origin of Guinan in the 1890s as the Enterprise crew time travels back then and also encounters an antagonistic Mark Twain in an intriguing episode. Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) returns for two episodes this season. One is an oddball episode where all on the Enterprise but Wesley and Ensign Lefler (Ashley Judd) are mind controlled by a mysterious augmented reality game. The other episode is much better as Wesley and a few of his squad mates deliver prepared depositions as they are ruthlessly interrogated on the death of one of their peers. The annual Lwaxana (Majel Barrett) episode is about the expected chore to get through in her continued struggles to find a partner where she sets up an arranged marriage that is doomed from the beginning. Props to Chief O’Brien (Colm Meaney) having a kid this season! -Season five marks the addition of two major personal belongings to one Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). One is the iconic jacket he dons throughout most of the season. I have no idea yet if he wears it in the remaining seasons, but it is a slick jacket and gives him a space cowboy type of vibe to him! I bet it sold boatloads in merchandise! The other item is a special flute that is gifted to him in “The Inner Light” when Picard’s mind engages in a Inception-like lifetime of memories in the span of under a half hour where he experiences an all new culture and life. It is a delight of an episode I appreciate the more I reflect upon it. I later learned in the bonus interviews that this flute melody became a common occurrence at weddings.

-I want to make sure to give kudos to some of my other favorite episodes this season. I loved seeing Spock (Leonard Nimoy) finally make an appearance on TNG. At this point of the show, appearances from the core Original Series crew has been extremely rare and limited, but TNG gets the most out of Nimoy with him playing a major role in another two-part arc where Spock tries to reunite the Romulans back into the Federation of Planets. One of the top episodes this season is “Ethics” where an accident leaves Worf (Michael Dorn) paralyzed and according Klingon ritual must self-sacrifice himself for the greater good. This results in some of the best speeches of the season where Riker and Picard implore Worf to reconsider before Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) impresses with her surprisingly improving doctor skillset to resolve Worf’s paralysis. An episode that initially appears to have a silly premise, but I outright loved by the end is “Darmok.” Picard winds up stuck on an island with an individual of an undiscovered species that only speaks in metaphors. Picard is as baffled as me trying to decipher the metaphors at first, but gradually picks up on it and by the episode’s end forms a kindship with him as the duo team up against a new threat. “I, Borg” is an episode that plays into Picard later on that sees the Enterprise take in an injured Borg and give it the ability to have independent thought again.

A guilty pleasure TV theme of mine in recent years is the time loop episode theme in the form of Groundhog’s Day. Discovery had a terrific rendition of it in its second season. I was thrilled to see TNG do their version of a time loop episode in “Cause and Effect.” It has a banger of an opening that sees that Enterprise exploding and eventually the scenes start to repeat that sees the crew start to recognize their situation and attempt to find a way out of the time loop. I came to discover in the bonus interviews that this episode preceded Groundhog’s Day by nearly two years, and unlike that film and all the TV shows that have pay homage to it over the years, TNG plays it in a serious manner and not as a comedy, but the writing for it is so well done that it works and is pulled off in a way that had me invested until the end! -While there were a fair amount of standout episodes this season, I would be remiss if I were not to go this far and fail to mention there were several clunkers. Some of the ones I recommend skipping is where Riker falls for an androgynous being that has a non-committal ending and the episode plays out totally differently today than it was intended then. Another dud is where them dang Ferangi are up to no good again in failing to kidnap a seductive being that has a strong desire for Picard. The biggest abnormality this season is where according to my notes I surmised the episode as ‘imaginary friend comes to life, blargh!’ Trust me on that being all you need to know on the astutely titled episode, “Imaginary Friend.”

-I want to once again give a shoutout to the podcast, Star Trek: The Next Conversation. Hosts Andrew Secunda and Matt Mira breakdown every episode of TNG and help provide ample background, facts and insight with their analysis of each episode. Because of re-watching TNG and combined with their podcast I have been able to better pickup on countless TNG references in other TV shows and podcasts over these past couple years. Click or press here to give them a listen if you have not already. -There are nearly four and a half hours of extra features that are nicely spread out across all six discs. In addition, there are also four episodes that have commentary from cast and crew with one noteworthy highlight being Orville creator, Seth McFarlane guesting on the commentary for “Cause and Effect.” A lot of the bonus extra are carried over from the original DVDs, but like previous seasons there are a couple of new HD bonuses for the BluRay. Mission Overview deep dives into the production of a couple of my favorite episodes of the season, “Darmok” and Spok’s return in “Unification.” Tribute to Gene Roddenbury has clips of speeches from various Star Trek luminaries at a building dedication to Gene and has fond memories from the cast and crew of Gene. Intergalactic Guest Stars interviews many of the aforementioned recurring characters on why they keep coming back on.

These next two are new HD bonuses for the BluRay. The Music of TNG is an in-depth 75 minute discussion with three composers from the series that I truly appreciated hearing the composers dissect some of the most memorable scores and melodies of TNG history. Finally, Requiem is a two part, hour long look about writing the controversial conflicts that have been touched on throughout the run of TNG, and also has additional tributes and testimonials on Gene Roddenbury. Both are excellent thorough takes on both subject matters, and if you dig bonus features as much as I do, then I highly recommend both of them! -Season five of The Next Generation continues the success of seasons three and four. I would only mark it a notch under those two strong seasons because there seems to be a few weaker episodes this season than in the previous two. I gathered from the bonus interviews that it seemed that this season tried to go all out exploring new conflicts and themes, and sometimes it worked exceptionally well in the cause of “Cause and Effect” but other times it worked against them a few more times than usual this season. Overall though I would still rank this in the upper tier of TNG season and hope to see the final two season keep up this high bar of quality.

Past TV/Web Series Blogs 2013-14 TV Season Recap 2014-15 TV Season Recap 2015-16 TV Season Recap 2016-17 TV Season Recap 2017-18 TV Season Recap 2018-19 TV Season Recap 2019-20 TV Season Recap Adventures of Briscoe County Jr: The Complete Series Baseball: A Ken Burns series Angry Videogame Nerd Home Video Collections Cobra Kai – Seasons 1-2 Mortal Kombat: Legacy - Season 1 | Season 2 OJ: Made in America: 30 for 30 RedvsBlue - Seasons 1-13 Roseanne – Seasons 1-9 Seinfeld - Final Season Star Trek: Next Generation – Seasons 1-7 Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle Superheroes: Pioneers of Television The Vietnam War: A Ken Burns series X-Men – The Animated Series: Volumes 4-5

#star trek #star trek the next generation #Patrick Stewart #jonathan frakes #gates mcfadden #Marina Sirtis #levar burton #Wil Wheaton #Leonard Nimoy #whoopi goldberg #Michael Dorn #Ashley Judd

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hockeylvr59 · 5 years

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Life Changes Part 2 || Paul Bissonnette

Summary: It’s crazy how quickly your life can change...one minute you’re a struggling personal injury lawyer and the next you’re working for one of the hottest sports podcasts to supplement your income. A new job and the end of a long term relationship was just the beginning for Leigh Thompson when it comes to life changes. Thankfully she has the one and only Paul Bissonnette at her side to help her handle them all.

Authors Note: Part 2 of my Biz rewrite. Goodbye Boston...hello ? (well you know if you’ve already read the original part three but if not I won’t spoil it.)

Requested: [ ] yes [x] no Warnings: language, infidelity Word Count: 2070

_____________________________________________________________

“Change the changeable, accept the unchangeable, and remove yourself from the unacceptable.”

With our sponsorship meeting scheduled for eleven, I was up with my alarm at precisely eight am. After pulling myself out of bed, I quickly threw on sweats and a sweatshirt to head down to the lobby for breakfast. I really didn’t expect to see any of the guys until it was time to head across town to the sponsor’s office. After my travel yesterday and night out, it was relaxing to just curl up in a chair with a muffin and some orange juice to watch the news on the tv. Slowly I pulled myself from the lingering remnants of sleep and shook off the desire to crawl back into bed.

Despite being a lawyer, I hated dressing in suits and the fact that they weren’t required for day to day in law school had been a godsend. Today though it was a necessity, so after applying a light coat of natural makeup and pulling my hair into a messy bun, I slipped into a pair of dress slacks and a light floral blouse. Checking the clock, I made note that I needed to leave in about fifteen minutes so after making sure I had all of the materials I’d prepared for the meeting, I slipped my suit jacket and winter coat on before quickly slipping my feet into heels. Though I hated them, sadly they were almost a necessity and expected when it came to business.

Balancing the padfolio full of material and my purse in my arms, I quickly moved to the elevator, praying that I wouldn’t fall over or trip in the heels. Half the group was in the lobby when I arrived this time, laughing and talking about what had happened after I’d left the night before. We exchanged ‘good mornings’ and once everyone was there a few minutes later we hailed a cab to the office building of the new potential sponsor.

Upon our arrival, we were given a quick tour before being escorted up to the conference room for the meeting. The first hour of meetings went by quickly and we were close to wrapping things up to the point that the lawyer for the podcast would have to just look them over and that would be it. A phone call with the VP we were meeting with delayed matters and so given the break I excused myself to the bathroom.

On my way back to the conference room I could hear Whit and Biz talking with someone, their voices carrying down the hall. The moment I heard the third voice I froze, stepping back into the wall before peeking around the corner. Hearing my ex’s voice made my skin crawl and I honestly wanted to just disappear back into the bathroom. I had forgotten he worked for this company and was frequently in the Boston office. I knew I shouldn’t be eavesdropping but when I tried to turn away, my body wouldn’t move. There was also a part of me that was glutton for punishment and needed to know what they were talking about. Either way, I certainly wasn’t going to continue in that direction and have to encounter the man who had broken my heart. I wasn’t sure I was strong enough for that.

“Yeah, yeah I’m a huge fan of the podcast, you guys are great.”

Hearing those words leave his mouth disgusted me, but also made me want to laugh out loud because he had no idea who they were. I was the fan and he had only listened because he’d been in the car with me. It was just the kind of thing I’d expect from him though, always trying to make himself fit in even if it required lying.

Distracted by my thoughts about his many unattractive qualities, I’d missed a fourth male approaching the group but my ears certainly caught the mention of the word ‘wife.’

“Oh yeah, she’s great. Still can’t believe I’m finally married.” Glancing around the corner once more I saw my ex clap the unknown man on the back before turning back to Whit and Biz. “Got married last week after three years of being together. Guess it was about time huh?”

As his words processed in my brain I felt like I wanted to hurl. He was married and had been with another woman the entire time he’d been with you? It took everything in me to push the tears back for the moment knowing I needed to get back to the meeting and that arriving with smudged makeup would probably not look very professional. Glancing down the hallway I remembered that the office was basically a square and that I could get back to the conference room by going the other way.

The entire rest of the meeting was a blur. Though I tried to keep my mind focused, I couldn’t help the feeling of betrayal that kept pushing itself toward the front of my mind. Whits and Biz never returned but it wasn’t a big deal at this point anyway. Gathering up the final version of the sponsorship contract, I finished shaking hands with the company’s executives and then quickly made my way to the emergency stairs, flying down all fifteen floors before bursting through the lobby and out to the side of the building where I finally let the tears flood forward.

I’d been back outside for maybe fifteen minutes before my phone started ringing in my purse. Ignoring it first once and then twice, I tried to pull myself together to no avail. When I finally wrapped my shaking fingers around it and pulled it out of my purse there were texts wondering where I’d disappeared to because I wasn’t in the conference room when the guys had returned.

Still struggling to breathe I simply texted back that I was outside, if there were typos, that was just too bad, before leaning back against the wall, again struggling to try and find composure. I didn’t really care what I looked like to anyone passing by, or that my makeup was a mess because none of that compared to the dirty, used feeling that came with finding out I was the other woman. That someone else had been intimate with him when he was intimate with me.

It felt like forever before the familiar voices approached and within moments of hearing them, I was being pulled into a solid chest, strong arms wrapping around my back.

“Shh….” Sounds of comfort filled my ears, as a hand rubbed my back, only pulling away when my breathing had steadied. Glancing up embarrassed, my eyes met the warm brown set belonging to Paul Bissonnette. “Leigh…what happened?”

I knew that I owed them an explanation but even thinking about saying the words made me wobble on my heels.

“Later…can…can we get out of here?” I found myself pleading, voice moist and cracking trying to get any sounds to come out at all. Confused, concerned, and completely unaware of how to handle this, the guys simply just nodded after a moment, calling an uber to take us back to the hotel. When we got there they let me head back to my room but declared that they were going to bring lunch back.

A knock on my hotel door sounded their arrival and I quickly finished wiping my smudged makeup off my face before opening the door and letting them in. Now changed back into sweats I felt more like myself but changing my clothes couldn’t change the fact that my entire life felt like a lie now. The smell of pizza filled the air as the four men made themselves comfortable on the chairs around the table and the unoccupied bed beside my own.

No one said a word at first, instead shoving pizza into their mouths. I was hungry but my mind refused to let me eat right now.

“I’m sorry…” I whispered, blinking back another round of tears. Grinnell, the youngest of the group, was, of course, the first to open his mouth.

“What the hell happened back there? When we stepped out of the room the sponsorship negotiations were going fine.”

A strangled chuckle escaped my throat at his words and I sighed softly.

“Me crying…has absolutely nothing to do with the sponsorship. The meeting was fine, the lawyer just needs to look the final version of the contract over.” That statement caused even more confused looks as they all wracked their brains trying to figure out what could possibly have upset you so much. Sinking into the mattress of the hotel bed as far as I could, I pulled my knees to my chest. I really just wanted to be left alone but I was fairly certain these guys wouldn’t leave my room until they had answers.

“That guy you were talking to in the hallway…” I trailed off waiting for acknowledgment from Whits and Biz. “That…He’s the ex.” Swallowing hard, I waited in hopes that they would put the pieces together so that I didn’t have to spell it out.

“Motherfucker.” The curse that spilled from Whits lips clearly signaled that at least he had gotten the point and when he stood up and started pacing I tugged my bottom lip between my teeth after murmuring a soft ‘yeah.’

Silence followed and when I looked up again Biz was red, stewing in anger having put it all together in his head as well. RA and Grinnell just looked confused and I sent a pleading look to Ryan to explain it to them.

“The fucker that dumped her because he ‘found someone else’ just two weeks ago comes up to us today declaring that he’s a big fan and during the conversation, one of his coworkers comes to congratulate him on the wedding. That asshole has been seeing his now wife for three years prior to them getting married last week. Shit Leigh. He’s a fucking asshole and moron.”

Hearing that he was an idiot and that I deserved better helped in a way but it didn’t take away the ache knowing that I’d been the other woman for eight months and that he’d dumped me either because he thought he’d get caught or his real girlfriend was pushing for marriage and he finally felt guilty. The knowledge that every time he had a business trip or couldn’t come see me was because he was likely with his actual girlfriend made my skin crawl and suddenly I was crying uncontrollably again.

Seeing me cry made Biz jump to his feet, still fuming.

“I’m gonna go down there and kick his ass.” Gasping, I quickly climbed off the bed to stand in front of him, my hand falling to his forearm as it flexed, his hand clenching into a fist.

“No…please just let it be…all of you. I…I don’t want him to know I know. Please, please promise you won’t go back there.” Biz’s arm twitched under my touch as he dropped the fist and I heard him sigh as he pulled me into a hug.

“Alright. I’ll let it be. But if you change your mind let me know.” Murmuring a thank you, I attempted to force a smile onto my face.

“Good. Now if all of you could get out I’d appreciate it. I’d like to be alone for a bit.”

In turn, each hugged me, insisting that I text them if I needed anything, before leaving me alone in the hotel room. As the door clicked shut I crawled back into bed, tugging the covers over myself so that I could cry myself to sleep.

Around 8 that night, a knock had come at my door before disappearing, quickly followed by a text from Biz that he’d left me a pint of ice cream and to please not let it melt all over the hallway floor.

Other than that small gesture in which I didn’t even see Biz, I kept to myself in a state of mourning, not seeing any of the boys before flying back out of Boston.

I wasn’t close to accepting what had happened or forgiving my jerk of an ex anytime in this lifetime, but thankfully I could at least remove myself from the city which broke my heart in two all over again, tearing open the freshly healed scars.

Sponsorship meeting outfit:

No social media updates for this chapter.

#paul bissonnette #paul bissonnette imagine #Arizona coyotes #arizona coyotes imagine #former player #nhl imagine #nhl imagines #hockey imagine #hockey imagines #014.1

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garden-ghoul · 4 years

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Overground is back, baby! Me and @deathofthetext begin our work on the Evil City, a city what eats people, in this thrilling 52-minute episode! You’re here for cities layered like projector transparencies, rambling stories about transit infrastructure in the northeast, and extremely bad bridge design. Transcript below the cut.

GHOUL: This is… Overground, technically episode 4 but… we’re doing a different city this time.

VERA: So it’s really not Overground any more.

GHOUL: Well, but, Overground is a super good name for a podcast though.

VERA: That’s true. Well, it’s still Overground then.

BOTH: Welcome! To the Evil City!

[Theme plays: ‘Bolt Cutter’ by Doomtree]

GHOUL: Before we start we should probably go over what our sort of… design…?

VERA: Concept…?

GHOUL: Our design concept?

VERA: Our evil city concept that we already have because of the plot of a different thing? Um, so the concepts we have for the evil city…

GHOUL: First of all it’s evil, it eats people.

VERA: It’s evil. It eats people.

GHOUL: We, we are very inspired by I Am In Eskew, which is a podcast about an evil city that eats people. Um. And Vera has only listened to only like half of it, so I keep being like ‘Oh this reminds me of this one episode of Eskew that you haven’t listened to yet, let me spoil it for you!’

VERA: [laughing] That does keep happening,

GHOUL: and Vera’s a very good sport about it.

VERA: Right, we’re also inspired by being from cities and having lived in cities.

GHOUL: Right. I’m from Boston.

VERA: I’m from Newark.

GHOUL: And those… those are both somewhat evil cities.

VERA: Yeah… I’m from next to New York also. Y’know, growing up next to New York City is also like, that’s a whole different flavor of city what’s evil and eats people. [wicked chuckle]

GHOUL: All right, what else do we know about the evil city?

VERA: Ummm… It’s got a lot of cities in it, one of them is a ghost city, one of them is a business city?

GHOUL: Right, so, the concept is that—this is also from I Am In Eskew, kind of—the concept is that there are these parallel cities within the city that like, depending on your social and economic status, the city will have a different physical conformation, so, if you’re rich there’s some places you just can’t go. There’s just like, places that rich people can’t see. That’s how the world is. And we’re just kind of, codifying it and making it official and slightly more real than in reality.

VERA: Right. It’s physical reality in addition to a social reality.

GHOUL: Yeah. And we had this concept that… each of these cities within this city would have some unique subway stations that you cannot get there from any of the other cities. I think the main other thing is sort of a, like a tone and climate thing, which is that basically it acts as if it were somewhere in the Northeast because that’s where we’re from.

VERA: Mhm. Oh, also probably should at least mention that, saying that it’s got rich people is… well, we’ve said that.

GHOUL: Every city has rich people.

VERA: Yes, every city has rich people. I just think that the Meadowsweet Manor… mansion on the hill or on the cliff overlooking it is kind of… I don’t know, I feel like that’s an image that is in…

GHOUL: Right, because then it has to have hills or cliffs surrounding it. Or at least on one side. Which leads me to the thing I was wondering about, which is what are some major geographical features of this city?

VERA: Right.

GHOUL: I’m That Guy so I want it to be a port town.

VERA: Right… I mean… I also was like… I mean it’s… well, not that I’ve thought about the geography on purpose, but also… are we…

GHOUL: It’s a port…

VERA: Are we not going to make it a port? It’s got a river… We never said it had a river, which is…

GHOUL: We were just imagining it had a river, which it does.

VERA: Right! [goofy laugh]

GHOUL: Okay. So I’m going to draw the coast… [referring to the river] Should there be like, little islandy stuff going on?

VERA: Yeeeessss.

GHOUL: Some bullshit minor tributaries… And YOU start thinking about the first subway line… and so as we’re thinking about where the first subway line goes, we have to think about what this means about the structure of the city.

VERA: Yeeeeesss. I do think we should think about where Meadowsweet Hill is also.

GHOUL: Yeah, sure. Why don’t we mark some other geographical features in pencil?

VERA: Yeaaaaahhh.

GHOUL: Did you have any thoughts on where Meadowsweet Hill is?

VERA: Uuuuummmmm.

GHOUL: Not that it’s called that.

VERA: I dunno, I think it probably has… eugh, it probably has a fucking view of the ocean.

GHOUL: Oh, suuuure, we gonna have some beautiful oceanside cliffs? Like the port obviously is not cliffy.

VERA: The Jersey side of the Hudson is just the Palisades.

GHOUL: I don’t know what that means. I will look them up though. [Looks them up] OH SHIT. These Palisades are goooood.

VERA: Right?

GHOUL: It’s a pity that we can’t just name a geographical feature ‘The Palisades,’ because that would be showing our ass a little too much.

VERA: [heh] I mean this conversation is already… are we not?

GHOUL: But we CAN…

VERA: Also… I’m not completely sure what Palisades means and it might just be a word that means…

GHOUL: [reading off Wikipedia] ‘Sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, it’s typically a fence or defensive wall made from iron or wooden stakes.’ So not just any wall, but a wall made of stakes. And the Jersey Palisades are called that because they look like they’re made of stakes. Good old columnar basalt. Yes! We were going to draw some… ARE we going to name them The Palisades?

VERA: Well, I mean I suppose we’re writing in pencil, we can name them whatever we want.

GHOUL: Well I was just going to draw them and then we’d know they’re called the Palisades and that’s gonna be the name of the neighborhood.

VERA: Oh, sure, okay, that also works.

GHOUL: Do you want to d—‘cause I’m assuming that actually at the port part they’re not palisades? So are they up or down the coast? Or both?

VERA: I like them up the coast I think.

GHOUL: Excellent.

VERA: [mhmhmhmhm]

GHOUL: All right. So probably there’s a neighborhood of rich people on the Palisades. ‘Cause they like to be tall.

VERA: [HEHEHE]

GHOUL: Rich people are like cats, they like to be tall. Also they are bastards but only to those weaker than them.

VERA: [softly, but with feeling] Christ.

GHOUL: My cat metaphor’s doing pretty good. Okay. First! Subway! Line! Let’s go! [uncaps pen dramatically] [chanting] Bridge across the river! Bridge across the river!

VERA: Oh, you’re so right.

GHOUL: Charles MGH! There’s a stop—there’s a T stop ON the bridge over the river.

VERA: Oh, that rules.

GHOUL: It rules. Uh… yeah, so, I think the first thing we usually do when we make a new subway line is name the termini.

VERA: Rrrright. That or we’re like ‘oh no we can’t name these termini yet, we need to make one more subway line, and then we’ll have at least one transfer stop and then we can name the termini.

GHOUL: [falsetto fainting lady voice] Oh! Transfer stop! …What’s the evillest eating-peopl-est part of this city?

VERA: Oooo.

GHOUL: I want to place that and give it just a really horrible stop name.

VERA: Oh, you’re right, you’re so right. Hmm. I think I would like it to be…

GHOUL: In the armpit of the river. [sees where Vera is pointing] Interesting, very close to downtown.

VERA: Oh, you’re right, that’s very close to downtown.

GHOUL: I feel like it needs to be a little ways out from downtown where there used to be a ton of mills and manufacturing facilities that would use the river to cool their machinery and whatnot.

VERA: Yesssss.

GHOUL: So I’m proposing over here. [south of the river, just west of the island]

VERA: Oh that… yeeeess.

GHOUL: So just put a stop there and we can put a line through it later if we figure out where the line goes. But that stop is just going to be the naaaastiest Undercity-only subway stop. Also, are we doing a thing like Ghost Line where some of the stations are just nicknamed by… ‘cause if the only people who can get on at that station are people from the Undercity or the Ghost City, then like… it’s gonna have a weird name.

VERA: Right. [tsk] Oh I just started thinking about the concept of subway stations that just have to manifest themselves because they’re in a city where transit workers don’t manage to get to.

GHOUL: Aaaaah. I mean, transit workers are pretty low on the city hierarchy but I think in the Ghost City… stations might have to manifest themselves.

VERA: Right.

GHOUL: I don’t know what physical locations there are in the Ghost City that aren’t in the Undercity?

VERA: Right…

GHOUL: It might be… like places that used to be important and are no longer important enough for a subway station? So it’s like, no actual transit workers would build a subway station here, obviously, but in the Ghost City you do need them.

VERA: Yeaaah. Yeah. Right. And I guess the flip side of that would kind of be… stations that used to be subway stations but now a commuter train wouldn’t go there—an actual subway train that wasn’t just for ghosts wouldn’t go there.

GHOUL: Right. Right.

VERA: Just thinking about Orion’s place.

GHOUL: Do ghost trains stop at Orion’s place?

VERA: I feel like ghost trains might.

GHOUL: Ghost trains might… Gentle listeners, Orion is a character who lives in a subway station in the Undercity or possibly in the Ghost City. Yeah, I think ghost trains do come through Orion’s place, probably not that often.

VERA: Right.

GHOUL: Otherwise you would not want to live there.

VERA: I think we should try to come up with other qualities of the place…

GHOUL: One thing that we said, I think it’s probably in your Keening Lake notes, one thing that we said was that it would be great if a lot of the stations and a lot of the streets are just numbers? But numbers that are terrible?

VERA: Oh yeahhh. Thanks to Lee. Shoutout to our friend who… commutes in New York City. [starts laughing]

GHOUL: For saying that we should have numbers and it should be terrible. I do think that’s terrible of New York City to do.

VERA: Yeahhh.

GHOUL: To just be numbered. Where’s the… where’ the creativity? Where’s the life?

VERA: Yeah… on the other hand, the… I’m not sure that’s exactly what we want to go for in our podcast where we talk about interesting subway stop names? So… there’s a bit of a conundrum.

GHOUL: Can there just be one neighborhood where all the streets are numbered instead of named, but it just didn’t catch on in the rest of the city?

VERA: [pf!] I think that’s very funny. Sure.

GHOUL: It’s like one of the sort of new neighborhoods, but it was new one or two hundred years ago?

VERA: Yeah! Yeah, they were like, ‘we’re going to be very forward-thinking and put it on a GRID and have NUMBERS and it’s going to be SO navigable’ and then everyone else was like ‘I mean, you do you, but… I like the cow paths.’

GHOUL: [wheezy laughter] Thi—was this city designed by cows? We gotta pin this down now, this is important.

VERA: Ohhh. I mean you’re the one who has a lot of experience with cities… from cows… how evil are they?

GHOUL: The thing about Boston is that any individual road is not that bad, but any time roads intersect it’s very extremely bad, especially because it’s usually not just two roads intersecting, it’s three to five roads intersecting.

VERA: Mmm.

GHOUL: [disbelieving laughter] And they don’t intersect at right angles! You have, like, okay. In fact none of the roads go straight through the intersection. I’m thinking of the one in Davis Square, which is a fucking nightmare. So there’s a road that comes in from the east and then it kinda turns that way, so it’s almost going through straight, and then there’s another one that almost goes through straight. And there’s another one coming from over here and I think there might be another one going that way? But there’s, in the middle of the intersection there’s a triangle park, so you have to make your way around the park. And I think all the intersections in this city should be like that.

VERA: Yeah. Not that that’s any of our concern really, but, yes.

GHOUL: Well, I think definitely some of the subway stations could be named after really terrible intersections.

VERA: Yeah, yeah, no, yeah. Yeah, the thing about roads that are like that is that they’re fine as long as you don’t have cars on them.

GHOUL: [guffaws] Every road is fine as long as you don’t have cars on it. That’s a quality of cars, not roads.

VERA: Yeah. Cars.

GHOUL: Not even once.

VERA: Just stop that.

GHOUL: Now this evil city, it’s evil, so it has a lot of cars in it.

VERA: It doooooes. It does.

GHOUL: Looking at you, California. SMH.

VERA: Stop. I mean.

GHOUL: [despairingly] Vera, we have not named a single subway station.

VERA: [likewise despairingly] We haven’t. [laughs] Oh my G-d it’s been so long… and this is the only the second recording… [deep sigh] Okay. How about we do that then. I know, what a great suggestion from ME.

GHOUL: What a great suggestion! If only someone had suggested had suggested that earlier! If only SOMEONE hadn’t been like ‘Ohhhh orrrrr we could just hold off on naming them until we have more of them…’ Are you sure you don’t want to draw another subway line first??

VERA: I’m NOT sure, thank you very much. [HEHEHEHEHE]

GHOUL: Name. A subway station.

VERA: [sigh] Okay. Okay, so that’s downtown.

GHOUL: Yeah, what stuff is in downtown? Hm.. What’s your favorite thing that’s in downtown Newark that sucks?

VERA: Ohhhh. Um.

GHOUL: [whispering] That’s the secret, gentle listener. [Vera starts to cackle] Talk to Vera about Newark. Works every time.

VERA: I mean there is City Hall though. I think it would be kind of funny if the stop was right next to City Hall but it was actually named for the horrible little court building behind City Hall.

GHOUL: Ooh, what does the horrible little court building look like.

VERA: It’s a square. It’s… one square and another little kind of rectangle thing but it’s only half a rectangle and it’s the diagonal half. And that’s sticking out of it at some point.

GHOUL: Like a cartoon of a factory! Like a factory clip art you find on Google Images!

VERA: Oh. No. The rectangle isn’t sticking out upways.

GHOUL: So it’s like a flying buttress?

VERA: WHAT? No, like… [starts drawing]

GHOUL: ! It’s as if there was another building intersecting with this building!

VERA: Yes! Exactly!

GHOUL: Intersection. The station is just called Intersection. But it’s not because of a road intersection, which you can find at any subway stop. It’s because of these intersecting buildings that have been built through each other.

VERA: [laughing] Oh that’s very Evil City of it. Municipal Intersection?

GHOUL: [wheezing softly] Municipal Intersection.

VERA: Municipal Intersection!

GHOUL: This is the evillest name for a subway station I’ve ever heard!

VERA: Right!

GHOUL: All right. Where shall we put it?

VERA: Um. Hmmm.

GHOUL: It’s downtown, so this area. [just south of the river mouth] Do we want to make it this transfer station here since we’ve already drawn it?

VERA: Sure, yeah.

GHOUL: I’m going to think a little bit about the history of downtown.

VERA: [softly] Ohhh.

GHOUL: I’m trying to think where all the docks are, because, you know me.

VERA: Rrright.

GHOUL: I assume it’s right around here at the mouth of the river. Or is it literally in the river? And the docks are in this section? ‘Cause that seems like it might interfere with river traffic. Yeah, I think… so the docks are not near the Palisades.

VERA: Oh, NO. No, no, no, no.

GHOUL: Whatever’s near the Palisades it’s probably like… [resigned] beautiful. …So the docks are over here. [in the bay just south of the river mouth] It’s weird that we don’t yet have a subway thing that actually goes by the docks. Like if you want to get to the waterfront at the harbor… we really should just move it closer to the coast.

VERA: I mean, here’s the thing. The city. Sucks.

GHOUL: Mmm. All right. Sure. That’s fair. You just have to walk eight blocks if you want to get to the coast from the nearest subway station.

VERA: Right. Or, you know, there might be a really stupid line that goes up through—like that, [crossing the river north] or something.

GHOUL: A stupid line… I do like a stupid line.

VERA: I know.

GHOUL: But if you want to get north of the river…

VERA: [incoherent]

GHOUL: It’s not for walkable. It’s for rich people.

VERA: Right. You’re supposed to get chauffeured there. Obviously.

GHOUL: I’m going to go ahead and put another line through Municipal Intersection, so that it can be the worst transfer station imaginable. Can you remember how many lines go through Grand Central, or another one of those…

VERA: What I went through more was Penn Station New York. And the thing about Penn Station New York is that both the blue lines (A, C, E) and the red lines (1, 2, 3? I believe)…

GHOUL: Fuck New York City.

VERA: Yeah, it’s really like that.

GHOUL: Shall we just cross the river twice, or does it…

VERA: Yeah! Why not? Because that’s terrible?

GHOUL: It is terrible.

VERA: [with quiet yet satisfied menace] Exactly.

GHOUL: I feel like the subway lines are at least to some degree still dictated by where actual stuff is.

VERA: Yes. But, you know, in a terrible way.

GHOUL: In a terrible way. Also it just has this terrible little dogleg to really get into the armpit of the river.

VERA: Mhm. Mhm.

GHOUL: [laughing] So it does this weird little diversion to go through the Municipal Intersection station.

VERA: Uh-huh. Oh, the thing I was saying about Penn Station is that, if I recall correctly, Penn Station is under the entire block from 7th to 8th Avenues and the 7th Avenue trains (the 1, 2, 3) and the 8th Avenue trains (the A, C, E), you cannot actually… they are not in the same subway stop. So if you want to transfer from one to the other, you have to pay again. So yeah, they both go through Penn Station but they are not actually ‘connected as part of the subway system.’

GHOUL: We gotta have some shit like that.

VERA: Oh, we will.

GHOUL: That’s Municipal Intersection. If you… Municipal Intersection is a huge stop, there’s a lot of different trains that go through there, and if you want to transfer from one of these north-south lines to this east-west line, you’re going to have to pay another fare.

VERA: So!

GHOUL: Oh, I actually get to name a subway station now.

VERA: Oh, wait, I actually had another thing I wanted to share, about horrible labyrinthine subway stations in New York City. I think it’s important that you know that the 42nd Street Port Authority bus terminal that is also a subway stop has a dedicated shuttle to Grand Central Station, which is also on 42nd Street, so they just go back and forth and they just have them so often.

GHOUL: That’s real bad, thank you.

VERA: Mhm. It is a subway shuttle.

GHOUL: It’s only for that.

VERA: It’s only for that. It’s a subway line that just goes between those two stops. Back and forth. Forever. And also the cars on it don’t have seats. So yeah. I just wanted to share that with you. Which is actually kind of the exact opposite energy from Penn Station where there’s two stops and they’re not part…

GHOUL: Right, it’s the same physical location but you have to pay again, as opposed to…

VERA: There’s different physical locations but you can go to any of the trains on them and they’re all part of the same subway stop, really, if you think about it.

GHOUL: …Streets.

VERA: You name them after, well, people, sure. Although if you name them after a person you don’t have to name them after their name. People, events, locations.

GHOUL: Geographical features.

VERA: Mhm.

GHOUL: It’s going to be a cop-out but I’m going to name this station Wharf Street.

VERA: That’s fine.

GHOUL: [hah] Also the distribution of subway lines is really something right now. There’s a small area of downtown that has very very stupidly dense subway stations, and then everything else is like, oh yeah, if you want a subway station you’re going to have to walk six miles.

VERA: [hmhmhmhmhm!] Mhm.

GHOUL: Which is very evil of them I think.

VERA: [lovingly] Yeahh. We’re just going to put a lot more subway lines I feel like.

GHOUL: Obviously—obviously. …It’s your turn to name a station.

VERA: So it. Is. Hm. Huh. Well there’s a 9 already by this subway stop over here. [in the top left corner of the page]

GHOUL: That’s fun.

VERA: Because of the qualities of this paper having a 9 on it and nothing else. [ghoul starts chuckling]

GHOUL: I thought it was blank paper, in my defense.

VERA: No, yeah, it looks very blank except for the 9. And the 9 is very small.

GHOUL: It is completely blank except for the 9.

VERA: Yeah.

GHOUL: Is that going to be like 900th Street, or is it going to be some bullshit thing.

VERA: Ummm. The thing my brain keeps producing is ‘9th Crossing.’

GHOUL: That’s great, because it’s not on the river.

VERA: 9th Crossing Boulevard? …No. That’s just too stupid.

GHOUL: Even if it were on a road called 9th Crossing Boulevard I think it would still just be called 9th Crossing Station.

VERA: You’re right.

GHOUL: Go ahead and name that. …Well, I’m going to take the easy way out again and name Palisades. But I can also do another one ‘cause I feel kind of bad leaving you with all the actually creative work.

VERA: Mhm.

GHOUL: I just don’t know what’s in this… You know what? We’re going to have to figure out what is in this city.

VERA: Right.

GHOUL: I feel like in this evil city there’s way too many bridges.

VERA: Well there’s at least crossings, and then there can just be other bridges too.

GHOUL: This is not named aft—oh, maybe 9th Crossing Boulevard actually does cross the river.

VERA: Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.

GHOUL: You did not verbalize that.

VERA: Ohhhh. I didn’t.

GHOUL: All right. And then I’m going to have a bridge over here. [second bridge from the river mouth]

VERA: Yeeees.

GHOUL: Even though it could cross on this bridge, [north of Municipal Intersection] but it doesn’t.

VERA: Yeeeeeeeessss.

GHOUL: Aaaand. I’m just going to kind of extend the line [west] out into this… what’s in this neighborhood? So this is the neighborhood that’s like industrial hellscape.

VERA: [takes a deep breath of fresh dewy morning air] Aaahh. Love it.

GHOUL: From the early 1900s.

VERA: Oh yes. Oh yes. Ah man, I really regret that my phone was at 3% battery when I was taking the PATH train—Port Authority Trans-Hudson!—World Trade Center Station into New Jersey into Newark. ‘Cause. Factories.

GHOUL: I can name some stuff after some factori—oh wait, we were talking about this neighborhood. But I can still name some stuff after some factories. I want like an old factory from… like you know how factories used to have better names? Like evil in a totally different way?

VERA: Mhm. Mhm. Right, the think I started thinking was ‘Like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory! What an evil factory that was!’

GHOUL: It was a very evil… why was it called Triangle? [looks it up] …Okay, Triangle Waist Company. It was just called Triangle for reasons.

VERA: Right.

GHOUL: I was going to say Clagg and Starling.

VERA: Ooh.

GHOUL: What do Clagg and Starling make? I was contemplating heavy industry such as automotive manufacture, huge textile mills…

VERA: I was thinking about specifically chemical manufacturing, which is just a really really horrible thing to do in the middle of the city.

GHOUL: Oh it’s very evil! Also there’s probably a lot of good history about river pollution.

VERA: [beatifically] Oh yes. I love good history ‘bout river pollution. Oh! I think it would be fun if one of the ghost station stops—or just if somewhere in the Ghost City the river is still burning.

GHOUL: Yeeeees. YEEEEESSS. Is it called Burning River Station? ‘Cause that would own and it’s in the Ghost City and they can name it whatever they want. …Where do you want to put it?

VERA: Hmmm. Probably not too close to the mouth. Also at some point we should name the river.

GHOUL: Oh, we will. Not to close to the mouth but it does have to be downstream of here where all the… well, there could be chemical manufacturing plants over here too.

VERA: Yeah.

GHOUL: If there was one right here [in the large loop of the river] it could maximally pollute right here [west] and right here [east]. [chuckles]

VERA: Yes!

GHOUL: Doooooes. Orion live at Burning River Station?

VERA: Wow!! That would just be typical, I think!

GHOUL: Also it’s going to make for some great lyrics. Are there petroleum refineries here? I feel like there’s a bunch of petroleum refineries up here.

VERA: Sure. I like that. Oh…

GHOUL: So refineries are here in the bend of the river maybe… Which is a terrible place for them to but…

VERA: [soft, protracted gasp of realization] I remembered what I was going to say.

GHOUL: What were you going to say?

VERA: I was going to say that I just remembered the… I don’t remember the full name of it… the Linden Cogenerative…

GHOUL: The Linden Cogenerative Facility. Oh, it’s so dreamy. Listeners…

VERA: Gorgeous…

GHOUL: Listener, look up some pictures of the Linden Cogenerative Facility. [editor’s note: it’s called the Linden Cogeneration Plant. We were close!]

VERA: Yeah, if you can find some at night… It’s soooooo gorgeous.

GHOUL: Why did they build such a beautiful electrical power plant?

VERA: I don’t know.

GHOUL: Yeah, so there’s probably some power plants and refineries in this bend of the river.

VERA: [laughing softly] There’s something on that island.

GHOUL: It’s not an island that’s for rich people, like in Anisport.

VERA: No, it’s not an island that’s for rich people.

GHOUL: It’s a sucky island. It’s an island that’s terrible.

VERA: Yes.

GHOUL: The fact that you cannot walk off of it just makes it worse. I mean you could walk off of it by bridge, but there’s cars on that bridge, it’s not a bridge that’s for pedestrians. If you want to get off the island, you have to drive.

VERA: [softly, with feeling] That sucks.

GHOUL: What if there’s no subway stations on the island?

VERA: Oooooh.

GHOUL: It’s just like a quarantine zone.

VERA: Chhrrrrist. That’s pretty terrible. That’s pretty terrible.

GHOUL: I don’t know who they’re quarantining but holy shit. …I mean the thing is, probably at this point it’s starting to get gentrified, but it’s still… it’s gentrified but it’s also a shithole so there’s some really good restaurants there. But also. It just sucks. It sucks to be there.

VERA: Mm.

GHOUL: Yeah, what’s up here? I think we should, in honor of the Linden Cogeneration Facility, name the neighborhood Linden. But I’m not decided on where it should be. Obviously it can’t be a terminus because it’s not cool enough for a terminus.

VERA: It’s not. Sorry, Linden.

VERA: We’ve got some stuff that we know, now. Up that way is nice. Up this way is downtown.

GHOUL: There’s a state park up here.

VERA: Eugh.

GHOUL: North of Palisades.

VERA: Yeah, there is.

GHOUL: It’s really nice, you can go hiking there, but only if you have a car because public transportation does not go there.

VERA: Right.

GHOUL: There’s a highway that probably runs parallel to the coast.

VERA: Yeah. I think that, you know, maybe sometimes there’s like, the city government has some like… get kids to… let’s all take a bus with some camp counselors and go out hiking. It’s just severely underadvertised for people to actually sign up. So you only do it if you work for the city so your friend tells you about it. Or your friend works for the city and they tell you about it.

GHOUL: Right, I like that, I like that. None of the helpful municipal programs are advertised adequately, and that’s why no-one uses them, and that’s why they keep getting their funding cut.

VERA: Mhm.

GHOUL: I think another good way for the city to be evil about social programs is to have a lot of advertisements for certain ones of them, like you’ll see ads plastered all over the trains, but if you actually try to apply there’s this hellish bureaucracy that you have to go through that just makes it so hard and you will hate yourself and kind of want to be dead and almost no-one actually finishes the application process.

VERA: Yup!

[both laughing]

GHOUL: I keep thinking about the Newark Public Library, that I read about in Outwitting History. [by Aaron Lansky]

VERA: Oh man. [YIKES humming sound]

GHOUL: Anyway, in the 80s or 90s the Newark Public Library got defunded, and—

VERA: 70s-80s.

GHOUL: 70s-80s? And they just destroyed a bunch of books.

VERA: Yeah. And I was actually very interested in when… I was like ooooo? When you tweeted about that, I was very much like ohh?? Because that’s not a thing you hear about, going to the Newark Public Library they’re like ‘Oh, this building is very old and we have a long and storied history as a public library and here’s some influential library people who talked about library policy when they founded the library, or whatever.’ And you can read about those on a plaque or on the library website. But I had never heard about, ‘Oh yeah, and also in the 80s when they supremely defunded the city library, ummmmm a bunch of collections just got decimated!’

GHOUL: Dumped in the dumpster! …We should come up with a story about the public library getting defunded.

[Both start laughing like assholes]

GHOUL: And where is the library.

VERA: Okay, well, obviously there are a lot of branches of the library.

GHOUL: Yeah, but there’s a main one that if you say the library people will think of that one. …Uh, yeah, where is the library?

VERA: Um.

GHOUL: I kind of. Hm. It’s probably in the south of the river portion of downtown, yes?

VERA: Yeah. It’s honestly probably not too far from Municipal Intersection?

GHOUL: No, probably not. It might actually be on the line that goes west from there. It might just be the next stop to Municipal Intersection.

VERA: Yeah. [hovers over the southwest-bound line]

GHOUL: Oh, I mean the other line that goes west from there.

VERA: Oh, that one. [the northwest-bound line]

GHOUL: It could be either of them.

VERA: Mmm.

GHOUL: Whichever one you want.

VERA: Wait. We’re not calling the stop just ‘Library’ are we?

GHOUL: Naoo!

VERA: No. So what are we calling it?

GHOUL: I think it should have a really cryptic name like… in Boston the library’s at a station that’s just called Copley. I think that stop should have a really cryptic name, like a one-word cryptic name.

VERA: My brain is saying ‘Delver’?

GHOUL: Delmer…?

VERA: Delmer.

GHOUL: Delmer. I also want to have a station named Rush. I think it’s very cryptic, I think it’s a fun name for a station.

VERA: I agree. Not on the river, right?

GHOUL: Not on the river. No, that would be too obvious.

VERA: Yes.

GHOUL: It’s probably on one of these two lines.

VERA: Yeaaaah.

GHOUL: Just stick it there.

VERA: Yeah.

GHOUL: I refuse to even speculate on why it’s called that. …What other notable stuff is in the Evil City? What stuff do we want to have that’s in the city that helps make it more evil?

VERA: I think I want there to be a bridge right there. [I HONESTLY do not know which bridge this is referring to, good luck]

GHOUL: But do you want the subway line to go over it, or do you just want there to be a bridge there?

VERA: I want the subway line to go over it.

GHOUL: Okay. It’s going to branch obnoxiously.

VERA: Yes.

GHOUL: Are you ready for—and that branch is going to become this. [????]

VERA: [hissing] Yessss. There we go.

GHOUL: That’s annoying.

VERA: Yeah. I just think that it’s… well, I was going to say ‘good and right’ but the exact opposite of that. For there to be a subway bridge right below the island. It’s just encircled.

GHOUL: Yeees. Also, it’s encircled by—this is all the same fucking line. So this line actually crosses itself and it’s super obnoxious. I think that’s just right for the Evil City.

VERA: Mhmmmm.

GHOUL: Did we design this to look like an actual subway system? Not really?

VERA: It’s fine.

GHOUL: I mean, maybe it also intersects with this subway line and the terminus is just that.

VERA: That’s so dumb.

GHOUL: Or maybe it goes… I cannot fucking think of a reasonable place for this to go. It’s basically a loop except, hang on, it’s like a loop with a stupid little tail.

VERA: Yeees.

GHOUL: But it’s like a double loop with a stu… [both begin to laugh]

VERA: Oh this is quite bad.

GHOUL: Once we color this I’m making this the red line. I’m making the executive decision that this is the red line. Not that it’s called that, but. It’s called something, you know, horrible.

VERA: Right. I mean, you know, a decent amount of this subway system was just unplanned whatever by ghosts. I don’t know, I guess I’m envisioning the ghost subway process as pretty unconscious.

GHOUL: No, it’s definitely the collective unconscious of the city that designs them, not actual ghost city planners.

VERA: Right. I mean, that would be fun, but, no.

GHOUL: Oh, my gosh, look at the red line. It’s so stupid.

VERA: [adoring hum]

GHOUL: Let’s name this station.

VERA: Oohhhh yessss.

GHOUL: The station where you have to choose which red line to be on. And one of them goes back to the station you were just at and one of them goes out to the sticks.

VERA: [adoring hum; adoring sigh] Oh, it’s so dumb! Um, let’s see. So that’s a bridge right there…

GHOUL: Yeah, we could name it after the bridge.

VERA: We could…

GHOUL: I want this bridge to be terrible, like the train goes over it but also cars go over it, but it’s not a multi-level bridge. The train is just in the middle of the bridge. And on the other end there’s like… you know sometimes when there’s a parking garage entrance just in the street, and there will be like half of the street goes into this stupid tunnel?

VERA: Yeees.

GHOUL: That, but the subway goes in there.

VERA: Yeess!

GHOUL: On both sides of the bridge.

VERA: Yeeessss. [happy sigh]

GHOUL: And right above that before the road can come back together again there’s this stupid island with one sickly-looking tree.

VERA: On the one side there’s that, on the other side the subway goes into the stupid tunnel thing in the middle of the road and… also that’s where the train station is.

GHOUL: Okay, so the entrance to the train station is in the middle of the road. You have to cross the road from both sides to get to it.

VERA: Mhm.

GHOUL: Mm!

VERA: Mhm.

GHOUL: Good. Unsafe for pedestrians, annoying for cars.

VERA: Mhm! Mhm.

GHOUL: Right, ‘cause the thing is there’s not actually a streetlight there! So… [laughing] pedestrians just have to get yelled at!

VERA: Right! And they have to yell back!

GHOUL: Right! Right! People are always—this is the intersection where people are always leaning out of the windows of their cars to go ‘HEEEY! WATCH IT!’

VERA: ‘FUCK YOU, YOU WATCH IT, I’M WALKIN HEAH!’ [wicked chuckle]

GHOUL: I feel like it could just be called like ‘X Street Bridge.’

VERA: It could…

GHOUL: My brain is supplying ‘Fenugreek Street Bridge.’ [Vera laughs] There’s an area downtown where all the streets are named after spices. No-one knows why, it’s not like there was ever a spicemarket there.

VERA: Um… my brain is supplying me with ‘Bridge to Nowhere.’ Which isn’t true, it’s bridge to the other side of the river.

GHOUL: Could call it Nemo Bridge. Like ‘nobody.’

VERA: Hmm.

GHOUL: I don’t know how to say ‘nowhere’ in Latin but I could look it up. I have to know now.

VERA: Okay.

GHOUL: [Looks it up] See, this is great because it actually sounds a lot like a lot of native place names in New England?

VERA: Huh, yeah.

GHOUL: Nusquam Street Bridge. …Actually, what if both ends of the bridge are an entrance to the subway station. So it’s just a really long annoying subway station.

VERA: Huh. Hm. Right. Right. And they’re both inconvenient in different ways, I’m sure.

GHOUL: Yes.

VERA: Ahh. For instance, the one on the south side of the river where people… are more, is horrifically—not on the island in the river, on the island in the middle of the street. Sorry. And the other side…

GHOUL: There’s a bridge to the island in the middle of the road, but it’s torturously complicated to get there, but people still usually do that because it’s better than actually having to walk through traffic.

VERA: Yeeess.

GHOUL: It’s like… [sighs] So, over Storrow Drive, which is just north of the [Boston Public] Library, so if you get off at the library and then you want to go see the river, you have to go there, so the bridge over Storrow Drive is like, you have to walk up this stupid ramp, with several zigzags, to walk across, then you have to walk down the stupid ramp again. So if you came… and the ramp is really long, so if you came from over here, say you’re standing directly under where the bridge starts. You still have to walk an entire block to get onto the bridge.

VERA: [smiling] Mhm.

GHOUL: So on one side you just have to walk through traffic. On the other side, there’s probably fences up to prevent you from walking through traffic so you have to take the stupid bridge. [starts guffawing]

VERA: Wonderful.

GHOUL: ‘It would be dangerous if we made people walk through traffic!’

VERA: [laughing] Aah. …Wait, actually, sorry, I just realized you’re saying this and this are both entrances to Nusquam Street Bridge Station. So you’re saying that the subway stop goes under the river, but the subway goes over the bridge.

GHOUL: I can’t even imagine how this works. I totally forgot that we said that the subway goes over the bridge.

[both gasping with laughter]

VERA: I mean, I’m delighted by this.

GHOUL: No no no, so there’s a platform at each end of the bridge, underground.

VERA: [laughing] Yes.

GHOUL: You can’t walk between them, either.

VERA: Oh. Ooohh, cursed.

GHOUL: They’re just called the same station.

VERA: Ohhh. Perfect.

GHOUL: So—they’re called the same station—maybe, you know what, oh my gosh, this is good. So the northbound is on the south side of the river. The southbound platform is on the north side of the river. So if you are trying to go south and you go into the station on the south side of the river, and you pay, and you realize there’s no southbound platform, you just have to leave, [nearly incoherent] walk across the bridge—

VERA: Which is not designed for pedestrians to walk across!

GHOUL: Or you just walk to the next station you’re going to walk to.

VERA: Right!!

GHOUL: [laughing very loudly]

VERA: Oh, this is bad! This is some good stuff right here.

GHOUL: Aaaaough I love the Evil City.

VERA: I mean, of course. Of course. Oh boy. There’s so many cities in this city. Yeah, that’s how cities work, idiot. But…

GHOUL: I do want to actually mark down some of the stops that are specific to a city. [map rustling]

VERA: Oh, yeah, that’s true.

GHOUL: Actually, can we call it Gold City or some shit? Silver City, Silver City.

VERA: Mmmm.

GHOUL: Maybe Silver City is actuall the nickname from the age of economic prosperity that the Evil City had? So some people called it Silver City, in the same way that some people call Newark Brick City.

VERA: Right. Um.

GHOUL: Okay, so I’m going to write this down—no, you should write this down in your notes. We have—

VERA: A notes!

GHOUL: Silver City, the business city, which we should come up with a better name for… I keep imagining that there’s also a middle class city.

VERA: Yeah, yeah me too.

GHOUL: So there would be five of them. Can the middle class city inexplicably be named Topside?

VERA: Yes.

GHOUL: What do businesspeople do… They fly around in planes…

VERA: [very softly] Briefcase…

GHOUL: Briefcase.

VERA: Suit.

GHOUL: Suit City. Actually, I like Suit City a lot.

VERA: Actually Suit City is fun.

GHOUL: Suit City just sounds like… ‘Oh, boy don’t make me go to the business district. Fuckin suit city.’

VERA: Yeah. I like that a lot about it. Because as we’ve discussed but not on this podcast, awareness of the multiplicity of the Evil City is…

GHOUL: Varied?

VERA: Varied. And ignorance of the multiplicity of the Evil City is kind of… a privilege for the rich and for people who don’t have to deal with the Undercity or the Ghost City or anything.

GHOUL: Yeah, I think residents of the Undercity generally know that there are better cities out there that they could be in but can’t be in.

VERA: Mhm. [sing-song] You can’t get there from here!

GHOUL: You can’t get there from here.

VERA: [little laughing]

GHOUL: Mmm. I think that’s also a popular graffiti in a lot of the…

VERA: Ohhhhhhh you’re soooooo riiiiiight.

GHOUL: In the Undercity.

VERA: Oohhhh yeahhhh.

GHOUL: I know that last time you visited you had A Madness of Angels [by Kate Griffin] in your bag.

VERA: I did.

GHOUL: Did you start reading that at all?

VERA: I did start reading it.

GHOUL: So you know about the graffiti thing. There’s a graffiti thing in those books, where the graffiti sort of expresses the soul of the city, perhaps directly? It’s not clear whether all graffiti that exists was actually painted by someone. But the idea of ‘you can’t get there from here’ being a popular graffiti in the Undercity… Probably not one that was actually painted by people. Aaanyway, I feel like we’re getting distractible enough that we should probably stop podcasting for today.

VERA: Right… probably… I did want to say, I think that… I’m just thinking about graffiti in the Ghost City and being like, Hm! Hm!

GHOUL: Graffiti in the ghost city would be way more interesting than graffiti in the Undercity.

VERA: Yeah.

GHOUL: Because it contains the unexpressed feelings of people from the last one or two hundred years.

VERA: Yeah. Including people who are alive!

GHOUL : Including people who are alive. You can be alive and be a ghost.

VERA: Yeah. Want to make it very clear: you can be alive and be a ghost.

GHOUL: Yeah, tell me your thoughts about graffiti in the Ghost City.

VERA: Mainly I was thinking it’s very, it can be really pretty, probably a lot of it is kind of depressing as shit though.

GHOUL: Pretty and depressing.

VERA: Yes.

GHOUL: Right, right, because most of the graffiti in the Ghost City was not painted by anyone, it’s often a lot more elaborate and beautiful.

VERA: Mhm, mhm.

GHOUL: And it says shit like ‘you can’t get there from here’ and ‘belly of the beast.’

VERA: [hmhmhm laugh]

GHOUL: All right, if that’s all, I think we’ll sign off?

VERA: Yeaah.

GHOUL: Thanks so much for listening. LEE.

VERA: Yeah, thanks, Lee.

[both laughing]

GHOUL: I assume no-one else is going to listen to this. All right, we’re signing off now. Thank you for listening to Overground: Evil City: We’ll Name It Someday (The Evil City, That Is).

VERA: Will we?

GHOUL: Fuck. Maybe not.

VERA: Right, I thought we were thinking we just weren’t going to name it anything other than The Evil City. The City. There’s names for the cities in The City. But the city itself? It’s just called that.

GHOUL: Fair enough. All right. See you later!

VERA: [laughs]

GHOUL: Bye!

VERA: Buh-bye.

[Ending sting plays: more from ‘Bolt Cutter.’]

#overground #evil city #audio

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in-every-generation · 3 years

Conversation

Me: No one knows where Angel lives, how did Xander find him!

My GF: Well...he probably looked for the signs advertising a vampire support group. Are you immortal? Do you feel racked with guilt? Come brood about it...

My GF: Or you know, he just tied a copy of Interview on a string and dragged it through the streets of Sunnydale.

Me: Thanks for coming out?

My GF: Pretty much. Yeah.

Me: Ooooh! Maybe he put up signs advertising Nancy Boy Hair Gel! We'd be the best at finding Angel.

#these are the quality conversations that happen when I am working on my podcast notes #just so you all know #i love my gf so much #we have the best fun #straight out of hell (ooc)

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loulougoingsolo · 5 years

Text

Suspended intelligence

I failed to write my thoughts on this week’s Ear Biscuit after listening to the audio format, because I had too many thoughts. Although the episode was titled ”Are we our true selves on screen?”, the conversation between Rhett and Link went a lot deeper than that. I recognize my own thoughts in many of the things discussed, and it’s really hard to summarize everything that went through my head while listening.

Rhett has mentioned his frustration because of fans not getting their comedy before, and it must be a really difficult issue to deal with, since in many ways, the popularity of GMM has been based on Rhett and Link’s ability to make comedy that appeals to all kinds of people. After doing this for so long, it’s clear that they have a desire to evolve, and with the evolution, maintaining the same mass appeal must be hard. Comedy is really tricky, because in the end, we all have our own kind of sense of humour, and sometimes some things just are not funny to all people.

Being from Finland, I should probably be among the people who get annoyed by the Finland conspiracy episode, but for me, personally, it was hilarious. I was actually pretty proud of having our little country mentioned on GMM, and of living in a country that doesn’t exist – and I didn’t really mind living in Northern Estonia, either, if that was the case. I didn’t think for a second that Rhett wouldn’t actually know Finland is real. Just as I don’t believe for a second that everybody on the Mythical crew likes Rhett more than Link, or that Cotton Candy Randy (or Jordan who plays him) actually wants to kill Link in real life. But I do fully believe it to be frustrating to need to explain these things – jokes are never made better by explaining them.

I recently binge watched a (what I considered to be) hilarious British comedy series called Sally4Ever. It was absolutely horrifyingly politically incorrect, at points totally disgusting, seriously over the top, and possibly insulting to every human being. And I loved it. I watched the show in a state of disbelief, laughing until I cried, loving every minute. I then tried to recommend said show to my parents, and after watching about half of the first episode, they stopped and told me they didn’t laugh once. I haven’t been so dissapointed in my parents ever before. I thought them to have a good sense of humour, and now I don’t know what to think. (This paragraph was just an example of how differently we people view humour and comedy.)

Does someone actually think Rhett is mean or that Link is stupid, based on their GMM behaviour? I wonder how much of this misconception is because most feedback R&L get is text based? I know for a fact that sometimes I write something I mean as a sarcastic remark, and forget to add a smiley face at the end, resulting in a comment someone might take the wrong way. Comedy is not only a difficult field of entertainment, but also one that requires a lot of intelligence to work. I think it’s the combination of intelligence, humour, and ability to be serious when needed, that makes Rhett and Link so entertaining. And their ability to act like dorks sometimes helps, too. But what I think is that the serious, intelligent, mindful Rhett and Link are just one part of the whole, and without those qualities, they wouldn’t be nearly as funny as they are. You need both sides, but you also need to have the ability to suspend your intelligence sometimes, and to laugh at yourself, otherwise this life would get way too serious to live in.

One more thought I have to write down. Rhett mentioned he thinks he’s more himself on GMM than when he’s with his smart friends, when he feels he needs to stay quiet because he’s not smart enough. I actually talked about this same phenomenon with my therapist this week. She said that during my therapy, as I’ve become more comfortable with myself and more relaxed in being the real me, she’s started to think of me as sweet and adorable. I had already listened to the audio podcast at that time, and I talked about how I could relate with Rhett’s comment on this - when I feel safe and at ease with my surroundings, I become this bubbly, possibly silly, and apparently adorable person, who talks a lot, is funny and a little bit rambling (like my texts, sorry!). When I’m nervous and anxious, or unsure of how to behave, I shut up, both physically and mentally. Recently, I’ve learned to allow myself to just be this weird thing that I am, and that has lead me into babbling at the wrong places, but it’s also very much less stressful not to try to be someone I’m not.

P.S. On a completely different note, I love Link’s stories about his trip to Cabo. Last week he talked about the restaurant where someone tried to sell them drugs and saches with words like Bushy b***** and Butt stuff, and now he casually joked about inviting the waiter to their bathtub in the evening. What exactly did happen on his vacation?

#ear biscuits #rhett and link #my thoughts #i love listening to these podcasts #serious or funny #randl are always #entertaining

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ursae-minoris-world · 6 years

Photo

So I’ve watched the Dragon Prince ! :D

Let me share a few impressions. I’m a bit out of it for Reasons so don’t expect this to be very articulated but...

- I knew as soon as I heard about this cartoon (when it was still in production) that it was the sort of universe I’d like, and I’m not disappointed ! I love the atmosphere and world building and I’m curious to learn more about this universe. It’s rather classic so far, but it has all the elements I enjoy ! And I’m sure they did get into interesting details and lore. You can feel from the start that there’s more to it.

A lot more under the cut (warning : spoilers !)

- I really enjoyed the characters ? All of them ? They’re all quite interesting and have distinct personalities and I find all of them likeable. I like how all of them interact, how their personalities are multifaceted ; you can see why they make the choices they make, whatever side they’re on. Viren is a bit of the exception as he seems a more classical Bad Guy but there are also plenty of hints that it’s more complicated than it seems, and I'm curious about his past and what made him take the road that he is (or seems to be) taking now. I don’t really have a fav right now, although I do love Amaya very much. I hope we’ll see her again soon.

The main trio works well and I’ll enjoy following their adventures. I’m quite attached to Callum (even if he’s a bit typical for a main protagonist for that kind of stories ; he works for me ), I do enjoy Rayla’s personality a lot and am interested in her past as well as her internal conflicts. Ezran, I just read as... cute little brother. I’m waiting to see more of his development, so far he’s the one I’m the least interested in, as sweet as he is.

Claudia and Soren are interesting to me as well, they are already in a situation of moral conflict that I’m eager to watch the evolution of, and I like how they... sort of try to cheer each other up and to stick together through it. If conflict happens between them (and it’s not that unlikely) I’m going to be upset lol.

I’m very intrigued by Harrow and Viren and about that past they seem to share.

I’m both very worried for Runaan and very interested to know more about him. I liked him pretty much, he seemed actually protective of Rayla and that’s sweet. I want to know more about the moon elves in general.

I like Gren and I wonder what will happen to him.

I’m also curious of those who are not there : Callum and Ezran’s mom, Callum’s dad, Rayla’s parents...

...now at the same time, to be perfectly honest, I didn’t have the immediate connection with any character that I had to characters in Voltron, specially with Hunk, Shiro, and Keith (well passed my first impression for Keith, but still as soon as the first episode). The characters in Voltron feel a bit more... real to me, while the tdp characters still read to me as characters - good, interesting, engaging characters, but still. Which is totally fine. Voltron is definitely more an exception than a rule for me, and I can count on one hand shows that had that effect on me. It’s probably not fair to compare both shows on that aspect, as they are very different and as my attachment to Voltron is definitely an outlier. It’s actually quite soothing to not be as emotionally invested this time lol.

- The story is pretty good and I’m definitely interested to see how it will play out, and I do want to also know more about the past and what led to the current situation, as it seems to be more complicated than we’re first told (obviously). I liked how they’re not afraid of complexity (there is more to the war than good guys fighting bad guys) and to get dark or scary. The pacing was effective too, it kept me engaged while not getting me overwhelmed (I do like to be occasionally overwhelmed lol, but hey, we’re pretty early in the story for that). There is some foreshadowing going on, and it works, but it’s almost too easy at times. It was pretty obvious that Ezran could talk to animals, for example. I guess here the foreshadowing is more meant for the general audience, including the kids, to catch, while in Voltron they are more like hints for the fans and not necessarily intended to be seen by everybody.

Occasionally I felt some situations were solved too easily. I found Rayla’s issue with her binding was solved a bit quickly and even if it does make sense... I’d have preferred she found a solution herself, rather than this. Same with her issues of being an assassin without a victim, it seems something too deep to be solved in just one conversation. But at the same time, I do expect it to bite her again when she’ll be confronted to the judgement of her peers, and when she’ll have to learn to understand better her parents’ situation...

Then again... this is the first season. In the first season of Steven Universe, I thought it was just a fun and goofy show where the characters would just be fighting monsters without much more being explained (and I was ok with it), while Steven would learn to master his powers. In the first season of Gravity Falls, I thought it’s just be fun supernatural summer adventures for the kids and I didn’t expect the story to go that deep nor to turn... how it turned. When I watched the first season of Voltron, I thought it would be a monster of the week kind of show with maybe some nice character development along the way. Here, the first season is already quite dark and complex, let’s not complain about things getting solved easily. It has room to become... well even more dark and complex, and there are definitely going to be issues that will take much more work to solve.

As for the style and animation, I do like the general style and charadesign. I’ll probably be tempted to draw fanart. The cast is quite diverse, although I would have liked maybe a little more diversity in body shapes as well. The 3d cell-shaded to look like 2d is...ok. I’ll get used to it. My reference for that is Renaissance and I find it worked better even if it’s much older (2006!). But then, they were going for a very different aesthetic. I’ve seen plenty people complain about the frame rate, which I’ve also read was an artistic choice to remind of hand drawn animation. It didn’t bother me that much, and I got used to it pretty quick. I think the style and animation are likely to improve / change while the show keeps developing, too.

Other than that, I don’t have any ships at the moment. Which is pretty normal and my default to be honest. I just... don’t usually ship. The closest I could get was... Harrow and Viren, lol. Yeah, not the nicest dynamic right ? But they do seem to have been very close and have a quite passionate relationship (by witch I do mean both in good and bad ways). So I’m a bit curious about that. But I don’t really see them in a romantic light (or want to interpret / imagine them as such).

Other than that, maybe I will get more attached to a pair as the story develops... or maybe not.

TL; DR : I enjoyed the Dragon Prince and I’ll be sure to watch the next seasons. I think it’s already clear that it’s going to be a good, compelling story.

I feel we’re in a bit of a golden age for cartoons lately, with really good shows like Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, Adventure Time (I personally couldn’t get into it, but from what I’ve heard there is a lot more to it than you see first), Trollhunters (I haven’t watched it yet, but I’ve heard a lot of good about it and definitely plan to), Voltron... I think it’s pretty clear already that the the Dragon Prince will be up there as well and will be remembered as part of that golden age.

I expect to enjoy it a lot, just like I loved Gravity Falls and still love Steven Universe. But I also know it’s not going to replace Voltron in my heart (and that’s a personal statement more than a judgement of quality).

There is a very special connection that I had immediately to Voltron, it’s universe and characters that isn’t here. And it’s quite normal, as Voltron is... very special to me somehow, despite of all it’s flaws.

So I’m likely to share Dragon Prince art, theories and so on, but I don’t think I’ll delve into it like I do with Voltron. I don’t feel the need to read all interviews, to invest time in listening podcasts and watch each convention panel and so on. Nor do I feel the need to read and even less write fanfictions, and I’m not tempted to write long metas or character analysis either. It might change as time passes and we get more seasons, and maybe fandom will tempt me but...right now it’s not the case.

On a more fandom related note, I was wondering a bit of what this blog would become after the end of Voltron, and if I’d have to look for Dragon Prince blogs, but it seems it’s all happening organically, as a lot of the blogs I follow are following tdp as well, which is nice ! :D

Aaaand last but not least : my tags for the dragon prince will be pretty much the ones I use for Voltron, but with tdp first (ex : tdp spoilers, tdp thoughts, tdp meta, etc).

#drapri #tdp #tdp spoilers #my stuff #tdp thoughts #long post

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cosmosogler · 6 years

Text

hi guys. i decided to stop and read for a while. i finished my drawing goal for the day, but i won’t have the scene ready for tomorrow evening.

i’m about out of posts for the comic.

maybe i’ll try to finish one more panel before bed... i dunno.

umm anyway i got up this morning kinda late, like 9:30, even though i was awake for a long time beforehand. i was doing something on the computer... i don’t remember what it was. my tumblr activity feed is broken again which is really aggravating, since i can’t see if people liked my comic posts recently unless i check the actual posts. makes it feel more quiet. that’s what i need right now. definitely. silence. a flat “0 notes” line.

i considered putting my halloween story into the writing club’s google drive to see if i could get feedback on it, but raul basically said that the only person who leaves comments on others’ work is me.

i tried talking to one of my acquaintances about his story when he said something about it in a discord channel. he was cagey about it, which is fine of course. he left without asking about my project or progress or anything. i got up and brushed my teeth. i realized it was 11 already so i made an early lunch.

lunch made me super ill and exhausted so i went back to bed for an hour. i putted around on the internet for an hour watching a video while refreshing my tumblr and deviantart pages. nothing came up to comment on. i felt bored and irritated so i started doing homework just to have something to, like, interact with and pass the time. i got caught up on my class notes, which is a relief. i would have done some grading but i saw my comic scene sitting on my desk and realized i couldn’t neglect it for yet another day. i made an oven dinner and watched another video in the meantime and ate miserably trying to get my thoughts in order, and then wrote that other post and then got to work. mbmbam cheered me up a little bit. i finished four panels. six and a half left. i could finish that loose half a panel if i gave it another 10 minutes...

eventually i started feeling bland and gunky so i put the sketchbook to the side and read a fanfiction for a while. but it feels like... i’m reading it to complete it, you know? like i just want it off my bookmarks bar / to-do checklist. normally i’d be all over the fandom and topic but it’s hard to feel engaged right now. it was like that with my drawing, too. i’m really happy with the paper quality and the way the panels are coming out- something about the pencil work just looks really, really good in a way my other, ancient sketchbook hadn’t been able to hold. i wish i could feel happier about that. or, more consistently happy? i wish the happiness would last longer than the exact amount of time i’m looking at the page? yeah, that.

and the scene itself is even not upsetting, for once. i’m happy while i’m drawing it, but i dunno. something seems to wear off after the first 30 minutes and it’s hard to stick with it. it’s not really artist’s block... i know exactly what i want to be drawing and how to do it. it’s just that i can’t enjoy anything right now and it all feels mushy and gray.

(kind of like the actual art of the comic, dohohoho)

i did feel less lonely though, getting to work and listening to a podcast and putting together all the trappings of productivity. reading distracted me for a while, even if feeling like this was also distracting me from the reading.

tomorrow i’ve got an extra em lecture to attend, as review before the midterm. i’m not gonna skip it, but i am just... exhausted. i gotta finish an entire assignment for my other class before wednesday, and the midterm is also on wednesday, and... gaahhhhhhd. i’ve got three missing em assignments, and each of those takes like 6-8 hours. (i’ve got sooz’s help, so it will take less, but the learning still has to get done...) grading has to happen somewhere in there, and finishing the scene, and trying to move this entire comic delay trainwreck back on schedule with my bare hands.

i don’t even want to talk to anyone anymore at this point. harrison is actively exhausting, i just haven’t really felt a connection with tia or harith or any of the new students... everyone else seems just too hard to reach out to. it’s hard to want to talk to closer friends because i get so caught up in “is this conversation balanced? did i ask about their day? i need to catch up with them first. oh they have something to talk about. it’s way easier to listen to their story about their trip and look at pictures. oh now the conversation’s over i guess.” (or whatever. i’m not talking about anyone specific. i’m not mad or upset or anything. i’m just so tired.)

i’m choking up 200 dollars at my therapist appointment on tuesday, to cover my deductible... at least i’ve got my budget fairly balanced now. i gotta get snoopy to the vet in two weeks which will put a hole in my pocket. and i also need to start actively complaining to my mother’s insurance company about the reimbursement they never gave me despite the doctor’s office filing the paperwork for me. that’ll cover snoopy’s bills.

everyone at the office seems to think i’m, like, super nice or work hard or whatever. i’m so tired all the time. i did, at least, today, keep my screaming entirely internal. i think the most noise i accidentally made was a strangled groan when i had to get up after sitting in the comfortable chair to too long transcribing class notes.

but! sitting curled up in the chair like that hurts an entirely different part of my back than sitting at the desk, so it gives my shoulders a chance to rest.

what i mean is, i didn’t go off at anyone. i got kind of curt with harrison and i said something unnecessarily gloomy to asher but i kept it... restrained, more than usual. i think. just wait for it to go away. no one can help anyway. no one would help. no one would know to help, that i need help, or how to help.

i’m so tired! i’m too tired to do all my stretches every single day! i’m too tired to reframe every bad thought as it comes up! i’m too tired to challenge every single bit of the endless tsunami of negative self talk all day every day! i’m too tired to do the dishes after every meal! or even every day! i’m too tired to go to bed on time every single night and do the breathing exercises and try to force myself asleep. i’m too tired to get up and comfort myself after the scalding nightmares until i can sleep again.

i’m too tired to do any of the things that would make me have enough energy to do them. and i’m too injured to go for a bike ride and enjoy the cold front that blew through town and lowered the temperature by like 15 degrees. the best i can do is keep my window open and try to ignore the downtown noises.

maybe i could go stand in the public pool. if i can get myself up early enough. that cheers me up a little bit, sometimes, not always.

i wish i had someone with me to do those things. but i don’t. and no one’s gonna do them but me. so i gotta also devote energy to being my own cheerleader while i don’t even have the energy to not be my own worst enemy.

“nothing better to do.” that’s all the motivation i’ve ever had. sometimes it’s enough. but not always. sometimes i’m too tired. gotta lay on the floor and make whiny noises and stare off into space for five hours.

then i gotta pick myself up and get moving again. no one’s gonna pick me up. can’t lay there forever. i don’t like laying there doing nothing.

#i'm not... doing good

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urbancoroner · 6 years

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NIKE MISSILE BASE HM-40: LAUNCHER AREA

The time I tried to find an abandoned missile site but wandered into crocodile hell instead

With a vague idea of where I was going and armed only with my Nikon and claws, I set off alone for Key Largo at high noon. Seeing as this place looked pretty wilderness-y, I assumed it would be a Pineapple Paradise kind of deal where I could only find it by Google Earth coordinates and careful guesswork but damn if it didn't appear when I typed "Nike Missile Base Key Largo" into the Maps search.

I haven't been to the Keys in over 18 years and I barely saw it then so I appreciated being able to take in the scenery in silence as I drove. The Card Sound Bridge was pretty intimidating and I smiled to myself imagining how hard my mom would NOPE if she saw it approaching on the roadway ahead, cutting a thin, two-lane asphalt slice directly upwards through clear, cloudless blue skies.

I slowed down a bit once my app indicated I was approaching my destination. When I started the directions I'd noted that the little marker for my destination appeared to be a bit off the roadway in the middle of the wilderness. I'd resigned myself to having to park nearby where the marker was - but not too close seeing as I don't want to be TOO conspicuous - and walk into that patch of green where the marker sat. It took me a few passes to find the right spot but eventually I pulled off to the side and parked across the street and slightly south of where my destination was. I looked up and saw a sign proudly announcing "Crocodile Lake" between my car and the break in vegetation that would be my entrance point. Awesome.

I did a bit of on the spot recon - as much as my cell service would allow me to since it was barely hanging on to a signal. The time it took for Google Earth to load up on the tenuous connection gave me a chance to reflect on the podcasts Flowerbomb and I had been listening to lately that detailed strange disappearances in National Parks - of which I was currently in. Google Earth didn't tell me much more than I already knew. I was looking for any kind of view of buildings in relation to where I currently was, specifically the radar towers that I knew should be visible above the trees, to gauge which direction I should head off into. All I saw on the satellite picture was a barely-there path amid the endless forest in the general shape of a conversation bubble that had obviously been a road at one time. Any buildings that could be or should be along that road were hidden beneath a sea of green.

This was about as prepared as I was going to be and if I was going to get lost in the fucking forest I might as well do it while I still have at least three and a half hours of quality daylight left. With this mindset I changed from my flip flops into my flats - people who are ill-prepared for the wilderness rarely get taken - and jogged across the street, camera thrown over my shoulder and trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. I power-walked along for a ways until I felt my presence was mostly concealed from any passing cars by the mass of trees encroaching on the once-road.

As I drew further away from the road, the ambient noise of civilization quickly faded and I was struck once again by how deafening the silence is in the middle of the wilderness by yourself. Luckily the former road I was on was wide enough that I was mostly able to avoid the surrounding trees and I didn't immediately encounter any of the aforementioned crocodiles or other wildlife that would like to eat me. In fact, there were no animals around at all, with the exception of the occasional bug that buzzed harmlessly by. I was very, very alone.

This was a bit of a relief, after all no company is better than large, hungry reptiles. Mostly, though, the heavy silence and isolation were just unnerving. It didn't help that an eerie feeling hung heavy over the area as well. I came to an area where the road forked and after consulting Google Earth - which was thankfully still hanging on to my connection - I saw this was where it circled around. Both roads would eventually take me to the same place so I elected to take the direction that was not mostly blocked by a huge, old orange dumpster.

Unfortunately, that direction was a much tighter path that required me to get way more intimate with nature than I had desired or intended, especially in shoes that barely covered the tops of my feet. Most of the path required me to bend down and duck beneath low-hanging branches and spider webs I only just managed to see in time.

"Kaine's gonna be so mad when he finds out I did this alone,' I thought to myself as I did it anyway. I am stubborn and refuse to have been not-so-gently caressed by so very many branches and god knows what else for nothing and that stubbornness was the only thing preventing me from turning back now.

Once the path opened up again, the eerie feeling increased as well. The trees here were still thick, but now I had enough space to continue on without being concerned I was going to be dive-bombed by a thousand banana spiders for walking face first into their web.

I watch the killer channel enough to know that this is the exact situation people are in right before they get murdered in some weird way and go missing forever so I called Flowerbomb just so my cell phone would ping off the nearest tower and the police would have somewhere to start looking for me when I mysteriously disappear.

I told Flowerbomb as much on the phone and she immediately requested that I video chat her so she too can experience wilderness hell. Talking with her distracted me from the feeling that I was immediately about to be taken by the swamp wendigo and robbed of my shoes, even though she was awestruck by the fact that I was DEFINITELY about to become one of those podcast disappearance stories.

There wasn't much for her to see on the video chat as far as scenery, not only because the connection was weak and occasionally breaking up, but mainly because there wasn't much to see at all. I mentally orientated myself and was pretty sure I was walking around the far side of the rounded part of the path. I still hadn't found any buildings. I could see a fence running along what I assumed was once the perimeter of the area about ten feet from the path I was on and just barely visible through the brush.

As I continued on, I saw bits of wreckage here and there; the remains of what had once been buildings most likely, demolished and now nearly entirely swallowed by nature. Beyond the thick trees, on the side opposite where the fence ran toward the center of the long, rounded road I thought I saw what might be a bunker of some sort. It was a built up area that almost looked like it had been built into a hill. There was some concrete protruding from the foliage, which was the only thing that tipped me off that it was - or had been - a building in the first place. It looked like the doorway to one of the control stations in Lost, which is the main reason I assumed there was a door there. Because of the overgrowth I couldn't tell for sure - and there was also a high probability that it was actually just a storm drain or something equally useless, which is why I was unwilling to brave the heavily wooded area to find out for sure.

Still on the phone with Flowerbomb, complaining about how damn lost I was, I rounded the corner and though there was still nothing to be found but indistinguishable rubble I was relieved that there was also no hungry crocs or cryptids. The road widened here again and the forest was back in its lane - by which I mean not in my fucking face.

I rounded another corner, now theoretically heading back in the direction from which I'd come, and was disappointed that I hadn't found anything worth exploring. I saw a wider open area along this way and my hopes had revived for a moment that there might be something to actually photograph, but when I finally passed the trees that had been blocking the view I saw nothing but the foundation of a building that had obviously once stood here.

I didn't understand, had the location been demolished? Something had most definitely once been here, even if it was all rubble and remnants now. Was there nothing remaining of Nike Missile Site HM-40 but stray blocks and a lonely foundation rapidly being consumed once more by nature?

A short way past the foundation was the orange dumpster, indicating that I'd at least reached the same area I'd started from and wasn't quite as lost as I'd thought. I decided to quit while I was ahead - by which I mean not a delicious crocodile brunch - and head out the way I'd come. I didn't get anything to photograph but I also didn't get eaten so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Once I was safely back in the air conditioned comfort of my car I tried to regroup. I opened Google Earth once again to see where I'd fucked up on this. Was the location demolished and gone? Or was I just in the wrong place? In one final weird-as-hell moment when I opened Google Earth and told it to find my location, it put me across the street, still in the woods that I had just left. I tried again, assuming the app was just glitching (despite the fact that it had been working flawlessly all day, even out in the woods, and I now had enough bars back to sustain the app). Once again, it showed my location as in the woods.

I took a screenshot and sent it to Flowerbomb, telling her what was happening and her immediate response was a resounding GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE!

Ignoring the weird wendigo-ness going down on my app, I panned around the surrounding area trying to see if maybe Maps had just led me to the wrong location, even though something obviously had been there. I turned on the Maps again and searched "Nike Missile Base Kay Largo" and this time, since I was actually paying full attention to what I was doing, I noticed that the app gave me TWO results; one of which was the forest location I'd just left and the other about a mile north of my current location titled "Control Site".

Later I'd find that I was actually at the right location, just at the wrong part of it. Nike missile bases consisted of two facilities; the Launch Area where the missiles were stored, assembled and - obviously - launched, and the Integrated Fire Control (IFC) site, which was always located about a mile away from the Launch Area, which consisted of the barracks, radar tower, administration facilities, etc. Basically the IFC site was the brains and the Launch site was the muscle.

The area I had just left was the original Launch Area of the HM-40 site and had been demolished long ago and given to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, who turned it into a protected habitat and nesting ground for the endangered American crocodile. The IFC site was what I had been looking for.

This is why it pays to do more than ten minutes of half-assed research, kids. Normally I'm much more careful and coordinated than this but when I'm going out adventuring by myself I have way more of a go-with-the-flow attitude. When I have others with me, our locations are more carefully thought out, but when I'm by myself I allow myself to take more chances and see where the day takes me. Sometimes it works out and I find some really cool places. Other times I end up getting almost-lost in a crocodile infested forest because my dumb ass skipped off half-cocked into the wrong damn location.

#story #urbex #urban exploration #urban exploring #abandoned #launcher area #south florida #florida #writing

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writing-in-the-tiny-house · 3 years

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The Trophies of NaNoWriMo, with AJ Mac

Follow this link to check out the book The Gem State Siege:

https://amzn.to/3yDtVDn

Become a patron to Writing in the Tiny House today!

patreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse

The following is a transcript of this episode. The complete transcript is available on the show’s website.

[00:00:00] Devin Davis: Are you ever worried about writing a large amount of text in a short amount of time? Then you need to listen to AJ Mac, author of the book The Gem State Seige. He wrote the entire thing during NaNoWriMo of 2020, and he is our guest today on Writing in the Tiny House. Hello, hello, hello! And welcome to the show.

[00:00:47] Welcome back to the show. I am Devin Davis, your host, and I am the guy living in a tiny house to show you all of the different ways, regardless of how busy you are, that you can write that book. We focus mainly on fiction, at least the majority of these episodes. Today we have a person that I have been so excited to get to know. His name isAJ Mac.

[00:01:11] His first name is actually Aaron. And it's not in the interview. So I get to share a little tidbit before we play the interview. I actually met Aaron on a Facebook group looking for a critique partner. I had no idea what he had done. I had no idea his story or the process that he had taken to write this thing, but we exchanged first chapters many, many months ago and he critiqued my first chapter.

[00:01:40] I critiqued his first chapter. It was a great experience. And then like, a couple months later, I realized that his book was being released and was in print. So today we have AJ Mac, author of the book The Gem State Seige to share his entire story with us.

[00:02:02] AJ Mac: I started off writing a completely different novel that I said I was going to release first, but then I thought about the options of like Permafree books and like start in content. Cause I just wanted to kind of roll into something that was a little bit bigger of a project than the one that I released first. And it took me about 10 years to actually write that novel, like rewriting and constantly revising and all of that. The final draft of that book, it took me about nine months to do a hundred thousand words, I think. And I was just like, okay I need to write it a little bit faster if I have this goal of doing all of these books and all of this story, this this whole sci-fi universe that I've created in my head, I might want to write a little bit faster.

[00:02:52] So NaNoWriMo came along. I found it on Facebook, found a lot of groups on Facebook, talking about writing 50,000 words in a month. And I was like, Okay. That's a challenge. I'm going to take it. I don't know if I can do it, but I'm going to try.

[00:03:07] So October 31st. I was just like, kind of like at my computer at 1159, like a runner at a Olympic track meet. 12 o'clock hit and I just started going. It took me about 20 days, 21 days, I think to get the 50,000 words, but I did it and I proved to myself that I actually could write faster.

[00:03:29] Devin Davis: NaNoWriMo, though it calls itself a competition, is more like a big push to get people to start writing. No one is looking over your shoulder. You don't submit your progress to anyone, but it's just a month long marathon in the spirit of writing. And it is celebrated by everyone. When Aaron got in the thick of it, he had some big realizations about his own writing process.

[00:03:58] AJ Mac: I like being a pantser for the most part. Doing Prep-Tober is what they call it when you're preparing for NaNoWriMo I took some time out and wrote like a whole outline. I started setting up my writing space, and I bought Scrivener, and I wrote out and it took me about a day or so to write this entire like, outline of what I was going to do.

[00:04:21] And about Chapter Two, I was like screw outline. Yeah. I just yeah.

[00:04:26] Devin Davis: He wrote for hours every day. Like he said, it took him 21 days to get his first draft completed. Three weeks. And as you might imagine, it took a toll on his social life.

[00:04:41] AJ Mac: I don't think I talked to my girlfriend much during that time. I was working night shift at my full-time job. And what I would do is I would work 5:00 PM to about 4:00 AM, was my schedule. And I would spend as much time as I possibly could while I was working-- which wasn't much-- writing. And when I was at home I would wake up early. I still wake up earlier about 11 o'clock and I will write until I go to work. so I I was pretty much, at my computer the entire time.

[00:05:14] Devin Davis: Because he wasn't an experienced writer, at first he didn't know how to go about self edits and critique partners at all. This is how he handled it.

[00:05:25] AJ Mac: And I sat on the manuscript for about a month and a half maybe. And like, there were a lot of people saying that if you write something in NaNoWriMo, then it should at least be a year out before you actually start, like, thinking about publishing, but I was determined. I was determined to get some feedback on it. And I, I went to Facebook groups and like a bunch of critique groups. And I start querying for some people to give me some feedback on the book. And that was my start. And to editing that rough draft and submitting that rough draft and seeing if there was a actual concept for me to even publish a book.

[00:06:05] Devin Davis: And a few short months later, he had The Gem State Siege in print.

[00:06:13] AJ Mac: It's about Tawnie Simms, a world-renowned conspiracy theorist who finds herself in the middle of a cataclysmic event in her hometown, Idaho falls. When what seems like a natural disaster, a mysterious organization that uses the tragedy is fueled to start a mass extermination disguised as a pandemic. Tawnie has to find her way to stop the monstrous billionaire responsible while keeping her and her five-year-old son safe.

[00:06:41] Devin Davis: So this book required some research, not only about concepts, but about geography. The story takes place in Idaho falls and Aaron doesn't even live there.

[00:06:54] AJ Mac: The pantser in me decided to find it somewhere where geysers would make sense for for the relic that I used in the book. So Yellowstone National Park was, was nearby. I have a fascination with-- and this is going to sound horrible-- but I have a fascination with like end of the world kind of cataclysmic movies like that, like movies, like 2012 and Water Worlds, things like that. Just kind of like interests me. So the apocalyptic trope I feel like that's my thing. That's what interests me. It's a lot of build up to what I'm doing in the scifi universe that I'm creating and the world that I'm putting together. And that just happened to be one of the starting points of the world.

[00:07:36] Devin Davis: So I asked him what got him interested in books and science fiction in the first place.

[00:07:44] AJ Mac: A lot of fanfiction. I used to do a lot of sketches growing up and drawing my own comic books specifically when I was younger. It was a show called Dragon Ball Z that for whatever reason in America did not want to continue past a certain saga.

[00:08:00] So I started drawing my own and that trend never left. Like I fell in love with writing and coming up with my own ideas. And I felt comfortable. Like growing up as an introvert, I felt comfortable just writing my own reality as opposed to living in the real reality, I guess. And it just kind of worked for me.

[00:08:19] Devin Davis: All of us as writers, face roadblocks and other struggles. And sometimes we have self doubt.

[00:08:25] AJ Mac: I struggled with the belief that I could even write that fast, considering that I've just been sitting on a bunch of ideas for 10 years before I actually decided to publish a novel. For any aspiring author that wants to write, join a community like NaNoWriMo where people are having the same challenges.

[00:08:47] Devin Davis: Not only is Erin cranking out books, but he and his friends also do a podcast.

[00:08:54] AJ Mac: My podcast is called The Dirty Trunk podcast. And we like to say that that's where the elephant is always welcome. And we talk about the uncomfortable conversations about growth and building your mindset as an entrepreneur. They come out every Tuesday, and the last episode we discussed your environment and how it shapes your future as an adult.

[00:09:17] Devin Davis: By the time this episode airs, the Dirty Trunk podcast will have reached more than 100 episodes.

[00:09:26] AJ Mac: For anybody who's listening to this episode here, if you have the goal or the dream to be a published author, do it. You can listen to this podcast and everybody who joins Mr. Devin on this this journey being a guest on this awesome podcast that he has here in this platform, you can listen to every single one of them talk about their dreams, their goals of how to start and how they started, but it will not be possible for you unless you actually put pen to paper and do it. Do not let fear get in the way of your goals and your dream.

[00:10:01] Devin Davis: A special things to Aaron, author name AJ Mac, for joining me today on Writing in the Tiny House. He is working hard on the next several books of his series. And I am excited to see when those are going to come out. If you are interested in ordering or reading the Gem State Siege by AJ Mac, follow the link in the show notes and it'll get you there.

[00:10:26] And that is it for today. Thank you so much for my patrons. Without them this show can not be possible. If you wish to become a patron, patreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse. You can get early access to these episodes. You can get an additional episode, and you can get quality time with me over our exclusive chat rooms on Discord. Follow me on Instagram. My handle is @authordevindavis and on Twitter, my handle is @authordevind. Thank you so much for listening. We will see you next week and have fun writing.

Check out this episode!

#writing #writer #author #fiction #am writing #wip

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dailyaudiobible · 3 years

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5/22/21 DAB Chronological Transcription

Psalm 95, 97, 98-99

It's the twenty second day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible Chronological. I'm Jill. I am happy to be here with you because I'm on this journey with you as we are journeying through the Bible in chronological order every single day for a year. And it's truly my pleasure and my most humble honor to be reading the word of God for you and with you along on this journey. Today, we're reading in the Psalm and we're reading Psalm ninety five, Psalm ninety seven, ninety eight and ninety nine. And we are still this week in the English Standard version. Psalm ninety five. Commentary:

Well, guys, I'm going to be honest, it's been a really hard week for us. I mentioned a few days ago Brian lost a mentor of his that left an indelible mark on his life. And it is no small statement. It's the absolute truth that the podcast would not be in effect without his mentor, Bernard Terry, who taught him music, who taught him how to navigate his way through a studio and the industry which ultimately brought him to here. And then the next day, I lost a friend. That was my fifth grade teacher, Mr. Chuck Flowers. And today Mr. Flowers was laid to rest, his memorial was today. And just in the midst of some other tough things. And, you know, I don't like to make this so personal that it takes away from the Bible, but I also know that it's sharing in the struggle that makes us relatable with each other, that we can identify our own struggle if we never hear that somebody else's struggle then we sit in the shame and the feelings that we're all alone and that nobody understands what we're going through. And that's just not true. I actually wish there were more people in ministry that were willing to be vulnerable with the struggle and not just always talking about the overcoming high mountaintop experiences. Those are wonderful. They're rightfully celebrated. But there's something very powerful about when we share our pain, when we share our struggles. And my heart is heavy today, thinking about Mr. Flowers. And the only reason why I am mentioning this is because you have those people in your lives that when you look back and reflect, you undoubtedly know there was a changing point in your own life. Like I did not proceed the same after this happened. And Mr. Flowers was that for me, he was a kind, gentle, yet strong, solid rock in his faith. Steadfast, fun, fair, just honorable, good, great man. If he had you as a student, he knew everyone in your family by name, he knew of your parents. Just an unforgettable year and still not to the reason why I'm mentioning it. Still just explaining him to you, Mr.Flowers, was someone that was always safe. We were safe with him. He was trustworthy. And I find those qualities irreplaceable in humanity. Where I'm landing. This is I found out last year. Let me back up just a little bit. We connected about ten years ago on Facebook and we just exchanged sentiments. And of course, he asked by name of every single one of my family members. And I'm a big fan of letting people know the impact that they've had on our lives in this life and not after they're gone in a room full of strangers. And so I did that often and I would just reach out and let them know how much I still value the lessons that he taught. And you can imagine my shock when I found out last year that he and his family went through the Daily Audio Bible together with the entire family, and they would just keep this running thread of conversation going in a family text. Mr. Flowers son, whom I graduated with years ago, listened to the Daily Audio Bible for several years before he ever knew that Brian was my husband and that we graduated together. And I think Brian mentioned something of my music and in the name and because I stayed with my maiden name, Dan recognized it and we connected. So I know that he listened. It just was something else to know that your teacher, who taught you and influenced your life in such a way. That it is forever changed is then partaking in something that you're doing and hoping that it matters in this life. And so I just really wanted to honor him today as he's laid to rest. His sons are are wonderful. One is pastor and a counselor, and the other one works for the Food Bank of Ohio. So you can see that their heritage is rich and it lives strong through my friend Chuck Flowers. And I do so because he was a member of this community. He didn't miss for a year last year and 20 twenty. And so you may not have ever known him or that fact, but it just was really important for me to honor this man who has also left an indelible mark on my life. So Mr. Flowers is home, is in the presence of God, and I am thankful and grateful for the hope of eternity. But I'm not going to dismiss the grief and the pain that we feel here on this Earth just because they are home. It is quite a shock to our reality that this person that we have only known in this life is suddenly gone and will be for for the rest of our lives. So understanding where they are is right and beautiful. But honoring and understanding where we are at in this place of loss is also right and beautiful and necessary as a part of the grieving process. So thank you for allowing me the chance to honor this beautiful human being. Chuck Flowers today on the day that his family honors and puts into perspective the fullness of his life here on Earth. We thank you that while we mourn, while we grieve, while we experience loss here on this earth, that your presence is with us, that there can be holy moments in the pain and in the sadness and holy moments and the joy. Thank you for this community and how well they love one another, how well they bear one another's burdens, encouraging one another, praying for one another, seeing one another, sharing their experiences with one another. And I thank you, God, even for the pain, the pain of this life as Jesus himself said, blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. But we so quickly forget that he calls us blessed as we grieve, as we mourn, as we feel the loss, as we sit with the heaviness. So we thank you for your word. That is life to us. That speaks to us. That is your presence with us, the living, breathing word of God that never returns void. We absolutely love you. And worship you and thank you for this day. Right now here today, these moments together right here. In the name of the father and the son. And the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Announcements:

Daily Audio Bible, that's the place to go, guys, if you want to take a look around and check out the website, check out the prayer wall if you would like to post a prayer request there. There's people that will pray for you. If you want to check out the resources, the initiatives, the music as played in the background is sold there. There's a journal that will help you enhance your journey. If you want to jot down some notes from the day, something that stuck out to you or something that God spoke to. You don't want to forget the black pencils. It's all- I could go on and on. Of course, the coffee. I'm a big fan of the coffee, but anything that you would want, you can check out at the Web page and also download the free app as well. If you would like to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, we thank you greatly, humbly and deeply for your partnership. We could not keep this running without you. You can do so by mail at DAB P.O. Box one nine nine six Springhill, Tennessee, three seven one seven four. If you have a prayer request, if you're calling in to pray for somebody that's previously called in asking for prayer, you can do that by hitting the red circle button up at the top right hand corner of your mobile phone or your tablet or whatever device you might be using. Or if you are calling on your phone, it's eight hundred five eight three two one six four. Thank you for praying for each other. Thank you for shouldering that load and bearing one another's burdens. It is truly a beautiful picture of the body of Christ. I love being on this journey with you. I truly do. I it gets old, I say it almost every day, but I literally cannot wait to turn the page together every single day. And see how the story unfolds. See what God speaks and see how the stories of our own lives are mirrored in the pages of God's holy word. So until tomorrow, I'm Jill. I love you, love one another.

Community Prayer Line:

Hi DABC, this is Riley from Colorado. I am actually a first time caller and I'm also kind of new to this scene. A friend referred me to this app back in December, and I started listening the first of January and have been listening up until now. I've been trying to figure out who I am religiously and spiritually, and this podcast has really helped me a lot and really sets my mood for the day. And how I go throughout my day is very different when I miss a day. But anyway, Jill, I just wanted to say thank you for making this environment so warm and welcoming. I've learned a lot. And like I said, I love listening every day. But the main reason I'm calling today is because I heard a prayer request from Emme from Illinois. And I cannot even begin to understand what you're going through. But I can tell that you're in a lot of pain. And I just want you to know that you are in my prayers and I'm thinking about you. All right. Thanks, guys.

Hi. This is Teresa from North Carolina, and this is in response to Emme from Illinois. Emme, just hearing your voice today and your plea for your marriage and your pregnancy just it just caught me on so many levels. I just wanted to pray for you so badly, and I did. And so I just want you to know that you're not alone, that you're loved, and you have a community of people that are loving you and praying for you. You mentioned that you had a safe place to go, and that probably may not be a bad idea right now. If you have a safe place to go, you might be good for you to step away and have some space and to pray. Pray for your husband. Pray that God's will be done. Pray for discernment. Pray for guidance. Pray for the broken hearts. Pray for your step children. Praying for somebody that has hurt us is probably the hardest thing to do. But God will honor that, whether it's in reunification or not. To have a healthy friendship if the marriage doesn't work out is equally as important. So let me just pray right now. Dear Heavenly Father, we just come to you on behalf of Emme in Illinois and her baby Lord. We come to you on behalf of their marriage. Lord, we ask that you be involved in every situation, every action. We ask that her husband come to know you as well, so he can love his family and treat them the way that they deserve to be treated. God, marriage is not hard. It is not for the weak. It is not for the weary. But we ask that you be in it. In Jesus name we pray. Emme, I am Teresa Levy on Facebook if you need to reach out. I'm also on Daily Audio Bible Chronological Friends. Thank you Lord for Emme from Illinois. Thank you that she loves you. She has a heart for you. Thank you that you're working in her life. Thank you. That you ordained the days of her life. Thank you that you before you lay the foundations of the earth, you knew that this day would come. Thank you. You're in control of all things. Thank you that you look at all the things and you're always there for us. Give you the praise for that. Thank you, Lord, for marriage. Thank you for her heart to look after her family. Thank you for her love- even foster children. Thank you, Lord. We give you the thanks, we pray, Lord, we bring up before you, Lord, we lay before your throne now and we ask you that you intervene in a situation that you show the light and the truth in a situation that the scales may fall off the eyes of either her or her husband or even both. Anywhere there is deception. Lord, we pray that your truth and your light will show the way. You are the author of marriage. You are the wealth of this institution. And we can only do it in your strength and your way. And it is our prayer today, Lord, that that be the case for Emme and her husband and the family. That your name will be glorified, that the situation that you put in place will flourish and be a light in the world that so despises it. That your ways and your kingdom will move forward in the name of Jesus we ask and we pray. Dear Emme from Illinois, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May he make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May he lift up his countenance to you and bring you peace. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted. He hears the cries of the righteous. His eye is on them. And I encourage you to bring every burden to the Lord. And be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, present your request to the Lord and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Dear God, I just wanna lift up Emme from Illinois. I know that she's having a really hard time in her marriage and with her pregnancy. And she's looking for guidance. So I just pray that you will guide her, that you will give her the answer she's looking for. I thank you for her and her faith and her life, Lord. And I just pray that you will be her comforter and that you will lead her to take steps one by one. To where you want her to be and and to to be able to live her life for you in your joy and in your peace and in the way that you want her to, Lord. And I just thank you that she is seeking you and that she is leaving the you know, the decisions to you, Lord, and I just pray that you will be crystal clear with her and that you will answer her in a way that she knows for sure that it's in your guidance. And and I just pray that you will bless her and her family and her children and her stepchildren in Jesus name. Amen. This is Radiant, Rachel.

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daleisgreat · 3 years

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Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season Seven

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-Finally, after three years of watching mostly one episode a week, I have finished my re-watch of all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation (season seven trailer)! I am thrilled to present my final entry here chronicling my adventures with the crew of the Enterprise! For the final season I was able to slightly bump up my viewing habits and mostly stuck to watching two episodes a week, and thus I was able to make faster progress on this final season! Somehow, my horrendously outdated Samsung Galaxy S7 phone has managed to barely limp along this entire journey with me, and the gloriously awful pics featured throughout this article are courtesy of that wonderful device. -Season six wrapped with an enticing cliffhanger to “Descent” where Lore managed to work some sinister sorcery to recruit a squadron of Borg and hack into the code banks of Data (Brent Spiner) in order to recruit him to join his cause. Season seven had a great kickoff to resolve this new threat, and had a satisfying conclusion at putting an end to Lore once and for all. I would rank “Descent” on the higher end of TNG two-part arcs, as the Lore/Borg/Data combination proved to be an intriguing antagonist to see how they would be dealt with.

Picard is ready for combat on the left, while falling ill on the Enterprise leads to crew members tripping with some wild illusions on the right! -I was a little bummed to see a complete lack of appearances from Whoopi Goldberg in her role as Guinan in the final season. I am presuming it must have been scheduling conflicts as she has always been in high demand, especially around this time just a couple years after her Oscar win for Best Supporting Actress in Ghost. Whoopi would return as Guinan in two of the four Star Trek movies based on TNG cast.

-A pair of recurring characters that did return for their final episodes this season are Michelle Forbes as Ensign Lt. Ro Lauren and Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher. Ro is fresh off tactical training for an important undercover mission that conclusively decides her fate with Starfleet as she would never appear in another Star Trek series or film again after this. According to my research I was surprised to learn it took a last minute agreement with Forbes within a week before filming to get her to reprise her role as she was starting to distance herself from the brand after initial plans to make her a mainstay on Deep Space Nine fizzled. Wesley Crusher’s final appearance had a better payoff in “Journey’s End” where during a vision quest he finally is deemed ready by a previous guest character, The Traveler (Eric Menyuk), to join him on a mystical journey to see Wesley fulfill his supernatural potential. I had no idea they were going to payoff these vague promises The Traveler alluded to in Wesley way back in season two, so big props to the cast and crew making that happen! -Other past recurring characters returned, but only to see them casted in middling-to-disappointing episodes. This is the case for Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz) in the head-scratching “Genesis” episode that has the Enterprise staff fall victim to a virus that de-evolves them into various primates. The love-or-hate mother of Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), Lwaxana (Majel Barrett), has a major sendoff in her final episode where we learn all about her tragic backstory.

-Speaking of mediocre episodes, season seven has a bit more than previous seasons. A two-parter sees Riker and Picard go undercover to form a fake mutiny to sniff out a Vulcan double agent, and while it is not terrible by any means, the whole arc seems bloated and the second episode feels unnecessary. “Phantasms” is as bizarre as the dreams Data (Brent Spiner) has in the episode, but Data later has a redeeming character episode in “Inheritance” where he meets his mother…..then later hits another stumble in “Thine Own Self” where his radioactive experiments causes a planet’s population to become seriously ill. I will give season seven the benefit of the doubt for the noticeable bump up in lackluster episodes because several of the bonus interviews own up to this and attribute it to the cast and crew being spread thin with the final season of TNG, the second season of Deep Space Nine and being in pre-production of the first season of Voyager and the upcoming movie with the TNG crew, Generations. -The holodeck’s sendoff in TNG, “Emergence” is a decent affair that sees the crew go aboard the Orient Express to solve the mystery of how the holodeck becomes self-aware. The episode had a few promising moments, but could have been better. While I enjoyed the quality of holodeck episodes overall in TNG, from what I understand the holodeck episodes greatly suffer going forward and falls victim to holodeck malfunctions and sexual fantasy tropes.

Worf once again has a strong set of character-focused episodes this season. You have not lived until witnessing Worf adopt a cat for an episode, and experience a birthday party time-loop. -Worf (Michael Dorn) has one of the strongest slate of character episodes this season. Seeing Worf being a curmudgeon at his birthday party was pulled off to perfection! “Homeward” is a feel-good family episode where Worf resolves his rocky relationship with his foster brother, Nikolai (Paul Sorvino). The best Worf-centered episode is saved for last where he trains Alexander (James Sloyan) in the arts of becoming a Klingon warrior with the help of a mysterious Klingon friend.

-A couple other episodes that made strong impressions on me this season are “The Pegasus” and “Lower Decks.” In the former, Terry O’ Quinn of Lost fame, appears here as a higher-up from Starfleet to track down the lost USS Pegasus, but Picard (Patrick Stewart) eventually discovers a grand cover-up that has an enticing way of finding the truth of what Quinn’s character is hiding. “Lower Decks” is entirely focused on the background Ensigns and ancillary characters like Nurse Ogawa (Patti Yasutake). The last couple years saw the streaming service, Paramount+ (formerly CBS All Access) launch a Star Trek: Lower Decks animated series with the very same premise, and if you are a fan of the cartoon, you owe it to yourself to track down this episode as its source material. “Interface” and “Bloodlines” are both strong episodes dealing with long forgotten family members. The former has Geordi (LeVar Burton) risking his life with prototype tech to save his mother (Madge Sinclair), and the latter deals with Picard’s surprise of finding out he had a son (Ken Olandt) from a decades-prior relationship.

-Now to the moment of truth, it is time to cover the final two-part episode, “All Good Things…” The series finale naturally focuses on Jean-Luc as he finds himself constantly time-warping between three different time periods to solve a new challenge bestowed onto him by none other than Q (John de Lancie). I loved how they brought it back full-circle with one of the time periods emanating from the same setting as the original pilot episode of TNG where Q puts the then-newly assembled Enterprise crew on trial. The cast and crew hold nothing back for the final episode with an enthralling narrative as Picard pieces together Q’s final challenge, and has an emotional final scene where after seven seasons, Picard finally joins his crew for a round of poker. -Here is the paragraph with my obligatory kudos to the countless hours spent remastering TNG in HD for the BluRay set. I am not a video-phile and cannot immaculately explain with the proper tech verbiage on how they did it. All I can say is the staff painstakingly made it look like they shot it today, and it does not have any of the old fuzzy standard definition effects that would happen when forcing an SD resolution onto an HD set. Just watch this indicative video that overlays the remastered HD transfer over the SD version to see for yourself. I will also give yearly props to the podcast, Star Trek: The Next Conversation which chronicles every individual episode of TNG and has served as the best supplementary listening material to get the most out of every episode for me. The podcast took a hiatus during the pandemic, and only recently picked up again and are only a couple episodes into season seven as of this writing, so I will pat myself on the back at catching up to them when I was nearly a season and a half behind them when I started from the beginning of TNG.

-You guys know I love covering the bonus features, and season seven of the BluRay is absolutely jacked with them with previous bonus interviews and specials, and all new HD extras. According to my notes, it all added up for just over five hours of bonus materials, and that is not including a handful of commentary tracks on selected episodes. Going over each and every piece of bonus content will kill me, so instead I will highlight the handful that I got the most out of: -----Captain’s Tribute (16 min) – Stewart gives loving testimonials to the cast and crew. A lesson he learned from a dialog with Michael Dorn and LeVar Burton was a key takeaway here. -----In Conversation: Lensing ST: TNG (42 min) - This one is a new HD extra aimed at special effects enthusiasts where a roundtable discussion with camera operators and directors of photography reunite to talk shop of the many highs and lows of on the set production. While a fair amount of trade vernacular went right over my head, they provided ample context and their enthusiasm for their craft is irresistible!

I know it is asking a lot to dive into the many hours of bonus interviews, but nearly most of it is incredibly insightful and well worth your time! -----Starfleet Moments & Memories (30 min) – Awesome feature showcasing the camaraderie and humor between takes that indicates a true sense of friendship among the cast and crew. -----Closed Set: Tour of Real Enterprise (11 min) – The Okundas give a private, narrated, tour of the Enterprise filled with fun facts like how the set for sickbay gained a reputation among cast and crew as “nap-bay.” Every person should have their own nap-bay! -----Journeys End: The Saga of TNG (45 min) – Original 1994 TV special hosted by Jonathan Frakes celebrating the end of an era. ----Sky’s the Limit: Eclipse of TNG (89 min) – Three part special with part one primarily focused on the cast and crew having a lot of projects on their plate the final year and lovingly throwing shade at Picket Fences for stealing their Emmy award! Part two interviews various directors of episodes about their process, and Seth McFarlane shares a special moment he had with a fan on how the show saved their life. The third part interviews a lot of the cast on how they felt the show wrapped, with a couple highlights being Sirtis not being fond of the Worf/Deanna courtship, and Patrick Stewart remarking when asked about future projects that he would consider them, but thought they would ultimately be unnecessary. This was obviously recorded several years before Stewart would return as Picard in the current Paramount+ series, Picard.

-Suffice it to say, the extra features do not disappoint! As I foreshadowed above, there is an apparent dip in quality this season overall compared to the high bar set from seasons three through six, but I will cut the cast and crew some slack since they were seriously overworked during the 1993-94 season. There are still many excellent episodes though as I dissected above, and a terrific series finale that puts the best damn bow they possibly could on the TV series. Thank you so much for joining me on this ride over the past three years and bearing with me on my never-ending entries covering the series. If you missed out on previous entries, click here to see all my previous season recaps of The Next Generation, or click here to continue my journey with TNG crew with my reviews of all the Star Trek motion pictures.

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#star trek #Star Trek TNG #picard #data #Patrick Stewart #Brent Spiner #jonathan frakes #gates mcfadden #Marina Sirtis #levar burton #Michael Dorn #Wil Wheaton #whoopi goldberg #dwight schultz

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wineanddinosaur · 3 years

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EOD Drinks With Garrett Oliver, Brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery

In this special episode of “End Of Day Drinks,” VinePair’s editorial team is joined by Garrett Oliver, brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery. Oliver is a man who wears many fancy hats, but the past year has seen him stuck inside like the rest of us. This, he explains, led to the launch of the Michael James Jackson Foundation for Brewing & Distilling.

Oliver tells us how 2020 events sparked a realization that being Black and “seen” isn’t as good as actively bringing others into the fold. He sees formal education as the key to long-term careers for BIPOC in beer and spirits.

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Cat Wolinski: Hello, and welcome to VinePair’s “End of Day Drinks” Podcast. I am Cat Wolinski, VinePair’s senior editor, and I’m joined today by VinePair’s editorial team including Joanna Sciarrino, Katie Brown and Emma Cranston, and Elgin Nelson. Our guest today is Garrett Oliver, who many of us know as the brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery. He’s also the author of “The Brewmaster’s Table,” editor in chief of “The Oxford Companion to Beer,” a James Beard award winner, and lots of other things. Garrett, welcome to the show.

Garrett Oliver: Thanks for having me.

C: I really appreciate you calling in today. I know it’s not as fun as having you in the office over some beers or some cocktails, which I think you also tend to enjoy.

O: Hopefully pretty soon. I’m fully juiced up with Moderna. I’m so happy to actually see people again.

C: I am very excited for everybody who’s getting their shots, so congratulations! There are a lot of things that we would like to hear from you about today, from the Michael J. Jackson Foundation, the Museum of Food and Drink exhibition, and the Brooklyn Brewery, of course. The new beers, the continuing growth abroad, including in Chile. Now, what I really like to start with is: What does a day in the life of Garrett Oliver look like? How has your role as the brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery changed over the course of the last year through the pandemic?

O: Well, I would say that thankfully, I have not been ill at all. I haven’t even had a common cold. Outside of that, my wife might have been more radically changed, I would say, than most people, because my normal year would have included about 10 countries and meeting thousands of people. It’s certainly bizarre to go from that to being stuck inside your own house. I was actually traveling so much that, even though I didn’t really complain about it, I actually wanted to spend more time at home. Watch out for what you wish for, because I got a lot more of it than I was bargaining for. I tried to, as everyone has, make the best of it, but it’s been a bizarre year.

C: Yeah, I was going to say I can’t imagine how a globe-trotting, dinner-party-hosting man of mystery like yourself has been operating in these circumstances. I know one of the big things that you were able to accomplish this year was launching the Michael J. Jackson Foundation, and you recently announced the first five award recipients. I would love to hear more about the foundation, how you created it, and how these scholarships will honor the legacy of your good friend.

O: Oh, well, thanks for that. I didn’t lose 10 pounds, I didn’t learn French or read the great book if I ever had the time. In the wake of the social movement that we saw last summer, these were plans that I already had. But with the globe-trotting part, came a difficulty in focusing on a task this large. It’s a strange thing. It gave me the opportunity to actually focus on the founding of the foundation. Now, what the Michael James Jackson Foundation for Brewing and Distilling does is actually pretty simple. We provide funding. Let me go back, I will say we award scholarship awards for technical education in brewing and distilling. I was just being interviewed about this today by some folks from Brazil, and they were asking about what the American brewing industry looks like. Even though various racial groups that are not of European extraction are nearly half the country, they make up only a couple of percent altogether of people working in brewhouses and distilling houses. There are lots of historical reasons for this. People tend to think that this is because African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, and indigenous people are not really into craft beer, which is not true. This was something that people made up. Not true at all, number one. Number two, there are a number of reasons why this has happened. Many of us in the industry have actually participated in the perpetuation of this situation, even without intending to. I think what we’re doing with the foundation is simply moving one toggle. One of the barriers is that you need to either have experience, or you need to get an education, a technical education, if you want to work and have a future in brewing or distilling. Education is very expensive. It is worthwhile but very expensive. African-Americans, for example, have 10 percent of the family assets of European Americans in the United States. I want to repeat that. Ten percent. People find that difficult to believe but it’s true. I’m not talking about income. I’m talking about money that you might put your hands on to pay for something. Ten percent. So when you have a course that costs $10,000, $16,000, this becomes a nearly insurmountable barrier for the vast majority of people of color in the United States. You will also hear this barrier of wanting somebody with two or three years of experience. Well, where are you going to get those? If there’s nobody there, then nobody can have two to three years of experience. If you can’t afford the education, you can’t get there. This means perpetuating the situation essentially forever, so we’re looking to break that cycle.

C: Yes, and you’ve awarded some really interesting and inspiring individuals who you can talk more about, if you like.

O: They’re inspiring and amazing people. We are expecting that in future years, we’ll get to a point where we are going to be able to take people who don’t even have a foot in the door of the brewing industry or the distilling industry and bring them in at this early stage. We’re starting with people who have a foot in the door. Maybe they’re even doing well, but they don’t have a technical background that will give them a career. It’s similar to working in a kitchen. You can become a good cook in a kitchen being taught by the chef, by rote. If nobody ever took you through all the backgrounds of things and how to make all the foundational sauces, it is going to be hard for you to advance and become a great all-around chef. It’s possible to be a great cook without actually having the training to be a great chef. Now, it’s not the only way that you can become a great chef, professional training, but it is one path. It is the professional training path that we are facilitating for people.

Joanna Sciarrino: Hi, Garrett, this is Joanna. I was wondering what the process was like in finding these recipients?

O: First, we put it out, and we did it entirely over social media. They went out in two rounds, so when people got in touch with us, then they were let through a gate to a place where they could upload all sorts of stuff. We tried to lower the barriers so it wasn’t a complicated thing to do. People could upload videos that would then go into a file for us. We have nine board members. We actually spent hours and hours reviewing every one of 100 or so applicants that came in. It came down to about 14 finalists and we interviewed all of them. Then, there were just many hours of discussion before we arrived at five individuals. It’s also important, I think, to note that I hope I’m going to be able to live up to and we will be able to live up to this as an ambition. If people did not get this particular scholarship at this time, we don’t view that as the end of the process of trying to work with them. As I was saying, there are many paths. There are other scholarships. There are people we know who are offering internships. There are all sorts of things that are going on, and what we’re looking to do is to use the access and connections that we have to help out anybody who comes in front of us and is serious. Even if someone did not win the scholarship, that does not mean they won’t hear from me next week with three other opportunities that are not directly through the MJF. I regard the work that’s visible as being the 20 percent of the iceberg above the water in the cliché, and the 80 percent is below the water. The 80 percent is actually the bulk of the work which is not the part that people are donating money for, which is paying for technical education, but it’s at least as important. We have already, well before this, gotten people jobs where they have been offered equity as brewers in new breweries. That is at least as important as what we’re visibly doing.

C: Yeah, it seems there are more of these internship opportunities. We had Beer Kulture working with several organizations. We had Tiesha Cooke and the Bronx Brewery on the show recently with these technically focused training opportunities, which is certainly a barrier. It makes sense to me, too, coming from the Brooklyn Brewery, as a much larger organization and one that is focused on future thinking in terms of quality control and learning those basics. The rules that you can’t break and then the ones that you can, in order to become successful in these fields.

O: Yeah, and there are a lot of people who came up as I did the old-fashioned way. Some people start as the dishwasher or they are behind the bar or they get an opportunity to work in the brewhouse. They show some aptitude and work their way up but possibly when the time comes and someone says, “OK, I would like you to change the recipe so that it’s much more bitter, the color goes this way, and it’s slightly less sweet.” That person may or may not know what to do, because they’ve been taught how to brew, sure, but they haven’t been taught the underlying science. One way or another, you need to fill all that in if you’re actually going to have a career rather than a job. Jobs are great, but we are hoping to help people build careers, and the people to whom we’ve given these scholarship awards, we expect to see them in positions of influence where they are going to be able to hire other people. Eventually, I hope, we will see tasting rooms and taprooms that actually look like America. Because right now, we all know that they don’t. As I’ve said to many people, “OK, imagine this. If you are a person of European extraction, suppose you love natural wine and you’re really into it, or you love cocktails, craft beer, but every time you wanted to have these things in a public setting, everybody in there was Black. You were the only white person in the whole place, every time. How would that be for you?” If the answer to that is, “Oh, that would be fine,” one, you’re probably lying and two, you’re a bizarre person. No, it’s not normal. It doesn’t look normal, it doesn’t feel normal. That’s the world that people of color live in this country and in this business. When we walk in, we’re often the only one in the room, and it’s bizarre.

C: I am heavily nodding my head, but you can’t see me. Yes, that does sound super uncomfortable.

O: Yeah, when you reverse it, people say, “Ohhh.”

C: Exactly, then you notice.

O: Yes, you notice. If you’re white, you never noticed that there was only one Black person in the room. You’re there with your friends. You’re doing what you’re doing. Why would you notice that? It is the truth of what goes on, especially at the higher end of food and drink and whatever else in the United States. It’s not that people aren’t interested, it’s not that they don’t have the money, in many cases, to at least afford a beer in these places. It’s partially that there is this vibe being given off that you’re not welcome in here. Part of that vibe is not actually hiring anybody or having people in the business who might bring their friends and relatives to your business and spread the love of what’s supposed to be going on in the world of drinks.

C: I totally agree. It’s something I found really interesting with some of the biggest leaders around racial equity and equality in beer over the last year. We heard this with Marcus Baskerville from Weathered Souls around the “Black is Beautiful” campaign. You didn’t know you’d end up an activist. You start looking into your own experience and then realizing you have this role or job where you didn’t face that much adversity personally. Then, you realize there are so many reasons behind you being the only one there in that room. Is it accurate to say that you had a similar feeling around the time you launched the Michael J. Jackson Foundation?

O: Absolutely. I have to say that to a certain extent when people would talk about intersectionality, I didn’t really understand what it meant when I read the word, but I didn’t really understand a lot of parts of what it truly meant in real life. Look, there were times when I was poor, where they came and turned the lights and gas off. I mean, poor poor. But by and large, for most of my life, I grew up fairly middle class. Yes, I had teachers say and do racist things to me, but I grew up in the ‘60s. We powered our way through a lot of situations.

C: Wow. Did you grow up in New York?

O: Yes, I grew up in Queens, New York. Growing up, I had parents who really drove home the importance of education. I saw many people who were every bit as smart if not smarter than me, who had wonderful families that got shoved to the wayside by the tremendous drag forces of this society trying to put you down. Just because I managed to claw my way here is not in some way indicative. It’s like people saying “Oh, well, things have changed, Obama has been president for eight years.” Well, look around. That has not done anything for the average person walking up and down the street. It was awesome, but it hasn’t fundamentally changed people’s lives. I came to realize that representation was not simply being there and being visible. It’s great to be visible, but that does not mean that we’ve done anything for anybody.

C: You can still be doing very much and inspiring people. Obviously, you accomplished many things in your 27 or so years at the Brooklyn Brewery, but yes, it’s also looking at how you can bring more people in.

O: You get to a point where you have political and social capital of some sort. I watched, over the past year or so, people who have a voice out there, like Tom Colicchio, whom I’ve known for 25 years, speaking out on social issues. I would say to myself, “Well, if I have a platform and people are going to listen, then what are you going to do with it beyond being able to get yourself into reservations in places that are tough to get into?” The fact that the chef will take your phone call is awesome, but are you actually using that only for yourself, or are you going to do something for somebody? It became important to me over this last year that whatever position I might have achieved becomes meaningful beyond me. Michael Jackson, who we’re talking about — obviously, your listeners will know that we are not talking about the pop star. A lot of people don’t really realize at that point, years on from his prime, what a massive figure he was in food and drink in the 20th century. Craft beer as we know it worldwide almost certainly would not exist without his writings. He sold about 15 million books in 20 languages. Nobody came anywhere close to him. I don’t know whether the old wine writers of the day like Hugh Johnson ever sold that many books, but I doubt that they were that influential, but they were big names in their day. Michael was very distinctly and noticeably anti-racist, and he did things about it. Sometimes it shocked people, including in 1991 or 1992 when he almost single-handedly put me on a panel of six people to choose the Champion Beer of Britain. You had a bunch of people sitting there in that room in London, a room where no Black people had ever been, and you had a young Black guy from Queens. “Who is this guy and why should he be here to choose champion beer of Britain?” At the time, Michael was basically a deity. He would say, “Garrett is the guy.” It was things like that, the wind in my sail, that helped me get to where I am now. The American ideal of the self-made man is a truly corrosive and ugly thing. It is not true, it’s a lie. It’s always a lie. I think that we should be relying on one another because we have to.

Katie Brown: Garrett, this is Katie. I have a question that relates to this. I was wondering what you think that breweries and beer drinkers can do to follow in those footsteps and be anti-racist. This past year, there’s been a lot of beer collaborations and there have been ways to donate. What do you think are the most helpful ways and the best things that people are doing to help?

O: Well, I don’t know who it was that said it, somebody a lot smarter than me, but they were talking in this case about Black people. You can apply it to whatever group you want to try to bring some benefits to. What they said is, “OK, whatever it is that you’re doing, you feel like you’re doing, if Black people can’t use it to get a job, eat it, drink it, spend it, or live in it, then the person for whom you were doing this work is you.” When you think about that, you understand that things are not tangible. For example, the notion of “Oh, I became president, I did this. I did that.” Yes, I went to a couple of marches, too. I’m not saying people shouldn’t go to marches, but don’t fool yourself into believing that is direct action if nobody can do anything with it. Then, you are not bringing the benefit that you thought you were. When I went to approach this, I said what would be actually effective? What would actually change somebody’s life? What would actually put them in a position of power within this industry where they could affect change? The MJF has turned out to be very streamlined in its focus, and we are not at all saying that this is the only path. There are 20 different paths. We’re just choosing one because to say we’re going to do everything is, one, a function of the ego because you’re not going to save the world. You’re not going to do everything for everybody. Why don’t you just try to do one thing as well as you can? That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to mostly do this one thing as well as we can, and we think that it will make some difference. Then, you will have 20, 30, 50, or 100 other organizations who will make some difference, and together we’ll all get something done.

Elgin Nelson: Hi Garrett, this is Elgin. This is a perfect segue to what I wanted to touch on, which is mainly about the Museum of Food and Drink. For our listeners that are familiar, the museum uses exhibits to change the way people think about food and drink. I know the museum holds exhibits that highlight African-Americans in culinary, brewing, and distilling. Much to that effect of the National Museum of African American History and Culture that serves the same way with the Museum of Food and Drink. Can you speak on your experience and your role with that?

O: Well, it’s certainly been exciting preparing for that exhibit, which is called African American: Setting the Nation’s Table. We were just about to open that exhibit at the top of Central Park on Fifth Avenue and that’s when the pandemic struck. We had just about finished the exhibit when the pandemic prevented us from having our opening gala and then, of course, from opening the exhibition at all. Now, what the exhibition is about is the largely untold history of African-Americans and American food. People tend to think that, “OK, the African-American contribution to the American food world is in soul food and barbecue,” which is absolutely true. What people don’t know is that even haute cuisine was brought into the United States, practiced, taught, promulgated, and developed entirely by Black people. If people have this idea like, “Oh, some dude must have come over from France in 1790,” no, there was no French dude. It was James Hemings, who when he arrived back — still enslaved to Thomas Jefferson after Thomas Jefferson’s stint in Paris as our ambassador — he had been put through all the major kitchens of Paris and came back as by far the most accomplished chef in the United States. Then, he started to pass that down, and then it moved up through the hotel systems, which is where haute cuisine comes from in the United States, including the Grand Hotel, which basically had an all-Black staff. That input is something that came to us entirely through African-Americans, and we have been cut out of the story that we actually told. The same is true in brewing, where African- Americans did almost all the brewing in the United States up through the Civil War. Who do you think was actually brewing the beer? Every single African society in the South, East, or West, traditionally, is centered around brewing. Brewing is central to all African societies. Yet beer is seen as European. We have a partial history told in so many things. This is actually not only an inspirational but fascinating history, because people have been told that they were not part of and their families, were not part of something that they were, in fact, integral to. The Museum of Food and Drink did a great job telling the story of Chinese food in America, which is totally fascinating. That story was also tied up in racism, politics, etc. A lot of people had never heard of the Chinese Exclusion Act until they came to an exhibit that was ostensibly about Chinese food in America. Then, they were reading about how we ended up having Chinese food as a major American food to the extent that it is the most popular type of restaurant in the United States. People will look at it, and say, “Well, wait a minute, that’s interesting, how did that happen?” Somehow, Asians disappeared personally from this scene. You go back to the ‘40s, ‘50s, and ‘60s when you can start to hear about great chefs, and you don’t know any Chinese people. Almost nobody does. They became the top propagators in that type of restaurant in the United States, and nobody ever heard of them. That’s what America does. It wipes out a lot of people’s histories. Part of one of the many things the Museum of Food and Drink is doing is telling people the truth. That truth — which is often fun, interesting, sometimes disturbing, but always enlightening — about their food.

Emma Cranston: Hey, this is Emma. I just want to circle way back really quick and ask one last question for the listeners at home. Especially for those looking to learn about beer and brewing through the internships or programs you’ve discussed. I’m curious about how they can study up at home or outside of a brewery. I read that you’re the editor-in-chief of “The Oxford Companion to Beer,” so how can people harness that text, whether they’re beginners or pros at home? What role does the text play for both those who are essentially self-taught, as well as those who may be training to be cicerones? Also, how do you feel that text influences the larger beer world?

O: Well, thanks for the question. I’m certainly gratified by my first book, “The Brewmaster’s Table,” which came out in 2003. That book is still in print and sells more than it did 10 years ago. I think that speaks to the development of craft beer in the United States and people’s interest in it. The fact that what we used to call the gas station beer list, where they have had a few of the major brands, which you would see in top restaurants, is no longer the beer list you’re going to see. It may not be as developed as it should be, but you’re going to see some good stuff on almost every restaurant list which you didn’t use to see. Both of those books, “The Brewmaster’s Table” and “The Oxford Companion to Beer” are widely used, which is great. There are a number of other great books that are out there. We’re reading Randy Mosher’s “Tasting Beer” and a number of other ones. Cicerone is doing a great job of basic education all the way to advance education for people, especially those who are going to be on the serving side of the equation of beer, which is, frankly, where the rubber meets the road. Having young people in the restaurant and sommeliers as well, understanding the world of beer. I think these days people tend to think that a sommelier is a wine waiter. That’s not a sommelier. An actual sommelier is not a wine waiter. The sommelier is somebody who’s supposed to curate your experience of drink. That includes beer, wine, and cocktails. Real sommeliers like Roger Dagorn, who was at Chanterelle in those major years. Eric Asimov and I went there once about 15, 20 years ago, and Roger took us through the most amazing tasting of sakes. At the time, I didn’t really know anything about sake. I drank sake, but he was taking us through sweet, dark, and aged sakes. He knew all about these, plus he could talk his way around beer and knew his way around a cocktail. That’s a sommelier. You don’t see those as much as we used to. Juliette Pope was another one when she was at Gramercy Tavern. A real sommelier. I think that these books are helpful when it comes to building that culture back into the drinks culture. There are so many online resources as well. We’re just learning the basics at home. The great thing about beer is that, frankly, your entry level is about as easy as it possibly could be. You can have a good article, go to Whole Foods, spend $20, and get yourself a good beginning education in four, five, or six different beers, and understand style. The great thing about that is if you understand a little bit about beer, what it tastes like, what the various types are, and how you might want to do stuff with them and with food, your life will become slightly better every day for the rest of your life.

C: Oh, so true!

O: Isn’t that the best you can possibly do? There are many things in your life that are going to make things a little bit better everyday. You discover jazz, and your life becomes a little bit better every day for the rest of your life because now you discover jazz, whereas maybe a few weeks ago, you’d never really listen to jazz. Things are better. That is the critical thing that we’re able to do is learn something brand new. When I discovered fermented fish sauce and I really discovered how to use it at home and cooking, it changed my life.

K: It is such a game changer.

C: Oh, my gosh. All very true words.

O: Beer is the secret sauce.

C: Beer is a secret sauce to all things. That’s a really great way to end our conversation. Thank you, Garrett, so much for sharing these pearls of wisdom. I hope — and I know that the rest of the team hopes — that we can share a beer with you sometime in person soon.

O: Absolutely. Thanks for all the great work you guys are doing at VinePair. I’m reading your articles and stuff online all the time. It’s great to see people out there doing the work, because Lord knows, we need it.

C: Thank you so much. I really appreciate that.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of “EOD Drinks.” If you’ve enjoyed this program, please leave us a rating or a review wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps other people discover the show. And tell your friends. We want as many people as possible listening to this amazing program.

And now for the credits. “End of Day Drinks” is recorded live in New York City at VinePair’s headquarters. And it is produced, edited, and engineered by VinePair tastings director, yes, he wears a lot of hats, Keith Beavers. I also want to give a special thanks to VinePair’s co-founder, Josh Malin, to the executive editor Joanna Sciarrino, to our senior editor, Cat Wolinski, senior staff writer Tim McKirdy, and our associate editor Katie Brown. And a special shout-out to Danielle Grinberg, VinePair’s art director who designed the sick logo for this program. The music for “End of Day Drinks” was produced, written, and recorded by Darby Cici. I’m VinePair co-founder Adam Teeter, and we’ll see you next week. Thanks a lot.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article EOD Drinks With Garrett Oliver, Brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/eod-drinks-garrett-oliver-brooklyn-brewery/

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johnboothus · 3 years

Text

EOD Drinks With Garrett Oliver Brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery

Listen online

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Or Check out the conversation here

Garrett Oliver: Thanks for having me.

C: I really appreciate you calling in today. I know it’s not as fun as having you in the office over some beers or some cocktails, which I think you also tend to enjoy.

O: Hopefully pretty soon. I’m fully juiced up with Moderna. I’m so happy to actually see people again.

C: Yes, and you’ve awarded some really interesting and inspiring individuals who you can talk more about, if you like.

Joanna Sciarrino: Hi, Garrett, this is Joanna. I was wondering what the process was like in finding these recipients?

C: I am heavily nodding my head, but you can’t see me. Yes, that does sound super uncomfortable.

O: Yeah, when you reverse it, people say, “Ohhh.”

C: Exactly, then you notice.

C: Wow. Did you grow up in New York?

C: Oh, so true!

K: It is such a game changer.

C: Oh, my gosh. All very true words.

O: Beer is the secret sauce.

C: Thank you so much. I really appreciate that.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article EOD Drinks With Garrett Oliver, Brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/eod-drinks-garrett-oliver-brooklyn-brewery/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/eod-drinks-with-garrett-oliver-brewmaster-at-brooklyn-brewery

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teshknowledgenotes · 3 years

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PODCAST: Naval Ravikant & Tim Ferris Podcast - NOTES FROM TRANSCRIPT I FOUND WORTH WRITING NOTES ABOUT

Tim Ferriss: Well, this would be great. The one I’m going to read would be a great one for people to get really upset about. Or I would find it comical to look at the comments of people are upset, but the line is this: Imagine how effective you would be if you weren’t anxious all the time.

Why did you put this out? And have you seen highly anxious people become people who experienced very little anxiety? Is that something you’ve seen, but first, why did you put this up? What was behind it? And then have you seen anxious people become largely, I guess an anxious or non-anxious people.

Naval Ravikant: Yeah. Most of my tweets are not very deliberate or thought through. What’s happening is I’ve been thinking about some concept for months, years, whatever it’s been percolating. And then all of a sudden it’ll come to me. It’s sort of like one pithy sentence where I’m like, oh, this is how I will remember this thing. This is how I can distill this down into a pointer for myself, so that when I need to make decisions, I can retrieve that whole line of reasoning.

And so where this comes from is basically everybody, after a certain age, I am taking responsibility for my own happiness and peace and quality of life. And one of the things you learn after you make money is that money doesn’t make you happier. It takes care of your money problems, but it’s not necessarily going to put you in a place where you’re in some kind of bliss all the time.

In fact, there’s nothing out there that will make you happy forever. So you sort of have to take responsibility for guiding yourself in such a way that your mental state ends up where you want it. And so I’ve been working on my mental state and I have—working is a big word. I don’t even want to say I’ve been working on it, but I would say my mental state has gotten to a place which is much better than it used to be.

And people will often say, “Well I don’t want to do that because it’ll take away my ambition. I want to succeed right now.” And so I’ve thought about that a fair bit. And is that true or not? Well, it certainly, for me in the last few years, since I’ve become calmer, my effectiveness has gone through the roof and I’ve been more successful, but it’s hard to disambiguate that from, well, also, maybe you just later in your career, you’re in a better position for it and that’s a valid criticism.

So one of the things I’ve been trying to figure out is like, would I have been as successful and it’s hard to do the counterfactual obviously if I wasn’t as anxious, because anxiety comes from fear and it’s also a motivator. It makes you get off your butt. And one of the ways to make the anxiety go away, at least until the next piece of anxiety comes along, is to go do something about it.

So what is the role of anxiety? Well, firstly, I noted that pretty much everybody’s anxious all the time. It’s a rare human being who isn’t anxious and it makes sense. We’re alpha predators. We took over this earth and domesticated or killed all the other animals. And we did that by being the most paranoid, the most fearful, the most angry predators this world has ever seen.

So anxiety is built into the core of who we are. In fact, you could argue that all the mind does all day long is fear-based scenario planning for survival, and then maybe a little bit of green for replication. So anxiety is at the core level of who we are, but certainly some people are more anxious than others. There’s no question. And some people seem to get much calmer about it.

So which is more useful for effectiveness? So assuming that your goal is your motivation is intrinsic. You’re doing the thing because you love it or because you really want it, and you can separate that motivation from anxiety. Then I think you can take on certain superpowers. And we kind of all intrinsically know this. If you look at Samurai warriors, Miyamoto Musashi is in a duel with somebody else, you know that the person who is calmer is going to win.

In all those movies, it’s the one who’s incredibly still then swipes with a sword incredibly quickly, and is then still again, that’s the winner—the one who has a zen sense of mind. Similarly in The Terminator movies, part of the reason you fear the Terminator is because he’s a robot. He’s unstoppable, he’s implacable. You can’t argue with him. You can’t communicate with him. You can’t make him slow down.

And he has no remorse. He just keeps coming. Or in that old Clint Eastwood movie Unforgiven. The guy who wins the gunfight is the one who doesn’t flinch. He’s just keeping his cool while he’s loading his gun and shooting. He’s not like all over the place running around. So I just think we waste so much energy through anxiety that if you can be calm and still go about your business, it’s a superpower.

And I realized this myself recently, where I was in a conflict situation, business. It was a high conflict situation. It was unfortunate. We, I think we’ve solved it. But as I went through this high conflict situation, I’d been through one like it years before where I was much more anxious. And I remember that time period. And I remember how much I was sweating it and how nervous I was and how I went through bouts of fear and anger and how it kind of worked up I was the entire time, intense and didn’t get much sleep.

But this time I was incredibly calm and I was almost enjoying it because it was like practicing my craft. Now, of course it’s easy to do now because I have more money. But at the same time, it just didn’t bother me. It was just very mechanical. And because of that, I can be very effective about it and it can be effective about it while doing lots and lots of other things. My mind wasn’t constantly spinning in a whirlpool taking on 10 different problems and just fear-based scenario planning all the time.

Most of these things were never going to happen. So I do believe that being calm and still going about your business is the superpower. Now yes, if anxiety is your only motivator, then you have a problem. But I would argue the pure motivations don’t come out of anxiety.

Tim Ferriss: So let’s talk about attribution here. To what would you attribute the, I know this, that it’s difficult to isolate variables, et cetera, but if let’s just say like you have a family, so let’s just say one of your kids comes to you is like, “Dad, I’m suffering from a lot of anxiety. What should I do?”

Or you observe it and you want to help your kid out. What types of recommendations would you make? Or might you make? Another question if you prefer it is what has helped you to go from the whirlpool experience of anxiety in high conflict experience, round one versus calm Naval, and high conflict experience round two?

Naval Ravikant: Yeah. It’s really hard to separate all the pieces out. I mean, it comes from a combination of a philosophy, yoga meditation, and getting older, having kids. Like you, I’ve had some psychedelic experiences, but those are very far back in the past, just a distant memory at this point. But I would say the number one thing that has been very, very important for me is meditation.

And it’s a stupid thing to say, because so trite, everybody just says it now. But when I say meditation, I don’t mean sitting there and watching your breath or chanting a mantra. I mean, self-examination and meditation is a great way to do that self-therapy. It’s sitting there with your thoughts. So anxiety, this pervasive nonspecific anxiety where we’re just constantly on edge about everything, that comes from an unexamined life. I think it was Socrates who said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” I forget who said that quote—

Tim Ferriss: Something like that.

Naval Ravikant: But it’s—

Tim Ferriss: Aristotle, Socrates—

Naval Ravikant: One of those smart philosopher types, but it’s correct. It’s your unexamined life that is causing the problems. And you can examine it in multiple ways. You can examine it through you can have some crazy mushroom trip where it all comes out one night. You could do a lot of meditation sitting there with yourself and letting your mind run crazy.

And then seeing what’s actually in your mind that your mind wants to tell you, and have you listened to, and have you resolved that is unresolved. It could be through therapy. It could be through reading lots of philosophy and reflection and long walks. So there’s many, many ways to tackle it, but it’s that spending the time with yourself to examine why are you having these thoughts?

Think about it this way. We spend so much time in our relationships. Our relationships with our wives, our relationship with our colleagues, our relationships to our business partners, our relationship with our friends, the most important relationship you have is with yourself. It’s with this voice in your head that is constantly rattling every waking hour, it’s this crazy roommate living inside your mind who’s always chattering, always chattering, never shuts up and you can’t control these thoughts.

They just come up out of you don’t even know where, and those quality of your thoughts, those conversations you’re having in your head all the time. That is your world. That is the world you live in. That’s the worldview you have. That’s a lens you see through, and that’s going to determine the quality of your life more than anything else.

And if you want to see what the quality of your life actually is, put down the drink, put down the computer, put down the smartphone, put down the book, put down the headphones, just sit by yourself, doing nothing. And then you will know what the quality of your life actually is because that’s what you’re always running away from.

That’s why people, when they try to meditate they sit down, “I hate it. I can’t sit still.” Why? Because your mind is eating you alive. Your life is unexamined. Your mind is running in loops over things that it has not resolved. And because they’re not resolved when you run around your normal life. It’s not that those problems have gone away. It’s that they’re just there, they’re there, but they’re provoking anxiety.

And what you think of as the anxiety that’s kind of consuming you and you can’t identify the source. That’s just the tip of an iceberg poking out from underneath the water and underneath this giant pile of garbage of decisions that were made without too much thought of situations that you’re in, that you haven’t resolved, that you need to resolve, of problems that you have, or desires that you have that have gone unmet or unmanifested, or are being, or contradictions that you’re living in a ways that you, which you feel trapped.

So proper meditation, proper examination should ruin the life that you’re currently living. It should cause you to leave relationships. It should cause you to reestablish boundaries with family members and with colleagues. It should cause you to quit your job. It should cause you to change your eating patterns. It should cause you to spend more time with yourself.

It should cause it to change the books you read. It should cause us to change what your friends are. If it doesn’t do that, it’s not real examination. If it doesn’t come attached with destruction of your current life, then you can’t create the new life in which you will not have the anxiety.

Tim Ferriss: Or at least parts of it. Not necessarily whole cloth. So let’s dive into meditation because as you mentioned, it’s a term that is used a lot. And in the minds of most, it is represented by things that you just said, you do not do like the mantra-based meditation or following the breath. And you and I have meditated before.

I don’t know if your approach is still similar, but it is quite a—I’d hate to talk about trite paradigm shift in a sense, at least in the way that I experienced it alongside you, at one point, which was literally doing nothing for extended periods of time. I don’t know if that’s still the case, but could you describe the practice a bit because it was such a burden lifted in a sense when the pass-fail is removed.

And the experience that I had after say a week of doing this twice a day, which is not necessarily what people would do in normal life, but was pretty profound. So could you describe the current practice, which may be different from what I experienced.

Naval Ravikant: Yeah. I actually have two different things that I do, and I almost hate calling it meditation because everyone has in their mind, a preconceived notion of what meditation is. Let’s not even call it that. I would say that there are two self-examination practices that I do, and I don’t even call them practices anymore because sometimes I do them because I feel like them and I enjoy them, or because it feels right.

And sometimes I don’t because anything done routinely sort of becomes its own trap and is not going to get you anywhere. It just becomes like another spiritual high and other check box.

Tim Ferriss: Now is it fair though, to say that you’re able to opt-in and out now because you had a certain front-loading period—

Naval Ravikant: Correct.

Tim Ferriss:—of doing it consistently.

Naval Ravikant: Actually I’ll say the three different things that I do and I’ll go through them. The first, I just read a lot of philosophy, especially at night time before I go to bed.

Tim Ferriss: Which ones? Schopenhauer, Maxims? Who are we talking about?

Naval Ravikant: Yes, Schopenhauer, Western philosophy is my current favourite, although I’ve definitely moved around in that one. Eastern philosophy, I’ll read everything from Osho. I know he’s discredited and been cancelled, but fantastic—that makes me like him even more. Krishnamurti, I don’t know, Kapil Gupta, Rupert Spira. I mean, it’s all over the place. Anthony de Mello, he’s fantastic actually.

If going to start with one book. Start with Anthony de Mello’s A Way to Love or his book Awareness. They’re both really good, but there’s a ton of them. I basically read a lot of philosophers. Siddhartha, Vasistha’s Yoga, Bhagavad Gita, Tao Te Ching. I’m always going through one of these books at any given time and usually rereading for inspiration.

And I’ll read these at night. Usually, there’ll be one or two things I’ll catch on to, I’ll reflect on it before I go to sleep. So that is a form of self-examination and it’s not done because it’s a formula it’s done because I’m genuinely interested in these things. So it’s not work to me, it’s fun. The second thing that I do is which I’ve been doing for a long time now is just trying to be aware of my thoughts and not in a sit there and be like, “Oh, I’m going to be aware of my thoughts kind of way.”

But just realizing that a lot of these thoughts that come up are unbidden I don’t control them. It’s not like I decided to have this thought. I don’t even know what I’m saying to you right now. It’s coming out of my mouth at the same time as I’m thinking it. So where is this coming from? Who is this person? What is this person saying? Is this true? Is it correct? Has it been correct in the past? Is he just being paranoid now? Is it being crazy? What are his underlying motivations?

And I’m not even questioning so much, but more just kind of seeing it. And after a while, when you see it, you start seeing through your own BS, you start seeing how you’re mainly just justifying whatever the heck you want to believe, because it’s good for your survival. It’s good for your replication, or it’s good for your money, or it’s going to get you late or any of these various things.

Tim Ferriss: And when you’re doing that reflection is it sitting at a table, pen and paper? Is it—

Naval Ravikant: No.

Tim Ferriss: Half lotus with your eyes closed? What is—

Naval Ravikant: No, it’s really just walking around. Just walking around. It’s just life. Just if you say something to me, I’m always going to listen to it with a slightly critical filter, because you’re external to me. Applying that same filter to my own thoughts, it gives me a level of peace and distance from them and the ability to see through my own BS, which I think makes my life better.

So I’ve just found that to be a useful way of life. But there are lots of times where I forget to do it. I get caught up in some emotion, some runaway train of thought, but usually these days I can catch myself and be like, “Oh, okay, I’m in that mindset again. And having that mode of reactions again,” and when the mind sort of sees me chattering it quiets down a bit.

Naval Ravikant: Oh, before we finish that topic, very important people find the people that it doesn’t take work to be around. The best relationships don’t feel like work. You make the other person happy being yourself. They make you happy by being themselves, everyone’s honest, no one’s putting on an act that they can’t carry on for the next decade. Same thing with friendships, the best friendships are friendships that were formed over nothing. It’s not because you went to school. It’s not because you studied on the same things. It’s not because you’re working together. It’s not because you enjoy rugby or whatever. It’s because your chemistry matches, your temperament is similar. You can be friends with this person for 30 years, 50 years. The compound interest in relationships part ironically means that the best relationships, whether they’re friendships or family or love, are the ones that you don’t have to work too hard at them so you don’t have to sustain that workload for the rest of your life and you can do it effortlessly.

Tim Ferriss: Yeah, totally. Well, one of your quotes that I think of often, and I might be paraphrasing this is: if you want to avoid conflict, rule number one is: avoid people who are constantly involved with conflict, right? I mean something along those lines.

Naval Ravikant: I mean, well, for example, when you’re in a relationship, just watch how the other person treats their worst enemy, because eventually they’ll just redefine you as enemy and you’ll get to feel that behaviour. I think the number one criteria I look for in a relationship is that person has to be kind. They just have to be a nice person. Because, eventually they’ll, in a certain context, you can always be reclassified from friend to enemy. You just want to see the boundaries of someone’s ethics. If you see someone being bad to a server or someone engaging in unethical behaviour or suing other people or fighting other people all the time, it’s only a matter of time before they fight you. Just stay away from these high conflict people. Everyone has conflict, no one is clean, but that said, there are definitely people who engage in conflict and do it regularly and then make it a part of their lifestyle. Just walk away. It’s not worth it. You’ve met people who are low conflict and easy to get along with.

Tim Ferriss: Yeah. Low conflict, low maintenance, who can also be brutally candid when necessary. Right? Which doesn’t equal conflict.

Naval Ravikant: Well, the one thing I’ve noticed, and I haven’t written the tweet on this because I’ve had a hard time figuring out how to say it, but the people that I want to spend time around these days, when I look at what the common characteristic is, they’re highly self-aware. They’re very, very aware of themselves. They’re not running on autopilot. They don’t get angry easily. They don’t get unhappy easily. They don’t take themselves too seriously. They have a certain separation from their own thoughts and personality that prevents circumstances and their personality from overwhelming them. They don’t have a victim mentality. They’re not caught up in some story of what happened to them when they were younger. They’ve had those issues for sure, but they’ve just gotten past them and been like, “I don’t want to be that person. I don’t want to be trapped in that mindset.”

They’re not trying to signal all the time how important they are, or who they know, what they’ve done.

Tim Ferriss: How virtuous they are.

Naval Ravikant: How virtuous they are. They’re not virtue signalling or bigoteering. They have low egos. Generally, I can literally plot on a line the more self-aware somebody is, I guarantee you the more attractive they are to a large number of people. To the degree that I’ve achieved any modicum of fame and fame is a trap, and I’m going to pay for this. I know I will pay for this, but any modicum of fame that I have achieved, I think is because I am one of the few people who has been successful in business that thinks out loud in public. Because I’m willing to think out loud in public, that’s a risk that I take on, it improves my thinking, but other people say, “Oh, yeah, he’s somewhat self-aware, he’s thinking about himself.” I think that helps inspire other people to also say, “Okay, it’s okay for me to think about myself.” I just find hanging around self-aware people is a lot easier than people who are running on autopilot, almost like NPCs.

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