#this poll could use some Philosophy

[scotianostra]

On February 16th 1954 the writer Iain Banks was born in Dunfermline, Fife

Banks was a son of a professional ice skater and an Admiralty officer. He spent his early years in North Queensferry and later moved to Gourock because of his father’s work requirement. He received his early education from Gourock and Greenock High Schools and at the young age of eleven, he decided to pursue a career in writing. He penned his first novel, titled The Hungarian Lift-Jet, in his adolescence. He was then enrolled at the University of Stirling where he studied English, philosophy and psychology. During his freshman year, he wrote his second novel, TTR.

Subsequent to attaining his bachelor degree, Banks worked a succession of jobs that allowed him some free time to write. The assortment of employments supported him financially throughout his twenties. He even managed to travel through Europe, North America and Scandinavia during which he was employed as an analyzer for IBM, a technician and a costing clerk in a London law firm. At the age of thirty he finally had his big break as he published his debut novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984, henceforth he embraced full-time writing. It is considered to be one of the most inspiring teenage novels. The instant success of the book restored his confidence as a writer and that’s when he took up science fiction writing.

In 1987, he published his first sci-fi novel, Consider Phlebas which is a space opera. The title is inspired by one of the lines in T.S Eliot’s classic poem, The Waste Land. The novel is set in a fictional interstellar anarchist-socialist utopian society, named the Culture. The focus of the book is the ongoing war between Culture and Idiran Empire which the author manifests through the microcosm conflicts. The protagonist, Bora Horza Gobuchul, unlike other stereotypical heroes is portrayed as a morally ambiguous individual, who appeals to the readers. Additionally, the grand scenery and use of variety of literary devices add up to the extremely well reception of the book. Its sequel, The Player of Games, came out the very next year which paved way for other seven volumes in The Culture series.

Besides the Culture series, Banks wrote several stand-alone novels. Some of them were adapted for television, radio and theatre. BBC television adapted his novel, The Crow Road (1992), and BBC Radio 4 broadcasted Espedair Street. The literary influences on his works include Isaac Asimov, Dan Simmons, Arthur C. Clarke, and M. John Harrison. He was featured in a television documentary, The Strange Worlds of Iain Banks South Bank Show, which discussed his literary writings. In 2003, he published a non-fiction book, Raw Spirit, which is a travelogue of Scotland. Banks last novel, titled The Quarry, appeared posthumously. He also penned a collection of poetry but could not publish it in his lifetime. It is expected to be released in 2015. He was awarded multitude of titles and accolades in honour of his contribution to literature. Some of these accolades include British Science Fiction Association Award, Arthur C. Clarke Award, Locus Poll Award, Prometheus Award and Hugo Award.

Iain Banks was diagnosed with terminal cancer of the gallbladder and died at the age of 59 in the summer of 2013.

#scotland #scottish #history #author #fifer

[webcomic-character-tournament]

are you tired of how many character tournaments just become a popularity contest?

how regardless of seeding, even high contenders can almost arbitrarily be knocked out early on, leaving you with nothing to root for?

if you're feeling that, and if you like any webcomics, you should participate in the webcomic character tournament!

the primary goals of this tournament are:

to celebrate the medium of webcomics as a whole

to find new webcomics to read, and to recommend your own favorites

to highlight indie creators and help them build a wider audience

to have fun rooting for and celebrating your favorite characters!

in order to accomplish these goals, instead of a single elimination bracket, i will be using a mcmahon system inspired tournament structure!

this means that no character will be eliminated, and you can participate in polls rooting for your favorite character throughout all the rounds. characters will also be roughly matched up based on a system that determines how well known their work is, so most rounds should be relatively evenly matched, allowing people to fight for their favorites on their own merits

more details about how the mcmahon tournament will work can be found under the cut!

submit as many characters as you would like to here! the deadline is tentatively next saturday, june 3rd, at 4pm EDT

tagging some other tournaments i like whose participants i think might be interested :) @wlw-webcomic-bracket @obscurewebcomictournament @gaywebcomicsshowdown @autisticgirliesbracket @yuribracket @secretthirdthingtournament @nonyanderepoll @funkylittlebaldcharapoll @divorced-tournament

no submission is specifically banned, but try to keep in mind the spirit of this tournament when deciding what to submit.

under the cut after my more detailed description of the tournament structure, i also ramble in a lot more detail about my philosophy regarding submission eligibility, but it's not necessary to read all that before submitting characters

mcmahon tournament details:

matchups will be decided based off of a survey sent out after submissions are over gauging participants' familiarity with all of the competing characters' source materials. each character will be assigned points based off of how known their source material is, and each character will go up against a character with a similar popularity score for the first round

characters will be awarded points based off of if they lose, win, or tie their match and have that added to their total score, and then they will again be paired against a character with a similar updated score

depending on how many characters are participating, this process can continue either until there is a definitive ranking of all characters, or until just a few top winners are clear

i haven't entirely decided on specifics such as whether points will be awarded by a simple 0 for a loss, 0.5 for a tie, 1 for a win or by percentage of the vote, and if initial popularity points will be counted in the final ranking, or if i will try to rank winners from within their initial popularity categories, but i hope that won't matter too much, because in my opinion the main fun of this isn't the final results, it's for people to have fun in the individual rounds seeing their favorite character's points go up!

submission guidelines:

if you are submitting characters from extremely popular webcomics, try to limit yourself to just characters that are among your top favorites of all time, and maybe try to submit stuff from lesser known works as well

similar goes for webcomics that are more widely known for adaptations into other media forms (one punch man, tower of god, heartstopper, etc.)

i'm not specifically banning any comic for having bigoted content or its creator being a bad person, there's a wide scale of stuff i could decide to include in that definition or not. in the goal of celebrating favorite characters, obviously a lot of people love characters despite flaws in the work they're from, but also keep in mind the goals of recommending works to other people, and helping uplift and promote creators you like, and try to find a reasonable balance from there

what counts as a webcomic:

physically published works that you can find pirated or scanlated online probably don't count

comics whose publication is centered around physical releases, who also have simultaneous online releases by their publishers (comics on manga plus or comixology, newspaper strips with online sites, etc.) probably don't count

comics published through traditional publishers that are exclusively online (such as shōnen jump+ comics) still probably don't count

comics published online through companies that exclusively publish online (such as lezhin) are still discouraged

stuff like line webtoon or tapas official comics are more acceptable, as there are a lot of free comics from independent creators around them and many of these comics started out that way themselves, so they exist within a culture of webcomics more so than the aforementioned comic categories

stuff that is paywalled beyond just having an early release system is discouraged

comics that are no longer online but accessible through archives are fine though, especially in the wake of sites like smackjeeves being deleted there's a lot of stuff in webcomic history that can only be found that way now!

webtoon style comics absolutely count as webcomics, they're an exciting way of fully making use of webcomics' digital format! simultaneously however, i feel like with the rise of mobile webtoon apps, there are many people who read webtoon style comics but who dont further engage with webcomics, so i'd definitely encourage submitting a variety of styles of webcomic!

none of these rules are set! feel free to submit whatever you want, i just list them so you can try to find a balance between the different goals of this tournament when submitting stuff.

anyone can submit as many characters as you want, but just maybe if you find that a lot of your submission ideas are from comics in some of the more discouraged categories, limit yourself in how many you submit from those categories and only submit characters if they're absolute favorites of yours you want the opportunity to celebrate, and maybe try to also submit a character from something that isn't in a discouraged category too!

theres no penalty for not going with this, but i think because choosing characters by number of nominees doesn't really align with my intentions for this, depending on how easy it is to sort submissions i might just go off of vibes, so you might just be less likely to have a character make it to the tournament if their comic is in more heavily discouraged categories is all

#tournaments #polls #brackets #webcomics #character tournament #notwctpoll #wctrelated

[aphroditeslover11]

Thinking In Numbers

Oppie x Reader

A/N: as always, based on Cillian Murphy’s very fictional depiction of Oppie, if you don’t want to read it I’m not forcing to and if you do then please feel free to stick around.

This is the response to the poll from the other day, handling some problems arising from the couple’s age gap.

Warnings: mentions fo alcohol, age gap, world’s mildest angst with a happy ending!

You had been on his arm at a lot of fundraising events recently, trying to raise money for the causes that he supported, which meant that you had been spending a lot of time with Robert’s circle of friends. They were all amazing and very interesting people, the conversation was always incredible and you loved them, but you couldn’t help feeling a little like a fish out of water. You were only a philosophy student, in a sea of seasoned academics.

The first time that you really started to notice the difference in your ages was at the end of the summer semester. Both the staff and the students were organising parties and you didn’t know whether you should go and celebrate the end of term with your friends or go and have a far more civilised send-off for the holidays with Robert and the professors. For him there had never been any question that you would accompany him, despite your age he always perceived you as being too mature and sensible to enjoy the parties of your fellow students. He assumed that you were exactly like him at your age, unbelievably introverted and not seeing the point in all of the chaos. You did as he expected of you, and it was a lovely evening with the help of a few of Oppie’s martinis, but you had ended up following him towards the physics faculty who were now having a conversation that you had no chance of understanding. When you got home that night you called your friend’s house, making sure that she had got home from the student celebrations.

“You don’t have to worry about me y/n,” she chuckled, clearly under the influence.

“Did you have a good night?”

“Yeah, the boys decided that it would be a good idea to to try and raid the chemistry stock room so we ended up with impromptu fireworks, it was quite a show actually. One of them nearly blew himself up, but I think he’s alright now.”

“God, I wish I could have been there.”

“How was your evening?”

“Not too bad, it was nice to spend the evening with Robert but he ended up in a corner with the physics department so I was left to my own devices. He expects it of me though so I just do it for him. I’m sure you had a better evening than me.” Little did you know that Oppie was walking past the semi-open door, and heard every word that you were saying.

~

The next day you went back to the campus to pick up some books from the library that you wanted to look at over the summer. You bumped into a few of the boys that you had met over the year, all part way through their degrees just like you.

“How was the party with the old boys club y/n?” One of them asked.

“It was quite fun actually, a lot of interesting conversations. They aren’t all old men, you know.”

“Oppie’s alright, the rest of them can be a bit of a drag,” this came from Luke, who you knew took one of your boyfriend’s classes.

“I heard about your antics with the fireworks, I’m amazed that you’re all still in one piece. I’d take a drag over a near death experience!” You tried to joke back, though it was true that you would rather have spent the evening with them.

“Come on, why don’t you come out with us tonight, live a little. Do you want to be old before your time?” It was then that you felt a familiar arm wrapping around your waist. Looking to your side you were met with Robert, his face with the usual soft smile it wore whenever he saw you.

“Why’s she going to be old Luke?” He questioned, humouring the lads. He was closer with his students than many of the other lecturers at Berkeley and they felt that they could have a little banter with him as a result.

“All of the time that she…” Luke started.

“…Spends sitting at home reading books when I could be out with them.” You quickly cut him off, Robert didn’t need to be involved in this. Luke gave you a bizarre look and carried on talking to his professor, but you could tell that said professor was unsatisfied. Not long later, as you were walking away, he started questioning you.

“My love, what didn’t you want me to hear Luke saying back there?” You were walking back to his office to collect the papers he had left before heading to New Mexico for the summer.

“If you want the truth, they were teasing me for spending so much time with the faculty. It was all in good fun.” Oppie paused for a moment.

“It is true that you don’t spend much time with your own friends though. I have to admit that I heard you on the phone the other night, I never thought that I might have been pressuring you into anything, but I can understand now that I have.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to spend time with your friends, I really do. Sometimes I just feel like I want to do the sorts of things that normal students do.”

“Darling, why didn’t you say any of this earlier?”

“I didn’t want to make things awkward or make you to feel obligated to do anything that you didn’t want to do.” Robert sighed softly at that, turning and taking your face in his hands, looking down at you.

“My love, you can always tell me anything. You are too caring for your own good sometimes, you know that? This is my fault, I shouldn’t have been so shortsighted, so its up to me to make it up to you.”

“Robert, you don’t have to…”

“This weekend we’ll stay here, we’ll have some people over to the apartment, your people, and we’ll do whatever you want for an evening. You know what, I can clear out for the evening and leave you in peace if you like.” He could tell from your smile that you had other ideas.

“Or you could stay and join in with the madness, you do owe me afterall and I think you could make it up to me by proving to Luke that you aren’t an old man. Maybe then he’ll stop taking the mick out of me.”

“I could probably do with a good shafting anyway,” he acquiesced. “So, will you forgive me for being so hopeless.”

“Only if you cover up the raid the boys did the other day on the chemistry department.”

“What raid?”

“They have a habit of setting off homemade fireworks at parties.”

“They are not setting off fireworks in my house…” You stood on your toes then, closing the gap to silence him with a kiss.

“Dr Oppenheimer, my party, my rules!”

#cillian murphy #oppenheimer #american prometheus #1950s #oppenheimer x reader #cillian murphy x reader #christopher nolan #j robert oppenheimer #tommy shelby #j robert oppenheimer x reader #tumblr polls #oppie

[braxiatel]

Goodtimeswithscar is a sexyman and I will prove it to you

If you are still on the fence I encourage you to look at the sexypedia - a wikipedia dedicated to tumblr sexymen - and checking out their tropes page. Scar meets 35/62 on a list where recent winner of the tumblr sexyman poll Cecil Palmer of WTNW fame only has 8 listed on his character page!

35!

Scar is Textbook, and if you need proof I have gone through all the tropes and explained why they apply to him!

VOTE SCAR!

4th Wall Blurring: This one is arguable due to the nature of the medium but I’ll include it

Animal Theming: See: animal hybrid headcanons and designs. Cat Scar, panda Scar, hyena Scar, avian Scar - they’re everywhere!

Angst: That cactus ring… magic mountain. need I say more? This boy has angst. 

Bait: *gestures at the shirtless skins*

Capitalist: she sells sea shells on the sea shore but the value of these shells will fall due to the laws of supply and demand no one wants to buy shells cause there’s loads on the sand step one you must create a sense of scarcity 

Chaoslord: HotGuy! [snipes you for no good reason]

Criminal: shells will sell much better if the people think they’re rare you see bear with me take as many shells as you can find and hide them on an island stockpile them high until they’re rarer than the price of diamond

Con Artist: step two gotta make the people think that they want them really fucking want them hit ‘em like Bronson influencers product placement if you haven’t got a shell then you’re just a fucking waste man

Dealmaker: three it’s monopoly invest inside some property start a corporation make a logo do it properly shells must sell that will be your new philosophy swallow all your morals they’re a poor man’s quality

Distinctive Voice: I do not need to make any arguments here. Have you heard him???

Quotable Catchphrase(s): well hello there, scarred for life, “a-ma-zing”, etc.

Distinctive Laugh: I think I autism stole Scar’s laughter (whoops) so I’m giving him this one too, but also that gigle is just very good and we all know it, right?

Dominating: from the trope description: “Characters who assert their power over others. Could be through manipulation, magic, smugness, or force of personality.” Yes. 

Duality: Convex did not put their whole entire vexussies into that possession storyline for us to forget about it. 

Egotistical: This one is arguable and a question of characterisation, but I think that we can all agree that on some levels, yes. 

Eldritch: From the trope description: “Since the typical sexyman is a tall mostly human looking pale twink, in a vast majority of the cases the eldritch is a heavy implication lying just under the surface.” Hello? Vex Scar?? 

Gay: See subsection: 

LGBTQ+ Coded: That cactus ring. Mumbo “eye candy” Jumbo. The season 7 mayoral race. Concorp. His jolly rancher arc. This man has so many boyfriends. 

Girlboss: listen I think a lot of characters who aren’t traditional girlbosses get called so, but with Scar I think it’s accurate okay. Did Scar utilize girl power effectively when he and Cub were blatant war profetiers during the season 6 civil war? yes. Absolutely. Girlboss. 

Glowing Neon: vex blue anyone?

Hot-headed: Don’t let his calm exterior fool you. Remember. Scar when someone steals his horse: *sets their whole entire house on fire*. 

Intelligence: yes but also see subsection

Smartdumb: Okay listen. Scar is Smart. Scar is very smart. And I specifically have to make sure you know I am talking character only here because cc!Scar seems to me to be a Very intelligent person with a wide field of knowledge. But uhm. c!Scar dies so much and so often in ways that are completely unavoidable. He does silly things without thinking of the consequences. I have seen enough people calling him a himbo (beloathed term) enough times that I do not need to argue this point. He is smart but also babygirl Why are you like this.

Johnlocked: “When two characters are shipped extensively by fans despite the pairing not necessarily being canon (or even present) in the original work.” it started out with a cactus ring how did it end up like this, it was only a cactus ring, it was only a cactus ring

Knifemurder: Hotguy! [snipes you a second time] 

Magnificent Bastard: This Is The Whole Point. Scar oozes charisma even when he is the villain and that’s why he is so beloved. He is smart, he is stylish, he is charming, even while he is killng you. This is the point. 

Marked Canon/Fanon Divergence: “Sexymen with a large gap between how they are in the original work (Canon) and how they are commonly portrayed in fanworks (Fanon)” see : the fake crystals vs Scar actually having magic, the abs being painted on vs shirtless Scar everywhere, etc.

Monster Features: vex scar vex scar vex scar

Nonhuman: like the vex thing is literally canon it’s not fanon those cons sure did vex 

Pale Twink: We could have done many things with this collection of blocks people, and yet my dash is full of shirtless twinks/twunks every day ending with a y. Curious. 

Perpetual Smiler: Okay listen this is partially the nature of the medium but also 1) that is a distinctive smile and 2) have you see the fanworks? 

Power: This man tried to sell fake magic crystals and we all just decided he can do magic. He was an elf once and now fae/elf Scar headcanons are everywhere. 

Scars: I- I’m not explaining myself here. yes??? 

Tall: I can think of one, maybe two portrayals of Scar that have made him short. 

Theme Song: four expand, expand, expand clear forest make land fresh blood on hands five why just shells why limit yourself she sells seashells sell oil as well six guns sell stocks sell diamonds sell rocks sell water to a fish sell the time to a clock seven press on the gas take your foot off the brakes then run to be the president of the united states eight big smile mate big wave that's great now the truth is overrated tell lies out the gate nine polarise the people controversy is the game it don't matter if they hate you if they all say your name ten the world is yours step out on a stage to a round of applause uou're a liar a cheat a devil a whore and you sell seashells on the seashore

Unkempt: so those rugged life series Scars, huh? 

Villain: Scar has been the villain several times and has a Long list of crimes to his name

Technically Antagonist: see 3rd life

Villain Protagonist: unreliable narrator Scar my beloved. I love how he just *does terrible things edited to make him look like he’s just a silly little guy having some harmless fun*

Well-Dressed: Hmmm I wonder why waggon/tycoon Scar routinely wins every Scar skin poll. Also he has enough outfits to include these sub categories too: 

Suitguy: “Characters who typically wear formalwear, specifically suits. Often includes waistcoats, top hats, bowties, and pinstripes. Other neckwear may also be worn.” Again. The tycoon skin really lives rent free in all out minds, huh?

Long Coat/Cape/Robe/Etc: bathrobe wizard Scar my beloved but also do you know how many thirst trap last life Scars I’ve seen?? 

White Twink Humanization: He is made out of blocks in canon. We did not need to make him like this and yet we did. 

White Hair: last life Scar beloved by many <3

VOTE SCAR!

#I hope this makes sense I am sick today so brain is no #mcyt #mcytblr sexyman #mcytblr sexyman poll #goodtimeswithscar #gtws #hermitblr #hermitcraft #trafficblr #3rd life smp #last life smp #double life smp

[subjugatingfeminists]

Introduction

I’m approaching 2,000 followers, so I figured I should add a more detailed introduction and maybe a mission statement of sorts 😏 First of all, this is an NSFW 18+ tumblr. That’s a hard rule. The block button is always there. Now you may be wondering things like, what is this tumblr about and how sexist is he really? Or, why does this guy come off like such a smartass and put so much effort into writing captions for porn reposts?

I’ll explain my thinking using the philosophy of Looney Tunes. Your typical MRA/red-pill/incel on here is Daffy Duck: loud, obnoxious, and completely lacking in self-awareness. And then there are men like me who are Bugs Bunny. If you watch closely, you’ll notice Bugs Bunny only fucks with those who have a ‘come-fuck-with-me’ vibe like Elmer Fudd. And I’m sorry to break it to you girls, but some of you are Elmer Fudd feminists. Don’t worry, it’s adorable 😘

I put effort into writing my captions because the brain really is the most important sex organ we have. Fucking each other online with our vocabularies is underrated, don’t you think? Most men on here shamelessly use their tumblr as a shorter route to women sending them titty pics like how those early explorers wanted to find the shortest possible route to Asia (guys, sorry to break it to you, but there is no true Northwest Passage on the internet). This is one of the few porn tumblrs on here that’s centered around an abstract idea: feminism versus patriarchy! It's a never-ending cultural 'tug of war' and this kink is for those with enough intellect to appreciate irony. Because ironically, this blog only works if you girls continue being feminists! However, it also means you have to put your feminism in a box and push it aside for a moment if you want to open up and consider why the pictures and themes of my blog make your panties so damp. Don’t be shy if you want to discuss theories on why your reactions betray your beliefs. We’re all anonymous on here, so how embarrassing is it really? Okay, it is very embarrassing, but that’s what makes it exciting, right? 😉

I’ve also made quite a few pen pals on here, so feel free to throw me a message about any interesting topic outside of sex like movies, music, politics, or history. And if my blog is ever destroyed by the Tumblr gods, then you’ll be able to find it resurrected with the same exact username with a number 1 after it. I’ve reposted less in recent months from being too busy, but I plan to return to the depravity this summer. Now here comes the exciting part!

I’ve been brainstorming on writing a long-term erotica that is based around a Patriarchal America setting, in which three feminist college students have three different, overlapping adventures in this new unexplored terrain. Absolutely no rights are taken away in the story, so no Handmaids Tale nonsense or any Stepford housewife robots. The story will include plenty of plot elements and themes that involve traditional gender roles, but it’s religiously secular. Since it begins with the 2028 election cycle, it will bring in real-life political dynamics and politicians, and briefly explain in the first chapter how a “Patriarchy Party” with a young charismatic JFK-esque candidate could use a unique policy position, effectively design and distribute propaganda, and take advantage of the electoral chessboard to defeat a Democrat and Republican at the polls (a certain orange-haired buffoon will be kicking and screaming out of the White House after losing his bid for a third-term). It will also have a twist ending that everyone might find surprising!

I want to brainstorm on this story with you girls! How well-written and stimulating can erotica potentially be? Can a male author write believable female characters when it involves a plot as strange as this? Let’s find out together. Bonus points if you fit the stereotypical feminist college student model and have any input. Speaking of which, I’ve received a lot of fan mail on here, but unfortunately I still have yet to come across the tumblr feminist of my dreams: the blue-haired, braless, feisty, fire-breathing gender studies major who wants to crush the patriarchy. I've never even met one in real life. Do these girls actually exist?? Maybe one day she’ll roll into my DMs and say “hi.”

[lya-dustin]

The Philosopher

Aemond x fem!Braavosi!reader

(The idea of universities existing in asoiaf is my idea, universities and colleges have existed since the 12th century at the least. Braavos is based on Florence and i ran with the idea of it being Early-Renaissance Italy)

This was also the one-shot i built through polls with fem!reader and the prompt:‘I have fallen for you so … I’m fucked.’

Thanks for playing, enjoy the fic

Gif by @bichachonacho

Despite the neglect from both his parents ---one too ill to care and the other too busy--- Aemond had everything he wanted and the best of it.

So, when he asked, no, demanded the most famous master of philosophy in the world, he had not expected you.

He had heard of Braavos admitting women into their prestigious university, but surely, they would not be so foolish as to send a woman to teach him?

For fuck’s sake, less than half the noblewoman were literate in Westeros!

Grandsire would be appalled, mother insulted and Aegon will likely be feigning an interest in philosophy just to harass the poor girl.

“I was told Master Bergamo would be teaching me.” Aemond said hoping he had been right.

“Oh, he is, he is rather unwell from his travels unfortunately, so until he is better I will be teaching you, your highness.” You said as you continued setting up the sitting room to your liking. “Will that be a problem?”

“No.” the prince lied.

“Usually my lectures have me behind a curtain to avoid distractions, would it be too much of an inconvenience for you if I were to be behind a curtain?” you asked and Aemond wonders if he answered far too quickly.

He was not like other men, for fuck’s sake. He could handle being taught by a beautiful woman.

“Suit yourself, your highness, but I do warn you. Men who refuse the curtain often end up falling in love with me.” You say in jest, he hopes it is merely a jest.

“Perhaps, I will be the exception.” He finds himself saying and falling into an unusually easy banter with you.

As time passes, Aemond realized you had been serious.

There was something in the way you spoke, how you taught and worst of all, how your eyes lit up as you passionately debated with him.

Even when your father taught him, you were there assisting him, and despite your Braavosi accent and your skepticism in the Faith of the Andals, he found himself falling for you.

Every lady his mother offered him all paled to you.

No gold, no lands, no alliances were enough to get you out of his head.

None could argue about philosophy and ethics and whether gods are real like you did. No one was as well read and interesting as you, fuck, some of them were not allowed to read because their fathers and septas were afraid of them becoming too smart for their husbands.

Father seemed to hint about it when he spoke to him until he got tired of Aemond’s indecisiveness and outright gave his blessings to wed you.

Cole had then told his mother, and mother had used her influence to end Aemond’s lessons and send you and your father back to Braavos.

You had been crying, Aemond had heard about the awful things his mother’s ladies and his own fucking mother had said about you to hasten your departure. “Have you come to say goodbye, my prince?”

“No.” because he does not plan on letting you leave, not that it was clear by his words or façade. “When we first met you so said you taught from behind a curtain because men fell in love with you.”

“And you said you would be the exception.” You smile at the memory of it, and he gains confidence to voice this secret only you seem oblivious to.

“I lied. I have fallen for you…so I’m fucked.” He admits and wishes for the ground to swallow him.

Gods, this was fucking embarrassing.

“As crudely as you put it, we are both fucked.” The word sounds rather adorable when you say it. “I am afraid I have fallen for you too, my prince.”

#aemond targaryen x reader #aemond x fem!reader #aemond x braavosi!fem!reader

[agentravensong]

i mentioned back when i made that poll about who the second voice from the goner maker sequence might be that i think ralsei is a decent candidate. since the topic came up in the server i'm in today, i figured i should make a post out of it.

to be clear, the idea is that the voice that discards the vessel, says "no one can choose who they are in this world", and throws the soul into kris* might be ralsei. this would require that he was aware of that sequence as it was happening (which i don't think is that unlikely, given all the things he knows) and had the power to interrupt it (much harder to swallow, i know).

here are my three arguments in favor of this theory:

1) the way ralsei's first lines of dialogue are presented is exactly the same as the second voice

this is not a foolproof thing, but i think it's worth noting that this is our first impression of him, not long at all after the gonermaker sequence.

2) the sentiment that "no one can choose who they are in this world" aligns with ralsei's current philosophy. he wants kris (or us) to believe that our choices matter, but he's also insistent that kris and susie are heroes. not to mention his more personal feelings on the subject as a darker and their role in relation to lightners.

3) there's a decent potential motive for ralsei to eliminate the player's "wonderful creation": kris being the vessel for the soul/player makes them the protagonist. we have evidence that ralsei wants kris to feel special (see his whole thing about acts being kris's special thing in chapter 2). it's likely that their role would have been lessened if we were playing as the vessel**, and i could see ralsei being opposed to that. especially if ralsei has some special tie to them and/or asriel because of however he came to be / whatever item he's derived from. and considering, again, his seemingly positive feelings towards darkners' purpose being to serve lightners, it would be in character for him to see kris's role as the bearer of the Light as an honor/blessing — one it would be a terrible shame to deny them.

*it's possible that gaster was the one who put the vessel into kris as a last resort rather than the second voice being responsible. that being said, you could argue the second voice (ralsei in this case) figured he would do that, was perhaps even counting on it.

**it seems unlikely they would have been replaced all together considering that gaster will say you are going to meet them if you put your name as "kris"; i imagine they would have had a noelle-like role and presence in the plot

tbc i'm not 100% convinced of this theory right now, i think there are at least a couple other strong second voice candidates, but i think this one should at least be part of the discussion. would love to hear what y'all think :)

#deltarune #ralsei #shoutout to stefan on the server who said they had thought of this idea too

[dc-polls]

They Would Not Fucking Say That! Preliminary Poll

Lonnie Machin (Anarky)

From: Prelude to the Wedding: Red Hood vs. Anarky. New 52/Prime Earth(?) Context: Anarky attempts to thwart Catwoman’s bachelorette party (it was a lead-up to the Bruce/Selina fail wedding) and Jason Todd attempts to stop him.

Teams up with fascists to ruin Selina’s outing by sowing violence, chaos, and destruction in a large crowd of people because the Joker played on his desire for a father figure.

Lonnie, prior to the reboot, was conceived as and most prominently depicted as a politically left-anarchist character until his creator and primary writer, Alan Grant, began getting into Randian Neo-Tech Objectivism and projected it onto Lonnie as Lonnie was always his political mouthpiece. However, despite Lonnie's political sway going from more anarcho-communist to objectivist, he was always a character who had near-unwavering, passionate stances on social issues. He considered anyone who preyed on the common man, or "enemies of the people", to be *his* enemies, and he often came at this from a leftist point of view. He was a strong supporter of social justice for the oppressed, and it was his sorrow and outrage at oppression that led him to take up vigilantism. He despised fascism and considered anyone who used initiatory violence against others to be opposed to him. To Lonnie, anarchism is a philosophy of total freedom from oppression, self-determination, and helping your fellow man, not 'chaos'.

He was also *very* anti-gun and anti-weapon of mass destruction. Whenever he used bombs, they were often smoke bombs or paint bombs. On the one single occasion he used actual bombs to blow up a munitions factory, he evacuated everyone in the building before it blew up, as he cares for the lives of innocents and does not kill. The one single time that it is implied that he killed, his victim was a man who blew up 20+ innocent people in a public setting via bombing and used him as a scapegoat. He has said before that he 'can't let innocent people die because of him'. He holds to this even if he can be clumsy in his methods. When he once experienced a machine-induced dream in which Gotham City descended into fiery chaos because of his well-intentioned actions, he had a crying breakdown.

And, on the Joker - in his 1999 solo series, there is a plot point that is left open-ended that implies the Joker could be Lonnie's biological father, as he is an adoptee. This was done to cement Lonnie into the Batman mythos, as his creators Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle cared a lot about him. When editors disapproved of this, they let Grant write it on the condition that he would prove it wrong later on, but after the Joker issue the series was canceled, and so for all intents and purposes, it was not meant to be lasting 'canon'. Lonnie has been known to hate the Gotham Rogues, as he considers their actions against the people of the city to be completely antithetical to his views and ideals, some of the most important things to him. When he thought that the Joker could've been his father, he had a breakdown. He visited Arkham in order to find out and the Joker briefly played on his (at the time, a 16 year old child) yearning to figure out his parentage in the wake of his adoptive parents' implied death (with some genetic determinism 'does this mean i'll be a "madman" too? involved, but, eugh), but once the Joker tried to use Lonnie to help him break out of Arkham, Lonnie quickly acted against him to prevent his escape. It is said in a (dubiously canon) Batman encyclopedia that the crisis that the Joker could have been his father put him through caused him to self-isolate even harder than he normally does for a while until Cassie Sandsmark's speech during YJ: Sins of Youth inspired him back onto the field. Needless to say, he hates the Joker, and his hatred for the Joker's actions was enough to override his want for a parental figure.

In the post-reboot continuity, Lonnie is no longer an adoptee and his single mother would tell him the Joker was his 'real father' and would come and get him if he misbehaved. He began writing letters to the Joker, who eventually tried to get Lonnie to 'impress' him by giving Batman a 'rehearsal' before his wedding. Lonnie did this by gathering militant anti-feminist terrorists and gun nuts alongside leftists and anti-fascists in one place in order to get them to fight each other and cause 'blood, smoke, and chaos.'

As always, remember to check the notes for info others may have shared, and reblog to help increase reach!

Submissions close Wednesday August 23, 11:00 pm EDT

#dc-polls-twnfst #dc-polls-preliminaries #lonnie machin #anarky #prelude to the wedding #red hood vs anarky #dc comics #dc-polls-twnfst-prelims

[quotesfrommyreading]

Don’t blame the Holocaust on the Jews. This past May, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was asked how his country could credibly claim to be “denazifying” Ukraine when the latter is led by an elected Jewish president. “I believe that Hitler also had Jewish blood,” he replied, later adding, “Some of the worst anti-Semites are Jews.” While these claims may sound bizarre, they are far from isolated.

As I wrote at the time, ever since World War II, people have attempted to pin the Holocaust on the Jews. A 1938 Gallup poll found that 54 percent of Americans believed that “the persecution of Jews in Europe has been partly their own fault.” Another 11 percent said it was “entirely” their fault. In other words, as Hitler rose to power and implemented his anti-Semitic architecture, a large majority of Americans blamed European Jews for their own oppression.

This victim-blaming has persisted to the present day. David Icke, one of our era’s most prolific conspiracy theorists, has claimed that wealthy Jews bankrolled the Holocaust, asserting, “The Warburgs, part of the Rothschild empire, helped finance Adolf Hitler.” (Icke has also said that “Hitler was a Rothschild.”) The anti-Semitic book in which this passage appeared was later enthusiastically promoted by the author Alice Walker in The New York Times.

Along similar lines, Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, devoted his entire doctoral dissertation to the conspiracy theory that “Zionist” Jews had collaborated with the Third Reich in order to spur Jewish immigration to Palestine. (The dissertation also claims that no Jews were murdered in the Nazi gas chambers, and that the overall number of Jewish victims was exaggerated by several million.)

Others do not go so far as to blame Europe’s Jews for their own genocide, but instead try to use their murders to attack their descendants, insinuating that this or that group of Jews “failed to learn the lessons of the Holocaust.” But Auschwitz wasn’t a philosophy seminar with some unfortunate fatalities. And the Holocaust was not some moral test that the Jewish world failed, but a moral atrocity committed against it.

In all of these cases, those who weaponize a people’s greatest trauma to bludgeon them once more inadvertently reveal the very inhumanity that made such brutality possible in the first place.

  —  How Not to Talk About the Holocaust

#yair rosenberg #how not to talk about the holocaust #antisemitism #history #sociology #conspiracy theories #holocaust #holocaust denial #sergey lavrov #david icke #mahmoud abbas

[divine-knight-hand]

My Paracosm's Tumblr Dashboard Simulator!!! ❤️‍🔥

Except none of you know my paras, nor am I going to give any context for these. *womp womp*

But, I basically saw this post and decided “Hey, lemme do that!” and then I did that.

Also, a good portion of my paras are primparas, but my fictparas will be glaringly obvious, so, yeah. If you know them, you know them. 🤷‍♀️

I spent way too long on this, lmao... Welp, enjoy! 😌

TW: some humor involving brief mentions of suicide, death, and doxxing

🔥 not-ember-blade Follow

Remind me again why our boss is asking us to make these social media accounts? Isn’t our whole thing, I dunno, subtlety?

💧 sweetest-otaku Follow

Well, with a user like that, I don’t think you’re doing very good at that, anyways… 😬

🔥 not-ember-blade Follow

Let’s not hash out the technical stuff 😅

(1,258 notes)

❤️ a-random-fan Follow

Anyone else ever think about how not-ember-blade and sweetest-otaku were born to contradict each other? Like, how do sisters with conflicting powers learn to not only co-exist, but thrive while working together? Especially when everyone expects them to tear each other apart? Truly, it’s wonderful to see…

🔥 not-ember-blade Follow

Dude, what the fuck? We’ve been past that. Find a new philosophy, Socrates- 💀

#and to everyone who still thinks me and my sister are gonna duke it out #stfu

(947 notes)

🐺 alpha-machine Follow

So, not-ember-blade… What’s the status on that date? 😏

🔥 not-ember-blade Follow

My sister had to physically restrain me from typing “kys” before lecturing me on the importance of a “respectful no”.

💧 sweetest-otaku Follow

Well, it almost worked… 😅

#also please rethink the wording of your tags #I’m not even going to repost them #they’re really vulgar…

(236 notes)

💍 iron-wife Follow

mischief-incarnate, you didn’t happen to put itching powder in alpha-machine’s closet after his latest post, did you???

🐍 mischief-incarnate Follow

Do I look like I’m only capable of mere party tricks to you? Of course not! That foul mutt has magic to thank for any discomfort he may be experiencing. Magic woven into each and every thread, in fact~

🔥 not-ember-blade Follow

Every day, I fall more and more in love with you 😩

#marriage when?

(2,479 notes)

🪞 mirror-mirror Follow

Crippling anxiety? I barely know her! (Lying)

💄 hopeless-hottie Follow

What does this mean?

💄 hopeless-hottie Follow

Hello?

💄 hopeless-hottie Follow

HELLO?!

#can someone go check if she’s okay? #I’m starting to get concerned…

(174 notes)

🔥 not-ember-blade Follow

Can y’all stop asking me if arachni-kid is my son? It’s not even true, and his aunt is starting to ask questions…

💧 sweetest-otaku Follow

One time, I saw you make him a Hot Pocket, kiss him on the forehead, and wish him luck on a test he was studying for.

🕷️ arachni-kid Follow

A test I passed, by the way! I forgot to tell you. 😅

🔥 not-ember-blade Follow

Awwwww! I knew you could do it, kiddo! I’m so proud of you! 🥹

(1,892 notes)

💄 hopelessness-hottie Follow

Look, not-ember-blade! It’s you!

🔥 not-ember-blade Follow

I’m… pi?

🔦 endangered-observer Follow

Maybe she’s saying you are what you eat? 😅

🐍 mischief-incarnate Follow

I’ve not once seen her consume this mathematical notation…

💧 sweetest-otaku Follow

You summoned all three of them and they still didn’t get it 😭

🪞 mirror-mirror Follow

That’s because they all share one brain cell 🤣

(2,437 notes)

🧹 friendly-maiden Follow

As much as I enjoy serving the new queen and princess, can I have not-ember-blade and sweet-otaku back? Please?

💧 sweetest-otaku Follow

Awww! We miss you, too! 🥺

#Please come visit sometime #okay?

(173 notes)

🪞 mirror-mirror Follow

Everyone talking about possibly making a poll to decide who the best sister is between not-ember-blade and sweetest-otaku clearly wasn’t here for the violent discourse that one poll between mischief-incarnate and thunderous-hero, and it shows… 👀

💧 sweetest-otaku Follow

Didn’t mischief-incarnate dox someone for telling people to vote against him?

🔥 not-ember-blade Follow

No, no… That was me… 😶

#but can you blame me? #the bitch had it coming #spreading that harmful propaganda

(2,347 notes)

🍳 wary-chef Follow

Just saw someone cooking without measuring their ingredients. They should lose their cooking priviliges.

🔥 not-ember-blade Follow

You rn:

💧 sweetest-otaku Follow

I was gonna tell you to stop bullying my boyfriend, but- 😭

(1,482 notes)

⚡ thunderous-hero Follow

What are these "fan cams" that people keep talking about?

💧 sweetest-otaku Follow

Oh! You mean, those edits of us? I wonder how everyone got all that footage of us...

#It's actually a little creepy #How do they do it?

(3,487 notes)

🔦 endangered-observer Follow

Who... Who sent me this song?

🔥 not-ember-blade Follow

I know I shouldn't laugh, but... HA!!!

#the whole polycule having daddy issues goes crazy

(1,450 notes)

#maladaptive daydreams #maladaptive daydreamer #maladaptive daydreaming #tumblr dashboard simulator #paracosm #paracosms #para portal #immersive daydreaming #paraportal

[mitigatedchaos]

Well, since I was named in a branch off of @max1461 's post,

[ @tropylium ]

I even keep wondering, is it just because I'm here and the actual seriousness only happens on other platforms? e.g. the ratsphere has EA sites and LessWrong and Wordpress blogs and so on. but it's then unclear to me about many other people if they have any interest in being serious, in the sense of having skin in the game and goals not yet achieved, anywhere at all. Argumate Disease, I could call it — he's clearly the most prominent example, even if probably not the most egregious. also fwiw the most prominent counterexample that occurs to me might be Mitigated Chaos, they've a style that's still shitposty at times but at least not making it their main axis and clearly trying to achieve things even here. (but in the end, I wouldn't know, nobody ever tells me anything; which I kinda resent but I'm not sure how much I should exactly, if it's me specifically for some reasons, or the same for most of us)

[ @the-grey-tribe ]

Both ContraPoints and DigiBro are explicit stage personas. Tom Scott is a guy. Natalie Wynn is a person. ContraPoints is an act. Argumate is an act. MitigatedChaos is an act.

The #augmented reality break posts are art, often deliberately multi-layered, and often satirical (as in a certain infamous post in which the punchline to decolonization is Mobile Suit Gundam), or intended as a moral puzzle for the reader to chew on (as in the recent Moon Prisons poll) to aid in their philosophical development.

Mitigated Chaos is "authentic" in that it's based on aspects of my real self that have been multiplied to a higher magnitude - even some of the more outlandish stuff like "product of the US Military Industrial Complex." Mitigated Chaos is "fake" in that it's a specific production with a particular voice as part of its overall strategy (and specific rules and commitments are part of this).

The overall strategy involves a mix of posting types, partly to lighten things up on what is a rather political theory-heavy blog. The 300-500 word blog format and presented level of seriousness fit according to the intended level of epistemic rigor.

Mitigated Chaos is not an article in a scholarly journal of microeconomics, and in addition to the philosophy and political puzzle aspect of it, polling readers about hypothetical space prisons helps to establish that.

#blog meta

[murderer-tournament]

hi for the love of god hello

This blog used to be titled warcrimialswag. it is no longer called that. the tournament will continue as it has been going with a few minor changes.

yesterday I found that I had been sent the following ask:

they raise a good point. typically, i subscribe to the philosophy that tumblr users are responsible for curating their own experiences, don’t like don’t read, enjoying in fiction does not mean condoning irl, etc. but neither do I wish to be blasé about threats i could not comprehend living through. because of this, i have removed direct references to the geneva conventions from my header/pfp and changed the name of the blog. I realize these are mostly cosmetic changes, but hopefully they’ll help minimize the overt references to war crimes and crimes against humanity and help people avoid them who would wish to.

additionally, while propaganda will be welcome as always, i will ask those who post it to tag it appropriately to help fellow tumblr users avoid the subject matter if they wish to. especially when it pertains to acts of extreme violence. i will do my best to do the same.

I’m sorry if anyone is disappointed by these changes, and hope those who are having fun with this will continue to do so. I'm sure some people will think I'm changing too much or not enough. My only wish here is to be a good and considerate neighbor to other blogs.

in the mean time, there are many ways to enjoy and support our favorite characters. i’m gonna start working on posting round 3 of polls. fortunately for me, doing this takes less time every round so yee haw.

#war crimes

[ingravinoveritas]

I'm not sure where this expectation of the Go 2 press tour which I see from you and some other fans is coming. Did someone say something? I mean, there definitely should be some PR action, a couple of interviews, maybe the cast appearance at a screening or something, but nothing near the promotion of the 1 season, not a 'press tour'. No one promotes 2nd seasons even half as much as 1 seasons. As a rule. Unless there's a very specific decision to do so. So I would tame expectations imo.

I mean...good grief, Anon. It just poured for the entire weekend where I live, and yet it feels like your message is doing a far more thorough job of raining on my metaphorical parade.

So, let's break a few things down here. First, my personal philosophy is and always will be "Hope for the best, expect the worst." That is not to say that, in the case of GO 2 promotion, I expect the absolute worst, because I don't...but I am also more than adept at keeping my expectations in check thanks to many, many years of experience with disappointment.

With that in mind, you are correct, no one has said anything specifically or formally about the GO 2 press tour or what it might/will entail. Most of us have been working off of the idea--the hope, even--that because season 1 had a press tour, then logically, so should season 2. (Especially because, as I've previously mentioned, the show does still need to bring in new viewers to ensure that there will be a third season.)

As of right now, however, it looks like the only potential impediment to a press tour--or at least Neil being involved with one--is the looming Writers' Strike (well, not-so-looming, since it now seems to be actually happening). So the effects that could have on promoting GO 2/what sorts of appearances the cast and crew will make are unknown for now, and remain to be seen.

But I still feel like you're missing the larger point here, Anon. The thing that has so many of us excited isn't the breadth or level of promotion, but rather that Michael and David will be together during whatever promotion does happen. The majority of the things I mentioned in this poll were listed as mere possibilities...but the one that seems most probable (and that received the most votes, as it were) was Michael and David flirting with each other. I've also received DMs from people who, as much as they are eagerly anticipating the show, care even more about seeing Michael and David together again--playful, relaxed, and most of all, happy.

So does that mean a press tour as extensive as the first season? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe Michael and David will only get to do a handful of interviews or appearances together, but it's the substance of those that makes all the difference. It's that we can all watch Michael and David on TV, or Youtube, or listen to them on the radio, and for even the briefest of moments, feel a sense of respite from what is happening in the world. It's that even when there is so much misery and hate and unkindness running rampant, there is still something that can bring such happiness. Something to look forward to, even just for a little while. And that's what I'm optimistic about, and will continue to be optimistic about here on my blog.

Again, you may be entirely right, Anon, and the GO 2 press tour could turn out to be nothing more than Michael and David doing a ribbon-cutting at a Tesco in Milton Keynes...but I'd still want to watch it because I know no matter what happens, Michael and David will enjoy every second of it as long as they are together.

And I think that's still something worth hoping for.

#anonymous #reply post #good omens 2 #michael sheen #welsh seduction machine #david tennant #soft scottish hipster gigolo #also I think Michael and David are looking much too forward to seeing each other again for there not to be some kind of promotion #so i believe they will make the most of whatever does happen #the eternal optimist in me is hoping for the best #so we'll see what happens #fingers crossed #also now I really want to hear Neil say 'by Aziraphale's flaming sword...what a savings' in front of that Tesco #i'm just saying #discourse

[miminmimikyu]

ok so i had a lot of pppppp crap sitting in my drafts that i didn't get around to properly writing down and i probably won't post (because i think now they're speculations on an aborted story if anything). but i didn't want to throw them away so here's a list of half-baked speculations under the cut:

Placeholder Mimin fanart for the winner of the unofficial tumblr PPPPPP fandom (<10 people can be a fandom right?? ;_;) character popularity poll I conducted last week (it was a last-minute 3-way tie between Sorachika, Mimin and Lucky)

Earrings: The sextuplet's earrings resembled parts of Gakuon's (from early chapters) -> each time Lucky got through to a sibling they changed their earrings -> Mimin left her earring, Gakuon commented that he lost one of his instruments -> the beads on his earrings represented the sextuplets (his instruments) -> as long as sextuplets wore theirs they'd be nothing but Gakuon's instruments: under his control and an extension of Gakuon's will only. (gathered quite a lot of manga caps for this but hoped we'd get one more sibling arc so i could conclude something instead of just list observations ;;)

Mr Crescendo, Gakuon's mysterious patron: Chocho wondered what made Gakuon change, why did he start obsessing over genius? I've been getting bad vibes from Mr. Crescendo every time he appears. And every time he's framed in shadow or with his face hidden. Also. the cover of chapter 24. I was sure he'd be the true last boss after Gakuon had some sense slapped into him Lucky inevitably defeated Gakuon's philosophy. Perhaps Crescendo was going to use his music software to supplant flesh and blood piano geniuses altogether... idk.

The chapter where Furusu decides to become a conductor was titled Furusu's core, but in Japanese：フルスコア (full score! her being a conductor was foreshadowed from her name!)

Mapollo3's oneshot Dadadadaan (prequel/AU to PPPPPP focused on Sadame Hino) -> contrasting Lucky/Sadame as protagonists and wondering on what could have happened if the manga had been serialized with Sadame as a main character.

Shikato's attachment to Gakuon: I thought Shikato was going to turn out to be the closest and most codependent to Gakuon -> how they were always depicted clinging to Gakuon and not caring much about Lucky or Chocho.

#pppppp #i think i'll post the fanart for the poll when i get around to finishing it though #mmnmmq.txt

[redshift-13]

A book that’s at once both exciting because of the brilliance of its synthesis and vision, but also depressing because of how it clarifies the mental poverty of so much of current existence. 

I’ve dropped almost everything else I’m reading in order to get through this before the 3 week return deadline.

The contrast between the educational philosophy of this book versus what conservative legislators (especially) are doing with education in the US is vast.  (You could say this about any number of books or ideas, of course.)

It’s easy as pie to get large inarticulate numbers worked up about fantasy problems like woke and critical race theory and LGBT-themed library books, but it’s impossible to find an equivalent number with the power to push these postformal education ideas ahead.

Conventional, reactionary, conservative and authoritarian educational practices easily reproduce themselves since they’re mostly operating on low-effort duplication of current practice.  Rote memorization, acquisition of sterile facts, suppression of dissent, etc., are hallmarks of this educational approach - static social reproduction.

Adopting postformal pedagogies on the other hand is in a paradoxical situation.  It would seem to require significant numbers with postformal (or, using an equivalent term, postconventional) psychological and cognitive development to get it going on a mass scale, but this is hugely complicated by the fact that people functioning at postformal levels are generally lacking and might only come into existence if there were significant numbers of them to begin with in teaching positions, but if this were the case then the problem would probably be in some degree of resolution.

Examples of this paradox or dilemma are commonplace in other areas.  For example, if you’re at a low or mid level in terms of your critical thinking ability, you will not be able to imagine what it’s like to have a high level ability.  Thus, you don’t see your current function as necessarily problematic.  Or, if you don’t understand statistics, you won’t grasp whether a given public poll is valid, relevant, significant, or otherwise.

#jennifer gidley #futures studies #postformal #postconventional #education #philosophy of education #human development #stage theories of human development #teaching

[marshmallowgoop]

Minigifts: The thing so nice you gotta give twice

ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR WATSON (WAS WHERE HE BELONGED): THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF KUDOH SHINICHI This day in history marks what would have been the 25th birthday of Kudoh Shinichi, once Tokyo’s foremost high-school detective. Known for his inquisitive nature and “no such thing as winners or losers (especially when I’m losing)” philosophy, Mr. Kudoh’s greatest accomplishments include super wrong ideas about child endangerment and Kansai-ben appropriation. Mr. Kudoh’s intellect was evident at a young age, when he determined a cocaine addict predating CPR, lead-free paint, and the Geneva Conventions to be the paragon of brainpower and ethical behavior. Shortly after, he made his mark on the local community by scolding a kindergarten girl for crying, then personally ensuring the resignation of her favorite teacher. Such were the seeds of his oldest, most beloved relationship. Naturally, Mr. Kudoh expanded his talents and scope with age, and by his second year of high school had attained his nationally-renowned standing as a hero and savior among police administrators looking to cut budgets and overtime on people who actually investigate crimes for a living. In-between, he devoted his energies to several outstanding pastimes, such as proving that perfect pitch was no impediment to tone-deaf caterwauling, and puffing up a sport involving only half the body as an athletic ideal. Truly a Renaissance Man for our times. Bewilderingly, there are those who continue to insist that “Kudoh Shinichi” never existed as an individual, but rather as an elaborate masquerade maintained jointly by ballplayer Nagashima Shigeo, kendo-ka Okita Soshi, and/or convicted felon Kuroba Kaito. The rest of us, possessing a basic grasp of reality (especially concerning the likelihood the aforementioned three could maintain anything together for more than five minutes), will of course recall that Mr. Kudoh tragically passed last January, at the instant his beloved Sherlock Holmes was declared fiction's second-greatest detective by an international poll of some 70,000 professionals.

Nevertheless, we honor his memory every day we follow the World Cup, eat lemon pie, try to bring bowties back in style, or date martial artists way out of our league.

(Happy birthday, ya ahou.)

#submission #dcmksecretsanta #pfffft #'convicted felon kuroba kaito' really got to me #thank you for the minigift! #sorry for the late reply! been all over the place lately