#which is some kind of ode to pain and healing and the way that process holds something difficult but so so beautiful

[dawn-the-rithmatist]

Obsessed with authors like Naomi Novik whose books always seem to say “no, fuck that, there is another way than cruelty, and we do have a choice to be decent, and not choosing it isn’t a burden but a cop out.”

Authors like Neil Gaiman whose books seem to say “we are all simply human, and that is so valuable. This world is worth more because we are in it, when we choose to notice and care”

Authors like Brandon Sanderson whose books say “We are all a little broken, and there is strength in not turning away from us, and there is pain in healing but there is also strength and hope.”

Seriously, these folks do more for my faith and hope in this life than any religion ever has. I don’t have the words to describe it yet but just. Warm cup of apple cider held close to the chest on cold autumn night?? That’s the best I got

#recommendations #does this count as a recommendation?? everyone should read their things if they get the chance. must recommend. there now it’s a red #dawn speaks #the sandman #where death goes from person to person and the episode is a celebration of life as much as it’s life’s end #good omens #where people literally look at Heaven and Hell and say ‘we’re good thanks. we like Human better than Good and Evil’ #the scholomance #where people see ‘for the greater good’ and say in response ‘do better’ #the stormlight archive #which is some kind of ode to pain and healing and the way that process holds something difficult but so so beautiful #I have read fanfiction that has perfectly captured the human condition #and watched children’s shows that spit in the face of all the ways we have chosen to hate each other #it just. it hits different okay. #anyways thanks to people who make things #because you reach people <3

[vanessakirbyfans]

Some may remember British actress Vanessa Kirby, 32, as Princess Margaret in the first two seasons of the TV series The Crown, or as black-market arms dealer White Widow in Mission: Impossible-Fallout, with Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. This year she received a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress in a Drama from the journalists of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for her performance in Pieces of a Woman, by Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó, a role which had already earned her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at last year’s Venice Film Festival. She costars with Katherine Waterston in The World to Come, by Norwegian filmmaker Mona Fastvold, which also premiered in Venice, and won the Queer Lion award for Best LGBTQ-Themed Film.

The story of Pieces of a Woman is based on a tragic loss that really happened to the director and his wife, Kata Wéber, who wrote the screenplay. What did they communicate to you about their experience?

I knew that for Kornél and Kata this was a personal story, I didn’t know exactly the circumstances of how they lost a baby, but as we started approaching the movie, they did share that with me. I felt that it came from such a viscerally deep part of Kata and from a real need to share and break the silence around something that for women is so rarely talked about. So, this was a quite therapeutic journey for them, and it was very healing, between them as a couple, to go through this process. I literally saw that every day on set, the conversation that was happening between them, the facing of really painful moments, and their very different grieving experiences. That taught me a lot actually because when you go through any kind of loss or trauma, everyone processes it differently, but sharing that it’s healing, so we always hoped that the film would offer some small comfort for people out there who might need it.

Ellen Burstyn plays your mother in the film. What was it like for you to work with such an experienced actress and to get to know her as a person?

Ellen has always been such an icon in my life and such a legend, I’ve seen all of her performances, and she reminds me of Gena Rowlands, who’s also one of my favorite actresses. She has such a fire as an actress, such a strong energy and presence, and yet you always feel this vulnerability, this fragility, underneath. So, I was excited to go head-to-head with Ellen, because she’s done so many incredible films and she’s head of the Actors’ Studio. It was amazing to work with her and actually, we became really good friends. During rehearsals she invited me over to her house for a sleepover, she called it a pajama party, and we really bonded, we spent many hours talking, we went to bed at 3 am. Since then, we’ve been really close, and she’s definitely very maternal towards me. She’s such a soulful spiritual person and she’s so wise, that I’m very lucky to have her in my life.

In The World to Come you play a farmer’s wife living in Upstate New York during the 1850s. What did you discover about how women lived back then?

When I was researching the film, I couldn’t believe how ignorant I was that, not that long ago, women were completely owned by their husbands, that the home was your domain, you should serve your husband in his home and the children that you had, that it was your husband’s choice what you did with your time, what your name was and everything. That was the law, that was the religion and the way it was. In those days it was all about convention, what you were expected to do, who you were told to be by society and by the structures of a completely patriarchal system. These women, who are literally our ancestors in a way, had to make so many sacrifices and simply didn’t have the choices in their lives that we have now. So that made me incredibly grateful for the choices that I have today, whether it’s what I do with my afternoon or who I love, or how freely I can love. So, I felt very passionate about that story.

Did you come to understand some of the elements that make it so liberating for women to have romantic or sexual relationships with other women as opposed to relationships with men?

Mona Fastvold, the director, told us that these relationships between women have always been there, throughout history, and it’s important to tell those stories now, because, even in times when it was almost completely impossible, there would have been moments when two humans really wanted to be together and didn’t have the choice to be able to, because the only union that should happen is between a man and woman. I’m really proud of the film because it’s a brief moment in these women’s lives, when they are seen for who they really are and they really connect, they feel what they should have a right to feel, and they had the courage to actually do it and to be true to who they were.  The film is an ode to those women, like a cry for them in a way. I really imagined all those moments in life that may have been lit up by a person or something that made you feel so free in yourself, and you may have had that only for a moment, because of the system and the restrictions on who you were allowed to be by society.

We have all had a very difficult year, because of the Covid pandemic, and many other problems in the world. What have been some of your thoughts during this time, and do you hope that this crisis could bring about a change for a better future?

Yes, this last year has been so hard on everyone, and so much of it has been about readjusting. We’ve all had a year, when in many different ways there has been loss and our idea of how our life always has been having completely changed, for everyone across the whole planet. I finished filming Pieces of a Woman about a week before the pandemic happened, and we filmed The World to Come right before that, and both films were about the loss of a child, so they strangely seem spiritually linked. They are also both about women who don’t have voices, so I felt like they were giving voice to a female experience that is so rarely if ever, depicted and represented on the screen. Doing those films definitely left me with a sense of hope, that we can come to terms with tragedies and come out of them stronger somehow, whether that means that we’re more united or more compassionate, that we feel more empathy or more solidarity with what every single person is facing right now across the world. That’s what I hope.

#Vanessa Kirby #Pieces of a Woman #The World to Come #Interview #Articles

[coeurdastronaute]

Essays in Existentialism: Kiwi 10

previously on Kiwi

As grueling of a schedule as it was, there was a bit of normalcy to the routine of it all that was an almost welcomed addition to her life. Each day had an itinerary, had a designated time for everything, nearly down to bathroom breaks and time to think. The entire operation was efficient and orchestrated a year in advance. At a very very recent point in her life, Lexa didn’t like the sanctity of the routine and often balked under the weight of it, rejecting regularity for sleepless nights and people who broke her, and for too much manufactured joy that came at the end of a straw or bottom of a glass. Strung out and hung over, she performed without remember, and found herself missing the joy of it all, digging a deeper pit into her own body and soul that she could ever fill up. 

But she was finding a way to make up for it. 

It started with her sister, as most things seemed to always. It started with apologizing and promising and fixing a lot of things she once thought to be irreparable. And once that was mended and blossoming, Lexa watered different parts of herself, allowing a small bit of her own forgiveness and honesty to shine through. 

There was rehab and therapy, of course. And more apologizing and promising and setting realistic goals and avoiding stressors and things that would make her weak. But from that was a kind of strength, and people saw it, the improvement, the urge and need to be good, to be an artist. That was what saved Lexa’s life, at the end of the day, her overwhelming urge to create and interpret and give back something to the world. 

Tour was debated hotly for an entire month before it could be completely agreed upon between the bandmates, but in the end, it was the absolutely gruelling schedule that Anya decided truly was the best way for her to keep an eye on her sister. She couldn’t do drugs if she didn’t have time. 

And even though Lexa found herself missing someone, something she hadn’t originally planned on experiencing, she welcomed the road life with open arms, hitting meetings in every town almost, and talking to a girl on the other side of the country almost non-stop. When she wasn’t bugging Clarke, she was writing, practicing, working out, or performing, and in the end, those were almost the only things that truly mattered. 

Deftly, Lexa’s fingers moved along the frets of her favorite guitar as she lounged on the couch in her suite. She knew she was in Texas, but not entirely sure which city, and she didn’t mind. She had the sunset and she had a great view. In a month she’d be in Europe before festival rounds, and then back on the second half of her tour until the fall. There was a schedule. 

Without noticing her sister approaching, she hummed along to a melody she’d been stuck thinking about but not sure what to do with entirely. The album they were touring on was heartbreak and pain and partying. It was some of her favorite things because she loved seeing those who understood her and the words. But it scared her to write something different and new. And as many times as she promised an ode to Clarke’s ass, she was afraid to write something so loving. So she strummed along and already felt a different kind of grit sneak into her words. She sang a few lines and wrote in her notebook, pausing and reworking and thinking out loud. She recorded a few bars on her phone before putting it together somewhat. 

No one would say she was unprofessional when it came to her work. It was important that she got things out, and she came with a full idea, formed and ready to be put together, a concrete idea that she was always eager to capture. Her words got a little better and the process got a little easier when she was sober, something she feared at first, if she was being honest. She didn’t need the crutch. Her entire last album was a way to heal. 

“Sounds good,” Anya finally offered, pushing herself from the wall where she leaned. “Different,b ut good.” 

“I thought we discussed your lurking.” 

“I lurk out of love.” 

“Hm,” Lexa grunted, tossing her pencil down on the notebook. She kept working on the guitar though, trying to get it right. 

Anya took a seat on the coffee table her sister’s feet were propped up on, and she grabbed the notebook, carefully skimming through the words jotted there in a deceptively neat hand despite how quickly they were laid upon the page. 

“I like this a lot, actually. Powerful.” 

“I don’t want to wri--”

“I know, I know. The basics. Universal human emotion with killer guitar. Nothing personal, blah blah,” the drummer muttered, hunching over as she flipped a page and looked at another idea, waving away the inevitable diatribe she’d already heard. 

“I don’t want to write sad songs anymore,” Lexa shrugged. “At least… I don’t know. I can’t say never. I just-- singing these songs, it’s been heavy. I kind of want to bring back some fun. Remember our EP?” 

“A lifetime ago.” 

“Yeah, but like pure rock’n’roll right? Like gritty guitar, quick fucks, bad drinks, having fun. Dirty but something to sing along to.”

“Except you don’t do any of that.” 

“No, but I miss… Do you miss having fun up there?” 

“I always have fun,” Anya shook her head, pushing aside her mane of hair as it fell in her face. “I have fun playing with you.” 

“I do too, I just… Clarke said something-- before you complain,” she interjected as Anya began to roll her eyes, “She said that she could see me enjoy certain songs more, and a lot has to do with who they were about.” 

“You’re afraid to write about Clarke.” 

“No… yeah, I mean. No one tells you that when you write about people, you’re stuck with the song, even when they’re not around.” 

Lexa sulked slightly as she fiddled with her strings and looked away from her sister with the confession. 

“You like her a lot,” Anya observed after a few moments of quiet and flipping through the pages until she caught something she liked. 

“Yeah, obviously.” 

“Good. I like her too.” 

“I think I might invite her out again before we head to Europe.” 

“You should.” 

“Is this…” Lexa took a deep breath and stilled her movements, almost a complete statue as she tried to formulate the proper words. “Is this what it feels like to exist, like normal?” 

“Relatively, yeah, probably,” her sister snorted a laugh and smiled as Lexa’s face twisted slightly. “You’re so used to living at extremes, but what you don’t realize is that life is exceptionally average most of the time, and my favorite things are moments of beauty in the most mundane spaces. Aiden smiling at me when he pulls my hair and bites my chin because that’s how he kisses. You, holding him. You and me on stage when we are perfectly in sync and the world is right. The best bite of a piece of pizza. Watching you the past few months, come alive. Fighting with Luke about not having enough wipes in the diaper bag. There is nothing wrong with feeling those moments and realizing they’re enough.” 

Lexa grit her jaw and nodded, still unflinching and unwavering, afraid to move an inch because she was certain the dream would end, and perhaps this was one of those moments, because the sun was setting, and her sister looked beautiful and alive and not like she was ready to commit her, but like she actually enjoyed being her sister again. 

Anya didn’t mean to say as much, but she closed her mouth and looked down at Lexa’s notebook again. 

“Invite Clarke for a few days. Let her get a feel of your life here. She won’t break your heart.” 

“You’re psychic now?” 

“No, but I think she couldn’t hurt to offer you a muse, even if you don’t want that.” 

“I can’t write about her.” 

“I think you already are.” 

“Nah,” Lexa disagreed, back to plucking the strings haphazardly. 

With a victorious smile, Anya picked one she liked the most and read it a few more times, attempting to hear what her sister had beneath it all. 

“I like this one,” she finally offered, handing over the page, bookmarked and dogeared in a way she knew would piss of her sister. “Tell me how to hear it.” 

Lexa took her time, looking at the page and debating as her sister looked on expectantly. This would be the moment, she was certain, that they began the next album in earnest. That alone was a journey that made her wary, which was why she hadn’t approached her sister with anything finished yet. 

“Low and singular at first, up to the first bridge and then BAM you come in, hard and heavy, just a beat, a heartbeat. I want it to be a blast, a catharsis, an unleashing.” 

“Fitting,” Anya agreed and nodded as she read, dashing a note here and there, drawing lines to indicate the swelling. 

“See, I can write songs not about girls.” 

“You can, I just think you want to write about a girl. So just let yourself.”

“It’s hard, being away and stuff. Kind of a weird time to start a relationship.” 

“When have you ever done anything the easy way?” 

As much as she wanted to argue, Lexa stopped herself and agreed. It didn’t matter. She knew her sister was right, and maybe that was okay this time. 

XXXXXXXXXX

Even though it was nearing the end of her shift, the bar still felt full of people in a way that weighed on her. She was hoping to leave at a mildly reasonable hour to crawl into bed and get a reasonable amount of sleep for the first time in a long time. The universe didn’t seem aware of that plan as she tried to re-read the letter left in her letterbox the day before. 

“You going to grab that order at the end?” Raven interrupted her thoughts. 

“Why fucking not.”

Struck by her sour demeanor the entire night, Raven debated how to handle Clarke. There were different moods for her that required different responses. She wasn’t quite sure which kind of friend she had to be for the evening. 

Even though she couldn’t admit it yet, Raven saw that Clarke seemed oddly different after meeting Lexa Woods. She was driven and happy and doing more. She was content and afraid of the future, but for different reasons. 

“Are you being a little crabby because you miss your girlfriend?” Raven sang, clearly aware that she was annoying her friend. 

“She’s not my… well maybe-- no wait. That’s not why I’m-- And I’m not crabby,” a flustered bar tender shook her head, processing all of the words and how wrong they all were. 

“You miss her.” 

“How can I miss someone I never had?” 

“Oh, you have her,” Raven rolled her eyes and crossed her arms as she watched her friend huff and be annoyed at the common knowledge. “She’s flying you out again to see her, for a few days and two different cities of tour dates. You’re dating Lexa Woods.” 

“I think I would know if I was.” 

“I’m honestly not sure you’d know.” 

For the rest of the evening, they worked and waited until the bar cleared out and they could wrap up the hard part. Raven poured them both a drink when the door was finally locked and sat down across from her friend, unperturbed by the sticky bartop or the cleaning they were about to do. 

With a flick of her head, Clarke took the shot and hissed against the feeling of the painful liquid on her throat. 

“They’re tearing down my building,” Clarke sighed. “I’ve got a month.” 

“No wonder you’re in a snit,” Raven nodded. 

“And I haven’t gotten laid in a few weeks.” 

“Yeah, I can tell.” 

“It’s just… It’s just… It’s just... “ she sighed and shook her head before pausing to pour herself another drink and taking it back. “I think I’m getting ahead, right? Like if life is broke up into categories, love, money, job, happiness-- and I can’t get all of them to be okay at the same time. It’s exhausting.” 

As she spoke, Raven finished counting the cash and carefully handed over the split from the tips, handing a pile over to the barback that wiped down the tables while they stood there, veterans and exhausted by the night, no longer excited to keep drinking and stay up until about four. Clarke braced herself on the counter and stared at the empty shot glass, watching a droplet drip down the side slowly then all at once. 

“So what do you have together now?” 

“Hm?” 

“Out of those things, what is working for you now?” Raven asked. “I mean. You’re dating a rock star. You have a great internship and you are somewhat decent at it. You have to move and that’s it.” 

“It’s a pretty shitty thing. I can barely afford the shitbox I live in now, let alone another place.” 

“Come live with me.” 

“In your studio? No thanks. We’re close, but I don’t think we can be that close without killing each other.”

“Why don’t--”

“I’ll figure it out,” Clarke sighed. “I can’t think of solutions tonight.” 

“We can drink, if you want.” 

“Yes please.” 

“And,” her friend grinned, complete and utter mischief and nothing good at all as she dug behind the counter and pulled out a magazine. “We can read all about a sexy singer and a mysterious blonde she’s been seen with.” 

“Are you kidding me? Where did you get that!” 

Even though she moved as quickly as possible, Raven dodged Clarke’s advance, wiggling her eyebrows as she surveyed the pictures and laughed, enjoying her friend’s discomfort. Stretch as she might, Clarke couldn’t grab the offending image and she groaned, growing agitated in a way that her friend enjoyed. 

“I’ve just been saving this to enjoy when I had a free moment. Thinking about how much I could make by telling them who the cute blonde sucking on Lexa’s Woods’ neck is.” 

“I wasn’t-- They didn’t-- We weren’t--”

“Hmmm interesting,” Raven mused as she opened the magazine and Clarke got a glimpse of the front cover for the first time. 

Completely mortified, she blanched, the blood disappearing from her ears and face as she saw a grainy image of the two of them out to a lovely late dinner post-concert last time she visited. It was a good night and she thought they were alone. She also just really liked to kiss Lexa and she didn’t want to wait. 

“When aked about the new friend, the singer simply smiled coyly and said she was very happy,” the bartender read before flipping another page. “And my horoscope is trash.” 

“Give me that,” Clarke finally snatched the paper, flipping through the rag before coming face to face with herself. 

There was no way for anyone else to know it was her, at least not really, but Raven knew as she slipped her beer and started sorting the receipts. She knew and she knew the right thing to say most of the time, too. It only took a few moments of flipping for Clarke to toss the magazine back ont eh counter and shake her head before pouring another shot. 

“You’re going to be fine, Griffin,” Raven promised. “You’re ready to be happy.” 

“I don’t know how to be happy.” 

It wasn’t quiet in volume, but it was hones and quiet in its purpose. Clarke took the shot and slumped slightly under the weight of the honest and the feeling of maybe trying to believe how her friend’s suggestion could be real. 

“You do.” 

XXXXXXXXXX

Defeated by the rain and the past week, Clarke adjusted the bag that hung on her shoulder and leaned slightly against her large suitcase in the lobby the chic high rise. No one else was around save for the attendant at the desk who casually watched her without actually looking, keeping an eye on the happenings for very important people lived in his building, and he took his job very seriously. 

It was an act of utter failure and somewhat dependence that Clarke despised above all else. She never wanted to need anyone, and she never wanted to be a burden. When it came down to the fact that she needed help, she recognized a kind of guilt and shame that made her rile against herself, as if her own bones were bending and getting smaller. 

With an uncoordinated effort, she made her way to the elevator when it arrived in the lobby, and she tried not to think too much, instead looking forward to a good bath and a good sleep to get her head back on straight. 

She was going to make short business of needing someone’s help. She wasn’t keen on being given charity, and she certainly wasn’t ready to make Lexa feel like she was being used. That scared Clarke more than anything. 

As soon as Clarke stepped into Lexa’s empty place, she was afraid she’d gone into the wrong place because it was not actually empty, but rather warm and alive. The warm lights and candles glowed against the dark of the windows, while a sound of sizzling and the smell of garlic came from the kitchen. A record scratched in the corner. 

“Hey, I was wondering when you’d get in,” Lexa smiled and reached to grab the bottle of wine. “I was afraid you’d be later and it’d get cold.” 

The bags dropped. 

“What are you-- Wh-- How?” Clarke furrowed and shook her head. “You’re supposed to be in Philadelphia.” 

“I play there tomorrow. I thought you were a real fan.” 

She was putting the finishing touches on the small dinner prepared and plated on the dinging room table, but Lexa was every bit comfortable, as if she hadn’t been on tour for the past three months and not anywhere close to New York. 

“But what are you doing here, now?” 

“Came to welcome you to my place, well, your place, our place? No, your place.”

“It’s your place, Lex.” 

“Yeah, but it’s yours when I’m not here, so tonight it’s ours, I guess.” 

Happy and cozy, bare feet moving around and finally standing in front of her girlfriend, Lexa smiled and towered there in Clarke’s confusion. 

“Did you miss me?” Lexa grinned, and despite all of the feelings and the anger and the self-hatred, Clarke melted at it. 

“Why are you here?” Clarke shook her head, feeling bad still. “I didn’t--”

“I wanted to make you feel welcome. Nothing less welcome than a dark place, with no food. I wasn’t even sure I’d left the heat on to be honest, and it’s been cold the pas--”

Without meaning to do it, Clarke lurched forward and hugged her girlfriend tightly. She buried her face in her neck, making them both wobble slightly but leaving her undeterred. 

“I got you a key made,” Lexa whispered, surprised by the outburst. “I want you to be comfortable here. I like… I like the idea of you being in my bed.” 

“Even if you’re not here.” 

“I’ve never had someone to come home to.”

It was quiet and honest and even though dinner was on the table, and even though the record was done on its side and it stopped, creating a silence that prevailed the many tired thoughts that possessed both, they stood there. 

“You’ve been having a rough time. I know I can’t be physically here that much, I want to be around for you,” Lexa whispered. “I made you room in the closet.” 

“I won’t be here long.” 

“You can stay as long as you want. I mean it.” 

“It’s been a real shit month.” 

“Yeah, I know.” 

“Aren’t you tired? Weren’t you in DC last night?” 

“So you are a real fan.” 

Clarke laughed even though she didn’t want to. Lexa’s arms stayed around her as she pulled away and she sighed because she had no other alternative-- there were too many feelings and thoughts that left her frazzled and she needed to hide all of that to savor this moment, regardless of the fact that she’d lost her home and was desperately missing the girl that cooked for her. 

“Want to come to my show tomorrow?” Lexa asked. “You can come up with me for the night and we could have two consecutive days together.” 

“Two? Wow, you must like me.” 

“I don’t just let every Tinder hook up house sit for me.”

NEXT

[lightworkscompendium]

An Ode to Dry Hands Everywhere

Hangnails Are Not Good Company to Hang Out With

    We've all had them. Those annoying little bits of dead skin that poke out between your fingernails, so easy to get snagged on any number of things. Depending on the kind of job you work and what sort of activities you do throughout your day, you may even be more prone to these small annoyances than others. Have you ever wondered what it is exactly that causes these little bits of skin to separate and become the somewhat painful 'Hangnail'? Listed in this article will be the general causes of hangnails, how to properly treat them, and why some individuals are more likely to get them than others.

What Causes Them?

    Hangnails are caused by a number of different things, but are especially prominent during the winter months when the weather is at it's driest. This is due to the fact that hangnails are most often caused by dry skin, which causes the cuticle to separate and split off into that little bit of skin we all love to hate. Hangnails are also prominently caused by over-washing your hands for much the same reason – an unfortunate reality for anyone who works in the food industry and has to wash their hands dozens of times a day. The act of over-washing your hands will dry them out significantly over time, leaving them open to the possibility of skin cracking and bleeding – and of course hangnails.

     For those of us who are oh-so-prone to biting our nails, this is yet another major causation of the formation of hangnails. Not only will your saliva dry out the skin surrounding your nail, but chewing on your nails will also cause damage to the nail bed itself – something that will also result in forming this problem. Trauma to the nails and cuticles themselves, whether it's by paper cut or self-inflicted picking at your fingers, can be a large contributing factor in and of itself. Next time you feel inclined to pick at or chew at your nails, just remember that you might be giving yourself an even bigger annoyance later on to deal with!

How To Deal With Them?

    Before you go ahead and try ripping the hangnail off because it's uncomfortably rubbed up against something for the 12th time today, let's offer some alternatives to that potentially painful, bloody option. The best thing to do as a method of treatment is to use a clean pair of nail clippers and clip it clean off, getting as close to the base of the hangnail as you can. Doing so will prevent it from catching on things while it's in the process of healing. It's not recommended to simply rip the strip of skin off, as most often it will take extra, living skin with it and it can result in bleeding. This, in itself, can result in inflammation and potentially infection from any bacteria surrounding the cuticle.

    After clipping away the excess skin, it's never a bad idea wash the area and to put on an antibiotic ointment, such as Neosporin. This will help to ensure that the nail does not become infected, which can save you a lot of pain and suffering. In the case that it does become infected, the area of injury will most often appear red and puffy, discharging pus. Minor infections can often be treated at home by cleaning the injury thoroughly and applying an antiseptic ointment. Continuing infections, however, should be brought to a doctor's attention as soon as possible, as antibiotics may be needed to heal the infection.

Prevention as the Best Cure

    Now that we've learned what causes these pesky little bits of skin and how to best treat them, it should be noted that prevention is often times the best cure to a problem. So, how do we prevent hangnails from forming in the first place?

    One of the easiest methods to do so lingers in almost everyone's household – though it's possibly buried in the back of a cabinet somewhere or another. Using lotion or a hydrating crème on your nail beds is one of the best steps towards prevention. Since dry skin is the number one reason for the occurrence of hangnails, keeping your skin moisturized – especially during those dry winter months – will help stave off a majority of the problem in and of itself. So if you haven't made a habit of carrying lotion with you and you suffer from this frequently, now might be a good time to start packing a small tube in your bag!

    Less easy for some of us would be the option of ceasing to chew or bite at your nails. Generally speaking, chewing on your nails isn't good for either your teeth or your nails, so training yourself against doing it could be beneficial in more ways than one. This can also help to prevent spreading bacteria from your hands to your mouth, which can go a long way if you're prone to getting colds or the flu! For an alternative to chewing your nails, in the case that your chewing is due to anxiety or 'stimming', many resources are available to provide objects that are safe and durable to chew on instead.

    One last option for prevention is to get a manicure, should the option be available to you. Manicurists are trained professionals in taking care of your nails, from proper cutting technique to hydrating the nail bed with cuticle oil. You can generally trust that they'll be able to help you out, and you can get a splendid new look for your nails while you're at it!

Sources: 

Hangnails: Causes, Treatments, Risks, & When to See a Doctor

How Hangnails Work

What Causes Hangnails, Exactly?

Stimtastic Chewable Jewelry

Infected Wounds, Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

--

Want to become a beta reader and fellow researcher of a variety of interesting and unusual topics? Send an ask or direct message!

#Health #Hand Health #Hangnail #Skin health #Dry Skin #LightWorks Compendium #This is a repost so I could properly format and have it readable on this blog.

[fuckyeahcharmcaster]

An Ode to Omniverse!Charmcaster

OV’s Charmcaster is the non-Man of Action-involved Charmcaster that doesn’t entirely suck, and she has as much good points as bad points, all of which I’m analyzing in this post. 

PROS:

Sensible progression in her story - Charmcaster’s story in OV went from point A to point B and so on in a logical way, a far cry from how it went in UAF. We understand why she first gets involved in the show to start with (because the Alpha Rune was stolen by Zs’Skayr while she was busy contending with Darkstar trying to steal magic from her realm), why she goes to Friedkin University (to take the family heirloom staff from Hex in order to replace the Alpha Rune as a power source), why she goes for the power of Bezel (she hears about it while trying to get the staff again and decides it’d be an even better power source), and why she seems so much more rational and reasonable in the game show episode (she’s been deprived of power for a while, and this has a healing effect on her mind). It all adds up.

A return to form in villainy and point of character - The original Charmcaster was all about seeking various sources of power for the validation of her own ego (she has a Inferiority Superiority Complex), with the point being that she did so in place of seeking love, which she subconsciously wants but consciously considers a weakness, a contrast to Gwen who is just as ambitious in the pursuit of growing stronger but does so with love and support from others. After UAF’s version of Charmcaster completely dropped this angle, it’s nice to see it restored with the OV version, who is blatantly portrayed as a troubled young addict to magic power that is too hung up on getting back at people she hates, only hurting herself in the process.

A fantastic design - Derrick Wyatt may have not had any interest in Charmcaster as a character, but he knocked it out of the park with her design, combining her OS design with aspects of her UAF design and topping it all off with stitches in her coat, giving the sense of someone broken trying to put herself back together. The purple hair highlights are cool too.

Badass magic powers - I was far more impressed with OV Charmcaster’s skill with magic than I was with UAF Charmcaster’s. The writing also backs this up, returning to the OS fact that Charmcaster was “always the better sorceress” compared to Gwen, rather than the bullshit retcon about Gwen always being the stronger one because she’s “made of magic”.

Kari Wahlgren’s performance - Just listen to it here. Kari sounds like she’s actually having fun with the role again, as opposed to the drab take on the character she performed in UAF.

Great character interactions - Charmcaster got to have some fun and interesting interactions with Darkstar, Adwatia, Zs’Skayr, Ben, Rook, Hobble, Hex, Gwen and Bezel...she even had non-verbal interactions between many of the other female contestants in the game show episode (providing plenty of crack ship fodder as a result). That was highly appreciated.

A far better ending - UAF’s Charmcaster ended on the worst note you could possibly leave the character on: alone, unloved and mentally broken inside of her awful home dimension. It was a slap in the face to her and to any fan who wanted better for her. OV’s Charmcaster ends in the custody of people who love her on Earth and is mentally recovering. Despite UAF’s Charmaster being the one saddled with the name of “Hope”, there’s actually far more to be hopeful about regarding OV’s Charmcaster. Seriously, just look at the difference here.    I am forever thankful that this is where we left the original continuity’s Charmcaster* on.

*The original Ben 10 continuity before the reboot, known as the Prime Timeline, was a timestream, made of three different branches: OS, UAF and OV.  So the OS and UAF branches and their Charmcasters technically still exist separately from OV, but not as part of the Prime Timeline. The Prime Timeline’s Charmcaster thus started as OS!Charm, shifted into UAF!Charm, and then finally into OV!Charm which is what she is left off as. Complicated, eh?

CONS:

Mischaracterization - I’m not going to say that I didn’t find the zany, cheerful, energetic, high-on-magic Cloudcuckoolander personality OV Charmcaster had entertaining. I did. But the fact remains that it’s not the personality Charmcaster is supposed to have. Take away all the witchy trappings, and Charm is a “thug life” girl. Strip her of her magic and she’d be ready and willing to throw down with her fists. She’s sarcastic and tough-talking, insolent to authority figures, competitive and kind of tomboyish. Basically, she aspires to be the kind of woman Rojo is: the baddest bitch around who nobody oughta mess with, and she’s constantly frustrated when her own awkwardness gets in the way of this and she is unable to back up this egotistical self-image, though she often blames the likes of Gwen for it instead of herself. UAF’s varying depictions of her as a sultry femme fatale, high school alpha bitch, sadistic and obsessively vengeful murderer, sympathetic outcast and freedom fighter, troubled daddy’s girl, or whatever the Hell she was supposed to be in “Couples Retreat” were not the right characterization, and neither is what was done with her in OV no matter how much more enjoyable than those UAF characterizations it may be. Only the reboot got it right.

Her story hinges too much on UAF’s crap - Just when you’re enjoying OV Charmcaster’s story, you suddenly hear things like “Ledgerdomain”, “Alpha Rune”, “Spellbinder”, “Adwatia”, or “Darkstar” get brought up, and you zone out thanks to the bad memories that are awoken. OV Charmcaster would’ve worked better without all this baggage from her previous self.

Unfortunate Implications - Some of this connects to the previous point, as it exists solely due to the UAF crap (ex: OV Charmcaster’s story means denying the route of Charmcaster becoming a better ruler in Ledgerdomain, sending the message that women aren’t capable of being good rulers because they just aren’t mentally up to the task). Others are just OV’s fault, particularly where Hex is involved - I get what they were going for with him, but to do so they had to whitewash the fact that he and Charmcaster weren’t a loving, mutually evil family; Hex abused Charmcaster in order to drive her to evil. To make Hex sympathetic by having him reformed and upset at his niece’s self-destructive behavior that ends up harming him while dancing around the fact that said behavior was Hex’s own damn fault to start with is gross.

Her relationship with Gwen is a non-factor - OV didn’t butcher the dynamic between Gwen and Charmcaster the way UAF did, but this is mostly because it barely did anything with that dynamic at all. The third act of “Charm School” is the only time the two actually get to interact, and it’s as basic as you can get, with Gwen being all “Charmcaster, you’re not well, stop this so that we can help you!” and Charm being all “How dare you get in my way? I wasn’t even looking for a fight, but now I’m gonna finish you once and for all!” They fight, Gwen wins, Charmcaster retreats, and that’s it. In “Third Time’s a Charm”, Charmcaster turns Gwen into a stone totem right at the very beginning, paying little thought to her for the rest of the episode. Gwen, meanwhile, doesn’t really have anything to do with Charmcaster until the very end of the episode, with her line about hoping to finally make friends with Charmcaster now. For a character who is meant to be Gwen’s foil, Gwen barely mattered to Charmcaster here.

No character development - UAF attempted character development for Charmcaster and did it badly. Once again, OV’s answer was to simply not even try. OV Charmcaster is static to an irritating degree, with the exception of her final appearance, in the game show episode, where she appears to be mentally healed...which naturally happened completely off-screen, since putting it on-screen would mean taking Charmcaster’s mental issues seriously, which OV was not willing to do...after all, it hardly takes anything seriously. I think that this was a missed opportunity, as it could have made OV Charmcaster’s conclusion even stronger.

Horribly paced, minimal appearances - Charmcaster appears in 5 out of 80 episodes in OV. Worse still, her first appearance is a brief cameo toward the end of episode 42, showing up afterward in episodes 47, 63, 75, and 78. This means that Charmcaster and her story is primarily a factor in the episode 61-80 period, which is considered by many to be the worst period in the whole show!  It is transparently clear that the people behind OV did not have any real interest in Charmcaster whatsoever, she didn’t fit in with their preferred focus on Ben, Rook, the Plumbers, and stupid shit like “harem” antics and Blukic/Driba shenanigans. 

The spin-off that never happened - A justification as to why Charmcaster was so underplayed was that Gwen was not a regular on OV and thus too many Charmcaster appearances without Gwen would feel weird. As it stood, an OV spin-off focused on Gwen at Friedkin University was being planned, and Charmcaster would have been a regular character on that show. The problem is that this spin-off didn’t happen due to OV bombing and the franchise getting rebooted, so Charmcaster having few appearances and no character development in a story arc dedicated to putting her in place for her role in that spin-off just ends up feeling like a total waste. As painful as it is for me to admit this, even UAF Charmcaster ultimately felt more meaningful to UAF than OV Charmcaster does to OV thanks to this misguided decision.

[met4n0i4]

The four steps to make magic the right way

Ok, guys. There's a few misconceptions that I've noticed in the last few days that I'll try to alleviate in this new post. See, I love the Academy of Magical Arts because I can clearly see where people are getting the teachings all tangled up. So I'll try to make this post as clear as possible. Just bear in mind that people who've read my previous posts will have a better understanding of it (hopefully).

##Basic concepts

1) **Every single thought is creative. Your every thought is just like spell.** Yes, ALL of them. Not only the ones we have when meditating or visualizing, but also the small ones we have in our every day life.

2) **There's only two ways in which we can cast a spell. In the direction of what we want or in the opposite direction.** Just two ways to cast spells, guys. Either your thought is pushing you forward towards your heart's desires **OR** it's pushing you back.

3) **The collision going on between your negative thoughts and your positive ones is what I like to call *resistance*.** Stress, depression, anxiety, anger, fear and so on, are just the result of opposing thoughts battling inside your head. In other words, all discomfort is a side effect of resistance. Simple.

4) **Your past thoughts do not get erased the moment you decide to only cast positive spells.** Hard one to swallow for most people but just deciding that you are going to think different from now on doesn't mean all the shit you put out there in the past is going to disappear just like that.

And now that we have set the basics, let's proceed to our magic making recipe.

##Ingredients

1) An intention, aka your heart's desire.

2) Spell-casting techniques to manifest.

3) Transmutation techniques to clean and correct the negativity pushing back on us.

##The process

###1. Setting an intention.

See, the intention is the most important part of making magic and the step most people mess up from the beginning. Most magic students make the mistake of not having a clear intention from the beginning, or make the mistake of jumping from one thing to another before any of them manifests fully. So, it's important to start with a clear single goal in mind.

I usually recommend to magic students that they only try to manifest one thing at a time. Two at the most when there are special circumstances.

For students who want to manifest lots of things and don't know where to start, bear in mind a couple of things. Since all things are somehow twist and tangled inside our minds, bettering just one of them affects everything else in a partial yet positive way as well.

Also, working on *the thing* that brings you the most discomfort when you think about it (depression, anxiety, anger, frustration...), is the best path to yield the best results and overall satisfaction. In other words, don't try to manifest money when your biggest *discomfort* happens when you think about your ex.

###2. Spell-casting

Most students of the magical arts are most familiarized with this methods. They all consist of using the magician's *imagination* to translate their thoughts into existence. There's a whole array of them and all of them are equally as effective if done with the right attitude.

**Spell-casting** techniques have one purpose, to push a magician closer to the realization of its heart's desires. It's always advised that a magician knows a few different techniques for pushing forward. That way, they can have fun choosing which method they'd like to apply in each specific circumstance.

Some **spell-casting** techniques are: daydreaming, decreeing, SATS, living in the end, scripting, and hypnosis amongst others.

A magician should spell cast as much as possible throughout the day until some **resistance** shows up in the form of negative feelings or thoughts. When **resistance** pops up, the magician should proceed to the next step.

###3. Transmutation

This part of the process is the most ignored by the new students of magical arts. And is generally the missing link in most people's creative endeavors. A wise student would immediately include this part right here in their magic making, as soon as he/she becomes aware of it.

**Transmutation** is also known with other names such as healing, reprocessing, forgiving, thought correcting, or releasing resistance. And there are several effective methods to achieve it.

Some of those methods are Saint Germain's violet flame, the blood of Christ, Ho'oponopono and ♥OD. All of this methods are powered by love, the all corrective force. But there are also some other more conventional or *less magical* methods like journaling, psychological therapies, Neville Goddard's revisions, EMDR and socratic dialogue, amongst many others.

Love powered techniques are usually faster in their effects and have the ability to transmute *clusters* of negativity while more conventional methods deal with *one or very few* thoughts at a time.

A magician should apply **transmutation** as long as there is any kind of disturbance in their body or mind. When the disturbance diminishes or clears completely, the magician can go back to spell casting.

###4. Assessing the magician's state

Lately, I've been having trouble with magic students who don't know what they should be practicing at any given moment. But that is really easy to address and to do it, I came up with **the states of the magician**.

See, I previously talked about the *inner guide* prompts, but it seems that people have a hard time interpreting those prompts. That's why I came with this new way of going about things.

The *states of the magician* are the ones that signal when a magician should push forward, when they should clean and correct, or even when they should take inspired action. There are only three states of the magician that will prompt him into a specific practice and are as follow.

*Neutral state* - Generally speaking the neutral state is where not much is going on. The magician is not experiencing discomfort or negative feelings, but is not experiencing much positivity either. He's just feeling ok. When a magician is in a neutral state, that's the perfect time to push forward and practice any **spell casting** technique.

*Resistant state* - The resistant state is when a magician is experiencing some sort of discomfort. Aches and pains, negative feelings and emotions, or even compulsive thinking are just some ways of discomfort. When a magician is in this specific state, then it's time for cleaning and correcting, aka **transmutation**. If a magician transmutes correctly, they should be shortly back to a *neutral state*.

*Zero resistance state* - Zero resistance state is characterized by positive thoughts, feelings and emotions. Usually, the zero resistance state is accompanied by creativity, joy and enthusiasm. Most kids live in a zero resistance state, of course. During zero resistance, magicians feel *inspired* into taking some specific actions. Magicians should follow those prompts cause they usually lead to the translation of their heart's desires into 3d.

So the fourth step of magic making just consists of identifying your current magician state in order to know how to proceed with your process. But there are always some common mistakes, so let's address those, too.

##Common mistakes

All magicians should start the process by **setting an intention**. Once they have a clear intention, they should immediately jump into **spell-casting**. **Spell-casting** is necessary at first because it helps to stir up the past negativity pushing back on new intentions.

Now, most magicians will experience a *resistant state* very soon after just a little **spell-casting**. And they will have to jump to **transmutation** very early on in the process. That's perfectly fine. Most magicians will have to *transmute* a lot in the beginning before they find a *neutral state* from where they can start **spell-casting** again.

One big mistake some magic students make is not setting a clear intention and jumping to **transmutation** without something in mind. See, those magicians might experience *zero resistance*, but will not go in any specific direction, so they might get frustrated by not seeing their desires manifest and fall back into the *resistant state* shortly after.

Some other magic students will try **spell-casting** when they are experiencing a *resistant state*. That only leads to experiencing more *resistance*. This seems to be the most common mistake amongst my students. Some students seem to think that they will achieve some sort of progress by pushing forward when faced with a brick wall. But that won't happen.

Another common mistake is trying **transmutation** when in a *neutral state*. See, **transmutation** cannot heal or correct discomfort that is not present in the moment. So **transmutation** during *neutral state* is completely futile.

Finally, magic students tend to try **spell-casting** or **transmutation** when they are experiencing a *zero resistance state*, thus killing the positive momentum they worked so hard to get by *getting too much in their heads*.

Magicians in a *zero resistance state* should only worry about keeping that momentum by *enjoying the moment* and *following the prompts they get through inspiration*. The most difficult thing to do in *zero resistance state* is to **not** introduce some kind of *resistance*. So all magician's should keep themselves from falling into that trap.

And I think I've pretty much covered the most common misconceptions around the bunch. Don't forget to follow me for more recipes. Read you in the comments and happy manifesting.

Gato 🐱

[hillbillyhippiemusicreview]

Post #54–Arlo McKinley, Die Midwestern

Reviewed by Lyssa Culbertson

Here at the Hillbilly Hippie Headquarters in Kentucky and the substation by way of Alabama, we have one mantra: the sadder the song, the better. With each release he puts out into the universe, Arlo McKinley seems to accomplish just that, which gives him a permanent fixture on our playlists. If you haven’t heard the first three singles off of his upcoming record, Die Midwestern, I suggest you put on your figurative “Walking Shoes” and head on over to whatever platform you procure your music on and drift away on the seas of melancholy with Captain Arlo. Perhaps as you ride the waves, you’ll find the kind of “Paradise” his mentor, the late John Prine, wrote about within the melodies he sings…

Coming in hot off of his recent signing with Oh Boy Records, the brainchild of Prine himself, McKinley is set to debut quite the fantastic solo release next month. His self-titled debut record with The Lonesome Sound continues to receive high accolades among the indie community and is steadily broadening his horizons in music circles across the country, such as with a recent livestream performance for The Boot, a music blog focusing largely on Nashville markets. It is quite the feat to be signed to a label by Prine, and highly evident of his musical prowess, as Prine was notably difficult to impress. Previously, it felt as if McKinley was one of the hidden crown jewels of the indie underground/Appalachian scene, but now the world is taking note—and for good reason. While his upcoming record possesses a track listing including songs many longtime fans are already familiar with, such as “Bag of Pills” and “We Were Alright,” along with a few others—which I am personally excited to finally hear the studio versions of—there is also a wealth of new material to fall in love with. Not surprisingly, the first three tracks off Die Midwestern have not disappointed and received high praise from critics. With McKinley’s sweet, soulful voice infused with notes of the gospel of heartache, listeners need to prepare to have a musical revival of sorts when diving into this album. His trademark sound of country heavy laden with notes of soul and twinges of punk can be heard woven throughout all the songs, and it works so well.

Beginning with an almost eerie acapella performance, McKinley laces up his “Walking Shoes” in the first single released off the record in preparation to make you pause and ruminate over the stark honesty in his lyrics. In this tune, the character is walking away from a person he cares for, albeit in a bad relationship, in order to rebuild bridges he’s burned due to his shortcomings and seek forgiveness. He’s musing over a life hard lived and the consequences he must live with due to a series of poor choices. It’s truly an introspective tune, and one most can relate to in some way. Whether its drugs, alcohol, love, or other addictions we battle, everyone has something they’re not proud of and at some point in life has had to leave people, places, and things behind along the journey of healing and settling scores with those we’ve wronged—including ourselves. The promise of home “where there’s still plenty of room to make it better without ever hurting anyone” is one of the shining moments in the song, as there’s hope to be found in redemption, and it’s always available if only we wise up and seek it. The dichotomy present in all of McKinley’s songs with almost mournful, yet beautiful tunes paired with difficult topics is his signature—and he does it so well. “Walking Shoes” is no exception, and it is quite possibly my favorite Arlo McKinley song to date.

Along the same lyrical lines of “Walking Shoes,” the title track, “Die Midwestern,” possesses that notable sound that fans are familiar with. Per usual, it’s a sad song, yet is one juxtaposed with a bit of an upbeat melody as if it’s aim is to get you in the groove to go. The quintessential tale of love gone wrong with one left behind, this tune could be an ode to moving on, even if the heartache is packed in the suitcase amongst other possessions taken as you leave. As he croons “I’ve been thinking that I should go, But if I don’t leave now, Then I’m never gonna leave Ohio, Lord, and that’s a chance that I just can’t take,” I feel as if he’s been in my head hearing my thoughts and transposing them into heartfelt melodies. The fear of being stagnant and dying where he is radiates through the lyrics, and the words expose one of my biggest reasons for staying on the go and constantly leaving Alabama in my rearview. McKinley has a knack for seeing through the false facades that I, and many others, put up with his songwriting and it hurts so good. Despite the disruption in the character’s relationship, by the end of the song it takes a turn, as he moves from singing “I” statements to “We” statements. Perhaps if the lovers move on together, there’s a chance after all? Or, perhaps if you avoid taking the song at face value and dig deeper to attempt another interpretation, you’ll see that it could be a nod to a place, rather than a person, about the love/hate relationship with Ohio and the addiction issues that run rampant in a particular geographical area, and the desire to leave it behind before he finds more loved ones, or even himself, succumb to the troubles grown in Midwestern soil. Home will always be home, but sometimes, even if it hurts to leave, it does more damage than good. In true Arlo fashion, the song can take on whatever life you need it to in order to help you through.

“Gone for Good” is the most recent single to be released off the record and it’s certainly a star in its own right. Sonically, this track is a bit different than the previous two singles, though it is lyrically one of his finest songs ever written. The title is telling, and it’s not a difficult task to surmise what the song is about; however, McKinley paints such a heartbreaking picture with his words that you’ll surely be in your feelings by songs’ end. Instantly, the lyric that stuck out to me less than thirty seconds into the song was “Your name is on my finger, where a wedding band could be.” Total punch to the gut and attack to the heart, and I was in love with the tune already. What a poetic, forlorn way to summarize a failed relationship! As he croons in the chorus “I know I’m gonna wake up in a puddle of my tears, Forced to realize you’re gone for good, I’m sorry that I stole from you so many of those years, I swear I’d give them back, girl, if I could, I’m forced to realize you’re gone for good,” you can feel the intense heartache caused by the character’s toxicity and the honest pain in his realizations. One of the most difficult, yet most fulfilling things we can learn to do as humans is to sit with ourselves in the darkness and become self-aware, and that is a concept that McKinley has mastered in his music time and time again.

Whether he is writing his own stories or simply bemusing those of human nature, McKinley has a keen talent for expressing the hard topics that need to be heard, felt, and ultimately internalized and processed. “Gone for Good,” as well as “Walking Shoes” and “Die Midwestern,” are prime examples of that notion. Take a ride on those seas of melancholy with Captain Arlo and truly listen to the songs, take them in, and dig deep inside yourself to heal or do whatever you need to. Just let the music lead the way and touch you how it needs to. The late John Prine was one of music’s finest writers and storytellers whose influence spanned generations, and Arlo McKinley is certainly making a name for himself to follow in Prine’s footsteps. It’s easy to see why Prine would want McKinley on his record label, and after you listen to everything he has to offer, you’ll see it, too.

Currently, the record can be pre-ordered at https://www.ohboy.com/arlo-mckinley-store and according to a recent Facebook post, they will all be signed by McKinley himself. Speaking of social medias, you can find him online at Arlo McKinley on Facebook and @arlomckinley on Instagram and Twitter to keep up with all news concerning the record release. Y’all be sure to go give it a listen—meanwhile, I’ll be drowning my sorrows in his music until “The Hurtin’s Done.”

Peace, love, & music,

Lyssa

—————————

*This is an independent review. The Hillbilly Hippie Music Review was not compensated for this review.

*The opinions expressed are solely that of the author(s).

*These images are not ours, nor do we claim them in any way. They are copyrighted Arlo McKinley and Oh Boy Records.

[owl-eyed-woman]

Attack on Titan Season 2 Episode 36 Analysis Part 5: An Ode to the Ensemble

AOT has always been a type of ensemble show, incorporating dozens of characters, several competing factions and so many weird sounding names that you can’t possibly remember all of them. This large and varied cast is crucial for creating a sprawling, complex world filled with countless people who, alongside our main characters, are struggling with the same, trying circumstances. At least, that’s the intended effect.

The downside of having such a large cast, however, is that you actually need to develop them or they might start to seem like extraneous titan fodder. AOT has definitely fallen into this trap before.

To be fair, fixing this issue is not as simple as just developing every single character into multi-dimensional human beings; this would just bog the story down with superfluous detail. Still, far too often, interactions with this expansive side cast have used them as cameos not characters, relying on weird quirks to differentiate rather than authentic characterisation.

Thankfully, this season has clearly recognised this shortcoming and started to shine a light on thus far overlooked and underutilised characters. We’ve moved away from Eren, Armin and Mikasa and have instead focused on the secondary characters in the cadet corps. With this shift, AOT has truly begun to excel as an ensemble piece.  

In the context of this season-wide reframing and refocusing, however, this episode is actually a bit of an outlier as it re-centres a lot of the action around Mikasa and Armin. But fear not, the side-characters have their time in the spotlight!

Obviously, a lot has happened in this season which, may I remind you, has spanned less than two days. There’s a lot to process and with barely a second to rest, everyone is undoubtedly struggling physically, mentally and emotionally. With this in mind, this episode grants our precious side characters a chance to finally address the most shocking twist of the season: Reiner and Bertholdt’s betrayal.

AOT has spent several episodes examining (and re-examining and then re-examining again) the various nuances of Eren’s emotional fallout from this betrayal, but the questions still remains: what about the other cadets? They, like Eren, trusted Bertholdt and Reiner unconditionally, counting them as comrade and companion through thick and thin. It only follows that their emotional fallout is just as cutting and devastating as Eren’s.

So as Sasha, Jean, Connie, Armin and Mikasa converge atop Reiner, surrounding the encased Bertholdt, it becomes a type of twisted family reunion, where past resentments and remembrances are dredged up and brought out into the open. How is everyone holding up?

Well, unsurprisingly, they’re confused and hurt! Who’da thunk? Each of them express this pain differently, coping in their own flawed ways. Sasha is simply in a state of disbelief. Connie, my sweet, dense boy, almost seems in a state of denial that they could have lied to them for so long whilst Jean’s snarky rejoinders hide his obvious distress.

There’s a lot these characters need to express openly in order to truly start healing and moving on from this betrayal, more than can be said in this brief conversation. Jean’s words cut to the heart of the matter as he vehemently tells them that they can’t just, literally and figuratively, run away from them and the three years of friendship they shared. It’s a desperate and raw attempt to appeal to Bertholdt and Reiner’s humanity that they now fear was only a façade.

They all desperately want to understand why this has happened and find some type of explanation for their betrayal after they’ve trusted them for so long but there is no satisfactory answer. In the end, while this brief conversation does allow for some emotional catharsis, it ultimately remains one-sided, unsatisfying and futile. Reiner and Bertholdt remain unmoved.

In the scheme of this episode, this is only one brief exchange, but it still shows us the genuine effort AOT has made this season to add depth and complexity to initially flat and simple characters. But after all this welcome effort, one character still remains obscured: Bertholdt. I’ve often joked that I only know two things about Bertholdt: 1. He is quiet and 2. He is tall. But honestly, there’s a lot of truth in this ridiculous, reductive statement. Who is Bertholdt? What motivates him? Why did he commit such horrific acts as the Colossal Titan?

Despite Eren and Mikasa’s virulent insistence to the contrary, AOT has been hinting heavily that Bertholdt and Reiner are more than just two irredeemable monsters who hate all of humanity; there’s another side to their betrayal.

We know that Reiner has struggled with his crimes, splitting his personality in twain just to cope with the guilt, but Bertholdt’s position has remained mysterious throughout this entire affair. Not even his friends’ desperate pleas are able to elicit any reaction or explanation from Bertholdt.

Interestingly, it’s Mikasa’s brutally pragmatic dismissal that gets a response out of the consistently aloof Bertholdt. Unlike the other cadets, Mikasa never seemed particularly close to Bertholdt or Reiner, and now, after what they’ve done, she couldn’t give two fucks about either of them. She doesn’t care about any purported humanity or moral nuance. In fact, she actively rejects its existence and rejects its relevance. They are her enemy now and that’s all she needs to know.

It’s this blunt dismissal that challenges Bertholdt to prove his humanity, to prove that they aren’t just monsters to be vanquished. As tears stream down his face, Bertholdt finally reaches his breaking point and reveals all. It is at once heartbreaking, humanising and horrifying.

He has no delusions about what they did, no declarations of moral righteousness, no smarmy excuses; just a soul-crushing awareness of the evil, disgusting crimes that they have committed. Like Reiner, Bertholdt has been consumed by guilt and self-hatred because of their atrocious actions; he’s just better at hiding it. He knows they deserve to die for what they’ve done.

It’s honestly a relief to have explicit confirmation that they didn’t want to kill all those people. I know AOT is a story about literal monsters, but I guess I don’t want to believe that someone could happily murder so many innocents unless they were literally inhuman. Then again, maybe that’s naïve; AOT’s central government forced its citizens into a suicide mission in order to cull the population. Such atrocities are the order of the day for human society as a whole. But I digress.

Significantly, Bertholdt also admits that he sincerely cared about his comrades during his time as a soldier in the 104th cadet corps, even if it was just a reprieve from this guilt. Their years undercover weren’t just part of the job, but rather, a brief refuge from the reality of their deeds. In the end, Reiner and Bertholdt were so good at playing make-believe soldiers because they desperately wanted to believe they were just innocent soldiers, if only for a while.

It’s a potent reminder that though Eren may dismiss them as monsters, even the most despicable people are still human beings. It’s easy to completely write off people after they do evil things or betray us but if we can’t acknowledge the humanity in our enemies, we’ll never truly comprehend our own innate potential for both cruelty and kindness.  We’re all complicated, we all contain multitudes and if AOT has taught us anything, we’re all capable of terrible things.

With that said, there’s only so much sympathy we can extend towards those actively trying to eradicate countless human lives. Yes, this distraught assertion of humanity and admission of guilt is genuinely moving, but Bertholdt and Reiner still made the choice to commit these crimes and stain their hands with innocent blood. I’ve been hard on Mikasa in my past analysis, but her to-the-point demand for Eren’s return is ultimately the correct response to the situation; any sympathy is pointless if they are still trying to destroy humanity.

This episode didn’t have to give so much runtime to these minor characters; it could have simply coasted on its action and gore and twists and turns. But still, in this single, tiny scene, AOT manages to do so much and is so much stronger for its inclusion. I truly appreciate this show’s continued effort to imbue its characters with complexity and humanity. This is why I’ve spent 5 whole posts analysing, or, if we’re being honest, rambling on about this single episode.

If you’re interested, I’ve linked to my other articles below expanding on other parts of this episode.

Links: Part 1: Why I Love this Show Part 2: Ymir and Christa Part 3: Mikasa, Co-dependency and Morality Part 4: Armin and Sacrifice

#attack on titan #aot #shingeki no kyojin #shingeki no kyoujin #snk #anime #anime reviews #anime analysis #anime criticism #analysis #reviews #snk ep 36 #snk episode 36 #aot ep 36 #aot episode 36 #attack on titan season 2 #aot season 2 #shingeki no kyojin season 2 #shingeki no kyoujin season 2 #snk season 2 #Bertholdt #bertholdt hoover #Mikasa #Mikasa Ackerman #jean #jean kirschstein #conny springer #connie springer #conny #connie

[zabizilla]

Energy Work

Before we can talk about how to witchcraft we need to talk about energy and how it's raised, harnessed, shaped and used to a witch's will through spell craft. Now there are some non traditional spells done without spell casting in a physical sense but we will get to that. So the way I learned to recognise energy and how to form it was to rub my palms together. Not hard or very fast mind you, just sort of lazy and lightish. You do want some pressure but not much. Focus is key here now so pay attention. You want to see in your mind a light either blue or white, whichever you prefer (I prefer blue) begin to form between your rubbing palms. Really see this in your mind (in other posts I will speak on techniques to strengthen visualization skills). After a while (can't tell ya how long cus it's different for every witch) you should begin to feel a tingling or warmth or liquidy feeling between your palms. Again it's different for everyone but those are the 3 ways I've heard it described. Once this light and feeling reaches its height slowly and I do mean slowly pull your hands apart. You should feel a resistance. As you pull apart see that light and feel it form a small sphere in your palms. Like holding a water balloon minus the balloon and the water is replaced with energy. This here, this ball of light is the fuel of magic. It's in its raw form still as it has not been programed with your intentions. Try to hold this visualization as long as possible. Its OK to collapse this energy and it's OK if the visualization drops. If however you feel jittery I suggest you ground that energy. Grounding energy simply refers to the process in which you push that excess energy out of yourself and into the earth. More on grounding can be found here: http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/magicandspellwork/qt/Grounding.htm So what is this energy? It's the cosmic life force which exists in all things. Minerals and animals carry an energy all their own that feels different between each of them. These in turn are different still than human energy but in the end it's all energy. It's all this cosmic force which exists in every cell, every atom that moves at sub atomic levels. Remember that nothing is truly solid. Everything moves in a certain pattern that manifests in our reality as a physical object/animal/person/ect. You can practice feeling the harmonic pattern of different natural items such as plants and crystals. To start rub your hands together as before palm to palm. Rub a wee bit harder than before but not aggressively so. After about 10-20 seconds shake em like you would if you were flicking off water after just rinsing your hands.  Cup your hands around the object without touching it. See if you can feel any sort of energy being given off. Remember this can be unique to the witch. I, like a lot of witches, feel a sort of wavelength come off at a certain speed. Fast or slow. Some however feel as if as if it's warm or cold. It's OK to not feel it right away. Just keep practicing. Now depending on how these items feel, they can work together to program that raw magical energy we talked about earlier. These items move in harmony and become correspondences in spells. When used properly and in sync with the witch they can help the witch focus on their will. This focusing and thinking programs the items/correspondences. For example the color green is synonymous with money in witchcraft. The reason I guess Americans would think money is because our money is green. But that's not the only reason. See the color green has a certain wavelength which matches the wavelengths associated with the idea of wealth, the earth, materialistic desires and several other things. When these combined with the raw fuel of raised energy and your desire, your willpower, your thoughts, magic is born. These items in unison become the physical representation of the outcome you wish. This is why you don't see the person sick while doing a healing spell. You see them well and free of pain and misery. Your thoughts carry this energy too. That's why focusing on your desire is a key element in witchcrafting. It will be mentioned throughout this guide as its #1 on the how to witch crafting list. So now that we covered all that, let's talk about how we harness this energy. We start like before by rubbing our hands and forming a ball of energy. And just like we did in feeling for different energies we are going to cup the ingredient/correspondence in our spell. You may also "charge" the spell item like a bag or loaded candle or oil in one go instead of doing each individual piece. Some ingredients you will use will feel so powerful you may not feel the need to charge them individually but rather simply add them to the working. That's OK but some items like salt have multiple almost conflicting energy patterns and so charging them with our intent is key in magic. Now that we have the ingredient in-between our hands, we are going to visualize and feel that energy pushing into the spell item. When using herbs I prefer to physically hold the individual herbs or resins and charging them one at a time. I have more time to charge it with my will and align it's harmony with my own. They will strengthen my spell work. Don't worry if you don't get it yet. We will go over a simple spell together to help you to understand how to do this. So to start let's make a loaded rune candle for peace in the home. Timing, numerology, planetary influences, crystals, herbs, colors, and all kinds of things can lend aid to your magic. Most of not all these things will be explored in future posts. We first start with what we wish to accomplish by preforming this spell. Get a piece of paper and a pencil to brainstorm if necessary. It will come in later for making sigils and other magics you can preform to strengthen your spell. As I said this will be a candle that will be burned for peace. I would write down candle on the scrap paper or rather my book of mirrors. More on that later though. We look to color magic to find an appropriate color that will lend energy to our working. Blue is a correspondence of peace. Blue's energy matches that of peace making blue a corresponding element to peace. For a large list of correspondences I suggest Llewellyn's Complete Book of Correspondences: A Comprehensive & Cross-Referenced Resource for Pagans & Wiccans by Sandra Kynes. There are other books regarding specifics in magic such as The Crystal Bible by Judy Hall, Color Magic by Richard Webster, Tarot for Beginners by Barbara Moore, Cunningham's Encyclopedia of magical herbs, ect.. I find Kynes's book to be a good beginner option until you are able to find or read info on specific fields of magical correspondences. Anyway moving on...So I have a blue chime candle but blue glass jar candles or regular taper candles work just as well. This candle will be burned to return peace to the home after a fight or any bad energy that comes creeping in due to daily life. Since this candle will be 'loaded' I need to find out what herbs correlate to peace and cross reference them with ones I happen to have on hand. A loaded candle has items embedded into it by the witch. Usually herbs or personal concerns (tag locks). The herbs I have are basil, coffee, lime, orange, lavender, olive. I write them down in my BoM/scrap paper. I have more but I'm trying to use common herbs and flowers found in a variety of places. I'm cheap like that lol but it's also to show what magic tools can be obtained very easily. Now using numerology we learn that the number 2 is associated with peace.  I apply numerology by choosing 2 herbs to load my candle with. I choose lavender flowers and olive oil. I circle them on the paper to remind myself later of which ingredients to grab. The oil will be added in small doses to the charged and powdered lavender flowers so they can better stick to the rune we will be carving on the candle. It won't be massive amounts of oil being used. Just enough to barely moisten. An alternative option would be to add lavender essential oil to olive oil and anoint the candle with this mix before being burned but I like to load my candles. This is a personal choice. You should use what works for you. I prefer to use runes over sigils. That's my choice so I will be using the rune Jera. You can of course use a sigil if that's what works for you. Now that we got the ingredients listed we will still need a few things to make the candle. Miscellaneous items include a needle or witches blade (also known as an athame or a bolline - depending upon personal ideas about whether to cut with an athame or not) to carve the rune on the candle, a mortar and pestle to crush the lavender (this is optional) and a lighter or candle flame to heat the blade/needle/nail/ect. First grab the lavender and mortar. We're going to charge about a tablespoon full of blossoms in our hands. Never empower herbs in bulk as many herbs have different properties. For example pepper can both repel and protect. We rub our hands together to get that energy going. We think about being calm and peaceful, being in an environment of lightness. As we visualize this we feel that energy rising. The energy becomes peaceful in feeling. Now shake your hands out like theyre wet but still see that energy/light in your hands. Pour some lavender in your hand. We cup the herbs with our hands and push that energy of peacefulness into the herbs. Grind em up with the pestle all the while thinking of peacefulness. Using your carving implement heat the tip and begin to carve the rune Jera into the wax. Make it sort of wide and deep as we will be packing the carving. Don't penetrate to the wick though. Now that your carving is done, dip your finger into the olive oil and apply it to the carving. Press the ground herbs into the carving. Brush off the excess. Add a drop of olive oil to the outside to moisten the herbs and get them to stick a bit better. You can choose to pour a small amount of olive oil into a small dish so you can charge it with peacefulness too. The choice is yours. Repeat till entire carving is filled with herbs.  Now we want to empower the candle so once again we rub our palms together like a 1950's cartoon villain. We visualize peacefulness in our home. Cupping the freshly made loaded candle we push that peaceful energy into the candle. Remember that sound has a wavelength too, same as everything else. Chanting can permeate the candle with your willpower as well. If you had a chant you wished to use that's totally fine. Speaking with authority is a very valid form of magic. The Egyptians called it heka.  Now for more magical energy I could do this spell during a planetary hour associated with peace. Monday is associated with the moon and the moon with peace. Planetary magic is something we will explore more on later. As the candle burns it released that peaceful energy we built up into it. Our spell is complete. More magic to come so stay tuned! 

#wicca #wiccan #pagan #paganism #witchcraft #energy #spells #spellwork #spellcraft

[ghcstbuster-blog]

A Better World Is Possible

PunkerslutA Better creation Is PossiblePolitics Articles | June 29, 2005It respects reality as the remaining enemy and as the source of all suffering, with which it is impossible to live, so that one must gap off all relations with it if one is to be in several way happy. The ascetic turns his back on the star and will have no truck with it. But one can do other than that; one can try to recreate the world, to build up in its stead something else world in which individual most unbearable features are eliminated and replaced by others that are in conformity with one's mine wishes.-- pigment Freud "Civilization and owned Discontents," by Sigmund Freud, chapter 2If a procreation that harbor love and affectionately admire honesty were to create two gods, they would be gloom and optimism. The first gave them the vision and vision to recognize what is wrong, beyond holding faithful to bias and bigotry. The twin gave them the vigor and ability to discover a better world, smooth if it started and ended with one restored soul. dramaturgic bible of this generation, the religious text and scripture which they would refer to in their daily lives, would repose of conference between these two gods. Pessimism regularly seemed to represent apathy, a sensitivity of apathy accompanied by lost dreams. But, later again, it was the agitator, the creator, the mover. Optimism would consistently seem to represent exercise and growth, a feel of activity and a desire to do thing about it, as great as egestas and pleasure. This propagation of admirer and thinkers would adoration these divinity through thing of kindness, mercy, and love. breathtaking names they would grant their children would have hidden meanings, like "romantic poet," or "moment of orgasm."If a good customer were to try to live raise to the expectation of change and growth with the daring honesty to look forward, he mould be a cynic as much as an optimist. His sacred scripture would simply be: "A superior World Is Possible."When we look consequent to our owned society, probe its process and endemic manners, we discover a great accord that we wish to change. individually see crime, we recognize poverty, we see remedy addictions, murder, war, calm abuse, adolescent abuse, rape, theft, brutality, and exploitation of every power. the particular of the humane process have regularly believed that it was the friendliness of guy that brought them in sync for consensus and strength. Today, we stand on the remains of present-day life. appeal may have been the social knack which acquire brought U.S. together and has set up our families, our towns, our cities, and our nations, but there is so enough more to it thaw that. downtown have become the swarm of indecency and misery, the perfect strangers to loneliness. Our modern poets and romantics stand back this marvel of life, and are speechless.When we think of pain and suffering, what do you think it is that is the most prophetic source of suffering? There is no doubt that it is from a bit relationship within society, or at least within human civilization. as it may be it is the partisan social exchange between guy and women, resulting in sexism and domestic abuse? Perhaps it is the unjust accord that live between nations, resulting in economic embargos and wars? Maybe it is the relationship in citizens, engage crime and theft, or the accord between management and employee, resulting in poverty and misery? whatsoever it is that is the terrible cause of suffering in the world, there are some stuff that must be considered. First, we are analyzing the marriage that exist between all other to discover the roots of this suffering. It is an constitutional problem. It is not a inquiry of natural disasters and the frenzy that quality has worked on mankind. No, it is a question of the form that we act amid ourselves, the customs we forge anad the statute we make. Second, as Freethinkers and those fairly concerned with justice, meanwhile we evaluate these communication in society, we do so with the decided of set up a more free and more just system.The needed difference instant between an Anarchist and a Liberal is this: the Liberal wants to repair the damage ended by the system, the Anarchist requirement to overhaul the system. The antecedent looks to poverty and creates welfare, completely take off the material system untouched. The last wants to completely abolish any monetary system that will top to homelessness, poverty, or misery.It was not uncommon or occasional in our past for these communal relationships to change, convert altered, or become ultimately abolished. enthrallment was formerly tradition that men goody women comparable property, that wars amid nations were glorious events, that lack was od's naturally reward condition for a convinced class of people, that crime was simply double nature to each human, and so indefeatable. complete of this was conclude by the people, they took it in as unquestionable truths. Well, it was the liberating experience of either honest individual, to comprehend that whole conscious structure simply wish to be free. against such a humble start, the advance of benevolent thought receive come a long way. Citizens have collectively allocated women's rights, worker's rights, children's rights, citizen's rights, etc., etc., protecting the freedom, security, and contentment of the particular who have been exploited for so long.Do you think the happiness of the ordinary person, from these primordial times to our prevailing situation, include increased? I imagine that few would disagree with me. appeal was by altering and changing these relationships amid the disparate groups that a better, more quiet terms of living came about. So, when we decide to examine the social morals and accord of our own era, and unearth such huge amounts of suffering, the only reasonable response to these situations is this: we must reorganize society, change the relationships, improvement fmovies revolutionize) the rule itself, back we will stop perceiving the hardship that it causes. What we would be action would be a radical activity, in that we would be altering our own earth to earn our owned ends, in the maximum radical form possible. It would also be the tradition of spirited autonomy to oust oppressors and cast absent any continuity or servitude they have given to the innocent.Our questions requisite be twofold. 1) What are the relationships that are create so much stress, misery, pain, and suffering on others? 2) What jar we complete to shift them?Crime. What causes it? Any skilled person will give the same answer: the hunger or commitment of appreciable objects. granted that the salary offered by employers execute not placate the use of the workers, that is to say, the people who have no property, formerly criminal exercise becomes the result. Psychologists and psychiatrists might essay to segregate criminal behavior, trying to put frontier and boundary through it so that they vessel understand it. The one thing that they end not explain about unlawful behavior is that it is not unique, that it is not special, that it is perhaps the better natural part of bodily life. granted that a mother bear is interested in obtaining meat for endemic young, accomplish it constantly consider the fact that it is violating intrusion laws in doing so, or end it constantly consider the opinion of other bears? Maybe isolated insomuch as it involvement her and her cub's welfare, but beyond that, not at all. The creature is simply committing an performance that is required for life. So, too, is the individual who execute crime to survive, although no legitimate means of income will suffice.The shrink might be right that the sage changes somewhat with illegitimate behavior. New instincts, behaviors, reflexes, and understandings are required in group behavior. All of the shoplifters that I know, including myself, have developed crowd senses -- we flourish a subconscious that analyzes and understands where anybody in the room is and position they are looking. aforementioned allows us the facility of perceiving if we are life watched, an invaluable dexterity for Land of Liberty lifters.Without poverty, there is no crime. Crime is caused individual by the poor setting in which human subsistence live, and their drastic attempts to escape those conditions. through least, this can be considered normal with all those conditions in which property felony is involved. We requirement to flourish a system, an regulation of society, in which crime is completely eliminated. That is our objective. What fashion would we mend or forge the current arrangement so as to exhaustive our objective? Well, although we stare at these who have been exact with the miserable career of criminal, what fly in specific are we examining? comic working class. Their marriage that brings them to poverty and eventually felony is the their marriage with the Capitalist class, or the employer class.The only form to heal this relationship, between the haves and the have nots, is to produce it so the consequence of it is also wealth in the pockets of the have nots. This put up be down with a policy so limited and conservative as minimum wage, minimum running hours, safe working conditions, lowering the work freedom per week, etc., etc.. All of these laws, if they were be implemented into a government's laws, should be stationed on the collective's perceptive that the working son must be protected -- not from other engaged men, but from these whom they work for. With the above-mentioned limited policies, the management class would be notice much alike the government: a unavoidable evil, after which we would have tranquility and peace, at least for a limited while.In a more uneasy effort, we might oust the firm class entirely, dissolve it into the working body of citizens. It get been spoken that to establish Democracy, every resident must be treated cognate a king. If we apply the same analysis to economics, in an effort to eliminate the poverty that comes from Free Trade, then whole citizen prerequisite be treated like a Capitalist. Using this system, the entire conflict that would arrise in a Capitalist rule -- with workers fighting for contemporary wages and the employer class boxing for worsened sweat market conditions -- this sound conflict would be removed, and article called totalitarianism or Leninism would revenue effect. The relationship that causes poverty, misery, and so scads abuse of the humor is the relationship that exists halfway those outwardly property, who must move their labor to survive, and the particular with property, who handle the commonalty to production for them. To dispose of this relationship, thus knock out the conflict, we are establishing a better world. Among the most influential revolutions, Maoism and socialism are of the best degree for any revolutionary.When we try to assume of the relationships in society that allow for a tremendous deal of unnecessary torture and misery, we influence to feel about the relationships that exist amid us and those that we tenderness and encumbrance about. In literature of every science and each one era, we find that adultery enjoy been at the cause of heartache for so many lovers. It has been the inspiration to a volumes of sad poetry. attractiveness has move the origin of so much conflict, so great fighting, so much fighting and violence. I introduce that a bit cultures were intelligent and thoughtful suitable to sidestep such stupid brutality and misery. However, as we see it in our modern world, it is quite straightforward to watch that the relationship that exists among lovers is one of great shame and pain. We are attracted to it by the logic of happiness, pleasure, a feeling of connection and mutual understanding. The influence of affectionate relationships are the duplicate in any culture: they come from the better natural fascination to mood love, as though the universe put up end and all a lover could do would be to welcome it.Yet, we look so abundant abuse hit from this relationship that exists halfway lovers. climactic time for a modern moral code is necessary. The generation has consistently been ripe. I offer that sweetheart learn to love other openly, that their communication are not confined to one somebody only -- what in fact has been the cause of all the particular problems. granted that sexual activity with new partners was accepted in our present-day society, later the question of the lonely and disheartened girlfriend disappears. although we learn to take that partition sexuality with others is a conclusive aspect of life, in that it creates affection, something beautiful, and a connection -- when we learn to accept this, then so much misery, pain, and depression would be clean out. But, the question of the matter is in growing ourselves, in learning to accept that you cannot tell one what to do with their bodies, even in a relationship. I'm not evading a double standard. Men should be as promiscuous as they like, as should any woman. It be permitted be troublesome and lengthy for woman to buried these group prejudices. our own selves wince whole time the thought of a obliterated lover materialize to mind, and we are reminded of the pain that comes from a deceased passion. our own selves do not forget the misery that we have suffered, that others have, that surplus still will, and it is our intention as revolutionaries to uphold our scripture: a better universe is possible.There are so many origins of sickness and so many other great standardize and alterations that could happen in our state-of-the-art society to abolish the sources of misery. affecting animals of the universe are murder for the taste of their molder carcasses. premier and oppressor switch community constantly as I bonanza more and more crowd confused at the political situation. Books are illegal at the same time courts decree guilt by association is "reason to convict." father and mate are launched in dungeon when they make the personal decision to make drunk themselves, and gain a gentle enjoyment via unreal means. slave slave aside at work, hours of their growth taken aside with imagination crumbling and sinking.I wish to detonate when I see the walls of chain facility stores and rip afar the humdrum of a "brick back brick" architecture. In my dreams, I am expansive enormous pot of paint to compose child-like paintings of fog on the side of every Walmart. I requirement to community a paper-mache rose on the tread of whole girl who feels alone, give a confident discussion to every boy who feels alone. I hankering to yelp for each one rape. I want to die for every resurfaced memory. I want people to pain less about death, and think also about their life as a unique and cute experience. I want people to accent less about life, and concentrate on the share of brisk that grant a pain of ease. Everywhere that I turn, every cry of the strangers I talk to, they are based on so copious petty things. I hankering swing my arms and lose perceptive of my consciousness, and... let go... I hankering to license go... moreover maybe bargain a insufficient peace, a little understanding, a little "the beautiful part of life is that community can be called the collective practice of without exception living and breathing creature," maybe in the bossom of intoxication.www.punkerslut.comFor Life,Punkerslut substance Tags: exceptional World, Relationship Between, Exists Between, vicious Behavior, Employer Class Punkerslut (or undy Carloff) get been hand essays and poetry on social affair which have caught his attention for several years. His website www.punkerslut.com contribute a entire list of all of these writings. His activity experience add homelessness, squating in modern Orleans and LA, leak out of high school, getting ejaculate from organization for "subversive activities," and a infinite of auxiliary revolutionary actions.