#// gaining firsthand knowledge instead of from a book and like

[thanatologie]

it's time for another you know what grinds my gears with amanda (and i should just generally stay out of the tags, but-).

you know what grinds my gears? worldly emmrich. like...it's okay for him not to be worldly. he's a little naive and overly trusting. people very well could (and no doubt have) take(n) advantage of him because of it. he's lived almost the entirety of his life ensconced in his particular corner of academia, with a couple of forays out into the rest of the world, and there's just...a wealth of shit he doesn't know.

like he has all these big ideas about the world he's never seen when he leaves the necropolis and he's so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about literally everything. like...think about it, he's game to still try bitter cherries even when harding starts giggling at him because she knows how it's going to work out. he's never had pineapple before having access to minrathous, and that's down to neve. davrin points out flowers to him he's only seen in books when they're out in the field. lucanis definitely introduces him to a wealth of food experiences he'd never have had (if slightly altered for his vegetarianism) otherwise. he may not give a single fiddly fuck about dragons but he knows so much more about them now because of taash. and he's definitely learning a great deal about artifacts especially from bellara.

like!! he's out here getting a crash course in new, exciting things. let him ask questions! let him not know the answer to something, and seek out the advice of people who do. like i think there comes a point where you have to understand he and manfred mirror each other considerably, in that where manfred stagnated under the lack of new stimuli in his growth, so does emmrich, and pulling him out of the necropolis gets him to grow and blossom as much as it does manfred, they're both spirits of curiosity (metaphorically speaking).

like why would you not want him wide-eyed and excited about actually fucking living for once?

[wisteriaiswriting]

i need some freddie comfort, do you have some fluff with freddie? headcanons or one shot

maybe freddie with a reader who's autistic and also has a special interest in mythology? /np

(also minor question, do you write for poly ships/reader or is it only one character?)

𝕐𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝔽𝕒𝕧𝕠𝕦𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕖 𝔽𝕚𝕩𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟

You've always been into Greek mythology, luckily so is your girlfriend.

Words: 697

And yes I do write for poly ships and poly x reader.

Ever since you were young there was something about Greek mythology that interested you. Your parents claimed “That you’ll grow out of it and focus on something important, and not some silly stories.”

But it seemed they were wrong. Going strong just over a decade later, and with someone who encourages it. Your lovely girlfriend Freddie, who was also into mythology.

As you grew so did your collection of physical items and knowledge. Whether it was buying something small or a collection online or in stores. Online, books or even through Freddie herself. And now with Grace’s situation, she lets you ask to your heart's content, learning firsthand about the remaining idols.

With all this information you’ve gained you had to keep it safe somewhere. And where’s better than books, writing down everything you hear about mythology. These weren’t any books either.

Ones you’ve ordered online and then customise however you’d like. Many have gained new covers, others have been a target of scrapbooking. While you change them you can still tell which is which, either it’s the colours or patterns.

This includes one about your friends, Grace has one. A dark gray yet not black book, gold accents covered it all around. The inside was filled with writing, pictures, stickers and anything else that would stick.

Yet there was one that didn’t stay on the shelf with the others, this one sat on your bedside table. It was there so whenever you feel like it, you have a flip through its cared for pages.

The first one was a dark green journal. Silver accents ran around the fronts edges and the backs, being finished by the name engraved in the middle in silver.

Freddie

While the cover looked brand new the inside was another story. The pages were filled with a mixture of neat and messy writing, pictures were taped in while others were falling out. It only had a few pages left so you’ve been looking for another.

And a second one sat on your living room table, a bright yellow cover with silver accents along the edges. In the cover's middle had another name engraved.

Apollo

Within all your research Apollo quickly became your fixation, so this book on your table was one of many. But this one was full of current day Apollo, and there was so much more you wanted to learn but schedules clashed.

But what you didn’t know was that Freddie planned ahead for you.

One morning you awoke to an empty bed, but not cold. The warmth told you she had left not long ago, and she wasn’t one for being if she didn’t need to be. So this had to be important. But this also left you alone for the next while, giving you the chance to do some things.

During this time you’ve gone through many different activities, only to pause when you hear someone running outside your apartment. They stopped outside your door, said door opening after.

You were currently sitting in the living room, a random episode of a show playing as background noise. But your attention was stolen when Freddie came into view, her hands tucked behind her back.

“Love?”

Love. It was the first nickname she ever gave you, when you asked why you got only one response.

“It's simple, I love you.”

Freddie clicking her fingers pulled you from reminiscing, looking up to her looking nervous.

“So… I know you’ve been more interested in Apollo recently…”

She was dragging out her words now,

“And I wanted to help supply you with something that I hope is important.”

Bringing her hand into your view, in it sat a necklace. It was small brownish orange beads.

Instead of saying anything you threw yourself onto her, trapping her in a hug.

Why?

During your research and questions it was quite hard to ignore the necklaces Apollo constantly wore. And the one Freddie gave you, was one of them.

You're not sure she would ever know how much this means. Because you know she’s also into Greek idols, but this was a new level.

Breaking the silence with a few words,

“Thank you Freddie, love you.”

[zneehwrites]

5 Killer habits that will transform your life for the better!

Have you ever given thought to how you are starting and ending your day? What does your routine look like and How does it contribute to decreasing the gap between who you are and who you want to become?

New Year's Eve and Day came and went, but now we have a blank canvas ahead of us, a chance to turn over a new leaf.Many of us, around the first week of the new year, get the motivation to cultivate new habits to transform our life, body, and career for the better. 

The problem is most of us don't give it much thought when we're choosing a habit or resolution to form; we also don't consider the small changes we ought to make that complement the bigger picture for our resolution, and that is why we fail to achieve or remain consistent with our goals. 

The author, Sree Krishna Seelam, in his book, "5 Killer Habits: Be a Rebel," has come up with a complete guideline, step by step, with proven testimonials and firsthand experience by the author himself.

The 5 habits:

In this post, I will be walking you through all of the 5 habits of this book in brief that will turn you into a kick-ass hero!

1. Arise, awake & kick ass 

The first chapter focuses on the importance of overcoming the poor sleep habits and creating a routine that promotes better rest. The author shared his own experience of transforming his sleep patterns in a way that helped him in prioritizing early bedtimes and risings. 

He explains how this simple change improved his energy, mindset, and thus decision-making.

Key takeaway? being consistent with your sleep schedule once you've formed it.

2. be a hero

The author in the second chapter challenges what true success means. More than the contribution of our job titles, such as doctors, engineers, and scientists, the true value of human beings is hidden in how we serve our time, energy, and dedication towards the betterment of society, earth, and its people.

He has mentioned the examples of real-life heroes who sacrificed not only their time and resources but also their lives in the process.

key takeaway? researching community and non-profits around you to visit and volunteer for causes you want to support 

3. Become a dromomaniac

Emphasis on how travelling solo shapes us as a person and broadens our perspective as we get to acquaint ourselves with different kinds of people, places, cuisines, and lifestyles 

Key takeaway? To meet yourself, try giving backpacking a chance and visiting places you wouldn't otherwise.

4. Live a hundred lives

If travelling broadens our perspective regarding the external factors, reading makes us look into our inner selves. This is what the 4th habit is all about.

Reading not only helps us in gaining knowledge but also helps in enhancing our attunement, critical thinking, and empathy to understand others better. I myself agree with the author's view of how travelling and reading together create a satisfaction that makes us look forward to spending time with our own selves.

Key takeaway? Even if you're not a reader, carry a book with you next time you travel and try to pick up the book any time you get the urge to pick up your phone to pass the time.

5. Stay curious

Last but not least, the author encourages us to form the habit of being curious enough to question why things are the way they are. Only gaining knowledge will do more harm if we aren't putting time into researching what we are learning or the kind of news we are consuming.

key takeaway? Instead of just absorbing information from the internet or television, pick up a book or articles written by well-known authors on that subject to understand it better, and take time to research whether what you learned is backed up by facts or not.

Why and how does this book actually work?

What I liked the most about this book is that, at the end of each chapter, the author has given tasks according to the chapter’s topic, which work as a guideline for us readers to follow through as practice to develop these habits.

In my personal experience, I have found that people are most likely to take advice when it is backed up with testimonials and from someone whom they can find relatable and share similar values with them to let them in their trust bubble first and then follow through that advice.

As I was reading, I found the storytelling of this book easy to comprehend. and resonate with; I was able to connect with its content. It made me feel more like having a conversation with a wise friend who knew what I wanted to hear rather than reading a nonfiction book. Which, in my opinion, makes it perfect for people of all ages looking to gain fresh perspective, anyone feeling stuck, non-readers, and those who usually only gravitate towards fiction.

Final thoughts

From breaking-free from a personal cycle of bad habits to investing and creating good ones for one's own self-growth to actively joining in with like-minded people for society and our earth’s better tomorrow, this book does a great job in encouraging today’s youth to build individuality, to question the norms, and to take action instead of being a sheep of the herd. It implies a good change in you not only makes your life better but also betters the lives of others around you on a bigger scale.

[10xtruth]

In the journey of life, we often encounter situations that challenge our beliefs and actions. It's these experiences that serve as our greatest teachers. Today, I'd like to share a perspective on the significance of personal experience and its role in guiding our actions.

Embracing Experience Over Stagnation

My own journey has taught me the undeniable value of experience. It's through these moments that we come face to face with the realization that our actions may not always align with our principles. When this happens, it's a sign that change is in order. Instead of succumbing to analysis paralysis, we should seize the opportunity to grow.

The Pitfall of Empty Speculations

Speculation without action is a fruitless endeavor. It's far more productive to engage in experiments, to venture into the unknown, and to gather knowledge through firsthand experience. This hands-on approach is where true learning and progress lie. It's the practical application of theory, and it's what transforms mere knowledge into wisdom.

The Value of Contradiction

One fundamental idea that has become clear to me over the years is this: we should hold our own experiences in high regard, even when they contradict conventional wisdom or established doctrines. Books and the words of others can offer valuable insights, but they are not infallible. When our own experiences clash with established knowledge, it's a call to honor those experiences. After all, many individuals have their own agendas, and their words may not always align with the truth.

The Question of Authenticity

It's important to remember that not everyone speaks with authenticity. Many individuals are motivated by personal gain, and their words may be skewed accordingly. In such instances, our personal experiences become a reliable compass, guiding us through the fog of deception.

In conclusion, our experiences are priceless treasures that should be cherished and respected. They are the crucibles in which we test our beliefs and actions. When they deviate from established norms, it's an opportunity for growth and self-discovery. So, the next time you find yourself at odds with conventional wisdom, remember to trust your experiences—they are often the most honest and valuable guides on your journey.

[tanoraqui]

(AO3)

There are no books banned from the Great Library of Tirion. There are, however, books which are generally agreed to be dangerous to read. There is a section for them, officially called “Unadvised” and informally called “Cursed Knowledge”, “Shelves of Spiders”, and “the Things The Valar Don’t Want You To Know section.”

There are no spiders in it, Dark or natural; the library staff are careful of that. There are many tomes, scrolls, and other writings which are literally cursed.

There is a slim, perfectly natural volume bound in pale grey leather like any other publication from the Metaphysical Studies department of Tirion University. It is notable only in its contents, described by its title:

The Craft of Necromancy

A study of the manipulation of fëa in life, death, the terrible neither and the tormenting both.

A note from the single author on the fourth page, after the title page and publication information, reads,

On sources and citations in this volume:

This is, I must confess, an unusual study. For one thing, while I wrote it for classic philosophical principle, that knowledge closely held ought be shared instead, I also wrote it for the relief of that sharing, as advised by acquaintances wise and well-versed in healing. To my loving advisors: I was perfectly fine before, but I do feel even better now. I’m glad you’re satisfied.

I do not believe this affects the rigor of the discussion herein. I only share it because context is always part of knowledge that ought be shared, to maximize understanding.

More relevant to the question of academic rigor is: where possible, I have included standard citations of other works on the topic, academic, biographical, and other. However, most of my knowledge on this topic was gained firsthand, either through personal experience, tutelage, or both (demonstrations upon my person, patiently explained before, during and after), and I can provide no verification save my own memory and the reputation of my primary tutor.

My memory has been confirmed to be clear by nurses of the Gardens of Lórien. My tutor has been known by many names, among them, Gorthaur, Lieutenant of Angband and Lord (and creator) of Werewolves; the Necromancer of Dol Guldur; the Lidless Eye; and Sauron the Deceiver.

Despite the last, I have perfect confidence that he was not lying to me anymore by the end. He enjoyed showing off too much for that.

With that in mind, I hope you will forgive my academic negligence in referring to him henceforth only as “a source.” It is a matter of not humoring his ego, even after his dissolution.

All that said, I have endeavored throughout this study to clearly distinguish not only between fact and theory, but between facts which I can verify through personal experience (eg, the trapping of a fëa within its hröa past the reasonable point of death), facts which were expounded upon to me at length but which I cannot confirm beyond my certainty of the source’s genuinity in his intentions to taunt and/or tempt me (eg, the warping of a fëa to suit a hroä other than that its natural own), and facts which were told to me, or to others of my association, in contexts of deception but which were later re-examined for truth (eg, on the binding of one fëa [or ëala] to another). As with any work, readers are encouraged to take the knowledge enclosed herein and make their own interpretations—though I do NOT advise practical experimentation with these matters.

This study should be taken as my final word on the matters therein. While I usually applaud curiosity and thoroughness in investigation, do not seek me out with questions.

Additionally: in light of the sober and sometimes disturbing contents of this study, I have been advised by my editor to reassure the reader (somewhat redundantly, I would argue) that I did, in fact, escape the captivity of my primary source, and I am thoroughly and happily recovered from the various torments, betrayals, etc. inflicted upon my person. My source (and tutor, creative collaborator, friend…) is confirmed to be, at the time of this publication, reduced to a scrap of a shadow soon to fade utterly from the world that is, thanks in large parts to the efforts of others. For accounts of those heroes, I recommend “The War of the Ring: A Hobbit’s Very Extended Journey There and Back Again”, B. Baggins, F. Baggins; “Nine-Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom”, trans. B. Baggins; and “Garden Plants of the Western Shire”, S. Gamgee.

I recommend the last particular for aspiring gardeners. My floral and herbal window-boxes are all flourishing with the advice of Mr. Gamgee.

Yours in scholarship,

Celebrimbor Curufinwë

The volume is about 100 pages, mostly text with a handful of illustrative drawings scattered among the chapters. In the space in the back pages reserved for commentary from early readers, there is only one comment:

Concerningly accurate throughout.

– Aulë

[mbti-notes]

Anonymous asked: 

Hello. How to be a well-known and well-liked person at work?

Why do you want to know? What is your underlying motivation? When you approach personal learning and development without a clear or authentic intention, you are liable to stumble badly and get unpleasant results. Your question includes a lot of confused thinking, which is a major part of the problem.

I used to think that knowledge and working hard are the only things necessary for success at work. I haven't had a career yet. but I hear from others that other factors and office politics are also involved. Good comunication and social skills, being liked by coworkers and bosses for example. There are people who join a workplace/college and after a short time, they know almost everyone and everyone knows them, trusts and loves them. Bosses like and respect them, don't want replace them, etc.

You seem to “think” a lot of things. And to what end exactly? Do you enjoy “thinking” yourself into a pit of worry? You don’t possess any meaningful experience, yet you still claim to “know” things based only on some imaginings and secondhand information. This kind of speculation is problematic, a bad cognitive habit that should be stopped, because it is counter-productive to learning and growth. You are misinterpreting the few facts that you’re hearing. Yes, it is a fact that some people are good at socializing, but what does that mean for YOU? Does it mean that you have to be just like them? Yes, good social skills are required to succeed in some work environments? But all of them? Don’t jump to conclusions so quickly. You can’t seem to tell the difference between a fact and your own faulty interpretations of the fact.

Do you believe that you can become a good footballer by listening to people talk about how to play or describe their impressions of a few matches they watched? Secondhand information is subjective and anecdotal. You take the few facts that were presented and then you stitch together an elaborate narrative of some abstract “workplace” that you believe represents ultimate reality. This is very poor reasoning. In the end, you construct a very distorted view of the world and become blinded by faulty or oversimplified beliefs about how the world works. All this before having even stepped out the door, so to speak.

While I like to have that, I don't have the energy or skills for that as an introvert. I don't know how to start a good conversation or get people to like me, trust me and open up to me. I would naturally want to get the job done and go home. I'm not really interested in people's lives. meeting with more than seven people or going somewhere crowded gives me social anxiety and sensory overload. and Idk what is ok to say/ask in convos. Idk if I should be friendly or professional with bosses, supervisors and coworkers. or what behavior is ok or too much.

If you want to learn, then learn. There are lots of resources available out there. If you don't want to learn, then don't. It's your choice to make, as it's your life to live. DO YOU OR DO YOU NOT WANT TO LEARN? I can’t help you if you are stuck in contradiction and talking out of both sides of your mouth, saying that you both want but don’t want (i.e. unaware of who you really are or what you really want). How are you ever going to get motivated when you can’t commit to any particular desire/goal/direction?

If you suffer from severe social anxiety, get professional help for it. Social skills can be learned, just like learning how to play football by actually playing it though hours of practice. If you want to learn any worthwhile skill, you must put in time and effort to study and practice repeatedly, to get better gradually - it is certainly tiring - no pain, no gain. Is feeling “tired” the end of the world? You seem to believe that it is for some strange reason, which means that you’re not willing to put in the work? If you’re not willing to work hard, that is the end of the story. 

So I just stay safe, overly formal, independent and polite. I prefer to be alone. During long hours of college or socializing, I stay quiet and anxious, get headaches and feel dizzy/confused. And I'm not on any social media because I don't care about the pictures people post about family, pets, celebs. I'm also not assertive and I'm afraid of drama or ppl hurting/using me.

"Stay safe" is the key phrase. Generally speaking, an excessive desire for safety is rooted in emotional problems, often stemming from painful memories and/or traumatic experiences. Until you resolve the emotional problems that keep you stuck and resistant against venturing outside your comfort zone, you won’t be able to grow as a person. The heavier the emotional baggage you’re unconsciously dragging around, the more “tiring” the learning process is, because there are too many self-inflicted psychological obstacles holding you back. 

Instead of facing up to your emotional problems, you’d rather entertain useless speculation about imaginary workplaces and people you haven’t met yet, making yourself more and more scared (in order to justify isolation)? It’s quite easy to speculate and imagine all the possible threats out there in the world. It’s hard to examine the reality of how much you fear being hurt and how the fear twists your perception of reality. You keep taking the easy road and then wonder why you never get anywhere. DO YOU OR DO YOU NOT WANT TO CHANGE? Once again, I can’t help you if you are stuck in contradiction and talking out of both sides of your mouth, saying that you both like and don’t like how you are (i.e. unaware of who you really are or what you really want). I only help people who are fully committed to change.

I already know the consequences of being the way I am.

I’d argue that you don't understand - another example of thinking that you “know” when you really don’t. You've emphasized that you prefer to be alone, which means that you LIKE the consequences - your feelings tell the true story. You don't perceive the consequences as being negative, so why would you change your behavior? If you like isolation, isolate. Why not just “be yourself” and live the life that you want? Who says that you have to be anything but what you are? Why do you even care about any of this “social” stuff (that you also claim to not care about)? Why pressure yourself to be something that you’re not? If you put the pressure on yourself, then you take it off at any time.

But “being yourself”, if you’re doing it properly, won’t lead you into an unhealthy tertiary loop, so you’re not doing it properly, are you? If you’re not ready to leave your loop, don’t. Keep pretending that you’re “staying true” to your antisocial self, keep enjoying the safety of isolation, until you can’t live in denial anymore. That’s how most people have to play out their tertiary loop. 

One day, when you’ve had enough, you may realize that your desire for isolation isn’t actually “staying true” to who you are and what you want. One day, you may realize that “staying true to yourself” was just an excuse, that you don’t really know yourself at all, and that your self-image has been nothing but a twisted little ball of fear all along. In other words, right now, your idea of “being yourself” is actually just being a scared little puppy that hides from every loud noise - is this what you really are and want to be? Is there nothing more to you than fear? Do you want to spend your entire life under the spell of the irrational fears you have conjured up to protect your comfort zone?

I need your help. How can I develop interest in people? How can I have more energy to socialize? How can I gain social skills and get people to like me, trust me, open up with me and let me in? (without being fake or pushy?).

Very simple: You have to care about more than just yourself and your own safety and comfort. But this is impossible if you leave your fear unaddressed and it continues to hijack your whole mindset. When you live in fear, you are all too willing to believe that people are bad and the world is terrible (based on selective evidence gathering), only looking out for yourself and your own feelings, which, in the end, amounts to starting every relationship in an extreme state of defensiveness and self-centeredness. A person needs to know you to like you, and how would they know you when you are emotionally closed-off and obviously hostile to their advances, when all you show them is coldness? A positive relationship should be built through the connection of two open and trusting hearts. Cynicism about people or society is merely a convenient cover that allows fearful or helpless people to feel safe/superior, but only in their own mind. Living in a coffin, worrying or complaining about the outside world without ever venturing out, is surely safe emotionally. But nothing ever happens there, does it? You’ve put yourself in there because you’re scared, which means that it’s up to you to own your fear and step out anyway.

How can I maintain relationships?

By putting in the time and effort to build your social skills and learn through firsthand relationship experiences. By taking the time to care about something other than yourself. Even psychopaths manage to care about the people closest to them. Is the problem that you can’t care or that you won’t care? If it’s a problem of won’t, why won’t you? 

Relationship skills aren’t something that can be summarized in one paragraph, especially if you have a lot of dysfunctional relationship habits to unlearn. I've already recommended many relevant books on the resources list. Are you a good learner? From what you’ve said, I suspect that you have trouble learning or accepting advice because you always think that you know better and/or have an excuse ready to rebut good advice? If you’re serious about learning, then devote yourself fully to studying and practicing.

How can I learn office politics? How can I make my bosses like/trust me without seeming fake?

"Office politics" is not what you believe it is - dismantle your faulty fearful beliefs. Every workplace is just a group of people, made up of various individuals, some of them not too different from you. The quality of a group depends on the quality of the individuals and what they contribute to it collectively, and this varies quite widely from group to group and the size of it. If you contribute negativity, you influence others to be negative. If you contribute positivity, you influence others to be positive. But you don’t care about how you affect others because you don’t even recognize that you have any power to affect anything due to your fear, passivity, and helplessness. All you care about is whether you get paid? Work has no other benefit or purpose besides monetary compensation?

Some of the surest signs of having poor social skills include:

mindreading: presuming to know what people think/feel with little to no evidence; grossly misinterpreting people’s intentions/behavior due to fear, insecurity, anxiety, or overactive imagination

prejudice: making blanket/overgeneralized judgments about individuals, groups, or society based on very selective “facts” or superficial characteristics; unable to treat people as individuals to be dealt with in an adaptable case-by-case basis

self-centeredness: compulsively resorting to inauthentic and/or defensive behavior to manipulate social situations for personal reward/comfort; unable to understand situations from other people’s point of view

You suffer all three problems. You are quick to assume that people have ill-intentions. You like to divide people up into these or those “kinds” of people. You only care about people in terms of whether they make you feel good/bad and inexplicably refuse to care about their perspective. 

A healthy relationship should be mutually satisfying in order to establish a sense of connectedness. A healthy relationship should be mutually beneficial in order to establish a sense of equality. A healthy relationship should include mutual caring and sharing in order to establish intimacy. Why would anyone want to enter a relationship with you if you make them feel uneasy, unsatisfied, and uncared for? Would you want to enter a relationship with you? If you’re a terrible friend, you’ll feel undeserving of friendship, because, deep down, you believe that you don’t deserve any kindness for never giving any kindness to anyone. If you want good friendships, you must first be a good friend. If you’re not willing to open up emotionally to care for people, that is the end of the story. 

How can I make sure people don't see me as a good target to hurt, use or gossip about?

What is the source of your paranoia? Why is your first stance towards the social world one of negativity, fear, mistrust, suspicion, attack-and-defense? If you’ve been hurt before and that’s why you’re scared, then address that problem.  Serious questions: Have you ever known LOVE? Have you ever known a caring, supportive, empathetic, and intimate relationship with someone? If you haven’t, for whatever reason, then you have a lot to learn about relationships. But going around pretending that you already know how people are (out to get you) and how the social world works (to victimize you) is not going to help you learn. You won’t learn if you already presume to know.

I haven't had a job yet. but I'm honestly afraid of having a career for these reasons.

You can’t prepare for every situation in life. No amount of mental preparation is going to eliminate your fear when the fear itself is always left unaddressed. Go out into the world, live your life, learn from your experiences. That's how life goes. But you don't want to live in real life, do you? You prefer living in your own imagination, pretending to know what the world is like without proper breadth of experience?

"Afraid" is the key word. Are you really ready to confront your fear? I don't think you are yet because you are still talking about how nice it is to be safely protected by tertiary loop. No one can force you to let go of your faulty beliefs when you depend on them so much for safety. You overthink and overanalyze, speculate and imagine, turn human beings into abstractions, convince yourself that you “know” when you really don’t... all for what? It is all a defense mechanism that keeps you trapped within yourself, ruminating in circles. It's all just meant to hide the fact that you are afraid, helpless, and willfully ignorant (in twisting the facts). The solution to fear is to actively confront it. The solution to helplessness is mastering the appropriate social and emotional skills. The solution to willful ignorance is humility: let go of what you think you know so that you can finally start to learn fresh.

[tiaragqueen]

Yandere BTS Masterlist

A/N: To organize my main masterlist and make the whole access easier, I’ve decided to create a separate list for each band.

Main masterlist in here

Last Updated: 09-08-2020

R = Requested

Kim Seokjin [Jin]

On A Silver Platter

Dating an eternally curious woman comes with the risk of disloyalty. Jin is aware of it, but still pursues you anyway. However, he doesn’t know that his fear will come soon. Very soon.

Bound By Pledge

Happy ending exists, if you’re willing to work hard for it. And Jin is more than willing to make it happen.

Hang By A Thread {R}

An attempt to achieve the much desired freedom gone wrong.

Come Around {R}

This wasn’t what you wanted, but at least it’d stopped Jin from wailing to your face.

Min Yoongi [Suga]

On The Sly

As a bodyguard, it is his duty to protect you from any harm. Unfortunately, your refusal to abide his ‘order’ forces him to do something drastic. All in the name of loyalty.

Up The Creek {R}

Yoongi is well known at school for being the typical aloof boy. However, he’s also surprisingly hesitant to approach his crush. But he’s not stupid; he knows an opportunity when he sees one. And he’s certainly can’t let this slip through his fingers.

His Favorite Song

[Name] [Last Name]. That was the name of Yoongi’s first love. As much as he hated his father sometimes, being the son of a CEO had its perks. One of them included ordering someone to gather information about you.

Jung Hoseok [J-Hope]

In His Sights

Perfection is an illusion, is what you learned the moment you witness firsthand Hoseok’s violent side.

Kim Namjoon [RM]

Bee In Bonnet

Their relationship is forbidden, Namjoon knows it well. But if it can guarantee a happily ever after, then why should he reject the opportunity?

Benefit Of The Doubt [Discontinued]

Chapter 1

[Office! AU] It never occurred to you that your stalker has been under your nose for a long time.

Park Jimin [Jimin]

Silent As The Grave

If there’s one thing that Jimin can’t stand is silent treatment. Then, why do you still insist on torturing him like that?

Yaksok {R}

Jimin has always keep his words; that’s one of the many things that you love from him. However, you’ve made a mistake on thinking that he was joking this time. And the consequence is far from pleasant.

Off The Deep End {R}

There’s nothing that hurts you more than seeing your boyfriend wallow in his insecurities. Thus, you take it upon yourself to show him how much you love him. Who knows, maybe it can change his perception for a bit?

Cave In {R}

For a long time, Jimin has been your close friend. After his girlfriend broke up with him, you’ve decided to comfort him. What you haven’t expected him to do, is to take advantage of your selflessness.

Parting Of The Ways {R}

All Jimin wants in life is to always be with you. But when you’re growing sick of his constant manipulation and thus decides to break up, he knows that he no longer has you in his arms. Nor is he able to ‘convince’ you any longer. Well, what’s life without you anyway?

Cloud Nine

What mattered was that you were finally with him now, away from the people who would separate you both. For once, Jimin was able to use his job for good, and the thought alone made him feel strangely giddy.

Give and Take

Being the girlfriend of a mafia boss was surprisingly… relaxed; or maybe because it was Jimin. Regardless, it wouldn’t take long for him to reveal his true nature.

Kim Taehyung [V]

Tiger By The Tail

Love can be such a scary thing and blinds you from any logic. With a great wealth and wide connections, Kim Taehyung is more than capable of luring you into his toxic affection.

See The Light [Discontinued]

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3

[Supernatural! AU] He had always hated the lights, until he saw her.

At Leisure {R}

Affection is imperative in their relationship. But a single, damned book ruins everything of what could’ve been an amorous weekend for the both of you. Taehyung, of course, refuses to stay put. After all, your attention should always be on him. Just like he always do to you.

Give The Lie To {R}

In an attempt to allow a bit of freedom in your life, you unknowingly plunge yourself into a much worse predicament.

Give Way {R}

For months you’ve been running from Taehyung, thinking that you’ve finally gained your freedom back. However, you should’ve known that he will find a way to capture you. Even if the way involves mess in his hands.

For The Sake Of You {R}

Somehow, the determination behind those words managed to make you sicker than you thought possible. You knew you should’ve been flattered, instead. Nobody would take the time to help you, especially when it involved something as ‘trivial’ as your insecurity.

Jeon Jeongguk [Jungkook]

Dubious Honor

A royalty has never been given much freedom since birth. You know and hate it, being a princess yourself, but you don’t have much choice in falling in love with another person. Especially when you already belong to Jungkook.

Apple Of His Eye

Without your knowledge, your vulnerability to the dangers of outside world has triggered Jungkook’s overprotective nature.

Bun Bun [Discontinued]

Prologue Chapter 1

[College! AU] The history repeated itself.

Gehenna {R}

It’s not easy to forget a traumatic event, especially when it involves someone you love. However, when your bastard of an ex comes haunting your dream, Jungkook decides that it’s the right time to stop being merciful.

Hidden Blessing {R}

For the longest time, Jungkook has worked hard to gain your attention and affection. So when you suddenly start declining his invitations, he’s beyond frustrated. Turns out, there’s always a hidden blessing in every predicament.

Champing At The Bit {R}

You’ve always been jealous of your little brother, as silly and immature as it sounds. However, the encounter with a Tarzan forces you to push aside your insecurity and be the older sister he needs of. And with that, you also unknowingly catches his new friend’s eyes.

The Lion’s Den {R}

You wouldn’t say that you were a good person. Being a ghoul had skewed your moral compass so far, but you weren’t entirely heartless. Unfortunately, one of the people you’d saved turned out to be quite... obsessive.

[dogbearinggifts]

“Dad Sent Me to the Moon” vs. “Because Dad Made Me”

How Luther and Vanya Talk About Trauma, Part Nine

This is Part Nine of my series comparing and contrasting how Luther and Vanya talk about their own respective traumas, and respond to the traumas of others. This part will conclude my examination of the series itself, and my analysis of each episode’s events. I have one more installment planned, where I discuss my overall findings for each character—both how they are portrayed in canon and how they are portrayed in fandom, as well as some general insights on each that I’ve picked up along the way—so stick around for that. 

If this is the first time you’re seeing this series on your dash, you can find previous installments here: 

Part One  Part Two  Part Three  Part Four  Part Five  Part Six  Part Seven  Part Eight 

and then I swear I’ll finally go through and add links at the bottom of the page on each essay I’m sorry I’ve just been lazy, y’all are awesome for sticking with this

Episode Nine: Changes Part Two (aka Apocalypse…Now?) 

This is not the first mention of trauma in this episode; merely the first mention in this half of it. Nevertheless, it comes when Allison joins Luther, Diego and Klaus in the basement, where Vanya is being held. 

Luther: Allison, what are you doing down here? You should be in bed. Allison: LET HER GO Luther: I can’t do that. She hurt you. Allison: MY FAULT Luther: I’m sorry, but she’s staying put. Just until we know what we’re dealing with. She stays put. Now, come on. Come on. You need to rest.

It’s easy to read this scene as Luther adopting a patronizing attitude toward Allison (“Oh ho ho, I know what’s best for you, silly girl”) or adopting a vindictive one toward Vanya. However, I think both of those interpretations fail to account for the most important piece of the puzzle here: Until very recently, Luther blamed himself for all the awful things Reginald did to him. 

Think back to his reaction upon learning he was sent to the Moon for no reason: “I wasn’t a good enough Number One? I couldn’t cut it?” Luther had just discovered evidence that something awful had been done to him, and he immediately assumed it was a result of something he did. While it’s never explicitly stated that he blamed himself for Reginald mutating him, I would say that based on how Luther reacted to the reveal on his Moon mission, it’s very likely he did blame himself. If only he’d been more careful. If only he’d paid more attention in training. If only he’d done some minor thing that allegedly would have turned the tide in his favor and prevented his near-death. 

And now here’s Allison, who narrowly survived having her throat cut, robbed of her powers and reduced to writing short messages on a notepad—and she’s looking at the woman responsible for her state and saying MY FAULT. 

To Luther, this probably bears a striking resemblance to the self-blame that was his constant companion for years. 

I think that’s why he doesn’t listen to Allison. Not because he thinks he knows what’s best for her. Not because he wants to hurt Vanya further. He’s telling her that Vanya stays put because he believes that Vanya was responsible for her condition. And honestly? He’s right. Allison has received a lot of undeserved ire for her attempted Rumoring of Vanya, but as I pointed out in my previous installment of this series, Allison had no other defense. Vanya was out of control, and Allison had absolutely no idea if catering to Vanya’s demand would allow her to leave that cabin alive or if it would simply prolong her death. What happened to Allison was not her fault. Responsibility for Allison’s state lies with Vanya and Vanya alone. 

Luther wasn’t at that cabin. He didn’t see what happened. But even without firsthand knowledge of what left Allison powerless, he’s still able to recognize self-blame when he sees it. His response to that recognition is poor and leads the family closer to tragedy, but it is rooted in empathy—not spite. 

*********

Our next trauma mention comes from Vanya, who is….technically talking to herself, although it makes sense in context. Regardless of how difficult it is to quantify something like this, I feel as if what Vanya says here is disregarded in favor of the context in which she says it—that is, fandom tends to woobify Vanya for having a psychotic break and ignore the rather unsympathetic motivations she reveals. 

Young Vanya: They’re still afraid of us. Even after all these years. Afraid of our power. Vanya: You’re not real. Young Vanya: We killed Leonard. Vanya: Because he lied to us. Young Vanya: Not about everything. Vanya: What are you talking about? Young Vanya: You know. You’ve always known. Our brothers and sister, they’re just like Dad. Driven to keep us down. A muted voice, isolated from the group, never in the limelight, never the center of attention. It will never end. Not until we act. Vanya: But they’re our family. Young Vanya: They fear you now. They’re gonna keep you in here forever. Vanya: No. Young Vanya: Do you remember what that was like? Staring at these grey walls, hour after hour, day after day while they played together? Do you want to live like this for the rest of our lives?

Much is made in fandom of the fact Vanya is trapped in this anechoic chamber, but very little is made of what she says while trapped in there. While I’d like to give fandom the benefit of the doubt, I’m inclined to believe that the dialogue in this scene is excluded less by oversight and more by design, because this dialogue surgically dismantles the popular image of Vanya as an innocent victim who is neither dangerous nor at fault for what happened in the cabin. 

First, note what she says to her childhood self about Leonard’s murder: “Because he lied to us.” No hesitation. No remorse. No attempt to justify what she did with claims of self-defense. Leonard lied to her, and so she feels she had a right to kill him. 

So many people in fandom have pointed out Luther’s childish moral code. Sometimes this is done to make him appear less sympathetic; sometimes it is done to point out how his proximity to Reginald stunted him, but it’s done quite often. However, Vanya’s moral code is equally childish—if not more so—and I have yet to see anyone point that out. 

Luther’s moral code: If it hurts people, it is an enemy. If it helps people, it is a friend. This is why he locked Vanya up: She hurt Allison, so she is an enemy and not to be trusted. It’s also why he defended Reginald all those years: Reginald saved his life and gave him and his siblings a roof over their heads and three square meals and material possessions and an opportunity to develop their powers, so he was a friend. This completely discounts Vanya’s remorse and the abuse Luther and his siblings suffered, and the harm this code does is clear. 

Vanya’s moral code: If it makes me feel special, it is good. If it makes me feel ordinary, it is bad. Good things should be held close and defended at all costs; bad things hurt me, so I can hurt them back. Leonard made her feel special for most of the series, so she defended him despite all evidence pointing to the fact he was actually a creepy stalker. Allison made her feel ordinary simply by virtue of having access to and knowledge of her powers while Vanya lacked this, and so Vanya felt justified in punishing her with verbal put-downs and abuse and—eventually—open threats and shows of force. 

One thing I’d like to call attention to, before we go any further, is that Luther’s moral code, while childish and leaving no room for reform or wolves in sheep’s clothing, is fundamentally focused on others. He believes it is his duty to protect others from danger, and from those who wish to do harm—no matter the cost to the person he believes is causing harm. Vanya’s moral code, on the other hand, is fundamentally focused on herself. She judges good and evil, right and wrong based on what people do to her and how they make her feel. Luther’s moral code leaves room for selflessness, or a form of it anyway; Vanya’s moral code is fundamentally selfish and cannot be focused outward. 

Another thing I’d like to call attention to is that in this moment, Vanya has nothing to hide and no reason to conceal her motives. She is alone, and hallucinating her childhood self. If ever there were a time to be honest, this would be it. This is when we get to see her motivations, when we get to learn how she feels about her siblings. And we do.

“You know. You’ve always known. Our brothers and sister, they’re just like Dad. Driven to keep us down. A muted voice, isolated from the group, never in the limelight, never the center of attention. It will never end. Not until we act.” 

So often she is portrayed as a lost and broken little girl who only ever wanted love. Her rampage is made out to be the final snapping of a girl who learned she would never gain the affection she craved, but that assumption is torn to pieces by the words of the very character who is so misconstrued. Vanya is not motivated by a longing for love. She never was. She is motivated by a longing for attention. 

Think about it: Leonard never made any overt displays of love, like flowers or candy, but he did shower her with attention. He listened to her more than he talked, put her center stage, wanted to know everything about her and celebrated her triumphs. When Vanya walks in on the emergency meeting and assumes she was excluded, love was never part of the equation. Attention was what they failed to give her. When she bought the typewriter with which she would write her autobiography, it was the comic book featuring her siblings in the pawnshop window that caused her to snap. The world was still fawning over her siblings; she decided it was time the world listened to her for a change. When she goes on her rampage in the next episode, she doesn’t try to find her siblings and scream at them for never loving her; instead she dons a suit and goes to play her concert. Her rampage, like everything else she does, is not a brokenhearted reaction to a lack of love. It is a blatant attempt to make the world pay attention to her and what she can do. 

I don’t think this is indicative of a character flaw in Vanya, or even her fault. Reginald Hargreeves was not an affectionate man, and his favor toward his children was measured in how much attention he lavished upon them. Luther, as the favorite, received the most; Vanya, being excluded from family life, received the least. It is natural that Vanya would crave attention more than she craves love, or even conflate the two. But it is important to accurately name her motivation. Misconstruing it as heartbroken retaliation for a lack of love fails to adequately explain her actions. 

Another thing worth noting: Vanya doesn’t argue with her childhood self’s assessment of the situation. When her childhood self says “They fear you now. They’re gonna keep you in here forever,” Vanya doesn’t bring up the lack of fear on Allison’s face or the fact she wrote LET HER GO on her notepad for all to see. You can argue that, without the ability to hear what was said, Vanya could have mistaken Klaus’ horror for fear and Diego’s anger toward Luther as anger toward her, but it is impossible for her to misinterpret what Allison wrote. Yet she doesn’t mention it, not even for her childhood self to refute it. 

Nor does she bring up the reason why she’s locked in that chamber: the near-murder of her own sister. She flew into a screaming rage because of her own selective memory, cut her own sister’s throat and spent much of the previous episode assuming Allison was dead at her hand—and that doesn’t even enter her thought process. Yes, she now knows Allison is alive, but she also knows that Allison’s powers are gone because of her. She nearly murdered Allison because Allison took her powers away; yet now she knows she has taken Allison’s powers away, and if she feels any guilt over that, we don’t see it. She only thinks about her siblings in the context of how their actions will impact her. 

Finally, her childhood self reveals a lot about how Vanya sees her siblings’ abuse: “Do you remember what that was like? Staring at these grey walls, hour after hour, day after day while they played together?” Her book (shown in a few blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scenes, and in slightly more detail in the comics) mentions that her siblings were experimented on. She knows they went through training. Yet here, they were just playing. Nothing more than that. Playing without her, having fun in her absence. 

I cannot for the life of me understand how Luther has a reputation in fandom for insisting he had it worse than anyone when Vanya is the only one who calls persistent abuse and experimentation playing. It’s true that she was kept at arm’s length and so this misconception was allowed to grow unabated, but it’s telling that in the ten or so years since she’s left home, she hasn’t reconsidered her adolescent perspective on what her siblings went through. 

********

Episode Ten: The White Violin (aka Apocalypse Vanya) 

This episode is primarily the conclusion of all the story threads introduced thus far, and the only moment I’d like to discuss is the montage where Vanya walks through the Academy hallucinating childhood versions of her siblings rejecting her and treating her as if she doesn’t belong. 

Or, so fandom tells me. 

Here’s what actually happens. 

Vanya opens a door and finds Allison and Luther sitting on the bed about to kiss. Allison hears the noise, turns, and screams at Vanya to get out. 

She opens another door and finds Diego sitting on his bed. He looks up and says, “What do you want?” in a rude, demanding tone. 

Behind another door, she finds Klaus and Ben suiting up for a mission. Ben looks to her and says, “To go on a mission, Vanya, you have to have a power.” 

In the parlor (or a parlor—the Academy is fucking huge) she finds her father and siblings posing for a photo. She watches her teenage self beg Reginald to let her be in the photo; he persistently refuses. Her siblings stand mutely as the photo is taken without her. 

Other users have pointed out that these instances of alleged cruelty are actually normal in families with siblings, and I’m inclined to agree. Vanya interrupted a kiss—possibly a first kiss—and I would say Allison is well within her rights to be angry and upset about it. 

Diego’s reaction is a bit less sympathetic, on the surface, although not uncommon in families with siblings. She intruded on Diego’s privacy, which is annoying in families where parents respect the privacy of their children; but if Reginald believes he has a right to walk in and out of his children’s rooms as he pleases, then Vanya’s intrusion is tantamount to a small betrayal. I speak from experience—I grew up in a household where, when we moved into a house with locks on the bedroom doors, it was made abundantly clear that we were never to use them. My parents rarely knocked, and became belligerent the few times I asked them to. As a result of this, my brother and I treated privacy as sacred. We knocked when the door was closed, we knocked when the door was open, we asked if we could come in. When a much younger sibling of mine would traipse into my room without knocking, I would remain angry about it for much longer than was normal or healthy. Point is, Diego’s annoyance could be normal sibling irritation over a failure to respect his privacy, or it could be something more. Either way, it’s understandable. 

Ben’s reaction is blunt, I’ll say that much, and definitely rude. I could see how Vanya would be hurt by this. However, he’s right. At this point in their childhoods, they both believed she didn’t have a power. If she went on a mission, she’d die very quickly. What Ben says here is less bullying and more brutal honesty—and while the line can definitely blur between the two, I’d say he’s more on the side of honesty than on the side of bullying. 

Reginald is the only one who acts out of malice, refusing to let her be in the family photo. While this is par for the course for him, her siblings say nothing in Vanya’s defense; but I don’t think this is a count against them. Yes, they are all probably powerful enough to take Reginald down almost instantly, but he has conditioned them too well. They obey his authority and fear his retribution. None of them are going to risk his wrath by ruining the family photo. 

I think there are two ways to view this montage. 

These are the worst memories Vanya has of her siblings, the most blatant examples of their bullying, as evidenced by the fact they have stuck with her this long and are painful enough for her to destroy whole rooms as a result of them. 

These are not the worst memories she has of her siblings; rather, they are simply the first to come to mind. Her siblings did far, far worse things to her as a kid, but for some reason, she remembers the mildest ones as she walks through the Academy. 

Personally, I think the first option is more likely. Vanya has spent the entire series ascribing the worst possible motives to her siblings’ actions, even when those actions were either friendly or unintentionally exclusionary; and since she’s already in a heightened emotional state, it seems odd that her mind would move to the mildest memories of their alleged bullying when far worse ones exist. Additionally, the one her mind dredges up about Reginald is pretty awful, so it seems her mind would go for memories of her siblings it considers equal to that of Reginald. 

In other words, I think Vanya is an unreliable narrator when it comes to the suffering her siblings inflicted upon her, and I think this scene is evidence of that. 

I don’t think she is fabricating events out of thin air, and I don’t think she’s twisting details regarding her siblings. When she’s storming out of the Academy, ranting to Leonard about how “nothing is good enough next to their holier-than-thou, weight-of-the-world bullshit,” Vanya doesn’t fabricate snatches of conversation and pass them off as fact. She doesn’t change anything about the details of what happened. She does ascribe motive, and the worst possible motive at that. She does the same thing after Allison’s confession: Rather than presenting an entirely new version of events where Allison tosses off some parting shot (”That’s for taking Dad away from me” or some such) Vanya instead presents her own interpretation of events that directly counters Allison’s recollection of her own motives. 

I believe Vanya is doing a similar thing here. I think the events she is hallucinating actually happened. I do think she walked in on Allison and Luther about to kiss, had Diego rudely rebuff her when she entered without knocking, and heard Ben say she couldn’t go on a mission without a power. But I think her interpretation of them is wildly inaccurate—that is to say, she is assuming that these rejections of her presence were an intentional and willful rejection of her as a person and a member of the family; when in reality, they were actually something far more mundane and, while perhaps not quite benign, not actively malicious. 

I do think her siblings participated, to some extent, in Reginald’s exclusion of her. In an earlier episode, we see Allison confronted with this fact as she witnesses Vanya in the security tapes, always off by herself while she and the others went about their training. Allison is surprised and saddened by this. If she participated in an intentional conspiracy to exclude Vanya, I think she would have made some excuse for it (“Well, she didn’t have a power, so what were we supposed to do? Let her play with us and get herself killed?”). Instead, she is disgusted by the actions she took as a child—actions she evidently didn’t put much thought into at the time. 

I think this is at the root of Vanya’s exclusion: Her siblings did exclude her. They didn’t fight back against Reginald’s cruelty toward her, and they didn’t make a lot of effort to try and include her in their daily activities. However, they didn’t do so out of malice, or even a dislike for Vanya. 

In some branches of Christianity, theologians differentiate between sins of commission and sins of omission. A sin of commission is a conscious choice to do something you know is wrong. You choose to steal. You choose to fudge your taxes. You choose to gossip about a person you don’t like. A sin of omission, on the other hand, is a failure to do what you know is right. You don't go to church. You don’t listen to sound advice. You don’t reach out to someone who desperately needs a friend. I may have some quibbles with Christianity now, but I think this principle is a sound one.** 

From all the evidence we have, it seems Vanya’s siblings excluded her in an act of omission. They knew it was right to include her in more than their late-night donut runs, but they didn’t. Maybe they meant to do it and never did. Maybe they were too afraid of Reginald to reach out. Whatever the case, they should have tried to make her feel like a sibling and not a stranger, and they didn’t. 

Vanya, however, sees this act of omission as an act of commission. Where her siblings know it was tragic oversight that led to a childhood of exclusion, Vanya sees it as intentional. Complicating matters is the fact Reginald’s treatment of her was an act of commission, of willful cruelty and a desire to punish her for something beyond her control. Because her siblings were closer to Reginald than Vanya ever was, and because they too excluded her, I think she came to believe they possessed the same motives as he. This isn’t true, but Vanya has believed it for so long that she now sees every act of omission as an act of commission, and every act of commission as monstrous and unforgivable—even when the person sinning against her is working off of incomplete knowledge and a desire to protect others. 

Running count of trauma mentions (cumulative of all episodes thus far)

Own Trauma: Vanya 11*, Luther 11

Trauma of Others: Vanya 5, Luther 5

*I could count the montage where Vanya wanders through the Academy as a trauma mention, but since she doesn’t technically talk about it to anyone—and in fact, no one sees it but her—it doesn’t quite fit the criteria I used to include Luther’s mutation and exclude Vanya’s book. However, I felt it was crucial to my overall analysis, so I included it in that. 

**I have nothing against it as a religion. If you consider yourself a Christian, great! I think it’s a good faith, and I’m glad it works for you. It just didn’t work for me. 

Read on to Part Ten

[zdbztumble]

“Kingdom Hearts II” revisited, Part II

Having covered a section of the game that’s better than I remember, let’s move on to something that doesn’t quite hold up as well.

Which is not to say that the first leg of Sora’s journey in KH II is bad - far from it. There’s quite a bit of good from his awakening to the first trip to Hollow Bastion. For one thing, the joy Sora, Donald, and Goofy share at being awake and together again is very sweet, and a great way to bring their friendship back into play. King Mickey’s brief appearance effectively gets him more involved at the point of action in this story, and builds a sense of mystery and anticipation for what’s to come with minimal dialogue - the curse of so many later, clumsier efforts in this series to manage the same feat. And, while the player knows by this point in the game that Roxas was some part of Sora, and can probably figure out that he was his Nobody, the fact that Sora doesn’t know that makes perfect sense, and doesn’t undermine him in any way, as denying a character knowledge the audience has sometimes can. The slow tease of traces of Roxas emerging in Sora gets off to a rather touching start in the way he says goodbye to Hayner, Pence, and Olette. I can’t say I really understand why it’s unsettling on their end - so far as I know, this series has never tried to tie data replicas to their true selves in a way that would make them have some sense of knowing Roxas - but compared to some truly untenable connections made in later games, this isn’t all that egregious.

There is a part of me that wishes that goodbye was the last we ever saw of Twilight Town in this series. I’m aware that there’s plenty more content for it, but Sora’s goodbye and sense of loss, while a little prolonged and confused on the trio’s end, was a moving scene, and that is undermined somewhat by the goodbye not being a final one. On the other hand, I remember liking some of the later Twilight Town material. I may come back to this point in a future installment.

The arrival at Yen Sid’s tower brings more highlights, not the least of which is the introduction of Pete to this series. If every character reveal in this series was as good as his, future titles would have at the very least gotten off to better starts. In one short scene, the games tells you everything you need to know about this incarnation of Pete, and what sort of antagonist he’s going to be. It’s charming, it’s funny, and it’s a great tease for the much more serious reintroduction of Maleficent at the end of this world. And that reintroduction is another highlight. The idea that the very memory of the Mistress of all Evil would be powerful enough to revive her is an interesting concept. I wonder if there was a desire to tie back into the themes of Chain of Memories by going that route; if so, the connection isn’t made as explicit as it perhaps could have been, but that’s not necessarily a flaw.

Sandwiched between those two is the introduction of Yen Sid into the KH lore. When future games needlessly pull him into the far past as a Keyblade Master, and into the future as a sort of Chief of Staff for Team Light against Xehanort, it’s interesting to go back and see how he was first presented - a wizard only (albeit a powerful one), knowledgeable about the larger world but still predominately tied into the Disney side of the crossover. As in future games, he’s a source of exposition, but I would argue that he’s more successful in that role here for a simple reason: other characters are busy. As in the first game, King Mickey is unable to give information to Sora, Donald, and Goofy firsthand, so he entrusts that to another. Yen Sid’s exposition here also has the benefit of actually explaining things (no, I’m not letting his nonsensical hectoring of Sora over the Power of Waking without explanation in KH III go), or at least explaining them as much as is necessary for this moment in the story. That book he presents Sora is a load of nonsense for the sake of some bad lyrical writing, but his detailing of the state of play - Heartless are still around, Nobodies have appeared, Organization XIII is plotting something - tells the player everything they’d need to know to get a sense of what the initial quest is going to be. Yen Sid doesn’t need to say more than that, because the story will play out in a way that reveals more over time. And by limiting the amount of exposition Yen Sid has, and the scope of his involvement in the story, the game avoids his overstaying his welcome - unlike later titles (noticing a common note here?)

The explanation for why Heartless are still around is decent enough, as is the explanation for how travel between worlds can still be possible without disturbing them. If one were to stick strictly to the lore presented in KH I, neither concept should stand, but those points of lore were always going to need tweaking if a sequel came about, and the tweaks aren’t all that extreme IMO. I will say that I only fully understood how opening lanes worked after Sora did it once in Hollow Bastion. I won’t count that as a flaw in the writing of Yen Sid’s exposition, because I may have just been slow on the uptake. There was another quirk to Yen Sid’s dialogue here, one I don’t remember noticing as a kid: his explanation of Nobodies, to me, sounds a lot like a description of ghosts. I’m almost tempted to say that they should have just been called ghosts, and spare the series one more confusing naming convention.

However, with all that said - as with CoM before it, KH II introduced (or in some cases, continued) trends that would prove disastrous to the series in the long run, and they start to show up in this section of the game. The first that comes to mind is the Secret Ansem Report pages. In the first game, Ansem’s Reports are well-integrated into the story and gameplay. They start appearing after Ansem is introduced as a character, and collecting them helps to slowly flesh out his role and significance in the larger plot. Once the twist with Ansem is revealed, the last of the reports help flesh out how that change in his character occurred without the game relying solely on the reports to do so, and even (in Final Mix, at least - I don’t remember this particular report being in KH I vanilla) give a little bit of background on Kairi. Starting with KH II, Ansem’s Reports are largely divorced from the story and gameplay. Nobody in the game mentions them, nobody suggests or tasks Sora with finding them, and the collecting of them draws no comment.

A problem that’s certainly present in future games with these Reports is the use of them for “tell, don’t show.” Significant chunks of character history and development are shoved into the Reports - which no one is obligated to read - without any illustration or demonstration within the actual gameplay. From memory, the worst example of that is BbS using the Reports to try and claim that Xehanort and Eraqus were “like brothers,” when every single second of footage they have in the game paints a picture of two men who are colleagues at best. Without collecting more of the Reports in KH II, I hesitate to say that that trend started here. But I will note that the line about “my youngest apprentice Ienzo” is a detail with no support outside of the Report in either KH II or CoM, and one that does nothing to address the problem of Zexion’s (and, later, Ienzo’s) total lack of a personality. (A later bit in that Report, about Ienzo persuading Ansem to build the laboratory, implies that Ienzo was all-in on the devious experiments, and just another apprentice - very different from the almost adopted-son figure he was later implied to be. I could go on a tangent here about how inexplicable it is for this bland husk of a character to keep getting backstory without any personality, and that he’s arguably claimed narrative real estate that should have gone to Kairi - but I’m trying to keep the word count on these manageable. Perhaps another time.)

Another worrying trend on exhibit here is Sora’s attitude. Compared to both KH I and CoM, Sora is very lighthearted at the start of this game, constantly falling into a laid-back posture and treating event in an easy-going, almost peppy manner. It’s not an unmotivated attitude - he’s awake after a year of sleep, reuniting with Donald, Goofy, and the gang from Hollow Bastion, and not yet confronted with the full gravity of his current mission. And after saving the universe from darkness in KH I, one would hope the boy could gain some confidence from the experience. He isn’t yet the doof that he became by the time of DDD. But it is a marked shift, and there are little moments - the most immediate being his instantly forgetting about boarding the train - that show where the future’s heading. Reverse/Rebirth may have started the retcon process here in Riku’s dialogue claiming Sora “always did as he pleased,” but now, it’s starting to get illustrated.

Hollow Bastion is where another problem first rears its head, and it’s one that isn’t immediately apparent. Small moments, like Scrooge lamenting his ice cream making or the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee awarding Sora honorary membership, make for nice character beats in isolation. But when enough of those happen in short succession, without having any greater value to the story, they start to lose their charm as character beats and instead become lags on the pace of the plot. It’s an open question where the point of no return is on details like that, but I think was crossed early in this game, and it’s a problem that got worse with time. KH I got by without a lot of those moments and still built up meaningful character beats.

But probably the biggest problem with this first trek to Hollow Bastion is the way Organization XIII is handled. Yen Sid laying out that they are a mysterious presence whose goal is unknown, that Sora needs to investigate, is perfectly fine. And having Organization XIII turn up in Hollow Bastion - their point of origin, and the place where the Heartless are amassing again - is a decent idea conceptually. But when they appear before Sora...what do they do, exactly? They taunt him for a bit, and then leave. That’s it. Their taunting isn’t even that good - even by the standards of this series, there’s some clunky dialogue in this section of the game. I imagine that scene was an effort to build up their mystery and menace, but it undermines both, because there’s no reason for them to appear before Sora at all, or to run away once they appear. It would have been more effective to have a scene of them observing the action from a distance and discussing their plans in cryptic terms, the way Maleficent and the Disney villains did once Sora got the Keyblade in KH I. And yes, I know Final Mix has such a scene - but it’s in addition to their first appearance in Hollow Bastion, not in place of it, so the problem still stands.

I’ve played ahead a little past this point into the first few Disney worlds, and I honestly wonder now if the game should have gone straight to the Land of Dragons from Yen Sid’s tower. Checking in on Hollow Bastion is nice - those characters are ones most players would have wanted to see again, and that’s not a reunion you’d want to delay for too long - but it might have flowed more naturally given the set-up at Yen Sid’s to go straight into stabilizing Disney worlds. Hollow Bastion could have come after the first three of those, and the presence of characters like Scrooge (and Leon and the gang having their own ties to King Mickey) could have motivated a discussion about Mickey that would lead into the trip to Disney castle.

To end on a positive note, however - this game remains my favorite form of Gummi Ship combat. I can - and have - wasted so much time away from the story trying to rack up those medals.

[goodvibesatpeace]

Starseeds: Understanding Your Mission & Roles On Earth

This is a long post... so if you want a bit of light reading 😀

A shift is taking place. Humanity is changing. Around the world people are realizing that previous paradigms are not working and we must change our way of living in order to survive.

During this time, many people identify themselves as lightworkers and believe that they are here on a mission to help change the world.

In simple terms, a lightworker is a person who chooses to change the world by raising the vibration of the self and others. There are many paths to higher vibration and all of them are viable: it is not the details of how you get there, but the outcome that is of greatest importance.

An important thing to understand about this article is that, like any parable, it offers a framework to help you understand the mission and what is going on, using language and pictures that you are familiar with.

We do not presume to speak unequivocally for all lightworkers: we merely wish to create some structure that will help people understand the new world they find themselves living in, and importantly, the things they are experiencing in their lives. We also emphasize that as the creator, you have choice about which path draws you.

Understanding common terms helps us surge forward as a collective group.

When we have definitions and a vocabulary, we waste less time explaining ourselves, and the semantics of terminology, and more time talking about what really matters to us all – the issues that have brought us together as a collective.

As you’ll learn about the morphic field below, having a unified thought structure enables us to form a stronger and more united presence in the global energetic field as well – basically reading and understanding the framework allows you to connect via the morphic field to others who have done the same.

In this manner we will also draw or manifest each other into our real day-to-day lives, creating a common energetic understanding and therefore, energetic resonance and bond. You will also discover that raising your own vibration is within your control and that your influence goes beyond yourself.

Lightworkers

Lightworkers and light beings are collective terms for the group of souls that have incarnated on earth during this time to help the planet transition onto a new level of awareness and into a new reality.

In a nutshell we’re here to focus on improving ourselves and being the best people and souls we can be, taking active and intentional steps to shift our own energy and the energy of those we come into contact with.

Over time our energies will combine to create a grid of positive energy that changes the worldwide holographic field, shifting humanity to a higher consciousness, and enabling us to apply our collective knowledge to creating a better life for all the people of the world.

It is important to clarify that lightwork is not about religion.

While there are aspects of religious concepts discussed (such as Christ Consciousness), the concept of lightwork involves faith beyond religious choice. In fact, part of the growth of a lightworker includes accepting that others can have a different belief system, because it is not the details of faith that matter, but instead the outcome of higher vibration stimulated by the faith experience.

Soul aspects

Lightworkers can identify themselves as lightwarriors, star seeds, star beings, Pleiadian, Sirian, Arcturian, ETs, earth angels, human angels, empaths, healers and more.

While in some rare cases you have Pleiadians, Sirians or other ETs that have incarnated here or entered a human body to help specifically, in many cases these terms actually refer to the soul aspects that are waking up inside you, offering you guidance and understanding.

Your soul can be made up of a composite of soul aspects or pieces.

The more soul aspects making up your soul, the stronger it will be. According to Pleiadian teachings, a Christed soul, which is the highest level of consciousness within our cosmos, is comprised of 144,000 soul aspects.

So the term Christ is actually a title, and if you reach that level of enlightenment Christ will be added to your name.

The idea of a Christed soul actually stems from how souls were created at the very dawn of creation, around the time of the Elohim.

In our joy and rapture of separating and then joining again in tantric union, one event of tantric union saw 144,000 souls merge in spontaneous tantric union, creating the Sonship or the Christed soul. In a nutshell, you could say that 144,000 souls collectively are God as we think of God, while another 144,000 souls make up the Sonship.

The Sonship souls are the ones that get to incarnate on earth and other physical dimensions in creation. Each soul can further split into 144,000 pieces and those pieces can further split into 144,000 pieces, enabling you to have multiple incarnations across multiple dimensions and realities, at the same time.

Unlike mainstream religion, which would have you worshiping Jesus or a specific deity, the goal of lightworkers is to BECOME like Jesus or Buddha: a being operating at a higher level of consciousness.

As go along your path and grow your consciousness, the surges of information coming through are actually from soul aspects you’ve brought with you from higher dimensions to help you (and us all) through this time. These souls aspects may be from lives you’ve already lived or lives that you will live in the future, because time is only linear and contiguous inside the realm of physical creation.

The Holographic Field

The main reason for this entire waking up of soul aspects is the holographic or morphic field.

Read more about the holographic field here.

When kinesiology was first discovered a few decades back, it was really a growth surge for those of us in the spiritual and energy healing fields, because it was the first scientifically replicable energy healing technique and modality.

This meant that it gained mainstream awareness and impact, mainly through sports science medicine.

In 1994, Sir David Hawkins released his pivotal book, Power vs. Force. Focused on the development of higher consciousness, the book encapsulated 20 years’ of study into kinesiology and laid out the findings uncovered over that time. One of the key replicable and scientifically recognized findings was the existence of the morphic or holographic field.

Sir David was not the only person to discuss these ideas though: Ervin Laszlo wrote about Quantum Consciousness and the Akashic field, Barbara Hubbard wrote about Conscious Evolution, and Andrew Cohen wrote about Evolutionary Enlightenment. All of them share similar concepts: that humanity is capable of enhancing our level of consciousness and we have direct influence on our progress.

In a nutshell, the morphic field is like the Internet of all knowledge, and our minds are like devices that can plug into this field and extract energy and information.

Any energy and information we have inside us also filters into this field, and that’s how we create the world around us through our energy – it just flows into the morphic field.

You’ve experienced the field firsthand if you’ve walked into a place that changed your mood immediately: your energy was overwhelmed by the morphic resonance of the environment you stepped into, and you took on the mood of the environment. Like Dorothy arriving in Oz, suddenly everything had color.

As you clear each layer of information and energy inside you, you raise your system’s vibration to a level where more advanced soul aspects can begin operating and engaging with you on a conscious level.

As each of these higher aspects wakes up, you experience a broader range of knowledge than you previously could extract from the morphic field. That’s why you feel smarter after you shift, release and heal – the amount of information available to you has literally grown. You are smarter and you also see more.

Are you still with us? This is where it gets trickier…

The Age of Aquarius is expanding the amount of information available in the morphic field, so some of the soul aspects that are waking up inside you now are actually allowing you to THINK certain pieces of information on earth for the first time.

This is why so many of the thoughts that have been coming to you lately are so unusual and new – they are literally being thought on earth FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME.

If it had to happen on a level that you could see, it would be like waking up one morning to find out there are five new colors and fifteen new shades or variations in every existing color. All the scales of understanding of information on earth are expanding in this way.

In more day-to-day terms, where we once had physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects (PEMS), we now have cosmic as well (PEMSC). We’ve seen such growth before in human evolution, when the elemental scale went from earth, water, wood, metal and fire (only what could be directly experienced), to becoming earth, water, air and fire.

Air replaced wood and metal because the enhancement of knowledge in the morphic field allowed the abstract concept of air to become tangible in the human experience.

So as each of the frontrunners of thought becomes aware (has an awareness) of these new thoughts, they anchor it further into the morphic field, making it even easier for others to think. Over time, as enough people incorporate new concepts, it becomes a normative level of thinking and the whole of society can accept it – and it only takes a limited few of us to kick start that process.

Kinesiology has an explanation for how this works: people who have achieved a higher level of consciousness counterbalance as many as 70-million people who are at lower ends of the scale.

If you are only midway up the Human Consciousness Scale, the thoughts and energy you put out are still compensating for hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people. It grows exponentially as you rise up the scale.

Over the long term, what this will mean for humanity as a whole is that the stuff we previously thought of as rare and out of reach will become much more commonplace, including psychic and intuitive abilities, healing, miracles and more.

On top of that there will be a whole new level of advanced spiritual information, cosmic or PEMSC… this is what we’re here to usher in: the new thinking that will change the world.

Through our combined and cumulative personal growth we will create a network and web of positive energy that adjusts the morphic field of the planet in favour of light.

So there’s no separating your personal journey from the lightworker mission – your soul growth is the biggest part of the lightworker mission. It really is quite beautiful: by healing yourself, you heal the world.

For many people who strongly identify as being from another planet or race, you’ll find they brought a number of soul aspects with them from that plane or have formed a habit of working through that aspect of their soul.

If you are more flexible and allow it to flow, you can actually experience the range of soul aspects as they change, allowing you to access higher dimensional information than what you’re currently accessing, including angelic aspects and even deities.

Remember, your soul aspects will be drawn from oversouls that already have a number of recursions playing out: you are a recursion of that oversoul aspect yourself, as opposed to being the main soul identity that you currently think you are.

In a sense, you may be living many lifetimes at the same moment in the energy continuum, and each vibrational shift resonates across all your lives. By healing and raising vibration now, you are also healing your past and future selves.

The most important aspect to keep in mind as you learn and adjust through the shift is your personal empowerment.

We continually have choice about what knowledge we choose to digest or discard, and we have the ability to adjust our perception of events or external stimulus in order to change our understanding.

Any categories we apply to ourselves simply help us identify and enhance abilities that are inherent in us already. We are the creators of our experience.

Roles of the lightworker

A lightworker does not need to be Christian. In fact many lightworkers explore multiple faiths, blending aspects into their own personal rituals and discarding what does not resonate.

Most lightworkers identify as spiritual more than religious. While the parable of Jesus provides a storyline that many can follow, the concepts presented here apply to people of any faith.

In order to understand the roles of the lightworkers on the planet, you need to look at the names we’ve assigned to Jesus and God: the savior or redeemer, the creator and the messiah.

As we turn this hairpin bend of creation, we’ll add another moniker to that list, the unifier. You can be a savior, creator, messiah AND unifier. One does NOT exclude the other, as you’ll see below.

Saviors, redeemers & empaths

One of the key aspects Jesus Christ is noted for is forgiving the world’s sins – he released them through the act of crucifixion and resurrection. Today, we call that shifting, releasing and healing.

As an empath you pick up people’s energy, karma or stuff – whatever you want to call it – and shift it through your life, releasing that energy the same way that Jesus released the energies of what couldn’t be shifted in the world in his time.

When you get down to the nuts and bolts of healing, basically all healing can be facilitated through forgiveness, so Jesus did a massive healing session on the world by forgiving everything, and then he released the effects of the shift through his own body.

This time around though, well the earth’s population has grown a bit… from 260 million to just shy of 8 billion. That would be a lot of load for one person to bear.

So this time around there are lots of us and we each shift as much as we can. The energies we shift through ourselves are then ‘cleaned up’, because we always bounce back positively.

When we as lightworkers go through negative life experiences and shifts, we don’t become bitter and angry or put more negativity into the morphic field. God gives us the pain because we can shift it and then bounce back and still put good into the world.

As one of the saviors, you are correct in thinking that most normal people would die if they had to survive what you have.

It’s also why so many lightworker souls were sent into families and situations where there was abuse and sexual abuse of an extreme nature: your empath ability allows you to survive that without perpetuating it to the next generation.

This savior/empath mission is one of the biggest clean ups we’re doing on the planet energy wise.

This is also how your personal stuff matters to the global shift: as each individual raises their personal vibration, it makes it a little bit easier for everyone else to reach a higher level of consciousness.

Conscious Co-Creators

In order to understand conscious co-creators, you must understand two things: first that this 3D/4D reality is the highest point of separation and individuation we can know ourselves at.

In a nutshell: we are ‘in the image of God’ because this is the closest we can get to ‘being’ God with our ego identity intact. We’re little mini-Gods.

The second thing to understand is that the whole return of creation is now about working in unity with larger and larger groups of energy, because we’re beginning the process of remerging the energies into a collective: into ONE or ALL-that-is.

As Creators we are here to create the new world of love and light so that it is ready for paradise on earth, by changing the morphic field of the planet.

We’re CREATING the new energy for the new world.

Right now there is so much dark on the planet because of people’s bad choices that we cannot support the energy of heaven on earth.

By making better decisions, and by not perpetuating the pain and trauma that has carried on down so many family lines, we are creating a new experience of life on earth, both for future generations and ourselves.

Unifiers & joiners

The new term that the new cosmic layer of information is introducing is unifiers or joiners.

We’re all unifiers and joiners, because we are here to implement the hairpin bend of creation to begin its journey back to source or ALL-that-is. Up until this point, the whole of creation has been about breaking the God energy that everything is made of into smaller and smaller pieces.

Even your thoughts break that energy down into smaller pieces, because even your thoughts are made of the same God stuff. This also why you feel whole after you have reintegrated an idea, had an awareness or accepted something about yourself you’d previously rejected: the moment you own the thought, you reconcile that piece of the energy of creation into yourself.

While you reject any thought you hold that part of creation away from you, and you are unable to utilize the energy of that element because it is separated from you.

The same applies to thoughts held by ‘my brother’; thoughts and ideas we’re conflicted about accepting sometimes. According to A Course In Miracles, we have to ‘love my brother and all his creations’ in order to return ALL the energy that has been broken into smaller pieces back into ALL-that-is.

You already know this on some level, which is why you always feel bad when you reject someone else’s ideas or have to reject the person in any way. It’s also why rejection is such a heavy burden for us to bear: we know that we have to love EVERYTHING in order to return to Source.

Of course the hardest part of this activity is our reaction to polarity and duality. For almost every belief or opinion that you might hold, there is always someone whose ideas conflict.

We tend to find solace in those with common beliefs; we tend to argue with those who think differently. Remain aware that some debates may never be resolved.

In fact, it’s important that those points aren’t always resolved, because they offer you a very useful tool that enables you to conceptualize new abstract information – contrast.

Often we can see what we want because we first see what we don’t want. Without this gift of contrast, it would be infinitely more difficult for us to make leaps of awareness to concepts that we didn’t previously know existed.

While your comfort in your own beliefs is important, we grow by looking beyond conflicting beliefs to love the soul of the person presenting them. They are helping you define more clearly what you want for yourself, and perhaps providing you with additional perspectives.

Simply by being here on the lightworker mission you are part of the hairpin bend of creation.

Those that are more firmly dedicated to this particular aspect than anything else are going to find their clue in a strange place: children.

Having children is a direct polarity of unification, and as a result many of the strong unifiers are very anti children, against having children and against other people having children, or simply did not procreate in this lifetime.

The Messiah Collective

Like no one single person could carry the whole load of redemption for the planet, the collective and unification nature of the shift dictates that the messiahs form a collective.

The tendency to seek one messiah to change our world belongs to the old hierarchical structure and stems from the concept of imbalance and inequality – the idea that any one person can be more important than any other.

Instead of looking for a leader to guide us to higher elevation, what if we all became leaders and did it ourselves? Rather than seeking followers, what if we choose to empower everyone? The strength of ONEness comes from our ability to each contribute to the whole.

In religious texts, many speak of the need to speak in tongues. What this means is to speak to man in his own tongue, i.e. on a level that he can understand. It’s not meant to mean talking gibberish.

The Twin Flame Mission

The Twin Flame Mission is another really interesting clean up mission that’s taking place.

In order to understand it, it helps to understand what twin flames and soulmates actually are: a soulmate is a soul identity created near you at the same time, in a similar geography, while a twin flame is a soul that has split into identical twins.

These identical twin souls contain polarities, like a yin yang: black, white; male, female; reflector, reflected, and when they come together in a lifetime and reconcile one of those polarities, they release one of the greatest creative powers in the universe (zero point energy) – because twin flames are a recursion of the original act of creation.

Twin flames on this planet have been chosen because they have massive karma – the karma combines with the zero point burst to grow the volume of energy released exponentially. This absolutely neutral energy is being released in bursts to restore the energetic imbalance on the planet cumulatively over time.

As many as 70% of the lightworkers are twin flames and there ARE backups. You do NOT only have one twin flame you can pair with – the cleanup is too important. So if your flame has ended, buckle up: the next one is on its way.

Twin flames are not always romantic relationships, and can be friends and family members too.

Throughout our lives souls come together to support, love and accelerate growth in ways other than sexual union, and sometimes souls come together to antagonize and create reason for change. Soul contracts can be lifelong affairs or brief encounters, and people can have a major impact on each other even though they only meet once.

In our personal lives

In our personal lives we’re reconciling the major energies that the world needs to reconcile for the shift to go through.

Those energies include attachment, power, control, force, privacy, honesty, loneliness, free will, consent, equality, inequality, imbalance, balance, impermanence and immortality.

Every single decision you make at in these areas of your life right now is contributing to the global energy in the morphic field, and this is how we are creating the new world order.

Every issue you are resolving in your life is a small recursion, or piece of the energy, of the creation story that helps turn the planet back towards the light.

It is vitally important that you are making personal decisions that create the kind of world you want to live in going forward, because it is the energy we’re creating inside of us that is shaping our future. Lightwork begins within.

The Lightworker Vision, Mission & Purpose

Our vision is what we want to create in the end, our mission is how we go about creating the vision, and our purpose is the day-to-day stuff we do to achieve our mission.

Our Vision is to create heaven on earth. Since everyone has a different idea of what heaven represents, we combine our efforts to create a world where everyone has the freedom to learn, grow, experience and feel love and joy.

A world where every soul has the free will to make the decisions that best serve their growth, and what they are here to contribute to the collective.

Our Mission is to facilitate the return of God by returning the planet and its people to light and love. God has not left, we are just ignoring Her: when we connect to higher forces, we also connect to the greater life force around us. As we grow we glow.

Our Purpose is to overcome ego identifications and dark forces by improving our energies until we create an impenetrable grid of love and light around the planet. This will enable God to return and create heaven on earth.

It is important to recognize that God is not a separate entity who has gone away and might return. Instead, God is an acceleration of life force within each of us.

Like drops in the ocean, we are all part of God, and ultimately, the responsibility of creating heaven lies with us.

We are the ones who can make constructive choices in the physical world.

If we wait for some greater force to change it for us, our expectations may not be met. Step forth with your power, increase your glow, help others increase their glow and create heaven on earth by being in your highest possible vibration.

The fronts

The main lightworker fronts are really about issues to do with how our part of creation was made: under the energies of force, control, non-consent, inequality and imbalance.

So important fronts for lightworkers are those where these energies play out:

Inequality with genders, races, social classes, religions

Imbalance of resources with greed and the 99%, poverty, debt, the economy

Withholding of resources such as cannabis and hemp being made illegal for example, or a border free world so people can move freely

Force and non-consent – rape and power abuse issues, politics

Control – slavery and human trafficking, the mass level hypnotism and slavery of the general public through TV and survival issues, animals and animal rights

Assistance to those with issues that impede personal growth, providing every individual with empowerment and self-esteem

A shift from a society that encourages continuous growth and production (despite the negative impact of this philosophy) and instead focuses on creating a harmonious balance of life on our planet.

Much love to all... go in peace my beautiful friend's 💕💕💕

[creative-type]

How Fullmetal Alchemist Integrates Theme and Character

In a world where everything is subjective and polarizing opinions are the norm, where anti-fans and trolls take ‘love to hate’ a little too far, and where any story popular enough to become a pop-culture phenomenon is almost guaranteed to have a small-but-vocal minority that can’t see what all the fuss is about, I have never once seen, read, or heard of anyone say that Fullmetal Alchemist is a bad story. 

None. 

I’m sure they exist, but during the course of its run Fullmetal Alchemist reached the rarefied air of being almost universally beloved within the manga/anime community and being critically acclaimed as a damn good story. This success is wholly deserved. Arakawa was able to do something that a lot of shonen mangaka can’t, and as a result Fullmetal Alchemist is one of the best plotted, tightly written manga I have ever read. 

Others have and will write about the philosophy Arakawa presents, point out the incredible amount of research she was able to cram into her series, extrapolate on the world building better than I could, but today I want to talk about something I’ve not seen anyone else touch on, and that’s how she integrates her themes into her characterization in order to really drive the point she’s trying to make home. 

So what’s the main theme of Fullmetal Alchemist? Luckily Arakawa tells us directly on the next to last page of the series. 

So let’s pick this apart a little bit

There is nothing to be learned in a lesson without pain, because you can’t gain anything without losing something in exchange. But when you overcome that pain and make the lesson your own you will obtain an infallible, irreplaceable fullmetal heart.

Now since this is a comic we also have to take the image itself into account. None of the photos are of just one person. Even the dog managed to have puppies. So we can assume that the idea of community is also integral to what Arakawa’s trying to say here (I hesitate to say friendship, because, well, not all of these guys are friends, lol). Also, during Edward’s final showdown with Truth he states he’ll make due without his alchemy so long as he’s still got other people he can rely on

And Truth’s response is basically “Ding ding! You finally get it! Go claim your prize at the door, I never want to see your ugly mug again.”

(I don’t know Japanese, but I’m pretty sure that’s an accurate translation)

At its barest bones Fullmetal Alchemist is about overcoming past mistakes with the help of others. This is all fine and dandy, but without proper execution they just become empty words pasted onto the final pages in a halfhearted attempt at depth. I think most people know of stories about sacrificial love where there is neither meaningful sacrifice nor a healthy portrayal of love, or stories about overcoming overwhelming odds through the power of hard work and effort where every victory is handed over on a silver platter of asspulls and accelerated training arcs. It doesn’t matter how good something sounds if the execution sucks.

With that in mind, let’s look at some of the characters of Fullmetal Achemist and the mistakes they’ve made.

Fullmetal Alchemist: A Series of Terrible People Trying to Become Less Terrible

So this one is super easy. We’re presented with our lovable protagonists’s first major screw up on chapter 1, page 1

Oh look, it’s that quote again. Golly gee willikers, it’s almost as if Awakara knew what story she wanted to tell and integrated the main theme from the very beginning.

It’s not terribly uncommon for a manga to make some sort of thesis statement during their first chapter, but from the (few) long-running serializations I’ve read, the longer a series runs the more muddled these things get as far as theme and narrative go. It’s one of the difficult things about trying to keep an audience engaged over a long period of time. 

Fullmetal Alchemist is more tightly plotted than most shonen affairs, but there’s another thing that helps it keep from undercutting its own themes, and that’s that it lets its protagonists actually make terrible mistakes, and more importantly makes them suffer because of it.

The Elric’s attempt to resurrect their mother is never treated as anything but a horrible thing that never should have happened. Yes, the boys’s plight is sympathetic and the loss of their mother after their father abandoned the family was a tragedy, but they were told time and time again that human transformation was not only impossible, but forbidden

Of course the Elric brothers don’t listen, because otherwise there wouldn’t be a series. It cannot be overstated that they purposefully kept their plans secret. They didn’t tell Winry or Izumi or any one else that they were going to try to revive their mother. Perhaps they don’t feel like they can talk to anyone about their grief, but there’s also a definite hubris involved. Edward and Alphonse -- but especially Edward -- think they can accomplish something “adults” have found impossible.

Perhaps if they had talked to Izumi more she would have been able to guide them through their time of grief, but it goes back to one of the main themes of the series: Camaraderie, doing things together, trusting your friends, community as apposed to isolation. The Elric brothers lock themselves away to their father’s dark library and perform illegal experiments in their basement -- hidden from anyone who might try to stop them. 

And they suffer for it. 

(Keep in mind the word ignorant. We’ll be coming back to it later.)

This in and of itself is good, but this message is hammered home by the supporting cast, especially the characters from the military. Remember Roy Mustang, suave up-and-comer who wants to completely reform the government from the inside out for the betterment of the people?

Complicit in genocide

His number 2, all around team mom, and rescuer of cute puppies?

Complicit in genocide

Husband of the year and eternal winner of Best Dad Joke?

Complicit in genocide

Human teddy bear, series aesthete, and walking meme generator?

Complicit in genocide

The beloved small-town doctor?

Complicit in genocide and human experimentation

The grumpy curmudgeon with a hidden heart of gold?

Say it with me now, complicit in  freaking genocide.

That’s just looking at Armestrian military during the civil war. When the series jumps to the present day we see Scar has become a serial killer, while midway through the series Ling willingly becomes the vessel for an inhuman monster, nearly loosing his identity in the process. Hohenheim abandoned his family and was (unwittingly) complicit in a genocide of his own. In her grief Izumi tried to bring back her dead child via human transmutation, violating one of the fundamental laws of alchemy. The list goes on. 

It is impossible to fully implement a theme of overcoming past mistakes without having characters be fully responsible for said mistakes. I feel like it’s a common trap to sacrifice likability for pathos. How easy would it have been to say that Ed and Al couldn’t be held responsible for their actions because they weren’t aware of the consequences, or had never been told that human transformation was forbidden? How easy would it have been to say that the military made Roy and Riza and the rest participate in the Ishvalan massacre?

Luckily the writing never goes this route. While the various characters might not fully understand the ultimate outcome of their choices they never have their agency stripped away by something outside of their control. Each and every character in the series thinks they’re doing the right thing by acting the way they do, which not only makes them feel human as characters but brings me neatly into my second point.

Overcoming Ignorance and Finding Truth

During the Ishvalan flashback we see both Roy and Riza give their initial reason for joining the military, citing their desire to protect others as one of their main motivations.

Edward and Alphonse were young children when their mother died, and their desire to bring her back stems from a child’s love. Izumi and Sig had struggled for years for a child, and the grief of losing a baby after longing for a family for so long led her to try to resurrect her child.

None of these desires are in and of themselves bad, but they stem from a place of ignorance. Attempting human transmutation was forbidden for a reason. The military ended up not being as altruistic as the young soldiers were led to believe. The world, which our main characters looked at as a simple, understandable thing, turned out to be complex, and hard, and unforgiving.

With their worldviews essentially shattered it would have been easy to give up or give in to the darkness that they had seen, but instead each main character decides to take full ownership of their mistakes and takes steps to correct them.

There are very few irredeemable bad guys in Fullmetal Alchemist, and it’s a series that ultimately has a very hopeful view on humanity. Because of this underlying philosophy people are not ruined or broken by their pasts, but rather learn from them. 

This is the Truth that is presented. It’s not facts or book knowledge, which any alchemist capable of performing human transmutation would have in spades, but growth through life experience. Ed and Al see firsthand the evils alchemy can commit and strive to correct them. Roy and Riza stare down the barrel of the military machine and seek to dismantle it, even if it results in their own undoing. Ling learns to recognize the futility of his country’s current clan system and seeks to protect even the weakest of his people. It takes awhile, but Scar realizes that vengeance can only breed violence and strives to rebuild his people instead of the destruction of those who killed them in the first place.

None of these goals can be accomplished alone, building on the theme of camaraderie, but there’s also the side effect of preventing others from going down their path. 

That is Fullmetal Alchemist in a nutshell. It’s a series about flawed people making horrible mistakes, overcoming them with the help of their friends and in turn preventing others going down that dark path of destruction. It’s not a smooth transition, and the lessons learned are full of pain, but in the end you’ll find your own Truth and come out the other side a better person. The rest is just gravy. 

Although I will concede that having a main character who can turn his arm into a knife probably helps.

[seecjgo]

I can't sleep. It feels like the night before Christmas. I want to be excited but I have no idea what this maniac and his gang of thugs has planned for tomorrow. All I can do is hope they shot their shot on the Capitol Riot. And hope That Pathetic Example of Humanity (TPEH) we've watched with horror for the last decade and more will slink off the public stage and into the history books as America's version of Hitler.

I am looking forward to reading future historical analysis of this particular epoch in America's history. I found that living through this experience was a crash course in empathy and striving to understand humans. What drives them? How can they do such terrible, things and believe such terrible things? It seems like no matter where you turn, there is someone doing something just horrendous to someone else for no reason other than hate. TPEH that was 45 just taught a master class in fueling the fires of hate to wield as a weapon.

America saw firsthand the consequences of ignoring the cancer of racism that has been at its core policies and culture since its inception.

I watched in horror, disgust, awe, rage, heartbreak, and gratitude at what TPEH did. (Also in stitches, the man truly is the world's dumbest criminal) And no, that was not a typo. I said "gratitude". Allow me to explain.

While I've seen the horror of what hatred can wreak in the last years, I've also seen a world that in no way could avoid the truth of racism because it was sitting its disgusting orange ass on it's highest seat and wreaking nasty havoc with every lie that leaked out of its mouth. It took this absolute abomination of a human preying on and exploiting humanity's worst impulses to gain power, to finally put America on trial for that age-old and ever ongoing sin of racism.

It has been tried and found wanting on the global stage and now it will forever be a country that allowed hatred and racism to rule it because it was too afraid to acknowledge that evil and allowed generation after generation to suffer for its callous profit.

And now, we FINALLY get to talk about actual racism out loud and people agree and support instead of dismissing it.

And the conversation around privilege has taken on proportions I could never have dreamed of.

Add to that, the knowledge that a world full of impressionable kids saw a world full of people fight the injustice of inequality and scream for fairness in the streets. Those kids, our next round of world decision makers, already have a better sense of truth and fairness from watching TPEH lie and exploit hate for years than they ever could or would learn in school or any book.

(Especially in the history books which will have to be rewritten going forward. Starting the beginning because you can't possibly tell the story of Donald J. Trump, without telling the story of America's racist roots. )

Now, if that's not a cautionary tale and a reason to be grateful at the same time. I don't know what is.

That said, I am really, really, really hoping he locks himself in the bathroom and the Secret Service has to drag him out by his hair. I just need that.

[williamexchange]

9 Things to Consider When Making a Photography Website

These days, having a strong web presence is extremely important for keeping a successful business. When you make a photography website, it’s likely the first contact potential clients will have with your business, so it should be done the right way. Making sure to cover the following aspects will provide a thorough and presentable site clients will appreciate.

1. Pick a Site Name

Before you even offer information on your website, you should be decided on a website name. The name should be relevant to you or your business, but it should also be something not too far out there. The title of the site, as well as the web address or URL, should be easy to remember for clients with whom you’ve already worked. For clients you hope to attract, your site name and URL should be easy to find in a simple web search. Most visitors will respect you more as a business if the site is hosted on your own domain instead of a standard blog or media-sharing site.

2. Optimize Speed

If your website is slow to load, visitors are much more likely to pass it over for something else. Search engine optimization involves having a speedy site as search engines give lower page rankings to sites that are too slow. To help keep your site running quickly, use a web server optimized for photography sites, and avoid using unnecessary effects on your page. Keep image resolutions within the bounds of what your site can display.

3. Decide on Web Design

The look of your website can sometimes be as important as what it contains. If you don’t have experience or association with someone skilled in this area, you should hire a web designer to make a photography website that is appealing from top to bottom. You want a color scheme that is attractive and fitting for your business while also looking modern and pleasing to the eye. The layout should be easy to navigate through all sections of the site, and the overall theme and feel that the site provides should match well with the style of your business.

4. Tell Your Background

Informing visitors about your background is a good way to open yourself up to those who may be undecided. Provide details about all of the photography experience you’ve had, even that as just a hobbyist or from childhood. Also tell about any training you’ve taken to enhance your skill or gain new ones. You can mention some of the camera or lighting equipment you’ve used for certain environments or conditions, or you can explain why you keep the equipment you currently have. If possible, mention the type of locations or facilities in which you’ve worked to show the types of situations you can handle.

5. Reveal Your Expertise

Your client will only place as much trust in you as you give them reason to. If you’re attempting to attract new clients, they will usually not be familiar with your areas of photographic expertise. Even if your regular clients visit your site, you gain the benefit of informing them of skills they may not have known you had. Be sure to list the types of photography in which you have knowledge or experience such as portraits, babies, parties, weddings, business events, nature, sports or whatever niche you feel is relevant.

6. Provide Your Portfolio

For every photographer, their portfolio is arguably the strongest tool they have at their disposal to attract clients. It provides an accurate example of your abilities and experience as a skilled professional. Anyone can present a resume, but a picture speaks a thousand words, and it speaks even louder for those that create them. Plastic surgeons, contractors, caterers and other professionals provide photographs on their websites to show their capabilities because clients need the security of seeing skills firsthand. Your portfolio should have separate but well-organized classes of photos depending on the range of areas in which you perform.

7. Keep Your Photos Protected

Part of promoting your business also involves keeping it safe. Posting images online makes them available to everyone, including those that want to steal your work to pass as their own or use for commercial purposes. To prevent this from happening, you can disable right-clicking to stop visitors from being able to directly save your images. Even with this method, more knowledgeable visitors may be able to work around it, so you may want to consider watermarking. Embedding watermarks deters people from using your photos for their own businesses and ensures that others will be directed back to your business even if they’re stolen for personal purposes.

8. Give Contact Information

One of the most important pages you can have on your website is that with your contact information. The contact page places all of your most important information in one place, and it’s kept separate from other significant information. This makes it easy to get in touch with you as clients find necessary, and it allows clients to start the booking process on their own without having to wait for you to initiate the process. Make sure to provide multiple avenues through which you may be contacted such as a phone number, email and business address.

9. Use Social Links

In the world of modern technology and communication, sharing information online is essential to maintaining a successful business. When you post updates to your site, make sure to provide links on such pages that allow visitors to share the information. 

This allows your brand to be seen by many more people and allows your work to be noticed by relevant clients and their associates. You should also maintain social media pages to keep clients informed. Have logo links at the top of your site that allow visitors to easily find your social web pages.

Having an organized or good-looking site doesn’t guarantee that you’ll have clients knocking your door down, but it certainly is a good start. Taking the time to figure out what you want to include is a necessary part in creating a memorable and effective marketing tool.

ADMS, is Web Designing Services St Petersburg, FL , have all the tools, knowledge, and personnel on staff to get the job done. Let our team of experts handle all your digital marketing needs and watch your business get the website rank it deserves.

[avaantares]

We’re gatekeeping entire *languages* now?!

TL;DR Do not discourage someone’s curiosity about other languages and cultures. Even a casual interest can lead to better empathy and understanding.

Oh, Tumblr.

I just saw someone try to make the argument that it’s offensive-bordering-on-racist when people who are not of (nationality/culture) try to learn that (nationality/culture’s) language -- basically comparing it to cultural appropriation. They argued that people who want to use a language spoken by a different ethnic group are just wannabes, and should leave speaking that language to those who are entitled to it by birth.*

DUDE. NO.

Now, I’m not saying every person has ideal motives for trying to learn another language. There are doubtless people out there who just want to sound cool by using foreign words, or want to associate themselves with another group for one reason or another. But even impure motivation doesn’t negate the vast benefits -- for everyone involved -- to studying another language. 

Leaving aside the history of how modern languages developed, and the practical applications of being multilingual, and the documented benefits to mental and emotional development -- language is critical to understanding cultural differences and resolving conflicts. Language is not only how we communicate with one another, it also shapes how we process things intellectually, and how we frame ideas and concepts within our heads (source 1)(source 2). It’s also been shown that exposure to stories and vocabulary outside one’s personal experience bolsters empathy (source 1)(source 2), which is something people of different cultures need in order to coexist peacefully.

Furthermore, language is an excellent gateway drug. Let’s say some wannabe does start learning a language just to impress his girlfriend with a few fancy words. What makes you think he can’t become legitimately interested in the cultural history through that exposure? What’s to say he won’t become an ally of a threatened subculture, or a proponent of preserving that culture, in the future? Won’t even a casual exposure to another culture make him better equipped to make decisions when voting, or discuss foreign policy, or relate to a foreign coworker?

Let me give you a personal example: I’m a native English speaker from the U.S., where most high schools require you to study a foreign language to graduate. Mine was Spanish, and since I’d already taken four years of it in high school, I went on to minor in it at university. Exposure to that language, its idioms, and the creative works (music, books, film) I absorbed while studying it gave me some insight into the culture, but knowing the language was an even greater boon: It allowed me to work for several weeks teaching seminars in Mexico City, where I was able to gain an appreciation for the people and culture of modern Mexico (which, let me tell you, is nothing like the perception of most Americans).

This brief exposure certainly didn’t make me any kind of expert on Mexican culture, or give me the right to call myself part of that community -- but when I heard someone at a party make a crack about “lazy Mexicans,” I was able to shut them down with firsthand examples of my experiences in Mexico City, and all the resourceful, industrious, intelligent people I’d worked with there.

That firsthand knowledge came in handy in discourse during the most recent political season, too. (Just try to convince me that building a wall is a good idea. I dare you.)

I have similar stories about other languages:

When I started learning Japanese, it was for the purely selfish reason that I wanted to be able to watch films without subtitles. After I began learning more about the culture and history behind the language, my casual interest grew into a profound appreciation, and I began exploring cultural attitudes, sociology, belief systems, and more. (And sharing this information with other “wannabes” -- I’ve been teaching educational seminars on Japanese history and folklore for about ten years, now.)

I’m currently attempting to learn Welsh. My biggest “cultural” achievement so far is joking about the weather with locals, but the more I learn about the history and mindset of that people, the more I come to understand their attitudes, lifestyles, even political motivations. (And U.K. politics have been as volatile over the last year as those in the U.S., so that is helpful information.)

I have made connections online with people in other countries who want to improve their English. In our chats we discuss everything from politics to entertainment to the mundane details of daily life. We are sharing not only a language, but personal experiences about what it’s like to live somewhere else in the world. Now when I hear about international news, I have a name and lifestyle to pin on the countries I hear about, and it influences the way I think about foreign policy and current events.

While it’s unfortunate when a particular culture attracts acolytes only because it is perceived as being trendy, the solution is not to isolate that culture or prohibit outsiders from learning about it. The solution (as with most things) is greater education. Better communication. You want someone to stop treating your culture (at whatever level -- a nation, a people group, a hobby, a lifestyle) as trivial? Educate them. Connect with them. Show them there’s a lot more to your community than a stereotype or pop culture or a catchphrase or weekend activities. Instead of gatekeeping, encourage better understanding. That’s how you develop respect -- and respect is something we need a whole lot more of in this world.

* Not that it matters, because the argument is ridiculous regardless of the specific ethnic groups involved, but this wasn’t even a “I hate it when self-absorbed white people randomly use foreign words to sound cool” type argument. The diatribe was directed against a person of color who is studying a language from another part of the world. He posted about his linguistic progress, and got attacked and accused of low key racism because how dare he want to learn that language when he’s not even [other race]. O_o

[tamboradventure]

6 Best TEFL Courses for Teaching English Overseas

Posted: 4/18/20 | April 18th, 2020

One of the best ways to make money overseas is to teach English. Dozens of countries all around the world are always on the hunt for qualified English teachers, providing a steady income for travelers looking to pad their bank account in between trips.

Of course, teaching English abroad is also a valuable, enriching job in and of itself. Not only do you get to enjoy expat life in a far-flung destination but you get to help a community and the people who live in it while gaining valuable work and life experience. It’s a win-win!

In order to find a teaching position abroad, you’ll need to take a TEFL course first. TEFL stands for “Teaching English as a Foreign Language.” It’s a certificate program that teaches you how to teach English as a foreign language. (While you can find jobs without a TEFL certificate, they will be few and far between.)

TEFL programs are offered online and in-person all around the world; prices vary depending on where you enroll. Just like there are thousands of universities that offer bachelor’s degrees, there are thousands of companies that offer a certificate called “TEFL.”

Since there can be a lot of competition for teaching positions, you’ll want to make sure you enroll in a reputable program that will teach you the skills you need — not only to find a job but to succeed at it.

To help you get started, I’ve made a list of the top six TEFL programs. Having taught overseas in both Thailand and Taiwan (and having studied to be a history teacher myself), I can tell you not all programs are created equal!

1. i-to-i

When it comes to online TEFL courses, i-to-i is one of the best. It’s a basic online TEFL course that gives you 120 hours of study and costs $139 USD, making it one of the most affordable on the market. If you’re not 100% sure teaching overseas is for you, this course would be the best for testing the waters.

i-to-i also offers a 180-hour course with additional content on teaching young students and teaching grammar (because let’s face it, most of us native speakers are terrible at grammar). It also has 300-hour courses, TESOL-equivalent courses, and more. (See below for more about TESOL.)

If you’re new to teaching and want to see if it’s for you, this is the company I’d suggest you start with — especially if you’re on a budget. That said, since it’s all online, you’ll need to make sure you have the self-discipline to put in the work.  

2. TEFLPros

TEFLPros offers an online 120-hour course that includes 17 hours of in-class observation videos. Its platform is incredibly user friendly and includes quizzes, worksheets, assignments, and tips on lesson planning. It’s $349 USD.

This course has more video content than most others, so if you prefer learning that way, this is a good choice for you. Best of all, they offer a free trial of the course, so you can check it out before you commit.  

3. myTEFL

This is another affordable (but reputable) TEFL program. myTEFL offers a standard 120-hour program for $299 USD. In addition to all the online lessons and assignments, myTEFL will also provide you with a letter of recommendation upon completion, as well as assist you with finding a job.

You’ll have three months to complete your course; however, you’ll also get an additional three months of access to the content so that you can use it as a resource once you start teaching. Super helpful when you’re still finding your legs as a teacher!

For 35% off the price of your course, use the code “matt35” at check out!  

4. International TEFL Academy

If you’re looking for a TEFL course that features in-classroom training, the International TEFL Academy is probably the best on the market. This is the most thorough and interactive course that you can get without physically being in a classroom for four weeks.

The 170-hour online course is a fully interactive, collegiate-level course taught by a university-level professor. It comes with 150 hours of coursework and 20 hours of student teaching. The course takes about 11 weeks, and you can expect to spend 10-12 hours a week on your coursework. The course is $1,399 USD.

While it is interactive, it’s not taught in real-time, so you can log in at any time to take your classes and do your coursework. Just make sure you meet your weekly assignment deadlines!  

5. Vantage

This 120-hour TEFL course is based in Thailand, making it a convenient option if you’re already traveling in Southeast Asia and are considering teaching English.

Vantage focuses on preparing you to teach in Thailand, though it also has a specific course for teaching in China that guarantees a job upon completion. If you’re looking to teach in either country, this is the best program for you.

Vantage offers both an in-person, four-week course and a hybrid course comprising both online training and an in-class practicum (in Bangkok). Prices start at $1,295 USD.

While expensive, in-classroom experience is invaluable. If you have the money, it’s a worthwhile investment.  

6. International TEFL and TESOL Training (ITTT)

ITTT has a wide variety of online courses, ranging from a bare-bones 60-hour courses to comprehensive 470-hour courses. Its main 120-hour online TEFL course covers all the basics and costs $239 USD.

However, for an additional $110 USD, ITTT also offers the option of having a tutor to help you progress through the course. If you’re new to teaching and serious about finding a job, I’d suggest the tutor option. Having someone to help you progress through the course will ensure that you’ll get the most out of the course and better prepare you for the job ahead.  

A Note on TESOL/CELTA Courses

In addition to the TEFL course, there are also TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) courses. These are essentially the same thing: programs focused on learning to teach English to adults. CELTA is Cambridge University’s branded version of the TESOL and the most in-depth (and most expensive) such course on the market.

Unless you specifically want to work with adults or are certain you want to start a career teaching English, I would stick with just taking a TEFL course. You can always upgrade later if you decide to continue teaching.  

TEFL Frequently Asked Questions

How long are most TEFL courses? Most TEFL courses are 120 hours long. They usually last a few weeks to a few months, depending on the schedule. While some courses can be shorter, employers prefer teachers with at least 100 hours of training.

Are TEFL courses done online or in-person? Most TEFL courses are done online, though the best courses also include some in-person classroom time.

How much do TEFL courses cost? TEFL courses start at around $150 USD and can cost as much as $2,000 USD, depending on how much in-class time is included.

Should I do a TESOL or CELTA course instead? A TESOL or CELTA course is specifically for those looking to teach English to adults. Unless you specifically want to teach adults or are looking to start a career (rather than having just a temporary job), I would stick with a TEFL course.

That said, some TESOL courses are essentially the same as TEFL courses and they are marketed together. For those courses, either a TEFL or TESOL will suffice since the course content is the same.

CELTA courses, however, are much more intensive and expensive, usually $2,000-2,800 USD. They are specifically for teaching adults.

Do I need a bachelor’s degree? Having a degree is necessary for some TEFL programs, but not all of them. However, it will give you an advantage in the hiring process and when negotiating a salary.

***

Whether you’re looking to earn money to travel or want to start a new career, teaching English provides amazing opportunities for travel as well as personal and professional development.

By investing in a TEFL course you’ll be much better positioned to get hired in a country of your choosing. Not only that but you’ll have the skills and confidence to succeed on a day-to-day basis.

Teaching English abroad is an incredibly rewarding job and one that I’ve found enriches your travels. I can’t recommend it enough!

  Ready to Teach Overseas? Get My Comprehensive Guide!

This digital guide will put you ahead of your competition, help you land a high-paying job with a reputable company, and give you firsthand knowledge from real teachers! The book also includes 12 bonus interviews about life as a teacher and job advice from one of the industry’s top recruiters! Click here to get started today!  

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines, because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is being left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld as they have the largest inventory. If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com, as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and hotels. I use them all the time.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it, as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

World Nomads (for everyone below 70)

Insure My Trip (for those 70 and over)

Looking for the best companies to save money with? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all those I use — and they’ll save you time and money too!

The post 6 Best TEFL Courses for Teaching English Overseas appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

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[cynthiadshaw]

What’s the Most Important Lesson You’ve Learned Along Your Journey?

Every twist in our story, challenge we face, and obstacle we overcome is an important part of our story.  These difficulties make us stronger and wiser and prepare us for what’s ahead.  As we grow and succeed we may imagine that soon the challenges will fade away, but in our conversations with business owners, artists, creatives, academics, and others we have learned that the most common experience is that challenges never go away – instead they get more complex as we grow and succeed.  Our ability to to thrive therefore depends heavily on our ability to learn from our experiences and so we are asking some of the city’s best and brightest: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?

Gerardo Davila | Actor

Here’s a brief summary of my acting journey. I started acting as an adult at the age of 29. Before that as a teenager i was in the Garland High School Mighty Owl marching band and part of a rap duo called Latin Royalty. Having experienced this early on in my life was vital for my creativity and a strong work ethic. When i signed with my first agent, he told me to do 3 things to be successful in this business. 1. Always Be Training 2. Always attend every audition possible and 3. Always update your headshots every 2 years. So i immediately joined an acting class where i’ve been training every week for the last 15 years. This year i was accepted to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London where i enrolled and trained in the Fall. I plan to return to London in March and August of 2020. My acting instructor also said if i wanted to be one of the greats it would take 10-15 years of hard work aka paying dues. I believe there is no such thing as an overnight success. There’s a saying that goes “the more you learn the more you earn”. I will say that i have been rewarded for my hard work. I think i became an actor by accident or maybe it was my destiny, but i also believe that if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life. So the most important lesson I’ve learned in my journey so far is that patience is necessary, persistence is crucial and belief in myself is key in order to survive and achieve success in the entertainment business.

gerardodavila.net @gerardodavila.actor @gerardodavilaactor @gerardotheactor Snapchat: gerardotheactor LinkedIn: gerardodavila Reel: vimeo.com/373048772

Britta Ward | Luxury Travel Advisor

Networking truly makes the difference between you and someone else, but what truly makes you shine is going the extra mile for people. Giving people that WOW factor weather it is getting someone a bottle of champagne when they check into their hotel that you booked or inviting someone to your family thanksgiving because they can’t get home for the holidays. I live by making people feel included and special to the best of my abilities.

strongtravel.com @whereisbrittanow @WhereisBrittaNow

Jerikah Scurlark | Mua & Aspiring Model

The most important lesson I’ve learned so far on my journey is to be yourself. Follow your heart and work hard for your respect and perfecting your craft. A good thing comes to those who wait, but a greater thing comes to those who go after it.

@woo.onthebeat_ youtube.com/channel/UCBxlQr6OMSOXIZffSjLjavg

Irene Kun | Fashion and Lifestyle Blogger

The most important lesson I’ve learned in my journey so far is that it takes a lot of courage to take the first step towards your goals but every step after gets easier. Stay true to yourself and never be afraid to march to the beat of your own drum.

IreneLately.com @Irenelately

Michael Austin | Spiritual advisor and Life coach

The biggest lesson I’ve learned so far in all of my years is that if you want to succeed you need to really put your time in something and have patience with it. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a relationship, a job, or building a house!! Do something right the first time and then you don’t have to do it again!

mapsychic.com

Connie Chantilis | Two Sisters Catering President and Founder and Connie Chantilis Design Organic Sculpture and Art

Self care is part of my work. Resting and recharging used to seem lazy to me. With two jobs and many obligations, I’ve realized it’s important and essential.

conniechantilsdesign.com @conniechantilis twosisterscatering.com @cateringtwosisters

Victoria Tran | Videographer | Photographer

The most important lesson I’ve learned is that it doesn’t hurt to ask, whether it be for opportunities or advice. The worst that can happen is someone saying no. Interested in shooting a concert in the area? Just ask. I actually got my first concert gig by just asking the artist on Snapchat lol!

vickytranmedia.com @vickytranmedia

Melanie Till | Full Time Realtor

As much as I love my iPhone, I also resent it. It has created a world in which everyone demands an immediate response to emails, text messages and phone calls. I have learned that in many situations it is better to let someone wait for a response versus replying instantly. In a negotiation setting, sometimes silence is the best play for my clients. In times of stress it allows you – and the other parties involved – to breath, assess the entire situation and formulate a plan. When we try and multitask, a quick response can read a completely different way than intended. When I look back on my journey, my career and my life, the times when I have taken a breath versus reacted quickly have lead to much better outcomes for not only myself but my clients and family – like the time when my toddler smashed my iWatch to smithereens, a blessing and a curse!

@mbtrealestate

Andres Almazan | Photographer

Model: @rennercadebaker

Throughout my journey in photography the most important lesson I learned is to be inspired because being inspired by other photographers work motivates me to improve my photography skills and to expand my knowledge on photography.

@_andre.thegreat_

Upscale Recovery

We have learned that when starting a business self-support is mandatory and is definitely needed. Never give up on your personal dreams and the goals that you have made for your business.

facebook.com/groups/402272177355193/?ref=share upscalerecovery.com

Sahar Bhojani | Clinical Research Coordinator at Children’s Health for Oncology/ Hematology | MPH student at UNTHSC and aspiring Physician Assistant (PA)

@zr_350f

Life is full of valuable lessons, each second of every day; however, one of the most important lessons that I’ve come to learn to be the most important, is to live life. Two words that are easy to comprehend and advise to yourself, but difficult to put into action. In today’s high paced society, we’re constantly thinking of our daily “to-do’s”, once we make a schedule of how to accomplish them, we move forward to the following day, and so on and so forth. From personal experience, trying to juggle work, school, CrossFit training, family, friends, health, and being present in my life, I always feel that I’m constantly on the go, trying to survive each day. This can become overwhelming at times, but when I started to prioritize my daily tasks it became easier to be present in the moment. Slowly, instead of everything being a priority that day, or trying to make everyone around me content, my priorities were better spaced out, giving me more time to live life. Unfortunately, we live in an all-or-nothing society, which can pressure us to want to take care of everything all at once, or throw in the towel. That shouldn’t be the case. We don’t have enough hours in a day that we need for us to accomplish everything in one day, yet alone a week, but that’s also the beauty of life. We get another chance the next day. This gift of life can’t be confused with becoming lazy and pushing everything off until the next day, thinking that we have more time. It also can’t be confused with being selfish and only navigating your own life without thinking of your loved ones or helping others. That is not how it works, and that is not the point of our journey in life. Our goal in this life should be to be able to take charge of our daily “to-do’s”, by prioritizing what’s important, including the time we need to ourselves to enjoy life. Working in oncology, I have seen firsthand how short this life can be and how easily it can be taken away. We do not need to let the storms of life overwhelm us and throw us off. The storms will come and go- that is life. We need to be the captain of our journey and learn to breathe through the storms, knowing that the sun will shine tomorrow, and to just be present in the moment and live life.

@saharbhojani

Forsythia Hopkins | Modern Plantswoman & Cacti, Succulent and House Plant Curator

The most important lesson I’ve learned in my journey with Cacti.On.White is that just like plants growth is organic. If you have a passion for something let that be your driving force on the road to success…. allow it to happen organically and you will never get tired of the ride.

@cact.on.white @CactiOnWhite

Kevin Giles| Student & Military

@the_nikon_icon

The most important lesson I’ve learn is that life does not always go as planned. However, it’s more than one route to get to your destination. Also, consult God in everything you do and do not go against his will. The more you go for what you instead of what his plan and will for you the struggle will get harder and harder. So be obedient!

@its.keveaux

Mike “taco” pason | professional barber and photographer

Never stop learning and always be open to teaching that was alway my fuel to be better.

@abarberslife_

Kylene Law | Certified Pilates Instructor and Certified Rossiter System Coach

Working through my own issues with chronic pain, weight gain, unknown causes for autoimmune disorders. I felt 80 years old. Having to figure out the puzzle pieces on my own after the medical community failed me for many years took a toll. A chinese medicine doctor helped me on my journey, I had Breast Implant Illness. I have since explanted with Dr Paul Pin in Dallas, Texas. It seriously made me become a better instructor. It pains me to admit, I use to be “that instructor” that would secretly judged someone if they were overweight. It never occured to me that other issues could be a factor. Getting BII was such a humbling blessing. I now will champion for my clients and will be your biggest supporter. Funny how life works out like that. I am qualified to get you out of pain because I lived with pain for years. I qualified to help you in a body you feel trapped in, I was a prisoner in mine for years. I’m qualified to help you with body issues, I’ve overcome mine and I know your pain. I see you and I don’t judge you.

mindfulmovementpilatesstudio.com @pg/pilatesdallas/about @mm_pilates_dallas

Kevitta “”KJ”” Jackson | Serial Entrepreneur| Professional Makeup Artist & Real Estate Investor

Growing up I was influenced by my father(a truck driver), who was a man of great discipline, structure and strong organizational skills. My beautiful mother also influenced me as an entrepreneur. She owned a salon in Mississippi called “”Bold and Beautiful Hair Salon””, where I would often watch her meticulously craft the perfect look, all while igniting my passion for the beauty industry. This is where the journey began for me and I would use my little sister (and those around me)as my muse for years to come.

In 2007, my mother passed due to Multiple Sclerosis, my father soon would follow in 2009 in a fatal motorcycle accident. Although I felt stricken, these events would serve as the nucleus of my total growth and transformation. Fueled by the burning desire to continue to bring honor to my parents, (by faith) in 2015 I started my first company in Dallas, Little Dot Solutions. The focus of this company is to offer simple logistics and creative real estate investment solutions to clients in the DFW area. As a serial entrepreneur, you never settle for just one idea, so I was compelled to fulfill my desire. This evolution has led me back to my passion for the beauty industry. There is no greater feeling for me, I love making people beautiful. So, after becoming a certified artist in Dallas, I launched FaceCrown Beauty in 2019 offering professional makeup services and classes throughout DFW.

The most important lesson I’ve learned in my journey so far is that we all have the power to re-invent ourselves. Peace is the new wealth!

facecrownbeauty.com littledotsolutions.com @facecrownbeauty @ldsolutions2020 main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/dotsdaughters

Stephen Davis | Husband, Father, Friend, Engineer, Photographer, Videographer, Tinkerer, and All Around Good Guy

The best ROI is investing in yourself; always remain true to yourself; be observant.

@The_Monsignor

Jaidyn Nicole | Multi-Method Extension Artist

The most important lesson I have learned as an extension artist is that there is no one single technique that is right for every client. We all have different hair needs and wants, with that being said, your service can be focused on just density and/or length. There are a wide range of colors and styles to choose from. The customization is solely dependent on the artist’s recommendation and the clients preference.

@Jaidyn.Nicole

Nikki Koenig | Vegan Foodie | Traveler | Consultant

The most important lesson I’ve learned in my 6-year ethical vegan journey is to always question how things are produced.

@NiKoVegan

Jon Atwood | Award Winning Custom Builder

When clients are interviewing me as a possible contractor for their most passionate possession I’d like to stress to them to Find Someone they like, someone proven to be honest and trustworthy not just a YES man, and then tell them along the way that your either happy or concerned about the process, Its a relationalship experience and not just a quick business sale.

atwoodcustomhome.com

Kinome McGrane | hair magician and color specialist

The biggest lesson I have learned in my journey as a stylist is that honest and direct communication is the most important. And the first step of communication is really listening!

@sweethairspace sweethairspace.com

Sylvia Flanagan | Wife | Mother of five | Minister and Entrepreneur

In the midst of chaos (life), find your place of peace!

@sylvia_has_godly_courage

Sung Won, MD | Regenerative & Longevity Doctor

I have learned that health is a choice. After long research on longevity and regenerative medicine, I believe humans have he ability to live healthy ’til 120 years old, but we damage our body long before it needs to be repaired. Nutrition and lifestyle modification has tremendous power to prevent disease and heal our body. Also, we must live our life in harmony with our planet and all beings. By going whole food plant based vegan, you will be compassionate to your body as well as our planet and all the animals.

NeoGenNutrition.com @DrWonMD

Matt Swinney | Founder, Fashion By Texas

@linnimages

Collaborate. Entrepreneurs tend to live in a bubble, but my greatest creativity and ideas are usually inspired by others. By being open to collaboration, really smart people come into your life on a daily basis and really special things can happen. The fashion industry is cutthroat but in our little slice of it, we do everything we can to work with as many people as we can.

fashionbytexas.com @fashionbytexas

Maddy Frankow | Hairstylist at Charlie + Co Fort Worth

The path to being a great stylist is not a linear one. There are so many different skills you need to posess. It is a constant learning and growing experience!

@maddyfrankowhair

Amarachi Clement | Professional Makeup Artist

@rinowenmedia

If I were to say that I’ve learned 1 lesson throughout my journey as a Makeup Artist and Business Woman, I would be making that up! Lol I’ve learned so many lessons.. Some from others and some, just from life experiences. The biggest lesson that I’ve learned is to not be a slave to fear and to see myself through my eyes and not others! I can not tell you how many times I’ve let opportunities, ideas and dreams pass by because of fearing that I was not good enough or I wouldn’t perform to a certain degree or just being rejected. I’ve had to speak things over myself that others didn’t. I’ve had to learn and understand what it truly means to have faith over fear and stop regretting missed opportunities. Keeping God first in everything has played a very vital role to my growth. What he has uniquely gifted me with, no one else can do and no one can take that. I can’t let fear or the validation of people hold me back from being the person God has purposed me to be. To be great! To be extraordinary! To be consistent! So, I trust him and I just do it!

AmarachiMUA.com (currently under construction) @AmarachiMUA @AmarachiMUA youtube.com/c/AmarachiMUA

Bethany Sharpe | Cosmetic & General Dentist

Wow, there are so many lessons I have learned along the way. I believe the most important lesson is never stop wanting to learn whether it be to improve at your craft or to be a better person.

@dr_bethany ovillafamilydentistry.com

Ronnika Williams | Attorney | Makeup Artist | Entrepreneur

That I am where I am supposed to be. At times I’ve worked towards a goal(s) and things aren’t moving as fast as I’d like, or maybe a didn’t get an opportunity or recognition that I wanted in a certain area.

I have learned (sometimes still learning) that God’s timing is perfect. I look back sometimes at things that I rushed and got frustrated about. I understand now that things needed to happen the way they did so that I could learn and grow. I’m trying not to rush the process. I’m enjoying where I am personally and professionally right now. Also— I’ve stopped comparing myself to others. Comparison is the thief of Joy.

impeccablefaces.com

Anthony Gomez | Photographer

The most important lesson I’ve come to familiarize myself within my journey into photography begins with my persistence. Starting from absolutely no prior knowledge on how cameras function I challenged myself to build experience. During my journey into photography, I discovered that thanks to persistence I allowed myself to become determined and overall improve my photography experience. Most importantly, I’ve come to understand that within the vast variety of photography techniques I learn to discover myself only through pure experience. Therefore, Discovering where I pertain became far more rewarding than letting others label me within the community of talented photographers in Dallas. As a result, I’ve learned that an optimistic mindset better prepares me for the inevitable challenges when working in the field of photography.

@_dal.ant_vizuals_

Antonio Avilés | Photographer & Videographer

When you’re grateful for what you have instead of being upset on what you think you deserve, you find a sense of contentment.

– Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. – Stay true to yourself and live by a set of rules that you’ve made, so that there can be some stability in your life. – Always know your worth, and don’t let anyone bring you down to benefit their needs or egos; You are just as important as anybody else.

@translucent.ash

Aston LaFon | Director Sales & Marketing and Co-Founder at 18.21 Man Made

Stay genuine. Avoid gimmick. Work smarter not harder. Express gratitude. Stay humble.

1821manmade.com @1821ManMade @1821manmade @1821manmade

  The post What’s the Most Important Lesson You’ve Learned Along Your Journey? appeared first on Voyage Dallas Magazine | Dallas City Guide.

source http://voyagedallas.com/2020/01/13/whats-important-lesson-youve-learned-along-journey/