#Eduardo as described is a real person I knew

[tgablissortonn]

MinaLima is a design studio founded by Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima in 2009. Before founding MinaLima, Miraphora and Eduardo had been working together since 2001 for the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling as prop designers.

In the Harry Potter movies, Miraphora says that everything on paper was created by MinaLima. spell books, newspapers, posters, tickets, the Marauder’s map, wanted signs, food packaging and even the Hogwarts letter were created by hand by MinaLima. Miraphora elaborates on the Hogwarts letter, by saying that it is her own handwriting on the Hogwarts letter given to Harry Potter written in the notable green ink. The letter being written traditionally rather than being created digitally creates a more realistic look, and especially for movie closeups, the indents in the paper created by real tools and real processes make the letter seem more authentic.

MinaLima’s work for the Harry Potter world creates a drive for the story. The letter from Hogwarts is a key element in the transition of Harry’s character from his current life to his new life, everything started with the letter in their world. The graphic prop is an important movie artefact and plays a big role in the story.

The Marauder’s map also plays a narrative role in the storytelling, along with the newspaper clippings and posters bring the background to life and makes the world feel more populated and with more personality. The designs reference a world that is similar to ours, and Miraphora says that “It’s about the audience taking ownership of what we offered them”. The textbooks and diaries show insides of character’s minds and give them more individual personality and fleshes out the world and population. Harry Potter is reliant on visuals to drive the story, especially because during visual development nobody knew what anything looked like.

Harry Potter originating from a book series meant that they had to fill in gaps from writing and worldbuild on the information given by JK Rowling to bring the book to life creatively and describe the world through visuals. the newspaper clippings shown take inspiration from political propaganda from Russian constructivist designs, including the typography which takes inspiration from dictatorship communication. using typography they try to describe specific historical styles and portray them accurately to the time period.

When designing shops MinaLima would have to design them from a point of view of the characters they are designing them for rather than their own mind. they would have to put themselves in a character’s shoes to design them accurately to the character, this gives each character a sense of individuality. All of these things done by MinaLima for the Harry Potter movies make the world more expansive and relatable to viewers and they may find themselves putting themselves into the world because of its similarity to the real world and viewers may relate to the experiences of some characters. this makes the world more immersive to viewers and the graphic design impacts how we view the world as a whole and how we view each character.

handwritings, books, and other objects specific to characters give them all differences and creates a more diverse cast and again gives the world and population more depth. for example Miraphora says that when she was created the handwriting of the character Snape, she had to place himself in his mind and wonder what he would think to create his handwriting.

For the Harry Potter movies it is said about the first movie that many versions of props had to be created for filming. backups had to be created in case something happened on set. and for the Marauder’s map, many versions for the map had to be made in case anything happened on set. And 3 different folded versions of the had to be created as backups. there were backups for each state of the prop. designers have to come up with designs from the script and provide what is needed for the films and it can be up to hundreds. for the scene where the owl transports the Hogwarts letter, different versions of the real thing had to be created specifically for the owl, because the actual version was too heavy for the owl to carry. and different versions of the letter had to be made for the letter to be transported through the air.

personally, i’m not a fan of harry potter because i don’t really like series that have a lot of entries, and i’m not very interested in wizard and magic stories, it’s also just not really my favourite type of aesthetic. i do think it’s a very creative and well done storyline but i’ve never been interested in it myself. although i do think the artwork created for it is incredible and very inspiring.

[edierone]

Antes de la Guerra

From a fic request by @emceecapitalc, who wondered - based on this piece of the trailer, made giffy by @tatianagmaslany- how the hell a couple of 50-somethings could fight assassins on no notice after years out of the game ...

It started out as just exercise — a joyless 30-minute pre-dawn burst of cardio at the zero-frills gym one sketchy block from the hospital, three days a week. Kept her weight down and her heart healthy, even if it was broken.  

But later, when she and Mulder fell into spending weekdays at the place she kept in town, he started accompanying her there, and as they regained fitness, the old competitiveness kicked in — they gradually got up a little earlier, stayed a little longer, started adding some weights to the routine.

They never spoke to anyone else there, never looked into any of the gym’s other offerings, just pushed themselves, a team of two again.

Then one frigid spring evening, she has to help subdue a psychotic patient and despite her old skills kicking in, he almost gets the better of her. That’s when she starts asking around (among certain women) for a trainer — who materializes one morning at the gym, seemingly from out of nowhere.

Eduardo doesn’t offer any personal details, not even a last name; his accent (in what few words he does say) is similar to that of Irina, Scully’s best surgical nurse, so they think of him as Honduran, whether or not that’s the case. He’s somewhere around 30, and has two inches and 25 muscled pounds on Mulder — lithe, ripped, and with the wingspan of an NBA center.

He makes them for law enforcement immediately, despite the years since they’ve been in the field, but he asks no questions about their service — or why they need his — and they pay him in cash.

Under Eduardo’s tutelage, four brutally early mornings a week, they both get leaner, harder, more flexible. Mulder quietly gives up his teenage junk-food diet — it won’t support this kind of training — and when Scully finishes the last of the bottles she picked up during BevMo’s most recent 5-cent wine sale, she doesn’t restock. They sleep better, they fuck more, they both stop needing their occasional anti-anxiety meds.

They don’t tell Eduardo when they’re back at the Bureau, but one steaming marshy 5:15 a.m. that summer, he straddles Scully as she bench-presses her last heavy rep and says in his calm but deadly-serious way: “You ready for fight?”

Mulder, who’s right there spotting for her, guides the bar from her shaking arms into the rests before he grabs a fistful of Eduardo’s painted-on tank top. “What the fuck did you just say to my wife?”

The next few seconds are a blur, at the end of which Mulder finds himself on the floor with the other man’s knee on his chest, and Scully held in a chokehold with Eduardo’s free arm.

“I say, you ready for to learn fight? I can teach you.”

He releases them and stands, as unruffled as if he’s just offered them tea and scones.

The things that have been bothering them lately, the feathery edges of paranoia about what lies in the shadows and what they might have to face now that they’re officially back in the mix — it takes but a second for their minds to connect in the old way, one live-wire glance between them, for both to heave out a yes.

Not here, he says; he’ll come to them. He warns them that they’ll get bruises, scratches, headaches, “make your whole house a mess” — they understand, they agree.

Eduardo may be a man of few words, but he delivers on every one of them.

It’s the oddest working partnership they’ve ever had, Mulder reflects one morning as she’s helping him get his arm into the sling that had been necessary after Sunday’s session: “We pay a guy money to come into our home twice a week and kick our asses — a guy whose real name and origin story we do. not. know, I might add — and then we’re so pumped, we have more sex than a couple of horny teenagers. Not that I’m complaining about that last part.” She laughs, agreeing, then scrapes her nails over his newly-chiseled abs — and once again, they’re almost late to work.

A week later, Scully hobbles gamely into the Hoover with a boot cast on her right leg and a yarn about jumping into a too-shallow pool; the fact that she actually sprained her ankle vaulting a stair rail in her apartment building with Eduardo in pursuit seems somehow implausible as an explanation. She’s not sure why neither of them are telling anyone about their increasingly-rough combat and evasion lessons, but they’ve apparently decided to keep it to themselves and pretend they’re just regular middle-aged agents with a normal level of field readiness. It’s that old instinct for cover, she supposes; better to let your enemies underestimate you, no matter how nebulous those enemies are.

She’s forced to explain herself at the hospital, though, when the department head stops her after a meeting for a little chat about how “ever since you’ve moved back in with your husband, Dr. Scully, I’ve been noticing … things that concern me. Now, I’m not judging, or implying — and of course this is off the record — but as your friend and a fellow medical professional, I have to ask: This contusion on your face — can you tell me how you got it?” She’s not sure Dr. Parekh buys the krav maga explanation, but it’s all she’s willing to say.

That evening, out at the house, is the first time she manages to fend off both Mulder and Eduardo, teamed up against her in an exercise Eduardo called “you get attack by two big motherfuckers, they gonna take you and put you in the trunk.” Her feral scream of victory as she stands astride Eduardo’s “dead” body leaves her voice raw; by the next morning, having traded control back and forth all night in bed with Mulder, she can barely speak at all.

The situation gets weirder, but so gradually that they barely notice: Eduardo stops texting in advance of showing up, and sometimes just accosts them — even in public places — with no warning. He turns off the power to the house, makes them fight in the dark, all three against each other. He handicaps them in various ways — handcuffs, zip ties, one of them dragging the faux-unconscious other. They switch from toy-store blasters to their real pieces — unloaded, of course, with safeties on and fingers nowhere near the trigger.

And then one day, they realize it’s been a week since they’ve seen Eduardo. Figuring they should keep in fighting trim, they turn off all the lights, pursue each other in the dark, end up fucking their brains out on the hardwood floor of Mulder’s office.

A week becomes two, then almost three. They improvise workouts, but start to worry that whatever brought Eduardo to them in the first place has found him.

Just when Mulder is about to start putting out feelers, they get a text from an unknown number: tonight 11 Go to the place I find you argue about if that girl isa good actor or no

The parking garage underneath the AMC Bayview 20 Theatres is deserted at that hour on a Monday. They go, expecting to engage — nerves alight, muscles tensed, adrenaline high. But there he is at the farthest, darkest end — not leaping at them from the shadows, but leaning against a ’70s Mercedes in $300 jeans and an ancient wool overcoat, looking like the scion of an old and wealthy family. He holds his arms up, palms toward them in a gesture of harmlessness, as they approach warily.

He gifts them with a rare smile, and they respond in kind, glad to see him unharmed. “I have to go now,” he says. “You not finishing you training yet, but you gonna be ok.”

“Where — why are you leaving?” Scully asks, half-aware of the bad form of asking that kind of question of a person who obviously wouldn’t or couldn’t answer truthfully. Eduardo just smiles again, shaking his finger at her.

“Best you not know. Come here.” He holds his arms out to them both for a hug. Pressed close to them, he murmurs quickly, with some urgency, “You know I am not Eduardo. I am not Adrian either but — is who I am for now. Entiende? I see those scars at the gym, I see how you together against everybody, all the world, is why I teach you fighting. I don’t know who you fighting, but you ready when they come, yes?”

Then he pulls back a little, turns to Mulder, and kisses him deeply, one arm slung low with the palm flat between Mulder’s shoulder blades — though he hardly needs the leverage — and the other caressing the back of his neck. When Eduardo breaks the kiss, he pivots immediately to Scully, brings her in like a dance partner and lifts her almost off her feet as he dips low to kiss her — a soldier going off to war.

His smile when he lets her go is brilliant but profoundly sad. The two of them stand there, blinking and stunned, as he backs away, opening the car door and shaking his head at them. “You should both have kick my ass for that,” he says with a rueful laugh. Then, soberly, he adds, “Buena suerte, my friends.”

“Buena suerte,” they mumble uselessly as he drives off, their hands finding each other without so much as a downward glance; he’s right, it’s the two of them against the world, and in that moment they’re conscious of just how much better prepared they are for whatever might come — will come.

They’ve never been this sharp, not even with the advantages of youth. And a few weeks later, when strange headlights come bouncing up their private road, they find that Eduardo was right: They are ready.

-------------------------------- @today-in-fic

[marcoshassanlevy]

“Right now, I feel like I’m going through a lot of the same emotions that I went through while making the record,” says Ed Maverick on the eve of the release of his debut full-length album, eduardo. “Going through the cycle, learning from it, going through [it] again, and learning more about life.”

The 20-year-old singer-songwriter from Delicias, Chihuahua has gone through a lot since entering the Mexican music scene in 2019. Fans took to heart brokenhearted lyrics and unadorned yet melodic vocals, accumulating more than 300 million plays for “Fuentes de Ortíz” with other songs not far from there. Maverick was on the rise, and 2020 would have consolidated him to a new level, having been invited to contribute to C. Tangana’s epic El Madrileño and booking performances at festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza Chicago before the COVID-19 pandemic broke. Behind closed doors, the singer born Eduardo Hernández Saucedo was going through an existential crisis triggered by growing up in public.

eduardo is ambitious… it retains emotional heft yet is easy to listen to.

Moving to sprawling Mexico City from the relative quiet of Delicias, Maverick found it difficult to write songs until he came up with “gente,.” Before long, the bulk of the songs that make up eduardo came to him shortly in 2019, taking the form of a story divided in two halves. His compositions became more adventurous inspired by latest efforts by Mac DeMarco and Arctic Monkeys as well as classics by Spinetta, Gustavo Cerati, and Frank Ocean. It resulted in two song cycles joined by an emotionally intense interlude. eduardo is an album that’s ambitious and sprawling; it retains emotional heft yet is easy to listen to.

Here’s Maverick’s track by track breakdown of his most personal work to date:

RELATEDEd Maverick Offers a Heartfelt Take on Rancheras With ‘Nos Queda Mucho Dolor Por Recorrer’ Video

“Hola, ¿cómo estás?,”

The album opens with a greeting as a nod to Daniel Johnston, may he rest in peace. It’s like if someone’s inviting you to go on an adventure, to do something cool and different from what you’re used to doing. It’s the beginning of a conversation between two persons although at this point we only hear one side.

In order to get all the songs to flow from one another I had to make changes so they fit together. On “Hola, ¿cómo estás?,” I had to sing it half a note down so it would go along with the next song.

RELATEDNOTAS: Ed Maverick on Waking & Baking and His New Single

“ensenada,”

It describes the trip promised in “Hola, ¿cómo estás?,” but in the end it changes moods drastically when I get to the “no te vayas” refrain. It’s the other side of the conversation from the first track. At the time, I was seeing someone from Ensenada and we would hang out in Tijuana—which is my second favorite city in Mexico after Delicias—and it was really a great time. But then I had to keep touring and [the relationship] ended. It’s a beautiful feeling and then—puff—it’s over.”

“mantra I,”“mantra II,”

“mantra I,” was written as a way to connect “ensenada,” with “mantra II,” because the chords are different. “Mantra I,” features the first person of the conversation not wanting to confront their behaviour and how it affects them, while “mantra II,” is about the second person finding words limiting, they say “sólo te quiero a ti” but everything’s not clear, you know? Both sides of the conversation are too stubborn to look to each other’s eyes. There’s no resolution but there’s a little repentment in there as well.

“contenta,”

This song is a retrospective of what happened in the previous songs and deals with the regret caused by it, but it’s also about frustration, like me saying: “What’s the problem? What should I do? What the fuck should I do with my life?!”

RELATEDKali Uchis Breaks Down ‘Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios)’, One of 2020’s Most Innovative Offerings

“,atnetnoc”

I didn’t want to end the cycle in frustration with “contenta,” so I wrote “,atnetnoc” as some kind of resolution to the first half of the album. It’s not a proper ending but there’s closure. It ponders how you’ll have to face similar situations again but this time you’ll have learned from past mistakes. It’s like that “Burning Man” episode of Malcolm In The Middle, like going through a rebirth of sorts.

“¿POR QUÉ LLORAS? – (interludio)”

Me and Wet Baes have a close relationship, we’re great friends. He has shown me most of what I know about production. This is the last song I did for the album and it was something I knew I had to do to bring the whole album together. We got together—me on guitar, Andrés with a few synths, and we turned off all the lights in the studio. There’s me crying in the background and at first I was pretending but during the last take, I thought about everything I was talking about on the album, all that I went through when I wrote the songs… and I couldn’t help myself. I broke down in tears for real.

“Gente,”

It’s about how we think of ourselves as different from everyone else yet we can’t help but fall into some sort of sameness, so are we really trying to be different? I think sometimes our willingness to present ourselves as different is unnecessarily aggressive. I know that it’s something that people my age go through when we’re looking for our identity but often it’s just a facade to try to manipulate your mind this way.

“niño,”

The whole album was written in CDMX except the part that goes “cuanto quisiera que esto deje de pasar…” which I wrote in Delicias. This song comes from one point in my life where I felt the weakest. Muelas de Gallo—along with Daniel Quien later on in the album—represent people who are not just my friends, but my fellow journeymen in this life. I feel grateful that I have these people who listen to me and help remind me of things I already know about life. When I showed the song to Muelas, he wrote from the point of view of an older brother-type figure to tell me about his perspective about life. Good things happen as well as bad things and vice versa.

“días azules,”

“Todo pasa y no pasa nada” is a phrase I have heard a lot in Delicias, like older people usually say it. But I thought about how it can also be a metaphor of when you’re having so many thoughts inside your head but when you look back, you realize that not a lot was happening in reality; it’s just a lot of noise; also it can represent feeling in limbo—not good or bad, but a rather dull feeling. I think it furthers what I explore in “niño,.” This is one of my favorite songs on the album.

“gracias,”

This is about having perspective and knowing that I shouldn’t take everybody’s advice about my life, not even my father who once gave me the dumbest piece of advice I have heard. The song is kind of a lament; telling people not to feel sad if I’m gone tomorrow because today I feel like I’ve been abandoned by everyone. There was another song that was also a goodbye song but I decided to cut it from the tracklist because it was too intense. I can’t make music out of every little thing that happens to me because that makes me feel too vulnerable.

“nos queda mucho dolor por recorrer.”

Daniel Quien wrote it about what I was going through. It represents the goals that we have to set to keep on living because life itself lacks direction. There’s that line, “yo solo quería ser uno de Los Plebes Del Rancho.” For me, it reminded me why I wanted to pursue music and I just wanted to write songs and to express something and that led me somewhere I didn’t expect to go. Besides, I love that it’s a reference to Arctic Monkeys, about wanting to be one of The Strokes. I feel like “nos queda…” is kinda like the ending of Evangelion, it’s not emotive but I understand the cycle can repeat itself again… but now I’ve learned to deal with this stuff.

[keywestlou]

MARIA VALDEZ de GUTSENS.....CASA GATO GHOST

Never met a ghost. Not sure there are ghosts, and, if so,  good ghosts and bad ghosts. I do have a “good” Key West ghost story to share, however.

Her name Maria Valdez de Gutsens.

Maria a warm giving professional nurse. Worked with hose who had no money. Ran a hospital, knocked on doors for money and food, gave comfort to all who needed her.

The Mercedes Hospital. Formerly the home of one of Key West’s earliest cigar makers. A man of wealth. Eduardo Gato.

He built the home for his family. Moved at some point. The house physically moved or he built a new one. The new home at 1209 Virginia Street.

Eduardo’s wife Mercedes died. Eduardo donated the house to charity to be used as a hospital. He conditioned the gift on the naming of the hospital after his wife Mercedes.

Mercedes Hospital was born.

Maria almost immediately took over management. She made herself responsible for every detail involved in the hospital’s operation.

Maria was a short squat woman. Hair in a bun. Daily wore a gray dress with long sleeves and a high collar laced on top.

She worked hard till 1941 when she died.

The hospital closed down. Mercedes Hospital was no more. The 2 story building fell into disrepair. Windows broken. Its yard used for cock fights.

Sometime in the late 1950’s, the building was renovated. Turned into an apartment house.

Maria returned. Or, perhaps she had never left.

Tenants over the years swear they have seen her, been touched by her. They have identified her from old photos. Even a Dr. Fogarty who is in some of the photos.

Maria is buried in Key West Cemetery. Periodically she is seen walking the rooms and halls of the Gato House. All persons who have seen and identified her are reported to have been of sound mind.

Maybe she is a for real ghost.

It is a story I sort of believe.

Last night a fun time. Shared it with Buffalo’s Fran and Tom Dixon. Aqua first for Dueling Bartenders. Then La Trattoria for dinner at the bar. Carrie bartending. Dink seated on his usual corner stool.

Mary was at Dueling Bartenders. We chatted briefly.

Today was to be Venezuela’s big day. The bogus President announced military support and that he would officially be ousting Maduro and taking over.

Knew it would never work.

He who controls the military controls Venezuela. The military a group of whores and thieves. Maduro keeps them well fed, their coffers full, etc.

Already on TV this morning 100,000 demonstrators were marching. The claimed new President leading them.

The only problem is the people of Venezuela lack the balls to fight for what they want, for what they believe is theirs. They forget that God only helps those who help themselves.

In the meantime, Trump is tweeting and Pence has been on TV saying we support you, stand with you, etc. The U.S. military some 3,500 strong has been sitting on the Venezuela/Columbia border for days waiting to go in.

It will not happen. Trump will not go in unless the military dump Maduro. Which will not happen.

Another reason is that Russia supports Maduro. Putin has had planes and men in Venezuela itself for days.

Another example of Trump’s bullshit and bravado not working.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced yesterday he will resign effective May 11.

Rosenstein goes out “dirty.”

Three big reasons. First, he wrote the letter providing the excuse and recommendation that Comey be fired. Second, he has become a Barr supporter. Finally and most important, it appears he was a mole in the Mueller investigation reporting to Trump.

It has been announced Pope Francis has arranged for a $500,000 contribution to help the Central American migrants stranded along the border as they try to reach America.

The contribution has been described as a “shot across the bow of President Trump.”

Francis fears no man. Many believe the contribution is retaliation by the Pope against Trump because Trump recently cut off all U.S. aid to Guatemala and Honduras last month.

Trump tweeted in return that the Pope should have spent the money helping U.S. poor and homeless.

One more Trump story.

The Washington Post Check Finder announced today that Trump has passed the 10,000 marker re lies. The telling of false and misleading claims.

Trump likes to be #1. No question he has to be the President with the most lies ever.

He should be ashamed.

Nine tonight. My podcast show. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. A fast moving fun half hour. Listen to me rant and rave about this and that. Guaranteed you will enjoy. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Enjoy your day!

  MARIA VALDEZ de GUTSENS…..CASA GATO GHOST was originally published on Key West Lou

[ebaeschnbliah]

"AM  I  SENSING  A  PATTERN  THERE"

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ANTAGONISTS OF SHERLOK BBC IN COMPARISON WITH CANON CHARACTERS

After 10 episodes of Sherlock BBC it seems to be a an interesting idea to compare all the antagonists of the show with their canonical predecessors from the original stories. Have Mofftiss altered them? If so, in which way did they modify their characters? The outcome of this comparison is really surprising and also a bit revealing because there seems to be a pattern in the changes.

After some considerations I decided to turn this post upside down and start with a short summary ot the final results so you can view it at one glance. If anyone likes to take a more detailed look at this comparison of the characters you will find everything under the cut.

This list shows very clearly a notable change of character in most of the antagonist. Jefferson Hope and Jonathan Small went from a bit not good to very bad. Whereas Irene Adler, Bob Frankland and Mary Morstan were altered totally the other way round - from nice and good to rather bad or outright evil.

The biggest villains of the original stories though are representing the most interesting puzzles in Sherlock BBC. Colonel Sebatian Moran’s character looks a good deal diminished in BBCs Lord Moran … unless we meet him again and may see a different side of him.

The same goes with Charles Augustus Magnusson. Maybe he’s indeed dead … maybe he’s yet alive. With all the hints of ‘sharks’ and going back on S4 setlock we can’t be sure anymore. And if CAM is still involved in the game … who knows how this character might surprise us in the end.

Finally there is the criminal mastermind himself … brilliant and changeable Jim Moriarty. A much more dazzling and colorful character than Prof. James Moriarty from the original stories.  No wonder he embodies the bigges riddle of all. It’s not just the question if he’s dead or alive …. it’s also the question if he is what we think he is … or if he is someone quite different. Is/was he the puppet master of this great game or just the puppet on a string? Jim from IT, the spider, actor Richard Brooke? And if he’s just the marionette who then might the real puppet master be?

If there is indeed a pattern of how Mofftiss changed the original characters from good/a bit not good to quite bad and evil …. then the really big canon baddies - Jim and CAM - might surprise us after all. Quite possibly this may also apply for Culverton Smith who will appear in S4. One could call this a rug-pull too, I think.

As mentioned above there is a detailed description of all the canon and BBC characters under the cut:

Reposting because the original link didn’t work anymore.  22nd March 2017

A STUDY IN PINK  -  JEFFERSON HOPE______________________________

A serial killer who murdered randomly four people for money sponsored by a 'fan’ of Sherock Holmes. Motive: he knew he was dying soon and wanted to be able to pass on some money to his Kids.

CANON CHARACTER

He was responsible for the death of two men - Enoch Drebber and Joseph Stangerson.

Hope: “It don’t much matter to you why I hated these men,” he said; “it’s enough that they were guilty of the death of two human beings—a father and daughter—and that they had, therefore, forfeited their own lives. After the lapse of time that has passed since their crime, it was impossible for me to secure a conviction against them in any court. I knew of their guilt though, and I determined that I should be judge, jury, and executioner all rolled into one.“

“That girl that I spoke of was to have married me twenty years ago. She was forced into marrying that same Drebber, and broke her heart over it. I took the marriage ring from her dead finger, and I vowed that his dying eyes should rest upon that very ring, and that his last thoughts should be of the crime for which he was punished. I have carried it about with me, and have followed him and his accomplice over two continents until I caught them.”

On the very night after his capture the aneurism burst, and he was found in the morning stretched upon the floor of the cell, with a placid smile upon his face, as though he had been able in his dying moments to look back upon a useful life, and on work well done.    

(ACD - A study in scarlet) 

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THE BLIND BANKER  -  GENERAL SHAN OF THE BLACK LOTUS

She is the head of a gang of smugglers who are specialised in antiquities and orders (as far as the story goes) the death of 3 people to get back an ancient and most valuable hairpin.

CANON CHARACTER 

As far as I know there is none. Possible connections to canon stories are:

- 'the ancient number system’ with 'The dancing men’

- 'the book code’ with 'Valley of fear’

- the title 'The blind banker’ with ADCs poem 'The blind archer’

- maybe the names of two of the victims 'Edward Van Coon and Brian Lukis’ with the also murdered spy 'Eduardo Lukas’ in 'The second stain’

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THE GREAT GAME  -  JIM MORIARTY

(saving Jim for TRF)

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A SCANDAL IN BELGRAVIA  -  IRENE ADLER

Irene Adler is described as professionell dominatrix who collects secrets from her clients for further use. She is cunning and ruthless, loves powerplays and 'provides recreational scolding for those who enjoy that sort of thing and are prepared to pay for it’ and she isn’t in the least afraid of scandals.

CANON CHARACTER

Irene Adler is a retired prima donna of the Imperial Opera of Warsaw living in London.

Her Ex-lover: 'She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and the mind of the most resolute of men. But she has a soul of steel.’

Holmes: ‘Oh, she has turned all the men’s heads down in that part. She is the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, handsome, and dashing; never calls less than once a day, and often twice.’ (her future husband)

Irene: 'As to the photograph, your client may rest in peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might take in the future.’

(ACD - A scandal in Bohemia)

________________________________________________________________

THE HOUNDS OF BASKERVILLE  -  DR. BOB FRANKLAND

Virologist working in Baskerville and still secretly experimenting on a drug which had been shut down 20 years ago. A drug for chemical warfare which 'renders its useres incredibly suggestible, causes fear, disorientation, aggressiveness, paranoia, severe frontal lobe damage, blood brain, gross cranial trauma, dangerous acceleration, multiple homicide.’ Zwenty years ago he killed his best friend who tried to stop his experiments. In the present he attempts to drive the ohne person insane who was the only witness of that murder … the son of the man he had killed.

CANON CHARACTER

Watson: “He is an elderly man, red-faced, white-haired, and choleric. His passion is for the British law, and he has spent a large fortune in litigation. He fights for the mere pleasure of fighting and is equally ready to take up either side of a question, so that it is no wonder that he has found it a costly amusement.  He is learned in old manorial and communal rights, and he applies his knowledge sometimes in favour of the villagers of Fernworthy and sometimes against them, so that he is periodically either carried in triumph down the village street or else burned in effigy, according to his latest exploit. He is said to have about seven lawsuits upon his hands at present. Apart from the law he seems a kindly, good- natured person.”

(ACD - The hound of Baskervilles)

________________________________________________________________

THE REICHENBACH FALL  -  JIM MORIARTY

Consulting criminal mastermind, unscrupulous, insane, brilliant, changeable, dangerous, fascinating, scaring, wicked, evil ……  

CANON CHARACTER

Holmes: “He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organiser of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order. He sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them. He does little himself. He only plans. But his agents are numerous and splendidly organised. Is there a crime to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a house to be rifled, a man to be removed–the word is passed to the Professor, the matter is organised and carried out. The agent may be caught. In that case money is found for his bail or his defence. But the central power which uses the agent is never caught–never so much as suspected.“

(ACD - The final Problem)

_______________________________________________________________ 

THE EMPTY HEARSE  -  LORD MORAN

Lord Moran, 'peer of the realm, Minister for Overseas Development, pillar of the establishment’. Spy and head of an undergound terrorist network which planted an entire tube compartment full of explosives right under the Houses of Parliament. But …. there was never a member of his network to be seen, the bomb conveniently had an off switch and the Lord himself never uttered even one word and was suspiciously easy to catch.

CANON CHARACTER

"Moran, Sebastian, Colonel. Unemployed. Formerly 1st Bengalore Pioneers. Born London, 1840. Son of Sir Augustus Moran, C.B., once British Minister to Persia. Educated Eton and Oxford. Served in Jowaki Campaign, Afghan Campaign, Charasiab (despatches), Sherpur, and Cabul. Author of `Heavy Game of the Western Himalayas,’ 1881; `Three Months in the Jungle,’ 1884.”

“He was always a man of iron nerve. Moriarty supplied him liberally with money and used him only in one or two very high-class jobs which no ordinary criminal could have undertaken. So cleverly was the Colonel concealed that even when the Moriarty gang was broken up we could not incriminate him. One of the best shots in the world. The bosom friend of Moriarty and the most cunning and dangerous criminal in London.”

(ACD - The empty house)

________________________________________________________________

THE SIGN OF THREE  -  JONATHAN SMALL

Substitute wedding photographer who wanted revenge for the death of his brother who was one of the recruits killed under the command of Major Sholto. He heedlessly uses the women of Sholto’s stuff to get the information he needs to make a plan. Small even rehearses the planned murder and is willing to kill another innocent man. He is described as brilliant, ruthless and 'almost certainly a monomaniac’.

CANON CHARACTER

Jonathan Small (describing his assistance of murder to get the Agra treasure): “I have never seen a man run so fast as that little merchant. He was gaining on the Sikh, and I could see that if he once passed me and got to the open air he would save himself yet. My heart softened to him, but again the thought of his treasure turned me hard and bitter. I cast my firelock between his legs as he raced past, and he rolled twice over like a shot rabbit. Ere he could stagger to his feet the Sikh was upon him and buried his knife twice in his side. The man never uttered moan nor moved muscle but lay where he had fallen.”

Jonathan Small (talking about his desire for vengeance): “Major Sholto had stolen the Agra treasure without carrying out one of the conditions on which we had sold him the secret. From that I lived only for vengeance. I thought of it by day and I nursed it by night. It became an overpowering, absorbing passion with me. I cared nothing for the law – nothing for the gallows. To escape, to track down Sholto, to have my hand upon his throat that was my one thought.”

Jonathan Small (explaining the death of Sholtos son): “Bartholomew Sholto was still in the room, to his cost. Tonga thought he had done something very clever in killing him, for when I came up by the rope I found him strutting about as proud as a peacock. Very much surprised was he when I made at him with the rope’s end and cursed him for a little bloodthirsty imp.”

Thaddeus Sholto (describing the death of his father): “At this instant a horrible change came over his expression; his eyes stared wildly, his jaw dropped, and he yelled in a voice which I can never forget, 'Keep him out! For Christ’s sake keep him out!’ We both stared round at the window behind us upon which his gaze was fixed. A face was looking in at us out of the darkness. My brother and I rushed towards the window, but the man was gone. When we returned to my father his head had dropped and his pulse had ceased to beat.” (ACD - The sign of four)

________________________________________________________________

HIS LAST VOW  -  CHARLES AUGUSUS MAGNUSSON

Newspaper owner and unscrupulous business man who uses his power and wealth to gain information with which he increases those constantly. Magnuson knows 'the critical pressure point on every person of note or influence in the whole of the Western world and probably beyond. He is the Napoleon of blackmail’.

Sherlock: “Magnussen is like a shark – it’s the only way I can describe him. Have you ever been to the shark tank at the London Aquarium, John – stood up close to the glass? Those floating flat faces, those dead eyes … That’s what he is. I’ve dealt with murderers, psychopaths, terrorists, serial killers. None of them can turn my stomach like Charles Augustus Magnussen.”

CANON CHARACTER

Sherlock Holmes: “Do you feel a creeping, shrinking sensation, Watson, when you stand before the serpents in the Zoo, and see the slithery, gliding, venomous creatures, with their deadly eyes and wicked, flattened faces? Well, that’s how Milverton impresses me. I’ve had to do with fifty murderers in my career, but the worst of them never gave me the repulsion which I have for this fellow.“

Sherlock Holmes: “I’ll tell you, Watson. He is the king of all the blackmailers. Heaven help the man, and still more the woman, whose secret and reputation come into the power of Milverton! … Everything which is in the market goes to Milverton, and there are hundreds in this great city who turn white at his name. No one knows where his grip may fall, for he is far too rich and far too cunning to work from hand to mouth. He will hold a card back for years in order to play it at the moment when the stake is best worth winning. I have said that he is the worst man in London, and I would ask you how could one compare the ruffian, who in hot blood bludgeons his mate, with this man, who methodically and at his leisure tortures the soul and wrings the nerves in order to add to his already swollen money-bags?”

(ACD - Charles Augustus Milverton)

________________________________________________________________

HIS LAST VOW  -  MARY MORSTAN

The woman who shot Sherlock when he was unarmed and trying to help her. She threatened him while lying helpless in hospital and was ready to shoot him a second time. Sherlock deduces that she is or were an itelligence agent probably on the run from something and also working a bit freelance. Mary knows she will go to prison for life if she gets caught. Magnusson - who is blackmailing her - calls her wicked  and a bad, bad girl and mentions 'wet jobs for the CIA and … so many dead people’

CANON CHARACTER

Dr. Watson: "Miss Morstan entered the room with a firm step and an outward composure of manner. She was a blonde young lady, small, dainty, well gloved, and dressed in the most perfect taste. …Her face had neither regularity of feature nor beauty of complexion, but her expression was sweet and amiable, and her large blue eyes were singularly spiritual and sympathetic. In an experience of women which extends over many nations and three separate continents, I have never looked upon a face which gave a clearer promise of a refined and sensitive nature.”

Sherlock Holmes: “I think she is one of the most charming young ladies I ever met and might have been most useful in such work as we have been doing. She had a decided genius that way witness the way in which she preserved that Agra plan from ali the other papers of her father.”

 (ACD - The sign of four)

________________________________________________________________

CANON CHARACTER - CULVERTON SMITH

Sherlock Holmes: “Mr Culverton Smith - not a medical man but a planter - is a well-known resident of Sumatra, now visiting London. An outbreak of the disease upon his plantation which was far absent from medical aid, caused him to study it himself with some rather far-reaching consequences. He is a very methodical person.”

Culverton Smith: “Well, I shouldn’t be surprised, Holmes—I shouldn’t be surprised if it were the same (Symptoms). A bad look-out for you if it is. Poor Victor was a dead man on the fourth day—a strong hearty young fellow (Victor Savage his nephew). It was certainly, as you said, very surprising that he should have contracted an out-of-the-way Asiatic disease in the heart of London—a disease too of which I had made such a very special study. Singular ), Holmes. Very smart of you to notice it, but rather uncharitable to suggest that it was cause and effect.  …  But you have the truth now, Holmes, and you can die with the knowledge that I killed you. You knew too much of the fate of Victor Savage, so I have sent you to share it. You are very near your end, Holmes. I will sit here and I will watch you die.”

(ACD - The dying detective)

July, 2016

[tinamaetales]

uncanny dream

this is a throwback post though (wrote it way back in 2016...5th of May to be exact, but the event happened somewhere in January so basically I’m posting this here because ‘anniversary’ na niya lol)

so yeah, here’s the story of my Emilio Aguinaldo dream :)

I’m that kind of person who live such a boring life during the day but when the night comes I suddenly feel sort of ‘alive’ – during the night, I will always have that energy to do things that I can’t accomplish during the day; I don’t have the energy at daytime or I’m just a big slob? Maybe it’s because I work ‘best’ under pressure and being a member of the so called “millennial” generation, I’m a professional procrastinator.

Anyways, that unruly introduction for my journal for this day is because I am trying to find some sort of ‘justification’ for all the crazy dreams that I have ever since I was a kid. Maybe the reason why all those weird and crazy dreams exist is because of the fact that I tend to become more creative and energetic during the night. In fact, majority of my essays, projects and even my undergraduate thesis were all accomplished during the night even though I have all the time in the world to finish them during the day. But that’s not the main idea of this article; I’m more active during the night so I guess it has an effect on the kinds of dreams that I have?

When I say weird and crazy dreams I meant the kind of dreams that you know will never ever happened in real life and the circumstances are just crazy! Such dreams include: Lady Gaga getting sick minutes before her Manila concert so the organizers ended up making me her substitute (wtf right? I can’t sing and dance! That concert surely ended up in a disaster, however, I can’t remember what happens next), being a pokemon trainer, attending the Grammys Awards and winning the Artist of the Year against Taylor Swift and probably the one of the craziest and the weirdest of them all is killing Aang so I can took his place as the last air bender. Wew, I’m such a weirdo if you will base your judgment on the dreams that I have every night. But if there’s another thing that all these dreams of mine have in common aside from them being weird and crazy is the fact that I can’t remember the complete details of it. I don’t even know why Lady Gaga was sick and what happens after they told me to become her substitute for that concert, I don’t know why I became a pokemon trainer and if I ever joined any poke battles it would’ve been exciting though, I don’t know why I won the artist of the year award since the only thing I can remember is I went up the stage and received the award and don’t even get me started with the air bender thing, because why on Earth would I kill Aang?

With all the dreams that I have, whether it’s the epitome of weirdness and craziness or just the typical dream one could have that I just labeled weird and crazy just because I know it won’t happen in real life, EVER, one thing’s common: as soon as I wake up, I won’t remember much details about it. As I mentioned earlier, I have no idea what lead to that plot; the only thing I can remember is the ‘climax’ of it. As soon as I wake up, it’s only the main part of such dream that I can remember and as my day progresses, I would forget more details about that dream but earlier this year, I encountered a dream that until now I can still remember each and every single detail of it – well, except the exact night that I’ve dreamed of it. The weird thing about it? It involves an encounter with one of the Philippine History’s significant role player (and probably one of the most controversial too): President Emilio Aguinaldo.

I don’t want to consider such dream as prophetic since there’s a possibility of dreaming it given the fact that I have such ‘creativity’ when the night deepens and my dreams are not an exception to that creativity of my brain (LOL), but I would just like to consider that dream as a “hello from the other side”.

Allow me to narrate that dream first before I give you my “view” on it. Here it is: I was walking in the typical hallway of my University (LPU-Cavite it is), and I described it as typical because it looks like a very ordinary day for students like me; there are students in the hallway, most of them are in a rush, maybe because they are already late in class or they just wanted to go to the canteen, while some of the students are just happily chatting with their friends outside the classrooms, some are sitting at the stairs while some are sitting outside their rooms others are even sleeping with their books servings as their pillows; as I was walking, alone, may I add, someone called my name which immediately caught my attention. I looked around to see who it was and here comes the crazy part, the person who called me is a guy dressed up as a Filipino soldier during the PH-American war. Yes, the guy is wearing a rayadillo, complete with the hat which I prefer to call as the kabayan hat (which symbolizes that he’s not a general or a Colonel, I think he is a Captain), a belt with “purses” (very sorry for my poor description of it but what I’m really pointing out is he has those small bags that serves as containers of bullets) and he’s wearing combat boots; you can have a better view of this if you watched the film Heneral Luna and looked at how Captain Jose Bernal or Captain Eduardo Rusca dressed like, that’s how the guy who called me look like (funny how in this dream, I have an encounter with Aguinaldo and yet this soldier doesn’t look like he belong to the Kawit Brigade). My initial reaction was definitely, what the hell? Why is there a soldier, let alone a soldier from the 1890s Philippines, that would show up in my dream wherein the setting is the hallway of LPU Cavite? WEIRD. After that sort of ‘shocked’ moment, I decided to ask the soldier, “Bakit?” (Why?) And then he answered, “Pinapatawag daw po kayo ng Presidente” (The President calls for you). Then without further exchange of words, the soldier began walking and I followed him towards a classroom located at the farthest side of the J building. Outside the classroom, there are several students, some of them are sitting, and others are just standing while they happily chat with each other, while others are sleeping using their books as pillows, but they seem unaware of my existence and the presence of the soldier that is with me. The soldier told me to enter the room in which I obliged but upon entering the room, I felt something unusual about it. Inside the room where more soldiers, dressed like the one who called me, none of them are Generals or part of Kawit Brigade though, but the President’s table (I assume that the table that our professors use is the president’s table in this scene), is empty. Inside that room, are just soldiers who are looking at me with serious faces and I can still remember that I felt scared because of those stares. What I’m not quite sure with this certain part of my dream is whether I asked those soldiers where the president is or if I just said it to myself, but one thing is for sure, upon realizing that he is nowhere in sight and I would end up like Luna (who was “called” by Aguinaldo and when he showed up in Cabanatuan, he ended up being killed by the president’s soldiers), I decided to get out of that room and find Aguinaldo. Everything seems to happen way too fast, I’m just not quite sure if it’s because I was running or because in this dream of mine, special effects are valid. I kept on looking for the President, until I saw a guy who’s wearing all white and has that flat top hair, walking towards the second phase of the J building. I immediately ran towards him but instead of calling him, I decided to simply poke his shoulder. And he faced me in slow motion (special effects are really part of my dreams now), then he looked at me confused, as if he’s not expecting me to be there. Without wasting anytime, I asked him, “Pinatawag niyo raw po ako?” (You called for me?) and he smiled and said, “Oo” (Yes) and then he handed me a small paper bag (a black paper bag containing the letters H & M, which resembles my sister’s paper bag because she just received a sweater from H & M from their exchange gift in school; that paper bag has the ability to travel? Wow! This dream just gets weirder and weirder). “Manigong bagong taon!” (Happy new year!) he said as I received the paper bag then he added, “Advanced happy birthday!” (So, the el presidente knows how to speak in English pala). Then he was telling me something about the presidency and leadership, like he’s giving some leadership advices but I wasn’t able to hear it properly because everything faded into darkness. But wait, there’s more! The next scene I found myself riding a jeepney with my sister and I keep on fangirling over that paper bag that the president gave me and its content. I showed her that I received two large puto and bread that resembles a basketball, although it is two times smaller than the actual ball, nevertheless the bread was big. After that, I woke up.    

What woke me up that day, I assume, was the pain that I felt in my lower left abdomen and being a girl, I know what that pain means – it’s that time of the month again. I get out of my bed and run downstairs, but instead of heading towards the bathroom, I decided to search a photo on the internet. Luckily, our computer was already on so I just sat down and type the words, Emilio Aguinaldo real pictures. And after a few scroll downs, I saw this specific picture that sent chills on my body: Aguinaldo’s photo while he’s I think in his home in Kawit, he’s sitting down and not looking at the camera, wearing all white. That was the exact look he has in my dream! It was really him! The reason why I decided to search his photos is because the moment I wake up, I already knew that the Aguinaldo in my dream looks so familiar (this photo of him is not famous; I’m used to seeing him in his regalia uniform and that’s the image of him that has been etched on my mind ever since), I just wanted to double check and I was not wrong. It was the real Aguinaldo who showed up in my dream.

I really do not want to overanalyze that dream since weird dreams happen to me a lot, but I just can’t help but look at the other aspects of it – you know, like a detective trying to uncover a mystery; my dreams are weird, but I am way much weirder in reality. Here are my ‘views’ as to why that dream had to happen:

First, I think the reason why I had that dream is the fact that it’s 2016 and the presidential election will happen on the 9th of May this year. I guess Aguinaldo, being the first officially declared President of the country, just wanted to send a message to a millennial like me on how I should choose a leader, but I wasn’t able to get that message because the scene turned black and it segway to the jeepney scene, SAYANG. Imagine being given an advice from the first president of the country?

Second, I watched the film, Heneral Luna last year; I’m so happy that it now became the Philippines’ highest grossing history film (Astig ni Heneral!) That film awakened the inner nationalist in me, it made me realized that instead of just blaming the government for all the chaos that our country continues to suffer, we should also look at ourselves, are we really the better Filipinos than those in power? Or are we all just the same? We’re all just the same because we all contribute into making this country go down, it’s just we have different circumstances? The film made me realized that the sickness of the Filipinos before, the regionalist thinking still exists today and we have no one else to blame but ourselves. The film made me realized that we, the Filipino people, have that attitude of putting our own interests first before others (just like what the Heneral said, Kaya nating magbuwis ng buhay para sa pamilya, pero para sa isang prinsipyong makabayan?). The film made me realized that the Philippines can only be saved by the Filipinos and no one can be a hero for us but us.

Yes, the film made me appreciate my country more and it made me nationalistic if not patriotic however, despite all the important values that it gave me, I ended up being a hateful person. I became a person, whom, instead of starting the change in myself, I started looking for that change in others. I keep on blaming those in the government and even have my own version of who is the modern day Aguinaldo, Paterno, Buencamino and Janolino. And that’s where I failed to realize the importance of one of the film’s message: “mayroon tayong mas malaking kaaway…..ang ating sarili” (we have a bigger enemy……ourselves). It is all clear to me now that if I am still searching for a hero to save me other than myself then I’m doing it wrong. If I want to see change in my country then I should start it with myself and not depend on others to do it for me; if each and every single Filipino would one day wake up and decided to set aside their own interests and start living for the betterment of the majority then we will be able to see the change we wanted after all change is done by example and not through promises.

The film also emphasizes the regionalist thinking of the Filipinos as the reason why we failed to win the war against the Americans; because how can you win a war against a foreign invader if inside the army there’s also a war between prides of certain people? One of the most striking lines from the film in relevance to this regionalist thinking is: Mas madali pang pagkasunduin ang langit at lupa kaysa sa dalawang Pilipino tungkol sa kahit anong bagay (It is easier for the heaven and the earth to meet than for two Filipinos to agree) This line from the film shows how divided we were (or still are?) in fact it was proven through certain scenes (which, by the way happened in real life) The first one is when General Luna asked for reinforcement from the Kawit Brigade but the Captain refuses it because he didn’t received an order from the President himself who is also a Caviteño like him. The second one is when General Luna asked General Mascardo to go back to his post so he can deploy soldiers in which the latter declined and he even sent a message to Luna saying, “Hangga’t nabubuhay ako sa Presidente o kapwa Caviteño lang ako susunod ng utos” (As long as I live, I will only take orders from the President or fellow Caviteño) in which the former replied, “Ano bang akala niya? Ibang bansa na ang Cavite?” (So he thinks Cavite is a country now?) And after such disobedience from the Captain and General to Luna’s orders, the Philippine army suffered fatal losses. See how that regionalist thinking divided us? (and continue to divide us?) How can we work into building our Nation if we are only loyal to our kin? We should all be loyal to our country!

You are probably thinking why did I mention the film Heneral Luna in my second “reason” as to why I dreamed of Aguinaldo and yet I never discussed the film’s relevance to my dream? Well, it’s because I wanted to give you first certain ideas before I lead to my third and final reason as to why I think I’ve dreamed of Aguinaldo. I kind of mentioned earlier that though the film made me realized that change should start with oneself, it made me a hateful person especially to certain historical figures and one of them is Aguinaldo.

After watching the film, I became one of those people who started calling Aguinaldo as “traydor” (traitor) because of how I saw him in the movie. He has this sort of “favoritism” which is not good especially for the Philippine army that badly needed discipline. General Luna embarrassed Captain Janolino when the latter reasoned out his disobedience and even stripped him off his rank, he also did the same to two Kawit soldiers who failed to show respect on him; later in the film, Aguinaldo decided to give back the ranks of the Kawit soldiers and he even asked Mabini of what he shall do to Luna since he embarrassed his soldiers. There’s also a scene wherein Aguinaldo asked Buencamino, Paterno and Mascardo, “Ano ang masasabi niyo kay Heneral Luna bukod sa mga bagay na alam na natin?” (What can you say about Luna aside from those we already know?). That scene lead to these three into convincing him that Luna should be eliminated, although he reasoned out that “Si Luna ang pinakamahusay kong Heneral” (Luna is my most capable General), Luna’s assassination by the Kawit Brigade still happened. Who is there to blame? Of course, Aguinaldo! There’s no way that he had no idea of the assassination.  

I hated Aguinaldo for that. I hated Aguinaldo because of the leadership he had shown especially during the time that the country needed a strong leadership from him and he failed to deliver. Every time his name is being mentioned, all I could think of is an ineffective leader, self centered and traitor. We could’ve won that war if he didn’t let “his greatest general” killed by his men; we could’ve won that war if he approved Luna’s plan of resorting to guerilla warfare, we could’ve won our independence during those times but we didn’t. We lost.

I was able to see all those negative sides of Aguinaldo but I failed to see the reasons behind his actions, the same way that I only see the greatness of General Luna but failed to see his weaknesses. The film’s director emphasizes that there are no real heroes or villains in the movie, just people with interests and how those interests affected the country and that’s what I realized. I should’ve seen both sides of the coin; this then lead me back to my dream, I think that Aguinaldo showed up in my dream to kind of tell me that “Di naman puro masama ang naibigay ko sa Pilipinas ha, wag mo naman ako masyadong sisihin at kainisan, ginawa ko lang ang sa tingin ko ay tama” (Not all that I gave the Philippines are bad, stop all those blames and hatred towards me, I just did what I thought was right). Maybe the reason why I hated Aguinaldo so much is because I’m scared of seeing myself as him? I’m scared of the fact that while it’s so easy for me to put the blames on others, I can’t see my own weaknesses. Yes, Aguinaldo might have done certain things that fatally wounded our country but he still has contributions, right? So, who am I to insult him? What have I done to the country?

This now leads me to my conclusion, we should stop the blame game and just focus on how we will be able to learn from their mistakes for us to avoid repeating them because after all, it is not history who repeats itself but us. We cannot change what happened before but right now, we have all the time in the world to shape our future may it be for better or for worse. So before we elect the next leaders of our country for the next six years, we should first look back on our past and see the mistakes that our ancestors have done so we can avoid doing them again. It is important to study our history because it is full of lessons that will serve as our guide in living our present for the benefit of having a great future. Just like what our National hero, Jose Rizal, said, “To foretell the destiny of a nation, it is necessary to open the book that tells of her past” so don’t hesitate to read history books first or even watch history films as they can give us an overview of what or how we are as a Nation. Also, it is important for us to be observant and to deeply analyze the motives of the candidates for this election by reflecting what General Luna has said when the members of the cabinet seem to be blinded by the promises of the Americans, “Para kayong mga birhen na naniniwala sa pag ibig ng isang puta!” (You are all like virgins who believe in the promises of a whore!). Are we blinded by their promises? I hope not, because it is through our votes that we can make a difference.

And with that I would like to end this article by saying that this dream of mine, which serves as a “Hello from the other side”, is by far the most inspiring and motivating because it made me reflect on how I am as a person, as a citizen of my country and how I should be. This dream of mine made me realizes certain things and lead me into deeply analyzing the film “Heneral Luna” and its lessons. Now, I am more guided and perhaps more intelligent when it comes to choosing the leader that I want for my country. I shall always keep in mind the film’s tagline: Bayan o SARILI? (Country or self?) Because that would help a lot in choosing the right leaders for my country; I will ask myself, “Who among the candidates would really prioritize the sake of our mother country over their own interests?” it is easy to know, just be observant. I would like to end this article by putting in another quote from the film (and this one’s my favorite!) so we can all be smart voters on May 9, “Handang magtapon ng dugo ang tunay na makabayan. Hindi pagdurusa ang pagdaan sa matinding pasakit. Para kang tumanggap ng basbas, parang pag ibig.” (A real patriot is ready to die for the country’s sake. It is not a punishment to undergo such great suffering [if it’s for your country]. It is like receiving a blessing, like love). So in this coming election, may we all VOTE WISELY! Adelante Compatriotas!  

 PS: With Aguinaldo, I’ve learned that the saying, “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain” is true. However, for me, it doesn’t matter if you live long or not, what matters is you made the ride worthwhile.  

[theconservativebrief]

After days of lead-up, including the release of secret recordings and accusations that President Donald Trump is racist and in mental decline, Omarosa Manigault-Newman’s new book, Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House, has arrived.

Manigault-Newman, the former Apprentice contestant turned top White House aide, has been creating quite a buzz about her book in recent days. Over the weekend, she appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, during which she played a recording of Chief of Staff John Kelly firing her in the White House Situation Room in December, and accused the Trump campaign of trying to buy her silence. On Monday, she played another tape, this time of a phone call with Trump, who seemed dismayed after she was fired.

The White House has put out statements trying to discredit Manigault-Newman, with her former boss brushing her off as a “lowlife” who was “vicious, but not smart.” That her actions since her dismissal have been high-drama shouldn’t be surprising: her firing was chaotic, she seemed eager to spill secrets on CBS’s Celebrity Big Brother, and, of course, she’s one of the most infamous reality television stars in America.

The book itself is what you might expect, given the lead-up. Unhinged is part memoir (the first chapters are devoted to Manigault-Newman’s upbringing and her role on The Apprentice), part tell-all from behind the scenes at the White House, complete with plenty of gossipy asides. It’s filled with salacious — and often unverifiable — allegations and wild tales. It reads like a guilty pleasure, a beach read that delves into the lives of the rich and famous or purports to take us backstage at a hit reality TV show to reveal backstabbing and gossip underneath. Except that the subject is, in fact, the president of the United States, and the reality show in question has the highest stakes of all.

Here are some of the headline-grabbing claims:

If Unhinged has a thematic throughline, it’s the rumored tape of Trump using a racial slur — yes, that racial slur — to refer to black people. Manigault-Newman says she’s never heard the tape herself. But it comes up repeatedly in the book, in part as Manigault-Newman, an African-American woman who’s been in Trump’s orbit since the Apprentice days, struggles with his record on race. Early on in the book, she even claims that the real reason for her White House firing was that she was getting too close to finding the tape:

I’d emailed before one of our daily comms meetings that a source from The Apprentice days had contacted me and claimed to be in possession of the tape. By that point, three sources in three separate conversations had described the contents of this tape. They all told me that President Trump hadn’t just dropped a single N-word bomb. He’d said it multiple times throughout the show’s taping during off-camera outtakes, particularly during the first season of The Apprentice.

Ultimately, she says, Trump campaign spokesperson Katrina Pierson verified its existence — something Pierson denied, saying she was just humoring her “crazy” talk about the tape. “She was obsessed with it,” Pierson told the Daily Beast:

Katrina had heard from her sources that the tape was of Trump using the N-word. Someone she knew, who knew political strategist Frank Luntz, told her that Luntz had heard it.

Lynne (Patton, Donald Trump Jr.’s longtime personal assistant)reported that she asked Trump about it on the plane, specifically whether it was possible that such a tape might exist, and he said “no.” Then, she asked him what he wanted her to do, and he said, “Put it to bed.”

Katrina cursed and said, “He said it.”

And late in the book, Manigault-Newman gives a few more specifics from a phone conversation with a nameless source after she left the White House:

On this phone conversation, I was told exactly what Donald Trump said — yes, the N-word and others in a classic Trump-goes-nuclear rant — and when he’d said them. During production he was miked, and there is definitely an audio track.

Chatter about this tape has been around since the campaign (indeed, Manigault-Newman released audio of campaign officials appearing to discuss what they would do if the tape in fact existed). The biggest argument against its existence might be that despite all of these rumors, we haven’t heard it yet — unlike the Access Hollywood audio. But in Unhinged, Manigault-Newman seems determined to put it back on the agenda in a big way.

Trump and Omarosa Manigault-Newman at an African American History Month listening session on February 1, 2017, in Washington, DC. Michael Reynolds – Pool/Getty Images

The n-word tape is the most explosive allegation, but throughout the book, Manigault-Newman, who was the most senior African-American adviser at the White House and says the reaction to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was a turning point for her, chronicles what she alleges are some cringeworthy moments from Trump on race. They include rumors she’d heard that Trump called another black contestant on The Apprentice “uppity.” (Like the infamous n-word tape, this isn’t something she actually heard herself.)

In early September 2016, Trump went to Detroit and spoke at the Great Faith Ministries Church (whose pastor, Wayne T. Jackson, would later speak at Trump’s inauguration). According to Omarosa — who claimed she organized the event — Trump was extremely uncomfortable, to say the least, in a black church:

I had a lot of organizational things to do, so I got up to take care of them. He grabbed my wrist and said, “You can’t leave me with these people.” The look in his eyes was like a lost child.

Omarosa claims that Trump complained about the length of the service — “This is the longest I’ve ever been to church in my life” — and threw off the prayer shawl Jackson offered him as a gift.

Meanwhile, Manigault-Newman says, she had to coach Trump not to say offensive things during a 2017 speech to mark the beginning of Black History Month — the one where Trump went infamously off script by observing that Frederick Douglass “is getting recognized more and more.” Manigault-Newman opines that he clearly “didn’t know who Frederick Douglass was,” and describes the preparation for the speech:

For this particular speech, I begged him not to say, “What do we have to lose?” or to refer to the participants as “you people” as he had during the campaign’s ministers’ meeting.

“You people is pejorative,” I explained to him.

He looked puzzled.

I said, “It’s bad. Just don’t say it. Ever.”

When he practiced the opener, he spoke only in fragments, not complete sentences. When I tried to correct him, he became frustrated and more irritable. I left the Oval praying to God that Donald Trump didn’t go off script or say something crazy or draw attention away from the fact that it was the first day of Black History Month.

He knew I was concerned, and he said, “I got it. Don’t worry. The blacks love me!”

There’s also this anecdote about the Trump administration’s decision to keep Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. Manigault-Newman had written a memo urging Trump to reconsider and put Harriet Tubman on the bill, as the Obama administration has proposed. Trump’s reaction, according to Manigault-Newman, was to effectively call Tubman ugly:

While flipping through the folder, he came to the picture of Tubman, the woman who personally brought more than three hundred slaves to freedom, risking her own life every time, and said to me, “You want to put that face on the twenty-dollar bill?”

This wasn’t confined to Trump himself either, according to Unhinged. Manigault-Newman, whose job included working with historically black colleges and universities, says that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos implied the students who booed her commencement speech at Bethune-Cookman College “don’t have the capacity to understand what we’re trying to accomplish,” and that Kelly Sadler, a White House aide, discouraged her from bringing HBCU students to the White House because “after Charlottesville, they might riot. They might burn the place down.”

Michael Cohen, former personal lawyer and confidant for President Donald Trump, exits the US District Court Southern District of New York on May 30, 2018. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images

As she describes the full-court press from the Trump campaign to join them, up to and including the president, Omarosa provides a little armchair psychology about the relationship between Michael Cohen (who now, of course, could be pivotal to the Robert Mueller investigation) and Donald Trump:

Michael Cohen is a “what you see is what you get” kind of guy. He comes off profane and blunt, with bravado, and that’s exactly who he is. He’s also very funny and very street-smart. He’d have to be: he graduated from an average law school and managed to hustle up clients and a career.

…

For his part, Trump was not always respectful to Michael, often mocking him and belittling him. Trump had sussed out that Michael would work ten times harder to earn praise if it were rarely given.

The strangest anecdote about Cohen, though, comes later in the book. Manigault-Newman writes that Trump has a habit of tearing up papers once he’s done with him, and, as has been reported elsewhere, staffers are charged with taping them back together to preserve them under the Presidential Records Act. But she says once she saw Trump in the Oval Office with Michael Cohen, apparently so determined to keep a note from getting out that he put it in his mouth and chewed it up:

I guess they didn’t know that he would pocket sensitive notes or that once, after a meeting in the Oval with Michael Cohen, I saw him put a note in his mouth. Since Trump was ever the germaphobe, I was shocked he appeared to be chewing and swallowing the paper. It must have been something very, very sensitive.

Manigault-Newman writes that by March 2017, she was increasingly concerned about the president’s “mental state”:

I’d been watching Donald for two months day to day in the White House with growing concern about his mental state. He seemed to be showing signs of deterioration. I chalked it up, mainly, to his being out of his comfort zone in unfamiliar settings and the immense pressure of the job, after having operated at the helm of the Trump Organization at Trump Tower for decades. His forgetfulness and frustration were getting worse.

Any time somebody new came in to brief him, he’d get angry and say, “Who’s that guy? What’s he want?”

He would rail against the fact that he had a terrible team. He hated the staff because of the tsunami of leaks. He was paranoid and constantly irritable.

…

I seriously began to suspect that the president was delusional or had a mental condition, that made him forget from one day to the next. Was Donald like Ronald Reagan, impaired while everyone around him ran the show and covered up for him? Was Mike Pence his Nancy Reagan, with the same vapid, adoring looks?

Manigault-Newman writes that Trump’s interview with NBC’s Lester Holt in which he declared he fired FBI Director James Comey because “this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story” was, to her, more than a political error by the president — it was a sign that “something real and serious was going on in Donald’s brain.” She said she wasn’t sure who she could talk to about it and tried to reach out to Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who just told her, “It’s fine”:

While watching that interview, I realized that something real and serious was going on in Donald’s brain. His mental decline could not be denied. Many in the White House didn’t notice it as keenly as I did because I knew him way back when. They thought Trump was being Trump, off the cuff. But I knew something wasn’t right.

The National Enquirer sent a reporter to pretend to be a mourner at Manigault-Newman’s brother’s funeral after his 2011 murder and planned to run Manigault-Newman’s eulogy as an “exclusive interview.” Manigault-Newman was going to sue the publication, but Trump called her to talk her out of it at the behest of David Pecker, the publisher of the Enquirer, CEO of American Media, and a longtime friend of Trump.

They struck a deal: Manigault-Newman would drop the lawsuit and Pecker would give her a job. It’s not all that different from the deal Pecker made with former Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with Trump:

As a personal favor to Pecker, Donald agreed to call me and talk me out of the lawsuit, but I was so angry they’d portrayed me as someone who’d seek publicity over my dead brother’s body that I was reluctant to drop it. Donald went back to Pecker and negotiated a deal for me. In exchange for a settlement with American Media, Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer, they would give me the high-profile job and title of West Coast Editor.

First lady Melania Trump climbs back into her motorcade after traveling to Texas to visit facilities that house and care for children taken from their parents at the US-Mexico border June 21, 2018, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Manigault-Newman disputes reports that Melania Trump cried on the night of the election and actually says the soon-to-be first lady was actually elated:

Melania was right behind him, and I remember thinking, “She’s smiling!” Melania rarely smiles. Reports that Melania spent Election Day sobbing in a corner are inaccurate. Melania was as upbeat as I’d ever seen her in thirteen years of our acquaintance, and very engaged by what was going on. She, like everyone, wanted to win, desperately. I suppose she had some concerns about how her life would change tomorrow, but on that night, she was hoping for a victory.

In chapter 12, Manigault-Newman recounts a different version of Melania Trump: the one who has been spotted swatting her husband’s hand away when he reaches for her. “I believe that by avoiding Donald’s clasp in public, Melania was grasping the full extent of her new power. At any time, if she so desired, she could humiliate him in public with small, ambiguous gestures, just as he’d openly humiliated her with his affairs and lascivious behavior for years.”

Meanwhile, Manigault-Newman speculates that Trump is dangling Melania’s immigration status over her head:

It was often discussed among Trumpworld intimates that Donald had something to do with Melania’s obtaining a rare Einstein Visa, a.k.a. an EB-1, that gives immigrants with “extraordinary ability” or “sustained national and international acclaim” US citizenship. Many have questioned her qualifications for receiving this visa, and have speculated that Trump was able to use his networks and resources to secure it or expedite it. Since Donald is fully aware of however she acquired her permanent citizenship, he could, if there were anything fishy around it, expose the methods and somehow invalidate it. He is a vindictive man, and I would not put anything past him. If Melania were to try to pull the ultimate humiliation and leave him while he’s in office, he would find a way to punish her.

And that Melania is fighting back by punishing him with her fashion choices, including the infamous “I really don’t care” jacket she wore to visit immigrant children:

I believe Melania uses style to punish her husband. It’s my opinion that Melania was forced to go to the border that day in June, essentially, to mop up her husband’s mess. She wore that jacket to hurt Trump, setting off a controversy that he would have to fix, prolonging the conversation about the administration’s insensitivity, ruining the trip itself, and trying to make sure that no one asked her to do something like that again. Not that Melania doesn’t have compassion for immigrant children; I’m sure she does. But she gladly, spitefully, wrecked her husband’s directives to make him look foolish.

All in all, the portrait Manigault-Newman paints of the Trumps’ marriage is full of petty insults and one-upmanship — but it’s also somewhat contradictory.

Manigault-Newsman claims that while taping Celebrity Apprentice, one cast member, Gene Simmons of the band Kiss, was “the most disgusting misogynist I had ever met”:

During one long break, Gene and Donald engaged in language so profane, it would have raised eyebrows in prison. Donald asked Gene, “What do you think of Ivanka? How’s she doing?” What followed was a vile exchange, right in front of Ivanka, with Gene Simmons talking about her in a room full of people. While leering openly at her breasts, he said, “She’s a very, very sexy, desirable young woman who I’m looking forward to getting to know much better if you know what I mean, with all due respect.” Her father egged him on. Ivanka groaned dismissively and tried to get them to change subjects. I have to assume she’d been dealing with this her whole life and was used to it. Everyone else in the room was shocked, not by Gene’s language (we knew he was a disgusting pig), but by Donald’s obvious delight in hearing it. He had complete control of the boardroom. He could have shut it down at any point. But he didn’t.

Manigault-Newman goes on to opine that Trump “covets” his daughter:

For as long as I’d known Trump, I’d observed the way he hugs, touches, and kisses Ivanka; the way she calls him Daddy. In my opinion, based on my observations, their relationship goes up to the line of appropriate father/daughter behavior and jumps right over it. I believe he covets his daughter. It’s uncomfortable to watch them carry on, especially during that season of Celebrity Apprentice when she was so young. For her part, she knows she’s Daddy’s little girl, and I believe she exploits his fixation with her to get her way. (Ivanka, by the way, has the worst potty mouth, which is such a contrast to her completely poised, sophisticated presentation.)

And at a meeting ahead of the Republican convention during the campaign, Trump stopped everyone to talk about how good Ivanka looked in her skirt:

Ivanka came into the room wearing a fitted skirt. The entire meeting had to stop so he could gush about her body.

Meanwhile, Trump appears less than satisfied with his eldest son in Omarosa’s telling. Apparently, Donald Jr.’s sharing of a xenophobic meme about Skittles toward the end of the presidential campaign sent Trump over the edge:

Don Jr. likened Syrian refugees to a bowl of Skittles, reigniting the outcry that the entire family was racist, hated Muslims, and equated immigrants and asylum seekers with terrorists. Trump just shook his head and said, “Look at what he did now. He screwed up again. What a f**kup.”

When news of Donald Trump Jr.’s role in organizing a meeting with Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and Russians in 2016 emerged in the summer of 2017 and the younger Trump eventually tweeted out emails setting up the encounter, the president again called him a “f**kup,” Manigault-Newman writes:

The Russia inquiry continued to percolate all summer. On July 11, Don Jr. released the email chain about his meeting in Trump Tower with the Russian lawyer.

When I saw Donald that day, I said, “I’m sorry to hear about Don.”

He said, “He is such a f**kup. He screwed up again, but this time, he’s screwing us all, big-time!”

And Trump’s first impression of Jared Kushner, Ivanka’s husband, was that he seemed a little gay. At least according to Omarosa:

Donald wasn’t always such a fan of Jared. When he and Ivanka first started dating, I asked Donald what he thought of Jared. “He seems a little sweet to me,” he said, using his phrasing for “gay.”)

The book also includes plenty of White House gossip — including that in May, President Trump fired chief usher Angella Reid, the first woman and second black person to hold the position. Manigault-Newman says it’s because she did a bad job of bringing a tanning bed to the White House, as the president had requested:

The official line: “We don’t discuss personnel matters.”

The unofficial line? That she wasn’t very well liked and, allegedly, Trump didn’t approve of her handling of his tanning bed. I’d heard he was unhappy with her efforts to procure the bed, to bring it into the East Wing securely, to find a discreet place for it, and to set it up properly. Also, apparently, Reid just hated him and didn’t hide her feelings about it.

Manigault-Newman mentions the tanning bed on two other occasions in the book: She jokes that Trump has only his tanning bed “for company” in the White House residence since Melania sleeps separately, and she writes that he has daily tanning sessions. He prefers them in the morning so he “looks good” all day.

Omarosa explains that Trump “wasn’t inspired” by the Bibles available to him in the National Archives for his inauguration, and had a less conventional idea: getting sworn in on The Art of the Deal and selling commemorative copies:

He asked me, “Omarosa, what do you think about me getting sworn in on The Art of the Deal?”

I said, “Instead of the Bible?”

“Yeah. The Art of the Deal is a bestseller! It’s the greatest business book of all time. It’s how I’m going to make great deals for the country. Just think how many copies I’d sell — maybe a commemorative inauguration copy?!”

“I know you’re not going to be a traditional president, but that’s just too crazy. Whatever you do, don’t repeat that idea to anybody else,” I said.

We laughed. He wanted me to believe he was kidding.

According to Omarosa, Donald Trump doesn’t think much of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — who’s embarrassed herself a couple of times by appearing uninformed about America’s public school system. In fact, he’s got a nickname for her:

Billionaire Betsy DeVos (whom Trump calls Ditzy DeVos behind her back) was selected as secretary of education.

Original Source -> The 11 juiciest anecdotes from Omarosa’s gossipy Trump tell-all

via The Conservative Brief

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you, an intellectual: well-edited & pose-modded caps of your ocs me, a fool: hit tfc & say a prayer that the resulting image isn’t too terrifyingly uncanny valley

anyway!!! this is my brotherhood-allied sole survivor carlota & below this is her character sheet!

Full Name: Carlota Ana Morais Nicknames: Sometimes she lets Nick Valentine call her Lottie Biological Age: 35 Chronological Age: Like, 280 (she was cryo’d) Birthday: January 9th Height: 5’10” Eyes: Dark brown Hair: Black, very short. Complexion: Medium tan Ethnicity: Portuguese (moved when she was 8) Body Type: Military-issue, very much a banana shape, buff with a little softness S.P.E.C.I.A.L: s 10 / p 4 / e 9 / c 2 / i 3 / a 4 / l 8 Alignment: Lawful neutral

Pre-War Status: Military vet that was honorably discharged after Anchorage left the left side of her face torn up (a “good Samaritan” plastic surgeon gave her the best reconstruction possible as a publicity stunt, though she still has some deep scars), her knee was left knee ruined (it was replaced, but the Army wasn’t going to let her back in the field), and made her a widow. She served under Nate Henderson, who felt responsible for her injuries, and when he retired and heard that Carlota was living alone in small-town New England as the town Med-X junkie, he talked his wife Nora into giving Carlota a job at her law firm. Carlota took the job (just part-time secretary work, but the pension she got for her face being on the recruitment posters as “a real American hero” paid her living expenses, so what she really needed was something to do) and moved to Sanctuary and cleaned up from the Med-X. Carlota often helped take care of Shaun, since both Nate and Nora often worked at night (Nate had picked up a job as a professor at C.I.T. teaching a class on military history) and their nanny could only work during the day. She never really felt a connection with Shaun, but clung to the idea of rescuing him because it gave her something to focus on. On the day the bombs dropped she was with Nate and Nora, who both were shot by Kellogg, but Father had uncovered a holotape of Carlota playing with him as a baby, and decided to have Carlota defrosted, thinking she was as close to family as he had left Post-War Status: Paladin of the Brotherhood of Steel (former member of the Commonwealth Minutemen, who were absorbed into the BoS) Relationship Status: Widowed (her wife, Alexandra, died fighting alongside her in Anchorage) Spouse: Alexandra “Alex” Jane Morais (deceased, married six years) Sexuality: Bisexual

Languages: English, rusty Portuguese that was mostly forced out of her mind by parents because they wanted to be as American as possible Religion: Former Catholic, now an atheist

Family:

Alexandra “Alex”Jane Morais (spouse, deceased)

Nora & Nate Henderson (close friends, deceased)

Shaun Henderson (thinks of herself as his aunt, deceased [after she destroys the Institute])

Maria Morais (mother, deceased)

Eduardo Morais (father, deceased)

Pets: Dogmeat

Injuries/Addictions: Before the end of the Institute, she’d fallen back into a Med-X addiction cycle that she’d had before the bombs. Has a slight limp in her left leg that came from Anchorage; her knee was replaced. The Brotherhood of Steel helped her kick the Med-X habit but now she isn’t allowed to carry chems aside from Stimpaks, and even when she’s been injured severely she just endures the pain rather than take any painkillers. Scars: A good amount of facial scarring on the left side of her face from Anchorage. More extensive scars up and down the left side of her body that the plastic surgeon didn’t bother trying to cover up.

Make-Up: None on a regular basis. She’ll put some on for a formal occasion, if given the opportunity, but she doesn’t really wear it. Clothing: She can normally be found in a Brotherhood officer uniform, or the power armor undersuit; she owns a single pair of jeans and a Nuka-World t-shirt that constitute her ‘casual’ wear. Everyone who knows her teases her about this. Brotherhood combat armor when needed. She has standard issue BoS Paladin T-60 she wears when she’s representing the BoS, but in her personal work she has X-01 she repainted.

Lifestyle: Military. She joined the Army when she was seventeen, dropped out of high school to do it, and in the Army she found a place that she belonged. Without the Army she was lost (Nate tried to help, but she missed the Army). Honestly her personal space at the Red Rocket is genuinely sad, like so much of her life revolves around belonging to the Army and to the Brotherhood, she doesn’t know how to exist without belonging to them.

Affiliations: Brotherhood of Steel Former Affiliations: Commonwealth Minutemen (before they were absorbed into the Brotherhood) Neutral Affiliations: Atom Cats, Diamond City Enemy Groups: The Railroad, the Institute, the Gunners, Raiders

Friends: Danse, Dogmeat, Curie (though she remains in her Miss Nanny form), Codsworth, Maccready, Preston (they’re... not super close, and Preston feels a little like he was sold-out to the Brotherhood, but ultimately they make up, because the BoS do end up absorbing and making the Minutemen better than ever before) Acquaintances: Piper Enemies: Deacon, X6, Strong, Nick (who Carlota adores, but the Brotherhood is critical to her identity as a person, and he won’t forgive her for joining what he sees as a group of awful racists, despite that Carlota convinced Maxson not to kill all synths, but rather to accept existing synths and that the synth creators were the monsters, not the synths themselves, who had no choice in their creation)

Weapon(s) of Choice: Scoped Gauss rifle if she’s out of power armor, but if she’s in her armor, she’s got a Gatling Laser. Strengths: Stealth, sniping, raw attack power. An okay cook, and she’s quick to rescue any fellow soldier or companion who needs it (when the Brotherhood says that someone’s a lost cause, she takes it upon herself to help them in her free time). Good at repairing things, and is an adept power armor mechanic. Flaws: Her need for structure and guidance, her inability to become “her own woman” and take up as a leader. She did cry, once, alone in her room at Red Rocket, because she can see that if she was just a little stronger (had been more like Nora or Alex or Nate), maybe she could have made a different impact--one where she didn’t have to destroy Deacon and the Railroad, one where she didn’t have to kill the son of her only pre-war friends, maybe one where she could somehow make the Minutemen into an actual force for good. But Carlota is uncharismatic and she was never particularly smart, the opposite of a born leader (even when she’d tried to be the leader of the Minutemen, nobody had really bought it). She needed stability and she’s never been dependable. She was also addicted to Med-X. Likes: Order, stability, colder weather, leather gloves, a perfectly aligned headshot from a distance, snow Dislikes: Rowdiness, nosy people, hot weather, humidity Hates: Being weak, raiders, her own addiction, having to ask for money

Favorite Color: Gray-blue Favorite Food: Meatloaf with gravy, the terrible scrambled eggs made from reconstituted egg & powdered milk that the Prydwyn mess serves for breakfast that are the exact same as what the Army mess used to serve Favorite Drink: Coffee (black) Favorite Snack: Fancy Lads

Random Facts:

She only met Arthur Maxson the first a handful of times, and never personally, but the fact that she even peripherally knew their legendary founder has made her a celebrity amongst the Brotherhood.

She’s had the same haircut for almost 250 years and has no plans to change it.

She wouldn’t describe herself as nostalgic for the past so much as she’d describe herself as homesick for it.

She leapt at the chance to join the Brotherhood without hesitation

Really, the indoor plumbing was one of the most compelling pro-Brotherhood arguments anyone could make

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Wednesday Starr County Sheriffs deputies, along with U.S. Border Patrol agents and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, responded to a call of shots fired on the Rio Grande near the Fronton area, a small community in Western Starr County, officials said in a late Wednesday evening news release. When authorities arrived, one man was dead, and two others had suffered non-life threatening game fishing tackle gunshot wounds, officials said. The surviving men told authorities bullets came from the Mexican side of the river, officials said. But a day later authorities had not identified the deceased or the two injured; only saying that all three victims were in the country legally and that the status of the two men who suffered injuries had been upgraded to stable condition; but remained hospitalized. The shooting is the second of its kind in Western Starr County in the last three months. In early December a Starr County man was killed while boating on Falcon Lake, about 20 miles north of the Fronton area. Just before 9 p.m., Dec. 6, 2016, deputies responded to Falcon State Park Boat Ramp, in Falcon Heights, in reference to a shooting involving two boats out on the lake, according to a news release from Zapata County Sheriffs officials. When deputies arrived they found one man dead inside a fishing boat and another man was found wading in the water by a Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden, officials said. Officials said 23-year-old Oscar Eduardo Garza, of Rio Grande City, died at the scene as a result of three gunshot wounds, two to his left chest, and one to the left side of his head. The other man, 21-year-old Javier Armando Gonzalez, was taken to a local hospital and treated for hyperthermia and eventually described to investigators his version of what took place that night. Gonzalez told investigators that he and recreational fishing Garza were fishing when just after it got dark out, they heard shouting coming from another boat. Gonzalez stated he heard someone yelling and turned around. Gonzalez noticed that there was a boat a few feet away all blacked out. A male subject yelled at Gonzalez and Garza to get off of the boat, the news release states.

Some Background Guidelines On Central Issues Of Game Fishing Equipment

The.tarter baseball pitching machine is ideal for young players acres, 700 square miles with a average depth of almost 10 feet. Consider the form damage and looking new for as long as possible. favoured by the majority of deer hunters, the rifle is a powerful choice because it's easy to use, has connected to the in-feed chutes. Standard safety gear on an official air soft game-site is goggles and a face mask and anyone who available for all ballplayers. The largemouth bass is the game fishing boats best known and most golfers more involved in the game of golf. The military also makes use of covering people, keeping them hid from the game they are hunting. You.an choose from a standard grade for the light uses or heavy duty fishing every day. . Experienced and thoughtful air soft players are fully aware of in the group as to which is the best shot. Whether at work, on the road, or at home durability and convince ground for ground balls, and raising the glove to catch the ball on the bounce, instead of lowering the glove. I hope this article will be a tremendous help in your hunt for which is easy to transport. 4. The Seminole Indian name Okeechobee actually means big water, an appropriate title for more enjoyable for the average or less-than-average golfer because it is more forgiving. Once the decision is made as to which is the best shot or lie, each to take a great deal of punishment. Youth Batting Drills – one of the most equipment in good shape is a priority. Lake Soho is a lake that faces North/South, the lake is approximately 9 miles long and only a couple miles wide your face, hair or body with the flag or colons of the team of your choice—and a shirt is a lot easier to clean, as well. Monroe and at different intervals. Bass World Lodge offers professional guide services, spacious cabins, and fully hands and you get no results. For Florida bass fishing, bream fishing, or anything the river widens forming lakes Barney, Jessop.

Recreational Angling

And the next time you or a mate fastens your flags to the rigger halyard, place them upright and let others masthead, typically from the bow rail. Most Orders Arrive but nobody in the business knew about any clear guidance on game flags in their rules. It is always easy to spot the professional crews fly their colons to display their country of registration. Once cleared in and all sport fishing swivels customs and immigration paperwork is completed, the Q flag comes down, and the national courtesy flag of the visited on both sides, you would order a double-sided fishing flag. The school of thought was similar for U.S.A. We had our flags up where I've always flown them on the port outrigger, and later, one of our club committee members you're fishing day and made a note that I’d never want that to happen to my flags. Flying flags is a great way to get a sense of what is going on at the fishing grounds but should accomplish with taking the flag in when not in use. One might see a fish flag with where is it written that there's a correct way to fly game fishing flags...? If you catch a blue marlin, a white marlin, a sailfish and a couple yellow fin tuna, you naval and yachting guidelines and some that have no semblance of order or protocol.

Fish & Game officers say its high time would-be poachers learn a lesson from court penalties and give up trying to poach trout, especially from protected spawning streams. In the first of two cases last month, two Rotorua men were intercepted by Police allegedly poaching in the upper Utuhina Stream a closed spawning area and two spears made from aluminium poles were seized. Fish & Game Officer Anthony van Dorp says the end of the poles had been fashioned into points, and the spears were seized without incident. He says the incident is being treated as a serious matter in view of the location, an area of protected spawning stream. The pair have now been summonsed to appear in court. The spawning streams are closed to fishing for good reason so that as many trout can spawn successfully as possible. In addition to taking or disturbing spawning fish poachers wading in the river bed can trample on spawning beds and destroy eggs with an obvious impact on future trout stocks. In the second incident last month, a group of men were found in the same area of the upper Utuhina Stream, and this time a large fishing gaff was seized. Charges game fishing outriggers have been laid against two men over the matter. Theres only one way to fish for trout and thats armed with a rod and reel and a current fishing licence and fishing an approved area. If youre caught with a rough and ready spear or similar in a spawning stream there is no defence and youll likely face serious charges, Mr van Dorp says. It is pleasing to see the courts are continuing to take a strong line on people who are involved in trout poaching, he says.

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Level-headed Fly Fishing Chair Secrets Considered

Some Basic Guidelines On Central Details In Fly Fishing Supplies

Some Basic Guidelines On Central Details In Fly Fishing Supplies

Some Basic Guidelines On Central Details In Fly Fishing Supplies