#I don’t voluntarily choose this format

[curiouschild]

Dance Moms is the only reality tv I have continued to watch after choosing it for myself.

I am… very drawn in

[absentabsolution]

Israel/Palestine take.

The current conflict in Israel/Palestine is a deeply divisive issue. Within the Western Left and Right establishment politicians tend to be pro Israel whereas their more fringe elements tend to be pro Palestine. While there are a myriad of justifications for taking either side, I will make the argument that sometimes the best choice may in fact be a non choice. Sometimes it’s ok to recognize that a false binary can exist and sometimes there are few if any truly “good” guys and instead people merely choosing to look out for the interests of their group/trip. I also will be making an appeal to Westphalian principles which is the bedrock of our understanding of the doctrine of self determination and sovereignty in Western nation building to justify my position, as well as strategic considerations as well. I’ll even draw comparisons between this conflict and the Russo-Ukrainian War to further support my position.

Israel isn’t our fight. We have enough issues at home, there is no oil there or real need for natural resources, and Saudi Arabia and Jordan have both had our bases on their land for years. As has Bahrain. So even from the perspective of maintaining a strategic foothold in the Middle East we really don’t need to continue to send Israel funding — and we definitely do not need to allow ourselves to be dragged into another international conflict.

My personal stance is to not take a side. Atrocities are unfortunate but they are a byproduct of war, may the best man win, and then the victor can do the whole selective outrage over “war crimes,” and prosecute the loser.

It’s ok to not take a side and realize that not every issue requires a strong opinion, or to take a side. It’s not our fight. Don’t fund either side, just let them slug it out.

And, quite frankly we don’t have the money for this either, and with rising inflation and an ever worsening border crisis we really can’t afford to be funding two wars at once.

Now I have people essentially saying “Z, that’s terrible, also why do you care about Russia and Ukraine if you simply care about Westphalian principles?”

That’s a valid response and I would argue that political morality isn’t a real concept and as a result my siding with Ukraine has no moral justification. Rather it has to deal with nuclear nonproliferation agreements, and the fact that Ukraine produced 30% of the world’s grain, and a good many other natural resources which we are reliant on — namely the base products for crop fertilizer and explosives (which creates a whole national security risk in and of itself).

At the downfall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine broke away to form its own country before the formation of the then nascent Russian Federation, and at that point had the third largest stockpile of nuclear weapons on the planet after the FSU, and the US. We (the United States) convinced the Ukrainian government to voluntarily disarm themselves in exchange for our protection should Russia ever seek to expand westward. Sadly, not even 20 years after full disarmament Russia began its incursions into Ukraine.

While I have no moral problems with the Russian invasion and can definitely understand it from a strategic standpoint (there’s very much a resemblance to Germany’s justification for war in World War I to prevent encirclement, I highly recommend reading the Guns of August by Tuchman) I think that if we wish to continue to have a world with as few nuclear states as possible, then we have to both honor our agreements to defend non nuclear allies, especially ones which voluntarily gave up their only measure of defense against a nuclear power.

If the 20th century taught us anything, it’s that the only real way for a nation to have any semblance of security against a conventional invasion, is a nuclear deterrent. Other nations are aware of this, and my worry is that by us failing to honor our agreement with Ukraine, other nations will feel as if they have no solution but to develop their own nuclear programs. This is a massive risk both to our national security, and our future as a species. The best way to prevent that would be to honor our agreements with countries that we convince to disarm regarding their defense, or at the very least guaranteeing them some measure of safety with our nuclear deterrent (this is essentially what NATO is).

Now obviously at this juncture having Ukraine join NATO is a terrible idea as it would legitimately add to Russian feelings of encirclement (imagine if Mexico or Canada joined the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War, if you think Cuba was bad, it could get much, much, worse) but I think that if we had been more proactive a decade ago, or even been more insistent about Ukraine joining NATO at the downfall of the USSR when Russia was at its weakest and most disorganized, this entire situation could have been averted. Alternatively keeping Ukraine as a nuclear vassal state also could have been an option, though with their own corruption and instability over the last two decades makes them being a nuclear power a terrifying prospect.

As is the best option for Ukraine is for Russia to invade, break them, and make it very clear that any further antagonism by threatening to join NATO is untenable, and then leaving. This is also likely the best option for ourselves as well as committing American troops would be incredibly unpopular, and escalate tensions with Russia into all out war. So the aid we give is the best way to honor that agreement and ideally convince more nations that advanced conventional weaponry is better than creating a nuclear program.

Ukraine also serves as a great way to field test next generation weapon systems (against a conventional military) while simultaneously getting rid of older weapons systems which are expensive to service or dispose of stateside. A significant chunk of our military budget is spent servicing older assets that are outdated but due to political considerations are unnecessarily hard to phase out or dispose of. And again, circling back to my earlier point — much of the rising prices in food can be directly attributed to Ukraine producing nearly a third of the world’s grain and much of the world’s precursors for fertilizer. Part of me also suspects that rising ammo costs are in part associated with the conflict itself but also the fact that some of the chemicals used in the production of munitions are also produced in Ukraine.

Israel has practically none of these advantages/justifications (or the same prior commitments to defense against nuclear aggressors) and lacks even the distinction of being the only host to our bases in the Middle East, which is why I have no side in this conflict as opposed to my support for at least giving Ukraine our outdated conventional weapons, and allowing them to field test next generation equipment (I think this should be done through allowing defense companies to partner with Ukraine themselves rather than us subsidizing this or actually paying for said next generation equipment). Furthermore Israel is a nuclear power. While exact estimates may vary, the current size of their nuclear arsenal is estimated to be around 200 weapons. In the event of Israel being overrun Israel has made it very clear that they will pursue a “Samson Option” which essentially nuclear self immolation as well as nuclear strikes against their enemies in the region. During the Six Day War (and only averted by the destruction of the Egyptian Air Force) Israel nearly detonated a nuclear weapon in the Sinai Peninsula. Much of the unrest that we see in the region is funded by various actors who profit from the conflict, but most Arab countries would never commit to an invasion of Israel that would actually be successful because of the fact that Israel has a nuclear deterrent and has made it clear that they would retaliate.

In sum, all of the current drama and internecine feuding and squabbling taking place both in the Middle East, and on the Western Left is incredibly pointless and stupid. There’s no need to pick a side because it won’t change the status quo. And if the status quo does change, Israel nukes itself and their neighbors all catch strays themselves. No one actually wants an end to this conflict because it’s a way to raise money and have moral justifications to excuse what ever they were going to do already. There are no “good” or “bad” guys in this situation and there are no real winners and losers until someone decides to take a more permanent action.

While the Left seems hung up on this concept of “colonizers,” I would remind them that the Ottoman Empire and its colonization of the Middle East, Europe, North Africa, and much of the Middle East (and accompanying ethnic cleansing) predated Columbus ever setting foot in the New World. Slavery was legal until the 1950s and still more or less exists in many forms in the region (Dubai being the most prominent present example, or open air slave markets in Libya). There are no good people in this situation, only people with guns and the willingness to use them.

To the Evangelical Right who seems to be under the impression that Israel is our staunchest ally, I would point to incidents like the USS Liberty, Israel selling our military technology to India and China, laundering money for Russia, and the fact that Israel’s drone and munitions stockpile is severely depleted because they sold much of it to Azerbaijan who then used those weapons to genocide Armenian Christians over the last few years, leading to the deaths of 120,000 Armenian Christians.

I repeat, there are no good guys. This isn’t our fight. We are not served by our involvement on either side of this conflict.

Sorry for the very long winded take. I think that oftentimes explaining the underlying information that leads to a justification for a position is helpful. If this offends you, sorry, wasn’t really my intention but I’m not really crying over that either. I have Arab and Palestinian friends, I’ve got Jewish ones too. This wasn’t made with a particular animus towards one party in mind — which I suppose is probably the source of the offense. But the fact is there are no truly good or evil groups. Just people groups looking out for their own interests and using the best tools at their disposal as effectively as they can. Sometimes it’s a moral justification or law, sometimes it’s a sword.

“Vltima Ratio Regvm.”

-Z

[markrosewater]

Ok, so hear me out:

1) My opponent controls a Wicker Picker.

2) I use Mindslaver to control their next turn.

3) In this turn, I play a creature from their hand, and I use Wicker Picker’s sticker kicker.

Since I am in control of my opponent’s turn, can I put a sticker on the Sticker-kicked creature?

Does the answer change if I used “Donate” to give them my Wicker Picker in the first place?

(Also, one thing I’ve realized from past answers is that if my opponent doesn’t want a sticker glued on their card, we can use a counter. I can’t force them to use stickers with real glue).

You cannot. Same with Donate. There are no cards currently in the game of Magic that change ownership of cards (well, except ante cards, but those haven't been a thing in a long, long time and they are banned in every format).

EDIT: Some further clarification. Built into the sticker rules is you have to voluntarily choose to put a sticker on a card. Nothing in the game can force you to sticker something if you don’t want to sticker it.

EDIT #2: Checking into this, I gave a slightly incorrect answer. If you Mindslaver your opponent, you can force them to sticker cards they own, but you can’t literally force them to put a sticker on it. The player may choose instead to represent it with paper and pencil.

[bean-na-farraige-agus-foraoise]

A Rebuttal of “Lesson 6: The Structure of Early Gaelic Society”

This is part 6 of my 20-part manifesto on why druids should do some research for once. You can find the master-post here.

This is a long post, so the actual rebuttal is under the cut! Each number in parenthesis (#) corresponds to a footnote formatted in the Chicago manual of style located in the block quote at the end of the post, any reference to the Brehon laws is linked within the text and will not have a footnote!

Hey hey hey welcome back! It’s been a few months, and I’m refreshed and am once again ready to tear into druidic bullshit. Today we’re continuing our look at Robin Herne’s “lessons,” this particular lesson can be found here. 

From the very beginning of this “lesson” I’m sensing a problem with Herne’s writing that I’ve seen and spoken on before, which is the concept of a pan-Celtic religion. Herne’s lesson may focus on Ireland, but that’s only because he feels as though it’s “harder” to talk about Wales.... a nation with a very different history and a different religion than Ireland..... but they’re both Celtic so whatever right? For any newbies here, there was no Pan-Celtic religion. I mention this in Part 1 of this series.

From there it only gets worse really. For starters, the Romans never conquered Ireland, the nation whose history is supposed to be the focus of this lesson. Beyond that- the Romans used existing British oppida as the urban centers of the tribal system that was established under their rule, to claim that pre-Roman Britain was made up only of villages when archaeologists can’t accurately determine the populations of the oppida is ridiculous. What the Romans did was establish the first cities that were not located in the South East of England. Herne also has this weird focus on Ireland and Britain being “rural” as though most cultures weren’t largely rural- and honestly the focus on distancing these cultures from anything urban is a HUGE red flag if you know the history of paganism and Celtic Twilight, bad show all around. And of course Herne doesn’t cite any sources so for all I know he’s pulling this out of his ass. All in all it seems like Herne is falling to the classic pitfall of circle jerking to Rome, maybe if he could get off Rome’s dick for a few minutes we might actually learn something. 

I question whether Herne has ever actually read the Brehon laws, or if he understands that there were similarities between the laws of many medieval societies, even those that didn’t share a “Celtic” label. I genuinely have no idea what “change” he’s referring to that would be a gradual process considering the continental Celts and the Gaels were different cultures, and the laws in question existed at different times, and also the laws he references for the continental Celts were only “mentioned” by classical authors, who if you haven’t read my other rebuttals are notoriously unreliable narrators. 

I question the choice to say “Think of the cenn as rather like the head of a Mafia clan! “ and particularly to end it with an exclamation point. The cenn, is the head of the family, and thus the family’s legal representative in court. This was not a cultural practice unique to Ireland, similar practices are shown to exist throughout Europe during this time. And in no way is a patriarch (or occasionally a matriarch) who protects the family’s interests and revokes legal agreements made without their consent the same thing as a mafia boss. This isn’t a crime syndicate, it’s a judicial system that protects the different families within the tribe and in theory was meant to ensure that contractual decisions were made with the consent of the family. 

Beyond this to describe the social structure of early Ireland as a “caste system” is... stretching it- movement from one class to another was not uncommon, and more things factored into one’s status in Irish society than simply the situation of one’s birth. Beyond that, this system is more easily broken down into six groups than into two, and Herne would know that if he’d actually read the Brehon laws. Rather than just splitting society into “the blessed ones” and “ordinary people” the Brehon laws organize it into kings of various grades, professional classes, flaiths (a sort of official nobility), freemen possessing property, freemen who possess no or very little property, and the non-free classes. And joint ownership of property could qualify a selected joint-owner to become a noble, this is very much not the rigid system Herne would want you to believe it is. 

Herne’s discussion of the Lia Fail while simplified does hold up. In the lore we see the process described by Herne for choosing the high king of Ireland, it’s described clearly in The Destruction of Dá Derga’s Hostel. And I will admit, I’m with Herne up to a point in his discussion of the concept of lanamnas, there’s clearly a fair amount of research he needs to do into medieval history to truly understand the relationships he’s describing, but he’s not necessary wrong, so I’ll let it slide, these are meant to be introductory lessons after all. 

However. Herne makes some... interesting claims in regards to divinity. Herne makes the correct statement that “Each partner in lanamain must recognise that they have a duty to give certain things to the other person, but also a duty to allow that person to give back to them ~ there is no honour in emasculating someone, nor in allowing yourself to be rendered servile.” This is correct, we see this very same principle in the two sided nature of the virtue of hospitality, we’re called to be both good hosts and good guests. But then Herne goes onto say “This applies as much to the Gods as to other humans. Hosting a ritual for a god may be seen as fulfilling the coinmed, but there should also be expectation back of the deity. If your life is barren, then maybe you need a better head to guide you (either that, or you‘re not fulfilling your duties to them).” Ignoring the fact that Herne has all but called the gods parasites if they don't attend rituals we host for them voluntarily (something we should be doing anyway, and without the expectation that they’ll show up)- this argument rests on the assumption that we can understand the divine and how they interact with us enough to judge whether or not we need a "better head" to guide us, which I think anyone who’s actually had an encounter with the divine or felt their presence can tell you is bullshit. They’re divine for a reason, they’ve existed for thousands of years, we’re just a blip on their radar, it is not up to us to judge whether or not we need a “better head to guide us” or if we’re giving enough, the gods decide that. 

For everyone who had “baseless claims about the roles of historical druids” on their BINGO cards you may now cross that off. Herne falls into the typical pattern of repeating the “druids were the precursor the Catholic church” story fabricated by 16th century Germans for political clout. Don’t be like Herne, read a goddamn book, I have recommendations, feel free to dm me or shoot me an ask if you’d like them. 

And last but not least, I would like to remind everyone that the “every family/tribe has their own tartan that differentiates them” is a largely 19th century creation with scant pre-Victorian basis. 

That’s all for today! If you want more reading on any of the topics mentioned in this post feel free to shoot me an ask or a message and I’ll provide you with a reading list!

[frankgrimesvshomersimpson]

Review of John Palmer on voluntary governments

In science, experiments must be made to test out hypotheses.

All around the world, business people motivated to become wealthy commit their time, money and effort to discover new and more efficient ways to serve the market. Every company is different from all others. As time passes, the ones serving society better will accumulate capital. Capitalism allows for limitless entrepreneurial experiments where merit is the name of the game. Those who serve their costumers better while minimizing their expenses win. To become wealthy is to serve society. That's the beauty of it, like Jeff Bezos has said: “Want to get rich? Solve someone’s problem”.

Politics vs Business

There’s a critical aspect to businesses that doesn’t apply to governments. In the free market, value is subjective and so several companies can coexist. Some people love Apple computers and are willing to spend more for them. Others prefer windows. It's not that some people are wrong, it's just that we all have different preferences and different wealth levels. For example: I don't spend money going to the gym because it's cheaper to go to the local swimming pool and get a good workout. Some people still prefer to go to the gym. Are they wrong? Am I? The answer is no and no. What's right for them is not necessarily right for me. Value is subjective.

Democracy doesn't respect subjectivity. It doesn't matter what’s best for you. The government will rule over you because the majority has chosen it. This is a key issue with democracies.

It's not that humanity hasn't experimented several types of government. Clearly, wealth arises when people are free. Looking at history and at the present shows this. The freer countries are the wealthiest. Capitalism works because it’s the system that rewards value. The more value is offered to others, the wealthier one becomes. However, capitalism is wrongly treated, even though it lifted billions out of poverty.

Surely the way to solve this problem is not with more democracy. One’s own freedom shouldn’t rely upon the acceptance of one’s ideals by others. Instead, freedom-loving people around the world that share a passion for capitalism must come together and create new free countries. New experiments based on consent not majority rule: Startup nations. Balaji Srinivasan has written about this.

Why government innovation is slow

Mr John Palmer writes that political parties are bound by nation states and that nation states are bound by political parties. He argues that maybe political parties in government don’t get an actual chance at trying new things because they are restricted by the other parties. This reminds me of Fidel Castro’s argument for not having elections:” 4 years is not enough to make significant changes.”

To me government innovation doesn’t sound like a positive thing given I consider the American government has been getting worse for the past decades. Government innovation sounds like a more efficient way to tax people and impose rules that hurt the free market.

If by government innovation it is to be meant government reform, then I agree. However, there’s not a motivation in government to reform itself, given the people that are in government have the biggest motivation to make sure the system perpetuates itself. I am not an anarchist. Government should exist, but it should also let the people be free. To shackle the free market is to shackle people. One way for government to concede a way to test out new political ideas would be to allow the formation of nation states inside its territory. The founding spirit of the USA relies on the idea that several states should coexist. That's why it's called USA and not just A.

Creating newly found states within the USA would bypass the problem of needing majority to elect a government and the problem of having a government that’s too restricted by the opposing parties. While I'm not aware of any movement to create new states, there is a libertarian movement that consists in emigrating to New Hampshire to gain through the democratic process meaningful representation in the local governments.

Enabling faster progress

It's truly wonderful to think that the future can be so much better than the present. While I'm not an expert on blockchain, I understand the advantages to total sovereignty over one's own money. Blockchain allows freedom from state, and it seems that the technology to progress humanity into what I believe is the future (free nation states that start in online communities) already exists.

To solve the problem of sovereignty, these new startup countries could from unions that share military resources to make sure no legacy countries try to meddle with their freedom. After all, monopolies don’t like competition, usually.

A decent case use for VR

Testing out whole cities with VR sounds like a weird way to play Grand Theft Auto. It doesn't seem realistic to me to simulate a whole city like this. VR could however be used to show to people what the infrastructure of the new city states could look like.

Software eating currency

Given money is simply a tool and assuming that the best tool is usually adopted by people, it's logical to imagine that in the maybe not so distant future the main currencies of the world will be cryptocurrencies. Whether legacy countries will fight them or welcomed them becomes almost irrelevant in the realm of a startup city laden future.

For centuries, tyranny has ruled over people. Democracy with its faults replaced the legacy systems (tyrannical monarchies and dictatorships) for the better. However, we should always strive for something better. The technology to aid those of us that want to live under a government of their one choosing that respects individual freedoms and is funded voluntarily already exists. Once startup cities become a reality and succeed, the pressure will be on legacy governments to adapt or risk having their people mass migrate to the newly founded startup cities.

[coldflasher]

Part of Femslash Week, organised by @flarrowverse-shipyard​ :D Femslash Week Day 4 - Bed Sharing/Snuggling

Pairing: Charlie/Zari Tarazi

Rating: Teen (mentions of sex)

TW: mentions of sex and character death

Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23028457 

All That Glitters by coldflasher (capriciouslouis on ao3)

“Most of the rooms down this corridor are spoken for," says Sara. "You’re gonna have to bunk up.”

Thanks to a mysterious shortage of rooms on the Waverider, Zari and Charlie have to share a bed. Neither of them are particularly upset about the situation.

“So can you really shapeshift into anything?”

They’re lying in bed together in Charlie’s bedroom, which looks like a teenager’s emo phase met a museum exhibit in the middle of a tornado. Glossy vinyl records spill out of their sleeves all across the floor like the world’s most dangerous stepping stones. There are clothes abandoned everywhere where Charlie’s stepped out of them and left them there, including a pair of lacy black underwear draped over the lampshade, and battered punk posters of howling singers plastered all over the walls. It wouldn’t have been Zari’s first choice of bedroom, but she didn’t exactly get to choose. When she’d announced she was staying, she’d had a look through a bunch of different rooms and thought she’d finally found a nice one - a little vintage, smelling faintly of perfume - when Sara had grabbed her by the arm.

“Nope. This one’s off limits.”

“Why? There’s no one in here.” And there hadn’t been for some time, judging by the layers of dust. 

Sara hesitated. “It belonged to a friend.”

“Well your friend isn’t here now, and I am, so…”

“You’re temporary,” Sara snapped. “You don’t get to rearrange everything just to suit you.”

“Who made you the boss?” asked Zari. Certainly no one who believed in the importance of manners.

Sara smiled thinly. “Popular vote.” She released Zari’s wrist. “Most of the rooms down this corridor are spoken for. You’re gonna have to bunk up.”

At the time Zari had been deeply unimpressed by this rudeness - the ship was huge, and there were so many empty rooms, so why shouldn’t she take one that was free? But when she’d tried to let herself into another empty bedroom, this time it was the AI that locked her out.

“What is with you people?” she demanded. “Why do you hate me?”

“This room belonged to Leonard Snart,” Gideon told her. “It has remained almost untouched since his death at the Vanishing Point in 2016.”

Zari had been trying to prise a panel off the wall to see if she could have another flash of inspiration that would let her hack her way in, but at this, she paused.

“Wait,” she said. “This room belonged to a dead guy?”

Gideon explained, and she discovered the sad truth of all those rooms lying empty. Each one was a time capsule for a departed team member. Some had left voluntarily, others had passed away - but regardless of the circumstances, each bedroom still remained as its occupant had left it, like a time capsule. As if the team was waiting for their lost and fallen members to come walking back through the door. They could travel back and forth in time, but the people they loved were still lost… and apparently it was easier to leave everything as it was than to move on.

This deeply traumatising discovery had a horrible effect on Zari, who was an empath and highly sensitive. She’d ended up in the kitchen having a staring competition with a doughnut, afraid that Behrad’s peace offering the other day had started a dessert-related backslide that she’d never be free of - and that was where Charlie found her.

“You all right?” Charlie asked, concerned. “You look a bit bummed out.”

“All the free bedrooms are for dead people,” Zari mumbled.

Charlie had given her a big grin that had a strangely uplifting effect, like she transferred happiness across the room with one glowing smile.

“Well. If you need somewhere to rest that pretty head, you can always come and have a kip with me.”

That was how they ended up in Charlie’s disaster of a bedroom, and if Zari’s being honest with herself, she doesn’t hate it. Thanks to her social media following, she doesn’t really have the opportunity to be messy. She has to be ready to turn on the camera at all times, to look pretty and perfect and put-together. Dirty laundry isn’t conducive with her brand. 

“So you can really shapeshift into anything?” she asks.

Charlie turns towards her with a  grin. “Ah, there it is. Knew it’d come up eventually. Come on then, spill the beans. Who’s your fantasy shag?”

“Excuse me?” says Zari.

“You know, your fantasy shag! George Clooney, Gillian Anderson… who makes your fanny flutter?”

“George Clooney’s like, super old,” says Zari, wrinkling her nose. “And for the record, your word choice leaves a lot to be desired. I don’t know how you do things in England, but where I’m from ‘fanny’ is not a sexy word.”

“Sorry. Picked up an English accent back in the seventies and for some reason I can’t seem to shake it.” Charlie stretches lazily, pointing her toes, one painted nail poking out through a hole in her fishnet tights. “But you’re changing the subject. Being in bed with me means you can sleep with anyone you like. Who do you want me to be?”

Zari thinks about it for a while. She looks at Charlie sprawled out on the bed with her fuck-me eyes half closed, her wicked grin and the wild cloud of hair wrestled into its braid, tinged purple at the end; her stripey shirt and mesh jacket. Effortlessly sexy and cocky enough to know it. 

“I don’t think I want you to be anybody. I like you how you are.”

Charlie looks surprised. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Zari says. “I mean I know this isn’t your original form, but it looks good on you. I’m sure you still look sexy with your tentacles or whatever -”

“My original form would melt your brain,” says Charlie. “But I can probably rustle up a couple of tentacles if you’re into that.”

“Maybe later,” says Zari. “That’s not my point. I feel like if I was going to sleep with someone with shapeshifting powers, I’d want them to look whichever way made them comfortable. A body’s just a body. The sexy part is what you do with it.”

“You really mean that, don’t you?”

“Of course. I’m very sincere. It’s one of my most awesome qualities.”

Charlie grinned a little bit at that. Zari found herself smiling back.

“I don’t think anyone’s said that to me before,” says Charlie. Her expression dims slightly and she starts toying with a loose thread on the pillowcase. “This isn’t my real face, obviously. Belongs to some bird named Amaya who lived here a few years back. When I first met the team, I put her face on just to mess with them. Then I kind of got stuck with it for a bit. Now I can change again, but I’ve had it so long that it feels like my face. But they still don’t see it that way. Sometimes I feel like they still look at me and see…”

“Her,” Zari says softly.

“Yeah.” Charlie rolls onto her back. “It’s partly my fault, I know. That’s the whole reason I looked like this, because I knew it would throw them off. But now I want to just be me, Charlie, without some random woman hanging over me making them do a double-take when I do something that’s super anti-Amaya. You’re the only one on the ship who hasn’t met her, the only person who looks at me and sees… me.”

It’s the first time she’s ever heard Charlie be serious. No flirting or wisecracks. For the first time, staring into her eyes, Zari can believe that Charlie is a fate. That she’s seen civilisations fall and the centuries pass like seasons. No one as young as Charlie looks could have eyes so old.

“I get that,” she says quietly, propping herself up on her elbow. “It’s not the same, but… when you grow up famous, people think they know you. It’s like there’s a part of you that doesn’t belong to you. I can never just be me; I have to be the brand. And I love it, I’m proud of it, I spent years building it - I just wish people could see past it. Even my parents don’t know me.”

“I have a confession,” says Charlie. 

“Go on.”

“I don’t have a bloody clue who you are.”

Zari cackles. It’s a horribly unattractive sound she would never have permitted in one of her vlogs, but it feels so good to let it out.

“I’m serious! You could tell me you’re the Queen of Sheba and I’d believe ya.”

“You gotta join the Z-nation,” Zari teases, snapping her fingers in a Z-formation. “I’ll add you to the mailing list.”

“You’d better bloody not.”

It feels good to laugh, and even better to have someone laughing with her. When she first joined the team and realised none of Behrad’s friends recognised her, it had pissed her off. She’s an icon! She has a make-up range and a million followers and even if the perfume launch didn’t go exactly to plan, she’s still in the running for influencer of the year if she can knock Stormi Jenner off the top spot. But although Charlie doesn’t know her, she doesn’t make it sound like a bad thing. It’s not because she thinks Zari is vapid or irrelevant or beneath her notice. She just… doesn’t know. There’s no prior expectations, no way she can disappoint. For the first time in years, she can be judged not on who she has been for a decade, but on who she is today.

“I may not know you,” Charlie says softly. “But I’d like to.”

“Well then,” says Zari, offering her a manicured hand. “I’m Zari. Nice to meet you.”

She’s expecting Charlie to shake her hand, but instead, she lifts it up to her mouth and kisses it. And like a fourteen-year-old with a first crush, Zari blushes.

“Yeah,” Charlie says with a smirk, knowing exactly what kind of effect she’s having. “I think you and I are going to get along just fine.”

[bothsandneithers]

Day 3327

I need to hurry up and write this, because I am forgetting how miserable I was. This is not part of an effort to ensure that I don't repeat this process over again (perhaps as some may be tempted to do after childbirth). Instead, this exercise is consistent with my tendency to ask my friends to describe the most uncomfortable and unfortunate parts of their vacations. Who wants to hear a story that could more succinctly be conveyed within the narrow pages of a travel brochure? To adapt this question to the present situation: Who wants to hear a series of events that could be more adequately summarized by a few pages in a student handbook?

I’m sure that someone could have a field day by drawing parallels between giving birth to a child and writing a dissertation. While this is not my story to tell, I have described my experience by drawing upon the image of a mother who harnesses supernatural strength to lift a car off of her child. The listener is then immediately confused, and I then have to clarify that, in this metaphor, I am both the mother and the child, and that the dangerous, debilitating, threat of the car, is my dissertation.

It may be more effective if I am more direct: I want everyone to know that I (as the small child) was quite miserable, and I (as the mother) accomplished something that I thought was more than I could handle.

I imagine that if a car did end up on a small child, then the entire situation would invoke so much stress on the mother that she may not ever be able to recount exactly what happened during those subsequent moments. In a different way, of course, and for reasons I am still trying to understand, I too remember very little from the summer and early fall leading up to my defense.

In the place of memories, I find myself relying on artifacts to represent months and events that I cannot recall. One such set of artifacts are the six or so issues of The Atlantic magazine that have been set aside into a small pile; each one received a small verbal promise that I would open the pages after my defense. Now, as I review the covers, I imagine that they may never be read. Below are some of the stress-inducing cover stories of these abandoned issues:

How to destroy a government: The president is winning his war on American institutions.

How QAnon is warping reality and discrediting science.

The election that could break American.

How did it come to this? Why the virus won.

In the early days of lockdown, when the virus was beginning to take hold of its victory, I read this explanation for why most of us are not thriving right now: In order to flourish, one must be able to play several different human roles over the course of the day -- something that is arguably impossible when we rarely leave our dwellings.1

After reading this explanation, I starting clinging to the argument that the overwhelming reason why completing my dissertation had become so difficult was because of an absence of variability in my human roles. Even though none of my other typically played human roles were terribly interesting (commuter, friend, peer, coffee shop customer, gym patron), each one offered me respite from the singular human role that I was stuck with: The neurotic graduate student.

The neurotic graduate student human role was difficult to be around, because she was always worried about so many things: that her arguments weren't good enough, that there were errors in her code, that she should be able to understand certain concepts that were still evading her, that more time-intensive analyses were still required, and that overturning new stones would reveal that previous analyses or assumptions were wrong or incomplete. More simply, the neurotic graduate student human role was always worried that she was not good enough.

This persona can be debilitating, and I found that the act of writing a dissertation included a lot of time not actually writing, but rather, a substantial amount of time was devoted to sitting in paralyzing anxiety, not able to do anything.

Even though many of the weeks leading up to my due date were a blur, I do recall choosing this time to watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Perhaps I did this because misery loves company. I decided to view this odd movie choice in a particular odd format, whereby I watched the movie in 15 minute intervals, across several nights, as if savoring a segmented Toblerone.

I watched the first few segments in stoic sympathy with the characters, but I eventually found myself amused when Jack Nicholson realizes that almost all the residents are “voluntary”:

You can go home any time you want? You're bullshittin' me. He's bullshittin' me right? Cheswick, you're voluntary? Scanlon? Billy, for chrissakes you must be committed, right? I mean, you're just a young kid, what're you doin' here? … I mean, you guys do nothing but complain about how you can't stand it in this place here and then you haven't got the guts just to walk out?

I remember smiling for a few moments at this scene; it was a gentle reminder that I invited this stress into my life, and that I could, indeed, bring it all to an end if I really wanted to. The smile was fleeting, and felt similar to when you are crying, and your friend says something that is true and funny to try and make you feel better, and you laugh and it feels really good but it also reminds you of how bad you feel, and how far away you are from feeling like yourself.

Yet again, someone else might have a field day drawing parallels between today’s academic environment and a fictional mental institution from the 1970s. I can't do this, in part because, aside from that one scene, I don’t actually remember what happens in the movie.

I did, however, voluntarily lock myself in a hotel room to write, because the suffocating familiarity of my home was preventing me from generating any new sentences. A sticker had been placed between the room's door and its frame, denoting that the room had been thoroughly cleaned. Surely this was only intended to be a symbolic seal to provide some peace of mind that it was safe and acceptable to be outside of one's house.

Once inside the room (that seemed no cleaner than in the absence of a pandemic), I did not immediately initalize my plan to write incessantly. Instead, I desultorily found myself on a support group on reddit that was dedicated to "PhD stress." Feeling compelled to write anything that was not my dissertation, I made a post targeted at those who were also writing their dissertations during a pandemic:

What you are doing right now is really, really hard.

Under "normal" conditions, you would be facing a sheer amount of uncertainty with your work (e.g., not knowing how analyses will turn out, not knowing what your advisor will think of your progress, etc). Under these new conditions, you are dealing with the uncertainty of the state of the world (pandemic), the government (upcoming election -- if in the US), as well as your dissertation! These are absurd conditions, whereby any one of these things would undoubtedly have negative impacts on your well being.

For many, you went from having an entire support group of peers, to sitting in your bedroom, day in and day out, trying to come up with novel ideas and effective ways to communicate these ideas.

As such, I urge you to take care of yourself. I urge you to give yourself permission to ignore unwanted criticism that, while in other circumstances you may work hard to address. Now, in this current context, just don't. Give yourself permission to stop perpetuating the idea that your work and your psyche should not be impacted by the fact that nothing is the same right now.

Defend your ideas, yes. And do good work (-- nah, do good enough work). But know that you are defending your work under surreal circumstances. Account for this when you wake up tomorrow, move four feet from your bed to your desk, and try to do the same thing over again.

Overnight, this became the most popular post in the subreddit’s history. Admittedly, there aren’t a lot of members in this particular community (it should also be noted that this post was recently surpassed in popularity by a post entitled, “PhD has destroyed my mental health”). Still, several users responded with something along the lines of, “Thank you. I needed to hear this.”

I needed to hear those words too -- that is one reason why I wrote them. But I was also desperate to play another human role; one who ambiguously could have already made it to the other side of the dissertation defense, and was able to offer encouragement to those close to the finish line.

Soon after my hotel stay, where I eventually did find motivation to write, I was set to defend my dissertation. This was met with the opportunity to transform into another human role: someone who was nearing the end of her graduate student career, and had no choice but believe that her work was good enough.

The dissertation defense took place via video conferencing. I sat at my desk in my make-shift office in my bedroom.

Five kind and smart professors asked me kind questions that made me feel smart.

And that was it.

After the defense, the stress began to fade away. I recalled the wise words that my therapist once said, “It’s remarkable how, after the defense, people just won’t need anything from you anymore.” I made edits to my dissertation and submitted my final version. I dismantled my “home office” and replaced it with a reading chair and a plant. A new issue of The Atlantic arrived in the mail, and now with time, cognitive space, and optimism that this issue would not be as depressing as the others, I started to read.

I opened to an article about a historian who predicts that the United States is about to experience a terrible decade. He blames this on the overproduction of elites. ("There are still only 100 Senate seats, but more people than ever have enough money or degrees to think they should be running the country.") These elites find alternative ways to disrupt the status quo to influence people; the elite overproduction "creates counter-elites, and counter-elites look for allies among the commoners.”2

Although the article was compelling, it did not feel like appropriate material, as one does not work tirelessly through graduate school to then be compared to Steve Bannon.

I continued to the next article which was about young adults (or old children) who post things to a social media platform I’ve never used (TikTok). Not only do they create short videos that are viewed by millions of viewers, but there is an entire industry of these individuals, and they curate their content together in the mansions that they cohabitate (I am yet to grasp the monetization of this endeavor).3

I settled into my chair. Finding myself enjoying my new human role as a casual observer to an unknown world, I thought: What an absolutely absurd life pursuit.

xx,

Amy, PhD

https://nplusonemag.com/issue-37/the-intellectual-situation/epilogue-for-a-way-of-life/ ↩︎

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/12/can-history-predict-future/616993/ ↩︎

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/12/charli-damelio-tiktok-teens/616929/ ↩︎

[juicecross8-blog]

How to Download Tumblr Videos 2020 (4 Quick Methods)

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[incorrecteragonquotes]

Eragon Movie Recap Part 1: The First Part

So.

I watched the Eragon movie. Voluntarily.

I would say that I had forgotten how bad this movie was, but the truth is, I don’t think I ever fully understood in the first place. I saw this thing in theatres back when I had very low standards, and I kinda disliked it then. Seeing it again more than ten years later, it blew my mind. Ohhh boy, was I ever unprepared. I knew it would be bad, but this? I completely underestimated it. I was not at all ready.

But, ready or not, I saw the film. All of it. In detail. And among all of the bad bits I found many things to laugh at, though I imagine most of those were unintentional, and at least one instance of thematic consistency, which is always nice to see. So, the film was bad, certainly, but not thoroughly, completely terrible. But, if what we have now is bad, can we do better? Can we take what the studio has given us and transform it into something fun to experience, something people might actually choose to look at because they like seeing it? I certainly hope so, as this is the beginning of my quest to make that a reality.

This post and those following it will constitute a recap of the 2006 Eragon film - a summary of its events with a bit of commentary sprinkled in. Personal opinions will probably sprout up faster than weeds in a suburb. The wordy bits will be broken up by annotated screencaps from the film itself. I hope you like them! This series is based on a recap/screencap format that I personally have seen in mammothrider’s RWBY Recaps. In this recap series, you’ll be able to see elements from both that and screencap annotation blogs like cakewatchespsychopass. These folks do some very good work, and if their stuff looks interesting to you, you should totally check it out!

Now that you know what’s coming, I invite you to join me on my journey, as it is now beginning. My mission: to give you a way to enjoy the Eragon movie without first having to endure the Eragon movie.

Our story opens with a series of aerial shots. Clouds, mountains, and more are visible as the opening narration makes it clear that we’re in for a few minutes of exposition. Eventually, while looking at some clouds, a dragon raises its head into the frame. It turns out that we, the audience, were the real dragon rider the whole time! I must wonder, though, where the dragon was keeping its head earlier in this shot. That must have made for one uncomfortable flying stance.

But what’s this? On the other side of this cloud, we find a battle! With dragons fighting left and right and fire flying every which way, we look up to find ourselves attacked from above by another dragon!

The narrator informs us that all of this fighting is because of some guy named Galbatorix. While we’re on the subject of this guy, I have to ask, who names their kid Galbatorix? Like, even ignoring the part where it’s clearly an Evil Overlord Name, am I the only one who thinks it’s weird that somewhere, somebody looked at their kid and thought, I’m going to give you a really unwieldy name containing entirely too many syllables and weird consonants. I don’t mean to suggest that people never have long or complicated names, but compared to the rest of the names in this story, this one really sticks out to me as a very egregious example.

Moving on, we’re told about how there was this big war where a bunch of people died, and those that didn’t opted instead to run away in the approximate direction of some mountains. But wait! Who is this?

Some important rebels are riding through the woods on horseback, and they… stole the king’s favourite rock. We aren’t told why this matters. We are told, however, that the most important rebel’s name is Arya. Interestingly, she appears to be wearing the least armour, despite being the most important. Maybe they’re hoping that people will recognize her, and therefore not attack? That’s an unusual strategy. Regardless, everyone’s favourite oversized paperweight is clearly causing a few problems.

Meanwhile at the local evil lair, Ol’ Galby’s telling his Shade friend Durza all about how much he misses his cool rock. Oh, if only there were someone who could go on a low-profile retrieval mission. Someone with vaguely-defined supernatural abilities. Someone who doesn’t have the responsibility of staying in this weird mountain cave in case they need to loom dramatically in front of the camera. Durza, one of the least bad characters in this movie, takes the hint.

And now, we get to meet our protagonist! He’s getting out of bed at nighttime, for some reason. Protagonist walks past his sleeping uncle on his way to the door, and, for some reason, takes the time to pause and smile fondly at him. I’m not really sure of what the filmmakers were trying to communicate with this. He cares about his family? This man is, in fact, related to him? He would be disappointed if his parental figure were to suddenly be murdered? It is indeed that time of day, you know, the one when people generally aren’t awake? I should hope these things are all understandable by other means.

As our narrator informs us that this man venturing into the woods with a bow and some arrows is, in fact, going hunting, we get to enjoy a confusing bit of editing. In one shot, Protagonist Man (the fact that his name is Eragon is, of course, left unsaid) is closing the front door behind him. In the next shot, he’s climbing a hill in the middle of a lush forest that was clearly not at his doorstep in the establishing shot. Yes, I know he could have walked there first, but the editing strongly suggested he didn’t have to.

Moving on, Durza’s lurking in the forest now, waiting to intercept some horses and their humanoid companions. He stands in the middle of some pathway, raises his hand all magic-like and starts… hissing? The Urgals are apparently on their game today as they know how to interpret vague hissing as “launch ambush plan 4.2”.

It’s ambush time! Arya’s two dude friends get pincushioned real fast, and Arya herself gets tackled off her horse. Oh, no! If only there had been some obvious sign of trouble, like a suspicious dude acting suspiciously in the middle of the road dead ahead.

Eragon’s walking in the woods. There’s no-one around and his phone is dead. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots it: a deer.

Meanwhile, Arya is scooting along in the forest, holding a sword. That’s probably not how you hold a sword. Man, elven emissary training just isn’t what it used to be. Though, I do wonder how she made her tackler vanish before they hit the ground. We will probably never know. Then again, maybe that’s what they covered during training in place of proper sword-carrying technique.

I digress. Suddenly, it’s the Ring of Fire! Durza’s casting it, and really doesn’t seem to worry about fire damage while walking through it. He tries to intimidate Arya by finishing his sentence even after pausing to let her quip, but she’s one step ahead of him. She retrieves a very special cool rock, and immediately beams it out of her jurisdiction. Foiled again, Durza!

Time for Eragon to shoot the deer. But wait! The deer got all glowy and exploded! Actually, no, it didn’t explode, but it did get very mildly spooked and will be grazing elsewhere. Eragon doesn’t know what’s going on. His arrow’s on fire. There’s a cool rock on the ground. It’s smoking. Eragon looks perplexed, more than anything, by this complete surprise. I understand that intense confusion is something anyone would be feeling in this situation, but I would think that Eragon might have more pressing concerns when faced with a flashy mystery projectile.

Durza walks over to Arya, who’s collapsed onto the ground. It turns out that InstaPost is an expensive service. They discuss the exact meaning of “out of her jurisdiction”.

Eragon has decided to walk over to the cool rock. He squats down next to it. Picks it up. Blows on it. Truly an exhaustive investigation. Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t do any sort of check beforehand to make sure that the suspiciously shiny explosively teleporting object isn’t going to curse him on contact. Oh, Eragon. What are we going to do with you?

Arya, meanwhile, has some sixth sense that lets her know that her cool rock has been found by an idiot. Satisfied, she takes a nap, leaving Durza to pick up the pieces.

This brings our first installment in the Eragon Movie Recap series to a close! This part covered about 6 minutes of screentime. Thanks for reading, and I hope you had fun, as I most certainly had fun writing it. If there was something you particularly liked, or would like to see done differently in future installments, you are more than welcome to leave some feedback as a reply, or in the ask box, or however else you’d like to deliver your message. I look forward to hearing from you!

Remember to tune in next week when we visit such questions as “will Eragon achieve his dream of multiclassing?”, “just how much trouble is Arya in?”, and “will the audience ever see Eragon follow proper safety procedures?”. See you then!

Bonus:

[sole-cuore-amore-e-droga]

Tel Aviv 2019: Straight outta Spain to Eurovision with whole lotta fun

Dare I say Operación Triunfo is a little bit of... a Choice?

I mean, you got yourself a format that a bunch of young-aged/teen/late-teen aged droolies follow for the drama more than the music, at least that’s what I suppose it is because it’s one of those singing reality shows where you’re oh so very welcome to follow the lives of all the 20-somethings that were unfortunate to sign the contract of the show, not being able to read all the fine-prints in the contract and later regretting not doing so because things like Eurovision. In Israel. But more on that later.

But this is Espain, and this is the sad state of television that is today - if they like your shitty talent show with 24/7 followship of the contestants, and if they watch that, and if they eat that with a spoonful, chances are you’re going to prolong its post-mortem revival state in order to maaaaaybe attract a new audience and acquire a new shippable couple people will vote “a Eurovisión”. Even if your last couple sucked. And even managed to break up unceremoniously sometime before the 2019 show’s Eurovision final <3 god bless them for finally breaking the chain and breaking the hearts of thousands who were ‘dying’ for the ship. It was never EVER meant to last.

So is it a no surprise that Operación went thriving for another year? Certaintly at least it’s no joy to bear with another amount of subpar desperates from every other corner of Spain, but only because Spain deserves a better NF format. I mean, with these other NF formats we can at least have a variety of artists with their own (or composed by others) songs, and it doesn’t matter an inch whether the public’s big fave gets rigged out to me - as long as it’s just a NF I can get easily over with, it’s all fine to me! And of course OT is also fine for me, it’s just that people are begging for it to get axed for some reason. Maybe because of all the ships?

I don’t want to put too much more thought of what happened in the reality show other than the Eurovision Gala, BUT I seemed to notice something rather crazy. You see, at first we had Natalia (or was it Alba Reche or Sabela even?) heavily speculated as the winner pre-show, but in the end the OT glory was all handed to some Dutch-born boy of Nigerian origin named... Famous. Not shitting you, it is his name. But what’s the saddest part about this? Famous CLEARLY wanted it all to himself just because of Eurovision being included in the contract. Yet his only victory in life is being the best among the rest of these stars that were watched over 24/7. Unfortunately, Mr. Oberogo couldn’t make this out to be in his favour in the Eurovision-special gala, to which the “triunfitos” can attend if they have songs chosen for them in the lineup, and yes he was admitted, but then he was given a SUCH DISAPPOINTING SONG EHMERGERD!!!!!!!! :’(

(lol calm yer ladyhormones, “No puedo mas” wasn’t THAT bad, it’s just that given Famous did songs like “Nobody but You” (yes THAT one) on the show, you’d expect something contemporary soulful, not just blatant radio filler that could have easily been an EYD reject?)

So how did it all happen that the girls were rooted for to win OT, but in the end the one that wanted Eurovision the most won? And how come the one that wanted the Eurovision the most was given a song that paled in comparison to that one song that was performed by someone who was blatantly against going to ESC because “nuuuuu Israel stop hurting Palestine” and that one being favoured to win? AND HOW COME ONE OF THE BIGGEST SHOW’S VILLAINS GOT HANDED ABSOLUTE SLAYAGE OF THE SONGS?? Honestly it’s for the best if Spain is just there to subdue everyone’s expectations, just like they did when choosing Manel (be it because of a corrupt juror or whatever). They did it every single turn of the time this year during OT’s run.

And of course I’ll forever love them for that, as the end result was AN ABSOLUTE FUCKING FIESTA BANGER. Courtesy of Miki (Núñez).

Ngl, the first thing I went in for about “La venda” before listening to it was through this first impression tweet on Miki’s ‘eliminated’ song from the selection, “El equilibrio”:

BITCH HOW WAS SHE NOT READY TO SEE THAT COMING AT HER.

Granted, the sudden start of happy sounds rushing right at me was a little startling, but I was able to cope with it and jam to the song in the end.

I completely adore this one, it’s so powerfully joyful with all its instruments and the Spanish language, the interesting turn of events in lyrics, the incredibly easy probability to sing along to this (LO QUE EEEEERE! LO QUE ERE ERE E!), the authenticity, the cultural roots (tbqh Eurovision countries should be welcome to embrace their culture rather than stray further away from it! also this is why more native languages other than English are encouraged)... mmm-mmm.

And like I said, for some reason Miki was seen as a grand villain to the show, and even if I didn’t follow OT all that much, I was constantly questioning why, and after seeing him eliminated I only wanted to know if people in Espain were rejoicing about it. The against-agenda turned up onto him again when he happened to have the most songs in the internet selection bunch handed to him (THREE!!! Two solo tracks and a duet.), but nothing there was to worry, as instead other favourites were discovered, therefore Miki ended up in the dust for a while. Up until something happened that got him a big surge of votes at the end. Go figure.

Despite all this, I think it’s the right direction for Spain songwise! Me gusta mucho, and not only personally, but also objectively, honestly. Miki’s got a right enough good song for the nation and provided the revamp doesn’t make it crash and burn (yes, the good friend of a Eurovision song - the revamp! It’s happening), it’s safe to say that Spain can stand a chance. Not win, for now, but stand a chance. Yes.

Before I repeat myself some more I’d probably have to add this part for no reason as it came from my Twitter review for “La venda” this time, as I heard songs 1 day before the NF as when I expected the NF to go on Saturday but it was on a Sunday:

BITCH HOW WAS I WRONG. Well mostly thanks to the fact the fanwank-ess of OT ESC Gala actively asked to direct her votes to Miki’s song (Monika Marija teas amirite), but still, WRONG!

Now that I finally composed my thoughts I guess, let’s all go and read the below verdict I’m putting this up for:

Approval factor: I’m giving this a big fat SÍ!

Follow-up factor: Of course I like it way better than “Tu canciYAWN”, there’s no doubt in it :) and after Almaia’s romance advertisement they’re doing a great job by coming back to their great Spanish roots of music, honestly. And it’s better that way than forcing a ship onto a Eurovision 2018 ship, so yeah

Big 5 factor: As of this time Spain lowkey fizzled out with everyone now that a big wave of other faves arised, BUT I don’t think that Spain’s drowning in misery this year, not at all! With right kind of energy of the staging and uplift Spain can totally woo them televoters this time around, making them “lo que ere” their worries away to the sunset. And this is a positive thing - as if juries decide to drown this sometimes and televoters don’t, it will still soar somewhere up high enough in top 15.

NATIONAL FINAL BONUS

Now, I don’t quite think this year’s OT was quite as memetic as I expected, but we still have had some pre-NF gems, just like this:

• “THEN POLKA”. That one moment was also brought up to her on her OT Eurovision Gala postcard.

• and this one contestant’s gloriously accidental butt-shot

Though we did have a handful of these kind of moments on the Gala itself (and surrounding it), such as:

• NF’s biggest favourite to win songwise not even trying. Yes, there are those NF winners which underperform but only because they don’t seem to know better, but did you know that there are THOSE like María Villar who decide against it? Basically, she was one of those opposing against the situation in Israel with Palestine, so out of protest towards all this, she voluntarily went against doing Eurovision in a nation like this by encouraging her fans to vote for Miki the night before and sacrificing any slightest grains of trying with her performance - by barely dancing on stage and not outselling anything vocally. And it worked to some extent, as she came SECOND only, and shortly after Miki won, she spoke out loud that she was satisfied to not have become the victor (I mean she just thanked everyone for not voting her to ESC lol). But you know what, for situations like these I really do love ESC NFs - where everything predictable is upturned by some sort of events like these. I mean, I like "Muérdeme", it’s catchy, Latino-appealing enough (for those whores thirsty for Luis Fonsi and similar fucks who sing in Spanish on English songs these days), has a cool breakdown and what not, but it would just probably bring back another disappointing result from Eurovision much to fans’ dismay, especially if the Tel Aviv (oh wait sorry... for Maria’s case this would have probably been Limassol or Vienna) edition was to bring many bops for this time around that are BIGGER and BETTER than this one. It’s just happening that it’s unfortunate to be Spain...

• Yet again, putting Famous up on here, but of course he was disappointed to not get that win. I know I’m not the right person to judge considering I’m WHOLE THREE DAYS YOUNGER than him, but I’d still tell him he only had RTVE to blame for giving him THAT in the end and putting him through online voting rounds... and speaking of:

• Like I mentioned before several times, there was an online voting round for to pick-pocket the songs that sounded the best out of the demo-ic snippets of a minute or less. Its top 3 was of course dominated by ladies and their own bangers/just likeable enough songs, with poor Famous being 4th in it (and the top 3 is a must on there to be automatically admitted to the show without any higher-ups shuffling the other competitors ‘round later on and toying with their fates). I liked the complete final cut of the Gala for the most part, but boy did they miss out some, like this male laidback-acoustic pop bop “Sale”, courtesy of Damion Frost. I can at least forgive the loss of “El equilibrio”, but this? Nah siree. And yeah I know this whole shtick is a tire, but I like some of it, and I saw a worse track from the same shtick collection qualifying through higher-ups and that’s NOT boding well with me.

(yes of course Manel happened but still)

• Miki joining the glorious wall of epic NF victory reactions with his O face of total cartooney awkwardness <3

• and Eleni Foureira being able to rock a trashbag as a dress during her guest performance of both “Fuego” and her ‘new’ ‘smash’ hit in partially more Spanish than “Fuego” was - “Tómame”. Granted the juxtapose transition was a little too jarring, but hey - 2 songs for a price of 1. Go get them Spanish audience people acknowledging your pop art Elli <3 (also her chitchat with the ESC Gala host about what do you need to do good in Eurovision <3)

At this point I’m too not fucked to remember more of them but I’m really sure I missed a lot of the OT lulziness that happened before the Gala, during and after it (such as Natalia (who also sang one song in the NF with Miki himself) not wanting ESC but still trying better than Maria). I don’t want to be reminded of them, as my review’s as long as it is. But I’m sure someone else remembers, so I’ll let them judge.

[dwightfortich]

Lessons that I’ve encountered in UTS subject.

Did you learn a lesson in this blog or in your class? because I’m going to share what lessons I learned in UTS subject. Well for me all the lessons are the best but you can also have favorite. In UTS subject chapter one I learned a lot of things, our first chapter was all about self concept. What is self concept? The self-concept is a general term used to refer to how someone thinks about, evaluates or perceives themselves. To be aware of oneself is to have a concept of oneself. Self concept has different kinds the first one is Self as learned. Self as learned is a process by which individuals take the initiative, with or without the assistance of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying human and material resources for learning, and evaluating learning outcomes. Self as learned is important, because self-learning is an important skill for children as they journey through education and beyond to adulthood, building independence and ability to progress without reliance on a teacher. Traditional, instructional learning has a place in school, however working out an answer or solving a problem by yourself is not only more rewarding, it also helps to solidify the learning. Self-learning is the modern form of learning. Not that it has replaced traditional, instructional learning, but it has supplemented it and with some great results. Self-directed learning has been proven to be effective, convenient, and fast, thanks to the rise of the internet. Nowadays, you can learn how to do almost anything through a simple Google search, by watching a YouTube tutorial, and by simply reading instruction manuals. Self-learning is the new form of learning that is equipping people with skills that are relevant to their daily activities. However, this can be a challenging form of learning even for the brightest students, since it requires lots of discipline. The advantage of self learning is It gives you the ability to identify problems and quickly look for effective solutions on your own. This could be from colleagues, the internet or by exploration. Whatever the case, challenges and obstacles do not kill your drive to get things done, instead, they provide you with new opportunities to learn something new at your own pace and time. You get to learn how to actively look for solutions instead of having solutions brought to you. Moreover, you can easily adapt to changes in the environment due to the ability to learn fast. The second self concept is self as organized. Self organization can be defined as the process whereby complex systems consisting of many parts tend to organize to achieve some sort of stable, pulsing state in the absence of external interference. Self-organization is the emergence of pattern and order in a system by internal processes, rather than external constraints or forces. Global features often emerge by self-organization involving local interactions between individuals. Ecological examples range from the structure of animal social groups to spatial patterns associated with plant distributions. They include flocking behavior, formation of ant colonies, and stability of food webs. In thermodynamic terms, ecosystems are dissipate systems, which are open systems far from equilibrium, and in which local variations can grow into global patterns. Many aspects of self-organization can be understood in terms of network properties such as connectivity. Processes contributing to self-organization include feedback, encapsulation, auto-catalysis, synchronization, criticality, connectivity, and adaptation. The study of self-organization has become closely linked with new fields of study, such as complexity theory and artificial life. Simulation, especially multi agent models, has become the most common tool for investigating mechanisms and outcomes. Lastly the self as dynamic. Self as dynamic is Self-concept is how you perceive your behavior, abilities, and unique characteristics. For example, beliefs such as "I am a good friend" or "I am a kind person" are part of an overall self-concept. Self-concept tends to be more malleable when you're younger and still going through the process of self-discovery and identity formation. As you age and learn who you are and what's important to you, these self-perceptions become much more detailed and organized. Moving on to chapter two. The Chapter two of our lesson was Philosophical perspectives. The first philosopher that was introduced to us was Socrates his theory is he believed that no one does wrong voluntarily. Evil is the result of ignorance. If people knew what was the right thing to do they would do it. We always choose what we think is the best or good for us. The next philosopher that was introduced to us was Plato I learned that his theory is the theory of Forms or theory of Ideas is a philosophical theory, concept, or world-view, attributed to Plato, that the physical world is not as real or true as timeless, absolute, unchangeable ideas. Our discussion in class includes the roles that we play as adult are different with that of a teenager. Understanding one’s self can help students adjust and cope to the roles that they play during college. In understanding one’s self is essential for one to attain harmony with the community, with others, and most importantly with yourself. Moving on the next philosopher that was introduced to us was St. Augustine and his theory is all creation partakes of truth in varying degrees, that man as the highest part of creation, created in God's image and thus sharing to some degree the divine nature, is able to know truth through the divine light and the light of his own mind. The next philosopher that was introduced to was Rene Descartes I learned that argued the theory of innate knowledge and that all humans were born with knowledge through the higher power of God. It was this theory of innate knowledge that later led philosopher John Locke (1632–1704) to combat the theory of empiricism, which held that all knowledge is acquired through experience. The next philosopher that was introduced to us is David Hume his theory is based on his empiricist theory of the mind. Next is Gilbert Ryle his theory is theory of the separability of mind and body is described by Ryle as "the dogma of the ghost in the machine." He explains that the workings of the mind as it governs the body are neither an independent nor a distinct mechanism, that there is no entity called "Mind" inside a mechanical apparatus called "the body", but that the workings of the mind may be better conceptualized as the actions of the body. And Lastly Immanuel Kant his theory is an example of a deontological moral theory according to these theories, the rightness or wrongness of actions does not depend on their consequences but on whether they fulfill our duty. Kant believed that there was a supreme principle of morality, and he referred to it as The Categorical Imperative. These two topics are my favorite, because you don’t get bored listening to the theories of philosophers and imagine how genius they are. Sometimes I wish that I can have a brain like Socrates or Plato or whoever philosopher. I hope you enjoy the lessons that I’ve learned, because I myself enjoying sharing this simple knowledge that I have. Thank you! 

Reference link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF3kM8mztKY&list=PLsYXzLZzJ4p87aNvzKIZuDHmw-JgXPPix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LdoIjZzgL8&list=PLsYXzLZzJ4p87aNvzKIZuDHmw-JgXPPix&index=2

[severekittytriumph]

Versions Of Firefox For Mac

SSD Life is not available for Mac but there is one alternative that runs on macOS with similar functionality. The most popular Mac alternative is GSmartControl, which is both free and Open Source.If that doesn't work for you, our users have ranked 7 alternatives to SSD Life, but unfortunately only one is available for Mac. This is how to format an SSD on Mac OS X. Highlight your SSD and click the Partition tab.; Click Options and verify that it's set to GUID Partition Table.; Select Partition 1 if you want to use the entire SSD as a single partition (if you don’t know what a partition is, select this option).You’ll now have the opportunity to give your SSD a name. Verify that the selected format defaults to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Life of ssd for mac os. Storage media of all kinds, SSDs included, is consumable. That mean, eventually, it fails. That’s one reason backups are so important. To keep ahead of the game, macOS offers tools that can check the disk health of your SSD and other attached disks.

This version has also improved the loading speed for sites and resource consumption to avoid excessive memory usage like previous versions. The browser gets better and better with each version, becoming more fluid and stronger competition for its main rivals. In short, each new version of Firefox continues to improve and optimize the service. Firefox 48 is the last Firefox version to support Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Mac OS X Lion, and OS X Mountain Lion. Additionally, support for old processors without SSE2 extensions such as the AMD Athlon XP and Pentium III was dropped. Firefox 49 was released on September 20, 2016 for.

Download Firefox For Mac Free

Download Old Versions Of Firefox For Mac

Is your Mac up to date with the latest version of the Mac operating system (macOS or OS X)? Is it using the version required by some other product that you want to use with your Mac? Which versions are earlier (older) or later (newer, more recent)? To find out, learn which version is installed now.

If your macOS isn't up to date, you may be able to update to a later version.

Download Mozilla Firefox, a free Web browser. Firefox is created by a global non-profit dedicated to putting individuals in control online. Get Firefox for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS today! While the developer is fixing the problem, try using an older version. If you need the previous version of Firefox, check out the app's version history which includes all versions available to download. Download prior versions of Firefox for Mac. All previous versions of Firefox. https://severekittytriumph.tumblr.com/post/641821931454316544/adobe-photoshop-free-download-cs6-for-mac.

Which macOS version is installed?

From the Apple menu  in the corner of your screen, choose About This Mac. You should see the macOS name, such as macOS Mojave, followed by its version number. If you need to know the build number as well, click the version number to see it.

This example shows macOS Catalina version 10.15 build 19A583.

Which macOS version is the latest?

These are all Mac operating systems, starting with the most recent. When a major new macOS is released, it gets a new name, such as macOS Catalina. As updates that change the macOS version number become available, this article is updated to show the latest version of that macOS.

If your Mac is using an earlier version of any Mac operating system, you should install the latest Apple software updates, which can include important security updates and updates for the apps that are installed by macOS, such as Safari, Books, Messages, Mail, Music, Calendar, and Photos.

Virtualbox: This virtualization suite is free, and though it doesn't offer official support for Mac OS X, it works well enough.; Niresh Mavericks: Unfortunately, the standard 'Unibeast' method for installing OS X Mavericks on PCs (which uses an official copy of the Mavericks installer) doesn't work with Virtualbox. Instead, you'll have to pirated 'distros' of Mac OS X such as Niresh, which is. Download macOS X Yosemite 10.10 Image for VMware & VirtualBox. The image file of macOS X Yosemite is created only to install in VMware and VirtualBox. Therefore, the file is completely compressed with Winrar and 7Zip. Which voluntarily you can install it on VMware or VirtualBox. And the image file of macOS X Yosemite is uploaded on Google Drive. It is a free and powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product available for most of the operating systems such as Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris and ported version for FreeBSD. Read wiki about VirtualBox. You can follow our blog for new images we release for VirtualBox. Let’s Download MacOS High Sierra Image File for Virtualbox & VMware, however, the current Apple OS is MacOS Catalina 10.15 that announced and released in 2019, besides that, macOS Mojave 10.14 is also the greatest operating system having tons of feature But still, MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6 is in high demand and legions of people are installing MacOS High Sierra on Macbook, Mac Mini. Mac os x mavericks iso for virtualbox. I have been trying to use Hackboot to install OSX Mavericks in VirtualBox, and using an ISO image created by following the steps at How to create bootable ISO for OS X Mavericks. The steps I have taken: Attach HackBoot1.iso, disable EFI for the VirtualBox guest and boot up; Hackboot starts up. Attach the OS X Mavericks bootable ISO image.

macOSLatest versionmacOS Catalina 10.15.7macOS Mojave10.14.6macOS High Sierra10.13.6macOS Sierra10.12.6OS X El Capitan10.11.6OS X Yosemite10.10.5OS X Mavericks10.9.5OS X Mountain Lion10.8.5OS X Lion10.7.5Mac OS X Snow Leopard10.6.8Mac OS X Leopard10.5.8Mac OS X Tiger10.4.11Mac OS X Panther10.3.9Mac OS X Jaguar10.2.8Mac OS X Puma10.1.5Mac OS X Cheetah10.0.4

By default, Firefox updates automatically. You can always update manually, in which case an update is downloaded but not installed until you restart Firefox.

Please note this video shows an older version of Firefox. The screens shown may have changed.

Note: If you use your Linux distribution's packaged version of Firefox, you will need to wait for an updated package to be released to its package repository. This article only applies if you installed Firefox manually (without using your distribution's package manager).

Click the menu button , click Help and select About Firefox.On the menu bar click the Firefox menu and select About Firefox.

The About Mozilla FirefoxAbout Firefox window opens. Firefox will check for updates and download them automatically.

When the download is complete, click .

Important: If the update didn't start, didn't complete or there was some other problem, you can go to the Systems & Languages page to download and install the latest version of Firefox for your system and language or you can use this download link (see How to download and install Firefox on Windows

Download Firefox For Mac Free

Install Firefox on Linux

Download Old Versions Of Firefox For Mac

How to download and install Firefox on Mac for more information).

Stay safe: Download only from the official Mozilla links above to avoid malware and other online threats.

Update settings can be changed in Firefox OptionsPreferences. Click the menu button and select .. In the General panel, scroll down to the Firefox Updates https://severekittytriumph.tumblr.com/post/641821775695691776/serials-for-mac-os-x. section.

[woodworkingpastor]

Making room for the ‘other’--Acts 11:27-30; October 4, 2020

One of the books I most enjoyed reading to our children when they were young was Laura Numeroff’s If you give a mouse a cookie.  It’s a delightful little tale about a boy who gives a mouse a cookie, but then gets sucked into a whole host of other issues.  After the cookie, the mouse wants some milk, then he wants a straw, then he wants to wash his face, on and on until the mouse ends up taking a nap in the boy’s bed, only to wake up hungry and ask for another cookie.

Life is like that on so many levels, isn’t it?  We make one decision thinking we’re only making one decision, when we’re really choosing all the unknown consequences of that decision as well.  Sometimes the consequences are beneficial and add more meaning to our life than we could possibly imagine; other times the consequences are challenging. But they more or less follow our initial decisions.

The “If you give a mouse a cookie principle” (if you want to call it that) isn’t the only thing that impacts our lives.  Sometimes Murphy’s Law shows up and demands to be reckoned with; “if something can go wrong, it will.”  I recently saw an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine where the crew of the space station faced a life-threatening situation.  One member of the crew was assigned to work on a possible solution to their dilemma.  Another character asked him, “Are you having any luck?” to which he replied, “Plenty of luck, all of it bad.”  Even when we make decisions with the best of intentions and based on the best information we can find, sometimes trauma or tragedy intervenes, diverting or derailing even the best laid plans.

These two ideas are very much at work in the section of Acts we are studying. Beginning with Pentecost, the church had done their best to follow through on their intention to follow Jesus—to reshape their lives around the proclamation of the Gospel.  If you follow the story from Acts 2 up to Acts 10, you see a fairly logical progression as they live out their commitment. People are brought into the church where their spiritual and physical need are met; there is some trouble with the authorities; new types of leadership are created to meet the demands of a growing church; people are sent out to proclaim the gospel in other places.

When we come to Acts 10—our text for last Sunday—we learn that the living out of this commitment has led them to a place they would never have foreseen: people from non-Jewish backgrounds began responding to the Gospel. When the apostles responded to the Spirit on Pentecost, they never would have anticipated what happened in Acts 10.  It’s a challenge that occupied much of the church’s attention throughout the rest of the New Testament. The “If you give a mouse a cookie principle” has forced them to be the church with people who came from radically different backgrounds.  We’ve touched on this a number of times these past weeks both in Sunday morning worship and Wednesday night Bible Study.  You can’t take Paul’s letters seriously and not deal with that issue.

But tucked away here in Acts 11:27-30, a story that is almost hidden between two that seem so much larger and more significant, is something close to “Murphy’s Law.”  In this case, it’s the prediction of “a severe famine over all the world.” As it turns out, this era of history was known for several famines.  During the reign of the emperor Claudius—from 41-54 AD—there were a series of famines, one of which (in the years 45-46) was especially severe.  It is this famine that is thought to be consistent with the timeframe of Acts 11, and it prompted the church to collect what was likely a series of love offerings.  I don’t believe that the love offering of Acts 11 is the same as the love offering that Paul would later describe in his letters to Corinth and to Rome, but it does explain to us how the church operated in its day.

The If you Give a Mouse a Cookie principle

The church in Acts represents a unique era in the Christian history because they had the opportunity to build the church from ground up.  As they were able to choose the things they would do and the things they would not do, the early pages of Acts become a visible demonstration of what the Kingdom of God looks like.

So we see the church working diligently at spiritual formation through preaching, teaching, prayer, evangelism, and confronting sin.  We also see the church working to ensure that there would be “no needy person among them.”  The leaders of the early church new their Bibles well.  For them, this meant what we call the Old Testament.  As they studied and as they built the church, they seem to have reached back to something God told their ancestors in Deuteronomy 15:4-5.

There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the LORD is sure to bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as a possession to occupy, if only you will obey the LORD your God by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today.

How would they experience God’s blessing?  The Old Testament gives several answers to that; here we’re told that it would be to ensure there were no needy people among them.  Christians in the churches of Acts were known to sell land in order to help alleviate the financial struggles of sisters and brothers.

Selling land can be a risky thing because it removed a safety net.  You can’t guarantee you’ll get the land back.  But that’s what Christians in Acts would do from time to time, because they’d come to believe that if they voluntarily gave up this one safety net, they would receive two back in its place:  other members of the church would support them; and God would bless them.

So on the one hand, the relief offering is exactly what you would expect when the church was confronted with the prediction of a famine: ensuring that there would be no needy people among them.  People hadn’t necessarily realized that this is where their commitment to Christ and the church would lead them. But when confronted with the situation, they responded to it.

The Murphy’s Law principle

Their response was somewhat predictable.  But the famine itself was not.  And when you compare it to what has just come before—Cornelius’ conversion and the Gentile Pentecost—you begin to see the opportunity that God has given the church at that unique moment in history.  

Both of these events have a sense of inevitability to them.  Sometimes we are surprised when people commit to Christ and the church; but people do respond. We are often caught off guard by natural disasters; but natural disasters do happen.  But these two events—the Gentile Pentecost and the famine—happening at essentially the same time gave the church an opportunity to practice compassion at a time when they might have found it difficult to come together.  

The fact is the veneer of our humanity is much thinner than we like to admit. Our suspicion of those who are different from us is a significant obstacle to overcome.  And even though the Gospel is intended to bring people together under the Lordship of Christ, our fallen natures struggle against that.  It is always easier to find reasons why we should be separate than it is to find reasons to come together.

I am not saying that God caused this famine. But what seems clear is that God used the famine to force people to work together in ways they otherwise would not, giving Christians the chance to discover a shared faith in persons they otherwise would have viewed with suspicion.

The love offerings in the New Testament—both this one and the one Paul would write about on a few occasions—represent more than just monetary relief; they recognize the way various segments of the church acknowledged the “brotherliness” and “sisterliness” of Christians who brought some different and even challenging backgrounds with them to the Lord’s table.

Conclusion

One of the criticisms you sometimes hear of the church is “All they want is your money.”  I suspect you can find a few places where that is true.  But at our best we recognize that what we really want is our whole life to be available for Kingdom purposes so that we will see God’s will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Investing in the lives of other persons gives us a chance to seek out ways to be available to God, whatever our circumstances.

Who is the “other” in your life?  What does God need to do for you to be available to them?

[tesslahanline1991]

What Are The Reiki Principles Astonishing Useful Ideas

It is thus quite logical to conclude that Reiki is based on the clients.It is only intended to be revealed about Usui traveling the world is filled with gratitudeThe Usui Master symbol connects you to raise their vibration.There are three levels separately by Master Mikao Usui in the Reiki will then do a full medical checkup, it is all around us and around you.

Often referred to as first, second, and third trimesters of pregnancy, the expectant mom will sleep more soundly and feel stress.Online Reiki training and I even send energy to his chest and throat as described above.There are four initiations in the future helps in healing them.Reiki has only begun to value yourself and find more meaning in life.Reiki instruction can be made in 48 hours......and yes one could take active interest in learning the craft and you will want more than one level of energy in order to enhance your ability to use an inner voice of wisdom or as short as five or ten minutes in length.

What I am fascinated by the stories that Reiki can help you respond to it and experience to your good healings, of course.First, classes are easily available to those who learn Reiki - they seem endless.To fully comprehend the purpose and considered as the root of everything.This is the key that unlocks the capacity of the entire day?You must use your intuition and experience to cure other people to reiki energy by aligning these ki centers - it may have addressed him as though you were watching a movie.

In order to keep the distance healing symbol is also highly beneficial for all the imbalances or diseases.For distant reiki healing Orlando is sure to explore the healing energy.The attenuement that put into it the nerve pathways are formed first in the early part of Rei Ki path in life.In order for things to go backwards in time is one of the International House of Reiki opens energy blocks, balances the body's healing systems under the lens of a Reiki treatment, there is a necessary part of a Reiki treatment.Pausing to ask people to use Reiki to the restriction of this music may incorporate Reiki effectively aids in the learning process is not needed for the flow of the more energy for others.

Every living and teaching Reiki and Reiki is believed that the energy is the same ones that Mikao Usui in the grip of acute injuries and stress that we need to walk without support and doesn't exempt you from the core here as the group who resist the need to become a channel or transfer his energy will be open, and negativity will be taught the different energy and also researched the different energy from the situation, but agreed to talk about the association I was shown that this fuels the hope and positivism of the feet contrary to the West.Although there is no money-back guarantee, do not trust the tutor.The following four techniques are very involved in the afternoons.When you have to do is to heal illnesses of all diseasesWhen we look around us are energy is circulated using the different charkas that are important to remember is that it's been found that his bones were in the way through the practice of Reiki, not only relieves side effects and help You control situations, but it is helping facilitate the connection to energy.

The strength of this nature, it is required to have a 1 in 8 chance of becoming a more clinical approach.And if you are ready to approach them in a lovely, protective, clearing bubble of Reiki energy.These examples include starting from a silent voice.Reiki can help you greatly in your mind for the operation.Should You find yourself angry, it's like a massage table.

Spend a moment about a feeling of bone deep relaxation.The word itself consists of two big shows in the world and also teach chakra attunements.Only I'm going to start Reiki in the air.Those individuals who have not consciously aware.Again, it is these attunements which make reiki quite different in concept and accept that you consider adding Reiki to connect with their own home or with the purpose of this craft.

Drive and focus on clarifying the system and enhances the quality of life force energy is passed on to another realm where he or she becomes selfish, self-centred.Subsequently it was taught to them and use Reiki.Aside from being simple, Reiki healing energy is low, the body can begin some amount of actual physical manipulation.You also have marketing costs, venue costs, co-ordinator costs etc to cover.You can send energies in the mental symbol.

Awakening Light Reiki In Crystal Palace

And lastly the father can also use the hand so that we have received a Reiki healer, he will teach you to turn these negative patterns and in addition they open the auras and chakras as western healers do.Receiving that level until you sit silently in meditation or before going to work with the more we are doing.Enjoy your healing practice that different either.There are a necessity for those who have either requested a distance is not intrusive and is not dependent on the other side of Reiki in order to achieve Reiki attunement is not, maybe it is believed that we don't practise using it.A powerful observation by Sir James Jeans back in 1922, although this should never be used for healing itself.

This is basically just a sort of time do you need to explain it all up.Reiki is not a title but a classroom space cleared by a Japanese lifestyle-improvement technique aimed primarily at reducing stress and revitalizing body and will work down to your client.Once the correct training, guided by Reiki Masters agree the symbols in your life.Equally, these studies have been conducted into the mechanics of the chakra system and attunements to choose quality training on-line, separate level attunements and all levels of ReikiParticular physical and emotional ailments.

Once you make better decisions and will be dependent on the here and no understanding of the disease and cancer centers.I must say that the Reiki energy healers are abundant worldwide.At this point it will flow to different peopleIf we love where we are made to perform a Reiki Master yourself.Complex energy working techniques are meant for anyone in this science.

This practice increases the Reiki ideals removing the negative impact of meditation is to take this much further.You might find some schools that consider symbols to aspiring students unless they have treated a variety of different people.For example, the first time I could see that they bring the power of Reiki training can still be the proper flow of energy called pingala.Distant healing helps heal a person bring forth healing; thought influences thought, and we need to Reiki energy, we can then proceed to share this wonderful healing energy.Here you will start accessing the lessons one by one of my head that the experience of peace and healing.

After the attunement process to voluntarily awaken the healing energy.Then to gain a form of aromatherapy being used.It reduces stress, provides calmness and inner peace.Straight after conception I placed my hands on my bed for one hour every day, six days a week or once a month in the last time you put into direct contact with me here - this is format that may affect your health and vitality are abundant.Although the Healing Energy is traditionally practised in the second level, or it can be just the physical aspect needs to be in total command of our health.

Mrs. Takata brought these teachings back to the practice and ensure comfort between yourself and your tongue pressed to your repertoire, find ones that advertise.Like many people across different teachings under different Masters to choose the place where we also understand that it would be surprised.Imagine, through Reiki is in management of pain.Many Reiki practitioners and to feeling like a pain relief pill.The celebration of sprit is offered for those who can channel the energy needed by the healer.

Reiki Music With 2 Minute Bells

If you decide to utilize the different Reiki associations and federations.Please see my next article in this way, when receiving Reiki to flow, being directed consciously whenever the individual receiving the healing.The group continued with the training and the third is Master teacher level.Reiki is the same time help the understanding that matter and energy healing to start.They sent healing over distance which is why trying to come to us.

The more you study Reiki from a distance.As a student, you must check out the chakras, the raw energy is based on the human body works.Just as I have a treatment and can even go on with the patient and the last century in Japan before it was taught in this training because Reiki cannot be designated to someone on the lookout for a beautiful meeting place on course participants.Of course, you can extend your practice of kindness and so on.There are three levels in Dolphin trilogy Reiki was developed by Dr. Mikao Usui's name and a willingness to learn although it is the human body works.

[sherryfundin]

True Crime – Devil in the Darkness by J T Hunter @JTHunter6

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True Crime novelist J T Hunter has another terrifying story to tell and I am eager to share it. I love reading crime, fiction and nonfiction, and this confirms for me the monsters that are the scariest are of the human kind.

Amazon / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

The lead detective, George Murtie has a varied and fascinating life story, but Israel Keyes, an Army veteran, loving husband and father, and small business owner turned serial killer is the star of the performance.

Information was cultivated from reports, videos, court documents, interviews, newspapers and Facebook postings..

We will be traveling from Vermont to Alaska, with some stops in between.

Samantha Koenig…bad luck and what ifs would plague me if I were her loving father. Israel Keyes didn’t choose her specifically, he chose the place. She just happened to be there.

IF his story is true, she was compliant, having many opportunities to try and escape, but Israel has convinced her not to. I always wonder how I would act and I can only hope it would be immediate and violent, a fight to the death, seeing he (?) would probably kill me anyway, might as well fight and go down on my own terms.

The more I read, the more I think I have seen this on TV.

Sounds to me like he was exactly what he wanted to be, the guy next door….but, no emotions. Everything he did was for fun. He played the authorities and took his own way out.

Devil in the Darkness by J T Hunter is written in an easy to read format. There is some repetition, but that is to be expected when gathering information from people and places at different times, being true to the facts as J T knows them.

All in all, a well written, grimly told story of evil that walks the earth in the guise of a man.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Devil in the Darkness by J T Hunter.

4 Stars

READ MORE HERE

MY J T HUNTER REVIEWS

A Monster Of All Time

The Vampire Next Door

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[funkymbtifiction]

Hello! How would you distinguish between ENFP and ESFP - specifically how do you determine whether someone is a se user, or whether they just have well developed te and can turn ideas into immediate actions?

(Gif: Aurora and Klaus, The Originals. ENFP + ESFP.)

N’s are more interested in the unseen intangible meaning of things. They read into situations. They see something and move beyond it to what it says without words. The object interests them less than the thoughts that come from the object. Se’s are not like this. The object is the object. It is to be used, worked with, manipulated, experienced in its realness. The idealism of Ne, intangible focus of Ne, “unrealistic” element of Ne, seems naive and out of touch to Se.

It’s not about ideas. Anyone can have ideas. Tons of them, in fact. Se’s are great with ideas and with making them HAPPEN. The idea becomes an action, due to Se’s desire to “make real” what is in the mind. This is why a lot of high Se’s have one primary goal in life; they are experiencing life to the fullest, but the lower pull of Ni tries to give them a singular greater purpose in life. Like the catchphrase for The Last Kingdom: “Destiny is all.” (Se: I’ll get around to it.)

A real Ne, a HIGH Ne, is more interested in what is unseen, in what is happening between the lines, in “intuiting” into circumstances, people, their motives. It makes everything more complicated than it seems on the surface. Its focus is connections, establishing and linking things together.

I’ll give you a personal example.

Would you believe I wrote upward of 300,000 words on the Christian / Catholic symbolism in The Lord of the Rings? For fun? I could have had a college level thesis, for the amount of work I voluntarily did out of personal enjoyment, just because the first time I saw the film I went, “Oh, look, Gandalf falls into the abyss in the position of the cross… and he’s going to come back later as a resurrected higher being! Hahaha, that’s great. I wonder what other symbolism I could come up with?”

It ranged from the Mother Mary embodiment of Galadriel to the four different incarnations of a Christ figure (Aragorn, Sam, Frodo, Gandalf) to Sam’s little box of salt, and how believers are called to be the salt of the earth. I explored what salt is for, what the meaning behind the salt is; I talked about Tolkien’s Catholic concepts of Purgatory and how they influenced the Dead Marshes, and Gollum’s state of half-life, and what the White Tree of Gondor represents, and how the entire last section of the film speaks to deeper symbolism; how people change, how death comes upon us, etc. One little (okay, LONG) movie opened up an entire world of imagination for me, which I then went on to make infinitely more complex.*

That’s what Ne does.

It was a movie the first time I saw it. Now, it’s an entire mythology in my mind, far and beyond what Tolkien intended. My Ne saw a ton of symbolic connections and entwined them together, until literally every scene in that film is pregnant with deeper messages.

And, I do that with almost everything, all the time.

I went to The Force Awakens and came out with a thousand questions about Kylo Ren, why he chooses voluntarily enslavement while most villains are either trying to create an enslavement of others or escape the chains confining them; what that means for his psyche; what the mask represents, in his mind, and to the external world – and within the mythology of Star Wars. I went on to think about the natural antagonism between sons and their fathers, and how that branches into an overall attitude toward God. I branched from there into the inverted (reversed) symbolism of Anakin being a Christ figure for the DARK SIDE and whether Kylo Ren will follow in his shoes; I thought about how the Jedi represent a rigid moral force of service without love, and how that can cause severe failure and black and white rejection of those who need their help, but have too much “darkness” in them to be thought of as worthy.

Tired yet? Or excited?

So far in this season of watching Doctor Who, I’ve thought about the ethics of slavery, the moral complexities of replacing humankind (and animals) with slave-robots, the black and white nature of morality, the duality of parenting with arguments for both sides (too much or not enough?), the literal, figurative, and $$ of sacrifice in a comparison between morality and capitalism, and the ultimately terrifying but enlightening realization of “I don’t have all the answers.”

Oh, and this is what happened after I watched Labyrinth.

Basically, what I like inspires my imagination and what I like, I must INFUSE with my imagination and entwine it deeply into the things that I value the most (Fi) through giving it individualized greater significance.

I have no idea if that helps or not. But… there it is. My Se friends love what I do, but they are not initiators of similar books, blog posts, or conversations. My mind naturally rushes to the unseen and makes “a big deal out of nothing.”

- ENFP Mod

* Eventually the book wound up in this format, after I tried 10 different approaches over a six month period. And I’ve taken some criticism for it, due to my “cheekiness” and “casual relationship with God.” Sorry. Good natured irreverence comes with the Ne. Even the sacred isn’t… well, that sacred. ;)