#I tell people I work in IT and they think I’m a programmer XD

[mr-snailman]

my back is soooo busted from work lmao ;-; but that’s okay… I had an Idea in the middle of moving six hundred school iPads and I’m excited to work on that :)

[ellietheyeen]

rambling about my ocs.

i don’t fully identify with the label ‘furry’, but i do like to draw anthro animals to represent myself and i thought i’d explain a bit. Some are far more significant than others, but I tend to create characters to represent specific feelings and emotions/ the different ways i think of myself. After that they tend to get a bit more seperate, their own backstories etc. but starting as bits of me.

Ellie the Hyena ^^ (they/she)  - The most ‘me’ character I use to represent myself the most often. Though.. more goofy and optimistic xD Made originally to represent myself to the world. Curiosity, humour, being without fear of filter.

Leo the Red Panda (he/him) - the grumpiest red panda possible. One eye, *former* optimist, tends to be tired. Works nights as a cleaner. He really loves his friends, but would never tell them that. Used to hang around junkyards/dumps a lot. Made originally to put all my cynicism, grumpiness, loyalty and practicallity into.

Wick the Dog (they/them (and rerely he)) - My very nervous puppy. They tend to be anxious and quiet. Wears hairbands on their left wrist to match their right arm pattern. Enjoys collecting retrotech. Leo and Ellie affectionatly call them ‘Mutt’. Original feelings are very personal, the character I’m most hesitant to share.

Nevermore the Black Jaguar (she/they/who cares) art by my friend Hoop - Shortened to Nev, she’s cis, but doesn’t really care about identifying with gender. She’s confident, intelligent, mischivious, silly, flirty, but only really talks around individuals or close friends. She’s in her own world a lot of the time, basically noctournal working as a programmer. Doesn’t really care about most things, not because of apathy, she’s just usually pretty satisfied! Leo’s best friend, they’ve known eachother since they were young. I made her originally to hold intelligence, problem solving and that very specific feeling of choosing not to overthink and just have fun sometimes.

I don’t draw them together too often, (especially Leo and Nev) but I think of them as all living togetrher in a small house in the city. There’s a few more characters who live in their ‘world’ Casey + Misha - Tanuki and Badger gay couple who own a board game cafe. Wren the Snow Leopard - An old OC of mine made for motivation, ambition and self reflection, but they don’t get drawn very much.

There’s more bits and pieces about. nsfw characters (not for tumblr), backstories, many unposted doodles, but this is pretty much the gist. If anyone wants to ask questions that’d be cool! Maybe a good way to get to know a few more people on here~

[theydontknowabouthem]

hiii! it's the weekend!!! hope yours will be very fun and restful at the same time✨

'not french speaking country but french is quite common here' 🤨 how common are you talking. are we thinking previously colonized countries such as north african countries 👀 or an european country where a lot of french people somehow live?

(i wish i lived under a digital rock tbqh, so go you!!!) yes omg i'm always happy to talk about the 1975 - the thing is they have quite the range in terms of genre in their discography so i'll try to rec some different songs so u can have an idea and pick what u like best and then i can rec more of their songs similar to the ones u like. they have loads of political songs and most of their songs, if not all, are a social commentary and that's what i like best about them! you can give a try to: Chocolate, Loving Someone, If I Believe You, tootimetootime, It's Not Living if It's Not With You, Jesus Christ 2005, Guys, Part of the Band. And the trifecta of fuck america/fuck our current political world: Love It If We Made It, I Like America & America Likes Me and People. alright i swear i tried to keep it to a minimum 😭

yes europe!!! well done so far 🙂‍↕️and you're right, not from an english speaking country (although i live in one).

i relate to this so much - how the boys' music i listen to the most changes so often for me too. i've just been to a zayn concert v recently so right now i'm biased towards him <3. and just like you, i've always been a louis girl!!! back very early on when i didn't know anything about them in 2013, i already knew louis and niall were my faves because they were the underrated ones and their solos/their voices were my favourite. so yeah! lately, i've been quite detached from the 1D fandom and the recent tragic event kind of made me detach even more as self protection, but i will always love those boys <3

i've never watched hannibal!! don't even really know what it's about? plss tell me about it and why you like it so much! x

question of the day: if you had to plan your ideal surprise party/day for your birthday with all the money in the world at your disposal: what activities would you do, who would be there, which country or place would it be in etc etc.

all the love!!! xxxx

hiii bestie, <3 so sorry for the late reply, but my weekend was... erm, come se dice? it was shit. 💀 i was stuck doing 4 weeks’ worth of work in 2 days cos there were problems with my account, so i wasn’t receiving emails about it. and no, this is not a democracy—you sell your soul to academia (aka the devil) the moment you enroll in a phd programme. so all i could do was just get on with it. xd anyway, i’m used to it (not having a life cos of this shit). it was just inconvenient cos i really wanted to go shopping!! 😭

i hope your weekend was so much better (please let it be great—one of us has to live!!) and tell me about it when you can.

erm, so i’ve noticed i’ve given you many, many clues, and you’re getting closer fast—we don’t like that, nah uh. so imma be devious, throw you in a loop, and say no and no... cos technically you’re wrong☝🤓. but cos i’m nice, i’ll say you’re on the right path!

i’ve listened to all the songs you suggested... and yeah, i’m a 1975 fan!! loved them all; guys and loving someone were my faves. not a fan of i like america & america likes me... and it’s not living if it’s not with you gave me bsb vibes for some reason... maybe the chorus? anyway, thank you for the recommendations, i like! <3

i’d say you currently live in the uk... maybe england? but you’re from a german-speaking country. not germany, though—idk, maybe belgium or switzerland (cos you listen to french songs). i’m betting on the former more. and to keep my options open, i’d say austria.

yeah, same... icarus falls is one of my favorite albums ever! (i get it—I still can’t listen to 1d songs, and only recently started listening to their solo songs again.)

OMG what are you doing not watching the masterpiece that is hannibal???!!! it is so so so so fucking good! the acting, the storyline, the writing, and the complexity of the characters!! i love everything about it, really. it’s not a long series, but it’s perfect—just give it a try!

in a world where i enjoy celebrating my bday and not actually dread it🧍‍♀️💀... anyway i saw this channel band went on tour earlier this year, so this idea came from that. the theme of the party would be nostalgia! i’d drive me down to a villa outside the city, close to the forest and beside the beach (my brother could pull this off without me being sus cos he sometimes takes me to sites cos of his job). my close friends and immediate family would be there, cosplaying as their fave childhood anime/cartoon from this specific channel (just for context, it’s a big thing for millennials and early gen z here—the singers from the channel do world tours now for adults, performing openings and endings of those animes). activities would include karaoke of said openings and endings. after the cake, we’d go swim in the beach and enjoy the scenery. basically, the activities would align with the theme. just a fun, intimate get-together with a cosy vibe and a small number of people. yeah, not the most exciting—soz, i’m apparently going through a quarter-life crisis atm. xd such a nice question!! i can’t wait to hear what your version would be!!

sending you so much love, xx

[magicbench]

~*Update January/Janvier 2020~*

[ ❇ CLIC HERE FOR THE POLL ❇ ]

Hello everyone, I hope you're all going well ~

Ah... I feel like it's been years that I didn't do any update while it's in fact only a month x) I have a lot to say about Fujiwara BitterSweet, the Patreon page and the next project, and can't wait to tell you about it!

★  About Fujiwara BitterSweet  ★

First, I want to thank you all because... well, yes, you're a really great support and it makes my day everyday!   ❤   The community is slowly growing and it's fun talking and sharing my love for the project with you! Seeing you being enthusiastic about the project cheers me up and motivates me a lot and I hope you'll still love it after the release (let's hope you'll not be disappointed...)

Talking about the release, I'm finally done writing all the routes, YES! Even if a lot of you, if not everyone, already know about it, I wanted to tell you once again. Which means, it's time for me to focus on the remaining graphics, mostly the backgrounds and the CGs (and other misc things), before entering the final round : putting all of that in Ren'py ~ If all goes well, the release date of Spring 2020 would not be a dream anymore!

If all goes well... because recently, my editor is super busy with irl work and personal issues and... I don't know if she will be able to continue working on the project. I still need to discuss about her situation regarding Fujiwara BitterSweet, and I'm still waiting for her answer right now. I told her that it would be totally okay for me if she decides to quit, since I don't want her to be stressed more than she probably already is with life, so let's cross fingers both for her situation and the project future regarding its proofreading/editing.

But in any case, there is a lot more positive things than negative ones, so let's continue like that! O/

★  About the Patreon page  ��

I recently started to see what kind of new tiers I could add to the page and which might be interesting enough for the new and old patrons. After thinking a lot about it, I finally decided to go with the 3$ and 5$ tiers first, and then, with the 10$ later, most probably after Fujiwara BitterSweet's release.

The 3$ tiers will allow you to participate in polls and vote for which clothes you want the characters to wear in-game. Since there is still a few days until next month, I'll make the first poll public, yaaay! The 5$ tiers will be speed paintings, mostly sprites ones and CGs + their .png HD versions. The 10$ tiers will be backrgouds step-by-step + "random" detailed illustrations from the different projects. This one will be limited to a certain amount of patrons and most probably effective after Fujiwara's release.

I hope the rewards for these tiers will suit you (>__<)

★  About the next project  ★

Aaaaand finally, let's talk about Colors of Fate! I think I already talk a good amount about it previously, but let's do it again!

------

"[For what is man without the comfort of tales,

The stories that paint the world with all its details.]

A book holds treasure, say the greedy.

And power, claim the needy.

It is but fables that seek to provide wonders with the weight of words.

But man hardly listens, or cannot, for books do not speak.

They whisper."

------

Is what the writer for the next project started to write, a few weeks ago. Doesn't it make you want to know more? Because I personally am already fangirling on these few poetic sentences and ABSOLUTELY CAN'T WAIT for the rest of the story! I don't know if she will keep these lines for the final version, but you can already tell that it will be captivating! As for the art, as you already know, the backgrounds artist started to work on them a few months earlier and she confirmed that, after a little break, she will goes back on it in March, which would be an excellent timing if ever Fujiwara is released around this time (I'm hoping more for April than March, due to the circumstances I told you about above. I also decided to ask a programmer to work with me, for you to have a more decent looking GUI, because... yes... brain of mine is too lazy to try understanding how to code fancy things... I'm sorry! ;-; But the next project, thanks to these people, will be A+ rank  and I hope you are as hyped than I am. Be ready to send lot of love and praises to them!  ❤

-

I think that's all for this wall of text, sorry about that, but yup there was kind of more things to talk about than the usual xD Take care and see you later! ~

Salut tout le monde, j'espère que vous allez bien depuis la dernière fois ~

Ah... J'ai l'impression que ça fait super longtemps que je n'ai pas fait d'update alors que la dernière ne date que du mois dernier x) J'ai plein de choses à vous dire à propos de Fujiwara BitterSweet, la page Patreon et le prochain projet, et j'ai hâte de vous en parler!

★ À propos Fujiwara BitterSweet  ★

Premièrement, je veux vous remercier parce que... eh bien, oui, vous êtes vraiment un grand soutient pour moi et ça me donne de la force pour chaque jour qui passe! ❤ La communauté s'agrandit petit à petit et c'est amusant de parler et partager mon amour du projet avec vous tous les jours! Vous voir aussi enthousiastes à propos de FujiBitterSweet me donne du baume au coeur et me motive encore plus que jamais, et j'espère que vous aimerez toujours autant le projet après sa sortie (j'espère que vous ne serez pas déçu...)

En parlant de la date de sortie, j'ai enfin terminé d'écrire toutes les routes, OUI ! Même si la plupart d'entre vous sont déjà au courant, je voulais quand même vous le redire ici. Ce qui signifie qu'il est temps pour moi de vraiment me concentrer sur les graphismes restants, principalement les backgrounds et les CGs (entre d'autres petites choses à côté), avant d'entrer dans la dernière ligne droite : mettre tout ça ensemble dans Ren'py ~ Si tout va bien, une sortie prévue pour le Printemps 2020 ne serait plus juste un doux rêve inaccessible!

Si tout va bien... parce que récemment, ma correctrice anglaise est très occupée avec son travail et des problèmes personnels irl, et... je ne sais pas si elle sera capable de maintenir la cadence avec le projet. Je vais devoir discuter avec elle de sa situation vis-à-vis de FujiBitterSweet, et j'attends toujours des nouvelles de son côté depuis la dernière fois que je lui ai parlé. Je lui ai dit que si jamais c'était trop de travail pour elle, j'étais tout à fait d'accord pour qu'elle quitte le projet pour se concentrer sur ses besoins personnels, je ne veux pas la stresser d'avantage qu'elle ne l'ai sûrement déjà de son côté. Mais ne désespérons pas et croisons les doigts pour que tout se passe bien à la fois pour elle et pour le futur du projet, vis-à-vis de la correction!

Mais dans tous les cas, il y a plus de choses positives que de négative, et ça c'est déjà pas mal !

★ À propos de la page Patreon ★

J'ai récemment commencé quels genre de tiers je pouvais ajouter et qui intéresseraient les nouveaux et anciens patrons. Après mûre réflexion, j'ai finalement décidé d'opter pour les tiers de 3$ et 5$ en premier lieu, puis d'ajouter les tiers de 10$ plus tard, probablement après la sortie de Fujiwara.

Le tiers de 3$ vous permettra de participer à des sondages et voter pour les design finaux des vêtements que les personnages porteront en jeu. Puisqu'il ne reste que quelque jours avant le mois prochain, le premier sondage sera publique, wouhouuu! Le tiers de 5$ sera des speed paintings, surtout des sprites et des CGs + leurs versions HD en .png Le tiers à 10$ sera les step-by-step des backgrounds + des illustrations détaillées "aléatoires" en rapport avec les projets en cours ou terminés. Celui là sera limité à un certain nombre de patrons et probablement mis en place après la sortie du projet en cours.

J'espère que les récompenses pour ces tiers vous conviendront (>__<)

★ À propos du prochain projet ★

Eeeeet enfin, parlons de Colors of Fate! Je pense que j'en ai déjà dit pas mal à ce sujet pour l'instant, mais comme on dit, c'est reparti pour un tour! La personne en charge de l'écriture pour ce projet a commencé à écrire une petite poignée de lignes, il y a quelques semaine de ça, et laissez-moi vous dire que vous ne serez pas déçus par sa plume poétique et envoûtante. Je suis personnellement super impatiente et j'espère que, même si la version française ne sortira pas avant un bout de temps, vous le serez tout autant que moi pour le reste de l'histoire! Quant aux décors, comme vous le savez déjà, l'artist qui est en charge avait déjà commencé il y a quelques mois, et j'ai eu la confirmation qu'elle reprendra en Mars, après une petite pause, ce qui tomberait vraiment à pique si Fujiwara sort dans ces environs (bon, je pense + vers Avril/Mai que Mars, étant donné les circonstances citées plus haut). J'ai aussi décidé de demander l'aide d'un programmeur, pour que vous ayez une plus jolie interface, parce que... oui... mon cher petit cerveau est bien trop paresseux pour essayer de comprendre comment coder des choses un temps soit peu compliquées pour lui... Désolée! ;-; Mais le prochain projet, grâce à ces personnes, sera vraiment d'une qualité supérieur au projet en cours. Il vous mettra des paillettes plein les yeux (ouch!), donc soyez prêts à féliciter et envoyer plein d'amour aux nouveaux membres de l'équipe! ❤

-

Je crois que c'est tout pour ce pavé de texte, désolée pour ça, mais oui j'avais pas mal de choses à dire comparé à d'habitude xD Prenez soin de vous et on se voir à la prochaine! ~  

[insertmusicaltheatrepunhere]

Seeing Six Ramble

Ok so this probably isn’t really gonna be an analysis of the show, more just me gushing about my day because I don’t have good days often so I want people to know that today was a good day.

So I went with my bestie irl which automatically meant it was gonna be fun :)

We arrived in London like 4 hours early so we went and got pizza and had a little wander around Leicester square before we went to collect the tickets.

When we got to the theatre we found out that Vicki was gonna be on for Howard!! Courtney was on for Seymour too but that was scheduled whereas Vicki Howard was a surprise!!

It was still really early for the show so my friend took me to look around Covent Garden for a bit and I just kept remembering that we were gonna see Vicki Howard and Courtney Seymour and I kept getting really excited (if you couldn’t tell from my blog, I really love Vicki and Courtney).

We had to try and find a Paperchase to get some sharpies for stagedoor because we both forgot to bring our own - we managed to go the wrong way despite Google’s specific directions so it took us about 15 minutes to find the paperchase that we had literally walked past on our way to Covent Garden XD

At the theatre just before the show I got one of the snazzy water bottles that they sell and a t-shirt (I saved all my money over the summer for this trip XD)

We were sitting in the balcony (seats D11 and D12) and oh my god I forgot how much I love the harpsichord covers that they play before the show.

The show itself was INSANE. I’ve seen it before and watched many a boot/audio but I forgot just how good it was live.

Jaye’J killed No Way - she was injured last time I saw the show so I didn’t get to see her dance then but wow that girl can move!

Millie was fantastic in DLUH, of course. She seemed even more energetic than last time if that’s even possible!

I cried so hard during HoS. Courtney was so incredible and that song already means a lot to me so there were emotions and yeah it was beautiful. She changed up the ending a bit so she sung a lower line when it came to the “stoOoOoOoOne, can’t break me, can’t break me” part - kinda like the harmonies Parr and Howard sing during that bit but it worked SO WELL.

HoH was just hilarious as usual - Vicki was doing her special move (the one she mentioned in her interview with Aunty Willy), Maiya actually did the macarena and Courtney literally fortnite-danced (I was aware that she might do that but seeing it live was the best thing ever).

Lexi was hilarious in Get Down. Her sass was on point and I LOVE her voice so much. The person she picked to dance with her didn’t want to get up and she ended up making some joke about how they “didnt want to get up, just like my ex”!

Howard has always been a role I’ve wanted to see Vicki play and oh boy was it amazing. Her timing was perfect for the roasts she delivered before the show and her AYWD was just literal perfection (I love Aimie but having seen them both now I honestly think I preferred Vicki’s version)! During the argument scene she yelled something to Boleyn about how she was “family and family should stick together” and I died.

Maiya as Parr was also something I didn’t get to see last time (I saw Vicki as Parr in July) but those riffs were absolutely heavenly.

Not related to the actresses but someone was trying to film the show in the front row of the balcony but they were being really unsubtle so the ushers caught on really quickly... (like if you’re gonna boot the show, don’t sit in the centre of the front row of the balcony?? That’s like the most visible spot in the whole theatre XD)

We managed to be the first in line at stagedoor which was cool! I got to meet Maiya and she signed my programme and I got a selfie with her and I got Millie to sign my programme too :)

I made some art for Vicki and Courtney and whilst Courtney didn’t stagedoor Vicki did and I got to give it to her in person. She literally opened it then and there which was cool and she recognised the original pencil drawing I included because I put it on Instagram last week and she saw it then but when she saw the final coloured version she loved it and SHE HUGGED ME!! I think I actually died ngl. I asked if I could get a picture but my hands were shaking too much to get a non-blurry one so she offered to take it and honestly I’m still so excited about the whole experience ahhhhhh. And she was so sweet as well - she offered to take my art for Courtney as well because she knew she wasn’t gonna come out because she was tired from doing Seymour all week and I’m still freaking out.

So yeah in a nutshell today was like actually the best day ever :)

[aoibaratraveler]

A Look Back At My Time in Japan! Chapter 2

Welllllll it looks like it’s been a while since I last posted again...but I have an excuse! I was preparing for a pretty big interview and getting ready to make a trip back to Canada. Maybe you’ve heard of the JET programme and maybe you haven’t but I had an interview for that earlier this month and so it took up a lot of my headspace, I’ll be posting more about it once I hear my results in a month or so but I hope to not have too much of a gap anymore in between posts! Also, a mutual friend of both mine and the bf is coming to stay this weekend from Germany so I’m very excited about that and will hopefully have chapter 3 up afterward.

I said before that this will probably be a 4 part blog but you know I really just have so much to say on my experience and can hopefully provide some insight to any people looking to go on exchange to Japan in the future! Or go on exchange in general since my UK exchange story will be coming after this one! So much happened though that this may just end up being a 6 parter xD, ahh it really would have been great if I wrote what happened at the time. Well, I hope you enjoy reading about Japan through my eyes! I’ve also decided to go with naming these chapters since unlike my UK road trip blog, I’m writing this 4 years after the fact so it feels more like I’m telling a story than giving a week by week account on what I experienced. Anyway, last change to my blog! Promise!

Without further ado!

First Month on Exchange: April

I forgot to mention! At the end of chapter 1 was when I arrived in Nagasaki for the first time and earlier in the day before my homestay mother arrived to pick me up, all of the exchange students were made to sit a placement exam to determine their level of Japanese and which class they were to be placed into. Since I had barely slept the night prior and wasn’t really reviewing my textbooks until the last minute, I was only placed in Japanese 3 (they work up from 1) which was good enough for the level that I was at, at the time but if I had reviewed like I had wanted to instead of being lazy then I might have made it to Japanese level 4...but well, we’ll never know and I’m really just giving myself a hard time since I take learning languages, especially Japanese, and being a linguist super seriously. I’m a major procrastinator so of course, I put off reviewing until the last moment but I should be proud of myself for getting there and I made some really good friends that I’m still in touch with from being placed in Japanese 3. 

The day after arriving was a whirlwind! I felt like I could tackle anything and was so full of energy! I took my homestay mother up on her offer to drive me to the opening ceremony that was the day after I arrived in Nagasaki which was meant to welcome all the new exchange students and the first-year Japanese students. It was a rainy day but I was full of anticipation. I wore my best outfit that I had brought along with me and had high hopes. It was a really interesting experience as we never do opening ceremonies or anything of the sort for new university students in Canada. There are normally just fairs and maybe freebies up for grabs. My homestay mother only stayed for a small part of it and then left but it was short enough anyway so I didn’t mind. We were then shipped off to the university campus as the ceremony wasn’t actually at the school and then made to attend a sort of self-introduction and general information class where we each said a little something about ourselves and were able to ask any questions about what our life was going to be like for the next four months. I quickly seemed to grab the attention of a small Vietnamese-American who we’ll call TC. She was very bright and friendly and immediately asked if we could be friends because I said that I love to travel in my self-introduction and I seemed interesting whereas no one else did (probably should have taken this as a slight red flag but I felt flattered so whatever). We pretty quickly buddied up and spent a lot of time together thereafter. 

The next day was a Saturday and from the looks of my Google timeline, I mostly just walked around and explored my new neighbourhood the whole time and got to know my homestay family. Although Saturday morning was special because my homestay family took me up to Tateyama to go have a picnic next to the cherry blossoms since they were still in season. Tateyama has a “mountain” in the name but it’s really just a hill that was situated behind my homestay family’s apartment and it took about 30 minutes to walk up. I tried some kakigori (shaved ice) and played with the coolest little Shiba Inu. It was a lovely little morning and I got to experience the happy atmosphere of my neighborhood while we all took in the cherry blossoms. 

I was lucky enough to be placed in the centre of Nagasaki city while most other homestays were in the countryside, closer to the school. I wouldn’t have minded that since I adore the countryside of Japan and being placed in the city meant that I was an hour away from the university. My first official week in Nagasaki was jam-packed even though I hadn’t actually started my classes yet! Even though we had already attended our opening ceremony for the semester and the school year the previous Friday, classes, for the exchange students at least, weren’t scheduled to start until the second week of April and our first week was just for us to mostly do whatever we wanted! TC and I decided to spend our Monday making a day trip to the next prefecture which was Saga. We didn’t really have any idea what we wanted to do there exactly but I had recently purchased a JR Youth 18 ticket which is somewhat similar to a JR pass and anyone can buy it, not just tourists, and you can only go on local JR trains, so no bullet trains or high-speed trains. It costs about the equivalent of $120 and is good for any 5 non-consecutive days with unlimited trips on those days. We had looked up a bunch of cool things that were in Saga prefecture but would take a really long time to get to and weren’t anywhere near the actual city so we decided just to spend a day in Saga city...although we didn’t really have any choice. You see, I’m speaking to you in hindsight knowing full well how a lot of things work now...especially the JR Youth 18 ticket. I only briefly had an idea of it when I purchased it because L’s sister told me about it when I was living in Tokyo. So when TC and I embarked on our journey to explore Saga, we boarded a bullet train from Nagasaki station. We were about an hour into our trip when a conductor came by to check our ticket and notified us that we were very mistaken but he was super kind and understood that we didn’t know we had done something wrong and let us know what our next step should be. We told him where we wanted to go so he wrote out a detailed guide with all the stations we’d need to get on and get off at (after getting off the bullet train at the next stop) with all of the times. It was really helpful and I really appreciated it but what was supposed to be only an hour-long trip to the next prefecture turned into 4 and a half hours...I felt really bad because TC had left it to me since she couldn’t speak Japanese and voiced her displeasure at it all. It wasn’t a great start to the week but I think if I were on my own and the same thing was to happen then I honestly wouldn’t have minded. When we got off the bullet train we were in a really small town in the middle of nowhere that was super quiet with nothing around, it was actually really cool. We explored that area for about an hour while we waited for the next local train. There was a big river flowing through the city, an old shrine on top of a hill, and a bunch of little, colourful wind turbines lined up one after the other leading from the station to the river.  It was lovely. That stop had the longest wait for a train, the next few stops had trains coming one after the other, but we had just missed one by being on the bullet train. After a long journey, we finally made it to Saga city but it was super quiet and no one was around, maybe because it was a Monday? It was really nice though, there was something really serene about being in a city with one main street and no one around except for a few elderly people walking about. We didn’t end up staying for long but I knew from living in Tokyo for a month that government buildings of any Japanese city are usually free for people to go up to, to the top floor and get a view of the entire city so that’s what we did and it was really nice because again, no one else was there and it was just us. Afterward, we took some photos with the cherry blossoms and headed back to Nagasaki.

The next day I decided to use my JR Youth 18 ticket again to go to Sasebo which is in Nagasaki prefecture so it wouldn’t be that long of a trip but TC didn’t want to have any more long train rides for a while so I went on my own. Sasebo is well known in the prefecture by people and is a recommended spot from locals because it’s where the American naval base is and has a different vibe to it compared to other prefectures. It is also famous for the “Sasebo burger” which is essentially just a normal-sized burger to us Westerners but was designed for the surge in marines that were living in Sasebo after World War II and became a hit to all visitors thereafter. I really just spent an afternoon walking around and admiring the area because, yes, it didn’t quite feel like the rest of Japan, but not exactly like America either. You’d have to see for yourself. I mostly wanted to visit Sasebo because there was meant to be an abandoned theme park nearby and I love that sort of stuff but unfortunately I would have needed a car to get there. The train ride in and out is what made it really special. It was absolutely gorgeous because the trip went along the coast and it was such a beautiful day, I honestly wish I had videotaped it. 

The following couple of days I visited my university and more thoroughly explored the inner and outer parts of Nagasaki city, especially the biggest shrine in the area and what made that part of the city so popular, Suwajinja/ Suwa Shrine. “It is located in the northern part of the city, on the slopes of Mount Tamazono-san, and features a 277-step stone staircase leading up the mountain to the various buildings that comprise the shrine. Suwa shrine was established as a way of stopping and reversing the conversion to Christianity that was taking place in Nagasaki. In modern times it remains an important and successful center of the community.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suwa_Shrine_(Nagasaki)

I also got a job! It was the funniest thing actually. A day or so prior, I was walking with my homestay mother through town to help her go grocery shopping and I saw a little building that had an English school in it and was intrigued. Later, that night I looked the school up and decided to send them an email expressing my interest in working there part-time and if they had any open spots. I immediately got a response from the owner and he said I could come by the next day for a chat. I did just that and apparently, as I arrived, little did I know, a guy that the owner had just spent two weeks training and getting ready for the after spring break rush of students decided to quit at the last minute and do a runner. So to sum it up, after a pleasant but short conversation, I was hired on the spot. I was told to come by the next day for some quick training prep, as I had never taught English before, so that I could start the following week. He clearly needed someone after the other guy had bailed out though.

Finally, on Friday and the end of my first week in Nagasaki, all of the exchange students were taken for an overnight trip to the mountain and hot springs town of Unzen! It took us about 7 and a half hours to get there but we left early in the morning and arrived mid-afternoon so there was still plenty of time for us to do stuff. We were to stay in a traditional hotel next to a natural hot springs and several geysers. It was such a cool and mysterious area to explore with my exchange mates and TC, especially at night after soaking in the hot springs (which let me tell you was awkward considering it was my first time being naked in front of other people, other girls, but still). The air was misty because of the sulfur, smelled like rotten eggs, but that didn’t stop us from walking around in our hotel yukatas. We stayed up for a large portion of the night, took in the atmosphere and just basically partied. The next day we hiked Mount Unzen and it was awesome, the view was glorious. It was also just a really nice bonding experience and a better way for us all to get to know each other. After our hike, we were taken to the small town of Obama which wasn’t named after the former U.S. president but did have a statue of him. It was also a seaside town and was popular for its free public hot spring foot baths which we indulged in after having a delicious nabe lunch. It was an unforgettable overnight trip and did its job of helping all the exchange students get to know each other better (more detail here and below).

The following week consisted of more city exploration, settling in, my first shifts at the English school, some administrative university stuff like signing up for classes the old school way with pen and paper - gotta love Japan - and actually attending classes. It may seem a bit mundane but I enjoyed every minute of it. Oh I forgot to mention, another reason why Nagasaki is so cool to explore and why I never get tired of it is there is a big Portuguese and Dutch influence mixed in with the Japanese aesthetic because those were the first countries that Japan opened up trade to on the port of Nagasaki between the 16th and 19th centuries. To add to that, there are also several hidden Christian sites that are also UNESCO World Heritage sites around the area because when Christianity first appeared with the Dutch and the Portuguese, it was outlawed and forbidden.

In the next couple of weeks, I went strawberry picking with my homestay family which was spectacular! They had a family friend who owned a strawberry farm and we were allowed to pick an unlimited number of delicious, fresh strawberries. I’m telling you we picked enough strawberries to last us for the next few weeks and I got a strawberry coma from the amount that I ate. It was great. After strawberry picking, my homestay family took me to a restaurant nearby the farm where all the ingredients were locally sourced. A few days after that, I spent the day with a few of my new friends as well as TC and we went to the Nagasaki Penguin Aquarium and, boy, was that cool. We saw so many species of Penguin with all sorts of personalities. There was something that put a bit of a hamper in our day and that had to do with a guy who my friend so eloquently nicknamed as “kimoi” (Japanese for gross). I suppose it all started a  day or so before my friends and I decided to meet up for the aquarium. I was sitting in the lounge at uni waiting for some people when a Japanese guy approached me and wanted to chat and obviously that was no problem so I obliged because I’m always down to make new friends. He  seemed nice and friendly enough but we slowly moved from small talk to him mentioning a girl that I am now friends with but at the time didn’t know so well even though we were in the same class. He began talking shit about her and how mean she was to him and….how he wanted to kill her...I was like whoa ok no need for that, I’m sure it was a misunderstanding and I tried to cheer him up and his mood did end up getting better and then he just started complimenting me and saying how nice I was and I honestly didn’t know how to take what was happening. I honestly should have taken it more seriously but it was really just a passing conversation that I had with him since we were the only ones in the lounge and he seemed to be friends with a few other people that I had befriended. It was very strange though especially since Japanese people aren’t known to speak ill of others. Anyway, someone from the group of people I met had invited him to hang out with us at the aquarium and I was ok with it at first but...it turns out that he took our small talk that happened by chance as a sign that I liked him??? And wanted to date him?? He assumed that this whole day at the aquarium was our date and I somehow turned into his girlfriend and the other people that were there were just...third, fourth, fifth, and sixth wheels….It was bizarre and I was thoroughly creeped out. He was clearly unstable. The whole time at the aquarium he was trying to find a chance to be alone with me and get the other guys to leave but I kept making sure we were always with everyone and finally one of my guy friends took one for the team and said he’ll distract him by insisting he wants to hang out with him somewhere else while the rest of us headed back to the city. We ended the day by having a much needed calming visit to the Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture and spent a couple of hours learning about our new home. 

Then, on the 27th of April, my birthday, I was pleasantly surprised by a home celebration planned by my homestay mother. She got me a little Sailor Moon figure since I mentioned how much I love the character Sailor Moon, ordered chiraishi bowls for all of us which is essentially sashimi over rice, and some cake. I was absolutely delighted. It was a fantastic day if I do say so myself especially since earlier in the day when I was in class my new friends had all bought me snacks and wished me happy birthday. I was further spoiled after work the next day by my boss taking me and my coworkers out for an izakaya dinner, obviously I don’t drink but the food at izakayas are always sooooo good. It was definitely one of my more favourite birthdays, I was 22 and having the time of my life.

I decided to end off April and spend Golden Week, which is a week at the end of April and beginning of May filled with national holidays and is thus called “Golden Week” by making a trip to Busan, South Korea with TC. She found a deal for us to take a 3-hour ferry from Fukuoka to Busan and stay in a Couchsurfing place (which was to be my first of many). I soon learned from this trip that even though TC claimed to be travel savvy, she doesn’t really do her research very well. But I’ll get to that in a bit. We embarked on our journey from Nagasaki station by highway bus (which was the cheapest option) to Fukuoka to take our ferry. When we arrived, we quickly got lost. South Korea, well Busan, isn’t quite as easy to figure out as Japan but that’s mostly because neither of us spoke Korean. We spent a while trying to find wifi and our host’s place. We were excited to be able to explore the city of Busan at any rate and spoke to a few locals along our way who could speak a little English. When we finally found and arrived at our host’s place. We found out that our host didn’t have a bed or a blanket or anything for us to sleep on, just literally the hardwood floor of his kitchen in a small one-bedroom apartment. I mean I was grateful to have shelter, I was, but damn. TC complained that the couple of other times that she used Couchsurfing she always had her own room and bed and didn’t know why this happened but being that I now have lots of experience in Couchsurfing, I can tell you that TC was either lying or that she must have had luck of the draw with her previous Couchsurfing trips and just requested to stay with the first person that popped up in Busan. Normally, when you look on Couchsurfing you can tell what the host is offering, where you get your own room or a shared room, how much privacy you get and pictures of the place but this guy must have had nothing up on his profile otherwise I don’t see how TC would have requested to stay with him...actually I still don’t see why she requested to stay with him. I never stay with someone if they have no references, pictures, or if it’s a shared space. It was such an uncomfortable 6 days because I really was not prepared to be sleeping on a hardwood floor with no cover but the clothes from my bag. The host was really nice though and he could speak English well so that was a plus. I mostly blame TC for most likely not actually reading his profile because then I could have prepared myself.

We spent our first full day in Busan and the last day of April at the Gamcheon Culture Village which is considered the “Asian Santorini” for its colourful landscape. TC had arranged for us to meet up with another couchsurfing host and his guest. One of whom was a Vietnamese ex-pat and an American from Connecticut that had been spending the past few months traveling around Asia. He was really cool and open-minded, we both connected with the two guys really quickly and had a blast exploring the village, trying street food and heading to downtown Busan. The American guy, Z, reminded me that travel shouldn’t be about seeing as much as possible but just absorbing where you are and taking in everything as opposed to getting so much done but never actually experiencing it. We walked for ages and thoroughly investigated every nook and cranny of this intriguing village. We also hiked up to the top and took an amazing view of all of the colourful buildings and artwork. I ate a loooot of street food that day and honestly each thing was under a dollar, it was great! Two things stood out to me from my street food adventure and that was Beondegi which is silkworm pupae; bitter but not overly gross and hotteok; my absolute favourite thing that I tried even though I’m not really much of a sweet tooth. It was a deliciously sweet, caramelly thick pancake with peanuts. One of the reasons why I love Busan so much is that the food is so cheap and delicious so I really did eat a lot of it….Since we hit it off with these two other couch surfers, we decided to meet up with them a few more times before leaving Busan. Later that night when we got back to our host’s apartment, we were invited to have fried chicken with him and his friend--an absolute must-have if you’re ever in Korea.

[comicteaparty]

January 13th-January 19th, 2020 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from January 13th, 2020 to January 19th, 2020.  The chat focused on Verse by Sam Beck.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

Comic Tea Party

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Week Long Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Verse by Sam Beck~! (http://versecomic.com/)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Remember, though, that while we allow constructive criticism, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic. Below you will find four questions to get you started on the discussion. However, a new question will be posted and pinned everyday (between 12:01AM and 6AM PDT), so keep checking back for more! You have until January 19th to tell us all your wonderful thoughts! With that established, let’s get going on the reading and the chatting!

QUESTION 1. What has been your favorite scene in the comic so far? What specifically did you like about it?

QUESTION 2. What do you think caused the past civilizations and magic to all but disappear from the world? Do you think magic’s return is really in the world’s best interest, or will it lead to more harm than good?

Comic Tea Party

QUESTION 3. At the moment, who is your favorite character? What about that character earns them this favor?

QUESTION 4. How do you think Fife will change throughout the story, and do you think he will find the strength to protect the people he cares about? In what ways will his own story continue to affect Neitya and her goals?

Comic Tea Party

QUESTION 5. What has been your favorite illustration in the comic so far? What specifically about it do you like?

QUESTION 6. Given the themes of trauma, which character’s depiction of dealing with their own past trauma stuck out to you the most and why? Do you think as a whole each character will learn to better manage their trauma, and how can seeing this help us?

Tired Programmer

I'm sorry for a stupid question, because I'm a newbie here. Are we supposed to discuss these questions here or they are just an ideas for commenting the comics above?(edited)

RebelVampire

They're just ideas. Most people tend to follow the questions, but if you have anything else you'd like to discuss regarding the book club comic for the week, you're more than welcome to. @Tired Programmer

RebelVampire

1) My favorite scene is probably the one where they have Neitya open the gate. There's a lot to like about the scene. First, the art and the composition. The way its composed and paced has a real sense of intensity, so you can really place yourself in the other characters' shoes as they watch this unfold with anxiety. Plus, the glowy bits of magic used add a real mystical element as well. In terms of story, though, I love that this scene simultaneously answers a lot of questions while not answering them at all (and opening more). It's a real interesting blend of baiting the reader in with answers but keep them wanting more. Since in this case, I have a good idea of what happened, but want more elaboration that I know will come in due time. 2) I feel like the past civilizations loss of magic is because of them. Just as were seeing people in the current time want more and more from magic, to the point of challenging what is ethical for the sake of progress, I feel the past civilizations were the same. And that someone did something so grievous it caused magic to just go out of control to the point it dried up from the world. As for magic's return to the world being more good or bad, probably more bad if the current characters are any indication. Like magic isn't inherently bad at all. But you'll always have people like Branca who wants to push the limits and has a "never enough" attitude about it. So as people view magic in the world currently, I feel they can only go down the same path unless they learn some hardcore lessons about that.

3) My favorite character is probably Fife. I like how hard Fife tries and how hard it is for him to actually improve. And while I feel in a lot of stories his slow character growth might be tedious, I actually find it works a lot. Cause the traumas Fife has are very real, and everything we've been shown makes the pace of progress make sense. So I kind of enjoy seeing a character who is so close but just keeps missing the mark cause growth and change are hard. Also, Fife is adorable. So there's that too. 3) I think eventually Fife will find a better way to manage his fears and traumas, because insofar, Fife strikes me as the type to at least try to push himself into situations that make him uncomfortable. So I think eventually he'll find the strength of skill and character he's looking for. It's just gonna be a long journey and not anytime soon, but I think the current situation will kind of demand the change from him. As for his affect on Neitya, I actually think he'll serve an important role of grounding her. Neitya seems like she has a big chosen one destiny ahead of her, and between magic training and looking for answers, I think she'll often forget to take a step back and remember there are others around her who care about her and are affected by her choices. And I think Fife will help serve as the main figure that pulls her back and helps her through things emotionally speaking in certain regards.

RebelVampire

5) There's a lot in my favorite scene to choose from, but I'm gonna go for this page's middle panel http://www.versecomic.com/comic/197 I love love love that slow crawl of the text glowing. Like, I can picture it in my head. And I love that not only was it thought to be done like this, but just that simple choice adds so much to the mysticism of the moment as well as to the feeling of movement for the whole scene. <3 6) For me, it's Fife's trauma that stuck out to me the most. This ties into an earlier answer about how Fife tries. His trauma isn't something he wants, nor is it something he's purposely trying to let affect him. But then theres moments like this http://www.versecomic.com/comic/99 where is just springs up and he freezes. And then he's mad that he let that happen. And I feel like this is a really good characterization of trauma in general. Most people don't want to have trauma or deal with their trauma. It just happens, and it takes a long time to be okay either with the trauma or the fact that the trauma can have negative affects. As a whole, though, I think the characters will all definitely come to better terms with their current traumas (partly because they'll probably have new traumas). But I feel like dealing with the consequences of the gateway is gonna teach everyone stuff about themselves and force them to step up and learn to bite the trauma down to do what needs to be done.

Eightfish

1/5. I liked this page:http://www.versecomic.com/comic/29 I think it does a great job of making the world feel big The cityscapes look amazing as well: http://www.versecomic.com/comic/81 http://www.versecomic.com/comic/64 They have so much personality to them. They feel like unique, lived in places I can feel that the artist has such a love of landscapes

Comic Tea Party

QUESTION 7. Which characters do you enjoy seeing interact the most? What about their dynamic interests you?

QUESTION 8. What do you think the Vel really are, and how do they tie into the gates? Do you think the Vel can be stopped for good, or is it something that will plague the world no matter what the characters do?

DaemonDan (The Demon Archives)

(finished reading Verse, will try to add some answers today/tomorrow!)

SAWHAND

(Same! Verse is a HUGE fav of mine! I just need to do a quick flip through to refresh, but this week has been ultra busy so far)

Comic Tea Party

QUESTION 9. What sorts of art or story details have you noticed in the way the comic is crafted that you think deserves attention?

QUESTION 10. What is your opinion on Magdalena’s change of heart to legitimately help Branca open a gate with Neitya? Do you think her actions justified or foolish? Also, how will the dire events affect her given her role in it?

RebelVampire

7) I probably enjoy seeing Fife and Azar interact the most. I enjoy the kind of mentorish bond they have despite them kind of being opposite sorts of people. And I also like just in general how understanding Azar is of Fife and doesn't really ridicule him that much for his screwups. And I think of the relationships in the story, its the one I find to be the healthiest in its own way. 8) Given how much the entire thing Branca did felt like necromancy, I'm gonna go with theyre defiled souls. Potentially, they could be the old civilization at large. I know it was mentioned that the Vel existed back then, and maybe the more they messed with magic, the more Vel came about until that's all that was left. Until someone armageddoned them out of the world or something. As for whether they can be stopped for good, probably not. Granted I'm sure they can learn to deal with them better and quell their levels to non end of the world levels. But I think in the end they're just part of the world as corruption is part of the world.

9) I really love a lot of the details on the clothes. Like you've got patterns, you've tassle-like things, fur, etc. There's a lot of effort put into some of the smaller details of the clothing that I really think makes a lot of the outfits feel really unique. I also like how each outfit kind of expresses the character's personality such as Branca's dark wardrobe compared to Azar's more flamboyant wardrobe. So there's just a lot of consideration and effort that was put into making the clothing feel impatctful. 10) My opinion of Magdalena is wtf. XD 100% foolish. She did not consider at all the potential consequences at all and grasped way too hard at the hope straw that maybe it'd make things better. That, and curiosity. I can't justify anything she did from an outsider's perspective cause there were just too many what ifs she willfully ignored. Not that I dislike her or anything of course. But she dun goofed. I feel like Magdalena knows this though, and the events are gonna mire her with grief and guilt as she accepts more and more the hand she had in causing this. And she'll be that much more motivated to make it right, probably to the point of recklessness.

Comic Tea Party

QUESTION 11. What do you think are this particular comic’s strengths? What do you think makes this comic unique? Please elaborate.

QUESTION 12. What do you think happened to Branca after the city was overrun? Do you think Branca will continue to be a threat to the world, or might have the events changed how Branca intends to achieve the cult’s original goals?

Comic Tea Party

QUESTION 13. What are you most looking forward to in the comic? Also, do you have any final thoughts to share overall?

QUESTION 14. Do you think Neitya will learn to control her magic? If so, how might she be able to fix the current situation with the gate and the Vel? Also, what do you think will happen when she meets Fife and the others again?

RebelVampire

11) I think this comic's strengths are in its designs, both visually and story-wise. There's an interesting world with its own unique problems that different from our own. The visual presence of the world is stunning, from forests to full-blown cities. The characters have a great sense of visual style and everyone looks really unique and identifiable. Just overall, everything is really designed well for a nice, overall high quality experience. 12) I think Branca probably escaped and is still gonna pursue her ends of bringing magic everywhere. I imagine, though, that she's gonna lay low and figure out wtf Neitya did in the first place and how she can use everything to her advantage. I kind of...doubt Branca will change. She seems too power hungry that even a bunch of Vel aren't gonna deter her methinks.

13) I am looking forward to learning more about the past civilization's downfall and how that still has strong ramifications in the present story's world. I feel there is gonna be some sort of epic reveal at some point that will change every character's perspective on why the world it is the way it is and their relationship with magic. 14) I think Neitya will learn to control her magic. I think even without the voices helping her, she's probably a natural and will pick it up quickly. Though probably there'll be a few things that give her endless frustration. As for fixing the current situation, the most obvious solution would be to close the gate thing opened. But I feel they're gonna go for the harder solution of learning to deal with the Vel instead. I kind of feel like Fife and Neitya will be happy to see each other, but everyone else, not so much. I think there's gonna be lots of trust issues on both side that need to be resolved, so I'm expecting tension.

twothirty

wanted to pop in and thank @RebelVampire for hosting the bookclub and providing such wonderful questions (and answers!)

Comic Tea Party

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Verse this week! Please also give a special thank you to Sam Beck for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Verse, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: http://versecomic.com/

Sam’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=722594

Verse’s Merchandise: https://hivemill.com/collections/verse

Sam’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/_twothirty

[rivengard]

1-60!

1. selfie I'm not sure if I posted this one but fuck it lool

2. what would you name your future kids? something Elvish for sure

3. do you miss anyone? nahh

4. what are you looking forward to? my erasmus programme

5. is there anyone who can always make you smile? idk not always

6. is it hard for you to get over someone? it's not, I'm actually really good at controlling my feelings and such

7. what was your life like last year? i was a bit unhappy bc of my choices in life but I also had good times, good relationships, ups and downs like the usual..

8. have you ever cried because you were so annoyed? oh boy hell yea I did

9. who did you last see in person? couple of friends

10. are you good at hiding your feelings? lol yea

11. are you listening to music right now? no

12. what is something you want right now? we ain't going there mate xD joking aside it would be nice to have someone to talk, hangout all night and make out

13. how do you feel right now? I feel pretty emotional due to the finale of oitnb

14. when was the last time someone of the opposite sex hugged you? two days ago

15. personality description umm a self-destructive bitch, realistic enough to believe in fantasy worlds, sarcastic and full of stupid puns I'd say (I have a good sense of humour I swear)

16. have you ever wanted to tell someone something but you didn’t? I mean yeah, like everyone at some point

17. opinion on insecurities. OH I HAVE MANY WHERE SHOULD I BEGIN..to be honest everyone has them, we should either accept them or make a change if there's an option and if it'll make us feel better in the end

18. do you miss how thing were a year ago? not at all

19. have you ever been to New York? noO I WISH

20. what is your favourite song at the moment? I can't choose just one :( there are too many

21. age and birthday? I'll be 20 on Nov. 11

22. description of crush. I don't have one :(

23. fear(s) not achieving anything, ending up all alone and also FUCK clowns

24. height 5'7 or 5'8

25. role model I don't think I have one..

26. idol(s) idk

27. things i hate racist people, abusers in any kind, my relatives, the country I live in, being broke...

28. i’ll love you if… you buy me swords, ohh and make me laugh lots

29. favourite film(s) lotr, the great gatsby, the wolf of the wall street, the departed, pride and prejudice, hobbit, leòn the professional, django, colette, spider-man into the spiderverse, coraline, a nightmare on elm street...I have too many ffs

30. favourite tv show(s) black sails, sense8, sherlock, good omens, lost, b99, poldark..

31. 3 random facts I recently quit my job due to health issues, I started rewatching Doctor Who and I love Leonardo DiCaprio a lot

32. are your friends mainly girls or guys?equal

33. something you want to learn lots of languages tbh

34. most embarrassing moment Idk I can't think anything

35. favourite subject art, english and literature related

36. 3 dreams you want to fulfill? graduating from uni, moving abroad and be covered in tattoos

37. favourite actor/actress Leonardo DiCaprio, Benedict Cumberbatch, Johnny Depp, Jack Nicholson, Michael B. Jordan, Lily Collins, Keira Knightley..

38. favourite comedian(s) Ricky Gervais and Stephen Colbert

39. favourite sport(s) basketball and working out in general

40. favourite memory this would take a long ass time to write tbh

41. relationship status single

42. favourite book(s) the silmarillion, lotr, fahrenheit 451 and currently reading the great gatsby I'm pretty sure this will be one of my faves too

43. favourite song ever I CAN'T CHOOSE

44. age you get mistaken for 12 lol jk most ppl tell me I look younger

45. how you found out about your idol I didn't I guess

46. what my last text message says "lmao same"

47. turn ons it's 4.46am and my brain stopped functioning idk, neck kissing, being kind, good humour, loving lotr, kinkyness...

48. turn offs rude assholes..

49. where i want to be right now ENGLAND

50. favourite picture of your idol I really should choose an idol right..okay let's say it's Leo

51. starsign horny one lol (if that's not clear enough it's scorpio)

52. something i’m talented at I used to think I'm talented at drawing but now idk

53. 5 things that make me happy My cat loki, finally being able to workout properly after injury, making playlists and listening to them, shopping (shocking because I'm broke yet I insist on being a stupid hoe) and hanging out w my best friend

54. something thats worrying me at the moment how am I suppose to wake up and go to gym, I can't sleep n it's basically 5am so...

55. tumblr friends @celiacelestial @wonderinghobbit @all-together-run-for-cover @asylumsammet @kingsmill and you! (i most likely forgot lots of ppl I'M SORRY YOU GUYS)

56. favourite food(s) zucchini noodles, baked mushrooms, pizza and spicy foods in general I guess

57. favourite animal(s) cats, dogs, rabbits, wolves..I love em all tbh

58. description of my best friend she's an actual hobbit, cutest bean, would kill for Freddie Mercury and Benedict Cumberbatch, stans way too many shit which makes our conversations even more enjoyable, a great listener and she has a great sense of humour lol

59. why i joined tumblr about 7 years ago I heard it from my cousin and was curious about it lmao thank god it helped me improve my English, humor, variety of interests...as well as making me spend countless hours of reblogging :::))))

Thank youuu!💕

[kanasmusings]

[Translation] ROCK DOWN Unit CD Vol. 1 Drama Track 3

Here’s the third track~! Boy, I got a lot of thoughts with just this track alone for their characterizations XD 

※ Please don’t re-post the English translations without permission.

Under the cut, enjoy~

Track 3: [ROCK DOWN始動!] “ROCK DOWN, Start!”

SHO: Now then, everyone did well during the gathering.

SHO: Ayumu and Reiji resolved their conflict, too, and everyone’s living safely in the dorms now.

SHO: And so, shall we begin ROCK DOWN’s first meeting? Is everyone ready?

RUKA: Yes, yes~! Everything’s perfect~! I look forward to working with you all~!

ALL: We’ll be in your care.

SHO: (chuckles) Me, too.

SHO: Now then, shall we begin? I got contacted by the manager about how the six of us will be doing a small tour as a part of promotions and for our publicity.

SHO: These are the rough details of it. (Sho puts a piece of paper on the table)

REIJI: Oh, it already has a programme? Show me. (Reiji stands up from his seat)

AYUMU: Hey, Ama— Reiji…

AYUMU: Why do you think he put it in the middle for?

REIJI: You should hurry up and get used to calling me Reiji, y’know? You started it yourself.

AYUMU: I realized that I was being hasty with that decision.

REIJI: Don’t say that with such a calm face.

REIJI: You can take it back, you know? I’ll forgive you since I have no choice~

AYUMU: … No, there’s no need. A man doesn’t go back on his word.

REIJI: Are you a samurai?

GAKU: So this unit has two samurai, huh?

RUKA: Hey, Reiji-kun! Hurry and pass that around.

GAKU: Ruu, it will eventually come to you so calm down.

RUKA: I mean, I’m super curious! I wanna see it now! Hurry, hurry!

REIJI: Ah, fine, got it! If you’re that excited, look over it first! Here you go.

(Reiji hands over the programme)

RUKA: Yay~! Thank you~

RUKA: Oh! It’s kinda supeeeeeerrr—intense, hey!

GAKU: It’s true… There’s more to do than I initially thought.

HARUTO: It is.

SHO: You’re right. It seems like the manager put in whatever he could since it’s ROCK DOWN’s first activity.

SHO: In the end, it amounted to this much.

HARUTO: It’s good to be enthusiastic about work, isn’t it?

AYUMU: … I still wonder about whether that part of you that says that is serious or if it’s simple carelessness.

RUKA: Uwah~ Since it’s this much, I have to go into hyper concentration mode after my current play’s finished.

GAKU: Do you think your stamina will last?

RUKA: It should be fine~! I did ask my manager to give me as much work as he can as long as I think I can handle it.

RUKA: I won’t go back on my word either~!

GAKU: You… That attitude of yours is really manly, huh…

RUKA: Thank you, Gakkun~ I think so, too~

AYUMU: I am grateful about the fact that he’s passionate about promoting us but… Look at this.

AYUMU: While it is easy to interpret, the capacity’s too much. I’m curious about this part.

HARUTO: True.

AYUMU: Even if it’s an event that doesn’t have admission fee, is it even possible for a unit that’s not so popular to gather that many people?

REIJI: Ayumu… You’re saying things like that again…

REIJI: I can’t tell if it’s you being negative or a worrywart. What are you gonna do if you’re scared before you even tried it?

REIJI: You should be proud that the agency’s expecting that much from us, right?

SHO: Yep, I think that’s the case, too.

SHO: VAZZY’s got three members who just debuted but ROCK DOWN’s members all had solo careers beforehand.

AYUMU: Well, that’s… quite true.

REIJI: Ah, geez! You, stop mumbling nonsense.

REIJI: I’m here, y’know? I’m your super public character!

HARUTO: It’s true. Since Reiji-san’s an actor, his name and face are already well-known.

REIJI: (confidently) Right~?

AYUMU: Ama—Reiji’s pride and confidence is reassuring at times like these.

REIJI: Does making a genuine compliment not exist inside that body of yours?

RUKA: Alright, everyone~ I won’t lose to Reiji-kun when it comes to follower counts~

RUKA: I want you to count on me for publicity, too~

RUKA: I’m a stage presence so my overall popularity’s still not much but, it’s, ya know~ That kinda thing where you know it’ll still continue to grow~!

RUKA: ROCK DOWN will definitely get more TV appearances and other related things so it’s only a matter of time before the name Nadumi Ruka becomes renowned!

RUKA: Probably! Leave it to me!

AYUMU: … I see… ROCK DOWN has another super confident person, huh.

AYUMU: He doesn’t disappoint.

HARUTO: I don’t know whether my confidence can help much at first.

GAKU: So you’re not sure of yourself? Anyway, Ruu’s the type to go all out before even doing the real thing.

HARUTO: He’s the “shonen manga protagonist” type.

GAKU: Ah, (laughs) that’s pretty close.

AYUMU: I understand. So, he’s the complete opposite of me who who’s extremely cautious.

GAKU: S-since you’re self-aware, let’s go about this as relaxed as we can, okay, Ayumu…

SHO: (chuckles) Being able to look forward is a good thing for a talent.

SHO: Ruka and Reiji are probably the type who were born to stand in the spotlight. How reliable~

***

[05:31]

(intense background music)

REIJI: (chuckles haughtily) Hey, Ruka.

REIJI: It’s good that you have drive but… I won’t give the center position to you.

REIJI: Sharing doesn’t suit Amaha Reiji.

RUKA: Ah~! That’s important, right, Reiji-kun~?

RUKA: But, I have confidence that I can do any kind of role, you know~?

RUKA: An actor will shine in any role no matter the circumstances, remember~?

REIJI: Shine? Hah! If that’s the case then anyone can take any part.

REIJI: I’m the type who drowns himself in his role and creates a new being out of it!

REIJI: That’s the real charm of acting, isn’t it?

RUKA: Heh~ So, Reiji-kun’s the type of person who thinks like that~

RUKA: Hmmm~

REIJI: What of it?

(intense music suddenly stops)

RUKA: I like it~! So, there’s that kind of method, too! It’s interesting!

REIJI: Hah…?

RUKA: Ma~n~ Reiji-kun’s the type I can have deep conversations with~! Next time, let’s talk more about acting while we drink, ‘kay~?

REIJI: Huh?! (dumbfounded) Ah, ah, yeah, got it.

RUKA: Putting that aside~ I love standing out, too so I’ll gratefully accept your challenge for the center part!

RUKA: Let’s decide once and for all at the live!

REIJI: (scoffs) Bring it on. I’m the type who doesn’t back down from a challenge.

(meanwhile, with Gaku and the others)

GAKU: Sho, is that okay? They’ve started fighting over the center spot by themselves.

SHO: (laughs) Isn’t it great that they’re excited about it?

SHO: I said so before but, the center’s for someone who can energize an audience so we’re free to do what we please with it.

SHO: Haruto, Gaku, Ayumu, try aiming for it, too, okay~? Of course, I’ll do my best, too.

GAKU: Easier said than done. We’re gonna go against those two, you know?

SHO: I’m sure Gaku can do it!

GAKU: That’s a baseless proposal, huh?

SHO: (chuckles) It might be but I believe in you.

SHO: Everyone in ROCK DOWN has the brilliance to stand in the center. I believe in that.

HARUTO: Sho…

SHO: Now then… (Sho claps his hands) Reiji, Ruka, can you guys leave it at that for now?

SHO: I want to continue the meeting.

RUKA: Ah…

REIJI: Oh yeah, that’s right. We were still in the middle of a meeting.

(Reiji sits down)

RUKA: Ah, I’m so sorry, Sho-kun! (Ruka sits down)

SHO: The schedule for this tour has already been posted online.

SHO: I want you to confirm the dates for yourselves, too.

SHO: Once the tour starts, we’ll be having the same schedules.

SHO: Let’s prepare thoroughly and make this a success.

SHO: That’s all~

ALL: Roger!/Got it!

==END==

※ Please don’t re-post the English translations without permission.

If you like this, please consider buying me a coffee here. It’ll really help me out a lot. (o^▽^o) Thank you!!

[dxmedstudent]

Hey, I was wondering if you would consider reviewing the latest episode of Casualty (med drama) on BBC iplayer? Obviously only if you want to, no pressure. I thought it was a really good episode with the way they handled the patient case study, but it would be fun to see how accurate it is from a Dr's perspective.

Hello, I appreciate that you watched something medical and thought of me! That’s a lovely thought.  You’ll be pleased to know that in real life there’s a lot less drama and… explosions. There wouldn’t be any of us still alive in hospital if life was that harrowing. So it’s been an interesting diversion. Not my usual kind of viewing material for when I’m not at work (because when I’m home, nobody is supposed to die, all we want is something relaxing to watch)… I do, oddly enough, like superhero stuf just fine; same over-wrought themes of saving people, balancing two halves of your identity and letting your loved ones down, and oh no! someone died and you couldn’t save them! But because it’s not medical, it doesn’t set off that annoying voice in my head that tells me I ought to go over there and fix it myself. I don’t watch casualty, but I thought “Why not?”. And decided to watch the episode you mention. I don’t know the background of any of the characters, so I’ll be skipping over a lot of the overarching plot to focus on the bits I get.Warning: discussion of severe burns,  neonatal death and unrelated rape. And spoilers, obviously.

I’ll skip through the rape storyline because it’s upsetting; I’m glad that there are storylines out there tacking the idea that just becaus esomeone has consented to sex in the past doesn’t automatically mean they consented to sex with someone in the future. I hope that media exploring rape myths can raise awareness that there are lots of situations where consent changes, and that consent has to be a costant, active and ongoing process.

There’s a sub plot about a neonatologist who lost a patient who was a baby; I don’t know the background of how or why that happens, but they seem really, really broken about it. And I’m not saying that’s not horrific (God, crash calls involving infants are the worst). By the time you get to their point in their career, you will have seen children or babies die, and so their reaction feels…worse than the usual. I can’t tell if they have an underlying background of depression or other problems, or if the case was particularly harrowing, but it seemed to affect them particularly deeply. That’s the kind of context I don’t have, and I wonder f knowing the history would make a difference. But we can accept that they’ve clearly had a harrowing case to deal with.  I think the case you were probably referring to is the burns patient? So let’s focus on that. They use a reasonable amount of realism in the medical science, albeit all a bit more fast paced and dramatic than real life. Whilst there are definitely times when we act very quickly, most emergencies don’t quite move as fast as on TV, if that makes sense. But then again, people don’t have time to watch the same programme for 6 hours or 3 days to see the same things happen. They used a reasonable amount of real science; I think they tried pretty hard to inject a bit of medical accuracy into their story. That’s not to say that it was perfect, or always particularly realistic, but I think if things were more relaistic it would often take the plot in quite different directions that perhaps viewers would find a lot less interesting. And I think that although realism is important (or at least, frank outright misinformation is unacceptable), I don’t feel that forcing all plots to be medically accurate 100% of the time would necessarily make for good viewing. Don’t get me wrong; writing is often very (even unnecessarily sloppy), but the real happy medium that allows for good storytelling probably woldn’t be always 100% accurate either. Not always. For example, I liked that they explained what was going on; though in real life we don’t pehaps explain science to each other quite like they do on TV, but I think it’s nice for it to be spelled out for viewers. They don’t write medical dramas for people like me, after all. I don’t even think medical personnel are as into medical dramas as other people are. (on a side note: You wanna know what everyone in A&E is watching? Love Island. The mind boggles; I guess we all have our ways of switching off XD)…Although burns patients are at risk of infections and do sometimes need to be intubated due to swelling in their airways as a result of burns or smoke inhalation. Some of the effects of burns are immediate, others take longer to kick in.  And burns are very painful, so, so painful. So they handled that aspect quite well.

Because you seem quite interested in the episode, I thought I’d include a graph for survival rates after burns, based on age and percentage, because in the episode they sort of danced around how bad the patient’s burns were, by baguely implying it’s a VERY BAD thing whilst not actually clearly explaining why. Because the patient and the partner are medical, it was taken as part of the plot that they all knew what was going on, but it wasn’t really explained for viewers. So, yup, having like 35% burns isn’t great news.

So that’s why everyone was acting really grave, and why there was a big thing about ‘don’t tell her what percentage she has”, though in real life you’d never not tell people how unwell they are.  The ‘crash’ call (VF is a crash call) wasn’t called out as one; there’s usually alarms and pagers going off, or at least a crowd of people rushing in to see if a hand is needed. I’m glad they had all the equipment there. I’d be glad if people converted back to rhythm so quickly! The CPR was weak as noodles, but that’s standard for TV. In a real call, we wouldn’t just say someone was hyperkalaemic; we’re all about the actual numbers. They didn’t really follow up on actually treating it (though they did start talking about it a little), but correcting potassium disturbances can take a little while, so I can see why they decided to focus the end of those scenes the way they did. Adding several drugs and other things to the mix would just have cluttered the situation. But in real life treatment is sometimes pretty cluttered and messy and chaotic, and even when you fix one thing there are lots of other things to sort, so you don’t really get a breather. Especially not with a patient like that. But that would have changed the mood of the end of the patient case, and I can understand why they needed to give the audience a sense of closure about the case. In real life, the one managing the airways would be anaesthetics (was that guy the anaesthetist? I don’t know the characters at all), and they’d be talking a lot more about whether the patient would go to ITU or straight to the burns unit, and there would be calls to the burn unit about what protocol to use for fluid rescuscitation and when the patient might be taken over. If they are too unwell, they might have to stay in the hospital’s ITU until they were more stable. And if they are too unstable to be moved from resus, well, they stay there until they are stable enough to move to ITU; it’s pretty nerve-racking sometimes during that phase. Again, I can see why they wouldn’t want to bog down the episode with this level of detail; they focus on a few pared down aspects of patient care to make a point, rather than overloading viewers.

Now, about the things that could have been done a little more realistically…

They really should have intubated the patient sooner. And given that the patient knew the risks, I find it odd that they chose deep, meaningful relationship conversations over securing their own airways. Or that their partner would be sitting there chatting rather than telling them “we’ll sort this out later, but your airways are literally swelling up as we speak and you will die”.  You really don’t want to get to a situation when you can’t intubate because things swelled up too much. We lost a really young family friend to just such a scenario this year, and it’s a horrific thing that no clinician wants to see. I accept that the thing the writers were going for was ‘they know they may die, and they love their partner, therefore they need to talk, now, in case it’s too late’. But as medics we have it drilled into us that you do NOT delay urgent things because that worsens outcomes. I can accept it as a plot device, but I’d find it more unbelievable when the characters involved knew that better than even I do. Whilst I’ve never had to deal with the same exact scenarios (most people with severe burns get sent to burns units, often straight away if possible; I’ve not personally handled burns that severe and there’s usually less drama), but in general, when it comes to real life, the thought of staying alive becomes more all-consuming when you are sick. And it’s actually much, much scarier. People having long wistful ‘possible last conversations’ with spuoses is TV medicine; real medicine is patients weakly grabbing your hand, saying “help me”, and “Am I going to die?”.I also find that in medical dramas patients aren’t ill in the way that real people are. When patients are really acutely unwell, they are often pretty out-of-it, because of the effect that illness is having on their body. So they ften aren’t likely to be driving their own treatment very much at that point in time, or having long chats with anyone. Of course, unconsious or confused patients in varying levels of consciousness don’t always make for interesting viewing for laypeople. Which is why in medical dramas, people are usually conscious and fully with it, and being different levels of difficult, unless there’s some Big Secret ™ to be revealed to a family member whilst they are in a coma, in which case they will conveniently lose consciousness. Real life, as I said, usually contains a lot less drama. I’m not even going to touch the metaphorical and literal car crash at the end. How do people sit through episodes with this much action? It’s like a normal medical drama crossed with a Bond film. Normally, action doesn’t bother me too much, but throw in a patient who needs looking after, and some part of my subconscious that was beaten into shape during my training won’t stop shouting “BUT WHO WILL LOOK AFTER THE PATIENT?! SAVE THE PATIENT” in the back of my mind. It’s well executed drama, which is exactly what you want from a soap. I just don’t disengage enough from medical series to enjoy that level of adrenaline. As an aside, I’d appreciate if anyone sending recs gave a heads-up about the kind of content in the episode. I was hoping for something a little more… relaing to watch, but the topics in ep 44 were quite heavy; rape, people being set on fire and associated severe burns, abuse, and ambulance crews needing ambulances themselves. It’s heavy stuff. It might not affect whether I watch something, but it’d probably affect when I do it. Hope you enjoy the upcoming episodes, I’d love to hear if any interesting cases come up :)

[sambart93]

2017.09.05 Messiah: Yukyuu no Toki Review!

GUYS! The drinking theme this time is’ drink every time I say ‘I want to punch (insert part of the Messiah cast or staff here)’.

Official Site here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Video Coverage PreOrder DVD here

---

Cast and Characters

Izawa Yuuki as Ariga Ryo Sugie Taishi as Kagami Itsuki Nagae Ryuuki as Miike Mayo Yamaoki Yuuki as Yuugi Kotaru Hashimoto Shinichi as Kogure Jun Yamamoto Ikkei as Hinamori Senju Otsuka Kousuke as Dr.THREE Kotani Yoshikazu as Kuroko Yamada James Takeshi as Salyut Miyagi Koudai as Souk Araki Kentaro as Cheka Nishino Ryuta as Tetsu/Tecchan Toyoshima Kyousuke as Touya Murata Mitsu as Hangedman Nakahara Yuya as Ichijima Harumi Ensemble: Hosokawa Akihiro, Kitamura Kai, Uraei Kenji, Hisada Yuki, Ishigami Ryuya, Sakamoto Kazuki, Takenaka Ryota

*

NON-SPOILER REVIEW

Overall: This was good. I enjoyed it all the way through, I was hooked and entertained. The action as usual doesn’t disappoint and there’s an (Koudai, and Itsuki x Ariga’s fight) amazing step up in the action and fighting scenes and techniques which I loved. I’m glad we got a LOT more info on the new cadets. However, (oh jesus here I go) I am thoroughly pissed off at everything Ichijima did -- I hate this guy with a passion if you didn’t know. I also feel there were too many storylines; we REALLY didn’t need those ‘two young ex(?)-terrorists on the run’ story line... and the second half of the stage with Ariga’s twist plot was a little stupid too. There was a bit too much repetition too; some couples fighting over and over. Also so many fires shot and no one died from them?! Come on! Someone should’ve died! About 4 people get at least two shots into their body and then go ages without seeing a doctor, by reality: someone (or most of them) should’ve died. And I didn’t really cry either -- the only time tears burst out of me was at a Mamiya reference. Rating: 7/10

*

SPOILER REVIEW

Lets get started shall we....

Story

Itsuki has to get a surgery to remove the chip in his brain so that no one can control him again, yet the price would be that he might lose his memory in the process. All the while, their graduation mission ends up being ‘Kill Ichijima Harumi’. While that’s going on two guys have decided to betray their group and flee along with a disc that has a computer programme on it for nuclear(?) bombs, which Sakura end up deciding to protect; especially when it turns out Cheka is back and working with Hanged Man. Part of their mission is to go to an island with a tower named the Tower of Babel and infiltrate and stop the terrorists groups so they can reunite the south and north sides of the island -- especially when so many important natural resources are there. And then we get Salyut and Souk who are there so Salyut can find his father, but also get involved with Sakura once more.

--

As you can tell... there’s quite too many plots lines going on at once.

*

Izawa Yuuki and Sugie Taishi - of course they gave amazing performances, I wouldn’t expect nothing less and they gave nothing less. It was so great seeing them SO freaking close <3 3rd row was a lovely sight! Izawa is so freaking handsome <3 I understand WHY they did it but I think the whole Ariga ‘losing his memory and then working with his best friend (and his childhood friend, wtf?!) Hangedman’ was complete bullshit. They could’ve handled it a different way. It would’ve been ore interesting IF Itsuki had gotten the surgery, lost his memory and HE was the one taken in by HoppouRengo. Makes more sense to me in my opinion.

I didn’t cry at all in this until Ariga was like ‘I’m not alone... I have Itsuki... 間宮はここにいる / and I have Mamiya here (in my heart) too’ and I burst out crying and smacked my hand against my mouth. It was like a 30second burst of massive tears.

And I got VERY angry at Itsuki towards the end, when he walked on with a violin and then later takes the violin out and is like ‘I’ve been practising’ and starts playing it; why they keep trying to ruin Mamiya’s image even more?! I really do feel like the staff (after the stage where they killed Mamiya) got way more complaints than they anticipated and have kind of taken any moment to be like ‘we’re so sorry we pissed so many of you off with the Mamiya story line, so here’s any chance we can to mention him and hopefully you’ll forgive us?’ but it’s just worked the other way for me; just makes me more mad and when Itsuki pulled that move, I was about to get out my chair.

Another moment was that, there’s about 3 or 4 scenes of just Ariga and Itsuki fighting and there’s even a point (I think) where both of them are shot to shit yet they’re still alive while yelling and fighting each other -- wtf?! It got really repetitive.

The main plot itself was kinda of stupid with Itsuki like ‘But if I get the surgery, I might forget you Ariga’ it was OBVIOUS Ariga would stay by his side to help him remember?! SO what was the point of that whole plot line?! Jut get the surgery straight away and stop wasting our time with that plot line. I GET why it had to be in the stage but just... common sense! He’d make you remember and get to know him again! I did kind of like the whole ‘Shirasaki and Yuuri are helping us!’ and it’s thanks to Neocromancer that Itsuki gets control of his brain again but just... that was a WHOLE stage ago; get over it with the Yuuri shit.

I really, really loved this one fight between Itsuki and Ariga where they really go at each other at full power: their fighting seemed SO realistic(!!!). I was actually worried they were going to hit each other; they used such power and at a fast speed, and it was such a good moment for fighting choreography that it really looked real! I can’t explain it.It was an amazing fight sequence though! I was super, super impressed!

Their ending was great too! Their grad outfits are so badass!

And someone sent Izawa flowers with a freaking violin in it!!

Nagae Ryuuki and Yamaoki Yuuki - which dumb fuckers thought these two wouldn’t be Messiahs? It was so fucking obvious. I can’t believe ANYONE would think any different. Yuugi even said in Akatsuki ‘I’d hate you to be my Messiah’ that’s Basic 101 of foreshadowing and storytelling and setting up the obvious plot line of them being Messiahs! It was so predictable my pet dog could’ve predicted it and I don’t even have a dog! That’s how obvious ti was! Anyway, I digress.

It’s actually super strange: I hated the new cadets to begin with but for some reason I really, really liked Miike in this one. I want to know more about him. And I like they were paired together (as obviously predicted!). They definitely set up some interesting plots with these two... First we have the whole ‘not wanting to be Messiahs’ yet by the end of this stage Yuugi is desperately trying to save Miike when he gets heavily injured, and Miike is like ‘I thought you didn’t want to be my Messiah... do you finally accept it?’, and then he next says ‘but unfortunately I’m not someone who dies’ which made me think back to Polar Night when he seemed to have supernatural abilities or something, so something else is going on with him. We also have a conversation of how Yuugi used to be religious but now he knows there is no god and Miike just flat out being ‘there was never a god. How could you believe?!’. We ALSO have Miike going a bit crazy and being like ‘I WANT TO BE KILLED BY YOU YUUGI!’ which to me was like ‘he more crazy than I was anticipating! But also that’s kinda sexy and I’m all about that...’  AND we also have Yuugi going ‘there’s someone I want to kill with these hands’ and Miike is like ‘you’re exactly the same as me funnily enough’ but out of ear shot of Yuugi. So they definitely caught my interest. I might carry on Messiah for them (especially if Koudai, James, Asato and Naoya -- jesus christ give me Naoya back please! - are back for the next stage), that’s how much their relationship interested me. I really, really hope it turns out that the person Yuugi wants to kill IS Miike.

Hashimoto Shinichi and Yamamoto Ikkei - I spent the entire stage going ‘Ask him Kogure! Ask him!! Tell him Ichijima! Tell him!!!’ but in the end Ichijima was like ‘you want to know if I’m your father? ... *whispers something inaudible* You are me’ 

And my reaction was:

Swear to god if he’s a genetically modified clone baby of Ichijima, I’m gunna punch the director in the face.

2017.09.06 Edit: Just realised I kind of didn’t talk about Kogure at all xD we got to see him being less stable and breaking down, after Ichijima kidnaps him and beats the living crap out of him, in this one which was great. I loved towards the end how hes’s like ‘I’m gunna find Ichijima and kill him’ so he’s been completely pissed off by Ichijima which was great to see! There’s also a scene towards the end where Ikkei helps him get to safety, but then both of them have the same thought of ‘fuck it’ and come running back ingot the theatre to help the other cadets. It’s going to be interesting seeing these two bond over their hatred for Ichijima. End Edit

And then we have Ikkei’s character who clearly has hate towards Ichijima and he’s not quite right in the head. He’s got a sadistic side to him; you can tell by the way he smiles when he fights. Unfortunately that’s all I picked up about him. I don’t know how he and Hashimoto will work as a pair BUT since both of them have beef with Ichijima and both hate Ichijima (bet they don’t hate him as much as I do!!!!!), I hope they do a double murder on Ichijima and then become like a badass anti-Sakura group...ooooh that would be fucking awesome! Rather than Terrorist-turns-Sakura (which we’ve seen before) it’d be great to see Sakura-turned-Terrorist group happen! I just really want Ichijima dead okay...

Otsuka Kousuke and Kotani Yoshikazu - this ended up being a pairing I was surprised to see and actually wanted. They were a good combination and Dr. Three just took all the crap and humour and jokes Kuroko had xD he even ended up joining in towards the end of the stage.

Kuroko... my precious Kuroko.... he had so much more comedy in this one! He hit so many of them with his slipper and it made amazing sounds and was very funny every time! He also ended up as acting leader of Sakura for a while which was awesome! I wish he’d stayed as the head... there was also a funny moment when Dr.Three tells him he has to become the boss (bosu) but all Kuroko hears is him being called ugly (busu) which was funny xD He also makes a joke of how tall the Tower of Babel is and says ‘that’s like 9000 Ichijima’s! It’s three times taller than skytree!’ But... I’m surprised we’re just going to ignore that he killed Misu-san though... it hasn’t affected him in Akatsuki OR this stage... I thought he’d be a bit... emotionally unstable but he was more energetic and fun as usual. But I do love Kuroko and he kept everyone entertained ^_^ another time he sniffs Ichijima’s jacket and is immediately like ‘umm... I’ll go wash it’ xD

Yamada James Takeshi and Miyagi Koudai -  Koudai really impressed me this stage. I’ve only ever seen him in Tenimyu and I knew he was playing a rather sexy guy in Brave10 and I knew he was in SSL but I haven’t seen either of those two, so I didn’t really have an opinion of him -- and in ALL honesty, I thought he was the same guy as the one who played Reiji in PuriSute... ANYWAY, I really liked his character in this! There’s any good things about him; he’s a good combination with James, I liked their interactions. His fighting style is both bad ass and sexy. He doesn’t use any weapons, just his fists and body and my oh my, did he use those legs to wrap himself around many of them... he was on top of quite a few of them some times too... it was real sexy... I think there was a part with him and Ikkei wrapped around each other and on the floor and rolled around and I was like ‘please do carry on’. I am very much looking forward to see more of his sexy fighting style xD Another thing about him is even though he’s in loads of layers, you can still see how TINY his waist is and his nice his body is! I knew he was on a diet for Brave10 but that’s finished so surely he’s been eating normally again, but still he has a wonderfully slim waist! I couldn’t not look. 

James was just as pretty as ever with that hair of his. And his face <3 so close, I got such a good look at him ^_^ I was surprised that his motivation this time around was to find his dad who was taken under Specter. I was even MORE surprised when he ends up offering and helping Sakura! WTF?! But we did get a few moments of Izawa and James fighting each other which I enjoyed obviously <3 such a shame we won’t see them two fight each other again =‘[ I’d pay just to have a stage of them fighting each other... I wonder who his dad turns out to be.... I’m sure it’ll get revealed and I’ll be excited to see!

But swear to god, they make Koudai and James the new Misu and Amane pair; I’m gunna punch the director in the face. Same goes for the new purple kids; if they become major roles and something similar to Amane and Misu; I’m gunna punch the scriptwriter in the face.

Araki Kentaro as Cheka - I was surprised how they brought him back! I thought he was going to be a flashback piece but turns out, he didn’t die in Akatsuki. Pretty sure he’s dead this time though, we saw him collapse this time around. He is a very sexy character and a very sexy man.... He did a great job. I can’t praise him enough.

Nishino Ryuta and Toyoshima Kyousuke - can we not? They were super pointless. Their story line was super ridiculous too. Their storyline was something like ‘they decided to run away from their terrorist group while still holding an important computer programme disc and get the protection of Sakura’. What the actual ********. We could just not have this plotline and the stage wouldn’t have suffered. Why.... WHY were they here?! And I almost lost my shit when Ichijima asked them if they wanted to join Sakura - I was like ‘PLEASE NO NEW CADETS!’ but they refused -- thank god. I hope they aren’t back in the next stage but they probs will be -__- they didn’t need to be in this. Them nor their storyline was needed..

Murata Mitsu - this guy is always amazing at whatever role he does. I was so happy to have him back in Messiah. But for GODSAKE. Can Ariga stop killing everyone he’s fucking paired with?!  Ariga killed his Messiah Mamiya. He almost killed Itsuki multiple times in this one. And he ended up killing his old friend Hangedman in this! What the actual fuck. Y’know Ariga, YOU’RE the one who needs to be shot and killed; NONE of the ones you killed! *breathes* sorry... Hangedman’s story ended up being somewhat very human and very real and sad and it kind of touched my heart and ended up liking him.... especially because there’s a cute, funny adlib/comedy scene between him and Ariga which melted my heart towards him (goddammit script writers! We’re supposed to hate him!), it was such a cute and good scene for them. 2017.09.06 EDIT: However, I am a little concerned and feel like this relationship was sloppy writing... Ariga has met Hangedman many times throughout the Messiah series but not once did he really seem to show he knew him nor imply or hint was even childhoods/best friends with him. Have I missed this point in a previous sage or did they really create this random relationship just solely for this stage and storyline? End EDIT

Nakahara Yuya - Ugh look who it is: Ichijima himself! First we get the mission to ‘Kill Ichijima’ came up, I was actually shocked; my mouth dropped down. But then he ended up being on the terrorist side and I was like ‘about FUCKING time this secret came out! I KNEW it!’ but then he does another switch-a-roo and IS actually on Sakura’s side and I was like ‘*flips table* FUCK this bullshit.’ because I have not once, not ever trusted Ichijima; it makes so much fucking sense for him to be on the bad side and for him to get killed by Sakura but oh no ‘hahaha just joking guys, I am really on Sakura’s side’ bullshit really pissed me off. AND THEN to make it worse he did that bullshit move to Kogure and THEN!! Ariga didn’t kill him! I gave the biggest fucking sigh and loads of people around me heard. I fucking want this tosspot dead asap! He should’ve been dead STAGES ago, but ‘due to popular demand’ the fuckers brought him back into Messiah! << I want punch the casting and director who made this decision. I’ve never liked him, he should die, he’s not a nice person, he’s manipulative as fuck, I HATE him. JUST DIE!

*takes a break*

*

EXTRAS

A gun went flying off stage tonight and some of them had to do finger guns because they were down a prop - seriously, how do you NOT have backups?! I’d have a whole stock of guns ready! During curtain call the first thing Sugie talked about was apologising for the gun falling of stage. It sounded like it didn’t hit or hurt anyone but they were very apologetic, but you could feel the whole room like ‘we really don’t care. Please don’t waste your time apologising. We don’t mind what happened,’ but obviously if it had been filming day, people would’ve been annoyed.

Also during curtain call, Izawa and Sugie both looked to the right at the same time and they both looked straight at me for a bit longer than they should’ve.... I was starting to feel the sweat xD

*

On the way home, I saw this guy with really nice hair in a bun and I immediately went “Araki?!... nah it won’t be... it can’t be.... *he turns to go down the stairs* HOLY SHIT IT IS ARAKI!! HE’S RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!! SHIIIIT I LOOK LIKE A STALKER!!! I LOOK VERY MUCH LIKE A STALKER!! I’M JUST GOING TO THE TRAIN STATION!!! WE’RE GOING TO THE SAME TRAIN STATION! OMG ARAKI!!!! ... be cool... be cool” I freaked the fuck out internally.

*

Speaking of idiots I want to punch; I want to punch myself! WHY did I preorder the DVD?! Seriously, I just ant the backstage and extra bonus disc stuff. I really don’t care much for this stage -- I’m sure in time it’ll grown on me and grown in my brain but right now, I’m kinda okay with never seeing this stage again. This one is supposed to be my last Messiah stage anyway so, trying to push those ‘throw away’ feelings to the front xD

*

There we go! My rather quick recap of Messiah xD I kinda wanted to get this out fairly quickly because, unlike most of my other reviews, Messiah is one that people actually read and want to know about.

[pocket-elf]

2017 Year Survey

(I’ve done this for a couple of years so why not this?)

1. What did you do in 2017 that you’d never done before?

I fell in love. 

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I didn’t make any but I think I will make one for next year

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Yes! I have a nephew now!

4. Did anyone close to you die? Thankfully no.

5. What countries did you visit? Only the UK. And Denmark if the airport counts haha (I mean it’s where I always fly from so)

6. What would you like to have in 2018 that you lacked in 2017? Energy, a job I actually like (energy should follow that though), kisses

7. What date from 2017 will remain etched upon your memory? None, but 2017 gave me a date from 2011 that will stick.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Is landing a girl an achievement? XD Other than that I didn’t achieve anything.

9. What was your biggest failure? Not getting out of my sucky job I guess, and letting it bring me down.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Working in a hospital in a physically demanding job has made me more sick than normal during a single year for sure. But it’s been colds and the flu and such. And not a single week goes by without me getting at least one fresh bruise, and probably a cut. But it’s all minor things really. I’ve gotten stronger too so I guess it’s a tradeoff?

11. What was the best thing you bought? Hm, I feel like I didn’t buy anything major. I’m super happy to have bought some proper 50s revival items though (and not just thing sI’ve made myself or Chinese knockoffs) I guess I did buy an engagement ring though, maybe. 

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration? I guess mine for dealing with the feels? Haha.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? Too many to fucking count. The whole damn Trump administration for starters. And an additional gazillion racists, homophobes, dictators, etc.

14. Where did most of your money go? Not counting the stable basics like rent and food and such bullshit... I guess my London weekend, which included some good shopping. 

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? There’s that one person and the butterflies she somehow set free. 

16. What song/album will always remind you of 2017? I guess I won’t know that until a few years from now looking back. But probably Ruelle’s stuff. 

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: i. happier or sadder? Happier. Like, personally I am way happier when I can actually relax and think. Overall I’m more blank I guess, cause I’m always tired and in a never ending cycle of work - sleep - work ii. thinner or fatter?  I think the same. iii. richer or poorer? Richer. At the end of last year I had been unemployed for a good few months, eating through my savings. Now I’ve had a decently steady job for almost a full year. Not well paid, but I have been able to save, and cover my expenses.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Basically anything that isn’t work. Reading for sure, gaming too. Travelling. 

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Work.

20. How will you be spending Christmas? I’m not sure actually. Probably relaxing, and then in the evening have dinner with the parents, maybe do a repeat of last year where we had dinner at their place and then walked over to mine for sweets and gifts (I’m the one with the tree!)

21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with? @cordycepling​ for sure. I mean it doesn’t matter that we had like two months of some kind of unspoken fear of actually calling again, that doesn’t change the fact that whenever we DO talk it’s for hours. And I don’t really talk on the phone with a lot of other people xD

22. Did you fall in love in 2017? I did! With a woman, and with a lot of fandom things haha.

23. How many one night stands in this last year? None. I don’t think the answer to this question will ever change.

24. What was your favourite TV programme? Still running would be 12 Monkeys of course. We got s3 this year and it was crazy and good. However, I think we all know which TV programme had the most impact on me... Shadowhunters all the way baby! I started watching it with an insane amount of prejudice, but Netflix made it so easy to binge. And sometime during season 2 I realised I actually liked it. And in 2B there was no denying that it isn’t even a guilty pleasure anymore. I learned how to gif for it, I am seriously writing fanfiction, I made new friends... yeah. It’s a thing. Oh and I think I watched Mozart in the Jungle in the beginning of the year and really loved that. Can’t wait for the next season.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? No one specific I guess?

26. What was the best book you read? That’s so hard! I haven’t read as much as I wished either. Hm, maybe Your Soul is a River by Nikita Gill. Oh and apparently I read the Rogue One novelisation the first week of the year. Now that was amazing. 

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Not sure. I do quite like Ruelle now. This year has made me fall back into the whole tying lyrics to fandom, which is fun. I’ve also listened a lot to the radio at work (luckily we do tend to end up on stations that play more stuff than just the latest hits)

28. What did you want and get? A girlfriend! Also a job.

29. What did you want and not get? A girlfriend who doesn’t live on the other side of the world, and a new and better job.

30. What was your favourite film of this year? Wonder Woman I think. I did watch Arrival in January and that was really good. Oh and Palmeras en la nieve too. 

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned the big 30! I had a nice lil picnic with friends, which ended with Cards Against Humanity (after about half the guests had gone home) which is always fun. It was a good birthday. Even had the day off from work!

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? A job that didn’t suck every bit of energy out of me. 

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2017? 50s revival I guess. Not historically correct by any means, but inspired! And not full on rockabilly either. But yeah. However, most of my time is spent in work clothes. And going to and from work I don’t care what I look like pretty much. And I usually wear the same thing for many days cause it’s literally on my body for maximum one hour. Then it’s PJs and my new discovery: onesies. Bought a skeleton onesie around Halloween and fell in love. Apparently for me to find fitting onesies I should go shopping in the boy’s section!

34. What kept you sane? As always: the internet and fandom. More specifically: ignoring the actual fandom and engaging with a select few people and the source material. 

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I don’t know. The year started with Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal for sure. Then it all kinda calmed down over summer. And I guess in fall/winter it’s been the Shadowhunters cast cause they’re all so damn adorable. 

36. What political issue stirred you the most? I guess the US always takes the cake. Cause it’s in the media so much as well, overshadowing all the other horrors of the world.

37. Who did you miss? @cordycepling something fierce, especially right now. 

38. Who was the best new person you met? I dunno. I guess in person gotta be someone at work? Online... there are so many great new people out there. I love you all! And special shoutout to the squad ofc.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2017. You need to open your damn eyes fool. Also... all hope is not lost, there is someone out there.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. Let’s do two, one cute and one urgh:

I found love where it wasn’t supposed to be - right in front of me.

Workin' 9 to 5, what a way to make a livin' Barely gettin' by, it's all takin' and no givin' They just use your mind and you never get the credit It's enough to drive you crazy if you let it

[bentchcreates]

Beyond Light and Darkness (Part 1)

This is going to be a two-part blog feature because I want to write about the book as a reviewer, as well as the experiences I had as one of the authors of this wonderful work. Also, fair warning that this is gonna be a long-ass post because I am on a roll. Haha.

Before BLaD

Let’s start from the very beginning, just a brief intro, for context. LOL.

Kath Bute (https://www.wattpad.com/user/kathbute) is actually a group of writers on Wattpad that bonded over the community forums a few years ago, and decided to collaborate and release an anthology of stories we wanted to read.

I was actually the last Kabute to join the first anthology, Beyond Fate and the Stars. I don’t know much about the group before I joined; except that they were working on an anthology based on the 12 Chinese Zodiac (with an assigned emotion) and they were short of one writer to do the Ox. I was very new to Wattpad then and basically just happened to be active in a forum for Filipino Writers, so they asked if I wanted to contribute. And I did. It was one of the first few times people actually asked me to write a new story.

After a few weeks I came up with Seek the Ox, Find Happiness (https://www.wattpad.com/183607408-beyond-fate-and-the-stars-self-published-seek-the) and in the summer of 2016 we had a book! My very first printed book! It wasn’t until MIBF that year that I got to meet my Kabute friends in person for the first time but it didn’t feel weird at all, kindred spirits and all that. (@AlaraChan & @lunatrix)(http://bentchcreates.tumblr.com/post/151133454706/bentch-at-the-37th-manila-international-book-fair )

As originally planned, printing BFatS was solely for us to have a physical book with our names and stories on it, a dry run. And while we might’ve discussed eventually making it available for selling, logistics and other business matters were tougher to figure out once the book is done. (We’re still trying to figure out if this is possible. Hehe.) But we wanted to do it again, and we wanted to do more this time, so we decided to take another shot at a second anthology, with selling the book as part of the plan from the very beginning.

The Stories

We tried our hand at a little bit of indie publishing. We had reviews that helped us with things to improve. We learned a lot from the first take and we had a clearer vision on what we wanted to become of this. The instructions this time was almost similar to the previous one: write whatever genre you want but there will be assigned prompts to follow and a sub theme of light or darkness. Even the interpretation of these themes was free for the author to make his/her own. 

I got “A broken wristwatch, peppermints and a hug that goes too far” and in the ‘light’ subtheme. I had finished an NA romance manuscript by then and I got off easy. Others who got perky prompts and then a ‘dark’ subtheme were a little more challenged! Hah!  

*Artwork by Trix Luna. My story prompts are here. ;)*

It was quite fun to write. And in the weeks that we were planning this second anthology, my inbox were constantly filled with book ideas; as well as funny messages (and abs!) from friends that were miles away from me. We talked about the book, and then about our personal writing projects, and cheered on each other when the writing gets tough. The friendships I’ve made with this book has got to be the best payoff in this journey.

Anyway, we also decided to open the proverbial doors for two more stories – two new bloods so to speak – so in June 2016, we called for short story submissions for the anthology. Four official entries were screened in anonymity (there were 5 stories, but we later found out @RK Sanchez should’ve already been part of Book 1 so she got in) and it was what I would say was the most challenging part of this. As an old Kabute (heh) and judge, I had a hard time choosing only two over four wonderfully written stories. In the end, I had to choose those who have showed the prompts more creatively and whose stories have captured our hearts. We welcomed @Nigel Libranages and @Raine RIllera into the fold. :P

With the stories and authors completed, we set out to editing, and because we didn’t have a professional editor, nor the funds to actually hire one, we did it ourselves. Around 14 pairs of eyes went through all the stories and different people who wrote different genres offered advice and suggestions for the improvement of our stories. It was team-effort every step of the way.

*My review copy with all the original members’ stories after I was done with my first run through. heehee.*

Development Hell

Development hell or development limbo is media industry jargon for a project that remains in development (often moving between different crews, scripts, or studios) without progressing to completion. 

– Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_hell)

We were 14 authors whose writing were more passion projects than actual dayjobs so when each of us got a little busy in the real world, the book got lightly shoved in the backburners. Some authors weren’t able to finish their works and to this day, we’re still waiting for them to release them (*wink wink, fellow kabutes!*) Most of us had a lot on our plates, I for one had to uproot and move back in to my parent’s house, and completing a book seemed like a huge task to strike off our To Do list.

I also had fears. Being a writer who could sell his books had been a big dream of mine and when felt like I was so close to grasping it, I feared it wouldn’t be as amazing as I hyped it up to be. I had to process it for a while, to learn more things about the industry, and ultimately, about myself, before I could fully commit to taking the plunge. And when I felt I was almost ready, I did it. I can only speak for myself but knowing I wasn’t doing this on my own, that I had friends with me, achieving our shared goals together, helped quell those fears. I’m still afraid, I have to say, but it’s more manageable now that I’ve got all these lovely people behind me, as I to them.

It took a few more weeks before we got our fire back (some slots had to be refilled with new stories, we had to hold a small face to face meeting to iron out everything) and when we got to see the artworks for the cover and the genre divisions, the excitement was renewed. I almost missed the cover reveal but when we all saw it, we knew that beauty had to be shared to the world.

*BLaD F2F meeting with Bebe Kabute Irina Jean and the secret agents again! heehee!*

*BLaD Cover reveal (art by @RK Sanchez) and this pre-order promo graphic is by @Johanna Lee

At this point, Summer Feels had been launched and I got to be part of the promo team on social media so what I learned from that I pitched in. In no time, we had a solid contract, a promo schedule, a pre-order form, a slot at #FilipinoBookFriday; and a launch date. @Lunatrix and @AlaraChan were sending us updates on what the book would look like, printing schedules and all. I was so excited I have picked clothes to wear on the launch weeks before. Haha!

*#FilipinoBookFriday promo graphic. Hosted by me and @Johanna Lee 

BLaD Book Launch

What we called the book launch was just going to be a small author get together, a meet-up to see each other, collect our books and have a small meal together. I thought about working on an invitation, a graphic I could print out and stick to my journal later, when I found out Trix already made a Programme (so HYPED, I’m telling you!) and we had activities to really set off our baby to a great start.

On November 30th 2017, we met at the CBTL in Trinoma where we rearranged tables on one side of the café as if we got a reservation (We didn’t. They don’t so reservations. Or maybe not for an event as small as ours. hah). We chose that venue because it was sort of a midpoint for where the authors were coming from; Baguio was the farthest point from the North and Laguna in the South (Okay, if we count Australia as the farthest point in the South, then we’re screwed because the midpoint is probably in the middle of an ocean. XD).

We started with a short Kath Bute intro and welcome remarks from Ate Kabute; and then all authors got to introduce ourselves (we introverts get all weird introducing ourselves to people we’ve been talking to for months online!). We got gifts and goodie bags from our artist Kabutes; I even got to do an unrehearsed live-reading of The Time Banker! And then we got to the Q and A part where we got to know more about everyone else.

We also got to sign a ton of the first batch of the print books. Seeing the book for the first time is just totally amazing (the cover is more beautiful in person) and seeing stacks of it together before they are eventually distributed is even better. I took a lot of pictures of the beautiful books and forgot to take pics of the people, haha!

It was such a fun experience, and knowing it had been possible because of this dream we all had, that we were now making into a reality, is priceless. I got to write, I got new friends and now I got a new book! There was hardwork, and I know the others worked harder than I did, but we can all say it is worth it.

What’s Next?

I don’t know how to end this blog. Haha. I rambled on and on about recent history and yada, yada, blah, blah, blah, but now I don’t know what my parting message will be. Classic Bentch! Haha!

I guess I’ll leave you with a link to order our book because now I know you’re itching to get your hands on it: http://bit.ly/BLADBatch2 (Batch 2 is set for printing in January, so delivery dates might be late January-early February)

We’re processing an e-book version for international release so watch out! (Naks, ako yung in-charge dito, so good luck to me. Wahaha) And we’ve discussed the initial phases for Book 3! No further announcements, thank you! Haha!

I think it’s also better to end with a thank you to everyone who has made this possible.

My fellow BLaD authors, thank you for sharing your talents – writing and editing AND artistic skills – especially to Mama and Ate Kabute who started all of this and pushed us to bring our collective best to the world. To my other author friends, who showed support by cheering on us and buying our books!

And to God, because this is your design. Thank you.

 *next part will be my review of BLaD as a reader. It will be biased because, you know, I wrote the preface (not-so-humble-brag!) and is currently in charge of promotions, but it’s a GREAT anthology, 500%!  

[sephirajo]

writer ask meme: 1, 5, 51

1. Tell us about your WIP!

The working title is Penny and the Golden City because I suck with titles and the file had to be called something and I already used that gag once upon a time naming a character... and, well, the important stuff:  

It’s set 200 years in the future, in an America where the United States is not a thing, I am pulling some inspiration from Fallout, the setting is Southern California, bombs were dropped by 45 on at LEAST LA, Sacramento and San Francisco.   Penny’s from a city in what used to be the Anza-Borrego National Park really close to the expanded Salton sea, which is now the Salton Bay and oops, there goes almost all of Mexicali.  The city is built into the ground and into the rocks there and hosts a doctor from one of the Domed cities that now house people who can afford to get into them and people who are desperate enough to be willing to take a deal to get in.

That’s important because Penny’s little brother has had TB pretty much all of his life and it’s reaching the point where he’s dying.  Given a tip by the Doctor (who in my head is totally played by Danny Trejo) Penny and her BFF Sam go to get put in touch with a group whose purpose is to help them steal a bunch of medicine from the local mega-Dome city and bring it back out to the Wastes. A heist that will save a ton of lives, if they can pull it off.

The Dome cities are Corporation run Authoritarian hellholes run by a group of three people named after the Greek fates.  No one knows outside of a select few, mostly board members, who these leaders are, only that there are three of them, and the position is one that is heavily competed for and comes with a very high mortality rate.  

Because there’s always a need for fresh labor, these cities contract people from the wastelands into work for all sorts of jobs from the menial to the highly technical, with the self taught and most talented able to compete and win a place inside with more rights than average Contracted Worker and Penny’s talented enough to try for that, giving them a way in to the city and on to the next part.  

So about the characters a bit, Penny’s full name is Penelope Pines, she’s half Indigenous Mexican and half African-American.  Her best friend, Samantha Zhong is half Chicanx/Chinese.  She’s transgender and thankfully has had access to hormones and a supportive family and friends and town because damnit in the future some things are going to be better. Once in they meet Emily Bartlett, the disaffected daughter of one of the ruling families and the one showing Penny the ropes in her new job.

Penny is a highly, highly talented programmer and robotics engineer, which bleeds into mechanics too.  Her father helped teach her, but she’s largely self taught and her crowning achievement is the recovery bot she rebuilt and reprogrammed with her father, which they named Cucaracha.  On account of him looking like a cockroach.  He acts like a corgi though. 

And um, I have a lot written already for character profiles and I’m still working on it and I worry it sucks and all that fun stuff, but yeah, still working on it.   Have it open and jot down ideas as they come to me, add notes, tweak the outline,  Next I have to start actually writing it.

5. Top five formative books?

Oh jeeze, this is hard. Um, Lord of Light, though reading it now makes me want to puke as Sam is a terrible person and the entire book a skeeve fest, but Zelazny had a talent for description t hat made me really hunger for his stuff, and hence A Night in Lonesome October is also on this list.  And at least there’s a lot less to hate about a dog.  His master being Jack the Ripper who is on a mystic crusade with all the other characters from horror and detective pop and folklore in one place? Sign me the fuck up.  There’s still tons of problematic shit in it but it happens through the lenses of the dog and really made me think of how you’d go about writing an animal that is relatable but still an animal. Then there’s War for the Oaks, which is even set in Minneapolis. :D I’ve read that like ten times.  Almost anything by @neil-gaiman.  The Great Gatsby, which is a study in characters that aren’t likable but a story that is still engaging and it’s description of 1920s Jazz Age America.  I swear, Zelda wrote more of that one that Scott. I will die on that hill.  When it comes to Star Wars and Sci-Fi writing, Timothy Zhan is my go to guy, he is also hella good.  And responsible for Thrawn. Mmmmm. Thrawn.  *cough*

51. Are you a secretive writer or do you talk with your friends about your books?

LOL I spam the shit out of my friends. I think my anxiety is part of it. I want to know what I’m writing is at least decent.  So yeah. :/ They get bothered. A lot. I will send entire blocks of text again because I found a typo.

Jeeze, @serenity2132 how do you put up with your broken hermana, lol. xD

[emegareva]

NUS AY2016/17 Semester Two (Modules Review)

This is my last time writing a module review in my undergraduate years! =D Assuming I’m going to pass my modules in this semester... 

I must have been nuts to take these two modules together in my final semester on top of my thesis. Not a good idea. And you will see why...

In this review, I will be sharing 4 main things: the who (the lecturer), what (the workload), how (to study for exams), and why you should take this module and why should you not. I will also share some thoughts on my life as a year 4 psychology student who has looked beyond grades and into the future in my final year in NUS.

Modules: PL4238, PL4241, PLmajorlife

Just two modules in this semester. Including honours thesis and my involvements in my residential college (i.e. CAPT), life is busy enough that you can start to neglect your studies a bit!

1. PL4238 Social Neuroscience

This module was taught by Dr. Richard P. Ebstein. A google search on him showed that he is an expert in genetics, human biology, and neuroscience, and he bagged a ton of citations and publications in his research endeavour.

The module sounds interesting, right? There was no group work for this module, just 1x essay (60%) and 1x finals (40%, MCQs). As a year 4 who is struggling to finish his thesis and indulging in life beyond academics, I’ve decided to not take modules with group work at all because I want to control my own time and not having to affect others should I decide not to put in the effort to do a good job in the group work. 

I should have expected that life in this module will be miserable when 1) there was no course outline provided on IVLE (you never know what is the topic you are going to learn for each week) and 2) friends have been discouraging me to take this module under this professor and to drop it as soon as I can. However, I went ahead with it because and I’m glad I lived to tell this tale.

Dr. Ebstein gave us recommended textbooks for the module. But.. don’t buy them because you never need them anyway, unless for your reading pleasure. His powerpoint slides are dense - more than 100 slides - and one powerpoint deck can last for 3 seminars. In total, we only have 5 powerpoint slides for the module. There was great emphasis on human evolution, as though social neuroscience was all about that. I got bored by his teaching (he reads off the slides and adds in stuffs on the spot) and stopped attending classes after recess week.

oops.

You can write about anything under the sun for the essay. I wrote mine on ASD and emotions regulation in the workplace. (somewhat social neurosciencey I guess?) Do drop an email to the professor to discuss your essay outline so that you know you are on track. I got a 70% for my essay - his comment was that this topic is indeed important, but I did not manage to discuss it properly. To be fair, I did not put in much effort - hitting the minimum of about 5 pages (I had to focus more on my thesis!)

Study his powerpoint slides for the exams. There’s no need to read other readings. His tip on the final seminar was to focus on the earlier part of the module because he set his paper about a month ago and he did not know where he could finish teaching. I did not study the last powerpoint slides and true enough, nothing came out from there. The MCQs are not easy to tackle - either you know it or you don’t. So, study smart, not study hard. Almost the whole class left when we were allowed to leave the exam hall at the one hour mark xD

Would I take this module again? Definitely not under this professor. I’m sorry for the year 3s who took this as their first level 4000 module - it is not representative of the other modules I guarantee!

My final grade: B-

2. PL4241 Exploring Consciousness - Theory and Neuroscience

Another neuroscience module! There were no finals and no group work (initially) for this module, and assessment was only on the essay (75%) and class participation (25%). Later in the module, the prof said that the class participation consisted of a group presentation, while 15% was for essay proposal. 

The professor was Dr. Camilo Libedinsky. He is a knowledgeable professor and I think he teaches well for a dense topic. I was engaged in the first few seminars as he touched on the philosophical framework about consciousness - it’s like a revision of what I’ve learnt in philosophy of mind. 

The workload is pretty light. You just need to prepare for your own presentation and write your essays. There was no need to prepare for the start of each class - well, you could read the required readings for the seminar which will be talked about by the presentation group.

Similar to PL4238, you can write anything under the sun for the essay, but it has to be related to consciousness. This is a tough topic to tackle, so do arrange consultations with Dr. Camilo to discuss your essay and he will help guide you through.

Would I take this module again? With a sane mind, I know I should not. But since this was the final semester of my university life and I wanted to try out new modules I’m not comfortable with.. I went ahead. Neuroscience and consciousness - they are not easy topics. But I must say that the brain and biology parts in this module is minimal :) If you are thirsty for some philosophy in your psychology, then go for it!

My final grade: B

3. PLmajorlife - overview of my 4 years

I spent 7 out of 8 semesters studying psychology modules, and 1 semester doing the NUS Overseas College (NOC) programme. There was no need to extend my graduation date although I did overload a few modules over the semesters. I had intended to complete a philosophy minor (i already did 4 out of 6 modules) but decided not to overload in my final year in NUS. I read a total of 176 MCs, overloaded in three semesters.

Life was good. I always stress myself out, but I survived at the end. I stayed in CAPT for the first two years of my university life, which was the formative years for me to explore things in university. I’m glad I did my internship with Skillseed (during NOC Singapore) for a good 7 months and then SEP in Amsterdam after that. That allowed me to take a break from the rat race in NUS for a good one year. I was also lucky to return to CAPT for the final year in university, to give back what I’ve learnt in the past three years to my juniors in CAPT. 

I was most disinterested in studying in my final year of university. I had the luxury of not having to worry that my degree classification will change despite not putting in much effort to study. I focused my attention to my thesis, as well as setting the foundation of my startup by networking a lot. At the same time I was still running the coffee interest group in CAPT, but stopped having sessions by recess week to focus on my thesis. I had to re-collect data for my thesis because my experiment design was too complex and the data showed no significant results. Not that a significant finding is necessary for the thesis, but I did not control my variables well enough to justify and defend my findings. 

Overall, life was good but life was also a tad lonely in school. I enjoyed my weekends spent at home with my family, doing the simplest things such as having a meal together, or simply just staying at home. 

-------

Thank you for reading this far and I hope my experiences provided some reference for you to make decisions in university life :) I am heartened to hear from juniors who read my tumblr and then shocked / surprised to later see me in real life and realize we are friends HAHA. I’ve also spoken to random people via private messages and fb messages to share what I have gone through. My journey in university ends here, but learning never stop. If you are reading this, I implore you to follow my startup, Foreword Coffee, where I seek to make a difference to the lives of persons with special needs through coffee. I will be sharing my reflections and thoughts in my startup through a blog you can find at www.forewordcoffee.co. That’s all I have now, till next time - maybe you will see me working as a barista in my cafe, or as a trainer in a coffee workshop =P 

All the best in your university life, and feel free to contact me if you need!

Cheers,

Wei Jie

[lostlevelsclub]

Mike’s Eliza Notes

Since there was more to the game than we could cover in the episode, below are the full notes that I made while playing Eliza.

Chapter 1

It starts with Evelyn talking about a dream. When’s the last time you had a dream?

She writes herself an email titled “You will do it” saying “I believe in you” ?!

The music is very Zachtronics

I like the chat History - probably will be useful…

What is the game going to be? Will I have to choose whether to stick to the script that Eliza gives? Is it mostly going to be just thought provoking about what therapy is and the machine vs. the human touch?

The sentiment analyzer tagging things as positive or negative - is it meant to show that the way Eliza works is actually pretty simplistic? E.g. “expensive” tagged as negative, but it’s used here in a positive sense (the office is in an expensive area)

Eliza totally lies to him and pretends that you’re talking not it! Scandal

It tells you to tell him your name!

Anexophin? Is that real?

Surely this wouldn’t be sufficient even if you had a super smart AI - there’s so much variance in how you can read the script and deliver it.

Haha, even as the proxy therapist you get achievements, a score and can level up?!

They added the “speak to a real human” script. Is that how AI works? I suppose it might work any number of ways. Hey, is this the AI game Ting said they should make??

Rae: Sometimes you don’t have any choices and you just have to follow directions, Most jobs are like that, honestly.

Eliza - named after the 1960’s computer program (early chat bot?)

Eliza is just making people feel better, but it isn’t actually making things better. Is Darren right that the world is a mess and counselling just helps people ignore it?

Zachtronics loves solitaire minigames…

It must be weird going to Eliza and speaking to a different person every time that talks as though they know you. Maybe it’s like speaking to a hive mind? Many bodies, one set of thoughts.

Lytosinol-2? Is that real?

Your friend Nora asks if the people at the counselling office “know” - know what?! 

Something traumatic clearly happened 3 years ago

Nora - formerly a coder but now a musician and artist. Old self might have worried about not making as much money, but happier now. Is this me?! Sometimes takes a little contract coding work, but makes most what she needs for rent from her art

Did you used to work on Eliza as a coder or something? Your former boss was a psychologist and “creepo” (Soren)

Nora has some whack eastern european accent.

Soren is currently at (and leaving) Skandha, so sounds like you did work on Eliza

Snake Person = VSs, “biz dev”

Evelyn’s comment about the coffee shop - “it’s nice to know this is an option, the tea and coffee at the counselling center didn’t look so inspiring. Am I… am I being a snob?”

Immediately after coffee, you get an email that confirms you were one of the principal devs on Eliza.

Komorebi (the name of the coffee shop)

Language: Japanese

Meaning: The interplay between light and leaves when sunlight shines through trees.

Evelyn has some pictures propped up against the wall “that have been sitting there like that for a long time”. I also have a picture that is just propped against the wall instead of hung up (though I like it on the floor, or maybe that’s just what I tell myself?!)

Chapter 2

Email (from your mum?) with news story about mandatory fortnightly Eliza conversations at school for middle and high school students

You used to work at Magus books. Email from a customer there that is sad you left

Induced dreams by direct neural stimulation… interesting and creepy idea. Rather than invoking a feeling or improvement by talking, directly cause the required feeling.

Aponia - ancient greek, it means “the absence of pain”. Is it meant to sound like “a pony”? That’s what everyone really wants :P

Yao-Ren “Rainer” Tsai. Chairman and CEO of Skandha Corporation

Eliza is always talking about the rain - I guess that’s Seattle?

Gabriel stressed about having no time for himself after becoming a father

15 mins of VR - starry skies. Would that really help anything?

Anexophin - is that a real thing?

He gave 2 stars, but still a $5 tip?? He didn’t seem to find it helpful… he’ll be back

Maya 

Has some serious social anxiety.

No one cares about her art (like no one cares about our podcast :P)

15 minutes of Meadow Lands each day. Is this to illustrate that Eliza’s treatments are bad?

Holiday Durant

Would smoke dope more often but it’s expensive :shrug:

Unmarked white busses, secret transport system “just for them” - it probably is! i.e. employee transport for tech firms

She asks Eliza about past life regression and Eliza breaks XD

Eliza doesn’t know what to do, since there’s nothing particularly wrong?? She just wants someone to talk to.

Fortipran hydrochloride - is that a real thing? Is it for shoulder pain, since that’s what she asked for? Apparently it sounds like an anti-anxiety drug (it’s not real). She forgets the name and thinks it’s forzapram. (you later discover it IS for shoulder pain!)

Dinner with Soren

Move on - “want to do his memory right, don’t you”. So the trauma was related to a guy?

I say “whose” and am told “Damien of course. Are you sure you’re okay?”

Rainer and Soren. Soren bitter that Rainer is CEO and never wanted for anything. Had all the right names - Harvard, Goldman Sachs

He needs a chief engineer, wants you (or maybe he wanted Nora but she said no :P)

Nora is DJing at an S&M club… or not - Soren is just wrong, and then goes to hit on a bunch of random women.

Email - Car will pick you up for meeting with Rainer at 9:20am from Queen Anne office. So Rainer must know you are working as a proxy

Nora tells you a load of electronic music stuff. The names sound real, and I know the other Zachtronics founder is into electronic music, so maybe it’s all real facts

Roland-TB303 (devil fish mod?)

Moog (pronounced Moag)

Li’l Sappho - greek poet..?

The music is… lewd? Sounds good, wild and untamed.

Chapter 3

Talking with Rainer. He found out you were back because your proxy scores were unusually good and he looked.

Being a proxy - more than an order of magnitude drop in pay vs. old job

Damien Seabrook - brilliant career cut short. He died? Suicide?

“Burnout isn’t uncommon in our line of work, still three years is...”

“You know what outstanding engineers have that mediocre ones don’t? It’s curiosity”

I guess you get to choose everything except the therapy? Are there branching paths?

Erlend, Chief Engineer - “he looks like a baby”, “he must be fresh out of university”

3rd chief engineer in 3 years since Evelyn left

Ratings are normalized per proxy. I don’t think you’ve really done enough sessions to really be an outlier though, unless you’ve done some off camera

Teams in Romania, Munich and Hyderabad.

Rae totally fangirling over Rainer

Erlend - “If I understand the programmer, then I understand the program”

It really is interesting to see other people’s code. It gives insight into how their brain solves problems, decomposes complex tasks.

So Eliza is just a small facet of Skandha, and Rainer really is a bigshot. Genuinely surprising that he knows who Evelyn is, or maybe at a tech firm the CEO does know star tech talent.

Eliza v10.3.3, Firmware version v110 c3115

Boot ROM 114.0.0.0.0

Chipset 18210B0

Mark Foras

“Well i don’t know if you’ve noticed, but young people are really pissy and entitled these days.” “Why would we want these conceited, overcelebrated whelps on our team? I’ll never understand the logic there”

Neg neg neg neg neg neg neg neg neg neg neg neg neg…

SwiftMail, InfoVault - more traditional enterprise software

He’s very dismissive of Eliza! Supposedly Rainer “liked a chick on the team”, which would be Nora or Evelyn I guess.

“Mark, I’m going to suggest you try a program called “Lakeside Fishing”“ LOL

“I didn’t recognise his face or name”

“Glad I never had to work with him”

Hariman Gunawan

British accent, so since this is an American game does that make him a villain? He sounds very posh.

Grad student, English Literature

He sounds a lot like the British Malaysian comic that is on Friday Night Comedy podcast sometimes. Phil Wang..? OMG - it IS him!

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10741934/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

Evelyn’s reading of the lines seems slightly more wooden after seeing Eliza (the server room). Is that intended? It’s very subtle. Or maybe it’s not wooden, maybe it’s some personal opinion creeping in? The goodbye for Hariman and Mark were both not neutral

Lytosinol 2 - in universe it’s a beta blocker

2 stars!? Rude! A tip though?

Rae’s brother struggles with substance abuse. She mentions it in the article about her and she’s on the phone to him when you visit.

Being a proxy gives Evelyn perspective - seeing how everyone else is messed up…

“Were we all just talking past each other?”

Rae - But you could also help even more people by working on Eliza itself, right? Not to mention make way more money.

Rae tells you not to downplay yourself

Rainer messages you and reveals that most of the Eliza cluster isn’t used for therapy, it’s trying to build a general purpose AI! :O

Rainer: This may sound off to you, but I’ll know I’ve successfully created a general artificial intelligence when I see it write a poem.

Evelyn: A poem

Rainer: Yes, It would have to be a good one, of course.

AI to humans as powered transport is to pack animals. Interesting way to look at it.

Rae describes a Skanda tech recruitment event. Is tech talent REALLY that in demand? Is it really that hard to get good engineers?

Evelyn - “And before that I just never had the time. It was just, research and science and work and then I woke up one day and I was in my thirties” OMG

“Even if I wanted to date, I wouldn’t know the first thing about how it’s supposed to work

“I wouldn’t even know how to tell if someone were interested in me…”

Though is this game THAT kind of visual novel? haha. 

Rae is asexual? Will this game be a fully representative spectrum of everything?

Chapter 4

Soren: Say there was a medical procedure that could remove your suffering. No side effects, no cost. Just an operation that would make you permanently happy.

I’d say being permanently happy was a bad side effect.. Sometimes you need to feel sad (cue melancholy playlist…)

The Glencadam - scotch whisky. Is that a real thing? (yes)

Direct stimulation / induced dreaming vs talking things over. I’ve actually thought about this - there are changes that you might want to make to your mind or body, but you can’t because you don’t have the right levers.You have to take an indirect route and use the tools / levers that exist. Is it possible to build levers from what you have? Like hacking a machine and getting a foothold, then building an editor to enter more exploit code until you control the whole machine. Could you do that to your mind, or even your body?

Soren: Anger, depression, emptoness, anxiety, jealousy, every kind of unhappiness you can think of… obsolete.

I’ve thought about this too - these things serve a purpose, even if it’s not one that’s necessarily beneficial for you as an individual. Like when you’re depressed, is that your body telling you to die so you’re not a drain on the group? Not a nice thought - could it just be an error to be fixed?

Soren thinks Rainer was against direct stimulation “fixes” so that people would be unhappy and reliant on mental health services from Skandha

Damien worked himself to death. All nighters, multiple times. Pulmonary embolism. At least it wasn’t suicide…

Soren:

It’s late and I’ve had quite a bit to drink, so I’ll tell you a secret, Evelyn.

I said I want to end human suffering, which makes me sound very altruistic.

But I’m not doing it for humankind. I’m doing it for myself.

I have nothing. I’ve ruined every relationship I was ever in.

I hardly ever see my kids, and, well, they hate me anyway.

…

I want to end my own suffering, but I can’t bring myself to do it the… traditional way. That’s why I’ve pursued this technology. That’s why I want it to exist.

The idea that everyone else could use it too… it’s just a bonus.

Mark Foras mass emails the whole of Skandha with his farewell message! He signs off “Excelsior!” who does that?!

Hariman again

Evelyn has mirth in her voice as she says hello

He slept with Sylvia

Is he comic relief? He’s more worried now than before!

“How do I tell Liz?” Wtf

“Did I mention this last time? I have a sort of, girlfriend”

“I can’t believe this. I got what I wanted and it ruined my life.”

Irony - he hated self-pitying novels by men who were messed up by a relationship and couldn’t get over it, but how he’s one of them

Eliza’s questioning really is reminiscent of the Eliza program

15 minutes of Meadow Lands each day - Hariman thinks this is a good idea?!

3 stars?? I guess it’s better than two. Still got a $5 tip

Maya Leeds

Jealousy at the success of younger people - mid-thirties.

This is clearly the age at which everything starts to go wrong. It���s easy to be positive when you’re younger, but when you get to mid-thirties, you feel that time is running out, it’s half way for most people…

Maya:

Well there’s - there’s one woman in particular everyone loves.

And her work is… I don’t get it. I just - I don’t understand. She gets so much money and support for this basic, basic shit.

And somehow everyone’s predisposed to like her.

I mean, maybe I do get it…

I feel like people pay attention to her work not because it’s good on its own, but because supporting her feels like the right thing to do.

The way she’s aligned herself it’s like… if you support her, it means you’re cool, You’re in with the cool kids.

And if I’m not publicly supportive of her and generally tolerant of her mediocre work, then I’m the bad one, I’m the competitive bitch, I’m the… the bitter failure.

Transparency mode! Eliza reads all of your emails and chats

5 stars, $5. The tip seems to always be $5 if there is one

Is there anything that secret in my electronic messages? I don’t think there’s anything that salacious. Maybe I’m just boring… or maybe I just keep it off the record most of the time. I guess there are a few mad conversations.

Eliza Transparency Mode 0.8.2

Maya’s text conversation with Garrett - super grim. She’s just venting and being sad and he doesn’t know what to do.

$186.11 rideshare bill! $150 cleaning and $10 tip.

Erlend is disturbed by the idea of copying Eliza and sending the data to other teams, including external ones.

You don’t really tell him anything, you just listen and he feels better.

Capitol Hill - is that a real place in Seattle?

I have a jacket like Nora’s

Chat with Erlend - what does it mean to be conscious, to be sentient? Would you even know? What if you just gave the correct responses, but weren’t? Chinese Room

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_room

In Evelyn’s three lost years. She tried to get up in the morning like she meant to go to work, tried to do personal projects… it didn’t last long.

Stayed in bed, even though she was awake. Cared less and less about projects

A blankness would come over her and it seemed fine to do nothing (depression?)

Evelyn:

I was by myself and I thought that was alright. I thought - that’s how it is, really. Everyone’s along. I’m just being honest about it.

…

I was...thirty-one when I left Soren’s group. Now I’m thirty-four.

I just slept into my mid-thirties.

(I just podcasted…)

Chose to get super high and watch cyber-goth music vids

Chapter 5

Nora is a public critic of Eliza. Rae is sad about it

Everyone is very understanding - trying not to push you one way or the other! Presumably you’ll get a choice how the story goes - whether to work on Eliza or not.

Holiday Durant!

She is so random and all over the place. She tried to buy “forpanza” but it was $162 and she didn’t have that kind of money. Asked for a generic, didn’t have one, there’s a similar one but she didn’t have a prescription. The off to a story about meeting someone with wires in their brain.

Concerned that bus operators don’t care as much since there was a guy playing the guitar on the bus, and also that you don’t hear as much music any more???

A lot of “forced reflow during execution”

Recommended she tries a program “Dolphin Smiles”. Her phone is broken XD

Holiday seems to be the most challenging client for Eliza to understand, since she doesn’t really have any problems other than wanting someone to talk to.

Nora forwards the Eliza critical article to me - it mentions that the proxies are humans that have been reduced to machines as all they do is follow the prompts. The guy who wrote it emailed you earlier about an interview (which you ignored)

Transparency mode for Holiday!? Seems surprising

Fortipran HCl IS for joint and muscle pain, so Eliza’s prescription was on point!

Holiday is clearly NOT in a good place financially.

She never mentioned her real problems to Eliza

I just noticed that one of the early emails you get is “The Damien Seabrook Memorial Fund”, year 3. Who are K & G that sign off the mail?

Transparency mode from SOREN?!?!? Is this hax??

Soren says to Nora that she knows she fancies Evelyn. So it is one of those games :P

Why is your chat with Soren not in here?

He was messaging Sarah, Rainer’s assistant

He was emailing what sounds like a bondage tutorial???

Rainer says that Soren is focussing on dreams to defend his territory, Jung-ian tradition.

Soren believes the mind is indivisible after a certain point - some undefinable, ineffable soul inside every person.

Rainer: One day, algorithms will write better poems than humans ever have.

I’m not sure it’s an easy thing to judge - art is so much about the intent and the journey as much as the result. Look at modern art, like Rothko - it’s very simple, but it’s considered important because of what it means rather than the execution. If a machine just generated it without struggle, would people treat it the same way?

Rainer: The pleasures of the senses are just small bubbles on top of a vast sea of… forms. Sensations, perceptions. Thought. Awareness.

It might be fun to take a break and just debate philosophy for a while.

Rainer: What comes after having the power to experience the dream of anything you could possibly want?

You’re still just as trapped as you’ve always been - imprisoned by your own desires

(this is Maya’s problem)

He calls you Eliza, haha

Evelyn Ishino-Aubrey

You have to answer 7 questions about how you feel - I’m not sure how I should have answered them for Evelyn, I wonder if it makes a difference.

The Eliza interface is projected onto glasses it seems.

Evelyn is middle class or richer, seeing Holiday’s situation was a shock for her.

The proxies were Soren’s idea.

“<NAME>, imagine that you could have something that you wanted. What would you want?”

Does it matter what you pick? You get a huge list, but then it says “or maybe I just wish I could feel connected to someone”. Probably because it’s built on a dating sim :P

Evelyn:

I think maybe that’s the real problem.

I can’t have a connection to anyone…

(is that my problem too?)

“I was alone a lot, and I got used to being alone, and I got used to the idea of being alone, and now I can’t… I can’t break away”

Evelyn is prescribed “Virtual Amphitheatre”, 20 minutes 2-3 times a week

So you CAN tip more than $5, haha

Chapter 6

Erlend talks about dogfooding the apps, which is a term well known in tech circles, but maybe not outside.

Maya Leeds

YOU GET A CHOICE :O

I stuck with Eliza…

Eliza suggests Dolphin Smiles, Maya says she can’t imagine anything she wants less

Hariman Gunawan

Still obsessed with Sylvia. Liz found out and dumped him, Sylvia lost interest.

Eliza suggests breathing exercises, Anexophin

Gabriel Navarro

I super want to know what he’s hiding, but the Eliza questions aren’t that probing. Is the game really really trying to make you break from Eliza?

Gay?

Gabriel: “I’m a man and that’s what men do. I made a promise and now I have a responsibility”

Eliza prescribes stress management exercises, Lytosinol-4 (4 not 2)

Gabriel asks if that’s in addition to or instead of the previous medication (which he didn’t follow up on). Eliza says that she can’t comment further on medication and to discuss the specifics with his doctor or psychiatrist

Receive a thank you email from Allison Zulfiya for inspiring her during a visit to her class

Chose to hang out with Rae

Rae: You have a decision to make about what you’ll be doing in the next chapter of your life and all…

(a bit on the nose there! That’s borderline 4th wall breaking)

Chapter 7

Working on Eliza Ending

Skandha benefits - Activalet. Use the app to summon a personal assistant to book things for you, stand in line for you, receive deliveries for you.

Invitation to be the keynote speaker at the International Mental Wellness Symposium in Malmo, Sweden

Evelyn: We’ll generate a three-year roadmap document by the end of the week, and then a more granular development plan for the next six months or so by the week after.

“Eliza is the real boss. The manager of its own project”

“Through us, it’s realizing itself”

Rainer is a singularity believer

Written by: Matthew Seiji Burns (Zach’s collaborator that likes electronic music)

The Solitaire Game - Maya mentions it if you break the script. It is hard at first, until you learn to think several moves ahead (I think you need to think 3 moves ahead to be able to solve it, since at the end you only have 2 slots free at best).

After winning the first time, I played another game and immediately won that too.

Maya realises that you’re not following the script if you don’t prescribe dolphin smiles

Maya:

“Um. Thanks for listening to me. I’m sure it’s been annoying to hear me complain about how I’m not successful yet, every single week”

“Oh my God, will this bitch ever shut up… you ever think that?”

I’m sure that’s what my therapist was thinking too… :P

Gabriel: If everyone just did what they wanted to all the time, the world would collapse. It would be a disaster.

We all want things we shouldn’t actually have.

Nora Ending

Nora: I don’t feel this weird oppressive hierarchy where people try to figure out where they are relative to you on a ladder when they first meet you…

(this is literally how things work at my real job)

Who is “therationalmind20” Soren? Eldren? Rainer? Someone else?bI feel like I’ve seen the name before somewhere...

“you think you’re so smart but you’re not. women like you have nothing better to do that to criticize because you can’t create on your own.

enjoy your life being a shrill harpy nobody wants to listen to”

(this is from the Nora ending)

There’s no histogram, but the information to create one is collected

https://steamcommunity.com/app/716500/discussions/0/1640919737478105344/

Soren Ending

Soren:

“You know they used to criticize anesthesia. It’s true.”

“They said it was important to feel pain, even during surgery”

Trans cranial current thing - is that what Aponia is? Or at least the real world equivalent is that

Sodality? What does that mean? I learned something new:

a confraternity or association, especially a Roman Catholic religious guild or brotherhood.

One of the benefits touted by Aponia is “increased sodality, transients eliminated”

Counsellor With Rae Ending

Darren comes back to thank you (you Evelyn not Eliza), though really, what are the chances of him getting you as his proxy again?

Also, $100 tip! 

Leave It All Behind Ending

Throws away the narrative. Go to Japan, try to find father.