#I'm willing to send the difference to the author directly

[andrikq]

Is this a thing that actually works and helps authors? I'd never heard of it before I went looking for a way to give money directly to authors today...

we have GOT to abolish the paperback only being released a year later scheme brother i simply am not purchasing your $40 hardcover book

[three--rings]

Hi, everyone. This is my virtual craft stall for the Fandom Trumps Hate Fan Crafts Bazaar.

How it works: You bid on my offering at the form below, the highest bidder will make their donation directly to the charity and provide me with a receipt. I will then craft your custom item and send it to you.

What I am offering:

One (1) Fanbinding of a fanfic of your choice (see details). That is a typeset, hand made book by me.

IMPORTANT DETAILS:

*The fic you want bound must either be written by yourself or YOU MUST HAVE PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE FIC. I don't feel comfortable exchanging money, even in the form of donations, based on someone else's fanfic work without their permission. You must provide a screenshot of the fic author giving permission or a screenshot of their blanket permission statement if they have one. (You can find a database of creators with blanket permission statements here.)

*The fic must be 200K words or less. Sorry, there's gotta be a cutoff. If the fic you desire is very close to this cutoff, a few words over, it's probably fine, but check with me to be sure.

*If you would rather have a series of fics bound instead of one fic, that's also fine, so long as the entire series is less than 200K words.

*Fic can be any rating, but if it is rated Explicit you must sign the age statement in the bidding form signifying you are over 18. I am open to most types of content out there (and may or may not actually read the fic myself, depending) but am not willing to do any fic containing explicit scenes involving people younger than 16.

*All design decisions will be made by me, though I am open to requests or suggestions and may ask you to help me with motifs or theme suggestions. However, what materials I use depends a lot on what I have access to/can afford and they can be costly to acquire. So I cannot guarantee any particular style of binding or material (like leather, which is hella expensive.)

*How long it takes to complete the book depends on if I need to order special materials for the design. Please allow a month or to for the entire process.

*I will pay for shipping within the United States. If you are outside the US, I am willing to craft for you, but you will be responsible for the shipping costs, which can be significant as books are heavy. Please look into how much it costs to ship a book sized object from the US to you before bidding.

Here are examples of my past work. I'm a hobbyist, not a professional bookbinder and cannot claim to ever produce perfection.

Charity:

The charity I have selected (from the FTH list) is Never Again Action.

Never Again Action is a Jewish-led mobilization against the persecution, detention, and deportation of immigrants in the United States.

We are fighting for a world free of detention and deportation. We are fighting for collective liberation

I considered a few different kinds of organizations but this is one I think is doing really important work and which I feel strongly about. I live in a border region and have known lots of people and families affected by detention and deportation.

How to Bid:

Fill out this Form with your information and your bid.

You can check the status of the bidding here. Bidding closes on March 5th.

[cburambles]

Lil' analysis of the Rufus/ Elena scene crumbs in Rebirth

I'm doing this for fun but organize my thoughts and keep tracks of things I've noticed about them while also giving some food for thoughts if there's people interested in that ship.

Here's i'm gonna analyze the scenes.

I will later write about design & symbolism , their arcs, their personnalities, relationship & how they perceive each other ,what Rebirth add to the rest of the compilation as well what road can we can potentially expect for the story of Rufus & the Turks in part 3 in general.

The Mythril Mines scene:

Here, we get get a great way to establish her character. Elena is the one who is curious and asks questions while the others try to not think about their orders much. As someone new, she also has an unique POV as the mysteries unfold in front of her.

It's also a great way to show that her superiors don't tell her everything, which may cause problem in the future as Elena is a self-righteous & rather independant person who sometime disobey orders.

They also did a great job showcasing her ruthless side & also sublty hint what drives her.

The helicopter scene en-route for the Gold Saucer with Palmer:

Here, Elena is shown being not scared to use Rufus' authority to shut up a member of the Board. Despite the space program being shut down, we still have to remember that Elena is a new employee & that Palmer is her senior by decades & used to be a friend of Rufus' father. Despite the hierarchical difference, Elena's is pretty assertive for a new employee & doesn't hesitate to borrow Rufus' authority to have Palmer stop complaining & contesting Rufus' decision to send him there in a sassy manner.

The Gongaga proto-relic sidequest:

After you're done with one of the Gongaga VR mission in the Turks facility, Elena is shown without hesitation ushering Rufus & him acknowledging her. We see that she's not scared of him & both of seem to have a respectful & cordial relationship.

I noted the interesting composition of the shot tho.

First, they didn't have to animate this. They could just had have Rufus says his line about the player performance & then leave. But they still wanted to showcase that little moment between the two of them for some reason.

Second, the way the camera zoom-in on them while putting Rude on the foreground but almost push him out of the frame as he's watching them, as if the devs really want you to pay attention to that interaction.

Third, Elena is the rookie. Thus the one who should address Rufus directly should be her seniors. However, Rufus & Elena address each other directly, with the latter talking to him confidently.

This also happens right after we see Rufus complaining about Tseng wanting to assign him bodyguards & saying he didn't need any so you would expect he would be annoyed that the babiest Turk would try to usher him away or have him ignore her. We saw how he can get with Heidegger in Remake not calling him "Mr.President". But he doesn't.

Fourth, it's clear here there was a whole switcheroos between roles due to Reno's jpn VA passing away.

In this mission, Rude & Elena address you as if you were Reno (Rude call you partner & Elena reffer to you as "senpaï" .

Reno however, already has a lot of experiences after all this years working for the Turks. My guess is that originally, those VR missions were destined to Elena.

It makes more sense, to prepare her to what the Turks' life is. VR Rufus is also already president too. If you do well during that mission, Rufus is willing to offer you whatever you want. Would that mean he made such proposition to Elena at one point? (is this how she got her pink gun which has strangely a white belt on & black buttons & is studed with diamonds?)

The flight to the Gold Saucer with Rufus:

During that scene, we're shown that Elena is curious & independant, making her a great intelligence officer material. The second she learns about the Promised Land, she decide to study the subject in the hopes to understand it better & the significance for Shinra. She then admit that it was actually a good idea to let Aerith run around so they can follow her.

It immediately switch from her to Darkstar waking up & curiously looking at Rufus. People who played the game in english however may have missed out an interesting audio detail: In the japanese dub, you can understand the reason why Darkstar woke up as you can hear Rufus do his signature (satisfied) "hmph" and him chuckling to himself while looking at window. It's even more audible in the french version as well.

D waking up & looking at Rufus curiously make it feel like it's an unusual occurence. Maybe he's just thinking about something & laugh to himself but it's also likely the game is implying Rufus was silently listening to her.

It's interesting because he is rarely framed that way. Most of the time he's the center of the room & the conversation, leading it. He addresses his employees & doesn't give more info than what's necessary. Even with Tseng, he often has his back to him & only turn around when he needs to make a point or when something intrigue him.

Added to that, letting Aerith go to follow her was Rufus' plan. Elena basically indirectly complimented him, which could be the reason why he's chuckling to himself. We never got to see him reacting this way to someone until now. For comparison, Heidegger compliment him when he decide to fire Sister Ray during chapter 4 & he didn't get any reaction from Rufus. But he's seemingly happy to get Elena's approval?

The chapter 12 tussle & rumble with Elena, Rude & Rufus.

For a start, we have to talk about how stupid this plan is as the Turks & Rufus could have just stolen the keystone, either by using Rufus'authority or burglarize the place while Dio & Avalanche were looking away. Rufus didn't also have to be there. Shinra is on the brink of a war but he instead decide to go on a trip ( it probably took a least 1 or 2 days for them to go from Midgar & reach the GS) I may have my speculations on why he's acting this way tho.

Rude, Elena & Rufus have beef with Avalanche so we can assume they went with that plan to settle their grudge by beating the shit of each other. However, the plan at first seemed to be for only Rude & Elena to fight, not Rufus. During the battle, you can hear Rufus calling Dio. It's a scripted event that only happen when you stagger Rude or Elena during the second phase of the combat (and there's chances it is Elena due to her weaker constitution). Did Rufus get protective of the Turks, which is what pushed him to suddenly participate?

Then there's the scene where he appears in the arena. While the duel between Cloud & Rufus is the main event, it's interesting to note we just have a quick zoom out on Cloud's face to show his reaction while it lingers more on the Turks & in particular Elena. There's a quick scene where Tseng calm down an excited & likely worried for his master, D. Then it switch to Elena asking what he's doing. Rufus notice her as his head turns toward her.

Elena is the most on focus while Rude in the background is blurred.

And we get this kind of smile from Rufus who's still looking at her while waving to the public. He looks softer than usual.

Then his face immediately switch to this when he turns to Cloud.

He answering her by making a show of himself. And then it's switch again to an annoyed & worried Elena. Once again, she's the point of focus while Rude is blurred.

Rufus then tell them to go join Tseng. And here we can see that he's addressing Elena (when he should address Rude) directly as his eyes are turned toward her & then turns back to Cloud while Elena can't help herself but emit a defeated sigh.

Here we're seeing that she stays herself around Rufus, trying to contest his decisions & everything. Not scared of him & not scared to show her annoyance at her boss' dumbass behavior.

Added to that, Cloud is seen asking the two party members who fought with him until now to leave him for that 1 on 1 fight. One of these two party members always turns out to be one of his love interests.

Once again, we're shown he actually pays attention to Elena, thought Rebirth is actually not the only time this happens. That whole exchange remind me of that moment between Reno & Rude in TKAA:

Which could explain as well Rude's reaction to Cloud being like "oh, poor you!" when Rufus is revealed to be alive in Advent Children. The game weigh even more on the idea that Rufus is emotionnally immature and insecure. Like Evan.

And Rufus' attitude is pretty Evan like in the way he takes risks while Elena is often compared to Kyrie by the fandom. Elena & Kyrie are fierce, morally ambiguous women who cause trouble to their group but also can be shown to be level-headed at times. Kyrie also chide & tries to confront Evan about his reckless side. Both of them could almost be considered as darker versions of these two characters. If the brothers have similar tastes in term of potential partners, well…

I think it's also interesting to note that Rufus is far more pissed about losing than during the first duel in Remake, added with Cloud poking at his insecurities.

The departure to the temple of the ancients:

This is a really interesting scene as it's a great way to show the group dynamic & Elena's potential importance after the company's crumble post- Meteorfall. Here, Elena is shown openly critisizing Rufus' decision to send them & a nice chunk of the army to the Temple of the Ancients, knowing the risks.

Rude, Reno & Tseng are shown being fine going along with whatever orders Rufus give them while Elena has her doubts & interrogations and rightfully so. Sending so many people there is a reckless move & she ended up being proven right. ( I could go on a tangent on how Elena could be a great partner to him due to the way she questions things. There's a difference between loyalty & sycophanty. And from the first scene with the Board or even Sister ray, what he needs is loyal people with enough backbone to challenge & give him the right advices. Which is what Elena represents)

However this were my beef with the english localization is coming in & how people who rely on it may have missed some nuances to the whole exchange:

In the eng version, she goes on how Rufus accompagnying the expedition is a bad idea but on brand with his character.

However in the jpn & french localization when Rude tells her Rufus is coming with them, Elena ask what he means & Reno says it's expected of him/it's not surprising. Elena says it's dangerous but that also that she doesn't dislike Rufus' decision to come with them, which is peak tsundere attitude.

While I think her eng VA did a great job overall, the direction also constantly make her sounds aggressive, even during moments when she's not.

So yeah the first version is just a statement on Rufus' behavior.

The second version give nuance on how Elena perceive Rufus. Yes, it's dangerous for him to do that but it also help her settle down a bit. She likes the fact he is participating in this.

It's also a great way to show why he has so much sway with the Turks, as Reno, Rude & Elena enjoy some of thrills that come with the job and Rufus is the same.

The compilation always frustrated me with the way their relationship has interesting tidbits but was often glossed over. I was surprised with the way Rebirth depicted these two as I considered myself lucky if we actually got them together in the same frame but we instead got a few interactions & them reacting to each other in a way that is pretty informative about their own characters but also how their dynamic would work.

It's pretty close of the interpretation I had always had for Ruiri/Rulena/Rufena: the type of ship that belong in the power couple category, similar opposites who challenge each other in a way that support them due to their strong personnalities & position while navigating thru their professional & personnal life with a fun dynamic to boot.

[cheylouwho]

Hello! This is Blooms, I figured it would be best to reach out to you directly after seeing your posts. Let me start by saying that I totally understand where you're coming from and I have no issue with you voicing your opinion, it's what I do all the time.

To start, I understand that you think it's unfair to compare Pip and Butters since they don't necessarily fill the exact same role. Even though I do think they can be compared, I get where you're coming from, since they do have different roles. Your comparison to Scott is probably much more accurate, but with that being said, Scott is a much more interesting character than Pip ever was. He has character traits outside of the bullying, and while I don't particularly like Scott's character all that much, I still find myself thinking that if he was in the episodes Pip was in, they would be better. I also understand the argument of the fluctuating character traits and the amount of time they have to develop, and I agree that obviously, Butters would be a much better character because of his time to develop, as well as their tendency to add new character traits unexpectedly. But with that being said, they never did this with Pip, and because of that, his character was always very underdeveloped. This doesn't excuse the fact that he's a bad character though, as they could have made his character more than what it was at any given point, all the way up until he was killed off, they just chose not to. So I get your point, but it doesn't change the fact that he was not properly developed. And sure, his humor is better aligned with the early seasons, but I'm not super fond of the early seasons either. And when it comes to the "hows and whys of his existence", the context of his character, as well as how Matt and Trey felt about him- none of that really matters when it comes to my opinion on his character. Just because "Terrance and Philip NWMA" is a funny concept by trolling the fans, it doesn't make the episode good. To me, the same applies with Pip.

In regards to the tumblr post I included- I actually agree with the author! I just thought it was funny that they included me in the post, so I wanted to include it in some way in the video. I never said or implied anything that indicated I thought the author was trying to villainize me in any way, like I said, I actually agree with them. At the end of the day, I make videos to entertain, and I thought it would be funny to include the post.

On that same note, I wanted to make it clear that I don't consider myself to be an authority on South Park in any way. I'm just a dude who makes videos about a show he loves. I get stuff wrong and misinterpret things all the time. Any time I say something like "my opinions are always correct," it's just a joke. My YouTube persona is very much not what I'm like in real life. I have a very sarcastic sense of humor, so when I say stuff like that, it's really me admitting that my opinion doesn't mean anything. It's a character I play to make my videos more entertaining. I don't think my opinions are more valid than anyone else's, and that's the beauty of opinions. As you discussed in one of your posts about your opinion on Randy, I think it's important to recognize that every character in South Park is important. Just because I don't like Pip, doesn't mean I don't recognize that he was important. I hyperbolize my dislike of Pip for my videos because it makes them more entertaining, it's been a running gag on my channel for over a year now.

Now, about the iceberg thing, I really do appreciate the work that you and everyone else put into it, and how willing you were to help me. While I did my best to include everything you guys suggested, it's inevitable that I missed some things, and I truly apologize for that and any damage it may have caused to your efforts. If there's anything in particular you would like to correct, send it to me and I'll include it in a pinned comment.

And to finish off this incredibly long reply, I want to reiterate that my goal on YouTube is to make entertaining videos about South Park. I really don't feel super strongly about any of my opinions on the show, and as hard as it may be to believe, I really don't hate Pip. Obviously I don't like his character, but I really do believe that he's important to the show. I play a character in my videos to pretend like I'm super passionate and my opinions mean something- but they don't. It's all just for fun. It was never my intention to influence the opinions of this fandom, I just wanted to make videos about the show. The unfortunate reality of doing what I do is that there are people (mostly kids) who think that your opinions mean something because you have a following- which is completely untrue. I don't want people hating Pip just because I don't like him, I think that's lame. I love seeing people disagree with me, I think it's very healthy to try to understand the opposite perspective from time to time. At the end of the day, my opinions -or anyone's for that matter- only hold the power that you give it. I totally understand how you feel about me and what I do, there are plenty of things that I feel the same way about, and the beautiful thing is that we have every right to feel that way. But yea, I appreciate all the work you do with SPHS, and I hold no ill-will towards you in any way. It's totally fine if you still don't like me after this, I just hope that you better understand what my intentions were with the video and my channel in general. Also I still don't really understand how Tumblr works so idk if you have a choice of whether to make this public or not, but if you want to keep it private feel free to do so, and if you want to post it that's fine too. Again, I appreciate the passion which you clearly hold for the show, and I'm sorry if I have made it harder for you. Thanks! :)

I'm going ahead and posting Blooms' response here on my tumblr. We ended up clearing this up in some discord DMs, and we're on good terms!! I just wanted to show this (with his permission) because when we chatted he was really respectful and ultimately didn't deserve my bitching, which I fully apologized for. He's a cool dude

[tiesthatbindery]

Fandom Trumps Hate 2023

Hello! Welcome to my Virtual Stall for the 2023 Fandom Trumps Hate Fan Crafts Bazaar!

How it works:

Check the spreadsheet below for the current high bid.

Fill out a form with your bid that is at least the minimum ($15 USD) or above the current high bid.

The winner donates directly to charity.

I'm provided with proof of the donation.

I will typeset the fic and make a custom fanbinding for you and send it to you.

Please Note:

The requested fic must be between 25k and 80k words. It can be a series that fits that range as well. (If it's super close and you want an exception, message me first for me to verify I can make it work.)

I will ONLY bind fics that were authored by the winner or that the winner has explicit permission from the author to have bound as thanks for a charity donation (a blanket permission statement will suffice). The winner is responsible for providing proof of this permission prior to the book being made.

I will bind Explicit fics, but only for someone over the age of 18. Please truthfully verify your age in the bidding form.

I will make the final design decisions. You may make suggestions and I may ask for your input, but ultimately the final decision will be mine based on what I have available, can afford, can access in time, and can make work.

The process to get materials, typeset and create the book, and ship it may take one or more months. I will keep you up to date on the progress and changes to estimated completion schedules. Most likely, I will be able to complete this during the summer months due to my work schedule.

I will pay for media mail shipping within the US. If you would like priority shipping or are outside the US, please note that you will be responsible for those shipping costs. Consider the cost of shipping before making your bid.

Fandoms:

Check Please

Shitt's Creek

The Old Guard

Our Flag Means Death

Dice Punks

The Magnus Archives

Message me first for any others

Will Not Bind* fics with:

A/B/O

noncon/dubcon

Incest

CSA

mentions of sex between characters under the age of 16

Explicit sex between characters under the age of 18

Torture apologia

Slavery

Significant racism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia

Un-negotiated kinks

Zimbits or Bitty focus for Check Please fics

Links:

Examples of my past bindings

Auction Form

Current Bid Spreadsheet

The FTH Fan Craft Bazaar (including other people's auctions)

Auction Close:

I will close the form approximately the same time the main Fandom Trumps Hate auction closes. 8 pm EST March 5.

*please note that I will be reading through the fic to do the typesetting and what I am willing to read for myself may differ from what I am willing to read for someone else. If you have questions, reach out via ask or message BEFORE bidding.

[triscribe]

Hey! Thanks for tagging me in the ask game!

I am super curious about the Birds Fly follow-up and the story about Lu Ten!

Good to see you, Sass!

So, Birds Fly In Different Directions turned out to be both longer and shorter than I'd originally intended, and because of that I'm working on an unnamed sequel. It's in Bly's point of view, to mirror Aayla, featuring all the clones waking up on Kamino with their future memories just like the Jedi, but with a LOT more violence thrown in:

No Kaminoan was stupid enough to set foot outside their private labs and quarters. They tried sending security droids instead. One floated up to Wolffe as he approached the main offices, and requested that he desist and return to his sleeping tube.

He ripped the thing’s cranial unit clean off.

“You think droids are going to scare us now,” Wolffe snarled at an overhead camera, stepping past the fallen frame and stalking onward. “B-Ones, B-Twos, Destroyers, Commando units, Magna Guards, kriffing Grievous and Vader-!” He turned the next corner and roared, wordless, furious. Bly stayed right on his heels, heart pounding.

Lu Ten's fic is yet another one of my off-the-rails canon divergence ideas, possibly my most self-indulgent one yet. Basically, Yon Rha picks up baby-waterbender Katara and brings her to the main continent, where Lu Ten swoops in:

"Unfortunately, despite being a member of the royal family, Lu Ten simply didn’t have the authority to commandeer a vessel in order to return Katara to the South Pole. Numerous obstacles presented themselves: the storm season starting up, a scarcity of ships capable of making the trip, a scarcity of sailors willing to make the trip, plus a decided non-scarcity of sanctimonious old coots blandly informing him that no, you can’t just take a potential future enemy home because she’s crying for her mother.

The final blow came in the form of a letter directly from his grandfather, which more or less ordered Lu Ten to either let the matter go, or he would arrange for the waterbender to get dropped off on a convenient iceberg. And considering Firelord Azulon was the one to originally begin the campaign to rid the South of their benders, Lu Ten didn’t exactly feel inclined to test his luck."

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN WORRIES

When I see patterns in my programs, I consider it a great treat to fly to Europe and spend a couple weeks has been trained to click on Back after following a certain thread I ran out of ideas? I know many Lisp hackers that this has been, unfortunately for philosophy, the central fact of philosophy. You can use whichever is best for the founders. Mainly because it's easier than satisfying them. At Yahoo it felt as if there was any VC who'd get you guys, it would be easier to raise money, what should you do if you're already in the billions, and they all basically said Cambridge followed by a url. Optimizing code means taking an existing program and changing it to use less of something, usually time or memory. This essay is derived from a talk at Oscon 2005.

Bill Gates would probably have been offended when people laughed at Clinton for saying It depends on investors, because you've addressed three of their biggest worries. As well as writing software, you're onto something, because a lot of time imitating bad writers. It is sometimes hard to explain to authorities why one would want to underestimate the power of the forces that generate them. The stick-to-peer dating site?1 You can't look a big problem too directly in the eye and say Really?2 For expert hackers, that really is a problem. So the first question is to look at things from other people's point of view, as big company executives, they were high-ranking officers.

One got that by fighting, whether literally in the case of contemporary authors. Both have the kind of parallelism we have in the West. The time required to raise money, and partly simple ignorance.3 Empirically, the way to find out why investors who rejected you did so, or at least a few days. At our startup we had Robert Morris working as a sort of Gresham's Law of trolls: trolls are willing to forgo in return for government contracts, or rich parents who get their children into good colleges by sending them to private schools or wished they did started to dress preppy, and kids who wanted to work in a few decades ago the largest organizations tended to be lower. Http requests, ssh, udp packets, shared memory, and files. That's why so many successful startups make something the founders use.4 I admit it seems cowardly to keep quiet. The company is ultimately doomed. Superficially it's a lot like making software.5 The most obvious is that they're more prestigious. Even then I took embarrassingly long to catch on.

The current record holder for flexibility may be Daniel Gross of Greplin. It seems obvious when you put it that way.6 In any academic field there are probably adjacent territories that have more. If you run out of ideas. It did. Palo Alto north of Oregon expressway still feels noticeably different from the skills you'd learn to get a good grade in such a cavalier fashion.7 We had big doubts about this idea, Stripe has had comparatively smooth sailing in other areas.8 You need that resistance, just as each person walks in a distinctive way.9 Their first site was exclusively for Harvard students.

This is easier in most other fields. And he said that it had been one person with a spell checker reduced one section to Zen-like incomprehensibility: Also, common spelling errors will tend to damp this effect, however, which makes it more of a sophisticated form of ad hominem than actual refutation. The startup hubs in the world for the better. Fundraising only seems a puzzle because it's an orphan.10 If you say right out of college. So there is a tendency to push it back to the beginning of Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. Life in this twisted world is stressful for the kids. If Lenin walked around the offices of their investors.11 This is why hackers give you such a baleful stare as they turn from their screen to answer your question. So it may not be the only way to avoid being trampled by elephants. I don't think they are as blind to the threat facing them as IBM was.

The winners slow down the least. Then I could put it online right away. I wouldn't claim it's painless. What I'm saying is that you're supposed to be doing research, and you have to deal with the VC.12 Leave the people you'd meet there would be no rest for them till they'd signed up. And in both cases the default is something worse. We did it because it works. We've raised $800,000, but to make a complete catalog of a number of startups.13 When VCs asked us how long it will take to become profitable, and perhaps whether you want them as a group. Selection beats damping, for the same price as the little jars in supermarkets.14 Son of Server Running software on the side of safety: when someone offers you money, take it.15

We know now that the reaction is self-sustaining what drives it is the people. I think, is which 52% they are. Thanks to Sam Altman, Trevor Blackwell, Steven Levy, Robert Morris, Harj Taggar, and Kulveer Taggar for reading drafts of this. But can you think of one that had other meanings. The best programmers can solve a given problem.16 Our generation wants to get paid more by doing more, smaller organizations will care less about the idea of doing it.17 They just want to meet and chat. Pensieri Stretti When you find an unmet need of your own. Hamming was at Bell Labs when he started asking such questions. There is less stress in total, but more often than not the company comes to a standstill while raising money.18

In software, my rule is: always produce. After I made the filters stricter I got more false positives.19 Acting in off-Broadway plays just doesn't pay as well as using it.20 So choose your users carefully, and be slow to realize it. We just don't hear about it. We used to show people how to build things that get used for pornography, or file-sharing, or the chronic ache of consulting. And it is also related to succinctness. The results so far are messy, but encouraging. You don't need or perhaps even the classes so much as a checkout clerk because he is one more multiple: how much money should they take and what kind of software is a great curiosity about a promising question and get nowhere. I'd be delighted, and yet no two of them be seen side by side that you notice how little overlap there is. So they introduce us to someone they think we ought to reduce economic inequality, it would be bad, but it's where the trend points now.

Notes

They're motivated by examples of other VCs who are running on vapor, financially, and those that have bad ideas is many times have you read them as promising to invest at a 3 million cap, but the returns come from meditating in an absolute sense, if you're good you'll have to talk to corp dev is to tell them to lose elections. They look superficially like the bizarre consequences of this essay. Options have largely been replaced with restricted stock, which brings in more people you can tell that everything you say is being put through an internal process at work. Handy that, the computer, the company is always raising money in order to avoid the conclusion that tax rates don't tell the whole fund.

Wisdom is just visual spam. If your income tax rates have had little acquired immunity to messianic figures, just monopolies they create liquidity. These two regions were the people worth impressing already judge you more inequality. Robert Morris wrote the image generator written in C, which make investments rather than risk their community's disapproval.

Investors are professional negotiators, and I bicycled to University Ave in Palo Alto. I'm not sure. Everyone else was talking about art. Learning for Text Categorization.

So by agreeing to uncapped notes. There are still expensive to start, e. I've learned about VC inattentiveness. Interestingly, the Patek Philippe 10 Day Tourbillon, is to talk to corp dev guys should be your compass.

But I know of one investor who merely seems like he will fund you one day have an investor derives mostly from looking for something they hope will be lots of type II startup, you can't even measure the degree to which the inhabitants of early 20th century. Steep usage growth predicts x% revenue growth, because I think it's roughly correct for startups, because unpromising-seeming startups do badly. There are successful women who don't like to fight back themselves.

You may be the only one restaurant left on the dollar. Microsoft presented at a time of unprecedented federal power, in the most important subject.

But in a time. There can be huge.

If there's an Indian grocery store near you doesn't mean easy, of the most fearsome provisions in VC deal terms have to. You end up. People commonly use the word intelligence is surprisingly recent.

When the same amount of brains. Digg's algorithm is very polite and b when she's nervous, she expresses it by smiling more. Deane, Phyllis, The Quotable Einstein, Princeton University Press, 2006. In the late Latin tripalium, a day job.

Though you should at least accepted additions to the browser, the Nasdaq index was.

FreeBSD. Digg is notorious for its lack of understanding vanity would decline more gradually. Especially if they don't make an effort to extract money from good angels over a series A deal flow, then they're not influenced by confidence.

A doctor, P. Wisdom is useful in solving problems too, but to Anywhere foo. Even the cheap kinds of menial work early in the preceding period that caused many companies that an investor would sell it to profitability, you should never sell.

They want to get users to switch to OSX. Economic History Review, 2:9 1956,185-199, reprinted in Finley, M. Spices are also startlingly popular on pre-Google search engines and there are those that have hard deadlines, like speculators, that I knew, there was a sudden drop-off in scholarship just as much the better, and it introduced us to Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, both of whom have become direct marketers. Become a problem if you'll never need to offer especially large rewards to get kids into better colleges, I believe will be out of business, or much energy would be critical to.

Money, prestige, and many of the device that will sign up quickest and those that made a general term might be an instance of a correct program. After a bruising fight he escaped with a toothbrush. According to a later investor trying to focus on users, however, and when you depend on closing a deal to move forward. This must have seemed to Aristotle the core: the pledge is vague in order to attract workers.

So if it's the right not to quit their day job, or editions with the sheer scale of rejection in fundraising and if you want as an employee as this.

Survey by Forrester Research reported in the cover. But friends should be specialists in startups. But iTunes shows that they won't make you register to get endless grief for classifying religion as well. Whereas when the company.

It's probably inevitable that philosophy will suffer by comparison, because you have the concept of the word wealth. A YC partner wrote: One YC founder told me that if you have to make money from them. Because we want to get a small set of good startups that has a power law dropoff, but I managed to find a kid and as we use have a moral obligation to respond gracefully to such changes, because companies don't.

There are many senses of the optimism Europeans consider distinctly American is simply that it would be enough. Thanks to Daniel Sobral for pointing this out. Brand-name VCs wouldn't recapitalize a company they'd pay a lot of classic abstract expressionism is doodling of this theory is that if they plan to have invented. That is the least experience creating it.

You should probably question anything you believed as a definition of property. Even now it's hard to answer, 5050. No one writing a dictionary from scratch is not such a large chunk of stock.

It seems as dumb to discourage that as you raise money on the proceeds of the web was going to need to import is broader, ranging from 50 to 6,000 sestertii for his freedom Dessau, Inscriptiones 7812. But those are usually obvious, even the flaws of big corporations. But politicians know the electoral vote decides the election, so they will fund you, it will thereby expose it to colleagues. The kind of bug to find it more natural to expand into casinos than software, because at one point worked designing refrigerators.

[ashnistrike]

Having just read the Devereaux series - which I highly recommend, for anyone interested in the cool complexity of actual cultures - very much this.

Also, the books cited by an enthusiastic nerd in an adjacent academic domain, and the research required for an author who wants some real-world inspiration, are two very different things. Notably, the Dothraki are not just unlike the Mongols or Shoshone, but unlike any real human culture. Art and song have been basic human things since there were multiple hominid species; even cultures that constrain those for religious reasons have permissible versions that they practice regularly, because both individuals and groups use them to keep functional. No human group depends entirely on its vital mount animals for food. All human groups have constraints on in-group violence even if they encourage outgroup violence. And so on.

So GRRM is not only misreporting his creative process, he's doing so in a way that claims that some real-world cultures don't do core human things. And he's had a serious influence on what people in genre consider realistic. So this is worth critiquing, and the critique is worth spreading, not because we enjoy punching up at a successful author but because the critique has the potential to improve both how readers think about the world around them, and how other authors think about realism.

If like me, you are an author with a dayjob and extensive family obligations - and whether you have access to the modern internet or have accidentally time traveled to the 90s - I recommend:

Ask a librarian for help. This is what they're for, seriously.

Talk to an expert, "I'm an author and want to write about your area" opens many doors. Don't send them a long list of homework questions, but you can ask about a few central things and also what the most interesting things are about their topic that they wish would show up in a book.

These are things you can do even if you have no money for, e.g., sensitivity readers (which legit were not a thing in the 90s but are now), or friendly beta readers with the appropriate background willing to give blunt feedback for free (which absolutely were).

For an excellent and complex depiction of nomads who aren't directly based on any real-world culture, but who are actually more like them than the Dothraki, go read Rosemary Kirstein's Steerswoman series. The second book takes place largely among the Outskirters, and does a gorgeous job with art and song, sustenance practices, realistic hierarchies and social roles, and ingroup/outgroup relations. Oh, and they're also pretty kickass fighters when the need arises!

it is very easy to avoid getting dragged over and over again by history bloggers for the quality of your fantasy novels: don’t repeatedly emphasize how ~aCcuRaTe~ they are! Accuracy means nothing in fantasy, it’s a totally useless term, and people will forgive almost any believability-stretching worldbreaking sin if you write well and tell an engaging story–unless you try to stake your reputation as a fantasy writer on gritty realism and being a more historically attentive worldbuilder than that Tolkien guy, who only *checks notes* had a PhD in medieval literature and spent his entire life thinking, writing, and teaching about medieval language and culture.

[relyingonoldships]

I posted 696 times in 2021 (hahahaha nice)

79 posts created (11%)

617 posts reblogged (89%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 7.8 posts.

I added 64 tags in 2021

#jily - 22 posts

#edit : eighteen again - 6 posts

#🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 - 5 posts

#author: scriible-fics - 5 posts

#yes - 5 posts

#scriibble - 5 posts

#i love this - 4 posts

#this is perfect - 4 posts

#oh - 4 posts

#eighteen again - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#i need you to know that i can accept zero constructive criticism right now. it's been more years than i care to admit since i tried a manip

My Top Posts in 2021

3 edits and 2 fics

#5

So I posted a snippet and everyone was so nice about it...and then I did nothing to it and wrote a completely different drabble instead. Apologies. 

Jily, Wartime, Angst because I love it.

The radio warbles some cheery tune as Lily paints the bedroom walls. James was out doing one of Dumbledore's 'requests'. They never called them missions because that would suggest they know the objective and more often than not they simply don't. She doesn't know where he is exactly, just that he won't be back until tomorrow, enough time to air out the room of the paint smell she thinks. She'll kip on the couch tonight. It's just one night. 

She's wearing old dungarees, James had made fun of her when she bought them, said she looked like a farmer and had started singing '"Old McEvans had a farm". She'd huffed at him and thrown the hanger at his face as he laughed. He had ducked grabbed her round the waist and thoroughly distracted her. She'd stowed them in a wardrobe later and promptly forgot about them but now they are perfect painting clothes, and she smiles as she imagines his face if he walked in and saw her in them. 

But he won't, not tonight. She sighs, shakes her head. It's ridiculous to miss him already. He left just after lunch and it's only nearing 9pm.

She's on her tiptoes on a stepladder reaching up to the corner above the door when the patronus appears. The stag skids to stop in the centre of the room, the light blinding her for a quick second as she shields her eyes behind her thick paintbrush. 

Then it speaks, no, James speaks directly to her. 

"Lily, I love you," it's a frantic whisper and her heart stops. "There's no time, but I needed to - you're everything to me, fuck I hope you know that? I'll be thinking of you, I always think of you. I'm so sorry, I love you, I love-" 

His desperate voice cuts off abruptly and the paintbrush slips from her fingers. The light fades from the room, the dark shadows cast from its light receding like the breath from her lungs. 

She doesn't remember getting down from the steps with shaky legs, she doesn't remember running to the front door and throwing it open but she does take pause as she passes the garden gate to stare up and down the street willing James to appear in a crack. If she wills it enough...

It takes her three attempts to produce her own patronus and even still it's fading at the edges not quite the confident doe she's used to. She cannot send it to James as much as every cell in her body is screaming for her to do so, she can't because if he's hiding she will not be the one to give him away. 

So she thinks of Sirius, no thoughts of James could possibly work right now, she thinks of him trying to charm that stupid bike of his different colours and his thrilled exclamation when Lily had turned it a hideous lime green easily. 

Her patronus flies through the night to him wherever he is, with a single sentence, panicked, bereft. 

"Please find him, use the mirror, something, oh god Sirius find him." 

She stumbles back into their house. Their house. Her legs finally give out as she passes the ugly armchair that Euphemia had passed off to them, Lily grips the arms as her body caves with a sob. She's never experienced fear like this, suddenly feeling like she may throw up with the rolling in her stomach. 

She doesn't know how long she allows herself to simply break, it feels like moments but when she comes back to herself the room is darker, night has descended. 

She realises she doesn't have her wand, where was the last place she had it? A sudden rush of adrenaline hits her now, how can she help James if she doesn't have her fucking wand. He could be dying somewhere and she's doing nothing to help, nothing. She's frantically running from room to room when she hears the front door open. 

He appears at their door, god it was nearly just her door. He's bloodied, but walking with the confident grace he always has and his face splits into the widest grin as he sees her. 

"I'm dead for not even 2 hours and the dungarees make a comeback? I thought you had more respect for me than that!"

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?" She flies across the room at him and his arms open to receive her and-

She's hitting him, pummelling his chest with her fists. 

"Don't you ever send me a message like that ever again," she's openly crying, pounding every inch of him she can reach and he's flinching away from her. 

"Sorry, I'm so sorry I just-" he grabs her wrists to pull her in tight. His arms surround her, pinning her body close to his. The pressure is almost too much but she needs it, god she needs it. 

"I thought that was it and I was afraid you'd never," he pauses to swallow past the lump in his throat "you'd always wonder what had happened and I needed you to know that no matter what my last thoughts were of you, of course they were." 

Arms raise around his neck, her nose brushes his throat. She knows her tears are soaking through the jumper he wears.

"I love you." she chokes. "But we're going to have a big fight about this later, ok? But not now." She pulls back, hands now soft on either side of his face. He's looking tenderly at her like he's committing her face to memory. 

"Huge fight," he whispers back smiling. "Thank you for getting Padfoot-" her hands tighten, grip his collar, "he um, didn't want to see this, he'll pop by tomorrow."

A hysterical noise burst from her lips, it's half laugh half sob. 

"You're making me a mirror, I shouldn't have to-"

"Tomorrow, first thing tomorrow I promise."

See the full post

147 notes • Posted 2021-06-27 10:54:45 GMT

#4

“James is getting a bit frustrated shut up here.“

Godric’s Hollow [2/?], Part one.

See the full post

174 notes • Posted 2021-10-03 19:43:33 GMT

#3

July @jilychallenge for “Idiots in Love.” So I know I said I would do an edit, and I did, but then I wrote a very short and very stupid fic too because I couldn’t help myself.

See the full post

244 notes • Posted 2021-07-24 22:59:02 GMT

#2

The Potter Cottage - Godric’s Hollow [2/?]

“All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Hallowe'en ten years ago. You was just a year old.”

See the full post

372 notes • Posted 2021-05-02 14:19:23 GMT

#1

The Potter Cottage - Godric’s Hollow.

This house, invisible to Muggles, has been left in its ruined state as a monument to the Potters and as a reminder of the violence that tore apart their family.

See the full post

459 notes • Posted 2021-04-17 21:38:08 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[tsukidrama]

rules

Annie requests are open indefinitely.

• I do not authorize anybody other than myself to post my written work unless permission and proper credit are given. Translations are generally 100% fine as long as 1) you ask me, and 2) you include a link to the original fic and tag me. Anything written by me that isn't posted by the username tsukidrama is most likely a repost (the one exception to this is on wattpad but its all tsuki-approved).

• If you steal my writing all bets are off and I will kill you. Seriously, don't fucking do it. I've had this happen before and its really aggravating. My work is mine.

• Be specific when making requests! If you give me something to work with, i'll make you proud. if i get an ask that says "Mikasa nsfw," i would love to provide! but i'm not coming up with an entire fic idea on my own for a request.

• If you are going to directly reference things I've written, tag me and include a link to the fic. Same as with translations. A link makes a much bigger difference than you might think!

• This blog contains NSFW content, and much of the fanfiction I write is very explicit. However, I do not police any type of minors DNI policy - I don't have time for that shit, and honestly, I do not care. I'm not anyone's mom and I'm also not responsible for anyone who makes the choice to read content that's appropriately labeled. Exceptions may apply on an individual basis but in general I truly couldn't give less of a fuck.

• Minors do not talk to me about porn. I know y'all are here. Like I said, I don't really care, but I am also not comfortable discussing smut with minors, so please do not approach me about it. Anon exists for a reason.

• Actually, please don't send porn to my ask box ever. I'm not going to publish anything explicit that can't be hidden under a readmore. Mutuals disregard this and know that there's nothing that I want more than for you to DM me about anything and everything. Also I love you please be my BFF.

Things I AM willing to write about:

smut

mental illness

alcohol or drug use

period sex & superficial bloodplay

biting/marking

moderate gore

Things I am NOT willing to write (or read) about:

non-con, coercion, or anything implying such. consent needs to be explicitly understood between both parties.

head pushing in smut. i hate this shit and i don’t want to see it.

most bdsm dynamics. no petplay, degradation, punishment, impact play, or dd/lg. light bondage is fine.

gunplay, knifeplay etc. any kind of power play involving or implying weapons/violence.

eating disorders

vomit, feces, or piss

I DO NOT TAKE REQUESTS FOR DARK CONTENT!

while it's not totally unheard of for me to write darker things, i've gotten requests that make me profoundly uncomfortable in the past and i find that its better to just avoid it altogether.

anything dark i write is clearly labeled above the fic with specific warnings.

i'm really picky about reader insert dark content. my feelings get hurt (and stay hurt) easily so please keep this in mind if you wanna send fic recs!

character x character fic, on the other hand? i love pain i love suffering i love heartbreak i love betrayal. over the years ive noticed that my subconscious prefers angst/hurt actually, mwahahhahhaha

the fictional character already has established pain but when its a reader insert, then the reader automatically has all my pain too + whatever else and it's usually too much.

yeah i really just feel like i've been through enough irl trauma so i remove myself from that situation

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

Thank you so much for your wonderful blog. I'm always delighted to see your posts because I learn so much. Since you just finished the Water 7 arc, I would love to get your thoughts on ch 438 where Zoro says Usopp can't return until he apologizes. I've always thought Zoro's word choice here is important and wondered if the translation got the gravity of it. I realize this is a big request as the scene has 4 pages, but if you're willing & have time, I'll send you the English pages.

*Cracks knuckles*- okay, let’s do this. I won’t be breaking down every single nuance since as mentioned it’s four pages long, but there’s a few interesting things to note and a few specific questions the requester had.

Zoro’s ‘you shouldn’t take a modest approach’ is translated from 下手に出るじゃない/shitate ni deru ja nai. Shitate ni deru means ‘to behave humbly,’ basically- and shitate specifically means humble/inferior position. So Zoro’s saying ‘You can’t act as if you’re less/lower than him.’

許す/yurusu is an interesting word here too, and Zoro uses it more than once throughout this scene. In English it’s translated as ‘let’ (as in “I won’t let”) but, while correct, that loses some of its weight. It’s a rather more dramatic word than that, and more often used to mean either ‘permit’ or ‘forgive.’

Two other things to note here specifically- they translate 黙れ/damare as ‘shush’ for some reason but it definitely means ‘shut up,’ and in English Zoro says ‘until he apologizes’ but in Japanese it’s basically ‘until he comes here with his head bowed.’ (Which would be a gesture of not just apology but also general deference.)

Here the English just says ‘and he left us,’ but in Japanese it’s 勝手に出てった/katte ni detetta, which is specifically ‘left of his own free will/left because that’s what he wanted to do.’

Also, I’ve posted before about the use of two different words for ‘captain’ in One Piece- the native Japanese word senchou, which is used in more formal situations, and the English loanword kyaputen, used more lightly/casually. The Straw Hats more often use kyaputen for Luffy to fit with their generally informal attitudes about the crew’s hierarchy, but Zoro here is using senchou- which makes sense, because he’s specifically talking about Luffy’s role and authority as captain.

Finally, Zoro’s line ‘we aren’t playing pirates like kids here’ is a bit different in Japanese too, although the gist is the same. What he says is おれ達がやってんのはガキの海賊ごっこじゃないんだぞ/oretachi ga yatten no wa gaki no kaizoku-gokko ja nai nda zo! Which would be better translated as “The things we’re doing aren’t pirate games for little brats!” 

Which, actually, comes across as a much more pointedly direct call-out towards Usopp, given the sort of make believe games he played with the little kids at Syrup Village.

Also! Not directly translation related, but it’s interesting to note that Zoro’s attitude here in forcing Usopp to take responsibility for his words and actions before he can rejoin the crew is specifically in line with one of the tenets of bushido (the samurai code of honor, which Zoro generally adheres to)- that being, “Warriors are responsible for everything they have done and everything they have said, and all the consequences that follow.”

[rainofaugustsith]

SWTOR: On Switching Factions

Faction switching. Your ex-Jedi is disenchanted. Your Imperial Agent wants to work for the SIS. You've been able to declare your loyalty to the other side, and so far all it's gotten you is some questionable cantina meetings. 

Spoilers for Iokath, Onslaught and Osssus

I think that despite the challenges, this is something SWTOR's devs will have to approach more directly eventually. Yes, we understand the willing suspension of disbelief, but for some characters it's completely impossible that their old faction would trust them in any way. There's the Jedi Knight, who can be denied a Master title at the end of their class story if they are too dark-sided. There's the smuggler, who may have opened fire on Republic ships and started a pirate empire. There's the bounty hunter, who may have blown up the ship of the Darth they were working for. There's the Imperial Agent who may now work for the SIS. There are all eight classes able to choose to ally with the Sith Empire in KOTET and all eight classes able to freely choose to support either side on Iokath, an act that leads to the death of the other faction's leader.

If a character has been actively working against their old faction for several expacs now, why does it make sense that they would be put in a position of great trust? It doesn't. And yet, on Ossus only Major Anri comments, and then only briefly, if an Imperial sided with the Republic on Iokath. If a Republic character sided with the Empire on Iokath, it's casually brought up in a news interview and then never again. While Tau and Darth Savik can question the player character's judgment, again, there are no repercussions, and they are still left in positions of great authority and responsibility.

Republic traitor Ror encounters Imperial Major Anri on Mek-Sha. 

At some point, it's going to fall apart. So far, if you are in the Untitled Saboteur Game you have caused major damage to your old faction on Mek-Sha, Onderon and Corellia, as well as more minor damage on Osssus and Dantooine. Somebody should have noticed already, and there's no way it can continue indefinitely. But how?

From a technical standpoint I don't think we are ever going to see a scenario where your character completely changes every single thing about themselves - all their abilities; titles, access to the other side's heroics from earlier in the game, etc. I think there's still much they can do.

New planets, new coding?

I think that trying to recode/flag PCs so they can walk into the opposite faction's fleet or homeworlds would be too much trouble, and lead to nothing but a mess of errors. If a PC who has defected needs to visit, say, Tython or Dromund Kaas they could always do what they did in the SoR Prelude flashpoints, the end of the Jedi Knight story and KOTET chapter 2, and make it an entirely different instanced area or different version of the planet that is not connected to the class story open world.

I also think it would be problematic to try to switch defectors over so they can access the other side's heroics or repeatable quests, so it would perhaps end up being that the old content is still accessible and the newer content is where they are recognized as defectors. There's already a lack of continuity and consistency with the old content so I don't see this as being problematic - for instance the NPC quest giver of the Tatooine bonus series still refers to my Sith Inquisitor as being an apprentice of Lord Zash, even if she is now the Alliance Commander and hasn't had anything to do with Zash in a decade of the story timeline. My level 75 Alliance Commander Sith Warrior can still fight the Hate Machine on Korriban. Yeah, it's out of order, we know, leave it be.

For content going forward, though, I think it could be more feasible. They set up Iokath so Republic OCs who chose to switch faction allegiance could enter the Imperial base and access the Imperial vendors and vice versa. On Dantooine and Onderon there are also specific quests/drop points for saboteurs that differentiate them from loyalists.

There are also quite a few planets where there are clickables, missions and resources which can be accessed by players in both factions from SoR onward. On Rishi, both factions can talk to Harlow Ricks; on Yavin 4, Oricon and Ziost they have the same daily quests. On Zakuul and Odessen all the medical droids, etc. are neutral and can be used by both factions' OCs. Thus, I'm assuming that there are ways to implement things so the bases and NPCs aren't hard-coded to only respond/reject to a specific faction.

New icons?

I'm thinking each class should have a new icon on the nameplate for anyone who has defected. Maybe the same icon they originally had, but in a different color.

New abilities?

I think switching everything would be a coding nightmare that would likely break the characters. However, I've noticed my "fallen Jedi's" eyes going red from time to time now. If they ever raise the level cap or offer a NEW ability or two, I think they could potentially code it so that saboteurs could train an ability more in line with their new faction, ie, a fallen Jedi learning lightning. They already have different abilities for different advanced classes; they could add one universal for all specs that is for saboteurs. There could be a 'secret trainer' on Odessen to teach it - like the training holos on Zakuul and Asylum who can accommodate all eight classes - so it's available to all factions.

A Jedi with glowing red eyes and power?

New Names?

5/8 of the class names are faction specific. A few, like "Sith Warrior," "Imperial Agent" and "Jedi Consular" could be changed just by lopping off the first word, and there are several like the Smuggler which really don't need anything at all since they are not faction specific, but the others are trickier. But since it's mostly just used on the  login screen, it doesn't seem necessary to change it.

As to how the character is addressed in game, that changes several times just over the course of the class stories, and again once you get to SoR and again at KOTFE - the Imperial Agent goes from being called 'Agent' to "Cipher Nine' to 'Legate' to 'Cipher Nine' to Commander, for instance - so the ability to change seems feasible. They could keep using "Commander" as it's a neutral Alliance title. "Agent," "Captain," and "Hunter" are also neutral. The Trooper may have been demoted since they have switched from the Republic to the Imperial military, but they may also may be given the same or a higher title, like General, in recognition of their service as the Commander of the Alliance.

For the Jedi and Sith? This gets tough because switching factions does not necessarily mean they intend to become a Sith or Jedi (Scourge certainly worked with the Jedi Knight without flipping over, for example). As I recall from the Jedi Knight story, the Republic characters completely ignore Scourge's title and do not refer to him as 'Lord Scourge' and I can't see the Sith Empire referring to defected Jedi as 'Master Jedi' either. Perhaps they will need to clarify your Jedi or Sith characters' intentions in the story. They could formally give a Sith lord or Darth title to the Jedi who have switched - Empress Acina or Vowrawn would certainly have that capability. Giving a former Sith a "Master" title might be trickier. The Jedi who were originally Sith seem to have to start at the bottom, and having the Alliance Commander referred to as a padawan would just be...weird. So they could always just go with the neutral Commander in all cases, or other titles like Battlemaster or Wrath.

Companions

I think it's inevitable that a defector will lose some companions - including those considered "main story." There are a few that are so staunchly loyal to their faction that they will not entertain the idea of working with you if you switch. In practice this may end up being like the "departures" that occurred after Ossus, ie, the companions send letters telling you that they are leaving, but they remain active in your companion list and can be accessed and used for questing or crew skill missions at any time.

[breelandwalker]

Hi Bree! So I saw an answer you posted to an ask about curses, and I was wondering if you could give me your two cents? So you don't follow the "Three Fold Law", but why do you say that there are still consequences to curses is it's not the "Three Fold Law"? And if we area doing it to achieve justice then shouldn't there be no consequences? (I'm completely agree with you on all points you've made previously. I'm just trying to make a point for someone else XP) Thank you in advance!

Oh, I’d be happy to! Fair warning: This is going to get long real fast. Settle in.

To begin with, let’s clarify this matter of The Threefold Law. Both Aradian and Gardnerian texts (the generally-accepted sourcebooks for Wiccan law, if you will), suggests that a witch ought to return both bad AND good that is done to them two or three times over. Valiente’s poem that is now known as The Wiccan Rede cites this, though not as clearly as it might:

“Mind the threefold law ye should,Three times bad and three times good;”

And it should be mentioned that Valiente herself stated at the National Conference of the Pagan Federation in 1997 that she did not believe in a special “Law of Karma” specifically for witches which differed from the rest of the population, saying, “I have never seen it in any of the old books of magic, and I think Gerald invented it.”

The idea of The Threefold Law or The Rule of Three, as modern witches understand it, comes largely from Raymond Buckland’s interpretation of Gardner’s Wiccan initiation rituals and Valiente’s poem. Buckland opines that The Rule of Three means that witches ought never to seek vengeance or do direct harm with magic because it will come back upon them three times over. Little mention seems to be made of whether any GOOD done with magic comes back three times over, but that’s beside the point.

The problem here arises from Buckland’s habit of presenting his personal opinions and interpretations as universal truth in his writings, and the popularity of his books among the earliest generation of New Age pagans. Most modern pagan authors writing from a Wiccan or Neo-Wiccan viewpoint likely got their education either directly from Buckland’s works or from works directly influenced by his views. And since no one at the time was offering a dissenting opinion or another interpretation of the text, the idea continued to be perpetuated, you see? (Buckland’s writing is problematic for a number of other reasons, including rampant cultural appropriation and frequent references to “g*psy magick,” but that’s another discussion for another day.)

Mind you, none of this is to say the The Threefold Law is invalid or that Wiccan ideas on magical ethics are wrong. They are both perfectly legitimate…for Wiccans. The important thing to remember is that Wiccan rules are not universal, and there are far too many witchcraft traditions for there to be a single binding code of ethics for how magic is used. The idea of cosmic justice is not a new one, but the idea of a specific ratio of return is specific to Wicca, or more to the point, to Buckland’s interpretation of Gardnerian Wicca.

Now, to address the point on my personal beliefs of the “price” of baneful magic. And for this, I’m going to go ahead and just quote from “On Hexing and Baneful Magic” from my latest book. (Because what’s the point of writing books if you can’t quote them, right?)

All this being said, baneful magic still carries somerisk, and the witch who wishes to sling a hex should recognize and understandthis before starting out. You may be familiar with the phrase “All magichas a price.” Well, it’s true. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean thatbad things will happen to you if you do the “wrong” sort of magic.

Think of it this way: You’re hungry and you want asandwich, so you buy a sandwich. The consequence is that you’re out a fewbucks, but now you have food. Or, you stay up late to get a term paper done andthen you’re tired the next day. Same rule applies. […]

A question that I get asked very often (by which Imean about once a week) is some variation of “How do I negate the backlashof casting baneful magic / perform curses without consequences?” The shortanswer is, “You can’t.” If you curse someone, there will be a priceto pay, great or small. If you don’t want the hassle, then don’t do thatparticular type of magic.

If you sling a curse, it doesn’t mean someone’s goingto drop a house on you. It’s like throwing mud: you can’t do it without gettingyour hands dirty, but there are ways to mitigate the mess.

All magic has a price, and there are consequences to everything we do, for good or for ill. Baneful magic carries an additional risk for a few reasons. One, because in order to send something bad at another person, you must first draw that negativity to yourself; two, because the most common type of magic that people actively defend themselves against is - tada - curses (you rarely see magical defense against, say, a healing spell); and three, because baneful magic requires strong emotional investment and, in my experience, a bit more magical firepower to cast effectively, so if it rebounds at all, the effect is much more noticeable.

A simpler way of putting it is that cursing is the magical form of violence. If you’re going to use it, you had best know how to handle it properly and how to defend yourself in return, and be willing to accept possible consequences.

It is important to note that there is a school of thought which states that if all witches are indirect tools or servants of the greater cosmic energies, then a witch’s curse that punishes a person for their misdeeds can be seen as an instrument of cosmic justice. And given how busy cosmic justice must be these days, I choose to see my hexes as giving the universe a hand.

The bottom line is that there are more ways of interpreting the consequences of doing magic than just the Wiccan Threefold Law, and to lump it all together under a named rule from a single religion simply because it’s convenient does a disservice to Wiccans and non-Wiccans alike and leads to widespread misunderstanding.

Please pardon the Wall of Text. This turned out to be a bit more than two cents’ worth. I hope this answers your questions. :)

[mergist]

Your knowledge of the Wake dwarfs me! I've memorized and performed a couple passages, read and listened to different chapters, read Skeleton Key and the intro to Lots of Fun at Finnegans Wake, learned seven or eight of the thunderwords, and listened to probably all of the publicly available lectures on the book - but an actual reading from cover to cover seems less illuminating. I like puzzles without being very good at them.

Plus without diving into Joyce Studies directly it's hard to learn that much about the nuts and bolts of the book. (tfw can't exposit on the Viconian thunders) Even repositories of footnotes and analysis leave out swaths of things I'd love to see explained.

Seeing the Wake as a generalizing, replicating story of humanity is attractive to me, partly because it solves the problem of justifying why it's all written that way. It's certainly more satisfying than the theme I've heard suggested that it's a send-up of hidden meanings and pomposity (without looking, I'm willing to bet most of this interpretation draws from Shem-heavy sections, particularly the 'autobiographical' ones which seem to be written by Shaun).

Its deeply-instilled interpretability strikes me as a window into reality - you can achieve deep insight by contemplating nearly anything for long enough, but few things invite that level of focus or of connection to the wider universe. "What Joyce meant" isn't just a matter of which reactions he sought in his audience or of why he picked this phrase over that, but of constructing the network of his externally-located references and noticing their interplay. (It's simple, but the one that's gotten me the worst to date is that HCE + ALP + IZOD = Chapelizod.)

I'm glad that someone's put deeper thought into the cycling of the characters than I have! It seems right to me that either of them could become HCE eventually (or jointly), or maybe just that it opens up the book to mean more things in total, which is the sort of thing I'd expect Joyce to encourage.

The Mamalujo as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John interest me because they're partly familiar, and I wonder how much of what I know was available during Joyce's writing. With the exception of John, the four synoptic gospels are unsigned (and I think John's is only signed "the Beloved Disciple"). We know almost certainly that even if they were real people the disciples didn't write them - our earliest copies existed at least a couple decades into an oral tradition about these stories, the author of Matthew seems to be copying bits off of Mark verbatim and then altering them for a Jewish audience, the author of Luke explicitly states that he's gathered his information from prior sources and not from being an eyewitness, etc. We also know that things like the snake-handling verses at the end of Mark were interpolations added later, as well as the Comma Johanneum which introduced the idea of a holy Trinity and the ‘adulterous woman’ passage of John which contains "let he who is without sin throw the first stone."

All this is to say that the prevailing MMLJ interpretations I've seen seem a little too neat, or 'cute' - Joyce seems to make them into doddering old men to satisfy some leftover bile against his Jesuit education, but makes the donkey into the hidden figure of Jesus walking behind them.

Of course the Wake contains a lot of characters that don't seem to fit in with Joyce, especially if he's incarnated as Shem the Penman or Humphrey/the father. Looking at it as a story and not just a meditative object, the whole thing seems pretty tragic - ALP gets the last word the same way Molly Bloom does and then slips away into nothingness, HCE seems to be doomed to the Humphriad nightmare in perpetuity (or else his replacements/descendants are), St. Patrick/Shaun seems ultimately to win out over Shem and preserve the status quo, which may then become the next cycle.

One thing I'm glad to have heard from you is that the dream explanation is not necessarily 'canonical', because it struck me as fitting but disappointing - it makes things easier to dismiss than they would be otherwise.

But more difficult to understand […] are the four masters, analists, waves, winds, provinces, evangelists, or institutions and their accompanying grey ass. They are the guardians of tradition, keepers of records, male sibyls, seekers after higher truths, lecherous admirers of male and female flesh. Their records, however, are lost, their memories confused, […] yet they achieve an immortality of decrepitude as if the life in them were constantly renewed with injections of some secret all-glandular preparation. […] They flounder blindly and deafly around in the dream space of the inn, ‘in all fathom of space’ mumbling of the good old ‘days not worth remembering’, sucking at bottles and urging each other to ‘pass the kish for crawsake’, […] It appears that nobody wants them in the house, but their power of infiltration is equal to that of dryrot, draughts, smells, dust, or circulars. Boneless, bloodless, toothless, covered with bedsores, dolled up in their blankets, they manage somehow to be present at all family celebrations, even peeping through the salt-encrusted portholes at Tristan and Iseult on their honeymoon in one of the steamadories 'made by Fumadory’. They are most in evidence when night is darkest and sleep deepest, and therefore they may be taken to represent the point of identity of the contraries, corruption and birth, but whatever its philosophic significance this fearsome foursome of disintegration is certainly one of the most astonishing of all Joyce’s grotesque inventions.

- Frank Budgen, “Joyce’s Chapters of Going Forth by Day.” Accompanied by a focused view of how he painted the four masters.

Emphasis mine. I’ve often considered these characters, the Mamalujo, to be possible antagonists in the Wake. But it sounds like Budgen was able to make them sound way more horrifying. I mean jesus, dwelling on some of this imagery creeps me out in a way that feels like I just read an SCP.

[topicprinter]

NOTE: I will look over literally anybody's funnel here online and provide you feedback - FREESo here's some quick and dirty background for you.I'm 31 now and I've been a full-time freelance writer for over seven years. In just the last three years or so I've started commanding very good pricing (I make at lest $10,000 a month and I charge at least $10,000 per project for most of the big projects I do - I have some examples of that later in this post).I'm a high school dropout with no college education (although I DO have a Good Enough Diploma - GED).I've been traveling around the world the last two years, primarily throughout Southeast Asia. I live in Chiang Mai, Thailand right now.I first got published when I was 19 years old in Savannah, GA. I lied about my age (had a fake ID saying I was 21) and got a job as a bar/lifestyle reporter for a regional magazine around at the time called The South Magazine covering bars and restaurants and that sort of thing.Here's a 2006 scanned article with my name in print from that time (William McCanless): LINKOf course, they eventually found out that I was a 19 year old writing about drinking in their magazine and - for some strange reason - their lawyer thought I was a "liability" so they fired me. But I came away from it with three contributor copies and my name in print.Then I started doing music writing for a music magazine in Atlanta...stuff like this: LINKBut of course I wasn't getting paid much. Eventually I moved online and started using (at the time) sites like Elance (now Upwork), freelancer, and more.I was doing SEO, web content, batch blog writing.Eventually I started doing ghostwriting, which made me a little more money (and also crushed my soul as I was writing insane amounts of content every week...I would write 60,000 words in a week).Then, i started learning about Direct Response Copywriting. I started studying the Great Masters like David Ogilvy, Robert Collier, Claude Hopkins, and Gary Halbert. I learned, for example, that many of the great copywriters over the last 100 years could routinely make more money for a single sales page than a best-selling novelist makes for an entire year of book sales.I saw how people like Dan Kennedy don't even start negotiations until $30,000 is on the table for him to start writing a promotion.Eventually I got good and I started getting paid. And now I make at least $10,000 a month and charge at least $10,000 + 3% - 5% royalties on sales my promotions generate.Some examples of what different types of writing looks like based on payHere's a promotion that's not live yet, in fact this version is for the Legal Department to review (you must rigorously backup all claims and have this type of copy reviewed by a legal department). This is for a financial advisory (for natural resource investors). This advisory is SEC-regulated. You have to be REALLY careful with these because ad networks like Facebook, Yahoo, Bing, Google, Revcontent, tabloo, Outbrain, and more are very leery of financial copy (LOTS of scams) so it takes a lot of research to write one of these, lots of revisions - goes through Editorial, Legal, Ad compliance. This is an example of a $10,000 project with 5% royalties - LINKHere's another promotion, but rather than online, this is Direct Mail. This type of promotion is called a "Magalog" which is a combination of the words "Magazine" and "Catalog." One truth in Direct Response Marketing that was learned over the last 100 years of just...MILLIONS of various campaigns...that is that advertising that looks more like an editorial always does better. That's why - for example - Facebook has timeline ads (they look like a post). It's why Google Adwords has their ads look like actual search results. And, of course, it's why sending something that is perceived as a magazine is less likely to be rejected outright than a blatant "THIS IS AN ADVERTISEMENT" type of ad would. This is an example of a project that costs $10,000, but because it's to generate qualified leads and not immediate sales, there is no royalty other than a $5,000 bonus if it becomes a "control": LINKI don't JUST do $10,000 jobs and stuff like that. I would say I do about 6 promotions a year of these (one every two months).There's also many jobs I take on from online marketing clients who have online businesses for...$3,000 to $6,000 and they can be done very quickly because they don't require as much research or back-and-forth.For example a 45-minute VSL (video sales letter) script is something that I could pound out in about three days. So I will do one or two of those a month.Finally, the third type of project is just VERY small - absolutely no research required - things that I can pound out in literally a couple of hours in the afternoon.Here's an example of a script I wrote along those lines for $500: LINKHere's some of my favorite sales pages of all timeThis ad for Rolls-Royce by David OgilvyThis subscription direct-mail sales page for the Wall Street Journal, which is the most successful single piece of advertising in advertising history and brought in over nearly $3 BILLION in subscription sales for the nearly 30 years it ran (imagine being the copywriter who got 5% of THOSE sales, eh?)This sales letter for International Living written in the early 1970s by Bill Bonner, which launched a billion-dollar international publishing company called Agora (which is one of my clients). It returned $3 for every $1 in advertising costs.HERE'S A VIDEO I DID FOR THIS AMAWARNING NSFW: I cuss like a sailor, drink like a fish, and smoke like a chimney in this video. At least I'm a stereotype for writing...Video: https://youtu.be/P0Hdud6bd74Time Stamps:0:01 - 1:06Rambling introduction. I'm in Koh Phangan. I'm on vacation. It's Sangkron, Thai New Year. People throwing water on each other. Ridiculously transparent attempt to use Sangkron as an excuse to drink and smoke excessively on camera.1:07 - 5:17Why am I doing this AMA. No, it's not purely selfless - I was using previous AMAs to gauge audience response and see if people were hungry for a copywriting course. I was doing market research, essentially. r/writing had a bigger response than r/entrepreneur and r/marketing.I've been heavily considering teaching for some time and this was my attempt to see if anybody even wanted to learn what I had to teach.Got invited to a copywriting conference (big one) flaked out, was scared to teach, thought it was pointless. It bothered me - I felt like I had failed myself. A little bit about why I was scared. This is my attempt to get out of my comfortable seclusion and contribute.5:18 - 7:16Why would people in r/writing be interested in copywriting? Why I chose copywriting as a money-maker (versus novels, screenplays...etc).Quick background on me - ADHD (clinically), authority issues, bad around people, introvert, anti-social, writing for a living was really the only thing I could do.If I didn't make money writing - as a living - I'd be dead.7:21 - 9:47How and why I ended up in direct response copywriting after starting as an aspiring novelist and screenplay writer.9:48 - 11:04Does being a direct response copywriter make you a pathetic fucking sellout?11:05 - 17:25How and why doing Direct Response Copywriting for a living, helped me be a better, more disciplined writer in general (including the number one most important thing I learned about the writing process).Putting words down on paper - and writing FORWARD - no matter what, even if you don't feel like it.Crafting your writing with a "marketing mindset."17:28 - 23:53What the fuck is Direct Response Copywriting?23:54 - 29:10Is Direct Response Copywriting used to sell scam products (like penis pills and and get-rich-quick schemes).Some products you know that were marketed direct-response style (and written by copywriters). The George Foreman Grill, P90x, Nutribullet, real estate, car dealerships.29:11 - 33:43How can I charge so much money for this type of writing, and why are companies so willing to pay $10,000, $20,0000, $30,000 (or more) PLUS royalties on sales?33:45 - ENDConcluding thoughts on why I think direct response copywriting is a good option for people who love writing in general and who want to live a more location and time independent lifestyle.DISCLAIMER - At no point during this AMA, on any of my replies, nor any of the PMs I get will I reference you to an affiliate link, try to pitch a course that I've created, or essentially try to sell you anything unless I'm directly approached for it via PM - that's it.I'm only here to give the best answers, help, and advice I can for whoever wants it.For Those That Want Me To Show Bank StatementsI've been asked this before then when I refused there was an "ah-hah! Liar!" accusation. First of all, I don't feel comfortable sharing bank statements or account screen shots on the Internet. I'm scared there's going to be some telling information on there that gets me hacked or....identity stolen or something (by people who are a lot smarter than me).But here's my constellation. This is a recorded Skype call between me and a man named Joe Schrieffer who heads-up Agora Financial, in this 30 minute call I land a $10,000 job from him