#Of course most people would have different levels of mature but in terms of Flight Rising standards

[slightlydensedragons]

In reference to the poll I made, people ask to define 'mature'.

'Mature' basically means can you publicly put it on your Flight Rising dragon or not. Can you put it on your clan page or not.

The website is 13+; if you can't add the material without it being considered 18+ , it's classed as mature.

The TOS for FR clearly states it.

With that knowledge, perhaps going forward we can understand what mature now means.

/gen

[mee-the-people]

SISTAR: How the Kpop Queens of Summer Stay ‘So Cool’ 4 Years After Disbandment

Summer 2021 marks another summer without a SISTAR comeback. As every SISTAR fan, (and hopefully every KPOP fan knows) SISTAR disbanded in May 2017, after releasing their final EP Lonely. I only really got into KPOP in 2018, so I discovered SISTAR much later, but when I heard their 2013 summer hit, Give It To Me, I knew I was going to be dragged into the rabbit hole that is SISTAR’s discography. I loved everything about that era… as a fashion enthusiast and someone with a background in dance, I always look at the WHOLE era, as well as the song, of course, when I’m making my assessment of a KPOP era. That’s what I did first with SISTAR’s Give It To Me.

GITM gives the audience a Moulin Rouge vibe, which I thought was so unique when I first watched the MV and stage performances. That’s one of the things I always loved about the original “summer queens” themselves, SISTAR- their summer concepts were always fresh, original, and unique. It’s easy to think that there’s only so many summer concepts/ideas a group can pull off or when people think of summer concepts, they only think of songs with beachy vibes. But SISTAR pulled off a number of (always classy) sexy, summer concepts- whether it was the flirty, retro theme that Shake It bought upon us in Summer 2015 or the mature, sophisticated theme that was presented by I Like That in Summer 2016. (One of my favorite SISTAR eras overall!)

Shake It reminds me of the “comic book aesthetic” with the bright, flashy colors and the bold-lettered art themes. There’s a minor storyline in the MV, which adds to the songs charm and definitely “feels” like a retro summer, although I couldn’t get over the fact that this song doesn’t really have a bridge or substantial verses. I think this song is simply meant to be fun and not a song where you think too deeply about the lyrics, so in that way, this song excels, because it’s incredibly catchy and whenever it comes on my playlist, its upbeat rhythms always give me a boost of happy.

Like GITM, I Like That is one of my absolute favorite SISTAR eras. The song, choreography (which seemed more complex compared to their previous era dance routines), outfits, and concept in general were unique and unlike anything they had done previously. I also really liked the lyrics in this song, because even though it’s about finding out about a cheating boyfriend, instead of just blaming the douch-y boyfriend, SISTAR blames themselves for thinking that they can “change him,” (A concept that every woman, including myself, has thought in regards to a man… moral of the story: don’t fall in love with potential! But I digress…) which is actually a self-aware twist to something that’s (unfortunately) so common in relationships.

One of the things about I Like That that I liked (😊) is how they made use of props in the most effective and efficient ways in both the MV and the stage performances. There’s something to be said about props being used properly- in my opinion, if you choose to have props in your stage performances, it kind of makes or breaks the performance, because if those props are just a waste of space, it will show. Luckily for SISTAR, they not only used props to enhance the performance, but they made sure to have control over the setting and not the other way around. I especially liked how they used their long flowing skirts as curtains, making it part of their routine, and the stage props (as well as the MV props) didn’t feel too close together or “tight,” adding to the song’s glamour.

Despite all of the good things I Like That had to offer, my only complaint is that member Bora didn’t get enough of a rap verse. With most K-pop songs, l normally don’t think the rap goes with the song, but in I Like That, I thought Bora’s verse actually went with the song, so I wish she had gotten another rap verse in place of the somewhat awkward bridge (“I’m so fine, I’m so fine…”) that seems out of place compared to the melody and rhythms of the song.

If we’re talking about “conventional summer themes,” I would say Touch My Body and Loving U would be the most “summer-y” when it comes to the traditional K-Pop summer concept, but even when they went the conventional summer route, SISTAR stayed true to their unique group flair. Even though the navy crop top and floral print shorts from the Touch My Body era is an ensemble that you could probably buy at Target, it’s still an iconic outfit and one of the stage outfits I think of when I think of SISTAR. 2012 summer splash Loving U is certainly a bop and the outfits from that era seem like laid-back and casual summer outfits that you would wear to the beach or to an amusement park. In terms of the song, it’s a good song if you’re looking for a light pop song, but it’s not on my top 5 list of favorite SISTAR songs.

By this point, I knew I was a fan, and as I was discovering more of SISTAR’s songs, I came across their debut song from 2010 called Push Push. It’s a catchy enough, electro-pop song, which is decent, but if that was the first SISTAR song I listened to and not Give It To Me, it may have taken me longer to get into SISTAR’s music. There wasn’t a discernible “concept” surrounding Push Push, so it’s hard to really place it on the same level as some of their other summer jams. I will say that one of their live performances of this song was at an amusement park (which you can easily find on YouTube), and that was a cool aesthetic and it must have been a fun experience for the girls.

A song that’s less popular, but still one of my favorite SISTAR songs is 2010’s Shady Girl. It received moderate success when it was released in August 2010, and SISTAR were still a “rookie group” at this time. (It had only been 2 months since they debuted in the industry at this point!) I thought the flight attendant theme was a little cliché, but the outfits were still on point. Most SISTAR choreography is fairly easy, and Shady Girl is no exception. This era is still one of my favorites, despite the fact that they went the conventional route and it wasn’t really the “sexy summer” theme that SISTAR are known for; however, I think because this group was still trying to find their footing in the Korean entertainment industry as rookies, this concept tended to be “safer” than some of their other concepts.

And of course, the song that put SISTAR on the map and defined their superstar status was none other than 2011’s So Cool. So Cool is a dance-pop tune that stayed in the Top 10 for 5 consecutive weeks and was the first number one single by this group. If you watch the music video and the stage performances, you’ll notice that the choreography in the music video is different from the stage performances, because of a dance move in the MV that was deemed inappropriate in South Korea’s conservative society; hence the slight choreography change for the stage performances. I like the general idea behind the lyrics of the song- that idea being the way to get revenge on a horrible ex-boyfriend is to look amazing (which they do! I love ALL of their stage outfits during this era…) and to remind yourself that you’re “too cool” to waste your time being sad over him. So, in a way, I like the sexy, empowering theme behind this song; however, while the song is catchy, it is easy to get tired of after a few listens.

Spring 2012 brought Alone upon us. Although this comeback was not during the summer (obviously), it was different than what SISTAR had previously done up until this point, and when I discovered this song, I was here for it. The black and red combo for the concept pictures really suited the vibe that the song gave. Alone is a ballad that talks about heartbreak and the feelings of loneliness that you experience afterwards, which is not only real, but it is also a universal feeling that anyone can understand and relate to. While I liked the outfits during this era, I thought they were purposely made “plainer” to emphasize the jewelry, which is a fashion statement in and of itself.

One of the things about SISTAR that I find so admirable is that they were able to hold their own against artists from the “Big 3 Companies.” Any K-Pop fan knows that if a group hails from SM, JYP, or YG, that group is almost guaranteed to be successful in the K-Pop industry, because of the resources, connections, budget, and experience that the CEOs of these Big 3 Companies have managing (successful) artists in the industry. It is a well-known fact that SISTAR is not from one of the Big 3 Companies- they were managed by a smaller company called Starship Entertainment. Even despite the fact that their success wasn’t guaranteed when they first started, they were still able to “sell the concepts” for every one of the songs that Starship churned out when comeback season came.

A girl group from a smaller company was able to, not only compete with girl groups from Big 3 Companies, they were also able to become the most streamed girl group EVER with over 1 billion streams in their 7-year career together! And not only that, they have THE MOST consecutive #1 singles by a K-Pop girl group EVER with 9 singles under their belt. Not bad for a girl group that came from a smaller entertainment company. I think it is human nature to root for the underdog, so it really speak volumes about how hard SISTAR had to have worked to compete with girl groups from the Big 3 Companies, which makes me even prouder for them when they achieved their success together.

Most K-pop fans know that summer isn’t the same without SISTAR, but going back and listening to their comebacks certainly feels like summer...

[thefinalcinderella]

Tsurune Book 2 Chapter 6-Door (Part 2)

It’s the Inter-High finals! Who will win, who will lose? Read on to find out! Also some really weird shit happens and by that point I was just like “...yeah okay”

This part took forever, but I hope it isn’t so tedious to read

Glossary here

Full list of translations here

Translation Notes

1. Heki-ryu Insai-ha is one of the styles still active today

2. Sakae Urakami was a 10-dan hanshi rank archer who was very well known in the kyudo world. He shot in the Heki-ryu Insai-ha style

3. Mato-tsuki means pointing the arrow at the target and teki-wari literally means dividing the target, which means turning the bow with the arm outstretched apparently. I could only find one English source for this the rest was in German hahahahahaha

4. Meigen is the ceremonial plucking of the bowstring. It is primarily done for the Imperial family. It’s believed that the tsurune helps drive away evil spirits

5. Fudou Myouou or Acala is a Buddhist deity who is a Wisdom King. He usually looks angry, carries a sword in the right hand, and has flames at his back

6. This isn’t the first time I came across wabi-sabi, and you’ve probably heard of the term before, but it’s a “world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection

7. The “Bow Saint” is a title given to Awa-hanshi

Previous | Afterword

At the moment one step foot in that place, one was invited into another world.

A tsurune, a matooto that pierced through the chest.

The shouts of "Alright!"

Bows and arrows came into this world as tools to sever the lives of others, but archers used them to sever their own lives.

And then, be born again.

Minato slept like a log after he returned from the hospital, and the next morning, his fever had completely receded. Even though there was still some pain left, his body felt lighter than he expected.

The fourth day of Inter-High, the last day.

The venue was wrapped in a tingling atmosphere. The number of spectators was also the most on this day out of all the days. There were many famous schools that had won, and their bow covers and bags with their schools’ name on them let their tradition and self-confidence peek through.

Next to Seiya, who was stretching, Ryouhei and Nanao were having the mysterious conversation of "Did you gooshura last night?” “Of course I did.” It was somewhat comforting. Here was the same scenery as when they were at Kazemai High School.

Kaito, with a sullen look, suddenly struck Minato’s back.

“Ow!”

“Yesterday you seemed to be gasping for breath, but since you’re able to cry out that loudly, you’re fine.”

“Your way of making seems a bit rough, Onogi.”

“Whatever. Right, we going soon?”

Prompted by Kaito, the five bumped their yugake-covered right fists.

Their opponent in the quarterfinals was the winning school the year before last. Kazemai won with seventeen hits against fifteen.

After the deciding matches for fifth to eighth place were finished, the semi-finals began. They won and advanced, but it was hard to listen to the sobbing from the people crouching behind the venue or from the washroom stalls. This was the path that they had taken, and for this tournament as well, there was the bitterness everyone except for the winning school tasted equally. The insides of their mouths felt coarse and rough.

Kazemai’s opponent in the semi-finals was Tsujimine High School.

In the hallway before the waiting rooms, Nikaidou had an amiable smile on his face. His large eyes were so full of vigor and spirit that one wondered if his panicked self from yesterday was an illusion.

He approached Minato, who was swinging his white headband.

"Why, if it isn’t Minato-chan. We were both miserable yesterday, weren’t we?”

"No, it was a good experience for me.”

"Heh…what a mature way to handle it.”

Behind Nikaidou, Fuwa was standing at a distance. He did not like to get friendly with others, so this sense of distance felt comfortable to him.

In the extreme cases of Ootaguro, Higuchi and Aragaki, they did not belong to any group from the start, because they had the air of people marching to the beats of their own drums. They were neither ashamed nor proud to be minorities—they had a natural attitude towards it. They wouldn’t feel insecure or worried even if they weren’t connected to large number of people.    

Minato fixed his gaze on Nikaidou.

“Nikaidou-senpai. I’ve been recalling a lot of Saionji-sensei’s words since then. Because of that, I am convinced of this. Even if Saionji-sensei opened his door wider, your uncle would never be his disciple.”

"I’m shocked. Minato-chan, the always good boy, is provoking me? Do you feel like doing whatever it takes for the sake of winning? You sure have grown, Senpai is so proud of you.”

“Your uncle shoots in the shamen uchiokoshi style of the Heki-ryuu Insai-ha, correct? (1) Also, taking the ‘sanbun no ni’ is from the Urakami school, isn’t it? (2) Saionji-sensei talked about it. He said that since nowadays most people did shoumen uchiokoshi, he didn’t want the number of shamen archers to decrease. He also said that since he could only teach shoumen uchiokoshi, if we ever wanted to try shooting in shamen style in the future, that we shouldn’t hesitate to seek other teachers.”

“What?”

"I think Saionji-sensei knew the difference between who each archer wanted to be, and where they are aiming for. He wasn’t amazing because he hit a hundred targets. Hitting a hundred targets doesn’t have that much meaning, but the figure of someone shooting a bow is cool.”

"Heh…Thank you so very much for your valuable opinion. You must have an awful lot of free time to think about things like that the day before the competition.”

“I loved seeing you shoot, Nikaidou-senpai. The Heki-ryuu taihai you showed us several times: mato-tsuki, teki-wari and the yudaoshi towards the front of target—it was all truly cool. Yeah, you really love kyudo, Senpai.” (3)

“…I’m doing kyudo out of a force of habit. It’s just that since I’m doing it, I don’t wanna lose, and when I need to, I can use it for university referrals. It’s only insurance for broadening my future course.”

"Even so, I looked up to you when you were holding a bow. Those kinds of sharp movements could only be done by someone who trained a lot, and even now, you don’t seem like you’re doing kyudo out of a force of habit at all.”

"Hah…you two really are alike. Just as I thought."

"Huh? What do you mean ‘alike’?”

“You and your master.”

A corner of Nikaidou’s mouth lifted, and he left while fluttering his hand at him.

At the convocation call, they went on towards the third waiting room and passed through the door.

In the space enclosed by white cloth, there were also five to six staff members in addition to the competitors and managers from the two schools. Minato’s team placed their bows and arrows in the designated place and sat down in their seats with Tommy-sensei, their manager, at the end. To verify the identities of the competitors and manager, they underwent inspection of their equipment and numbers, as well as their attire, hands, and other body inspections. The staff told them that even if they lost, the deciding matches for third and fourth places would begin immediately, so they would need to come back there again.

Tommy-sensei collected the ID cards hanging from their necks, and took with him a small basket containing things like reserve arrows stuck in palm-sized, three sun (9.1cm) targets and spare bowstring reels, then they moved to the second waiting room. The competitors put down their bows and arrows again and sat down.

They would be entering the shajo once they left there. Tsujimine’s Ootaguro was cramming his left hand into a flat can filled with fudeko powder, and next to him, Seiya was doing things like rotating his shoulders.

At the signal, the ten competitors took their bows and arrows in hand and lined up in one single line.

When they entered the kyudojo, Tsujimine and Kazemai entered the first and second shajo respectively and sat down—it was finally time.

“Rise, begin!”

They did their yuu bows simultaneously, advanced to the shooting line and nocked their arrows.

First to shoot was Tsujimine’s oomae, Nikaidou.

A yugamae done in the shamen style involved making the tenouchi small to make it look like red leaves piling up, and pushing open the bow diagonally to the left at a third of one’s yazuka. Keeping that form, one raised their bow, and then at hikiwake, the right hand passed over the ear, and the arrow stops at a height that is almost level with it, which is the “sanbun no ni” position. After doing kakehodoki—making a grinding noise with the yugake at kai—he flicked his thumb, and the sharp flight of his arrow invited a matooto.

Next was the second archer, Fuwa.

His hoozuke was slightly higher than those for shoumen uchiokoshi, and his arrow was placed in between his cheekbone and the corner of his mouth (kuchiwari). He continued to stretch his arms as though they were holding the ends of a piece of string and he was extending it evenly to the left and right. He waited for the "yagoro"—the moment that led to the perfect opportunity for hanare. He also hit the target.

The third archer, Ootaguro, was very conspicuous due to his bamboo bow that was unusual for a student, the huge size of that bow, and not to mention his massive and bulky body. His amber bow bended so much that it seemed to engulf other people, and his arrow pierced the target with such a force that it made the azuchi cave in.

Conversely, the fourth archer, Higuchi, slowly lifted his bow. He drew his bow so gently that it verged on being too careful, and even if one thought that he finally reached kai, he took a considerable amount of time to release his arrow. After the spectators, wondering what was going to happen, were kept in suspense, finally at last, his arrow drew a parabola and fell to the target.

The ochi was Aragaki the maskman. Of course, he took off his mask in the shajo. Since he was narcissistic about his profile, he was extremely particular about the angle of his face. He fixed his gaze on the target to ascertain it, as though his name was being called from the target. He did not blink even once since he started uchiokoshi. He performed nobiai at kai as though to thoroughly worship his own profile.

The five got a kaichuu, and there was applause from the stands.

Kazemai did not succumb to them.

Elderly people, even if they were great archers, could never imitate the lively and youthful shooting they performed one after the other. They captured their targets in succession, and heated shouts of “Alright!” flew from the stands. The frog fans were shaking faintly.

In the second round of shooting as well, neither school missed.

Aggressive Kaito, cheerful Ryouhei, intelligent Seiya, sparkling Nanao, and cool and clear Minato――.

They increased the freshness of the colours each of them possessed, and painted a picture rich with those five colours.

Suppose that the settings book for the story called life had been written in one’s genes before one was born. Inevitable large events were prepared at each important point. However, it was up to the person themselves to write a heavy and dark story or a fun and bright story. Even if the plot was the same, it would become something else depending on the episodes one chose, and even for the same episode, just changing its arrangement would change the implications and meaning of it. There were endless ways to write, and each person had their own impressions and feelings.

Just as everyone’s faces and voices were different, no one had the exact same shooting form. No one could always shoot with the exact same form. Humans were creatures who kept on changing moment by moment. What one ate became flesh and blood, the information that entered from the eyes and ears was processed and stored by the brain, and skin cells were reborn in two weeks. One’s faces yesterday and today were similar but different. Even if one came to a stop, hung one’s head, bent over, crouched down, or shed tears of blood, a wind would still blow somewhere.

A new wind blew.

Supple limbs danced.

The color of evergreen.

Let’s etch these moments that would never fade into our memories.

The third shooting round. Seiya missed.

In the fourth shooting round, Nanao also missed, and Kazemai had the result of four, four, three, three, and four for a total of eighteen hits.

For Tsujimine as well, Fuwa and Aragaki both missed one shot each, and the results of four, three, four, four, and three—a tie.

For the tiebreaking match, each archer would shoot one arrow, and the school with the most hits won. Each person received a spare arrow from their manager, who acted as the kaizoe and sat in a reserved chair, and steadied their breathing. Even though it was just one arrow, it felt heavier than the four arrows they always had, and it was slippery in their hands from all the sweat.

“Begin!”

After finishing yugamae, both schools’ oomae raised their bows grandly. Both were marked with circles.

The second archers hit. The third archers hit.

And then, the fourth archer. The ochimae.

Tsujimine’s Higuchi missed, and Kazemai’s Nanao hit.

In the stands, the spectating Hanazawa, Shiragiku, and Seo shouted while holding each other’s hands.

The last was the ochi.

As Aragaki’s matooto sounded, Minato was inserting himself into the centre of his bow. He performed nobiai in all directions, and waited for the moment of release. After he let go of his arrow, a circle was displayed on the scoreboard.

In the midst of the applause, they exited the shajo, and Minato’s team clapped each other on their shoulders. Ryouhei carried Nanao on his shoulder and they were shouting joyfully as though the championships were already decided for them.

Kaito, overcame with emotion, covered his mouth with his hand.

“…Did we just break through the semifinals?”

Seiya answered him.

“Yeah. We defeated Tsujimine.”

“Crap, my stomach kinda hurts.”

“Again?”

While Kazemai was shouting for joy, the competitors from Tsujimine were silent. They walked as though they were heading towards the practice venue.

Nikaidou and Fuwa looked at their two senpai.

“Higuchi-senpai, Aragaki-senpai. We should hurry on back to the waiting room.”

“I’m sorry for missing…”

“It’s fine, Higuchi-senpai. That’s just how kyudo is.”

Aragaki also nodded deeply.

Nikaidou turned his back on Minato’s team and started walking. His eyes were tinged with a quiet heat.

Damn it, damn it, damn it.

So frustrated, so frustrated, so frustrated, so frustrated…

I will not be finished. This isn’t over――.

Fuwa laughed scornfully.

“It still ain’t over yet. Let’s go take third place. Then, after the closing ceremony, we’ll have a strategy meeting. When we win third, I’ll turn the information I learned into a souvenir, we’ll snatch permission to use the gym, and then we’ll reassemble a practice regimen for next year’s Inter-High.”

“…You serious?”

“If you don’t wanna, then I don’t really care.”

“…You’re still a crafty bastard, as ever.”

“Aren’t you the same?”

Nikaidou gave Fuwa a good punch in the stomach.

Tsujimine High School won third place.

The finals match.

The school that lasted to the end was, as expected, Kirisaki High School. It was a match between schools in the same prefecture.

The five Kirisaki team members were face-to-face, and Motomura gave them his final words.

“Let’s make this our greatest stage. There is nothing that can frighten us. Let’s show everyone the shooting of the powerhouse, Kirisaki!”

Shuu and the others got goosebumps at strong and confident Motomura’s words. No, they were trembling with the excitement of warriors. It felt like a burning in the pits of their stomachs. An impulse only understood by archers were in love with the bow, who were at the mercy of the bow.

Bargaining with the target.

One must not let it know that you wanted to shoot through its heart.

The five light bumped their yugake-right fists together.

Meanwhile, Kazemai was also gathered around Tommy-sensei. Masa-san spoke.

“Forget everything I’ve said up to now. You should shoot as you want, as though this is the first time that you are holding a bow.”

Tommy-sensei spoke after him.

“I feel the same way as Takigawa-san. All of you are plenty cool as you are. The best archers. This is today’s final mission. Now, let’s go.”

“Yes!”

Tommy-sensei put out his hand, and Kaito, Ryouhei, Seiya, Nanao, Minato, and Masa-san placed their hands over it.

After they entered the second waiting room, the two schools sat next to each other.

Kirisaki High School—Motomura, Senichi, Manji, Sase, Shuu.

Kazemai High School—Kaito, Ryouhei, Seiya, Nanao, Minato.

There had never been a scene that was so tense. The prefectural finals felt like it had happened a long, long time ago.

Shuu was on Minato’s left side. Even at this tournament, he got a continuous kaichuu and accomplished a monster-like act, but didn’t that put more pressure on him instead? You couldn’t keep on hitting forever. No matter how masterful an archer was, the moment when they missed would inevitably come.

However, Shuu was indifferent to Minato’s worries; he seemed happy. When he met Minato’s eyes, he smiled gently. It was like the time when they played with Souta at Saionji-sensei’s house, like even now he was planning a trick. Seeing him like that, Minato unintentionally guarded his left flank. He was far from his persona of being the “Young Prince Shuu” who many archers knew him as. He was just like a child.

Where did that calmness come from? He said that he would embody “one shot and expire,” but Minato didn’t even know what that meant.

What he did know was that his heart was pounding, and that he was excited.

The joy from being able to shoot on the same stage as Shuu.

At the signal, they stood up, and Kazemai and Kirisaki faced each other and bowed, saying, “We look forward to competing against you.”

It was the start of nyuujou. The five sat down simultaneously in the chairs of the first waiting room in front of honza. Tommy-sensei also sat down behind the competitors. The arena was different from the kyudojo they had always shot in, and even the smallest sound was picked up. It felt like everyone could even hear the sound that persisted in Minato’s chest.

His exposed heart.

The immovable target.

At the order to “begin,” the two schools went towards the shooting line, their yellow-green and purple headbands swaying above their shoulders. Masa-san, holding his breath as he watched over the group with the same-color headbands, was also at the very end of the shajo.

The oomaes began to raise their bows.

Motomura had the face of a young family head, and his true form was that of an extraordinary exorcist. When admonished by his gentle face, one would forget suspicious things and uncanniness. There were “sounds” and “words” that made people uncomfortable and those that soothed them, and seeing miracles on the bow since ancient times was because of the beauty of its form and shape. Before true beauty, people lost their wickedness, and a beautiful tsurune possessed the wavelength to heal people.

Meigen—the sound of joy. (4)

A sound that reset everything, returning them back to zero.

Kaito did not hide the heat that slept within him, and suppressed the demon with his look of anger. Like Fudou Myouou (5), he held a sword in his hands and carried flames on his back, waiting for sprouts of new life in a burnt field.

The second archers after them were Senichi and Ryouhei.

For both of them, their ideal archer was Shuu. His shooting that surpassed those of the same generation as him always captivated those who saw it. They groped for how close they could get to him, how it could superimposed over them, and how to recreate it. It was fascinating how even if they copied him, it wouldn’t be exactly the same as the original, but another way of shooting was born, mixed with their own colors.  Senichi was delicate, and Ryouhei was bold and heroic. They both hit their targets.

The third archers were Senichi’s younger brother Manji and Seiya. They painted layers of muddy paint and hid their own inborn colors.

Manji had sealed up his fast shooting and kept on practicing to shoot carefully and without rushing in order to not have hayake. Just like how Senichi chased after Shuu, Manji chased after Senichi. The two of them absolutely couldn’t stand was being left behind or surpassed. A circle was shown on the scoreboard.

Rather than imitating someone, Seiya pictured his ideal image of what he wanted to do in his head and simulated it. He repeated that until he tricked his brain into believing that was truer, so even he himself completely forgot who he was originally, but from Kaito’s point of view, he didn’t seem to be able to change completely. His intricately calculated hanare induced a matooto.

Sase was an idol lover, and he himself had the talent of an idol. Like a refreshing and easygoing sportsman, he was not bashful at all, and was always in the center of a circle of strangers. He started talking to Motomura, who was brimming with wabi-sabi (6) even when he was young, not because he worried that he felt out of place in class, but because he wanted to talk to him and so he did. He also started doing kyudo because he wanted to try doing it. That was all it was.

Nanao was actually quite straightforward. He knew very well that his popularity with girls would make him the enemy of some boys, and that was exactly why he spread love. He couldn’t keep his overflowing feelings in his chest. I smile because you smile. I’m happy when you’re happy. Your angry faces, your troubled faces, I want to see lots of you.

After he snatched a magnificent hit, the yellow-green frogs in the stands swayed.

The ochi were Shuu and Minato.

When Shuu raised his bow, the world changed completely. One got lost in a shining golden land. Before that divine and beautiful archer, everything that had life stopped breathing. The fire he released from the depths of his body created an updraft, which started up and quickened. He slowly raised his two wings and spread his white feathers.

Sound was what fell.

A sound that stole away people’s memories.

When the watchers recovered their senses, the area was engulfed in the echoes from shouts of "Alright!" It gently rained with the sound that made their skin tremble and scorched their chests.

At the same moment, Minato raised his bow up high. He held his bow at kyuuha, with a strength like he was playing with it—not too strongly, not too weakly. The beautiful tsurune he heard when he was young. When that sound rang, Minato’s world changed. On the other side of the rain that fell beside him, a rainbow from thick clouds spread.

Even if he tried to not recall what was taught to him, his body remembered it all perfectly. The disciple inherited the master’s colors. Kazemai had Kazemai’s colors, and Kirisaki had Kirisaki’s colors. Even from among the many archers, when told, "You are from Kazemai High School Kyudo Club, aren’t you," he could continue hitting.

In the silence that made one even hesitate to move, the shouts of "Alright" bounced off the surrounding walls, continually going back and forth.

From right to left.

From left to right.

Thud, thud.

The sound, similar to fireworks, echoed.

The instrumental trio of tsurune, matooto, and shouts.

In the second shooting round also, tsurune were played in succession. It was all hits. Two five-person kaichuu were carried out, and there was applause.

When they entered the third shooting round, A bead of sweat ran down Minato’s cheek. His hearing wasn’t working normally, as the way he heard things was somewhat strange. A sensation of having dozed off, like he was being talked to in his head, like he was talking to someone in his dreams. Where was he right now? What was he doing? Even the act of drawing his bow felt like he was doing it in a dream-like state and lacked a sense of reality.

In the stands, Hanazawa, Shiragiku, and Seo whispered to each other.

"They are so good it’s kinda scary…"

"I agree. I feel chills, even though it is the middle of summer."

"――This is divine possession."

Seo’s words made their surroundings more and more frozen.

In the fourth—final—shooting round, the oomae Kaito missed. At someone’s sigh, the tension in the shajo was broken for a moment. Perhaps overwhelmed by the change in the flow of that wind, the arrow the second archer Senichi released also pierced the azuchi. Since it was an indoor azuchi that didn’t use soil, a tap sound, similar to a matooto, resounded.

With that, both schools had one miss――. Once more, it became a one-on-one battle between the two ochi.

The spectator’s gazes were fixed on Shuu and Minato.

When Minato raised his bow, Shuu also raised his to follow him. They parted their bows grandly and inserted their bodies into the middle of them. They slowly released their breaths from their filled and content dantian. Upon doing that, the target itself approached the archer and assimilated into him.

The target is me, and I am the target. The great I, whose boundaries as an individual had blurred, will draw my bow.

They extended in all directions and formed crosses.

Nikaidou had asked Minato, "For what reason do you shoot a bow?", but that question didn’t make sense to him. He didn’t draw the bow to win or to train his body; he faced the target to breathe. Breathing was the proof of living. Therefore, on the days when he wasn’t holding a bow, he felt like he was dead.

It wasn’t "correct shooting makes for true hitting," but "correct questions make for correct answers." A good answer was born from a good question. If one were to ask Minato a question, it should not be "for what reason," but "How do you shoot a bow?" He embodied the answer to that question every single day.

Minato and Shuu were no longer thinking anything.

They didn’t hear anything.

They returned to the time when they met, losing themselves in drawing their bows.

For honing one’s body and entering a state of absolute concentration, it was annoying and hindering to have words inside one’s head. Thinking interfered with physical activity. Therefore, deep breathing was what helped empty one’s head. Along with breath, one would make "thought" get out of one’s body.

The one who shaded the event of an arrow hitting a target with good or bad, or emotions, was the "self," and the opposite of hayake and Yips was the state of "selflessness", or the zone. Being unconscious, in a sense, was like being someone who had expired. Dead people had no consciousness, and babies played innocently and without thought. Words did not intervene there.

――One shot and expire.

The archer dying at kai and being born again at hanare was the greatest shooting technique in the ultimate secret techniques left behind by the one who was called the Bow Saint. (7) The two were making use of that technique—Shuu intentionally, Minato unintentionally.

They cried their yagoe in their hearts.

Fly, yagoe.

Clear your path.

Run, yagoe.

Today’s a day of beginnings.

The two arrows were sucked into the bull’s-eye.

Amidst thunderous applause, the bell signalling seven-and-a-half minutes sounded. Minato and Shuu turned to face their targets and moved backed towards honza, and then sat down in their chairs.

Nineteen hits to nineteen hits. It was a tie.

The two schools’ managers handed their archers one backup arrow each. Each team shot a total of five shots, and if it couldn’t be decided in one set, then they would repeat the process. It was like an izume match for group competitions.

"Rise, begin!"

The Kazemai and Kirisaki archers nocked their arrows. With a single arrow, victory or defeat was decided. An arrow that was too heavy.

My chest hurts. My chest hurts. My center of my head feels hazy, and my fingertips are getting really numb. The insides of my ears sting. To get away from this choking feeling, I’ll breathe slowly, slowly.

The first shooting round. Both schools got hits.

Next was the second round.

Ryouhei’s arrow landed to the right of the target. Sighs overlapped with shouts of "Alright" from the stands.

Third round, hits.

Fourth round, hits.

And finally, the fifth round.

Minato and Shuu made beautiful tsurune ――.

After they exited the shajo, Kazemai and Kirisaki bowed to each other. Kaito and Motomura, feeling just like Ryouhei and Senichi, mutually smashed their yugake together. Minato and Shuu also bumped the backs of their yugake.

When they passed through the exit, the press gathered to interview the winning school. Minato and the others passed by them. On the return path, there was the staff room partitioned off with white cloth, and large windows on the left side. It was dazzlingly bright outside the windows, the trees swaying in the breeze.

Ryouhei came to a stop in front of the wall between the windows, and collapsed on the spot. He pressed his head against the wall hard, and his shoulders were shaking. He got on his knees temporarily, then he couldn’t stand up anymore.

"If I…If I hadn’t missed… I wanted to shoot more, and more… It’s my fault we lost…”

Minato put his arm around Ryouhei’s shoulders from behind.

He couldn’t say anything. That regret he himself had also tasted. That intense anger and sadness towards himself.

If one was experiencing such painful emotions, then they shouldn’t be doing things like kyudo.

I’m so frustrated, I’m so frustrated, I can’t forgive myself――.

Seiya also bent down in that spot and placed his hands on the two boys’ shoulders.

"Me, Kaito, Nanao and Minato—we’ve all missed before. We’re all the same. Someone who never missed before doesn’t exist."

"Uugh…ah…"

Kaito was watching over shoulder at Nanao folding Ryouhei, Minato, and Seiya together into a big hug. Kirisaki, having finished their interviews, passed by them there, and Shuu remained behind as the other members continued on.

When Nanao and the others noticed him, they removed themselves from Ryouhei, and Shuu knelt down before him.

"Ryouhei, Sae wants to meet you. Summer vacation is still long, so would you come and play with us, if you like? It seems Toujou would also like another bout with you."

"…Alright. I won’t lose, after all."

Ryouhei had his hands taken by Seiya and Minato and stood up. He then smiled.

Shuu left them.

In the hall, competitors could be seen chatting with their families. The accompanying children, perhaps bored, ran around in their slippers while making pitter-patter sounds.

Suddenly, Shuu remembered that it was the day of Sae’s violin lesson today. He turned his face towards where the sun was shining and narrowed his eyes. He could see an illusion.

"…Sae? Why are you here?"

“Shuu-niisama, congratulations. We came here to support you, of course. We thought we would make you nervous if you saw our faces, so we made sure to not be seen. It was hard.”

Next to her, Shuu’s mother was also smiling.

“Congratulations, Shuu. You were wonderful.”

Unexpected words, from an unexpected person.

As Shuu was at a loss for words, a man appeared from behind. Without needing to cross swords with anyone, he gave off the air of someone who made others lose their will to fight—someone who had the nickname of “Samurai.”

“Father…”

“Congratulations. Your shooting closely resembled that of Saionji-sensei’s in the past. I can see that you trained a lot, Shuu.”

“…Thank you very much. I am truly sorry that you had to come all the way here while you were the one who was busy, Father.”

“To tell you the truth, I received many phone calls at my company. From Sugawara Senichi-kun and Manji-kun, Motomura-kun and Sase-kun, as well as Narumiya-kun and Yamanouchi-kun. All asking me to please come and see Shuu shoot. It seems that my son has some good friends. I am looking forward to seeing the growth of all of you from now on.”

Shuu wanted to respond, but couldn’t make words come out of his mouth no matter how hard he tried.

The unseen words written on that Tanabata paper strip were, “From your son, Shuu.”

To be able to heard the word “son” come from you--.

When the wind came dancing in from the doors, the light that reflected off the windows hid Shuu’s face.

Meanwhile, Minato and the others exited the hall to find Masa-san waiting for them.

He smiled, and while saying things like “Alright!” “Okay!” and “Let’s go and eat something tasty”, he roughly tousled the five boys’ hair. Tommy-sensei also patted their backs.

Even though Minato had been holding it back for a long time, it was at that moment that his tear glands loosened. Seiya, Ryouhei, Nanao, and Kaito were the same.

Masa-san, Tommy-sensei, you’re both awful.

Even though the closing ceremony is going to take place after this, isn’t it super uncool to mess up our hair like this…

The five boys formed a circle.

And then, they shouted that they would stand on this stage again.

At dusk, the train carrying five boys departed.

On the screen of Ryouhei’s phone, there was a picture sent by his sister.

It was a picture of overpowering mountains and a tall sky.

The first star of the evening, which couldn’t be seen from the windows of their rooms, shone.

Fragrant ears of rice and the sound of cicadas.

Before he knew it, Minato dozed off, and leaned on his teacher beside him.

Previous | Afterword

[twitchesandstitches]

Alt Fleet Origins

idea i wrote up during my absent spell a couple months back; alluded to a few times and decided it was time to post it:

Consider this: the core group of the Fleet and thus the characters you might consider the central characters (Sierra, Terezi, Rose Quartz, Grimlock and Undyne) are the members of the generation that made the FLeet what it is, but they’re not the FIRST generation of the Fleet

They didn’t found it, but shaped it into what it is now, making them the heroes who defined the Fleet, gave it power and brought them home after ages of suffering and nomadic flight, but there is a lot that predates them

In short, it expands on the culture of the Fleet and makes it about more than just them!

This does require tossing out a lot of my original ideas for the Fleet’s origin and the foundations of the AU (Sierra discovering the Matriatrix and finding the other founding groups during the course of several adventures, building up their collective powers and creating the basics of the Fleet), but heck with it, some of the ideas I’ve had for this are SUPER fun and make a lot of sense within the AU

The actual founding generation goes back much further, perhaps an additional several hundred years prior to the birth of Sierra, who being the least difficult to map to realistic ages, makes a good barometer. The Fleet’s core ideas (it’s codes of honor, the way they handle things, and the basic social concepts) go back to the original founders, who banded together for mutual survival in a hostile multiverse where they were outcasts.

Most of the original groups are still represented here, but their ancestors are the ones who came into the fold first, so to speak.

(Greater detail and worldbuilding below)

I’m thinking there were probably no human members of the group, and came later; possibly humans are a bit of a rarity in this AU, at least in terms of population. Elves, dwarves, tieflings, they’re more common, but bog-standard humans are simply less common than you might assume.

The Homestuck contingent is represented by the troll ancestors: Neophyte Redglare as their leader, the Dolorosa, the Disciple, maybe the Executioner and the Signless. Additionally they had a large number of trolls allied to them, effectively they’re the Beforan versions of the ancestors (though giving them different relative ages for the sake of interesting divergence, like making Porrim a primordial vampire) until Beforus fell in ancient times, and the struggles of survival shaped the Beforus characters of the dancestors into the wiser but harder characters on par with the Alternian ancestors. While likely revolutionaries, these specific trolls were mainly just trying to survive without a homeworld, and being unwilling to take Condy’s ruthless measures to claim one for their own. Redglare would be the original wielder of the Matriatrix here, eventually passing it on to Sierra.

Because the troll kids (Terezi, Vriska, Feferi and the others) come later, presumably this means that you had to have access to all the troll ancestors genetics to get them. This might mean that, for a while, ALL the ancestors were part of the Fleet or had their genetics acquired somehow; this has interesting implications for Mindfang and the Condesce.

The Gems are, quite simply, the Crystal Gems. Possibly the core group (Rose, Pearl, Ruby, Sapphire, Amethyst, Bismuth) with additional crystal gems rounding out the population. They were also just trying to survive, and specifically avoid restarting Homeworld, the circumstances of the Crystal Gem Rebellion are way different here, and possibly unrelated to Earth, though it’s also quite possible that Homeworld was outright destroyed prior to those tensions building up into full revolution. The human characters, at the beginning of the Fleet, wouldn’t have been born yet. Lapis is off somewhere else doing her own thing, Peridot possibly hasn’t been born yet (???) and Jasper MIGHT have a servant of Rose before leaving to join the Stingers once they’re formed to amass her own glory, or else had no idea Pink Diamond survived.

The Transformers present an interesting possibility: maybe Grimlock is actually younger here? I like him having participated in the Autobot/Decepticon wars too much to have him been born recently, but if the war was more recent, that might play into things. I’ve implied that the Cybertron Civil War took place many eons ago and shaped history across the multiverse, but it’s possible that this can be fulfilled by the children of Primus carrying out the same narrative cycle repeatedly, with the Autobot uprising dating to, at most, a thousand years ago. This would make the Autobots SIGNIFICANTLY younger than usual, and also let me mess around more and make things even more AU.

An alternative possibility is having Transformers (And other long-lived beings that don’t mature physically) grow up as a response to emotional growth; they are prompted by life experiences to mature and change, but don’t do it in a vacuum. Thus, Grimlock and the other Autobots can be millions of years old but until they go through exceptional circumstances, they don’t change much over time. Leaning towards the former option of them simply being way younger than I normally do it, simply because I VERY RARELY make the Autobots younger than series average and it might be fun to mess around with that.

In any case, the founding Autobots would be a smallish group mainly led by Elita-1, Arcee, several others of note (Ultra Magnus, Jazz, ect.) and of course, Wheeljack and Ratchet, who are Grimlock’s parents. Grimlock himself may have been alive at this time, but he remained taciturn and withdrawn after the things he suffered, and doesn’t become a major player until later. The smallest in overall number, but the largest in terms of power. Most of those would, of course, be fembots.

The Undertale roster is largely unchanged, since they seem kinda long-lived anyway. They probably provide the largest initial population for the Fleet, because of the sheer diversity and monster girl possibilities they provide! Monster Musume characters would also be included in their numbers; specifically the monster moms. Toriel, as queen of the monsters and perhaps led by portents she believes the monster goddess, Mothra, has bestowed upon them, leads her people (the Undertale characters; the human ones and Deltarune characters are born later) to find a place to survive, and eventually bond with the rest of the Fleet.

Add in additional characters and groups as needed, with some provisos: no humans at all at this point, they come later. Secondly, this version of the Fleet is a large band of nomads, perhaps numbering several hundred at most for the first generation or so, traveling from continent to continent and then world to world via teleportation gates they discover, uncovering a mystery that eventually leads into the overarching conspiracy that the Fleet will later investigate.

They are thus a convoy, staying on the move from their enemies and just trying to survive. They have kids, mind their own business, but can’t help being heroes and getting a bit of a reputation; eventually they wind up being superheroes of a sort.

Redglare, as mentioned, is the first wielder of the Matriatrix for the FLeet. I dunno where SHE got it (found it? it was passed down to her by a mentor?) but she uses it in a very different way from Sierra; the modding and power-enhancing scene requires an economic base and adventuring capability the proto-Fleet does not have, at this point, but they are able to use some of its powers to begin changing themselves to stay alive and relevant. Possibly the first signs of hyper proportion power levels begins here. But no one has any idea how to use it, and as in the current time, must experiment: Redglare ultimately does not learn the specific abilities Sierra did, but combines its alchemizing abilities with her innate Mind powers to draw abilities from those around her, combined with the zeitgeist of the area around her and, in a sense, weaponize the narrative to randomly generate abilities and spell effects. She is ultimately far better at the subtle abilities and Sierra still falls short of living up to her skills. Redglare is the first champion and leader of the Fleet, the heroine they all adored, and leaves big shoes to fill. (Her fate is… open to debate.)

Eventually, there is a second phase around the third generation of children and the signs of the Matriatrix’s gifts imbuing them with hyper fertility and devouring/pregnancy powers so that the Fleet is associated with nomming themes and producing huge amounts of children. By this point they have multiplied by several hundred members, both taking in anyone who wants to join their merry band and reproducing… a LOT. Gems and Transformers have been changed to be able to have super pregnancies, but not to the one-woman population booms in the present. This significantly alters the dynamics for their people, since the difficulties of resources for making new Gems and Transformers is a major problem for reproduction; possibly something similar applies to trolls, as I imagine the mother grub not being a natural part of the reproduction, but akin to a biological cloning machine inducing inbreeding due to over reliance on it.

Around this phase, two things happen, in no particular order, but as a result, some humans enter the Fleet. Again, humans are a relatively rare and severely underpowered species, and possibly in the process of dying out. But their greatest place of utopian ideals and success is the world-nation of Wakanda, reimagined her as a massive ringworld inhabited by humans, robots and the creations of ancient humans. It is a distillation of Marvel, with the entire human population being mutants; powers are universal, and the older generation of BNHA characters also originate from here (All Might, Inko). The Fleet seeks shelter, and for some time, calls Wakanda home. This utopian wonderland becomes the Fleet’s first true stable homeland, and eventually the beginning of their spaceflights; eventually they can no longer remain after Wakanda is devastated by Evil, and the notion of Wakanda becomes a spiritual homeland they home to one day reestablish.

By this point, the clan social system that eventually replaces biological families entirely begins to manifest, growing out of the social structures of Wakanda and the factionalism present within the newborn Fleet itself.

The other thing that can happen before or after the joining with Wakanda; the discovery of ancient cloning facilities, in which humans played a part. Great mechanisms to produce vast amounts of cloned offspring lay dormant, but fully functional, and providing the Fleet with valuable lost technology that will become the basis for later bio-tech. The facility contains information on the twenty-eight hundred trillion different bloodlines of the many species recorded, among them human bloodlines that still have a claim to the last dynasties of Earth in its pre-Cataclysm hey-day, and the offspring of those bloodlines would have tremendous cultural influence due to their descent from the last great powers of their people.

The Fleet begins what will become a solemn vow to resurrect life whenever possible; eventually they will start gestating fallen species, but they begin by simply starting the machines back up and raising the resulting children on their own. Among these are the first human members to be born into the Fleet; these include the human guardians from Homestuck (Pop Egbert, Mom Lalonde, Grandpa Harley, non-abusive Bro Strider) as well as anyone explicitly confirmed to be human and born into the Fleet; of note, the human SU characters from an older generation, most prominently Greg Universe.

Additional time passes, more generations come and go, and the Fleet’s initial powers grow more advanced; rebirth via pregnancy becomes a viable technique though not as widespread as it will become, and extends life spans considerably. Hyper huge proportions and recreational modding become more common, and with Redglare’s increased control over the Matriatrix, the beginnings of the Fleet’s superpowers status beings.

Now we come to the birth of the ‘current generation’; the characters the AU focuses on. Sierra, the other TDI characters, and the Homestuck kids and trolls are born. (Analogues to the Beforan characters as they are in the dancestor bits are also born roughly around this time.) The human characters in question (mainly the TD and Homestuck humans like Jade, Roxy, Jane and John) are a mix of being born from the cloning processes and offspring of the human mutants. The trolls, though, are explicitly the biological children of the troll ancestors, even if they are not raised by them as per Fleet custom.

Thus, everyone effectively grows up as friends and have an established society that predates them, putting less of an emphasis on them as the sole heroes; they stand on the shoulders of those who came before.

Sierra winds up becoming a protege of sorts to Redglare, and Terezi, as her descendant, suffers a great deal of pressure to become as great as her, while Redglare does her best to just let her descendants have a happy, ordinary life.

At some point, though, Redglare leaves the story. However it happens, she passes the Matriatrix onto Sierra, when all expectation was that Terezi would continue her legacy. This causes a great deal of tension between the two, even though they are very close prior to this. Eventually it is repaired, but not without damage.

In her childhood, Sierra befriends Grimlock (Effectively being his human companion friend, in TF fandom terms), bringing him out of his gloomy shell and lightning him up a little bit into the hero we all know he can be.

Sierra’s discoveries, as well as those of her friends (most predominantly Feferi, who is effectively the mother of modding) and the leadership of their particular group begins to shape the Fleet into what it is, setting the stage for its current position as it grows and changes.

(This also means that Vriska, and perhaps a good chunk of the Stingers, were originally part of the Fleet, perhaps those who opted for personal gratification or glory over the Fleet’s heroic intentions.)

Some other consequences is that the Fleet initially grew gradually, slowly absorbing people into it over time and then growing just a bit faster at a time as the Matriatrix’s powers expanded into others… and relatively recently, their expansion went from a few worlds and a single fleet to multiple ones, and a MASSIVE population explosion that continues even to this day. This rapid expansion is clearly terrifying to most people and a serious threat to people who originally saw them as hedonist outcasts and rogues challenging tyrants.

The second one is a theme of building things over the course of multiple generations, but suddenly the plan is askew. Redglare, the seemingly immortal wielder of the Matriatrix, is gone. Her plans, whatever they were, are suddenly stalled and the Fleet doesn’t have a rudder; people depended on her and revered here, and Terezi and Sierra wind up having to take the reins and inspire people. Sierra the heart-felt champion and the one they adore, and Terezi winds up the one with a plan and purpose people can root for.

Things build up and expand from simpler roots, growing more complex and better than what their forerunners initially created. They might be standing on the shoulders of giants, but they’ll grow far bigger than their parents did.

(The metaphor is somewhat muddled by the fact that the Fleet’s stronger people genuinely regard ‘growing bigger than a planet and using your finger to destroy a kaiju’ as mid-tier feats, but the point still stands.)

[dismuch47]

Scarlet Vision out Camping

Of course it’s a retreat for the newly reunited team to bond over. Because all that Thanos drama is OVER. This concept has been done before, but this focuses more on the Synthezoid and Witch’s interactions and enjoyment of the great outdoors.

Steven Rogers- Prides himself on the All-American wilderness camping experience. He has guide books (that he has memorized) for identifying wildlife flora and fauna, has maps and compass, and is all about stream-lining the supplies needed to survive. He sees it as a sport and is very knowledgable about everything; goes into lengthy dad explanations about the merits of man vs. nature and Vision enjoys listening, as it corresponds to the info that he has downloaded on camping. Wanda is interested at first, but draws the line at peeing in the woods and sleeping on the dirt. She’ll take the nature guides to find out what herbs have healing or supernatural properties.

Tony Stark- Loves camping... but his camping is lugging a super camper the size of a small house and having gourmet breakfasts by the morning campfire with a latte in hand. He’s pretty knowledgable about rock minerals, but his camping sport is watching others try to rough it through no showering, wildlife getting into the food supply, ruthless mosquitos, and un-expected weather. He invites Pepper to relax “away from technology”. Wanda and Natasha use the camper bathroom, begrudgingly. By the end of the trip, every one is hauled up in the camper. Except Vision, who only returns at night to power down with Wanda beside him.

Bucky Barnes- Stays pretty close to Steve’s side, as Tony and him will never be on the greatest of terms. Assists Steve with the fishing, snare traps, reliving some of the lighter of army days, and sitting in a fold-out chair by the fire, beer in hand, facing a mountainside lake view. Vision sits with the soldier maybe once, quietly, enjoying the mountain view, but ultimately deciding that sitting still with an un-opened beer is not for him. Wanda exchanges words with him once in awhile, and surprises him with silly gestures like placing a hand-made flower crown on his head for a selfie with her. Bucky sits quietly, observing everyone, as a soldier does, but finds himself looking at the synthezoid and nature child...holding hands and walking off on a path for some alone time, wondering if something like that is ever in his future again.

James Rhodes- His tolerance for the outdoors turns to annoyance as bugs become merciless. He roughs it in a tent that he pitches himself, but ends up with Tony and Pepper in their super camper. He’s done his  time as a young man army camping and doesn’t find any shame in needing air-conditioning at the end of the day. Enjoys canoeing, as it puts him on the level with everyone else. He doesn’t hate Vision, but he finds it awkward being around him. Vision seems to treat him with kit gloves, feeling incredibly guilty even after all these years. Rhodes has to walk away... but then uses every opportunity to team up with Peter, Sam, and Bruce to prank the synthezoid with false “human” information, like advice about women. He sometimes goes off on his own for a nature walk, but always comes back to the group, especially around the campfire to lead everyone in a round of scary stories... which Wanda always enjoys listening to his stories.

Natasha Romanoff- Has been dreading this trip, as it would force her to iron out some unpleasantness with Bruce. She doesn’t complain about sleeping in a tent, though she wouldn’t choose to if given the choice. She’s last to fall asleep, and up with the sun. She cannot turn off her readiness mode, and plunges into the more challenging hikes, fishing, food gathering and firepit making to keep from getting anxious. When she finally does have her closure with Bruce on a cliffside, she gets plastered on Tony’s alcohol supply, finding herself setting up a chair right next to Bucky. She shares a tent with Wanda, but finds herself joining Steve by the fire on his pallet at bedtime, giving some space to Wanda and Vision.

Peter Parker and Sam Wilson- The two share a tent together, to Sam’s disdain, but finds that his maturity level is pretty on par with the high schooler’s. Peter smuggled some gamer tech and junk food with him and shares with Sam. Sam takes Peter under his wing and decides to mentor the little dude on how to be “cool.” Peter gives some advice on how to tighten up some of Sam’s flight tech for smoother operation. The two are the kings of camping pranks and form an alliance against everyone else, though Peter refuses to use his evil genius against Tony or Steve. Vision sees the unwrapped food and warns the two that his research confirms it might attract unwanted wildlife... even bears. The two laugh, feeling they could easily take on a bear... only to awaken to one rummaging in their tent that very night. Obviously it was an easy take-down at a campsite of supers, but the two hang their heads as Vision flies the unconscious bear back to it’s lair. The two make up their own rules and often wind up in more trouble, against the Vision’s suggestions or Steve’s lecturing. Sam doesn’t really have an opinion of Vision, often calling him household appliances, but Peter is fascinated and talks internet memes... and is ecstatic to learn he is not the youngest Avenger on the team. Wanda is annoyed with Sam’s attitude half the time, having lived a time with him and the Captain’s group... but she supposes that she doesn’t want him to get eaten by a bear. She adores Peter and enjoys talking pop culture with him, as Sokovia pop culture was practically stuck in the early 90′s era. She learns about all the memes he’s been informing Vision of... which she’s not exactly excited about.

Bruce Banner- He camps, but it is not his thing. And most of the time is spent complaining about everything, all the insanitary, diseased, dirty things that could kill the group, and how ill-equipped for nature survival his nerdy body is. After his talk with Natasha, some feelings resurface that he doesn’t want to deal with and he hands over the reigns to Hulk. Hulk, invincible and green, finds himself to like the environment. The group is a little wary around him at first, but he’s changed... and even likable. Though his antics often scare the game away. He fearfully becomes Banner again for ghost stories around the campfire, which is endearing. Banner sticks close to Vision for survival tips that he is horrible at implementing. Hulk likes sneaking up on Vision to try and land a punch, which the synthezoid always phases through, to Hulk’s amusement. Banner doesn’t have much attachment to Wanda, but he is fascinated by her romantic interactions with Vision. Hulk enjoys watching Wanda making flower crowns, unable to do it himself.

Thor- Doesn’t understand why camping outdoors is considered a leisure pass-time, but decides he’s willing to tag along. His tent is made of leathers, furs, and trappings for true survival on inhabitable planets. He uses his axe too excessively, so Steve pulls him aside and briefs him on providing enough to survive on... not leveling a forest or frying an entire lake of fish. Thor realizes it is a time to relax, not a challenge or time to show off... but he can’t help but team up with Tony and Natasha to prank Sam and Peter. He finally has some heart to hearts with Vision, understanding the plight of loving a mortal female... but he makes Vision blush with his talk of orgies and Asgardian sexuality, asking how the synthezoid prefers to pleasure his woman. While to Wanda, he is a perfect gentleman, answering all of her inquiries about Asguardian “magic.” But Wanda is turned off by his tent... being an animal lover and vegetarian herself.

Wanda Maximoff- Having lived on the streets for a large part of her life, Wanda could sleep or survive anywhere... but being pampered in the Avenger’s tower and then in 5 star hotels with Vision... she now cannot go back to sleeping on the ground and using outhouses. She camps with an air mattress, and brings along her guitar, candles and crystals to really commune with nature, and to land some gorgeous pictures. Since Pietro died, capturing moments and immortalizing them has become priority. She helps when asked, but often goes on her own to reflect, sometimes pulling Vision along for a private moment. When she’s not meditating, trying to get a handle on her powers in connection with her emotions... she’s talking Vision into skinny dipping or some tasteful, silhouetted nature nudes. 

Vision- This is the synthezoid’s first camping excursion, and he has come over-prepared and over-excited. He finds there is not a right way to camp, and that experiences range depending on the individual. He tries shadowing with everyone, so see what draws them to the activity: the serenity that Barnes desired, the pampered relaxation that Tony and Pepper sought, the planned out and full-scheduled nature appreciation preferred by Steve, the introspective aspects that Romanoff displayed, the pranks war and recklessness of Sam and Peter, the competitive nature of Thor, the dislike of Banner, or the increase of sexual enjoyment that Wanda had... being in a different environment. Vision finds most connection with Hulk... who, like the synthezoid, is just enjoying being with these diverse people and discovering how to contribute to all these activities without following his usual disposition: Vision didn’t have to be a “robot” and Hulk didn’t have to be a “rage monster”. 

It is an experience that puts old grievances and new drama’s on hold, creating a memory that would last for a lifetime for these weary warriors

[newstfionline]

5 Ways You Should Treat Yourself Like a Business

By Ryan Warner, Early to Rise, Apr 5, 2018

Successful businesses are efficient, value-producing machines. They have missions, create detailed investment plans for how to spend their time and revenues, boast a robust network of relationships, and take action every single day to move closer to their end game--whatever their definition of success happens to be.

On a flight from Oakland to Chicago, while reading Richard Branson’s “Losing My Virginity,” I thought about what would happen if I treated myself as a business. What if I lived every day as the president and CEO of RyanWarner.net? How much more productive would I be?

I wrestled with the question for a few days, and ultimately decided to play out the possibility. I’m now three months into managing myself as a business, and have experienced a number of positive benefits:

I have shifted my focus, time, and energy to things that really “move the needle” in my life.

I have discovered (and constantly reiterate) a life mission--something that guides every action I take.

I’ve learned that I’m the only one who will succeed (or fail) in my own life. My butt is on the line, so I make every minute of every day count. I’m driven to make an impact on the world.

If you’re on board with what a business lens can do to your own life, then start implementing the steps below.

1. Define Your Business Philosophy. If someone were to navigate to Yourname.com and click on the About page, what would they find?

Tim Ferris shone a light on this self-definition recently. On his podcast, Ferriss hosted psychologist Michael Gervais, during which Gervais told a story about how he came to develop his personal philosophy, “Make every day a living masterpiece.”

Twenty years back, Gervais was asked by his mentor who he was. A simple question, right? But Gervais fumbled. He jumped into hokums about what he liked to do, what he did in the past, and what his goals were. The elderly mentor smiled and said, “Come back to me when you’re ready.”

Young Gervais--the now world-renowned performance psychologist--could not answer this seemingly simple question. But he endeavored to find an answer. What resulted was his personal philosophy.

You should do the same for yourself as a business. Why? Your business philosophy is what continually reminds you what you stand for. A well-crafted philosophy will not leave room for ambiguity or loopholes; it will hold your feet to the fire every day.

Before you move onto the steps below, then, take a few hours and sketch out your own philosophy. What do you stand for? What is your “business”? What are your end goals? These will need tweaking, of course, but it’s important to start now.

To get you started, here’s my “business” philosophy in a nutshell: Ryan Warner will always be grateful for obstacles. He will maintain the discipline needed to attack every task with absolute focus. He will spread love and laughter every day.

As you can see, philosophies are not all about stuff. In fact, the best ones tackle the most important questions of morality and purpose, leaving money to fall where it may. That said…

2. Capitalize on Investments. Investments are focused on how we spend our time and money. The former is the scarcest resource in the world; we should be mindful of this when we commit ourselves to daily tasks. We want to invest only in those things that move the needle in our “business” every day.

What would a business do with a hefty helping of time? They would invest labor and research in things that create value for shareholders. Likewise, we should put our time into activities that build us up as individuals and enable us to offer value to our family, friends, coworkers, and the world at large.

Here’s a good example: Spend a Sunday morning analyzing your strengths and weaknesses. Be ruthless about your weaknesses, and really drill into what you want to improve in your life. Do you want to learn how to be a better leader or public speaker? Do you want to be more present for your family? Do you wanted to be more invested in your job? What are your friends, family, and colleagues doing well in these areas that you could learn from?

The second piece of our daily investment is financial. How does a business look at finances? In simple terms, it’s about increasing top-line growth while maintaining a tight bottom line. Incoming dollars are viewed not as income, but as revenue, and revenues are re-invested in the company to increase growth.

Now think of yourself as a money-making business. What sort of revenues are you bringing in? And how will you get the best return on investment for the money you spend?

For example, if you--as a business--have $20 left over in the budget after a light month, would you reinvest in yourself or squander that money on meaningless stuff and empty activities? Would you buy a book or head to the bar and buy a round of beers?

By thinking of yourself as a business, always looking to increase value, your investments will start to align with your philosophy.

3. Nurture Relationships. How important are personal connections and relationships to a business? Very. They make or break a business’ success; without relationships, there are no customers, partners, board members, or staff.

You need relationships in your business. A lone wolf will not make it.

Former UFC champion Frank Shamrock has a strategy for building relationships that he calls “Plus, Minus, and Equal.”

For the Plus, he looks for someone who is more successful than he is (however one might define success). This person is at the level where Frank wants to be at some point. He or she would make a great mentor.

On the flipside, a Minus is someone whom Frank can teach. Teaching not only helps a Minus, but also helps you increase your understanding of the topic(s) you teach. After all, you can’t teach a subject effectively unless you know it inside and out.

An Equal is a peer--someone with whom you can share feedback as you move your “business” closer to success. These shared struggles and success stories build on mutual experiences and inform future decisions for even better outcomes--increasingly value exponentially.

It’s important that every business have a balance of Plus, Minus, and Equal relationships to keep them afloat. Each one encourages development, maturity, and social engagement.

4. Maintain Health. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle may seem like a given, but many people ignore it. I love focusing on health for my “business” because it often has the most immediate ROI. Don’t believe me? Hop on an elliptical for 30 minutes, then spend 15 minutes meditating. How do you feel? It’s amazing the amount of energy and focus we gain from working out.

But what’s the business angle here? Well, think of your mind like the CEO of the company and the rest of your body as employees. You want to spend time making sure each part of your body--or “employee”--is healthy so it can work properly, both on its own and in conjunction with other parts of the body.

To make that work, feed your body what it needs--lots of fresh vegetables, lean meats, and limited carbohydrates. Avoid refined sugars and processed foods. Then, keep a regular exercise regimen going.

The result: A healthy body--”collaborative workforce”--that is an unbeatable productivity machine.

But don’t neglect the mind. Dedicate time to meditation, reading, and journaling throughout your week. Challenge your mind with new types of learning, like language study, crossword puzzles, or trivia games. These activities keep your mind sharp, ready for whatever life throws at you.

5. Take Action Every Single Day. A CEO doesn’t take weeks off without working on his/her business, and neither should you. Every day is an opportunity to improve the state of your business and a chance to increase the value you deliver to your shareholders.

Entrepreneur Jesse Itzler takes this concept to a whole new level. He calculates the average life expectancy of a Caucasian male and subtracts his age from it. That leaves him with the number of years he likely has left in this world. Seeing that number in black and white makes only one thing matter: The mission to do the most with your life TODAY.

Jason Feifer, editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, takes a different approach. He focuses on the hours that comprise a day, and at the end of each hour asks, “What did I just accomplish in the past hour? Would my family be proud of how I lived in the last 60 minutes?”

In both cases, however, the idea is the same; as the old saying goes, “Live your life like there’s no tomorrow.”

There are two parts to this imperative action. The first is your “why”--which is derived from your mission statement. Don’t just act to act; act knowing what you’re doing is a real-life manifestation of your mission statement.

The second is your “how”--derived from your investment strategy. How do you act in relationships, at home, and at work to reflect your commitment of time and money? How are these an accurate reflection of what your mission statement demands?

Don’t let these questions derail you, however. Examine your actions--carefully, but not too long--and act with integrity, confidence, and purpose.

Treating yourself as a business has the potential to reframe your personal development and rebrand your identity with a crystal clear “why.” Be thoughtful about crafting your philosophy and mission statement to make this possible; bear these out in your investment decisions; nurture your relationships with these principles at your core; and act like there’s no tomorrow.

Be energized, be focused, be true to yourself and humbly inspired by the possibilities of your life. If you can manage this--as any good business would--you will find success, however you define it.

[woodworkingpastor]

O Come, O Come, Immanuel Isaiah 26:1-8 First Sunday of Advent, 2019

Lighting the first Advent candle               Dan Lubbs, Isaac Hernandez

O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer

our spirits by thine advent here.

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,

And death’s dark shadow put to flight.

We light this first Advent candle as a sign of our persistent hope that Jesus the Messiah has come and will come again!

We rejoice—even as we wait and work—in anticipation of Godly things yet to be revealed.

Hope when there seems to be no hope

In 1977, the world was introduced to Star Wars, a film which brought us some of the most popular movie characters of all time: Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Darth Vader and others have captured people’s imaginations for 42 years now, and many are eagerly awaiting the release of Star Wars Episode IX where the storyline of the Skywalker family will be completed.

One of the strange things about Star Wars: A New Hope is its beginning; we are obviously picking up the story in the middle.  The film begins with a little ship being fired upon by a bigger ship; then Darth Vader boards the little ship to search for the plans to the Death Star, while Princess Leia hurriedly hides those plans inside R2D2, before putting the droid and C3PO in an escape pod and launching them to the desert planet of Tatooine, where the droids almost immediately head off in separate directions and are soon captured by Jawas, to be sold to the local moisture farmers.

Star Wars is a great story, but it always felt like it was missing something.  On December 16, 2016, that something was provided in the movie Rogue One.  In the Star Wars universe, this movie is set in the days and then moments leading up to A New Hope. We’re introduced to a new set of characters and the necessary backstory: Galen Erso was one of the leading engineers in the design and construction of the Death Star, but his heart is with the rebellion. So he makes a choice: he works for the Empire but designs a flaw deep within the Death Star.  He gets word of this flaw out to his long-lost daughter, Jyn, who leads a team to capture the plans to the Death Star.  

You realize something very early on in Rogue One: none of these characters will make it out alive.  On one level, that was an inevitable choice; as none of them were in the movies 40 years ago, their story lines had to end.  The writers literally had no choice.  But it also makes sense within the story itself. The Empire is so powerful, and the Rebellion so fragile, that the attempt to capture the Death Star plans really has no chance of succeeding; all the rebels have is hope.  One of the most powerful quotes from the movie comes right before the final battle begins, when Jyn tells her team:  “If we can make it to the ground, we’ll take the next chance. And the next, on and on until we win, or until the chances are spent.”  They knew that the only thing they had on their side was hope, and so the band of rebels, against all odds, steal the plans to the Death Star, paying for that hope with their lives.

That investment makes this scene from Star Wars: A New Hope all that more significant. 

Rogue One gives the context to understand this scene; it is one of the most hope-less points of the entire Star Wars story. The Empire has ruled ruthlessly for 20 years; several major battles were fought just days before to have a chance at destroying the Death Star.  And here, the fate of the rebellion turns on a small red and white droid whose malfunction enabled R2D2 to go home with Luke Skywalker.  Of course, we know the rest of the story: Luke and R2D2 find Obi-wan Kenobi, the Death Star is destroyed, and hope shined a bit brighter. But in this moment, there is as close to no reason to find hope as could be imagined.

The nerve of that preacher

All of that is to help us have a chance at grasping the significance of today’s Scripture: “On that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah:” (Isaiah 26:1a). Isaiah had some nerve with this message, standing up in front of a group of people and encouraging them to live by the expectations of another day, even while others are dictating the terms for how we are to live on this day.

Isaiah had nerve preaching this sermon because his congregation had eyes and ears and minds of their own. They had eyes to look out the windows of their homes and see that their world looked nothing like what God had promised their ancestors. They had ears to listen to the news when it came to them and hear the tidings of suffering and loss and separation. They had minds that could remember what it was like when Jerusalem was destroyed; memories of family members that were now either dead or separated from them in exile; memories to remember what they had been taught about being the people of God.

But here stands Isaiah, telling them about “that day;” asking them to hope for a day which they will never see, but to live their lives as if it’s coming anyway, a day when God will ultimately set things right, when the righteous will enter into God’s presence.  And so Isaiah says for the people, “In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you” (Isaiah 26:8).  

God’s people in this portion of the Old Testament know a lot about waiting.  So much so, in fact, that Old Testament Hebrew has twelve different words that can be translated “wait,” with a whole host of nuance in their meaning.  Some of these words simply mean to “wait,” with no other real context.  It’s the kind waiting we do at the doctor’s office or the DMV.  But other words—and especially the Hebrew word here in verse 8—refers to waiting that has a purpose.  We are waiting, because something better is coming, or is at least possible.  Maybe we’re waiting for a piece of news, maybe we’re waiting for someone’s arrival; maybe we’re waiting for an event.  We may not be sure of will happen or if it will happen, but for Isaiah the invitation to wait begins to transform into hope. We have reasons to invest ourselves in a certain promise.

To believe in hope, however, means to accept a risk.  We again see Isaiah’s nerve in preaching this sermon because hope can be so easily dashed. One of the most heartbreaking stories I’ve been told comes from a friend whose parents divorced when she was a little girl, and how after the divorce her father would promise to come pick her up and take her places. She would eagerly await his arrival, but so many times he simply didn’t show up.  No warning, no expectation.  He just didn’t come, and her mother would have to try to bind up her broken heart. It’s only been as she honestly dealt with the pain of that as an adult that she’s begun to find healing.

For hope to have any value in our lives, we must recognize that we only have reason to hope when our circumstances seem so unhopeful. Hope has little meaning in certainty.  That is what must be understood if hope is to be anything that’s real.  We’re not interested in unrealistic hope like those who believe they’ll win the Power Ball lottery; we’re not interested in false hope—the sort that wants to believe those emails offering us money from widows in the Ivory Coast; and we’re not even talking about a bargainers hope that says “If this happens, then I’ll do that.”  

Isaiah describes a mature hope.  This is a hope that recognizes there is spiritual value in waiting, spiritual value in investing in a particular promise, even if things might not turn out the way we wish, or if we never live to see the outcome we’re working toward.  This is the hope of the rebels who stole the plans to the Death Star; they knew they wouldn’t live to get off the planet, but they made the attempt anyway.

Learning hope      

Where do we go to learn to wait in hope?  Advent teaches us to find value in our investment of waiting and hoping for Jesus’ way to be realized. It’s no great secret that most of us would rather sing about Christmas, but true Biblical faith is filled with examples of hope.  And in today’s featured hymn—O Come, O Come, Immanuel—we have a song that uses both lyrics and tempo to teach us hope.

The lyrics of this hymn are some of the oldest in our hymnal, and both lyrics and tune have a somewhat complicated and confused story on how they came to exist in this form.  What is known is that many of these lyrics are adapted from a sixth or seventh century poem that was used in worship.  Not quite a “long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” but it ought to be enough to appreciate that Christians have a long history of valuing hope.

One early use of this hymn comes from the monasteries of the middle ages, where one verse of this hymn would be sung in worship each day from December 17 – 23.  Life in the monasteries was very routine, with virtually nothing special to separate one day from the next. There were no Christmas carols being broadcast the week before Thanksgiving; no Christmas TV ads starting the day after Halloween. Nothing but the unceasing sameness of solitary monastic life.  But beginning on December 17, the senior abbot in the monastery would sing one verse of this hymn each day in worship, and then give a small gift to each of the monks—perhaps as small as fresh walnuts—as a taste of something different, something special to build anticipation for the celebration of Jesus’ birth.

I also find it interesting that although our arrangement of verses is not the original, each verse in this arrangement does seem to be just a bit more hopeful than the one before, beginning in complete lostness and ending in a hope that God’s vision of the peaceable kingdom will be realized.

Do we have the patience to slow down long enough to begin to hope?

Conclusion

How do we react to Isaiah’s nerve as he looked out over his congregation, knowing what they knew, seeing what they saw, and then told them to wait, because there is more to come?  What about when we look at the world around us—or perhaps look no farther than our own lives—and see that it does not comfort either to our expectation or to our understanding of God’s promises? What do we do then?

[whitestonetherapy]

It’s not brain surgery..... is it? (6.6.17)

When driving in France recently our route took us by a huge engineering plant in the rust-belt that borders the beautiful city of Rouen. I have no idea what is produced there, but the structure is massive, a maze of piping, funnels and furnaces.  There are conveyor belts and walkways extending for what seems like acres in all directions.

I’m fascinated by the complex design and coordination that must have been required to construct a monster like this. Someone had to design it all and actually understand what each bit of the maze must do... then translate that understanding to paper in schematic plans. It’s easy to imagine there were lots of changes - disagreements on what pipe goes where and what walkway points this or that way.  All of this had to be settled and agreed, so presumably there was lots of paper.  Then the work would have begun, all built to a final set of specifications, all of them meeting industry regulations.  It must have involved thousands of people and maybe tens of thousands in the supply chain. The whole plant would have been built from the now-hidden foundations upwards, connecting all the different layers from bottom to top and side to side.  All the materials assembled at just the right points, all cut exactly to size and bound together by many teams working to the over-arching plan, all to the nearest millimetre.  Wow.

Now I’ve got no idea if this plant is, or ever has been, operational.  It looks old and defunct to me, but as I’ve never built a factory my opinion definitely doesn’t count for much. I find it enough to know that there are people out there who can make sense of things on such a scale, and that ultimately something will be produced that is useful - maybe electricity, medicines, or tyres, or…well…you get the point. 

For whatever reason, this plant always makes me think of a huge, rusty human brain whenever I see it.  It does look a bit like one in outline. I like to imagine someone may one day press the ‘on’ button and the whole thing will crank up and start thinking rusty thoughts. Ok, I admit a production plant is probably not the best analogy for a brain - it is far, far too ordered and simple - but there is something about the process of building such a plant, and connecting all bits of it to run properly, that is reasonably analogous to healthy neural and psychological development. 

As a practitioner I think it’s helpful to have at least a basic understanding of neural development throughout the lifespan. Work in this area increasingly allows therapists to ground their clinical work in ways that are measurably effective, and, I think vitally, if we work in an integrative way (as I do) it may help us choose the right therapeutic approaches to help our clients. This is pretty exciting stuff.

A few things have recently reminded me of the importance of this topic.  One was reading a good article in an industry mag Therapy Today by Sally Brown titled “The neuroscience of depression”. The other was someone telling me they had a relative that used to shout, it’s not brain surgery! as an admonishment when, as a child, this person could not make difficult decisions. Hmm. The third was someone else telling me how ineffective they happened to have found the short course of CBT favoured by the NHS (and this is something of a repeat theme).  

We know that experience shapes circuitry within the brain.  We know that what we call 'experience’ is, from a neural perspective, patterns of activating / firing brain cells. And we know that this pattern establishes synaptic connections within the brain that impact upon structure and functioning. 

A stimulus, let’s say a smile on the face of a mother, sets off neural activity in a baby’s brain.  Synaptic connections are created and the stimulus is associated with feelings of wellbeing in a neural network.  It is in this way that experience shapes the circuitry of the brain, especially so with repeated experience. This is the idea that ‘neurons that fire together wire together’ (Hebb).

So, the physical and psychological experience of our imaginary baby begins to manifest as newly established neural connections that in turn play a role in determining how this baby will react to future experiences.  Let’s say the mother in this story did not smile and turned away repeatedly (or worse), this would impede the development of those neural connections thus limiting the potential of the baby to feel emotions associated with wellbeing.  Over time, as the brain develops, these neural pathways form the basis of the young child making predictions about themselves and their environment.

Sticking with my slightly dodgy power plant analogy, let’s look at the brain itself.

Brainstem

Like the Rouen plant, the brain has a few levels that need to work together. Physiologically, the Brainstem is the ‘basement’ of the mind and the oldest part of the brain from an evolutionary perspective.  

A key structure within it is the Vagus nerve that regulates critical organs (heart and lungs etc) and the muscles in the face and head that allow social interactions. This nerve plays a key role in shaping our physiological responses to situations of all kinds, whether threatening or pleasurable.  It also plays a role in down-regulating the sympathetic nervous system too, without which we would spend much more time in fight/flight/freeze modes.  The regulating capacity can be knocked offline due to trauma or extreme stress, as sometimes seen in those with PTSD.

In short, the brainstem governs critical physiological functioning, and helps control over/under-arousal.  David J Wallin in his book Attachment in Psychotherapy suggests those suffering the effects of trauma may need help to ‘effectively modulate’ their levels of physiological arousal.  The work here would focus on body, nonverbal experience and the nuances found in the therapeutic relationship.  Note how this differs from the approach of short-term time-limited cognitive therapies offered, sometimes remotely, by the NHS (more on this below).

Limbic System

Next up we arrive at the limbic system - the ground floor of the power plant. This is the ‘emotional brain’ where we process feelings. There are two key structures:

Firstly, the Amygdala which acts as a sensory gateway and is well developed at birth.  Within fractions of a second the amygdala can appraise sensory input (a snarl, a gunshot, a shout etc) and signal to the brainstem to activate fight/flight physiological responses. The appraisal the amygdala makes depends on personal history, as the amygdala registers experience and holds ‘emotional memories’.

Secondly, the Hippocampus which provides the capacity to sequence and contextualise our experiences.  The amygdala cannot do this, and makes no distinction between, say, a Lion on the TV and Lion in your sitting room.  The Hippocampus therefore acts as an important brake that engages the parasympathetic nervous system ‘downstairs’ in the basement and allows physiological calming depending on whether the Lion is real.

Crucially, the hippocampus is not developed at birth. Full functioning only becomes available in the second or third year of life. It’s easy to see how early experience and learning processed by the amygdala can result in context-free equivalence between safe and threatening situations, and be powerful and overgeneralised.  Again, ‘what fires together wires together’. 

From a physiological standpoint, these key structures within the brain can and do change in size, depending on the psychological state a person is in (over some time).  Sally Brown cites studies that show in a sample of people with depression the Hippocampus was 19% smaller on average.  Whether this is the cause or effect of depression remains unclear, but Brown quotes Schmaal: “We think that the association between a smaller hippocampus, especially in people with recurrent depression, is a result of prolonged and / or recurrent stress.”

Further studies show that psychotherapy does help.  There is good evidence that different modes of therapy treat  ‘different areas of the brain’ (more on this below).    This can help practitioners ask important questions: What therapeutic approach is the right one for this person?  Will cognitive approaches, for example, be as effective as deeper relational therapeutic work exploring sensations, feelings and impulses that are a reflection in the body and mind of these early pre-verbal experiences? But then cognitive or behavioural approaches might help develop strategies which reduce over/under arousal of the amygdala etc.

So maybe both are necessary as both do different things.  Alan Schore (a leading light in this field) suggests as much.  Sally Brown quotes him and I paraphrase: “For me there are two forms of psychotherapy. There is symptom reducing, short-term psychotherapy, then there is a second form of longer terms psychotherapy, which is growth-promoting.”

Austerity notwithstanding, what a shame the NHS doesn’t take notice of this and offer a much greater range of longer term talking therapies where it is indicated this may be a more useful approach. 

Neocortex

Back to the brain.  Now we are on the top floor of the power plant. The cerebral cortex is the higher and upper floor of the brain and is also the last to emerge from an evolutionary standpoint and in the individual.  This part of the brain helps us make sense of experience and our interactions with others and the world and its function continues to mature throughout life. The areas towards the back of the brain govern our perception of the world through the senses.  The front areas are responsible for thought, raising mental representations to awareness, planning, memory, language, reasoning and much else.

The most advanced area is the prefrontal cortex which has two distinct regions.  The first (dorsolateral) has strong connections with the hippocampus and the reason-oriented ‘left brain’ hemisphere.  The second region (middle prefrontal cortex) houses the orbitofrontal cortex, which sits behind the eyes and plays a vital role in emotional regulation.  It is a convergence channel through which bodily, emotional and cognitive channels pass. 

Behind the orbitofrontal cortex is the anterior cingulate which may be the seat of maternal behaviours and for conscious experience of emotion.  Finally, there is the insula, a small area vital for ‘interoception’ - how we know how we feel.  It is also suggested that this is the area responsible for the ability to impute the mental state of others, and involved in the observed phenomenon of firing ‘mirror neurons’.  A key area for the quality of empathy then.

The neocortex is essentially where we find memory and our predictive power.  Through experience (body, emotions, thoughts) neural patterns are laid down that help us make associative predictions about situations unfolding and future, potential situations.

Joining it up

So, we can see how the brain is built from the ground up in layers.  But as with the Rouen plant, one side has also to work with the other side with all the funnels and walkways linked up.  

The right-hemisphere (right-brain) is specialised to respond emotionally and nonverbally and has dense neural connectivity to the limbic system. The left houses conscious thought and represents experience in a linear way through language (the voice in your head as you read this).

There are some powerful arguments (Damasio, Siegel) that the higher cortex/left-brain structures are often dominated by sub-cortex/right-brain processes.  This suggests that neural traffic tends to be directional, coming from the ‘basement upwards’ rather than the ‘rooftop downwards’, with the sub-cortex ‘amplifying’ and the neocortex ‘moderating’.  This seems to call for a ‘basement upwards’ approach to psychotherapy.  Again, Wallin suggests should be grounded in body-work and including focus on non-verbal aspects of the therapeutic relationship and Alan Schore points also in this direction.

Brain Physio?

I hope that the mental health services offered by the NHS keep pace with discoveries in the field of neuroscience.  This should involve a much greater investment in longer-term relational therapies (as well as continuing investment in time-limited cognitive therapy, for which waiting times are far too long).  In my mind this is in no way a choice between approaches, but an acknowledgement that there is a clear need for the former, a current lack, and, I hope, a serious commitment to redressing the imbalance.

As mentioned earlier, psychotherapy of all modes can be helpful and Sally Brown cited several studies; one showed that over-activity in the amygdala was reduced to ‘normal’ after 8 months of psychodynamic therapy, and another study showed over 14 weeks of CBT a reduced over-activity in the amygdala and increased activity in the prefrontal cortex.  She quotes Siegle: “Cognitive Therapy teaches you to step in and use your prefrontal cortex rather than letting your emotions run away with you.”  This work perhaps helps the higher cortex/left-brain to regulate the arousal of the sub-cortex/right-brain processes. Maybe this is partly what Schore had in mind when talking about ‘symptom reducing’.

In the future as technology advances further, perhaps the idea of working directly with the brain might become even more explicit.  Maybe there will be such a thing as ‘brain physio’ where certain therapeutic approaches are known to have greatest neurological effect in certain areas of the brain.  For example selecting certain approaches that best strengthen, say, the anterior cingulate or insula regions, and another approach to develop strategies which regulate the over-arousal of the amygdala.  I am actually not sure at all how I would feel about such a development like this for various reasons, but I do suspect that this is what already 'happens’ through the course of effective psychotherapy.  Would it be such a giant leap to introduce an element of intentionality to proceedings?

Here is Schore again: “The right hemisphere is really the core of the problem.  It’s selectively involved in processing negative emotions in depression, pessimistic thoughts and feelings and outlook on life, as well as sensitivity to pain. And if you have connectivity that is poor within the hierarchical apex (bottom up) of the limbic system into the amygdala there is a poor ability by the ‘higher’ aspects of the brain to regulate the lower aspects of the right brain.”

For me these factors come together to make a strong case for an integrative approach to therapy, ensuring psychological foundations are solid from the ‘bottom up’, and a ‘top-down’ approach to our work to help alleviate symptoms and develop more helpful patterns. These things are not in competition but seem to complement each other and likely work on different parts of the brain.  

The Personal Consultancy framework may help with this (Popovic & Jinks, 2014) allowing, as it does, the integration of both the reparative and generative modes of therapy & coaching into a clearly demarcated framework of practice.  This is a reasonable proxy for the type of division of labour that Schore and others are talking about. More on this on my website if interested.

[mittenthemagnificent]

Trip Sim Games Are a Electronic Connection with Truth

Flight sim games are used by civil aviation and the military to train their pilots in hard and vital situations such as engine failures, malfunctions in systems - e.g. hydraulic or electrical - or the cockpit instruments. The training is conducted through flight sim games to gain experience and practice for untoward incidents.

The flight sim games afterward train pilots in different aircraft and models and acquaint them similar to the varying systems and controls. Night above ground and different, usually extreme, weather conditions are simulated as well to exam and train the pilots.

The unbelievable business is that these thesame flight sim games are handy to us all. As always there is a wide variety in terms of environment but you can acquire some sufficiently well priced high-end games that enlarge great graphics gone reachable systems and controls. This gives you the opportunity to become a virtual pilot sitting in your own Les Sims 4 gratuit .

Flight sim games are now reachable on java-enabled cell phones correspondingly you can look at where you are standing from the perspective of a jet above you. Or you can hover to combat in a formation though taking the train to work. You can plus acquire games that reproduce well-known carried by the wind combats of the next such as the Pearl harbor hostility or the battle of Britain. Numbers of people are attracted by the ham it up and charge replicated in these games.

However, most people get into flight vigor games for the legitimate thrill inherent in carried by the wind itself, which is stimulation and spectacle enough. They plus with the camaraderie of visceral competent to soar along similar to others or share their experiences of above ground taking into account others. Flight sim games can be modified to your needs and preferences. They allow persons of any level to soar the virtual skies and direct plane without anything going wrong.

The major developments in web-based openness and graphic design (partly driven by the military's demand for flight liveliness training) have brought flight sim games to a virtual imitation of real computer graphics flying. Superb graphics have recreated every the major airports in the world bearing in mind their slopes, lighting, and surrounding topography.

Scenery has become feasible and full of beans - as you have an effect on through the broadcast upon your flight the surrounding countryside will bend to reflect your extra direction and the planets and sun will get used to their positions to yours.

Sound effects are another major move on appendage to the verisimilitude of flight sim games. Whether it is the noises within the cockpit, the clicking and whirring of the manage panel, the vibration of the instruments or the impact of the weather upon the flight, they all put the accent on the engagement of flying. Ejector seats to bail out just in the past crashing are supported in some flight sim games.

Flight sim games are captivating fun because they replicate the risks and stresses of real vibrancy but permit us to be in rule of each and every aspect of the event at the same time. It is one of the few mature later than we have our cake and can eat it too. The Sims is one of the most well-liked PC games available. Not unaccompanied is it on the PC, but it's on many supplementary gaming consoles as well, including the GameCube, Xbox, Nintendo DS, and Game boy Advance. The franchise extends out to almost every well-liked console. It has a blatantly obvious every other heavens across every the systems, which is why it appeals to hence many people. similar to the term devotee base comes into deed as soon as Sims, it is in this area impossible to tell it exactly. There are therefore many people who enjoy the realism and moving picture the Sim games provide, including children, teens, and even adults. That is the greatest aspect of the Sims franchise, is that it can magnetism to a broad range of people.

Playing the Sims game varies on the system you're playing on. upon the PC, the game doesn't have a single player savings account mode. The PC balance forlorn has the option to construct your own house, and people, pets, etc. The consoles on the new hand, enhance on that considering other game modes. There are relation modes, where you have to achieve determined things with your Sim character, such as getting job promotions, or reaching a positive gift in something, or even buying some furniture. The PC users are usually content as soon as their construct mode though, as it offers unadulterated hours of fun.

Of course, the Sims games must install back you can play. It's worth the unexpected wait though, to finally get in control. subsequent to you first start out, you have a lot. From this lot, is where you will be designing your future intimates and house. The home can be like a mansion, or it can be a small, affable home. It's all in the works to the one in charge. taking into account building a house, obviously the walls craving to go occurring first. There is a easy tool to make the walls of the house, to create it shaped just the exaggeration you want. taking into consideration the walls are finished, there are a number of things you could attain from there. You could, paint the interior walls, or design the exterior ones. There is a easy tool for both, to make the house's tune just how you imagine it. The floor and carpet would generally be next, and from there is taking into consideration you can in fact start customizing your Sim's lives. What would someone desire in their home? Perhaps, a giant TV. Maybe, a dozen stereos. Or what about, an exotic variety of plants? There is millions of ways to deposit the home just how you want, and hopefully have your Sims enjoying themselves.

In supplement to the default set of items and characters you can create, there is next evolve packs to make playing the Sims game even more risk-taking and interesting. There is a bunch of move forward packs user-friendly to be bought, and all count supplementary things for you to customize your house or Sims with. It deserted enhances upon the great experience you already get from playing the game. It's agreed a everlasting franchise for anyone to play, that has a PC, and wants a game. Even if they don't have a PC, a gaming system would discharge duty just as well. Just slant it on, put the disk in, and enjoy.

[ceruleanhail]

Letter 13: Someone You Wish Could Forgive You

Dear H,

Rather than asking for forgiveness, in all honesty, I am actually quite baffled at what’s been going on with you and, in turn, with us. 

Which is perhaps why I’m writing this letter to you, because some things are best explored here, and perhaps some grievances best left here before we have our chat later on. 

My first impression of you have always been someone extrovert and open, one who doesn’t hesitate to speak their mind. I would also hope that fatherhood would nurture your patience and maturity, but I understand that parenting is not easy, therefore I gave you more of a leeway to be selfish and let your emotions run among our group of friends. 

People reveal their true nature in trying times; through the high and low of our competition days, I was able to learn what kind of person you truly are. It’s not just me, the others do too, and we accepted you for who you are: an emotional, thickheaded person who would work so hard for his distant, seemingly impossible goals. You are a flawed human being, and that’s okay, because we are too.

There has always been a gap between you and the team; cultural, generational, language, the fact that you’re one of the few extroverts among our team of many introverts... Being Team Mom, I have always attempted to bridge that gap because I could understand the difference in culture; I am brought under strict, traditional Chinese culture teachings but have accepted the influence of Western culture. 

And so, here I am, writing this letter because I am somewhat baffled and confused in what went wrong. Something obviously did for you to avoid us like that, and I’m not buying your bullshit on being busy either. It’s okay, we’ll figure it out together, or at least I hope you’d be cooperative enough to do so later.

So, I’m approaching recent events with an analytical thought on both cultures, and later when we chat, I would have to translate these logic and rationality to emotions. What fun. 

So, let’s analyse the current situation then:

Issue 1: Communication and Openness

You, who have been surviving under traditional Chinese culture, carries the pride of a typical Asian man. This may or may not be why you’re not intending to admit your thoughts; emotions are weakness in our culture after all, even I’m guilty in hiding how I feel. However, I admit I’m disappointed because I expected more honesty from you because we’re friends, but this is me being hypocritical, considering how I’ve always put friends’ emotions first and share little about my own, only to be honest when I really, really need to. 

Nevertheless, I can see that you have climbed up and hard to prove yourself to others, which results in you gaining pride and confidence in what you have achieved. You’d also wanted to help others through your experience... except, your attempt to help and careless words doesn’t translate well especially to people who relies on data and treat words carefully. 

To most of us, the discussion that revolves around the difference in data is a familiar banter, one that we play with words in attempt to pursue the truth or share our personal thoughts/experience, then quietly agree to disagree if opinions are still different in the end; to you, though, it seems that the discussion was taken in a more personal manner, that the difference in opinions and not having your opinions agreed is a personal affront, one that makes you feel that your thoughts are not being valued. I’m sorry that you feel that way, and hope you would come to understand that there is nothing personal when it comes to discussions after our chat later tonight.

Issue 2: Difference between Introversion and Extroversion

There is also the difference of “introvert” and “extrovert” in Asian culture. Society has always favour the extrovert and charismatic ones; introversion has always been seen as a sign of weakness.

I especially recall what you’d once said, that you didn’t know about the existence of the words “introverts” and “extroverts”, you just categorized people as “sad” and “happy” instead. The difference in human comfort level must have left you dumbfound, after all, what do Chinese parents care about comfort levels? We never really have the choice under these strict upbringings, do we, because our parents wishes and words are always prioritized? That’s why it’s confounding to you that we actually care about comfort levels, and that is why I sometimes found my answers and some solace in Western culture. 

I understand that this issue may have caused a lot of misunderstanding and misconception due to the lack of understanding. However, I hope that you will understand that there is no right and wrong in this difference; it is just a matter of lifestyle preferences, and that it’s totally okay to be yourself with no judgment from us. Likewise, we appreciate our lifestyle to be respected with no judgment too. 

All in all, these are the only few possible things I could think of that may have caused misunderstandings. Of course, I’m not a goddess who can predict all, who knows what other things you may have thought of and what may have offended you. 

Nevertheless, I hope any misunderstandings may be cleared after we speak. If the difference in our thoughts may have hurt you, I apologize for it.

It’s strange; in usual circumstances, I would probably run away from this. Human interactions can be so tiring, especially when it comes to Chinese culture when the slightest actions can be judged. It’s especially tiring for me as it was imprinted in my mind that interacting with others means having to be my very best when, sometimes (or most of the time these days), I don’t feel that way. Most of the time, I just want seclusion. I just want to interact with others whom I can be myself, and even to the people I’m comfortable with, it can be hard at times... because my mind tend to put them on pedestals, and all I could think of was how shameful, how worthless my existence is-- that how undeserving of me to have them, to burden them with my existence.

And now, with this situation ongoing, I start to miss those that I have cut off contact with: a man who has provided me profound thoughts, whom this situation made me reflect on the way he carries himself in words-- carefully and thoughtfully; a woman whom I’d connected deeply in terms of what it takes to be true to oneself. Perhaps this wasn’t so bad after all, for it made me reach out to one of them.

Perhaps what makes it easier is knowing how human you are, which in turn makes it seemingly okay for me to be human, and therefore okay to translate this logic into emotions. 

What I am about to do may not guarantee success, but you, my friend, are worth trying despite your flaws and flights of fancy.

[theconservativebrief]

After more than eight years of shenanigans involving candy people, alternate universes, vampires, nearly 3,000 wiki pages’ worth of lore, some highly unusual exclamations (“Mathematical!”), and bacon pancakes, Cartoon Network’s beloved Adventure Time is coming to a close.

Since its debut in 2010, the series has evolved into one of the most popular and influential programs in the channel’s history. Despite being first and foremost a kids’ show, it built a sizable fan base among older audiences and gained mounting psychological and even philosophical weight over its 10-season run. The September 3 series finale marks the end of an era in imagining new storytelling possibilities, not just for cartoons but for TV in general.

Adventure Time spans nearly 300 11-minute episodes involving hundreds of distinct characters — so it’s no easy feat to describe. But in brief, it takes place 1,000 years after a nuclear apocalypse known as the “Mushroom War” warps the Earth into a fantasy landscape; its main setting, the Land of Ooo, is populated by offbeat creatures and people made of candy, fire, or “lumpy space,” among other things.

A young boy named Finn (Jeremy Shada) is apparently the last human being on the planet, and he and his foster brother/best friend — a shape-shifting dog named Jake (John DiMaggio) — have taken it upon themselves to be as helpful around Ooo as possible. They lend their treasure-hunting, monster-fighting, errand-running prowess to their many friends and neighbors, and along the way, the complex backstory of Adventure Time’s characters and their world is unspooled.

That supremely odd summary belies the fact that Adventure Time has sneakily persisted as one of the most critically acclaimed shows of the 2010s. When considering the recent “Golden Age” of TV, few would rank it alongside the likes of Breaking Bad, Mad Men, or Game of Thrones. And yet it has received high praise from sources as wide-ranging as the A.V. Club, the New Yorker, NPR, and this very site.

In addition to being aimed at kids, Adventure Time lies at the intersection of multiple artistic categories that often struggle to attract serious critical consideration — namely, animation, fantasy, and short-form episodic TV (which for a long time was mainly the playground of experimental Adult Swim shows like Aqua Teen Hunger Force). Still, it has won over many critics. And though its erratic airing schedule has led to a decline in viewership and prestige in its later years, it has maintained a consistent standard of quality nonetheless.

With its series finale now on the horizon, let’s take a look back at the brilliance of Adventure Time, both as a singular achievement and as a show that has left a lasting impact on the TV landscape.

Adventure Time began as a short film made for Nicktoons. After the short leaked online and subsequently went viral, creator Pendleton Ward was able to successfully pitch it to Cartoon Network as a series. Produced in 2006, it exemplifies the “random” style of internet humor of that time, pioneered by the likes of Homestar Runner, eBaum’s World, and Newgrounds.

[embedded content]

In just under seven minutes, a boy and his dog fight an ice-powered, princess-abducting king, with a brief dream excursion to Mars for a pep talk from Abraham Lincoln, before ultimately running off to confront some ninjas who have stolen an old man’s diamonds (ninjas were to internet comedy in the mid-2000s what bacon would be to it in the early 2010s). Millions of people loved it when it hit (the then-young) YouTube, and the short was eventually nominated for an Annie Award.

Once Adventure Time the show made its Cartoon Network debut, it found instant success and regularly drew millions of viewers per episode for many years. Examining the phenomenon, critics have often cited the show’s broad appeal for both kids and adults as a big reason for its popularity.

Cartoons have long embraced an anything-goes sensibility, but Adventure Time took the approach to a new level. Every single episode would pack its brief running time with strange new characters, places, and ideas: A vampire who drinks the color red. A pack of sentient balloons eager to die. An imaginative robot that “switches places” with its reflection. And to fit within the 11-minute runtime of each episode, it all came at the audience at a breathless pace.

Animated shorts are as old as television itself, but Adventure Time spurred a revival of the format, especially on Cartoon Network. The show also led the way in turning “random” humor and world-building from a niche interest into what is now practically an industry standard, not just for animated series aimed at kids but for adult-oriented ones as well. Shows like BoJack Horseman and Rick and Morty demonstrate a common willingness to indulge the strange, an instinct that Adventure Time arguably introduced to the mainstream.

It didn’t stop there. Even as Adventure Time told bizarre tales of trickster gods from Mars and penguins that turned out to be world-threatening alien abominations, it worked hard to incorporate them into its complicated backstory and world, maintaining dense continuity through multiple long-running story arcs. In the grand tradition of prestige TV, it featured overarching plots about Finn’s search for his birth parents, or the recurring threat of the fearsome undead sorcerer the Lich. And yet it also made time for many standalone episodes, sometimes ultimately folding them into the larger picture, with major characters like Marceline the Vampire Queen being introduced in apparent one-off installments.

Adventure Time’s penchant for experimentation was both admirable and skillfully executed. The show didn’t hesitate to hand over multiple episodes to guest directors simply to riff on a different animation style. It occasionally adopted an idiosyncratic airing schedule, where several new episodes would drop over the course of a single week and then months would go by with nothing new. While the inconsistency sometimes hurt Adventure Time’s ratings, the show’s creative team used the “episode bomb” approach to produce several miniseries that featured some of its most ambitious ideas and set pieces.

Despite the show’s overall comedic tone, it handled its biggest ideas with gravitas and sincere emotion. And for all the manic energy it could indulge, Adventure Time never hesitated to slow down for a scene or two, or even a whole episode. American animation sometimes has trouble simply putting breathing space into shows and movies — superfluous gestures, brief pauses, and other moments that aren’t necessarily propelling the plot forward. Hayao Miyazaki once explained this to Roger Ebert as ma, the soundless beats between claps of the hand. Adventure Time had lots of ma.

Look at this scene from the “Stakes” miniseries, in the episode “Everything Stays.” In less than a minute, the episode creates an extraordinary evocation of intimacy between a parent and child. The animators inject dozens of little gestures to establish this feeling — note the brief shot in which young Marceline strokes her mother’s arm. And then the scene is over, and it’s on to the next beat.

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This kind of formal economy, doing a lot in precious little time, is rare in television. Today, many prestige shows are running longer with each installment yet still struggle to carve out time for characters to simply be. They could learn something from Adventure Time, a show that used its 11-minute episodes to explore myriad genre ideas and flights of fancy, and to demonstrate the endless potential of simply being artistically open and flexible.

Every single character on Adventure Time, from the regulars to the one-episode guests, had a distinct voice. And I don’t mean in terms of acting (though the show’s voice acting was excellent), but in how each person spoke. The writers gave everyone a unique slang, or attitude, or cadence to work with.

Finn and Jake had their own adolescence-inflected goofy rapport and strange swears (“Aw, dingle!” “Algebraic!”). Marceline was a laid-back slacker punk rocker. Princess Bubblegum was officious and scientifically minded. Finn and Jake’s parents, who only appeared in a few episodes, had ’30s-style trans-Atlantic accents (“Make like there’s egg in your shoe and beat it!”). One episode set in an alternate universe introduced an entirely different future lingo. No character was too minor to be considered as a distinct individual.

Adventure Time frequently devoted entire episodes to fleshing out secondary characters, sometimes shining a spotlight on someone who had only existed in the background for the entire show up to that point. It drew up complex inner lives for the likes of characters with names like “Root Beer Guy” — a sentient, walking mug of soda — and “Cinnamon Bun.”

And what it could do for its main characters was even more impressive. Some of them were hundreds of years old, with a few of them predating the Mushroom War, and as we got to know them better, we came to understand a long history of regrets, which stemmed first from the act of survival and then from trying to build a new society out of the ruins. Their arcs were contrasted with the subtle but definable trajectories of Finn and Jake, who slowly matured over the course of the show from goofballs to responsible figures.

Many episodes of Adventure Time took detours to toss out different philosophical challenges, aiming them at both the characters and the audience. In one, Finn got trapped in another world and lived an entire lifetime there before returning to his own as a child again. In another, Finn and Jake confronted a population of people willingly submitting to a Matrix-like virtual reality existence. In a sequence emblematic of the series’ simultaneous whimsical tone and intellectual seriousness, one character mused: “What’s real? Your eyes think the sky is blue, but that’s just sun rays farting apart in the barf of our atmosphere. The sky is black.”

Adventure Time dared to be anything and everything, often at the same time. It was a silly, plotless kids’ show. It was an epic fantasy adventure. It was a long-term coming-of-age story. It was an experimental exercise. It was a stoner’s dream. It was a relationship drama. It was a heartbreaker.

Episodic television offers a canvas unique among the arts: time. The best shows make use of this canvas to tell their stories as creatively and ambitiously as they can; Adventure Time used it to become one of the best television series of its day.

Adventure Time’s four-part finale, “Come Along With Me,” airs Monday, September 3, on Cartoon Network.

Original Source -> An ode to Adventure Time, one of TV’s most ambitious — and, yes, most adventurous — shows

via The Conservative Brief

[kristinsimmons]

Alfie Evans and the Medical Ethics of Suffering

By PRADHEEP J. SHANKER, MD

Sadly, the case of Alfie Evans came to a close this week, as he passed away in his hospital room surrounded by his parents. The debate over the medical ethics involved goes on.

Ultimately, there are extensive moral, philosophical, and medical issues involved with the policies over these cases. They are complicated, messy, and often times heart wrenching. But let’s put some misconceptions aside to begin with, some propagated by the most extreme and emotional participants in this debate.

Those of us that took issue with the handling of this case for the most part do not believe the doctors involved were evil, murdering individuals. There was no malicious intent from the NHS or physicians involved. I am sure the physicians meant well, from their point of view.

A second point: this was not a case about preservation of resources for the greater good. In this case, the parents had found alternative sources to fund the care they wished for their son.  So those arguing that we need to make such decision to prioritize money for those that can be aided the most is largely off target, and not relevant to the case at hand. I also don’t believe that the single payer system of the NHS in England inherently caused their mistakes; I think any system that is blind to its own deficiencies could lead to such mistakes.

That said, what were the issues that were in dispute here?

First and foremost, what was the ultimate intent of the care providers in this specific case?  Both sides basically admitted, early on, that Alfie’s prognosis was dire.  The reality is this child was likely going to die, and even the experts preferred by the parents readily admitted this in court documents.

Why is this important? Some have raised other scenarios in which health care providers supersede the decision making of parents, for the welfare of the child. I personally have used the example of a bleeding child of a Jehovah’s witness, who was prevented from getting a blood transfusion. A similar example would be a child with a severe deadly infection, like meningitis, being prevented from receiving life saving antibiotics because of religious reasons.

However, that wasn’t the issue in this case. There was no path which provided a clear method to improve the child’s prognosis.  All the choices in front of the decision makers were about treating a child that had no long term prospects whatsoever. In the court proceedings, all sides agreed on the medical facts of the case, including the parents. So this was very different from the cases above, for that very reason.

So, what was the primary intent of Alfie’s doctors, if not to cure him, or prolong his life?

The primary intent stated over and over again in court documents was the focus on reducing Alfie’s suffering to the minimal amount possible.

The ethics of suffering is a deep and complex issue, in and of itself. A widespread view, especially in non-Western traditions, is that “happiness” consists of the absence of suffering. In Hindu and Buddhist belief, tranquility or contentment are amongst the most valued sentiments.

However, there is a distinction to be made between an obligation not to cause suffering and an obligation to prevent suffering. Suffering-focused ethics is a belief that places primary or particular importance on the prevention of suffering. Most views that fall into this category are pluralistic in that they hold that other things besides reducing suffering also matter morally.

The problem with suffering based ethics is, the absolutist view of such thinking takes you to strange, even dark, places. For example, some countries have begun to start programs that actively intend on…eradicating Down’s Syndrome. Down’s Syndrome  is a genetic defect cause by Trisomy 21, which causes mental defects and delayed intellectual maturity, among other issues. Some societies have deemed it ‘suffering’…for such people to exist.

For most people, this is an extremist view that seems unacceptable. Even in the UK, support for such a policy is a minority position. But again, if your primary goal is to reduce suffering, in any sense of the word…then there is a sort of dark logic to it.

Therefore, if you feel that such a policy is going too far…you are admitting that suffering cannot be used an absolute criteria for making end of life decision. You are basically stipulating there are other issues that also matter.

The UK court and the Royal College of Pediatricians itself reviewed the question of when it was appropriate to remove life sustaining medical assistance, and came up with three clear scenarios. The first is when death is immediate and/or imminent; that was not the case here, as Alfie survived for several days even without ventilator assistance. A second reason is informed consent for withdrawal of treatment; the parents actually opposed withdrawal of support.

Now here is the remarkable point: the third reason, the argument they finally made, and that the judge finally accepted in this case, states that even if absence of suffering or pain, if life is limited in quality, support can be removed; in short, the child would be better off dead than alive.

Now, this is problematic on several levels.

First…what is the scientific basis of quality of life? Is there some medical method to quantify how much ‘quality’ of life exists in a person, objectively?

Obviously, the answer is ‘No’. The physicians, and the judge in the case, are making a faith based decision.  They are basing this on their own moral, religious, and personal beliefs. There is no practical scientific method they are pursuing here.

If suffering is not critical to making this decision, what is?  Who exactly are we benefiting in such a case?  We are not benefiting the child.  The people benefiting are the doctors, the medical system, possibly the parents.  The judge is stipulating here that the child’s benefit is not necessarily critical in these cases. That is a shocking admission.

Frankly, I would have preferred a more logical and sensible medically based argument from the government and the court. The judge repeatedly made unscientific claims to defend his position. For example, at one point when the parents wanted to fly the child to Italy, the judge claimed that the flight may itself cause seizures. Notably, he never provided any evidence for this claim. It was a irrational statement, based on nothing, and because he was the judge…such irrational non-scientific claims were acceptable.

A second sound, logical, but harsher argument: that in a system such as the UK NHS, where there is limited funds to take care of everyone, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and therefore, rationing care makes sense. At least that would be a logical explanation of their decision. The decision, as it stands, lacked logical cohesiveness, and certainly has no objective science basis.

The second major philosophical issue in this case is the concept of parental rights, and how paternalism in medicine is a growing trend. This case illustrates the worst abuses of the archaic medical philosophy of paternalism.

Paternalism is the belief that physicians and medical professionals, being more educated and knowledgeable about health issues, should decide what is in the patient’s best interests, without regard to the patient’s own wishes.

Paternalism was a common practice among doctors before the middle part of the 20th century. But as individual freedoms grew in the Western world, patient autonomy (the belief that patients were intelligent and knowledgeable enough to make decisions for themselves) became predominant.

Paternalism becomes problematic as you further and further narrow the rights of parents to make medical decisions for their child. This process has a long history in the United Kingdom. In England, the Supreme Court has ruled that in any legal conflict about what is in a child’s best interest, the child must have an state appointed ‘voice’. This was an abuse of an original law that was passed to help care for children when two parents disagreed over the care of a child, especially in divorce proceedings. It has now grown to mean the government can interfere with decisions, even when both parents agree.

The specifics of the legalities aside, what becomes an issue for medical providers is, where do parental rights start, and where do they end?

Defenders of the NHS and physicians in this case continue to argue that to reduce Alfie’s suffering even one iota is moral. That in and of itself is not as white and black as it appears at first glance, as argued above. To compound this error, the judge specifically states suffering of the child is not necessary to remove life sustaining medical efforts.

If as the judge says suffering of the child is not necessary to remove parental rights, what exactly is the ‘red line’ he is willing to draw to protect parental rights? In short, he is admitting that there is no such line. The whims of the court and doctors, in his opinion, can always supersede any wishes of the parents, with logic, reason, or medical evidence notwithstanding.

Once there is no clearly definable limits to parental rights, what the UK is generally saying is that no true parental right exists. The simple fact is, they are reducing the concept of parent rights to a new definition: parental rights until such time the government decides it is inconvenient. That is no right at all.

For physicians, this is extremely problematic. Physicians rely on the decision making of families, because we have deemed them as the best arbiter of the feelings and intent of the patient. If that isn’t the case anymore…where does that leave us?

This leaves us with a gray area in which Alfie was likely to die, and likely to die very soon.  His suffering was not dramatically more or less with one course of action versus another, no matter how hard his physicians were trying to claim it as such.

So ultimately, when this is distilled down to the basics, the question largely resides on whether you believe parental rights are a true cornerstone of society…or those rights are simply a suggestion that can be ignored upon the whim of government officials and doctors, based on their own flexible moral code.

It would be another matter if there was clear evidence of harm with the parental choices.  If a parent is abusive, or illogical, then the state may have the right to intercede. But short of that evidence, where is the evidence that doctors somehow have a superior moral code to the parents? We have already shown that medical evidence was not the pre-eminent basis for making the final decision to pull all medical assistance to Alfie…and as such, all that is left is morals and faith.

Ultimately, physicians must realize that their knowledge, regardless of how extensive it is, is limited. Science can only go so far. And frankly, doctors must admit they are flawed. Some argued that the parents were so emotionally invested, they couldn’t possibly make a logical choice in this situation. But any physician that has treated a child knows, we are human and we are emotionally invested too.

In their piece on The Case For Suffering-Focused Ethics, Lukas Gloor and Adriano Mannino put it this way:

Given the difficulty of this task, it is important that we do not make it even more complicated by placing unreasonable formal demands on our values. Likewise, it is important that we do not hastily subscribe to some particular view without remaining open to reflection. Ultimately, choosing values comes down to finding the intuitions and guiding principles we care about the most – and if that includes a number of different intuitions, or even some form of extrapolation procedure to defer to better-informed future versions of ourselves – then the solution may not necessarily look simple. This is completely fine, and it allows those who agree with (some of) the intuitions behind suffering-focused ethics to care about other things in addition.

Nations must decide for themselves whether or not they think parents are the cornerstone of their society. The right of a parent to make decisions for their child is one of the most basic belief systems that is universal throughout the world.

Physicians are experts on medicine and science. What they are not experts on is values, religion, ethics and personal morality, and they shouldn’t pretend to be experts on such things. And in cases where the science leaves us questioning the truth of the situation, and we are left in a gray area of doubt and uncertainty, physicians would be well served to openly admit their limitations, and defer to the people most fit to make such determinations: a patient’s loved ones.

About the author:

Pradheep J. Shanker M.D., M.S. is a practicing Diagnostic Radiologist in Columbus, Ohio. In addition to medicine, he is an activist on health policy and educational reforms.

Alfie Evans and the Medical Ethics of Suffering published first on https://wittooth.tumblr.com/

[isaacscrawford]

Alfie Evans and the Medical Ethics of Suffering

By PRADHEEP J. SHANKER, MD

  Sadly, the case of Alfie Evans came to a close this week, as he passed away in his hospital room surrounded by his parents. The debate over the medical ethics involved goes on.

Ultimately, there are extensive moral, philosophical, and medical issues involved with the policies over these cases. They are complicated, messy, and often times heart wrenching. But let’s put some misconceptions aside to begin with, some propagated by the most extreme and emotional participants in this debate.

Those of us that took issue with the handling of this case for the most part do not believe the doctors involved were evil, murdering individuals. There was no malicious intent from the NHS or physicians involved. I am sure the physicians meant well, from their point of view.

A second point: this was not a case about preservation of resources for the greater good. In this case, the parents had found alternative sources to fund the care they wished for their son.  So those arguing that we need to make such decision to prioritize money for those that can be aided the most is largely off target, and not relevant to the case at hand. I also don’t believe that the single payer system of the NHS in England inherently caused their mistakes; I think any system that is blind to its own deficiencies could lead to such mistakes.

That said, what were the issues that were in dispute here?

First and foremost, what was the ultimate intent of the care providers in this specific case?  Both sides basically admitted, early on, that Alfie’s prognosis was dire.  The reality is this child was likely going to die, and even the experts preferred by the parents readily admitted this in court documents.

Why is this important? Some have raised other scenarios in which health care providers supersede the decision making of parents, for the welfare of the child. I personally have used the example of a bleeding child of a Jehovah’s witness, who was prevented from getting a blood transfusion. A similar example would be a child with a severe deadly infection, like meningitis, being prevented from receiving life saving antibiotics because of religious reasons.

However, that wasn’t the issue in this case. There was no path which provided a clear method to improve the child’s prognosis.  All the choices in front of the decision makers were about treating a child that had no long term prospects whatsoever. In the court proceedings, all sides agreed on the medical facts of the case, including the parents. So this was very different from the cases above, for that very reason.

So, what was the primary intent of Alfie’s doctors, if not to cure him, or prolong his life?

The primary intent stated over and over again in court documents was the focus on reducing Alfie’s suffering to the minimal amount possible.

The ethics of suffering is a deep and complex issue, in and of itself. A widespread view, especially in non-Western traditions, is that “happiness” consists of the absence of suffering. In Hindu and Buddhist belief, tranquility or contentment are amongst the most valued sentiments.

However, there is a distinction to be made between an obligation not to cause suffering and an obligation to prevent suffering. Suffering-focused ethics is a belief that places primary or particular importance on the prevention of suffering. Most views that fall into this category are pluralistic in that they hold that other things besides reducing suffering also matter morally.

The problem with suffering based ethics is, the absolutist view of such thinking takes you to strange, even dark, places. For example, some countries have begun to start programs that actively intend on…eradicating Down’s Syndrome. Down’s Syndrome  is a genetic defect cause by Trisomy 21, which causes mental defects and delayed intellectual maturity, among other issues. Some societies have deemed it ‘suffering’…for such people to exist.

For most people, this is an extremist view that seems unacceptable. Even in the UK, support for such a policy is a minority position. But again, if your primary goal is to reduce suffering, in any sense of the word…then there is a sort of dark logic to it.

Therefore, if you feel that such a policy is going too far…you are admitting that suffering cannot be used an absolute criteria for making end of life decision. You are basically stipulating there are other issues that also matter.

The UK court and the Royal College of Pediatricians itself reviewed the question of when it was appropriate to remove life sustaining medical assistance, and came up with three clear scenarios. The first is when death is immediate and/or imminent; that was not the case here, as Alfie survived for several days even without ventilator assistance. A second reason is informed consent for withdrawal of treatment; the parents actually opposed withdrawal of support.

Now here is the remarkable point: the third reason, the argument they finally made, and that the judge finally accepted in this case, states that even if absence of suffering or pain, if life is limited in quality, support can be removed; in short, the child would be better off dead than alive.

Now, this is problematic on several levels.

First…what is the scientific basis of quality of life? Is there some medical method to quantify how much ‘quality’ of life exists in a person, objectively?

Obviously, the answer is ‘No’. The physicians, and the judge in the case, are making a faith based decision.  They are basing this on their own moral, religious, and personal beliefs. There is no practical scientific method they are pursuing here.

If suffering is not critical to making this decision, what is?  Who exactly are we benefiting in such a case?  We are not benefiting the child.  The people benefiting are the doctors, the medical system, possibly the parents.  The judge is stipulating here that the child’s benefit is not necessarily critical in these cases. That is a shocking admission.

Frankly, I would have preferred a more logical and sensible medically based argument from the government and the court. The judge repeatedly made unscientific claims to defend his position. For example, at one point when the parents wanted to fly the child to Italy, the judge claimed that the flight may itself cause seizures. Notably, he never provided any evidence for this claim. It was a irrational statement, based on nothing, and because he was the judge…such irrational non-scientific claims were acceptable.

A second sound, logical, but harsher argument: that in a system such as the UK NHS, where there is limited funds to take care of everyone, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and therefore, rationing care makes sense. At least that would be a logical explanation of their decision. The decision, as it stands, lacked logical cohesiveness, and certainly has no objective science basis.

The second major philosophical issue in this case is the concept of parental rights, and how paternalism in medicine is a growing trend. This case illustrates the worst abuses of the archaic medical philosophy of paternalism.

Paternalism is the belief that physicians and medical professionals, being more educated and knowledgeable about health issues, should decide what is in the patient’s best interests, without regard to the patient’s own wishes.

Paternalism was a common practice among doctors before the middle part of the 20th century. But as individual freedoms grew in the Western world, patient autonomy (the belief that patients were intelligent and knowledgeable enough to make decisions for themselves) became predominant.

Paternalism becomes problematic as you further and further narrow the rights of parents to make medical decisions for their child. This process has a long history in the United Kingdom. In England, the Supreme Court has ruled that in any legal conflict about what is in a child’s best interest, the child must have an state appointed ‘voice’. This was an abuse of an original law that was passed to help care for children when two parents disagreed over the care of a child, especially in divorce proceedings. It has now grown to mean the government can interfere with decisions, even when both parents agree.

The specifics of the legalities aside, what becomes an issue for medical providers is, where do parental rights start, and where do they end?

Defenders of the NHS and physicians in this case continue to argue that to reduce Alfie’s suffering even one iota is moral. That in and of itself is not as white and black as it appears at first glance, as argued above. To compound this error, the judge specifically states suffering of the child is not necessary to remove life sustaining medical efforts.

If as the judge says suffering of the child is not necessary to remove parental rights, what exactly is the ‘red line’ he is willing to draw to protect parental rights? In short, he is admitting that there is no such line. The whims of the court and doctors, in his opinion, can always supersede any wishes of the parents, with logic, reason, or medical evidence notwithstanding.

Once there is no clearly definable limits to parental rights, what the UK is generally saying is that no true parental right exists. The simple fact is, they are reducing the concept of parent rights to a new definition: parental rights until such time the government decides it is inconvenient. That is no right at all.

For physicians, this is extremely problematic. Physicians rely on the decision making of families, because we have deemed them as the best arbiter of the feelings and intent of the patient. If that isn’t the case anymore…where does that leave us?

This leaves us with a gray area in which Alfie was likely to die, and likely to die very soon.  His suffering was not dramatically more or less with one course of action versus another, no matter how hard his physicians were trying to claim it as such.

So ultimately, when this is distilled down to the basics, the question largely resides on whether you believe parental rights are a true cornerstone of society…or those rights are simply a suggestion that can be ignored upon the whim of government officials and doctors, based on their own flexible moral code.

It would be another matter if there was clear evidence of harm with the parental choices.  If a parent is abusive, or illogical, then the state may have the right to intercede. But short of that evidence, where is the evidence that doctors somehow have a superior moral code to the parents? We have already shown that medical evidence was not the pre-eminent basis for making the final decision to pull all medical assistance to Alfie…and as such, all that is left is morals and faith.

Ultimately, physicians must realize that their knowledge, regardless of how extensive it is, is limited. Science can only go so far. And frankly, doctors must admit they are flawed. Some argued that the parents were so emotionally invested, they couldn’t possibly make a logical choice in this situation. But any physician that has treated a child knows, we are human and we are emotionally invested too.

In their piece on The Case For Suffering-Focused Ethics, Lukas Gloor and Adriano Mannino put it this way:

Given the difficulty of this task, it is important that we do not make it even more complicated by placing unreasonable formal demands on our values. Likewise, it is important that we do not hastily subscribe to some particular view without remaining open to reflection. Ultimately, choosing values comes down to finding the intuitions and guiding principles we care about the most – and if that includes a number of different intuitions, or even some form of extrapolation procedure to defer to better-informed future versions of ourselves – then the solution may not necessarily look simple. This is completely fine, and it allows those who agree with (some of) the intuitions behind suffering-focused ethics to care about other things in addition.

Nations must decide for themselves whether or not they think parents are the cornerstone of their society. The right of a parent to make decisions for their child is one of the most basic belief systems that is universal throughout the world.

Physicians are experts on medicine and science. What they are not experts on is values, religion, ethics and personal morality, and they shouldn’t pretend to be experts on such things. And in cases where the science leaves us questioning the truth of the situation, and we are left in a gray area of doubt and uncertainty, physicians would be well served to openly admit their limitations, and defer to the people most fit to make such determinations: a patient’s loved ones.

About the author:

Pradheep J. Shanker M.D., M.S. is a practicing Diagnostic Radiologist in Columbus, Ohio. In addition to medicine, he is an activist on health policy and educational reforms.

Article source:The Health Care Blog

[hippsy01]

Sarasota nonprofits focus on babies’ first 1,000 days

Ambitious Sarasota County initiative will embrace all babies

Every day in 2017, an average of 10 babies were born in Sarasota County — half of them to parents who could not even afford the price of bringing them into the world.

Each of these five babies came into the arms of a single mother who earned less than $22,311 a year — or perhaps joined a family of six surviving on less than $61,000 annually. Such thresholds — 185 percent of the federal poverty level — qualify a woman in Florida to have Medicaid cover her health care costs during labor and delivery. At Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s maternity ward, the only one in the county, this stark fact of life applied to 51 percent of all 3,564 newborns last year.

Of course, babies in low-income households can and do thrive, while those more comfortably situated are not immune to setbacks. But this stubborn pattern of economic disparity suggests that a given pair of babies born on the same day in Sarasota are likely to leave the hospital on vastly divergent trajectories. And when they meet again — perhaps in kindergarten, when the maturation process in their brains is about 90 percent complete — they are liable to begin their formal educations armed with such radically different vocabularies and capacities for comprehension that they might as well be growing up on opposite ends of the planet.

It’s a harsh dichotomy that Kelly Romanoff calls “unacceptable.” As projects manager for the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation, she has worked for the past year to assemble a coalition of 32 nonprofits, foundations and government agencies in service of a new campaign, First 1,000 Days Sarasota County. The partnership, after an official launch this Wednesday, will seek innovative ways to support local families during a child’s most critical period of development — from conception through the first two years of life.

Within this small window of time, children learn to distinguish sounds, recognize a face, scoot across a room, put words together and make early sense of the world, forming neural connections in the brain that will determine habits of perception for the rest of their lives. First 1,000 Days efforts are built on the premise that babies deprived of proper nourishment and stimulation, or exposed to toxic stress at levels that damage their fragile brains, are being failed not only by their families, but by the larger support networks designed to protect them.

“This is a problem that can be solved,” Romanoff says. “While the families face many obstacles, as a whole our resources in this community are so abundant, that by just bringing everyone together, closer, and inviting people to invest in the work that’s being done, we can really get access to these families and help mitigate so many of their challenges.”

While the scope of the dilemma is complex and daunting, local collaborators believe they can make significant headway, for two reasons:

• Everybody loves babies, and feels responsible for their welfare.

• Research has shown that, allowed time and space to develop fully, the mother-infant bond is so powerful that a woman can overcome such hurdles as poverty, addiction, trauma and social isolation in order to give her child a life far safer and more nurturing than her own has been.

‘I have feelings’

Sarah Guinn is one of the lucky young women to find that time and space, but she had to go to jail to get there.

Cradling her 5-week-old son Carter against her shoulder and locking him into a loving laser-gaze, she tells her story: After years of addiction, she was shocked to discover she was pregnant. Determined to get clean for her baby, she called three detox facilities and was rejected by all of them. Finally, she says, she turned to her probation officer — and asked for the urinalysis she knew would prove she had violated her probation by using illegal drugs. After more than 100 days in jail, going through withdrawal, she obtained a court-ordered referral to First Step of Sarasota, a partner in the First 1,000 Days project.

For more than 20 years, First Step’s treatment and education program has offered behavioral therapy, parenting and nutrition classes and 24-hour support from counselors, along with residential care for the baby’s first months of life. Formerly addicted mothers can study for a GED or take vocational classes to get ready for what comes next. Because residential facilities like this are rare in Florida, mothers come from all over the state. Along with child-rearing skills, they learn how unwise it can be to return to former routines, so Sarasota County is often where they choose to make a fresh start with their babies.

Kyley Flores is hoping that she and her 3-month-old daughter Audra can find a place at Our Mother’s House, a Venice housing program run by Catholic Charities. Her long-term goal, she adds, is to open her own nail salon.

“I know it won’t be easy,” she says. “But I already had to do a lot of hard things, and make a change in the kinds of people I associated with.”

Guinn isn’t sure yet what comes next for her and Carter; she lost her apartment and job in Polk County when she went to jail. But it was worth it, she insists: “He’s awesome. He’s the reason I did everything.”

First Step clinical director Nancy Page has seen women respond almost magically to the methodical encouragements they receive at the center, after enduring the social judgment that convinces other struggling mothers to give in to old habits. When they see their babies born drug-free and at a healthy birth weight, she says, they are motivated to forge a more disciplined and grounded family life.

“I feel great,” Guinn says. “I hadn’t been more than a day sober in eight years, and now I have feelings. I want to be the best mom I can for him. When he was born and they put him on my chest, I just stared at him. I didn’t know what to do.”

Page, who has been in the field of recovery counseling since 1992, does not underestimate the current opioid epidemic’s implacable force. But she will testify that a natural maternal instinct can be just as irresistible.

“If you talk to our clients, they say it was a game changer for them,” Page says. “They give credit to being pregnant for saving their life. You know, these are people who are broken in some way, emotionally, spiritually. They’re doing the best they can, and it’s become a way to numb out from what’s going on, until you get to somewhere you can feel you don’t have to hide. Then they learn to care more about another living being — even if they can’t see or touch it, but they can feel it — than they do their drug of choice.”

Prabhu Parimi, director of the Maternal, Fetal & Neonatal Institute at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, is a specialist on what happens when a woman cannot resist her addiction long enough to deliver a drug-free baby. Parimi will speak in Sarasota Thursday at a fundraising luncheon for Healthy Start, another partner in First 1,000 Days Sarasota County.

“Not very many OB’s” — obstetricians — “are willing to take those mothers who have been on medications. They don’t want to deal with this patient population,” Parimi says. “The consequence is that we as a medical community aren’t doing the right thing. That’s a broken system. Consequently, mothers don’t seek prenatal care. And then they deliver premature, low-birthweight babies.”

These newborns are not addicted to medications; rather they have been exposed to them in ways that are known to stunt fetal development. When the birth is premature, Parimi explains, the problem is compounded because growth that should have occurred in the womb takes place in a disruptive artificial environment. On top of these factors, he says, is one just beginning to be more fully understood: toxic stress. According to a recent New York Times Magazine article on the notoriously high mortality rates for African-American infants and mothers, toxic stress is suspected to be a determining cause in their problematic pregnancies.

“It’s an emerging area of interest,” Parimi says. “That’s why we are invested in caring not just for the babies but also the mothers. Cortisol” — the hormone that floods a body under stress — “has been shown to change the type of bacteria in the gut, and there’s a connection between the gut and the brain. So if a mom has been subjected to these psychosocial stressors, the baby acquires this abnormal microbiome. That means if you disrupt normal microbiota through a number of different mechanisms, it may affect an area of the brain.”

Stress — the constant companion of women living in or near poverty — is also known to affect cognitive development in infants. Anything from sudden loud noises to unaddressed hunger can bathe the swiftly forming brain in cortisol, prompting a fight-or-flight response similar to the effect of trauma in more mature brains.

“Robust prenatal care is an important component” in mitigating these stresses, Parimi says. “At least we can take two things out of the equation: a low birth weight and being born premature.”

But even when free prenatal care and education services are available, evidence shows that something prevents a significant share of mothers from obtaining them. According to a 2015 study of pregnant women covered by Florida Medicaid, 14.7 percent of them had no prenatal care until the third trimester, and 6.1 percent had no prenatal care at all.

A jigsaw puzzle

At Sarasota Memorial, the women who show up in active labor with no prenatal medical records are sometimes referred to as “walk-ins.” In 2017, according to data shared by the hospital with the Florida Department of Health in Sarasota County, there were 300 such cases — 8.4 percent of all births. The numbers are preliminary, but already they show a disproportionate share of single and African-American mothers.

First 1,000 Days Sarasota County has identified this group of mothers as its starting point, reasoning that they represent the most severely missed opportunities to make life dramatically better for babies. Working groups have formed to interrogate the available records on these worst-case scenarios, and also to meet with Medicaid analysts at the state level to understand what keeps women from seeking and getting prenatal care.

“We’re not going to guess at this,” says Bill Little, a former Sarasota County deputy administrator and longtime director of the county’s department of health. “We’re going to look at the data.”

This is the first time such an ambitious collaboration has been tried here, and it’s part of a nationwide wave of attempts to rethink conventional approaches to prenatal and baby care — largely in response to the devastating opioid crisis that is overwhelming social service systems and endangering children at every age. Responses look different in each community, but the national 1,000 Days movement frames it primarily as an issue of malnutrition, in the womb and for 24 months after birth. This emphasis was inspired by a 2008 Lancet report documenting how undernourished girls and women pass on the effects of physical and cognitive damage to generations well in the future.

There’s also a state-level operation, which concentrates on highlighting legislative priorities and fostering collaborations among agencies across Florida. The coalition will hold its first-ever summit this September in Palm Beach.

In some ways, the local initiative is blessed from the start. Sarasota County has an unusually vigorous network of public and private agencies that can support mothers and infants. But the system can be opaque — and sometimes forbidding — for women whose challenges include poverty, substance abuse, language barriers and distrust of authority. Studies show that while these women want the best for their babies, they can be easily deterred from asking for help.

The loose structure of agencies and health care providers positioned to help low-income pregnant women resembles a jigsaw puzzle, where the interlockings are tenuous at best, with crucial pieces missing here or there. For many of these mothers, it is as if they are approaching the puzzle from its nether side, and cannot see the picture at all. So they are reduced to pressing blindly on whatever piece is nearest at hand — which may or may not yield to their specific needs.

Once they fail to find help, it’s easy to stop trying.

For women who are undocumented, addicted or fluent in a language other than English, health care providers say, it’s even easier. Nicholas King, a psychosocial case manager at Sarasota Memorial, says that of all the barriers to prenatal care — which can range from a lack of transportation to cultural differences — difficulty understanding the Medicaid system is the one he hears about most.

Judy Cavallar, clinical manager of the labor, delivery and mother-baby units at the hospital, says that women who cannot take time off from their jobs — or can’t afford to — rely on Sarasota Memorial’s 24-hour emergency obstetrics center when they have an issue, even though some local obstetricians do keep regular evening hours.

“Patients that are facing whatever those barriers are,” she adds, “are good people. They want good outcomes for their baby and they want to gain the knowledge they need to bring home a healthy baby. The challenge is trying to navigate through a health care system that isn’t easy to navigate through. Having prenatal care allows you to have a relationship with a doctor who is going to see you after you deliver, so that relationship continues.”

Cavallar is enthusiastic about one early component in the First 1,000 Days project: embedding two patient navigators at the hospital who will work with mothers before and after delivery. The navigators will be a consistent friendly presence, demystifying the health care safety net and steering new families toward the community services they need.

“I keep going back to the word relationship,” she says. “A lot of these patients just are afraid. If I’m a drug-dependent mom, then maybe when I do go to the hospital they’re going to take my baby away. A lot of these patients don’t have the support systems they need to make good decisions for their baby.”

One example of this navigation model was recently put in place at Johns Hopkins All Children’s, where Kathryn Wooten serves as nurse coordinator at a new clinic for drug-exposed newborns. Established to complement a similar clinic started five years ago at the hospital’s Sarasota site, the program recently received a $2.5 million gift that will allow both locations to delve more deeply into research on fetal drug exposure. At the St. Petersburg clinic, Wooten serves as an initial and continuing contact for all mothers in the program.

“The focus for so long has been: ‘What are these moms doing wrong?’” Wooten says. “We villainized them, and I think it’s shifting.”

Wooten confesses that as a nursing student who trained at All Children’s, she had a few judgmental remarks to make about women whose careless choices damaged their newborns. Then a coworker invited her to visit a drug rehabilitation center.

“It just blew me away,” Wooten says now. “When you hear these moms’ stories, you realize that: ‘Oh my gosh; if I had made one decision differently in my life, that could be me.’ If I had been through a tenth of the things some of these women have been through, I don’t know if I would be here. The fact that they’re out there and surviving is so impressive.

“For the ones that do decide that they want to try to go through recovery, so much is required of them, and they’re working so hard for their babies — I think it’s our moral obligation to support them.”

Source Article

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[disc-golf]

5 Ways You Should Treat Yourself Like a Business

Successful businesses are efficient, value-producing machines. They have missions, create detailed investment plans for how to spend their time and revenues, boast a robust network of relationships, and take action every single day to move closer to their end game—whatever their definition of success happens to be.

On a flight from Oakland to Chicago, while reading Richard Branson’s “Losing My Virginity,” I thought about what would happen if I treated myself as a business. What if I lived every day as the president and CEO of RyanWarner.net? How much more productive would I be? 

I wrestled with the question for a few days, and ultimately decided to play out the possibility. I’m now three months into managing myself as a business, and have experienced a number of positive benefits:

I have shifted my focus, time, and energy to things that really “move the needle” in my life.

I have discovered (and constantly reiterate) a life mission—something that guides every action I take.

I’ve learned that I’m the only one who will succeed (or fail) in my own life. My butt is on the line, so I make every minute of every day count. I’m driven to make an impact on the world.

How did I actually get here? Surely, you argue, it takes more than a simple paradigm shift or a thought exercise to take such huge strides forward.

It does indeed. But as you can see from the benefits above, the work it takes to create positive change is absolutely worth it. If you’re on board with what a business lens can do to your own life, then start implementing the steps below.

1. Define Your Business Philosophy

If someone were to navigate to Yourname.com and click on the About page, what would they find?

Tim Ferris shone a light on this self-definition recently. On his podcast, Ferriss hosted psychologist Michael Gervais, during which Gervais told a story about how he came to develop his personal philosophy, “Make everyday a living masterpiece.” 

Twenty years back, Gervais was asked by his mentor who he was. A simple question, right? But Gervais fumbled. He jumped into hokums about what he liked to do, what he did in the past, and what his goals were. The elderly mentor smiled and said, “Come back to me when you’re ready.” 

Young Gervais—the now world-renowned performance psychologist—could not answer this seemingly simple question. But he endeavored to find an answer. What resulted was his personal philosophy. 

You should do the same for yourself as a business. Why? Your business philosophy is what continually reminds you what you stand for. A well-crafted philosophy will not leave room for ambiguity or loopholes; it will hold your feet to the fire every day.

Before you move onto the steps below, then, take a few hours and sketch out your own philosophy. What do you stand for? What is your “business”? What are your end goals? These will need tweaking, of course, but it’s important to start now.

To get you started, here’s my “business” philosophy in a nutshell: Ryan Warner will always be grateful for obstacles. He will maintain the discipline needed to attack every task with absolute focus. He will spread love and laughter every day.

As you can see, philosophies are not all about stuff. In fact, the best ones tackle the most important questions of morality and purpose, leaving money to fall where it may. That said…

2. Capitalize on Investments

Investments are focused on how we spend our time and money. The former is the scarcest resource in the world; we should be mindful of this when we commit ourselves to daily tasks. We want to invest only in those things that move the needle in our “business” every day

What would a business do with a hefty helping of time? They would invest labor and research in things that create value for shareholders. Likewise, we should put our time into activities that build us up as individuals and enable us to offer value to our family, friends, coworkers, and the world at large.

Here’s a good example: Spend a Sunday morning analyzing your strengths and weaknesses. Be ruthless about your weaknesses, and really drill into what you want to improve in your life. Do you want to learn how to be a better leader or public speaker? Do you want to be more present for your family? Do you wanted to be more invested in your job? What are your friends, family, and colleagues doing well in these areas that you could learn from? 

The second piece of our daily investment is financial. How does a business look at finances? In simple terms, it’s about increasing top-line growth while maintaining a tight bottom line. Incoming dollars are viewed not as income, but as revenue, and revenues are re-invested in the company to increase growth.

Now think of yourself as a money-making business. What sort of revenues are you bringing in? And how will you get the best return on investment for the money you spend? 

For example, if you—as a business—have $20 left over in the budget after a light month, would you reinvest in yourself or squander that money on meaningless stuff and empty activities? Would you buy a book or head to the bar and buy a round of beers?

By thinking of yourself as a business, always looking to increase value, your investments will start to align with your philosophy.

3. Nurture Relationships

How important are personal connections and relationships to a business? Very. They make or break a business’ success; without relationships, there are no customers, partners, board members, or staff. 

You need relationships in your business. A lone wolf will not make it.

Former UFC champion Frank Shamrock has a strategy for building relationships that he calls “Plus, Minus, and Equal.” 

For the Plus, he looks for someone who is more successful than he is (however one might define success). This person is at the level where Frank wants to be at some point. He or she would make a great mentor. 

On the flipside, a Minus is someone whom Frank can teach. Teaching not only helps a Minus, but also helps you increase your understanding of the topic(s) you teach. After all, you can’t teach a subject effectively unless you know it inside and out.

An Equal is a peer—someone with whom you can share feedback as you move your “business” closer to success. These shared struggles and success stories build on mutual experiences and inform future decisions for even better outcomes—increasingly value exponentially.

It’s important that every business have a balance of Plus, Minus, and Equal relationships to keep them afloat. Each one enourages development, maturity, and social engagement.

Oh, one last point on relationships. Make an effort to remove negative relationships from your life. (Just b careful you’re not removing Minuses, though!)

4. Maintain Health

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle may seem like a given, but many people ignore it. I love focusing on health for my “business” because it often has the most immediate ROI. Don’t believe me? Hop on an elliptical for 30 minutes, then spend 15 minutes meditating. How do you feel? It’s amazing the amount of energy and focus we gain from working out.

But what’s the business angle here? Well, think of your mind like the CEO of the company and the rest of your body as employees. You want to spend time making sure each part of your body—or “employee”—is healthy so it can work properly, both on its own and in conjunction with other parts of the body.

To make that work, feed your body what it needs—lots of fresh vegetables, lean meats, and limited carbohydrates. Avoid refined sugars and processed foods. Then, keep a regular exercise regimen going; five days a week of 20-30 minutes of cardio and weight-bearing exercise should be plenty. More on that here.

The result: A healthy body—”collaborative workforce”— that is an unbeatable productivity machine.

But don’t neglect the mind. Dedicate time to meditation, reading, and journaling throughout your week. Challenge your mind with new types of learning, like language study, crossword puzzles, or trivia games. These activities keep your mind sharp, ready for whatever life throws at you.

5. Take Action Every Single Day

A CEO doesn’t take weeks off without working on his/her business, and neither should you. Every day is an opportunity to improve the state of your business and a chance to increase the value you deliver to your shareholders.

Entrepreneur Jesse Itzler takes this concept to a whole new level. He calculates the average life expectancy of a Caucasian male and subtracts his age from it. That leaves him with the number of years he likely has left in this world. Seeing that number in black and white makes only one thing matter: The mission to do the most with your life TODAY. 

Jason Feifer, editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, takes a different approach. He focuses on the hours that comprise a day, and at the end of each hour asks, “What did I just accomplish in the past hour? Would my family be proud of how I lived in the last 60 minutes?”

In both cases, however, the idea is the same; as the old saying goes, “Live your life like there’s no tomorrow.”

There are two parts to this imperative action. The first is your “why”—which is derived from your mission statement. Don’t just act to act; act knowing what you’re doing is a real-life manifestation of your mission statement.

The second is your “how”—derived from your investment strategy. How do you act in relationships, at home, and at work to reflect your commitment of time and money? How are these an accurate reflection of what your mission statement demands?

Don’t let these questions derail you, however. Examine your actions—carefully, but not too long—and act with integrity, confidence, and purpose.

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Treating yourself as a business has the potential to reframe your personal development and rebrand your identity with a crystal clear “why.” Be thoughtful about crafting your philosophy and mission statement to make this possible; bear these out in your investment decisions; nurture your relationships with these principles at your core; and act like there’s no tomorrow.

Be energized, be focused, be true to yourself and humbly inspired by the possibilities of your life. If you can manage this—as any good business would—you will find success, however you define it.

I sure have.

I’d love to learn what steps you think I’m missing here, so please leave a comment below with your thoughts/additions.

Need some philosophies to help you get started on the right path? Editor Craig Ballantyne has done the heavy lifting for you, and offers centuries worth of personal growth and development wisdom in his book, “The Perfect Day Formula.” Get your copy for FREE here and start shaping your own mission statement.

The post 5 Ways You Should Treat Yourself Like a Business appeared first on Early To Rise.

[steampunkfan]

A Breakdown of the Most Persuasive April Fool’s Marketing Video of 2017

Like any other popular yearly event, April Fool’s Day is an excellent opportunity for marketers that are willing to be innovative in connecting with their target audience. However, given the sheer volume of campaigns launched to exploit the short window of opportunity, standing out from the crowd is quite the challenge.

While humour and fun are essential elements of any April Fool’s Day campaign, there is one question that marketers must ponder over before designing their campaign: how can we create a persuasive campaign that goes beyond “a bit of fun”?

The ultimate purpose of any campaign after all, is engagement. A campaign should aim to engage the potential customer and lead them to a powerful call-to-action that is hard to resist.

So what does a successful April Fool’s Day campaign look like?

We find the answers by investigating and breaking-down a recent campaign by Infiniti Telecommunications, an Australian phone systems & support company.

We all know what it is like to contact a telecommunications company and get poor communications from their call center?

Well, Infiniti Telecommunications lead by marketing icon Pete Williams, came up with a great solution for April Fool’s Day this year: skipping India and the Philippines, and outsourcing their customer support call center straight to artificial intelligence and chatbots.

In this stellar campaign, which has been reported as “The Most Influential April Fool’s Video of 2017”, we find the perfect balance of fun and persuasion, all carried out through the use of established psychological tools that have been studied by academics and marketers alike. 

Why Humour Persuades

As far as psychology is concerned, humans still react much the same way as our ancestors did back in hunter-gatherer times (or as some people believe, during the Flintstones era!). Evolutionary psychologists such as David Buss believe that humour may have evolved to signal good-will and social intelligence (Buss,[11]).

And why did signalling good-will matter to our tribal ancestors? Humans tend to view strangers as being “outside their tribe” and at first, with suspicion. This is especially the case where a real human interaction is missing, such as when watching a video. This is where humour plays a crucial role in “breaking the ice”, particularly when breaking barriers between you and your potential customer.

Humour has a strong bonding effect. It creates what cognitive psychologists call the liking bias. Humour gets people to like each other as it switches off any “fight or flight” tendencies. In marketing, humour allows for the listener to be more open-minded about the offering in question. Infiniti, like most marketers who jump on the April Fools band-wagon, has utilised this to its advantage, with a funny tongue-in-cheek video that ticks all the boxes of persuasive humour.

But how well does Infiniti fare in signalling social intelligence?

First of all, unlike other April Fool videos, the prank is not overtly obvious and is given away over the course of the video through facial cues, tonality, sarcastic quotation marks etc. In particular notice the delivery of the line at 1:20, “With technology, the cloud and artificial intelligence, there is no limit to the number of simultaneous complaints our customer service team can handle”. It’s mature, smart and tongue-in-cheek.

In many ways, the video is reminiscent of the UK TV show “The Office”, often commended for employing such subtleties in humour.

Contrast this subtle style of humour to the blatantly obvious April Fool’s campaign by Ubisoft. Who would, for even just a second, believe that a video game multinational was launching “the manly scent of wild rabbits”?!

Source: edge.alluremedia.com.au

Secondly, note the use of sarcasm. Sarcasm is usually employed in one of two respects: in humour and as a put-down. However, it is underappreciated as a powerful tool for persuasion. The undertone of sarcasm implies that the opposite of what is being is said is not only true but obvious.

For instance, we hear in the video, creative-director come actor Pete Williams say, “We (Infiniti) may be revolutionary, but we’re not crazy (to pass savings to the customer)”, mentioned with a tone of humorous sarcasm. The perception created as a result, is that Infiniti is in fact exactly the kind of company to pass savings to the customer because it is obviously the right thing to do.

Moreover, this line has a double-persuasion effect, reminding viewers that Infiniti is revolutionary in its approach to communication.

A lollapalooza effect!

Billionaire investor Charlie Munger coined the term “lollapalooza effect” to describe a cocktail of psychological biases all working in the same direction. We see quite the lollapalooza effect in Infiniti’s ad campaign in artfully incorporating a whopping total of over 13 psychological tools of persuasion.

1. Admission of Fault

One of the most perplexing of psychological phenomena is that admitting to a fault in adverts is found to be highly effective as a marketing tactic.

For instance, famous instances include Avis’ “we try harder” and Volkswagen’s “it’s ugly but it gets you there”. While this may seem counter-intuitive, it works!

As psychologist Noah Goldstein finds, admitting such a weakness creates a sense of trust and a feeling that the brand is honest (Goldstein, [5]). A viewer of an advert knows that an attempt is being made to lure them into buying into the offering.

Admissions of weaknesses allow viewers to lower their guard. It is doubly effective where it implies other positive attributes. For instance, an advert by Avis stated “We can’t afford not to be nice… we’re number 2”. What they are conveying however, is: “you should buy from us because we really value our customers”.

Source: slate.com

Where Infiniti Got it Right:

Going against the grain in the heap of companies using April Fools marketing, Infiniti makes a seemingly damning admission: “we know in the past our customer service hasn’t been fantastic”. However, it is immediately followed by “we’re working very to hard to change that”. It is as though the tactic was borrowed straight out of the Avis handbook!

2. Presuppositions

Presuppositions are statements in which some unstated element must be assumed (pre-supposed) to be true in order for the statement to make sense.

The assumed logic in the statement is thus persuasively conveyed to the listener. This tactic is effective since no overt attempt is made to persuade the listener, giving the impression to the listener that they came to the said conclusion on their own.

Where Infiniti Got it Right:

In line with the unconventional marketing practice of Infiniti, are three instances of masterful presupposition in the video:

1) “We know in the past, our customer service hasn’t been fantastic”, aside from the admission of fault, discussed previously, the phrase presupposes that “hasn’t been fantastic” was only so in the past, suggesting that their current customer service is indeed – fantastic.

2) “Unlike the other telcos, we’re going to skip India and the Philippines, and outsource our customer support straight to Artificial Intelligence. …. So no longer will you have to wait on hold for over 40 minutes only to have to try and discuss your problem in broken English with an outsourced call centre”. This line makes a number of elegant presuppositions.

First, that ALL “the other” telcos outsource to the Philippines/India already. Second, that until now, with these other telcos, the customer has had to wait on hold for over 40 minutes to speak with someone. Third, that Infiniti telco hasn’t been outsourcing at all and is the solution to the customer’s frustration with the other telcos.

3) “Oh, the Australian consumer is very resilient. You can see that by how they’ve continued to put up with the poor customer service from the big 3 telcos in this country. The level of support and communication from these overseas call centres has been appalling, so we know, in time, customers will learn to accept this as well.” Through presupposition, the line reinforces the idea that the Big Telcos don’t really care about their customers. They only want what is best for business, and expect the customer to put up with it. Although the humorous tone of the line hides it, it subtly places the idea in the listener’s mind.

3. The Association Principle, Contrast Principle and Positioning:

When we associate positive qualities with a company, we tend to view it favourably, even where the associated quality should have no bearing on our evaluation (Hall, [1]).

Similarly, associating a company with negative attributes is likely to create a negative perception. The contrast principle further adds to the effect. When options are contrasted against one another, we REALLY notice the difference and often exaggerate it in our minds (Bevelin, [2]).

Positioning refers to the use of language, constructed specifically to support or create a reality in the listener’s mind (Ghosh, [3]). This is the act of putting an idea into the listener’s mind, after which the listener is more likely to accept than reject the suggested reality. On the other hand, the same concept can be presented without positioning.

By combining association, contrast and positioning, you can make your company look really good whilst making your competitors look very bad in the eyes of the customer.

Where Infiniti Got it Right:

Few companies have consciously made a conscious attempt to take advantage of a short April Fools video in subtly trashing their competitors. Notice how Infiniti associates negative qualities with their competitors:

1) At 1:10, “the biggest frustration when dealing with a typical Australian Telco was the wait times when trying to speak to someone in customer support”

2) At 1:36, “how they (customers) have continued to put up with the poor customer service of the three biggest telcos in this country”.

3) At 1:43, “the level of support and communication… has been appalling”

4) At 2:17, “what the Big Telcos are doing right now, with scripted responses that their overseas staff use”.

Now contrast that against the qualities Infiniti associates with itself:

1) At 0:02, “We’re always looking for ways to innovate with the newest technology to make our customer service revolutionary”

2) At 2:25, “We deliver that experience in a timely and innovative way”

3) At 2:45, “We may be revolutionary but we’re not crazy”. By continuing to refer to the “Big 3 Telcos” and what “they do” (off-shoring, making customers wait, pre-scripted responses), Infiniti paints the big telcos in a bad light whilst giving the impression that Infiniti is in fact the solution to their customer’s frustrations using the positioning technique.

Note that speakers in the video never use non-affirmative language such as, “we believe that customers of the three big Telcos are frustrated” or “we hope that our new solution is the answer to the customer’s problems”. Instead, as can be noticed in the instances above, the language used is direct and expressed as if what is suggested is a matter of fact.

4. Authority Bias

Psychologist Robert Cialdini finds the authority bias to be one of the most persuasive of psychological forces in human nature (Cialdini, [4]). The use of titles is often used to justify suitability. However, the authority bias goes a step further. Psychologists find that even when when titles are not applicable to the task at hand, they are perceived as convincing.

Robert Cialdini, in his groundbreaking work: Influence, describes an example of the persuasive use of titles even where they should be irrelevant. Actor Robert Young, well-known for playing a fictional doctor “Marcus Welby, M.D.” on TV, was the center of a popular coffee commercial. Cialdini notes: “If … people had focused on Mr. Young’s actual status as an authority, I am confident that the commercial would not have had so long and productive a run. Obviously, Robert Young does not possess a physician’s training or knowledge. We all know that. What he does possess, however, is a physician’s title, “M.D.”

Now, clearly, it is an empty title, connected to him in our minds through the device of playacting.”. We see doctors, lawyers and consultants proudly displaying their qualifications in their offices for us to see. But how often do we read these qualifications? Nevertheless, they are found to be persuasive, which is why we see them in the offices of such professionals almost without exception.

Where Infiniti Got it Right:

In the video, each individual in introduced to the viewer with a text stating the name and title of the individual. Specifically, we note that Pete W. is Head of Operations, Henry R. is Head of Technology and Sarah B. is Head of Customer Experience. Even though a majority of viewers will not remember the exact titles, the very presence of titles is likely to create a positive perception.

5. Attractiveness (Halo-Effect)

Individuals seen as visually attractive are more likely to be persuasive than others. While many of us would like to live in a world where such superficial characteristics are unimportant, the reality is that attractiveness is the most commonly employed marketing tool. This is a manifestation of what is known as the halo effect (Cialdini, [4]). We see three individuals at various points in the video.

Where Infiniti Got it Right:

While attractiveness is a subjective quality, it can be argued that a majority of people watching the video would consider at least one of the three individuals as visually attractive. Their attractiveness is further amplified by the quality and professional editing of the video. This is not particularly unconventional, with most other companies consciously including attractive persons in their marketing videos.

6. Novelty and Mystery 

Attention is a precious resource. Evolutionary psychologists describe homo-sapiens as cognitive misers (Buss, [11]). Humans would rather save energy than have to think! Our hunter-gatherer ancestors had a simple rule of thumb that came in very handy for “not-thinking” as much as possible.

Now, unfortunately we’re stuck with it.

The rule goes something like this (Klaff [6]): If it’s boring, ignore it. If it’s dangerous, fight or run. If it’s complicated, avoid or summarise. However, there are two exceptions to where we pay special attention, even where our lives are not at stake: novelty and mystery (Klaff, [6], Cialdini [7]). Something new and something unresolved demands our attention. There is no doubt, this first-of-its-kind self-deprecating approach to marketing is novel. Viewers of the video are unlikely to have ever seen something similar previously, even through channels like Facebook.

Where Infiniti Got it Right:

The video is novel in a number of respects in that we find practices not employed in other April Fool’s Day campaigns.

1) It shows the company being self-deprecating. 2) It employs subtle humour, particularly in considering the irony in replacing humans with a chatbot as being advanced. 3) It is one of the only notable instances of April Fool’s marketing being used in the

Telecommunication business. Clues about April-01 are placed within the video title and various points within the video. Thus, many viewers will likely have considered that the video might just be a humorous prank. However, given the realistic acting in the video, viewers can’t be sure. This creates an element of mystery. Also note how the mystery is resolved only at the very end, keeping viewers watching all the way through.

7. Frame-Switching 

Professional videographers and directors understand that persuasion isn’t just limited to what the audience hears, but also on what the audience sees. This is where frame-switching serves as a handy tool.

Switching between different segment of the video when carried out correctly, can bring the attention of the viewer on what the videographer wants them to pay attention to (Cialdini [7]). Specifically, viewers pay attention to the portion of the visual space where the most prominent change has taken place.

Where Infiniti Got it Right:

In considering how the video is put together, we find a few instances of visual attention being directed. Notice that the brand logo is placed clearly on the bottom-right corner. To ensure that the viewer’s visual attention finds its way to the brand logo, the position of the speakers is alternated between far-left and far-right. The subtext on the video is similarly appropriately placed and introduced in a timely manner. It is at the same height as the brand logo. It is impossible not to notice the logo at various points during the video as the speakers appear in the video and as their titles are seen flying into the frame. In particular note the transition between frames from 0:50 to 0:56.

8. Other tactics used in the call-to-action 

The April Fool’s day video is only the first part of the campaign. Infiniti has further used psychology in persuading their traffic to their call-to-action. When company first released the video to it’s nationwide customer base, they drove traffic to a custom page on their site where the video was at the centre of attention.

However, outside of the video, but on the same page we find a number of other persuasive elements (shown in the picture below).

Source: infinititelecommunications.com.au

The are 3 elements that we notice:

1) The social proof principle is the phenomenon best described as “following the herd” (Cialdini [4]). Humans tend to go with whatever is popular. Case studies and testimonials are used in providing social proof, which creates the perception that the offering is popular.

2) Notice how the money back guarantee creates trust. The exaggerated fear of losing what we have is referred to as loss-aversion (Kahneman, [10]). The money back guarantee puts potential customers at ease and prevents such loss-aversion from getting in the way of making a sale.

3) The entire campaign is aimed at engagement, which in itself is based around the foot-in-the-door technique (Cialdini [4]). When a viewer has spent two and a half minutes of their time watching a campaign video, they are more likely than before to provide further investment of time. This is precisely why, engagement should be the focus of such marketing, particularly on a platform such as Facebook.

Lastly, Infiniti shows us once again that it understands persuasion in the simplicity of its slogan (Luntz, [8], Heath, [9]) “Making Communication Easy!”. In a short and sweet slogan that resembles “Keep it simple stupid!” in its phrasing, Infiniti have ensured that the slogan sticks in the memories of its visitors.

As April Fool’s day comes around again in a little over 11 months, we hope we see more companies using the opportunity to be more than just humorous.

Getting eyeballs on your content, during a period that is flooded with videos is only becoming harder with each April 1st, so next year, companies, marketing managers and content marketers, for the love of David Ogilvy, please take the opportunity to be more strategic and persuasive.

REFERENCES

[1] Hall, G., 1994. Pavlovian conditioning: Laws of association. [2] Bevelin, P., 2007. Seeking wisdom: from Darwin to Munger. PCA Publications LLC. [3] Ghose, S. and Lowengart, O., 2001. Perceptual positioning of international, national and private brands in a growing international market: An empirical study. The Journal of Brand Management, 9(1), pp.45-62. [4] Cialdini, R.B., 1987. Influence (Vol. 3). A. Michel. [5] Goldstein, N.J., Martin, S.J. and Cialdini, R., 2008. Yes!: 50 scientifically proven ways to be persuasive. Simon and Schuster. [6]Klaff, O., 2011. Pitch anything: an innovative method for presenting, persuading, and winning the deal. McGraw Hill Professional. [7] Cialdini, R., 2016. Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade. Simon and Schuster. [8] Luntz, F., 2007. Words that work: It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear. Hachette Books. [9] Heath, C. and Heath, D., 2007. Made to stick: Why some ideas survive and others die. Random House. [10] Kahneman, D., Knetsch, J.L. and Thaler, R.H., 1991. Anomalies: The endowment effect, loss aversion, and status quo bias. The journal of economic perspectives, 5(1), pp.193-206. [11] Buss, D., 2015. Evolutionary psychology: The new science of the mind. Psychology Press.

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