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twwpress · 2 years ago

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Creator Spotlight #1: JessBakesCakes

Welcome to our first TWW Author Spotlight! For every spotlight, we’ll ask each featured author the same ten questions as well as questions submitted by you. Thank you so much to the wonderful @jessbakescakes (ao3: https://tinyurl.com/m9evs4bs) for kicking us off this week!!

All answers are directly from Jess. Let’s give her a big round of applause and a lot of love for being our first featured creator! Questions under the cut:

1) What are your top 5 desert island fics by other authors?

like love in a drunken sky by thotsandfeelings: https://bit.ly/3pttb0F This is purely a vibes thing. It’s got COS era J/D all the way through parent J/D, and it’s really lovely.

nothing but the truth of my love by LookingForShadows: https://bit.ly/3QA2ROg I’m biased because this was written specifically because of a prompt I submitted, but it’s everything I could ever ask for in a future fic.

Dream of a Common Language by Nadera Furo: https://bit.ly/3CcIl1K This fic is beautifully written and it shows just how deep Josh and Donna’s connection is from the jump. One of my favorite fics of all time.

darling, so it goes (some things are meant to be) by mikaylawrites: https://bit.ly/3QKVT8E This is such a soft little AU that brings me joy every time it’s updated. J/D and pure happiness and fluff is just so fun for me.

i fall apart (and i thought i was so smart) by RoseyPoseyPie: https://bit.ly/3JYhhoZ This one has the angst and the fluff and everything in between. I think about some of these scenes every day. It was so fun to read this in real time.

2) Do you have a favorite character to write? Favorite ship(s) to write? Are there characters or ships you'd like to write more of? (shout out to @sam-loves-seb/@sam_writes_fics for submitting a similar question!)

My favorite ship is Josh/Donna without question, so I’ll focus on other characters for variety’s sake to answer this. My favorite character to write aside from J/D is Abbey Bartlet. She’s chaotic but has a big heart and cares about all of her adopted children very deeply. Characters I’d like to write more of… Kate Harper, and Lou. I don’t think I’ve ever written Lou in a fic because I think her voice is a bit intimidating to nail but she would be so much fun. And I don’t think I’ve written Kate because she hasn’t come up but someday I would love to!

3) Tell us about your writing process (setup/location? Night or day? Snacks/beverages? Computer/phone/notebook? Music or silence? Anything else you want to share is welcome!)

I usually write best shortly after I wake up, which is a bummer on work days. But on weekends and non-work days I vibe really well shortly after I get out of bed. I don’t have to have any specific food or beverage items, but I definitely can’t write on an empty stomach. I write best on my laptop, though I have dozens of weird notes in my notes app with one or two lines of dialogue I didn’t want to lose but ended up forgetting the context for. If I’m writing based on a song/episode, I watch/listen to the source material over and over until I start writing and then I need silence. I can write with general background noise, but too much is distracting!

4) What writing advice do you have for others who may be reading this?

Just write. Honestly. If you get too caught up in whether it’s good or not, or worry about it too much, it sucks the fun out of it. I have a rule that I only read through something three times before posting it, or else I know I’ll never feel confident enough to post. If you need more support/aren’t sure, find a beta/friend who you vibe with and tell them up front what you need out of the arrangement. Do you need someone to build you up? Edit for spelling/grammar? Help get you out of a corner? Tell them that!

5) From where do you usually draw your inspiration? (Other forms of media, music, tropes, etc?)

It’s usually other ships on other shows, canon divergent stuff, or music for me. Or tropes. I love a good trope.

6) What is the fic you've written that you're most proud of and why? (shoutout to @sorkingirl for submitting a similar question!)

I have a usual answer for this but I think I’m going to go with just ‘cause i think of you in bed (don’t let it go to your head): https://bit.ly/3dqqYjF

This helped me break down some of my own baggage about sharing explicit writing and helped me grow (in a good way) as a writer. I think I’m proud of it for that reason, simply because of the growth.

7) What's the fic trope/concept/AU you'd read 1000 of? What's the fic trope/concept/AU you'd write 1000 of?

I have so many but honestly, soulmate AUs are the one I love to read for J/D. There’s something about the two of them finding each other in every universe/being tied to each other that’s so beautiful to me. As far as writing, marriage tropes. I’ve done a secret marriage and a green card marriage and I have at least two or three marriage ideas bopping around in my head at any given time.

8) Is there anything you'd like to try writing-wise that you haven't yet?

More friendships/ensemble-type fics. I would love to include more characters I haven’t yet, and highlight some of the friendships in both the Bartlet/Santos administrations.

9) What's your go-to Starbucks/coffee shop/other drink order?

Starbucks: Double chocolatey chip frappuccino

Dunkin’: Frozen hot chocolate

10) Do you have any current projects you'd like to promote or anything upcoming you'd like to tell us about?

I’ll tease an eventual Gaza canon divergent fic I’ve thought about a lot involving Sam, Donna, and Josh. And M/ @thefinestmuffins and I would love to have everyone hop on board J/D tropes fest! https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Trope_Soup

Submitted questions:

From @thefinestmuffin: What is your favorite friendship between TWW characters? Do you have a favorite headcanon of this friendship?

This is so tough because the found family is so strong with this show and these characters are so close. I think one of my favorites that I would love to see more of is Josh and Kate Harper. The potential there was off the charts. My favorite headcanon of this friendship is that Josh and Donna take their kids to visit Aunt Kate and her house full of dogs, and this is how Josh and Donna end up with a dog of their own.

From @thefinestmuffin: When did you start writing (fanfic or otherwise)? And when did you start sharing your fanfiction (for other fandoms and for TWW)?

I’ve been writing since I was tiny. I used to write “books” as a kid. I started publishing my fanfiction in 2007 for Gilmore Girls (Luke/Lorelai all the way), and took a fandom break for a long time while I went to grad school. I published my first J/D fic in early 2021.

From @lemonylyman: What moment made you think “I should/could write about Josh and Donna”?

There wasn’t a specific moment for them, so much as I fell into a fandom rabbit hole. I finished the show, wanted to read fic again, and around the same time, someone commented on a fic of mine from a long time ago. I got the email notification, re-read my fic that I had no memory of writing, and thought “oh, hey, that’s decent, actually” so I started thinking about if I could write Josh and Donna. The moment I started to ship them was the “All the girls think you look really hot in this shirt” moment, but there wasn’t a specific moment where I thought “I’m going to write about these two”. I did know they had me with a buzz like my older fandom days, though, so I knew I had to participate in fandom in some way.

From @mlea7675: Who was the first fandom author you read?

Thotsandfeelings! I can’t remember for sure, but my first fic in TWW fandom was let’s give ‘em pumpkin to talk about: https://bit.ly/3A39uS9 or think I love you better now: https://bit.ly/3PuaUuM

The first one’s relevant with the new A League of Their Own series coming out, but the second one is just really lovely soft and sexy future fic. They were both out around the time I started reading, so I’m pretty sure it was one of the two of them.

From @s4mwilson: do you have an earlier fic you wish you could write again ?? have any tips that have made u a better writer ?? what's the most outlandish au you've ever considered writing ??

Earlier fic I wish I could write again: Ever Forward: https://bit.ly/3pp0RfE

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this fic, but I hadn’t fully firmed up my primary parent/stay-at-home Dad Josh HC yet. I just consider this a little AU of my actual post-series HC. If I could rewrite it I’d probably make the fourth inauguration day Sam’s.

Tips that made me a better writer: If you’re not sure about something you’re writing put <your general vibes/ideas/”insert more” in brackets or something similar> so you can find and replace and connect things later. Oftentimes, I realize that I don’t need a huge paragraph to connect two things, just a sentence or two. Also, get a beta/friend you trust or a text-to-speech app to read your fic out loud. That helps me get unstuck!

Outlandish AU I’ve ever considered writing: I have a bunch of AUs at any given point rolling around in my brain, but some of my most beloved are Teacher AU, Baseball AU, and Veterinarian AU.

From @flowersinapril_: when did you first come to the show?? tell me about ur watching experience? was it recommended did you find it on your own i wanna knooow

TWW was the last Sorkin show I watched. Before I watched it, I watched Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and most of The Newsroom. A friend of mine from another fandom tried to get me to watch TWW, and I watched through 1x04. At that time it wasn’t easily streamed, so I couldn’t find 1x05 (Which of course, is The Crackpots and these Women). Had I watched that episode I would have been hooked. But I gave up and never got around to it again. I’d heard it recommended a bunch and always meant to get back to it as streaming became more widely available. Then, I was quarantined in late 2020 and did nothing but watch the show from beginning to end in two weeks during my quarantine. It was such a wild experience!

Thanks again, Jess!!

It was truly an honor to have you be our first spotlighted creator!

If you’re interested in being featured for a future spotlight, please drop us a line here on tumblr, on twitter, or email [email protected].

xx,

What’s next?

#the west wing #tww #tww fandom #west wing #tww fic #tww author #author spotlight #creator spotlight #josh x donna #josh lyman #donna moss #cj cregg #kate harper #tww fic recs

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ultyso · 4 years ago

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Okay I’m gonna talk about my thoughts with MoM now that it’s pretty much end of the month. I’ll be tagging this post for those who don’t want to see spoilers.

•I loved that the song levels were worlds. I thought it was a cute way to introduce the songs and progress through the “story” of KH.

•There was a bit of delay in where I should hit the button with the songs that it was jarring at the beginning.

•I tried to get 3 stars on everything before progressing but I wanted to see story after playing through all of KH1’s that I just ended up just playing them all once rather than multiple times if I missed a star. Still replayable tho :)

•Due to that, took about 10hrs for me to complete.

•I really liked Kairi improved in fighting against Xeha. That she made her keyblade disappear and reappear so she didn’t lose again to him just gripping her hand/keyblade.

•The whole Kairi changing to Sora was neat. But would have been cooler if Kairi got to fight Xeha for rhythm part.

•It was nice to play as her for final chapter. Bummer she doesn’t become an unlocked character or anything after beating it. Would have been nice to add her to the roster.

•She didn’t even get to be a part of the credits :c

•People already being pro with multiplayer made me pretty bummed :c I always lost so didn’t feel anything worthwhile. Thanks to 2 people who still played even tho I sucked in comparison :c

•Really wish they had an invite system for friends.

•I mainly played team BBS for my entire gameplay. I played DDD least cause BBS popped up not too much later than him. His is is only one I haven’t leveled up much lol

•I liked that the memory dives were it’s own little thing. Though it’s taking me forever to get Twilight shards to unlock the final song. Roxassssss.

•Apparently I stanned Kairi and Xion more cause they were my first music dive A+++. Took quite a few tries with Ven :,,,,)

•My most played songs ended up being: Ventus Theme, Sora (Piano Version), Simple and Clean, Tension Rising, and L’lmpeto Obscuro.

•As much as I truly dislike Frozen, Let it Go was prob easiest song to jam through 😂

•There seemed to be an issue with the boxes/barrels they often didn’t recognize my input :,,,)

•Played Co-Op mode by myself and happy they fixed the issue with inputs not working while one glides and other attacks.

•Ven’s theme was so distracting cause I kept just watching his videos and missing dgdjdgsys

•Don’t Think Twice having the “Kiss me(...)” parts on VenSo, VanVen, SR, and SK in the video👌👌👌👌

•Okay they totally could have added more scenes for Ven’s theme after the handshake scene, since he’s had more scenes past that point, but they chose not to. Which makes me hdhdgdg So every time getting to part where they hold hands and the last note being able to input “excellent” on the note, was like yes excellent, they held hands. Huehuehue

-Going into story now.-

•Okay, what I thought was going to have stronger Riku and Kairi friendship, just seemed so abysmal. Riku felt put off and awkward around her to me. Like Kairi was more of an acquaintance to him than anything 😬

•Kairi learning about her past and that Kairi was hope helped tie in what Xeha was going on about in DDD.

•I thought it was gonna be something concerning but really it was just him trying to get Kairi to Riku and Sora.

•Kairi’s job being harder with Sora in this other world. Is kinda confusing. Does she have some other role? Is it to keep Sora going? Idk.

•The whole this is a fictional world Sora is probably in like 💀 I was just like for real? The whole time. Guess fits XV’s whole “fiction based on reality.”

•So Sora got coded out of KH and programmed into a FF game on the game shelf? This what happened? 😂

•I do wonder if with where Sora is now, he’ll be hopping between other Square-esque titles or if it’ll just stay to Quadratum.

•Finding out the star being the 3rd key. Expected but bummed.

•The part that had me most annoyed is that Riku really felt to me like he didn’t care if Kairi was going or not. He only was focused on Sora 💀 Like an “okay whatever Kairi”.

•The fact she is staying behind AGAIN. Ugh.

•”Mickey go tell everyone else their efforts were pointless.”💀

•We don’t even get to see a little of what the other trios did. It really felt like “you trios aren’t important any more so we’re going to write you did something but you never did anything to begin with”.

•I seriously worry about the state of trios onwards.

•After credits having Kairi at least want to train with Aqua seems at least a little hopeful. So we’ll get at least a little Wayfinder Trio content. Hopefully Aqua trains her better than the half assed show of her in Merlin’s forest :/

•Possible VenKai now. That’s all that matters. 🙏

•They can talk to each other about how BS they keep getting treated 🥲 Ones pushed to the side. I hope they can grow together and motivate each other for their similar hardships.

•The fact they need to look into the lost masters has hope for a possible Ven game since he has strongest connection for that. Or maybe Ven and Kairi together game.

•But so far seems they’re just gonna make another SoRiku DDD fest again. So not gonna get my hopes up for a Ven game rn.

•Final thoughts,

•Gameplay: 9/10.

•Story: Idk what to rate it. I’m half and half. Interested in where they’re going. But not really vibing with Kairi being pushed aside again.

•UI: I love it 10/10

#KH MoM Spoilers #Melody of Memory Spoilers #KH MoM #Kingdom Hearts #Kingdom Hearts Spoilers #Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory #Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory Spoilers #UltySo Talks #Thoughts and Opinions

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quickspinner · 5 years ago

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April Kisses - Day 30

More April Kisses

49. Short and sweet kiss after meeting up for a date.

It doesn’t surprise him that he gets to the café first. Marinette isn’t what you would call punctual on a good day, and well...every day can’t be a good day. It doesn’t bother him; Luka gets a table, smiles at the server, and orders a drink, before settling back and taking a moment like he’s always reminding Marinette to, just to breathe and get back in his own skin after the chaos of the day. When he feels calm, he gets his notebook out, paging through the notes from his last class, though he’s paying more attention to the song ideas he jotted in the margins than the actual academic information. (It’s a stupid class anyway.)

His phone beeps with a familiar tone, and he hears it repeated all around the café. Luka sighs and pulls it out of his pocket to check the location of the akuma attack. Not that it matters all that much, but at least—wow, it’s all the way on the other side of town. Upside, they won’t have to evacuate the restaurant so the date won’t be a total loss. Downside, Marinette will probably be really late. Luka’s lower lip slides out in a slight pout as he puts his chin in his fist.

“Still doing okay?” the server asks as she stops by his table, and Luka jerks upright, smiling automatically, turning his phone over quickly though there’s nothing incriminating about checking an akuma alert.

“Actually, my date’s running a bit late, so I think I’m going to go ahead and order something while I wait,” he tells her, picking up his menu.

“Oh, bummer,” she says sympathetically, pulling out her pad and pen. “That’s got to be frustrating.”

“It’s okay,” Luka smiles absently as he finds the list of appetizers. “She’s worth waiting for.” He takes the opportunity to order an appetizer he knows Marinette would hate anyway. After the server walks away, he pulls up the Ladyblog so he can keep an eye on his girlfriend. He avoids the livestream; he doesn’t need to freak out in public and he can’t do anything to help her unless she comes for him. He just checks the news posts periodically as he munches his way through his appetizer, and breathes a sigh of relief when the akuma is reported defeated, looking up to flag the waitress down.

Shortly after, Marinette finally comes bursting through the door, windblown and out of breath, and he feels struck through the heart all over again as she scans the café frantically. They’ve been dating for almost a year and she still has that effect on him.

He stands up and she spots him, and Luka winces as she nearly causes several accidents in her hurry to get to him. Even so, he sweeps her up as she runs into his arms, babbling apologies and excuses that he doesn’t bother to listen to as he gives the people staggering in her wake an apologetic smile over her shoulder. “It doesn’t matter,” he says, squeezing her tight before drawing back and sliding his hands to grip her shoulders. It’s his little ritual, to assure himself that she’s safe and real—the only acknowledgement he allows himself that he could lose her any day to a madman obsessed with magic butterflies. “You’re here now.”

“I’m still sorry,” she gasps. Luka shakes his head and bends, Marinette leaning up automatically to meet him, and though the kiss is quick, it’s warm and soft, and he can feel her shoulders relax under his hands. That’s the part he hates the most about not being able to tell her he knows; the fear that eats at her that she’ll push him too far one day and he won’t be so forgiving of her tardiness and occasionally entire absences. Luka can’t tell her doesn’t mind being stood up once in a while if it means Paris is still standing at the end of the night. Sass made him swear, told him it would make things worse if she knew he knew, and Luka trusts the kwami, so he stays silent, and does his best to reassure Marinette by word and deed that he’s not angry.

He pulls out Marinette’s chair, smiling slightly as she sits and immediately grabs the fresh, full glass of water sitting by her plate and tries not to be too obvious about chugging it. Luka’s hands find her shoulders to squeeze one more time before he goes back to his side of the table, laughing at her as she wrinkles her nose at the remains of his appetizer and offering her a refill from the pitcher he asked the server to leave.

#quickspins #april kisses #luka knooooows #lukanette #i am lukanette trash i admit it #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #miraculousladybug #miraculous ladybug #promptfic #quickfic

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zchaotic · 6 years ago

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Things that Grind My Gears USUM and common complaints

1. People that said USUM butchered SM’s Story.

I loved SM’s story, I found Lillie’s growth to be amazing and I loved it when Lillie stood up to her mother. The story focused on her was great until the ending where Lillie went back to her mother to help her recover, it undoes most of her growth, we are given no indication that Lusamine has learned anything and the worse part, it ends the story with no closure.

Gladion also got stuck in a position pretty horrible, having to run the place he was abused in. It was a sloppy conclusion that dampened a great story.

Ultra Sun and Moon’s changes to the story are as followed; the Ultra Recon Squad being added in, focus on Necrozma as a villain, Lusamine’s motives being changed and how they affected her kids, Lillie’s focus and the post game.

While the Ultra Recon Squad didn’t do much besides foreshadow Necrozma and the pokemon could do a bit more for build up, Necrozma gave what is to me a better climax boss compared to Mother Beast.... in that we get to fight the fused alien monster.

Further more, USUM attempted to change Lusamine for a bit more than just fitting the Necrozma story, it tried to humanize her on screen. Something that SM DID NOT DO! For many, Lusamine in SM was an irredeemable, child abusing bitch and we didn’t get the info as to why she was doing things in the first place until the post game. Wrong place and wrong time for that backstory.

In USUM, they actually mentioned Mohn and add weight to Lusamine’s backstory. Him disappearing caused her downward spiral into the villain she became, who didn’t want to let things go. That is why she froze her pokemon and that is why she became such a control freak to her kids. This also adds to Lusamine’s “Mother knows best” mindset, where she believed she was right and everyone else should shut up and let her deal with things. Which is part of the reason she used Nebby for her goals this time, to feed that ego/ messiah complex and prove to everyone that she was right.

This dangerous thinking helped motivated Gladion when he took Type:Null and ran, he saw potential in the pokemon that Lusamine sure as hell didn’t. Gladion wanted to be free from that control and knew Type:Null was treated like dirt, so he wanted to give that pokemon a better life and prove its potential as a pokemon.

Lillie is a similar deal, she took Nebby and ran because she didn’t like how it was being treated. She did the only thing she could have done to stop this mistreatment and rescued the Cosmog. That is what lead to her escaping.

She still got inspired by you the player to become a trainer, change from the outfit her mother forced on her into her Z powered form, have a talk with her mother and have that goodbye with Nebby, in a more meaningful place and for reasons that make a bit more sense than. “I’m not a trainer.”

While Exeggutor Island was cut out and it was a bummer since that was less moments with Lillie. The majority of the things she said outside of what Lusamine use to be was moved over to Rainbow Rocket’s ending OR we got to see it. While Lillie’s talk with Lusamine was off screen, the girl told us what was going to happen so we can have an idea what was being talked about while we fight Necrozma.

We got to see Lusamine take that turn around for the better. It was no different from SM where Lusamine had a recovery off screen and Lillie decided to help her recover. (The later is worse for a LOT of reasons.)

While I admit that Lillie’s lack of focus made her part of USUM’s main story weaker, it gave a better conclusion to her family and other characters in comparison due to the following.

Lillie got to become a trainer on screen and continue to live with Kukui and Burnet, far away from Lusamine. Lillie still had around the same growth, though it isn’t the focus.

Gladion got to get away from Aether and live out life on his own with Silvally. He occasionally visits and there are signs that he isn’t in completely bad ties with his family.

Lusamine, though it is in dialogue, got an onscreen turn around. Thawed out her frozen pokemon after Rainbow Rocket/ was starting to do that, let her kids go and had closure with Mohn. A more believable redemption and closure compared to her SM ending where we see nothing but her as a villain.

Guzma had a bigger redemption arc as of RR.

The Captains have a last hurrah at Mina’s trial.

Hau had a more complete story arc where he takes things more seriously. I can close this story book and know how it ends for our characters.

Where exactly was things ruined outside of the lack of focus on Lillie? To me.... nothing.

2. USUM’s “Plot Holes” compared to SM.

In relation to the story, things play out the same way and the changes to Lusamine raised a lot of questions.

a. Why does Lillie still have the same look as in SM when Lusamine doesn’t have an obsession with Nihilego in USUM?

b. Why did Nihilego show up in USUM when Lusamine’s plans have nothing to do with it?

c. Why didn’t Lusamine use the legendary the Ultra Recon Squad have to go after Necrozma or why did the Recon Squad let Lusamine do what she did with Nebby.

d. Gladion’s reason for stealing Type:Null doesn’t make sense in USUM since it is just to get stronger and protect his family?

e. Why did they retcon Lusamine into “she didn’t do nothing wrong”/ Why is the game trying to depict Lusamine as a good person when she still abused her kids, has the frozen pokemon and tried to kill Nebby?

My answers are not popular... but here they go.

a. I did use to believe that Lusamine dressed Lillie up to resemble Nihilego, but then USUM changed that woman’s motives to where it had nothing to do with wanting that beast. But instead of raging about that “plot hole”, I believe that the resemblance is ultimately just a coincidence and nothing more in both sets of games. No one in the two sets of games has pointed out the resemblance. Just that Lusamine demanded Lillie and Gladion do what she says/ treated them like ornaments.

Lusamine was still such a control freak to her kids that she didn’t even let them pick their own look. They look what SHE wanted them to look/ do what she wanted them to do because “Mother Knows Best.” It’s pretty messed up, emotional abuse, it is why Lillie has little self confidence because she was treated as a child that should shut up and listen to the adult. It is how Gladion has all that frustration and need to do things his way.

Lillie changing her look and taking life into her own hands still has the same weight and impact in both sets of games. Lillie is stepping out of that smothering shadow and became her own person.

b. Nihilego showed up at Aether Paradise because the Aether Foundation was messing with Ultra wormholes. That is a given in both games, the reasons for the wormhole opening were different, BUT that is why the wormhole opened up. The Wormhole was just Nihilego’s, in SM that part was intended while in USUM it wasn’t.

c. Now for the legendary the URS have, that pokemon was their only ride in and out of home at Ultra Megaopolis, if they let their Solgaleo/ Lunala near Necrozma... that prism would eat them and they be screwed over. They let Lusamine do what she did with Nebby because it was a more acceptable lose/ result in a safer way to fight Necrozma in a more controllable way. The URS resulted to using theirs as a last resort when Nebby (You and Lillie’s only way into Ultra Space.) got eaten by Necrozma.

d. In USUM, Lusamine never had that obsession with the Ultra Beasts that escalated as it did in SM. Gladion took Type:Null and ran because 1. He had it with Lusamine’s abuse, didn’t like how she was treating Type:Null, stole it and ran to prove to that woman that she was wrong. With plans to come back once Null’s Power was realized. This can also split open in SM, where Gladion took Null and wanted to stop Lusamine, that woman was GONE and that boy’s only objective is to protect the family he had left and face his problems head on. So his change wasn’t that drastic and it opens him up more as a boy that has to manage quite a lot on his hands by himself.

e. As for the “Retcon!” There had to be a reason why Lusamine was nowhere near as extreme as she was in at SM. There was a reason why Lusamine’s goal had nothing to do with Nihilego in USUM. The post game of SM had this to say in the matter along with Guzma’s description of what Nihilego does to you.

From Wicke’s Note on Nihilego. “There have been sightings reported of this beast in Alola's past. Its most distinctive feature is its parasitic capability. When Nihilego latches on to a host, it does not manipulate its actions directly. Rather it awakens the host's own capabilities and boosts them to an extreme extent in order to protect itself. It injects the host with a sort of neurotoxin to achieve this effect. This neurotoxin of Nihilego's is incredibly stimulating and inspires feelings of extreme excitement and a lack of inhibition in its host. In other words, anything or anyone that a Nihilego latches on to will have its native skills forcibly activated to their fullest extent and will then act as it naturally desires to.”

This was the games attempt at trying to tell us that prior to SM’s events, Lusamine either got affected by the venom in some way or form... probably from the Wormhole experiments in opening the wormhole and trying to find Mohn or she kept focusing on the beasts and kept digging down the rabbit hole. Which was how she focused only on Nihilego and nothing else. It doesn’t excuse any of the crap she pulled, but it is the only real explanation we have and to be honest, she chose to dig that deep.

In USUM, Lusamine never got affected by that venom/ had something else to focus on and thus her motives for messing with the wormholes are different, she shows a care for her kids, the pokemon she has, etc.

Even without Nihilego, everything... from the abuse of her kids, the frozen pokemon, taking advantage of others and even allowing Null to happen were ALL from her and that is the reason we want to see this woman get knocked off her high horse. The things we should be mad at her for, because they all stemmed from her and it is why she is a villain in USUM.

For a bigger compare and contrast. http://ultraericthered.tumblr.com/post/167852568320/sm-lusamine-vs-usum-lusamine-part-1-while-her

http://ultraericthered.tumblr.com/post/167853295755/sm-lusamine-vs-usum-lusamine-part-2-in-sm

http://ultraericthered.tumblr.com/post/167853828520/sm-lusamine-vs-usum-lusamine-part-3-in-sm

USUM just made the changes so we can have that desire to see her get kicked and feel bad for how it got to the mess it did in the first place, while giving us the hope that she can be salvaged and have a turn around/ repair her relationship with her kids.

She became a problem for most of the game because she was going to go Leeroy on everyone and as everyone feared, it would have made things worse.

It is called, humanizing your villain on screen. Lusamine is less scary as a villain in this game, but she came off as a character with some actual depth to the things she has done as well as the villain Game Freak intended to make. One that can turn around for the better and have a hope of reconnecting with her kids in the end.

Nothing was really retconned, but things were cleared up in a way to show us what she would have been like without going down the rabbit hole she did in SM.

3. Lusamine’s abuse of her kids got swept under the rug, her turn around came out of nowhere and she got off Scott free in USUM.

a. It didn’t, Lusamine admitted to her kids that they were right to take the pokemon and run. She started making amends to the Cosmog she hurt right when you came back and Lillie only came back to Aether to see Nebby recover, after that they parted ways. Lusamine also had an identity crisis in between the post game and RR, where she realize just how much of a fuck up she was and after RR she decided on how to fix herself.

Getting her ass kicked was already done by Necrozma and more of it was not needed now that she learned her lesson and started making amends. This woman letting her kids go was another hint that she knew what she did was wrong, she got that and she hopes the best for them. (Seen with the goodbye between her and Gladion.)

b. Lusamine’s whole Leeroy Jenkins thing backfired, Necrozma is causing problems on Alola... problems she tried to prevent and funny enough, problems she caused in SM. The Ultra Recon Squad were chewing her out for her crap and Lillie had her turn with her while you were fighting Necrozma. It may have been off screen, but it is common sense to think THAT is when people were able to get it through her head in just how reckless she has been and get her to self reflect on the things she has done.

c. Despite Lusamine getting sick in SM at the end... she and the whole of Aether got off scott free for their shit in there as well. It’s pokemon, it is very likely Lillie and Bill would fix her up and she would recover. (Sacred Ashes exist for a reason people... its that strong of medicine.)

Another thing in Pokemon. Archie, Maxie, Colress and grunts from various villain teams have gotten off scott free for their shit and in USUM, Lusamine not having legal repercussions isn’t that different from them. So this didn’t bother me so much and if anything, Aether being raided by Team RR works as karma since now they are being taken advantage off... by force.

4. USUM should have been a sequel instead of ruining SM’s story/ should have been DLC.

a. I don’t understand why they didn’t make a sequel, BW2 was known for this... but there were a couple plot holes that came from BW2. One, what happened to the previous protagonist and all the characters that got involved with that one just mention them? It made things a bit shallower since the new protagonist is a substitute for them.

In addition, BW2′s story... compared to BW... wasn’t that great. It was a basic, bad guys are using a legendary for their goals, cause trouble in random locations etc that we see in every other game and unlike BW it wasn’t the whole plot. While a Sequel to SM might give closure... it would have caused as many problems as what BW2 did.

So I kind of appreciate that USUM was a rewrite of the story, it helped polish things out and give a better sense of closure. While SM had a more emotional story, I would take USUM as a whole over it due to that one giving closure while still having some of those emotions.

Also, DLC wouldn’t have covered a whole new challenge with the trials, trainers, new pokemon ETC... this was done in Crystal, Emerald and Platinum. So why is USUM doing any problems when some games with DLC abuse the hell out of it and milk us for money?

I apologize for the long rant, but I wanted to get this out of my system.

SM are good games, but USUM came around, did things a lot better in most areas and became the definitive edition of this generation. I really wish more people see it as the improved version of SM instead of a hindrance to Gen 7, it and the story doesn’t deserve the hate it gets.

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seriouslytryingtoeatclean · 6 years ago

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In all seriousness I am obviously joking.

If you’re truly thinking about being healthier going into this new year, fuck. yes. Join the cool kids’ club.

If you’re dealing with some kind of addiction or vice standing between you and good health, please scroll down to the post right below this one and buckle up for not-the-most-compassionate-but-still-very-heartfelt real talk.

If you’re just looking to maybe adopt some healthier eating habits and lose a few lbs...

You.

Got.

This.

Maybe you’re extremely overweight or inactive and it’s starting to affect your daily life? No sweat. It’s honestly never too late to make a few changes and turn things around.

I honestly suggest you consider it too, because the alternative is not, like, the best ever.

In all truthfulness I try not to care too much what other people do, because when people barge their way into my life and try to dictate to me what I should or should not be doing I get pretty furious.

However, if you’re in my life I truly care about you and I passively hope you ocassionally read one of my rambling blogs in the off-chance something I’ve written makes actual lucid sense and possibly lends a helping hand in some strange way.

So, back to thinking about getting healthy going into this new year.

Why tho?

Life is meant to be lived!

Why not have a party ‘till you die?!?!

You can totally do that if you want.

Actually, the trick is to learn how to party your fucking face off in moderation which has kind of a long adjustment period depending on what you’re going through and what your party resume looks like but with age and maturity it can be done and it’s the fucking BEST.

I was a fucking alcoholic pill-popping monster in college and my 20’s and now I just enjoy boozing ocassionally with friends when I’m not too stressed out about something else.

It’s literally the best.

And of course I understand that traditionally with addiction it’s an all or nothing thing and if you’ve gotten clean and are looking at this as a free pass to start testing the waters back in *whatever* again... well, for the record that’s in no way what I am saying. If you can’t exercise moderation, that sucks. Too bad for you. Go ahead and send me hate messages about how wrong I am and how dare I comment on the addiction process and blah, blah, blah, I am happy to ignore those.

Also, if you are a self-proclaimed rock star of whom the normal rules of science do not apply and you are out to see what your body can handle probably stop reading right now because the rest of this is for people who aren’t trying to recreate Hunter S. Thompson’s life in real-time. I totally feel you but I’m not about that life so, again, not the blog for you.

Also, please don’t message me and ask me to help guide you or wonder if maybe we could be roommates. Don’t you even think about bringing that evil up into my life!

Is my apartment the Robert Young Center? No it is not.

(Also, for the record (from now into the everlasting future), no I don’t want to try any of your weed. You don’t know the monsters I have known!)

Ok, so, if you’re still actually reading this and wanna talk (i.e. read what I have to say) about making some healthy steps so you can feel better and party with your friends in moderation and just feel good most of the time let me start by giving you a scenario:

(It’s real life too! Mine!)

Imagine you’re halfway through grad school and you’re working part time and you’re fairly stressed out and could not be more single because you are hovering around 4 bills on the bathroom scale (I mean it goes up to 350 and you are just burying that needle - SIDE NOTE: weight and self-worth are independent and my weight was not the sole reason for my solitude) and you kind of did this to yourself because you had like some unwanted attention previously that affected your career so then you knew if you looked way different you wouldn’t have to deal with that and then also, hello, grad school, just have a different career? Well, let’s say one night you are procrastinating on writing a paper, as you usually do, and you just kind of lose consciousness at one point for no real reason which is a little alarming so then you go to the ER and they are like:

“Bitch you could not have type 2 diabetes any harder right now. Are you even being serious with what a disaster this blood work is?!” - the doctor’s not quite exact words.

Um, problem.

If we’ve not met, my name is Lauren and I have been super-unhealthily preoccupied with my weight and appearance since 3rd grade. I’ve always been tall. Like, very talll. And in 3rd grade the entire class had to line up and get weighed for some reason and I tipped the scales far and above everyone else by a substantial amount. SUBSTANTIAL. And I was so weirded out because I honestly was a thin little adorable girl that just happened to be like a torso taller than everyone else, even the boys, and I internalized that number on the scale being so different from everyone else that I fucking snapped and have lived a life of complete body preoccupation that I wish upon no one. At that time my parents had just gotten divorced, my mom younger brother and I had just basically ditched my father as he was recovering from a horrible injury to move in with my grandparents, I literally did not even know what was happening around me half the time and then the universe felt like springing this complex about how much I weighed on me? Thanks just, SOMUCH! I’ll be sure to cycle through all the available eating disorders possible for the rest of my life!

In all seriousness, that’s just a little peek into my personal bullshit. Which when you get right down to it is just a bunch of first world problem whining.

The real problem is that tons of young women (and men too) in this country know all too well how all of that above rambling feels and that’s truly sad. So many people feel like shit about their appearance and weight and that is just really such a shame and waste.

Maybe you grew up with the most insecure and low-self-esteemed examples around you because some of your family members were/are just the worst.

Maybe you made your way into some kind of corporate career and were poised for some real success but then your boss got drunk and demanded that you “show him your fucking tits” or told you how hard you make his dick or how happy he is to see you stopping by the office after hours in the dark and goes in for some kind of strange embrace and you aren’t totally sure what to do in any of those situations because, uh, whattheactualfuck, so you default to doing nothing because you don’t think anyone cares or will believe you or you were worried about what could happen to your other coworker(s) if you said something and then you don’t have those jobs or opportunities anymore.

Maybe you grew up in a household where portion control and/or constructing a whole and actually balanced and nutritious meal wasn’t a thing or a possibility.

Bummer!

All of those scenarious are difficult. It’s not your fault people and/or situations fucking suck but it is up to you how you’re going to react to people and situations like that moving forward and the picture you’re going to create in your mind of how you view and see yourself which has a direct impact on how those around you see and view you.

Bottom Line: If you want to get healthy this new year and want to make changes to your life, if you are doing them for yourself, you are going to kick so much ass I can’t wait to see your progress. You’ll be engaged in the process and actually invest in learning how to do things right and will fucking blow your own mind with what you’re capeable of.

Oh, one last thing, to reference back up to the picture at the beginning of this post. Definitely let loose and enjoy the holidays first. January 1 is the perfect time to start. Once you really commit to health and stop eating a lot of junk and then try to go back and eat some it actually physically hurts and a holiday season without many treats is a holiday season no one should have to endure! 🤪

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universalhairclinic · 2 years ago

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Is It Possible for Hair to Regrow Using Natural Remedies?

We know that losing hair can be a real bummer, especially if you don’t know what’s causing your hair thinning. In this post, we’ll explain why your body has stopped producing healthier strands and then discuss the best natural remedies for hair regrowth. The good news is that you have options and there are steps you can take to reverse the effects of hair loss and hair fall.

The Basics of Hair Regrowth

Hair is the product of keratinocytes, a type of skin cell. Each hair grows in a cycle that includes three phases: anagen (growth), catagen (transition) and telogen (resting). Hair grows from a follicle, or root, on the scalp or other parts of your body. The fibres themselves are not permanent—they’re actually dead cells that are continually shed and replaced by new ones.

The average person has somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 hairs on his or her head. When it comes time for another one to fall out and be replaced with a new one, you might wonder what causes this natural phenomenon to occur.

What Causes the Hair to Fall Out?

Hair loss can be caused by a number of factors. The cause is not always known, but the most common causes include age-related hair loss, medical treatments or medications, genetics and stress.

Hair loss can also be caused by poor hygiene: it’s important to wash your hair every day or every two days and use conditioner after shampooing. It’s also worth avoiding tight hairstyles that apply pressure on the scalp. This may cause inflammation and lead to hair loss through breakage or miniaturisation,a process where the diameter of your strand grows smaller.

If you’re concerned about your hair falling out too quickly or in large amounts without any discernible reason—or if you notice lots of small bald spots forming in different areas—it might be time for a trip to the doctor!

Natural Remedies for Hair Regrowth

There are many natural remedies for hair regrowth, one of which is essential oils. Essential oils are used to stimulate the scalp and help promote healthy growth. You can use them topically by massaging them onto your scalp or even adding them to a DIY bath so that you can soak in their benefits!

They’re also great for massaging into the skin around your hairline and down to your neckline because they will help improve circulation in this area, which means that blood flow and oxygen supply is increased reaching every follicle. Blood flow and oxygen supply are important factors when it comes to growing new hair!

If you’re looking for other natural remedies that can help hair regrowth, there are a few things to keep in mind. First of all, it’s important to note that the regrowth process is slow and gradual. You’ll need consistency and patience when using any method for growing your hair back, whether it is natural or not. Here are some other natural remedies that might work best:

Foods rich in Vitamin B, like whole grains and spinach, can strengthen hair follicles.

Foods rich in Vitamin C, like oranges and strawberries, can help you to grow thicker hair faster by increasing blood flow to the scalp.

Foods rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, like avocados and walnuts, can support healthy hair growth while also providing nutrients that promote new cell growth within the body.

Zinc plays a key role in keeping your hair healthy as it is an essential component of many enzymes that are involved with protein synthesis (the creation of proteins) within cells throughout your body including those found on skin and hair follicles.

Biotin has been shown to increase keratin production which results in stronger nails/hairs when taken orally as well as topically applied directly onto the scalp!

Regrowing hair is possible with a little help from essential oils and healthy food choices. However, it may not be effective for some. When it comes to hair loss, it is best to consult a specialist to know the best course of action.

Are you looking to solve your hair loss concerns? Our specialist can help address your queries or concerns. Call us today at +353 (0)1 6793618

#Natural Remedies #Hair Regrowth

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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The Best Star Trek Holiday Gifts

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

You might think that religion and holidays don’t exist in the 23rd, 24th, or 32nd Centuries of Star Trek’s shared future, but in the first season of The Original Series, Kirk totally has flashbacks to a Christmas party on the Enterprise. Plus, who can forget when Picard fantasized about the giant Christmas tree in Star Trek Generations? Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or the Bajoran Gratitude Festival, you’re going to need some gifts this year. We don’t have replicators or programmable matter yet, so for now, you’re going to have to do some shopping.

Here’s a smattering of the best of the best gifts for the Star Trek person in your life. But, probably best to use the Spore Drive to grab all this stuff before it gets sucked into a wormhole. Hit it!

Editor’s note: Den of Geek may receive a small commission from items purchased through the links in this story.

Star Trek Holiday Sweaters

It’s shocking how few people actually wear sweaters on Star Trek. Sulu could have certainly used one on that cold planet in “The Man Trap.” Luckily, on our planet, there are some excellent Star Trek holiday sweaters. The Picard “Make It Snow” sweatshirt is pretty dope, But, if you want something a bit newer, there’s the Star Trek: Discovery, “Merry Trekmas” knit sweater, too.

Buy the “Make It Snow” Sweatshirt here.

Buy the “Merry Trekmas” Sweater here.

Mr. Spock’s Little Book of Mindfulness

This one might be good for a stocking-stuffer, or a gift you mail to someone you haven’t seen in a while. Between the politics and the pandemic, everyone could stand to end 2020 behaving a little bit more like our favorite outer space stoic. The illustrations here are adorable, and the sentiment is something we certainly all need. Spock can save your soul by helping you retrain your mind.

Buy Mr. Spock’s Little Book of Mindfulness here.

Star Trek: Voyager: A Celebration

This gorgeous coffee table book is exactly what it claims to be: a celebration of 25 years of Star Trek: Voyager. Over the past few years, it’s become increasingly clear that Voyager’s popularity isn’t just a fluke, and that this particular Trek has a special place in the hearts of Trekkies everywhere. Eaglemoss editor Ben Robinson and author Mark Writing conducted a mind-boggling number of new interviews for this book. This is the only complete picture of the entire history of Star Trek: Voyager.

Buy Star Trek: Voyager: A Celebration here.

Star Trek Wine 3-Pack

Although the official Star Trek wine shop is sold-out of the excellent Chateau Picard red, there are several other good Trek wines you can snag. The “Ultimate 3-Pack,” gives you Klingon Blood Wine, United Federation of Planets Sauvignon Blanc, and UFP Old Vine Zinfandel, which is a red. Having drunk two of these wines personally, the good news is that this is legit wine.

Buy Star Trek Wines: The Ultimate 3-Pack.

Vulcan Salutes Only T-Shirt

Social distancing can feel like a bummer still, but luckily, Star Trek invented the most perfect touchless greeting of all time, years ago: The Live-Long-and-Prosper Vulcan salute! There are a few variations of these kinds of shirts floating around, but this one, that simply says “Vulcan Salutes Only” is a friendly, logical way to avoid shaking hands with someone, and, also, gives you an excuse to flash the Vulcan salute whenever you feel like it.

Buy Vulcan Salutes Only T-Shirt here.

XL USS Defiant Starship Model

The Eaglemoss starship collection is, at this point, somewhat legendary. But if you’re buying a Star Trek ship for a super-fan, you might be worried they’ve got a few spaceship models already, right? In other words, how many Enterprises can you have? Well, the 85-inch USS Defiant from Deep Space Nine might be the answer. Captain Sisko’s warship that was designed to fight the Borg, but later fought the Dominion, and even time-traveled a few times, is one of the sleekest, most underrated Trek ships ever.

Eaglemoss collaborates directly with archive materia from Paramount and CBS to recreate 100 percent accurate models. In other words, these ships are the real deal.

Buy XL USS Defiant Starship Model here.

USS Discovery Starship Model

Okay, maybe your Trekkie is a little more contemporary! Maybe they do need a starship model gift, but it needs to be from the newer era! The Eaglemoss USS Discovery will fit the bill. Also, probably a good time to snag this version of the ship, since you know, it uh, just got a pretty big upgrade.

Buy USS Discovery Starship Model here.

Klingon Mek’Leth

Buying a Star Trek prop is some serious commitment, and nothing really says hardcore Trekkie like some Klingon weapons. First seen in Deep Space Nine, this smaller blade, wielded by Worf is probably most remembered for the scene in First Contact in which our favorite Klingon sliced off a Borg arm. Buy the Mek’Leth. Don’t slice anyone’s arm off IRL.

Buy the Klingon Mek’Leth prop replica here.

Chateau Picard Cutting Board

If you need to take a break from cutting Borg arms off, and instead, you want to slice some cheese or cured meats, then the Chateau Picard cutting board is certainly the way to go. Although the fictional Chateau Picard is in a different part of France than the real Chateau Picard, it’s still fun to pretend like we’re all buying stuff from a vineyard that will, some day, be owned by the Admiral himself.

Buy the Chateau Picard Cutting Board here.

Data’s Painting “Daughter”

Need some Star Trek art? Want it to not exactly look like Star Trek art? How about a painting that Mr. Data created on the Enterprise? Yep, the MacGuffin from Star Trek: Picard Season 1, a painting called “daughter” made by an android in the future. But, you know, it just looks like a regular painting.

Buy Data’s “Daughter” Painting here.

Riker’s Pizza

And, if you’re looking for some wall art that goes in the other direction, but still celebrates the TNG crew, how about this “ad” for Riker’s Pizza! To be clear, Riker only seems to make pizza for his family on the planet Nepenthe, but maybe, for a certain kind of person, this will make things feel like home.

Buy Riker’s Pizza Poster here.

USS Enterprise-D Tea Cup

Okay, there are a lot of Star Trek mugs and tea cups out there. We mean a lot. But the coolest one seems to be the kind that recreates what an actual tea cup (or mug) might look like on an actual Federation starship. A hidden gem among all the Star Trek cups and mugs then, is this one, a cup and saucer set designed to look like something from the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D. They’re calling this a “Star Trek: Picard” cup, but we all know this is from the TNG-era all the way.

Buy the USS Enterprise-D cup and saucer set here.

DISCO “Phaser Gun”

There’s a shocking dearth of good Phaser toys on the market at the moment, at least new ones are kind of hard to find. While Entertainment Earth has a new TOS Phaser coming out next year, that doesn’t really help if you want a Phaser for the holidays. Right now, there’s an unofficial Discovery-era Phaser made by Cafele. It looks pretty legit!

Buy the Discovery “Phaser Gun” here.

The “DISCO” Shirt

First introduced in the episode “Lethe,” the off-duty t-shirts worn by the crew of the USS Discovery have been a hit among hardcore Trekkies and casual fans alike. If the Trek person doesn’t have this in their life yet, it’s time to correct that.

Buy the DISCO t-shirt here.

New Star Trek Novels — From TOS to Voyager

Back when some of us were kids, we couldn’t just watch Star Trek whenever we felt like it, unless we had the VHS tapes. So, that meant that Star Trek novels often filled that void. The thing is, the tradition of great Star Trek novels hasn’t gone away one bit. Two of the newest Trek novels are also fantastic. If you’re buying a Trek novel for a TOS fan you’ve got A Contest of Principles by Greg Cox, a novel about the classic crew trying to help an alien planet hold free elections! Really!

But if you’re more of a Voyager person, you also must check out Kirsten Beyer’s new novel, To Lose the Earth. For fans of the new shows, Beyer is probably best known as a writer on Discovery and Picard. But, she’s been a novelist, writing Voyager books for much longer. Her latest Voyager book is also one of her best.

Buy Star Trek: A Contest of Principles by Greg Cox, here.

Buy Star Trek: Voyager- To Lose the Eart by Kirsten Beyer, here.

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chanlyeya · 7 years ago

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I asked empressarcana about this but i wanna hear your headcanons too! (Bless the two of you for all these TL posts!) How do you think it would go once isabella introduces ashton to her family? And isabella to ashton's family? I mean there's probably a disconnect since they come from different cultures and social standings! But I wanna know how they both deal with it!

This is such a cute ask (｡ ˃艸˂) I’m more than happy to provide posts for this fandom nonnie, I love it nearly as much as Ash loves Belle (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ✧

Before I answer, I want to make one thing clear: I am a Canadian of mixed European descent, specifically Hungarian, Finish and German, so I have absolutely no first hand experience with any of their respective cultures. I can look things up, but that’s only so accurate, so I apologize beforehand if anything seems uncharacteristic!

Since Ash’s family is smaller, and nearby, we’ll start with his, as Belle is definitely going to meet them before Ash meets hers. Since she meets his surrogate father figure in the actual game itself, I’m going to leave Professor Andrew out of this 😅

First member to be met, is Mama Frey, and Belle is nervous as all get out. She asks both Ash and Becca so many questions about her leading up to the meeting. Ash thinks it’s adorable and is enjoying watching her freak out, until the day they’re supposed to meet up and goes to pick up Belle but, she’s not at home??? And not answering her phone??? Then he starts to freak out until Becca calls him to let him know she’s with her; she showed up at half past six freaking out over her hair of all things and Becca’s been trying to calm her down since. It serves him right, enjoying his girlfriend’s freak out like that.

Anyways, once Ash stops being an ass, he goes to pick up Belle, who latches on to his hand and won’t let go until they reach his mom’s place. He can feel her nerves through the way she grips his hand, so he tries to calm her down by running his thumb over the lines of her palm, and, when that doesn’t work, flicks her forehead. That works much better, and though he mourns the loss of her hand in his, he knows she appreciates it despite the glare she sends him.

Mama Frey opens the door before they even have a chance to knock as she was watching them approach because, damnit, she’s been waiting for this day for years! Her son may be under the delusion that’s he’s cool and smooth and can keep a secret, but not from his mama! She knew this Isabella would be the one for her son ever since she received that call half a decade ago where he drunkenly ranted about some stupid girl on some stupid bridge with her stupid smile!

Mama Frey shoos them into the house where they find she made them a feast, complete with all of Isabella’s favourites. Turns out, Isabella wasn’t the only one bugging Becca about the upcoming meeting and Belle is super touched??? And, to top everything off, unlike her son, Mama Frey not only knows how to cook but??? Is actually quite good at it???? Belle immediately tells her boyfriend he better watch out, because he’s quickly losing his position as her favourite Frey ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Needless to say, Isabella and Mama Frey hit it off big time. Lots of embarrassing stories are shared, and Mama Frey thanks Isabella for putting up with her son. He may be an idiot at times, but he has his heart in the right place. Belle says not to worry, she knows, and though he tends to mess up a lot, she still loves him for it 💘

There’s nothing else to say, since Ash dies right then and there ;)

Joking! The next member to be met is Papa Frey! Just like with Mama Frey, there is a lot of talk with Becca about what to do, since Ash is biased and therefore useless whenever she asks him for help. Since her meeting with Mama Frey went so well, Belle is not nearly as nervous this time and doesn’t run off without a note to her boyfriend’s relief.

Now, I imagine Ash’s dad to be much like mine, and, very relaxed??? My dad’s a lot like Professor Andrew actually. He’s not as prepared for the meeting as Mama Frey was, since he believes in just letting things happen. To Ash’s immense relief, he does not pull out all forms of embarrassing stories, and instead they have a deep discussion about art??? He’s seen some of her paintings and is very impressed and, in fact, he owns one of them. He went to her exhibit she had done with Zach, wanting to know a bit more about this girl his boy was in love with. Once more, Isabella turns to Ash and tells him, if he doesn’t do anything, he’ll soon become her least favourite Frey 😂

As far as Ash is concerned, it’s perfect, Not embarrassing in the least, until, near the end, Papa Frey asks Belle if his son told her he loved her yet??? And Ash is all, “uh, dad, we’re dating”. And Papa Frey is shocked??? “With how you act and talk about her, I thought for sure you were still in the pining stage!” Ash takes it back—his dad is so much more embarrassing then either Professor Andrew or his mom!!!

Alright, so, that’s it for Isabella meeting Ash’s family, now for the real challenge: Ash meeting Isabella’s!

It’s a bit over two years into their relationship before the two of them can both set aside enough time to head down to meet the family for a week. Mama Santos is super looking forward to finally meeting the man who captured her daughter’s heart???? Belle had never even entertained the idea of dating before Ash, and suddenly they’ve been in a relationship for two years and from what Mama Santos has heard, this boy really loves her daughter????

Mama Santos prepared for him big time. She had the house cleaned top to bottom a week prior, and just kept cleaning it during her free time. She rearranged the furniture in the guest room, and Isabella’s old room. They would be sleeping in different rooms, which is kinda a bummer as far as Ash is concerned, but, whatever pleases her family. They come bearing gifts, which endears Ash to the younger siblings, and while Mama Santos loves him immediately, the same cannot be said about all her siblings :’( I have another ask asking about exactly that, so I’ll go into detail when I answer that one.

Mama Santos immediately treats him as part of the family, and tries to get him to help out with cooking, but Belle puts a stop to that immediately. Ash apologizes and says he’s still learning how to cook thats a lie, Isabella doesn’t let him in the kitchen even to watch but he offers to help clean instead. Mama Santos is a bit worried over the fact that he can’t cook, since she loved to cook with Papa Santos and the kids, it was a family activity, but he didn’t have any other glaring faults so she lets it slide.

They visit Bella’s father’s grave. Bella brings flowers, and Ash brings incense, a basket, and a barrel of water. He cleans the grave first, then burns a stick of incense, before sitting in front of the grave and starting to a tea ceremony where he then leaves a wooden cup full of it before the grave. He apologizes to the grave, saying he doesn’t know if he would like the matcha, but it’s all he learned how to make properly. Isabella asks what he’s doing and he explains that he doesn’t know if Filipino have a traditional way of honouring the dead, but this is what his mom taught him to do whenever visiting the grave of his grandparents, and he wants to treat Papa Santos with the same respect.

Isabella falls a bit more in love then

They stay until the incense finishes burning, the two of them just…silently standing side by side, each offering their own prayers to the man. When they finally leave, Isabella takes Ash’s hand and reassures him that Papa would’ve appreciated the thought and act behind what he did, and that he would’ve loved him.

Since this also got long, I’ll put it under a read more when I get home. On that note; do you guys like these long responses, or should I start cutting them shorter???? (｡ ˃艸˂)

#the letter vn #the letter visual novel #asks #ashton frey #isabella santos #ashbella #otp: the truth he holds against the world

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transformersreviewer · 7 years ago

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Transformers Prime review

(Some images may be blurry. The quality in the beginning and in some spots are due to the buffering of the video. Images will be stacked OVER their respective text most of the time. Though sometimes images will be in the middle of their text.)

Season 1 Episode 1

Ah, the nostalgia from this opening scene. And to hear CliffJumper’s voice again after so long. It’s a true bummer that he dies in this same episode. RIP CliffJumper, you will LITERALLY be missed throughout the whole series. Speaking of voices, I completely forgot how smooth Arcee’s is. It really has been too long since I last watched Prime. Though, after Cliff tells Arcee that he got ‘the boot’, she feels compelled to describe what a boot is. I know this is a cartoon but this series was, and still is, mainly watched by adults who know what a boot is, in terms of cars. Especially since the movie Cars came out in 2006 and TFP premiered in 2010.

Anyway, after Cliff describes what he did after he got booted, Arcee almost literally said that the cops who booted him shit themselves. So, if you don’t listen carefully to Arcee, what she says may confuse you at first. what she says is, “Like Jasper, Nevada’s a party…” when I first heard this line, I thought she said, “Like Jasper Nevada siparty…” You can hardly hear the spacing in the sentence. And the second part, “…we’re alone where ever we travel on this rock, Cliff.” The last two words sound merged into “rock-cliff”, as though she was talking about a mountain.

Cliff: “I got a signal.” Arcee: “You need backup?” Cliff: “Do I ever need backup?” Me: “This time, I think ya do.”

And there he is. The first sight of a Cybertronian in robot mode.

Ah the return(?) of the Decepticons. I adore the vehicons/eradicons. They don’t get the appreciation they deserve. They have to put up with their insane superiors.

So, one thing that some people might’ve noticed is that this series utilizes hand painted backgrounds. Not as liberally as RID 2015 but they still use them. The paintings are incredible. [image] Look at that. The way the trees look is amazing. You can see the texture of the paint and the paintbrush.

Oh boy. Ratchet’s voice. Oh geez. It sounds like he just finished a spoon full of peanut butter and his tongue is sticking to the roof of his mouth as he talks.

Hey look, the vehicons are playing ‘Bot in the middle’.

And there goes the horn. Cliff is pissed but that doesn’t matter ‘cause he loses anyway.

Hey, uh, StarScream? What’s going on with your, uh, w-with your eyes? You okay buddy? Do you need a doctor or something?

Ah yes, the first time (in TFP) that someone gave StarScream a nickname. Admittedly, ‘Scream’ doesn’t quite roll of the tongue as nicely as ‘Screamer’ does. It sounds kinda weird.

Has anyone else noticed how shiny StarScream’s chest is in this scene? Did he polish it before hand to show off or something? How could he have known that they’d take a prisoner?

There he is! Big Papa Prime. Y’know i’ve always wondered how he still looks shiny and new. He’s been at war for over six million years, you’d think his paint would have dulled over that much time. *shrugs*

Also, just a small note. In this first episode it’s clear that they were still learning the models. The lip syncing is a little off, but if I remember correctly, they get better and even manage to exaggerate expressions in later episodes.

*squints* is that? It is! It’s modern Cybertronic. I’ll send that over to my linguist blog and I’ll try to translate it there. Here’s a link to that blog. {link}

FIRST OF ALL!!! KO Drive-in. They are foreshadowing Knockout!!!! Secondly, I hate the models for the humans.

I mean, it like they didn’t even try. They could have at least put texture on the clothes. Also, Jack is an idiot. why would you leave the bags on the sill after you insulted them, you shoulda known they were just gonna grab them and leave.

JACK!! why would you sit on a bike that wasn’t yours. Even if she is a Cybertronian, you shouldn’t sit on a bike that’s not yours. what if she had an owner and they caught you on their bike without permission. You’re a teen and you look like the kind of person who’d steal an expensive looking bike like that.

Look at these two handsome gentlemen. I love the vehicle modes for the vehicons. what car are they based on? I wanna know.

Arcee enter’s an alley, pulling a U-turn then drops Jack off. Jack runs into an alley on Arcee’s right. Vehicons’ magically appear behind Arcee even though they were following her before she entered the alley. They coulda gone ‘round the block but they got to the other side real quick Arcee looks in rearview mirror. Vehicon turns left into an alley to chase Jack. First off, that alley got real long real quick. Secondly, wrong way bud. He went right not left.

Keep an eye on these pedestrian cars.

WHERE THEY GO?! They disappeared!

even though they supposedly don’t have faces, I think the Vehicons are fucking sexy as hell!

Oh my god the glass is clear. I never noticed it. I just thought it was flat black. Oh my god!

Oh wow. it would take some careful aim to impale someone on a knee spike like that. it’s not a part of the joint so it wouldn’t stick straight up. it’s part of the shin and would require a perfectly vertical angle to stab someone with that.

Did anyone else notice that you can see the anatomy of Arcee’s eyes? I think Arcee is one of the few, if not the only, bots who display the actual shape of the eye. Most of the cybertronians I remember don’t show it as clearly as she does. The others look to have some sort of screen display or coloured glass over their eyes that hides the anatomy.

Ratchet rolls his eyes but doing so makes it look like his right eye is completely black.

why does Optimus have his mask up when he enters this scene? That’s just unnecessary and strange. the moment passes so quickly that it makes you think you’re seeing things.

Um… Optimus claims that they are at war because of Energon. Last time I checked, the war started because Megatron wanted every bot to be free to do as they please but instead of being granted Primeacy (Prime-hood? The title of Prime) like he wanted, you cut in, initially to try to help the council understand what Megatron meant, and became Optimus Prime, making Megatron furious. The war started because of; 1. the inequality of the planet’s people 2. the councils’ refusal to acknowledge the fact that their were bots whom were unhappy with the situation they were forced into and 3. Megatron’s rage of your betrayal that sparked because of a misunderstanding.

On a positive note, after OP explains some random stuff, that doesn’t quite line up with the actual origin of the war, If you watch his neck closely, you can see parts of his anatomy shifting over the core surface. The attention to this detail is very cool.

Megatron’s back but it looks like the Chameleon Eye syndrome is contagious.

And thus concludes episode 1. Thanks for reading. I’ll be posting episode 2 soon.

#transformers prime #review #tfp review #TFR

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vixen-visuals-blog · 7 years ago

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Tour Blog # 4- Portland, OR and San Francisco, CA

After driving for 8+ hours for multiple days in a row, the three hours from Seattle to Portland felt like nothing—we even got to the venue early. As soon as we got there, however, I realized I’d left my camera battery and charger at Shanan’s friend’s house in Seattle. I got into contact with our host, and it’s on it’s way to Cory’s parent’s house in California, but I had to inconvenience Spencer (huge shout out to him for being so nice about it) and it was money I didn’t want to spend. It’s a bummer, but I have one charger and two batteries, so I’m not hosed by any means.

I try to keep these blogs as honest as possible, so I’m going to be real and tell you that the show at The White Eagle was pretty rough. The bar was sparsely populated, and although the people who were there were engaged, TNS and Jessica were essentially just interested in getting in, playing their sets, and getting out. It’s hard to be optimistic when you spend more on gas than you get paid.

To top off a less-than-perfect night, we realized we were quickly losing tire pressure as we drove to the place we were crashing. When we stopped at a gas station, we found a screw in our tire that we had apparently run over. Cory had hitched a ride with our host, so they turned around, and picked Jess, Jeff, and me up to go home, while Michael and Shanan dealt with the van.

We also stopped for some Jack-In-the-Box tacos, which has become a pretty self-destructive running joke.

Michael and Shanan ended up filling the tire up twice and driving it back to our host’s house, and we had to call a tow truck to get a new tire the next morning. While the guys do account for these kind of things, they make it really hard to stay on budget, especially when our merch sales have been abysmal (don’t worry, it only gets worse from here).

Once we got the van back, we left Salem and headed back to Portland. We wanted to try a recommended brunch place, but we knew there would be a line, so we stopped at a fantastic donut place to hold us over. Both the donuts and the brunch were so good that I cried.

After we ate, the guys just wanted to chill out or nap in the van, but Jessica and I wanted to explore Portland a little more. We took a bus to a different part of town, where we visited a famous, massive bookstore and a coffee shop, along with running a few errands.

Having JLamb along is really a blessing. She adds a rad new dynamic to the group, and she totally gets the struggle of being a young, female creative on the road, and all the baggage that comes with it.

We met the boys at the venue, which was the first real SoFar show of the tour. The space was unlike anything I’ve ever shot for them—the “stage” was a garden, with the yard as the seating area. The boys seemed to like it, and were able to bring it into their stage banter pretty effectively. While it wasn’t the first time I’ve shot through plants, it’s the first time I shot through a tomato cage and was concerned about stepping on basil leaves.

Nevertheless, I was really happy with the photos from Portland. I’ve felt like my photos have been mediocre for the past two or three shows, so it’s putting a spring in my step to get some solid ones. This one is probably my favorite from the tour so far:

We packed up and went back to Salem, where we were staying. After devouring a plate of cannolis that were so good that I cried, we crashed hard, knowing we were going to have to be out the door at 7:30.

Which was easier said than done, considering we weren’t out the door until around 8. Oops.

The drive to San Francisco was a long one, and I slept for a healthy portion of it. By the time we got into the city, we had to immediately load in for the SoFar show and scarcely had time for dinner. We managed to scam some Chinese food from our hosts, Couchsurfing (which is a super cool company you should totally check out).

There was a miscommunication about Jessica being on the bill, so we managed to figure out a way to divide our set and share with her—it was different and harder for me to shoot, but people seemed to really like it.

As soon as the set was over, however, we received news that no musician ever wants. This is the blog post I never wanted to write.

Shanan ran into the venue as we were working merch and told us the van had been broken into. Thieves had smashed the passenger side window and taken all the backpacks they could reach. We later learned a lawyer working late in his office heard the glass break, took a few photos, and scared them off, and thank God he did.

Thinking my zoom lens (which was the only thing I had in the van other than my duffel bag) had been lost, I burst into sobs and ran outside, which I realized in hindsight was probably very unhelpful to the situation. By some miracle (or a San Francisco lawyer who wasn’t afraid to yell), the lens was still there. The backpacks of the other five, however, were gone. The only reason I’m able to give you this tour blog is because I had my backpack inside the venue with me.

During the next set, I got a call from two wonderful women who found our bags. The laptops and a wallet were long gone of course, but they went out of their way to deliver our stuff to the venue, so we got some of the important things—medications, notebooks, and Jessica’s favorite flannel—back. We owe so much to these ladies, and I wish we could’ve given them more than just a thank you.

With that act of kindness saving our butts, I was shocked to go back into the venue and hear our SoFar MC announcing to the audience what had happened, and passing around a bucket to collect donations. You could hear the wind being sucked out of the room as soon as she said it—the joyously good time of hearing music intimately ruined by a few shitty people. Seeing everyone pitch in so generously to help us was mind-blowing, and brought tears to my eyes. We ended up collecting enough money to fix the window, plus some extra.

With a bottle of tequila donated from the venue to ease our pain, and a police report filed, we had no choice but to pack it up and head to where we were crashing. Our hosts for the night helped us put cardboard over our window and we hit the hay.

I’d love for these tour blogs to just be a fun chronicle of my adventures, zipping across the west coast without a care in the world, but tour just isn’t like that. There are highs, and there are lows, and this one knocked the breath out of me. We’re all heartbroken. The incident could have been a million times worse—we had music gear in the back, and more stuff even in the cab that they could have grabbed. We’re trying to stay optimistic on that front, but it’s hard to do when you feel so violated.

Something that’s helped to ease the pain is the outpouring of support from strangers and fans alike. We are so grateful for all the kind words and offers to help.

To those of you who are asking what you can do to help: To the best of my knowledge, no kind of GoFundMe has been started, and we don't plan on starting one. The best thing you can do is just to support the band. Look at our tour dates (thenewschematics.com/tour) and encourage your friends, family, acquaintances, blood enemies, and friends of friends of friends to head out to the shows, buy merch, and spread the word. This is certainly a nightmare for all of us, but we will recover, and your support in this decidedly more difficult journey means the world to us.

I hope we have happier trails ahead of us, and that karma will come back to those who did this. On that depressing note, stay tuned!

youtube

#tourblogs #the new schematics #your year tour

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pathosvignettes · 6 years ago

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Real Life The Game - A Review

By Kearu - Beast Mastery Hunter, EU Doomhammer

Note: I originally wrote this back in 2010 which should explain some of the dated references. I recently found it in an old backup; posting it here so I don’t lose it again!

So anyway, I've reached level 40 in this "Real Life" (RL) game and think that I've got enough of a feel for it to give a sensible review. Even though it’s a free-to-play game, should you bother taking time out from Azeroth to play it? Let’s find out.

Leveling up

The first thing you need to know is that the leveling curve is very steep. Getting to level 40 took a looooonnggg time. It doesn't seem to matter how much time you spend logged in, or what you do while you are logged in; you only ever seem to ding about once a year.

Having said that, because you don't ding often it's a much bigger event when you do, and fellow players commonly buy you in-game gifts that are presented to you at in-game gatherings called "parties". As you'd expect, these gifts are worthless fluff for the main part so that they don't break the game balance.

Making the levelling take so long, is an interesting design decision. In WoW equivalent terms, it would mean that the highest level character would be coming up on level 6 by now. I guess the publishers believe that this game will be around a lot longer than WoW - only time will tell I guess. However, when they claim to have over 6.5 billion players on a single-shard server you do tend to have a hard time believing the marketing hype!

Core game-play

The game play itself has three main elements to it:

Gold grinding;

Resource recovery; and

The actual game itself.

In order to play the actual part of the game you have to spend about a third of your play time grinding gold - this sucks, and is way too high a proportion of the game in my opinion. You can choose a profession and learn skills to make it more efficient, and this can lead to "promotion" which increases your rank and allows you to earn more gold per hour. However, the fact that there are so many gold sinks in the game (some of them are even compulsory and are called "taxes") means that you can never get enough gold from the grinding to really enjoy the game properly.

Three little snippets about the grinding/professions part of the game:

Some people, instead of using the higher gold per hour to reduce the amount of time they grind, just keep grinding to amass huge amounts of gold for no real purpose - go figure;

Apparently, the banker profession became so over-powered recently that it destabilised the entire in-game economy - incoming nerf-bats are widely expected;

There are some RL players who participate in LARP (basically, pretending to be people that you would find in WoW) - how weird is that? I mean, why would you login to the RL game and then spend your time doing everyday normal things that you would do in WoW anyway? *shrugs*

The second part of the game is a kind of reverse version of rested XP. The more you play the game the more sluggish and error-prone your character becomes. To reset your character you are forced to rest for around 6-8 hours of game time. Again, this sucks. The only saving grace is that the designers seem to have acknowledged this and have used cut scenes quite effectively so that it doesn't feel that long. However, the fact remains, having to spend about a third of your play time in a comatose state because of poor game design needs fixing - quickly please.

Once you get past the gold-grind and the resource recovery aspects and into the game itself, it's very different from the normal WoW world we're used to. It's very much a sand-box type of game: there are no quests; no NPCs that I could find (although some players seemed to act as stupidly as NPCs do); and progression is defined pretty much according to the goals you set for your avatar. Sims players would probably like this game. The one thing that I found really bizarre was that, some players, having spent all that time in the grind and recovery phases then log out of the game to spend more time in WoW!

User interface

The user interface has it's good points and it's bad points. It's greatest strength is the very impressive use of VR. You play the game in an all over VR body suit - in-game chat refers to this as a "monkey suit" for some strange reason. The simulation of sensory reception from this technology is quite frankly jaw-dropping. I spent a lot more game-time than I had intended just exploring this new interface: feeling the different textures of in-game objects. Actually having foods that taste different was a revelation. And, being able to smell the world around you really added to the feeling of immersion (although some of the smells were less than pleasant - game designer humour I suppose).

Another plus point of the game is that, despite the bandwidth that must be necessary for this type of experience, I've had no lag even running the game on the highest graphic settings. Graphics by the way are fantastic - you could almost believe some of the rendering to be real objects. I've had the occasional disconnect which has been hard to diagnose but it seems to be correlated with excessive alcohol consumption. Not such a big issue - although the time taken to re-connect with the world seems to be quite random.

The VR design approach does have it's drawbacks though, especially considering that the designers have also decided to include collision detection with just about everything in the game. In particular, this really impacts the combat element of the game; collision detection and an ultra-sensitive user interface means that injuries really hurt. On top of this, the designers have chosen to include perma-death. I mean seriously? You really think that a game that only allows you to roll a single character, where it takes you a year to ding every level and includes perma-death is going to sell?

Creating your first (and only) character

Which brings me onto character creation itself. Firstly, there is no character creation screen - zip, nada, niet. There are two sexes and multiple races but you get no choice about any of this and no chance to change any of your physical appearance attributes. You just login and "bam" you've got a totally randomised avatar. This seems to be a "brave” design decision since you only ever get one character and there are no cash shop options to expand your slots.

There is no HUD in the game (the default view is first person and you can't change it without the illegal use of chemical add-ons), no user manual and no tutorials means that the game can be very confusing initially. Fortunately, more experienced players can volunteer to mentor noobs (in fact you can't currently create a character without at least one mentor). They are referred to in-game as "pa-rents". There are stories about players becoming mentors accidentally, which must be a serious bummer given the impact it has on your play time.

In game support

On related note to in-game help it can be very difficult to get support with the game. Nobody seems to know who the game publisher is, although there are numerous in-game theories. The best approach appears to be crouching on the floor, closing your avatar's eyes and sub-vocalising the help request. In my experience, this has been less than satisfactory. However, since I never received a response from a GM, I can't say whether they received my request and have acted on it or simply ignored it. Some players claim to have encountered GMs (referred to variously as "angels" or "prophets") although there is wide-spread cynicism among the player population, given that these encounters seem to be so rare.

Factions

There are hundreds of factions in RL, nominally based around capital cities of geographic regions - pretty much like normal WoW. However, language generally tends to be faction-specific rather than race specific. You are automatically allocated to a faction based on the random geographical area in which your avatar was created. You can pay to change faction (but not race) although, unless you also train to learn the language related to your new faction, participating in the game will be much harder.

One interesting aspect of the game is that faction leaders are actually players themselves. Periodically, there will be an "election" where all the players belonging to a faction will be asked to choose who they want to be faction leader. Once all the player choices have been registered and counted, the candidate with the most gold becomes faction leader.

Resource management

There is no magic in the game, but there is something called "technology" which is pretty much the same thing and mana is replaced with "electricity". This mana is not an attribute of your character and is available at various nodes in the game world and can also be carried in portable containers. Mana doesn't regenerate when idle unfortunately, which means that when your portable mana supply is low you have to find a node to replenish it which can be a bit of a pain.

A quick aside. According to the game lore, this "electricity" is supposed to be a controlled form of a shaman's lightning bolt. Really? Since when has a shaman ever had "control" of their lightning bolt? LB *crit* LB *crit* CL *crit* *crit* *crit* <shammy dies> <muffled voice from the floor> "Noob tank, can't you hold aggro?". But hey, this is a fantasy game so I'll roll with the lore on this one - not everything has to be believable, right?

Eating and drinking

On a related note, in the game you can eat and drink while standing up! Yay! Strangely, though, players still tend to follow the WoW custom and sit down to eat and drink - go figure.

Eating and drinking doesn't seem to regenerate resources as it does in normal WoW - although this is hard to tell without a HUD - but if you go without eating and drinking for too long your avatar starts to complain and becomes weaker. Conversely, a certain amount of time after eating or drinking, your avatar again complains about having to void the food and drink it consumed and you have to stop to allow this process to happen (the process by the way is quite gross and I won't discuss it here). This is really annoying, especially if you are in the middle of one of the games thousands of achievements.

The strange thing is consuming food and drink takes time, doesn't seem to affect your resource levels and then has to be voided again - what's the point of this game mechanic?

Character afflictions

Diseases and poisons are much longer lasting in RL than they are in WoW but fortunately there are players who have specialised in treating these ailments. The only problem is that there appears to be a game-wide, major, mortal-strike debuff, because recovering from them seems to take forever. In another "brave" game decision, the designers seem to have decided that diseases will affect male characters far more harshly than female characters - one particularly virulent disease is called “man-flu”. I can't believe that this blatant sexism can be tolerated in today's society.

Diseases also seem to affect higher-level characters more harshly, although I can't comment from personal experience. According to in-game chat, there is no end game as such and no level cap. Assuming you survive accidental perma-death to reach the higher levels, you will gradually become more and more susceptible to disease until you perma-death anyway!

If true, this just seems preposterous. It's not as if the game designers will allow you to roll another character after death so I don't understand the commercial reasoning of the publisher. Why would you want to make endgame characters progressively weaker until you force them to cancel their subscription?

Social

A final note about the social side of the game. Clans or guilds are supported albeit informally - for example there are no guild channels. In fact there doesn't appear to be an option to leave any public channels which means that you are constantly bombarded with spam and it can be difficult to make out the meaningful content in the channel. Private channels can be created using "technology" although this does require you to know a personal code for the avatars you want to invite into the channel. Frustratingly these are not assigned at avatar creation and can be changed at any time in-game - so it does rely on the player actively maintaining their social contacts network.

In summary

In summary, there are some good points to this game, and some genuinely ground-breaking and innovative design choices. In the main, though, these design choices have introduced negative game play aspects that really should have been uncovered in open beta. I can only assume that the publisher decided that they were too expensive to change and released the game anyway. It wasn't ready for release and shouldn't have been released and there is no sign of any major patches on the horizon. 3/10 save your money for now.

My only problem now is that I can't work out how to log off and the risk of perma-death is getting higher all the time... HELP ME!

#RL #WoW #World of Warcraft #game review #Real Life #Sundries

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hellojalapeno · 8 years ago

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Preface: This post is the reason I started this blog over a year ago. I've been running away from it for probably longer than that. Yesterday morning on Twitter, I was triggered by the suggestion that there is a "recipe" for sobriety. I don't know this person or their struggles and I really have no interest in calling them out but I wanted to respond to the original poster but found there was way too much to say. It was time for this. I don't know how it's going to be received but it's extremely personal and I am writing it from my own perspective (it's the only one I have) so if it feels like I'm "making this about me" then I guess I'm sorry for that. I have to warn anyone reading this that this post is a bummer to say the very least.

My brother, Sam, was born 1 year and 9 months after I was. We were about as different as two children could be - I was loud, boisterous, bossy, and commanded attention while Sam was quiet, sensitive, sweet, and easy going - but we were best friends. To be honest, I always kind of felt like he was my child as much as he was my parents'. That feeling multiplied when my parents divorced and we moved with our mom 6 hours away from our dad and the only home we'd known. I felt protective and responsible for Sam and for his happiness. I had the typical "I can mess with my brother but you can't" mentality of an older sibling and leapt to his defense at any perceived slight.

I don't remember exactly when Sam started drinking, it wasn't like he advertised it to our family. I remember nights when we were teenagers and he would come home drunk. I, in my youth group fueled fervent Christian phase, would cry and write him letters in a tone I thought at the time was pleading and heartfelt but was probably more scolding. I can't remember giving him the letters - in all likelihood I just threw them away - but I do remember tiptoeing into his room to take off his shoes after he had passed out.

I remember my senior year in college, I bought tickets for us to see Black Sabbath at Ozz Fest. He took a train to Chicago and when I got to the station to pick him up he was wasted from drinking liquor out of a Scope bottle the whole way up. I had become a social drinker by that point and found the situation at least a little amusing, if not a tad annoying . We took the El to my school cafeteria where they were having a midnight pancake breakfast and where Sam kept disappearing to smoke cigarettes. He apologized for years for "embarrassing me" and for trying to smoke on the train. I know I told him I hadn't been embarrassed but I don't think I told him I had been much more worried than embarrassed.

I remember Sam moving to St. Louis with his girlfriend to attend college. I remember how hard it was to reach him during that time period and worrying about him nearly constantly. I had the distinct feeling several times that he was homeless. He later admitted that he had been at times. When he and his girlfriend finally broke up (for good) and he moved back in with my mom I was relieved but concerned about the effect of our small hometown on him.

I remember going home for Thanksgiving, pregnant with my son. It had been hard but I had come to terms with the fact that he was a problematic drinker (it was still hard for me to use the term alcoholic but I was trying). He agreed to go outside and talk with me and I begged him to get help for his drinking. I had a list of places he could go, fees they charged, types of treatment. I spent days researching and compiling it. I had written a script so I wouldn't forget everything I wanted to say. He wouldn't look at me. He looked like he hated me which broke my heart so much that my chest physically ached. I still have a hard time thinking about his face that day. He was silent. I told him I loved him and that I wanted my son to have his smart, creative uncle in his life. I gave the list that he refused to take to my mom. I cried and couldn't stop. I cried the entire nine hour drive back to North Carolina and for weeks after. I finally filed away my notes and the copy of the list I had kept and told myself I had done all that I could do. I told myself that for me and for my baby I would have to put this away and remove myself from it at least for awhile. Months later he called and told me he had lost another relationship over his drinking and wanted to seek treatment. I was wary but so happy. He had never reached out like that. I never heard another thing about it.

I remember when Sam got a DUI driving home to my mom's house. When he went to court, the judge told him he had never heard of someone having such a high blood-alcohol volume and still being able to stand. He gave him a ten day jail sentence and mom and I hoped it would be a good thing for him. My mom took him to jail to surrender right before his birthday, right before Christmas. We tried not to imagine him detoxing in jail.

I remember my mom calling and telling me that she had to take Sam to the hospital. He hadn't been eating and had been throwing up blood. When they initially went to Urgent Care, the nurse guessed he was either diabetic or alcoholic just from the smell in the room. They sent him to the ER immediately. Since Sam hadn't been eating and had only been drinking liquor, his body was trying to get nourishment from somewhere and it just couldn't. The doctors told him that if he didn't stop drinking immediately he would be dead in five years. To me that seemed optimistic. They offered to help treat his withdrawal and, according to my mom, he had accepted. For weeks, my mom reported to me that Sam was in a daze from the medication but I wasn't sure what it was from. I went home for Thanksgiving and on my last night there, Sam was clearly drunk. I went home and wrote him another letter begging him to stop. Telling him how much we loved him and that mom and I didn't want to lose him. Telling him that we would do anything, ANYTHING to help him. Feeling like the words I wrote were feeble compared to how much I really felt those things. I remember hoping upon hope and taking walks at night and thinking of what songs we might play at his funeral and begging God or whoever to please help my brother.

I remember Sam called me when I was headed to the store to pick up a few things for Christmas dinner with the kids. He told me for the thousandth time that we were the Addams Family and I was Morticia. He wasn't particularly coherent. I texted my boyfriend, Josh, afterwards that I hadn't understood any of the conversation. My mom claimed he had been taking the detox medication.

I remember being on a flight to Nashville with the same thoughts running on a loop in my head. Please get there in time. And the words no one would say to me and that I kept having to force myself to say - to my boss, to my best friend, to Josh - My brother is dying. Josh picked me up from the airport and hugged me but I couldn't speak. I kept starting sentences but not knowing how to finish them. I stared out the window and thought the same thoughts and hoped we would get there sooner but also that we would never get there. He held my hand. I cried. I told him angry, hateful thoughts. I looked into the night and just remember seeing dots of light and snow but not registering anything else.

It was late when we pulled into the hospital parking lot and I realized how much I was dreading seeing my parents. To my surprise, my mom had already called my dad and he was there. I dreaded them both leaning on me. I dreaded having to share my pain with them. I felt mean and angry. My mom was outside smoking when we got to the emergency room doors and she led us to the ICU with our hands linked together. My dad hugged me when we got to the room but all I could look at was Sam, lying in a hospital bed motionless with tubes coming out of his face. Everything looked so orderly. I don't know if I even got a chance to step toward his bed before a nurse entered the room. His words seemed fast and shocking and nonsensical. He seemed to think my parents had told me more than they had. You and your mother and father will have to make a decision....Not much we can do. He used the words "choice" and "decision" but it was clear there were no real choices and that there really was no other decision we could make. I felt like I was in the center of a crowd and the room was shrinking. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to say but I felt that he was looking at me expectantly. I felt like collapsing. I already knew this was the situation but my heart wasn't ready. "Ok" I think I said, "Ok."

 I remember Josh hugging me tightly. I remember my mother's tearful eyes. I remember going to Sam's bed and being surprised at how warm he was. Staring at the blue geometric tattoo on his upper left arm. Looking for a place on his face where I could place a kiss. Noticing the blood in the corners of his mouth. Rubbing his hand. Not wanting to disturb him but knowing he couldn't be disturbed. I remember his breath and how even with the machines he would struggle from time to time. We left the hospital and, alone with Josh, it was hard to walk. I kept wanting to just crouch down on the floor. I told him I didn't want to leave and he told me we didn't have to. We drove to the hotel where I lay awake all night in the dark with the same thoughts in my head: Tomorrow. Tomorrow your brother will die. I still regret leaving the hospital.

The next day at the hospital the decision was officially made. Time was both too slow and too fast. I remember asking my mom if she was going to call anyone to let them know. "I don't want to. I don't want anyone here." She said. "What about his friends," I said. "He loves them. Don't you think they should have a chance to say good-bye?" She hesitantly agreed and contacted Sam's ex-girlfriend who we knew still cared for Sam a lot and she got the word out. The first person to show up was Ricky, dressed in his work clothes. Ricky was a name so familiar to me that I couldn't believe I had never met him. Sam had referred to him as his best friend so many times. I remember Ricky sitting by Sam's bed, staring at the floor. Others started arriving, so many I couldn't keep track. They kept vigil by his bedside as we waited for hospice to arrive. They played songs, they rubbed his skin with lotion, they cried with us. I drifted in and out of Sam's room, Josh standing carefully and steadfastly by my side. I sat outside of his room and thought terrible thoughts. You decided that your brother would die. That thought weighs heavily on me even still. I kept feeling afraid the nurses would come by and tell us we couldn't have all these people in the ICU - there were so many of them, crowding around his bed and lining the hall. Everyone was quiet - hugging, crying, and occasionally offering some memory of Sam. The hospital staff kept a reverent distance.

The waiting was excruciating. The estimated time that the doctor would arrive to remove the machines came and went and I couldn't decide if I wanted more time or if I wanted this to be over. My father kept questioning when they would arrive which felt like sandpaper on my raw emotions. Did he realize what we were so impatient for? I kept waiting for people to start leaving. This was a lot for anyone to take, more than anyone should have to bear. But they stayed.

Finally, the doctors and nurses arrived to begin. They asked if any of us wanted to stay in the room while they removed the machines and they and Josh cautioned us that it was a difficult process to watch and that it might be better if we didn't. I wanted to stay with him and I still wish I had but I knew if I did that my parents would want to also and I didn't think they could handle it. We stepped out and all waited in a cluster by the closed curtain. I had no idea what to expect from any of this. They told us that without the machines he might live a few days or weeks or he might pass very quickly.

When they opened the curtain, my parents, Josh, and I went back in and took places by the bed. I stood on his right side by his head. I watched his chest move up and down three times. I watched three last breaths escape his body, the last the most precious. Then he stopped. That's a moment I wish I had never had to have but that I would never give up. I don't know how long it took for me to turn around to be enveloped by Josh, sobbing loudly into his chest.

The next few days were raw as I began the process of saying good-bye to Sam. Two years later, I am still going through it and starting to realize I always will be. Sometimes the thought of that process ending makes me scared because it feels like the only piece of him I have left. Sam was my other half for most of my life and without him I feel half empty and not completely sure who I am. I am fortunate to have so many amazing people in my life - my mom, my kids, and my soulmates @ponystarwars and @juanincognito - they have helped me through and given me a reason to keep going. Sometimes I still feel alone in the world without my brother. Sometimes I feel like I don't want to keep doing this life without him.

Sam was incredible. He was NOT his alcoholism. Sam was kind to a fault. Sam was creative and talented and smart in a way I can't describe and in a way I've never seen before or since. Sam was genuine and thoughtful and introspective and selfless. Sometimes I think he was too good for this world. Knowing he isn't here anymore to spread his goodness makes me want to be better myself to make up for it. I am lucky to have had him as my brother for 35 years. I hope writing this can help me share more of him here and help me remember his goodness.

So in response to the issue of how to get sober, I know Sam and I know his kind heart and if there was some simple way to recover and keep us all from this hurt I know he would have done it. I know he must have carried a terrible, guilty weight knowing we were hurt by his drinking. I don't have an answer for this, I wish I did. Just know if you're out there, struggling with this from either side, that I'm out here too and there are more like us. We are not alone.

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jonasmaurer · 5 years ago

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Friday Faves

Hi friends! Happy Friday and hope that those of you who celebrated Christmas had a very merry one. Ours started off on a high note with an amazing dinner at my dad’s house. We had a Mexican food feast (tamales, rice, beans, enchiladas, the works) and it was so much fun watching all of the kids together.

Little Augs is getting so big!

Later that night, I started crying like a giant weirdo and couldn’t stop. It turns out that it was my immune system crashing and burning. It took about 45 minutes for me to will myself to fill and roll the cinnamon rolls, and I went to bed with the chills, convinced that I was just exhausted from non-stop activity since October.

The girls were PUMPED with all of the goodies that Santa brought! They tested out their new pogo sticks while I put nana’s egg casserole and the cinnamon rolls into the oven, and then the rest of the family came over for brunch and to exchange gifts.

Madre brought over grammies and Christmas coffee cake,

plus a ham and fresh tamales.

We all ate together and sat in the living room in pure Christmas chaos.

While we were opening gifts, I still had the chills and got slammed with an awful headache that made my eyes hurt, and my mom told me to go lie down. I ended up sleeping for two hours and spent the rest of the day in bed. It was reassuring to know that the girls were cared for and enjoying playing with the cousins, but I was super bummed to essentially miss Christmas. The family ended up heading out around 5pm, when P and Liv both crashed out (Liv came down with a fever, too) and we all ended up sleeping throughout the rest of the day and into the night. The Pilot was gone this year which was a bit of a bummer, too. He spent his Christmas in Puerto Rico so we did stockings before he left.

Two of my very favorites in one pic. <3

(He’s cute, right?!)

The good news is that Liv’s fever broke overnight and she was doing great, and I was feeling way better by yesterday morning. I’m probably 95% better today, but am still going to take it easy. I definitely think all of the sleep and constant water helped, along with the usual wellness shots 2x a day, this cold + flu magic, oscillococcinum, and elderberry.

So… Christmas was not exactly as expected, but it’s still been a magical and wonderful time of year. I told Kyle I was bummed that I missed most of Christmas day, but he reminded me that our family gets together ALL the time, so missing out on one morning isn’t that big of a deal. It made me feel better. <3

Before we head into Friday Faves, I have an extra exciting giveaway winner to announce. Thank you so much to all of you who entered the Favorite Things giveaway + helped me out with this year’s survey. I have so much content to prepare for 2020 and I’m so thankful to those of you who spent the time to send ideas and feedback. The lucky winner of the huge giveaway is comment #598: Marina!

*The lucky winner has been emailed*

Stay tuned for a sneaky giveaway

Here are some of my favorite things from the week and around the web:

Read, watch, listen:

Hilarious tweets about white elephant, yankee swap, and dirty Santa gift exchanges.

The most real children’s clothing ad I’ve ever seen.

I agree with this wholeheartedly.

News anchors losing it over their co-worker’s horrible artichoke dip.

Fitness + nutrition:

How to create New Year’s resolutions that actually stick.

30-minute full body HIIT workout.

Interesting article regarding HIIT timing.

My latest post for WebMD with things to consider before you join a gym.

Don’t forget to sign up for your free 21 days of Les Mills on Demand! Perfect if you’re looking to shake up your routine as we head into 2020.

5 things to keep in mind as you set your goals for 2020.

Beauty + fashion:

Purple shampoo. I got highlights for the first time in 80 years, and she recommended a purple shampoo to keep the highlights from turning red and brassy, which often happens to me. I only have to use it every couple of weeks and the highlights are still a pure, ashy blonde color. It’s very drying, so I wouldn’t recommend using this regularly, but is perfect for protecting color and highlights.

All of the post-Christmas sales!

Here are some of my favorites:

Everlane choose what you pay. I ordered this cute dress, another one of these shirts, and this wrap dress.

Thinx is 20% off. I haven’t blogged much about this, but I switched to Thinx over a year ago and have been extremely happy with this option. It’s another way to be earth-friendly if you don’t like the cup. (I don’t use a cup because it has uses suction and pressure to be held in place.)

Gap up to 75% off everything.

Banana Republic 60% off sale styles and 40% off regular price. This sweater is so cute for Valentine’s Day, which is bananas that it will be here before we know it.

Nordstrom half-yearly sale! Love these flannel pajamas, these booties, my fave leggings ever, these glittery kids’ Uggs, this polar bear backpack, and this men’s half-zip.

Happy Friday, friends!

xoxo

The post Friday Faves appeared first on The Fitnessista.

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meditationklaus · 7 years ago

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Are You True to Your Path or Just “Faking It” Spiritually?

When you’ve practiced yoga for a while, sooner or later, you come into contact with a whole variety of spiritual workshops, yoga retreats, Ayahuasca for the weekend, “red-tent“ events for women or silent meditation trainings.

There’s an ever-growing number of groups you can join these days and trying to find the right fit, especially when you’re fairly new to the spiritual aspect of yoga, can be quite a challenge! Considering the hefty price tag some of these workshops come with, it may also be a financial question of whether we can afford to “advance” our learning in this way at all.

The Tribe of Women

I have been delving into some women’s history in the spiritual realm and due to this rising interest, have met some true woman warriors and mentors. These are women who understand our historical role as medicine women and healers and how this tradition almost disappeared with the rise of organized religion and, of course, a shift to patriarchal societies.

I have been guided, supported and truly honored to meet them and wouldn’t want to lose this connection to my tribe ever again. When women come together in acceptance, love and compassion, nothing can stop us and the real power we have is palpable.

So I Signed Up for a Women’s Circle

I thought the price for two hours was a little on the expensive side, but the person holding the workshop assured me this wasn’t “just another women’s circle, this was an initiation”. Well, that certainly sounded like something I might want and so, I signed up. After all, where good work is being done, it’s ok for good money to be spent.

When I got to the location, there was the usual dimmed lighting and candles as well as a few tarot decks to pick a card from. I liked the setting right away and felt happy to explore this women’s theme a little further, even if I didn’t really know much about these spheres or who these women were.

As we started to get into a “healing touch” exercise, I began to experience something resembling resistance. Three women would touch you all over (except, of course, private bits) and we each took turns doing so. When it was time to share the experience, the women – all seasoned vets of women’s circles – were very enthusiastic and genuinely touched (excuse the pun) by the experience.

For me, it was more like the woman in the movie “A Chorus Line”, where she describes how in acting class they did an exercise where they pretended it was winter. Everybody felt the snow, the cold wind, the sleighs, when they were asked to do so. She, however, felt nothing! Alas, that was me.

From Belongingness to Exclusion

When it was my turn to share (I had tried to avoid saying anything at all), I said as much. I mentioned that I thought the touching bit was a little sudden for me and though I tried to lean into the experience, I just became more and more uncomfortable. I felt the room pull back immediately.

This was not something people seemed to want to hear. It was the oddest moment where you move from being part of a group to being excluded from it. The shift was subtle, I’m not sure whether I imagined it or whether anybody else felt it. But to me, it was like I had dropped a loud singing bowl or something.

Before I get into the next part, a little side note: the woman holding the workshop struck me as pretty authentic, operating from a place of learned and experienced knowledge as well as something like, I don’t know, love? That feeling stayed with me for the most part, even as things became a little more strange…

Oh, the Spiritual Jargon!

The next task was to go around the circle and each of us would say what they would like to “receive” from the group. Options were words of any kind, to be touched, maybe some essential oils on our hands and foreheads, anything really. The first woman to go for it had spent significant time contemplating her role in this (spiritual) world. How did I know? The jargon.

The woman started to cry profusely, even hyperventilating at times. I felt really bad for her but wasn’t sure how to respond, and also felt this was the job of the woman hosting the gathering. Maybe there was a reason she just let her talk and get it all out there.

Still wailing, she released a narrative of her working through tens of thousands of past lives. She also described her battle against her dying ego, and finally, there was a (partially inaudible) bit about her soul and how her director was being what sounded like a total jerk.

Confession: I caught myself judging like a pro.

My own ego raised its ugly head and I started to think, “why doesn’t somebody talk some sense right now, like, “stop confusing yourself with spiritual talk and empty catch phrases about ego!”” I know, harsh right? Sorry. But here’s my defense:

I get tired sometimes, not because this lovely spirit was crying or laying bare major parts of her private life, but rather it is the barrage of spiritual verbiage I don’t find helpful.

The woman had all the words down, from Eckart Tolle’s ego talk to Gabby Bernstein’s spirit junkie advice (both teachers I absolutely treasure, by the way). Clearly, she had read or studied a lot of spiritual literature and employed it to describe her experiences here on Earth. Nothing wrong with that, but…

Don’t Substitute the Experience With Empty, Catch-All Phrases

This is a phenomenon so omnipresent in the yoga scene, it could really turn you off when you’re starting out on this path. In fact, as a teacher, I’m constantly monitoring myself for empty, catch-all phrases or stuff I heard some smart teacher say and I’m sure I’ve gotten it wrong sometimes too.

The truth is, it’s rather tempting to substitute the experience with proverbs, or quotes from books or YouTube motivational talks. It seems like we want to stop our suffering and to move on with our lives so badly, we don’t want to get down and dirty with it. But to get there, you guessed it, is a long, winding, annoying, sobering, humbling, often painful path.

Many times we will feel things we don’t like, and reveal aspects of ourselves we find deplorable. And then there’s all the times it just ain’t working! We do the work, we put in the meditation hours and next thing we know, we’re yelling at this guy for cutting us off in traffic.

This whole spiritual thing is hard, but that’s the path. Bummer, I know, I’m not there yet either.

The Alternative of “Faking It” Over Hard Work

The alternative of “faking it”, though —and as women, I think we can agree—is simply not a solution when you want the real deal. If we want to experience life in its totality, we’ll have to go through it for real.

Workshops, traveling, our tribe can help us, yes. Using well-said quotes and jargon without honoring our very own experience, however, will stunt our spiritual growth eventually. It’ll get confusing too. Is my ego dying, or is my soul soaring? Am I feeling this pain from a past life or is it this one?

These are all useful questions, surely, when the time is right. But first, maybe we should ask: what is going on, here and now? What’s my learning?

So how do we know which workshops are right and what experiences are truly ours?

Maybe it’s different for you, but I’m guessing, we simply feel it. We know when somebody is authentic, when they speak from a place of wisdom rather than pure intellect.

We also recognize authenticity in ourselves, don’t we? When I wasn’t sure, like in this workshop, I asked myself, “does this resonate with me? Do I feel the words are connected to some deeper inner source or are they just spilling out?” Asking friends and fellow yoginis was also a great way to find something more suitable to my own journey.

The important learning for me was, not to hide behind spiritual feel-good messages or to incorporate certain words that make me “fit in” with what is spiritually en vogue, but to continually explore a path of my own learning and stick to those circles that feel nurturing and authentic to me.

Have you been to any women’s circles and had some great experiences? How do you stay true to your path? Would love to hear your thoughts and experiences in your comments below!

Image Credit: Odette Hughes

The post Are You True to Your Path or Just “Faking It” Spiritually? appeared first on DOYOUYOGA.COM.

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