#Tumblr do research before making claims challenge (impossible)

[alilloserboy]

Taking psychology really helps you discern what on this website here is total bullshit, grounded in truth, or plain facts. (Hint hint; a lot of it makes no fucking sense)

[crisisdparity]

Game Master Akuma AU

(Note: Originally submitted to @justanotherpersonsuniverse, on their advice I will be using my own tumblr for anything in the future related to this AU.)

Xavier Duchamp was rather proud of himself. What he had before him was an absolute masterpiece of a campaign if he did say so himself. The product of over six months of study, research, and rebalancing efforts followed by two weeks of discussion with his five players to hash out schedules, meeting times, characters, backstories, potential character arcs, and getting them set up with a messaging app that was really good for sending discrete messages between the GM and the players.

Valentine and her boyfriend Justin were onboard in an instant. Within days, he'd greenlighted their Half-Elf Bard of the College of Glamour whose spell list was 100% Illusion spells and Half-Orc Fighter (Eldritch Knight) who was focusing entirely on Abjuration as Rena Rouge and Carapace respectively.

Olivia had spent a few days coming up with a Halfling Rogue and debating subclasses with him until settling on Scout. Along with some discussion over how her special magic item's stunning and paralysis effect would work with Sneak Attack, the campaign had its Vesperia.

Jeanette had gone back and forth with him for a week looking at various homebrew subclasses for her Gnome Artificer before they both agreed on one particular Master Tinkerer entry that would be balanced and do the character justice. And with that they had their Ladybug.

Even Matt was on board with a stealthy human Chat the Barbarian using the Path of the Beast. The class choice was something Matt had insisted on (and that Xavier would have suggested anyway just for the high hit point totals given Matt's history with characters dying) and he'd even come up with a backstory that Xavier felt was quite compelling compared to Matt's usual efforts. Morally ambiguous, likely to be tempted by promises of power, but with a great deal of story potential to work with.

Which was a relief. Getting a new player into their group to replace Matt was not something Xavier really felt comfortable with. There were too many unknowns with introducing a new person, far too many for him to risk his masterpiece on an unknown factor. He knew Matt. He could work with Matt. Despite the history.

He'd put everything he had into this. Every known Akuma ever fought by the heroes had been made into a boss-tier foe. He'd carefully documented each and every power the heroes had shown to craft special legendary magic items based on the Miraculous. Hawkmoth and Mayura themselves were going to be the final bosses of his campaign.

In response to criticism about the difficulty of his campaigns (he tried to make them fair, but still challenging enough to be memorable), he'd made several guest NPCs based on every other hero that had ever been called upon, statted out like player characters that might show up in a pinch to help. He even had a genuine Deus ex Machina that he was ready to use to get the players out of a truly impossible jam if they found themselves in one.

Not always, but a few times at least. Enough to get them to the point where they wouldn't need it anymore.

-----

It was thirty minutes in, right in the middle of exposition from the Guardian NPC, when Xavier got his first message on the app.

Matt/Chat - Chat's going to wait until everyone breaks up and follow Ladybug stealthily.

Xavier/GM - Starting party conflict on the first session? Not what I'd advise, but it's your character. Go ahead and make your Stealth roll now.

Matt/Chat - <photo> 17

Xavier/GM - Yeah, that beats everyone's passive Perception easily. You'll sneak off handily without anyone noticing.

-----

"Jeanette, Ladybug is grabbed from behind by an unknown assailant. Roll to resist the grapple."

"Geez, already? Okay, what did my assailant get for their grapple? How screwed am I?"

Xavier pretended to roll a die while consulting the message from Matt.

"19."

"Okay, difficult, but not undoable... Crap."

"What'd you get?"

"Nat 1..."

"Hah! I rip off her earrings and claim them for myself! The Wish is mine!"

"Seriously Matt?! What the hell?!"

"Because it's payback time! Payback for every character of mine killed in these hellish campaigns!"

"Oh, come on! You're not the only person whose had a character die at this table! Xavier runs some pretty challenging campaigns, but they're always fair!"

"What about the time he killed Allric the Allmighty in a single round of combat?"

"Dude, you tried to Leroy Jenkins straight into melee with a 4th-level Wizard that had a CON penalty. Even at full health you had like 10 hp."

"14!"

"Not much better, dude."

"Guys, it's fine. I can handle this. Okay, Matt. Chat the Barbarian managed to get the earrings-"

"Yeah, Ladybug screams bloody murder when he rips them out. Good luck getting out of this in one piece."

"The moment Rena hears Ladybug scream, she bolts for the sound."

"So does Carapace."

"Vesperia too."

"-and with their current locations and movement speeds, I assume you're all using the Dash action?, you've got maybe one round to decide on your Wish before they're all over you, so choose carefully. And be aware that I plan to grant whatever you wish for in the worst possible way, just as I would if any of the others pulled this."

"Rena screams 'What the HELL, Chat?! We're supposed to protect the Miraculous, not use them for our own selfish purposes! Didn't you listen to the Guardian? Such actions always bring misfortune upon those who misuse the Miraculous!'"

"Because I am Chat, avatar of Destruction and I WISH THIS WORLD NEVER EXISTED!"

There was dead silence at the table.

"Matt... What... just... WHAT?!"

"Hah! You like that?! How does it feel now that the shoe's on the other foot, huh?!"

"What the hell is your problem, Matt?!"

"My problem? MY problem?! Do you know how much time I've spent making characters for these shitty campaigns only to have them turned into paste in one session?!"

"Because you made primary spellcasters and played every last one of them like a barbarian, charging in headfirst without thinking! All of us breathed a sigh of relief when you revealed that your character finally matched your playstyle!"

"I HATE BARBARIANS! THEY'RE BORING! I SHOULD GET TO PLAY CHARACTERS THAT CAN AT LEAST CHUCK FIREBALLS!"

"THEN MAYBE YOU SHOULD STOP RUNNING THEM FACE FIRST INTO ENEMY SWORDS!"

"NONE OF YOU COULD EVER HANDLE THE FACT THE I MAKE MORE AWESOME CHARACTERS THAN ANY OF YOU, SO YOU JUST LET THIS DOUCHEBAG KILL THEM OFF SO YOU WOULDN'T GET OVERSHADOWED BY HOW AMAZING I AM! WELL NOW I KILLED SOMETHING YOU ALL WORKED HARD ON, SO SUCK IT! I'M DONE WITH ALL OF YOU FOREVER!"

"MATT! HEY! GET BACK HERE YOU JERK! MATT!"

"Crap, I think Olivia might actually kill him this time..."

"It's going to take all of us to stop her from getting arrested at least."

Xavier just watched numbly as the rest of the group ran out of his apartment. Over six months of work. Gone in less than an hour.

He'd given so much to making sure this would work. He'd apologized to Matt at least twice for every character of his that had died to get him to come back. He'd agreed to demand after demand just to keep a familiar face on board, never dreaming he'd pull something like this.

He'd nearly gotten fired from his job trying to rearrange his schedule to fit with everyone else's. They'd somehow, miraculously, gotten the whole day with no other obligations among any of them and decided to make the first session a true marathon. They'd meet in the morning after breakfast and eat both lunch and dinner at the game table before calling it a night late in the evening.

It was barely 10:00 in the morning and the whole campaign he'd slaved over for months was kaput.

He never noticed the butterfly landing on his custom Miraculous-themed Game Master screen and being absorbed into it.

"Game Master, I am Hawkmoth. Few people appreciate the kind of effort that goes into making something truly grand and memorable. I shall give you the power to bring your entire world to life and in return, I ask only for a few simple things."

This was wrong. Hawkmoth was the worst of the worst. The kind of person who would be at home among all the final bosses he'd ever made for his campaigns. Heartless, manipulative, cruel.

"Not enough? Ah, but what is a game without players? How would you like to have the Miraculous heroes themselves run your great campaign? Surely they would be far more appreciative than those ungrateful peons that left you alone with nothing but the broken remains of your efforts."

He knew all these things, but the allure of bringing the world he'd spent so much time on to life... What creator could ever turn down an offer like that?

"I, the Game Master, accept... Hawkmoth."

"Excellent. And in exchange, you shall bring me one of two things: The Miraculous, or the identities of their wielders."

"No."

Hawkmoth was silent for a moment.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I said no. I am the Game Master. I make the world. I craft the challenges. I decide the rewards. But I do not do anything for anyone. If you want these things, get them yourself."

"If you refuse me, it shall be very unpleasant for you."

"No. As Game Master, I decide the limits of all powers within my realm. And I decide that you have none over me."

And with that, he unleashed his creation over all of Paris, drawing everyone and everything within into his sphere of influence.

-----

Ladybug blinked the spots (ha) out of her eyes as the flash of light died down and looked at herself. She didn't remember transforming, but she was clearly in her spots. Except her red and black superhero uniform didn't usually look like it was headed to a steampunk convention. Looking around, she tried to figure out what had happened and her eyes landed on a familiar belt and pants combo.

Problem. Whoever this was, their groin was at eye level for her.

She looked up.

And up.

To find a grinning Chat Noir, sans anything resembling a shirt and having put on at least a foot of height and apparently a hundred pounds of pure muscle, grinning down at her.

"How's the weather down there?" Chat Noir chuckled as he flexed his unfairly attractive muscleman physique.

"I WILL END YOU!" the heroine snarled, already 100% done with whatever new insanity Hawkmoth had cooked up.

Characters:

Ladybug - Gnome Artificer (Master Tinkerer - Homebrew)

Chat Noir - Human Barbarian (Path of the Beast)

-----

Vesperia had to admit, as Akuma attacks went, this was pretty dope.

She was currently a halfling. A halfling! If it wasn't for her fantasy ensemble being yellow and black, she'd have thought she stepped straight out of Lord of the Rings.

Of course, fantasy setting or not, there were still things she'd have rather left back in the real world. Like racism. And stigma against mixed couples. Not directed at her, but rather at the two walking down the street next to her.

"You know, people are staring..." she said as she craned her head to look at her companions.

"Let them," the Half-Elf Rena Rouge (who looked like a cross between a musician and a belly dancer) said from her perch atop the shoulders of the heavily armored (and surprisingly buff) Half-Orc Carapace. "They're just jealous because their boyfriends can't carry them everywhere."

Characters:

Vesperia - Halfling Rogue (Scout)

Rena Rouge - Half-Elf Bard (College of Glamour)

Carapace - Half-Orc Fighter (Eldritch Knight)

-----

Ryuko blinked as she studied the apparent snake-man-thing before her who claimed to be Viperion. She lifted a hand to study it and found what appeared to be bronze scales covering every inch of her skin.

She sniffed herself, smelling the sharp tang of ozone. What was she?

And why did she appear to be wearing wooden armor?

Characters:

Ryuko - Dragonborn (bronze) Druid (Circle of Storms - Third Party)

Viperion - Naga Sorcerer (Divination Magic - Homebrew)

-----

Polymouse giggled as her friends ran over her. Okay, she'd freaked out a little to find a swarm of mice (with hair like hers no less) crawling all over her surprisingly mouse-like body when she'd come to in the middle of some forest somewhere. But she'd gotten over it pretty quickly. It helped that her new friends were adorable.

It might help more if she could figure out where she was.

Or find another person.

Characters:

Polymouse - Kobold (rodentlike) Ranger (Swarmkeeper - Reskinned)

-----

Purple Tigress sighed as she felt the hair (fur?) on the top of her head being shifted around and twitched her new catlike ears in mild annoyance.

"Are you quite done?"

"Almost!" Pigella's cheerful voice answered. "Your fur is so comfy!"

Tigress sighed. Of course Pigella would end up being a fairy, and having her normal cheerful enthusiasm cranked up to previously unimagined levels.

"I love you dearly, but if you start shouting 'hey listen' I will stick you in a bottle."

"Aw, I love you too! Hey, what's that?"

"I think it's my character sheet?"

Characters:

Purple Tigress - Tabaxi Paladin (Oath of Glory)

Pigella - Fairy Cleric (Order Domain - Reskinned)

-----

"According to my analysis, we have been placed into what appears to be a Dungeons and Dragons campaign under 5th edition rules," Pegasus stated in a mechanical monotone. "I am apparently a Warforged Wizard using the School of Conjuration whose spells create portals to bridge dimensions and summon or banish my intended targets. You are what is known as a Simic Hybrid, with the class of Monk, following the Way of the Drunken Master."

"Aweshum," King Monkey slurred, his generally human appearance clad in monk's robes marred by his monkey-like hands and feet as well as the monkey tail swishing behind him.

"Why do you keep slurring like that? According to my sensors, your gourd is filled with only water."

"Gotta keep up appearanshes!" King Monkey grinned as he continued faking drunkenness.

Characters:

Pegasus - Warforged Wizard (School of Conjuration - Reskinned)

King Monkey - Simic Hybrid Monk (Way of the Drunken Master)

-----

Hawkmoth studied the dark red horns growing out of his head in the mirror. The change in appearance was disconcerting, but he felt a rush of power in this new form that he'd never felt before.

"Hmm... perhaps I can work with this..."

"Speak for yourself..." Mayura muttered off to the side, ruffling her peacock-like feathers in annoyance as she tried to glare at the beak on her own face.

Characters:

Hawkmoth - Tiefling Dark Lord, Warlock Patron, Contracted by Lila Rossi, Volpina, Queen Wasp, and many others.

Mayura - Kenku Assistant to the Dark Lord, Creator of Monsters

-----

"Oh, come on!" A figure in a cyan and white hooded robe complained as they waved a similarly colored umbrella around angrily. "Everyone else gets to be part of this adventure, why can't I join them?"

"Because you're too OP. You'd completely break everything and remove all challenge from the adventure."

"But sitting around is no fun at all!"

"If you like, I can put you in the position of the main quest giver. Your job would be to direct them towards their enemies and means of becoming stronger."

"That's it?! I'm on 'mysterious hooded figure' duty? Boo! Why can't I fight with them?!"

"Because you're too OP. But if you insist, I'll allow some Deus ex Machina interventions."

"YES!"

"Five."

"I'm sorry?"

"I'll allow five interventions at your discretion to aid them when they are in peril. Once you have come to their aid five times, I will allow no more meetings save to impart quest information."

"That's it?"

"Yes. Choose your interventions wisely."

"So... if I manage to save one for when they fight Hawmoth and Mayura in the final battle...?"

"Then I would allow you to join them of course."

"Score!"

Characters:

Bunnyx: Mysterious Hooded Figure, Deus-ex-Machina (5)

Game Master: Akuma Lord of the Miraculous Campaign

-----

Addendum

When the Game Master is finally purified and the damage reversed, it turns out that he took the effort to trap all of Paris in a temporal stasis bubble so that no matter how long passed inside no more than a few moments passed outside. Meaning that after what seemed like months in the bubble, it's basically less than a minute after he was akumatized when everything is put back.

All his friends, minus Matt, come back in bringing a new person named Zack that they vetted themselves to take Matt's place in case he pulled something like what he did. And while he has a similar playstyle to Matt, he's savvy enough to know what kind of characters that is suited for and he loves playing barbarians.

They all sit back down and restart the game they were all looking forward to.

[qqueenofhades]

How was yellow journalism at the turn of the 19th century different then the fake news and media insanity we see today? Do you know? It seems like this has been going on for a really long time.

And you would be correct, because this has in fact been going on for a very long time (indeed, much further back than the 19th century) and is essentially the basic practice of history: figuring out how to understand, vet, classify, believe, and treat the stories that humans tell about themselves. Or as that musical that came out the other day put it: “you have no control who lives, who dies, who tells your story.” We’re all just telling stories about things constantly, and we all want people to believe our story and treat it as the best version. Some of these stories are more fictional (and more harmful) than others, but it’s been going on for as long as there have been people.

(Or: “A Brief History of Fake News” follows below. If it doesn’t make sense, blame the fact that I had to rewrite half of it after Tumblr ate it.)

Globalization and the 24-hour news media has made it possible for “fake news” narratives to become transnational: in other words, no matter where you are in the world or what country you’re originally from, you can use some of the same content, techniques, arguments, or beliefs. For example, coronavirus deniers, no matter where they are in the world, can use the same stable of arguments: it’s fake, it’s a Chinese lab conspiracy, it’s a political stunt, it’s not that bad, you shouldn’t wear a mask, etc. They are drawing from the same essential pool of content and replicating the same themes in their particular contexts. Obviously, everyone has instant access to these narratives now and we are seeing the large-scale and damaging effects, because they can be amplified to a degree unheard-of in human history thanks to social media, TV, phones, etc, but also: it’s what humans have been doing since, well, forever.

A caveat I often have to give undergraduate students, when introducing them to medieval chronicle sources, is that they’re subjective -- that is, they’re more interested in promoting one individual, kingdom, religious viewpoint, version of events, etc, rather than aiming for an inclusive and “real” version of how things went by taking into account the experiences and arguments of all sides. This is obviously disingenuous, because it suggests that modern historians don’t do this, that they just objectively report “real facts” and there is no human bias or agenda at work in producing the result. This reflects the influence of Leopold von Ranke, a 19th-century German historian who is often viewed as the founder of the modern critical source-based historiographical method. He was a proponent of the idea that historians had to “describe the past as it actually happened,” i.e. they had to select the correct facts and build an objective narrative so that people could discover the One True Version of reality. Of course, you may realize that you.... can’t actually do that.

Historians still have to select which facts they report, how a “fact” is constructed to start with, what methodology they use, what conclusions they draw, what they focus on, what moral lessons or overall takeaways they present for their audience, etc. This reflects the 19th century’s effort to make history similar to hard science: they liked the idea that there was one single methodology that would reveal an empirically provable single ideal, that there was no human agency or bias that would influence this narrative, and the facts would magically assemble themselves into one central version that everyone would agree upon. Except this still isn’t and has never been the way it works. Historians, as human agents, mediate and manage and influence the facts they use and the conclusions they draw from sources, and it’s our job to figure out which ones are more valid and which ones are not. It’s a system of collective memory, and as I’ve said before, that collective memory is always particularly susceptible to what people (especially the rich and powerful people, who install the version of history that the rest of us learn) want to remember. This rarely includes their flaws, or things that show them to be wrong, or any challenge to their status.

Prior to the invention of film/TV/audiovisual methods in the 19th century (and since they didn’t become commercial or widespread until the 20th), everything we know about human history before that, we know because someone wrote it down. In the Western tradition, the ancient Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides are often viewed as the “fathers” of history, because they deliberately assembled a curation of (allegedly) empirical facts in a constructed narrative with a self-stated historiographical purpose. They also make use of what, in fancy academic-speak, we might call the “topos of authority.” Every single historian has been aware that they have to provide some way for their reader to independently verify their content, or decide to believe what they’re saying against a competing version. In the olden days, they often did this by self-certifying: “I swear that everything I write here is true/I heard only from wise and trustworthy people/I spoke to an eyewitness of these events/I read a book by such-and-such authority.” But just because they SAY these things doesn’t mean they’re true, and no modern historian can take this at face value: they can’t just say, “well, my source said they were telling the truth, so that’s good enough for me.” They have to supplant with other accounts, they have to perform textual criticism and close reading, they have to find other pieces of evidence to compare. Because in a sense, all of history might be fake news. We just have to figure out which parts those are, and sometimes that’s not even the point, because it’s impossible.

For example: take the sixth-century Byzantine court historian Procopius, who wrote about the reigns of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian (r. 527-65) and Empress Theodora (r. 527-48). All of his official accounts of them are largely positive and flattering. But Procopius is probably best known for a work called the Secret History, where he rips into them as horrible awful people, relates lurid sexual scandals (especially about Theodora), dishes on all the bad things they did behind the scenes, so on and etc. This means that historians have been arguing ever since about which versions of Justinian and Theodora -- indeed, Procopius’s own versions of them -- we’re supposed to believe. If you want to read the Secret History, which you can do at the link above and which you should because it has amusing chapter titles like “Proving That Justinian and Theodora Were Actually Fiends in Human Form” and “How Justinian Killed a Trillion People,” you’ll come across this unrelentingly negative depiction of them, and... what? Is this a (somewhat) accurate account of the darker side of Justinian and Theodora’s bad behavior, written by an embittered Procopius after he fell out of royal favor? Is it just a total hatchet job? Was it written purely in case there was a palace coup, so Procopius could hand it to the new emperor and be like “see, I totally didn’t like those losers either, you can rely on me” and didn’t represent his actual views on the imperial couple at all? You can  already see the problem if the idea is, a la von Ranke, to prove “what really happened.” Almost nobody treats the Secret History as a straightforward factual document, but they also disagree about how truthful it is, why, for what reasons, and whether it is, in fact, even a History per se.

To return (belatedly) to the idea of newspapers and yellow journalism particularly. I would say that there was no more significant event in all of human history (well, maybe a few, but not many) than the invention of the printing press in the mid-fifteenth century. It instantly and permanently transformed the way humans acquired, stored, recalled, and learned knowledge, and it lasted (and is still lasting) even in the face of smartphones and internet. Once books were no longer rare, labor-intensive, and expensive, their use exploded, it became standard practice to publish your research (by the sixteenth century, this was already happening), to learn from a book, to use other books in constructing your knowledge, and thus to encounter these narratives. The other architecture of a culture of public and general literacy developed along with it, until it was the primary medium in which all people, not just the rich and educated, learned about things. Newspapers and books and pamphlets and other printed material intensely drove the revolutions of the eighteenth century, both in America and in Europe. And obviously, these weren’t trying to tell “both sides of the story.” It became standard practice to publish your manifestos, your papers, your essays and arguments, all your supporting documents, and you were trying to convince people to your side for concrete political reasons.

So by the time you get to the 19th century, you’ve had literal CENTURIES of people deciding what they want to believe, what’s beneficial for them to believe, their viewpoint on the world, etc. Except as we discussed above re: our friend Leopold von Ranke, the 19th century develops the idea of “scientific objectivity.” Of course, in the social sciences, this often gets applied (pause for sighing) to support the idea that there is a real racial hierarchy, that western European white men are the best not because they said so, but because it’s science, it’s provable, it’s not just an opinion, It Is Trufax. Newspapers, books, and other printed material are widely available to everyone, and the 19th century is making claims to universal truth that can be discovered and applied in all disciplines, but which is just a continuation of the same subjective storytelling as before, now elevated to the status of Unimpeachable Truth. Yellow journalism isn’t really that different from what humans have always done in crafting a narrative that supports their purposes and the story they want to tell (or that they think will sell papers, because people have an endless appetite for secrets, scandals, and drama, especially if they think there is a conspiracy, real or fake, to hide it from them). They just have different tools for doing it. Of course in the 21st century, we now have journalistic ethics and a set of standards and codes of conduct for how you’re supposed to write these things, and we have respected publications that do all that, but we also still have tabloid media, when the relationship with the facts is... tenuous, at best. These institutions and tendencies never go away. They just evolve.

I realize that this was a long and rather dull ramble about the origins of historiography, but the point is this: “fake news” is literally as old as humanity and history itself, and humans have always been predisposed to select and believe the narrative that personally benefits them, fits with their ideology, makes sense of events in the way they feel is most compelling, and so on. It’s just now in the hyperconnected 21st century, “fake news” can go instantly around the globe and be exposed to anyone with an internet connection. This is not helped, as I talked about in my “death of expertise” ask, by a public forum where everybody’s contributions supposedly have to be treated “equally,” in the name of “fairness,” no matter whether someone knows anything about the topic or not. So the impact of this tendency to believe whatever the hell anyone wants has been magnified far past what has ever been the case in history before, because no matter what someone wrote or believed in the pre-internet era, they didn’t have the multi-million-exponential ability to reach absolutely everybody at once. Even print books have to be printed, circulated, purchased, read, etc, and that takes time and money, rather than just instantly having it appear on your smartphone. And we are obviously seeing the real-world consequences of that as a result.

[viknaerth]

Flash Points Challenge 001

what are some of your favorite tropes? -  400 POINTS

This one I had to think on for a minute because I think with my writing I was very anti-tropes for a while. For me I love historicity, so best friendships and pre-established connections that blur lines or develop into something more intense are particularly special. I think that’s because there a never-ending depth to the relationship, it can always be delved into and picked apart. Aside from that in character building, I have a terrible love of anti-heroes. Good in their heart but not necessarily in their actions, I think that it paves the way for more opportunistic and exciting writing.   

do you have a favorite character you’ve written, in or outside of shiver? if so, what makes them your fave?  -  550 POINTS

This is tough because I’m not about to get into the laundry list but I have love for all the characters I’ve written and me being an actual old person of tumblr means there are actually a heap of them. I have to give love to my two kiddos here because I’m having such a good time writing them. Elyse’s dim mind and super bright personality is a duality I find a lot of joy in trying to portray because as with all of my onion children there's so much more than that. She’ll do anything for anyone and the way that I write her really does mean anything so it’s been interesting to see the lengths she’d go to. My darling Vik is a consistent expression of what the experience of loss looks like. Somehow, even when you lose everything that you hold dear the world keeps turning even though it shouldn’t. I like his candid way of approaching romance and the fact that he’s more poetry than person. And then a final shoutout to one of the last characters I played outside of Shiver because they’re on my mind and that’s Sid James, a traveling tattoo artist. No wild supernatural AU, just a grand love of art, aesthetics and self-acceptance. There have been a couple of iterations of her and they all managed to carry the same energy, the muse is strong with that one. 

do you prefer writing with small casts of characters or large ones? what are some of the pros and cons?  -  400 POINTS

Yes and yes? In my world small is say under 10 and then large would be 20+ and for me I’ve had positive and negative experiences with both. I think that overall I would say you have an easier time writing with fewer people as it forces you to make meaningful connections when plotting. Not saying it isn’t possible in a bigger group, people just have more options and the ways in which characters are linked can get spread think depending on the setting. I think for me the smaller cast wins out and the pros are certainly as I’ve said above and you get a chance to meet and engage with people outside of the rping space more frequently. With bigger groups it can be harder to stake a claim or make yourself heard in amongst everyone else. The cons of a small group is that dedication is required to make sure that it isn’t just 5 out of 10 keeping the dash moving and people leaving can have a greater effect on the whole look and feel of the rp. In a bigger cast of characters 2 people leaving, while it is a shame, maybe not alter the whole balance of the rp. As with anything it is a balancing act, for me whether there’s 4 or 40 people involved I just prefer to write with dedicated and creative writers.

what’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever done in the name of outlining/worldbuilding (timelines, research, maps, spreadsheets, etc.)? - 500 POINTS

Okay, listen, we’ve all been there: I could definitely admin an rp, in fact, I could definitely make an rp! 

It really isn’t as simple and shiny as everyone else makes it seem. I’ve made to completion 3 rps and plenty of others that never saw the light of day. That was mostly because the high concept was way outside my realm of knowledge or the intricacies grew to be too much. I know there’s little examples but I feel like I’ve done all of them. From a post-apocalypic rp that had it’s own barter systems, power hierarchy and fully scaled map that I made in PS. I recognised it was way too much way too late and I just didn’t do anything with it. Way too much research time spent on how society would societally and physically rebuild itself after a doomsday moment. 

share the last paragraph you wrote you’re most proud of. - 650 POINTS

Elyse:

Elyse had never looked anyone so deeply in the eye before, sure that she saw a whole world between her darkened iris’, unsure if she’d ever been so close to anyone. While ditzy she was never clumsy, too much restraint holding all of her muscles rigid to bump into someone like they did in the movies. Books would drop, both hunkering down, eyes meet and supposedly that was what attraction was. A succession of touches, glances and fumbled words. Neither of them had managed poetic verse, but they shared a glance that didn’t waver and their lips had brushed and could again according to Selene. Elyse’s doe eyes watched the woman in front of her so intently, just waiting for a cue or for her to make a move. She never believed she could be in control nor did it call to her. Her two sisters were the guiding forces, each had their own styles of giving direction. Elyse felt as though she’d been led to the center of the universe, stood in front of the only thing that mattered. The cracks in the pool tiles seemed to push themselves back together and the peeling paint on the motel’s rear curled back up into place. Everything was the most perfect version of itself and Elyse finally realized that while control wasn’t exactly her forte she did have to respond.

Vik:

His cheek and his precious hair graced by delicate fingers who had played his strings before. Vik felt like an instrument in her hands, known and appreciated. Impossible to some and unscrutable to most she elicited the finest melody out of him. It echoed love and support, a song for her alone. Their relationship so unique, a musician and their chosen companion were inseparable until the lowly tool fell into disrepair. Vik was broken in ways he didn’t understand entirely, a mix of trauma, loss and nowhere to call home. Could he play the same melodies? Were they sharp, or worse, were they flat? If she stayed then he supposed time would tell. But with his forehead pressed against hers, he forgot his worry. Vik looked into her eyes and remembered his place, holding no ability to judge who he’d become. She would always be enchanting and he only hoped that there was something left in him to offer her.

describe your current muse’s physical appearance using only one, over the top sentence. - 400 POINTS

y’all can guess whos who ok:

A sunshine smile knitted to soft lips, arms crossed over chest by way of keeping her pieces held as one; swaying as the breeze takes her. 

Tousled locks framed her marble features, canines bared in a daring grin and her eyes honed like a predator to prey with no malintent, instead just to offer a sweet and empty promise of love. 

if you had to write a novel about one of the characters in or outside of shiver, which character would you choose and why? - 600 POINTS

Tuffy, real tuff. 

I think no matter who I picked there would be a whole load of infringement on other people’s writing. Though I think that’s rping, it’s the coming together of pairings to create magic scenes and capture moments in a way that a single perspective could never. Elyse is a funny little one and I’m actually (omg spoiler) currently writing her actual history out as we speak. Then with Vik his history and coming to be where he is right now makes for a very cohesive and readable tale. Paired with an ideal partner, but she couldn’t love him back, he sought something different, the something different kidnapped and tortured him, he was sent away from his home, and then his love very much accidentally found him again in a new space and as a very different person than the one she once knew. It writes itself really. It would hit a lot of beats that it has to and has very classical romance tropes while being both modern and entirely high fantasy. 

The last thing Vik needs to hear is that he’s getting a biography tho to be fair. 

[imjustaf444keriguess]

"now zip it you're annoying" you can block me you know!

1 - what does the power of the plurals article have to do with any of this. i know the definition of endogenic system. the quote you mentioned even demonstrates how associations to endogenic systems can harm even non-endogenic plurals/systems.

2 - where did the other quotes you screenshotted and shared come from? one is just saying that there's no backing (which doesn't mean an impossibility, it just means that they haven't seen the studies currently going on towards endogenic plurality, which i have linked above), and one's just... related to endogenic alters/headmates? which are real? i believe in mixed origin systems and brainmade alters?

"From my perspective, I maintain the view that endogenic systems lack validity." have you tried reading any of the links in the two masterposts i sent? have you found any research that shows the impossiblity of non-trauma created systems?

you also say:

In contrast, endogenic systems assert an absence of trauma, thereby challenging the conventional understanding of how conditions like Other Specified Dissociative Disorder (OSDD) or Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) may manifest.

which is like saying "some people claim to have headaches without a sickness, which challenges the conventional understanding of how headaches formed through cold and flu symptoms may manifest" like, if you can prove to me that the brain literally cannot create other sentient 'selves" without trauma, try to show me that it's impossible, but with scientists currently studying the experience and saying terms like "tulpa system", there's backing to the idea that these peoples internal experiences are legitimate and they're not all lying for clout.

wait, was the whole bit there, like... a quote from... someone else's post? at the end you gave a link following a lingering quote mark, which means you quoted 4 paragraphs of... someone else's post? or is that your own opinion? because none of that text is seen in the last link that you posted, as far as i can tell.

and what the fuck does tiktok have to do with any of this? plurality and systemhood relating to endogenic identities and even tulpanancy have existed long before tiktok, and tiktok having people on it and maybe faking on there doesn't make the whole idea of the experience wrong and fake?

like if i was faking having DID, that doesn't sudenly make DID fake. if someone is lying about being a system, that doesn't mke endogenic experiences less real for the people who are experiencing them.

we CAN get into a debate on whether or not they're really plural, but none of the things you linked... even touch on that, as far as i can tell? one is BY someone who's pro-endo from a site that's pro-endo, and one's just interviews? and you have one screenshotted quote that's just... something about the TOSD somehow invalidating endogenic experiences? and claims endogenic systems 'lack scientific validation', which- again, is untrue, i've shown you the research that makes me believe, and then it brings up complex dissociative disorders, which are the disordered version of plurality. of course the dissociation disorder is validated by the TOSD, that influences the trauma and disordered part of the disorder.

and then the whole copy pasted text from somewhere, again unsourced. just a random quote? from some other guy? was that from tumblr, or another site? definitely not a professionals study or anyything, i don't think most scientists can get away with putting "lol" and firm assertive statements like "And that is how it will stay because that it the only way the disorder can develop!" without evidence to show that the only way to be plural is through the disorder.

and also, when was the article (that's seen in the screenshot) written? is it talking about DID/OSDD mainly, or is it actually debating on endogenic systems and their validity? does it have sources that prove its points, or is it a carrd

if you DO reply with stuff i probably wont reply any further, this is as disorienting and senseless as asking an AI for information, and at least an AI would try to source where it gets its info, even if it has broken links sometimes.

(starting off, we are a traumagenic did system. we have did.)

endogenic systems are absolutely punk and they belong in punk spaces (pluralpunk, systempunk, whatever) and here’s why:

- punk is about embracing who you are and living your life authentically and unapologetically

- punk is about not letting other people dictate how you live your life and who you can be

- punk is about radical acceptance, equality, and solidarity

- punk is about rejecting authority and the establishment (and yes, this includes the medical establishment which is often ableist and causes disabled people real, long lasting harm)

there is no room for anti endos in punk. being anti endo literally is being anti punk. learn more about what punk means, and do better.

[khorazir]

A cartographic plot

The first part of this was written for Spark. I went a bit over the wordcount while talking about the importance of places in my fanfics, and decided to post the entire thing here on tumblr. The bit published in Spark is above, the rest below the cut.

I started writing BBC Sherlock fanfiction in the back of my parents’ car after a week spent cycling in the French Alps. For years, my father had talked about tackling the Col du Galibier, a pass of Tour de France fame, by bicycle. In the summer of 2012, we finally did it. Ah, but Sherlock and cycling? Where’s the connection? When I began writing the story, scribbling on whatever scrap of paper was available in the car, at first the only connection was that I loved both Sherlock and cycling, and that my recent experiences in the mountains, spending hours in the saddle arduously ascending winding roads, had made a deep impression on me. I was desperate for an outlet for my pent up inspiration.

Eventually, what started out as a cracky premise for a Post-Reichenbach Sherlock story became Over Hill and Under Hill, a fanfic of 75k words and the first finished instalment of my Over/Under series. In the story, the extreme, beautiful landscape of Savoyen serves as a backdrop for the Baker Street boys to deal with the fallout of the Fall (written before Series 3 aired, my version of Sherlock’s reunion with John is different from canon) and their feelings for each other while basically doing what I had just done: climbing Alpine passes on their bicycles. At some point, a case creeps into the story, too, which Sherlock solves from abroad.

Apart from telling my version of the reunion, I wanted to write a story about grandiose nature, the hardship of ascending two thousand metres of altitude on a bicycle, the elation of standing on top of the pass glancing over the mountains, and the rush of adrenaline during the steep descents. I yearned to include some of the strange people we’d met on the way and who return as minor characters in the story, such as the chap cycling all the way in tight black swimming trunks and nothing else. How fortunate for the storyteller that the long ascents give John and Sherlock time to think and to talk, while the descents make their adrenaline junkies’ hearts soar. They have to share a room and a double bed at the hotel, of course, which leads to ... things. The plot itself is structured by the landscape, almost following the roads they cycle on bend for bend and landmark for landmark. Weather conditions such as hot, relentless sun and a sudden thunderstorm add a touch of drama. Stops along the way provide incentives for reflections, conversations and realisations, and for the boys getting to know each other again after their separation.

I was surprised by how well it worked to transfer these very urban characters so closely associated with London into this new setting and unfamiliar activity, keeping their essence (hopefully) while letting the landscape and its particular blend of beauty and danger work its magic, moulding the two men into the couple they hadn’t realised they’d been all along.

Looking back, the way Over Hill and Under Hill came about shouldn’t have surprised me. Of the books and stories I grew up with, and which have left a lasting impression on me, most have a very specific setting and precise sense of place. Be it the stories by Astrid Lindgren, mostly set in the Swedish region of Småland during the time of her childhood in the early 20th century, or Vasapark and the small islands around Stockholm of her adult life, or Otfried Preußler’s masterful descriptions of the Lausitz region in Eastern Germany where his captivating novel Krabat is set. Or be it JRR Tolkien, the master of making the fictional yet reality-grounded landscape of Middle-earth absolutely integral to the plot and structure of his writings. Even if many believe Middle-earth to be found in New Zealand, based on Peter Jackson’s film adaptations, the true inspiration for the Shire are Tolkien’s beloved West Midlands. The hemlock glade where Beren sees Lúthien dance for the first time in The Silmarillion is based on a similar glade near Great Haywood Tolkien watched his wife dance. And the gruesome Dead Marshes on the borders of Mordor Tolkien experienced himself on the war-torn battlefields of the Somme. I think it’s safe to claim that the landscapes that he encountered as a child and young man seeped into his writings, in many cases becoming not just interesting tableaux to add colour to the stories, but important tools to provide characterisation, suspense, and poignant reminders of the preciousness of the natural world.

For me, the spatial setting of a story and its detailed description have always been an important requirement for my enjoyment of a tale. The “willing suspension of disbelief”, to quote Tolkien, works best for me when the setting of a story is as detailed and well observed as possible, grounded in physical laws and restrictions as well as the distinctive laws of the story. Weather, vegetation, distances, languages and the effects they have on the characters have to be realistic – both when existing and imagined places are described –, otherwise I’m quickly pulled out of the narrative and lose interest (by the way, this is one of my major gripes with “The Final Problem”: the way it sets at naught many of the basic “laws” established in previous episodes of Sherlock). Hints at local customs and peculiarities add colour, depth and believability to a setting, providing the characters with material to rub against and to engage with, to test their limits and limitations.

For me as an author (and illustrator), researching locations for fanfics or art is part of the enjoyment of writing, especially when it can be linked with visits to said locations (my excuse for frequent trips to the UK – I’m based in Germany). I’m a stickler for detail born out of a profound interest in the natural world, in botany, eco-systems, geology and geography, but also in the way historic events shape and influence landscape and its inhabitants. All these aspects I need to see reflected in fiction, and rendered faithfully, or else I can’t take a setting seriously, not the characters and their motivations. Most of the fanfics I’ve enjoyed so far have a very strong sense of place, be it London, Edinburgh, New York, Continental Europe, the Near East or the English countryside. In my own stories, I try to emulate this, preferring to write about places I’ve come to know through repeated visits and extensive literary and online research, as well as correspondence with locals.

Researching my WW2/codebreaker AU Enigma constitutes a special challenge in this respect, because it not only requires me to gather information about existing locations like Bletchley Park, Kent or London, but also wartime Britain in general, removed not just by space but by more than seventy intervening years. Although the internet is a brilliant tool for research, while trying to find out more about the history of the Enigma locations, visits have brought the places to life for me, particularly Bletchley Park. The venue has been transformed into a commendable museum that seeks to recreate the atmosphere of it’s hay-day as a secret codebreaker base through reconstructed huts and historical installations, as well as information about important figures such as Alan Turing, and live demonstrations of his inventions. Interestingly, at the museum, I even found factual confirmation of what I had considered an invention for my story. When it came to locating Sherlock’s and John’s billet in Bletchley in 1941, Google Maps was of limited help: most of Bletchley was built after the war – it’s now part of Milton Keynes –, and from the map, it was almost impossible to tell which parts of it would have existed during the war and which were built afterwards. Old maps or arial photographs were scarce. So I used a bit of deductive reasoning and common sense, basically looking at the main roads leading in and out of town and assuming that they would have been built first. On a whim, I chose one of those thoroughfares, Buckingham Road, and placed the billet there. And lo and behold, during a subsequent visit to the Bletchley Park Museum, I found a photograph depicting billets of the park’s staff situated on the very road.

Lucky coincidences aside, nothing beats a visit to a location one wants to write about. However sometimes, due to constraints of time or money, visits aren’t possible and research from afar has to suffice. I worked like that when I started writing The Summer Boy. I’d been toying with the idea of a story partially set in Sherlock’s childhood for a long while. 1980s nostalgia played a part since I was a child during that decade as well, as did the desire to get to know the character better and to speculate what made him the man we encounter in the show, after glimpses of his past shown in Series 3.

However, a fitting setting for my story to unfold long eluded me. I was striving for an atmosphere similar to that of one of my all-time favourite films, “Stand By Me”, a bitter-sweet yet authentic depiction of childhood with a strong sense of spatial setting. I wanted the location to be a rural one, preferably close to London, with a distinctive landscape and somewhat fragile eco-system, the partial destruction of which would feature in the story to symbolise a place Sherlock could not really return to, but that offered him the chance of “growing up“ and finding an alternative retreat through his developing relationship with John.

Given the canonical links Sherlock Holmes has with Sussex, I began looking for potential locations along the Sussex coast and in the South Downs. I didn’t just want to invent a village or landmark, but wanted the story that was going to contain mythical and supernatural elements (based on how it’s interpreted, at least), to be set in a real place. The landscape and particular vegetation of the chalky downlands were going to play an important part in the story. And remember: stickler for detail. The plants, animals and historical sites Sherlock encounters had to be correct. So I researched the South Downs and their particular chalk-based vegetation, read up on South Down sheep, about Bronze and Iron Age settlements and their remains, and about the myths and legends of the area. I found striking similarities to Terry Pratchett’s masterful depiction of the Chalk in his Tiffany Aching series (The Wee Free Men and its four sequels), which is doubtlessly based on the chalky Wiltshire Downs he lived on. The link to Pratchett, his blend of real, meticulously observed, and fantastical elements based on myths and local culture (which are again inspired by the landscapes they originated in) seemed a good foil for my own story, which grew to contain lots of references to his works. I even partly modelled some of the characters on figures from his series of books.

Still, the dilemma remained to find a concrete place, preferably one featuring an ancient site or landmark such as a hill-fort or a barrow that would function as a focal place for young Sherlock to discover and to spend time at with the mysterious friend he encounters there, and who seems to be a personification of the South Downs, and of summer. By chance (and Google Image Search), I stumbled across a place called Chanctonbury Ring, a henge of trees planted in the 18th century on an Iron Age hill-fort. The South Downs Way leads past it, it commands a good view all around. Sheep graze there in summer, and on the grassy and partly wooded slopes surrounding it many rare plants grow. It’s in walking distance of a quaint village (Washington), which I could use as a base for Sherlock to be accommodated at with relatives. And what ultimately made Chanctonbury Ring the perfect location for my story was the fact that during the Great Storm of 1987, the trees of the henge were almost completely destroyed. I had wanted to set the story in that very year, because I imagine BBC Sherlock’s age to be around Benedict’s and my own (we are only seven months apart), which would make Sherlock around nine in the story, pre-pubescent. Perfect. His fake gravestone from TRF even says 1977, so that fit. And we all know what’s said about coincidences and lazy universes ...

So, perfect spatial and temporal setting found, I still faced the sad fact that I hadn’t actually visited Chanctonbury Ring, nor could see any chance of getting there soon. Nevertheless, the story demanded to be written. Consulting Google Maps as well as photographs helped to get an idea of the place. I looked at similar places in my home country across the Channel. Thus equipped, I started writing (the muse wouldn’t suffer any delay and kept pestering me until I relented), in the hope to actually be able to visit Chanctonbury Ring before I had come too far, enabling me to revise potential mistakes.

Eventually, when the story was already half written, and during the wrong season of the year (the story is set in the summer, I went in December), I visited Chanctonbury Ring. I was pleased to find that my descriptions of the landscape were surprisingly accurate based on what research I’d done, although the visit did add a feeling for the place that hopefully enabled me to make the latter chapters more poignant.

Arguably the most important location for writing Sherlock fanfic is London, a place I’ve become very familiar with in recent years due to frequent visits with long walks and a full timetable of museums, exhibitions, galleries and cultural events, lots of reading about the history of the city, a strong interest in current events, and constant curiosity that lets me explore places off the beaten tracks.

London was one of my favourite places even before I my obsession with BBC Sherlock happened. Actually, I’m convinced the way London is portrayed in the series is one of the main reasons Sherlock struck such a chord with me. Apart from the humour, the obvious chemistry of the protagonists, the cleverness of the dialogues and the overall aesthetics, it was the way modern London was depicted and made an integral character that fascinated me so much about the show. Despite large parts of Sherlock being filmed in Cardiff and elsewhere, they nevertheless feel like parts of the British capital just off the main tourist tracks. Sherlock’s London is both familiar and strange, ugly and beautiful, dark and bright, historic and modern. The character’s particular way of focussing on seemingly unimportant details is reflected in the cinematography. The choice of unusual settings and locations such as Speedy’s Café, Battersea Power Station, the streets of Soho, Leinster Garden, a disused Tube station and the banks of the Thames add atmosphere and colour, making London a living, breathing character in the show – as it was in the original Conan Doyle stories. Occasionally, a touch of Victoriana, ever present even in modern London, creeps into the series, linking it back to the stories it’s based on. Sherlock has definitely rekindled my love of London, or rather, has fanned the already existing embers into hot flames. In the sequels to Over Hill and Under Hill, and several of my other Sherlock fanfics, I’ve tried to honour this tradition by including curious locations in, and little-known minutiae about London to make it come to life as an integral part of the narration, and also to create credibility for the setting.

I have plans to dive even deeper into London past and present. For about a year and half I’ve been working on a Sherlock/London graphic novel in which the location becomes centre point. The story is simple: to alleviate boredom, on his birthday, Sherlock is sent on a “treasure hunt” through London, moving from riddle to riddle and clue to clue set, from one little known location to the next, discovering facts and anecdotes about what he visits in the process. The idea for the book was born out of my many walks through London, along the South Bank, through the City on Sunday mornings when it’s like a ghost town, deserted, along the Regent’s Canal to Camden and on to Hampstead Heath, through the East End and the West End, Chinatown, Soho, Bloomsbury, through Chelsea and Kensington, and further out to the Docklands and Greenwich. I’ve discovered real gems through these walks, some of which Sherlock is going to visit as well – as many as I can realistically squeeze into twenty-four hours without completely exhausting the poor man.

The project is going to occupy me for a good while yet. Also planned are two sequels to The Summer Boy. One is based on a painting I did for the Holmestice Exchange and which depicts John and Sherlock in a disused Tube station. There was some clamouring for a story based on the image, so I’m going to oblige. Since the Tube is such an integral part of London and I’ve long been fascinated with its history, I look forward to researching it.

The second sequel is going to be set in the Lake District. Some of the research for this new story has already been done, and another visit to the area has been booked for the autumn. I haven’t really thought of a plot for the story yet, some vague ideas aside, but I’m very sure that the landscape of Cumbria will provide it once I’m there. A cartographic plot, as usual.

[everysea-everystar-blog]

Otherkin Challenge

I got this challenge from the blog @justanotherkin and thought it would be a good thing to fill out on my new tumblr! I’ve made very minor changes to some questions. 

1. What name do you go by? What is the significance of it to you? 

The name I go by usually isn't something I’m very comfortable with sharing here, but that has a lot of importance to me because I’m transgender and choosing my name has made me a lot happier. Online, I tend to go by Bumble, which is just a silly nickname but cheers me up. I believe my selkie-self is called Sìoda but I don’t call myself that. 

2. How old are you? What is the gender you identify as? (human) 

I’m 18 and I’m a nonbinary trans guy. 

3. What are your kintype(s)? 

Selkiekin, alienkin, spiritkin, felinekin, and I’m questioning monsterkin. 

4. How long have you known that you are otherkin? How old were you when you awakened? 

I think I’ve pretty much always seen myself as nonhuman and had connections to certain species and such, from a very young age. However, I didn’t know about the existence of otherkin or therians until much later, and was actually against the communities for many years. I think I was just in denial and wanted to join in with everyone else making fun of otherkin. I only started getting involved with the community about a week ago. 

5. How did you find the otherkin community? 

At first through tumblr, and then just searching around for forums and group chats. 

6. How does being otherkin affect your life? 

It doesn’t really affect me much daily, though I definitely feel a disconnect from humanity almost all the time. I do experience “species dysphoria” but I wouldn’t compare it to the level of discomfort that gender dysphoria brings me. I also have some paranoia about friends/family finding out about my identity. I’m homesick most of the time, too. 

7. Are you “out of the metaphysical closet”? If so, to whom? 

The only people I’m really “out” to are those on otherkin group chats or forums, and that’s very anonymous to be honest. I spoke briefly about my worries with my best friend a little while before joining the community, but didn’t want to press the issue further because she clearly doesn’t get it. She wasn’t mean about it though. 

8. How did/would your family react to you being otherkin? 

They would either laugh at me, ignore me, or think I’m crazy. Probably all three. (Sidenote: I am actually mentally ill, so I think my parents would believe that me being otherkin is a symptom of this. I know that isn’t the case, but there you go.) 

9. What does being otherkin mean to you? 

It simply means that I am aware of my nonhuman identity and my nonhuman selves, in whatever form that might take. It’s just a part of my daily life that I’ve recently come to terms with and makes me understand myself better. 

10. How do you believe you came to be otherkin? Is it a psychological connection? Were you reincarnated? Explain. 

This depends on which kintype we’re talking about, so I’ll give it a go: 

Selkie: I’m living a parallel life with my selkie self 

Alien: I was “reincarnated” into my human body from an alien life, and my soul is still alien 

Spirit: As a being, I’ve always been a guardian spirit 

Feline: I have a feline soul alongside mine 

11. What do you hope the otherkin community will be like in ten years? Are you for public awareness or against it? Why or why not? 

I hope that the community is even bigger in ten years time, and hopefully viewed with less contempt from the outside world. However, I’m not really for public awareness, because I think it will only bring us more hatred. Also, I don’t view us kin as an oppressed group, and would therefore like to focus more on the support of genuinely oppressed groups such as POC and LGBTQ+. 

12. Do you have phantom/astral limbs? What are they and how do you feel them? 

While not so much a phantom/astral limb, I often feel the texture of my seal’s tail as a selkie on my legs, as well as other sensory experiences like seaweed and cold ocean water around me. I also have nose and mouth twitches that I believe are related to my cat’s whiskers. 

13. Do you mental shift? Have you ever harmed yourself or someone else during one? 

I do mental shift sometimes, but it’s never been dangerous. The only possible danger is that I might try to do things that my human body can’t really do (e.g. swim in very dangerous waters, go on very long forest walks - I have a disability so this is impossible). 

14. Have you ever mental shifted at a time when it could be considered inappropriate? 

I think some of the times that I go nonverbal (I’m autistic) are triggered by mental shifts, and that’s always “inappropriate” or at least inconvenient. 

15. Do you astral project or practise any occult crafts? 

 I’m a witch currently trying to get back into his practise. 

16. Do you feel you are any sort of danger to society? 

Not at all! I might have some “weird” beliefs and be nonhuman but I’m generally very peaceful. I wouldn’t hurt anyone unless they hurt me or someone I loved. 

17. Does your nonhuman identity complicate everyday life for you? If so, how? 

As aforementioned, the only real impact being nonhuman has on my daily life is feeling disconnected from humanity. This does cause a decent amount of social and emotional issues, as well as “species dysphoria” interfering with my moods. 

18. Why do you believe are here as a human? 

I’m not really sure about this one to be honest, but it could be linked to me being spiritkin: maybe I’ve been sent to specifically protect the nature on earth for the time being. Still unsure, though. 

19. Are you active among the otherkin community? 

Recently, yes! I’d love to be more active on the tumblr kin community too, but I’m scared about all the anti//kin things that I might end up seeing. 

20. Are you religious? What faith do you follow? Does it contradict your otherkin identity or do you feel that the two are synonymous somehow? 

I don’t follow any sort of organised religion; I like to think of myself as a semi-theistic Pagan. I believe in Mother Earth and have thoughts of a great Universal Spirit, but I don’t “worship” them as such. This does’t contradict with me being otherkin at all - in fact I think it might explain my spiritkin identity. 

21. Have you ever been emotionally, verbally, or physically harrassed simply for being otherkin? 

I haven’t experienced this directly, but the fear of it happening is why I’m very private and secretive about being otherkin. I’ve witnessed a lot of online bullying and mockery of us, and for a long time I was one of those people being mean to otherkin/therians because I just wanted to fit with what I saw people saying. 

22. Do you efel you are oppressed because you are otherkin? 

No, not really. Oppression is based in societal systems and ingrained belief, and to be honest it makes complete sense that humans wouldn’t understand people claiming to be nonhuman to any extent. I do think that the bullying and mockery is unnecessary and cruel, but I wouldn’t call it oppression. 

23. What is your take on fictionkin/mediakin/factkin? What about machinekin and appliancekin? 

I’m not sure I really understand fictionkin, but I’m not really against it. However, anyone who gets angry at a writer or other person involved with fiction because they aren’t adhering to their kin canon is just rude, and threatening to harm yourself over this is incredibly disturbing. I would consider myself fictionhearted with multiple characters, and have no problem interacting with fictionkin as long as they aren’t rude like I said before. I definitely have a problem with factkin, as I just see that as identity theft. I really can’t get my head around machinekin and anything else that isn’t living or spiritual, because I don’t believe that a non-living thing can exist in a human body, but I don’t think those people are inherently bad. 

24. Did the awakening process seem relatively easy or difficult to you? Why? 

If I refer to the process of accepting my nonhuman identity as my “awakening” then it was definitely difficult. Like I said, I spent years making fun of otherkin - not actively or online, but with friends, and I would sometimes look at the tags on tumblr - which I know realise was me trying to cope with being nonhuman. Making the transition to acceptance was scary. 

25. What do you think of the information provided online about otherkin - is it relevant or not? 

Most of the things I’ve found have been relevant, but a lot of articles written by non-kin just don’t have a very good understanding. 

26. How has your otherkin/therian identity defined you as a person? Do you feel as if it has given you morals that you didn’t have before? 

I think that coming to terms with my nonhuman identity has helped me be more accepting of other people’s identities as long as they don’t harm themselves or others. I think my general confusion surrounding vegetarians/vegans comes from me being selkiekin and felinekin, but I have nothing against those people. 

27. Have you learned any life-long lessons due to your otherkin identity? 

Nothing is what it seems. 

28. What do you want to do with your life? 

I’d like to go into animal care as a career (e.g. pet rehoming shelters, conservation, ethical farming, animal sanctuaries, etc.) as well as being a writer and musician on the side. I’m willing to do any job in the meantime that doesn’t involve too much social interaction. 

29. Do you have any tips or advice for young and/or newly awakened otherkin? 

Get the “tumblr savior” browser extension (or any alternative you prefer, I think xkit is quite popular, do your research) and blacklist any anti//kin tags you can think of. This will bring you a lot of mental peace, trust me. Surround yourself with positivity but remember to keep a critical eye. Find ways to live in balance with your kintype(s) as opposed to having a jarring double existence. You may have to accept the fact that “coming out” as kin in your public life will likely cause more harm than good. Make online friends. 

30. Anything else you’d like to share with us? 

I’m so glad I’ve finally joined this community - I’d been scared for years. 

[mikemortgage]

Fake-news patrolling may be next big Internet boom: Ryan Holmes

Earlier this year, a fake video circulated of Barack Obama calling Donald Trump “a total and complete dipsh*t.” The voice may not be exactly right, but the clip — which took a team of video pros at BuzzFeed 56 hours to create — vividly illustrates the nascent threat of Deepfakes, i.e. digitally altered videos that can pretty much make anyone say anything.

Deepfake technology is already being widely (and controversially) used to insert celebrity faces into pornography. But it’s not hard to see how dangerous it may prove in the political realm. Putting false statements into the mouths of state actors could easily spur an international controversy, a stock market panic or even an outright war. Far from science fiction, the threat is so real that DARPA, the U.S. defence agency responsible for emerging military technology, has already assembled an official media forensics lab to sniff out fakes.

Of course, forged videos aren’t the only threat on the fake news front. The 2016 U.S. presidential election offered a convincing illustration of the power of plain old fake headlines and news stories, spread on social media, to sway the course of world events. Since then, we’ve grown accustomed to second-guessing, and occasionally falling for, dubious stories spread on our feeds. (It doesn’t help that real journalism is now being conflated by some politicians with fake news.) In the end, we’re left deeply uncertain who and what to trust — if anything or anyone at all.

‘Very dangerous’: Donald Trump is accusing Google of rigging search results against him to favour ‘fake news’

Facebook to fact-check Canadian news stories to reduce spread of fake news

'They can't stop it': Inside the thriving business of selling fake YouTube video views

Social media sits at the crux of many of these challenges. It’s the primary place people get their news these days and, sadly, one of the places most vulnerable to manipulation. As someone who has built a career in social media, I find this worrying. I have tremendous faith in the power of social channels to create connection and open up dialogue. Networks like Facebook and Twitter have become part of the plumbing of the Internet and aren’t going away. But the spread of fake content — not just wacky, easily dismissed conspiracy theories but convincing videos that make even experts do a double take — is a real and growing threat.

How do we restore trust and confidence in online content in this climate? To me, the way forward isn’t just an algorithm tweak or a new set of regulations. This challenge is far too complex for that. We’re talking, at root, about faith in what we see and hear online, about trusting the raw data that informs the decisions of individuals, companies and whole countries. The time for a Band-Aid fix has long passed. Instead, we may be talking about the digital era’s next growth industry: content validation.

The burgeoning content validation industry

Interestingly, we’re already seeing a flurry of activity in this arena, as the arms race between fakers and detectives accelerates. The Deepfake phenomenon, in particular, has inspired a growing technological response. The startup Truepic, which has just attracted more than US$10 million in funding from the likes of Reuters, has set its sights on sniffing out such details as eye reflectivity and hair placement, which are nearly impossible to fake across the thousands of frames in a video. Gfycat, the gif-hosting platform, uses AI-powered tools that check for anomalies to identify and pull down offending clips on its site.

On the academic and research front, scientists at Los Alamos are building algorithms that hunt out repeated visual elements, a tell-tale sign of video manipulation, while SUNY Albany researchers have developed a system that monitors video blinking patterns. DARPA and its media forensics team, meanwhile, look for inconsistencies in lighting on AI-generated faces.

Trickier still, however, is flagging fake and biased text-based news stories — the kind of content that’s easy to make and likeliest to find its ways into our social streams. There’s little technical trickery required here, just an old-fashioned ability to tell convincing lies and use language to manipulate readers’ own biases and emotions. Perhaps for that reason, these fake stories seem to avoid machine detection and often require direct human intervention to suss out.

Facebook, for all its technical sophistication, has resorted to partnering with a growing army of human fact checkers to vet content on its platform in the wake of Cambridge Analytica and the 2016 election crises. Posts flagged as false by users (or by machine learning) are forwarded on to one of 25 fact-checking partners in 14 countries, including the likes of the Associated Press, PolitiFact and Snopes. Content deemed false is, in turn, demoted by Facebook, which pushes it lower in the news feed, evidently reducing future views by more than 80 per cent.

This manual, piecemeal approach admittedly leaves a lot to be desired: standards vary by fact-checking organization, and even patently fake stories may go viral before Facebook has a chance to demote them. Not to mention, the sheer scale frustrates human intervention: every 60 seconds on Facebook, 510,000 comments are posted and 136,000 photos are uploaded, according to one estimate. It’s little wonder there aren’t enough fact-checkers to review all false claims.

The future of trust

Is there a better way to address this problem? There has to be. Will it be easy? Nope. And this is where ingenuity and market opportunity need to come together. For instance, can we find a way to leverage domain authority — the search engine ranking scores that serve as a rough proxy for “trustworthiness” — in vetting content shared on social media? (An outlet like The New York Times, for instance, which has a domain authority of 99/100, would be ranked as highly trusted.) This approach is scalable but, admittedly, far from perfect, since domain authority is rooted largely in linkbacks rather than factual correctness.

Or could we take a cue from HTTPS protocol? The trusted lock symbol next to the URL on our browsers offers instant assurance that sites we’re visiting — banks or online stores — are secure and our sensitive data is safe. It’s not hard to imagine how useful this concept would be in the world of content: I’m picturing a nifty little badge on videos, photos and stories that have been verified as true and factually correct, not fakes. The challenge is that HTTPS is merely an assurance of encryption. Vouching for data accuracy is a thornier issue altogether and far more complex from a technical and human standpoint.

What about blockchain? The idea of an immutable ledger stored in the cloud, tracing the origin of all content to its source, definitely sounds appealing. Users could compare versions of videos or images to check for modifications, and watermarks would serve as a badge of quality. (Indeed, this is largely the idea behind the Truepic app.) But here, too, the question is whether this can be applied to text-based content, where the intent to deceive leaves fewer technical traces.

Ultimately, comprehensive content validation is far easier to imagine than to pull off. Once upon a time, we had a pretty great system for this — it was called journalism. For all of their limits and flaws, news outlets aspired to certain standards of accuracy, and professionals dedicated their lives to upholding them. With the advent of the Internet and social media, however, those traditional gatekeepers are long gone. Anyone can create news now. Anyone can spread false information. Anyone can cast aspersions on what we know to be real and true.

But here’s why I’m encouraged. The backbone of the digital economy — which, increasingly, is the only economy — is information exchange. When that information loses its validity, that’s a huge problem… and a huge market opportunity.

• Ryan Holmes, CEO of HootSuite, is an angel investor and advisor, and mentors startups and entrepreneurs.

Twitter.com/invoker; linkedin.com/influencer/2967511-Ryan-Holmes

from Financial Post https://ift.tt/2SjD5PP via IFTTT Blogger Mortgage Tumblr Mortgage Evernote Mortgage Wordpress Mortgage href="https://www.diigo.com/user/gelsi11">Diigo Mortgage

[superblyjovialtheorist-blog]

Beallsville Ohio Cheap car insurance quotes zip 43716

"Beallsville Ohio Cheap car insurance quotes zip 43716

Beallsville Ohio Cheap car insurance quotes zip 43716

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Beallsville Ohio Cheap car insurance quotes zip 43716

Beallsville Ohio Cheap car insurance quotes zip 43716

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Beallsville Ohio Cheap car insurance quotes zip 43716

Beallsville Ohio Cheap car insurance quotes zip 43716

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Insurance fronting ( making car insurance cheaper )?

If i'm not the owner of the vehicle ( my mum is ), yet im still insured on the policy as a named driver but im the main driver am i commiting insurance fronting. insurance fronting states that if you are the owner of the vehicle but only a named driver this is called insurance fronting, but im not the owner but a named driver does the same rules apply""

Where can I get individual health insurance that will cover Pregnancy?

I live in a small town in Texas, I was recently married in June 2008, we got pregnant with twins but unfortunatly had a miscarriage...one of hardest things I have ever had to deal with...anyways...we want to try again but I really want to have health coverage and not have to pay out of pocket...does anyone know of any health insurance that covers pregnancy...from what everyone else is telling me no individual policy will cover me if i get pregnant...if anyone can help I would appreciate it...""

I live in el cajon san diego i am 16 i want to get a car what insurance company should i get that is cheap?

i cant afford a car payment every month plus insurance so what insurance company will first of all let me be with them cause i have no credit and how much will it cost for me to get insurance

""Getting my first motorcycle, need some help picking one out with my current financial status?""

So, I'm 16, and getting a bike is basically a tradition in my family. My grandpa has been riding since he was 14, my deceased grandpa was in a biker gang called the Blue angels which was made entirely of cops, my step grandpa currently has a golden wing and has had 4-5 bikes before that. And my dad had one sport bike until he found it was inconvenient because of how tired he got after riding it [like he didn't expect it from a sport bike though, right?]. Anyways, I need help finding a bike I can afford. Seeing as it's my first bike, (and im only 16), I don't want to spend 15 grand on a bike that I'll probably end up laying down. I'm probably going to buy a used bike for under 2 grand. I'm not picky about the year and what company it was made by. But I'd prefer not to get a sport bike because of this insane insurance costs. And I'm not going to be leaving the state very often, so I don't need a touring bike. Summary; I'm leaning towards a Cruiser. And I'm not gonna be the Jack *** going 80 across the intersection while doing a wheelie, I enjoy life too much. And I've ridden a few dirt bikes before, so I have a bit of experience. Any help is appreciated for finding a bike model that I can get fairly cheap used. And I'd like something larger than 250cc, but I don't want a Ducati Monster engine... You know?""

Does a subcontractor need insurance?

typically, when you try to bid on jobs you will be asked for general/professional liability insurance. however when you subcontract do you still need insurance? also, what are riders and endorsements? thank you""

Will my parents' insurance rates go up?

I recently got 2 traffic tickets (1 for speeding and 1 for disobeying a traffic control device). However, the car I am driving is registered under my parents' policy and I am not the primary driver for it. Will my parent's insurance rates go up because of this, or will this only affect my driving record?""

Can i go onto my Dads car insurance and get my own car aswell?

What the title says. Can i go onto my dads car insurance and drive my own car, instead of driving my dads?""

""Which insurance company is BETTER in Naples, FL -- UHC or CIGNA?

Planning to get an individual insurance and those two are one of the good ones. I'll also get a Dental Premier (ppo) and Vision Plan. A bit worried on the dental though coz there are only few who has affiliation with insurance companies. HEEEEEEEELP. Which one is better?

Insurance rates of a new leased car vs. a used car?

I am looking for a car to drive, and it's my first car. I am wondering what the difference in insurance costs would be between: a) A brand new leased car b) A fairly old used car I know it depends on the type of car, but lets go with a honda accord, because that's what I would buy/lease. Also, I am 16. Is it possible for my dad to own the lease but designate me as the driver of the car?""

""On average, how much is motorcycle insurance in Ontario?""

I'm 19, new rider, live in Scarborough Ontario. As a car driver, never crashed before Planning to get either a GS650F or SV650SA If possible could someone share their own experience on motorcycle insurance and how much it might cost. Some of my friends told me it's cheaper than car insurance while others told me its twice as much as car insurance""

Can I have monthly insurance?

I want to know if I can have a policy where I can insure my car for only 2 months? With my insurance I pay $560 per month and it will cost me $800 to cancel it mid-term. Is there any way to go around this because i'm shipping my car to Europe at the end of July but still need to use it here. I live in Canada and a response from a broker or an insurance company or even any one with the slightest experience will be greatly appreciated. Thank You!

Beallsville Ohio Cheap car insurance quotes zip 43716

Beallsville Ohio Cheap car insurance quotes zip 43716

How much will my insurance cost?

I know this is going to be different by state, and maybe even by zip code, but all I want is a average, or rough estimate what my insurance will cost. I'm 18 years old,(male)and have had my license for two years, and I have a clean history, and have never had an accident or ticket. My car is a 2000 Ford Focus ZX3, with a 2.0 Zetec engine, and 5 speed manual transmission. I also live in the state of Virginia. So how much would my insurance cost me monthly? I'll be on my fathers insurance aloso by the way. As I said, I know this will not be accurate, but I just want a guess to start with to have an idea on what I'll be paying monthly.""

What is the best Dental Insurance for North Carolina??

I need to purchase dental insurance for myself because I know I need to go get a cleaning etc. What is the most affordable insurance to purchase that covers the most & gives me options on which dentist I would like to go to? I know I have atleast one cavity so I need insurance that won't break the bank but will keep my teeth looking good. Thank you in advance!! Easy 10 points for best answer!!

Insurance... please help?

Someone I know is 76 years old and is working as an employee at a small business. Can the owner of the small business get insurance to cover him? If not, any other suggestions?""

How much do you pay for car insurance?

How much do you pay for car insurance? On like an 2003 truck?

How much on average does it cost to have a 16 year old A student on my insurance?

I have a daughter who is dying to drive (we'll be sharing my car) but I don't know if I can afford the insurance! If you have a similar daughter how much did your insurance go up? I tried all these free quote places, but something about the quotes seem off...did you have to pay $300 a month? How much was your insurance originally?""

Health insurance options for a college student?

One of my best friends is headed off to college, but she doesn't have health insurance, and her parents won't allow her to stay on theirs (they can't afford it, either). I'm concerned for her and obviously want to know if there are some options for her to get some affordable but decent health insurance. What are her options? For the sake of this question, assume that her university does NOT provide their own student health care options. Thanks in advance!""

Which car insurance company will accept me; I have a few traffic citations on my record?

Since 2006, I have gotten 3 speeding tickets on my record, and 1 citation for getting into a turning lane too early (3-pointer). I got a speeding ticket in march 2006, february 2007, and december 2008. I got the last turning lane citation just a few weeks ago. I am going to court for both recent citations (from December 08 and a few weeks ago) pretty soon. I will use a no lo contendre to reduce the points on one, and ask to do community service or take a class to reduce the points on the other. I understand that most car insurance companies look at both POINTS and OFFENSES. I am with Liberty Mutual right now under my parent's family plan and since 2006, NONE of my tickets have affected our insurance. I want to take precautions and see who can quote me for having a poor driving record as I mentioned above. This year just might be the year Liberty Mutual will review my record and then, BOOM...rates are sky high. I want to responsible about what I did and get on my own plan soon. What I did was irresponsible and stupid and I am DONE making mistakes on the road. I'm 22, female, a student with a 3.47 GPA (Dean's list), trying to finish my bachelors at a university, and share rent with my brother for an apartment. I work part-time and go to school full-time. Which companies would accept me? I've got a poor driving record, but a good 'student' record--if that even matters. Please help. Otherwise, I will have to wait till some violations clear in 10 years or so. Either way, I would really appreciate if someone could tell me what my options are. I will be out of school by summer 2010 (next year) and will need to get on my own plan by then.""

Is Obamacare really the first mandatory insurance?

Isn't Social Security a mandatory fee/tax/insurance on all working people? Isn't unemployment insurance a mandatory insurance unless you are an independent contractor? Isn't car insurance a mandatory insurance for any driving person?

Will changing my Irish driving licence over to the UK greatly decrease my car insurance quotes?

I graduated from university last June and have since began working in England. I'm looking to get a car now but I'm finding that insurance quotes are quite high. I'm 26, male and have had my licence for 5 years, yet I'm being quoted in the range of 1,300-1,800 (for a Ford Mondeo 1.8 or a Peugeot 206 1.1). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.""

Health insurance question?

can your parents drop your health insurance he your not 26 yet????

Insurance and pregnancy?

My husband and I are trying to get pregnant. I am on my own private insurance right now and will not get on his insurance until April 2009. If I get pregnant before then will they cover my pregnancy bills etc?

""Im 21years old,male with a mazda miata 2001. My auto insurance to too high. where can I get cheaper insurance?""

Im 21years old,male with a mazda miata 2001. My auto insurance to too high. where can I get cheaper insurance?""

How much will a speeding ticket cost my insurance to go up?

I am 16 years old, have been licensed for two months, and recently received a speeding ticket. Assuming that I cannot get the ticket dismissed, how much will it cost my insurance to go up?""

What is the average time taken by an Insurance company to pay out on a car claim.?

I suppose it would depend on the nature of the damage to ones car and also who was at fault. However in my case, my car caught fire from what I believe may have been an electrical fault. It is now a total write off. I realise the insurance company has to carry out it's investigations but how long should this take and how soon would one expect to receive an offer. I made a claim 6 weeks ago and am still being fobbed off with the explanation that the investigations are on-going.""

Is there a place I can get affordable life insurance?

Is there a place I can get affordable life insurance?

Looking for some dental insurance in California. Any suggestions?

I'm right now looking for some dental insurance in California, but after looking for a while, I'm getting quite confused. My aim is to get an affordable plan that covers things like root canals, cleanings, x-rays. Adult braces and braces are of a lower priority right now. Does anyone have any suggestions for an affordable plan? My current location in in the Bay Area.""

Can insurance company's raise your deductible without you knowing it?

My Daddy thought he had full homeowners coverage for years with a $250 deductible. He found out last week he wasn't as covered as he thought and his deductible mysteriously rose to $1,000. How could a company do that without notification?""

Health insurance for the unborn?

Im under my dads health insurance until im 26. my insurance said they would cover me and my delivery, but wouldnt cover the baby. how can i get my baby medical insurance before she's born? (im aiming to get her on medicaid) but what steps do i take?""

How much should a 76 year old pay for liability insurance to drive a 17 year old/as good as new car?

I average about 1,400 miles a year.""

Good but cheap car insurance?

Im 17 and just got first car, it's a 2004 Mini Cooper 1.6 and now im looking for insurance, but not sure on what one to go as there is so many out there. I want some cheap and good (and easy to join) but i haven't got a clue about what to go on as i know nothink about insurance so i need a bit of help....... What would be a good and cheap company to join to? and also how much would it cost?""

License suspended because of no insurance?

What happens after that? I live in California and I couldn't afford insurance then but now I can. Question is will i be able to get my license back if I get insurance immediately or will I have to reapply for a new one and pay back fines which add up daily?

Is Gieco a good insurance company?

Okay, a few weeks ago I was out looking for a new car (2010 Scion tC) I got some pretty good quotes on it. But when I got the quote through my insurance broker I found out it would be $2600 a year cause of my age and gender (male, 22)! One of the car dealers called Gieco while I was there and put me on the phone with them and they got a quote for a little $150 a month if I sent them my college grades. Is this too good to be true? Or will they just charge me that when I start out and charge me fees later on?""

Can 16 year old get public liability insurance?

Im 16 and hoping to get some public liability insurance as I'm planning to be working in beauty (waxing,nails,ect) with my cousin.""

How could higher deposit insurance premiums for banks with riskier assets benefit the economy?

How could higher deposit insurance premiums for banks with riskier assets benefit the economy?

Why don't people just buy themselves health insurance?

I am 26 years old and have had a major back surgery. Still I pay just $98/month for my Blue Cross of California PPO health insurance. Why doesn't everyone without insurance just go buy it for themselves instead of buying an Ipod or new cell phone? This would keep the government from rationing health care and having more power over us citizens as well as not forcing some people to pay for others.

Beallsville Ohio Cheap car insurance quotes zip 43716

Beallsville Ohio Cheap car insurance quotes zip 43716

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/where-can-i-get-health-insurance-adam-morgan/"

[contrastbalance]

i’ll make a mix for u

We didn’t have a PC in or around the house until I think 2003, this coincided with me starting to make friends, who skated constantly and when I was starting to appreciate the music my dad would play, his eclectic (deep-rooted claptrap in all areas) mix would quickly form my own pointy ears into arrows. The early favourites that stuck around were OutKast, the Hives and of course Busted, whose Glasgow stop would afford me the confounding opportunity to see my first memorable nipple.

My introduction to music led me to act in the same way I do now, forcing people to listen to whatever new thing I find and sort-of like while staring at their unabating reaction with a clipboard. The local skatepark was kind of a daycare young delinquency deterrent that didn’t always work – when weather wouldn’t permit us to travel there the indoors would host some of the fascinating acts we’d grown from startled by to adoring in Toy Machine’s Jump Off a Building. It was an early glimpse at future Jackass and Glacier Mafia ragdoll Bam Margera, who’s definitely one of those people you look back upon to say “I used to think he was admirable and innovative, but he’s really just a yapping penis that landed in a tea cosy, lurging sideways like some kind of undead crab inside a car being illegally exported that’s falling into the sea.” That’s the view I currently channel, but at the time it was great to watch him punch his friend in the Scarface suit on the bed and drive through roadsigns. Also the tracklist was an eclectic marvel of the American Pie era, ranging from Gorguts to DJ Krush to Janis Joplin.

If you were to look at lists of skate video titles alongside a list of modern streetwear brand names and mission statements you would see an undeniably morose link. The corner of Melrose and North Fairfax is prime ground for prominent streetwear in the Western world and also the approximate origin of Illegal Civilisation. Now 20, Mikey Alfred started IC as “strictly just a skate crew, it was like me and a bunch of my friends from North Hollywood”, he says in an interview with Ride Channel. His creation transformed into involving more youth from around Southern California and extended to now renowned Nakel Smith, a close confidante of Odd Future whose leader Tyler, The Creator he introduced Mikey to. In 2013 he was given the opportunity to be a reserve videographer for tour vlogs, which led to travelling with the collective’s offset dark horse Frank Ocean, starting just two days after the film-makers high school graduation. Then last March Alfred filmed his first high quality release, a short film with Fader –  his stab at Larry Clark/slasher/political territory.

I’m absolutely not saying the skate videos aren’t high quality in their own way. Illegal Civilisation 2 is an hour and fourteen minute compact look at the challenges of skaters even in serene Californian backdrops – including interaction with law enforcement and less than tolerant members of the public, possibly life changing injuries, confrontations with other skaters and seemingly inside jokes that are still hilarious on the surface. All of the youthful indulgence is captured with graininess and features an impossibly eclectic tracklist – Gary Wilson, Patrice Rushen, Lil Herb, The Sylvers, Suicidal Tendencies.

In another collaboration with Fader this time an Everything You Need To Know interview, he declares his love for gangster films and states that he’s seen the Sopranos “maybe 5 times, the entire 6 seasons through. I think I like it so much, because it’s sort of like skating – it’s like this group of friends – they all believe in the same thing. It’s all about respect, the clothes, the music, the aesthetic of it…”

The comparison is due, judging by some of the situations and acts performed do seem to overlap. One guy that’s present throughout a lot of the skate installments and the short film was Escobar Rich. He’s the pro skater, model and incarcerated Blood member that you probably wouldn’t expect someone like Mikey – dressed somehow accordingly as a retirement home golf instructor, placing emphasis on always wearing dress shoes and his propensity to keep his house intricately tidy, accentuating domesticity with jazz – to keep company with. But heavy contrast in all matters including walks of life is something that someone who is a skater and artist in technicolour circumstances thrives off.

He’s spent business time around Kanye and Lil Wayne, also contributed to Frank’s Blonde – contacts, incline and possibly inspiration come from his self professed idol Tyler, The Creator who himself has shown high levels of eclecticism in being a musical and increasingly media revelation. He achieved a ridiculuous amount of attention and scrutiny for his debut Bastard released on Christmas Day on his last year in high school. The lyrics’ explicit nature and the resurgent paradigm of angst religious in California every 20 years drew attention until around 2012, when Okonma’s focus started to aim more at visual output, claiming disillusionment with rapping, the perfect time for he and Alfred to cross paths. Throughout all the turmoil, spectators both in listener and journalist form would make assumptive claims about the young man’s mental health, often making reference to bipolar disorder.

To date his only non-lyrical statement about his, or lack thereof mental health was in an interview on his Golf Media app with Andrew “Noz” Nosnitsky about his late 2014 mental breakdown due to his dismay about his rising star and sometimes loneliness.

Bipolar disorder could probably be diagnosed partly using the sequence of music someone plays. Psychologists have debated since the dawn of ears how sounds have been able to induce such strong feelings in listeners, pre-drink playlists or on the way to work included. Of the cases that are diagnosed, more than half are before the age of 25 impacting last parts of education, entry to the heated pitch rabbithole of employment and character building social circumstances. I’ve had quiet after the storm moments of parental scorn partitioned with the reminiscences “I was the same” and “but now it’s more like” to shine spotlights on raised awareness finding itself into Twitter bios, more importantly becoming far less taboo in casual conversation. The alternate (former) dad quote shows that much of consumption is the same, and there’s hand me down styles and exact same bands that do nothing but fuel your mental car of driving past a dead animal then reversing over it.

With growing awareness, the other age-old link between creating and loss of mental wellbeing is being increasingly pulled open, psychologists from different parts of the world having extremely different opinions and quoting extremely different statistics, but many leaders in their field see consistent results after researching particularly bipolar disorder.

Renowned American clinical psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison has been making contributions to understanding of recurring depression but more heavily of bipolar disorder, which she had diagnosed at 17. She believes there is a clear link between backgrounds of creatives and the likelihood of difficulties in controlling their disposition. In an opinion article for CNN she writes; “Mood, temperament, behavioral and cognitive factors associated with bipolar illness can, in some people, make them more creative by increasing the fluency and the originality of their thinking, as well as by increasing risk-taking, ambition, energy, exuberance and a desire to create meaning from suffering and chaos.”

Also: “In the past five years alone (now seven) there have been four large studies – one that reported on 20,000 individuals and three others, each of which studied more than 700,000 individuals – that found that those with bipolar illness were disproportionately likely to be overrepresented in creative occupations; so too were their first degree relatives.” She states she found the same for those with relatives diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Even Skins indirectly acted as a pre-injunction of the psychological dangers of living like your favourite musician, detrimentally replacing or altering all of the fundamental human needs with variations of awareness, and awareness only hurts in the short-term. Tumblr fave Pete Wentz wants to open up conversation about mental health, he told HuffPost; “I think that the idea there’s a ‘one-size-fits-all’ is one of those myths. Everybody figures themselves out in a different way. And I think there’s no shame in talking about that kind of stuff. It’s not something you should feel scared talking about.”

Sweden is a country that has long placed importance on putting effort to owning a healthy mind, with one in three of the country’s living inhabitants having suffered from mental illness at some point.

Simon Kyaga is a Swedish psychiatrist and researcher whose mind is made up on the matter. In his report (Kyaga S, et al., Mental illness, suicide and creativity: 40-year prospective total population study, Journal of Psychiatric Research – 2012) he concludes; “This Swedish total population study suggests, except for an increase in bipolar disorder, are not more likely than control to suffer from psychiatric disorders in general. Further, the results indicate a familial association with overall creative professions for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anorexia nervosa and possibly autism.” A country like this knows all too well about suicide and how much less romantic that makes instability, and how offensive it is so people that carry these disorders as artists – it ignores greatly varied imagination, technical skill and bravery.

Music therapy ranges from between past-time to something you can get a degree in and win awards for. Of all the institutions using music where prescription drugs can’t quite reach or help at all, none are more influential than Nordoff-Robbins. American composer Paul Nordoff met British special needs educator Clive Robbins at Sunfield Children’s Home in 1954. Both had previously studied and involved themselves in Steiner’s thinking and practice of Anthropology – quickly after meeting they would be instructed by Dr Herbert Geuter to play some music to one of the worst affected patients and observe what happened, both were amazed at the new alternative method of treatment.

The pair would keep in touch after Nordoff left the home, and when he returned in 1959 they had enough field research in place to ingrain the practice they had thought up into the home’s treatment schedule. It required a team effort from a trained musician and likewise therapist to construct formulaic rhythms and sounds to relax the patients with the goal of improving their all-round awareness and discipline. Part of the new method’s possibility was how intricately the pair recorded the results.

This would contribute to the decision of Nordoff to leave the facility the next year, prompting Robbins to tour the world with him for 17 years to showcase the leaders in the therapy field right up until the former passed away in 1977. To this day Nordoff-Robbins is by far the biggest music therapy charity in the UK and debatably the world, even everyone’s most sought after scrotum-to-face surgery donee Andrew Lloyd-Webber set up a foundation with the charity on the grounds of the BRIT School in 2009, placing music therapy in close quarters with the highest ranks in the music industry and bolstering availability.

There is an increasingly different array of expectation of musicians. There’s more attention than ever given to the creators when they step out of the studio or off the stage and sometimes it’s slap bang into an interview. Having done a smidge of musician/industry component interviews myself you start to evaluate yourself personally. I’m a sickening guy really, I love stomach churning moments and sadly I’ve not had any in journalistic correspondence but I have my hopes. Part of the motivation is being a really big fan of someone in some way and trying to be the guy to extract some relatively groundbreaking material – any advice forum you could read say ‘don’t expose yourself as some incoherently blubbering farming fuck of a fan.’

Part of the self evaluation is trying to figure ways of bobbing and weaving past people you couldn’t possibly compose yourself in front of. If someone told me I’d be interviewing Zoe Kravitz I would start speaking in tongues immediately, and when the interview would take place and as she walked in all of my clothes would somehow fall off, I would cry petrol then throw a box of matches at her as hard as I could. Not yet. On a more integrative note, a hero I would’ve preferred to leave unburdened by my presence would’ve been Lou Reed.

There’s cases requiring considerations to make before interacting with an artist, other than them being a short guy from the Lower East Side of New York. Their short-term mental state could be affected by busy touring schedules with lack of downtime and taking them away from personal affairs, but may also provide the opportunity to have the meeting in the first place. Bad moods happen, so do long term mental illnesses.

Brian Wilson is a notoriously difficult interviewee for other reasons. He’s maybe the least confident person to achieve what he has, due largely to the relationship with his father, who would pay for great studios for him and the band, but would maintain overbearing dance mum duties as a form of control freakishness – the only accounts of him being in any way a pleasant domestic presence were with a musical backdrop. Brian’s first documented misplaced foot on the tightrope of stardom would be cutting down touring duties in 1964 following a panic attack, a direct result of the workload his new found success afforded him. After the legendary Pet Sounds, which Wilson almost exclusively composed, arranged and recorded he began noting auditory hallucinations, also after he had maintained a steady relationship with psychedelic drugs.

A daily struggle contending with the derogatory voices in his head would remain untethered until he started to receive treatment 15 years late, when he was finally diagnosed with bipolar schizoaffective disorder. With erratic musical releases for his whole career, the style and content of his public appearances in the form of interviews and private life cohorts are the only way to get a look at his progress in a linear fashion.

The largest clump of interviews take place in the mid-seventies, after his band-mates and team had supposedly helped him curb the right-to-the point pulls of coke and heroin – but much of that hope splattered on passers by, due to Wilson ending many of these interviews with trying to extract narcotics from any of the journalists and officials in the room. His seemingly rising desperation was made all the more ribcage-collapsingly clear by the fact the Beach Boys hadn’t reached the same peak of group of household hits from the previous decade by a long way. If the band were a decade long project then, the 1980s would be the expected time for him to enter into the realm of Real Husbands of Huntington Beach. His public appearances were shadowed by the soon-to-be disgraced Eugene Landy. He was living up to the retirement expectations of indulging in the material gold-ish years, embodied in his rumoured plastic surgery and paying his supposed friend, “master” Landy $35,000 a month. In 1989 he had his therapist license revoked and it was told to the public that he had weaseled his way into being Wilson’s co-writer, producer, manager, business partner and financial beneficiary of all business he was involved in. After Wilson’s 1979 divorce, he would spend 16 years drifting as an unmarried housebound. He married Melinda 9 years after initially meeting, at that time Landy had previously put an end to the casual encounter.

With recent releases taking on varied forms of quality and campaign method, the real miracle is that Wilson is still in a kind of position to make music again, which he resumed in 2002 – after 35 years in a self inflicted wilderness that many took full advantage of and made life threatening.

He is one of many age old examples of boxing (sometimes physically) artists in. You’d find it difficult to find that any prominent modern artist that hasn’t been constantly compared to some mid-to-late twentieth century counterpart. Achieving artistic self-realization then commercial success can also take on political responsibilities when they represent marginalised groups and become viewing fodder based on varying guilt. I feel very lucky to not know what’s next, and advances in understanding mental health like bipolar disorder and anxiety can give space to people to mix things up.

I didn’t take or make any of the pictures. The header image is by Orchid Tapes.

[mikemortgage]

Business owners can team up on insurance, if state allows it

NEW YORK — As small business owners shop for 2019 health insurance, some will for the first time have the chance to join forces and buy cheaper insurance — depending on which state they’re in.

New rules that began going into effect last month allow sole proprietors and other business owners without employees to form what are known as association health plans, or AHPs. But while the Trump administration has touted the rules as a breakthrough, many owners will be disappointed to learn their states’ insurance laws will limit their ability to join the plans.

The rules issued by the Labor Department allow sole proprietors and partners to buy coverage that wasn’t available to them under the Affordable Care Act. The rules also permit the plans to offer insurance that doesn’t meet the health law’s requirements for basic coverage.

The catch for many businesses is the rules, unlike many other federal laws and regulations, don’t supersede state requirements for health insurance, and states that heavily regulate insurance are expected to make it harder, if not impossible, for association health plans to be formed.

Moreover, there are concerns that new association health plans could revive a problem from the past — plans that become insolvent or are scams.

As owners research their options for 2019 health insurance, here’s what they should know about AHPs:

WHY THEY’RE APPEALING

Association health plans have been around for decades; they’ve been legal if their members were in the same industry or profession, or in the same state. But under the Affordable Care Act, owners without employees had to buy individual coverage from a major carrier or from state exchanges.

The Nebraska Farm Bureau announced its AHP soon after the new rules began taking effect. The bureau had been working on a plan for farmers, ranchers and agribusiness owners, but “the rules made it easier for sole proprietors to be involved,” says Rob Robertson, the bureau’s chief administrator.

The Society of Collision Repair Specialists, which represents over 6,000 vehicle repair shops across the country, is developing an association health plan and hopes to be able to offer coverage during the first quarter of 2019, executive director Aaron Schulenburg says. Nearly three-quarters of the group’s members have said they’re interested, Schulenburg says.

The organization is using a benefits consultant to find the best carrier for its plan, Schulenberg says.

“We found examples of average savings in some of the already established networks reaching close to 20 per cent,” he says.

Still, many owners know little about the plans. A survey of 1,000 owners by Bank of America found that 30 per cent aren’t familiar with them. The survey, taken between late August and early October, also found 35 per cent were interested in offering coverage through an association health plan, and 35 per cent weren’t.

CONCERNS AND OBSTACLES

While many states have welcomed the new rules, 11 others and Washington, D.C., are suing the Trump administration, charging the rules allow insurance to be sold that offers less coverage and consumer protections than are required by law. Under the rules, association health plans are considered to be large group employers, and the Affordable Care Act doesn’t require large groups to provide minimum essential, or basic, coverage. Among the benefits the ACA requires: prescription, pregnancy and wellness coverage.

That may not worry some owners. Melissa Perlman hasn’t been able to afford insurance for her staffers since starting her public relations company, BlueIvy Communications, in 2011. She’s interested in the potential association health plan being considered by the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce. Perlman is aware coverage might not be as comprehensive as on the open market. But, she says, “whatever is offered would be an improvement from offering nothing.”

But the Labor Department rules have also raised concerns that some new association health plans might not be financially sound; if they became insolvent, as some mismanaged plans did in the past, policyholders could be stuck with medical bills.

There are also fears that some new plans could be scams, repeating some unpleasant history. In 2004, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that there were 144 plans that weren’t authorized to sell health insurance between 2000 and 2002; these scams covered 15,000 employers and more than 200,000 policyholders and left over $250 million in unpaid medical claims.

Those scams are a key reason why Congress gave states broad powers to regulate association health plans, says Kevin Lucia, a professor at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute. He noted that some states require association health plans to be in existence for two years before they can sell insurance, and some AHPs are required to be licensed as insurers. California recently enacted a law that prohibits sole proprietors and partners from participating in the plans.

ADVICE AND CAVEATS

Owners interested in association health plans should do plenty of research, starting with the laws of their states.

“It could be a nonstarter depending on what state you’re in,” says James Schutzer, a vice-president at insurance broker JDM Benefits in White Plains, New York. Like other brokers, Schutzer received a reminder in July from the state Department of Financial Services that New York law “strictly limits the associations or groups of employers that may sponsor a health insurance plan.”

Even states that don’t currently have laws restricting association health plans could enact them, says Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

“They could pass rules saying you can’t form an AHP just for the purpose of selling insurance,” something that the rules permit, Pollitz says.

The pending lawsuit is a red flag to employment attorney Lorie Maring, who notes that a successful challenge to the rules could put new association health plans in jeopardy.

“I wouldn’t recommend that anyone do anything until we have a better idea of where the litigation is headed,” says Maring, who practices with Fisher Phillips in Atlanta.

Conversations with reputable and knowledgeable professionals are a good start when doing research. For example, consult a human resources or benefits provider or a health insurance broker who can discuss the pros and cons of all the insurance options. A well-known trade or business group is also likely to have done due diligence before offering a plan.

But if an owner hears someone touting a plan that’s ready to provide low-cost insurance right now, and the plan sponsors aren’t well-known, caution may be in order.

“These are not quick-fix, short turnaround deals. They won’t be ready until mid-2019 or even Jan. 1, 2020 when you’re doing it right,” says Michael Haffey, co-owner of Next Gen Ben, a benefit consultancy based in Indianapolis.

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Follow Joyce Rosenberg at http://www.twitter.com/JoyceMRosenberg . Her work can be found here: https://apnews.com/search/joyce%20rosenberg

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