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serena-jacobs · 4 years ago

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👫 for both Bryce and Ollie

Bryce

1. He comes to visit her often when she works at Members Only. Whenever he comes to visit with some of the other guys from the football team, she always goes home with at least two grand — him being one of her biggest tippers. After she puts on her show and sees whoever wants to see her, she typically brings Bryce to the exclusive vip area (or the bathroom, depending on whether or not her boss is there), where the two would then typically hookup. This happens about every other weekend, if not every weekend.

2. He’s the only one that’s ever been to her apartment, ever. And, he’s 1/3 people at Monarch who’s met her brother, outside of Noah and Ollie. She typically keeps people away from the area since she’s been having to take care of her brother more and more as her grandparents are beginning to get older. Considering that she doesn’t live in the best area, she’ll typically call him if she heard that there was a shooting and/or acts of violence that happened not too far away from where she lived. That, and she’ll call him to come stay with her whenever she gets creeped out about her landlord trying to hit on her. He typically spends the evenings with her and Matty, and his presence automatically makes her feel safer. If he sleeps over and Matty’s there, he will typically sleep on the couch, no questions asked.

3. With everything that has been happening at Fort Hood and the recent news of all of the deaths, on top of what the military hides from the public, Serena has found herself genuinely being scared of the thought of Bryce ever having to go back to training. Granted, Fort Hood is the U.S Army’s base, but even Serena knows that the U.S military is notorious for hiding shit, and that those who serve often have hidden trauma as a result, despite the branch. She could see the fire in Bryce’s eyes, and how short tempered the man can be on top of how reckless he is at times. The girl hasn’t known him for long, but she suspects that more happened to him during his time in active duty, more than he’s been letting on. The thought of losing someone who has recently become one of her closest friends is absolutely terrifying for her. Bryce has the potential of being someone Serena calls family, which is something that is extremely rare — and she doesn’t want to lose him before that even happens. Serena isn’t religious by any means, but even she finds herself saying a quiet prayer for Bryce’s safety.

4. On the weekends that she is free and doesn’t have to care for her brother, her and Bryce typically break into the school’s planetarium. Here they typically put out a blanket and just drink, talk about all of the constellations, the fact that one of their best friends (Ollie) is literally studying rocket science and how he could probably get them to the moon one day, conspiracy theories, upon other topics. This is where they also bond over their shitty fathers; the fact that her dad was physically abusive to her whenever he wasn’t in jail, and the fact that Bryce’s father was emotionally abusive to him and Allison. Oh…and they typically fuck on these nights…but that honestly shouldn’t surprise anyone. These are the nights Serena feels more relaxed, and more at peace with life.

Ollie

1. Ever since Ollie watched her brother that one time, Matty has not been able to shut up about the guy. Turns out, the two did more than just play football and video games. Matty raved about how Ollie took him to one of those vintage toy stores that hasn’t been closed down yet, and how the two spent hours searching through the pick out the perfect toy airplane. He then went on to rave about how the two spent almost all afternoon building it and testing it out. The toy airplane was then destroyed when they tested it out and Matty ultimately crashed it into the bleachers on the football field, thus the two having to throw out the damn thing. Ollie had failed to tell Serena about this activity, and she hasn’t mentioned the fact that her brother had told her about the topic, knowing how personal the topic was for Ollie. She remembers Ollie telling her about how him and his father used to build very advance toy airplanes together, and how those were some of Ollie’s most peaceful moments/days — so with that, she’s decided to just let that be sacred between him and her brother. However, ever since hearing that from that moment on, Ollie officially became one of the best people she’s ever known.

2. Ollie has opened up to her about the knee injuries, but more importantly, the back injuries he’s been suffering from for years. He’s opened up to her about his past prescription drug use, his failed attempts at trying to fix the problem, his struggles with getting state health insurance, everything. Because he works so damn much, he simply makes “too much” to get state insurance, but not enough to afford the good insurance that will give him quality care. Because of this, and although it is very much illegal and puts everything on the line for Serena, she finds herself sometimes clocking in using Ollie’s employee ID when working at Octavia. She started this when she caught Dean doing it, explaining to her that Ollie was constantly always on the go that he never checks his time sheets, and that with how much he works there was no way in hell that their manager would suspect a thing. Even though Dean’s gone now, she continues to do this — hoping that the man’s been saving the extra over time money he’s been receiving, and hopefully putting that money away to go see a physical therapist, possibly even a surgeon. No ifs, ands, or buts, this girl would kill for this man. The two constantly joke around at work about how much they can’t stand each other, but in reality he’s one of her best and dearest friends.

3. Considering that she is probably the girliest town boy EVER, her and the male really bond over one thing, sports. The go out to the local sports bars on game days, which are typically on Sunday’s, and just rave and go crazy over the games. The two like opposing teams for almost every sport besides baseball; him liking the New York Giants for football and her liking the Seattle Seahawks, him liking the Los Angeles Lakers and her liking the Oklahoma City Thunder for basketball, and the two liking the New York Yankees for baseball. This leads to the two having a lot of drunken debates on the matter.

4. Her little brother practically aspires to be like Ollie. He has now watched Matty a couple of times, and now her brother has been begging her to enroll him in flag football. He even wants to visit the school’s engineering building as he hopes to “work on planes and possibly even go to space, just like your friend Ollie, SeSe!!��

#ask #bryce #ollie #this just made my heart grow like ten sizes bye

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bridges-you-cross · 7 years ago

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Shi Yi Lu - 1st Story: Wánkù (纨绔; Rich Spoiled Kid) - Qiao Shiqi

Ever since I heard that Xia Da was going to write Shi Yi Lu, I’d planned on doing the summary translation and discussion for it like I did for CGX. That said, I can’t promise I’ll be doing this for all of them, but I’ll certainly try my best.

On another note, does anyone know of a way to download from kuaikanmanhua? The comic strips that Xia Da uploaded on her blog are not the best quality, and I want to keep these beautiful color pages around.

Alright, I’m done talking for now. Here goes.

Shi Yi Lu - 1st Story: Wánkù (纨绔; Rich Spoiled Kid) - Qiao Shiqi

The story begins with an introduction page.

At the end of the Sui dynasty, Emperor Gaozu of Tang Li Yuan rebelled from Taiyuan, naming the era Wude.

Eighth year of Wude, the country began to settle.

The emperor’s eldest son Li Jiancheng was calm and prudent, had long been established as the Crown Prince; second son Prince of Qin Li Shimin was brave and skilled, his prestige in the army was quite high.

The emperor was very close to the Crown Prince, more than half of the political affairs were given to him to handle; the emperor also relied heavily upon Prince of Qin, there were legends of the emperor privately promising Prince of Qin the title of Crown Prince several times before he set off on his military expeditions.

His Majesty’s thoughts were difficult to predict, the court officials’ and aristocrats’ attitudes were also becoming subtle.

In September of the Eighth year of Wude, beneath the clear and cloudless sky of Chang’an City, the undercurrent began to surge and the storm started arriving.

On the next page, we have an unseen person speaking.

Unseen person: You do not have to come every day to take care of me. The current situation has been like this……you should still try to avoid somewhat.

The unseen person was talking to Little Qiao. We now see that the unseen person was Du Ruhui. In response to what Du Ruhui said, Little Qiao pointed out that, since the day he entered under Du Ruhui’s mentorship, his entire family had been regarded as Prince of Qin’s (Li Shimin’s) faction, and that whether he avoids visiting Du Ruhui or not would make no difference.

Little Qiao: If the Crown Prince ascends to the throne, will the current situation be better? His Majesty is still in the peak of health, yet the Crown Prince’s henchmen dares to assault the Prince of Qin residence’s Grand Scholar on the street.

Du Ruhui: ……Even you can think of this, how can Prince of Qin not think of?

Little Qiao: Teacher, just what is the plan of His Highness Prince of Qin?

Du Ruhui: You should not ask me this. How did you see Prince of Qin? Little Qiao: His Highness was as usual, today he even brought the Crown Prince residence’s Princess Yongning out to go hunting. Teacher was injured like this……normally he would have soon visited to comfort.

Du Ruhui: ……Finally determined? These two fingers were not lost in vain.

Then the scene changes, and we see Little Qiao in this place that looks like ancient China’s version of a bar/club.

While sitting here, Little Qiao was deep in thought.

Little Qiao: That’s right……I really am silly. Even though he is usually so protective of his own people that the whole court knows of it, yet regarding such an incident, Prince of Qin……this uncharacteristically calmness, he is determined then? The Crown Prince kept putting on pressure like this in order to anger Prince of Qin, to make it easy to catch his weakness? That Princess Yongning was so favored and pampered……but her second uncle was only using her as a prop to show his weakness.

Then Blue Eyes broke into his chain of thought.

Blue Eyes: Er-lang, Er-lang? You don’t really have long yang zhi hao, do you? You spent all day here with us, but only drink and chat with Hu ji. (TN: More on these three sentences in the discussion below.)

Little Qiao: ……

Blue Eyes: Could it be that you are interested in me? I can actually think about it.

Little Qiao: Scram!

Then he went down outside, sighing that he should worry about himself first (so does this mean you were worried about Princess Yongning then?), and we have this:

From now on, whenever I think of Qiao Shiqi, I shall think of this scene and his expression here.

Little Qiao then ran back up to Blue Eyes, startling him into choking on his drink.

Little Qiao: The……little lang jun who come to see Sese, what did he come here to do? (TN: Lang jun is a semi-formal term used to refer to men back then, and I guess Sese is the name of the lady that was leading Chang-ge to her room.)

Blue Eyes: Who? Ah, that one…… Hair is not even fully grown (TN: He’s saying that Chang’ge was still just a brat), what else can he do? Isn’t he just like you, relying on that pretty face, getting the sisters’ favors. But I heard them secretly talk……this little lang jun has special hobbies, not only learning their words, but also stealing Hu ji’s clothes and learning to dance with them.

Chang-ge, your behaviors made it really easy to misunderstand, you know. “Special hobbies,” he said……

Little Qiao wondered why she came here to learn to dance from Hu ji, especially since isn’t her mother Hu ji also? Blue Eyes said that Little Qiao was asking so detailedly, could it be……

Then Little Qiao freaked out and told Blue Eyes to shut up and to make sure that everyone in this place pretend that they know nothing about “little lang jun.” I guess the Crown Prince’s daughter sneaking out to a bar/club to learn dancing and stuff from Hu ji wasn’t exactly acceptable behaviors.

Blue Eyes finally realized the seriousness of the situation and asked which family’s wánkù (rich spoiled kid, ahh, the title of our story) is this.

Little Qiao: That is the ancestor of the wánkù!

Lol. Here, you can probably guess this, but Little Qiao meant that she was the head honcho. Then the pretty lady we saw in one of the previews showed up looking for Little Qiao. She told him to go home quickly and dragged him out. On the way, Blue Eyes asked her where she is taking them (we now learn that her name is Xiang-po, which means incense, probably not her real name), and she said that she’s taking Little Qiao to the back door. Blue Eyes then asked if Little Qiao had done something to offend her. He said this because back doors were usually not used for guests.

Xiang-po: Does Young Master still remember Captain Wang?

Blue Eyes: Captain Wang?

Xiang-po: It’s the one who relied on the fact that his father is the Crown Prince residence’s Supervisor of the Household that he even dared to assault an assistant minister, that Captain of the Guard. I do not understand these matters of the Han, but I just heard him mentioned Qiao Er-lang, he said…… “The old one cannot be touched, but the young one we still can, right?” “Catch him and give him a good beating, so that these aristocrats can see what siding with the wrong master will result in!

Okay, here, we have the Crown Prince residence, and at the beginning of the story, Little Qiao mentioned Prince of Qin residence. I’m translating this literally, but “residence” actually refers to “administration.” Basically, each of these princes had their own administration, or their own mini-court, with advisors and strategists and scholars and military generals, so on and so on.

The Supervisor of the Household (詹事; Zhān Shì) was a government post unique to the Crown Prince’s administration. I’m not sure what this position did exactly since I didn’t do any research on it. Honestly, it just sounds like a butler to me.

Back to the story, Blue Eyes told Little Qiao to walk quickly and to take his horse, which is tied at the back door, instead. He also told Little Qiao that he did not need to return the horse, since Little Qiao’s horse was still in their stable. Little Qiao thanked him, a sound was heard, and then we saw four hoodlum-looking men blocking the back door. Apparently, the leader of the group just hit Xiang-po, hard enough to bleed, and called her a cheap servant. What an a**hole.

Little Qiao stepped in front of Xiang-po and told ugly-face that they should come directly at him and not cause trouble here. Wang the ugly-face said that, of course, they were going after him. He then told his underlings to go out on the street and create a commotion, the louder the better. He told them to say that Little Qiao and him were fighting over a dancer and that, in the heat of the moment, they were not being careful, and this might even resulted in a fatal incident.

They began to beat up poor Little Qiao. Blue Eyes wanted to come forward to help, but Xiang-po pulled him back to keep him away from the fight. And just when Wang ugly-face was about to deliver the final blow (cuz I don’t think Little Qiao was gonna survive being hit by a thick wooden stick like that), “someone” stopped him.

Wang ugly-face: To not respect Captain Wang is to not respect the Crown Prince.

Chang-ge: Such big words. Since when did the Crown Prince’s face stick onto your face?

Wang ugly-face: Yong…Yong……

Chang-ge: Well?

Wang ugly-face immediately fell to his knees begging for his life.

Wang ugly-face: Lang Jun please forgive! Lang Jun please forgive!! I did not know that you were…… No, no! I did not see Lang Jun……

His underlings were still clueless. One of them asked who this “brat” was, and Wang ugly-face told him to shut up and to go out and tell the guy who was still shouting to shut up. Chang-ge was fed up with all this.

Chang-ge: Scram, all of you.

Wang ugly-face and his underlings quickly disappeared, and Chang-ge turned around to go back inside. Little Qiao called her back.

Little Qiao: I am Qiao Shiqi, I give thanks to Your Honor for saving my life.

Chang-ge: I said all of you, scram, did you not hear me?

Little Qiao paused for a moment before continuing on.

Little Qiao: Your Honor! The heaven’s wind and cloud cannot be fathom (TN: meaning, each day could have unexpected circumstances), human have good and bad fortunes. Your Honor right now is free of any worry, but if one day……if one day Qiao can help Your Honor with something……I will give my all, never back down.

And then we have this beautiful shot of Chang-ge:

Chang-ge: Pfft. Just by you?

Little Qiao was stunned into silence. Then Blue Eyes told Little Qiao that they should go, and we have a third-person voiceover explaining Little Qiao’s thought.

Looking at that insufferably arrogant back, thinking of the elders’ unspoken yet was about to happen matter, the second son of the Qiao family was momentarily annoyed, yet was also momentarily sad.

Under Chang’an City’s bright September sun, the youth’s heart was just like his bloodied sleeves, full of wrinkles and crumpled into a knot, not knowing what to do.

Finally, at the end, we have an epilogue of sort.

A year later, Xuanwu Gate Incident.

Prince of Qin led soldiers into the Xuanwu Gate, killing Crown Prince Jiancheng and Prince of Qi Yuanji. The Emperor was shocked, thus making Prince of Qin the Crown Prince.

Crown Prince Li Jiancheng was given the posthumous title “Yin”, his children were all put to dead. Eldest daughter Princess Yongning fled from the residence, riding her horse and falling down a mountain stream, her body was not recovered.

Qiao Shiqi covered up the report, silent for a long while.

His promise, really was useless after all.

Alright, discussion time.

Let me begin this part by answering a question that many of you probably have upon reading this story, and that is: Did Qiao Shiqi has a crush on Chang-ge? Personally, I believe the answer is no. I’m making this claim based on the fact that Xia Da did say that she does not like love triangles and also on canon facts from this story.

I think we are so used to all the love triangles/rectangles abound in Japanese manga that whenever we see a character noticing/paying attention/helping another character of the opposite sex (or same sex if the genre is shōnen-ai or shōujo-ai), we automatically think that he or she must romantically interested in that character. But that’s not realistic, and Xia Da’s works are usually known follow reality, at least in terms of the characters’ behaviors.

That’s why I don’t think that Qiao Shiqi was interested in Chang-ge romantically. I think he was just being a good person. He knew that she was arrogant and proud and didn’t care about anyone unrelated to her. But she was also a 13-year-old girl who (he thought) was being used by her uncle to deflect suspicions off of him, who was about to be caught in something that she had no part of, and who had just freaking saved his life, unintentionally as it seemed.

What Qiao Shiqi felt for her was most likely a mix of guilt and pity. It was never explicitly mentioned, but that’s the feeling I got from his thoughts. Sure, it wasn’t his fault any of this happened to her, there was nothing he could have done, and her father the Crown Prince was kind of a jerk anyway.

But the fact remained that she lost her family, her life, even her existence. Princess Yongning escaped on a horse and fell down a mountain stream with no body recovered. She lost everything that day, and he knew that she was gonna lose everything, and he did nothing about it. Again, there was nothing he could have done, but I think it’s perfectly understandable for him have mixed feelings about it. It’s like seeing a drowning person, but you don’t know how to swim, and there was no one else around to help, and you just stand there and watch that person drown. It’s a bad example and full of holes, I know, but that’s how it is in general. You know it’s not your fault, but it still affects you.

Looking at that insufferably arrogant back, thinking of the elders’ unspoken yet was about to happen matter, the second son of the Qiao family was momentarily annoyed, yet was also momentarily sad.

Under Chang’an City’s bright September sun, the youth’s heart was just like his bloodied sleeves, full of wrinkles and crumpled into a knot, not knowing what to do.

This part here pretty much said everything.

Which is why I believe that, in future chapters of CGX, Qiao Shiqi will help Chang-ge, if given the chance.

Alright, let’s move on.

There was a part earlier that I said I would discuss further.

Blue Eyes: Er-lang, Er-lang? You don’t really have long yang zhi hao, do you? You spent all day here with us, but only drink and chat with Hu ji.

Here, Blue Eyes is calling Little Qiao Er-lang, which means second lad. Recall how in CGX ch 36 Chang-ge and Sun were pretending to be cousins of the Qin family. She was the lu-niangzi or the sixth miss, and Sun was si-lang or the fourth lad. It’s the same situation here. It basically means that Little Qiao was the second son or second child of the Qiao family. I don’t know if they kept the numbering separate for male and female or if they counted them together. I’ve seen it done both ways in literary works, but I haven’t really done any research on it.

This practice was done because, in ancient China, your given name was considered to be something important and could not be used carelessly. In fact, that’s still how it is today. So people usually refer to each other by their family name and, traditionally, their birth order in the family. So Little Qiao was Qiao Er-lang, Chang-ge was Qin Lu-niang, and Sun was Qin Si-lang. As a matter of fact, if you’re familiar with manga, you might have noticed how the characters mostly address each other by their last names. Only close friends and families use the given name. It’s the same thing here, and it was particularly important for women in ancient China to not give out their given names so easily.

And if you think about it, up until this point, Sun has never once called Chang-ge by her given name. He called her Li Chang-ge, but not Chang-ge. While calling someone by their full name isn’t the most formal or respectful way to address them, it certainly add a bit of distance to the relationship. You usually address classmates who you’re not close to this way. Chang-ge did the same thing, calling Sun Ashina Sun up until the most recent chapter, when she changed to Ah-Sun. Sun told her to call him this way because he could no longer go by Ashina Sun, but note how awkward he looked while telling her that.

Next, long yang zhi hao. Here, Blue Eyes is asking Little Qiao if he’s gay lol. I gotta say, this sentence says something about this time period. If you’re at a bar/club and you don’t do anything beside drinking and chatting with the women who works there, then you’re probably gay. Okayyyy, then.

As for Hu ji, it just means Hu women. Nothing special here.

Overall, I really like this story. We get to see another side of Chang-ge that we did not see before. Sure, we’ve seen how she can be proud, but this level of arrogance? That, we have not seen. Plus, we also get a glimpse of her privileged life in the past. Nobody messed with her. Nobody dared to mess with her. Chang-ge was such a boss back then, and it’s honestly amazing to see how much she had grown from the person she was here to who she was in CGX. Qiao Shiqi said so himself in CGX ch 61.2, and seemed genuinely relieved to see that Chang-ge was alive and well. Ah, it’s nice to be able to make these connections between SYL and CGX.

Well, you might have known this by now, but the 2nd story will be about Situ Langlang. Actually, it will be about Situ Langlang’s master and grandmaster (his master’s master) and is aptly titled “Master”. I guess this means that Situ Langlang is considered an important character by Xia Da. Hmm, I’ll have to reconsider who meet the qualification for having a story written and appearing in SYL. That said, I wonder if we’ll see anyone else from CGX here aside from Situ Langlang. At least we know for sure that Chang-ge and Sun won’t be showing up as they’re not even born yet. Heck, Li Shimin’s probably not even born yet, since he ascended the throne in his twenties and Situ Langlang was said to be well into his thirties……

Well, no matter what, I’m looking forward to it.

#shi yi lu #qiao shiqi #raw #dubious translation #random discussion #manhua #xia da #li chang-ge #li chang ge #li changge #chang ge xing #song of the long march #choukakou

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xoxomyseriesxoxo · 7 years ago

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Which footballers are your problematic faves and which are your unproblematic faves? Same for skaters. Also maybe please do the 'looks like a cinnamon roll but could kill you etc' thing for both? I know those are already kinda too old, but they are funny and I like reading your opinions on athletes.

omg that’s so nice to hear, thank you anon! Get ready for a super long answer lmao bc I tend to ramble a lot (I also scream about everything)

Problematic faves (football edition):

Sese Ra.mos (aka ‘Capi’)

literally threw made fall Copa del Rey trophy under the bus

tragic haircuts

likes having red cards

wants to be a striker so bad

‘El Clásico gets Sergio Ra.mos and Gerard P*que sexually excited’

has a on/off relationship w. Shakira’s husband (someone explain… do they hate each other? how to they play together on Spain NT?)

that naked photoshoot for that article where he said he feels ‘humble’ when it came to be a new galactico is a childhood trauma

JUST CRASHED LUCAS’ HONEYMOON

Isco (aka ‘Francisco’ or ‘NO ISCO, DO DISCO!’)

a little shit

has too many looks

started the ‘P*qué, cabrón!’ chants during Cibeles celebrations

dared saying ‘¿Con abrazo y todo? ¡Qué romántico!’ to Lucas in front of former king Juan Carlos

named his dog ‘Mes.si’

invented transfer rumors bc of FCB chips

Benz (aka ‘Kariño’)

did THAT to Atlé’s defense

has no fashion sense

what is good music tastes? (he can keep 2Pac tho)

got secretely married last December… and we only get to know about this two weeks ago

also got a second kid without the media knowing until now??

BARELY POSTS PICS OF MELIA

DOESN’T BRING MELIA AT THE BABY SHOWER AFTER UCL FINAL SMH

Paul Pog.ba (aka ‘Pogboom’)

‘ah oui hein!’

my flashy son

left Juve for MU

made dabbing as goal celebration popular

loves super extra haircuts

makes up ‘Italian’ words during interviews

slipped on the floor 3 times during a celebration and got exposed by his own team for that

Zizou (aka ‘the boss’)

‘words were said’

is a football god

destroyed Brazil NT’s, Spain NT’s etc. defense like nothing (as a player)

wears dad clothes

ripped his pants twice during a match

headbutted a player at World Cup 2006 final

‘James who?’

always leaves the press conf after saying a dramatic sentence and w/o a ‘goodbye’ or ‘thanks’

Cris (aka ‘CR7′)

‘SIUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU’

has tax issues (like half of footballers playing in Spain lmao)

is literally worth more than one billion euros

penaldo lol

is a ghost on IG but just roasted James for his ‘ugly hair’ (same)

makes dad posts

Unproblematic faves(football edition):

Rapha Vara.ne (aka ‘Don Limpio’)

MY SON

future France NT captain

won 3 UCL at 24 years old

100% iconic tweets (#TweetCommeVarane)

once hung up on Zizou bc he’s a diligent student

took his time to take a selfie with every single player of the team after winning la Liga and made a collage with these pics

James Rodrí.guez (aka ‘Jordi’)

MY SON TOO

already Colombia NT

his smile is so pure

RMA’s boyfriend

talks in French to Benz and Varane and calls Benz *with a French accent* ‘mon frère’ (’my brother’)

loves Captain Tsubasa

Toni (aka ‘awkward potato’)

basically won everything

‘no hablo mucho español pero hala Madrid!’

secretly knows how to talk Spanish

loves carpooling with his teammates

Mesut (aka ‘the artist’)

got ‘NEMO’ as nickname when he was at RMA

a beautiful man with a beautiful football

a true Zizou fanboy

‘Ya Gunners ya!’

is in fact a savage

Lucas Váz.quez

is Sergio’s adopted son

has stupid handshakes

was called ‘bébé’ by Benz and Cris

took the responsability to be the 1st for la Undécima’s penalty shootout

Problematic faves (fs edition):

Yuzuru (aka ‘mushroom’)

can’t dance

uses ‘Ballade no 1′ for the third time

broke a WR during an ice show

believes in the power of ‘Kuyashii!’

won Olympics while wearing a boobskirt

invented landing the 1st clean 4Lo ever while wearing white pants

Shoma (aka ‘Piyo Piyo’)

DISTRESSING

has no fashion sense

likes noodle hair

doesn’t get the ‘pls use the lip balm we’re throwing on the ice’ campaign

adds new quads in the middle of the season

Javi (aka ‘SuperJavi’)

*is allergic to cats* *has cats*

king of emergency landings

won Worlds twice w. the power of #yolo

recycled half of programs and made an EX version of it

played football instead of going to official practice and got the 2nd highest SP score ever

is a Madridista

is related to Iker, has Ramos as one of his favorite players

Vanessa/Morgan (aka ‘the hottest pair’)

give us daily abs pics

always wear black costumes

made a ‘we’ll retire after Olympics’ announcement out of nowhere

got a score that could’ve gotten them a World bronze medal…. at WTT

stalk my twitter or at least saw one of my tweets lmao (Vanessa)

Unproblematic faves (fs edition):

Satton (aka ‘tiny queen of the universe’)

deals with Yuzuru and Shoma being dorks during gala practice

the cutest smile and the cutest everything

always has the best programs

loves making weird faces on pics

GUTS POSE!!

P/C:

artistes™

provided us tons of FaOI updates on IG

love making weird faces on pics

always have great costumes

invented male sleeveless costumes along w. Adam (bonus for the fact Guillaume’s clevage is always way deeper than Gabi’s)

Shibs:

the cutest and most good-looking siblings ever

vlog king and queen

made Coldplay cool again

TWIZZLES *___*

looks like a cinnamon roll but could actually kill you: James, Shoma

looks like they could kill you but is actually a cinnamon roll: Benz, Isco

looks like a cinnamon roll and is actually a cinnamon roll: Rapha, Javi, Satton

looks like they could kill you and would actually kill you: Yuzuru, Zizou

the sinnamon roll: Sese, Cris

#answered #Anonymous #long post #sorry for taking so long I..... have too many faves #believe it or not all these facts are true

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jackrobertphotography · 5 years ago

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2020 GOIN’ HARD WORLDWIDE | Jack Robert Photography

January isn’t even over and I’ve had photo shoots in Kyiv, Ukraine, London, England, Detroit, Michigan, New York City, and Greenville, South Carolina. 2020 is the year of going HARD by connecting with others, building my business, and creating the best work I ever have. I’ve come into the new year full force and incredibly on fire to be more creative, learn more, photograph more and still travel the world photographing. The photographer community across the world has been so kind to me. I’m thankful for every opportunity to connect with other photographers, learn from them as well as help them. Quite a few people I know are just getting into photography and have trusted me to give them some advice on where to start. I always love the opportunity to help others- especially when my talents can be put to use. Every time a new photographer asks me about how I started my business or “what equipment should I get?” Or “how do I go full time?” - It gets me pumped. I’m excited to see people eager to turn their passion into a living! Here’s the main tip for all photographers: ALWAYS be photographing, ALWAYS have your camera and always be learning from each photo session! I literally have a belt clip with my camera attached to my hip. I call it my Batman belt because my camera clips in like a cool Batman tool and people are usually amazed that I carry my camera like that. They also are extremely worried its going to fall off and break- but little do they know it’s all aluminum and it AIN’T GOIN’ NOWHERE. Second tip: Confidence is key- or at least the illusion of it 😂. First starting out can come with extreme nervousness at every shoot. I understand- I’ve been there. I was sweating and freaking out (in my head) at my first few weddings and photo sessions, but with every client absolutely blown out of the water by the excellent client experience and photography that you deliver- you will gain confidence. Keep it up and keep at it! That’s all the tips for now. More to come in the near future. I’m an open book and love helping others- so please get in touch! On the note of going hard with photography this year- here’s a few portrait shots. These few photo sessions were for editorial, fashion and headshots.

My Wife Karolina - Portrait Session - Kyiv, Ukraine (Yes it’s actually spelled KYIV not KIEV) for @uglytravellers instagram

Hannah Snipes and Daniel Snipes - Editorial Portrait Session - Taylor’s Mill, Greenville, SC

Hannah and Daniel have been long time good friends and recently had the cutest babe Juniper :) They came over to Taylors Mill for some experimental lighting techniques.

Nico Sese - Street Fashion Photography - SoHo - New York City, New York

(Works for the famous What Goes Around Comes Around luxury vintage store)

Luiz and Justyna - Love Portrait Session - London, England.

We took a nice walk through King’s Cross and Coal Drops Yard snapping photos along the way.

Audrey Anne - Beauty Pageant Photo Shoot - Miss Clemson University Pageant - Greenville, SC

Lyndsey Grimes - Portrait Photo Session - Taylor’s Mill, Greenville, SC

Gwen Grace - Street Fashion Photography - New York City, New York

Clint and Serene - Engagement Photo Session - Detroit, Michigan

#Detroit #New York City #London #Greenville #Engagement shoot #Editorial Photography #Street Fashion

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thesehumanthings-blog · 8 years ago

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‘Seklusyon’ 2016 Movie Review

Seklusyon (2016)

Director: Erik Matti

In Seklusyon, post-Japanese war, the Philippines, still shaken, quietly lets its wounds heal. The people, desperate for hope amid despair, turn to religion as the only comfort they can find. Battered by war, four deacons seek that same comfort under one roof in seclusion...or is it really?

It is safe to say that Erik Matti discovered the secret to attract movie enthusiasts. He has a promising cast, a dedicated production team, and the million-peso script. If I listen hard enough I can already hear the money rolling. Since this is an overall review, I will not leave out the parts I heavily disliked about the movie, however I shall start with what I thought were the movie’s good parts.

First, I’ll focus on how Seklusyon succeeded in making the formula of bringing into perfect exposition the characters, whom they made flesh with clever writing and the good acting. Thanks to the writer Anton Santamaria, Seklusyon made strangers on screen interesting enough for audience members to keep themselves on the edge of their seats. In the first five minutes alone we already get a good feel of the characters’ backgrounds, especially that of Miguel (Ronnie Alonte). The title sequence to be honest is nothing beyond basic, but it is these series of shots that we become familiar with Miguel’s character. In it, Miguel, wearing his sacristan uniform, is kneeling in the confession room, coming clean with his sins to the priest. This is a smart way to introduce a character, because his flaws are immediately laid bare to the audience. In this scene, everyone notices Miguel’s hesitation when he is asked once more if he has anything more to confess. He says none, even when he obviously does, showing his character’s strong distrust. Aside from Miguel’s exposition, we have Padre Ricardo (Neil Ryan Sese) who, not only acts as the compass of the movie by leading us toward the peaking conflict, but is also the heart of Seklusyon. At the start of the movie, it is easily understood that Padre Ricardo is on a mission to investigate the canonization of a supposed miracle-worker as a saint, and so makes his way to where the prophet Anghela Sta. Ana (Rhed Bustamante) is literally throwing up black vomit, which is how she “cleans peoples’ souls”. When the locals are reaching out just so she can touch them, here comes the nun, Madre Cecilia (Phoebe Walker). Just from the way she interacts with the other characters, it becomes apparent that she is a threat. It is later in the movie that the audience gets to take a first look of the other characters, who are inside the seclusion house.

Second, the characters’ lines are smart. I want to highlight Padre Sandoval (Lou Veloso), who is a brilliant character. Once Miguel arrives at the convent, Padre Sandoval starts barring the doors. “Hindi ‘to para sa gustong pumasok, para ‘to sa gustong lumabas.” Wow, that line gives me the most chills in the movie. That sentence intrigues the viewer to wonder what really goes on in that place. Everything is shrouded by a veil of mystery at the beginning, but as the story progresses, the audience gets more of the horrifying truth behind it. On another hand, there is a part in the movie where Miguel is walking up the hill toward the seclusion house, and a shell-shocked soldier stumbles upon him. He is yelling about the Japanese sending everybody to hell, and how God has abandoned them. It is not just a line where they establish the timeline of the movie; this simple line cunningly gives us an answer to every “why”s of Seklusyon. Another line that stands out from the rest is Anghela’s, and it goes like “Pipiliin [ng mga tao] kung ano ang madali, hindi ang mabuti. …Ako ang resulta ng malayang pagpipili ng mga tao.” Each good line snaps like a perfect fit to the movie’s ominous air.

Third, symbols are easy to spot in the movie. There can be the lighting, where each dimly-lit scene shows lack of enlightenment, or ignorance. There are strong themes of suppression throughout, like the barred doors and shut windows. Also, the most blatant symbols may be the religious imagery. I cannot fully understand what they’re there for, though. There may be something in the direction that they’re facing but I can never be too certain.

Now after the sweet I must explain the sour, the things that I didn’t quite like about the movie as a whole.

To start things off, Seklusyon is an organized mess where minor characters come and go and the audience barely keeps track of the formers’ names by the end of the movie. They focused too much on the major characters that they didn’t give enough time to make the audience feel any attachment towards the minor characters. In my opinion, remembering them doesn’t matter anyway because I felt that these characters were, for the most of the story, sort of useless. However, the thing is, they are in the poster of the movie, which means they have a titular role in the latter. We know what they did and we know what happened to them but the failure of the viewers to recognize the minor characters means the failure of the movie to remind us their names. I felt lost at the part of the movie where these little demons come out from under the bed and steal the sweets of this one guy whose name I barely remembered from the introduction part of the movie. Although it is essential to note the necessity of silence and discretion within the convent, (or I can blame it on my lack of attention), so precious little of the dialogue is spent calling each of the characters by name, and when it is, Anghela is most commonly heard.

Meanwhile, maybe it is in the color or the tone, but while watching Seklusyon, I felt like I was plunged into the 1940’s. The point of view is spot on as well, briefly fooling me into thinking I was living the movie. Still, despite that Seklusyon won Best Cinematography, it is not without its shortcomings. I remember in the scene where Miguel was running in the forest, I felt like that confused Mr. Krabbs meme popped up into the screen. Frequently, shots from the movie show the obvious incoherence of the switching between completely different cameras used throughout the filming. This is a problem because bad camerawork can mean audience members lose the illusion of realness of the movie. It could have been easily covered by the editing, but it was not. I want to let this one slide because it is, after all, an indie movie, so I must consider the budget cuts. On another hand, there were some movie clips that submerged everything into darkness, totally obscuring things that were happening from view. Near the end, there was a struggle between Miguel and Anghela, and I could barely see anything because of how dimly they shot the scene. Audience members can get an idea of what is going on from the sounds, but if the production team decides to fill in twenty precious seconds of the movie with a boring window and then pan to shadowy blobs panting and grunting for dominance in the corner, they are approaching things the wrong way. Whether or not this was done deliberately, only this is for certain: More light was necessary. They could find better angles and other symbols worth giving screen time.

And lastly, Seklusyon’s biggest weakness is its confusing script. To be honest, the movie looked like it started differently from how it ended, as though the script was rewritten over and over again, opening with one story and closing with an entirely different one. On one hand, loopholes are inevitable, and thinking this narrow-mindedly may ruin the experience of the movie, but it doesn’t change the fact how the movie missed answering questions they raised to grab the audience’s attention in the first place. Padre Ricardo’s role in the movie, outside of symbolizing the audience’s search for the truth, is unnecessary story-wise: We can cut him out of the narrative and nothing changes, honestly. The script squeezes a lot of things in that don’t match. The most disappointing thing is, the audience doesn’t know that a huge chunk of the details in the film are pointless until they get to the end. There is also that feeling of dissatisfaction where I finally finish watching the characters’ backstories and find out they barely add any substance to the movie, such as Madre Cecilia’s story arc, which made up a large bulk of Padre Ricardo’s investigation.

Seklusyon’s writing is too complicated to be just about religion: It is also a stab at modern-day media sensationalism. The message of the movie is for people to “watch out for false prophets”. I fairly enjoyed Seklusyon, however I must admit it disappointed me greatly. The ending does not live up to the tension it built in the beginning. Overall, I give it a 6/10.

#movie review #seklusyon 2016 #seklusyon #mmff #films

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