#and especially considering how old Caterina is

[a-gay-bloodmage]

Writing and posting Omri de Riva fic is going to be such a roulette on this Viago-loving website but it's a risk I'm willing to take

[minetteskvareninova]

Minette watches Medici, part 23 (Lost Souls)

-So, this is the culmination of Lorenzo's villain arch. He's fully the bad guy now. And I... Didn't hate that. The writing around that wasn't terrible, although it also wasn't exactly awe-inspiring either. My main problem with this episode is in the other half of this episode's emotional core - Lorenzo and Clarice's health complications, because the writing around that was an unmitigated dumpster fire.

-To start with, let's talk about the historical Lorenzo's health. The thing is, he has suffered from an array of chronic health issues since he was a young man, at the time thought to have been the result of gout, though I've seen modern research dispute this; Wikipedia links a paper that claims Lorenzo de' Medici suffered from acromegaly and his death might's been a result of complications from that.

-Either way, you'll notice that the IRL version is actually better written than the show one. Not only does Lorenzo launch the house of Medici into unprecedented heights despite his chronic health issues (the Handicapped Badass trope and all that), but his premature death is properly foreshadowed instead of Lorenzo suddenly starting to limp, causing doctor to announce he is dying of... Gout? Yeah, that's another thing. Gout ISN'T A DEADLY DISSEASE. You can't die from gout, you just can't. Now, it does contribute to kidney diseasses that can actually kill you, and also is a result of a garbage lifestyle (bad diet, lack of excersise, that sort of thing) that can cause other, more lethal complications. But it never kills you on its own. Like, you could maybe justify some of the inaccuracy by "well, the renessaince doctor wouldn't know any of THAT", but this still leaves us with how sudden the deterioration of Lorenzo's health is in the show and how mild his symptoms are compared to real life. Neither of which is a good change, to be honest.

-But at least he doesn't just drop dead of completely unexplained reasons like his poor wife! Like, if I were to hazard a guess, I'd say Clarice died of a miscarriage, except she doesn't even bleed??? She just collapses, at first seemingly in tears of guilt, but not in physical pain... And then Lucrezia D is carrying her home? And in a few minutes (and seemingly a couple of hours at most in-universe) of screentime, she is just dead?! Did she died of broken heart or some shit?! Look, real Clarice died of tuberculosis, and I know in the show it would probably just sound like a rethread of Simonetta's death. I get that changing it to miscarriage makes a lot of sense considering that was indeed something potentially lethal back then, also Clarice had several in her life, so it's not a bad idea in principle. I also get that the writers were trying to tie Lorenzo's personal tragedy to his professional downfall. But in so doing, they rendered a powerful scene of Clarice being overwhelmed by guilt and despair over her husband's actions kinda silly by almost implying guilt and despair killed her?

-And don't get me wrong, it is a very powerful scene! I actually liked it a lot! Even the previous scene of Clarice learning Lorenzo sold their little girl to pope's failson isn't bad, especially since it retroactively gives more narrative weight to Lorenzo's previous disgust at another very young girl, Caterina Sforza, marrying a papal failson (well, failnephew, but you know).

-I am a bit miffed at the show's inconsistency around just how corrupt the renessaince papacy is. Like, at first, it doesn't seem nearly as bad as it is in The Borgias, but then Lorenzo apparently considers asking the pope to name his 14-year old son a cardinal perfectly normal, or at least nothing that a strategic match cannot fix??? It also begs the question why the fuck would the pope even agree to that considering he should still be mad about Sarzano, but okay.

-The one and only thing that I liked, nay, loved about Clarice's death... We got one last Clarice x Lucrezia D moment out of it! I know I shouldn't celebrate my girl dying, but like. Look at the pathetic little breadcrumbs they feed us shippers this season. I can't let my obsession starve to death, you know!

-I am not sure whether what Lorenzo did to poor Anna the beggar counts as bribery or gaslighting, but I guess the grey area was the point. Either way, I liked it! And I liked her giving money to Savonarola, overcome with guilt! See, I can be fair to this show, even if I am tired of it and can't wait for the final episode!

-I liked other things too, like Lorenzo going full villain mode and Piero grieving Tomasso. Even if Piero's actor... Look, Tewkesbury from Enola Holmes was 16, it's a bit more understandable if he doesn't hit every note. He isn't completely terrible in this, just... Not good.

-I only noticed in this episode that Savonarola is played by an Italian and dubbed. And I noticed, because the dub of his speech at the beginning, while passionate, clearly did not go as hard as the actor's expressions suggest he did in the original audio.

-Okay, that was exhausting. Onto the final episode!

[shallicomparetheetolagrenouille]

2023 in books: n. 11

I happened to start this collection of short stories while reading a mediocre novel at the same time (the one I’ll post about after this) and, boy, was the quality of the writing undeniable - there was a stark difference and it was so needed after the recent disappointments (Tornare a casa and La vita segreta degli introversi).

The first story is about Caterina, a four-year-old that survives the rest of her family after a plague epidemic in the 17th century in a small village in Tuscany; since her family home is quite far from the village and she cannot find a living soul in the woods, she comes to the conclusion that she is the only person left alive in the world. She then manages to survive via accessing the remains of the orchard of her home and tending to the smaller animals, such as hens and goats. She grows up in solitude until she is about sixteen years old, when she is seen by a few village people - except, since she has kept to herself so long and the village has a had a series of misfortunes (bad weather, babies dying, even impotency of a random guy), she gets identified as a witch and blamed for it all. What got me the most, aside from the beautiful descriptions of her feelings and her life in the woods, was the fairy-tale atmosphere at the beginning of the book, which made me feel like there could actually be a non-devastating ending to the ominous vulnerable-girl-gets-tried-and-turtured-as-a-witch storyline, but alas, it was heartbreaking despite the initial serenity. It was wonderfully written and I liked all the references to the historical facts in the area of the setting and to actual treatises of the era about ‘witches’ confessing to anything just to end the tortures of the Inquisition. It just left me heartbroken and emptied of hope in humans’ decency

The second one is a happy story, thank fuck! Basically, an orphan girl gets assigned to a rich family as a servant when she is still a child, and there she grows decently cared-after. A rich, charming, handsome foreigner settles in the small town to start a mining business and starts visiting the members of the family as they are the only proper acquaintances for him - one of them is an unmarried woman in.. her thirties, I guess, as it is said that she rejected the would-be husbands her brothers introduced to her for quite a few years and was starting to lose hope in ever getting married - except she likes this foreigner and thinks she is liked in return. One day, this man asks for a private meeting and she thinks, “ah, he should have gone to my brothers for approval, first, but he is showing the respect he has for me by treating me like the mistress of the house”, thinking he wants to marry her, but what he does instead is ask for the hand of the pretty orphan girl (she is a teen by then), as he fell in love with her footprints on the sand of the riverbank and met her there and fell in love with the rest of her. The servant girl likes him, too, and accepts his offer of marriage if the lady agrees - which she does. The lady even offers to have the local seamstresses prepare her trousseau, on the condition that they use her designs for the embroidery. On a small tablecloth she has the illiterate seamstresses embroider a curse on the newlyweds and their family! But she is thwarted in the sweetest way, which I am not going to spoil - this was a really cute and uplifting and surprising story, especially considering that the cursed tablecloth actually exists! I loved the fact that we get the original inscription in the afterword and can enjoy the fact that, at least in this tale, a person’s mean spirit and vengefulness was duly contrasted and defeated! I loved it!

The tale of wind cookies! It’s such a whimsical and sweet story, I loved the descriptions of people’s reactions to the heavenly scent and how simply magical it all feels, from beginning to end

[life-love-geekculture]

Age-wise, Viago was probably too young to be a Talon when Rook was in training (unless he became Talon as a teenager which seems…unlikely).

I will throw in this, however, as another potential perspective for people’s visceral reactions between the two (apologies for the rambling ahead):

She’s Lucanis and Illario’s grandmother.

In general the Crows’ training of their fledglings is bad. No question. But that added level of intimacy makes it feel worse somehow. Head canons aside, Viago & Rook aren’t related. End of the day it is very much a mentor-mentee relationship. There’s emotional distance built into that. And while the methods are bad (and I cannot emphasize enough how bad they are) we still walk away with the impression they were done with the intent to keep Rook alive. Especially in context of the, frankly, wild amount of freedom Viago lends Rook despite his/her/their habit of jumping into situations without a plan or approval.

Caterina, on the other hand, is all about control.

This is a woman whose own children, that she probably trained the same way as her grandsons, were subsequently murdered in a bid for power. Which, in response to, she refuses to relinquish her title and immediately turns around and repeats the process on the next generation. I believe there’s a line of dialogue during the rescue mission where Lucanis comments about running around with Illario in the estate as a young child. Educated guessing would suggest it wasn’t long after or just before both boys lost their parents, any siblings they had, aunts, uncles, and were thrown hard-core into Caterina’s training program. Like, the emotional whiplash is bad enough. But Caterina made it worse because she was more concerned with holding on to power than actually protecting her grandsons.

We can tell this by her favoritism towards Lucanis. Yes, he was the son of her favorite daughter, but had she actually been interested in her family itself, she would have put much more focus on training up Illario for the role of First Talon with Lucanis working as advisor/shadow to begin with. Yes, Illario’s “plan” ultimately sucked but the instinct for playing the game was there. We have evidence from the “Wigmaker Job” that he took what he thought he needed from Caterina’s training and made up the rest as he went along. A sign of independence which likely got him tagged as a threat growing up. Lucanis, in contrast, a much more empathetic & emotional character, internalized Caterina’s “training” as an attempt to please her. A move which she would see as making him more malleable and easier to train (control).

Even when she cedes the title of First Talon to Lucanis she gives it up in name only. The one thing he is able to accomplish is keeping Illario alive (a move Caterina takes an awfully long time to support, by the way). He tells Rook point blank his grandmother is still giving orders.

Caterina is the worst because her goals and the abuse she put both boys through was ultimately for selfish reasons. Viago and Teia have much more in common with the Threads of Minrathus (also, not great people but better than the alternative) when it comes to the logic of their decisions. And the fact Caterina hides behind the mask of “oh, my poor boy” makes me seriously consider wanting to punch an old woman.

TL;DR Viago may be an asshole, but Caterina was willing to put her family through hell for her own personal ends.

I have to say, while I don't begrudge anyone for it and anyone is absolutely free to have their own headcanons...

I am mighty confused by the vitriol people have for Caterina...And not for Viago? (Or Teia, but she's charming enough to get a pass, Caterina and Viago are both the stoic type, which is why I'm confused about the double standard)

Crow!Rook confirms their training was torture as well in banter, and it is understood that you're Viago's protege and were supervised by him, which gives very similar vibes to Illario and Lucanis being trained by Caterina.

And hell, if anything, he'd know and approve of any torture taking place to train you properly. In fact, I think given how much of an overachiever he is and how big the chip on his shoulder is, a potential Crow!Rook, as his "favorite", would be subjected to even worse kinds of training than regular fledglings.

But that's a headcanon, the fact continues to be, Viago is as much a Talon as Caterina is, and does what he thinks is best for his house, which involves torturing their very young recruits to make sure they are ready for the job they must do, which is not an easy one.

So why is Caterina a framed as a child abuser and Viago everyone's dream parental figure for their Rook? I am powerfully confused about this.

(If you hate Caterina because of her obvious favoritism towards Lucanis, please have a fantastic day and ignore this entire post, cuz you do indeed have a point, but this post is not about that.)

[stcaterinamanco]

(  LAUREN COHAN  )     ⸻     new  york  is  home  to  many  people,     including     CATERINA MANCO,     the  forty one  year  old  museum curator,     some  people  say  that  she   reminds  them  of   worn mosaics, the fading scent of incense, and cracked marble  but  that  just  could  be  because  they  are  INTELLIGENT   &  AWKWARD.     cat   originally  hails  from  tuscany,    but  now  lives  in  brooklyn.  

ciao everyone! i'm coco, this here is cat, and this is her intro! just as a warning, cat's background involves intense religious trauma so if that triggers you, please be mindful and only read if you think you're in the right headspace!

cat had a pretty average upbringing in tuscany, and is an only child. their family are very devout catholics, and it was growing up in that environment that cat developed an intense fear of demons and falling prey to demonic possession. as a result, she started to read about demons to learn their weaknesses and how best to avoid being possessed.

unfortunately this was misinterpreted by the people around them as them falling prey to demons. it was also around this time that they started to show symptoms of bipolar disorder, which was again misinterpreted.

due to these misunderstandings, her family contacted their priest who in turn contacted the vatican in an attempt to perform an exorcism.

the whole event was extremely traumatic for cat, as she was tied to a bed at several points and her cries for help were ignored. it wasn't until a second priest arrived that the process was called off and cat was put in the hospital.

the ordeal was a nationwide media sensation and cat was the source of discussion all over italy, which they were mostly shielded from while they recovered.

after all of this cat returned home but her relationship with her family was irrevocably altered, however she became very close with the second priest who saved her. through him she developed an interest in medieval italy, as that was an interest of his.

after high school she went on to study medieval history with a focus on italy, and would further specialize in the occult beliefs and practices of the time, and would go on to write her thesis and dissertation on it.

after getting her phd, she relocated to new york to work at a museum as a curator for their medieval europe department

extras:

cat no longer practices catholicism

when the priest who saved cat died she attended his funeral and was distraught

she rarely speaks to her family

she is known as an expert on the occult in medieval italy. a little niche, but she likes it. she's even been published

she takes medication for her bipolar disorder and had to receive therapy for the ptsd she developed following the multiple attempted exorcisms

wcs:

relatives of the second priest, i think it would be interesting to see cat interact with them as she does consider that priest to be family

any italian immigrants, especially if they would be familiar with cat's case

fellow museum workers, especially other medievalists, but anyone with a niche as obscure as hers (like say the culinary practices of 1930s korea) would be great

if anyone wants to do anything with cat please message me!

[giogiohcs]

Smartass.

Jackass.

Chapter 6

Summary: A 12 year old must survive in a brand new world, a world where the dead walk and eat the living. She thought she was all alone and she preferred it that way but unfortunately a certain jackass with baseball bat has taken a liking to her.

“Maybe if you do what I do, we wouldn’t have to worry about the undead trying to get us. It’d be easier.” Caterina stated as they walked the highways again. Negan scoffed.

“And wear undead guts 24-fucking-7? No-Mcfucking-thanks. I had to wash my ass 20 times before it felt clean, which is 19 more times than I’d like to.” Negan felt his stomach twisting remembering the undead smell that stuck on him for days.

“And besides, wouldn’t I be doing the world an ol’ fuck-you by hiding this gorgeous face? I mean the dick isn’t the only asset a man can have.” He smirked to himself and stroked his chin at his own compliments.

“I think you’d be doing the world a favor if you did hide it...” Caterina murmured under her breath. Negan stopped and turned to her with a stern stare. He bent down to meet her eyes.

“What was that, kid?” He challenged, she turned to him and they kept their gazes on each other for awhile before she started walking away.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, smartass.” He smirked and started walking with her again.

“Jackass.” She huffed, Negan grinned and placed his arm around her shoulders, which she immediately pulled away from.

“Look at us, getting all fucking mushy. Next thing you know we’ll be talking about which girlish boy band members make us gush like goddamn fucking geysers!” He joked, she rolled her eyes. Caterina still didn’t understand why he had to be so vulgar about... well about everything. She’s known him for awhile now and still didn’t know what to think of him. They made their way off the nearest exit, the entire highway and area were almost completely clear of life except for a few dead ones that were either stuck in or under a car. If you considered the dead ones “life”. Further ahead was a gas station and auto repair shop, according to the ads in a phonebook they found. They approached the buildings when Negan stopped in his tracks and turned to Caterina.

“Caterina, in all seriousness—“ Negan started but was interrupted.

“HEY!” Caterina jumped at the unfamiliar voice then froze. Negan smiled as he saw a figure coming out of the auto repair shop. A tall slender man with curly blonde hair wearing a t-shirt and swim shorts waved wildly as he approached them. Caterina backed up before getting out her gun and aiming it at him, the man stopped in his tracks and held his hands up with wide eyes.

“WAIT DON’T KILL ME!” He yelled.

“Woooah, kid, that’s not how we do things anymore.” Negan blocked her aim with his arm, her gaze met his eyes, in silent agreement she put the gun away. He turned to the now a little less frightened man.

“Sorry for my friend here, she can be intense sometimes but she doesn’t mean harm.” He held Lucille over his shoulder with a smile on his face.

“What’s your name?” He asked, the man smiled in return.

“David but my friends call- called me Wavy Davy, man.” His Californian accent was prominent, Negan lowered Lucille and came close to him before swinging his arm around Davy’s shoulder.

“Wavy Davy... man I am LOVING that shit!” Negan bursted out in chuckles as the two of them walked ahead into auto repair shop, leaving Caterina behind. She peeked into the windows of the gas station convenience store. The store appeared to be empty. She walked in, knelt to a self and opened her bag, she slid the last cans of food into her bag. She didn’t bother to look at what was inside the cans as it didn’t matter, as long as they were edible.

“What a beauty!” Negan exclaimed and knelt down to get a closer look at the car.

“A 1966 Cadillac El Dorado, at least, that’s what my dad said it was, I’ve always been more of surfer dude than a car dude.” Davy shrugged, Negan knelt to take a closer look.

“She’s beautiful! Almost beautiful enough to make a grown man cry, almost...” He smirked as he admired the paint job and accessories of the car.

“So what’s your name?” Davy asked as he continued to watch Negan admire his car.

“Negan, and I don’t think you’ll need to worry about wearing it out.” He laughed.

“What’s your daughter’s name?” Davy asked and Negan turned to him with a confused look on his face.

“David you think I’m Caterina’s old man? Do I look Asian-American? Because last I checked I’m as white as fucking square dancing on the goddamn Fourth of July.” Negan joked, Davy just scratched the back of his head.

“Oh shit sorry, I just assumed because you were together and... dude don’t you know what race she is? I mean how long have you been traveling together?” Davy asked, Negan scratched his chin at Davy’s criticism.

“I think we’ve been sticking together for the past week or two, hard to fucking tell with no fucking calendar obviously. And besides she doesn’t like talking especially not about herself. She doesn’t whine about a world than no longer fucking exists. She’s strong unlike some people.” He made the pointed comment at Davy then got up from kneeling and got real close to his face. He smacked the car with his hand and didn’t break eye-contact with him until Davy broke and looked to the floor.

“Are you strong Davy? How many of those undead fucks have you killed?” Negan challenged,

“I-uh... haven’t killed one. It’s wrong and they’re not dead, they’re sick people.” Davy explained, Negan scoffed, a headache was coming on. But Davy was 19 at most, Negan sighed, Davy is still a kid. He reminded himself.

“Listen Davy. Adaptation is strength. People can’t adapt, die. I’ve seen my fair share of people dying because of that and I don’t want you to make the same mistake.” Negan explained calmly but the conversation was cut off when a loud crash came from the other side of the wall from the convenience store.

[foxstens]

ok so im 17 hours into the game and Stuff Has Started Happening

i looked up people’s opinions on it and while a lot of people agree that it starts slow a lot consider it the best or just think that it has some of the best parts of the trilogy. so i decided to try changing my approach, and instead of focusing on the things i hate, i’ll try focusing on the things i do like

and you know what. the combat is one of those things. i am not playing these games for the combat but in this one i can fight groups of guards one after the other and be fine despite having barely any health and only 5 healing substances. whereas in ac2 i’d still get destroyed if i took on 5 guards in the late-game when i had a like 30 health and 15 healing substances. idk what it i about it but being able to kick people while fighting them really helps and i’ve figured out how to block and then one-shot kill them altho i’m still trying to learn how to disarm them. 

it also has this new feature where if you hit a guy multiple times and then push a directional key you’ll one-shot the guy you hit next in that direction. that’s why taking on bigger groups isn’t a problem even with barely any health. and the fact that you can lock onto targets from way further away is extremely helpful. EXTREMELY HELPFUL. SO REALLY FUCKING HELPFUL. I CAN JUST SNIPE EVERYONE FROM EVERYWHERE THIS IS MY FAVOURITE PLAYSTYLE. oh and have i mentioned you can buy a crossbow. at first i wasn’t so sure about it bc the pistol already exists and is even faster now but its a crossbow. ITS A FUCKING CROSSBOW. IF A GUY IS TRYING TO SHOOT ME WITH A COSSBOW I CAN JUST SHOOT HIM WITH A CROSSBOW. AND IT HAS MORE AMMO THAN THE PISTOL. throwing knives who lol. i barely used them in ac2 after i got the pistol since they don’t one-shot guards but the pistol and now the crossbow do. and seeing ezio actually shoot with it and then put it on his back is amazing. so fucking cool.

speaking of there’s still story-related stealth segments like i had to free caterina from this huge ass castle or whatever and it took so long like getting detected wasn’t a huge deal it just prevented full-sync so i tried my best not to get detected and it went really well i wasn’t 100% able to do it but i could. at some point. because i can snipe everyone from a distance. also you can still ledge-kill and kill from a hiding spot and basically all the coolest shit aaaaaaaaa it’s so cool

oh and now i can recruit assassins. which makes sense i guess like this isn’t called broterhood for nothing lol. but that’s so cool. and there’s like assassin towers and they can level up and you can also like call them to help you out i think??? idk it’s cool. and as much as i hate rome i kinda like rebuilding it like it’s helping the people and it’s really not their fault that everything sucks in their city u know lmao.  i guess story-wise the writing is fine so far like this game is basically about ezio trying to fix his mistake at the end of ac2 so that’s fine and makes sense. but holy fucking shit i can’t believe ezio is still so cool. i was like ‘why would i want to play as a 40 year old man” towards the end of ac2 but he’s so fucking cool. everything he does is just so cool even outside the cutscenes but especially during them. and every time i do a parkouring sequence i just marvel at how strong he is. the game really makes his climbing feel realistic and i can’t help it ahhh

so rn i’m a bit more open to doing some of the sidequests and trying to rebuild as much of rome as i can. bc otherwise i’ll drown in the money like heck i get so much money. im always so rich except for when i need to be. BUT ALSO HAVE I MENTIONED YOU CAN BUY BUILDINGS. as in you find a specific landmark like the pantheon and then you can pay like 40k to buy it. idk what that does but it’s a thing. a m a z i n g

still hate rome though. still not gonna bother with the feathers tho (seriously where the hek are they how have i gone 15 hours without seeing one of them WHAT THE HECK)

on another note tho i’ve figured out that i can in fact do that one move i thought i couldn’t during an assassin tomb. turns out im a fucking idiot and i was just mashing the wrong button. you don’t even have to mash you just gotta hit it once and ezio knows what to do. i feel like the parkouring is also a tiny bit better here. idk if i just figured out how to use the controls properly or if it’s actually better, but he’s less likely to fling himself in the opposite direction now which is nice. 

he does still keep running up walls when i can’t angle the camera fast enough and i hate it so much its the worst thing but. other than that it works mostly. except for when he’s committed to doing a combo with his weapon and he... falls off the building... when the enemy is already dead... i don’t know if that’s a bug or a feature and i can’t rmr if it was a thing in ac2. it’s funny tho :’)

[fabletonrp]

BASICS 

Name: Attina ‘Attie’ Trident Age: 29 (43) Character: Attina  Story: The Little Mermaid Group: The Mermaid Sisters Job: Writer, Volunteer at The Darling Home For Children   Location: Mermaid Lagoon FC: Caterina Scorsone Status: Closed

PERSONALITY

+ affectionate, loving, loyal

- bossy, stubborn, introverted

CHARACTER SKETCH  

Attie is the one who had to step up and be the feminine influence in their family when their mother died.  She’s dependable and quiet most of the time, steady and patient, and manages to be feminine and gracious to even her wilder siblings.  On the rare occasion she doesn’t know something, she knows where to look and how to find it, and she’ll remember to do it.  She’s not afraid to harp on someone a little bit when their attention to detail is lacking, or when they need to get something done for their own good, but she’s the type of person who will finish it off with a hug or a reminder that she loves them.  She loves her family with everything she has to give.  Now that everyone has gotten older, and their dad is more aloof, she has time to focus on what she wants or what she’s good at, and the answer is diverse.  She’s not necessarily ambitious, but she has goals and after losing her mother, her closest confidante, and still finding her way, she has the confidence to reach them.

BIOGRAPHY 

Attina was the child every parent wants from the beginning: precocious, observant, careful, and affectionate.  From the time she was old enough, she loved her mother and father and went to great lengths to please them.  It wasn’t always easy, because so many children followed that the mild-mannered, straight-arrow eldest was often lost in the shuffle.  The other girls were louder, brighter, faster, and more prone to trouble, after all.  She wasn’t perfect, but she was never the biggest or most emotional wreck in the family, either.  When she approached her mother – never her father because he had a whole kingdom to run – she did so thoughtfully and quietly.  In this way, as she grew older, her mother became her primary source of support and guidance.  She wasn’t out with friends, wasn’t itching to get away and explore.  She was at home, usually with her nose buried in a book.  Her imagination is how she traveled and she was content with it.

When her mother died, she grieved quietly and privately, providing support for her sisters.  She worried over her father, fussed around the house, and managed the details of that situation.  It was harder for her than she let on.  All of the emotion and stress she felt instead got poured into her determination to fill in for their mother.  Especially Ariel, as the youngest, was going to need the support and supervision.  Attie started writing, doing her best to retain the details of her time with her mother, so she could do those things.  She kept it all highly organized and, over time, found a system for doing the same with her father and her sisters.  While it’s earned her a reputation for being boring and a little bossy, and her quietness is often mistaken for bitchiness, she’s proud of the effort she put in.  She was heartbroken when Ariel left, and told her father just how furious she was with him for pushing one of them away.  It was the first time she considered leaving, considered doing something for herself, even if she was beyond the typical age to marry and start her own family.  

This new world is the best and worst of possibilities.  It isn’t what she imagined when she imagined her life after her sisters had grown, that’s for sure.  She’s been going out more, though, trying to get a sense of this place.  History, in particular, fascinates her as a topic as she’s trying to fill in the gaps between where she came from and where she’s at.  She volunteers at the orphanage and it gives her a sense of purpose, but really, she’s compiling all her study and research for a novel.  She’s good at writing things out, and sometimes she thinks she’s better with words than she is with people.  She swears, though, if any of her sisters (or her father) are here, she’ll tell them how much she loves them and she’ll never let them go.    

CONNECTIONS

Belle Bernette:  Thanks to her hours of reading and research, Attie has become attached to one librarian in particular.  She thinks of Belle as more of a kindred spirit than a sister, which is … kind of nice.  She likes talking with her and has appreciated her recommendations more than once.

Wendy Darling:  They’re not exactly friends, because Attie feels more like Wendy is one of her siblings age-wise, but they know one another from the Home for Children.  She relies on Wendy’s help dealing with the particularly difficult ‘Lost Boys’ because they are much, much different from the teenage girls she grew used to in her own family.

Charmont of Lamia: He may not be the most well-known author, but she loved his books and has read them all.  While she isn’t the type to fan-girl, she’s been straightforward with him when she sees him in town.  It isn’t all that often.  She just isn’t sure if she’s drawn to him because he seems a little lonely, like he could use some mothering, or if it’s because he’s a successful writer and so what she wants to become.

ALTERNATE FACECLAIMS: N/A

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The History and Future of Yahoo!

Yahoo once was all over the internet. We are going to discuss about history and future of Yahoo Inc. There was a time not too distant when Yahoo! It was the company that seemed to be able to do everything and everyone . At the end of the last century there was no one to cough, but despite having a fantastic future before it, Yahoo! it has been relegated to a shadow of what it was.

The fault, eye, is only Yahoo! The company did not stop making blunders in critical decisions that would have turned it into a tech giant perhaps bigger than any of those that exist today. But again and again, raised the option, on Yahoo! they always chose the wrong one . Here are the great mistakes of a company that could have been much more than it is.

A company that was everything in the late 90s

Jerry Yang and David Filo, the founders of Yahoo!

In 1996 Yahoo!, which had created one of the first Internet directories – the forerunner of search engines – became a public company. The company began creating parallel services (Mail, Messenger, Groups, Responses) and its value grew in an astonishing way in the following four years, and from that initial market value of 848 million dollars it went on to be worth 125,000 million in the year 2000. He had so much money that he became the star of the dot-com bubble. In 1999, it bought Geocities for $ 3.6 billion (they would close their doors 10 years later without achieving anything ) and Broadcast.com (does anyone remember it?) For a whopping $ 5.7 billion. One of the worst acquisitions in history.

Decisions like those were not the most appropriate, but the worst was yet to come, because after the explosion of the bubble those big errors of Yahoo! began to occur. Let’s see the five most notable that decided the future of Yahoo wrong descision.

Don’t buy Google for $ 1 billion

Yahoo!

Larry Page and Sergey Brin had barely started their search engine when in 1998 they offered AltaVista to buy it for just $ 1 million. They wanted to continue studying, but AltaVista was not interested. Nor in Yahoo !, where they wanted people not to find what they were looking for and go to other websites (which is what Google’s search engine did until not long ago ), but to stay on their platform. Yahoo! He ended up using the Google search engine on his own platform and decided that the best thing would be to buy from Google. Terry Semel, the then CEO of Yahoo!, was negotiating for months, and was outraged when Brin and Page rejected the $ 3 billion purchase offer . They asked for 5,000 million, an offer that they considered much more reasonable.

Semel flatly refused. Yahoo! bought Inktomi, a search engine, for $ 257 million, believing that would be enough to put his searches where they deserved. They also bought AdWords competitor Overture in 2003 , but it took a long time to get it up and running and let Google license a key patent for that platform that would allow them to dominate the market in the long run. They believed that that was enough.

They were wrong.

Do not offer more on Facebook

Something similar happened in 2006 when they rightly saw the potential of Facebook ( others had already seen it as well and tried to acquire Zuckerberg’s company) and tried to buy it for 1 billion dollars according to the book ‘The Facebook Effect’, by David Kirkpatrick. It wasn’t a bad deal, especially considering Facebook was two years old, about 9 million users, and $ 20 million in revenue. Facebook investors thought the offer should be accepted, but Zuckerberg made it clear in a meeting with the team that they were not going to sell. In fact Yahoo! he did not keep his offer: after poor results in the second quarter of that year, they decided to lower their offer: now they were offering $ 850 million . If Zuckerberg wasn’t initially convinced, he was even less so now.

Hire CEOs who failed to raise the company

Marissa mayer

The list of top managers of Yahoo! it’s a list of big failures. The last one starred Marissa Mayer , but in reality she is the latest of a few very unprofitable signings. Carol Bartz, hired in 2008, was succeeded by Tim Morse, who would eventually be replaced by Scott Thompson in 2012 . This manager lasted 130 days at the company, announced a restructuring with the layoffs of 2,000 people, and earned $ 7.3 million (not bad) after being fired and replaced by Ross Levinsohn as interim CEO, who would soon be replaced by Mayer. Before all of them, before all those disastrous strategic signings, there had been an even worse one for the future of Yahoo! Terry Semel , who had spent 24 years as a director of Warner Bros., had been hired as CEO in 2001 to turn the company into a multimedia content giant. The comparison with Eric Schmidt, ex-Novell and ex-Sun before signing as CEO of Google, is remarkable. Semel focused on an area that allowed Google to take control of everything that Yahoo! he was destined to dominate. It never did . Some call Semel the worst CEO of an internet company in history.

Still, it must be said, Semel managed to multiply the value of the company’s shares by seven, but his many mistakes doomed the future of Yahoo.

Decline Microsoft’s offer to sell

In February 2008, Microsoft offered $ 44.6 billion to Yahoo! to buy it and thus turn the binomial into a true competitor for a Google that increasingly dominated the market. The price of $ 29.40 per share was 62% higher than the stock the day before. There had previously been an offer that Terry Semel had rejected in January 2007. He was offered $ 40 per share and Semel rejected that price immediately. Neither the second was the charm, nor the third. The negotiations caused Microsoft to increase its offer to $ 33 per share, but on Yahoo! they wanted $ 37 , which led to the withdrawal of the negotiations . The value of Yahoo! it would continue to fall irrevocably from that moment on.

By the way, that bad decision was accompanied by another almost equally bad: Microsoft ended up reaching a collaboration agreement with Yahoo! that allowed Ballmer to get everything he really needed from Yahoo! without having to spend the fortune that would have been spent buying it.

Don’t take advantage of the Flickr purchase

Ficker

Flickr was founded in 2004 by Stewart Butterfield and his then-wife, Caterina Fake. Neither of them expected it to be as successful as it was, but millions of people signed up for a service that glimpsed the relevance of photo sharing and publishing platforms. One year later Yahoo! made what was probably the best acquisition in its history, and bought Flickr for $ 35 million . The platform had many ups and downs and although in 2013 it received a series of important improvements, it never managed to recover its initial brightness and did not know how to adapt to the mobile environment. Curiously, the same day that they announced that Flickr impulse, the purchase of Tumblr by Yahoo! for $ 1.1 billion ( while Facebook bought Instagram for $ 1 billion, compare ).

The purchase never worked and it ended up leaving this blogging platform in financial irrelevance: Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, recently bought it for an amount that was rumored to be only 3 million dollars .

In Gizmodo they related the story of this particular failure that was one more face of the failures of Yahoo! In Internet. Flickr could (should) have become what Instagram is today , but it never did.

Yahoo! facing a dark future (except in Japan)

The number and magnitude of the errors of a company that had everything to remain an internet giant but whose course has been disastrous in recent years is surprising . As early as October 2006, the director of Yahoo! Brad Garlinghouse exposed the problems the company faced in his famous ‘ Peanut Butter Manifesto ‘. Nobody paid any attention to him. Paul Graham, a famous investor, would delve into the wound in 2010 with that ‘ What Happened to Yahoo ‘. Deviating from search, not acting quickly in the advertising segment (having ballots for it), not making the appropriate acquisitions (or sales) and that mismanagement of its CEOs has ended up turning Yahoo! a shadow of what it was. There are more major mistakes: clever participation in Alibaba was followed in 2012 and 2014 by the sale of part of those shares. Not to mention the daunting security holes that compromised the privacy of millions of users.

Yahoo Japan

The company was bought in 2016 by Verizon, which paid $ 4.83 billion for most of a company that less than a decade earlier could have sold for 10 times as much. At verizon at least they have known, as Matt Mullenbeg of Automattic praised , to hand over the future of Tumblr to a much more appropriate company to make the most of it.

Those oversights have cost a Yahoo! that only survives with the brilliance it once had in Japan , where Yahoo! Japan operates independently and has managed to become an absolute benchmark for Japanese users. Perhaps there are lessons to be learned for those who now rule the future of a Yahoo! that it is more difficult than ever to compete with the current market benchmarks.

Also Read: Top 5 unsuccessful services on internet

The post The History and Future of Yahoo! appeared first on Technoeager.

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How Babbel's Language Specialists Maintain Your Motivation

How Babbel's Language Professionals Maintain Your Motivation

Lena works as an editor for Swedish in Babbel's Didactics team, the language professionals who produce our courses. In the second part of her series of articles on the pedagogical factors to consider that her coworkers engage with every day, Lena delves into the topic of motivation . When it comes to language knowing, you oftenhear that motivation is important for success. What precisely is inspiration and how do we work to keep our learners motivated? This post supplies some answers, together with three ideas on how to remain inspired, based upon findings in the scholastic literature and insights from Babbel's own experts.When we discuss language students 'motivation, as we frequently do here at Babbel, what do we actually imply? The Oxford online dictionary defines motivation as both:"1)A factor or factors for acting or behaving in a specific method. 2)Desire or willingness to do something; interest."Moreover, inspiration is related to energy, direction and perseverance required to learn a language to functional proficiency. So in the context of discovering any brand-new skill, motivation is both the factor for you to start doing something and what keeps you at it.Anna Stutter Garcia and Caterina Magro are training designers at Babbel.

Just put, their task is to guarantee Babbel's whole knowing experience addresses students 'requirements and goals in the most efficient and satisfying method possible. One crucial element of this includes conceiving brand-new functions (or optimizing old ones)to much better meet those goals.Anna explains that motivation usually can be found in 2 shapes:"Firstly, there is'intrinsic inspiration', which comes from within

you. You do what you do because it brings you fulfillment and satisfaction. There is 'extrinsic motivation', which is triggered by external aspects:'I need a language certification for work,' or' I need to pass this exam. ' Intrinsic and extrinsic inspiration are by no means mutually exclusive, but rather describe 2 different types of motivation which learners might experience to differing extents. Furthermore, inspiration should not be comprehended as a static principle, but as a vibrant procedure; learners'level and kind of inspiration can alter with time. "So, why is motivation so essential in language finding out then? Caterina puts it by doing this:" Learning a brand-new language involves persistence, along with a positive attitude towards making mistakes. Students might challenge challenges, from seeming like they are advancing gradually to being overwhelmed by the amount of things to find out and modify. If you are motivated, especially fundamentally, you won't be easily postponed by such obstacles."Therefore, motivated students are most likely to be engaged and keep learning and striving towards their goals, eventually reaching them successfully. Sadly, neither language teachers nor language-learning apps can require learners to be motivated, but a vital element of the job is to support and instill motivation wherever possible. How do we do that at Babbel? Surely, this is no easy task, as it is highly based on the private student. There are, nevertheless, several methods and standard concepts Babbel's language professionals follow when developing our courses and learning content.Break Your Objectives Down and Celebrate Small Success research study has shown that setting obtainable objectives assist us to remain determined. Breaking down a huge task into smaller

constituent parts enables students to feel

a sense of achievement more often, and to keep pursuing the next action."I wish to speak Spanish"is a relatively substantial mountain to climb up. Start with "I wish to be able to present myself in Spanish ", and you will master this ability reasonably rapidly. You can leap onto the next obstacle, e.g.," I desire to be able to order a drink in Spanish, "and prior to you understand it, you have actually come much more detailed to your supreme goal.As Caterina discusses," Babbel lessons are structured in an instinctive and tactical method that allows students to build up knowledge and skills in a'safe area', complimentary from judgment and stress and anxiety. The courses are designed to establish students'skills progressively, continuously building on what they've already discovered. Students are presented to new information, which they can instantly practice, and can then revise it any time they desire to permit their brand-new skill to'settle in.'Efficient content empowers our students to have real-life discussions and exchanges, even at early phases of their knowing journey. We believe that bite-sized lessons offer a consistent sense of progress to our learners."In brief, you'll find out significant expressions for daily situations, in order to communicate rapidly and genuine!.?.!! Have Fun While Knowing Secondly, enjoying the journey to arrive is vital to preserving interest and motivation. It's rather user-friendly that you're most likely to stick to activities you find pleasurable over the long run. Babbel's Didactics team works difficult to make our discovering content as engaging as possible to arouse students'curiosity to learn more. Varying interactive jobs, appealing style and images, along with authentic speech improve the discovering experience. Furthermore, Babbel teaches how to utilize language in real-life, everyday circumstances. While focusing on mentor useful language, we still try to write appealing discussions that may make you laugh or think.More recently, we have also developed a number of "story" courses where students follow a story, discovering language on the go. For example, if you want to discover Italian dialects, you can follow Teacher Colombo on his trip through Italy, or, if you are more into English rural life, you can follow the ingenious"radio play"format funny series "Fowlmouth Farm. "Get Feedback and See Development Anna and Caterina both stress that a lot of individuals require positive reinforcement to keep up their motivation. Although different learners have various choices, most people gain from encouraging feedback and a recap of what

they have actually found out and accomplished. Unlike techniques for self-directed learners like textbooks, audio courses, videos or podcasts, Babbel gives you feedback on your performance. However there's certainly still space for improvement! For instance, we have actually currently revamped and reworded the feedback screen in the end of a lesson (see completion of this blog post). Visual modifications, we are constantly working on qualitative enhancements too.Anna points out a preferred function of hers that might be fine-tuned to help keep learners even more inspired :"I would like to broaden the functions in the app that indicate my progress, to much better keep track of the things I've found out in a historical order, and to celebrate visually my evolution." Caterina agrees:"I 'd enjoy to produce a kind of 'control panel 'entirely devoted to my development. Here I can set my objectives, check whether I'm on track, see some data on how I'm advancing, and note down some personal language objective I reached, like'Today I ordered my very first coffee in Spanish! 'All this would contribute to the sensation I'm making progress, which could actually enhance my motivation. "In conclusion, our professionals agree that 3 amongst the most essential factors for remaining motivated are available objectives and a routine sense of achievement, delighting in how you're finding out, and feedback on your development. We understand that it is not constantly easy to keep your motivation up and to stick to learning a language, but we attempt our best to make it simpler! What has been working well for you?