#and that bond. the understanding between them. even considering how distinctly different the circumstances of their daddy issues/identity-

[dirtytransmasc]

I refuse to go into more detail, but, I will no longer hold my tongue. my biggest gripe with this fandom is the way a majority of it erases Lo'ak's actual trauma and struggles (with his identity, his father/family, his clan, etc), and essentially gives him Spider's traumas/struggles in some idealized form (whether for over the top and oversimplified "hurt/comfort" scenarios, or max woobification), while absolutely dragging and/or ignoring Spider's entire character and the realistic depictions of those traumas and what that does to a kid.

like I can't exactly put words to it or go into a deep analytical post, but I've been thinking about it, and some other stuff I've seen online have been making me think about it.

stop doing a disservice to both of my boys. they both have such interesting and complex stories and you're ruining it!!!

[redorblue]

The Story of a New Name, by Elena Ferrante

I just finished reading The Story of a New Name, the second part of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels, and I’m completely blown away by how good this book is. The first one, too, and I can’t wait to read the third and fourth part, but this one genuinely makes me want to bow down to Elena Ferrante and promise her my firstborn child. I’m not saying that it doesn’t have its lengths, but the amount of detail that she puts into the settings and the richness of the characters’ inner lives makes me want to read twenty more of its kind - it’s just that good. It even makes me want to freshen up my Italian because the difference between speaking standard Italian and the Neapolitan dialect is an important part of the book and would probably add a lot more depth, but... I can’t wait that long.

The first two installments of the tetralogy are mostly set in Naples in the 1950s and 1960s, in a poor neighborhood at the outskirts of the city. This is where Elena and Lila grow up: two girls with very similar backgrounds (working class fathers, stay-at-home mothers, miserable living conditions, a lot of domestic and street violence), but with very different personalities. Lila is a very extroverted person, direct to the point of rude or aggressive, courageous, impulsive, sometimes manipulative, very passionate, and gifted with a very creative and astute kind of intelligence. Elena is more of an introvert, a very diligent, responsible and disciplined person who tries to avoid conflict at all cost and has a good eye for unwritten social rules, with a rich emotional life but an aversion to sharing it with others. She’s also gifted intellectually, but rather as a result of hard work; she’s what you’d call booksmart as opposed to Lila’s intuitive intelligence that’s mostly focused exclusively on her rather volatile fields of interest.

In short, in many regards they’re each other’s opposite, which makes their friendship incredibly fascinating from the outside and alternately fortifying or toxic from the inside. When things are good, they ignite each others’ brains with ideas and they support each other no matter what; when they aren’t, Lila manipulates Elena into things that hurt her (or both of them really) and intentionally ignores her discomfort, while Elena distances herself, judges Lila and tries to assert her own superiority. The competitive streak that runs through their friendship at times inspires both of them to surpass themselves, but it also leads to them constantly trying to outdo each other - and let the other know. No matter how fraught their relationship gets though, they are always the most important person in the other’s life, both the anchor that stabilizes them as well as the benchmark that they measure themselves against. It’s a defining element of both the main characters’ lives, even as their paths drastically diverge: Elena, because of a combination of luck and hard work, gets the chance to continue her education after primary school and even goes to university, while Lila, who has the talent but lacks the luck, is not allowed to go to school any longer and is ultimately forced by circumstance to get married at 16 - which, considering her personality and the society she lives in, obviously does not go well. All in all, it’s a fascinating portrayal of a lifelong friendship under (at times) incredibly difficult circumstances that shapes both of them at their very core. It doesn’t romanticize or trivialize a bond like that, but shows it in all its ugliness and glory, and what’s more: it makes this friendship the central relationship of the book.

But the story is not only a brilliant examination of female friendship (and it is very distinctly female: both characters can never escape their roles as girls/young women in a heavily patriarchal society), it’s also a very observant analysis of the ways that class and gender intersect to shape and constrain the paths and personalities of Elena, Lila and their friends and neighbors. I’m tempted to add ethnicity to the mix, too; I’m not sure if ethnicity is the right term, but I can’t think of a better one, so I’ll stick with that. I’m not exactly knowledgeable about Italy’s demographic makeup, but if I remember it correctly, there is a quite distinct divide - culturally, economically, socially, linguistically... - between the North and the South, with the North as the economically stronger (and possibly less corrupt) part and therefore in a position to look down upon the South. This is an especially important aspect of Elena’s story in The Story of a New Name, when she goes to Pisa to study and feels forced to hide her Neapolitan background as much as possible. However, in the neighborhood where Elena and Lila grew up and where most of the first and second book takes place, ethnicity plays less of a role. Externally, within the framework of greater Naples, the main dividing line is class, expressed as income, way of speaking, access to education, clothing, and general display of wealth. The neighborhood itself, on first glance, is more homogeneous: even the local bigshots, who own a car, give out shady loans to the entire neighborhood and maintain ties to the mafia, aren’t particularly educated or refined in comparison with the Neapolitan upper classes. What they do have is money, and that’s one of the observations that I love about this book: money, no matter how much of it you amass, can never be the same as being born upper class; it can buy some privileges, but it can’t buy parity with the truly powerful. Within the limited domain of the neighborhood, however, money is one of the main mechanisms of stratification, the other being gender.

Toxic masculinity plays an important role in the story, and it shapes the lives of everyone in the neighborhood in different ways. We don’t meet many of the older men (= parent generation), but that’s a statement in and of itself: many of them are either dead, dying, or in prison. Those that are left are characterized by submissiveness and resignation to those with more power, and they channel their feeling of powerlessness and the resulting emasculation by beating and abusing their wives and children. The older women have lived too long under such circumstances: they do care about their children in some way, but the methods they use to make especially their daughters conform to patriarchal expectations and thereby protect them from male wrath end up doing just as much harm as the fists of the fathers. Female solidarity and close personal friendships such as that of Elena and Lila are rare because of the women’s feeling of disempowerment, trauma from a lifetime of violence and general economic hardship. And so the vicious circle repeats itself, with everyone caught up in it absolutely miserable, but unable to do anything about it, since class limits make it virtually impossible to get out.

This is equally true for the younger generation. The boys are taught from a young age to associate male behaviour with violence, aggression, a very prickly sense of honor, and a superiority over women that allows them to possessively watch over them and use violence against them to keep them in line. This holds true for rich and poor neighborhood boys alike, which proves that it is not an issue of class alone. The author further supports this argument by giving counter-examples like Alfonso, who in theory is just as predisposed to toxic masculinity as all the other boys: a violent father, (temporary) economic deprivation, violence in his peer group... What makes Alfonso different from most of the other boys is his personality on the one hand and his advanced education on the other. I think the author is saying that education is the key to overcome at least the worst outgrowths of violent male behavior. Of course education is contingent upon the class a person is born into, but with Alfonso, and partially Enzo (and Nino, too, much as I hate to admit it), she proves that neither class nor gender automatically make a man violent - and that neither one is an excuse for toxic masculinity. This claim is strengthened further by a counterexample, namely Bruno Soccavo, the son of a rich industrialist who leads a privileged life and still thinks it his right to sexually exploit the female workers at his factory.

But since the focus of the story is on Elena, Lila and their female friends and frenemies, this is where we get the most intimate insights into what toxic masculinity and economic deprivation/dependence together do to f**k up the lives of girls and young women. The girls mostly display a pretty thorough understanding of how things work: they know what they can and can’t tell the boys in order to avoid violence among the boys and towards the girls themselves. I’m pretty sure that even Lila knows how to avoid offend the boys’ sense of honor, but between her recklessness courage, her desire for freedom and her self-destructive streak, she just doesn’t care very much. But even this understanding, the result of a lifetime of studying the behavior of the men around them, does not help them very much because it doesn’t leave them enough room to put their feet down, let alone breathe. Lila is the best example of this: after being denied further education and blossoming into a beautiful teenager that attracts the attention of every male around her, including a rich mafioso, she really has no other option than to marry the (seemingly) most acceptable of her suitors at 16 years of age. But of course, he turns out to be violent and controlling, too, and since he’s more powerful than her brother and father, she really has nowhere to turn to. And as I mentioned already, neither the older women nor the girls have enough emotional or material capacities to meaningfully help each other. Some of them also simply don’t want to (the author doesn’t romanticize anything here, either), but I dare say that even that is a result of economic deprivation plus toxic masculinity: from a very young age they’re drilled to think of marriage as their only way to relative economic security, and their future husband’s affection as the only way to avoid being beaten or even killed. So it’s natural that female solidarity, as desirable as it’d be, is not very wide-spread in the neighborhood. Basically, what the book says about toxic masculinity and patriarchal systems is this: yes, it hurts both men and women, young and old, rich and poor; but in the end, it’s always the women, and especially the poor women, who end up with bruises on their face.

[vitavitale]

headcanon VI  —  mother

V's mother was named Amanda Uccello, an American woman with obvious Italian roots. She was an average-sized woman on the slim side with relatively average facial features. Her amber eyes were notable, however. Her hair was always kept short, straight, about two inches above shoulder length, in a caramel brown color. She was industrious, reasonably ambitious, mild in nature and of good character on the whole. Her moral code was clear, she was responsible, she was not cowardly nor someone to push around. But, again, she was mild-mannered and so preferred peace over excitement. More introverted than extroverted, she also preferred her own company. She respected nature, was inviting to wildlife, and had always possessed a deep interest in the spiritual plane, in psychic forces and the supernatural. She was open to these forces so long as they were benevolent; she was reluctant to call upon that which was demonic and she hadn't for the most part. The magic she practiced was protective, only for good, but it was not something she'd done too regularly. Still, she kept a grimoire of sorts of her own.

However, she was more than human, even if partially. For generations her lineage consisted of human-demon hybrids, but as the generations passed the demonic blood inherited was diluted. Needless to say, at an early point her ancestors stopped breeding with demons. Amanda had gone far down the line, and her demonic blood was weak, almost ineffective—or she hadn't nourished it, simply finding no need at all for it and only living a plain human life. However, she had dabbled in occult practices in her teens and carried that through to adulthood, becoming a witch in her twenties as she finished school and traveled abroad. Her craft was relatively harmless, mostly used for protections and good fortune (though she'd rarely go a little further, touching facets of the dark arts when she saw the need). It was through such dark practice that she bound a demonic familiar to her when she'd left for England at the age of twenty-five, some years after finishing her schooling; it was a genial beast unlike its diabolical kin and it bonded with her without trouble. It looked very much like a sable, only a deep, jet black and with a certain wispy quality to its body.

Tragically, it was killed when she became acquainted with a coven of witches established in/around the neighborhood she'd moved to. It was unknown to her that they'd been responsible for her familiar's murder; they appeared benevolent but were driven by darker motives that Amanda could not see for many months yet. She had joined them for a short time, but soon came to sense a foreboding from their association. Fortunately, she'd distanced herself from them and ultimately broke off altogether at the age of twenty-six, but they—in particular, their head—kept discreet tabs on her since. It was her theory that they killed her cherished companion; she never confronted them about it. While Amanda kept to her craft privately, she kept to herself on the whole.

Life in England proved a challenge. She found it difficult to earn a living even in spite of her college-level education. She could not find a job in her field and so resorted to short-term work, whatever job she could pick up. The flat she'd first moved into soon became too expensive to keep, so she was forced to move into cheaper accommodations. The rent was barely affordable but other expenses she could not cover on her own. Her time was increasingly consumed by added work she had to take up, and she'd begun to rely on family overseas to wire her money. Life in the U.S. would not have been much easier, and returning would require the added cost of travel arrangements that she hadn't the hope to cover, so she was more or less stuck in Europe—and she hadn't wanted to leave it, either. Stubbornly, Amanda decided to fight it out. It was her desire to find her life's work there, but she was met with disenchantment. She'd first moved to England at the age of twenty-five with her family's blessing, having proven herself independent and capable, but circumstances strongly turned that on its head.

When she was twenty-seven, she'd taken up a waitress job at a pub, and it was during one of her nightly shifts that she served a customer who would become the father of a child she'd never dreamed of having. She noticed a charisma about him that attracted her on the outset of their relationship; they appeared to hit it off instantly. They chatted a little, but when her shift was through he'd waited for her so they could talk longer. As it turned out, they spent the night in one another's company, and for what felt like the first in a long time, Amanda was happy. She enjoyed his company, she liked him genuinely, and thus she continued to meet with him after work. In little time they entered a mutually romantic relationship, but it was during this short-lived period (a handful of months) that she'd opened her eyes to the kind of man he really was. Early, she told him of her affinity for the occult and the witchcraft she'd practice with, but it was something he was quick to spurn and urged her to abandon. He was difficult to contend with on a daily, domestic basis; though they never lived together, Amanda could see things in him that did not wholly sit well with her. Infatuation prevailed for a time, however, and she stubbornly believed she could make things work between them. She did not count on becoming pregnant any time soon, unfortunately, and the first time they slept together they were both careless. It was a week and a bit after they'd met. But this proved to be the turning point: it made her consider seriously their relationship, and for some weeks she did not tell him she had conceived.

While he had never been aggressive or manipulative, he was a wild and fickle man. A free spirit, a rebel, a drifter, indulging in the night life. His affection for her might have been genuine (going so far as to call her Mandy), but he was not quite the kind to dote nor devote himself, and least of all to settle down for the sake of family. But news of Amanda's pregnancy did not turn him away; in fact, he'd remained her significant other until he was sent away. She let him know it could not work—she knew his influence on her child would do more harm than good, though she had not voiced that distinctly—and thus broke it off. They separated on civil terms, never again seeing or hearing from one another. Bravely, she chose to raise her child on her own. Because of it, she'd moved down another notch in life in order to provide for someone who sorely depended upon her. She harbored no ill will toward the manner of conception nor toward the man who'd fathered her boy. She named him Vitale and loved him more than she'd ever loved anyone.

The development had not escaped the attention of the coven she'd left behind; they became aware of her child, the only boy born to a witch of their acquaintance when every other mother bore daughters, and did not see it as a joyous occasion. Luckily, they did not interfere, so Vitale had not known them personally. As he grew, it became evident that the demonic genes in his blood endured; he bore white hair and this, his mother knew, was too different, too strange for people (and the demons she also knew to exist in the world) to leave alone. She did not send him to school but educated him at home herself. Amanda had the sense that her former ties to the coven had not been cut cleanly; she wanted her son safe and so protected him by keeping him indoors almost perpetually. She taught him never to share his name with people he felt he could not trust. She'd become an overprotective parent in guarding him this way, even supervising him at all times when she would take him outdoors. Vitale grew up an innocent, sheltered child, not really understanding the dangers his mother took pains to protect him from, but she taught him little by little, always mindful of how he'd take certain information. What she did teach him with enthusiasm, however, was magic craft and opened his eyes to the world of the occult. Particularly, she wanted him to acquire a familiar of his own.

As he was still so young, he'd not shown indications of his sensitivity to the supernatural or the clairvoyance he'd been born with—these things had not been tapped into yet, but they were doubtlessly a part of his being and would later awaken when he would first touch demonic forces.

Their station in life was a meager one, requiring Amanda to hold down two jobs while having to do all of the house work and raise her son. She still received money from family abroad, and it was good enough to keep them fed. However, because nutrition was lacking, Vitale had developed an iron and vitamin deficiency at a startlingly young age. He became anemic before he hit his teens, and it was something more for his mother to care for. It required a specific diet, but one that went on and off; it could not always be afforded. In addition to being anemic, Vitale was underweight, but he was not a sickly child and, thankfully, went about his days as most children do. Apart from the nutrition that Amanda could not completely provide, her presence was also scarce. She could not spend nearly as much time with her son as she should have. Between work and household responsibilities, the time she spent to nurture their bond was limited, but in spite of that they were very close and Vitale was unquestioningly attached to her. He understood the reasons her company was scarce, but that did not mean he liked it any better. He tried to be a good boy for her, to not put any additional pressures on her, and he'd sorely wished he could have been of help, less of a burden, but he was still only a little boy, and his mother had always put on a brave front, assured him that she was doing fine.

Time passed with little change to come but Vitale's adolescence. Sixteen years in England and Amanda only had a son to show for it; it would be a lie to say that she did not long for a better life, to perhaps even return to the United States and find a fresh start. The pressures of survival wore her down, the endless obligations she had to shoulder almost too much to bear anymore. The life she'd been given was not the one she sought when she moved to the UK, and there were times she regretted taking that initial step—but she never regretted becoming a parent, feeling that her son was the only thing to give her any joy, and she was grateful that he was there. He was her only company as she was his; she hadn't a social life to speak of, neither did he; they were one another's worlds, and it appeared to her that life would simply consist of nothing more—at least until Vitale would mature enough to help pick up the slack. It would be another lie to say that she had not hoped nor waited for that age to come. Life was hard enough for them both, but they'd better their chances of survival if they were to depend upon each other in equal measure.

Amanda had been teaching Vitale about conjuring rites and rites of bondage, and while he showed he understood, he hadn't had hands-on practice. He decided he wanted to impress his mother by taking a familiar without her supervision, on an evening she'd gone to work. He was fourteen then (Amanda forty-one), and never had he dared to cross such a line, but his intentions were pure and his confidence apparent. His mother knew nothing about it until she'd returned home later that night, but all she'd seen was a demon in a frenzy in their tiny living room, threatening the life of her child. She could not process the cause in spite of the evidence in front of her; she thought only to protect her son, but it was during an attempt to call to him that the creature lunged for her, and effectively it had killed her in the blink of an eye. Her body was left bloody in a heap in the middle of the room, eyes pried wide open with her throat ripped through—mangled. Her murderer fled the flat through the door she'd left open, and Vitale would follow suit in haste. Their home had become a crime scene and from it he fled in fear, grief, and panic.

It didn't take long for authorities to step in. They could never find the killer—assuming it was another human, or a wild animal; they could not locate her only child, either. In the meantime, her family from the U.S. was notified of the tragedy and those able had flown to England to arrange her cremation and subsequent burial. Rather than return with her remains to the U.S., they decided to have them interred at Alberton Graveyard in Red Grave City, where she'd made her life and left a son. It was for posterity that she was buried there, even if her only child was nowhere to be found. But, sooner or later, he would stumble across her grave and discover that she'd been appropriately laid to rest—that was the belief of her family, and in years to follow it would come to pass.

[sprtoons]

A matter of weeks after Gina’s creation, an odd set of circumstances led @deddorain and I to add a second character to the mix.  She’s everything Gina isn’t: brash, inconsiderate, impatient, loud, selfish… We love her with all of our heart.

I like to call Shoelace the greatest mistake ever.  She is a character that all things considered should not exist, but ultimately I credit her with allowing Gina to break off from simply a server mascot into a more flexible character.  Adding a second character to the mix led to a fun dynamic that allowed both of them to kick off and become three dimensional, they could feel more real through their relationship to one another.  Their dynamic is pretty simple, but offers a lot of potential: Gina wants to be Shoelace’s friend.  Shoelace wants to be Gina’s friend but she doesn’t know how to act.  In the end they both care for each other deeply, although Shoelace is never able to say it.

Developing Shoelace’s character is always a great time, she’s probably my favorite character to brainstorm for and one of the characters I’m proudest of at that.  She’s developed into the best character possible for me on a personal level.  I love jerkass type characters and I’ve made sure that Shoelace manages to keep that personality while maintaining a distinctly likeable aura.  Shoelace is the way she is because she doesn’t understand how to be, with no social etiquette or understanding she reacts quickly and instinctively.  You can’t blame her for acting the way she does, she’s still learning.  Gina, being the irrationally patient and accommodating person that she is, puts up with Shoelace’s antics and knows that there is good in her that needs to be unlocked.  It’s very fun to play around with.

But although Dead Line and I can take credit for Shoelace in her current form, she wouldn’t have been possible without a bit of an unfortunate situation (with an obvious happy ending!).  After Gina was introduced to the SiIvaGunner fan server, another server caught wind of her and created their own OC taking a little bit too much inspiration from Gina.  It was a literal colorswap of Dead Line’s Gina art, given a Reeses Puffs color scheme and passed off as an original character.  Not having experience with this kind of thing, Dead Line and I were distraught.  What could these people do with our character, why would someone do this in the first place?  We were able to talk it out with @doshmobile, whose art of this color swap without knowing the situation behind it.  She was very apologetic and drew us a Gina in return.  With this in mind, dosh was technically the first to have drawn Shoelace, which is pretty cool to look back on.  Couldn’t have done it without you, dosh.

But this wasn’t quite “Shoelace” yet, she was still the stolen “bootleg” Gina in our eyes, up until April 7.  We were able to cool down from the initial situation and make light of it, jokingly contemplating the personality this bootleg could have.  This was to the point that Dead Line drew the color swap himself as this bratty menace snickering and clicking her hands like crab claws.  Overall her character was a perfect fit for the mess of events that led to her creation.  Getting this visual down inspired us to go even further with this idea and, over the course or a week or two, Shoelace was officially born.  We had stolen back our stolen creation and turned it into our own.

The Shoelace we know today is very different from when she started.  She used to look a lot more like Gina, but ever since one day when Dead Line was messing around with her design we decided to stick with the scraggly hair/black tanktop look which we both took a look at and agreed yep this is it.  I wish there was more to say about the process, but our character development tends to happen pretty naturally, we’ll do something and it’ll click into place and we’ll both fall in love with it.  Rarely do we disagree on anything anyway.

Similarly to Gina, Shoelace had a pretty great impact on my friendship with Dead Line as well.  Shoelace has fittingly brought us a lot of trouble and confusion, and getting through them together strengthened our bond even further.  We taught each other many lessons about patience and positivity, moving forward in the face of disappointment and at times needing a shoulder to cry on.  Working with Shoelace has been quite the emotional rollercoaster, in retrospect.  

In many ways I use our experiences and bonding to strengthen the dynamic between Gina and Shoelace.  I tend to put more of Dead Line into Gina and more of myself into Shoelace.  I’ll go on about the former someday, but today is Shoelace’s day after all.  Shoelace’s major predicament is feeling too reliant on Gina, after spending so much time with her and realizing how much better of a person she was becoming for it.  Despite all of the great effects that Gina had on her life, she couldn’t help but worry that some of her individuality would be lost in the process.  Ultimately Shoelace realizes that Gina needs her just as much as she needs Gina.  They become a part of each other, but not at risk of becoming a weaker person.  Together they’re stronger than they ever thought possible.  You can connect the dots.

Shoelace is living proof that there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.  Things may look bad at first, but keep your head up and tackle it with a positive attitude and hopefully everything will work out in the end.  As for us, we struck gold.  Happy birthday Shoelace, our happiest accident! H.

[anomalous-pluviophile]

yaas, i discovered a hidden stash of free time. naturally i’m gonna spend it sorting myself. a random walk through the tumblrs led me to the 6 trait sorting test, courtesy of @6-trait-sort (who else?)

they provide a quiz, so i tried that first and got

Ravenclaw! house of Garrick Ollivander, Uric the Oddball and Quirinus Quirrel. not sure i’m a huge fan of any of these guys, but the description sounds like me:

Ravenclaws tend to devote themselves to intellectual pursuits before people. We favour friends who are intellectually stimulating, but do not form bonds easily; however, we do not create conflicts easily, either. We're seldom interested in social standing or superficial symbols of success. Ravenclaws have been labelled everything from snobby to eccentric (and sometimes we are these things), but we are more often thoughtful, genuine and open-minded.

of course i’m not gonna stop there because i can’t go on with my life not knowing what the six traits are, and how they correspond to the houses. luckily they also provide a breakdown of the traits.

Introverted vs. Extroverted

An extrovert prefers external stimulus, while an introvert will look within. An introvert is not necessarily shy, but may not seek to have attention drawn to them.  Extroverts tend to have more friends, but introverts do not necessarily like their friends less, they simply require less social stimulus.

yeah i’m a total introvert, 100%. this may come as a surprise to anyone who has casually hung out with me, i.e., had their ears talked off by me, but it’s definitely true. the chatty, happy, friendly self is a non-default mode that drains my energy rapidly. after that i’m going home and making a pillow fort with no openings other than the “insert tea here” slot. subjectively, most of my life consists of inner experiences...most of my activities are solitary and inward-facing. when i go out in the world it’s usually to achieve a goal, or to cultivate certain inner experiences (enjoying nature, taking photos, etc).

according to the 6-traits classification system, introversion is a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff trait, whereas Gryffindor and Slytherin are extroverted.

(though, just between me and you all, i think there’s a lot of wiggle room....Neville is a painfully introverted Gryffindor. Snape is a classic Slytherin and he strikes me as introverted. i would call Tonks an extroverted Hufflepuff. as for Ravenclaw...you got me, can’t think of any counterexamples xD)

Assertive vs. Accommodating

Relatively self explanatory. Remember, it’s as important to consider whether you are likely to exert your will upon another person as it is to consider whether you will allow their will exerted on you.

soo...i actually don’t find this relatively self-explanatory at all 😅 the description suggests it’s fundamentally about exertion of power: do i exert my will upon other people, or do i allow them to exert their will over me? i would say neither. i’m generally not interested in bending other people to my will, but at the same time i’m incredibly willful regarding my own goals, and won’t let others overrule me. i’ve developed very strong boundaries. but like any decent human being i think, i make an effort to respect other people’s boundaries too.

perhaps twisting this interpretation a little bit, i do think i actively assert my will on the forces operating in my world. i don’t let the wind blow me around, so to speak...i’m less shaped by my circumstances and more the shaper thereof. i do take control of my environment to serve my goals. so i would call myself more assertive than accommodating. i’m just not overly-assertive, or aggressive, to the point of coercing and controlling other people.

6-traits calls Gryffindor and Slytherin assertive, while Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are accommodating.

People-Oriented vs. Task-Oriented

Is a good day defined by the company you keep or the accomplishments you make? Does career satisfaction come from contributing to society or from enjoyment of the job? This can seem similar to Extroversion vs. Introversion, but consider that it is possible to be extroverted and task-oriented (such a person would be prototypically Slytherin).

i’m distinctly more task-oriented than people-oriented. i can certainly enjoy spending time with people, but in my head there’s a mental image of my to-do list and i’m checking off the box marked “spend time with people”. for me it’s a good day if i’ve accomplished something i wanted to do. and i definitely don’t give a hoot about society when choosing my career path. don’t get me wrong, i value people inherently...i want to connect and love...but that aspect of my life has often been secondary and something i’ve had to consciously work on.

the task-oriented houses are Slytherin and Ravenclaw, says 6-traits, while Gryffindor and Hufflepuff are people-oriented.

Brain vs. Heart

“Whether brave or loyal, you have heart; whether cunning or clever, you favour smarts.” This is really about whether you follow your intuition and compassion or your intellectual understanding of a situation. But remember that it’s about relative dominance – Hermione is exceptionally bright, but her heart outweighed that and put her in Gryffindor.

braaaiiiiiinnnsss. er, brain. not (only) in the sense that i’m intelligent, but in terms of which modality i tend to use to engage with and understand— my m.o. is intellectual and analytical. even in matters of the heart: i’m that person who doesn’t understand myself until i read a self-help book and literally makes a pro/con list in my head when someone asks me on a date.

it’s interesting to me that intuition is in the heart category here. i do use intuition, but i use it within an intellectual framework...for me, intuition is the voice from my unconscious that presents a fully-formed solution to my problem before i’ve consciously reasoned through it. it’s fundamentally a brain function.

Slytherin and Ravenclaw are the brainy houses, unsurprisingly, whereas Gryffindor and Hufflepuff have heart.

Passive vs. Driven

You can excel no matter which house you call home, but there are different ways to approach success. “Driven” describes a person who will go to great lengths to do well, who both wants to do well and plans to do well. We see this in the Slytherin ambition and in the Hufflepuff work ethic. “Passive” describes someone less likely to think about the future, who does well because they are immersed in the task at hand. Ravenclaws may care about their academic performance, but not as much as they care about the knowledge itself.

oh, just 👏 for presenting this trait pair. it’s one that figures so prominently in my own personality. and yes, i’m driven. i’m always planning, deciding, executing, achieving. you’ll never catch me without goals, even if they’re unconventional ones. and i’m willing to admit that being driven isn’t always a positive trait...i’ve been known to drive myself so hard i burn out, and the resulting recovery period where i’m unable to push forward like normal is a huge blow to my identity and how i function.

6-traits calls Slytherin and Hufflepuff the driven houses, and Gryffindor and Ravenclaw passive.

(just as an aside...idk if i can see ‘passive’ as an opposite of driven that fits those two. i find them more spontaneous, capricious, or instinctive perhaps. they are active, but not in a planned, enduring way.)

Cooperative vs. Independent

This refers not simply to a person’s ability to work alone or on a team but to their broader social inclinations. Cooperative individuals care about social hierarchy and networking. They may desire to lead or follow, but they certainly care about their role. Slytherins may seek to climb the social ladder; they may also emphasize family values. Hufflepuffs seek equality for all, but they are also concerned with other people’s perception of them (cf. Ernie MacMillan). Independent individuals are simply less likely to think about social standing, and will certainly place less value on it. They may be eccentric, like Luna, or determined to take individual action, like Harry.

i am definitely not keen on networking and have never understood the social hierarchy at all, so i’d say i’m independent. come to think of it, i am both eccentric and determined to act of my own accord. i do need people in my corner, but i’m not acting on the basis of what people want or expect— i’m acting individually and then connecting with the people who support me. and flipping the bird to the ones who don’t.

the independent houses are Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, and the cooperative houses are Slytherin and Hufflepuff.

~

if i assign a score to each house based on the number of its traits i identify with:

Gryffindor: 2 (assertive, independent) Ravenclaw: 4 (introverted, task-oriented, brain, independent) Hufflepuff: 2 (introverted, driven) Slytherin: 4 (assertive, task-oriented, brain, driven)

that makes me a Ravenclaw-Slytherin hatstall.

slytherclaw4eva?

[kalachand97-blog]

New Post has been published on Globeinfrom

New Post has been published on https://globeinform.com/funding-capital-allocated-to-property-is-developing-every-yr/

Funding capital allocated to property is developing every yr

The instantaneous aftermath of the Brexit vote hasn’t been as grim because it becomes initially feared, says Alistair Elliott, 55, senior partner and group chairman of actual property consultancy Knight Frank. Elliott, a lifelong supporter of the Chelsea Football Membership, attributes this to the resilience of the British financial system which has posted sturdy employment and GDP increase numbers in the final sector. In an interview with Forbes India, he, however, offers a phrase of warning: actual property is an extended-time period Investment and those looking to make a brief greenback shouldn’t bother investing in it. Edited excerpts:

Q. What has been Brexit’s impact on actual property within the United kingdom? The impact hasn’t been as dramatic or volatile as humans had anticipated. There has been a lot of hesitation in the run-as much as the vote, so the marketplace paused. As a result, the volumes are down and pricing is a touch off, but ever since the referendum vote changed into the cast, the momentum has been constructing gradually. I trust human beings have got renewed confidence within the United kingdom management. Distant places investors and domestic owners also appear to be re-attractive their hobby in the United kingdom market. And the authorities has now were given the authority it wishes to invoke Article 50 [Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty sets out how a European Union member nation can voluntarily leave the union]. We hope that the communique that comes out from the European and United kingdom authorities, as we undergo the process to depart the ECU, is clear and concise. What markets hate is uncertainty. And the United Kingdom has got reasonably robust GDP increase. So, for an outside observer, it is a superb time to shop for.

Q. How a lot of the momentum has been because of the depreciation of the pound? We’ll by no means realize the solution to that. One could imagine that if an Overseas buyer abruptly sees the powerful fee of assets down with the aid of 20 percent, he might be interested in it. So that’s helpful. Do I think that if the pound receives returned to it’s in advance position, Remote places call for will evaporate? No. That’s because the pound’s recuperation will reconfirm confidence inside the United kingdom typically.

Q. Folks who had bought earlier than Brexit can be down on the financial cost of their investments. might that now not have dented their confidence? It is able to have, however, allow me to say this about investing in real estate—it’s miles long-term and cyclical. Don’t put money into real estate in case you are questioning you can exit in brief order. That doesn’t manifest everywhere in the world.

Q. How a good deal of the confidence is due to the truth that international markets for all asset lessons have achieved nicely inside the remaining six months? It is a superb statement. The Investment capital allocated to property is growing each year. Its actions in special locations and at one-of-a-kind speeds, but the extent of the hobby is developing each 12 months. How plenty is because of sentiment and what sort of is due to the increase in capital allocated, we will in no way understand, but for the ones within the real property market, it’s far the mixture that is beneficial.

Q. was the month after the Brexit vote frightening for firms like Knight Frank? It was. Our investors were asking at what fee they could sell in the event that they had to promote fast, and what had been our views at the medium to long term. Retail budget is a small percent of the market, however, they needed to make certain they’d the price range to conform with redemption requests. What we were telling them didn’t be counted lots. but via December 2016, even those retail price range were getting high-quality inflows.

Q. What are worldwide high internet well worth individuals (HNIs) considering their real estate investments? The worldwide population is urbanising and key cities are expanding. Most people of mature real estate capital goes into the arena’s key cities. We’ve got visible very robust markets for residential and industrial [property] in Australia; in mainland China it’s for residential. There’s much less activity in Taipei, Tokyo and India, however India appears to have became a greater advantageous corner now and there seems to be more activity. I suppose that the overarching view is about sectors. There are demanding situations in retail that investors need to address. The pass from conventional brick-and-mortar retail to e-commerce is producing a want for owners of purchasing centres to observe matters in a different way. Interim distribution and warehousing and logistics are becoming popular asset classes and that fashion will maintain. Metropolis living way there may be greater development of residential [property]. The mix of what that offers among luxurious and low cost and between for sale and rent will exchange.

Q. What is the extent of interest in warehousing from real property budget? The warehousing segment of the actual property market is still user-led, but builders and investors are taking a eager hobby. Etailers have particular necessities in terms of vicinity and specifications. We’ve seen positive net stores partnering with developers to make certain they get the right supply of their applicable markets.

Q. Even HNIs are far extra yield-hungry these days. Have you noticed this many of the investors you advocate? What you need to do is look at property as an asset class and compare it with the whole lot else. Fairly speaking, in an Investment-wealthy global, property stands to account properly as an asset elegance. The yields may be below stress nowadays, as compared to what they was once, however the yield spread is right if you are prepared to entertain more chance. They examine favourably than what you get in equities or bonds.

How belongings Fund buyers Can Fare Better Than actual estate builders

Are real estate builders disadvantaged relative to belongings fund buyers?

Maximum actual property are acting Higher than the volatile stock marketplace. but for some, property price range maintain greater appeal overdeveloped real estate.

since the monetary crisis of 2008, traders have soured on traditional investments due to elements of negative performance. As a substitute, they are turning closer to alternatives that consist of land investments and property price range. The reasons for this are effortlessly understood: The growing housing shortage inside the United kingdom portends correct close to- and mid-time period cost growth for all components of residential real estate, specially in mild of robust (7 consistent with cent in view that 2001) population boom.

Of direction, now not all actual estate is the same for investors. Within actual estate are surprisingly specific varieties of investments, constructed houses and uncooked land. a few buyers pick constructed properties or to invest in the developer who is managing the development and sale of houses and industrial systems. An choice to this is uncooked land, ripe for plan rezoning from, say, agricultural to residential-distinctive land.

Each have their deserves, of direction. however land Funding would possibly hold the advantage for at least three reasons:

• Adaptability to market wishes – raw land can be converted (pending approval of Nearby Planning Authority approvals, of course) to the use this is Most crucial to the Neighborhood economic system. This flexibility permits the land Investment fund to prepare parcels for what’s going to be wanted in a Distinctly short period of time. On already-built belongings, buyers have handiest What’s there except circumstances allow for the tremendous rate of demolition and rebuilding – which handiest rarely makes sense from an asset boom angle.

• less Funding in improvement (and related risks) – The growth-bust cycles of the past several many years remind us of the way one billion Pounds may be squandered as an alternative quick while a big belongings comes on-line at the perfect moment when nobody wishes it. See “Canary Wharf, Olympia & York” for a surprising instance of ways badly assets investments can fail.

• more liquidity (but nonetheless now not volatile) – Possibly the Achilles Heel of real land belongings is the illiquidity of land, with or without belongings. however land investments that at Maximum contain the mild infrastructure required of residential neighbourhoods (roads, sewers and other utilities) are plenty extra easily bought than property concerning structures. At the same time as that pales in assessment to real property Investment trusts for liquidity, actual property isn’t always nearly as concern to marketplace fluctuations as are REITs.

To be sure, Each traders in property price range and land investments generally tend to acquire asset increase in well-managed situations. but from land to belongings improvement, the direction is quicker. With a pro team of land Investment experts, a joint task partnership can pick out and manage houses for optimum fee appreciation and resale between 18 months and five years after acquisition.

All investments convey danger and need to be considered with regards to one’s complete portfolio of monetary contraptions. be sure to contact a private financial consultant earlier than embarking on any Investment.