#and therefore “constructed script” and “constructed sign language”

[absyn-th]

omg i've wanted to do this for so long but i'm not confident enough with my conlanging (con-script-ing? con-sign-ing?) abilities to pull it off thank you for actually doing it

Yes I'm serious, no I'm not okay

(I'll be tagging this and further parts as #buzzkill aquatic so feel free to use that tag too if you use my aquatic expansion in your art/animations/fanfics etc)

Next part (tail edition):

[tonydaddingham]

LWA: I was thinking this afternoon about Aziraphale's plot trajectory in S2, and along the way stumbled over a different Crowley problem. Namely, this: what is Crowley /actually/ modeling for Aziraphale when it comes to working out his relationship to Heaven? Because there does seem to be a vague fandom consensus that Crowley embodies a radically oppositional relationship to "the system" (hence the meme that was going around about "the system must be dismantled" over Crowley's photo), whereas Aziraphale thinks of himself entirely within the system and can therefore only imagine reforming it. In this model, Aziraphale's inability to disentangle himself from Heaven can be conceptualized sympathetically, as a trauma response to abuse, or negatively, as moral obtuseness. But this doesn't map onto either the scripts or the novel, and definitely doesn't take into account that in the novel, the character who finally sets out the possibility of actual resistance is...Aziraphale.

The Crowley problem is that Crowley /at no point/ articulates any way of dismantling the system and rarely imagines himself existing outside of it. Instead, what Crowley tries to teach Aziraphale how to do is to construct himself as an individual negotiating the system through technicalities, rules-lawyering, outright deceit, and sometimes full compliance. In other words, going along with Heaven or Hell as far as he can, as per the Job minisode. The Arrangement subverts the Heaven/Hell dichotomy only up to the point that it exposes how both "sides" are structurally and even morally identical--"the Authorities didn't seem much to care who did anything, so long as it got done" (44)--but it doesn't provide a means of undoing Heaven or Hell as political entities. Arguably, the Arrangement lends itself to political cynicism and stasis: if the sides are interchangeable, and there is no movement except from one side to the other, then why bother moving at all? Crowley's resistance explicitly occurs /within/ the constraints of his work, which he canonically enjoys doing when it doesn't involve killing people (see: his pride in both the series and the novel over the telephone network takedown and the M25). In the Job minisode, he offers Aziraphale the possibility of disidentification and disaffection as a means to "carve out" (to borrow from S2e1) a space within an oppressive system, while still belonging to that system and even taking satisfaction from it. As of S2, he is /still/ indirectly working with Hell by tutoring Shax in exchange for information, and during the backroom discussion about Muriel he twice dismissively refers to Aziraphale and Heaven as "you lot." (Aziraphale calling Crowley and Hell the "bad guys" in S2e6 mirrors this moment.) He still, at some level, has not thought himself out of the Heaven/Hell dichotomy. Moreover, the speed with which he retreats to "carved out for myself" in S2e1 suggests that extending the language of "sides" to the two of them continues the problem instead of solving it: any major argument leads to the dissolution of "the side."* In the novel and S1, part of Adam's complaint at the airfield is that the whole concept of sides squaring off against each other is ridiculous; it's never been clear to me that the writing endorses Crowley's decision to just conceptualize them as yet another side, if the side needs to be in lockstep agreement in order to function.

Crowley's only alternative is full exit, "going off" somewhere. This poses two problems: there's "nowhere to go," as Aziraphale wearily points out in S1e3, and it leaves the system intact to oppress another day. In S2, it's unclear if Gabriel and Beelzebub will successfully "go off" for long, as they are warned onscreen that Heaven and Hell will hunt them down. Moreover, Crowley's enthusiasm for following in their energy trails is a sign of his moral limitations, which have not improved since s1 (in which, as per Gaiman and Tennant, he has no real character arc): in wanting to emulate the two "awful" characters who decide to pack off and enjoy themselves with no gratitude to Aziraphale for endangering himself, no sign that they think of anything they did over the millennia as /wrong/, and no care for anything they leave behind, Crowley inadvertently reveals that he is still trapped in the "responsibility for my actions? what responsibility?" mentality he has in both the novel and all through S1. *drags the unresolved child murder subplot from S1 out of storage, shakes it around, throws it back into storage* I know that since S1, some fans have objected that there's nothing wrong with "going off" like this, but while that's no doubt true in a general real-world sense, that has nothing to do with Crowley's narrative function as a character.

I think you can see where I'm going with this. Aziraphale's decision to return to Heaven to "make a difference" is, awkwardly enough, absolutely compatible with Crowley's own example. Crowley has not taught him how to fully resist the system, let alone dismantle it: he has taught him that the only two options are creating a fiction of personal independence within the system or packing off entirely, both of which leave Heaven and Hell fully intact. Nothing about returning to Heaven to "make a difference" conflicts with "going. along" with Heaven until he can't, as "making a difference" implies that it may be possible to expand the "going along" until there is no "can't"! Aziraphale's insight in the novel is that even as disaffected, disidentified workers, they are still complicit in Heaven's and Hell's violence and are therefore obligated to remain in order to resist Satan. This is a "hard saying" (John 6:60), but TV!Aziraphale's not-entirely-free decision** to leave for Heaven in order to "make a difference"--a decision that he certainly doesn't execute well!--rests on a sense of moral obligation that moves him further along the road to this point.

/Pace/ Nina and Maggie, through S1 and even S2 they mostly communicate just fine. What they do not do just fine is serious disagreement. The only major S1 miscommunication occurs in 1862/1967, and it occurs /because/ they're represented as not knowing how to work through this kind of argument without immediately jumping to conclusions, losing their tempers, failing to hear each other out, etc. See also S1e3, S2e1, and S2e6.

** This is an epic-length ask, so I'll stop, but the Metatron's proposal looks /back/ to Crowley's conversation with Beelzebub in s2e1 and /across/ to Maggie's and Nina's conversation with Crowley in s2e6. Nina calls Aziraphale Crowley's "partner" and the Metatron refers to their relationship as a "partnership"; both of them insist that the solution to the problem is to talk; and the resulting car crash results from selective hearing and misunderstanding on /both/ Crowley's and Aziraphale's parts (Crowley fails to apply Nina's message about abusive relationships to both Aziraphale and himself; Aziraphale misinterprets Crowley's dislike of Hell as a desire to return to Heaven).

hi LWA!!!✨ as an unrelated aside, you wouldn't believe the sheer amount of illegible notes ive had to take in order to plan out a response to this - there is so much to unpack! will try to keep things as coherent as possible, but will be jumping around back and forth a fair bit.

so the first thing that springs to mind is that by definition, crowley does not at all strike me as a radical in any sense, whether as a personal attribute or as political ideology (so to speak). i want to go into this later on, but i completely agree with your assessment - crowley seems to actively like being a demon, is a successful one, and/or at least takes unbridled satisfaction and enjoyment from it. he benefits from his place in the system, which i still think (by the by) is reasonably well-established in the hellish food chain, and he even goes beyond being a 'standard' demon by completing his work to a higher 'class' of diabolicalness than his contemporaries. he takes pride in this, as you said (another demonic trait, if we want to reductively categorise 'demonic-ness' solely by the seven sins), and is implied to see it as a particular skill or craft.

aziraphale on the other hand (as, again, i want to look at later on, but i think given the length of this ask might need to be a separate post? idk let's see how we go), seems to be the one of the two that actually resists his inherent and traditional (ie. angelic) nature, and presents as the most radical out of the both of them. he constantly toes the company line, and does things outside the scope of being an angel that his own contemporaries have outright mocked or condemned. if anything, aziraphale seems to be oppressed by his being an angel. the issue is that because of aziraphale's usually prominent nature of being a good person (note: not a good angel, but person), he still endeavours to see the best in everyone. it highlights his occasional naivety, although i do think he has become less and less naive than the audience gives him credit for. the fact that he still believes in heaven's mission statement of being the side of good isn't stupidity, i don't think it's even naivety - i just seems to me that he's holding out hope that there is still good at all. i would like to think that this hope holds; reality is, and GO would be, a depressing place without it.

back to crowley, however, and his place in the system. look - i don't want to go so far as to liken crowley to champagne socialism, but fuck it - im going to. crowley eloquently countered the concept of poverty being a virtue in the resurrectionist minisode, does it to teach aziraphale a lesson. but he doesn't, at any point as far as i can recall, pursue any avenue in which he combats this or any other unfairness existent in the world, despite evidently thinking that it is unfair. he is quick to reproach aziraphale for his ridiculous purview on human suffering, but does not do anything to set an example to aziraphale on what the alternative, 'right' thing is.

wilde made a valid point on his essay on socialism, in that elaborate and contrived altruism is a symptom of capitalist society; it's all very well to remedy the injustice and suffering forced upon those with little means to rectify it themselves, but if you don't resolve the root of the issue, the issue will persist. it's not a stretch to consider that crowley might see heaven in similarly cynical way; that they will act with charity and righteousness, but it means nothing when it does not right the wrong in the first place.

but crowley does not do this either; he recognises that the system is redundant, and that both spell equal disaster for all under its shadow... and yet a) he continues to directly benefit from it, even in s2, and b) when given an opportunity to change or even remove it, he resolves that the only solution for him (and aziraphale) is to run from it altogether. it's understandable why he wants to run, but it doesn't place him in a standing where he has any credible superiority over aziraphale choosing to make a difference (even if it may, likely, end up being futile). so, yes, as you said - crowley has once again shot himself in the foot by highlighting to aziraphale the very problem that means they cannot be free to exist as they want, and then acting *shocked pikachu* when aziraphale decides he wants to change that very thing.

continuing with a laboured political analogy here, crowley's actions, his speech, and his behaviour absolutely marks him as an individualist. despite what i think the fandom likes to portray him as, he does not appear to represent any indication of collectivism (and imo is worlds apart from acting in any capacity that would place him on the marxist-communist spectrum). aziraphale, despite his aesthetic appearances and tastes - and possibly even more impactful because of this - is much more the 'anti-capitalist' in his actions, particularly by the end of s2. i don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that he may even be teetering on the edge of social anarchism, which could be an exciting development for his character going into s3.

but getting back on track with the narrative; crowley is still working within the system, yes. i think in some part it comes back to crowley thinking that he is smarter than everyone else in hell, which is manifestly not the case. at best, he has scored a couple of hits against slightly less able (?) demons in s1, but both shax and furfur demonstrate in s2 that they have some ability in keeping up with him, even on occasion out-manoeuvring him. he seems to labour under the misapprehension in s2 that hell will leave him alone after the apocalypse, because of what aziraphale 'negotiated' for him at the end of s1:

so, thinking that hell itself is no longer interested in him, and at best is terrified of him, he thinks he can exploit them by trying to get intel from shax (who is doing the same to him - and, if the end of ep3 is any indication, does it arguably better than he does). ultimately this leads him to knowing that something is going on in heaven, but aziraphale knows about this anyway by the time crowley has an opportunity to spill the tea (another excellent irony).

what i also think is particularly insightful is that in response to beelzebub offering him a high-position in hell (possibly, given the gabriel-beelzebub context, even the highest position), crowley doesn't exactly reject it based on any preconceived notion that he is outside the system/has any moral or radical objection to it. his immediate response to the implied offer is:

"Doesn't actually sound like the sort of thing you're likely to say..."

i think it's clear that crowley is the one with the actual power, here, given how adamant and desperate beelzebub acts in the scene for a sliver of intelligence on gabriel's whereabouts... even without knowing the romantic subplot context, i don't think crowley could fail to pick up that he could literally do or say anything, and beelzebub would probably let it slide, because they need him. so, why doesn't he outright reject the proposal they put before him, in the room? why does he skirt around an answer? well, it's a card that he can put in his back pocket, and it literally keeps his foot in the door despite his protests to the contrary in ep6:

"I certainly don't need them! Look, they asked me back to Hell, I said "no!" - I won't be joining their team; neither should you!"

... crowley, literally or figuratively, does not say this when beelzebub makes their offer. so, if this - what he says in ep6 - is how he viewed said offer, why didn't he say that? why does he continue to entertain being within the system? (foreshadowing for s3? to mirror aziraphale? hmmm...)

the simplified dynamic proposed to us, at the very beginning of GO (albeit the narrative immediately launches into depicting the irony of this), of angels vs. demons, of heaven vs. hell, is that they represent good and evil respectively. so, the fact that aziraphale is presented as an angel with a bastard streak, and crowley as a demon with a hidden goodness, would suggest that they are both going against the factions that they - in the general sense - belong to. however, in a lot of respects, this is almost a double-blind.

from this introduction to modern-era crowley, you could even infer that he is in agreement with hell on armageddon, at least until the point that a) it is suddenly, actually happening, and crowley is forced to consider what it would mean (i.e. rather a crucial Dead Whale to be confronted with), and b) he is being directly dragged into it; he doesn't to be involved, nor bear any responsibility for it.

the world ending is an okay prospect for him when it's in the abstract, but when he realises that it would mean losing the world and humanity, and specifically all that it offers him, does he consider thwarting it - and enlisting aziraphale to help him do so. he doesn't suggest any notion of the apocalypse being unfair or cruel on humanity itself*, from a truly altruistic perspective that would actually put him in direct contrast to what a demon 'should' be; his only resistance to it appears to be out of what he personally stands to lose.

(*the only time he, as far as i can remember off the top of my head, shows any strong moral objection to the apocalypse is in his monologue to god about testing humanity to destruction. but this feels, in this context, to be borne less out of selfless empathy for humanity, and more as a projection of his fall, and a personal criticism of god... interesting thought, especially when you also look at how he talks to the plants/job's goats)

and that's the thing - he does ultimately seem to enjoy being a demon. he takes pride in working at what he considers a higher, more sophisticated level - the phone network, for example, in contrast to hastur and ligur's acts of lustful temptation and corruption respectively, which just like the M25 comes round to bite him on the arse. it's interesting to note ligur's line about craftsmanship because, really, despite crowley falling afoul of his own work, the 'pranks' he plays are particularly fiendish to the modern human (as is, of course, being set on fire on the motorway, but we move).

satan himself explains that he values crowley's specific brand of demon-ness, thought the M25 was an excellent idea, and even seems to deliberately feature it in the end crescendo of armageddon... crowley never intended that, sure, but by his very nature? he's a rather good/talented demon without even really trying... and seems to relish it. his perception of being a higher class of demon, as a direct result of his experience of being on earth and around humans, is equally shown in the two below statements:

because look; the way crowley puts this across is that he has a hard line when it comes to murder... but given the antichrist incident (*shakes it like a magic-8 ball, as if it's going to tell us anything different*) and various other examples (french guard, graveyard watchmen) where crowley just seems straight-up chilled about people being killed, even a child, i think we can reliably surmise that it's not exactly out of any hidden moral meaning (or at least, not entirely so). no, i think it's more to do with his statement to ligur - he literally just thinks it's beneath him.

death isn't enjoyable for him, it's not as fun, but not because he has any moral objection to it; it's just not as inventive or clever. with the tadfield manor scene, the fact that he thinks nothing of leaving the humans to be arrested for his prank (which he literally did in the first place just to prove a point to aziraphale) speaks more that this kind of result is what he considers to be more refined in terms of demonic activity, rather than out-and-out slaughter.

then we consider the pride he seems to take in his temptations - particularly of aziraphale. interpretations of sexual subtext aside for a moment, he is evidently proud of his tempting aziraphale to eat in s2, but also his ability to manoeuvre him into accepting the arrangement, by means of playing on their mutual sloth tendencies (another sin for the bingo card), and convincing aziraphale to thwart armageddon, by means of playing into aziraphale's fastidiousness to be seen as thwarting 'evil wiles' in the eyes of heaven (and yeah, the threat of hearing the sound of music for eternity - understandable).

but none of these have been for aziraphale's benefit, not entirely. he exploits the angle where aziraphale could benefit from it, but he doesnt read as doing any of these things out of solely wanting to open aziraphale's eyes to the world; it's not out of kindness or selflessness. as time goes on, he ends up doing things for aziraphale without there being benefit to himself - hamlet, the paintball stain - but then again, you could argue that it's entirely so that aziraphale would be pleased with him, would be grateful to him, and equally like him as crowley, as well as owe crowley a favour down the line. his line about owing aziraphale a lunch in recompense for 1793 suggests that crowley does, in some part, think transactionally.

suffice to say that after all of this (and tbh i could probably go on for longer), crowley isn't teaching aziraphale anything about being outside the system. crowley in fact seems to revel from being inside it. he doesnt state at any point that hell is right or wrong, but is very clear that he thinks heaven is the bane of their existence. that's not necessarily untrue, but the only time he even flickers on the concept that maybe the whole circus is redundant is at the very beginning of s2... and revisits it again at the end.

there is a very fine line between acting individualistically within the system and exploiting certain aspects of it, and "going along with hell as far as [he] can". the latter suggests that there is a breaking point to be had, the 'far as he can'. and to be fair, it does appear that crowley has one - the end of the world. three times, under the knowledge that the end times are nigh, crowley proposes they leg it; twice with the apocalypse in s1, and with knowledge of the second coming in s2 (which, as a reminder, he doesn't inform aziraphale about). as you say though, aziraphale still hasn't reached his.

but crowley's reason is intertwined with aziraphale himself; aziraphale has always demonstrated up to this point his sense of obligation to stay behind to fight, to try to resolve things and work out a way to save everything and everyone - even to the sacrifice of his own personal happiness. even beyond a sense of obligation, i think aziraphale just feels that it's, ultimately, the right thing to do - another lesson that crowley taught him; to do what aziraphale considers to be right, despite what anyone else tells him.

aziraphale wants to be with crowley, that is never in question, but the method in which either of them ever sees this as being a reality is so irreconcilable that there's no solution to it. aziraphale was, absolutely, asking something inconceivable of crowley - but the fact remains that crowley demonstrates that he will not sacrifice himself for any concept of a future where there is no necessity to simply 'go along as far as he can'. it's a boundary crowley has drawn, and rightly so, but that doesn't automatically mean that aziraphale must surrender his own boundary in kind.

crowley's response to reaching this point is to abandon the situation altogether, which not only shows that he has learnt nothing about aziraphale from s1 in this respect, but it also doesn't change a single thing about the circumstances they find themselves in... and it would only be a temporary solution. even if he and aziraphale were to run, to essentially seek sanctuary elsewhere... well, where could they possibly go, and what force exists that could grant it to them? aziraphale recognises this, and i think crowley secretly does too, but doesn't - once again - want to address it.

last note, before i continue talking myself in circles - i find it interesting how flimsy the concept of 'their side' seems to be; in s1, aziraphale is the one to reject it when crowley pushes it at the bandstand, when aziraphale is still very much hanging onto the faith that heaven might see reason. and then, in s2, when it seems that, in the four years that has passed, aziraphale has relaxed enough re: clapback from heaven to fully accept what 'their side' means. however, crowley quickly retracts it in ep1 when aziraphale isn't acquiescing to him re: sheltering gabriel, out of what im perceiving is self-preservation.

but the hurt with which aziraphale remarks on this retraction seems like it was a rather cutting betrayal (that, surprise surprise, is not even addressed), and it's not really any wonder that aziraphale withdraws, offering crowley instead an opportunity to leave, whilst making plain how disappointed he is. crowley then reacts with indignation that aziraphale would essentially dismiss him, "oh, right, this is how you wanna do it?", as if that's not the very thing he himself was intimating a moment previous. as you noted is remarked by adam - the concept of having a side at all, if it's this weak and delicate (and frankly, outgunned by heaven and hell collectively), is patently ridiculous.

[stdio2020]

NICOLAS BOURRIAUD POSTPRODUCTION CULTURE AS SCREENPLAY: HOW ART REPROGRAMS THE WORLD

This book fucking rocks and affirms many things about my practice. Good to know I am on a good path. Written in 2002, the text could not take into account the level of postproduction that would ensue in the following twenty years. This is the age of the consumer-producer. Everything is consumed and produced multiple times over. Bourriaud thought that artists processing their own consumption would take on liberatory pollitical effects. Unfortunately late capitalism has simply developed such that we no longer need ‘power’ to satiate us with entertainment, we are given the tools to satiate one another.... Below are really haphazard notes, not very well structured but all very important. 

p7“Pop Art was born of a conjunction between the phenomenon of mass production and the birth of visual marketing, under the aegis of a new era of consumption” (p2)

“the works of Pierre Huyghe, Douglas Gordon, or Rirkrit Tiravanija deeply reexamine notions of creation, authorship, and originality through a problematics of the use of cultural artifacts - which, by the way, is absolutely new.” (p4)

“When artists find material in objects that are already in circulation on the cultural market, the work of art takes on a script-like value: "when screenplays become form," in a sense.” (p4)

“Postproduction apprehends the forms of knowledge generated by the appearance of the Net (how to find one's bearings in the cultural chaos and how to extract new modes of production from it).Indeed, it is striking that the tools most often used by artists today in order to produce these relational models are preexisting works or formal structures, as if the world of cultural products and artworks constituted an autonomous strata that could provide tools of connection between individuals; as if the establishment of new forms of sociality and a true critique of contemporary forms of life involved a different attitude in relation to artistic patrimony, through the production of new relationships to culture in general and to the artwork in particular.” (p7) <<So important

It is no longer a matter of starting with a "blank slate" or creating meaning on the basis of virgin material but of finding a means of insertion into the innumerable flows of production. "Things and thoughts," Gilles Deleuze writes, "advance or grow out from the middle, and that's where you have to get to work, that's where everything unfolds."01 The artistic question is no longer: "what can we make that is new?" but "how can we make do with what we have?" In other words, how can we produce singularity and meaning from this chaotic mass of objects, names, and references that constitutes our daily life? (p8) BINGBINGBING 

The activities of DJs, Web surfers, and postproduction artists imply a similar configuration of knowledge, which is characterized by the invention of paths through culture.  Finding a way through, finding bearings, the endless trace through culture...

By using television, books, or records, the user of culture deploys a rhetoric of practices and "ruses" that has to do with enunciation and therefore with language whose figures and codes may be catalogued.

Commerce is above all a form of human relations, indeed, a pretext destined to produce a relationsship. Any transaction may be defined as "a successful encounter of histories,  affinities, wishes, constraints, habits, threats, skins, tensions."(p15) << Reminds me of the andy warhol quote, “ Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”

Art tends to give shape and weight to the most invisible processes. When entire sections of our existence spiral into abstraction as a result of economic globalization, when the basic functions of our daily lives are slowly transformed into products of consumption (including human relations, which are becoming a full-fledged industrial concern), it seems highly logical that artists might seek to rematerialize these functions and processes, to give shape to what is disappearing before our eyes. Not as objects, which would be to fall into the trap of reification, but as mediums of experience: by striving to shatter the logic of the spectacle, art restores the world to us as an experience to be lived.

ARTISTIC DETOURNEMENT (DIVERSION) - DJing

A pollitcal application of duchampian readymade (using a rembrandt as an ironing board or erasing a De Kooning drawing) 

The DJ’s work consists both of proposing a personal orbit through a musical universe (a playlist) and in paying attention to their sequence as well as the construction of atmosphere.  One can recognize a DJ's style in the ability to inhabit an open network (the history of sound) and in the logic that organizes the links between the samples he or she plays. Deejaying implies a culture of the use of forms, which connects rap, techno, and all their subsequent by-products.

The curatorial process is an artistic one we know that already! But it can be tighter, more specific, weilded masterfully. 

"Sometimes," Godard writes, "the class struggle is the struggle of one image against another image and one sound against another sound."

We must stop interpreting the world, stop playing walk-on parts in a script written by power. We must become its actors or co-writers. The same goes for works of art except now, the ‘power’ has given us the tools of creation such that we socially govern one another. The best marketing is user generated. pollitical agendas are spread through memesis. This is not the liberating scenario Bourriaud thought it would be in the early 2000′s

we are not saturated with images, but subjected to the lack of certain images, which must be produced to fill in the blanks of the official image of the community.

We are then very close to the "equivalence of everything, the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the insignificant and the distinctive"

to signify that everything was equal because everything could be consumed

Roland Barthes, asserts that culture is an infinite palimpsest. Considering each book to consist of "multiple writings, proceeding from several cultures and entering into dialogue, into parody, into protest," Barthes accords the writer the status of scriptor, an intertextual operator: the only place where this multiplicity of sources converges is in the brain of the reader-postproducer.

Boycotts, detournement, and piracy belong to this culture of activity. When Allen Ruppersberg recopied Oscar Wilde's The Portrait of Dorian Gray on canvas (1974), he took a literary text and considered himself responsible for it: he rewrote it.

No public image should benefit from impunity, for whatever reason: a logo belongs to public space, since it exists in the streets and appears on the objects we use, A legal battle is underway that places artists at the forefront: no sign must remain inert, no image must remain untouchable. Art represents a counterpower. Not that the task of artists consists in denouncing, mobilizing, or protesting: all art is engaged, whatever its nature and its goals. Today there is a quarrel over representation that sets art and the official image of reality against each other; it is propagated by advertising discourse, relayed by the media, organized by an ultralight ideology of consumption and social competition. In our daily lives, we come across fictions, representations, and forms that sustain this collective imaginary whose contents are dictated by power. BOOM

[gibelwho]

Reflections on Authenticity: A Star is Born

Remaking a film that has been done three times before sets up a baseline challenge for a film’s success. Throw in a major actor’s directorial debut, casting a novice actor to portray the star, and you’ve got a film that is destined to either exceed its potential or completely fall apart. Thankfully, A Star is Born (2018), directed, co-written, and starring Bradley Cooper, alongside a headlining debut of Lady Gaga, delivers on many fronts - artistically, musically, and perhaps more importantly - authentically. 

Singer-songwriter Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) is a world famous, hard drinkin’ country artist who is just past his prime. After a concert, he meets Ally (Lady Gaga), who is performing at a drag bar; he is instantly smitten and convinces her to spend the night talking, where he discovers that she is a talented singer-songwriter herself. The next day, he flies her out to his show, where they perform the song she shared with him the night before. This performance kicks off her singing career, as well as their fiery relationship. As Ally’s star begins to rise, Jack’s descent into alcoholism becomes more apparent; despite their shifting paths, they decide to get married. However, their troubles only intensify, culminating in a drunken and embarrassing event at an awards show that lands Jackson in rehab. He successfully goes through the program and is welcomed back by Ally, but he ultimately recognizes that his addiction will only hold her career back, so he makes a choice to end his life. Ally, devastated, performs a tribute song to her man; his star has fizzled out as hers continues to shine brightly, although a bit diminished from heartbreak. 

Bradley Cooper set himself up for a double challenge in this film - directing himself in a lead role in his first directorial debut - and he rises to the occasion. His character spends the majority of the film on a spectrum of haze from being drunk or high and Cooper is able to capture this altered state, even showing the difference in his eyes; however, the heartbreak of the film wouldn’t work without his winning over the audience with his genuine heart. The performance is truly amazing, not only considering his significant amount of screen time, but also the majority of those in difficult and vulnerable scenes; he has set the stage for his future directorial career, even more notable if he can pull off this duo role additional times.

There are also stellar turns from other players, from Dave Chapelle to Sam Elliot, both who contribute to the film’s tone of being grounded in reality. More credit must be given to Cooper, who co-wrote the script and knew the story inside and out, but also has emerged as an actor’s director, understanding the language necessary to speak directly to his fellows. A highlight is the authentic interplay between Elliot and Cooper, who felt like true brothers with weighted history. Even after their falling out, when they see each other again at a loud venue, the way that Elliot’s character is conscious of Jackson’s hearing difficulties is such a small detail, but one that demonstrates the residual care and deep understanding of these siblings. Also, their final scene, where Elliot drives away after an emotional Jackson tells him a truth that was hard to say and yet means everything, the look on his face as he drives back in reverse...well, that is some good acting while operating heavy machinery.

And finally, the star of the show, Lady Gaga, a worldwide mega-star herself who must capture the journey of a nobody, rising star, and transformed diva, all in her first starring acting role. A herculean effort, but one that she pulls off with humor, strength, and vulnerability. The audience will surely be aware of her queen of pop status when entering into the theater - talented singer-songwriter with outlandish costumes (that include a meat dress), and songs with hooks that get stuck in your head for days. Lady Gaga herself has crafted her career on constructing her image and brand, clothing and making up her body with extravagant concepts and creating pop hits with a clearly studio produced sound; at the same time, she is an accomplished piano player, sings with skillful technique, and has collaborated on jazz albums with Tony Bennett - so her musical bonafides are also legit. This interplay between constructed image and underlying authenticity is at the heart of this iteration of A Star is Born, and Lady Gaga was perfectly cast, as her star persona and career is already a mixture of these two concepts.

The first time we glimpse Lady Gaga as Ally, she is performing at a drag bar, where she is dolled up on stage, performing La Vi En Rose. She catches Jackson’s attention, who is intrigued enough to visit backstage and, in an intimate moment, assists in taking off her fake eyebrows. She emerges from the dressing room as a subversion of her current star persona - she appears with no makeup, regular hair, and street clothing. Once Jackson pulls her onstage and ignites her career, Ally has transformed into the Gaga we know, with outlandish clothing and dyed hair, pop beats that overwhelm perceived musicality, and appearances on popular talk shows. Once tragedy has unfolded, we are presented with a new sophisticated Ally, singing a torch song in an elegant dress and with an orchestra, the focus of the music on her powerful voice.

These various iterations of Ally set the stage for the exploration of the theme of authenticity - what defines it, who controls it, and what is allowed within image, music, career, and love. What can be considered real? The film’s narrative posits the belief that acoustic rock is natural and that the world of pop, with its outrageous outfits, designed makeup, and vapid lyrics, are a construct and therefore not as real. Jackson clearly resents that Ally chooses that path in her career - they have the same conversation three times in the film - on the rooftop in full view of her billboard, an epic fight in the bathroom, and finally her visit to him in rehab - and each time he asserts his disappointment in her choices; only in the final conversation does she see that he won’t back down from this belief. While she defends her career and brand, she does show some early reticence about adding dancers to her act, stating “I don’t want to lose the part of myself that is talented,” implying that adding elements that contribute to spectacle takes her further from the authentic music.

And so, the question is posed - is she asserting her own personality in the pop star version of Ally? Is it an act that she is even conscious of making? When Ally is first presented on-screen, she is completely made up at the drag queen bar and Jackson’s first act is to remove her stage makeup - and they never really break out of this pattern until the end of the film. Does his death shock her out of a constructed inauthentic state - so much that in tribute to their love, she asserts a new star persona - abandoning the roles of the rock sidekick or designed pop star - and evolving into a refined singer in a beautiful dress, backed by an orchestra, and singing a torch song to the man she loved. The film seems to pass judgement on the type of career that Lady Gaga herself personifies and yet, must acknowledge that any presentation on stage is a constructed image, just as the composition of the film itself is a construction as well. Striving for authenticity is a noble task in all works of art, but what defines something as authentic? When asked in an interview for the film about whether it was scary to show her face on-screen with no makeup, Lady Gaga responded that was a representation of Ally and that she herself, as Lady Gaga, felt more authentically herself when dressed up in makeup and hair done. In the end, authenticity is a representation of one’s true nature or belief - who am I (or Jackson Maine) to question someone’s true definition of themselves - whether sans makeup or outrageously painted, expressing studio produced pop music or live acoustic ballads.

Speaking of music, the soundtrack for this film is delightful, not surprising given the talent of Lady Gaga writing the songs, but Cooper contributes to his long list of accomplishments for this film by adding his guitar, voice, and musicality to the songs. Music is integral to the dna of this film, which takes time to feature the multitude of songs, not just in clips or sequences, but sometimes highlighting an entire set piece. To justify spending that much film time, the songs must carry weight in the storytelling. For example, a song lyric that Jackson croons - “maybe it’s time to let the old ways die” - captures the story arc of Cooper’s character in a single melodic expression; he is the old, Ally is the new, and the song is almost a predictive, mournful lament to his future. The variety of the soundtrack is also notable, tracking the various stages of Ally’s persona and career - demonstrating the talent of Gaga’s ability to craft songs that serve story and character, but also that can be listened to and enjoyed on their own merits. 

Another aspect of the film that shows a thoughtfulness of direction was the use of light, adding a layer of commentary on character to the scenes. For example, the beginning of the film shows Jackson performing a concert while high and the bright, blurry lights and constant camera movement captures that feeling and invites the audience to (almost) share that experience. After he returns from rehab and enters his dark house, a sign that reads La Vi En Rose turns on and floods his empty house with red light and a burst of Ally’s energy and spirit, a touch that reminds the character and the viewer of the beginning of this couple’s journey. Additionally, when he is settling into the house, sober and playing with the dog as Ally watches from afar - this is literally the most pure that he’s been and the light shows that quality; it is warm and golden and shines bright, almost taking over the entire frame with its radiance, but only for a moment, which parallels his character’s trajectory. Pure in that moment, but winking out soon, for when the camera returns to the house later, flooded with the police’s flashing red and blue lights, interplaying hauntingly with the red sign in the house, the audience knows that this light means death.

The bookends of the film show the crossing of the two people’s careers, life, and energy. At the beginning of the film, Jackson invites Ally to attend one of his concerts, and he sends her a car to pick her up; here, he has the power in the relationship, but by the end, she is the one with the concert, she offers to send a car, she has the complete power in the dynamic. The narrative is truly one of his star falling and hers rising.  

The final conclusion to Jackson’s fall from stardom is a heartbreaking one, pushed by a music executive that is selfishly concerned with his pop star’s career rather than a human being’s fragility. Tragically, rock stars too often live the story that is dramatized by Jackson’s character - extremely talented, leaning into the rockstar lifestyle, only to flame out from drugs. For Jackson, addiction is a powerful disease and the chances of relapse could be high; he is vulnerable and listens to a voice that expresses all his fears out loud, internalizes that message, and then makes his decision. At the same time, it is infuriating that this person (who has dragged down multiple people he loves), who put in some work and had been making amends with those people, to be so completely in a vulnerable place and to be thrown down by a ruthless stranger was heartbreaking to watch. Because you want to root for people. But old habits die hard. And he really did love her and want the best for her and so decided to take his potential destructive behavior out of the equation so she could go on to better heights than he could ever have achieved.

This film may be the fourth remake and may be telling a familiar story about artists rising and falling, but ultimately, it is about the journey of that story, the music that is created, the moments that are captured, and the chemistry of the players. A Star is Born, 2018 edition, captures the essence of these characters, highlights the stellar music, and delivers a heartbreaking ending that leaves viewers thinking about the question of authenticity in art, love, and oneself.

[arilkang]

Ronda Rousey [ENG]

Here we are. Some time ago, I asked what were your thoughts or opinions about Ronda Rousey and you answered several times. Before we talk about her, though, let's take a little recap: Ronda Rousey is "an American professional wrestler, actress, author, mixed martial artist and judoka. She is currently signed to WWE, performing on the Raw brand, where she is the current Raw Women's Champion in her first reign. " (via Wikipedia) and "Rousey has been credited for breaking down several hurdles regarding female mixed martial arts sports, as well as challenging barriers. She has been regarded as a symbol of female empowerment, and has been praised for she became one of the highest pay-per-view draws in the world Rousey was described by Fox Sports as "one of the defining athletes of the 21st century." (via Wikipedia). She joined WWE in 2017/18, so it's been more than a year that she has been in the business of World Wrestling Entertainment: in this very short space of time she did a lot, winning the Raw Women's Championship against Alexa Bliss at SummerSlam. This has attracted criticism, even on my part, since there was actually no real construction of Ronda: she was based solely on her charisma outside the WWE. Ronda Rousey could be called a non-character: she doesn’t have a gimmick, she doesn’t actually have a construction but she’s based almost exclusively on the charisma that she has built over the years in the world of MMA, and in part inspired by the gimmick (but very partly) by Rowdy Roddy Piper. The situation has become increasingly controversial with the feud against Becky Lynch, the subsequent inclusion of Charlotte Flair in the match, the Royal Rumble, the heel turn. And we will talk about this today. Almost all of those who answered me have generally defined her "overrated", "disrespectful" and even "dangerous". Let's start with an interesting answer from @theonelazywolf. "I'm saying this with out any fear Ronda needs to go She has been given everything in the wwe with out having to work for it She keeps saying SHE put the women in the main event of WM she didnt She can't talk on the mic she cant talk over booing crowds There is more but im falling asleep" Another interesting answer was this  "I don’t hate ronda at all , I actually appreciate everything she did outside of WWE. but that is my problem , everything she did OUTSIDE of WWE .in wwe she is a rookie but she is not being treated as a rookie , for some reason wwe treat her like a returning legend or something, she can barely cut a promo and she can’t call a match in the ring and doesn’t know how to deal with the crowd or what to do if shit went south or off script , yet for some reason she is main eventing Wrestlemania. Also the whole shoot promo she did , was one of the biggest slaps on the face ever. Not because she said it , but because that was actually wwe’s way of getting heat on her. Basically what I’m saying is that wwe is bringing these ufc fighters who have credibility with non wrestling fans and instead of using that credibility to get more fans , they make them come , beat the shit out of everyone, tell the world that wrestling is fake and that these people aren’t real athletes , then they take millions and leave. The ronda Rousey situation is making an embarrassment out of the wrestling world. Wwe don’t show any respect for there wrestlers and wonder why the rest of the world doesn’t respect them. While I’m at it, it’s Wrestlemania 35, it’s 2019, and people like Batista, HHH , shane mcmahon have matches , yet the SD women’s champ don’t yet , the raw tag champs don’t yet , two members of the shield don’t yet , and more and more and more names of hard working deserving young talents don’t." from @emanmagdy1 Others argue instead that Ronda is excessively dangerous in the ring, citing cases of injuries such as that of Alexa Bliss (who had some concussions). What comes out of these answers, therefore, is not so much the fact that she is not good, because Ronda is really good, but that she has focused too much on her charisma by neglecting essential elements such as the construction of promos, the character and above all what she said against the WWE and generally against wrestling. Here an essential question arises, does WWE need Ronda Rousey? It seems so, as pointed out in the answers: she didn’t have a period of time at NXT (such as Shayna; Marina and Jessa) she was immediately included in the title picture with Nia Jax and then they used an opponent like Alexa Bliss to give credibility around her. Nothing new in fact, the same thing happened with Brock Lesnar on his return but the difference lies in the absurd speed with which it was done, as well as the different background. Moreover, the feud Rousey/Lynch/Flair didn’t help the construction of Ronda, if anything it worsened it: storyline too heavy, with extreme overbooking, up to almost ridiculous (with the totally random inclusion of Travis, Rousey’s husband) not actually allowing the viewer to fully understand the whole storyline, with consequent confusion and finally the typical turn heel of the UFC fighter that relies on the criticism that is always made to those who follow wrestling from those who are totally strangers to them, that is “wrestling is fake.". A obvious turn, in my opinion, perhaps not necessary as the two people I mentioned before point out (because this is also questioning Brock Lesnar himself, a former UFC fighter too) but maybe this turn heel would have been good outside of this storyline. Maybe it would have worked more. At this time, this feud has lost its meaning because it is based too much on the charisma of Rousey and above all on the constant need of the WWE to make people talk about themselves. And they’re succeeding. To the detriment of those who have been working there for years, those who don't have an opportunity despite fighting to get it. What then emerges from this whole situation is not so much a criticism of Ronda Rousey as a person or a wrestler, but a criticism against WWE that points in an excessively obsessive way on an idealized character of Rousey who, perhaps, never existed in WWE. A criticism that shifts to meritocracy, to emphasize that, perhaps, it would be more appropriate to focus on those who grew up within the business and let go of the UFC figters in part in order to allow them to settle well, create a character, remaining coherent with what they do and still have strong credibility (like Shayna), not just focusing on something idealized. We note therefore that the criticisms are not really on Rousey, but on how the WWE is using it and on the policy it adopts with her: giving opportunities, giving a title without construction and totally relying on the concept that "UFC fighters> WWE athletes". Perhaps the basic problem therefore is not Rousey herself but the politics of WWE. I begin to believe that what the WWE Universe really wants is not so much the media exposure, not so much an extreme storyline, but as an enhancement of those who have been there for the longest time, with a downsizing of the athletes who come from UFC.

I hope you enjoyed this presentation of mine, I thank all those who answered. If you liked it, I can continue to do this kind of thing, talking about various themes, always in double language English / Italian. At next!

[miss-maela]

Why am I drawn to them?! I found another one to rescue, but this time I realized it before I got in too deep.

14 Signs You're Dealing With A Narcissist

Dr. Margalis Fjelstad

When it comes to determining whether someone you know is a narcissist, most people make it more complicated than it needs to be. I use the duck test—that is, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck. There are no physical blood tests, MRIs, or exact determinations that can identify narcissism. Even therapists have to go on their observations of the behavior, attitudes, and reactions that a person presents to determine narcissism.

What makes it simple is the fact that we know exactly what a narcissist looks like. Below, I've listed all the symptoms and behaviors you should look for. Keep in mind that not all of these have to be present to make a determination of narcissism. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which therapists use as a guide, a person needs to exhibit only 55 percent of the identified characteristics to be considered narcissistic. The list I've made here is descriptive, so you can get a more in-depth picture of a narcissist’s common behaviors.

1. Superiority and entitlement

The world of the narcissist is all about good/bad, superior/inferior, and right/wrong. There is a definite hierarchy, with the narcissist at the top—which is the only place he feels safe. Narcissists have to be the best, the most right, and the most competent; do everything their way; own everything; and control everyone. Interestingly enough, narcissists can also get that superior feeling by being the worst; the most wrong; or the most ill, upset, or injured for a period of time. Then they feel entitled to receive soothing concern and recompense and even the right to hurt you or demand apologies to “make things even.”

2. Exaggerated need for attention and validation

Narcissists need constant attention—even following you around the house, asking you to find things, or constantly saying something to grab your attention. Validation for a narcissist counts only if it comes from others. Even then, it doesn’t count for much. A narcissist’s need for validation is like a funnel. You pour in positive, supportive words, and they just flow out the other end and are gone. No matter how much you tell narcissists you love them, admire them, or approve of them, they never feel it’s enough—because deep down they don’t believe anyone can love them. Despite all their self-absorbed, grandiose bragging, narcissists are actually very insecure and fearful of not measuring up. They constantly try to elicit praise and approval from others to shore up their fragile egos, but no matter how much they’re given, they always want more.

3. Perfectionism

Narcissists have an extremely high need for everything to be perfect. They believe they should be perfect, you should be perfect, events should happen exactly as expected, and life should play out precisely as they envision it. This is an excruciatingly impossible demand, which results in the narcissist feeling dissatisfied and miserable much of the time. The demand for perfection leads the narcissist to complain and be constantly dissatisfied.

4. Great need for control

Since narcissists are continually disappointed with the imperfect way life unfolds, they want to do as much as possible to control it and mold it to their liking. They want and demand to be in control, and their sense of entitlement makes it seem logical to them that they should be in control—of everything. Narcissists always have a story line in mind about what each “character” in their interaction should be saying and doing. When you don’t behave as expected, they become quite upset and unsettled. They don’t know what to expect next, because you’re off script. They demand that you say and do exactly what they have in mind so they can reach their desired conclusion. You are a character in their internal play, not a real person with your own thoughts and feelings.

5. Lack of responsibility—blaming and deflecting

Although narcissists want to be in control, they never want to be responsible for the results—unless, of course, everything goes exactly their way and their desired result occurs. When things don’t go according to their plan or they feel criticized or less than perfect, the narcissist places all the blame and responsibility on you. It has to be someone else’s fault. Sometimes that blame is generalized—all police, all bosses, all teachers, all Democrats, and so on. At other times the narcissist picks a particular person or rule to blame—his mother, the judge, or laws that limit what he wants to do. Most often, however, the narcissist blames the one person who is the most emotionally close, most attached, loyal, and loving in his life—you. To maintain the façade of perfection, narcissists always have to blame someone or something else. You are the safest person to blame, because you are least likely to leave or reject him.

6. Lack of boundaries

Narcissists can’t accurately see where they end and you begin. They are a lot like 2-year-olds. They believe that everything belongs to them, everyone thinks and feels the same as they do, and everyone wants the same things they do. They are shocked and highly insulted to be told no. If a narcissist wants something from you, he’ll go to great lengths to figure out how to get it through persistence, cajoling, demanding, rejecting, or pouting.

7. Lack of empathy

Narcissists have very little ability to empathize with others. They tend to be selfish and self-involved and are usually unable to understand what other people are feeling. Narcissists expect others to think and feel the same as they do and seldom give any thought to how others feel. They are also rarely apologetic, remorseful, or guilty.

But narcissists are highly attuned to perceived threats, anger, and rejection from others. At the same time, they are nearly blind to the other feelings of the people around them. They frequently misread subtle facial expressions and are typically biased toward interpreting facial expressions as negative. Unless you are acting out your emotions dramatically, the narcissist won’t accurately perceive what you’re feeling. Even saying “I’m sorry” or “I love you” when the narcissist is on edge and angry can backfire. He won’t believe you and may even misperceive your comment as an attack.

In addition, if your words and expressions aren’t congruent, the narcissist will likely respond erroneously. This is why narcissists often misinterpret sarcasm as actual agreement or joking from others as a personal attack. Their lack of ability to correctly read body language is one reason narcissists are deficiently empathetic to your feelings. They don’t see them, they don’t interpret them correctly, and overall they don’t believe you feel any differently than they do.

Narcissists also lack an understanding about the nature of feelings. They don’t understand how their feelings occur. They think their feelings are caused by someone or something outside of themselves. They don’t realize that their feelings are caused by their own biochemistry, thoughts, and interpretations. In a nutshell, narcissists always think you cause their feelings—especially the negative ones. They conclude that because you didn’t follow their plan or because you made them feel vulnerable, you are to blame.

This lack of empathy makes true relationships and emotional connection with narcissists difficult or impossible. They just don’t notice what anyone else is feeling.

8. Emotional reasoning

You’ve probably made the mistake of trying to reason and use logic with the narcissist to get him to understand the painful effect his behaviors have on you. You think that if he understands how much his behavior hurt you, he’ll change. Your explanations, however, don’t make sense to the narcissist, who only seems able to be aware of his own thoughts and feelings. Although narcissists may say they understand, they honestly don’t.

Therefore, narcissists make most of their decisions based on how they feel about something. They simply must have that red sports car, based entirely on how they feel driving it, not by whether it is a good choice to make for the family or for the budget. If they’re bored or depressed, they want to move or end the relationship or start a new business. They always look to something or someone outside themselves to solve their feelings and needs. They expect you to go along with their “solutions,” and they react with irritation and resentment if you don’t.

9. Splitting

The narcissist’s personality is split into good and bad parts, and they also split everything in their relationships into good and bad. Any negative thoughts or behaviors are blamed on you or others, whereas they take credit for everything that is positive and good. They deny their negative words and actions while continually accusing you of disapproving.

They also remember things as completely good and wonderful or as bad and horrible. They can’t seem to mix these two constructs:

Marty labeled the whole vacation ruined and the worst ever because the hotel room didn’t meet his expectations and the weather wasn’t perfect. Bob was blamed for 20 years because he wasn’t there when his wife had their first child even though he was stranded in Chicago in a snowstorm. Marie’s husband dismissed her concerns about the $30,000 cost for the new landscaping because he loved it.

Narcissists aren’t able to see, feel, or remember both the positive and the negative in a situation. They can deal with only one perspective at a time—theirs.

10. Fear

The narcissist’s entire life is motivated and energized by fear. Most narcissists’ fears are deeply buried and repressed. They’re constantly afraid of being ridiculed, rejected, or wrong. They may have fears about germs, about losing all their money, about being emotionally or physically attacked, about being seen as bad or inadequate, or about being abandoned. This makes it difficult and sometimes impossible for the narcissist to trust anyone else.

In fact, the closer your relationship becomes, the less he will trust you. Narcissists fear any true intimacy or vulnerability because they’re afraid you’ll see their imperfections and judge or reject them. No amount of reassurance seems to make a difference, because narcissists deeply hate and reject their own shameful imperfections. Narcissists never seem to develop trust in the love of others, and they continually test you with worse and worse behaviors to try to find your breaking point. Their gripping fear of being “found out” or abandoned never seems to dissipate.

11. Anxiety

Anxiety is an ongoing, vague feeling that something bad is happening or about to happen. Some narcissists show their anxiety by talking constantly about the doom that is about to happen, while some hide and repress their anxiety. But most narcissists project their anxiety onto their closest loved ones, accusing them of being negative, unsupportive, mentally ill, not putting them first, not responding to their needs, or being selfish. All this is designed to transfer anxiety to the loved one in an attempt to not feel it themselves. As you feel worse and worse, the narcissist feels better and better. In fact he feels stronger and more superior as you feel your anxiety and depression grow.

12. Shame

Narcissists don’t feel much guilt because they think they are always right, and they don’t believe their behaviors really affect anyone else. But they harbor a lot of shame. Shame is the belief that there is something deeply and permanently wrong or bad about who you are. Buried in a deeply repressed part of the narcissist are all the insecurities, fears, and rejected traits that he is constantly on guard to hide from everyone, including himself. The narcissist is acutely ashamed of all these rejected thoughts and feelings. For example, I had one narcissistic client who was into skydiving and other intense risk-taking behaviors tell me that he never felt fear. “Fear,” he said, “was evil.” He was clearly on a crusade to defeat it.

Keeping his vulnerabilities hidden is essential to the narcissist’s pretend self-esteem or false self. Ultimately, however, this makes it impossible for them to be completely real and transparent.

13. An inability to be truly vulnerable

Because of their inability to understand feelings, their lack of empathy, and constant need for self-protection, narcissists can’t truly love or connect emotionally with other people. They cannot look at the world from anyone else’s perspective. They’re essentially emotionally blind and alone. This makes them emotionally needy. When one relationship is no longer satisfying, they often overlap relationships or start a new one as soon as possible. They desperately want someone to feel their pain, to sympathize with them, and make everything just as they want it to be. But they have little ability to respond to your pain or fear or even your day-to-day need for care and sympathy.

14. An inability to communicate or work as part of a team

Thoughtful, cooperative behaviors require a real understanding of each other’s feelings. How will the other person feel? Will this action make both of us happy? How will this affect our relationship? These are questions that narcissists don’t have the capacity or the motivation to think about. Don’t expect the narcissist to understand your feelings, give in, or give up anything he wants for your benefit; it’s useless.

[restlessmuseum]

nomen amen (or “paraphernalia”: back by popular demand)

                                    (where books compete for space with pottery)

We were already halfway through interminability. Away all redundancy of deficiency from the page, the tear from the past to mend us about to rampage. This far we had not said anything good but perfection required, in tone and content, inexplicable. (1) I found the crux in the posture to device, like an impostor happens in his tender, (2) a damage done like the wrapping paper of a ducked present. (3) Under the stance of unison, the shallower I read between the lines the further I'm improved from the time of my oversight, (4) the unison becomes the sound she phews down to my very being, like but the rest I forgot about... Sorry, got it wrong. Actually, I wanted to continue this something started spreads ago, but the prose screeches and cackles around its ineliminable inexactitude. I really don't feel like resuming anymore, or should I say, I'm done boggedly running after the end of my premises. Yes something happened, something to investigate in a whole other direction. So, gonna take all, this will be the first part. I wish I could express revolutionary philosophisms, I thought I could be a poet because I'm unable to be an essayist and a novelist. I'm not good at public speaking. I entered Tumblr to be found by publishers and make money: I had a system of truths and truly nothing else to say. Besides, what did this idea of klein Lebensdarbietung mean? Is the text doing its characters or are these ones setting out their own words? Text's abolition of today, which is nothing but "the sentences already written, the sentences that people say, the sentences yet to write; verses, words, spacings, texts' dissemination, whatever you want, about the purely sign-linguistic-textual" (cit.) verbatim et literatim, and here is another example of my strugglings to go on properly. In any event it is clear that we are moved when required, except the exempts. (5) It is always the most unexpected time to undergo the aha entanglement. In constant foresight I guiltily prepare to hindsee the neglect and with confambulatory prowess I succumb to the development in this underpass of construes. How much do we match with our sounds? — asking myself. In this respect I'm afraid to surprise me onstage like the surrenedered one (and here onpage, ah foolishness, as playwright). But if I leaf compulsively through hundreds of pages, that's to find my words not belonging to me, and the others to fight (me) with. As I am nearing the open conversation, I make up my mind never to read me. Tons of notes, reproaches and scratchpads. Tons of work to do. And I have to get rid of the old adjustments once and for all. (6) Electra the yet-signed. You like the simple words, the ones you recognize already written, the crystalline syllabification that enoculates the wholeness of an order babbling sibyllinity downstream. You carry on with the work of literature: how the body absconds at the risk of space and time with them. Imperfect doubling, mirror images, and repetition in her practice. Topical scratches. Interceptors sought in everyday life — like unspeakables — that she then distorts to create the straight path in reverse. Poetry will not touch her, because poetry is just the unwritten complexity going wrong side along the process of self-becoming, a recent installation, midway between marble and corporal desires in an ascending scale of hardness. (7) Listening to the closest friends, the process of self-becoming could only linger primarily in the sight of aesthetic, then morality, then religious status quo. But friends come always as a closer, blind alley, at the end of tears: a misunderstanding at first, then never read enough. (8) It is often the case that the practice of consensually agreeing to one's own mental performance and self-image by means of meddled languages and lineages may become a genuine bondage of freedom. The restrained partner can derive any drift in the set of possibilities so that we use to say the doing is more important than the outcome. (9) The doing is in uncomfortable or painful positions, for example as a punishment: then, easily it tends to be forgotten, because unforgivable. That's why the effect is the same as a verbal collage, but 1) rips are often behind schedule or on borrowed time, "out of sync with the fade" (cit.) hearth of what seems to be the Pentecostal tongues of fire; and 2) metaphors like "the rope of telephone charades" or "the coils of something wound in the form of a revolution to come is the licking of sugar injury, met since the starting point" are not allowed. "Real me is way more concerned with" (cit.) the Transcaspian line that follows the pattern of a crosswording of the desert. (10) Rather than holding on to me tight I choose to distance myself from what I'm being forced to watch daily. Dies irae dies illa desirable. Without prejudice to this last inescapable point, the first issue represents the Derridean crux of the matter, about which I will be saying something bad in the wrongest moments, since my voice is as effective as my unsuccessful rewrites. I just want, by using the instruction books, the border of this drama, accelerated and hence trespassed in time into ridiculousness, to be experienced as the comedy it is. There is a hour of the wolf and there is a hour the wolf is afraid of. When the time is right I'd like you all to be safe to be spared in my turn from this construction beyond good and better. (11) Here you shine white with noise. "Sonorous cobweb" (cit.) made of only one thread, the unbent line of homeostasis at long last kept in crisis. (12) This narration should have had a different common thread. "And yet", imprint, "it moves" (cit.) as sensible prose. Prose of proses. The dispelled thing, spilled on Tumblr, disseminated. The seedbed: descendants, everspring off, family. The planting postdisposed. All going as planned. (13)   When I know that I don't know where to start a carving, I start a list of synonyms or unyoke a fable from a series of rereadings. What excommunication if you can't subvert the strainer? (14) Once upon a time Electra, beloved only sign of her father, has a brother. Agamemnon possesses the actuality and practicality of the dead: he wants to see water circulate water in laminar rheumatology and freshness sculptures out of tempered air. [director's note: the Argolis' scene isn't even entitled to melt!]. She eats anise candies and unwarmed foods without a problem. She is so lovely when she urinates first thing in the morning, holding the head in her hands, graeaean ownership. Yes, I'm worthy of attending to the offertory on the altar of love. So many congratulations against my behalf that the opposite seems true. (15) "A woman with long hair is not a simple point of view" (cit.). She's got a prompt night's sleep and reasonable. We cling to angelic accidents. We are clung to our soundtrack. (16) Indeed love is not "the panic subsidence onto the body" (cit.) [director's note: can we let the body become finally soaked in real pornography and never mind, here?] but sheer faith for a symbolic subject who's shattered fully loyal. Intermediate sprint of a life midpoint crossroads that lead at the same destination to flee from. (17) Because, as it goes, her staple is such a volitive confidence meaning to me the wait of the powers that created us, the coincidence of both of us makes our skewness on my side of the derangement. Averted word, when addressed. I am a bad Greek at the time of Christianity and a bad Christian on such dysfunctional divertissements. Who knows how ethically important it is today? I retain it, ending up forgetting everything else, and am lookin' very bad. (18) Of course the movement is diminished in certain directions; the style more flattened upon my chosen sickness that we now have no use for, after the setting of the starting stances; I suffer from more severe erections. An acquired kurtosis distributes my monodimensional remarks as the fourth cumulants in order of precedence. Still a lot of exercise to get. Busy like the evermentioned forgettables I'm at that stage where it's difficult for me to even do difficult things. Wrongstaged, I can't compete. I only challenge. (19) Therefore coincident like the two norths of which one is sinking liminal in the perfectly unsaid of your perfect cues. In one fell swoop you pone the part and mastery. And in the next. And the apnea for the answer back. Teeth gouged by the opposite of words in formation for a smile. The winky face par excellence. Here's the real spectator of my vocalized character. I wedge the self with a puny malapropistic idioticon to spread now that I'm a simplex person. As long as I continue to improve in (furtive, it has to be) apprenticeship I'm losing abilities. Old mistakes reappear, no inspiration from mumpsimuses. (20) Where adults flutter, she, disemvowelled and free from frills, spoken by the plural to be inscribed in the Sophoclean, in the Euripidean, in the Hofmannsthalean, in the Yourcenarian script, lost in tv shows and blatant phone calls, is, for me, abused of notations but who am I to denounce such an effusive happiness? There's nothing she can't Netflix. (21) No banana peel on the slope of her singularity — reversible up to a point, interchangeable up to a point, genderbending up to a point from the same side of view. Slotting minims in the same tone as the main characters. That the same out-of-turness is imbricated. (22)

Virtuosity was painlessly flaying the secret from the kids. This is tragedy. We all know what everyone should have said, sorrows come only after. We see each other for sure and too well. Find your trace in the deep of your prompter's heart. Dimmable glow of ancient times. Under guillotine percentages, under curtain at half-mast, under the veils in the dance of the seven veils. What am I trying to say? (23)

In the floodlights' gloom, without changing the rules of the game, exit khorós. With whom would you listen to you speaking? (24) Woods of brightness wherever, it makes me want to expect your coming deaf-handed right therever, the braindomed untrodden order of phrases where roommouths around it are opening. (25) A substratum, but rather as two shadows they finally vest themselves without amendment, and just drag on this semi-detached ward where it just doesn't feel like our theater anymore. So that there may well be the laetum and lethean occurrence of a new polarization. (26) It is no coincidence that here you're always cold and pale. What a cutie! (27) But maybe that's just too much information. Now would be the time to shut up even more. Already being in the manner for that: being at one with the template versus falling back into the patient subjectivity to agency, to make war and to make love with the weapons of the unconditional surrender. The book is that inferring the timbre of each Klagesprache. (28) Like the current situation could return to equilibrium because of an indefinite vocabulary which is still fighting us pressurers. We come across the unilaterality of it every day. Its constitution. (29) But infinity alive doesn't exist. We can approximate it in the endless rummaging and musing. (30) Approximation is worth nothing. We get sick for the words that once beguiled us. The limits of infancy don't set. And now I just -ess the world in voluntary silence nonexperienced. (31) With plex I brux my certainty and centuries. Party time abounds. (32) Clause: applause. (33)

[datasciencetrainingusa]

What are the Benefits of Data Science Training?

Data Science is the field of science that deals with large datasets to derive meaningful insights and hidden patterns using modern tools and technologies. It is a business strategy used to make better decisions and to enhance growth. The raw data can be of any format and be structured or unstructured. Complex Machine Learning algorithms are utilized to develop predictive models. It is one of the most trending and a much-talked-about topic in the tech world today. Most big enterprises have now started incorporating Data Science into their workflow and are benefitting greatly from it. Firms are looking for candidates with proper Data Science training and a firm understanding of this phenomenal technology.

The Data Science process put in simple words are:

●     Analyzing raw data by asking the right questions.

●     Applying algorithms to the data and modeling it in the desired way.

●     Presenting the data correctly for better comprehension.

●     Interpreting the data to make improved decisions.

Now, let us look at the lifecycle of a Data Science project. The five main stages are: 

1.    Understanding the business problem: The first step in a project is to understand the business problem. For this, the programmer asks questions to the business model. This is also the process to determine the project’s various requirements, such as the number of people required to run the project, technology to be applied, approximate time needed for completion, data, and the end goal.

2.    Obtaining data: Data is the primary element in any project, and without it, there is nothing to be worked on. The second stage is to get data from various sources using different strategies and methods. For this, programmers need to be familiar with technical skills such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, or MongoDB for database management of unstructured data, and Apache Hadoop, Spark or Flink, to deal with larger datasets.

3.    Preparing the datasets: After obtaining raw data, you will need to prepare it to be processed further. There are four tasks to complete this step: data cleaning, data reduction, data integration, and data transformation. The obtained data is analyzed for any conflicts, and any redundancy is eliminated. It is cleaned and filtered and standardized into a uniform pattern throughout. You may have to extract values, replace and add missing values too into the datasets. This step requires technical skills like Python and R or software such as SAS Enterprise Miner for scripting. Pandas, Hadoop, MapReduce, and Spark, can help you with data scrubbing and running the script.

4.    Exploratory data analysis: As the title of this step suggests, it means exploring the datasets to inspect and extract data characteristics that need to be handled in the project. Then, you need to visualize and represent the results through pie charts, line charts, or bar charts to gain a better understanding of what you are dealing with. Knowledge of Numpy, Matplotlib, Pandas, or Scipy in Python, and Numpy, Matplotlib, Pandas, or Scipy in R will benefit the exploratory stage.

5.    Building the model: This is one of the most crucial steps in the Data Science project. The model is built using various analytical tools and techniques and training it using the data set aside. Different techniques like association, classification, and clustering, to create the model are applied to the model. Frameworks such as Pandas, Matplotlib, NumPy, SAS Enterprise Miner, WEKA, SPCS Modeler, MATLAB are used for building models.

6.    Interpret the results: This is another critical step in a Data Science project. Interpreting the data and presenting the outcome in such a way that addresses all the business requirements and issues you started with will help manifest the best business strategies. It is imperative to present the data in a way that will appeal to the stakeholders and all the professionals involved in the organization. Basic technical skills required for this step are Matplotlib, GGPlot, Seaborn, Tableau, d3js, etc. However, you need to be proficient in soft skills like communication and presentation and possess a strong business understanding to carry out this step effortlessly.

What are the benefits of enrolling in the best Data Science training courses?

➔    Highly in demand: This is a growing field, and many companies are using it to deal with the enormous amounts of data in their functioning. Data science is thus a sector that has high possibilities of being the most demanded occupation among all of the tech domains.

➔    An abundance of open positions and lack of certified professionals: Although there are many opportunities available, there aren’t many programmers who are certified in Data Science. Therefore, getting certified in this field will help you grab top-level positions.

➔    Data Science is a versatile field: It is remarkably versatile and is popular in areas such as retail, medicine, banking, finance, construction, transportation, communications, Media, and Entertainment, education, education, Manufacturing, Natural Resources, government systems, Energy and Utilities, and the Outsourcing Industry. Certified professionals get the golden chance to work in diverse fields.

➔    Repetitive tasks are automatized: Organizations are using data to train machines and mechanize redundant and repetitive tasks. This has taken the load off the humans and streamlined various operations.

➔    Important job role: Data Scientists are considered the most essential part of any company. This is because organizations depend hugely on the expertise of these professionals to provide improved results to clients.

➔    Data Science helps build smarter products: With the help of Machine Learning, Data Scientists have helped companies build more innovative and more relevant products. Recommendation systems are an example of this.

➔    Lucrative industry: This is the most attractive factor about choosing Data Science as your profession. It is predicted to show a rapid increase in demand in the coming years. Opting this domain will enable you to work in distinguished companies like Accenture, Google, Amazon, Apple, etc.

What are the prerequisites for becoming a Data Science programmer?

➢    Machine Learning: Machine Learning or ML is the field that enables machines with the capability to learn and improve from their own experiences without being explicitly programmed. It minimizes and even eliminates human intervention as far as possible. ML is the backbone of any Data Science Project, and familiarity with complex Machine Learning algorithms is beneficial while training to become a programmer.

➢    Knowledge of mathematical models: Mathematical modeling is a part of Machine Learning and is the process that helps in identifying and matching algorithms with the problems. Modeling helps in making calculations and predictions based on historical data.

➢    Programming skills: Knowledge of some common programming languages such as Python, R is essential to succeed in a Data Science project. Python is the most popular language in this field, as it is easy to learn and can be integrated with ML.

➢    Statistics: A strong command over statistical methodologies will help you extract better insights and derive enhanced results from the data and models.

➢    Database awareness: A thorough comprehension of various databases, their working, management, and extraction is another crucial point to execute a successful project. Knowledge of SQL is a must to be able to start with any task related to this field.

Do you want to project yourself in this growing technological sector? Then, sign up for Data Science training at SynergisticIT, the best online coding Bootcamp in the Bay area today. Create a strong portfolio under the guidance of experienced tutors and experience a significant breakthrough in your career.

Also, Read This Blog: Difference between Data Science and Data Analytics

[timespakistan]

Sacred images | Art & Culture Paul Gauguin’s largest and “perhaps the finest work” titled, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897), “reads from right to left, in the oriental fashion”. Coming across this description on the French post-impressionist’s painting in the Time-Life Library publication, one speculates about the direction of viewing a work of art, as if deciphering a written page. There can be many links between images and words. In several societies, images were treated as signs to be decoded, and words were put as visuals, to be enjoyed for their aesthetic qualities – also. In Muslim cultures, for some obvious reasons, artists and audience preferred calligraphy in contrast to portraying living beings. The reluctance seems only for replicating human figures, because all other species are depicted by Muslim painters and carvers. Call it faith, tradition, custom, or a general consensus, during Ramazan, several art galleries in Pakistan are inclined to hold calligraphic exhibitions – perhaps to join the pious bandwagon. The tendency is not different from those, who stop petty crimes and forbidden practices, and start praying five times a day – only in the month of fasting. Probably for some galleries, the regular course of art is an addiction and a superfluous indulgence; therefore, across the country shows of calligraphy are organised, along with some modern and enticing twists. An exhibition, called Script, opening on Ramazan 6, is bound to generate the idea of similar, typical and usual display of sacred verses, religious quotes or devotional poetry at O Art Space Lahore. However, a viewer climbing up to the gallery space realises that Script is not about holy text, nor some divine content, not even the script. The exhibition, a project of Studio RM (being held from April 19 to May 10), corresponds to layers of language: readable, recognisable, and enjoyable. Apart from two canvases by RM Naeem, and one by Shiblee Munir, which include names of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and his family and references of Arabic text, the artists have treated script as a tool to convey different versions and possibilities of writing. Language in their hands appears not unlike the chewing gum that loses its initial form with grinding, shifting, inflating, yet retains its identity (like language) once emerges from the mouth. A number of artists have dealt with the theme of script in a private manner. Adeel uz Zafar, in his Scripture I, a handmade book of seven pages, expands the definition of script. Meticulously and laboriously drawn lines, resembling weave of a muslin fabric, resonate the act of writing – line after line. The inkjet prints also, suggest presence of a parchment, a lost language, an inaccessible hieroglyph, because the act of incising these marks seems similar to the practice of inscribing words. Words, no matter in which language they are written – are always composed in sequences; a singular line or sets of lines (paragraphs) arranged on a sheet. Taking linear aspect as a point of reference, Rehana Mangi constructs circles made of human (and horse) hair in her The Lives of Line I, and Circle. In both works, form of a circle is either repeated or stretched, but due to the material, the artist’s drawings appear to be a segment of a script – a dot. Shah Abdullah also deals with dot (which in Arabic script is more a square than a circle) in his Nuqtas. The representation of this small, insignificant element of script becomes important as Abdullah renders it in Persian ink on gold leaf surface. In his other imposing and impressive Rabbana, Abdullah paints a section of incomprehensible writing, enlarged on a huge (90×174 inches) canvas. The letters grade in varying tones so what we read is a pattern, which like the language of music communicates on a sensory level. To some extent, the work reminds us of French artist Pierre Soulages, who enlarges the mark of brush strokes, and it is up to the viewer to understand it as language, or enjoy it as an abstract image. In both cases, the physical power of the visual is unavoidable, like Shah Abdullah’s canvas that covers a wall of the O Art Space. As languages are found in every part of the world, script can be deciphered in every possible format. Jorge Luis Borges in his story The God’s Script conjures up an Aztec magician, a captive to Spanish conquistadors, who is confined to a cell surrounded by a cage with a jaguar; and seeking “a magical sentence with the power” written by God on the first day of Creation; “a formula of fourteen random words” in every form of nature, which he believes “would suffice to make me all powerful”, only to recognise that it was written on the coat of the tiger in the cage next door. To no avail, because “the mystery lettered on the tiger dies with me”. The language written on the wings of a butterfly may also possess the same mystery, magic and meaning. Muhammad Zeeshan in his Untitled produces 49 images (using the technique of laser scoring) of butterflies, as if preserved in boxes. Their wings – what else is in a butterfly – are rendered as letters of an unknown script. Not readable, yet communicating ideas of beauty, harmony and perfection. Mohammad Atif Khan in his hand-stamped prints A Book Reopened II and Love Letter II constructs pages of a book with ants and flowers, composed in such a scheme that these look like a script, whether we understand it or not. This gap between recognisability and readability is witnessed in Meher Afroz’s Kashf I and Kashf II, and in Mohammad Ali Talpur’s Raig Mahi. In these works, you are aware of the presence of language but you cannot access it (except for a few words in Afroz’s mixed media on paper). This may allude to the noise of rhetoric, impotency of vocabulary or language turning into a pattern; or just the joy of texture of language when it is spoken, and (hand) written. Because like every person’s voice and way of speaking, each individual’s handwriting turns the overpowering and ancient body of language into something personal, private and living. Talpur’s addition of a dead reptile underneath his incompressible text suggests the death of language, from the voice of a living being to the marks of alphabets on a piece of paper. A mummified version of a spoken tongue. Ayaz Jokhio in his painting indicates that state of language, which was once alive in someone’s brain, uttered through vocal cords, heard by the ears of those present, but is now preserved like a corpse. His immaculately painted book (Still-Life/The Blue Book) is shut, with a book mark in the middle, confirming that even if a script is in our hands, it is still a closed book – like a work of art that you see, examine, analyse and write about, purely as a post script. The writer is an art   critic based in Lahore https://timespakistan.com/sacred-images-art-culture/17673/

[sisterbliss007]

Translation Die Zeit interview Christoph Waltz

Hey everyone,

I have been also working (together with the support of @makamu-a-tumbling​), on the translation of Die Zeit man interview from last year. I’ve finally finished it, as it was quite a long and difficult interview to translate. I apologize for uploading it so late but hope you enjoy it! (As said it was quite difficult and if anyone finds any mistakes and/or has questions please let me know!:) I still have the original scans of the interview in German as well for those interested).

I am a “Traditionalist”

The actor Christoph Waltz and his remarkable way to happiness Actor Christoph Waltz lives in Los Angeles. We have met up with him in his chosen homeland. The timing is special as Waltz is standing right before his 60th birthday. He aims towards balance, talks about the strong and weak characters he played during his career and the decisions he made that made him a happy man.

On a spring morning, Actor Christoph Waltz is standing in the elevator of the Barclay hotel in Los Angeles, when an old man enters the lift. The Barclay isn’t used as a hotel anymore, and now serves as a sort of retirement home for Downtown LA, which also can be rented for photo and film shoots. The old man recognizes Waltz immediately and addresses him, questioning, where Waltz originally is from. "From Austria" he answers. "I was there during the War!" the man tells him. Waltz goes on, looks at the man with a skeptical look and asks:" The War was a long time ago, when were you there?"-"In the sixties!"- "In the sixties?"-Small pause-"Oh," Waltz says "do you mean Vietnam?"-"Ah yes, right, Vietnam!" the old man says.

An hour later Christoph Waltz is sitting in a restaurant close to the Barclay hotel, and can only laugh about the encounter in the elevator. The striking chin outstretched, like you would recognize from his movies. Peter Lindbergh photographed him today for DIE ZEIT magazine MANN, while both of them walked through Downtown (LA), Waltz in front (of him), (and) Lindberg with the camera behind him. At one moment, a Mexican construction worker recognizes him, and winks and shouts to him: "The Latinos love you man!" He shows his famous Christoph Waltz grin, of which you can never be sure if he really is happy or if he is hiding something; he winks back. When later a woman on the street asks him for an autograph, he signs (the autograph). When she also asks for a picture, he briefly lays his hand on her arm and tells her, smiling but firm, in perfect English: "You know what, I would prefer if we didn't take one. I've been photographed the whole day. Maybe on another occasion."- 'I understand that" the women says, at the same time perplexed and pleased, even though she didn’t get a picture, she wishes him a good day and walks on. "You see," Waltz says, when the women is out of earshot, "when you are friendly here, people understand.”

Christoph Waltz lives in Los Angeles, and loves it here. He loves going to the opera, and he has seen the whole Ring (cycle) from Wagner here, the Mannheim production. He can't really agree with the general criticism of European, mostly German actors, on the shallowness and misconstrued image (of LA). "Of course, there are more foolish people here then with us (in Europe). But there is more of everything here. Therefore, more silly people as well.”

In the restaurant he orders a cappuccino and a croissant. Even in this everyday moment he uses his speech as an instrument: "Do you want something to drink?” The waiter asks. And Waltz answers, back stretched straight, the menu like a script in his hands: "Absouuuuuutely. I'll have a cappuccino for the moment. And a croissant or something of that kind would be great." Then, you understand the luck, Quentin Tarantino must feel when he hears Waltz speaking his lines: "The way, Christoph Waltz speaks my dialogue, the ways he sings it, he is saying it like poetry."  In Tarantino's Western Django Unchained, Waltz played the German dentist and bounty hunter Dr. Shultz, and the detail that he comes from Düsseldorf, has everything to do with the fact that, according to Tarantino: "It just sounds so good, the way he speaks the word Düsseldorf."

His love for words was something that he developed very early on during his school time. "I have had six years of Latin and a nice Latin teacher, Elfriede Fiela, who was more interested in the mater itself and not being a teacher as such. That, she carried on to her students. "I find it regrettable that Latin is being labeled as a dead language, and usually…“ He makes a grant gesture, "…I get asked where they then, still speak Latin.” Again the Christoph Waltz grin. "My answer is: in your head.” He smiles.

A former classmate from Vienna, journalist Axel Meister also remembers his love for speech. "Waltz always shone with his ingenious linguistics". At his 'Feier zur Matura', the Austrian Arbitur (the party at the end of your college school years), Waltz gave the closing speech, which contained a subtle sense of deeper meaning.

"I love words" Waltz once told the London Times. Does he have favorite words? "Fiammiferi" he says without having to think about it, matches in Italian. "Or maybe even better: Uova strapazzate!" That is Italian for scrambled eggs. Waltz sneezes every syllable, while he is talking. Can he speak Italian well?  "Totally not." And again ‘The Grin’. Then he speaks better in English, as he already from the late seventies on, while he lived in New York for a while, started refining it. He is proud of that, and you can also see that during his American Late-Show appearances. "I am someone else when I am talking English" he says. "And at that, I am not a mere translator. If you ask me for a specific English word, that I use all the time, then I don't have a clue.” How does the English speaking Christoph Waltz distinguish himself from the German speaking one? "I don't analyze it, as I would be just halfway translating it. It is really pleasant that I don't have to translate. English is like an additional way of expression.” Those who have seen the (late night) show(s), the way he is telling the American public Austrian stories, and then hear him tell in LA, how well the English language suits him, understand: it is also a mask. During those regular appearances, in this chosen homeland (the USA),  Christoph Waltz can be the persona 'Christoph Waltz'; the two-time Oscar winner from the far away Europe, who holds something exotic to the American spectators, matched with a twitch of diabolic enjoyment. It is an extraordinary role. It is the role of his life, of which he has waited so long- in vain- for.

Christoph Walt was born on the 4th of October 1956 in a Viennese theater family. His grandfather (which I think should be his grandmother right?) was a famous actor at the renowned Burgtheater, his German father Johannes Waltz was stage builder, his Austrian mother Elisabeth Urbancic costume designer. At the beginning, Christoph didn't want to be an actor. "It didn't interest me. Even now it doesn’t really interest me. But when it does (interest me), then totally". He did attend the famous Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, but actually he wanted to do film, if possible in the US. As a youngster Christoph Waltz met Senta Berger, who just came back from Hollywood, and who was a friend of the family, and often visited. The glamour excited him. So, at the end of the seventies, he goes to New York, and enrolls into the Lee Strasberg institute, while he works as a waiter. Full of hope, he meets up with the legendary agent Paul Kohner, who worked with Marlene Dietrich. But, he (Paul Kohner) warns him: does he really wants to play roles in which he has to yell "Heil Hitler!" all the time? Waltz returns to Europe, goes into theater, in Switzerland and Germany, and also works for TV meanwhile becoming more and more miserable. His American dream did not come true, and in contrast, (he) experiences a German nightmare: He must play supporting parts in krimi series, just so he can act. This is how the eighties and nineties play out for him. In an episode of the krimiseries Der Alte, he shoots the commissioner; played by Siegfried Lowitz, "that was maybe culturally-wise a heroic deed" he says and laughs. Only rarely he can shine: in 1996 as Roy Black in a TV-movie about the tragic life of the shlager- singer. Waltz receives multiple awards, but the problems stays. The director Peter Keglevic, who wants him for bigger roles, is being held back by producers and directors. "On and on again he hears: no, no not Waltz, for minor quirky parts yes, but not for the main character.”

(He takes) Another piece of the croissant, and a sip of the water. "There is a certain narrow-mindedness which you cannot fight against (the literal translation would be for which no powder exist to fight it). And in some cultures, this is more the case than in others." He says:" In Germany, there is a precise distinction between E and U. E for Ernst (seriousness) and U for Unterhaltung (pleasure). E can't really be U and U definitely can't be E. It always ends in lecturing. Even in schools they understand now that only lecturing does not work, so why would you then do it in movies or on TV?" In the nineties, Waltz often sits at the Munich Shumann's bar, when he has to be there to be another rogue in a ZDF-krimi. He then tells his friends at the bar about (his) German TV (experience): "They really can't do anything with me." "In hindsight, one can recollect these miserable times (without feeling worse)", he says, "but it was mostly frustrating. They weren’t all like that, Reinhard Schwabenitzky and Peter Keglevic, those directors, did always believe in me." He doesn't name any other people.

Wailing did not help, he must work, moreover for his family. Waltz becomes a father early, when he is 24. During his time in New York, he meets his later wife Jackie, a dancer from Brooklyn. With her, he has three children, who now are adults. The family mostly lives in London, as a compromise between New York and Germany. "At that moment, I played parts just to survive, and now I find it honorable. I bit my way through something for a long time that I didn't want to bite through. That was a significant experience. It shows you that as an actor, you have to pay attention to not switch your life with the part you’re playing." "For a life,…" He says, while emphasizing the word life. "…a smaller part can be of a bigger significance than a big part." At the absolute low point of his career, when he hadn't worked for a year, his wife tries to give sincere advice: “You have so many talents; you can do something else then being an actor”. When you speak to Christoph Waltz about this advice, decades later, there is still a glimmer in his eyes, in the sense of: "How can you so wrongly asses me?" "I never thought about doing anything else. I know too much about it. To master a specific matter, you have to do it for twenty years. Hence, older actors are the most interesting. Of course it is interesting; to see a newcomer arrive, but then at least twenty years must pass before it really becomes sensational."

Christoph Walt's first marriage has now ended. A while back, he met the German costume designer Judith Holste, during shooting, with whom he has a daughter. In the beginning, he went back and forth between Berlin and the US. "But the journey was always stressy." Now, the family lives in LA.

After decades of biting trough and suffering, along comes a meeting between two men in the spring of 2008 in Berlin, both which are tattered because of different reasons. Christoph Waltz is still dragging him through German TV, while the American director Quentin Tarantino, Hollywood-prodigy in the nineties, has several problems. His last movie was a flop and for his next production Inglourious Basterds he is still desperately looking for someone to play the part of the antagonist Hans Landa. He already had hundred others read the part, Leonardo Dicaprio also wants to do it, but for Tarantino it doesn't fit. The director fluctuates between knowing that he had written one of the most interesting parts of his life, and the fear, that the part of the multilingual Hans Landa is unplayable. Then the meeting with Christoph Waltz comes, who plays the part of Landa as it he is Landa himself. Very precisely (literately translated it would mean sleepwalking-ly precise) Waltz switches between English, German, French and Italian. His former love for languages, developed during his school time in Vienna, helps him to fulfill his American dream. Shortly after the reading, Tarantino calls him, who is staying in Tuscany at that time. "Christoph, you're my man."-"If you say so, Quentin, I am."

Christoph Waltz also exceeds on set, and shines next to Hollywood stars such as Brad Pitt. Today he says that that shoot saved him. "For me it was about the confirmation that I could do it. Not in vanity, but to confirm for myself that I wasn't going mad." Mad in the sense of: "Look, German TV, German cinema, I didn't just imagine it, I can really do it”. “What would become of him without Inglourious Basterds?” "No idea." Did he ever think about it? "Luckily not." After shooting the movie with Tarantino, but before the world premiere at the Cannes film festival in 2009, Alexander Gorkow, reporter for the Süddeutschen Zeitung, meets him in a Berlin café. Opposite the reporters sits a sad, insecure man. "Who knows if I will be in the movie" Waltz tells him "Quentin is re-cutting everything." He stays in. And how. For the role of Hans Landa, Christoph Waltz wins his first Oscar in 2010. Still in Cannes, in the car to the premier, one of the producers tells him: "Enjoy it. These are the last moments of your old life".

This afternoon, in his new life in Los Angeles, Christoph Waltz notices that his cappuccino didn’t come. When the waiter re-approaches the table and asks if he can bring anything else, your reporter orders a double espresso. Waltz first orders another cappuccino, to be changed at the last moment: “A double espresso as well, please.” The waiter motionless takes this in, and murmurs a “Great.” The first cappuccino which he didn’t bring, totally forgotten. That, then still innervates Waltz. And therefore he puts, in a friendly way, this hard “fact” in front of the waiter: “So I am really happy you forgot the first cappuccino.”

Lack of courtesy, bad behavior and no sense of etiquette, puts Waltz off and he doesn’t care if he offends anyone else. In 2007, while attending the Bambi awards show (German television price show) the Jordan Queen Rania also gave away a price. When she entered the stage, Waltz is the only of 800 guests which stood up. “When a queen enters a room, I don’t have to make any decision” he says “I stand up.” He adds after a small pause: “That kind of negligence, doesn’t only hurt the Queen, but the people that stay seated. That was a painful affair for me”.

That is the old Viennese school. Vienna is and stays his ‘city’, wherever he is living at the moment. His father died when he was very young, Christoph Waltz was seven. What kind of memories does he have of his father? “We have to make a distinction between conscious and unconscious memories. For the unconscious ones I can’t really speak and for the conscious ones I don’t want to”. Here again, Waltz precisely formulates and clearly borders all the lines. “This was always important for me. Seeing all the demarcation points in my live, even as a kid.” He still remembers saying to his school mates: “That is none of your business”. Later on, as an actor, he really understood: “that it is important to make up your own mind about, and decide for yourself, what is private and public”.

To define your own life, and don’t let others define you, was something that he needed. “I wanted this from the beginning, already at school, no, actually already before going to school. I always had this questions of “Where am I?”, “Where are the others?, “How is it positioned?”, “Do I have to agree?”. He always saw himself as separated from the others. Is he a good friend? He thinks for a long time about this question, and for the first time during the conversation, there is a long pause. “I can be a good friend, but I am not automatically one. For all the stability, there also needs to be certain dynamic aspect within a friendship.” He tells about his neighbor, who was really outraged because the tree from Waltz’s property was too high. “Sometimes there are serious storms here, and then the trees move around pretty hard”. What did he tell the neighbor? “Be happy that they move. If they don’t move around, they will break down”. This is also his outlook on friendships, you need to keep on moving, and that is important. He has two best friends, maybe three, not more. Then he takes back on the tree. “I have to admit that now, I did cut the tree, as it became a bit too eerie for me as well.” How would you describe yourself to people that don’t know you? “Totally not, I am not a describer. I recently had a talk about this topic with a befriended director, that an experience is much more important than a description. ”What do you mean?” “To go to the cinema, and experience it all, even when it is not a pleasant one: That is the whole reason why I go to the cinema.” Christoph Waltz has therefore drawn the conclusion –for himself- that he does not speak about his character during the interviews for a movie. “The portrayal of a subject is more important that that subject itself” he rages. “The curator puts himself before the artist, the director puts himself in front of his writer, the painter is standing before his painting and the actor is more important than his character.” He shakes his head. Would he describe himself as conservative? “Gustav Mahler said that: “Tradition is keeping the fire burning and not worshiping the ashes”. When the tradition is genuine, then I am a ‘Traditionalist’.” The great moments in art enthrall him, he just does not want to interpret them. He raves about an essay of Susan Sontags, who has been writing against (this kind of) Interpretation, but without any success. “I am not against the intellectualizing, I am against de-sensualizing. It is all about the experience, in cinema and in theater.” Once, Christoph Waltz was a spectator at the Viennese Burgtheater and saw Otto Sander, an experience which he will never forget. “He was sitting on a cardboard prop of a rock and was telling what the play is about. It is about Oedipus. You saw him and you forgot everything around him. You forgot that the production was from Peter Stein. That Bruna Ganz played with him. That the set design was from Anseln Kiefer. You only saw and heard what he played and said. You could experience what the person goes through, and could identify with his suffering. That is how it should be.”

Christoph Waltz’s hair is longer now, then how we knew him before, and his sharp face features are now even more outspoken. Like most other famous actors, he is small, and when questioned about his height, he answers: “1m72, 1m73” (67.7-68.1 inch) as if every centimeter makes a difference. Two years ago the art forger Wolfgang Beltracchi painted Christoph Waltz for a TV documentary. At a sitting in an old ballroom in Berlin, Beltracchi complains: “You are so slim, darn!” Waltz had reacted to that by outstretching his stomach. The painter then noted different features of his face: “One eye sits higher than the other”. And: “The nose is also not simple”. Waltz reacted to that with his dry humor: “To whom are you saying this, I am having it (the nose)”. After winning the Oscar, the first German speaking one since Maximilian Schell in 1962, a lot of people, colleagues and directors, were happy for him. But here and there comments were heard, also from Til Schweiger. On one hand he congratulated him while on the other, said that this kind of luck, playing a role in such a big movie, which was exactly cut out for him, will not happen again. Unless if Waltz would get another such part.

And exactly that happened again. A couple of years later Quentin Tarantino writes the part of bad-ass dentist Dr. King Shultz in his western Django Unchained for his friend Christoph Waltz. And in 2013 he wins his second Oscar. Since then, the (Oscar) title is adherent to the name of Christoph Waltz. Wherever he shows himself, and is introduced, he is “the two time Oscar winner, Christoph Waltz”.

When he was young, the legendary theater actor Wolgang Reichmann, then already 70 years old, told him that he, in his whole life played three big parts. Waltz was startled. Only three in his whole life? Today he knows how realistic that was. Christoph Waltz emphasizes this multiple times during this day in Los Angeles, that for him, it is all about not standing still. “I can’t sit on that for the rest of my life, I want to keep on working!” He knows, that the Oscars help him with letting the lesser parts pass. There are also flops. “Of course there are bad movies. For my profession, one rule applies: as long as the movie makes enough money, then a flop will not be judged as a failure”. If it happens with three, four movies after another, then it can go quickly. Therefore, Christoph Waltz plays in blockbusters, they also pay very well, he does think that strategic. He tells, that now on set, he can better handle critique than thirty years ago. “Earlier, I would start arguing with the director, and in the end it is was all about who won. Often that was contra-productive.” Nowadays he can listen to critique, and doesn’t react to each of the comments. He learned that, that listing to critique can help. That was also the case when he worked with director Roman Polanski, while filming the Yasmina Rezas play Carnage. Waltz plays, beside Kate Winslet, a cynical lawyer, constantly on his phone, while they are discussing why their son hurt the boy of the other family. It was a showy role, equally funny and brutal.

The first day of filming, he tells, was a real catastrophe: “During the lunch break, Polanski comes to me and says: “Christoph what you’re doing is not funny”. A pretty clear statement. “I understood what Polanski was trying to say. He is a clever and experienced director. He later told me that he knows what he can say, at each moment, during each part of filming. “It was the best and most efficient director’s comment that I ever got”. What Polanski went on to tell him, he doesn’t want give away, (is this) professional secrecy? When Waltz arrives at 8 o’clock sharp, at the morning of our photo shoot, he is making a call, (and goes on to) apologize, pointing to his phone, to say “important”. When he goes back and forth in the hotel lobby while on his mobile, you automatically think about the lawyer in Carnage. About a year ago HIS James Bond came in the cinema. More specifically: THE James Bond wherein he is playing the antagonist Blofeld. Even the announcement that he would play in the new James Bond was greeted with joy under Bond fans. Who, if not Waltz, would follow in the film tradition of German speaking villains, after Gert Fröbe, Curd Jürgens and Klaus-Maria Brandauer. Financially Spectre is a success: it gains 880 million, only one James Bond movie was more successful. And still Christoph Waltz is not happy- with himself, with the result- “I can’t really pretend that I really succeeded at playing Blofeld. It had everything that it needed and all (the requisites) were checked, but it wasn’t what I aspired at”. He already noticed it when filming began, but at the time it was already too late. “An actor can only be really great, when all the possibilities are open.” He doesn’t want to say more about it but what he actually means is this: The chemistry between him and Sam Mendes wasn’t what he wanted it to be.

How does someone survive the PR-spectacle which is a James Bond movie? “I already survived worse”. And he adds: “There is a hint of excessiveness. I understand that with the premier you want to invite lots of guests. But should it really be at the Royal Albert Hall? With that you don’t really do it any good. It is still a movie, and it should stay a movie. The next premier will probably be a national holiday, and this time it was already a couple of days before one. What is so bad about a premiere cinema such as the Odeon in Leicester Square?”

His Blofeld stayed alive at the end of Spectre, would there thus be a next story with Christoph Waltz?” “That I don’t know, nobody knows. Not one word was said about that, except in the press. We don’t even know which studio will produce the next movie, if Daniel Craig will go on.” That also falls on the category of “keep on working”.

And making plans. He wants to direct, and is in the process of making a movie, even has the finances in place as well as filled all the parts with actors, but even in Hollywood an American dream can turn into a nightmare. “It is all very much like an unordered kindergarten” he says and keeps on explaining: “It is not completely dead, but at the moment it is in a condition where people only can say: “Has everyone lost their mind?!” “One of the producers, which wants to finance a big part of the movie, is blocking everything, while it is not arranged yet how big his part in the production is. After six months of work: it is still not moving on. Two actresses-from the Oscar winning category-have said yes, a first class camera man as well, everyone is ready-but at the moment nothing is moving. Then I rather not make it, film history will go on even without my directing contribution.” If you ask Christoph Waltz, who he would like to play in a movie, he answers “Muhammed Ali. I find him one of the great artists of the 20th century, a performance artist, who pays everything with cash and not on credit.” “What do mean with that?” “How he moves, he doesn’t lose his grace, his humor, all under physical treat. How he works through every defeat as an experience. When I think about him, a get a feeling of happiness. There is nothing more beautiful than his fights, even when he gets a hit.” In the eyes of Christoph Waltz, Muhammed Ali was the perfect actor, because he played like it wasn’t all a game. And because even his defeats were made part of his career.

On the 4th of October Christoph Waltz will be 60. When we mention it, he doesn’t move an inch. Will he throw a big party? He looks at his opponent like he is offended. He isn’t someone who likes to celebrate big? “Yes” He says and grins, ”That is how you can formulate it” (The sass is on here). How will he then celebrate his birthday?  “Let’s first presume that I will indeed turn 60. So, on my birthday at 1 pm I get the feeling, it would be nice to celebrate tonight. Then I start calling around and see who has the time. When they don’t have the time they are not there and when they do have the time they come. Those are still the best parties.”

He didn’t even imagine what it would be like to turn 60, when a woman around her thirties comes to the table, interrupts and says: “Hello” just to add one more thing: “You’re my favorite actor”. Then she moves away and leaves a smiling actor behind at the table. It bodes well with him, to life here in the capital city of film.

Christoph Waltz, the late movie star, is a man, who has fulfilled his dreams when he was already older, after lots of defeats and doubts. “It is a good thing that everything happened later in my career. All the success it is not only due to my own account”. He grins again: “I don’t want to life my life, believing that I have to suffer in order for my success to happen” Why not? “That is a protestant view, but I grew up catholic” Is he religious? “No, not since my youth”.

Only now and then he still remembers his old life, the former ‘survivor camp’. When the toaster in his kitchen doesn’t function anymore, he still thinks about how to fix it. His wife Judith then has to say to him, to throw the old toaster away; “Buy a new one” she says to her husband, ”You won two Oscars for heaven’s sake”.

[franklyshai]

The Evolution of Filipino Alphabet

It was found that early in the pre-colonial period, Filipinos didn’t have any writing system. They mainly relied the tradition of telling folklore and folk history.

Writing systems only arrived around the 13th Century which is called Baybayin, derived from the Indian-influenced cultures of Indonesia and Malaysia. Although this is predominantly used in Luzon and Visayas¹. 

Baybayin was the first form of communication used in my country which was used for signing documents, writing poetries, to communicate and write letters. It’s an alpha-syllabic script which means certain characters in this language stands for either a single consonant/vowel or an entire syllable.

This is what Baybayin looks like.²

Then the colonisation of Spain occurred came with the Latin alphabet which causes the decline of using Baybayin and the start of Abecedario. The Spanish missionaries taught FIlipinos the Latin alphabet, Spanish language as well as Catholicism, where a language and a form of communication is needed.

For example, in a historic book called Doctrina Christiana, – which was published in both Tagalog³ and Spanish – it outlines the basic beliefs of Christianity and included prayers in Spanish using both Baybayin and Latin Alphabet. Although she didn’t begin the book with prayers but with an instruction of the Latin alphabet with the use of syllabary and how Baybayin translates.

⁴This is the book cover of Doctrina Christiana. In the early printing stages, any printed work’s book cover always had to show the title, author, dedication, illustration, name of the city, printer, year and all the licenses and taxes which is clearly showed here.

⁵This is the instructions of Latin Alphabet translated to Baybayin. Also note the use Gothic Letters.

The Baybayin works like this:

Vowels: A, E/I, O/U

Consonants: B, C/K, D/R, G, H, L, M, N, NG, P, S, T, W and Y.

In order to construct a word they use a consonant followed by a vowel. In reference to the first picture above², you can see that these are consonants with the vowel A.

A BA KA DA E/I GA HA LA MA NA NGA PA RA SA TA O/U WA YA

In order to change the vowels, they use kudlit, a mark. Which goes like this:

But the Baybayin letters got replaced by the Spanish alphabet consisting of:

A B C CH D E F G H I J K L LL M N Ñ ÑG O P Q R RR S T U V W X Y Z

This colonisation is also the reason why many of our words even in present time is Spanish. Such as:

 SPANISH ~ TAGALOG ~ ENGLISH

Trabajo ~ Trabaho ~ Work

Baño ~ Banyo ~ Bathroom

Libro ~ Libro ~ Book

Teléfono ~ Telépono ~ Telephone

Gobierno ~ Gobyerno ~ Government

Then American colonisation began bringing their American style public education along with their English language and 26 letter alphabet. Although this didn’t affect the use of Abecedario of the Filipinos as they continued to use this, but was definitely threatened by both the English-based education and Philippine nationalism. When the Philippine Commonwealth was established in 1937, they ordered for the construction of our national language based on Tagalog and to prepare a dictionary and a grammar book.

And in 1939, Lope K. Santos developed The Grammar of the National Language (Ang Balarila ng Wikang Pambansa) consisting of rules on grammar and the nation’s alphabet called ABAKADA which was reduced to 20 letters:

A B K D E G H I L M N NG O P R S T U W Y

They used Abakada throughout 1940 to 1976 despite the questions raised about the validity of Tagalog as basis of the national language because there are also many other native Philippine languages in other provinces.

Therefore, a revision took place and 11 letters came back causing the old abecedario to also come back with:

A B C CH D E F G H I J K L LL M N NG Ñ O P Q R RR S T U V W X Y Z

But was criticised again due to the addition of more unnecessary letters.

This leads to the current 28 letter Filipino alphabet which was established following the signing of the 1987 Constitution which redefined the nation’s language.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N Ñ NG O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

REFERENCES:

¹There are 3 island groups in the Philippines called: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

²Vijandre J. (Unknown year). Baybayin Hand Writing Chart of Jacob Ira Azurin Vijandre. Retrieved from: https://www.bayaniart.com/articles/baybayin/

³Tagalog is one of the main languages used in the Philippines in present time.

⁴ ⁵Anonymous. (Unknown Year). Project Gutenberg Ebook of Doctrina Christiana. Retrieved from: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16119/16119-h/16119-h.htm

Tan N. (2014). Evolution of the FIlipino Alphabet. Retrieved from: https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/66819-evolution-filipino-alphabet

Del Valle V. (2017). Here’s A Quick and Easy Guide to Writing in Baybayin. Retrieved from: https://www.wheninmanila.com/heres-a-quick-and-easy-guide-to-writing-in-baybayin/

If you want information about the early printing in the Philippines here’s a good article: https://hiphilangsci.net/2013/07/10/early-writing-and-printing-in-the-philippines/

[realestateinturkey-blog1]

Hieroglyphics Language: The History of Ancient Egypt

Introduction

Hieroglyphics language represent the official language of Pharaonic civilization, the first civilization known to man on the banks of the Nile Valley, where the science, arts and religious beliefs of ancient Egyptian on the walls and papyrus leaves to be the main role in the transfer of Pharaonic civilization and the discovery of its secrets and events and science and arts.

The hieroglyphic meaning of the word “sacred inscription” refers to the frequent use of pharaohs in temples, tombs, statues, and paintings. The ancient Egyptian inspired the hieroglyphic language Of the common assets, where the images of animals, flowers, house, and snakes to express the meanings of itself, and the first letters are only what these things express, as it was expressed by the House of the alphabet, and remained so with the succession of the ruling families.

Such as the Hieroglyphic line, the first brick in the construction of the ancient Egyptian language, consisting of four lines other than this line, namely Coptic, Hieratic and Demotic, each of which is punished by successive times, but because of the consistency and integration of the Hieroglyphic line, It became the official language for the codification of Egyptian civilization.

The Hieroglyphic language was discovered and spread when the Rosetta stone was discovered and decoded by Champollion, a member of the French campaign that invaded Egypt. However, the first attempts to decipher the hieroglyphic language were calculated for the Greeks when some of the paintings aroused the interest of their scientists.

 About the hieroglyphic language says d. Emad Mahdi, member of the Egyptian Archaeologists Union: It is an official writing style of ancient Egypt, based on the drawings of environmental assets. The purpose of this use was to record events on the walls of temples and tombs, in order to keep the royal families from the ancient civilization. Their use over successive periods has been an ornamental art, so the hieroglyphics And the discovery of a number of paintings until the French campaign against Egypt, and the beginning of attempts to decipher Rosetta stone by one of its officers, called Champollion, which reached the meanings of many And the engraving of the house symbolizes the houses and temples, which contributed to the dissemination of the hieroglyphic language more, and to clarify the idea of being one of the lines of the ancient Egyptian language and not a stand-alone language , Add the Coptic font

“The hieroglyphs are composed of complex illustrations and alphabets, which are divided into three sections. The first is the monophonic symbols, meaning that they represent only a monogamous meaning, and are pronounced and written with only one letter. The second group is two-tone, They can be separated, while the third group is called the three-tone symbols, which are letters and inscriptions that symbolize three meanings. The hieroglyphic line contains additional signs besides these inscriptions and letters, but they are not pronounced but are used to identify the number, Others that only specify and confirm the meaning.

Origin of the Hieroglyphic

Origin of the Hieroglyphic word Out back the word hieroglyphics ( in English: Hieroglyph) to the Greek, which is divided into the word Hiro Hiero , which means sacred, and the word Glevah glyphics which means the inscription, or writings, word complete hieroglyphic means the sacred writings, or sacred inscription, Like most of the texts of old, does not The origin of the hieroglyphic characters is known, but there are several hypotheses about their origin, some believed to be a language derived from the rocky images created by the prehistoric fishing tribes that lived in the desert west of the Nile. Some of the ornaments were found on rock paintings on pottery vessels, Which belong to pre-family cultures Early in Egypt, this is particularly noticeable during the period of Naqada II 3500 – 3200 BC, where the vessels were buried in tombs, and in the tombs of the third Naqada period 3200-3000 BC. Hieroglyphics Archaeological finds indicate that Egyptian hieroglyphs and scriptures may be the earliest forms of writing. It is believed that the oldest evidence of the Egyptian hieroglyphic system is from about 3300 or 3200 BC. It was used by Egyptians during 3500 years and was more widespread during the 1700 years. Hieroglyphs Only a few Egyptians, including kings, priests; so because they were difficult to learn and time-consuming. Characteristics of Hieroglyphic Language The hieroglyphic system used in ancient Egypt contained about 700-800 basic symbols, called glyphs, where a large number of symbols in the last centuries of ancient Egyptian civilization grew because of the growing interest in writing religious texts. The Egyptians wrote these symbols in long lines of Left to right, and from top to bottom. They did not use punctuation, or spaces between symbols. Egyptian glyphs are divided into two groups: [3] Phonograms, which are graphical characters representing sounds. Ideograms, which are graphical characters representing objects or ideas.

In the course of its long history, the ancient Egyptian not only developed in terms of its grammar, but also developed the methods that were written according to the needs of the people and the requirements of their age, and simply can be compared to ancient Egyptian here in Arabic, which is written in several lines such as copying, The Egyptian also wrote four lines that evolved in successive eras, although none of them have passed on to the previous ones. These lines or written methods are (Hieroglyphic – Hieratic – Demotic – Coptic) and I will talk about them in some detail.

Hieroglyphics language font:

It is a common mistake for most people to refer to the ancient Egyptian language as “hieroglyphics”. This is a mistake since hieroglyphics is one of the ancient Egyptian lines and not a spoken language in any way. In any case, the Egyptians have referred to their language with various names such as Madhu Nathro “Which means” the words of the Gods “and” remount “which mean” the mouth of Egypt or the tongue of Egypt. ”

Egyptians used the hieroglyphic line as a basic and only platform for writing on temples and large installations such as mosques, pyramids, and cemeteries. In fact, the word “hieroglyphics” is the name used by the Greeks for this writing. It is derived from the term ἱερολλυὰικὰρράμματαHieroglyphikagrammata, It was engraved on the walls of the “holy” buildings. Therefore, the stones were the preferred material for writing with hieroglyphics. Their figurative symbols required special artistic skill to be engraved on the walls of large installations. But it was harder to draw using ink on paper so the Egyptians invented a simplified form of hieroglyphics known by the Egyptian linguists as “Hieroglyphs – Cursive Hieroglyphs” and is a manual form of hieroglyphics free of standard aesthetic standards that distinguish hieroglyphics on the giant monuments and Can

It is a technique based on the “ideograms” derived from the surrounding environment of the Egyptians. At the beginning it was a very simple method where the figurative sign represented the existence of the thing that it conceived, meaning that the symbol of the sun expresses the word sun and the symbol of the cat The word “cat” is thus expressed, but with the complexity of the language as a result of the complexity of human civilization began figurative symbols reflect the values of sound as well as its graphics significance and became symbols with the «Phonograms» signs have become indicative of a certain voice and symbols were divided into symbols that represent the sound of voice One such sign is a bird of punishment that expresses r (A), and double-sounding signs. One sign is the combination of two sounds together, such as a rabbit sign that says “wen” and “three-tone” The key to life »and she utters (Ankh).

Hieroglyphics in the ancient Egyptian period consisted of about 1000 marks. This number decreased in the classical Egyptian intermediate stage to about 700 marks. In the late Egyptian period, the number of marks increased to several thousand in the Ptolemaic and Roman times. The most important characteristic of hieroglyphic writing was that it was In contrast to contemporary writing systems in other civilizations, it was limited to the writing of the Egyptian language only, not as the writing of Mesopotamia, for example, written by Sumerian, Babylonian, Elamiyya and other languages. Perhaps the only exception is the Meroitic language KE Koch », which borrowed some of the hieroglyphs and Egyptian demotic to be two systems to write language that scientists are still suffering the difficulty in detecting ambiguity to now.

Of the characteristics of the word hieroglyphic it was composed of a symbol or several symbols represent the sum of the constituent voices of the word and add to the end of the word a symbol does not have the value of voice, called Egyptian scientists «Determinative» function to give a graphic indication of the meaning of the word, for example the word «Ra» which means both From the sun and the Sun God Ra is written by two signs, the first sign of the mouth, which carries the monolithic value of t and the second, the open palm sign, which carries the monophonic value of p. Is the custom, if the end of the word contains a dedicated icon of the sun disk if it is Me «sun» If either a custom carried the flag symbolizing the flags of the Gods above the temples, monuments or photographer of a man sitting cross-legged symbol of symbol, it means the God Ra and has also dedicated to hieratic and demotic moved, but less obvious than hieroglyphics.

The Hieroglyphic script has been used in Ancient Egypt throughout its historical periods. The last text of the text is without Hieroglyphics in Egypt until 394 AD It was placed on one of the gates of Emperor Hadrian at the temple of Isis on the island of Philah, south of Aswan. This text is a graffito, Esmet-Akhom “mentioned in the text that he occupies the position of” writer in the house of the records of Jesus “and next to the text there is a vertical drawing of the God” Mendoli “, which was sacred to the Ptolemaic Nubian Ptolemaic tribes, whose conversion to the ancient Egyptian religion continued to allow the Byzantine government Opened the temple of the island of Phila – which was the center of the worship of Mando Yassin to the side of Isis Almtokhr- era despite the decree of Emperor Theodosius issued in the small 392 m and to close the pagan temples in the territory of the empire.

[readeverymorning]

money blocks

https://www.goodbyetobroke.com/money-blocks/

What are money blocks?

The concept of money blocks is a fairly new one. There’s a lot of different language floating around out there, and it can get confusing fast.

So before we go any further, let me give you my take on it:

Money blocks: negative subconscious beliefs about money that limit you from achieving your conscious desires.

Let’s say you’re trying to save money but, for whatever reason, you can’t seem to do it.

You spend money almost as soon as you get it, and you don’t know why.

You want to stick to a budget, save more money, and get control of your finances. So what’s the problem?

There are two possibilities:

You’re just missing the tools or knowledge to improve your situation.

You have money blocks.

Money is 80% behavior, 20% knowledge. – Dave Ramsey

For some people, all they need is a bit of education on how money works and a simple system to manage it, and they’re good to go.

However, that’s not always the case.

I mean, I studied finance (financial planning, to be exact) in college, and I still dealt with money blocks.

How Money Blocks Work

Psychologists and therapists have known for a long time that our childhood experiences affect our actions and behaviors as adults.

Only in recent years, however, have they begun to realize that what we experience in our youth regarding money has an impact on how we view and behave with money as adults.

The Financial Therapy Association was established in 2008 specifically to research, educate, and provide professional training on this topic.

The idea is that we all receive messages about money as children — some good, some bad.

These can be things we hear (overt) from our family, community, social groups, etc. or messages we pick up from watching others, reading, or the media.

As a result, we form these money scripts/stories/blueprints: a combination of subconscious beliefs about money that influence our behavior as adults.

If you receive positive messages, such as:

We can use money to make the world a better place.

Money is good because it provides us with what we need.

You see your parents have calm, constructive conversations about money.

then you’re more likely to have a healthy relationship with money as an adult.

On the other hand, if you receive messages like:

Money is evil and rich people are greedy.

I wonder who she had to screw to get that job.

You see your parents fight about money all the time.

then you’re likely to integrate these messages into your subconscious, creating a faulty belief system about money.

These beliefs stay buried in your subconscious and drive your decision making until you learn to identify and move past them.

Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality.     – Earl Nightingale

How do you know if you have a money block?

No offense, but you probably do.

I have them, you have them, pretty much everyone has money blocks of some kind.

One way to tell for sure if you have money blocks is that you feel like you’re doing everything “right,” but you’re getting nowhere.

You have the knowledge and the want, but you’re not getting the results.

Another sign that you may be dealing with a faulty belief system is that you know what you shouldbe doing — again, you have the desire and the know-how — but you keep sabotaging your own success.

For me, this was the case.

I had the financial knowledge (a degree in finance). I knew that I should stay at my job, continue to pay down my debt, and build up my freelance income before leaving.

But I leapt straight off the cliff into the unknown. No plan, no idea how the heck I was going to make money.

Given my education and background, I should have been doing great. But if you have these deeply held beliefs about money and you try to do something that contradicts them, you’ll subconsciously sabotage your own success.

For example, say you have the belief that you’re “bad with money.”

Regardless of how hard you try, you’ll keep doing things and making decisions to prove your belief to be true.

This is a natural human tendency called confirmation bias.

So you avoid looking at your bank statements, overspend with credit cards, and develop other destructive money behaviors all in an effort to keep reality in line with your beliefs.

The worst part is you probably aren’t even aware you’re doing it because your subconscious is driving the train.

Focusing on the numbers when you have money blocks is like putting a fresh coat of paint on a condemned building.

Things may look nice on the outside, but there’s still a faulty foundation. In order to make a real change, you have to deal with the underlying issue.

If you’re dealing with money blocks (or negative beliefs of any kind), the first step in overcoming them is identifying what they are.

Take Action:

Get out a piece of paper (or open a blank document on your computer) and answer these questions:

What do you say about money? How about your friends and family?

What did you hear about money growing up?

How do you feel when you spend, save, etc.? (spending journal, reflection, meditation)

20 Common Money Blocks That May Be Holding You Back

Once upon a time, two financial therapists (Brad and Ted Klontz) coined the phrase “money scripts.”

Money scripts: money beliefs that are typically unconscious, developed in childhood, passed down from generation to generation within families and cultures, contextually bound, and often only partial truths.

What I refer to as money blocks are the negative, limiting beliefs within each script.

Let’s take a look at the four money scripts — avoidance, worship, status, and vigilance — and talk about some of the money blocks associated with each.

Money Avoidance

Money avoiders typically have less money and a lower net worth than non-avoiders. They tend to overspend, sacrifice their financial well-being for others, hoard, avoid looking at bank statements, and have trouble sticking to a budget.

Essentially, money avoiders believe money is bad, and they sabotage their own financial success in an unconscious effort to have as little of it as possible.

Associated Money Blocks:

I don’t deserve money.

Money is the root of all evil.

Wealthy people are corrupt.

Having a lot of money makes me a bad person.

I just want to help people. I don’t care about money.

People won’t like me if I have a lot of money.

Money can’t buy me happiness.

On the other hand, money avoiders often have a conflicting belief that having more money could solve all their problems. So they go back and forth between hating money and wanting more of it.

Money Avoider in Action:

I was a hardcore money avoider, if you hadn’t already guessed.

I grew up in a family and community where money was seen as bad. Most of my family is full-time blue-collar workers and part-time farmers. There was a strong emphasis on leading a “simple” life.

Money isn’t important; family and happiness are.

As the definition of money scripts implies, those are indeed partially true. But what I heard about money growing up led me to subconsciously believe that having a lot of it would make me a bad person.

One of the main reasons I turned down some of those early job offers was because they paid more money than my dad makes.

I remember having a conversation with him on the phone about it. When I told him my offer, he said, “I’ve been working for 25 years and that’s more than I make.”

Needless to say, knowing that I made more money than my dad (who’s an amazing man and deserves all the money in the world) would have made me feel terrible.

Taking a lower-paying job, leaving my job when I was doing well financially, and asking to be paid less money — all sabotaging behaviors that stem from some of these core beliefs.

Money Worship

Money worshippers believe that money is the key to happiness and the solution to all their problems. However, they also believe you can never have enough money and, therefore, they will never be able to afford all the things they want in life.

As a result, they tend to overspend in an attempt to buy happiness, get trapped in credit card debt, and have a lower income and net worth.

Money worshippers are more likely to hoard possessions, spend compulsively, ignore or forget about their finances, put work ahead of relationships, give to others even if they can’t afford it, and be financially dependent on others.

Associated Money Blocks:

I can never have enough money.

Money will give me meaning in life.

The more money I have, the happier I will be.

I can never be happy if I am poor.

If I had more money, things would be better.

Money Worshipper in Action:

My dear friend Chance is a classic money worshipper.

He’s always talking about how he would be so much happier if he had more money but does nothing about it. Except work.

A ton.

He’s obsessed with working and making as much money as possible.

Then he turns right around and spends every dollar he makes going out to bars and paying for everyone else’s drinks, buying designer clothes, and taking expensive trips.

He can’t hold down a relationship because he’s always focused on work. And even though he makes more money than most of our friends, he still accepts money from his parents.

Money Status

People with money status scripts believe their self-worth is determined by their net worth. They may overspend in an attempt to convince others they’re financially successful.

However, money status individuals are normally on the lower end in terms of income and net worth. They’re more likely to spend compulsively, be financially dependent on others, lie about their spending, and gamble.

Associated Money Blocks:

I am only as successful as the amount of money I make.

Others will like me if I have more money/nice things.

Money Status in Action:

Before I became a financial coach, I used help friends and family make budgets and debt payoff plans.

Alexa was one of the first friends I ever helped. She came over to my house, laid out everything I asked her to bring (bank statements, loan information, etc.), and two things became immediately clear to me:

Alexa made way less money than I thought she did (she had a brand new car and was always buying nice new clothes).

She was spending about $1,000 more than she made every month.

To me, the answer was clear: she needed to cut back on spending and learn to live within her means.

Given that much of her spending was discretionary (clothes, home decor, eating out, etc.), it was totally possible to do.

But when I gave Alexa my analysis of her situation, she didn’t budge.

She had a lot of resistance around cutting back, and I couldn’t understand why. As I asked questions and we got deeper and deeper into her money story, I realized that this was a common theme in her family.

Alexa’s parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles all placed a high value on having the best of everything. New cars, high-quality furniture, designer clothes, HGTV-worthy homes.

The problem was (from what I could tell) they couldn’t actually afford it.

Money Vigilance

Of the four money scripts defined by Brad and Ted Klontz, this is the only one related to positive financial health. However, the money vigilant are not immune to money blocks, which can lead to over vigilance and negative behaviors.

People who fall into the money vigilant category are watchful, alert, and concerned about their financial well-being. They believe it’s important to work hard for money, save, and not give or be given handouts.

They’re more likely to use cash than credit cards. As a result, money vigilant individuals typically have higher income and net worth.

They also tend to be anxious about their finances and not share their financial status with others. They’re less likely to participate in unhealthy behaviors such as gambling, compulsive spending, ignoring their finances, and becoming financially dependent on others.

The problem for the money vigilant comes when they take saving and frugality to the extreme. In this case, they may have a difficult time spending and enjoying the money they’ve saved.

Associated Money Blocks:

I can’t trust anyone with my money.

People only want me for my money.

Making money is hard./I have to work hard for my money.

I shouldn’t spend money on myself or others.

Giving to the poor encourages laziness.

If you have nothing, then you have nothing to lose.

Money Vigilance in Action:

When I think of money vigilance, the first person that comes to mind is Ebenezer Scrooge. His character is the epitome of a miser — someone who hoards wealth and spends as little money as possible.

Poor Bob Cratchit is freezing to death because Scrooge refuses to spend money heating coals for the fire.

When asked to donate to charity, he spits a “Bah! Humbug!”

Granted, I would argue that Scrooge is a blend of money worshipper and money vigilance scripts, but you get the picture!

Being attentive to your money is important. But being too attentive can lead to some negative and self-destructive behaviors.

Self-sabotage is like a game of mental tug-of-war. It’s the conscious mind versus the subconscious mind where the subconscious mind always eventually wins.     – Bo Bennett

How to Overcome Your Money Blocks

The first step in overcoming your money blocks is building awareness.

By now, you’ve probably identified at least a couple of your own limiting beliefs. That in and of itself can be hugely transformational!

The next steps are to tear down your old beliefs, choose new ones to replace them, and implement actions that reinforce your new beliefs to really help them sink in.

Tear Down Your Old Beliefs

The thing about most of our old beliefs (AKA money blocks) is that they’re not entirely false. There’s usually some truth to them. That’s what makes it so hard to let them go.

For example, let’s say you have the belief that money is bad or that money corrupts people.

There are without a doubt some bad things that have happened in the world in the name of money. And there are people with lots of money who do terrible things.

Corrupt government officials who take money from corporations. Scam artists who rob innocent people and make a fortune. Big businessmen who use their money as a weapon to obtain positions of power.

These types of situations reinforce the belief that money is bad or corrupt. So how do we tear them down?

Start with two simple steps:

Ask questions

Find contradicting evidence

Ask Questions

I’m a firm believer in questioning everything.

Your education, actions, beliefs, societal norms, all of it.

And when it comes to your beliefs, the first question is: Where does this come from and why do I believe it?

In many cases, you’ll realize that the thought isn’t even your own. It’s been passed down to you by family, society, culture, etc. Once you identify the source, you can start to detach yourself from the belief.

Next, ask yourself, Do I really believe this is true? Is it always true?

Find Contradicting Evidence

Your money blocks may be partial truths, but they’re never accurate 100% of the time. Look for real-life examples that contradict those negative beliefs.

Going back to “money is evil,” there are countless stories of the wonderful things that money can do.

Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey are two common examples of wealthy philanthropists. Each has given away millions, if not billions, of dollars of their own money to various charitable causes.

But that’s just one example of how money can do good in the world. Look for some in your own life.

Maybe money allowed you to go on a nice vacation last summer, host a family dinner, or donate to a cause you love.

The purpose behind asking questions and contradicting your beliefs is to weaken them. That way we can begin to replace them with new, constructive beliefs.

Choose Your New Beliefs

Creating your new money beliefs is sort of like choosing good money affirmations. You want them to be positive, simple, empowering, and set in the present tense.

And, most importantly, you want your new beliefs to support your conscious goals and desires.

If you want to make a lot of money but you subconsciously believe money is evil and having it would make you a bad person, then you’re never going to allow yourself to have the money you want.

Your new belief might look something like this: Money supports my happiness and is a tool that I use to do good in the world.

Whenever you feel your old belief creeping up, make the conscious decision to think, write down, and say out loud your new money belief.

Here are some other ways to sink those suckers in:

Visualization Exercises

Imagery is a powerful tool to help reaffirm your new beliefs.

Visualize what it will look like when your belief is your reality. Going off our example above — money supports your happiness, but what does that look like to you?

Imagine your ideal day. What would you eat/see/do? How and with whom would you spend your time? Where would you go? What causes would you support?

Visualize yourself going through your ideal day, from sunrise to sunset.

Bedtime Affirmations

[terabitweb]

Original Post from Trend Micro Author: Trend Micro

by Ian Mercado

Powload gained notoriety as a catalyst for other malware, a prominent example being Emotet, a banking trojan known for its modular capabilities. Powload has since remained a cybercrime staple due to its ability to combine simple infection methods with constantly evolving features — including capabilities intended for evading security technology.

By sifting through six months’ worth of data (Jan-Jun 2019) covering over 50,000 samples from the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network infrastructure, we managed to gain insight into how Powload has incorporated new techniques to increase its effectiveness, especially in its ability to hide from detection. Here’s what we’ve learned.

Powload in the wild

A typical Powload attack uses social engineering techniques to get the user to click on an email attachment — for example, disguising the email as an invoice document supposedly from a supplier. The Powload samples incidents we’ve observed often use attachments that contain a macro coded with Visual Basic for Attachments (VBA), which, when clicked, activates a hidden PowerShell process to download and execute the malware payload. Most Powload variants will often incorporate obfuscation techniques to avoid hash-based detections.

While PowerShell scripts remain the most common method for downloading and executing the malware, the methods for tricking users into clicking the attachments and for hiding traces of the malware from security software are not always the same. We observed some basic techniques that range from using macro-enabled documents as social engineering lures to using hacking tools for obfuscation.

Social engineering techniques

The use of macro-enabled documents as malicious attachments has become increasingly common among malware families, and Powload is no exception – in fact, it is by far the most common method of social engineering used in the attacks. Users who open the document will be prompted with the “Enable Content” button, which, when clicked, causes the malicious macro to be executed.

Figure 1. Example of a macro-enabled document used in Powload attacks. Clicking the “enable content” button will cause the macro to be executed.

Most of the samples we analyzed used files that are compatible with Microsoft Word 97-2003 (denoted by a document with a .doc extension). By setting up the document to disable features that are incompatible with Word 97-2003, attackers can target victims who use older versions of the software.

Figure 2. Marker showing a file saved as a version compatible with Microsoft Word 97-2003

Evasion techniques

 Use of XML-based documents to evade detection. The XML (eXtensible Markup Language) file format is interpreted as a normal document file by Microsoft Word. Some attackers are using it as a malicious attachment to evade structural Microsoft Word Document detections.

Figure 3. Word document MSO-Application that is interpreted as a normal document file

 Abuse of the Forms module to hide malicious macro strings. One interesting technique we observed during the past couple of months is the use of unreadable text/ASCII to hide macro strings which are stored in the attribute properties of the Forms module. This is done to avoid structural format detections since no malicious strings will be present in the macro code, with only indirect references to the attribute properties being shown.

Figure 4. Unreadable string stored in the Forms module

Use of password-protected macro modules. Microsoft Office applications contain a privacy protection feature for safeguarding macro source codes. The encoded password uses the variable DPB, which can be viewed by using a hex editor. However, this feature can pose as a double-edged sword when cybercriminals abuse the feature by allowing only users who have the password from accessing the source code, preventing researchers from analyzing if the document is malicious in nature.

Note: According to Microsoft’s documentation, VBA project files that don’t use a password have the following hex values for the DPB variable:“DPB=”0E0CD1ECDFF4E7F5E7F5E7”.

Possible use of hidden VBA project modules. We also found signs of the possible use of a hacking tool named EVILCLIPPY — named after the now defunct Word assistant — which contains a function that allows it to hide the modules of a VBA project. This makes it more difficult for security researchers to reverse engineer a sample. Although there is no hard evidence that EVILCLIPPY was used, many samples had hidden modules, making it likely this or another similar software was used for the attack.

Figure 5. Document with a hidden VBA project module

Keeping up with Powload’s continuous evolution

During the whole period in which we observed Powload’s activities, the techniques used were constantly changing — from minor modifications like changing the titles and styles of the malicious emails to building up a wide array of obfuscation techniques over time. Not all the techniques were used at the same time either. For example, the use of hidden VBA project modules was not present during the first months of the year but was added in the past few months — an indication that it is possibly a new strategy that was only recently implemented by the cybercriminals behind the attacks.

Figures 6 and 7. Emails samples that delivered Powload attachments. The first email has a more professional tone, while the second one is more informal.

Based on what we know and have observed about Powload, it is likely that we will see further improvements to the already constantly evolving malware. Given its role as a downloader for other malware families, we can expect it to remain prominent in the cybercrime scene.

Social engineering remains Powload’s main method of tricking users into downloading it into their machines. That’s why strategies designed to deal with the trojan necessarily includes strategies for combating social engineering as well. To help defend against threats like Powload that use email-based attacks, we recommend that users follow these best practices:

Check for errors in the email text. Organizations take great pains to make their business correspondence look as professional as possible. If an email contains many grammatical or typographical errors, it might be a sign of an email-based attack.

Consider the context of the message. It doesn’t make sense for a business that deals in financial matters to receive an invoice for construction supplies. Always verify if the message makes sense for current business dealings.

Ensure the authenticity of the sender.Check the email address of the sender to see if it matches the ones used by the organization.

Avoid clicking unfamiliar links or downloading unverified attachments.Many cybercriminals now try to make their emails as convincing as possible to trick even the most careful recipients. Therefore, exercise prudence and avoid clicking links or downloading attachments unless absolutely certain that they are legitimate.

The following Trend Micro solutions can help protect organizations by blocking malicious documents and scripts and preventing access to suspicious domains: Trend Micro Security, Smart Protection Suites, and Worry-Free Business Security.

MITRE ATT&CK Techniques

Tactic Technique ID Description Initial Access Spear-phishing Attachment T1193 Spear-phishing attack that uses malware attached to an email Execution

  PowerShell T1086 Used as the main executor for the embedded malicious code User Execution T1204 Attempts to get users to click on the malicious attachment Defense Evasion

  Hidden Window T1143 Used to execute Powload’s behavior in the background Binary Padding T1009 Used to change the file hash to avoid hash-based blacklists

  The post Powload Loads Up on Evasion Techniques appeared first on .

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Go to Source Author: Trend Micro Powload Loads Up on Evasion Techniques Original Post from Trend Micro Author: Trend Micro by Ian Mercado Powload gained notoriety as a catalyst for other malware…

[damonbation]

Let's Talk BItcoin! #390 Revisiting Lightning (Part 2)

On Todays Episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin...

Stephanie Murphy, Andreas Antonopoulos, and Adam B. Levine sit down for part two of our fresh look at the nascent but rapidly improving Lightning Network.

Excerpted Selections from Episode 390 Curated and Transcribed provided by https://twitter.com/Sesame4Bitcoins

Lightning Network Capacity

Adam B. Levine: Right now in the Lightning Network, you can only make transactions and hold value up to a certain size. Andreas, why is that?

Andreas Antonopolous: It's to discourage people from putting too much money into something that was experimental, and also trying to do payments that are too big for most routes. The limit per payment is 4 million Satoshis (0.04 Bitcoin). The channel capacity maximum is 16.7 million Satoshis. You can create a channel for 16 million Satoshis and you can transmit payments of about 1/4 its total capacity at a time in each direction. That just prevents people from trying to use Lightning today for the types of payments that are probably best kept on-chain.

Adam B. Levine: Do you see the Lightning Network being used for larger transactions like the traditional Bitcoin network?

Andreas Antonopolous: Eventually yes. Eventually there's no reason why you wouldn't have your entire hot wallet in Lightning channels, and the only funds that are not in Lightning channels are cold storage funds. I see it eventually having much bigger transactions - it can span the entire range from tiny to very big.

Lightning Network Development

Adam B. Levine: How do you determine at what rate [channel capacity] should increase and who gets to decide if that should increase?

Andreas Antonopolous: The way lightning collaboration and interoperability happens is through a series of standards called BOLT (Basics of Lightning Technology). These are constantly under negotiation. The first iteration of BOLT standards is what created today's production Lightning Network, and allows three or four different software clients to interoperate very successfully.

Stephanie Murphy: Can we draw any parallels to the way that changes happen [on the Lightning Network], and in Bitcoin [base protocol layer]?

Andreas Antonopolous: This isn't a consensus rule. The difficulty with Bitcoin [base layer] is that everyone has to agree, because if one party doesn't agree, they can no longer maintain synchronization with the network. In Lightning, the scripts are part of the consensus because you need to be able to secure the transactions - everything else is up for negotiation. If some clients don't do big payments and other clients do big payments, it's OK, they can both coexist on the network quite happily. You don't need this rigid lockstep coordination on layer 2 as you do in layer 1. It's one of the reasons why layer 2 can move much faster in terms of innovation, because you don't need everybody to agree on all of the changes.

Next week is the second semi-annual meeting of the various teams that are working on Lightning development, so that they can continue the discussion on developing the BOLT standard and creating new interoperable standards.

All of the things we are talking about: Wumbology, Eltoo, AMP, Sphinx-routing, Rendezvous-routing, etc; all of these were decided and standardized in terms of roadmap in the last semi-annual meeting of the Lightning developers. The next one is next week in Argentina. There's a lot more happening on the mailing list, and there's a lot more things in discussion that we didn't even touch on. We scratched the surface - we talked about the things that were agreed on 6 months ago, that now have names, and are proceeding towards production with specific standards. Next week in their meeting in Argentina, they're probably going to create a whole bunch of new things that we haven't even talked about. Once again this is a space that moves incredibly fast. Lightning is moving at 3 or 4 times the speed of Bitcoin's base blockchain development, because innovation can move a lot faster at higher layers. You don't need as much coordination and conservatism because you get the security from the base layer. This is really interesting. Things are really speeding up and heating up in the Lightning development space.

Dual Funded Channels

Andreas Antonopolous: Imagine that Adam and I are sitting across from a table. We have a PVC tube between us, and that PVC tube between us is our channel. Let's say this is funded entirely in peanuts. I have a bowl full of peanuts on my end. If I want to send peanuts to Adam, I can send them, but he doesn't have any on his end. I can send peanuts to him, and once he has some on his end, he can send them back to me. He can make payments in my direction once he has some peanuts on his end of the pipe. But until he does, I have all the peanuts on my end, he has nothing on his end; there's only one way they can flow, and that's from me to him.

That's what a channel normally looks like today. Channels are these two ended things and you have two balances. You have a local balance and a remote balance. Local balance is what you have on your side of the channel. Remote balance is what the other party has put on their side of the channel. Today when I set up a node, if I open channels to other people, I put funds on my end. If they open channels to me they put funds on their end. But when we start, all of those channels have zero on one side - they're only funded in one direction. Until payments start flowing through that means they're unbalanced - they can only flow through in one direction until there's a bit of balance on both sides, then they can flow in both directions.

The proposal here is to be able to set up a channel with another party, but rather than funding it only on your end, you negotiate in advance. You say, "hey, I'm willing to fund it on my end but only if, and only if you fund it on your end. Do we have a deal?" Sure okay, so I'll put a tenth of a Bitcoin on this end, and you put a tenth of a Bitcoin on that end. Now we have a channel that can flow in both directions from the very beginning.

The double funding of transactions involves us coin-joining a transaction where we spend inputs from both of our wallets in order to fund a 2-of-2 [multisig] where both of us have balance. It removes some of the risk of you blindly opening channels to other people.

Adam B. Levine: Do you think this [collaboratively signing with someone else] solution is becoming more prevalent? You're effectively using coin-join as a way to create composite transactions for a purpose that goes beyond privacy.

Andreas Antonopolous: Yes absolutely. I believe in the long term we're going to see the vast majority of transactions migrate to Lightning channels. Therefore every transaction you do on-chain, you're using the opportunity to bootstrap a channel, fund a channel, increase the funding of a channel, rebalance a channel, whatever you're doing. We're going to see a lot more complex transactions that involve multiple different steps.

Bitcoin's dumb contracts are dumb-as-rocks contracts, which is why they can deliver more security, as there is not much room to do fancy things. It's really interesting how even with a simple scripting language you can build some very sophisticated operations.

Sphinx and Rendezvous Routing

Adam B. Levine: Unlike a traditional Bitcoin transaction, I can't just send money to someone [on Lightning]. In the current state of this technology, I can't just send a payment to Andreas because Andreas doesn't have an address on the Lightning Network.

There's this idea called Sphinx send, which aims to solve that problem by removing the need for preemptively generated invoices before a payment could be made. There are also some interesting privacy implications.

Andreas Antonopolous: Lightning today predominantly uses a source-routed mechanism, whereby the sender of the payments decides how the payments will be routed to the recipient. In order to do that, [the sender] gets an invoice from the recipient, and that invoice tells the sender how much to pay and who to pay. Who to pay in Lightning Network is your node's public key. How much to pay is an amount in milli-Satoshis, and then with that information the sender can construct a route. The problem is that the recipient has to request a specific amount with an invoice.

Sphinx routing together with another technique called rendezvous routing is basically an evolution of this routing mechanism that allows the two parties to build the route together. Couple of things emerge from that - one is that you can route to an intermediary node. This called rendezvous routing. With rendezvous, the sender creates a series of encrypted blobs that gets to the rendezvous point, then they take an encrypted blob with the rest of the route from the recipient.

That allows you to hide behind a public node and have private unpublished channels with that node. Everybody who wants to route to you, they know how to get there (intermediary node), but they don't know from there (intermediary node), how it gets to you.

With Sphinx routing, you can do this trick whereby the "secret" that's part of the invoice is sent to the recipient as part of the routing, so that the recipient doesn't need to create an invoice in the first place. That way you can send an arbitrary amount to a recipient address which will look similar to a Lightning address. [The address] identifies a destination node, or even a rendezvous point, without an invoice and without having to communicate with the recipient.

Eltoo

Andreas Antonopolous: Eltoo channels are officially called Decker-Russell-Osuntokun channels. Eltoo uses a very interesting formulation which is a new type of signature called a SIG_HASH_NO_INPUT. This has not been implemented in Bitcoin. It will be implemented as part of the Segwit upgrade for Schnorr signatures and other things, which is scheduled for the end of this year to mid-2020. Once that new signature hash type is added to Bitcoin's blockchain, we can implement Eltoo channels. They're much more efficient. You don't need to keep all of the penalty transactions in revoke commitment states. You can just keep the latest, and that latest allows you to close a channel and prevent someone from cheating. It massively increases the efficiency of the system.

Channel Factories

Andreas Antonopolous: A payment channel (today) is a two-of-two multi-sig. You're locking funds into a [2/2 multi-sig], and then you're deciding how to allocate the balances by swapping transactions off-chain.

But there's no limitation that we only have to do 2/2. What if we do 5/5, and now the channel isn't like a pipe that is connecting two points, but instead it's like a pool that's in the middle of five different nodes.

The example where you would use this is where you have some very critical centralized nodes that are doing a lot of traffic with each other. These are: very large merchants, very large wallets, exchange nodes that are on the Lightning Network - they need to do a lot of volume, a lot of liquidity. But they mostly need to do that with a handful of other nodes. Lightning Network will have many parts of it that are very decentralized, but it will also have some parts that are a bit more centralized. Just like you have very large wallets on the Bitcoin blockchain that are controlled by exchanges, you're likely going to have very large nodes on the Lightning Network.

Adam B. Levine: That kind of sounds like the Lightning Network version of the Liquid side-chain project that blockstreams was working on.

Andreas Antonopolous: It is. Channel factories in the long term will obsolete the need for Liquid.

Stephanie Murphy: Does that kind of create a fractionation or a splintering of the Lightning Network into little clusters?

Andreas Antonopolous: It does. We have to keep thinking of the Lightning Network is in its essence and design an internetwork. It's a network of networks, just like the Internet is. It will have different degrees of clustering and hierarchy. Effectively channel factories are almost like a VPN - it's almost like creating an overlay network on top of the Lightning Network.

Stephanie Murphy: Will there be a way to visualize the hotspots or the different clusters within the Lightning Network?

Andreas Antonopolous: Only the public ones, and only at first. Meaning that the bigger Lightning gets, the less visibility we have into its operation. When there's only a handful of nodes and you can see the traffic flowing from the perspective of one of them, then you're seeing a pretty big percentage of the network. You're seeing the flows and you can make some educated guesses about what's happening in the rest of the network that you're not seeing. When there's five thousand nodes and you control ten of them, now you're seeing a very small percentage of what's happening - most of it is invisible to you. When there's five million nodes, then you're seeing even a smaller fraction. As lightning gets bigger, more and more of these transactions effectively disappear from view. More and more of the channels are private, not advertised public channels, more of the routing happens with rendezvous, and things like that. You have channel factories in the background that are invisible to the outside. You're going to end up with a network that becomes more and more opaque which actually improves privacy.

Lightning Stats: https://1ml.com/

Article quoted: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/2019/01/18/from-reckless-to-wumbology-lightning-networks-infrastructural-build-out/

Eclair (https://acinq.co/) ZAP (https://zap.jackmallers.com/) Blue Wallet (https://bluewallet.io/) Casa Node (https://store.casa/lightning-node/)

Tip LTB:1FZGD64BA7B9GdwDhGGGF92amt9X6VH38K

or Via the Lightning Network at tipltb.tokenly.com/

Thanks for listening to this episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin, content for today's show was provided by Andreas Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan, and Adam B. Levine.

This episode was edited by Dave/Adam and featured music by Jared Rubens.

Send questions or comments to adam@letstalkbitcoin.com

from Money 101 https://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/lets-talk-bitcoin-390-revisiting-lightning-part-2 via http://www.rssmix.com/

[danielmarkharrison]

Let's Talk BItcoin! #390 Revisiting Lightning (Part 2)

On Todays Episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin...

Stephanie Murphy, Andreas Antonopoulos, and Adam B. Levine sit down for part two of our fresh look at the nascent but rapidly improving Lightning Network.

Excerpted Selections from Episode 390 Curated and Transcribed provided by https://twitter.com/Sesame4Bitcoins

Lightning Network Capacity

Adam B. Levine: Right now in the Lightning Network, you can only make transactions and hold value up to a certain size. Andreas, why is that?

Andreas Antonopolous: It's to discourage people from putting too much money into something that was experimental, and also trying to do payments that are too big for most routes. The limit per payment is 4 million Satoshis (0.04 Bitcoin). The channel capacity maximum is 16.7 million Satoshis. You can create a channel for 16 million Satoshis and you can transmit payments of about 1/4 its total capacity at a time in each direction. That just prevents people from trying to use Lightning today for the types of payments that are probably best kept on-chain.

Adam B. Levine: Do you see the Lightning Network being used for larger transactions like the traditional Bitcoin network?

Andreas Antonopolous: Eventually yes. Eventually there's no reason why you wouldn't have your entire hot wallet in Lightning channels, and the only funds that are not in Lightning channels are cold storage funds. I see it eventually having much bigger transactions - it can span the entire range from tiny to very big.

Lightning Network Development

Adam B. Levine: How do you determine at what rate [channel capacity] should increase and who gets to decide if that should increase?

Andreas Antonopolous: The way lightning collaboration and interoperability happens is through a series of standards called BOLT (Basics of Lightning Technology). These are constantly under negotiation. The first iteration of BOLT standards is what created today's production Lightning Network, and allows three or four different software clients to interoperate very successfully.

Stephanie Murphy: Can we draw any parallels to the way that changes happen [on the Lightning Network], and in Bitcoin [base protocol layer]?

Andreas Antonopolous: This isn't a consensus rule. The difficulty with Bitcoin [base layer] is that everyone has to agree, because if one party doesn't agree, they can no longer maintain synchronization with the network. In Lightning, the scripts are part of the consensus because you need to be able to secure the transactions - everything else is up for negotiation. If some clients don't do big payments and other clients do big payments, it's OK, they can both coexist on the network quite happily. You don't need this rigid lockstep coordination on layer 2 as you do in layer 1. It's one of the reasons why layer 2 can move much faster in terms of innovation, because you don't need everybody to agree on all of the changes.

Next week is the second semi-annual meeting of the various teams that are working on Lightning development, so that they can continue the discussion on developing the BOLT standard and creating new interoperable standards.

All of the things we are talking about: Wumbology, Eltoo, AMP, Sphinx-routing, Rendezvous-routing, etc; all of these were decided and standardized in terms of roadmap in the last semi-annual meeting of the Lightning developers. The next one is next week in Argentina. There's a lot more happening on the mailing list, and there's a lot more things in discussion that we didn't even touch on. We scratched the surface - we talked about the things that were agreed on 6 months ago, that now have names, and are proceeding towards production with specific standards. Next week in their meeting in Argentina, they're probably going to create a whole bunch of new things that we haven't even talked about. Once again this is a space that moves incredibly fast. Lightning is moving at 3 or 4 times the speed of Bitcoin's base blockchain development, because innovation can move a lot faster at higher layers. You don't need as much coordination and conservatism because you get the security from the base layer. This is really interesting. Things are really speeding up and heating up in the Lightning development space.

Dual Funded Channels

Andreas Antonopolous: Imagine that Adam and I are sitting across from a table. We have a PVC tube between us, and that PVC tube between us is our channel. Let's say this is funded entirely in peanuts. I have a bowl full of peanuts on my end. If I want to send peanuts to Adam, I can send them, but he doesn't have any on his end. I can send peanuts to him, and once he has some on his end, he can send them back to me. He can make payments in my direction once he has some peanuts on his end of the pipe. But until he does, I have all the peanuts on my end, he has nothing on his end; there's only one way they can flow, and that's from me to him.

That's what a channel normally looks like today. Channels are these two ended things and you have two balances. You have a local balance and a remote balance. Local balance is what you have on your side of the channel. Remote balance is what the other party has put on their side of the channel. Today when I set up a node, if I open channels to other people, I put funds on my end. If they open channels to me they put funds on their end. But when we start, all of those channels have zero on one side - they're only funded in one direction. Until payments start flowing through that means they're unbalanced - they can only flow through in one direction until there's a bit of balance on both sides, then they can flow in both directions.

The proposal here is to be able to set up a channel with another party, but rather than funding it only on your end, you negotiate in advance. You say, "hey, I'm willing to fund it on my end but only if, and only if you fund it on your end. Do we have a deal?" Sure okay, so I'll put a tenth of a Bitcoin on this end, and you put a tenth of a Bitcoin on that end. Now we have a channel that can flow in both directions from the very beginning.

The double funding of transactions involves us coin-joining a transaction where we spend inputs from both of our wallets in order to fund a 2-of-2 [multisig] where both of us have balance. It removes some of the risk of you blindly opening channels to other people.

Adam B. Levine: Do you think this [collaboratively signing with someone else] solution is becoming more prevalent? You're effectively using coin-join as a way to create composite transactions for a purpose that goes beyond privacy.

Andreas Antonopolous: Yes absolutely. I believe in the long term we're going to see the vast majority of transactions migrate to Lightning channels. Therefore every transaction you do on-chain, you're using the opportunity to bootstrap a channel, fund a channel, increase the funding of a channel, rebalance a channel, whatever you're doing. We're going to see a lot more complex transactions that involve multiple different steps.

Bitcoin's dumb contracts are dumb-as-rocks contracts, which is why they can deliver more security, as there is not much room to do fancy things. It's really interesting how even with a simple scripting language you can build some very sophisticated operations.

Sphinx and Rendezvous Routing

Adam B. Levine: Unlike a traditional Bitcoin transaction, I can't just send money to someone [on Lightning]. In the current state of this technology, I can't just send a payment to Andreas because Andreas doesn't have an address on the Lightning Network.

There's this idea called Sphinx send, which aims to solve that problem by removing the need for preemptively generated invoices before a payment could be made. There are also some interesting privacy implications.

Andreas Antonopolous: Lightning today predominantly uses a source-routed mechanism, whereby the sender of the payments decides how the payments will be routed to the recipient. In order to do that, [the sender] gets an invoice from the recipient, and that invoice tells the sender how much to pay and who to pay. Who to pay in Lightning Network is your node's public key. How much to pay is an amount in milli-Satoshis, and then with that information the sender can construct a route. The problem is that the recipient has to request a specific amount with an invoice.

Sphinx routing together with another technique called rendezvous routing is basically an evolution of this routing mechanism that allows the two parties to build the route together. Couple of things emerge from that - one is that you can route to an intermediary node. This called rendezvous routing. With rendezvous, the sender creates a series of encrypted blobs that gets to the rendezvous point, then they take an encrypted blob with the rest of the route from the recipient.

That allows you to hide behind a public node and have private unpublished channels with that node. Everybody who wants to route to you, they know how to get there (intermediary node), but they don't know from there (intermediary node), how it gets to you.

With Sphinx routing, you can do this trick whereby the "secret" that's part of the invoice is sent to the recipient as part of the routing, so that the recipient doesn't need to create an invoice in the first place. That way you can send an arbitrary amount to a recipient address which will look similar to a Lightning address. [The address] identifies a destination node, or even a rendezvous point, without an invoice and without having to communicate with the recipient.

Eltoo

Andreas Antonopolous: Eltoo channels are officially called Decker-Russell-Osuntokun channels. Eltoo uses a very interesting formulation which is a new type of signature called a SIG_HASH_NO_INPUT. This has not been implemented in Bitcoin. It will be implemented as part of the Segwit upgrade for Schnorr signatures and other things, which is scheduled for the end of this year to mid-2020. Once that new signature hash type is added to Bitcoin's blockchain, we can implement Eltoo channels. They're much more efficient. You don't need to keep all of the penalty transactions in revoke commitment states. You can just keep the latest, and that latest allows you to close a channel and prevent someone from cheating. It massively increases the efficiency of the system.

Channel Factories

Andreas Antonopolous: A payment channel (today) is a two-of-two multi-sig. You're locking funds into a [2/2 multi-sig], and then you're deciding how to allocate the balances by swapping transactions off-chain.

But there's no limitation that we only have to do 2/2. What if we do 5/5, and now the channel isn't like a pipe that is connecting two points, but instead it's like a pool that's in the middle of five different nodes.

The example where you would use this is where you have some very critical centralized nodes that are doing a lot of traffic with each other. These are: very large merchants, very large wallets, exchange nodes that are on the Lightning Network - they need to do a lot of volume, a lot of liquidity. But they mostly need to do that with a handful of other nodes. Lightning Network will have many parts of it that are very decentralized, but it will also have some parts that are a bit more centralized. Just like you have very large wallets on the Bitcoin blockchain that are controlled by exchanges, you're likely going to have very large nodes on the Lightning Network.

Adam B. Levine: That kind of sounds like the Lightning Network version of the Liquid side-chain project that blockstreams was working on.

Andreas Antonopolous: It is. Channel factories in the long term will obsolete the need for Liquid.

Stephanie Murphy: Does that kind of create a fractionation or a splintering of the Lightning Network into little clusters?

Andreas Antonopolous: It does. We have to keep thinking of the Lightning Network is in its essence and design an internetwork. It's a network of networks, just like the Internet is. It will have different degrees of clustering and hierarchy. Effectively channel factories are almost like a VPN - it's almost like creating an overlay network on top of the Lightning Network.

Stephanie Murphy: Will there be a way to visualize the hotspots or the different clusters within the Lightning Network?

Andreas Antonopolous: Only the public ones, and only at first. Meaning that the bigger Lightning gets, the less visibility we have into its operation. When there's only a handful of nodes and you can see the traffic flowing from the perspective of one of them, then you're seeing a pretty big percentage of the network. You're seeing the flows and you can make some educated guesses about what's happening in the rest of the network that you're not seeing. When there's five thousand nodes and you control ten of them, now you're seeing a very small percentage of what's happening - most of it is invisible to you. When there's five million nodes, then you're seeing even a smaller fraction. As lightning gets bigger, more and more of these transactions effectively disappear from view. More and more of the channels are private, not advertised public channels, more of the routing happens with rendezvous, and things like that. You have channel factories in the background that are invisible to the outside. You're going to end up with a network that becomes more and more opaque which actually improves privacy.

Lightning Stats: https://1ml.com/

Article quoted: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/2019/01/18/from-reckless-to-wumbology-lightning-networks-infrastructural-build-out/

Eclair (https://acinq.co/) ZAP (https://zap.jackmallers.com/) Blue Wallet (https://bluewallet.io/) Casa Node (https://store.casa/lightning-node/)

Tip LTB:1FZGD64BA7B9GdwDhGGGF92amt9X6VH38K

or Via the Lightning Network at tipltb.tokenly.com/

Thanks for listening to this episode of Let's Talk Bitcoin, content for today's show was provided by Andreas Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan, and Adam B. Levine.

This episode was edited by Dave/Adam and featured music by Jared Rubens.

Send questions or comments to adam@letstalkbitcoin.com

from The Let's Talk Bitcoin Network https://ift.tt/2NCMQaN via IFTTT