#and those 2 are fundamental to who i am... this is such a huge psychological upheaval for me and im gonna need so much help after this

[myviewsreviews]

My fear of social media

I am going to say a lot of frightening to say and deeply self focused crud. I am afraid being on here. I think a lot of people are, in one way or another. The vast majority of social media interaction is passive, consuming the output of others. That makes sense and the world would be less bright if there weren't a huge swarm of small or even almost nonexistent accounts liking posts and being a portal to the worlds of others for people out there for every million follower juggernaut. But I think at least a chunk of the reluctance, at least for people like me, is that it's scary to be out there. To put yourself out there actively. What if you have The Wrong Opinions and regret inflicting them on a wide audience one day? What if you're just cringe to someone and they decide to hurt you?

I took a trivializing stance on cyberbullying as a kid. Mostly because it was the only form of bullying the school system seemed interested in while I was acquiring quite foreseeable and preventable PTSD at the hands of very much physical interactions. I thought it was wild that someone could have interactions that weren't mandatory in some way, like being hearded out to the people who would then hold me down physically while brutalizing my body and mind over and over, and then expect me to take seriously their being upset at how those interactions turned out. I didn't interact with my peers willingly, or the teachers, the medical professionals, my own family, any of the systems that hurt me personally out of a desire for connection. It was because you don't get a choice sometimes. So, "oh no, there's words on a screen in my home I can turn off and never interact with again" seemed close to the way my own struggles had been characterised at times (just ignore the unignorable) but with a real way out. A real way to trade something I had never known (connection and freedom) for a safety that finding was my only life goal.

Now I'm an adult, it's easy to see how that was... A colander genuinely not understanding what a broken bucket has to complain about holes. People need people, I needed people then, so deeply and darkly that it was hard to identify fully, obfuscated by the size of the obstacles between reality and ideal. Even those of us with robust real and close friendship circles are part of a wider world, want on some level to have strangers see us see them in return. It's scary to open yourself up. And not wholly irrationally, having someone hurt you hurts you (insightful, I know, but it has to be said because so many people gloss over that when it comes to others), it's stress, it's a window by which trauma can enter your life. Sometimes people's online presences, deservedly at times but oftentimes not, hurt their lives in very tangible ways as well as the stress of knowing you're hated. It's not irrational to fear being hated, it's a fundamental part of most people's psychology.

I want to add material to the internet, it would be nice, but "it's foolish to open yourself up to others" is ingrained in more of us than I suspect, bucket or colander.

2/10, almost failed a chemistry class where all results had to be posted on my uni's forum, going to try harder

[autistic-shaiapouf]

I uh. think I might get the 2nd vaccine dose today

[jasper-dracona]

It’s interesting to me the connection between:

-anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change

-ecological grief (aka climate grief or eco-grief)

-eco-anxiety

-the future amount of people in STEM

-and the happiness of those who are in STEM.

Some definitions so everyone can understand:

Anthropogenic Climate Change: Changes to the Earth’s climate and ecosystems which are caused by human activity, both directly and indirectly.

Ecological Grief: “The grief felt in relation to experienced or anticipated ecological losses, including the loss of species, ecosystems, and meaningful landscapes due to acute or chronic environmental change.”

Eco-Anxiety: Extreme worry about current and future harm to the environment caused by human activity and climate change.

Here’s the thing: You generally cannot go into the sciences right now without hearing about climate change every day. Here’s what I saw/experienced in my first year of College.

Generally in university, in General Biology 1, you learn about how changes in temperature and acidity can cause vital proteins to stop working, and the potential ecological repercussions of this are usually discussed at least somewhat. In General Biology 2 there is usually an ecology unit, which goes into how we study ecosystems, biomes, communities, etc. the different kinds of each, and broadly goes over how humans are affecting them.

In my Intro to Geology course it was talked about a bit, with discussions of where and how we get coal, oil, and gas. We also spent some days watching a particular documentary series called “Earth: The Power of the Planet” (presented by Iain Stewart) and that brought up a lot of important things about climate change.

In both my Geography courses we learned/heard about climate change pretty much every day, and that’s not a huge surprise as one of them was about meteorology and climatology, so it’s pretty fundamental to the field.

But even if you’re not taking these kinds of courses where it is brought up regularly, there are posters and flyers posted all over campuses, depending on the school you might also get notices relating to climate change in your email, there was a slide show that played on a small tv outside the Geology & Geography Department, which is right in front of the stairs to that floor, that included this image.

If you’re going to my school to study fashion, at least a couple of your classes are also on that floor, and you walk past this at least a few times a week, so even STEM students who are going into fields that are not centred around or related to biology or ecology hear about, learn about, or experience climate change issues.

And I am not saying that the amount of education or awareness being spread about climate change is a bad thing, we should not stop talking about climate change and the effects thereof; because this is a reality and if people are going to go into these kinds of fields they have to know what’s happening and what’s changing.

What I am saying however, is that this is having an effect on people’s mental health. The people who need to know this info the most, and are most likely going to have to do the most about this, are also the people being so bogged-down by the weight of it, the pain of it, the hopelessness, grief, anxiety, and fear of it, that it’s hurting them. And here’s the problem with having to get up 4-5 days a week and go to campus, get told the horrors of the world and uncertainty of our future, and then go home and continue to study, memorize, and understand the mechanisms for how the human race is destroying the planet and the conditions that made them and allowed them to thrive before making dinner, and then get up and study that all again on the weekends: it’s really really depressing.

It causes those phenomena I mentioned at the beginning, eco-grief and eco-anxiety, as well as a bunch of similar things, people being psychologically impacted by climate change. Psychologists have been observing and giving different names to these things, like the previously mentioned, as well as ecoguilt, solastalgia, biospheric concern, etc.

And let’s be real here for a moment, getting a degree in anything isn’t a smooth ride, it’s not easy and it’s rarely super fun. (Though it can have its moments) However, adding these kinds of psychological issues to the mix is going to increase the rate at which students give up on getting these degrees and try to pursue something that doesn’t make them feel the crushing weight of what feels like the “inevitable” demise of the human species all the time. So my theory is that this will decrease the number of STEM majors (primarily in ecology, geography, biology, and related subjects) who graduate and go on to work in their field.

But for those that push through and want this degree and want to do this work no matter the news they have to hear to get there, or those who just manage to withstand the mental and emotional pain cause by climate change long enough to finish a degree and/or get a job, the effects are still there. My theory is that this will make these people far “less happy” overall, just from regularly having to hear about, witness, study, report on, understand, or teach about climate change. (“Less happy” being pretty vague, I’m using it to generalize higher levels of feelings of loss or grief, anxiety, depression, emotional distress, etc.)

According to this article (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00074/full) “acute events” (meaning sudden, short, but extreme events of climate change) can cause reactions in people that “act through mechanisms similar to that of traumatic stress,” and people who actively study these events and issues are more likely to witness these events at all, will witness them more often, and will have a deeper understanding of the severity. So an event which the average person may perceive as sudden, short, but simply just sad and not very extreme; is likely to be far better understood by these professionals, who would then perceive it as far more extreme, resulting in it being an acute event, and causing that kind of psychological response.

In summary, it is emotionally and mentally painful to study the sciences during this time of anthropogenic climate change. Increased understanding on the severity of climate change events, witnessing them more frequently, and having to work with/study them regularly as part of one’s education or career, worsens the negative psychological impact these events can have on one’s mind. This makes students in the sciences more stressed and unhappy, which decreases the likelihood that those students will graduate and/or continue to pursue that subject/career. This also makes individuals who continue to pursue the subject/career less happy, and they may experience a higher frequency of symptoms that are similar to those of traumatic stress. We should not stop talking about climate change, we should not stop trying to learn about it and find ways to solve it, but if it continues to be as soul-crushing and psychologically painful to learn about, study, and witness, then the people who we need to study and solve the problem will only get fewer and farther between, which will only make it harder to fix the damage we’ve caused and prevent further damage in the future.

(Anyone here ever heard of a positive feedback loop? Sorry, bad joke, too soon.)

To finish this off I’d just like to say that if you know a climatologist, ecologist, biologist, botanist, meteorologist, etc.:

A) give them a cookie and a hug (as long as they’re comfortable, they deserve it)

B) please don’t ask them to recount the climate change events they’ve witnessed or study regularly, especially not in casual conversation, unless they express interest in sharing. Don’t just bring it up at the family reunion and smiling and staring at them while you wait for them to talk, as they panic internally, trying to think of a way to make this not fill every listener with dread.

C) if you do want to ask them about anything about climate change, ask if they know a way you can help. Volunteering groups, projects, petitions, good papers and articles to share online, simple everyday practices they could tell you about or advise you on how to do right, like using reusable shopping bags and bringing a cutlery kit and a travel cup wherever you go, these are all things that they might know more about or be more aware of than you, and they’re all good things! This will also help to uplift that person, seeing that what they do is encouraging at least individual people to make good choices and good change. Because fighting with companies, politicians, and fighting for grants to get enough money for research and even just general operation, is so annoying and disheartening a lot of the time, and deals with a lot of frustrating bureaucratic processes. So not only are you helping the environment, you’re giving that person hope, hope that maybe this fight isn’t all negotiating with greedy CEOs and uncaring politicians like you’re talking to a brick wall. No, this fight can also be people just choosing to do the right thing.

Sorry for such a long post, just got my mind ticking as I was doing some reading-up on current events, and something in there opened the floodgates in my brain, cause I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I just couldn’t get my thoughts on it quite right before though, and today something just clicked.

[thedreadvampy]

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about disability and neurodivergence over the past couple of years (I’ve actually just now accepted a contract to freelance write a section of policy on disability and ableism for my old workplace. I have done this because I hate myself and starting a new job with 1.5x the hours as my old one JUST WASN’T ENOUGH STRESS)

and I have decided I REALLY take issue with the concept of "disabled”. like. at all. I think the construction of “disabled people” is at the root of SWATHES of what’s wrong with our society and how we treat people with specific access or wellbeing needs.

like I think it’s basically fact at this point to take a postmodern approach and accept the common framing of “people are as disabled as society makes them” ie disability is a social construct and who is disabled is purely a matter of who society isn’t willing to work around as default (the usual example is short-sightedness, which historically was a substantial disability but is barely noticeable in a society where using adaptive tech for it is normalised)

but I wanna push it further because either EVERYONE is disabled or NOBODY is disabled imo. “disabled” is a broad enough category to be fundamentally meaningless. it’s a useful umbrella term for like...people whose physical and psychological needs and personhood are often diminished, overlooked or ignored, but it’s also very arbitrary and contextual what qualifies as a disability.

which is kind of what I’m saying about person-centred parenting (which. pinch of salt I am not a parent). EVERYBODY has special needs because everybody’s needs are different. And my experience has been that positing Capital-D Disabled as a specific, blue-badge-holding, Very Serious category, and limiting your concerns about access and wellbeing needs to disabled people is: 

a) unhelpful to people who aren’t disabled per se but who benefit from specific accomodations (for a very trivial example, “having shit internet” isn’t a disability, but it’s still an access need that things like video transcripts, image descriptions and alternate communication routes will help meet) b) unhelpful to people who are “disabled-ish,” who don’t feel able to clearly identify as disabled, or who don’t know they’re disabled (which to be honest is so many of us because invisible disabilities, partial sensory or motor loss, and mental health problems make up the bulk of disabilities and those are often invisibilised or downplayed) c) unhelpful to “properly disabled” people, because it creates a huge othering effect. drawing a hard line between “normal” and “disabled,” or even imagining that that’s a line that exists, allows disabled people to be dehumanised or treated as the sum of their Tragic Suffering, as opposed to the Normal Abled People.

“Disabled” is, as I say, a useful generalisation/abstraction sometimes, but when we’re talking about actual material things (whether that’s material need or material change) it’s not a useful category. I honestly don’t think we can create a society which consistently confronts ableism while we’re trying to operate in a binary framework centred on “disabled” vs “not disabled” or “neurotypical” vs “neurodiverse”. We need to be willing to throw out the whole construction of “abled” and instead commit to handling needs without interrogating cause. 

This DOES NOT MEAN that doctors, therapists, individuals, communities etc shouldn’t try to diagnose, treat or understand conditions, or that we should throw out the idea of labelling condition groups. It just means that we need to flip how we look at it, and take a descriptive not prescriptive approach. We need to understand that these labels (whether something as broad as “disabled” or as specific as “Ehlers-Danlos type 2″) are useful as groupings, but that the function of them is to give a general idea of what issues might arise and what might help.

Every person with, say, EDS type 2 is using that to refer to the same symptom grouping, but a) they’ll all manifest, experience and describe symptoms their own way and b) they’re all individual people with other shit going on in their minds and bodies, and so what helps one of them may absolutely fuck another up. And somebody who doesn’t have EDS type 2, but who finds using a wheelchair helpful, potentially has more in common with EDS patient A (who uses a wheelchair) than Patient A has with EDS patient B (who has no mobility impairment but huge digestive problems).

And like. ok. I’m not hearing impaired but I do have audio processing issues, so subtitles are really, really useful to me. I’m not, technically, disabled in that way. it would be dodgy for me to claim I was. but it’s still super useful for me to feel able to request that. and then we have to ask - where’s the line? I’m disabled because my knees are fucked at 27. but if my knees were in this state at 80 I’d be in rude health. but if I was 80, it would still be an absolute pain in the ass to climb 5 flights of stairs, even though contextually I am healthier than expected. 

Or like...I was chatting to a pal about disability disclosure and all the little things you don’t notice affecting your life and therefore don’t report or ask for help with. I said “I have agoraphobia and there’s this like. physical resistance I have to push through to leave the house so I stand around going ‘oh no I have forgotten something’ because I’m procrastinating on having to go outside.” She said “oh I also do that but in my case it’s because I usually have forgotten something so I’m always paranoid.”

forgetfulness isn’t a disability (except when it is). and ultimately although the root is different the material impact is broadly the same. and the world is full of things we find hard that others find easy, but that may not be socially understood as disabilities. I just think we’d get a lot further if we took a solution-centred view on this. it does matter to me why I can’t leave the house, because how I handle it is affected by what the problem is. but it shouldn’t matter to eg my work why I need to give myself an extra 20 minutes to get out of the house (whether it’s agoraphobia, forgetfulness or something else) as long as we can, between us, figure out a workaround.

anyway that’s why I keep textdumping on that parenting post. because we shouldn’t have to ask “does my child have ADHD” or “is my child autistic” or “is my child trans” in order to justify finding ways for them to manage being restless, depressed, overwhelmed, manic, afraid, angry etc, or to let them wear what they feel right in and self-describe how they want to. It might be helpful to know if they’re ADHD/autistic/trans/whatever, because it can help you get ideas and resources for strategies, but it shouldn’t be necessary, and “because this thing is harmless and makes them safer/happier/calmer” is fundamentally a more important justification than “because they are autistic”

idk. treat people as people. try to do right by them. don’t build a hierarchy of Normal and Abnormal problems. just meet common needs and create space for people to express their needs without needing to disclose their whole medical history or litigate their disability status.

(TO BE CLEAR: in the current world legislation specifically related to defining disability as a protected characteristic and disabled people as at-risk/special interest groups are VERY NECESSARY. but in a world governed by an expectation of tailored accessibility and wellbeing approaches I think that necessity would at the very least be heavily reduced. and in communities trying to do more than the bare minimum to create an anti-ableist space I think the best single thing we can do is almost always to remove gatekeeping and disclosure barriers to asking for adaptations)

[aspoonofsugar]

Hi! How are you doing? Not sure if it's already been asked, but what are your top 10 favourite canon couples?

Hello!

I am doing fine, thank you! How are you doing?

It is alright, nobody has asked this before, so I can answer! That said, I am not really a hardcore shipper, so I am not sure I will come up with 10 pairs :’‘‘). I’ll do my best though! Also I have interpreted the term “canon” very freely.

As usual, here they are in no particular order:

1) Claire Stanfield and Chane Laforet (Baccano!):

I love their dynamic because they are fundamentally two almost opposite individuals who end up together in a surprising way. On one hand Claire thinks that he is the protagonist not only of his own story, but of the whole world. As a matter of fact he believes that the world is nothing more than a dream of his. Ironically, it is because of this selfish delusion that Claire is able to embrace the whole world:

“So what if I'd spare him? In my mind it's the certainty in myself that I possess which allows me to have that kind of mercy or compassion. There's no wavering on that point. It's fixed like the stars. The fact is I'm never gonna be killed! So remember this: mercy and compassion are virtues that only the strong are privileged to possess. And I am strong.”

On the other hand Chane has chosen to be nothing more than her father’s puppet. She is a satellite character in her own life and can’t absolutely think to live as a protagonist. If Claire’s world is too big, Chane’s too little because it has only her and her father in it. What is more, Chane has gone out of her way to make sure that it stays that way. For example, she asked her father to take her voice away and has not learnt alternative ways to communicate (like sign language).

Given this premise, it is interesting that a person so self-centered like Claire puts a person with such a frail sense of self like Chane at the centre of his world. Claire makes Chane, who is not even the lead of her own story, the heroine of his huge world. Claire instead plays a support role in Chane’s story. It is precisely because of this contradiction that their dynamic works. All in all Chane gets to get in contact with the world through Claire. Because of this, she is challenged to grow. This is another interesting difference between them. On one hand Claire is basically like Peter Pan and can’t really grow psychologically. On the other hand Chane is a character who has changed, but who is scared of this change. This is why she tries to actively regress, but she can’t really go back to who she was.

2) Komugi and Meruem (HxH):

I have explained here what I love about them. Their relationship conveys the themes of the chimera ants arc beautifully. I especially like it because it would have been easy to have Meruem grow fond of Komugi because of her kindness and goodness. However, this is not really what happens. The reason why Meruem is so attracted by Komugi is her prowess as a Gungi player. Komugi is not a character who coddles Meruem, but one who challenges him. As a result Meruem’s attraction for her is rooted in respect. Meruem brings out from Komugi her talent and stubborness, while Komugi brings out from him his caring and kind side. Meruem becomes interested in her because of the traits they share and grows to love what makes her different from him.

3) Ash Lynx and Eiji Okumura (Banana Fish):

I like their relationship, but I would have loved for it to be explored even more throughout the story. All in all, they are attracted to each other because they want something the other has. Eiji wants Ash’s initiative and daring personality, while Ash wants Eiji’s freedom and soothing personality. Eiji wants Ash’s ability to fight for himself, while Ash wants Eiji’s talent to heal others instead of hurting them.

Despite this, they are not fully able to grow as they could have because of the violence of the conflict they are in. Eiji makes some steps in the right direction, but the moment a wound incapacitates him he goes back to his more passive behaviour. When it comes to Ash, he is not able to take fligth like he would like because of self-hate. Their ending is tragic, but I wonder if it could have been different. For example, after a meaningful conflict the two of them decide to avoid fighting and to simply enjoy the time they spend together. This is a relatable choice, but a series of things are left unexpressed and because of this they are not really able to overcome their flaws. Maybe, if they had fought a little more and had called each other out more, things could have been different in the end.

4) Claire Nunez and Jim Lake Jr (Tales of Arcadia):

I have talked about them here. They are two very similar people to the point that they have basically the same flaw. They both feel responsible for bad things happening to them and to their friends. This is why they end up trying to fix everything by their own and fail spectacularly. It is nice to see them find help and support by their loved ones. And it is heart-warming that they keep being there for each other.

5) Chidi Anagonye and Eleanor Shellstrop (The Good Place):

Eleanor and Chidi are completely different people and this is why they are perfect to challenge each other. Chidi inspires Eleanor to be more selfless and to open up to others, while Eleanor inspires Chidi to be daring. This is obvious since season 1 and it is a constant throughout the series. Their relationship is a good example of a relationship which is conflictual, but enriching. In order to stay together they (other than escaping hell) must overcome their respective flaws. Eleanor must be vulnerable and let Chidi in her life, while Chidi must be decisive and actively choose Eleanor.

I also like that this is true even in those timelines where they do not develop a romantic relationship. The fact that their relationship is the same, but also slightly differs in each reboot makes it gain a very nice thematic meaning and enriches it. All in all, what Chidi and Eleanor represent for each other is always the same and what changes is the platonic/romantic aspect of the bond.

Finally I like the motif of them leaving messages to their future selves about the other. At the end of season 1, Eleanor writes to herself: “Find Chidi”, while at the end of season 3 Chidi writes  to himself: “Eleanor is the answer”. This is a very cool motif which conveys their respective growth thanks to the other. Eleanor who only trusts herself chooses to trust Chidi’s ability to help her. Chidi who has spent his whole life searching for answers and failing to write them down decides that Eleanor is all he needs to find meaning in his life.

6) Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye:

Their relationship is my favourite of the whole series. Their characters are beautifully intertwined to the point that they can barely function without the other. This aspect of their bond is not excessively romanticized, but it is presented as a dreadful consequence of the traumatic past they share. At the end of the day Roy and Riza are too highly idealistic people whose ideals were shattered before they could evolve in something more than childish dreams. Despite this, they were able to put the fragments of those great dreams back together and have chosen to sacrifice their personal happiness to realize them.

All in all, Riza and Roy want redemption for their crimes and they find comfort in each other while they try to obtain it. In order to make things better they are ready to sacrifice their own existences and they have given up on the chance of living normal lives as civilians. However, they still have each other.

Roy gives Riza someone to protect, so that she does not fall apart and remains functional, while Riza restrains Roy’s most negative instincts. They make each other better even if they can’t completely overcome the pain of their past. They can just share it with the other.

Finally I especially like the scene where Roy chooses not to transmute humans even if it means Riza will most likely die. As a matter of fact, despite it all, that act is not framed as a betrayal of Riza, but rather as the only thing he can do not to betray her. I love both relationships where a character fixated on an ideal lets go of it because of people and relationships which make a person realize the importance of an ideal. They are both beautiful when well written. Here we are in front of a bond where both aspects are present. On one hand Roy must let go of his desire of vengeance not to lose Riza. On the other hand Roy must let go of Riza not to betray the ideals they share.

In the end theirs is a very tragic and strict relationship, but also a very warm and human one.

7) Kokomi Teruhashi and Saiki Kusuo (Saiki Q):

They are not properly canon since they are not together by the end. However, I think there is enough in the series to support the ship. Anyway, it is still a ship I enjoy a lot (and it is one of the few I feel strongly for, so I am adding it to the list no matter what).

I love their dynamic because it is hilarious, but it could also be surprisingly deep if the narrative wanted to explore it more. Teruhashi is my favourite character of the series because she is a nice subversion of both the yamato nadeshiko trope and of the alpha bitch one. She presents herself as an incredibly beautiful and yet innocent girl, but she is actually very aware of her looks and of others’ reactions. Despite this, she comes along as likeable mostly because she often genuinelly means well despite her being self-centered. Saiki instead projects the image of an average person, but he is actually the most powerful being of the world. In short, Teruhashi and Saiki are both opposite and the same.

They are the same because they both wear a carefully crafted mask. They are opposite because the masks they were are opposite. On one hand Teruhashi’s mask of the perfect girl attracts attention. On the other hand Saiki’s mask of the average guy is meant to make him invisible.

The difference between their two personas is the reason why Saiki wants to avoid Teruhashi at all costs. He wants to be average, so he can’t stay close to a person who attracts so much attention. At the same time, it is clear that Saiki grows to admire Teruhashi specifically because of her ability to always keep her mask up. He knows how difficult it is to realize such a feat and he recognizes Teruhashi’s dedication. Basically Saiki is the only person who knows the real Teruhashi and appreciates her for who she is and not for who she pretends to be.

In short, the series could have done a lot with them if it had wanted to go deeper in their dynamic. Saiki ends up coming to the spotlight multiple times to help Teruhashi, while Teruhashi breaks up her image of perfect girl when close to Saiki.

Unluckily this is the end of the list :’‘‘) I tried to think of other canon couples I enjoy, but even if there are some, I would not call them proper faves. At the same time, there are some ships I enjoy, but they are not properly canon/confirmed to be romantic, so I am not adding them.

Thank you for the ask!

[snapeaddict]

My interest in MBTI has dwindled for a long time now (I used to love all those types of tests, which led me to study the enneagram in school) but seeing your posts/rbs on its inaccuracy made me think of how recently, corporations in my country have been asking job applicants to write down their mbti types and how when I first heard it I was just struck by how weird that was,, I don’t know exactly how they use the info, but I fully agree that treating this as a science could have real damages

Yes it is exactly what I'm taking about when I say it can be damaging! It's really not about people enjoying it as entertainment or trying to find meaning in it while being aware it isn't psychology or science, I mean we all like to do this and it's great if it can be of use to people and for self motivation <3

For example saw on twitter:

To people bringing it up, I’m fully aware that Myers Briggs is essentially pseudoscience. I’ve never even understood it to be something people took literally at all? It’s just a fun personality test that can double as a nice way to self reflect.

And NO problem with that. It's even lovely and interesting.

BUT it is what it is: pseudoscience. You give it the meaning you want it to have. You cannot be not biased when it comes to yourself. And like my mother, a specialist, said, "it's not psychology, and there is often no point in this, because most people will be unable to improve their behaviour even with a broad overview of how they function at the moment they took the test." What can help and IS science is cognitive psychology (for example find out what are your automatic thoughts, the most important values in your life and your motivations to ACT accordingly. This works).

Dr. Adam Grant explained, “The Myers-Briggs is like asking people what do you like more: shoelaces or earrings? You tend to infer that there’s going to be an ‘aha!’ even though it’s not a valid question. ... [It] creates the illusion of expertise about psychology.”

Personality tests like Myers-Briggs give people labels. Those labels are often taken at face value and used as a fundamental aspect of a person's identity. "I am a [fill in the blank]."

Why is it harmful that this is used when hiring people?

1. The scientific grounds for the MBTI test are missing and based on OUTDATED science.

In 1917, Katharine Cook Briggs began research into personalities to determine her future son-in-law’s personality. Soon she was joined by Isabel Briggs Myers, who added the different personality types based on the then recent work of Carl Jung. Neither Myers nor Briggs were formally educated in psychology and lacked scientific credentials in the field of psychometric testing. The work attracted the attention of Henry Chauncey, head of the Educational Testing Service. They developed their work to a commercial test in 1975 then sold the test and the manual to Consulting Psychologists Press (CPP). MBTI is based on eight hypothetical assumptions and until this day there has been no scientific proof to support the claims of the method. Carl Jung admitted the basis of his research was anecdotal and has not been subjected to any control study. So he just made these things up by himself and added some stories from his friends. 

2. The black and white MBTI scales force binary behavior

3. The MBTI test results are a Self-fulfilling prophecy

4. It is a huge BUSINESS using pseudoscience to make profit

The test only takes 45 minutes and can be purchased by certified MBTI organizations. Most of the time it is an online test program. The MBTI test is owned by the MBTI Foundation and executed by Consulting Psychologists Press (CPP), a privately owned company with no annual report available online. At the MBTI Foundation you can certify yourself as an official MBTI testing facilitator (amongst others). A percentage of the money you pay for your MBTI test goes to CPP. A study by David J. Pittenger shows 2 million copies of the MBTI test are being sold annually. This roughly calculates to a market with an annual turnover of about 500 million dollar in testing fees alone. This explains the extensive investment in marketing and research projects to generate pseudo-scientific proof for this method. There is a lot of money to be made from MBTI testing and from the additional training and coaching programs. MBTI is big business.

5. Makes people believe PERSONALITY IS INNATE. Spoiler, it's not.

So using this in workplaces is damaging and wrong and unethical. It has no predictive value so isn't predictive of your performance.

[deltaengineering]

Fall Anime 2019 Part 4: also, he has a gun for a head

Beastars

So here’s the CG anime that everyone for some reason decided way in advance would be the best show of the season, more or less by default. I was very skeptical of this for a multitude of reasons. First of all, that is a bad name for a show and you can’t convince me otherwise. It’s actually even worse because you’re supposed to write it in all caps, but I refuse. Second, it has a terribly on the nose conceit in which all sorts of animals live together in a high school setting and it’s all metaphorical ‘n shit. The main character is a wolf but get this, he’s actually all sensitive and quiet! Yeah, this is definitely rated D for Deep. And finally it’s by Orange, the CG studio that got an inordinate amount of acclaim for making Houseki no Kuni, the show that everyone thinks looks great and finally made CG anime worthwhile (actual real fact: HnK does not look great most of the time and CG anime was worthwhile well before it). 

But enough about my preconceptions since Beastars is... pretty good, actually. If you ignore the setting, which is indeed terribly on the nose. And there’s not much else to say about the story so far besides it. However, it looks significantly better than Houseki no Kuni because it actually has really good character animation throughout instead of a one-minute action scene with flashy spinny camera tricks every other episode. The directing’s strong too, even if the show conspicuously mainly consists of obvious manga panels. I’m still not too hot on the animal stuff but the general writing seems to be sufficiently competent it would work simply on a character level. So I don’t love it, but it seems solid enough to see if it goes somewhere with its “Zootopia but also Beverly Hills 90210 but also they eat each other sometimes″ plot.

Rifle is Beautiful

Remember the whole “anime about some assorted anime girls joining a club doing an oddly specific activity” thing? This is another one of those, and now it’s about air rifle sports shooting. Except it’s not about air rifle sports shooting because that’s apparently way too violent, so they use rifles that look like exactly like air rifles but are actually based on lasers or really bright flashlights (they can’t keep their bullshit straight between scenes, sorry) instead. I just don’t think “girls doing activities” anime should blatantly misrepresent their subject matter like that, you know? With the possible exception of idol anime that is, ain’t nobody who wants to hear about that shit. Apart from that it’s nothing special, so if you are really into air rifles and wish to watch an anime that’s not about those, knock yourself out. It goes through a whole “club needs 5 members” arc in the first half of the first episode, so I really can’t say where it goes next. Nowhere much, I would guess.

Oh right, there’s one more thing: They frequently render the bodies in CG and the heads in traditional drawings, and they do it every time when they’d actually have to draw a rifle otherwise. It’s a weird effect that I think I haven’t seen anywhere else before, and it’s not great but also not terrible. And it’s the most interesting thing about the entire show.

Kabukicho Sherlock

“Let’s take a bunch of public domain characters and put them into a hip modern setting” seems to be its own genre at the moment, and not only because the BBC did that with S. Holmes, Esq. already. Obviously this show is influenced by that (besides other public domain namedroppers like Bungou Stray Dogs), mostly in Watson and his relationship with Sherlock, but Sherlock-san is rather different here; he’s neither the classic Victorian bohemian nor the abrasive sociopath of the BBC version, and tends more towards a bumbling 90s pop culture version of autism and/or general wackiness here. These two are surrounded by a bunch of campy transvestites for some reason, and I’m not quite sure whether I’m supposed to find this particular stereotype offensive or empowering this week, but it sure is annoying. And it has the same character designer as Joker Game, so if you like chiseled, angular anime men, you’re in for a treat here - even if they tend to wear a lot of makeup and dresses sometimes. I don’t know man, it seems sort of okay-ish for the most part but it’s neither as funny as they think, nor as weird as they think, nor is the murder of the week intriguing at all. Oh yeah, he’s hunting noted public domain character Jack the Ripper. Because of course he is.

 Shin Chuuka Ichiban!

I am told this is the sequel to episode 19 of a 52-episode anime TV show from 1997. Okay. I am also told to not dare watch this without the important setup therein, which makes me think I should pay less attention to what I’m told because understanding Shin Chuuka Ichiban and its backstory is not hard at all. Kid is superawesome cooking champion in ancient China and goes around clowning on lesser cooks, got it. It’s not a complicated setup and it’s not a complicated genre either: This seems to be mostly about sick shounen cooking duels. Besides the setting, the main difference between this and Shokugeki no Soma seems to be that SnS goes for ridiculous and Chuuka Ichiban goes for epic - which is to say that it fancies itself emotional as well. Apart from that it’s what you’d expect from a cooking shounen, big moves, big reactions, huge twists and so on. One notable thing is that this show looks really, really nice. Production I.G seems to be establishing a sideline in taking stuff from the 90s and updating it with smoother animation and shinier lighting, while keeping the overall look intact; They did it for Mahoujin Guru Guru, and this looks much the same. Still, I’m just fundamentally not really interested in what appears to be a very straightforward cooking shounen from the 90s.

Assassins Pride

Straight from the Department of Chuuni, we have this light novel masterpiece about a cool as fuck teenage assassin who teleports behind u and nothin personells fools all day. He then meets a princess he’s supposed to off but just kinda decides not to, probably because she seems to be smitten by his m’lady act. Now he has to use his sick skillz to keep them both alive. It’s awful and terrible and no good and also kind of adorable. This truly is the most 13 AND A HALF MOM years old anime in a while, and it’s not even isekai! The writing’s just so amateurish and corny you can’t help but smile when princesses exposit their backstory for no reason while being accosted by pumpkin monsters (without knowing that Awessassin McCooldude happens to be listening in, which is certainly convenient). Or when the episode ends with the man just reading the synopsis of the show out again, in case you were too fascinated by this plot to pay attention to what it’s about. Yeah I’m not going to watch this in a thousand years, but it sure made me chuckle. Your mileage may vary.

Mugen no Juunin - Immortal

Speaking of 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔫𝔦𝔫𝔢𝔱𝔦𝔢𝔰 𝔢𝔡𝔤𝔢, another anime adaptation of Blade of the Immortal appeared! You know, the manga for the cultured and historically minded guro fan. The first episode of Blade of the Immortal runs with this and is an arthouse production that someone most definitely directed the shit out of. I don’t think I’ve seen this much directing since, well, Sarazanmai, but “Ikuhara amounts of directing” is pretty much the idea here. And most of the time it even works! The quickly edited, disorienting style gives episode 1 a feeling closer to horror than to a cool swordmen action show, and that really brings out the best in the material, which is grotesque splatter bordering on the comical - It’s somehow a better Junji Ito anime than the actual Junji Ito anime. I think it tries too hard in a few places, but at least it does try.

But then I watched the second episode and that one’s a fairly conventional splatter-comedy swordin’ anime. I am not at all pleased with this development. The third episode was better again and seemed to split the difference between 1 and 2, even if it mostly uses the tricky editing to save on effort in the action –  I would much prefer actually readable fights and the wacky mannerisms in the more psychological stuff, thank you very much. Based on episode 1 I thought we might have something special here, but as of episode 3 I’d already merely call it pretty decent. I guess I’ll still stick with it but man, that’s a real bummer.

No Guns Life

No Guns Life is a neo-noir thriller about a guy who has a gun for a head. That’s fuckin rad and exactly the kind of silliness I am totally down for. He also has a gun for a hand, and there’s also some battle nun’s who carry revolvers with two cylinders, so in short I think the title is false advertising. This sounds very wacky (and it is), but it also takes its noir very seriously, down to details more wannabe neo-noirs tend to neglect (like being set right after a big war). The look and feel is pretty excellent, with sharp design and high-contrast artwork, and the music goes all in on the moody saxophone as you’d expect. And there’s some really adorable “look mom, I’m writing” stuff about how Man With Gun For A Head really “needs someone to pull his trigger” and so on (which is, as the astute reader might remember, at the back of his head). It feels like a throwback but then I can’t really think of many 80s/90s shows like this, so it’s actually more like the sort of faux-retro idea Trigger/Imaishi would come up with on a lark. Trigger/Imaishi would, of course, make a far worse anime out of it, so it’s all good. Well, it has some pacing problems and as always it’s a fine line between amusingly camp and not so amusingly camp anymore, but No Guns Life seems to have enough real qualities that it can probably stand on its own even when its conceptual gimmick eventually doesn’t suffice anymore. I give it a two gun’s up.

Hoshiai no Sora / Stars Align

And finally, here’s an anime about middle schooler softboys playing a tennis just as soft as themselves, while being henpecked by the elites on the girl’s team. This is not an “actual” sports anime though: for starters, it’s not based on some shounen manga and is an anime original with quite some staff pedigree instead. It’s also more of a character drama that already goes to some surprisingly real places by the end of episode 1, reminiscent of the recent and quite good Run with the Wind. Furthermore, it looks delicious, with minimalist but distinctive and varied character designs and animation that’s both extremely detailed for a TV anime and also not trying to shove that fact into your face with flashy stunt cuts. In short, this show seems very simple at first glance but every aspect of it just oozes quality. If nothing else, it’s already worth watching just for the excellent ending sequence where the characters show off their “best” dance moves and the chunky student council president dunks on everyone. This one caught me by surprise and it’s an easy pick for most promising show of the season.

[allensalkin]

10 Things to Know and Understand Prior To Beginning A Renovation

Any remodeling job is going to be tough and requiring. There are numerous things you should know before starting any renovating job. Listed below, you will discover 10 suggestions that will help you get going on your restoration journey.

Know What You Want

As the client bring in trades/service providers to see and assess. It is necessary that much thought has been provided. Spend some time thinking of fundamental objectives. Essential should -haves, a wish list. If you are not able to equate your desires, hiring a designer, is an ideal way to help draw up your thoughts. Generate a couple of; I am certain you will find the concepts will be valuable to your bottom line. They understand the principles of building principles they can normally easily identify what, will provide you the greatest value. Regularly customers struggle with generating yet another decision maker. Nevertheless, an impartial third party is a great method to redefine, the goals while considering timelines and budget plans in conjunction with each other. Another set of fresh eyes can never injure. Professionals in business see things rather in a different way. Enjoy and check out!

Research

Yet another essential tool in remodeling work, understand the job. As well as the ability of everybody brought to the table. Frequently specialists can conserve your money and time, by limiting the huge field of choices. I can stroll into an area and immediately deem a list based upon what stands apart and is shrieking to be dealt with. Often customers tend to concentrate on the little things. It is the larger impact products that are going to make the task feel lively and as though great strides have been made. Trust me when the visual products are modified. The little items will be lost in order of top priority.

Planning

Organize your ideas. Make lists. Rank your leading priorities and pencil in your ideas and the cost connected with that product. Do a rough budget, a budget plan, not what you would like to invest. What quantity of cash you feel relatively requires the expense of that item and or job? Do you see value in altering all your light? If so what quantity of cash do you consider a suitable investment? Then do a bit of research online or browsing at shops what type of fixtures you like. Is that number achievable? If not, is this a location you want to compromise? In order of importance where did lighting fixtures rank? This is the process, which is done referring to various products within the task lifecycle experts in the industry can ballpark to a degree, having background understanding of brand name specifics, along with vast resources to pool from. Often bargain costs feature deal service. It tends to be the sacrificial lamb. Stores cannot preserve high level staff when the pricing is based upon low margins. I make sure you comprehend you can buy an item at a store and it is more costly elsewhere. However, their customer service is second to none. Is it worth it to pay more for less irritation? This is yet another concern two people frequently do not address the exact same. It returns to your relationship with cash and the worth you place on service.

Get a Quote

A book needs to be written on the art of understanding how to get a quote. All I will say here is clearly specify the scope of work to guarantee all quotes are produced equivalent. Comprehend what adjustment costs will be, are they time and materials? Re quotes? Simply a recommendation; there are constantly modifications. No matter how well planned. If you know this in advance, it will assist psychologically prepare you for the months ahead. I cannot stress enough the significance of preplanning.

Trust

Interview professionals to guarantee a fit. A relationship needs to blossom here. Everybody likes to work with individuals we like. If you can, bring in a few specialists. Do they "hear" what you are stating? Do you trust they understand your needs? Retreat from anybody who is all about cash, purchasing, and or large deposits? Believe me the check writing will quickly follow, however in the meantime a strong emphasis on preplanning will assist, the loss of funds by making haste selections and reduce the number of mistakes. The idea here has to do with method. There are great deals of time to invest. We must plan every purchase, so your money works for you. This way if you lay out some rough costs, you can see in black and white where you have an ability to bump up or scale back, in specific areas.

Set Limits

Set reasonable specifications, to ensure everyone comprehends. If you wish that trades keep the hours worked within timelines, this is something that needs to be attended to. If you do not desire subs, in on the weekends, it is especially important to point that out. What timeline have you set out for the execution of the scope of work? Is it realistic? Do you realize if labor is included and/or modifications are made this can modify the dates of execution? Is that ok with you? Could this be a stage 2 part? Lots to think of ... Strategize

It is necessary to interact how you like to work. Are you a busy professional who just desires the interaction of the bigger picture? Do you want constant updating relevant to all information? Are you a spreadsheet addict? Do you need to be within budget plan? This is where an expert must work with you and outline the job from start to finish. How this job can best be tailored to your convenience level. This will be demanding; things will fail. Embrace the fact that when one door closes, another opens. As a matter of fact, some of the best style ideas have been produced vicariously through a problem. Pandora's box- as soon as opened we are all in uncharted area accept it! This is where some support can direct you through critical, services. To wind up at the exact same fantastic result!

Contracts

Know what you are accepting. Customize as needed, beware here. A contract is meant to be a document that binds both parties accountable to what was concurred. If changes are made the contract must show this. Typically, this kind of work hurries by, a lot work and or changes is being finished rather on the fly. One piece of advice, conversations get forgotten. People make mistakes. A lot is spoken about daily. It can be difficult to bear in mind where you ended. Bear in mind the employees are most likely on six other sites. They do tend to blur together. If high interactions are expected, interact this upfront so, the business can change and or increase the staff needed to upgrade as per your demands. Numerous trades are sole owners, have trouble with the administrative side of business. If they know this is an expectation, arrangements can and will be made. Possibly it can be by means of day-to-day development contacts us to the designer, so we could send out recaps/questions and so on. Via email? You choose, be as in advance as you can with your convenience level.

Understanding the Big Picture

Are you a visual person? Is a drawing needed to visualize the concepts? If yes, this can be a valuable investment. Just like any service there are costs associated with this, however it conserves hours of miscommunication and costly errors a picture/rendering can deserve its weight in gold. Once again, only you are familiar with you, the more in advance you are re your ability or failure to see things. The clearer all can be figured out. Customizing a method is the key to success. You ought to love the procedure as much

Know When to Start

Are you sitting? Begin the "process" a year beforehand. This is simply the start, clip images out of magazines. Prepare yourself to a level of convenience and knowledge so you can begin having individuals come in to evaluate and stroll you through the steps. Understand that quality business is in need, most have a waiting list. This is not a service to be hurried through. Excellent decisions take time and tactical preparation, prior to implementation. Roughly map out a vital path on a calendar. January- considering project objectives specifies each look/feel of areas. Find an excellent designer or a couple of, book visits, to examine area and chat about base project concepts. Are seeing where I am going here. A common remodeling takes six months to strategy but can take several more months to execute based on those choices. Always much better to ignore and over provide.

Delight in the fruits of your labors. Renovation work is a tricky undertaking. You will gain from this experience. Hindsight is 20/20. Live vicariously through others who have traveled this road before you and the many that will follow later.

[thecrystalye199]

The Hero Archetype

The Jungian archetypes, developed by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, theorized that everyone shared instinctive patterns and universal characters (Fordham, 2020). In simpler terms, Jung realized that there existed a number of these archetypes - model images of a person or a role - that everyone can recognize and personally connect to. And while these archetypes exist in people throughout society, the model images of these roles have largely been adapted in storytelling and are often incarnated as characters in myths, novels, and films (Psychologist World, 2020). 

An overview of the Jungian archetypes:

After reading about each of these archetypes, and completing a questionnaire to determine if I am living any of them, I found myself connecting the most with the Hero archetype - establishing that the Hero’s role and characteristics actually play a huge part in driving my actions and forming the foundation to my beliefs. 

The Story

When you analyze the narrative of the Hero throughout stories, films, and real life, the progression of the hero story line follows similar characteristics  - they start off as just another person (not the hero yet), finds themselves in circumstances that begins to challenge everything they are and believes to be through multiple trials and tribulations (Jeffrey, 2018). However, the end of the story typically results in success and closure with some gain of tremendous spiritual and mental value. Ultimately, fuelled by their desire to prove their worth, their goal is to improve the world by doing things for others while always believing that there is always a way to accomplish what they have their sights set on. 

Why the Hero?

I was initially drawn to the Hero archetype because of how prevalent the Hero role was in modern storytelling and film, and then it dawned on me how easy it was to relate the story and feel like I was living it. Growing up, movie nights at the cinema with the family were the days I looked forward to the most. On these days, pulling up to the parking lot already had me drooling over the popcorn we would always get, waiting in line had me anticipating the next superhero movie I had always begged to watch, and sitting in those big (at the time, for my size) comfortable movie seats ensured my eyes were always glue to the screen from the beginning of the movie to the end. Marvel movies were my favourite - and still are - because of the wins that always resulted by the end of the movie, the will to save humanity and those who couldn’t help themselves, and the pure fact that it was badass. Whether it was Iron Man, Spiderman, or Black Widow, I would always leave the theatre talking to my own version of J.A.R.V.I.S., pretending to shoot webs from my wrists, or believing that I could grow up to be a world-class spy. 

So from the young age of 5, I started fantasizing of what it would be like to be the hero. Being a child who loved to live in my own fantasies, I always thought about how cool it was if when the day would come where I would wake up with my own powers. I was convinced it would happen and no one could convince me otherwise. Needless to say, however, that day never came. I came to possess the ability to shoot webs from my wrists, superhuman strength, or some type of badass, superhuman anything. And yet, growing up, I still realized that the need to be the hero and living the hero story still very much exists inside of me. I am drawn to this archetype because, aside from the fantasy world these movies take place in, the ability to be the hero is not absent from my life. 

The Hero in Me

“When life puts you in a tough situation, don’t say ‘why me’ say ‘try me’.” (Brand Personalities, 2020)

To me, being the hero is about making a difference, standing up for myself and others, being someone that others can count on, and holding firm on the beliefs and values that drive me as an individual. Although my life may not replicate the storylines in the superhero movies that I love so much, the hero in me exists in her own way. Younger me always felt like just one-in-seven-billion, but the support of my family (pictured) made me believe that there was more to life than just feeling like I should merely fit in. Since I was old enough to have dreams for myself, my parents have always told me that I could reach for the stars if I wanted to. They taught me resilience, never giving up, and being a kind person which, in my opinion, are all qualities of the type of hero I am capable of being. Like the supportive people my parents were to me, I try to emulate that same help and support to those who I am fortunate enough to have in my life. Being a hero to me today means doing everything I can, when given the opportunity, to help those who might need the extra hand and to grow into the best version of myself that I can be when putting my best foot forward. 

One specific role I play that particularly makes me feel like a hero is the fact that I am a big sister. With an age gap of nine years, the best part of my brother and I’s relationship is the fact that I can support him through all of the different emotional and life stages that I have already experienced for myself.  No matter if it’s high school math, friendship/relationship problems, or just a pure bad day, knowing that I can be the person my brother can consistently count on and go to means the world to me.

The Caveat

The hero is a lot of great things but like everything else requires the balancing of the good and bad sides of many traits. Although persistent, eager, and confident, the Hero can evolve to be arrogant if not kept humble or reminded of the primary purpose for their actions. My tendency to always feel like I can “fix” everything has, on multiple occasions, resulted in my failure to complete or excel at anything at all. Sometimes, I have taken on too much than I can handle at work because I failed to evaluate how much bandwidth I had. Similarly, sometimes I have worried too much for other people and failed to leave enough time to dedicate to myself. As a result, it is necessary to not lose sight of why a task was important to take on in the first place and maybe even knowing when to give up when it might be needed. I ask myself:  Am I putting myself out there because I can, or just because I want to?

The Heros in Humanity

The biggest display of heroism are the acts I see other people do as a means to help those who cannot help themselves. If you took some time to observe others in the world, it can be amazing what you might realize about our humankind. Some of us have a voice, some of us don’t. Some of us are capable of helping, and some of us need that extra helping hand sometimes. While life may not be a story of the destroying of mythical villains to save humankind, it is the story of ridding of our own demons that hold us back from being kind to one another. Fundamentally, we all start in the same place, but our own life journey and story can be written to be whatever we’d like it to be. We all have shared dreams we want to attain: to be the best version of ourselves, to be able to be depended on by others, and to support the ones that we love and care for. But in between these fundamentals is finding the drive and passion that pushes us through the monumental moments of our lives in order to do so. Everyone’s hero story is different - some are fuelled by the unquenchable thirst for success, some are fuelled by the ever-growing need to help others, and some are fuelled by the combination of both. No matter what it is, being a hero is not something that is unattainable, but rather a something that anyone can, and should, strive to be. 

Works Cited

Brand Personalities. (2020). The Hero. Retrieved from Brand Personalities: https://brandpersonalities.com.au/personalities/the-hero/

Fordham, F. (2020, June 2). Carl Jung. Retrieved from Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-Jung

Jeffrey, S. (2018). The Hero Archetype: Friend or Foe?Retrieved from CEOsage: https://scottjeffrey.com/hero-archetype/

Psychologist World. (2020). Carl Jung: Archetypes and Analytical Psychology. Retrieved from Psychologist World: https://www.psychologistworld.com/cognitive/carl-jung-analytical-psychology

[kcwcommentary]

VLD7x08 – “The Last Stand Part 2”

7x08 – “The Last Stand Part 2”

This episode is so frustrating for so many reasons. Killing Adam is offensive because Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery explicitly used Adam and their announcement that he was gay and had been romantically involved with Shiro in order to bait people into watching this season, and then they kill him, having since said that they did so because they needed to kill a notable character to make the Galra feel threatening; in other words, they built Adam up as gay (because that is all that he is in this show) and then killed him; they specifically killed him because he was gay.

This episode also continues to act like Sam is right about everything and Sanda is wrong about everything. This time, the show doesn’t even pretend to care about writing realistically. Sanda is an admiral. Sam’s and Iverson’s insubordination would not be tolerated in an actual military. It makes this show seem like its creative team have a huge disdain and disrespect for the military. At the very least, it makes the creative team seem completely ignorant of how solid the command structure is in the military. Sanda ends up just letting Sam and Iverson do whatever they want, and that would not happen.

Sam continues to benefit from Perfect Pidge plot armor, and his obnoxious constantly being right about everything makes me really not like his character.

The Veronica “death” and reveal to still be alive a few minutes later has little-to-no emotional impact. It mostly just gives me narrative whiplash.

This episode really needs some help.

The episode starts with Sendak leading the invasion. The last time Sendak seemed interesting to me was 1x11 “Crystal Venom,” and that was because of how much his disembodied voice messed with Shiro psychologically. He has never felt more threatening than he did in the scenes in that episode, scenes in which he did nothing but have some taunting dialog while being unconscious.

The music continues to be really nice.

Sendak orders the Galra fleet to fire upon various cities on Earth. Only the Galaxy Garrison has any defense, with its forcefield blocking blasts. Sanda orders a military response, surface-to-air blasters and a wave of fighters with a second wave ordered to prep for launch. Sam – I am so tired of him – objects to her “us[ing] the standard defenses.” If everything is as dire as Sam has told everyone, then they need to use literally everything they have, including “standard defenses.” Sam wants to use the MFE pilots. Yeah, that’s fine and good, but there are only four of them, right? James Griffin, Rizavi, Kinkade, and Leifsdottir. The four of them are nowhere near enough to handle a planetary invasion. Sam tries to juxtapose the four MFE pilots with the Paladins of Voltron, and that is annoying on multiple levels. One, the Paladins are flying battleships, not fighters, and the technology of the Lions are way more advanced than the MFE fighters. Two, his comparing the two groups of characters seems like it’s part of how this invasion and occupation story was the attempt to prove a spinoff viable, but this just reminds me of how this is setting the show’s main characters aside in order to introduce a bunch of new characters, none of whom are as interesting as the actual main characters of the show.

Iverson is hesitant to follow Sanda’s orders. This is a failure of military discipline and a demonstration of the EPs’ and writers’ ignorance about how the military functions. Iverson says to Sanda, “I know you have wartime authorization, but maybe we should listen to—” Forget “wartime authorization,” how about the fact that Admiral Sanda outranks Commander Iverson. If Sanda wasn’t busy trying to initiate a defense of the planet, she’d have every right to have Iverson charged with insubordination. I really don’t like that this continues pushing the idea that Sam is right and Sanda is wrong. I don’t necessarily reject the idea that the MFEs and the new fighters should be involved, but the idea that four of them are exponentially better than a broader force is absurd.

Oh look, it’s Adam. Joaquim Dos Santos said that they just had to kill Adam here because “we knew seeing a familiar face bravely make the sacrifice along with the squadron he led (and countless others) would help get across the gravity of this invasion” (quoted from JDS’s post season seven apology letter that he posted on his social media). The only way Adam is a “familiar face” is because of how much he was used to promote the season. He has not been seen since his brief scene in 7x01 “A Little Adventure.” Despite what JDS said in his letter, if you’re going by just the episodes themselves and not any of the promotional work, then Adam is NOT a “familiar face.” It feels like this part of JDS’s attempt to justify killing Adam is built on a lie.

Sam says to Sanda, “You just doomed those men and women.” This is more of Sam benefiting from this show’s use of Perfect Pidge. The premise the show is using in Sam’s argument is absolutely absurd, but the show makes Sam right because he’s Sam. It just amazes me that this show thinks that they’re demonstrating how much better Sam is than everyone, but because the show is basing Sam’s argument on something unrealistic – that the four MFE fighters are superior to the entirety of the rest of the military – it has the opposite effect for me. The show wants the audience to think Sam is being shown to be smarter and wiser than everyone else, but I end up disliking Sam more and more. I am really hesitant to ever use the term Mary Sue, but Sam is really close to being one.

The Galra destroy the ground-to-air blasters. The fighters’ missiles do nothing to the Galra ships. Some of what this battle does is try to present the idea that the Galra are so superior to Earth technologically, but that’s so obvious that it shouldn’t need to be said. We know from interviews that JDS and LM thought killing Adam was necessary to prove that the Galra were a threat. Having the protagonist side of the battle have zero success, like here in having the missiles impact the Galra ship but do no damage, does not make the Galra look formidable, it makes them look unrealistic. I do think Earth would be thoroughly outclassed by the Galra in a battle, but demonstrating the futility of Earth’s attempt at defense does not require the Galra to be undamageable.

There’s either an animation, direction, or editing error during this battle. Track this sequence of shots: ONE, the Galra shoot a blast at Adam and the other fighters, TWO, the first-generation fighters that they’re using dodge the blast, THREE, Adam comments that their weapons had no effect on the Galra, FOUR, the Galra shoot multiple smaller blasters from the side of their ship, FIVE, second-generation fighters dodge the Galra attack and one of them is blown up.

Given that the whole manufactured contention between Sam and Sanda right now is that Sanda is using the first-generation fighters instead of the MFEs and the second-generation fighters, to have the animation show second-generation fighters (which aren’t even supposed to be in the air) being shot at and one destroyed totally undermines Sam’s argument. Let me add some visuals.

Here is a shot of the first-generation fighters from 7x07 “The Invasion Part 1.”

Here’s a shot of the first-generation fighters at this moment here in 7x08 “The Invasion Part 2” where they’re about to dodge Galra blasts (shot TWO in my list above).

Here is a shot of the second-generation fighters from 7x07 “The Invasion Part 1.”

And here’s a shot of the animation/direction/editing error from 7x08 “The Invasion Part 2” of second-generation fighters being shot at during Adam’s attack mission. This is shot FIVE referenced above.

In addition to killing Adam to supposedly demonstrate how threatening the Galra are, this sequence is supposed to be about proving Sam right. It’s a fundamental element to the story of this sequence. I understand that sometimes weird animation errors happen. I’m far more forgiving of something like accidentally coloring the bayard pink in 7x03 “The Way Forward,” for example. But this animation is directly tied to the show’s own argument for Sam and against Sanda. This error makes it seem like the creative team were so Sam-is-right that they ran on autopilot during the production of this sequence. It also suggests a flaw in the design work for the two generations of fightercraft that the animators could apparently so easily mistake the two designs.

The battle shifts to the command room and the main display in the room shows most of the pilots sent in the first wave are gone. Back to the air, the last few Earth fighters are blown up.

Adam is the last fighter. The last we get to see of him is him screaming as he is blown up.

If I did not know who Adam was through all the promotion of the season that was reliant upon their having shown 7x01 “A Little Adventure” and Lauren Montgomery having tweeted about Adam being Shiro’s “significant other” and all the interviews that JDS and LM did about the revelation that Shiro was gay and Adam had been his boyfriend, if I had not had Adam’s significance inflated far more outside the show than it was in the show, then Adam’s death here would not have meant anything. If JDS and LM had not purposefully used the promise of queer representation in the show, had not used the single, short scene of Shiro and Adam’s breakup as promotional bait, then I would not have been attached to Adam. I don’t think that I would have recognized him in this episode as having been the guy who broke up with Shiro seven episodes ago.

JDS thought killing Adam would show us the stakes of the battle. Adam, whose entire presence in the show until now was one scene in which he broke up with Shiro, was a character who only had one single dimension: Shiro’s boyfriend. In other words, Adam was nothing more than gay. If, as JDS has said, killing Adam was about showing the stakes – an idea that a story has to kill characters that the audience have become attached to in order to show how much a threat the plot is – then the only reason the audience was attached to Adam was because he was gay and Shiro’s flashback boyfriend. Adam had zero other connections in the story, zero other connections to any characters. Yes, I’m fully accusing JDS and LM of killing Adam explicitly because he was gay. They can say that their intention wasn’t to use the bury-your-gays trope all they want to. Whether either of them have the self-awareness to realize this or not, whether they ultimately care or not, their decision to kill Adam is based on him being gay.

And they were surprised the audience would be upset about this. At least, they pretended they were surprised. It really says something that I’m even debating with myself whether JDS and LM were genuinely surprised that people were upset that they introduced a gay character specifically to kill him, or whether they callously did it and faked surprised to try to deflect blame for their having done it. I don’t know which is worse: that they were so socially inept that they didn’t anticipate the audience being offended or that they just didn’t care to begin with and baited people with the promotion that Adam was gay in order to increase the number of viewers for season seven.

I could probably rant about this all day.

Sendak broadcasts that he’s come for the Voltron Lions. Shouldn’t he be able to scan Earth and tell that they’re not there? Sanda replies, telling Sendak that they do not have the Lions, nor do they know where they are.

Finally, hidden in the middle of this scene’s dialog, the show finally informs us of some of the structure of the Galaxy Garrison. Sam says, “Tell all Garrison bases to call back fighters.” So, there is more than just one Garrison location. Though the Galaxy Garrison has always had some military element to it, it has been presented as an organization that conducted space exploration missions. Now, the Galaxy Garrison seems to be some kind of unified, worldwide military. I don’t know if this is the show having failed to properly define the parameters of the organization or if it’s a retcon. All Garrison bases have been attacked and are flying defense missions.

The one base Sanda and Sam are at is the only one that has forcefields for defense. It kind of makes the Garrison’s focus on developing fightercraft, since it seems they did so to the detriment of any other systems development, seem pointless. It makes me feel like the struggle of the previous episode is invalidated. I know the show would counter that the whole point is that last episode gave us four MFE pilots and the second-generation of fighters. Last episode’s position within the narrative makes it need to be about the broader totality of preparation for attack by the Galra, not just introducing four characters and their four fighter jets.

Sam tells Iverson to launch the MFEs and power up a fusion cannon. (They have a fusion cannon? This is literally the first mention of it.) Sanda threatens to court martial if any commands are given against her orders. This feels like the show is expressing a fundamental disdain for the military. Sam, despite having a supposed rank, does not at all behave like he’s progressed through a military program. Iverson too is now being written to disregard all military protocol. It is not in any way realistic for them, if this is actually supposed to be a military organization, to disregard the command of an Admiral like this. Every time Sam is pushed by the narrative to be right and Sanda to be wrong, it feels like the show is attacking the entire concept of the military. Either that, or those who wrote and produced these episodes are vastly ignorant of what the military is like.

Sam and Iverson pretty much throw the command structure in the trash. The four MFEs launch in their second-generation fighters. (I still can’t get over the animation error earlier). It’s still absurd that four fighters would ever be enough. The Galra fire on the particle barrier, which repels the attack easily.

James says, “Okay team, we’ve trained for this. We know their maneuvers and have the firepower to knock them out.” This doesn’t make any sense. How do they know Galra maneuvers since this is the first time they’ve fought them? Were there supposed to be files about Galra battle tactics in the bunch of files Sam had on his device? Wouldn’t all of the Garrison fighter pilots have trained to “know their maneuvers” then? Is the show really trying to say that only these four MFE pilots were properly trained? This is absurd. And how can James say they have “the firepower to knock them out,” when Sanda said that they hadn’t properly tested the second-generation fighters? I assume that these fighters have specific weapons systems that the first-generation did not? We only ever saw the first-generation launch one single salvo of missiles at the Galra ships, even though the first-generation fighters have a massive cannon on the underside of their nose, a cannon that looks identical to the one under the nose of the second-generation fighters. The MFEs and their fighters are feeling more and more contrived.

The fusion cannon at the Garrison base has come online, and Sam orders it to fire. Sanda just stands there. This is bafflingly badly written. This is more of the writers having already arrived at where they want the story to go with the characters rather than writing the story to develop to that point. And I continue to think that either the creatives on this show are offensively disdainful of the military, or they’re just totally ignorant. Sam has effectively successfully executed a mutiny, and I just don’t see how everyone under Sanda’s command would be so willing to go along with this.

Not that this show probably bothered to actually craft a command structure for the Galaxy Garrison, but since we’ve had both Commander and Admiral ranks used, let’s compare it to the United States Navy. Sanda is an Admiral, whereas Sam and Iverson have both been called Commander, though I question whether Sam is a ranked Commander or if he was just the Mission Commander in an astronaut sense and not in a military sense. If it is indeed that he was just a Mission Commander, then that makes his actions against Sanda even more egregious. In the US Navy, the rank of Admiral is five ranks above that of Commander. What Sam and Iverson are doing in acting against Sanda is so wrong.

The fusion cannon destroys one Galra ship. Sendak orders his fleet to attack vulnerable targets rather than this one base. The MFE pilots in their second-generation fighters didn’t really do much.

Sam says that the “rest of the globe […] need[s] to evacuate to safe zones immediately.” There are safe zones? Sanda says, “We should go after them.” She is the clear commanding officer, except for the Sam-Iverson mutiny, having her speak like this makes it sound like she’s trying to convince an officer who outranks her of a course of action. She’s an admiral, she should not be having to convince anyone here of anything. Sam got exactly what he wanted, the MFEs were put into use. And now that he has what he wanted, he no longer wants it. 

The Galra are tearing up Earth. Sendak’s subordinate tells him that there’s no sign of Voltron. Since Voltron has participated in battles far bigger than this, the idea that Sendak would think Voltron was hiding here somewhere is absurd. His subordinate asks, “Should we continue the occupation, sir?” The Galra haven’t started an occupation yet. This is still the invasion. This is simple writing to get correct and the fact that this show can’t even write something this simple correctly is a sign of a seriously malfunctioning writing process.

At the GG base, Veronica says, “Commander, we are no longer receiving responses on any channels. What are your orders?” The camera focuses on Sanda, like Veronica was addressing her, but if she was, why would Veronica have addressed Sanda as Commander instead of Admiral? The show has this be a moment that’s supposed to show how incompetent Sanda is, how she’s supposed to be obviously a bad leader, and Sam steps forward to give the heroic, commander speech. It just all seems so wrong to me.

Sam effectively taking command away from Sanda makes me think of Keith taking Black Paladin away from Shiro. In both cases, the show does not properly write any sort of transition that makes sense. It’s nothing but executive decree. It’s what the EPs want to happen, so it happens. They don’t really care that it makes no sense or is very poorly developed. Sanda says, “When this is all said and done, I’m going to have you stripped of your rank and thrown in the brig for defying my orders.” Why are they even still here? I cannot imagine an Admiral actually tolerating two Commanders undermining her authority like this. They should have already been arrested.

Sanda asks, “We don’t have the Lions. Why is Sendak still invading.” Sam says, “You don’t understand the Galra.” The implication is that Sam does. I can’t stand how much arrogance that Sam is written to have, and I know that the EPs and writers don’t even realize that they wrote Sam to be so extremely arrogant.

There’s a small meeting. Food supplies are limited and there aren’t the necessary supplies to finish building the Atlas. Veronica points out there’s an abandoned supply location not too far away. There’s apparently an underground tunnel system from World War III. There was a WWIII and the show is only just now in the seventh season mentioning this? I know we haven’t been on Earth for most of this show, so maybe that excuses what feels like really late world-building. This really does make this feel like the start of a totally different show.

Veronica says the Galra are using “what looks like random patrol patterns.” If it’s random, then it’s not a pattern. How did this get written? I mean, maybe, in a first draft I could see this being written, but it should have been fixed in a script revision.

The MFE pilots are going on this supply grab mission. Why are the four supposed best pilots in the world doing anything other than being near their fighters in case they’re needed? This is absolutely absurd. Really, they’re going because they’re the main characters now, not because it makes any operational sense for them to be going. This show seems to have no sense of what division of labor is, which is baffling since in order to get an animated show made, you have to use division of labor. Veronica is going with them, and I can understand her being part of this mission.

Veronica introduces herself to the MFEs, saying, “I’m an analyst and your handler.” James replies, “We don’t need a handler.” What does this show mean by the word “handler?” Is Veronica supposed to be in command of this mission? If so, then it’s more insubordination for James to reject her authority. It’s like this show seems to think that the military would work better if every lower ranked officer defied their superior officers.

Veronica asks James if he knows how to get to the depot, he says he doesn’t, that he’ll just use a guidance system. Veronica says that the guidance system uses a network that these tunnels block. So, James and the MFEs were being sent on a mission without any kind of mission briefing? This show has no clue whatsoever how anything in any organization works does it? I guess the dysfunctional ways organizations in this show are presented should be seen as a representation of how dysfunctional this show’s production organization was.

How is Kinkade kneeling on top of the vehicle they’re using and not being thrown off it? They get to the depot where both the supplies and the train are located. They load the train and start to repair it. As time passes, James spots two Galra sentries walking down the tunnel. He, Leifsdottir, and Kinkade fire on them, but their weapons have no effect. Veronica has a suitcase sized, Gatling gun style weapon. She says she’ll hold them off. It takes a lot of shots, but she’s able to eventually bring down the two sentries only for more to come walking down the tunnel. The MFEs board the train, Leifsdottir helping Rizavi, James and Kinkade continuing to try to use their rifles. Veronica tells them to go, but James says they’re not going to leave her. There’s a huge explosion, the tunnel collapses, though the train begins its journey.

We’re supposed to be sad, thinking Veronica is dead. Maybe I would feel more about her supposed death if she had an established character. That’s a huge part of the problem with these episodes. The show wants the emotion of these events, but the characters haven’t been built enough to produce the desired emotional impact. Rizavi asks if anyone knows how to get back. Again, it’s absurd that these four were going on this mission but had apparently almost zero preparation for the mission. How to get back is not a question that anyone would need to ask if this had been written properly. Leifsdottir memorized the path on the way in, so they get back.

Veronica’s “death,” especially knowing that it’s a narrative fakeout, feels like a disrespectful manipulation of the audience. Sam says, “We have a chance now” that they have the supplies. James rants, “A chance for what? We just bought ourselves time. What is that going to do for us?” Uh, yeah, buying time was the mission. Why are these characters written this ignorantly? Sam says, “Voltron will come.” He also wants to use the bought time to finish working on the Atlas.

Sendak orders the Galra to destroy Earth’s communication network. I thought it was already not working, but okay. It seems weird that the Galra have left it functioning until now. Sendak says if Voltron knows things are bad on Earth, they’ll be cautious, but if they don’t hear anything from Earth, they’ll come with “haste.” Whatever.

There’s a montage of time passing. Work on the Atlas. The Galra are building weird partial domes over areas.  Sanda asks Sam if the Atlas will be able to defend the Earth, Sam says, “It’s just one ship, and an untested one at that.” I remember a bit earlier in this episode when Sanda objected to the use of the second-generation fighters because they were untested, but Sam didn’t care about that then. It’s so inconsistent for him to care about ships being untested now.

I remember the first time I watched this episode, I was really confused about how much time had passed. I know the show used a montage, and montages imply time passing, but this episode doesn’t say how much time passed during that montage. Sam is called to the hangar. There, he sees Veronica has returned. She has a bunch of other humans with her. She says she was saved by and has been working with “an underground resistance network.” The montage is not enough to produce a sense of time passing that Veronica’s return feels like some hopeful development. There is only three minutes and 49 seconds between the tunnel collapsing and Veronica being shown to be alive. She hasn’t been “dead” for enough screen time yet for her return to feel triumphant. Since her return is in the same episode she died, it makes her death even more blatantly manipulative than if she had returned in a later episode.

Veronica says this resistance group’s intel “led [her] to [her] family.” It would help to know where this Galaxy Garrison base is. I thought it was in the southwest of the US, but if that’s where they were, then how was Veronica able to get her family from Cuba? Yeah, Veronica is Lance’s sister, but the show hasn’t bothered to state that explicitly until right now. I am baffled why. Knowing she was Lance’s sister while going through all the threat of this episode would have made the tension of that threat and the emotion of her fakeout “death” actually have more impact. By keeping her relationship with Lance unstated until now, the episode deprived itself of the necessary connection to the main characters that this episode really needed.

Veronica reports that the Galra have been putting humans into work camps and using them to build Galra installations around the planet. This isn’t really a report of anything new since this was part of the montage.

Sam declares they need to get “one last message out to Voltron.” They suddenly have a big rocket that they’re launching into space. The launch animation made me unintentionally laugh because the booster rockets separate from the main rocket, which they would do once they had finished burning their fuel boosting the main rocket, but the problem is that the boosters after separation while they’re falling away from the main rocket, those booster rockets were still producing visible thrust exhaust, so there’s no reason they would have separated yet. Sometimes like this, even the animation looks like no one bothered to do even basic research.

Sendak orders the rocket destroyed, and the Galra seemingly blow it up, until somehow a bunch of smaller satellites or something are flying all over the place. Sam says, “He fell for it.” It’s so confusing. This show does this a lot. Something is depicted visually with no explanation, and it makes you go, what just happened, and then a bit after it happened a character explains it. It’s a storytelling style that I just find disorienting. Apparently, the missile, despite being blown up, distributed “micro transmitters, millions of them, spreading throughout the sector.” Really, “throughout the sector?” They’re only shown being around Earth.

Unsurprisingly, they’re broadcasting the message Sam sent and Voltron received at the start of last episode.

Cut to who knows how much time later. Sam is giving a big speech like he’s the leader of everyone, Sanda, despite significantly outranking Sam stands quiet, obediently behind her subordinate. Sam’s speech is supposed to be inspirational, but because I don’t buy into Sam as a leader because of the absurdity of how he’s assumed this position, it just frustrates me. He says they have resources left only for one last stand.

Then cut to back millions of light-years outside the Milky Way, Voltron there, and the third time Keith has piloted Voltron forward.

Like I said about rewatching last episode, this one also does not hold up well under my increased scrutiny of this rewatch. I’m still furious about the show killing Adam and JDS’s and LM’s pathetic attempts to defend that decision. This rewatch, I was more baffled by the, at best, ignorant way military command was written.

Like most of this show, this episode really needs help.

[thecurlybiochemist-blog]

My 4 best reads of 2018

I read 36 books last year. It’s definitely not the number of books that makes people go ‘Wow!’, but considering that I had my final exams this year and only really started to read a lot when I went to high school, I’m quite proud of myself. However, there were 4 books that especially impacted me in one way or another and that I enjoyed the most, which is what I want to tell you about today!

Let’s start with a book that was, in a way, life-changing for me, as it began my fascination with neuroscience!

1. ‘The Brain: The Story of You’ by David Eagleman

Locked in the silence and darkness of your skull, your brain fashions the rich narratives of your reality and your identity. Join renowned neuroscientist David Eagleman for a journey into the questions at the mysterious heart of our existence. What is reality? Who are “you”? How do you make decisions? Why does your brain need other people? How is technology poised to change what it means to be human? In the course of his investigations, Eagleman guides us through the world of extreme sports, criminal justice, facial expressions, genocide, brain surgery, gut feelings, robotics, and the search for immortality. 

Like I said, the book is absolutely fascinating. I read it in about 2 days (school days!), because I just couldn’t stop reading. It explains some basic neuroscientific concepts as well as talks about some recent breakthroughs in neuroscience. I really recommend it to anyone who is curious about what the part of us that makes us us really does. Now, however, after reading a few more books about neuroscience I can see that the book is kind of vague and doesn’t really get into the hard science behind a lot of the concept, but that is a good thing. It is meant for people without a scientific background and it is supposed to interest you in neuroscience – I can assure you that it does that really well!

2. ‘Mindset: The New Psychology of Success’ by Carl Dweck

This is another life-changing book, but in a different way. It really impacted the way I think about life, my achievements, school and my future.

Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavour can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities. People with a fixed mindset—those who believe that abilities are fixed—are less likely to flourish than those with a growth mindset—those who believe that abilities can be developed. Mindset reveals how great parents, teachers, managers, and athletes can put this idea to use to foster outstanding accomplishment.

I really recommend this book to anyone interested in self-development, but also anyone who feels that there’s something holding them back in achieving what they dream of. I’m going to share with you a quote from the book that I find really inspiring and that I implement in my life:

Think of times other people outdid you and you just assumed they were smarter or more talented. Now consider the idea that they just used better strategies, taught themselves more, practiced harder, and worked their way through obstacles. You can do that too, if you want to.

3. ‘Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking’ by Susan Cain

I’ve always debated where I truly lie on the introvert-extrovert scale. There used to be a time when I thought that I was an extrovert (the thought is now hilarious and surreal to me!). As I realised that I was, indeed, an introvert, there were times when I thought of my introversion as something undesired, something to be ashamed of, even.

This book helped me realise that it is not true at all. I’ve learnt to accept, and even love, my introverted nature! I recommend it to any of my fellow introverts, but also anyone who is interested in psychology!

Shyness is the fear of social disapproval or humiliation, while introversion is a preference for environments that are not overstimulating. Shyness is inherently painful; introversion is not.

4. ‘Origin’ by Dan Brown

You may or may not know that I am a HUGE fan of Dan Bown’s books. Unfortunately, there’s one thing that I really hate about them now – I’ve read them all! ‘Origin’ was the last book that I had left and I hugely enjoyed it! It’s the only fiction book here, but I just had to include it.

Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, arrives at the ultramodern Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend a major announcement—the unveiling of a discovery that “will change the face of science forever.” The evening’s host is Edmond Kirsch, a forty-year-old billionaire and futurist whose dazzling high-tech inventions and audacious predictions have made him a renowned global figure. Kirsch, who was one of Langdon’s first students at Harvard two decades earlier, is about to reveal an astonishing breakthrough... one that will answer two of the fundamental questions of human existence.

This book is for everyone, really. It’s extremely interesting and again, makes you never want to stop reading it!

And these are my 4 favourite books that I read in 2018! If you have already read any of these, feel free to share your thoughts with me. See you soon!

[commodorecliche]

Gimme all the book recs Please :D

yaaaaaaaaaaaas okay great. i love sharing books i love.  

1. The Thief of Always - Clive BarkerGenre: Dark FantasyBig personal favorite of mine. My father read this to me when I was a kid, and it literally has stuck with me since then. Every now and then I go back and reread it just for fun. It’s a wonderfully spooky little story, accompanied by some really lovely and somewhat off-kilter illustrations. Much like Coraline, it’s a novel that is a fable for children, and a tale of terror for adults.

After a mysterious stranger promises to end his boredom with a trip to the magical Holiday House, ten-year-old Harvey learns that his fun has a high price.

2. House of Leaves - Mark Z. DanielewskiGenre: Postmodernism, horrorHands down an absolute favorite. This is a book I literally recommend to everyone. This is a book that made me viscerally uncomfortable, at times I didn’t even sleep in the same room as it. I made it sleep in the living room. There is nothing overtly terrifying about the book, but its format and its unsettlingly immersive nature will lead you down a road unlike any other. 

In 1997, Johnny Truant has stumbled upon a chest full of scrap papers that had once belonged to a man named Zampono. The papers aren’t just scraps though, they’re a chaotic but detailed transcription of a series called the Navidson Record. The Navidson Record is a series of videos made by a family who has discovered that their new house appears to change dimensions almost daily, it has hallways that shouldn’t exist, doors that should lead outside but instead lead into nothingness. Johnny attempts to re-order and reconstruct Zampono’s papers, and along the way begins to lose himself as well. 

3. The Postmortal - Drew MagaryGenre: Science Fiction, Postmodern DystopiaReally funny, really dark, and full of a surprising amount of morality and humanity in a pre-apocalyptic world. 

Imagine a near future where a cure for aging is discovered and-after much political and moral debate-made available to people worldwide. Immortality, however, comes with its own unique problems-including evil green people, government euthanasia programs, a disturbing new religious cult, and other horrors.    

4. Horrorstor - Grady HendrixGenre: Comedy, HorrorHonestly this book is just balls to the wall fun. It’s a horror novel that’s laid out like the world’s most messed up IKEA catalog. Spooky at times, ridiculous and funny, at times moving, while also offering great social commentary on consumerism and the the current status of retail workers. 

Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking. To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination. 

5. Rant - Chuck PalahniukGenre: Science Fiction, Horror, SatireThis is a book I read several years ago and that I still think about from time to time. I haven’t had time to sit down and reread it, but parts of it still resonate with me today. This is a very peculiar story and it is told in a rather peculiar fashion (it is an oral history, and as such is told in a very conversational way by a number of different characters with a wide variety of thoughts and opinions on the titular Rant. It’s hard to properly describe this book, but let’s just say it’s been in my reread list for a while now. 

Buster “Rant” Casey just may be the most efficient serial killer of our time. A high school rebel, Rant Casey escapes from his small town home for the big city where he becomes the leader of an urban demolition derby called Party Crashing. Rant Casey will die a spectacular highway death, after which his friends gather the testimony needed to build an oral history of his short, violent life. 

6. John Dies at the End - David WongGenre: Comedy, Horror, Dark FantasyHoly god what do I even say about this book? It is just hilariously and marvelously insane. A perfect mix of cosmic fantasy, horror, comedy, and lunacy, and I loved every minute of reading it. I still have the rest of the series lined up to read, too!

The drug is called Soy Sauce and it gives users a window into another dimension. John and I never had the chance to say no. You still do. I’m sorry to have involved you in this, I really am. But as you read about these terrible events and the very dark epoch the world is about to enter as a result, it is crucial you keep one thing in mind: None of this was my fault. 

7. Sphere - Michael CrichtonGenre: Science Fiction, Deep Sea HorrorThis is one I actually JUST finished, and I absolutely adored it. I had a couple small complaints about it, but overall, it was a wonderful read and very engrossing. Plus, I’m always a sucker for deep sea horror. 

A group of American scientists are rushed to a huge vessel that has been discovered resting on the ocean floor in the middle of the South Pacific. What they find defies their imaginations and mocks their attempts at logical explanation. It is a spaceship of phenomenal dimensions, apparently, undamaged by its fall from the sky. And, most startling, it appears to be at least three hundred years old…. 

8. I, Lucifer - Glen DuncanGenre: Religious Fantasy, Occult FictionThis book is incredibly well researched, thought out, and characterized, as well as funny and extremely thought-provoking. I’d never expected to see a story that would give me a realistic and modern look into the Devil’s side of the story. I especially never expected to see a story that would make the Devil learn what it is to be human, either. All in all just an A+, fantastical read. 

The Prince of Darkness has been given one last shot at redemption, provided he can live out a reasonably blameless life on earth. Highly sceptical, naturally, the Old Dealmaker negotiates a trial period - a summer holiday in a human body, with all the delights of the flesh. The body, however, turns out to be that of Declan Gunn, a depressed writer living in Clerkenwell, interrupted in his bath mid-suicide. Ever the opportunist, and with his main scheme bubbling in the background, Luce takes the chance to tap out a few thoughts - to straighten the biblical record, to celebrate his favourite achievements, to let us know just what it’s like being him. Neither living nor explaining turns out to be as easy as it looks. Beset by distractions, miscalculations and all the natural shocks that flesh is heir to, the Father of Lies slowly begins to learn what it’s like being us. 

9. The Wasp Factory - Iain BanksGenre: Psychological HorrorLook, I want to say this right off the bat. This book is… not for everyone. Trust me when I say this is an extremely dark book with a lot of dark content. I would say that if you have any potential triggers, you may want to message me first and I will give you a better rundown of what all this book entails. This is a true piece of horror fiction. But it’s also incredible. I ate this book up in about two days and it is one of my favorite pieces of dark fiction to date. So yeah, chat with me if you have any concerns, but if you enjoy truly dark fiction, then this is up your alley. 

Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I’d disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim. That’s my score to date. Three. I haven’t killed anybody for years, and don’t intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through. 

10. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (the whole series, trust me)Genre: Comedy, Science Fiction, Cosmic FantasyJust trust me when I say this is a series that literally everyone should read at least once in their life. They are unflabbably hilarious in a way that only Douglas Adams could be, and they are just truly unique. This series is (rightfully) a classic and shouldn’t be missed. 

Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor. Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide (“A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have”).

11. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War - Max Brooks Genre: Zombie horror, Faux HistoryI beg you - do not judge this book by the very terrible movie that was made about it. It is an entirely different animal than that mess of a movie, I promise. World War Z is a masterfully crafted book that details the zombie apocalypse in ways never before done in fiction. The Battle of Yonkers scenes and the testimony of Tomonaga Ijiro still stick in my head to this day. This book is a triumph of horror, ‘history’, and humanity, all balled into a distinctly unique experience. 

The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years. 

12. The Raw Shark Texts - Steven HallGenre: Fantasy/Realism, Meta-fiction, MysteryThis is a tough one to put into words. I read this many years ago, and I remember it more as a series of emotional experiences rather than just as a singular plot. Which I think really speaks to its character as a book. This is a book that deals with dissociation, memory loss, our sense of self, how easily we can lose that sense, and our struggle to hold onto or to rediscover the world we know and the people we believe ourselves to be. This book is just… an experience, much like House of Leaves. It’s immersive, and at times quite unsettling. 

Eric Sanderson wakes up in a house he doesn’t recognize, unable to remember anything of his life. All he has left are his diary entries recalling Clio, a perfect love who died under mysterious circumstances, and a house that may contain the secrets to Eric’s prior life. But there may be more to this story, or it may be a different story altogether. With the help of allies found on the fringes of society, Eric embarks on an edge-of-your-seat journey to uncover the truth about himself and to escape the predatory forces that threaten to consume him. 

I think 12 should be good for now! I certainly have more though, if you want them!! 

Bonus, Currently Reading: The Library at Mount Char - Scott HawkinsGenre: Contemporary Fantasy, Horror, Dark FantasyI don’t have a whole lot to say about this yet since I’m not very far into it, but so far it’s been extremely intriguing, and Hawkins’ writing is truly beautiful. 

A missing God. A library with the secrets to the universe. A woman too busy to notice her heart slipping away. Carolyn’s not so different from the other people around her. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a phone. Clothes are a bit tricky, but everyone says nice things about her outfit with the Christmas sweater over the gold bicycle shorts. After all, she was a normal American herself once. That was a long time ago, of course. Before her parents died. Before she and the others were taken in by the man they called Father. 

Bonus 2, Up Next to Read: Dark Matter: A Ghost Story - Michelle PaverGenre: Horror

January 1937. Clouds of war are gathering over a fogbound London. Twenty-eight year old Jack is poor, lonely, and desperate to change his life, so when he’s offered the chance to join an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it. Spirits are high as the ship leaves Norway: five men and eight huskies, crossing the Barents Sea by the light of the midnight sun. At last they reach the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year, Gruhuken, but the Arctic summer is brief. As night returns to claim the land, Jack feels a creeping unease. One by one, his companions are forced to leave. He faces a stark choice: stay or go. Soon he will see the last of the sun, as the polar night engulfs the camp in months of darkness. Soon he will reach the point of no return–when the sea will freeze, making escape impossible. Gruhuken is not uninhabited. Jack is not alone. Something walks there in the dark… 

(also if any of y’all have read these, i’d love to hear YOUR thoughts on them too)

[seanomahony-blog1]

The Changing Web - ‘Web 3.0, 4.0 & Blockchain Technology’

THE CHANGING WEB

‘Web 3.0, 4.0 & Blockchain Technology’

Table of Contents

Intro - Review of Blockchain Technology ................................................  3

Bitcoin Definition ...................................................................................... 4

How it Works ............................................................................................ 4

Impact of Blockchain Technology ............................................................ 5

The Black Market ..................................................................................... 5

DApps & Smart Contracts ........................................................................ 5

Banking Sector ......................................................................................... 6

Reflection on the Evolution of Blockchain Technology ............................ 7

Unbanked and Undocumented ... ............................................................ 7

Business ................................................................................................... 8

Conclusion ............................................................................................... 8

The Changing Web – ‘Web 3.0, 4.0 and Blockchain Technology’

“A blockchain is a digitized, decentralized, public ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions. Constantly growing as ‘completed’ blocks (the most recent transactions) are recorded and added to it in chronological order, it allows market participants to keep track of digital currency transactions without central record-keeping. Each node (a computer connected to the network) gets a copy of the blockchain, which is downloaded automatically.”i

Intro - Review of Blockchain Technology

In late 2017, a cauldron started to boil similar to the ‘dot com’ bubble of the 1990s and 2000s as billions of dollars poured into the unregulated, ‘wild west’ of cryptocurrency markets. Millions of people worldwide, traded ‘cryptos’ using exchanges based in Hong Kong, China and New Zealand.

As Large amounts of capital flooded into these volatile markets prices could shoot-up or drop off the bat of a single tweet, or Reddit post. ‘Noobs’ were encouraged to ‘HODL’, a purposely misspelt acronym - ‘hold on for dear life’, and not to panic sell as prices would eventually recover. Like wall street on amphetamines, a week in crypto markets were equivalent to a month on the NASDAQ. Market leader ‘Bitcoin’ at one-point hit $21,000 a coin (in December 2013 it was trading in the mid $300s).ii Like all bubbles, it eventually popped in mid-January and a lot of capital changed hands. A classic gold rush, those who got in early made money and those who were late to the party generally got scalded.

But what are these crypto-currencies? Why have they become so popular in recent years? Are they important to the development of digital technology? And if so, why? In order to understand it’s development, we need to go back to the financial crash of 2008 where elusive and enigmatic creator ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ first conceived Bitcoin.iii

Roots and Political Importance

2008 was a devastating year for financial markets as the world economy collapsed due to reckless lending practices and a deregulated credit market caused a huge bubble that eventually burst, destroying the U.S. economy, leaving millions homeless and wreaked havoc in Europe, especially Ireland, Greece, Spain and Italy. Due to this, many began to distrust centralized financial institutions, seeking safer alternatives. This is when Bitcoin was born. In 2013, Cypriots fearing the safety of their bank deposits drove the price of bitcoin up 87% in March of 2013. iv 13,000 miles away from and 2 months later in June of 2013, and13,000 miles away in Hong Kong former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents to the Guardian and Washington Post exposing the American National Security Agency’s spy program PRISM “which forces biggest US internet companies to hand over data on domestic users” and “collects over 25 million email inbox views and contact lists a year from online services like Yahoo, Gmail and Facebook” encouraging people to become aware of how their data is being collected and and the importance of encryption as a necessary protection in our day to day lives (these leaks have paved the way to the recent GDPR data protection act in Europe earlier this year).v At the same time as these leaks, libertarian Ross Ulbricht (arrested in October of 2013) was running a multi-million global online drug and weapon bazaar on the dark web called the Silk Road. This network was fueled by bitcoin.

It’s important to note the political climate and general public sentiment between 2008 and 2013 to understand the blockchain space today as it demonstrates a psychological shift as distrust in banks were at an all time generational low which has paved the way forthe ‘post-trust’ economy blooming today.

Bitcoin Definition

“Bitcoin (BTC) is a digital currency, which is used and distributed electronically. Bitcoin is adecentralized peer-to-peer network. No single institution or person controls it. Bitcoins can’tbe printed and their amount is very limited – only 21 million Bitcoins can ever be created.”vi

Bitcoin is a monumentally important development in both financial and digital history for the simple reason that it is a trustless payment system with no central governing body.

How it Works

Understanding how bitcoin works is fundamental to understanding blockchain technology and what I believe the future of web development, the basics of which are easy to understand –

Any given blockchain consists of a single chain of information, arranged in chronological order. In principle this information can be any string of 1s and 0s – emails, contracts, land titles etc.… however in bitcoin's case the information is mostly transactions. Another name for a blockchain is a "distributed ledger" and Bitcoin's ledger is public.Anyone can download it in its entirety or head to any number of sites that parse it. You can

see, for example, that

15N3yGu3UFHeyUNdzQ5sS3aRFRzu5Ae7EZ sent 0.01718427 bitcoin to 1JHG2qjdk5Khiq7X5xQrr1wfigepJEK3t on August 14, 2017, between 11:10 and 11:20 a.m.vii

Person A sent X bitcoin to person B, who sent Y bitcoin to person C, etc. If this was through an online banking service, the bank, or both banks (if they have separate banks) would validate the transaction. Bitcoin transactions are different because they are decentralized.

In other words, everyone keeps an eye on everyone else. No one needs to know or trust anyone as transactions are validated through a distributed consensus system called ‘mining’, which enforces a chronological order to the blockchain, protecting the neutrality of the network, and allows different computers to agree on the state of the system, or in simple terms, a global network of computers set-up to automatically validate transactions in chronological order. Every transaction is recorded by a distributed public ledger of which each miner has a copy (automatically downloaded after each transaction). This makes the system difficult to corrupt. viii ix

Impact of Blockchain Technology

The Black Market

In the early days, bitcoin had a huge impact on the black market and became known as a medium of exchange for illegal activities online. A new kind of drug dealer was born. Most famously is a man named Ross Ulbricht (inspired by the Austrian economic theory of Ludwig Von Mises and Murray Rothbard), set-up and ran the Silk Road, an online international illegal drug and weapons bazaar similar to Ebay and Amazon where buyers, sellers and their product would be rated through a user review system. This website was run on bitcoin as it allowed frictionless cross-boarder payments between buyers and sellers. Many pubs also started to accept BTC as payment, and in 2010 Papa Johns once accepted a bitcoin payment for pizza in the US.x xi

In recent years a number of ‘privacy coins’ have sprung up such as Dash, Monero and Verge. Monero is similar to Bitcoin however, payments are scrambled 3 times before being recorded on the Monero ledger making it near impossible to trace payments, providing an ideal medium of exchange for illegal activities. Verge is an interesting one, as it has both a private and public ledger, and you can choose to switch between them depending on what you are purchasing. Verge partnered with adult entertainment giant ‘Pornhub’ earlier this year allowing anonymous safe anonymous payments for pornography.

DApps & Smart Contracts

Although still a minority sport, the influence of crypto currencies began to trickle into the technology sector with the emergence of new coins such as Litecoin and Swiftcoin in 2011, (which can perform transactions much faster than its predecessor). However, 2015 saw the biggest change in the cryptocurrency space that would have a huge influence on the technology sector. The birth of Ethereum, a planetary scale computer powered by blockchain technology” was the first decentralized application blockchain that allows developers to build and release applications on the network. While the Bitcoin blockchain facilitates electronic cash payments, the Ethereum blockchain facilitates the running of code on any decentralized application, so as bitcoin is a new currency and accepted as a medium of exchange, ‘ether’ is gas to fuel the applications. xii

Imagine all of Google’s servers in one place, then break them up into virtual tokens (ether) and distribute them to people across the world. Each token is a node on the Ethereum network and the aggregate grid of these nodes now becomes the world’s largest web server, like a brand new internet system.

DApps are made possible by ‘Smart Contract’ technology -

“A contract is an agreement having a lawful contract entered into voluntarily by two or more parties, each of whom intends to create one or more legal contracts between them. A smart contract is a computer protocol that facilitates, verifies, or enforces the negotiation of a contract, or that obviate the need for a contractual clause” Smart contracts eliminate the need for a middle-man or third party, so any application that is centralized, a decentralized version can be made. For example, a decentralized version of

Dropbox is called Storj. Storj allows anyone around the world to lease out hard-drive space to anyone using the Storj protocol.

As a user, your experience is similar to that of Dropbox as I am accessing hard drive space in the cloud, however it isn’t governed by a central body. Storj is run on the Ethereum network using EC20 tokens. Ethereum and other Dapp and Smart Contract blockchains are important because the public distributed ledger technology allows no third party interference and no censorship, which could revolutionize law and voting practices and make society and private business a fairer place. New organisations and companies are competing with Ethereum to become the first mainstream DApp network, mostly importantly EOS and Cardano.

Banking Sector

The banking system as we know it has been disrupted by crypto-currencies and many banks such as Santander, JP Morgan Singapore and Bank of America are beginning to adopt this new technology.xiii Bitcoin was embryonic in the development of this space because it clunky and slow, however paradoxically, it paved the way for 2 important currencies are Ripple (XRP) and Stellar (XLM) which have become important in the development in the movement of money, particularly the settlement of cross-border payments and digital settlements. The way to understand these currencies or systems, is to think of banks as software companies. These software companies need a safe and secure back-end rail network for their transactions which these currencies allow, For example;

Ripple is a near instantaneous system that facilitates money transfer (partnered with Santander, the first UK bank to introduce blockchain technology, they are also partnered with 61 Japanese banks)xiv xv. For example; if person A sends person B 10XRP it will arrive in person B’s digital wallet almost instantaneously, or if bank A wants to send bank B $1 million, it will be converted into XRP momentarily and back into $ on the other end. So in this way XRP is used as a medium of settlement. Ripple is also a centralized blockchain who controls most of it’s supply, the first central bank of cryptocurrency.

Stellar Lumens (originally a hard-fork from Ripple) is a similar protocol however it is completely decentralized and a non-profit organization aims to be the backend lightening railway for P2P money transfers, for example facilitating and speeding up Western Union and Moneygram payments, allowing money to ‘move like email’. IBM have partnered with

Stellar Lumens and have just launched their ‘World Wire Payment System’ which aims to "clear and settle cross-border payments" in near real time and could “drastically improve international transactions and advancing financial inclusion in developing nations."xvi Stellar have also partnered with Deloitte, and Stripe (Stripe are partnered with Open Table) digital payments system.

Reflection on the Evolution of Blockchain Technology

To reflect on the evolution of blockchain technology I will paraphrase Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson – the future will be decentralized (or at least it will be a viable option). I believe that decentralization can do good for the world and help to improve people’s lives in less developed societies. I also see the blockchain and smart contracts as a necessary tool in the evolution in the business world.

Unbanked and Undocumented

Currently approximately 4 billion of the world’s population is banked and documented, and the other 3 billion unbanked and undocumented. Take John for example, an Irish male, 30 years of age, university educated, decent work history, owns a modest house and car, has insurance for both, and has access to relatively cheap credit. Then take Ahmed, a 45-year-old Afghani male who has no formal documentation (passport, driving license, or birth certificate) lives in a cash economy, has no verifiable work history, does not own deeds to his land, and the only credit he has access to is from his friends or family. His brother sends him money from India with a 15% remittance cost, and all his assets are also uninsured.xvii

Blockchain and smart contract technology allow Ahmed to build a digital history, register and store documents such as land deeds in the blockchain regardless of third party threats or the country’s government, once information is in the blockchain, it cannot be taken out. Ahmed’s brother in India, can also send send money at a fraction of a cent over the Stellar network for example which can be accessed almost instantaneously and with a tiny remittance fee. Smart contract technology also allows Ahmed access to decentralized microlending and micro-insurance which in-turn offers Ahmed a chance to develop a credit score.

The next problem is that only 51% of the world’s population is online, so how can Ahmed access these services? As any web service can be decentralized just like mining bitcoin, or using Storj to store files, so can ISPs (internet service providers). So, by using old Wi-Fi hardware or an old mobile phone, Ahmed can be a node on a network providing internet to his community.xviii

Business

Not all blockchains are decentralized, and the private sector has begun to adopt this technology. For example, IOTA, a leading organization in the ‘internet of things’ space is a private blockchain based in Germany and provides a platform for the machine economy (currently working with Samsung and Volkswagen). They have also been funded as part of the EU Horizon 2020 ‘Smart City’ initiative which is overseen by the University of Oslo and aims to make selected European cities produce more energy then they use. The Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba is partnered with Waltonchain, an IoT (internet of things) logistics project which facilitates supply-chain management, and VeChain another private blockchain used for supply-chain management is currently partnered with BMW and DB Schenker.

Governments are also starting to use blockchain technologies, for example;

• Chile are using the Ethereum network to track data and finances from the energy grid.xix

• Canada is testing out the Ethereum blockchain for transparency of government grants as a means to fight corruption.xx

• Britain are testing blockchain technology for registering documents in the national archives.xxi

• Australia is using the blockchain to build a social welfare system.xxii

• Estonia is using the blockchain to secure health records. xxiii

Conclusion

Unfortunately, cryptocurrencies make illegal activity a lot easier. Online drug and weapon bazaars continue to crop up since the Silk Road has been shut down. Currencies such as Monero and Dash are almost impossible to trace, and and anyone who knows what they are doing can access these sites on the Dark web. Overall I believe the shift toward blockchain and smart contract technology to be a positive one and a very important development of our time, leading us into web 3.0 and 4.0.

Although still in it’s early stages, this technology has the power to democratize the internet through decentralization and using smart contracts to protect our data, which in-turn redistributes the power that big corporations Facebook, and Google have accumulated over the years through data collection back into the hands of the individual, protecting people from the potential abuse of power like the Cambridge Analytica scandal which came to light earlier this year.

Politically, this technology is also very important, and can aid in the fight against corruption. For example, the use of the Ethereum network to aid the transparency of government grants and the government of Estonia using the blockchain to secure health records are positive steps toward safer governance. As more and more start to utilize this technology, the potential for data collection by big tech companies and governments operating within legal grey areas will be diminished.

Edward Snowden’s 2013 NSA leaks exposed the extent to which governments and third

parties have access to our personal data which was a wake-up call to many. Following these revelations, Austrian native Max Schrems took on Facebook for being in breach of EU law, which led to the collapse of the ‘Safe Harbour’ data agreement between the EU and US which thousands of companies were using to their advantage. This ultimately resulted in the GDPR law implemented in the EU in 2016. Blockchain and smart contract technology will act as a data protection mechanism in the future and disempower data collection companies through encryption of personal data. As demonstrated the same technology can also be used to protect and aid people in less-developed countries providing access to loans and insurance, and provide a safe place to store data which was previously not easily available.xxiv

At the moment, this space is similar to the internet 1994. It’s too early to tell, but big change appears to be on the horizon as individuals, big companies and governments continue to invest in the blockchain.

Bibliography

i ‘What is a Blockchain?’ (2018), Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blockchain.asp (Accessed: 13 September 2018)

ii ‘Bitcoin Price, a Year In Review’ (2014), Available at: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoinprice-2014-year-review/ (Accessed: 13 September 2018)

iii ‘Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s Enigmatic Creator’ (2018), Available at:

https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2018/09/01/satoshi-nakamoto-bitcoinsenigmatic-creator (Accessed: 13 September 2018)

iv ‘Bitcoin Price Surges Post-Cyprus Bailout’ (2013), Available at:

https://money.cnn.com/2013/03/28/investing/bitcoin-cyprus/index.html (Accessed: 13 September 2018)

v ‘Edward Snowden Timeline’ (2014), Available at:

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/edward-snowden-interview/edward-snowdentimeline-n114871 (Accessed: 13 September 2018)

vi ‘What is Bitcoin?...’ (2018), Available at: 

https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-forbeginners/what-is-bitcoin#bitcoin-definition (Accessed: 13 September 2018)

vii ‘How Does Bitcoin Work?’ (2018), Available at:

https://www.investopedia.com/news/how-bitcoin-works/ (Accessed 14 September 2018)

viii ‘Bitcoin Confirmations’ (2018), Available at: http://bitcoins.net/guides/bitcoinconfirmations.asp (Accessed: 13 September 2018)

ix ‘How Does Bitcoin Work?’ (2018), Available at: https://bitcoin.org/en/how-it-works

(Accessed: 14 September 2018)

x ‘He Paid How Much…’ (2014), Available at: https://www.coindesk.com/he-paid-how-muchcoindesk-releases-bitcoin-pizza-day-price-tracker/ (Accessed: 14 September 2018)

xi ‘…Buy Pints Using Bitcoin in Dublin’ (2015), Available at: http://publin.ie/2015/heres-howyou-can-buy-pints-using-bitcoin-in-dublin/ (Accessed: 14 September 2018)

xii ‘Ethereum: The World Computer’ (2015), Available at:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6rYoXJ_3BbPyWx_GQDDRRQ (Accessed: 14 September 2018)

xiii ‘Comprehensive List of Banks Using Blockchain Technology’ (2018), Available at:

https://hackernoon.com/comprehensive-list-of-banks-using-blockchain-technology-97c08fa88385 (Accessed: 14 September 2018)

xiv ‘Ripple Partners with 61 Japanese Banks’ (2018), Available at:

https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/ripple-partners-61-japanesebanks-develop-domestic-payments-app/ (Accessed: 14 September 2018)

xv ‘Santander Becomes First UK Bank to Introduce Blockchain Technology…’ (2018), Available at: https://www.santander.com/csgs/Satellite?appID=santander.wc.CFWCSancomQP01&canal=CSCORP&cid=1278712674240&empr=CFWCSancomQP01&leng=pt_PT&pagename=CFWCSancomQP01%2FGSNoticia%2FCFQP01_GSNoticiaDetalleImpresion_PT48 (Accessed: 14

September 2018)

xvi ‘IBM Introduces World Wire Payment System on Stellar Network’ (2018), Available at: 

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/ibm-introduces-world-wire-payment-system-stellarnetwork/

(Accessed: 14 September 2018)

xvii Hoskinson, C, (2014), TedxBermuda, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97ufCT6lQcY

(Accessed: 15 September 2018)

xviii ‘Global Internet Usage’ (2017), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Internet_usage

(Accessed: 15 September 2018)

xix ‘Chile is Using Ethereum’s Blockchain...’ (2018), https://www.coindesk.com/chile-to-useethereums-blockchain-to-track-energy-data/ (Accessed: 15 September 2018)

xx ‘Canada Leverages Etheruem Blockchain…’ (2018), https://www.ethnews.com/canadaleverages-ethereum-blockchain-for-public-transparency-of-government-grant (Accessed: 15 September 2018)

xxi ‘Trustworthy Technology…’ (2018),

https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/trustworthy-technology-future-digital-archives/

(Accessed: 15 September 2018)

xxii Welfare Payments in Australia Could Be Delivered Over The Blockchain’ (2018),

https://www.zdnet.com/article/welfare-payments-in-australia-could-be-delivered-overblockchain/

(Accessed: 15 September 2018)

xxiii ‘Estonia is Using…’ (2016), https://www.businessinsider.com/guardtime-estonian-healthrecords-industrial-blockchain-bitcoin-2016-3?r=UK&IR=T (Accessed: 15 September 2018)

xxiv ‘How Did We Get Here?’ (2018), https://eugdpr.org/the-process/how-did-we-get-here/

(Accessed: 16 September 2018)

[onkarshah]

12 effective tips to learn English fast and easy

 1. Begin talking at the earliest opportunity

On the off chance that you are significant about figuring out how to communicate in English rapidly, the proof is clear: having ordinary discussions with a familiar speaker is basically the main way.

The quicker you can break the psychological obstruction of testing out your language abilities without holding back, the quicker you will actually want to certainly talk.

A recent report distributed by the University of Michigan showed that understudies learning a language by having discussions over a webcam will generally see a lot quicker results than those utilizing conventional techniques. 

Bunch A was concentrating on utilizing punctuation and jargon works out

Bunch B was advancing by talking, utilizing video innovation

Following twelve weeks, it was tracked down that Group A had made no huge improvement, however, Group B had fostered their language abilities essentially. They had acquired different vocabularies, performed better in listening understanding tests, were better ready to utilize syntax, and had the option to talk all the more unhesitatingly.

Set forth plainly, regardless of whether you concentrate on jargon works out, language illustrations and hypothesis consistently for quite a long time, except if you learn English by talking, How frequently have you heard somebody say, "I can see the vast majority of what I hear in English, yet I am not truly adept at talking it"?

Preply has a great many master guides prepared to talk over webcam, and you can change our channels to show the people who charge what you can bear to just compensation.

Having a local speaker's full focus for ordinary one-hour meetings can feel extreme, yet that is on the grounds that it is profoundly viable. You will see genuine improvement quickly. We are certain to such an extent that all illustrations accompany a 100 percent fulfillment ensure.

2. Begin perusing

It has never been simpler to track down perusing materials in English, or speedier to look things into on Google Translate assuming you get disappointed. In the event that you're not exactly prepared to handle the total works of Shakespeare, attempt:

Perusing big name tattle on simple perusing sites like Buzzfeed, Mashable or Upworthy

Changing your pursuit program to show English language results naturally

Following more American/British/Australian well known individuals on Twitter and Facebook

On the off chance that you wind up pausing and beginning a great deal, take a stab at concentrating on this rundown of "Broil words". They are believed to be the initial 1000 words fundamental for perusing in English, and make up around half of all composed text.

3. Make yourself responsible

If you have any desire to learn English quickly, ordinary pursuit needs to turn into a routine. In any case, it's horrible simply encouraging you'll invest additional energy in dealing with your language abilities.

In the event that you have extraordinary self-control, making yourself responsible could be pretty much as straightforward as setting a caution on your telephone to remind you to do some learning at a specific time consistently, for example, when you return home from work. However, for the vast majority of us, remaining spurred to do anything new is far simpler when another person is relying upon us.

In one review, The American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) found that you have a 65% possibility of finishing an objective assuming you focus on somebody. Significantly more reassuringly: in the event that you have a particular meeting with this individual to examine your advancement, the possibility of finishing your objective ascends to 95%.

You could look for an accomplice who is likewise learning English to routinely contrast progress and, or basically find a coach who you like and regard.

On the off chance that you choose to attempt one of Preply's coaches, watch recordings from maybe one or two individuals prior to taking an illustration. Look for somebody you figure you could interface with, maybe an individual with comparative interests or educational encounters to you. It is not difficult to adhere to your language learning objectives when one of our amazing mentors is pulling for you!

On the other hand, have a go at tracking down a review mate. Look at our summary of the 10 best language trade applications of 2022 for more on this.

4. Set more valuable focuses than "I will become familiar"

In the language learning local area, there is such a lot of accentuation on "becoming familiar," however when you are making the main strides on your excursion to learning English, is this a supportive objective? Most likely not.

Focusing on familiarity proposes that there is an endpoint to learning English, a point that is generally too far. Actually, each and every individual who communicates in any language 

whatsoever is as yet learning. Research has shown that the vast majority keep on learning an additional word in their local language consistently until middle age.

A brief afterword: how to learn English quick and simple

As you might have speculated, the as it were "hack" that really works for learning English quickly is a ton of training. Keep in mind: every individual who is a master of something invested a ton of energy being horrible at it first! We really love figuring out how to cherish your slip-ups and embracing them as a feature of the growing experience.

How would you cause it to feel simple? Incorporate the English language into your day-to-day existence, and track down ways of partaking all the while. Changing your telephone settings to English, buying into an extraordinary ESL YouTuber, and chiming into the Beatles won't feel as "hard" as dealing with a language course book, however, they're all substantial ways of getting regular English abilities.

contact us for Best English Speaking Classes in Ahmedabad 

[livestocklens3-blog]

Live stock lens

Live stock lens

The Most significant thing that anyone ought to know about anything concerning cows farming is that no ranch or farm is precisely the exact same. Nobody farm follows the creation practices of a different, and no 1 manufacturer manages her or his cows the exact same manner as the following one will. If you would like to learn about everything connected with cattle farming, then get to understand the fundamentals first, what makes each plantation click and everything in between anything else. Dairy farming or beef farming, it does not matter what, there are particular things within those ventures which make them operate, from the feed to the cattle and the financing necessary to conduct the farm into the cows themselves.

Live stock lens

It is a Great Deal of Hard Work...

Anyone  Are a fool if they stated raising cows was simple.  You've got machines, buildings, buildings, and managing facilities to preserve, fix --replace if it is absolutely crucial --cattle waterers to mend if they freeze in the dead of winter or should they stop working on you all of a sudden, hay to haul, financing to maintain at the top of (loans, utility bills and penalties to cover ), fences to keep and fix, the list keeps moving. You may experience periods of exhaustion during times once the farm requires you the most--be it physical or psychological exhaustion.

When  It's really easy to get caught when you are least expecting it, and from the time you realize you are caught it is often too late.  The best thing to ensure your success and also to keep all of your limbs intact would be to always know about your surroundings, understand if and when you are feeling exhausted, never wear loose clothes around running machines, and show the utmost respect for each of bulls and fresh momma cows with their calves. There's an entire collection of all farm-safety items I could lay out in the following guide, however I fear that it is only going to take up more space than that I intend and induce me to seriously slough off course.

No matter bulls and cows Needs to be respected and frequently not trustworthy either, whether or not you are working or handling a beef or poultry farm. Dairy bulls are particularly dangerous and you never to turn your back .  This is an issue when you have not established dominance together and if they don't honor you and your distance.  In case a bull sees you as contest because of his harem, he'll come after you. Otherwise, and sees you as only a two-legged individual rather than a two-legged bovine, then you need to be secure, but do not take my word for this as who knows what goes through a bull's head during breeding period!

Hormones Are also a huge element in aggressiveness in cattle. A cow's first instincts when that calf strikes the floor will be for her to nurture, suckle and shield it with her entire life.    Bulls have their method of communication they're not conducive of your existence also: revealing their sides, arching their throat revealing their dimensions, head shaking, not recognizing your existence at all (in other words, even ignoring you) if you are in the pen together, etc.. These are warning signals to get out, or be ready to stand your ground and make it understood that you don't tolerate their behavior . Then be ready to undergo with your escape plan, in case you've got one.

It Requires Knowing a little Bovine Psychology

When Raising cows, you need to know a reasonable bit about what cows are telling you so as to tell if they are just being favorable, a nuisance, a hazard, or an expected cull. Cattle that admit your existence, and come around you but maintain their individual space from you (except in the event that you invite them) are favorable. A number of the favorable ones may also be those which don't discount you but return into what they were doing until you disrupted them may also be considered favorable. Even the ones that come running towards you whenever they visit you--might be considered favorable, particularly in the event that you understand them well enough to understand when they come hurrying just like that it is to have fed, and less to make a stampede! Cattle that make high-strung, high-headed and make a rush for it each time you're about are ones which needs to be culled--cows should keep their individual space from you, but not go so far as to attempt jumping over the fence to escape from you! Sometimes these kinds of animals can be trained to be calmer about individuals, but there are occasions when this could be much more vain than simply rewarding. Some cows simply can not be tamed and stay"crazy"

Even though     Calves on cows could be weaned when they are about 6 to 10 weeks old. Dairy calves are removed from their dams each day or 2 (sometimes less) after arrival, but are not weaned off the jar till they're about 3 to 4 weeks old.  Vast majority of heifers are ready to be consumed by the time they're around 15 weeks old. A bull is about to breed from the time he is 12 months old. Age of adulthood for the majority of cows is about 3 to 4 decades old.

Calving and breeding periods will match, and the best   There's loads of debate exactly what time of year it's ideal to calve out cows, nevertheless a cow could be bred--and consequently calve--in any given time of the year. A cow could be bred either obviously --through a bull--or --known as artificial insemination through AI semen and gun .

When the calf stems, the milk works. The very first milk a cow creates because of her calf is known as colostrum. Following 48 hours she begins making"normal" milk. Her greatest nutritional necessities occur from late pregnancy into the next month of lactation.  Calves, once weaned, however, have different nutrient requirements--because they become older, protein demands reduction.

Know What to Take Them

Perhaps not   This is most likely where the best variations in how cattle are raised starts, and something that I am only able to cover temporarily here. Basically there are five kinds of feedstuffs which are fed to cows: hay, silage, grain, other feeds, and pasture. The latter is not just fed to cows, but instead cows are put to nourish themselves.

All dairy farms Will Need to feed their cows cows a  Nearly all hay fed to dairy cows is constituted of alfalfa or clover and fishes such as orchard grass and timothy. Silage--that can be chopped and fermented feed--is frequently of corn, because it's greater nutritional quality than wheat or barley. The grain part of the TMR ration could be corn, wheat or barley, based on what is more appropriately grown in the region where the milk farm is situated.

Varies considerably more significantly than in your typical dairy farms.  The lowest-quality rations are awarded to cow-calf surgeries, and also the highest-quality to feedlots. Cows on cow-calf surgeries frequently don't have any issue subsisting from grass and hay, even though some manufacturers like to feed them grain or silage during the winter season. Backgrounding/stocker surgeries will need to nourish their calves so they develop, therefore pasture, silage and high quality hay is frequently fed. Feedlots finish cows for slaughter, therefore an 85 percent grain-based"sexy" ration is necessary. Another 15 percent is included of roughage such as silage.

All cows Have to Be fed sterile water and also have access to Mineral in any way times. Beef producers feed their nutrient to their cows free-choice, occasionally mixed in with all the feed. Dairy manufacturers have a tendency to possess these minerals blended in with all the feed.

Which Are You Getting Your Favorite From?

That is  A significant question to ask yourself whether you plan on starting your cows farm. Basically you've got two options: Create your own, or buy it. If you create your own, you'll need your own equipment and also the opportunity to produce the feed. You might require the excess labour if it is required, based on which sort of feed you are making. Producing your own feed will bite into your gains since it means more money spent on gasoline and maintenance/repair expenses. Purchasing feed has its dangers too. Although you do not close half the machines needed for producing your own feed, you still need to have somewhere to keep it and risk the feed you are getting to be less good excellent feed as you would like it to be. There might be health risks related to the feed you buy --that the hay you buy may have pieces of garbage or metal inside, or even the feed you bought from the feed shop could possibly be infected with something which will kill your critters.

You Can have as small as merely a few parts of machines to as numerous as to create any agricultural machines retailer company proud. I have known a few cattle producers that just have a couple pieces of gear: a hay-hauler truck, a livestock trailer, and also a four-wheeler ATV.   What kind and how many machines you believe you want to own (try to not consider it as"need") in your cows farm will have an effect on your bottom line and the way you increase your critters.

Believe  Of it this way: If you would like to repaint your cows on pasture throughout the year, there'll be a point in time at which you will understand that the machines you desire is not always the very same parts of machines you may need!!

Each   From that point you are able to do the test to find out whether you're losing money, simply breaking even or really making a little cash from the farm. In addition, it can let you know in which you're weakest or most powerful, and what options you should think about if you would like to boost income amounts to your enterprise. Creating and keeping a business strategy can help a lot too.

Sheltering Your Own Cattle

Shelter Is not too large an significance, though a easy lean-to drop or even a stand of trees will probably suffice for many. Dairy cows will need to be kept restricted to a barn during the winter season. This might not be so in locations where they do not encounter as intense, freezing or freezing winters as a lot of North America has. When they don't have a lot of shelter, then they will need to compensate for the absence of heat by ingesting more feed so they can remain warm.

Most Herds will need to stay current with their vaccinations each year, based upon the age and sex of the animals in addition to in which you're farming them.    Some regions need vaccinations against Anthrax too. Check with your neighborhood large-animal vet for what kinds of diseases that you want to vaccinate your creatures.

Assess your herd Regularly for signs of disease or illness. The clearest symptoms I have discovered using the cows we had were listlessness or lethargic action --calves that normally ought to be considering food aren't, they're slow to get up or attempting to put down and rest rather than get up and consume. Other indications include lameness, dull eyes, loss of body condition, bald spots, kicking at the stomach, coughing, snotty nose, or a lot of abortions on your herd to be considered ordinary, or anything else unusual regarding the creature's behavior or elements of its body, which range from the udder or scrotum into the eyes. Be constantly aware that one symptom you visit could be a indication of a far larger issue.

Where You Buy Livestock, You'll Acquire Deadstock

As The Circle of Life goes round and about, you can't expect any of your critters, old and young alike, to live eternally. You'll receive cows which will expire on you, otherwise or unexpectedly. That's only something to anticipate on each livestock farm or ranch. It's challenging for every single manufacturer to have an animal die on these, but that is only part of life. A lot of men and women that are generations removed from farm lifestyle don't understand this, however as somebody who wishes to enter cows or any sort of livestock industry this is a tough fact you have to understand or else you are not likely to survive long inside.

Everything you do with these dead Creatures is dependent upon local laws.  It is no issue to drag a carcass from the middle of a pasture and allow  The scavengers treat it. Other regions need such carcasses to Be instantly buried or burnt or possess a livestock-rendering truck encounter  To take away them for you.  Special bull or cow, prized or maybe not, opt to bury that creature just Like somebody would spoil a pet cat or dog which was part of the household  For many years.

[radramblog]

Top ten digits

This is an idea I’ve had in my back pocket since back when I rated all the letters of the alphabet. That was a while ago, fuck! Back then I was in the mood for shitposting, but today, we’re all about perfectly serious legitimate analytical content.

Anyway we’re going to rate the numbers from zero to nine. As it turns out, this is a lot harder, because somehow numbers have even less personality than the letters of the alphabet, but I hope you can trust in my opinions.

Number 10: 8

I think I dislike the number eight for the same reason I dislike Thursdays. In that it’s completely arbitrary and I don’t actually know what sourced my dislike. Maybe it’s because it’s one of the harder times tables to memorize as a child. Maybe it’s because it’s really hard to get it to look nice with my shitty handwriting. I don’t really know, frankly.

But because 8 is infinity, it has to go as infinitely low on this list as possible. But also as infinitely high. Fortunately, though, this is my list and my rules, so I can contain it only to the bottom of the list.

Number 9: 6

6 is a number clearly filled with demon magic. Both the commonly accepted numbers of the beast have a plethora of sixes, it’s one half of the filthiest number imaginable, and it’s simply a massive pain in the ass to handwrite on labels since you have to distinguish it from 9 somehow.

As a result, I am required to put 6 low on the list to cater to the more conservative members of my audience. I think it’s best to adapt my content for any potential viewer, regardless of whether or not they align with my political or religious beliefs, and as such it’s best if 6 stays relatively low. Now any evangelicals can rest safe in the knowledge that I’m clearly not a Satanist- assuming, of course, they made it past my constant swearing.

Number 8: 0

0 is the void. It is a circular representation of nothing. A donut of the absence of value. This is perfectly okay.

However, the field of mathematics is determined to make this perfectly crafted null pointer have actual meaning. They put it before things, behind things, between things, and they do it the greatest disservice of all: putting a slash through it to distinguish it from an O. The nerve!

I am determined to make the oblivion bagel nothing again, such that it can reclaim its rightful place as the nadir digit. Nadigit. Until then, it will have to remain near the bottom of the list. And I will keep using fun words for “nothing”.

Number 7: 7

7 is associated with luck, which would be fine enough, if that particular facet of its existence weren’t marred by its further association with casinos. For the unaware, I despise casinos and generally just really don’t like gambling in general, and so those triple-7 slot machines bring the number itself under my most withering of gazes.

It’s also just a huge pain for maths. Like, I’m sure the list of prime numbers would be a lot nicer and cleaner if 7 didn’t exist and randomly poke holes in the thing. It’s a frustrating number that looks cool but makes things so much harder.

Number 6: 4

Much like with 6, I can’t put 4 too high for cultural reasons. Four Is Death due to a similarity in how the two words are pronounced in a fair few east Asian languages, and I don’t want to curse this list with that one. I distinctly remember the condo building I lived in some 14 (!!!) years ago having a floor 3A and a floor 13A specifically for this reason- which is interesting, because I know some other places also omitted 13 for its own associations. I don’t think they did 12A and 12B, I think they just skipped straight to 15.

Which is kind of a shame, because aside from that association it’s a pretty good digit. It has a couple of different common shapes that are equally valuable and distinct, it’s a great number for groups of people for both group dynamics and for playing video/board/tabletop games, and it has Good Math Synergy. But it’s not good enough for higher up on the list.

Number 5: 1

One is in the middle of the list because it is every number. It is the alpha to which we have no omega because numbers are weird. This means it carries every negative association of every single number, and yet also every other positive association at the same time. Does the weight of their blessings outweigh their sins? That will be a judgment I leave to you, dear reader.

Number 3a: 9

Nine is fun! Who doesn’t like nine. If eight’s the Thursday of numbers, nine’s the Friday. It’s the fun version that you like to have at parties. It’s the one you see a lot because it’s almost the next level up- like how things always sell for x dollars and 95 cents (or 99 cents if you’re in some weirdo country that still has pennies or local equivalent) or how people just use loads of them to communicate something being really big.

9 is as large as you can get within a single digit. And as an absolute unit myself, I feel a kinship with it.

Number 3: 2

Two is like one but only half the time, which is kind of ironic when you think about it. 2 is interesting, because its so fundamental to maths that it makes things very clean and easy, and yet not so fundamental as to be useless sometimes like with one. Who wants one of something? If two’s an option, fuck me up.

Two gets a lot of value from being where it is. It’s the first prime number (because people are monsters), it’s the first even number, it’s the first number that can actually do something when multiplied. All because it’s the second number. That’s big dick energy! Silver’s always been better than gold anyway.

Number 2: 5

5 is inherently advantaged as a result of our base-10 number system. That is, it’s half of everything which makes its maths really useful and also really clean. Adding 5s is only going to end you up with two ending digits, so it’s easy. You can multiply by 5 by just doing by 10 (which is obviously piss-easy) and halving it. 5 is fuckin easy mode, and I can respect that.

I think the entire reason we have 5 as so important is because we got 5 fingers. Like, surely, right? The reason everyone was like, yep, 10 sounds like a good baseline, is because that’s when they ran out of fingers to count on?

God why did I put this number here I don’t even remember I just like 5 let me have this one

Number 1: 3

There’s human psychology thing that I know I’ve seen from a reputable source but I cannot find now, where people just like number three for some reason. Give average John a list of random things from 1 to 4 and he’s probably picking three. Man, fuck average John, he’s an asshole.

I am the average John. He’s me.