#and while i definitely disagree with a lot of modern culture seeing 18 as a hard line from ''innocent baby who doesnt know what sex is'“ to

[shitposting-hobbits-to-gallifrey]

Y'know you've been on tumblr for too long when you start a sideblog on a separate account for reasons and literally within two days of making the blog you see an old post with an addition from your main on its dash

[theprettyinthemundane]

Who’s right about the myths and what does it mean to be culturally Christian? (using Pan as an example)

Thanks to @will-o-the-witch for looking over the part on Judaism!! : )

Disclaimer:

The ancient world was incredibly diverse and ideas about the gods themselves and the myths varied a lot across space and time, which is something I’ll be mentioning again later. I feel like it’s important to have a better understanding about the myths since they’re so prevalent in culture. Essentially, while many people today may tend to think there’s only one “right” way to see the myths or a god this was and is not the case for many faiths. To show this, I wanted to use Pan and his parentage as an example. This also connects to a broader idea: cultural Christianity (which isn’t “bad” or “good”, it’s just something to be aware of). This isn’t about Christians either, just about how cultural Christianity can affect peoples’ perception of other faiths. Whether or not someone is Christian themselves, growing up in a Christian place can incorrectly inform how they learn about other faiths which can lead to misinformation being spread. Sometimes it can (even accidentally) reinforce very harmful ideas that can contribute to bigotry like antisemitism, which we have to fight against!  (Seriously, bigotry sucks! Also I hope the way I word all this makes sense because it’s something I care a lot about!)

So, who are Pan’s parents and who’s right?

Pan is often known as Hermes’ son, even the Homeric hymn to Pan says so (1). Hermes is widely known as the “second youngest Olympian”, which would make Pan among the very youngest if this genealogy is considered (2).

           However, that isn’t the genealogy everyone in the ancient world used to describe Pan. There are many variations on his parentage, and I think it’s worth going over because of how interesting it is. Who Pan’s parents are often changes depending on who you ask or where you ask it. For example, at times he has been called the son of Hermes (1, 3: pg90,151), if you ask 5th century Athenians he is the son of Chronos (3: pg42, 88), he was also known as the son of Zeus and twin of Arcas’ (3: pg43), the great grandson of Pelasgos who was a mortal, bother or foster brother of Zeus (3: pg113) and in Thebes he was believed to be the son of Apollo (3: pg180). He was also called Son of Aix (the solar goat too bright to look at, equated with Amalthea nurse of Zeus) (3: pg100). There were likely other variations too that were lost to history.

           One thing worth noting is that Pan originated in Arcadia and before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE, his worship was mainly preformed here and it was only after that battle that his worship spread widely to the rest of Greece (4, 5). So, the myths of Pan from Arcadia are typically older and reflected older views that worshipers held of him. One example is that Pan helped Zeus in the war against the titans and these myths point to Pan’s father being Chronos (or at least placing him before Hermes’ birth):

 Pan has been described as “the source of that "panic" fear with whose aid he helped the gods in their war against the Titans …” and the son of Cronos and a she-goat (3: pg42). In fact, Aeschylus believed Pan to be two gods: both of which had the power of panic and one of them fought against the titans with Zeus (3: pg42) this is interesting because in other myths Pan was able to split up into a swarm of pans, so Pan being a multiplicity  of gods and also a single god isn’t unheard of (3: pg100). Overall, most people understood him to be one god (like we do today), but this just shows how much diversity there was in how people saw him.

And in Egypt he was viewed similarly to the Pan who fought in the war with the titans (as one of the oldest gods):  

“…the Egyptians Pan is considered very ancient and one of the eight gods said to be the earliest…(6)”

Here he was identified with the Egyptian god Min, which may seem a bit problematic to some because otherwise they were revered as different gods (6). However, the practice of identifying gods with other gods (aka syncretism) was not uncommon in the ancient world; Hekate-Artemis, Selene-Hekate, and Selene-Artemis were identified with each other commonly (7, 8). Other syncretisms were between Isis and Demeter, Isis and Persephone, Isis and Aphrodite, and Isis and Venus (9: pg 20). I am not a classics student, but what I have taken away from this is that the identity of the ancient gods is somewhat fluid and many worshipers could have differing and even contradictory views without either of them being “wrong”, even though some likely did argue or disagree to some extent (6). I’m not claiming there wasn’t debate in the ancient world about the gods, there definitely was. What I’m saying is that people did not fight to discredit new or different ideas just because they conflicted with already established ideas. There was a great deal of variation in how people worshiped and most weren’t interested in a one “right way” to do things.

           This isn’t only an ancient practice: it still happens today in Shinto in general and with the kamisama* Inari Ōkami (稲荷大神), who has been portrayed as a group of kamisama, as masculine, androgynous, and feminine (10). So in general this practice of seeing kamisama (or supernatural beings, or gods) in many different ways with acceptance is more common than one might expect (10, 11). This also happens today in Judaism, where debate is very common:

“Nevertheless, the general trend throughout Jewish history is to value debate and not to stifle it, and the history of Jewish texts supports that trend. (12)” Some examples of this are how many Jewish people debate the Talmud (a religious text) and how there are many different sects of Judaism.

          One important thing for people who are interested in this subject and were raised in a Christian culture (even if they aren’t religious) is to not overextend the characteristics of Christianity onto other religions ancient or modern (this is often accidental, which makes it even more important to be aware of it). This is relevant to both ancient and modern religions such as Shinto and Judaism because misunderstanding these faiths can contribute to terrible things like antisemitism and xenophobia (more so with Judaism). So, we need to guard against bigotry like that by being open to learning and changing our opinions when they are wrong both for learning and fighting bigotry. 

          In fact, one scholar noted that even in Arcadia Pan’s cult and myth were not standardized although what I have mentioned before was certainly the more popular (13: pg 63) So, even though Herodotus heard from people in Egypt who worshiped Min, it is not unheard of or unreasonable to understand that some people did understand him that way. To answer the question I asked earlier: each myth about Pan’s parentage has some element of truth to it and none of them are completely “right” or “wrong”. For example, Hermes being Pan’s father echoes the fact that both of them are liminal deities and usually are shown being close to mortals (3: 178).

Conclusion:

          Pan is commonly considered the son of Hermes, however there was immense variation in how others saw him, both across space and time. One specific idea- that Pan helped Zeus in the war against the titans and that he is among the eldest of the gods- would contradict the Hermes genealogy and was prevalent in some areas. This is the case in Egypt where he was conflated with the local god Min. While this could seem confusing to modern readers (both the Min thing and the various genealogy thing), many faiths both ancient and modern do not push for one “right way” of seeing things and this is important to understand when learning about these things.

              Another way of looking at this concept is the idea of cultural Christianity. It does not matter if a person is religious or even Christian, by growing up in a culturally Christian place their assumptions about other faiths are automatically informed by Christianity, which does not reflect most other faiths. This is not good or bad, it’s just something to be aware of and work around so that we can better understand these other faiths. It is especially important to keep in mind today as misunderstandings about religions can contribute to dangerous bigotry like antisemitism, which we must stand against!

*In Shinto kami (or kamisama) are supernatural beings who inspire awe, they are the main object of worship in Shinto. Please don’t call Shinto kamisama “gods”, it’s inaccurate and doesn’t represent how people see them. Due to how Shinto and Japanese mythology are different from Western mythology we need to take care when talking about it to keep it in its original context.

Citations:

1: Hymn 19 to Pan Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Ed. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=HH+19

2: da Costa Martins, P. A., Leptidis, S., & De Windt, L. J. (2014). Nuclear Calcium Transients: Hermes Propylaios in the Heart. Doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.114.010675

3: Borgeaud, P., & Atlass, K. (1988). The cult of Pan in ancient Greece. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 13: 9780226065953

4: GARTZIOU-TATTI, A. (2013). GODS, HEROES, AND THE BATTLE OF MARATHON. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. Supplement, (124), 91-110. Retrieved June 23, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/44216258

5: Haldane, J. (1968). Pindar and Pan: Frs. 95-100 Snell. Phoenix, 22(1), 18-31. doi:10.2307/1087034

6: Griffiths, J. G. (1955). The orders of Gods in Greece and Egypt (according to Herodotus). The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 75, 21-23. Doi: 10.2307/629164

7: MANOLEDAKIS, M. (2012). Hekate with Apollo and Artemis on a Gem from the Southern Black Sea Region. Istanbuler Mitteilungen, 62, 289-302.

8: E. Hijmans, S. (2012). Moon deities, Greece and Rome. In The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (eds R.S. Bagnall, K. Brodersen, C.B. Champion, A. Erskine and S.R. Huebner). doi:10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah17276

9: Witt, R. E. (1997). Isis in the ancient world. JHU Press. ISBN-13: 978-0801856426

10:  Smyers, K. (1996). "My Own Inari": Personalization of the Deity in Inari Worship. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 23(1/2), 85-116. Retrieved June 23, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/30233555

11: Lya. 2015. Interview with Gary Cox - Inari Faith International (VO) https://www.equi-nox.net/t10647-interview-with-gary-cox-inari-faith-international-vo

12: Mjl. Conversation & Debate. www.myjewishlearning.com. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/conversation-debate/

13: Ogden, D. (Ed.). (2010). A companion to Greek religion. John Wiley & Sons. Print ISBN:9781405120548 |Online ISBN:9780470996911 |DOI:10.1002/9780470996911

[fucktastic-mr-fox]

Batshakaan Tumet ––– –

Age: 20

Race: Xaela

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Demisexual/asexual - male preferred

Marital Status: None

Server: Mateus

Physical Appearance ––– –

Hair: Black that fades to steel blue

Eyes: Blue with bluish white limbal rings

Height: 7′5

Build: Youthful and muscular

Distinguishing Marks: Black markings tattooed around his eyes

Common Accessories: A pair of hand axes and one (1) duck. 

Personal ––– –

Profession: Hunter, lifter of boxes, mercenary, body guard, big thing who hits other big things for protection or amusement.

Hobbies: Chasing down new ways to get people to feed him steak. Talking to his duck. Sparring. Axe throwing.

Languages: Fluent in Xaelic, proficient in Hingan, Doman and Eorzean.

Residence: Presently he sleeps at a friend’s house in the goblet, but he hasn’t quite shaken his nomadic roots.

Birthplace: The steppe

Religion: A loose belief in Azim and Nhaama

Patron Deity: Nhaama

Fears: Thunderstorms, getting stuck in a body that is not his own, loss of control, being alone

Relationships ––– -

Spouse: None

Children: His daughter is a duck. Her name is Duck.

Parents: Both of his parents are alive in the steppe.

Siblings: Several half siblings on his father’s side that he is not aware of.

Other Relatives: Bats has a great number of extended family, but blood ties are not really important to him or his family so he doesn’t specifically know them.

Pets: Duck isn’t a pet, how dare you.

Traits ––– -

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted

Disorganized / In Between / Organized

Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded

Calm / In Between / Anxious

Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable

Cautious / In Between / Reckless

Patient / In Between / Impatient

Outspoken / In Between / Reserved

Leader / In Between / Follower

Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic

Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic

Traditional / In Between / Modern

Hard-working / In Between / Lazy

Cultured / In Between / Uncultured

Loyal / In Between / Disloyal

Faithful / In Between / Unfaithful

Additional information ––– –

Smoking Habit: Nope

Drugs: Not once

Alcohol: While not opposed to it, he doesn’t really parttake. He gets drunk very fast and is the type of drunk who adamantly argues that he is not drunk as he starts taking off his pants to see if he can fly them like a kite.

RP Hooks ––– –

Have you got any steak? - Bats is always hungry. Always. At 7'5 and 20 years old, it takes a lot of food to sate him. Satiety is a feeling Batshakaan genuinely wouldn't know since it is simply so hard to feed him adequate rations at once. Thus he is always on the look out for food, and is always ready to ask if someone is going to eat the rest of their meal, if they'll buy him food or if they have any on him. He is a bottomless pit. He also has a bad habit of following anyone who has fed him in the hopes of more food. A boy likes to fight - As with most Xaela, Bats establishes most of his relationships through sparring, aggression and combat. Rarely does this mean he is angry with someone, quite the opposite, if he asks someone to fight or tries to hit them outright it usually means he likes them and wants to establish a connection. It is his way of trying to prove himself as a worthy acquaintance and also trying to bond with a person. Though don't get too comfortable, he will definitely slap a bitch for acting a fool too. Might be a monster - Bats has made a pact with a voidsent -- which is not super easy to detect so please don't blindside me out of no where knowing his deep dark secret -- and it makes his aether seem a little off. It's as if it's dark, or vacant somehow. If one were to pay real close attention to him or even follow him, they might find he has a habit of disappearing in the middle of the night, of travelling to places that have reports of monster sightings the next day and leaving the land suspiciously void of aether. HONK - Bats has a duck. Her name is Duck, and she's a very good duck. Duck is adorable, and it is totally valid thing to rp with him because his duck is adorable. She honks, is his daughter, and he loves her very much. She's also eaten a concerning amount of steak in her life time, might be chaotic evil and has been covered in blood by means Bats is unsure of. But her tail wiggles are so cute.

Contact Information ––– –

Hi there! Thank you for your interest in my son.

You can contact me via tumblr or in game, or send me a tumblr DM and I’m more than happy to give out my discord info.

I do have a few limits and they’re pretty standard. No homophobia, transphobia, racism, sexim, child abuse or other forms of bigotry in my rps pls. Also I will only rp with anyone who is 18+ and 21+ is preferable as I’m old as dirt.

Voidsent beastie art by [FieryKitsune]

Thanks for reading! :D

[gentlertides-blog]

U’tuulivu Nunh [Crystal] LFRP

@gentlertides​:

The Basics ––– –

Age:  Early to Mid 20′s (Between 22 to 26, depending on Time antics.)

Birthday: 1st Sun of the 5th Astral Moon

Race: Seeker of the Sun Miqo’te

Gender: Male

Marital Status: Unmarried

Server: Balmung (Crystal DC)

Physical Appearance ––– –

Hair: Shaggy, red hair, usually allowed tof all in his eyes.

Eyes: Soft blue, almost periwinkle in tone.

Height: 5’10″

Build: Extremely thin, almost looks malnourished, with very little muscle tone.

Distinguishing Marks: Has distinct scratch marks down his back and sides. Also always has darker circles under his eyes.

Common Accessories: Tuuli is often seen with his chest or sides bared.  He hates restrictive clothing, and will never wear anything that covers his upper half too much.  Usually, he prefers light-weight fabrics, and wears crystalline accessories...since he finds them pretty and took a fascination to them upon coming to Limsa.  

Personal ––– –

Profession:  Adventurer, Arcanist

Hobbies: Weaving, Cooking, helping traveling companions with chores

Languages: Eorzean, and conversational Garlean so far, though he’s eager to learn more.  Can read Allagan, well enough, but lacks the ability to speak it, and is in study of more written languages.

Residence: Generally tends to fall asleep wherever Tavilan is sleeping at the time, or at whatever inn room he’s nearest to.

Birthplace: Unknown

Religion: Quiet follower of Menphina

Patron Deity: Menphina, the Lover

Fears: Terrified of being used (the wrong way), violent people, other Miqo (sometimes), being alone

Personality: Gentle, loving, believes in the sanctity of life, and love.  He wants the best for those around him.  Tuuli would forget to sleep, and eat, if he didn’t have someone to remind him, and once he’s attached to someone, he dotes.  He’s got a mind that loves to soak up knowledge, studious and bright,  Other people are always the most important thing in the world, and whatever he’s doing can wait a few more hours.

Relationships ––– -

Spouse: None [In an open relationship with Tavilan Kagon]

Children: U’Sichana Tuuli, (Many more)

Parents: U’Makhos Tia  (Alive) x  U'kayden (Alive)

Siblings: U’Trialle Makhos, U’Rudra Tia, U’Msiba Makhos, U’Charon Tia, U’dagor Makhos, U’Algol Nunh (ALL Alive)

Other Relatives:  Too many to list.  Way too many.

Pets: None yet.

Traits ––– -

* Bold your character’s answer.

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted

Disorganized / In Between / Organized

Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded

Calm / In Between / Anxious

Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable

Cautious / In Between / Reckless

Patient / In Between /  Impatient

Outspoken / In Between / Reserved

Leader / In Between / Follower

Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic

Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic

Traditional / In Between / Modern

Hard-working / In Between / Lazy

Cultured / In Between / Uncultured

Loyal / In Between / Disloyal

Faithful / In Between / Unfaithful

Additional information ––– –

Smoking Habit: No. Drugs: No. Alcohol: Is curious, though has never really touched the stuff.

Possible Hooks ––– –

The Scholar: If you haven’t seen him in the Arcanist guild in Limsa, or hanging around the ports and many other guilds, you’ve found him in one of the other massive libraries somewhere in the main cities.  U’tuulivu is a man of knowledge, and he’s well known for his love of knowledge.  While he’s nervous about taking on jobs alone, he’s always eager to help, and if you tell him you’ve first hand knowledge of some ancient something or other?  He’s always eager to listen.  

The Storyteller and Traveler: From the time he left his tribe after choosing to renounce the life of a Nunh, Tuuli has heard so many stories.  He craves them like a body craves air, and wants nothing more than to hear the stories of every soul he meets, and then to share the stories he hears with the world!  The more fantastic, the better!  If you have the option to travel, he’ll follow you to the ends of the world.  He wants to see it all.  His own little corner will never be enough, and there’s far too much he’s never seen before.

 Current Scion of the Seventh Dawn: He was just adventuring.  He swore that was all it was.  It was something fun, a way to get some knowledge and next thing he knew, he got swept up with the Scions.  He will never complain, because the things he learns with them far exceeds what he might’ve learned on his own, but goodness, what madness has he gotten pulled in to...

Other: Anything.  Any combo, a former lover?  Tribe member?   Someone who knew him before he ran off?  Maybe a family member?   It really could be anything!  I’m always down to plot, and even open to new-ideas.

What I’m Looking For ––– –

Contacts and Friends!: So, SO new to in-game RP, so I need time and patience, but I would love some new friends and RP contacts.

SHIPS:  Tuuli is so sweet and innocent and shy.  He needs more corru I mean Ships!  Tav will always be a figure in his life, and someone he ships with, but it’s an open relationship <3  He is PANSEXUAL, so it’s totally open to anyone, and will be Poly, once we get him out from under his sweet little shy rock.

Friendships: Tuuli needs some more people who’re willing to pull him out from under his rock.

Shenanigans: Any kind of adventure/scholarly snafus and mishaps.

Slice of Life/Random Interactions: Random and crazy stuff is GREAT.

OOC and Roleplaying Preferences ––– –

I am a Graphic Communications student, who has serious health issues, so my time’s sporadic in-game, but I’m on Tumblr and Discord all the time.  We can definitely chat, and try to coordinate things, and I’m always willing to try out new stuff <3

I’m in CST, so I’m usually able to accommodate MOST stuff?  But my sleep schedule’s a bit weird, so we have to talk through that.

I’m on Discord a lot, so it’s often the easiest way to get a hold of me.

I’m still very new to in-game RP, and use the PS4 and a Chat Pad, and have super poor eyesight thanks to my health condition, so PLEASE BE PATIENT <3 I’m trying ;3;

OOC TALKING IS MY JAM.  I love plotting, and random IC chat, and just...Talking with my partners is so wonderful and amazing and perfect.  It makes me happy ;w;.  

My home world is Balmung.

Regarding M/ERP: I am more than happy to write it, HOWEVER, YOU MUST BE 18+.  I WILL NOT RISK JAIL TIME FOR YOU.  I enjoy smut.  So much.  Like I will write it all day and night if you let me.  It is not my be-all, end-all though. I love general interactions~

Contact Information  ––– –

Discord - Ask me <3

In Game - U’tuulivu Nunh

Tumblr -  @gentlertides

Items in this post subject to change if/when the need arises (regarding roleplay).

[darkenedsteppemoon-blog]

Run Himurano [Crystal] LFRP

@darkenedsteppemoon

The Basics ––– –

Age:  Early to Mid 20′s (Between 20 to 25, depending on Time antics.)

Birthday: 18th Sun of the 4th Umbral Moon

Race: Au Ra/Xala (Raen Appearance [has to do with Backstory])

Gender: Female

Marital Status: Unmarried

Server: Brynhildr (Crystal DC)

Physical Appearance ––– –

Hair:  Pale blonde hair with white highlights, usually kept shoulder length.  White highlights are interspersed throughout.  She prefers it in a half-up style so it stays out of her face.

Eyes: Golden amber toned, with bright blue limbal rings.

Height: 5’6″

Build: Lithe and toned, all muscle. Think something akin to a martial artist, or dancer.

Distinguishing Marks: Body is covered in scars all over, though she has white scars all up her hands and arms that seem almost like cracks or lightning, stopping at her elbows.  

Common Accessories: Almost never seen without a choker of some sort, even in her most casual wear, and gloves or wraps on her hands.  She has a fondness for the color red, and wears either that, or the color black.

Personal ––– –

Profession:  Adventurer, Scion, DRK, DNC, MNK, Goldsmith, Weaver

Hobbies: Singing where she thinks no one can hear, swimming, Fighting with whoever’s still willing to spar with her.

Languages: Eorzean, the Xaela tongue, and conversational Garlean, and while she can write in Common, she’s abysmal at reading and writing in any foreign tongue and seems almost embarrassed when someone tries to teach her.  If you ask, she might tell you why...

Residence: Ala Mhigan Quarter, an Inn Room she keeps on hold

Birthplace: The Kagon tribe on the Steppe

Religion: None.  

Patron Deity: Rhalgr, the Destroyer

Fears: Hero-worship, Being seen as weak, Going home, Isolation, Complete darkness, Fuzzy caterpillars (no, seriously.), ever seeing her brother again.

Personality: Aggressive. abrasive, and rude, Himurano Run is not the sort of person you’d expect to be any kind of good with people, and yet when she finds someone she empathizes with?  She is capable of great gentleness and becomes fiercely loyal and protective.  A warrior at heart, and a lion, this woman will forever stand by those she loves.  She has a lot of fear in her past, and a lot of things she’s unsure about, and with a lack of a guiding hand, she tends to spiral.  Guiding herself is easy enough, though she tends to throw herself recklessly in to adventures in order to avoid things...it’s how she became involved with the Scions.

Relationships ––– -

Spouse: None, single.

Children: None, ew.

Parents: Erden Kagon (Father, Deceased) x Badma Kagon (Mother, Deceased),  Himurano Akane  (Adopted Mother, Alive, Thaum [BRYN])

Siblings: Yul Kagon (Alive, Twin brother, and she is TERRIFIED of seeing him)

Other Relatives:  The Kagon tribe

Pets: An otter named Chow

Traits ––– -

* Bold your character’s answer.

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted

Disorganized / In Between / Organized

Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded

Calm / In Between / Anxious

Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable

Cautious / In Between / Reckless

Patient / In Between /  Impatient

Outspoken / In Between / Reserved

Leader / In Between / Follower

Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic

Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic

Traditional / In Between / Modern

Hard-working / In Between / Lazy

Cultured / In Between / Uncultured

Loyal / In Between / Disloyal

Faithful / In Between / Unfaithful

Additional information ––– –

Smoking Habit: No. Drugs: No. Alcohol: Oh gods yes, VERY heavily.

Possible Hooks ––– –

The Scion and Traveler: A daughter of the Steppe long come to Limsa, she was raised to fight.  She fell kind of accidentally in to the Scions’ laps and took up work with them as a Dark Knight. Run is fierce, headstrong, reckless, and loud.  It’s not hard for you to have come across her in your travels, in some dungeon or another, deep in a ruin, or in contact with the Scions themselves!  It’s not unheard of for her to frequent Ishgard as well.  It helps her get out her aggression, and she uses it as a way to vent.

The Dancer: To escape, and to pay honor to who she used to be, Run moonlights as a dancer.  Her performances happen all over Eorzea, and usually she finds a way to veil herself if she can.  She enjoys simply letting her body trace, turn, and pattern, so that she can show off...and maybe, if there’s any way, she’ll take someone home, get drunk, and fuck.  Dancing is her way to find release.

The Crafter and the Friend: What can she say?  She loves the rhythm of Goldsmithing and Weaving, both are a pattern, symmetry that life has often denied her.  It’s something she follows happily, and often loves to teach others!   However, when it comes to other people, she seeks out those that she knows need her.  She will sit by them, and make sure they’re well taken care her.  She can be doting, caring, and very much the mom-friend.

Other: Anything.  Any combo, a former lover?  Former family member?  From the Steppe or the Kagon tribe?   Someone who knew her before the day her parents died?   It really could be anything!  I’m always down to plot, and even open to new-ideas.

What I’m Looking For ––– –

Contacts and Friends!: So, SO new to in-game RP, so I need time and patience, but I would love some new friends and RP contacts.

SHIPS:  Run is Poly and Pansexual, and has yet to have an actual ship aside from an FWB ship, and a few canon-ships that I do with one regular partner.  I would love to branch out and try some new stuff, maybe find some new people, play in her new ‘verses.

Friendships: ....She is SO BAD AT MAKING FRIENDS -PUNTS HER-

Shenanigans: Any kind of adventure. or mishaps.

Slice of Life/Random Interactions: Random and crazy stuff is GREAT.

OOC and Roleplaying Preferences ––– –

I am a Graphic Communications student, who has serious health issues, so my time’s sporadic in-game, but I’m on Tumblr and Discord all the time.  We can definitely chat, and try to coordinate things, and I’m always willing to try out new stuff <3

I’m in CST, so I’m usually able to accommodate MOST stuff?  But my sleep schedule’s a bit weird, so we have to talk through that.

I’m on Discord a lot, so it’s often the easiest way to get a hold of me.

I’m still very new to in-game RP, and use the PS4 and a Chat Pad, and have super poor eyesight thanks to my health condition, so PLEASE BE PATIENT <3 I’m trying ;3;

OOC TALKING IS MY JAM.  I love plotting, and random IC chat, and just...Talking with my partners is so wonderful and amazing and perfect.  It makes me happy ;w;.  

My home world is Bryn for this character.

Regarding M/ERP: I am more than happy to write it, HOWEVER, YOU MUST BE 18+.  I WILL NOT RISK JAIL TIME FOR YOU.  I enjoy smut.  So much.  Like I will write it all day and night if you let me.  It is not my be-all, end-all though. I love general interactions~

Contact Information  ––– –

Discord - Ask me <3

In Game - Run Himurano

Tumblr -  @darkenedsteppemoon

Items in this post subject to change if/when the need arises (regarding roleplay).

[strangcrdoctor]

∞Guardians commentary time, because I was honestly too wiped out to get to it last night but I’m still very up for it now. 

1. So here’s my question about the opening sequence on Morag. If Ronan had hired the people that faced off with Quill in the opening sequence on Morag, was it just the case that Ronan’s men arrived 2.5 minutes too late, like Peter arrived just early enough to beat out Yondu? Because initially my impression was that they were indigenous and guarding it, but I know now that not to be the case because Korath is very much a devotee of Ronan, etc. But even if it is the case that Peter beat Ronan’s people, holy timing Batman. Seriously kudos to Quill for being even if incidentally two steps ahead of even Ronan’s game. 2. Okay one, Nova Prime Irani Rael is a hot piece and two she definitely deserves to be the girlfriend of General Leia Organa you can disagree with me but that makes you a suspect human being. Anyway, Rael making the diplomatic call to the Kree to denounce Ronan was not out of bounds for normal statecraft. Especially with a new and tenuous alliance, she’s not only right in calling bullshit that the Kree empire has said nothing to denounce Ronan, but she’s also right in advising they make a statement to stabilize their early peace because early peace is amazingly fragile. But like way to not maintain an alliance at all Kree Empire. You suck. 3. The actual diversity of felons on the Kyln is pretty neat, I’m not going to lie. Not just interspecies representation but also body type representation. There’s big very obviously non-straight criminals. There’s cool as shit looking alien species. There’s chubby feminine looking criminals! Tell me who they are Marvel! Tell me. 4. Now that Thanos’ real character has been revealed in the course of IW it is no damn wonder why Thanos thought of Ronan as a petulant child. Granted, Thanos’ logic is worse in that it is slightly better, but by comparison Thanos is an overly dire pragmatist were Ronan is very much just a racist bigot with a power complex. Thanos predictably find’s Ronan’s racial shortsightedness pithy, and I really have zero doubt that if Ronan had actually gone to piss on Thanos’ front lawn he would not have lasted long. 5. On the other hand, really Thanos. #1 piece of advice in the universe is don’t torture and dismantle women and then trust them to be complicit. You will die. 6. If anyone doesn’t feel pelvic sorcery during a close listening to Fooled Around & Fell In Love they are definitely soulless. 7. I also really really want to know what the hell they were drinking on Knowhere that got Rocket and Drax drunk (I mean who knows they might both be lightweights but I doubt it.), because Stephen wants some. 8. I’ll come right out and say it it’s a fucking shame that Tivan’s collection gets blown to hell. Not because Tivan isn’t twisted as hell keeping live specimens and slaves to himself, but more on the “holy crap what cool stuff just got destroyed that the universe will never see again” kind of way. It’s like the burning of the Library of Alexandria, only somehow worse. 9. The nods given to Thor: The Dark World and The Avengers are of course interesting given there’s a Dark Elf and a Chitauri, but I’m super curious about what made those particular specimens of each special enough for Tivan to keep them. Tivan deals with the depths and breadths of the universe coming in and out of Knowhere, and he doesn’t just snag one item from every species or race he comes across. So was there something interesting in particular about that Dark Elf and that Chitauri? Was the Chitauri one of the only remaining survivors after the nuclear explosion? Was the Dark Elf one of Malekith’s higher ups? I’m just curious about them, and curious about Tivan’s reasoning for keeping them. 10. Okay but adding to this whole Tivan’s collection tangent, Cosmo the Space dog cracks me up and not just because it’s funny for Tivan to have a doggie cosmonaut in his collection. Cosmo is a legit character in the Guardians comics, and he’s head of security on Knowhere and telepathic. So even if Tivan is keeping him in his collection or is just trying to keep him out of the way for something, just imagine what it’s like having an angry Russian dog thinking at you all the time because you’re getting in the way of him doing his job. 11. Slightly different bend on the Tivan train, but Carina legitimately just heard Tivan talk about how the stone was capable of destroying even a whole group of people who tried to wield it, and she was still willing to take the risk of being incinerated rather than living with her current conditions. Carina wasn’t resolutely making the hero play - she was making a suicide play knowing full well it would end that way if the hero play didn’t work. 12. When Yondu states that Peter doesn’t give a rip about Terra like. Dude. How many fucking references in this movie has he made to Terran culture? Music and movies and art and holy shit would you look at that, he sure as hell talks like a more culturally integrated human than anything else you twat waffle. Great way to piss him off though and get him to play it your way, which granted is what I think Yondu was probably doing the whole time but still. You don’t look at this boy who idolizes Footloose and knows who Jackson Pollock is and tell him he doesn’t care about Earth. Caring about Footloose and Jackson Pollock at all is a labor of love. 13. Speaking of Yondu, how the fuck is that the jewel frog bauble considered by anyone to be worth of the “high end” community? On top of it just hurting me, it does really raise the question of how is trite crap like that so valuable? Does it have some vector of worth and rarity because its origins are weird, obscure, or finite? Are the gems magical artifacts of some kind? Are the wealthy in space that mother-fucking self-ironic? Because if they are I want to know them. 14. Peter Quill, everyone, who makes a dick message to garner trust 15. Not for the first for for the last time will I say this, but Ravager tech is impressive. And I am amazingly intrigued at how Ravagers got such good technology and resources on their hands. True, they steal things and make money off of trades and pilfering. But that isn’t the only way to acquire goods and it’s not the only thing a viable pirating economic model can survive off of. Half the reason the Ravagers succeed is because they run like a business, have clientele, and are clientele for certain sects, right? So what kind of powerful connections do they have that allow them their advanced fleets? That’s the kind of shit I want to know about. 16. Also what the hell are Ronan’s pilots with the weird glowy psychic spheres on the Dark Aster? Is the Dark Aster itself Kree technology, or something Ronan got from Thanos who appropriated it from some other world he’s conquered? Because we know so little about the Kree in the MCU it’s hard to say, but I suppose we’ll have to wait and see if the Kree ever do become a part of canon so we can have more data with which to make a comparison. 17. Guardians does a pretty good job of taking at least some time to portray how terrible aerial dogfighting is on a mass scale because honestly it’s a bloody nightmare. It’s pictured so often and so carelessly in film that it’s not something we often think about, and the only movie I’ve ever seen that addresses how it feels in human terms is Dunkirk, but the intensity and messiness of it in Guardians is still pretty realistic and I give it props for that. 18. It occurs to me that maybe the younger, post-GOTG Groot is so bitter and antisocial for a while because of how giving the elder Groot was, and the seedling felt the sacrifice and his existence was under-appreciated? It was just a thought that crossed my mind. 19. Also Ronan you twat. “Engage Immolation Initiative” is just Big Mean & Fancy for “light ‘em up fuckers,” don’t pretend you’re any cooler than anyone else. 20. I really really appreciate the design that went into the Xandarian cityscape as a fully intergalactic multicultural society that shows it even in the way the city and buildings are assembled. The city isn’t uniform like a lot of science-fiction cities are - it’s got texture. Different sectors have different styles of buildings and different architecture. Like a real metropolitan area, it’s a patchwork of influences and it’s very well done. 21. Kudos to Rocket for identifying that ground-to-air is a super viable defense strategy. One thing that people tend to forget about ground-to-air is that aside from clouds, there’s no obstacles behind which to hide in the sky, so while ground defense might seem clumsy at times, air offense is hugely precarious because there is absolutely no defense mechanism against any attack except maneuvering, and when a defense is fully able to target that weakness it’s pretty damn effective. 22. It’s interesting to me how well superhero movies integrate climaxes within battle sequences? Some people might call it lazy but I call it interesting when when defense lines break, plans fail, and when teams encounter interference to push the plot forward. Plot movement in Marvel movies curry a lot of momentum from these events, but actually they’re pretty interesting replications of how modern society has been built on the results of such events within our own history. History has been moved by these exact same sorts of events, which is why they make sense to us in storytelling. 23. Peter protecting Groot from Rocket’s crash into the into the Dark Aster? Golden. And then Peter immediately going to Rocket from the wreckage? Stellar. Peter Quill you are a gem. 24. I will never forgive Marvel for hurting me as bad with “We are Groot” as Warner Brothers did with “Suuuuuperman” in Iron Giant. Stop giving Vin Diesel more opportunities to rip my heart out of my chest, please. 25. My mom and my uncle, her brother, both adored the entire GOTG soundtrack so much and it brought them so much joy watching it together that it got me into Motown. Even though it was oblique and dorky, Marvel did something amazing with this movie and gave my parents a piece of their own youth back, while giving me a chance to share in their knowledge and experience. It’s stuck with me ever since, especially because fundamentally that experience is the reason I got into Motown music, which I now adore with all my heart.

Alright, done with that. These are... just getting longer and longer I’m sorry guys no one should have ever allowed me to do this. Oh well. Too late to stop me now. Captain America: The Winter Solider is up next, and oh the pain.∞

[cecillewhite]

Podcast 18: Driving SaaS Customer Success – With Samma Hafeez of Thought Industries

WELCOME TO EPISODE 18 OF THE TALENTED LEARNING SHOW!

To learn more about this podcast series or to see the full collection of episodes visit The Talented Learning Show main page.

  EPISODE 18 – TOPIC SUMMARY AND GUEST:

Customer success has become an obsession among high-growth companies – especially software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors. But why is customer success so important? And what kind of educational strategies are most effective?

Today, we discuss these questions and more with expert, Samma Hafeez, VP of Customer Success at Thought Industries, a learning platform provider that helps businesses educate their external audiences.

  KEY TAKEAWAYS:

“Customer success” is more than a buzzword – especially in the subscription software industry, where onboarding and training directly influence product adoption and renewal rates.

A whole new profession has emerged from the need to help customers succeed. And these roles are changing as rapidly as the customer success function, itself.

As customer success practices mature, metrics continue to evolve. Organizations are embracing more sophisticated performance measures, as well as predictive models to guide product roadmaps.

  Q&A HIGHLIGHTS:

Welcome, Samma. Could you start by telling us a bit about your company?

Sure. Our mission at Thought Industries is to provide the world’s most advanced platform for external learning delivery. We operate in two key markets:

1) Commercial training and professional development organizations, and

2) Businesses that deliver scalable onboarding and training to their customers and customer-facing employees.

So you focus exclusively on the business of learning?

Yes. Ultimately, our customers must drive product adoption, retention and time-to-value among their customers. Think of us as the Wix or Squarespace of online learning. We help businesses bring their external learning vision to life in a fully branded, white-label environment that is modern, sleek, compelling and ready to serve demanding digital consumers.

Plus, our solution is cloud-based. We release new features every two weeks and 50% of our product roadmap is directly influenced by customer input. So there’s always a lot going on.

No doubt. So where does customer success fit-in with cloud-based software? 

The customer success role is definitely becoming more popular in the SaaS universe. It’s akin to account management, which historically focused exclusively on customer renewals and churn. But those customer-focused metrics no longer guarantee business success.

With cloud technology taking hold, more businesses are moving to subscription models. At the same time, the cost of acquiring customers has continued to rise. As a result, we’re starting to see more SaaS companies investing in dedicated teams that empower their customers to succeed.

How do customer success teams like yours help users accomplish their goals?

Our role begins once the contract is signed. In the post-sales phase, we help organizations realize value from their investment in our technology and services by driving measurable behavioral change, growth and operational transformation.

In my role as VP of Customer Success, I oversee the teams and the series of onboarding, training and support operations that empower our customers throughout their relationship with us. My performance is measured by my positive influence on customer retention, product adoption and expansion.

That’s an integral role…

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It varies from one company to another. But at Thought Industries, I report to the CEO because my role is considered critical to the company’s mission.

Actually, our customer success philosophy is woven into our organizational culture and technology. Almost everyone’s incentives are aligned with what we call a customer impact index to be sure we all remain customer-focused. In today’s highly competitive SaaS environment, I don’t think there’s any other way to operate.

Consumers now have tons of options. They’re more demanding than ever and are not shy about sharing their opinions publicly on social media. They insist on more personalization. It’s no surprise that they prefer to work with providers who are committed to their long-term success.

You’ve been at the forefront of customer success for years. How is this profession evolving?

We’re experiencing exponential growth. Only a few years ago, if you attended a customer success conference, you’d be in a room with maybe 30 to 300 other people. Now thousands and thousands from around the world attend these forums.

Customer success professional backgrounds vary significantly, from traditional client services and consulting roles, to solutions architects and product marketing specialists. It’s a mixed bag that varies by industry.

What customer success metrics should SaaS companies track?

Most executives would probably say churn is an essential metric, and I wouldn’t disagree. But I have a more nuanced perspective.

How so?

I believe customer success metrics should focus on things like time-to-value (TTV), return on investment (ROI) and the specific outcomes your customers need to achieve. These are leading indicators.

In other words, if you help customers drive critical behavior changes, address fundamental business challenges or remove obstacles to growth, you’ll make them look like rock stars. They’re much more likely to reward you with continued business. They’ll also rave about you to others. That brings in more referral business. And that’s what reduces your overall cost to acquire customers.

By focusing on customer outcomes and ROI, you’ll naturally improve related metrics like churn, retention, expansion, which are lagging indicators.

For those who aren’t familiar with these terms, how do you define “churn”? Is it the rate of customer turnover?

Basically yes. But there are many ways to measure churn. For example, a simple “logo churn” rate compares your total number of customers at the beginning and the end of a given time period.

So let’s say on January 1st you have 10 customers, but at the end of the month, only 8 customers remain. Your logo churn is 20% because you lost 2 of 10 customers. You can calculate dollar churn in a similar way. For instance, if you start with $10,000 of monthly recurring revenue and you end with $8,000, then your gross churn rate is also 20%.

So then, what is “time to value”? And what is its relationship with churn?

I like to break time-to-value into short-term and long-term perspectives. In other words, there’s what I call initial time-to-value (or quick time-to-value), which is different from what I call ROI time-to-value.

First, think of initial time-to-value as the number of hours, days, weeks or months from the moment your customer or user approves a contract to the moment they complete a task that matters to them. Or it could be the time it takes to realize value in a way that they couldn’t have without your technology or services.

In a SaaS environment, it’s typically the time it takes for someone who uses your solution to feel like they’ve accomplished something they consider meaningful. These days, it’s essential to help customers minimize that time interval between product activation or delivery and the first moment it demonstrates value.

Could you share some examples?

Sure. Folks who sign-up with us often are consolidating multiple learning delivery systems to a single platform. That, alone, can save them a considerable amount of money and make room in their budget to add headcount or pursue other business priorities.

Another example is the simple migration of content and users from an old, clunky, patchworked learning system to ours. Or it could be as simple as being able to drive actionable reporting that helps their executives make better-informed business decisions.

These scenarios don’t require our customers to be fully trained or onboarded. But the longer it takes for them to feel like they’ve accomplished something meaningful, the more likely they’ll doubt their decision. So to avoid unhappy customers who may walk away, it’s important to minimize that initial time-to-value metric.

Great. So where does the second time-to-value measure come in?

Naturally, ROI time-to-value is a longer time interval. It’s typically the timeframe for your service or technology to deliver on a customer’s core business need. It’s tied to the more strategic reason a customer invests in your solution.

Should time-to-value be measured in hours, days or months? Or is it different for every company?

It depends on the complexity of your product, who you serve and how many people you serve in a customer organization, as well as the technology ecosystem with which your solution interacts.

What is the relationship between time-to-value and onboarding? Does onboarding drive initial time-to-value, or is onboarding a broader concept?

Time-to-value is a measure of success, while onboarding is a process or a program.

Onboarding is not just training – although training is fundamental to an engaging, outcome-oriented experience. But it’s better to think of onboarding as an accumulation of efforts that make it possible for your customers to adopt your product or technology in a meaningful way.

That may require training. But it could also require a series of technology integrations or migrations. Often, a lot of technical legwork is needed to embed a new software product or service into an organization’s native ecosystem workflow.

How do you introduce core software functionality to new customers?

Our strategy for onboarding and educating our customers begins with understanding our audience – who we need to empower. This involves a success planning phase, where we try to understand what the business needs to drive behavioral or process change.

We also decide which key stakeholders need to be involved in that endeavor. Typically, there’s a “super user” or a lead. That person usually needs more education and support than others.

Do you personalize the onboarding experience for each persona?

Yes. Along with our customers, we co-curate a sequence of educational exercises that map to each persona, so everyone has access to a relevant, outcome-centered learning experience.

The best companies figure out exactly who needs to be trained and how much training they actually need. So when you have a new release, rather than trying to train every customer on every feature, you identify the personas for whom the new capabilities are most relevant. Then you improve the way those user segments interact with your system, so they can apply those features more quickly and effectively.

So as you see it, customer success isn’t just about initial time-to-value or even ROI time-to-value. It’s also about collaborative relationships that move customers up the value chain as their business expands and evolves?

Absolutely. For SaaS companies that constantly release new features and functionality, it’s very difficult to scale training as you grow your business. That’s why we see more subscription-based companies looking for customer learning platforms that are robust and flexible.

Our customers shouldn’t have to focus on becoming experts at using our system. We want them to focus on becoming better at doing their jobs. Ideally, our technology melts into their operational environment, rather than standing out from it. This onboarding approach helps support that goal.

  FOR MORE QUESTIONS AND COMPLETE ANSWERS, LISTEN TO THE FULL PODCAST NOW!

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How to Reduce Time-to-Value with Modern Customer Training

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Indoctrinating customers as quickly as possible is a smart business move. But exactly when should you start, how fast should you move and how can you be sure that your onboarding process makes a real difference?

Join John Leh, CEO and Lead Analyst at Talented Learning, and Samma Hafeez, Vice President of Customer Success at Thought Industries, as they explain how to accelerate customer time-to-value. You’ll learn:

What “onboarding” a customer really means

The critical relationship between onboarding and time-to-value

How quick wins and clear milestones drive engagement and adoption

How learning pathways strengthen the onboarding experience

Tips for metrics that align customer objectives with business priorities 

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[seanchou77]

Broken Prams

Death is the scariest thing you could dream about. For other people, it’s falling or being chased. But I hate dreaming about death. And I’ve dreamed of the worst kind - children dying, in the most violent ways. They get run over by trains or cars. I never see blood or their bodies properly. But there was one time when I saw a broken pram getting picked up from the side of the road and you could tell it was run over. It was goddamn awful.

Every beginning knows its own end. According to Sigmund Freud, without death, there wouldn’t be growth; the same growth principle which allows the organism to break out of the constancy principle must eventually resolve its ontological contradiction and die.

With that sentiment in mind, this essay will be discuss about death and what it means, inversely, for life. Discussions on death have taken place in a lot of quarters; while this essay will approach it through mainly a psychoanalytic lens, it will also borrow voices from philosophy and religion to add a more nuanced perspective.

Firstly, death is tied into long-held views about our mortality, impermanence and transitional status as human beings on earth. Whatever views we have on the after-life, it’s clear in our modern day, secular society such views do not hold traction for a lot of people.

Schopenhauer provides a modern perspective on death, through his transcendental metaphysical theory called, ‘will-and-representation’. Arthur Schopenhauer argued that everything in the world could be divided into subjects and objects, but that they were byproducts of an anonymous force called the ‘will’. This creates an active/passive binary, where ‘representations’ are byproducts of a ‘will’ which drives us as subjects; we feel this in our passions, desires and emotions.

As a result of will, we desire and suffer when our will is frustrated. Schopenhauer compared human beings to blind mole rats, digging underground without vision or directionality. This pointless suffering can drive us to despair, disappoint our expectations and leave our desires unfulfilled.

Schopenhauer argues instead we should accept the dissatisfaction of our will; instead of the temperamental and fickle nature of our will, we should accept pain as a constant and practise life through non-attachment. Only through aesthetic experience, in arts or music, could we temporarily transcend our direct experience of space and time towards a more perfect, timeless universe.

Schopenhauer must be understood for our next theoretical steps. To really understand Nietzsche’s work, he must be read in conversation with Schopenhauer. Friedrich Nietzsche followed Schopenhauer in his early 20s but then quickly abandoned him - he cried when he learned he had been living his youth like he was already old.

Nietzsche disagreed with Schopenhauer. He thought he was too pessimistic and neglected questions about power and self-transcendence. For Nietzsche, Schopenhauer was another example of a philosophical ascetic: self-denying the potential for human beings to live self-generative and flourishing lives through the will-to-power. According to Nietzsche then, our understanding of death shouldn’t be understood as just as certainty - this was true, as ‘God is dead’. But Nietzsche understood that it was a greater fault to live our lives as if we were already dead and deny our living potential; instead, we should embrace our heroic drives and attain the Superman status which exceeds previous horizons of outstanding achievement. Thus, through the transvaluation of all values, we can create new values.

The discussion between Schopenhauer and Nietzsche reveals several things about death. Firstly, we should be concerned about what it means for our phenomenological existence and selfhood; it can be self-defining and constructive of wider life missions. Furthermore, it could be understood as a self-transformative process, where the self achieves spiritual enlightenment (for Schopenhauer) or self-transcendence into Superman (for Nietzsche).

So far, the subject/object binary and notions of the self have been taken for granted.

Lacanian psychoanalysis can help to deconstruct these notions. Jean-Jacques Lacan introduced ‘mirror theory’ as a type of mimicry; Lacan argues that the self is introduced to the child during the ‘mirror stage’ between the age of six to 18 months, as an image or signifier which stabilises their notion of personal identity. The self therefore cannot be understood in isolation, but as a construct which must be stabilised within a wider language context of signified chains of meaning.

Julia Kristeva was interested in stages of child development prior to the mirror stage. Kristeva introduced the notion of the ‘semiotic’, of meaning as continuous, undemarcated and fluid - similar to the fluidity of a child being in the mother’s womb.

Both provide contrasting perspectives on death. Lacan argues that death should be accepted and internalised as the No-Thing; later on, Lacan replaced the ‘No-Thing’ with petit objet a (or the ‘object of desire’) and argued that jouissance helps us to overcome transitional, changing desires with permanent drive towards jouissance. For Lacan, drive is the horizon which already anticipates its death but envelops everything into a single plane.

Kristeva however suggests that death is one of many meaning-making exercises. We should be more interested in how the Other is constructed in opposition to the Self. The Self already recognises its death because it sees it in the Other and rejects the Other for that reason; the Abject Other suggests a fear of death is needed to stabilise a symbolic hierarchy of meaning. We could escape this instead by inverting, destabilising and playing with the meanings of things like death which would otherwise indicate notions of permanence and prescribe strict, disciplined action.

Lee Edelman helps us to understand how death can be queered. Death is an affront to heteronormative society, which builds a teleological narrative of families and future generations, who inherit what has been accumulated and preserved for the future. Edelman criticises the heteronormative assumptions of this narrative, which depend on the bio-power, reproductive force of straight, monogamous couples to perpetuate their lifestyles, at the exclusion and Otherising of alternative queer relationships.

Queer experience and identity can be constructed on alternative readings of death. Instead of death fitting into a linear timeline of marriage and having children, queerness means to explore alternative metonymies which can frame our identity: our creative pursuits can be our most powerful voices, but to also fundamentally retain our critical engagement skills to critique a heteronormative society which systematically excludes or assimilates us. Like Adonis, we are born through cycles of life and death and know no generation to inherit our legacy onto; our stories are tragic and beautiful.

But we could find an alternative understanding of death without pandering to pessimism. An an analogy in psychoanalysis on death runs like this: death is the bones which frames the flesh it upholds; without the hardness of death, our lives are supple, docile and lack self-definition.

Ernest Becker discusses this in his thoughts on heroism, as response to (and denial of) death. Becker argues for the need for genuine heroism where the individual is led, through self-acceptance and non-attachment, to accepting the reality of death but feeling inspired by the awe and opportunity of living even temporarily in the wide expanse of the universe and the mystery of the cosmos. We are not driven by the conformity of cultural heroism or the excess of personal heroism, but simultaneously humbled and driven to make the most of our time here.

Thus, this essay has touched on multiple perspectives on death. We could understand it as an elaboration of contradictions in our phenomenological experience; as a semiotic interplay between semantic systems of meaning; contrast desires and drives which arise from death; which lead ultimately to maturity, spiritual enlightenment and acceptance which opens our abilities to self-flourish and be responsible towards others.

***

I’ve had moments when I’ve been too scared to say anything or do anything.

I just feel so self-conscious, like my face is burning and my palms creasing with sweat.

I feel like I’m always being judged and I’m scared I won’t be good enough. It’s moments like that when I don’t want to do anything at all; I just want to feel invisible and hide. Maybe it’s because it feels like I’ve already died inside. Everything now is just the excess you want to scrap off your plate and pretend you never asked for. Actually, I didn’t ask for any of this.

I want to escape from all my responsibilities.

[disc-golf]

These Are the 4 High-Priced Items You Should Never Buy

I have good news and bad news.

First, the good news: Americans’ net worth has grown over the last 10 years, topping out at an average of about $200,000 for all demographics in 2014. If you’ve been financially savvy, you’re already there—or at least well on your way.

Now the bad news: That equity is increasingly less valuable. Beyond giving you credit advantages, it offers little possibility for sales returns later in life (or for family after your pass away).

Here’s why:

Most of those who have worked long enough to gain any net worth at all (usually ages 35+) have invested in things that are becoming outdated, unnecessary, or altogether obsolete. It’s also harder for up-and-coming professionals to afford. Here’s a closer look:

While cost of living is increasing—well beyond amounts expected for inflation—salaries aren’t keeping pace.

More money is being sunk into expensive technology (smartphones, tablets, computers, home electronics, Internet of Things devices, and so on). That technology, almost by definition, loses value very quickly as innovation soars and new technologies enter the market.

Younger generations aren’t buying homes; they’re renting their whole lives or investing in lower-cost condo properties. That means the single-family homes of older generations stay on the market for longer—sometimes even years. The final sales cost often does not give home-owners measurable return on their initial investment.

The sharing economy has made certain once-were necessities no longer a given. Instead of purchasing a car, for example, many people now lean on services like car2go, ZipCar, Lyft, and Uber.

Remote (and generally more casual) work environments are turning dress codes upside-down. It’s no longer an expectation in many industries that you present yourself with a suit and tie. High-ticket business wardrobes are out.

Given these cultural and economic shifts, there are some common investments that you probably shouldn’t be making—especially if you live in an urban area. Why? Their longterm value will likely tank and you’ll lose money.

If there’s any value in using these items in the present, the cost may be worth it for you. But think twice before investing in these high-priced items as long-term investments:

Car

It’s common knowledge that a new car depreciates in value by about 10% the moment it’s driven off the sales lot. And while some models hold their value for 5-10 years, most lose between a third and a half of their sales value in three years.

Let’s do the math on this. Let’s say you buy a brand-new Volkswagen Jetta for a cool $19,000. Here’s your investment over three years:

Downpayment: $2,000 Average loan terms and cost: $17,000 for 36 months at 6% / $18,500 Average annual maintenance: $630 for 3 years = $1,890 TOTAL COST: $22,390 (not including gas or parking)

Likely depreciation over 3 years: 44%, down to $10,640

According to Kelly Blue Book, you’re likely to get 70% of that in a sale. That leaves you with about $7,500 in meaningful equity. And you paid $22,390.

Compare this to ride-sharing. CreditKarma recently crunched the numbers on this and came up with some interesting numbers: Given Americans’ average social trips in a year, they estimate that ride-sharing will cost you $4,000 yearly if you use it “casually”���that is, not every time you leave your house/apartment.

That’s $12,000 in three years, which is a heck of a lot less than $22,390. And sure, you have no equity to speak of, but you also don’t have the hassle of car maintenance, gas costs, parking, and other random car fees (tolls, licensing, tags, etc.).

But there’s more to this decision than simple math. Younger professionals are keenly interested in lowering their carbon footprint, living in urban areas with better public transportation, and saving their money for experiences—not things.

Is it any wonder Millennials have set a new norm for a non-car-owning generations?

Business wardrobe

You may think that younger generations spend more money on clothing than America ever has. But that’s simply not true. According to some sources, clothing doesn’t even fit into household budgets anymore, while younger demographics are spending $50 less per month than older shoppers.

As mentioned above, spending for Millennials and Gen Zers leans more on experiences—dining out, music, theater, and so on—than it does on material goods like clothing. There are two reasons for this. One, the social dominance of today’s culture highly values experiences—and the ability to document them for social cachet. That’s not to say there isn’t genuine interest in new adventures, but the push to define oneself by these new experiences (often using social media) is huge.

Second, wardrobes no longer have to be defined by the expensive business suit. This is due in part to the rapid increase in telecommuting positions, which often don’t require a dress code. Over the last decade, these positions have more than doubled in the U.S., thanks in large part to readily accessible internet and collaborative software. But even in situations where in-office work is required, business casual attire has taken over the once-was dominating suit scene.

A couple of decades ago, lifer corporate types would often hand down their trusty suits to their young professional children, saving them several hundred dollars in wardrobe costs. But here’s what a suit will get you today:

Cost of suit and basic tailoring: $400 Cost of 3 dress shirts: $150 Cost of 2 pairs of dress shoes: $150 TOTAL COST: $700

Uses: Seldom, if ever, in the office; weddings and special occasions (for which suits can be rented)

Now, let’s take a look at a more Millennial-styled wardrobe:

Cost of 3 business-casual button-ups: $90 Cost of 3 khakis: $90 Cost of 2 pairs of nice shoes: $100 TOTAL COST: $280

Uses: Office (as needed), nicer social events, dancing/clubbing, theater, most celebrations

I’m not saying you should not own a suit—often a job/office environment will dictate that for you—but most young professionals choose not to because it makes more financial sense and dress codes have changed significantly. Plus, if they’re not going to make use of one, what are the chance their children will?

House

What? Don’t buy a house? But that’s the American dream, isn’t it? College, job, marriage, 2.5 kids, a house…

It sure used to be. But if pundits are right, then 2018 is going to be a rough year—home-buyers will find themselves paying a lot more for a lot less. And why? So they can say they own their own home?

Equity is less important to younger generations, and not because financial institutions suddenly changed their mind about it. It really is a matter of affordability. Millennials are entering the consumer market with soaring a cost of living, painful student loan debt, and salaries that just don’t make up the difference. So, they’ve had to rethink their use of money—and in most cases, they value enjoying experience in the here and now over the possibility of property in the future.

Simply put, the young set are renters. And there’s less of a stigma on living through your 30s and 40s as a renter if you’re genuinely happy and can maintain a reasonable quality of life.

When they ARE ready to buy—generally older and deeper into a career—these younger professionals have no interest in sacrificing an ideal location just for a picket fence. Instead, they scout out condos. It’s little wonder that in many cases, urban condos are appreciating much faster than single-family homes.

If markets continue their current trend, the cost of living continues to soar, and salaries climb at a snail’s pace, then the future for home-sellers will be bleak. Why? Well, nobody can afford one.

Smartphones

At some point, these wonders of modern communication will drop in price—maybe. But for now, buying a brand-new, late model smartphone is going to set you back about $1,000. The trouble is, if you wait even a year to sell it or trade it in for an upgrade, you’re going to be very disappointed: Most smartphones lose 60-70% of their value in a year, and as much as 90% in two years.

Okay, you argue, but owning a cellphone is actually financially smart; the gouging costs of “renting” one through the manufacturer or service provider is enough to make you gag every time you see your monthly bill. At the same time, however, there’s been growing evidence that companies are throttling service and functionality of old devices. Even if they don’t do so intentionally, technology moves at a lightning clip and before you know it, your expensive smartphone no longer plays well with others. This is perhaps most keenly felt in the growing world of the Internet of Things (IoT). Dated hardware like a two-generation-old Apple TV may not respond to the newest Apple remote app on your iPhone X. Why? Because, well, technology.

For convenience and reliability alone, then, it seems that many people are opting to swallow the monthly cost of “renting” their smartphones—provided they get an upgrade at the end of a year or 18 months.

In other words, nobody wants your iPhone 6.

#

Don’t buy a car, a house, a suit, or a smartphone—that’s a tall order, isn’t it? If all of that is off the table, what SHOULD you buy?

I’ll let the equity experts tackle that one in a future article.

But for now, tell me: Do you agree or disagree with the advice above? Share your comments below!

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[thewanderingmacy]

Dublin and many rants

I’m trying to catch up so I can record my everyday. So I was in Dublin from April 9-18, which meant I celebrated my birthday there. Since I arrived on the 9th, I treated myself to a nice hotel room so I’d wake up properly on my birthday. The hotel was very boutique-y and cute. I bought some chips and shortbread cookies (I lived off of shortbread cookies in the uk and Ireland) and some chocolate covered raisins (also a fav snack) and spent my birth eve eating and watching downtown abbey in a beautiful hotel room. On my birthday, I had to check out but waiting for me at reception, thanks to a certain woman in my life, was a box of donuts. The receptionist was sweet and got me a tea pot and milk and everything and I sat in the lobby, ate two donuts and had some tea. Then I ventured to a coastal area in Dublin (Dun Laog… something like that) where I had an appointment to recolour my hair. My hair had gone yellow on the top and was grey on the bottom so I figured a good present to myself would be to fix myself. The deal was $55 for a cut, colour and blow dry. I needed a haircut too because the last haircut I’d gotten was a few one from a student and my hair was uneven. So I sat and got my hairs done for a couple hours. It turned out okay. Not great- a little patchy- but miles better than what I was dealing with before so I was satisfied. At that point, it was like 3-4pm, so I went back to the hotel (had another donut) and checked into the hostel I’d be staying at for the rest of the time. The hotel was in a quiet area just south of the main city centre but the hostel was smack in the middle of it all. It was honestly a bit too central- I had to deal with constant crowds when exiting the place. After that, I treated myself to one of my favourite meals- Ramen and then I saw Free Fire at the cinema (with popcorn and chocolate of course). The movie was actually pretty good. I’m a fan of the director’s and he didn’t disappoint. There was a great build up and the dialogue was hilarious. I went back to the hostel and had a final donut. And that was my birthday celebration. The rest of Ireland was spent mostly in the city centre, seeing the shops (there’s a great store called Primark I ended up wandering into daily). I saw the 3 museums of archaeology, design and nature, I went on a tour of Dublin castle and the palace, I saw the parks by the city centre, saw the main cathedral, saw a couple food markets and whatnot. It was pretty cold and rainy while I was there but I usually was able to force myself to continue with my plans. I went back to that coastal neighbourhood and went to a Sunday market and wandered the coast for a bit, before heading to the south suburbs where I got my ears (technically re) pierced for $15 which was a great deal. On the last day, I went to Malahide castle which I loved. It was surrounded by beautiful gardens and the whole space gave me downton abbey vibes. That same day I visited the old 19th century prison which was also wild.

I met a girl from Winnipeg in my dorm. She was traveling through Europe and was down to the last couple weeks of her trip. Few things to note about this interaction. One, she was one of the travellers that just buy a one way ticket and wing it. I don’t like that. She said she’d planned to do North West Europe but ended up in Italy and Hungary and Eastern Europe because she met people along the way. That’s great for her but to me, that’s just dangerous because she probably spend double the price for hotels and flights and transit, booking everything a couple days before. To be fair, she’s a mellow example because she had a plan to go back. I met a girl in Belfast who made me even more anxious because she was supposed to go back home to San Francisco 6 weeks ago but, on a drunken whim, went to Belfast from Dublin and has been there for weeks. She has a suitcase of stuff 3 hours from Dublin and said she wants to collect her things but doubts she will. That’s just reckless and immature. I think when people hear that I preplanned everything, they take it negatively but I think I love the fact that I have a plan and I know what I’m doing and I’m reading up on the history of my destinations and getting The Experience. Anyway, the second thing I took away from meeting this girl was that I need to work in film. She said she was studying Musical Theatre and Arts Management in post secondary school. So, I, assuming she has a legit passion for the arts, said I was anxious to get home so I can start working in film and get my career going. She completely disagreed and said I should enjoy traveling (which I am/trying to/focusing on) and that she isn’t excited to get back working on her art. I’m so excited to get my drivers license and PAing on sets and write screenplays and get a portfolio and connections going. I really am so anxious to work in film- I think I can say that I have a certified passion for working in film and that it isn’t just a way for me to feel important, validated, etc. Like I genuinely want to start creating things now. I have a list on my phone of film ideas I’ve gotten traveling and I’m taking a ton of photos for set references, and I’ve gone to museums in Bath and London and, now, Prague, dedicated to fashion history and I took photos of pretty much everything to catalogue for reference. Basically, talking to a fellow aspiring artist made me realize that I love planning and that I’m dying to work in film so the conclusion is I need a (pre)-production job asap.

(Different point but talking to other travellers mostly just validates my own traveling style. I was talking to these girls in my hostel and one was a total party girl, one was a Classic Tourist, though to be fair, she was from Brooklyn so she’s pretty normal but her travelling style was lame, and the third didn’t say much so I won’t include her. The partier was here to experience the club culture and was going to Cracow and a few other stops with the intention of experiencing the party scene. Okay the third girl did say something because she agreed with me that partying was just something we’re not interested in at all- to be fair, we were talking about pub crawls which are regulated and whatnot but it stands that I have no intention of taking a sip of alcohol on this trip. Like I just have zero interest in drinking. It feels like an outlet or excuse or something to be stupid, immature, reckless, which as we know now, I do not appreciate. A tangent from this tangent- I’ve come to realize everything I do boils down to wanting control and power (the love of planning, the no drinking interest). Anyway, I mentioned how I saw a classical music concert today, and the partier made a face like “ew” and I’ve been thinking about it, because I like the fact that I want to experience the arts and culture of the country. To be fair, I’m not shitting on her travel style- I told her, if you enjoy it, might as well go all out- she just shit on my style. Another example, she asked for suggestions of what to do and I mentioned how I went to a beautiful 18th century palace with stunning painting fresco ceilings and she was like oh god, no way. Seeing some nice ass ceilings is a damn good time. I get a kick out of seeing history and architecture and everything. Also, the second girl, The Classic Traveller, was showing me her souvenirs she bought and they all came from a random, unoriginal souvenir shop. I realized, I like genuinely would not even think to buy someone something tacky from a store like that. I’ve been going to Antique Fairs (I spent a whole $4 to look around) and visiting craft shops, looking for interesting gifts and souvenirs. Not be toot my own horn and be like I’m Original and Interesting, but like I’d like to think I’m better than spending $10 on some boring mugs that say I love Prague on them. Basically, comparing myself to these travellers, made me appreciate my style of travelling.)

Getting back to Dublin, I enjoyed the city. I didn’t adore it but I enjoyed it and felt like I got some nice experiences out of it. I think my expectations were built up too much because I’d heard amazing things about it and, while it was cute, it felt very familiar and, I’m realizing now, that that familiarity made me less likely to treat myself to food and experiences because it felt like I was just in Canada or something and I wasn’t in a new country, a new world where I needed to experience things. Like, being in the Czech Republic, I see desserts and think I need to get the full Czech experience but I never felt like I was immersed in Ireland. In fact, it was really hard for me to grasp that I was in Ireland at all. It never really checked in and, even though I’d been there for 2.5 weeks, I never really became overwhelmed by a sense of traveling in a foreign country. It just didn’t really affect me a lot and felt disjointed or something, I don’t know. That isn’t to say I didn’t see beautiful things and did really fun activities and ate great meals (I had great burritos in Ireland- I’ll never forget it), I just never felt immersed in Irish culture. Dublin reminded me, in terms of what it had to offer, of a version of the New York-Toronto comparison, where Dublin is Toronto and London is New York. It had some cute quirks and some nice architecture but it never felt overly unique. It was definitely a modern city with large mall complexes and expensive cafes. To be fair, I didn’t get to go on a tour (I went on one in the castle but not one for the whole city) and perhaps if I’d learned more about the history, I would have gotten a more detailed understanding of the city but it felt like a very modern city layered with some history.

That’s all I’ll say for now.