#bc they are part of the set piece and create environment and like the world is lived in

[thylionheart]

If i can give anyone advice for writing an insanely large cast of minor characters who don’t necessarily need to be fully fleshed out, but have to feel real, is you give each of them 1. a temperment and 2. a hobby.

The hobby gives them something to focus on/a goal to follow that is just running in the background, as well as giving each character something unique to associate them with so the reader doesn’t feel like all theses same-face guys run together. A hobby could be as simple as luxury items and gold baubles to something deeper like trying to become the best athlete to impress their father.

their temperament informs how they approach their hobby, with zeal or reluctance, or whatever. Which translates to how they react to the world and actions around them.

The vengeful athlete character resents the main character brother who will always be the better athlete than him. And the easy-going bauble-collecting brother encourages his athlete brother’s mischief because it’s funny. Neither of them can capture their father’s attention.

Neither of their stories are necessarily interesting or relevant to the story we’re currently writing, but y’all are going to be so sad when i kill both of them off

[d-druxy]

I originally put this in the tags but it got so long that I decided to just put it here instead:

This is such a difficult vote bc to me these games rank very differently depending on the criteria you put them against. I voted DA2 bc its the game I feel most at home at and also the one I think the most about. I didnt expect to love Hawke as much as I did and that really endeared them towards me. Varric is also an all time favorite guy of mine and I just generally deeply care for this little family of misfits and their bonds to each other.

Playing it however.. I had fun and its a servicable game, dont get me wrong, but I didnt love playing it. I do like that we see some actual art direction and exploration in da2 It has its own visual identity which DAO for all it strengths lacks imo.

I don't even mind that we're restricted to kirkwall. I think limiting a game towards an area can definitely be beneficial. But the game feels rushed and it really shows at times (the same three set pieces to battle some thugs in) I do think da2s combat has a very snappy look to it and feels the best to me in this game (at least animation wise). Especially the Rogue looks super fun jumping and teleporting all over the place (im so glad for mods bc the champions rogue armors color pallette is TERRIBLE). But even combat isnt flawless and I think it took a bit of a hit mechanics wise, at least when it comes to the ability trees. (tbf mechanics are never my speciality so thats all im gonna say about it)

As a whole package however?.... It will always be DAO. Im forever in love with the dwarf commoner origin and the rpg elements are heavy in this game, it's so fun. Theres so much to do and at least for this game it really makes you feel like your choices matter. The replayability is great

The differences between the origins are my favorite part and while I couldnt bring myself to try a different one out yet, its just great that the option is there and it allows for the creation of a variety of characters. It's such a solid base to play around with. The combat in this game feels a bit outdated and clunky to me but its straightforward and it works. (I also think it allows you more freedom to explore different builds? but again thats not something I really dabble in).

I will say; I wish that DAO had a stronger art direction in game. Its very much giving the same old classic fantasy and it just doesnt have a strong visual identity to call its own. I also think the graphics can be rough, a lot of the npcs look the same but honestly I can forgive it plus mods are always an option.

This is also the only DA game where I'm not super mad about how the dwarfs look (they have VERY long arms but I can deal. I exclude DA2 from this discussion tho bc we dont get to create/play as a dwarf in that game and I dont recall seeing any female dwarfs either(?)). There still is some sexual dysmorphism (especially in the concept art lmao) but its not nearly as bad as in DAI (< shudders).

Now.. DAI was my first Dragon Age Game. The glitz of it definitely impressed me back then and its still iconic in some regards.

But it didnt make me fall in love with Dragon Age as a whole. That would only happen once I played DAO and actually understood wtf was going on (years later after I tried playing DAI for the first time).

I think DAI is THE Dragon Age game when it comes to art design. It practically overflows with it. (Dear god the tarot cards aloneeee they're so fucking iconic!!). The visual identity of this game is SO strong and the environments are still super beautiful even now! They look distinct and really showcase the different parts of Dragon Ages world. I love the graphics despite the janky animations and even now i still think the way this game renders skin and certain fabrics is super pretty.

but the world feels super empty at times but there arent any real backgrounds for the Inquisitor (I actually missed the little info blurb for the inky you make gets, the first time around) but the rpg elements have been even more reduced but the races sexual dysmorphism in this game is atrocious (I hate the way the female dwarfs look in this fucking game) but some of the story decisions bloat dragon ages setting as a whole but the hairstyles in this game are soooo ugly. almost all of my Inkys have buzzcuts (< I jest but yeah) etc.. So my ranking of these games heavily depends on the part we base the ranking on. I love good art design and interesting visuals. I know a lot of people hate the out there- over the top fashion design in DAI and when I was younger I used to agree. But now?? HOW FUN! HOW INTERESTING!! I love that I can tell the historical fashion influences! I love how different orlais feels from ferelden! I can tell the people who designed those outfits enjoyed themselves!! And for that alone I will always love DAI. (doesnt help that im just unsure what I want my Inquisitor to be personality wise. Both DAO and DA2 give you such solid bases to build upon)

But I dont love it as much as either DA2 or DAO in a lot of other regards.

DAO is the strongest as a whole experience. DA2s cast is so memorable and beloved. My brain loves to chew on Hawke and their story and its fun how much youre able to interpret into it since its by an unreliable narrator. I also think the rival vs friendly mechanic for your companions was and interesting idea DAI is a beautiful game. I love the graphics and its art. The cast is still lovable but playing it feels like such a big undertaking and I will forever hate what they did to the female dwarfs in this game

[podcastlimbo]

My honest honest opinion on second citadel season 3

Uhhhh... short answer? I didn’t like it much.

Okay wait before I go on to my long answer I need to say that this is all just my opinion and it’s all subjective. If you liked sc season 3 that’s awesome! I get why you do and I’m glad you enjoyed it!

But I really wasn’t a fan of where they went with it (even from episode 1), and I’m gonna go on a long rambly and repetitive rant about it.

I’m not gonna talk about the way the season ended and the setup for s4 because I haven’t fully formed my opinion about that - to form my opinion means to relisten to the season and i don’t really feel like doing that.

Anyways, these are my unfiltered 2am thoughts about the Rest Of It - maybe I’ll neaten it up later to make it more palatable but for now it’s wordy n messy and you can just. Not read it bc it’ll probably make you mad, or feel free to pick it apart and tell me I’m wrong, or unfollow me (and at least one person has already done so lmao) but like that won’t change the fact that I just wasn’t feeling s3 so uh. That said.

Long answer? I love the second citadel... at least the first two seasons

I love the world building, how the setting is such a unique, deliberate step away from eurocentric fantasy, how refreshing all that is! The Second Citadel (the place) is rich with culture and history from the brief glimpses we get of it (mostly in knight of the crown). Not to mention the monster society, with its own rules (or lack thereof) and environments and personalities.

I love the storytelling, how different mediums are woven into the way each episode is formatted. Rilla has her tape recorder, Damien his prayers, Caroline her letters, and each medium is so well suited to each character, and it truly lets us get a glimpse of what’s going on in their minds, and I find it utterly fascinating how a protagonist of one story could just as easily become an antagonist (or at least, an annoyance) in another

And the characters! Each one so compelling, with their own goals and motivations, their own intriguing backstories and potential.

Most importantly, the way these characters play off of each other is what makes second citadel amazing. Getting to see people with similar experiences but different world views clash (Caroline and Mira), people with fundamentally different beliefs reconcile and meet in the middle (rilla and arum), just, Kabert created so many interesting characters, and watching them bounce off one another is a joy.

And that’s what made season 2 so great for me. The exploration of each character, getting to see their good sides and bad, through either a medium tailored for them, or through interactions with others, as they explored a fascinating world.

The end of season 2 left me so satisfied, but still with so many questions and excitement about what was to come. I wanted to see Talfryn come into his own and step out of his brothers shadow. I wanted to see Damien, Arum and Rilla navigating their new relationship. I wanted to know more of the fate of Rilla’s parents, Damien’s past, the consequences Arum would surely face after defying the monster court. I wanted Marc to finally be recognized by his fellow knights, to watch as Caroline lead the journeymen knights, while learning to trust in others as she was beginning to do. I wanted Angelo continuing to unlearn the implicit biases that had been instilled in him as a result of his upbringing, or more details on Caroline and Quanyii’s relationship. I was also curious!! How would human and monster relations change after the events of the finale? And would we learn more of the past, when humans and monsters lived together in peace?

I was buzzing with excitement for season 3, and then.. it came, it aired, and then it went.

And I felt... meh?

Don’t get me wrong. There were moments that I liked. Some of what I hoped to see did happen (see the above paragraph lmao), getting a glimpse of the western wastes with its own culture a joy. The dynamics between Olala and some of the characters were really fun! And the direction the story took at the end was one I didn’t expect, but left me open to more.

That said,,, everything else about the season just. Didnt gel with me.

Everything I loved about second citadel pretty much wasn’t there??? Aside from Caroline, Angelo and Quanyii, all the characters they spent so much time introducing to us and fleshing out over 2 seasons were just relegated to the side??

I think my main problem with season 3 was that it felt like a completely different show. Characters introduced as part of an ensemble became side characters in (what was supposed to be) their own stories. Character arcs that got set up were dropped, and mysteries/backstories teased were forgotten. Heck, the monster court and senate wasn’t even brought up! The aftermath of the fear bugs attack ont the citadel went unexplored! It’s like nothing in the past season even happened!

And I’m sorry I gotta say this, but the problem is Olala.

I mean. Okay I don’t wanna be super mean- she’s perfectly fine as a character. We root for her, we cry when she cries, and we cheer when she wins the day.

But since all the episodes were centered around her, we didn’t get to see anyone else’s inner worlds. And like okay, yes, they did it for this season of Juno Steel too, where Juno, the previous POV a character for 2 seasons, became a part of an ensemble, and was a side character for many episodes. But this choice worked for Juno and not Second Citadel, because it was a natural progression for his story! We spent 2 seasons exploring Juno’s character, his backstory, his motivations, we saw him come to terms with his family history, grow and change as a person, and by the time he joined the Carte Blanche, we’d gotten to a point with Junos story where we’re okay to step away for a while, and see events through the lens of others.

But that just?? Doesn’t work in second citadel? Because unlike Juno, the characters introduced in s1-2 are virtually unexplored! There’s still so much about their stories we don’t know, and so many ways for them to progress.

But we didn’t get any of that! Stuff established in s1-2 barely got payoff in this season. Characters stagnated, and when previously it was amazing to watch them interact with each other? Having each episode throw different combinations of characters together and seeing how they clashed and came together? Yeah we didn’t get that, it was all the same characters bouncing off of Olala, which is fine at first, but honestly? After the first couple episodes, it got stale.

And remember how before, we would get to see the characters tell their story through a medium suited for them? Well I noticed that the format of this season was a lot moreee audio drama-y (basically a TV show but with no visuals) and while there’s nothing wrong with that, one of SC’s strengths was in using the medium in unique ways, presenting the episodes in unique formats depending on the POV character. And with the exception of a few moments, the season really lacked that!

I know there were episodes in s1-2, like caves of discord and the Janus beast which didnt follow that format, but I think it’s a fan consensus that the episodes that do (moonlit hermit, KOTC lots, lady of the lake) are favourites, because they fully embraced the advantages and limitations those framing devices offered, and were truly perfect for character exploration.

It’s like. Idk. Imagine wolf 359 s3 where the si5 were introduced, and there was like 1-2 episodes of them interacting with the rest of our cast, but then after that the rest of the season just completely focuses on Eiffel and the new characters, and everyone else just disappears n twiddles their thumbs and doesn’t even do anything during the finale. That’s what happened this season, and that’s the kinda weird vibe I’m talking about.

Since I’m already rambling, I might as well just say some more stuff. I was disappointed with the music this season. I can tell Ryan Vibert was trying to figure a way to make SC sound different from Juno, and he was getting there in s1-2! The pieces that stand out now are the soft, acoustic guitar pieces, like Rillas song, or the lone melody line of the guitar in the SC theme. I thought he was getting it with s3e1, when Marc fought the dinosaur while traditional Japanese instruments were playing!! But then for the rest of the season, it was just samey echoey ambient electric guitar, like how it is for Juno. There could’ve been so much potential to give this world its own musical identity, but in the end, that attempt was dropped (at least that’s how it come off to me), just like so many other elements introduced in s1-2!

I’ve gotten this far in my rant, and I haven’t even talked about the story. And the story is. Hmmmmm

Like. It’s completely serviceable? Kabert are good at what they do so the story is a okay I guess? But to be completely honest, the characters and story were so tied together in previous seasons, so much so that in this season, even though the plot was just fine, it stayed just that. Fine. it always felt like there was something missing because the characters were the story, and to have just. So many holes in that department meant that the story itself was fundamentally empty.

Anyways uh. All of this is to say that this all boils down to character. I had my nits to pick with other elements but the fact that Rilla, Arum, Damien, Marc and Talfryn got completely sidelined (Tal most of all) when so much of the previous seasons were spent setting them up- in favour of a completely new storyline featuring new characters and settings when there was still so! Much! Left! Unfinished! From unfulfilled arcs to dynamics left untapped, and creative potential lost, the essence of the show was watered down and it left me with the intense feeling of

:/

Idk. Season 3 felt like a completely different show. I liked s1, I loved a2, but s3 just. isnt second citadel for me. I’ll probably still listen to the next season out of loyalty, but I don’t think I’ll ever feel as passionately about the shows future as I do it’s precious seasons, especially if they continue this way.

Sorry.

[seoafin]

jjk & tower of god chapter on the same day,,, i spent all of my brainjuice talking abt tog w some friends + working on my wip so this one might be incoherent LMAO but nsjdhfjd this my 2 cents for the chp (1) - 🐱

first of all, the zenins shld just eat shit 🥰 the bar is just nonexistant now 😭😭😭

also maki’s mother said sth that hits way too close to home for me too🥴

the maki & mai, megumi & tsumiki "make a place where they are happy” parallels...mai,, maki wanted a place where u'd be happy!!! 😭😭😭 good points abt any interesting nuances the original jpn might have had though

ALSO MUSCLE MAKI IS HERE

and lmao megumi's "ew no" face ,,, i didn't think he could make a face like that JDJJDJD ,, once again i think his outsider-insider status is interesting but the amount of ppl counting on him/leaning on him bc of strategic position is a lot. ig this is what kamo meant by supporting the 3 families,,,, gojou indeed is playing the long game. megumi in the meantime, very persistent in not getting more involved in clan politics, not using power that is offered to him, or leveraging it - in a way it is good, and it also makes sense with "stress is other ppl" but is interesting from a structural pov. megumi may not rly give a shit abt the rest of the jujutsu world. if the ppl close to him are affected, then he cares. otherwise, forget it.

also im interested in power implications here bcs it sound a little like there’s a slight split b/w leadership and everyday zenins and im curious what it's like if u have no connection to the top of the clan,, and again higher ups being unaffiliated with the 3 clans so they have to appeal to them. curious what other talents the gojou clan have and what they're known for bc clearly it's not just gojou, they still have power without him and still have a stake in the shifting power structure. kamo must be busy too...

MAKIIIIII ,,, honestly my heart hurts a little seeing her getting beat up in recent chapters. but i’m rly happy,, shes FINALLY getting the focus she deserves and i’m confident she will make a recovery and she IS in fact the one leading efforts on the zenin side. im rly hopeful she can take over the clan one day and no longer say she's not good enough

that stomach wound is bad news though so im wondering how she will come back from that,, that she didn't know her own father's abilities says a lot, too. i wonder if she could see the extension of his blade, or if she hasn't been able to see/understand many ppl abilities

im hopeful for next chp now. u can do it maki!!!!

flashing back on these bits, it makes more sense now why megumi wasn't melting down post-shibuya,, seems most information came to him in a sort of timely and calm way? also i rly have to wonder if gojou did not spend a decade plotting in front him bcs he's done it before,,,, like the whole clan head scene in megumi's middle school years....in a way i imagine he wouldve seen that gojou come out of the high school and watch him get more serious as he acquired even more skin in the game

all the time though i wonder abt megumi's tendency toward inertia and nonaction to things that would seemingly give him power and trying to understand it and that IS him being selfish and that IS,, imo the biggest indication of what he actually does or doesn't want. he wants it, he will act and work on it immediately himself. he doesn't like it? act like it doesn't exist. it make me want to shake him around like NO!! megumi pay attention!!! But his reaction to this clan stuff is a contrast to his behavior in recent chapters imo

and more mahjong references,,, between this and yuuji’s pachinko,, i wonder abt the undercurrent of gambling haha. a gamble for the shaman world and who will come out on top? a contrast to the flowy ocean imagery that connects shaman stuff out to the rest of the world

also this ,,,, there's that one jp tweet (i cant find it again😞) that talks about how toji, as the point of distortion, created megumi, who is currently playing a potential convergence/healing/uniting role (if he actually takes it on as a responsibility lol) and connects this back to the medicine buddha,,, whose mudra (hand sign) is used for chimera shadow garden. with the commentary abt ppl with heavenly restriction needing to know what to throw away in order to become strong or tap into their full strength and toji’s commentary at the end of fight with gojou,,  i actually always felt that toji died not having been entirely resolved with himself bc he talks abt going against the self that decided to forget abt self-respect, to live without thinking abt himself or others,,, in a way, living selfishly, for himself, by ignoring anything immediate and i think he succeeded for a while bc he didnt even remember megumi's name. he remembers it when he talks to getou abt him being thankful for toji not killing him bc of potential drawbacks

and at the very end he thinks of megumi again and that last act does think of someone else, like a "life before your eyes" moment where toji thinks about how the zenin's treatment of him led him there or how his return to shibuya ends with him remembering how he gave megumi back to the zenin,,, i think atm of his death he was starting to think he did want to care, in a different way, or that he needed a different paradigm. or,, maybe he was just starting to realize how far the zenin thinking had set into him

so we dont rly talk abt that being an enlightenment moment for toji but i kind of think it was. that megumi has the potential to become a pivotal piece as a legacy of distortion is interesting. i dont actually think toji set up everything intentionally bc he didnt know megumi's ability, and i dont think he wouldve thought that far. i think a lot of the heir and inheritance stuff is sth naobito set in after seeing megumi's development under gojou. it's clear now everyone has been keeping eyes on everyone else

at some point there's some interesting discussion to be had abt megumi and privilege - i'm surprised the canon characters dont hate him more for having stuff just fall into his lap, and so i liked that maki pointed this out that he could use this and he shld bc theres a frustration there - and yet at the same time megumi himself seemingly feels very little attachment to the zenin and the shaman world still. he just cares abt his little circle of people, and it's a very intentional choice, based on his good/bad ppl thing

u cant really affect the entire world, but u can assert urself on the environment around u and decide what u do and dont act on. this part of megumi is more teenage boy and kind of toji-like, i think,,, hence the emphasis on action

u express ur effect and existence through action, who u kill or who u save. toji having very little, while so much falls into megumi's lap while he doesn't want it, doesn't want to acknowledge it, likely doesn't want to take part in a system he doesn't like or, having been raised under gojou's wing, resents or finds corrupt or useless, or doesn't even think on bc he thinks its above his pay grade and gojou's there - this is also megumi's moment to solidify his own direction and commit to working in the system or out of it

the "not caring" is a defensive measure in a way too, i think. i dont think megumi is Big Good and wants to save everyone and everything and the world to be good and pure, i tend to think of him as a resigned chaotic neutral, who wishes he could be good orz

ANYWAY i think there's some interesting juxtapositions with the whole toji > megumi thing, that someone who is born without, restricted, births and creates someone full of blessings. its very shaman-like, action then reaction

AND i wish u luck on ur final paper (bless ur eyes to see incels bc i’ll just log off for the day when i saw one (1) of them on the net) AND DONT FORGET TO TAKE A REST,, the self care is much needed me thinks <333 (2) - 🐱

i love u 🥺🥺😭😭😭 you take care of yourself too!!!

also ur right...all this political intrigue im so curious i need to know how the jujutsu world is structured in terms of the higher ups and the clans. like i assumed that the three clan elders WERE to some extent also part of the higher ups???? but now it seems that the higher ups are a separate entity altogether, so like checks and balances i suppose. except both the higher ups and the clans are corrupt so no balance there 😭

the chapter implied the zenins are losing when it comes to the power struggle between the three clans. im interested. i want to see them all rot!!! like i also said though it’s going to be interesting to see the state of the kamo clan though, considering “noritoshi kamo.” like what do you even say to that???? im going to be surprised if it doesn’t affect their standing in the jujutsu world but then again the kamo clan IS one of the big three.

megumi really is a character that was blessed in all regards but like. doesn’t want anything to do with it LOL he really said ‘this is a pain no thanks.’ like gojo like megumi i suppose. i agree with u the whole toji and megumi set up....genius....i also love their juxtaposition. it’s so interesting and another source of irony.

[karamindia]

Unity In Diversity In India

Presentation

As we as a whole realize India is a nation of solidarity in variety. The mountain ranges, waterway flooded regions, waterways, and streams, woods, and desert all have embellished India with their extraordinary variety among individuals different races, ranks, ideologies, religions, and dialects each state and area has its uniqueness Worldwide neighborhood explorers or guests love this assortment tones, culture, and the environment, and so on Dance and music, bright celebrations and wonderfully crafted works a spell on the guests both Public and global. Seashores of Goa, backwaters of Kerala, and snow-clad heaps of Himachal, and sands, and pools of Rajasthan, world culture sights of Delhi, and so on are the image of the variety of our country. This vivid assortment of a nation makes our country a significant fascination of travelers that is advantageous for the Economy and thriving of the country.

Notwithstanding, large numbers of the distinctions in religions, customs, dialects, and societies have become so exceptional that they have expected hazardous extents for Public Solidarity and security. We do not just need to give the best offices and wellbeing to unfamiliar travelers yet additionally to keep up with tranquil and neighborly coextensive individuals having a place with various identities and societies. Without harmony, our variety is of no utilization. It is not an unexpected obligation of the public authority and individuals of India to keep the delightful variety of our country got in the card of solidarity unblemished.

Which means of solidarity in a variety

The term solidarity in variety identifies with the condition of fellowship or uprightness regardless of the presence of endless variety. Solidarity in variety depends on the idea where the individual has varieties in actual characteristics, skin tone, ranks, statement of faith, social and strict practices, and so on are not seen as a debate. Maybe, these distinctions are seen upon as assortments that work on the general public and the country overall.

In India, the public associations just can be the foundation of a solid, bound together, and prosperous Indian, typically in times of radicalism and illegal intimidation. Mahatma Gandhi forfeited his life for shared solidarity. However, there are various networks like Bengalis, Gujaratis, Punjabis, Maharashtrians, Tamilians, and so on the realities stay that regardless of divisions and contrasts, rank or statement of faith, we have lived respectively for millennia. However, there are contrasts between the Hindu and the Muslim people group concerning their societies, philosophy, and customs. They live respectively and have a profound regard for one another. The Hindus send good tidings to their Muslim companions at the hour of their Muslim celebrations like Eid, Muharram, and so on moreover, the Muslims likewise send wishes or good tidings to their Hindu companions at the hour of Hindu celebrations, for example, Diwali, Durga puja, and so on this portrays most of the solidarity among the Hindus and the Muslims in India.

On numerous subjects, they impact each other and are spurred by the goals of oriental human progress. India is a huge country. Various areas notice changes in the environment. The communication in the language of one state is very not quite the same as in different states. They wear various kinds of garments, they celebrate various celebrations and play different strict customs. Individuals having a place with various societies have a place with various strict convictions.

Beginning of solidarity in a variety

The term solidarity of variety means the solidarity between individuals with various social, strict beliefs, economic wellbeing, and other segment varieties. This articulation has its associations, since antiquated occasions, it is utilized by different political and social gatherings to show solidarity among the people or social orders. This is an antiquated articulation that was before utilized by certain social orders in North America and China, around 500 BC. Solidarity in India is the best model of solidarity in variety since individuals living with different religions and societies keep similar laws as set somewhere near the Constitution of India.

Significance of solidarity in a variety

Solidarity in variety is particularly significant for a nation for:

Public Combination

Solidarity in variety is exceptionally fundamental for a country since it is an extremely basic undertaking to partition individuals with various perspectives and thoughts. In case there is a solidarity between individuals in spite of their varieties and it is undeniably challenging to crumble the country. The solidarity among the residents of the nation assumes an extraordinary part in keeping up with harmony and thriving in the country.

Improvement and development

Solidarity in variety assumes a fundamental part in the development of the country on the grounds that the assembled nation will consistently continue on the way to improvement. It will confront some inward issues than a country that is socially feeble and conveyed on various terms.

Worldwide acknowledgment

A country that is various, yet at the same time it is joined together, joins worth to the country as well as appreciated on worldwide stages. It sets a model for all countries by featuring the qualities ​​and ethics of residents who regard and support each other notwithstanding their various foundations and societies.

Tranquil concurrence

Variety can likewise be the justification behind the beginning of inner questions however solidarity in variety assumes a major part in keeping up with serene conjunction with individuals with various societies and foundations.

The contrast between solidarity and variety

There is a feeling of fellowship and a mix of solidarity. Its soul holds individuals together and the bond that directs the way of uprightness.

Solidarity addresses the connection between the different gatherings that tie them all together. It can even be contended that the absence of qualification between individuals of various races is upheld by strict, semantic, or racial angles.

Conversely, variety alludes to something else. It is characterized on the grounds that the aggregate contrasts of different gatherings upheld religion, race or language and so forth It's a variety of classes and gatherings living in a few districts, with various societies, customs, and foundations.

Variety can be something that achieves alternate points of view, encounters, and acknowledgments among individuals. Solidarity can be a reality while variety can be a condition of division or variety. A family might have individuals with various perspectives, interests, or thoughts who express their disparities in many regards, however, as a family, they show the best approach to solidarity among themselves.

Benefits and bad marks of solidarity in a variety

Benefits

Solidarity in variety expands the resolve of people inside the work environment, association, and local area.

It assists with extending coordinated effort, connections, cooperations between individuals, along these lines further developing execution, nature of work, efficiency, and way of life.

This empowers correspondence to flourish much under the most difficult conditions.

Keep individuals eliminated from social ills and it assists with overseeing clashes all the more without any problem.

It advances solid human connections and secures the equivalent privileges, everything being equal.

Solidarity in variety gives a wellspring of the travel industry to India. Individuals from varying backgrounds, societies, religions, and attire are drawn to numerous guests and sightseers from everywhere in the world.

This, however particularly not the same as each other, brings about the act of public solidarity among the people groups of the world.

It reinforces and upgrades the rich legacy of the nation and besides as a social legacy of India.

It assists with filling the rural area with biodiversity just as monetary assumptions.

A wellspring of gifted and creating experts in different pieces of the country.

Bad marks

This can lead to numerous social strains among different states and individuals of etymological beginning.

It produces defilement and ignorance in numerous locales of the country.

Because of the lacking establishment, power insufficiency, streets, and so forth it very well may be the beginning of the helpless way of life in different peaceful regions.

Solidarity in variety in old India

Old Indian history is energizing on the grounds that many races and clans blended in early India. The pre-Aryans, the Indo-Aryans, the Greeks, the Scythians, the Hunas, the Turks, and numerous others made their homes in India. Each ethnic gathering gave its vermin to the advancement of the Indian social framework, workmanship, and engineering, language, and educated. This load of people groups and their social provisions mixed so indivisibly that they can be perceived in their unique structure.

An inconceivable element of old Indian culture has been the joining of social parts from the north to south, and the east to west. The Aryan components are evened out with the Vedic and Puranic culture of the north and pre-Aryan with the Dravidian and Tamil culture of the south.'

They represent thoughts, associations, merchandise, and settlements associated with peninsular and non-Vedic India. Moreover, numerous Pali and Sanskrit terms, inferring thoughts and associations, framed in the Gangetic fields, show up in the most punctual Tamil texts called the Sangam writing which is severely utilized for the period 300 BC-Promotion 600. The eastern region involved by the pre-Aryan clans made its commitment.

Individuals of these districts talked the Munda or Kolarian language. Various terms that infer that use of cotton, route, burrowing stick, and so forth, in the Indo-Aryan language have been followed to the Munda dialects by researchers. Despite the fact that there are numerous Munda hollows in Chhota Nagpur level, the remaining parts of Munda culture in the Indo-Aryan culture are genuinely impressive. Numerous Dravidian expressions are additionally to be situated in the Indo-Aryan dialects. It was held that adjustments of the phonetics and glossary of the Vedic dialects can be depicted as much dependent on the Dravidian significance as that of the Munda.

India on antiquated occasions has been a place where there are a few religions. Antiquated Indians saw the introduction of Brahmanism or Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism, yet this load of societies and religions mingled. Thusly, Indians communicate in different dialects, practice a few religions, and see different social traditions, they follow a few normal style

[jordanianroyals]

Queen Noor Interview with Prestige issue 34, March 1996

Interviewed in Amman by CHRISTIANE Obeid | © Prestige / Bassam Lahoud 

She captivates you with the strength of her charisma. Fascinates you by the scale of her projects. Meeting with Her Majesty in Jerash.

Amman Airport. Literally a welcoming committee, two people waiting, sent by the Royal Palace of Ma’wa, a third one by the Lebanese Embassy in Jordan. A first impression of Jordan: courtesy, discretion. Outside, the lights of a city that does not sleep. Alive. With white stone houses, architectural treasures. No skyscrapers but a latent desire for immensity. The next day, the same person, taciturn and kind, leads us to our first stop: Iraq Al Amir. An archaeological reconstructed village, restored, half an hour from Amman but already deeply immersed in tradition.

We have not yet met the Queen, but her work is marked everywhere. (Source)

Inside each house, a beehive of activity and a delicious freshness. Our mentor: Awni Quandour graduate of States and director of the center. Here, we weave with happiness, the millenary production of parchment paper is recovered…

Ramadan does not slow the activity of nawls under the impetus of the gay village girls. The presence of computers seems incongruous at first, but the tradition and modernity go together well. Our meeting with Jordan’s heritage extends to Jordan Design and Trade Center (JDTC). «Our goal is to continue to create, create every day, something different.» Statement of the director Claude Zumot, also a graduate in management from the States. And the designers of the Centre do not lack ideas. Originality of modern notes intended to complement the heritage of ancestors. Mosaic patterns on multiple works, delicately aesthetic convolutions of a glass, traced vows on Salsal ceramics. We learn, with difficulty, to recognize the different bsat and call them by name because they have a name like any piece of art. From the peasants of Iraq Al Amir to Husseiniyé Bedouins, Jordan awakes to crafts, culture. Who gave the impetus? A queen so dedicated to her work that she offered us, instead of a traditional interview, to accompany her to Jerash. Historic city that has a large craft center. Departure from the Royal Palace of Ma ‘awa, on the hill of Nuzha.

At Jerash, in groups in front and inside of the Town Hall, the crowd waiting for their queen, their benefactress. It is there, fascinated, that we understand the scale of the project, the strength of her charisma, the extent of her love for Jordan, her commitment to the people that came to pay tribute to her.

Majesty, you are an architect; what is the contribution of your major in the successful implementation of your projects? I chose a major in Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Princeton because it included several disciplines that were later a great asset to my work in Jordan. I discovered that in order to build for an individual or a community, we should understand their physical, social and spiritual needs and try to find solutions to those needs. In a sense, you can say that my major at the university helped me to become a «social architect».

«The woman can become a real economical force in her own community».

What distinguishes the Jordanian crafts from other countries? Jordanian designs reflect the richness of our history and are inspired by many ancient and contemporary cultures that flourished in Jordan. For example, the Nabataeans were famous for their fine ceramics they exported across the East. We produce Nabataean pottery style craft at the center of Salt that can be sold to tourists today.

On the other hand, the Bedouin style is very special because it produces «smooth-faced» because dense carpet; their texture is different from other styles. Our designers have also introduced for carpets and ceramic patterns inspired from mosaics. Embroidery items are typically Jordanian, eg Ma’ani point that had almost disappeared until the day the JDTC incorporated it again in its products. Another practice been forgotten and that we have revived the wheat wicker baskets woven by hand. Better, we established at Mukhaibeh a profitable project for the work of wicker wheat, palm leaves and banana …. On the other hand, the foundation provided women with new looms and spinning wheels to increase productivity. We have imposed a strict quality control from raw material to final product.

What are the main lines of craft projects? I would mainly say weaving and embroidery and ceramics, gems and paper.

Is there a contribution of the younger generation of the royal family to the revival of heritage? Several young members of the family support national programs for the preservation and promotion of the Jordanian heritage especially in the Jerash festival for art and culture and the National Music conservatory and projects for the Environment.

Majesty, what is the contribution of craft centers for the protection of historical monuments? Over the past decade, I have encouraged the development of these highly skilled centers in Jordan historic towns of archaeological sites to promote handicrafts and integrate the socio-economic development to tourism. In Iraq Al Amir you visited yesterday, a site dating from BC 2nd century, the Noor Al Hussein Foundation has renovated two farms and began the restoration of ten others. She plans to turn these farms in a craft village that preserve the cultural heritage of the region and would be linked to Hellenistic palace, which will encourage tourism and increase the economic benefit of the community. The foundation aims primarily to improve the quality of life of rural and urban poor communities through Jordan establishing intensive programs in the context of health, education, heritage, environment, volunteering and community involvement. I also encouraged the restoration of historic villages nearby archaeological sites such as Taybat Zaman, ten minutes from Petra. The Foundation and the Ministry of Tourism are working together for the upgrading of craft shops and tourist information centers.

As part of the craft revival, how do you assess environmental issues and what are your achievements in this area? I already mentioned the Mukhaibeh braiding project that symbolizes the effort deployed by the Foundation for integrating environmental issues into development projects. Before the Foundation initiated the project, the farmers there cut down and uprooted their palms, exploring other cultures. We have created a demand and as a result, farmers planted more palm trees! On the other hand, the JDTC working on water recycling project to reuse the water in the wool processing centers and dyeing south of Jordan. The JDTC also initiated profitable projects to the Dana Nature Reserve, in an abandoned village in the south. The historic stone houses have been restored and activities implemented. Currently the JDTC sells jewelry made in Dana, from semi-precious stones in the region.

Have most of the artistic and cultural projects been realized? Has the Foundation Noor AL Hussein realized its initial aspirations? Yes, the cultural activity of the Foundation is in full swing. Just after my marriage, I started with the invaluable help of Jordanian volunteers, the first Jerash Festival, today internationally recognized as a crossroads exchanges which contributed to the rebirth and revitalization of the cultural and artistic heritage. I also began during the early years of my marriage the Arab Children’s Congress, which brings together children from all parts of the Arab world in a climate of understanding, tolerance and solidarity. The National Conservatory of Music “founded in 1986, is the only one to have a children orchestra. Its annual program includes concerts, workshops and conferences as well as recitals that feature local and international musicians. Development project of the National Handicrafts, the JDTC and training center in Salt are three programs of the Noor Al Hussein Foundation. They were able to stimulate the revival of the craft heritage. Another project affiliated with the Foundation: the first Museum of Science for children, which helps them understand the ecological and scientific cycles of life. Children can touch and handle the exhibits to learn more on the development of Man through the ages, the natural history, geography, science, the environment, space and cultures in the world. We have also set up a museum of science, mobile, for children in rural areas. It focuses on health and hygiene, Science and Environmental Protection and the History of Jordan.

Your Majesty was there a few months ago at an international conference in Paris. How does the Foundation works as an intermediary between international and Jordanian institutions? We are associated with many UN and other organizations in the fields of education, the development of women and the community, the health, well-being of children, culture and heritage. The Foundation works with 30 different national and international non-governmental organizations to help them develop their plans, assist in attracting international funds and put their products on the market, especially abroad. Any foreign funding received by the Foundation is paid to the organization to which this fund is for.

At international carpet competition, a Jordanian rug Hweitat won first prize

Does the JDTC take part in major international exhibitions? Yes, the JDTC has exhibited its products in Europe, Paris and Frankfurt, and exposes once a year in Atlanta where one Hweitat rug has won the first prize at the International rug Competition. And twice a year in High Point, North Carolina, the largest furniture and decoration market of the United States.

Will handicraft be able one day to become a self-sufficient industry that will promote Jordanian art in the world? Craft centers are already self-sufficient. In addition, through its international exhibitions and marketing, JDTC has already introduced the Jordanian crafts in the world. The JDTC is primarily a national design and trade center that is not charged solely to promote the foundation products but also the works of various craft projects throughout the country.

Who oversees these centers? What is the common denominator? Is there not a danger of competition between different centers? Jordan is fortunate to have a wide variety of public and private craft centers with which JDTC works closely, either from a training perspective and product development or local or international marketing. The JDTC deploys every effort to reserve the rights to create products and designs to protect artisans. As for the craft centers of the Foundation, all of their directors are men or women from the same region, that the JDTC has recruited and trained to manage these centers. Those tend to specialize in different product lines at a time when the JDTC is creating «model centers».

To be engaged, should women initially have some skill? How the proposed development of the woman makes her a decision-maker? If a woman already has skills, it is more an asset but it is not a prerequisite for recruitment. The most important quality is the commitment, motivation. In addition, JDTC provides the necessary training, technical or managerial, and in that sense, the approach of the Foundation differs from the traditional and often ineffective approach, which merely provides material assistance to women.

The introduction of cost-effective programs, geared toward local and international markets, allows women to become a real economic force in the community. Her status and influence increase as well as the overall quality of life of the community, because a woman will often communicate her knowledge to her family. The training of women is therefore the fastest way to achieve positive change in development.

How are workers paid? Most artisans are paid according to the piece they realized, weavers are paid by meter and embroiderers per piece. As for center directors and some workers, they receive a monthly salary.

Which project of JDTC won the most of success? The projects of Nurha and Rimoun employing between 150 and 200 people are probably the most successful because both are completely independent. The JDTC initiated projects from scratch, providing all the training.

At present, the centers are self-managed and operated. Nurha, an embroidery center, has  three other centers under its supervision. As the center of Rùnoun, it was established by the JDTC to help these women to acquire the skills and improve their standard of living while revitalizing the Jordanian crafts. The JDTC has also introduced an innovation: a 2 meters long loom which produces carpets covering a room previously almost non-existent in the Jordanian market.

How many people work at JDTC? Since its founding in 1990, 3,000 women and their families have benefited.

Do you have a special program for young people even not gifted in rural areas? Is university free of charge in Jordan? University is not free in Jordan, but the school is free up to college. The project that is particularly dear to me is the Jubilee School, high school for scholars from all parts of the country, particularly disadvantaged. It is dedicated to the development of intellectual potential of Jordanian students by providing a unique study method and curriculum based on their own needs, abilities and experiences. This school, in collaboration with private and public institutions, sponsors several courses and workshops for teachers and students throughout the country. Another project I have already mentioned is that of Salt which offers free training for three years in weaving, pottery and ceramics production, silk weaving, decoration and refresher courses for trainers. On the other hand, the SOS homes for boys and girls offer Vocation courses for children and, in collaboration with the SOS villages in Amman and Aqaba, creating a warm family atmosphere for orphans and abandoned children.

«My studies at Princeton University helped me to become a social architect»

Regarding the educational projects for children in rural areas, in addition to the mobile museum that I have already mentioned, the Foundation works closely in partnership with local authorities and private voluntary groups to establish clubs for children across Jordan. They meet the recreational, cultural, artistic needs of the younger. The Foundation also supports the creation of child care centers and nursery in the villages where these «quality of life» projects are implemented.

Majesty, your dream is the children’s hospital. What steps have been taken for its realization? The National Hospital for Children is a project that the people of Jordan have long dreamed of. Once completed, we hope that this hospital will be the first of the Kingdom to provide for tertiary medical care, secondary and some primary care for children aged 0 to 16 years. This establishment will be accessible to all economic classes of the population. The hospital will not only be a pediatric center but also an educational center for pediatric, surgical, dental hygiene and combined scientific disciplines. It will also include a center for the evaluation of child development and treatment of cerebral palsy and also present an extensive program guide for the family. The Institute for Health and Child Development is the first and only local specialized in assessing and monitoring the growth and development of the child. It will be affiliated with the hospital and serve the local community.

Majesty, you like to photograph. Have you organized an exhibition of your work? Unfortunately not, but this is a project that deserves reflection! 

[straynstay]

Astronaut theory

first of all, I am confusion lol

SKZ broke me in a way that my mind is overthinking so many things that now I believe that anything from their MVs might be a sign. And may I add that Chan's recent live only made me even more confused PLS BOY IF YOU SEE THIS DROP THE THEORY YOU SAID WAS QUITE CLOSE TO THE TRUTH cause I'm nearly losing my mind, I need answers!!!!

so here I am again trying to understand their concept and trust me, it's not easy or short and I don't even know if it's right which makes me even more frustrated... also, we may have lost some important pieces to connect the whole story bc we don't know what was taken from the original MV with ot9, so yeah…

anyways... let me put a guide for you guys cause I'm not gonna write the title of the songs all the time, so AS = Astronaut; DK = Double Knot; MH = Miroh; SE = Side Effects; VS = Victory Song; YW = Yellow Wood (teaser); D9 = District 9; IAY = I Am You

Alright, let’s go back to the beginning! In I Am Not teaser we see that each one has a specific function inside the system or is doing sth very particular, Felix is dancing in front of mirrors on a rooftop (where they always are on their MVs) with a building nearby that shows a sign with FAKE on it – clearly indicating that either Felix is fake or their reality is fake, or maybe both; Changbin is in a room full of TVs like MIA; Seungmin is drawing sth that looks like a map (but I guess it was supposed to be sth else?) but he’s also the one in charge of the maps in Double Knot; we have Hyunjin trying to control a VR system, he looks quite frustrated with it, and after Hyunjin removes the headset, we hear a sound similar to when a program is being interrupted on tv and his image is frozen, probably bc he was disconnected from the main system.

and the most intriguing part: we have Jeongin in a bus – also sth reoccurring in their MVs – and he sees another Jeongin sitting on the bus stop, as if waiting for him. We all know by now that it’s a double, a clone, or whatever you may call it (like I mentioned previously on my Side Effects analysis that clearly shows they have ‘shadows’ like other selves copying their moves).

we don’t see what happens afterwards, but I’m gonna assume he finds out something is not right in the system and probably tells Chan (their leader) about it. Why I think this? Because in MIA they both sing the following lines: “Something is different, carefully look around you” (which is exactly what Chan does in D9) and “Something is changing, even if you hide it so hard, I can see it all” (which is what Jeongin does on the bus and also in Miroh, cause he’s the one in the control room, right?). But the thing is… I believe that the fake Jeongin is the one with SKZ in District 9. The double took his place after he got off the bus and is acting like Jeongin would, helping SKZ and all, but his line “better watch out” shows sth different, it seems somehow too menacing, almost like a threat – at least to me. So SKZ better watch out now cause there’s a fake among them, but SKZ is unaware

moving on.. it’s also in MIA that we see SKZ being duplicated – it looks like it can’t be helped. We know for sure that there’s a double for Chan, Woojin and Felix. In the MV it seems like Hyunjin also has a double that is watching himself from the other side of the door while the one inside the room says “Why are you staring at me again?” and then we see a surveillance camera (they’re onto Hyunjin, but Hyunjin seems to notice it).

this may seem dumb, but Changbin is duplicated in Get Cool (and like I said, any evidence is evidence lol). I don’t remember seeing Jisung, Seungmin and Minho being duplicated in any MV, and isn’t it weird that they’re the ones we see on the cage in AS?

in My Pace we have seven numbers shown behind them when they’re dancing: 137, 163, 191, 223, 241, 271 and 307. I thought they wouldn’t put this randomly so I searched what these number might mean and I found that they’re prime numbers (as you know, prime numbers can only be divided by themselves), and that prime numbers are very useful for creating keys to decrypt data by hackers. So I thought… what if Jeongin and Chan were trying to decrypt the system in order to mess with it but they need a key and Hyunjin was the key? And after DK happened, they managed to create glitches even more powerful than before? (like I explained in my theory).

anyways… moving on to Astronaut. ASTRONAUT = a person who is trained to travel in a spacecraft. But what if in SKZ concept an Astronaut is someone trained to travel their realities? And as we can see in I Am Not, Hyunjin is the one being trained in the VR apparatus.

also, he’s the one with an airplane behind him in Victory Song (and by now I think every little thing in these MVs are clues, sorry)

so what I take from this is that Hyunjin is like the tester of the realities they’ll have to face in order to escape District 9, like he is on a trial mode, if that makes any sense…

in the Astronaut MV, as we all noticed, we have some references from past MVs such as I Am You (the spinning thing); Victory Song (the red flares Chan & Jeongin are holding); Miroh (the boxes); Side Effects (the cart) and Chronosaurus (the plastics)

it’s interesting that Jeongin and Chan are the ones together when the music begins and I think this might mean sth because they’re always referenced as one, like in IAY; and Chan in AS is probably talking to MH’s Jeongin, because if they know what’s happening in the system, they might be able to keep in touch with each other even from different realities – but this is just me speculating too much!

in the MV we see 3 orbs: the 1st one is blueish with a green center; the 2nd is dark blueish/purple with a yellow center, and the last one is transparent with a black center.

so I googled those orb colors and found out that the first one may signify communication, neutrality, healing – might be applied to a master/guide; the second one may signify caution, insight, notice; while the last one may signify insecurity, being trapped or tortured. I don’t know if this makes sense, but I put it in here bc I strongly believe that these orbs represent Chan, Hyunjin and Jeongin, since they’re the ones that seem to be the focus of this storyline (and the color scheme of the scenes the orbs appear reminded me of IAY, 19 and SE)

going back to the AS MV, we also see Felix glitching like he did in MH and I was able to see in the background glasses being smashed, lightening, buildings, a road and a bridge, storm, moon, etc., and these are all elements that are present in their MVs, like showing what they already faced so far.

the cage scene made me think of District 9. When we first see it, Jeongin is the only one inside, but then we also see Han, Minho, Seungmin with him – and they’re slightly glitching, btw.

some other things happen to Hyunjin, he keeps on running, and now he’s outside on a dark road with a storm coming up – which reminded me of SE a lot, especially because of the two moons -, but he seems quite peaceful facing all those terrifying elements

he runs towards the end of the road that he can’t even see what’s waiting for him there – but maybe it’s because he already knows what happens next.

Hyunjin finds Chan in front of a door (maybe the exit?) and they all go through – to me it looks like Felix is the one about to close it, like he did with the gate in D9. Chan then shoots sth towards the sky like he did in VS (which caused a storm), but here it only makes a beam of light appear for them – as if they’re asking to go up? Like ‘beam me up Scotty’? you guys know this Star Trek reference, right? lol

and now we see the sky, but we don’t have two moons… I know it’s probably bc it’s morning, but in SE it was also morning and we saw two moons, so I’m assuming Hyunjin was able to find the finish line of the VR simulation (because I’m assuming that everything with the two moons is actually the VR)

at the end, we see Jeongin walking to the spinning thing like a glitch – like Chan also did when he went to the door, as if teleporting from here to there – and he’s alone, probably left behind. But why would SKZ leave him behind? Probably because they didn’t know he was there...

alright, so what does it all mean? I’m gonna try my best to comment everything and try to link the MVs with the lyrics to create a somewhat decent storyline.

on the released picture of the AS track list, this is what is written (it’s a rough translation, so I’m sorry if it’s wrong): “when we were happy together, we could do anything, where we chatted and laughed carelessly until dawn. Suddenly, I saw a bead… what is it? As soon as I got close, I heard a strange sound. At the end of the sound was a faint mixture of familiar voices calling my name. Without thinking, I started getting drawn by the sound”

To me, the first part means the I Am You setting. They were all happy after being free, they created their own world where they could do anything as long as they were together. In AS we see Hyunjin in this same environment and that’s also when the first orb appears. Hyunjin is attracted by the orb that could possibly be SKZ’s way to communicate with him inside the VR. Because remember, Hyunjin is there but what he’s seeing and experiencing is not real. He’s testing the ways out for SKZ. But he was so happy in that reality that he lost himself, he didn’t know what he was supposed to do anymore. And SKZ sent something to guide him out of this fake environment as we see in AS. He then started his journey back to where the real SKZ are, going through all the tokens from the realities he’s been through (like the boxes with the confusing mazes, but that are easily destroyed bc is not real; the cart from SE, the gate from D9, etc…). What also gives him hints is how the members start to act after he begins his running in AS. After he destroys the boxes, Felix is standing there like a heroic figure, glitching with Changbin, looking almost unapproachable or as if he can’t see him. we see Chan on the floor, so Chan is probably grounded like Hyunjin.

then he sees his friends trapped inside a cage. But the thing is that this cage is really ridiculous, any of them could climb or help the other to get out of there, so I think they’re trapped bc they’re not real, it’s all a simulation, – except for Jeongin, but I’ll get to this point later on, hold on!! – and this cage represents D9.

Hyunjin runs endlessly until he reaches the road I mentioned already, and he finds Chan, they all go through the door (how could they if four of them were trapped? unless nothing of that is real) and they are all dressed in white, like when they escaped D9, dancing happily on the rooftop.

to me, after Jeongin got off the bus he realized the system’s plan and told Chan (their leader), and they came up with ideas to escape, but they needed someone that could control the reality, and Hyunjin was being trained for it – although he was frustrated with it - so they asked him to go unlocking worlds (or roads, or whatever) and he did it, but as farther he went, he started getting lost in the system bc he didn’t know who he was anymore, was he a clone already? What he’s seeing is reality or virtual reality? What’s the truth, what’s the answer?

Chan and Jeongin were able to guide Hyunjin throughout the MVs to continue with their plan, but Hyunjin’s mind was starting to lose itself, although he had a feeling that something seemed off… And Astronaut is nothing more than a recap of all what they’ve been through and Hyunjin’s journey to the unknown in order to find SKZ again and help them escape.

so what about that last scene with Jeongin? Well, I think the Jeongin in white clothes with them at the end is not the real Jeongin, and the Jeongin we see sitting alone is in fact the real one that is trapped inside the VR. Chan was guiding Hyunjin but lost Jeongin in the meantime and didn’t realize it or Chan knows it and is also a clone anything is possible, because to me the Jeongin we see in their MVs isn’t the real Jeongin since D9, like I said in the beginning of this analysis. Maybe the reason Seungmin and Minho were found on DK by the drone is bc Jeongin was with them and he’s part of the system? The others weren’t seen except for these three. I also believe this hypothesis because the gate in AS represents D9 and Jeongin is the only one moving after Hyunjin leaves, probably showing that the real one was lost in D9, but since there can’t be two “Jeongins” in a same place, he needs to wait for them to realize that they’re dealing with a fake one and come back for him.

alright, to summarize this huge analysis...

EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED DIDN’T HAPPEN!! HYUNJIN WAS DECRYPTING AND TESTING THE REALITIES (IN THE VR THING) THEY HAVE TO FACE IN ORDER TO ESCAPE AND OVERTHROW THE SYSTEM AND NOW THAT HE’S FINISHED THE TRIALS HE’S BACK TO DISTRICT 9 AND CAN SHOW SKZ THE RIGHT PATHS TO FOLLOW BUT HE DIDN’T REALISE THAT THE REAL JEONGIN IS TRAPPED INSIDE THE VR AND HE LEFT HIM BEHIND AND NOW SKZ WILL HAVE TO GO BACK TO GET HIM OUT OMGGG I CANT ANYMORE

how else would we explain Hyunjin, Jeongin and Chan’s hairstyle looking almost the same as the one they had in D9?

some other thoughts I had: what if they’re duplicating themselves to leave the clones on the system so the real ones can escape?

ASTRONAUT also has 9 letters... this might mean something?

why is Chan singing all the time “I’m not me” in the background of Mirror? can he be trusted? I’m still not sure about Chan’s role in all of this bc he seems shady like Jeongin lol sorry Chan

from the Victory Song unveil track we have Chan saying this “we are Stray Kids, the owners of Clé. Roll the dice. Our beginning is District 9. We break the frame, escape from the system, and go beyond the fixed line towards STAY. We came to listen to Victory Song. So ring the 승전가”. Isn’t it weird that he says “break, escape, go” instead of “broke, escaped, went” ?? he only says “we came” bc the question is about their entrance in Miroh and Victory Song is after it, but if everything else also happens after D9, shouldn’t the other verbs be on the past tense too?

in Chronosaurus we see someone picking up three keys from the floor and I’m pretty sure it’s Jeongin.

one key for each – Chan, Hyunjin and him. But what can they do with the keys? I thought that maybe they could go spread themselves through the realities these keys unlock and place signs for them so they don’t get lost or forget about what they’re doing, like easter eggs? there are some black balloons on SE that reminded me of 19

in TMT there’s a billboard that Chan sees saying “do what you wanna do” (a message he left for himself there? and look at the background, it’s the space)

and what about Hyunjin? I’m not sure, but maybe the scene where we see him laying on the grass at the end of SE is actually because he just arrived in that reality and lost the key of that reality on that weird pond??? is the easter egg in SE himself??? I still think it’s weird the way Jeongin looks at him and smiles brightly in this scene lol

this is just what I was able to put together, but I still have a lot of questions and a lot of concerns, but unless Chan spills the tea I don’t care if it’s hot we’ll stay clueless about all of this lol

and he says we’re not clowns… right…

[sapphicambitions]

Hello! I was scrolling through your blog and found out you’re a stage manager and that makes me really happy! I’ve been stage managing at my high school and middle school for a few years and have always had trouble with actors bullying me bc they don’t recognize that tech is important, and they think stage managers don’t do anything bc they don’t see what we do exactly. Does this get better after high school? I want to pursue it but it’s a lot on my mental health because of teen drama yk

hi love!!! 

okay I’m gonna be sUPER honest with you: high school theatre sucks. 

it just does! the popular actors will all remember it as this super glamorous time but tech like you and me? It was a nightmare. I have been exactly where you have been, and i understand the toll it takes. But once you get past high school? and a into college? and into the professional world? It’s incredible. I have been working professionally as a stage manager for the last five years (i did it through college) and I have yet to find something as rewarding as doing the job. Because the secret is: you have to work with people who care about the art itself and not themselves. The best experiences I’ve had in stage management when I was working with a group of people who were dedicated to the work we were doing and willing to be team players. I mean, it’s not always easy. There’s still gonna be selfish people and people who are rude and mean and snotty. But that’s been like a 15% portion of the last five years of work for me. A lot of those people get weeded out, and you’re left with a group of people who care about the art itself and that is what makes working in theatre truly great. You will get there. You might have to suffer through some tough years, but you will get there. I promise it gets better.

Now let’s talk strategy for dealing with the next few years of high school theatre. I obviously don’t know the specifics of your situation but I’m just gonna tell you everything I wish I could go back in time and tell high school SM laynie. I have a degree in stage management so I know what I’m talking about.

first things first: you are not their boss. you are not their mother. you cannot control them. you cannot fix everything. accept that now. My mistake in high school theatre was that I thought I had to be mean and tough and scary in order for people to listen to me, but it just made me dislike them more. The stage manager’s best tool is compassion. You have to treat them with respect, dignity, and understanding. Because second lesson: you will get no where if you hate actors. i know high schoolers are snotty but if you have the mentality of “all actors are divas” then it will show in your work. You have to respect them for the art they’re creating. No duh, you say, why are you telling me this. because honestly in interviews for professional jobs ive been asked “do you like actors?” because if your answer is no, they won’t hire you. I obviously don’t know if that’s the situation for you, but work on that NOW because that will be a big part of your life. Remember, respect and compassion are your two biggest tools in handling situations. third lesson that is often a hard one for people to grasp: it’s not about you. being a stage manager isn’t about how good you can do the job. it’s about how you can help others. A lot of bad stage managers I’ve worked with have essentially just been on one big power trip, or they take things too personal. So when you’re starting to get overwhelmed by things, remember to take a step back and remember it’s about what you can do to help others. I like to say that when im on a job my number one love language is acts of service. What can I do to help the director? What does this actor need in order to do their job? what does the crew need from me right now? I mean obviously be mindful of not being a pushover, but keeping that in focus helps me a lot when I want to get snappy.

Lastly, I believe there are two roles of the stage manager: Preserving the director’s artistic integrity and creating a safe work environment. Your job is to make sure that the director’s vision happens. Your job is to make sure that the designers, actors, crew, the whole company, you’re all working towards the same goal. When the show opens, your job is to make sure that everything is going the way the director wanted it to happen. And MOST importantly: creating a safe work environment. This means physically AND emotionally. This means the backstage is cleaned and all the set pieces are stable. This means actors feel comfortable coming to you about their safety concerns and small grievances. This means the director can run ideas by you without feeling like an idiot. You never want to laugh at someone or make them feel bad, remember, it’s about compassion and what you can do to help. Let those two roles be your guiding light.

No obviously I’m not expecting you to make all these changes overnight. A lot of these lessons are things that take people years to work on. But it’s a starting point. It’s a guiding light. It’s something to keep in mind as you move forward and deal with all the drama. If you start working on it NOW, by the time you get to college? you’ll already be a step ahead. & obviously every stage manager does things differently, this is just my own personal manifesto and things I wish I had known in high school. I hope all of this answered your question and was helpful. keep on keeping on, things will get better! xoxo

[kuronekonerochan]

Cdramas I enjoyed and ranty rambles... (spoilers)

Apparently I have a new favorite cdrama ML type, and it's genius mastermind bastard on a scheming backstabbing world that is likely created by the same novel or scriptwriter. Ning Que (Ever Night), Fang Xian (Joy of Life) and Zhong Xin (Young Blood) are a joy to watch and I loved these dramas on the same "spirit" and their characters. 

All these dramas had stronger and weaker points, if I could pick and choose, I liked the world and ruthlessness of NQ from EN S1, the OTP that is NQ and SS and the Us against the World vibe, plus the incredible soundtrack and the breathtaking panoramic shots, but S2 was such a production mess...it’s a pity bc I loved the theological turn of the novel and it doesn’t seem likely that after that trainwreck of s2 we’ll get a s3 to end the story (although yes, I admit it would always be difficult to translate to screen from where s1 ends in the book onward bc it’s such a drastic change).  Having read the novel, it was funny to see people reacting to the events of s2. 

The shift in the focus of the drama from the traditional wuxia, young martial arts lead and his wifey traveling the world, encountering new allies and foes and getting powered up, to religious and spiritual journey about the meaning of life, god, the world and different ideologies clashing in both literal fights and discussions as well as physical manifestations of divinity, mixed in with human subversion of values for petty personal goals...well although people seem understandably confused and not very happy about this 180º thematic turn, it’s not what they hated about the new season. From the comments I saw, what most ppl couldn’t stand were the same things ppl who read and liked the novel also hated: the horrible pacing, some of the cast changes that failed to convey the feeling that they were the same characters, and even though the budget was evidently lower than s1, the choices made where 80% of the scenes were pointless carriage shots, meeting shots, and most pointless of all Long Qing riding horses. Endless set ups of people talking boringly and then when the event that all that talk was leading up to happened, it was off screen and the result was told by some character in a conversation. You couldn’t care less about Tang and the war because all the characters that lived there and could die, like SS’s friends from the brothel, the gang, and even the generic ppl on the streets, none of this was shown...only 2 or 3 ppl talking alone somewhere at a time, talking about events that the viewer would never see. And it was confusing. I read the novel and even so I could barely follow what was happening (they did change a bunch of stuff). Enemies from 2 episodes ago were now allies and they were asking favors without any explanation and key plot points of main story arcs like Ye Hong Yu’s were just thrown out so casually it didn’t even register for me that THAT was happening.  The whole Haitian part was also a mess. It was one of those concepts that is indeed hard to translate to screen, but as they did the whole SangSang being present but powerless thing well, the casting of Haitian was a fail. She was supposed to be an uncaring, poker faced goddess, but she also had to have a presence that made her feel powerful and frightening. This lifeless doll couldn't scare a fly, so the whole thing just felt pathetic and weird(er). (Also in the novel there’s this intense mental fight thing going on between her and NQ where she hardcore tortures him and slashes his d*ck off and he in turn keeps torturing her with erotic dreams and all this bc the natal bond means they can read each others minds and can’t keep each other out even if they wanted so it’s a constant exhausting mindgame between them. The drama tried to include some of that in like 2 eps near the end, but toning it down bc of rating and taking the mindreading concept out of it made it very disappointing to watch).

I love the witty sarcastic humor of Joy of Life, I’m not into tragic period cdramas but after so much cheesy lazy slapstick  wuxia/xanxia dramas, one with the intelligent, non-stop sarcastic humorous dialogue and an ensemble of god damn talented actors, especially the older cast, headed by an absolutely brilliant performance by the main lead and a script and plot that is compelling, fast paced and never misses a beat...well this is a true gem and one of the best executed cdramas, on every aspect from technical aspects to directing to acting, that I have ever seen. I usually don’t like palace dramas, and this is not one of those, it is adventure and family and transmigration and a lot more, but it retains the core elements of those palace dramas, which is the scheming politics, the intrigue and the constant tension of being surrounded by enemies by all sides and having to mind every word and action because a single faux pas will get him killed. It’s in line with the kind of cnovels I love and would like to see drama adaptations for like Husband Be a Gentleman or Golden Stage, which isn’t much of a surprise since this is also a novel adaptation.

 It is nearly perfect imo, but the harem aspect (even if tuned down from the novel) still drags it down and the (main) FL is a bore and honestly the least interesting of all the females in the drama (it doesn’t help that ZRY has better chemistry with one of the other actresses, which in the novel, since his character hits ALL of them, it would be fine, here, meh). This is also one of the rare situations where I like the drama better than the book (even with the issues regarding the lack of chemistry with the FL), bc Fang Xian in the novel is scarily ruthless...it’s the same author as Nightfall (aka Ever Night), but NQ is likable because of his bond to SangSang, the irrationality of the persecution they face from the zealots,  and also the world, despite being harsh, features loyalty and unconditional love in the members of the Academy, for example, that make all the anti-hero/antagonist traits more bearable. FX in Joy of Life it’s a much more cynical and cunning character, scary even, and the environment is a pit of backstabbing snakes. He is the hero bc he’s the main character, but from any other perspective he can easily be the villain. Add to that my distaste of harem and him getting it on with like 6 or so ladies (to give them credit some of them are pretty awesome characters), the novel just wasn’t for me. But ZRY as FX? He’s just so cheeky and likable, and this drama has an amazing supporting cast. I enjoy watching them all interact with each other.  I’m glad it’s getting a season 2 and so looking forward to it.

Young Blood I didn't even like that much in the beginning, it started out interesting but confusing and some of the cast (both acting and characters) were kind of weak, but it got better and it had a power couple as leads who were both smart and a joy to watch, plus the bromance dynamic between the smartass bastard and the righteous straight-faced dudes that Handsome Siblings wishes it had (that’s a whole other story, why HS didn’t work for me, but trust me, no offense to the actors in that, I found them charming in other things, but perhaps bc this script was just better, the boys here just did it better, it just flowed...I watched both dramas at the same time and it was weird thinking that those two should be what Handsome Siblings was trying to do). What annoyed me until the end was that out of the ensemble cast, only 3 of the characters (the smart ones) were given enough material to shine. Eventually the other 2 guys got their piece as well, but the girl from the second couple is unfortunately a waste of a character. They eventually tried to give her an arc, but she’s still mainly “the cute doll” and a foil for the 2nd male lead to have a romantic interest. She is given less screen time and she has no presence. I didn’t need her to be a “strong” woman. They do state that her strong suit is that she is so charming that ppl easily trust her, but I wanted to see her evolve, become smarter (the other two dumb-asses eventually get better from the beginning and grow as characters, but she seems stuck in her shallow one trait personality of “cute/kind”). This has nothing to do with the actress, she was perfectly fine, my issues are with the character and how she was utilized.

Unrelated, there is a weird thing in the last episode where a character just disappears, but not like, on purpose, it seems like the drama just forgot about him, or they forgot to shoot the actor near the other ones where he was supposed to be, lol.

Honestly, story wise and even in terms of production Young Blood is inferior to Ever night S1 and especially Joy of life, which was a tight drama, but since it ended up so much better than it started I really wanted to see what they could do with a 2nd season.

P.S: You know what is also my cdrama type? Genius himbo chaotic mess cutie pies, with “rage issue” but deep down caring relatives... and their “straight” faced besotted partners, I mean...

[vince-thrilligan]

Giancarlo Esposito On Gus Fring’s Enduring Fascinations

“I think what inspired me was reading the stage direction for Gustavo Fring,” Giancarlo Esposito recalls of the duplicitous New Mexico restaurant entrepreneur. “Vince (Gilligan) wrote ‘Hiding in plain sight.’” That concise description was the doorway for Esposito into one of the most fascinating characters in television history.

Awards Focus: How did you get involved with Breaking Bad?

Giancarlo Esposito: My entry into Breaking Bad came about in a different kind of manner. I know there were a lot of actors fighting for the part. When I entered the show, I had just planned on doing a guest spot, which wasn’t something I wanted to do forever. However, I quickly realized that the filmmakers were just stellar, they make movies every week and tell incredible stories. So I was blessed to be a part of Breaking Bad and I’m blessed to be a part of Better Call Saul, and I love continuing to add to the nuance of my character.

AF: When you were offered the role, did you have any idea of the cognitive depth of the character?

Esposito: Well, the first time around, I really enjoyed doing my guest spot. And by the time I got back to New York they were asking me to do another. I said okay, because I’d had a great experience and that was the end of Breaking Bad’s second season. I’d done two episodes and they wanted to offer me a contract. I said that I really loved my experience, but I’d love to be able to talk to Vince Gilligan about some ideas I had for the role and what it really could be. I loved the character, and I saw something special there.

I was interested in connecting with Vince before they started writing for season three. When we eventually spoke, I knew we had the same vision for the character. I think what inspired me is when Vince wrote the stage direction for Gustavo Fring that said, “Hiding in plain sight.” That intrigued me about people in Middle America, or wherever they may be, who have neighbors who think they do one thing and may not be aware that they’re also doing something illicit… that idea fascinated me. The whole writing of Gustavo Fring, from running the drug ring to being part of the Children’s Hospital, it all made so much sense to me. When that all came about, I knew I was hooked.

AF: What challenges did that complexity pose during Breaking Bad?

Esposito: In creating Gus I had some trepidation, because I didn’t want Gus to be a Breaking Bad villain who had a minimal impact on the trajectory of the series. I wanted him to be someone who could guide a story or be involved with Walter White’s arc. I didn’t want to play the typical gangster thug with the poodle on his lap. I wanted to play someone who exhibited some humanity, who cared about people, and to create that feeling as opposed to going with the straw-man bad guy.

AF: Has Better Call Saul changed your approach to the character?

Esposito: When everything lined up for my return, I had to ask for the same kind of conversation with Vince. The challenge for me is to play a guy who’s younger, who’s trying to build an empire. Because we understood Gus’s backstory and motivations from Breaking Bad. Nothing new is revealed there, so I just wanted to show Gus developing, and that’s a challenge thing to play. Those are the things I think about while I’m playing the guy who’s laying out the card game, the guy who is really setting the pieces on the chessboard. I try to layer that personality.

I’ll give an example. At one point in season five, Gus is outside his restaurant as it burns down by his own hand. Not long after, Mike pulls up as Gus gets some bad news and he’s pissed off. A couple of months later, I’m in ADR (rerecording dialogue in post production) and I looked at my performance and noticed I was a little agitated. For a moment, I worried it wasn’t the right choice, but then I realized that I’m not playing the Gustavo Fring of Breaking Bad, I’m playing a different character.

This is the Gus Fring of Better Call Saul, who’s younger, who’s gonna be a little more pissed when his plans go awry, and who’s gonna show it. When you’re playing with time and going back in time for an iconic character that I played in Breaking Bad, I get to think about all those things that keep me balanced.

AF: Over the last three seasons, you, Peter, and Vince have been able to explore the intricacies of Gus and his empire, as well as revealing more depth in his relationship with the cartel and Mike. How has the relationship between Gus and Mike evolved over both series?

Esposito: I love those scenes with Mike. Jonathan just embodies the very soulful personality of an everyman, but he’s still an unusually skilled actor. The reason I love working with Jonathan is because while I know the overall feeling of what he’ll give me, I never know the depth he’ll take it to. Mike is a complicated guy, and I think he’s pissed off that Gus understands him. He’s very suspicious, and Gus always has to have something on you, so that complicates things, in addition to the disagreement over Nacho’s role. But Gus respects Mike, because he’s skilled. So I think it was a very tough spot for Gus – he wants to listen to Mike, but he needs Nacho on the inside.

AF: A lot of fans ended up rooting for Gus. Was that something you foresaw?

Giancarlo Esposito: It was in season four of Breaking Bad when people started to really like Gus and root for him a bit. And, you know, there are arguments that he’s not such a bad guy. It was triumphant for me as an actor and as a character because if people could see the vulnerability behind the steely coldness, and understand the reasons why Gus did what he did, you can kind of accept the guy.

AF: In Better Call Saul, when Gus has to give up money at the drop locations and he’s waiting for the call in his office, that poor fry cook is not cleaning the deep fryer to his satisfaction. What’s Gus thinking at that moment?

Esposito: I love that scene because Gus is obviously up against it. He doesn’t want to give himself away by intervening with the money drop, so he’s allowing his cash to be stolen, which incenses him. So he’s waiting for the call at the restaurant, and there is this young, earnest employee. This is a part of Gus that I love, he wants to teach and he wants to get things done the right way. He gives his attention to something that may seem very small in his world at that moment, but how you do the small things, is how you do anything, and it’s how you do everything. It’s how you do the small things that make a difference in life – in caring, in loving, and in paying attention.

Gus looks at the fryer and sees it’s not as clean as it could be, and the kid sees it too. Gus wants to make it a teachable moment, and to me, if someone takes the time to teach you something, that means they care about you and the environment you share. You take the time because you respect them. And Gus, I think, admires the inquisitiveness and the honorability of people, because you know when you’ve done a good job and when you haven’t. It’s fundamentally compassionate, because it’ll help them be a better person and they’ll never forget it.

Part of AwardsFocus.com’s BCS interviews [x]

[valar------morghulis]

Most Expensive Food in the World (Revealed)

because the food programme explores in ‘britain's mystery saffron story’, the pink spice is one of the international’s most high priced substances – really worth more according to ounce than gold. However what other ingredients would provide the sought-after spice a run for its cash? What is it that makes these merchandise so luxurious? And are they surely well worth their charge tag? Here are some of planet earth’s maximum pricey foodstuffs. How many have you tried? 

1. Saffron

if your rice is luminous yellow, then the chances are it’s been sharing a saucepan with saffron. The spice, nicknamed ‘pink gold’, is the shiny crimson stigma (or threads) from a crocus flower, and it’s used as a colouring agent in meals. Why does some thing so small value so much? It's miles, weight for weight, extra costly than gold itself. The motives are easy: saffron crocuses only flower for per week or  a year inside the autumn; harvesting the spice is labour in depth (it’s amassed and processed through hand); and each small flower has simplest 3 stigma this means that it takes around  soccer pitches of crocuses to create a kilogram of saffron. That’s as many as 300,000 flowers! 2. Caviar

caviar is the pickled roe of the sturgeon fish, and considered one of the international’s great delicacies. It’s difficult to handle and package deal but, extra significantly, it’s relatively uncommon. The most well-known caviar is from the beluga sturgeon – observed in the caspian and the black sea. Now seriously endangered, very little of its eggs may be bought legally. It takes up to two a long time for the beluga sturgeon to attain maturity and it’s grownup length! Even rarer is the roe from the albino sturgeon - now nearly extinct in its native environment. In keeping with the guinness international data, the maximum expensive caviar recorded is from an elderly (probably 100 year-antique!) albino beluga sturgeon whose white caviar offered for about $34,500 in step with kilogram. My cod that’s steep! 3. Oysters

now taken into consideration a luxury, oysters haven’t continually been the food of the filthy wealthy. Within the early nineteenth century oysters were reasonably-priced as chips and an crucial food source for the working classes in coastal communities – a snack so plentiful that they were used to bulk out meat pies. From plentiful to rarity, the fee of oysters has gone up drastically! But overfishing and pollutants have had a catastrophic effect on oyster shares and shortage has bumped up their cost. A dozen in a top london seafood eating place will set you back round £fifty one. It seems a few human beings are satisfied to shell out for a slimy mollusc or … of route, you’re also buying the oyster’s infamous aphrodisiac characteristics. Be careful who you dine with! 4. White truffle

discovered within the piedmont place of northern italy, exceptionally esteemed white truffles will best develop amongst the roots of sure trees, are a great deal scarcer than every other form of truffle, and feature a in particular extreme flavour and aroma. They are able to’t be cultivated or grown – although folks have attempted for generations to farm the truffles, they are able to nevertheless most effective be sourced within the wild. It's miles this unpredictability, at the side of the lengths people go to to locate and harvest them, which leads to their hefty fee tag. The report sum paid for a unmarried white truffle changed into via macau casino proprietor stanley ho in 2007. He splashed out $330,000 (£165,000) for one among the largest muffins exposed in decades – weighing 1. Five kg. A quite exceptional rate for a pungent underground fungus. 5. Iberico ham

a sort of cured ham produced in spain and portugal, the finest iberico ham is from free variety pigs that have a food plan of only acorns over the past duration in their lifestyles. The class of iberico ham is extraordinarily strict, with ‘black label’ ham considered to be the very excellent – made out of natural-bred iberian pigs, roaming very wellforests and feasting on acorns. On top of that, the ham is cured for a prolonged 36 months! In keeping with the guinness global records, the maximum high-priced leg of ham commercially to be had is an iberian ‘manchado de jabugo’, retailing at a whopping £3,192. 76 (as of 20 march 2016). Despite the fact that the pigs are reared for just 3 years, the ham legs are then cured for up to six! 6. Wagyu beef

wagyu in reality translates as ‘japanese pork’, and it can come from any of 4 one of a kind breeds of eastern cow. The meat is intensely marbled with fats, which renders down during the cooking procedure to make the meat smooth, moist and soften within the mouth. Some enthusiasts describe it as falling aside like a tender piece of fish. The excessive price factor is all down to the rearing procedure: to qualify for the wagyu mark the cows must be reared and fed in line with strict recommendations, with calves being given special feed to guarantee the signature fatty marbling. Kobe pork, one of the maximum pretty-prized, fetches as much as £500 a kg in japan. That’s a number of moo-ney. 7. Kopi luwak espresso

good enough, so technically it’s a drink. However with luggage of kopi coffee promoting for as much as $seven hundred in step with kg, it’s honestly worthy of its location in this list. Kopi luwak, or civet espresso, is made from espresso beans eaten, partly digested and then defecated by means of the asian palm civet or civet cat. Doesn’t sound all that appetising? Continually test wherein your coffee comes from. A few believe that the part digestion and fermentation caused by the animal’s belly acid complements the flavor of the coffee, with other critics in settlement that it’s simply a gimmick ensuing in a in reality horrible coffee. Unluckily, there are growing numbers of extensive civet farms, in which animals are restricted to cages similar to battery hens, and pressure-fed. It’s well worth doing your studies earlier than shopping for. 8. Foie gras

foie gras is a costly pâté made from duck or goose liver that has been fattened (to up to ten times its ordinary size). The flavour is wealthy, buttery and delicate and the product pricey however the birds pay a better rate than we ever will – the geese and geese are force-fed corn through feeding tubes. It’s a practice dating lower back to as early as 2500 bc, whilst the historical egyptians found out that many birds can be fattened via compelled overfeeding. Nowadays many countries have laws in opposition to the practice, and the production, import or sale of foie gras.

[awkwardplantwrites]

tips on how to write when you just can’t

(personal advice. might work for you, might not)

you have an idea for your story but can’t get it out. or you know what’s going to happen but it’s boring and you’re starting to hate your work. the words are not appearing on the page no matter how hard you stare at it.

writing is writing, but telling a story doesn’t have to be solely writing words onto a page. it might come to that eventually if you’re set on your story being a novel, but it doesn’t have to start that way. I don’t think people realise just how abstract and crazy first drafts can be. 

here’s some ways you can tell a story without writing:

record your voice and narrate verbally. there’ll be a lot of um’s and pauses where you don’t know what to say and it won’t be nearly as prosey as it is in writing. for me, I definitely prefer writing to speaking because I can edit what I write and think about what I write. but by verbally narrating you can get thoughts out quicker. you’re allowed to say one thing, then include a verbal note where you wonder aloud “that part might be better later on” and just continue. then, you transcribe it. and voila you have words!

it definitely doesn’t have to be a direct transcription. if anything, you can and should rewrite the parts you want to change. with this it’s like getting two drafts for the effort of one. this can also help to give your characters more distinctive voices as you’ll speak as they would (to make it easier to tell who’s talking when you record lol)

record your voice as you give a presentation about your story/chapter. this one’s good for developing stuff, and by developing it you generate new ideas. you analyse your characters, the metaphors, foreshadowings, reasons for actions, and double meanings. you go crazy over your story and fall in love with it again. similar to those comic sans presentation images you see on writeblr, but more in depth. 

to use Romeo and Juliet as an example: “Who is responsible for Mercutio’s death? What is the role of destiny in the play? Why is Juliet the most tragic character in the play?” have a look at essay ideas and use them for your story. and when you talk as if you’re in front of an audience, you include the stuff you think they’ll want to know, which translates into what the readers want to know when you transcribe the juicy parts into your writing!

another verbal format can be a DND campaign with you as every character and the DM (feel free to use a die!) it might not work so well for romance novels but do what you want! have fun getting a crit 1 on smooching, baby!!

record the audio/video as you play with toys or objects that represent your characters I feel like this one is good if you lose track of who’s in the scene, because you can physically see who’s there. even if you aren’t writing a kid’s book, you’ll be brought back to the days when you played pretend, and stories and fictional worlds were fun and not stressful to fill with societies and environments. novels have this odd reputation for being grandoise and writers automatically assume your book’s got to be the BEST thing the world has seen. it’s not that deep bro. anybody of any age and background can tell a captivating story. 

you can draw instead of writing. or you can write AND draw, where you sketch something you don’t know or can’t be bothered to describe. and if this goes well for you, you might want to consider making a comic or graphic novel instead. or do it on your phone using goddamn emoji’s. who gives a fuck.

on a different note, if you’re someone who mainly struggles with ideas, you need to look at your story like an alien. question and doubt the mundane, what’s considered normal. this will probably include research.

to use an example, in my most recent chapter I had a character who was riding a horse into town. sounds simple right? let’s quesion that: how was he riding the horse? you might think, oh well, it’s just a horse, you ride on it’s back. but there are names for the way you ride. (everything has names and labels, idk why.) and it turns out he was riding bareback, as the horse was wild and had no saddle. and so what I did was look up bareback riding, paraphrased the definition into my story to explain to the reader what my mc was doing. “Bareback riding is a form of horseback riding without a saddle. It requires skill, balance, and coordination, as the rider does not have any equipment to compensate for errors of balance or skill.” 

hey look at that! those are words you can include in your story! it’s a form of description! another question: does my character have the skill required? no. and immediately that creates a story. how will this inexperienced rider ride this horse? readers love characters who can’t do what they’re trying to do but who do it anyway. 

question the weather. temperature. the location. mythical creatures. superpowers. science. furniture. rethink everything you think you know. brainstorm or play word association games. 

to use a more general/random example: your character is hungry. questions: what food? where will they go to get food? why that place? how will they get to the place and what could stop them? will they go with someone? will they not get food despite their hunger, and what’s the reason for that? 

everyone will answer those questions differently: and that’s why every story is unique no matter how simple and cliche the premise is.

there’s also the advice to “write badly” and I don’t think people often understand what that means. it doesn’t always mean telling a shitty story, though you absolutely can if you want to. it means you have full permission to abandon grammar, spelling, punctuation, and coherency. include cliches and ignore every piece of writing advice you’ve ever heard! you can tell the story instead of showing bc at this point you just need words. example, a very butchered version of the passage “it was a dark and stormy night”: 

It was dark outside somewhere idk. In a house (bedroom maybe?) some lady, wraped in a blanket (or quilt?) sat on her bedd and wotched trees moving in the wind and behind the tres clouds moved fast all spooky like. 

a useful tool which squeezes words out is laying down the 5 questions: who, what, when, how, where. mike ran at noon quickly in the gym. and just repeating that structure over and over, omitting certain questions when necessary. 

it’s going to suck and you’ll hate it: but you weren’t happy with/able to do a more polished version, so does it matter? the words are there. it counts.

use generators for names and descriptions, you don’t have to come up with everything but you make it look like you did. 

steal your favourite lines from ALL your favourite idols and remix them. no-one will care if they can’t tell who you took it from.

if all else fails: get a ghostwriter

[princess-peregrine]

I made a short thing a while back so i'm gonna post it now, you can ignore it

please forgive me i don’t know how to make an under the cut post, just scroll really fast

Storm Hawks is a show that takes place in the fantasy world of Atmos, world of a thousand mountain top kingdoms., each protected by a sky night against the forces of darkness. These include beasts, rogues; and worst of all, Cyclonians. The Storm Hawks are an individual group of a wandering military force called sky knights. In the show a sky knight squadron is assigned or stays at an individual Terra, which are what cities on the mountain tops are called. The characters that we focus on are members of the Storm Hawks, which is the meaning of the title. The Storm Hawks are the only squadron that roams from Terra to Terra which is beneficial to the story. Storm hawks as a show is episodic and not streamlined which creates a much more free environment for the writing of the show. While there may be call backs; although rarely, they are unconnected an unnecessary for the episodes story. In modern television there is a push for a more streamlined story structure in episodic stories. And unfortunately to the detriment of other shows, an episodic structure in a streamlined show. You can see the examples of this in shows such as Steven Universe and Star VS The Forced of Evil. Steven universe is a show that has a goal and an overarching plot. But there are many throwaway forgettable episodes intermixed with story progression, and often in the times of high intensity which diminishes the value of the story. And Star Vs The Forces of Evil is a show that in the first season was focused mainly on episodic contained stories but as the second season aired there was a clear push for a more streamlined story and romance plot while trying to keep the episodic nature of the show. A benefit of Storm Hawks is that in it's fifty-two episode run only three are streamlined episodes with a clear connection to the rest of the show. Those episodes would include the first episode that establishes the show and the two part season two finale. The story follows the six person crew of the ship called the Condor. This includes the primary main character who is the leader of the crew, Aerrow. The additional main characters are: Piper, Junko, Finn, Stork, and Radarr. Their roles on the Condor, stated in the intro, are as follows: Piper, the specialist. Junko, the strongman. Finn, the marksman. Stork, the helmsman. And Radarr, the copilot. Storm Hawks, the show, benefits in writing from having a wide cast, as characters are usually introduced each episode and provide the conflict or journey for our main characters. Episodes are either taking place on or off the Condor. Which seems like an obvious distinction but there are many episodes where the conflict or main story surrounds the Condor as a ship that it is an important distinction. The ship, weapons, and all appliances are powered by an energy source of crystals. In the show crystals are naturally occurring magical items that are the main driving force of the villains. While episodes that focus on the Storm Hawks themselves have a wide variety of possibilities, the plot lines with a primary villain involved normally center around the obtaining of crystals. These primary villains are the raptors and Cyclonians. Raptors are a race within the world of Storm Hawks that are anthropomorphism lizards. This race is almost entirely depicted by a small cast of Raptors0 that are continuous. The Cyclonians are an apposing military faction from the Cyclonia, or Terra's that belong to Cyclonia. Very often the Cyclonians are represented by repeated models with identical masks and armor, infrequently distinguished by mustaches. There are however three generals of the Cyclonian army that are frequently occurring and leave impacts on the main cast. There is Snipe, an extremely strong oaf that prefers to hit first and never think that often is in the Storm Hawks way to create meaningless conflict. Secondly there is Ravess, a tall slender pink haired violin player that is much smarter and has more meaningful involvement to the story. Ravess and Snipe are siblings in the show and that is a good source of comedy between the two. Lastly there is the Cyclonian General, the Dark Ace. The Dark Ace acts as a foil to our main character Aerrow as Dark Ace is the murderer of the previous Storm Hawks. Dark Ace appears very frequently often to simply fight Aerrow one on one as the interactions between the Dark Ace and other protagonists besides Aerrow are very limited. Furthermore there is a leader of Cyclonia, Master Cyclonis. Master Cyclonis is seen as the ultimate threat, often depicted as the smartest and most dangerous person. She, similar to Piper is a crystal-mage, someone who is proficient and very skilled in using crystals. Cyclonis acts as the foil to Piper similarly how the Dark Ace is a foil for Aerrow, although in a much more subdued sense. Cyclonis' strength is much more implied than shown in the show. I'd like; unfortunately, to bring about a comparison to the Show Avatar the Last Airbender. I'd like to avoid singing the shows praises but as mention earlier, the effectiveness of streamlined and episodic storytelling. Avatar is a show that is streamlined, if you watch episodes out of order you would find yourself struggling to piece the story together unless you re-watched the episodes many times. Which is what re-runs allowed for. However With an episodic story there is no need and no frustration to understand the story because things rarely carry over if at all. And Storm Hawks and Avatar the Last Airbender are very similar with their stories, albeit lacking forwarding of plot. As the setting of Storm Hawks similarly takes place in a world where the main villain is the leader of their own military force and generals that directly jagskdfa;sldfhafhksdhfasjdf;la okay I'm done, I don't feel like writing anymore because now I'm stretching and I just wanna talk about how gay I think piper and Cyclonis are for each other and I mean seriously, I just wanna talk about the anti Nazi episode that focuses on Junko's character development. And tbh it would just be a rant and not an essay so you know what, I type faster when ranting anyway.

Okay so like, in the second season there is this episode, a wallop for all season. And I think this episode in particular is one of the best in the entire show, possibly the best. And ok, so throughout the series Junko is constantly either fixing bikes, or doing something strongman characters do like fixing and making. He makes weaponry for the storm hawks is what I'm getting at. Clearly he is a very intelligent character. All but one of the storm hawks are. That being Finn who is a total doofus but I love him and he is amazing and needs to be protected. Even if he has fought in tons of serious battles he's just dumb. But Finn and Junko in the show are depicted as each others best friend. Two sides of the same coin. They share interactions with each other more than the other crew. Alright so stork is up there with who they hang out with but stork is almost always on the ship. But the thing wallop for all season does is acknowledge that Junko is smart. Throughout the series he is just a second idiot on the ship. He is shown to always hold the dumb ass brain cell along with Finn mainly for comedy. Okay so in a wallop for all season Junko is sent to take over the family business by the wallop tribe leader. Oh by the way, all wallops are super strong and look like rhino's. And while Junko takes over the business the other Storm Hawks find out that Cyclonians are on the Terra with them. And there is a confrontation with the tribe leader to get them off the Terra and the Cyclonians want to take the Storm Hawks prisoners and kill them. And the leader is all like, we have a peace agreement with Cyclonia and the Cyclonians are welcome here and that isn't going to change. And Junko is all like Change it or else. Now earlier I said the anti Nazi episode and I understand that saying Nazi is a reaction word these days for cartoon villains and movie villains that are completely separate, but the thing is it's a base word to explain how evil the villains should be viewed as because of the real world emotions sympathy and parallels. And this episode, okay you know that phrase that's like, if there is a Nazi sitting at a table, and ten people sit at the table, there are eleven people sitting at the table? Unrelated in a way but I like the phrase. Mainly because I hate Nazi's and white supremacists and am definitely not changing that. But anyway where was I? I just got home after a long time out. Ok right. So I forgot where I was going with the phrase thing. But to be back on track. Junko is all, change it or else. And the chief is like, you challenging me to be tribe leader? And Junko is all sure if that's what it'll take. And then they go out to the woods to fight and they're arguing the whole time during the fight. And Junko is telling the chief that he could change it, they're going to be betrayed by Cyclonia anyway. And the chief is all, this is for the benefit of the wallops Junko, I'm just doing what's good for everyone else. And Junko is all, good for everyone? Wallops hate helping other Terra's and other people, why don't you fight back like normal. And like, after that it's my second favourite line of the episode. The chief screams the reason they're sided with Cyclonia, the reason that they're letting the bad guys do what they want and why the chief is afraid to do anything about it. “CYCLONIS, IS, TOO, STRONG!” it's in caps bc if I remember right he throws a tree at that point. And basically the end of the fight Junko is a swing away from winning and he gives mercy to the chief and forfeits and the chief calls him weak for that. And when Junko is leaving he gives a little speech. “i used to be ashamed because all the other wallops were bigger and stronger than me. I thought being strong was the most important thing. But strength means nothing, unless you have the courage to use it for good.” that's the first half then an exchange with the chief. And then the rest. “I am a wallop, and I'm also a Storm Hawk, the good guys.” And Junko has had other episodes. But all of his other episodes don't show his strength as a character. They normally only surround his physical strength, the first of his episodes primarily focusing on his strength. Although this is the first episode of his, and unfortunately it's near the end of the series, that has an impact on characters not in the main cast. We see an exchange that goes along these lines between wallops hiding from Cyclonians. “I think Junko was right.” “But what can we do?” “We'll meet tonight, just because Thrag supports Cyclonia, doesn't mean we have to.” And yeah this is a small exchange but the impact it leaves is from being a show where normally episodes are goofy and joke filled, same with this one, that don't keep up a serious story line.

So like She-Ra, it's a streamlined show. The episodes are very specifically meant to be played in order. Some episodes are able to stand alone without knowing the story, unfortunately that's a lie. Whenever story lines could be regarded as episodic, that's primarily the B plot of the episode. And like, the show likes to jump back to the second main character, Catra, in the horde who is always doing something to progress the story. Honestly I have a problem with binging and the style of show Netflix puts out but that's a different issue entirely and just an opinion of mine. You know what's not an opinion? Storm Hawks is a great fucking show. Like for real, it's sloppy and sometimes rushed but it is always amazing. Except for the home movie night episode, that was a clip show episode, those are always terrible.

The point is you should watch Storm Hawks. What the hell. There's this episode called number one fan, and it's a stinker of the series. But you know what? It's fine, it's not too important at all, and if anything it's a love letter to the fans. Because number one fan is just, prophetic, it knew what was gonna happen with people like me. And basically the episode is about the storm hawks finding a fan of theirs, of the sky night squad Storm Hawks, and are totally flattered. Except Finn, he doesn't like Finn. And Finn's plot of the episode is trying to get the fan to like him. And the Storm Hawks are indulging him and letting him ride on their bikes and giving him a good day. Then predictably they say something the wrong way and he gets sad and upset and they leave and the villains come in to save the kid and bada bing bada boom the episode is over. And you know what, I don't like that episode, I don't enjoy it save for the one scene in it that had Cyclonis. But you know what? It was still a funny an well written episode.

There's also the fact that I holy fucking yes love the Cyper ship, or pipcy, I just say piper x Cyclonis like i'm from 2009.

IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH I START TALKING ABOUT PIPER BUT THEN I DIVULGE INTO A STREAM OF THOUGHT THAT CONTAINS MY THOUGHTS ON GAY REP AND ALSO SPOILERS FOR STEVEN UNIVERSE.

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR STEVEN UNIVERSE IN THIS PARAGRAPH.

let me rant about Piper for a second. First of all she is a main character. Most of the time she is in the spotlight and the driving character. Hell, a few episodes taken away and Aerrow is no longer the main character and Piper is. And you know what else, one she's a girl so there's that. And two, and this is the big thing, SHE IS BLACK WITH A REALISTIC SKIN TONE IN A CHILDRENS CARTOON IN 2007! Like holy fuck aside from that one episode of 6teen where the girl says she's gay and already has a date to the dance, this is like the best shit. Also she has blue hair which I sometimes forget about but she always, no matter what, wears the orange headband. And it's not like it's necessary because of character design. She has been in many different outfits. Plus I'd like to mention that this was 2007, and it's a 3d show. Like, the quality of the animation is still amazing. And the fight scenes are always stunning to see happen. And oh oh, her bike has helicopter wings on it. Like aside from it being a jet she has helicopter wings like that is just a personalized Piper thing. And I'd like to mention that Piper is very high key bi, although never said in the show. And if you're going. Not said in the show? Darn ):. well let me fucking remind you, it has never been stated in she ra or shown, in the show that Anyone is a Lesbian or even Bi. All we have are just things from the creators that they say OUT OF THE SHOW when very clearly they could devote literally 2 seconds in show to say “I'm gay” and keep going like holy fuck. If Catra and Adora are lesbians then so are Piper and Cyclonis. And it kinda upsets me because then we have a wedding in Steven Universe but they still go, can't assign labels to them still gotta remember they're rocks and even when in the same supposed gay wedding episode the worse than Stalin diamonds come down and fuck their shit up. And this is all happening when a straight guy, let me repeat that, A STRAIGHT WHITE GUY ON NICKOLODEON WROTE THE BEST GAY REPRESENTATION IN A CHILDRENS SHOW YET. You remember all that? The most bland, normal, everyday shit for gay people was put in the loud house and it's the best representation for children's media ever, par for the 6teen thing. I just wanted to say that I ship Piper and Cyclonis but I wrote all this. Shit. Anyway Cyclonis x Piper for life, they're married and ruling the Atmos together and have a kid, XOXO

Okay now I'd like to address the idea of a continuation or a reboot. Personally, I want a continuation, not a reboot. Most of the other fans would like a reboot that is edgier and more serious but I think they might have missed the point of the show. Even lightning-arrow, the main storm hawks fan blog second only to my might which will one day crush all in it's path, I'm so ahead of my time that my time left me behind to remind time to make this time mine. Many people like to look at the concept art and story and think, wow I would have liked this show. And they aren't wrong, they would have liked that show. But I think they would have liked it less. Storm Hawks is a comedy show first and and action show sometimes. Very often the episodes are joke filled and very tame on action. Yet some people would like an edgier and darker show, to which I ask, why? Did you not like when Finn made a fool of himself at a talent contest by doing the air guitar? Did you not like when a chicken interrupted a very serious fight between Aerrow and Dark Ace? Did you not like every single one of Storks lines? Now is a good time to mention Stork in this argument for edgier and darker Storm Hawks. Stork is the dark character, the sarcastic character, the witty and depressed one. Stork is very obviously an emo, and that is intentionally displayed in his character design. If you want to know what I mean, he has the dark hair over half his face thing going on. That's how emo we're talking. And all of his lines are paranoid, sarcastic, depressing, or condescending. And almost 100% of his lines are jokes and are always funny. Stork is the darkest character that makes jokes about death that always manage to get a laugh. The problem with making the show more serious and edgier, is that his character might as well be pointless and thrown away. In a cast of characters that aren't jovial and all grim, where's the need for another grim character? Stork is yang of the group, while everyone else is happy and smiling, he provides the contrast, that is his character. He is meant to be a foil for the rest of the entire cast, protagonists and antagonists. And I believe it's easy to forget about all the jokes that the show made you laugh at when you go a long time without watching it and only remember the serious pieces. The fact of the matter is that the jokes and humour and lightheartedness is what made the serious moments stand out to people that want it to be darker. When people ask for a darker story what they're asking for is the same feeling of contrast when the heavy moments hit. It's like eating ice cream with your best friend and in the middle of the conversation you bite the ice cream with your teeth and at the same time your friend punches you in the gut. And then going to your weaver friend and asking them to hit you in the gut, with no ice cream and you're ready for the impact. Why did I use this specific example? For zero reason and I'm not at all salty about dropping a chocolate ice cream cone with the blueberry shell at dairy haven stop asking questions.

The point is storm hawks is amazing and you should watch it. It's my favourite show after all.

Oh shoot I went through Aerrow, Junko, piper, Finn, and Stork. I forgot to mention Radarr. Radarr is a squirrel. That's it. I'm not joking. Radarr is a squirrel. Oh right maybe I should have mentioned that earlier. Um yeah guys, the reason a darker show wouldn't work is, hmmm, I don't know, one of our main characters is a squirrel that squeaks!!!!

oh yeah thought of another thing. I don't thing people realize that when the characters were chosen for the show, and their old pre-show character designs were rejected. It's because the creators themselves, decided the ones we got were better. And thank god for that because if I had to look at Aerrow in hi 5th grader learned what anime is and picked up a how to draw manga style book and skipped to the last picture design I would probably never have watched the show. Also people for some reason want Piper to keep her old arc about her being a miner, and just, no guys. Think about that for a few minutes, just no.

Also I'd like to mention how fucking glad I am that the Master Cyclonis design changed. Before her name was Master Anarchis and that is just awful and should never have been on the table. Master Cyclonis is a powerful name however. Anarchis makes me think she's gonna turn into a spider.

And also also, I don't particularly care about what isn't in the show. Oh the backstory was explained like this, and the lore of the atmos was explained on the site before it was shut down. Yeah ok, that's neat, but was it in the show? Was that the content we got as average consumers of the media? No? It requires a different platform and doesn't actually affect the show? Then it might as well be pointless to me. Sure you can have it but don't expect me to be convinced to write my fanfiction of them according to those standards. Granted no one has actually told me that, but being on tumblr is very personal to me and makes me feel like I'm talking to people. Conclusion, Storm Hawks is good and you should watch it.

[playunderground]

Introducing OVERSOUL: An Interview with Derrick Saladino

Last month, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Derrick Saladino to talk about his brand, OVERSOUL. When he pitched OVERSOUL to me in his initial email, he described it as “a lifestyle brand created from identity crisis,” and that “counterculture/subcultures like anime, gamer, emo-punk, euro-techno, and underground hiphop/b-boy culture heavily influence the brand’s creative direction.” I stared hard at the first two influences, and then stared not-as-hard at the rest of the influences, wondering how these various subcultures could overlap.

My brain being comprised of worms and dirt, I assumed that the anime and gamer influences meant that the designs were going to look like Bart Drinking Lean or Sasuke Wearing Supreme. (In other words, a caricature of anime-inspired Instagram ad streetwear.) This assumption changed quickly after taking a look at OVERSOUL’s site. Their first collection, ISEKAI, is comprised of three pieces. The logo tee and hoodie both look great, but the third piece was what really caught my attention: it’s a button-down tee adorned with daggers. At a glance, it looks nothing like anime- or gaming-inspired clothing. This was the point at which I snapped out of my irony-poisoned haze; the world of memeified, ironic-but-not-quite-ironic hentai tees and Goku Smoking Weed edits had calcified my expectations of what forms of inspiration a brand could and couldn’t pull.

It makes sense in the context of the rest of his influences and the ethos that he operates under – to get ahead of myself for a second, Derrick had this to say of his interest in various countercultures:

"When people express their passions or life to a certain degree, it just pulls me in. It’s like, ‘Okay, I don’t know what the fuck it is, but show me. Let me indulge.’ That’s really how I get into things."

In talking to Derrick, on and off the record, I saw a talented designer who was unapologetic about what he was interested in and passionate about. He’s also a huge geek that runs a bi-weekly Smash tournament at a local nightclub.

(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

"Okay, wait, first and foremost, my name is Derrick Saladino and I am a fucking gamer. Before being a designer or anything, I am a fucking gamer. "

Daniel: What is OVERSOUL? 

Derrick: OVERSOUL is about identity crisis. It’s my experience dealing with that personally. Growing up, I never really fit in to particular popular groups. Every time I would attempt to make new friends, I would stumble upon the randomest shit: anime culture, gamer culture, I’d end up becoming friends with a lot of emo-punk kids, techno. Nothing that I fell into was mainstream, popular culture. It was a lot to do with being lonely and trying to make friends. With OVERSOUL, thinking about all that kind of shit, dealing with identity crisis – obviously there’s a lot of people who’ve been through that – I want to create a new identity or community of people who share similar values and, you know, take pride in it? 

I mean, even the name, OVERSOUL, I ripped the word from this really old anime that I used to watch growing up, Shaman King.

Shaman King? What the hell, like 4Kids shit?

Yeah. That wasn’t the first anime that I ever watched, but it was something that I was really into. From being like 12 to even later in my high school, I just loved it. The concept was so cool – taking a soul and imbuing it in an object to make it powerful. It just looked fuckin’ sick. When people wear my clothes, I want them to feel empowered. That���s how I want people to see it. Soul being clothing, putting it on yourself, there you go.

Spirit Integration is, I don’t think the tagline to the brand, but it’s also part of it. Spirit Integration is mind, body, and spirit, and for anyone into the spiritual side of life, that’s what makes us. Our thoughts and mind and DNA – that makes us who we are.

When I read the description on your site, I noted that you referred to OVERSOUL as not just a startup streetwear thing or a brand, but a conceptual design experience. What does this encompass, and why did you pick this specific wording?

None of the stuff I make or have made in the past is very conventional. It’s been pretty avant-garde, I would say. I’ll have an idea, and regardless of whatever trend is going on right now, I just fucking do it. When I make clothes, I’m not making clothes for the public, really. My mentality is more like, “You know what would be sick in a game? If the costume looked like this.” That’s why I say it’s a conceptual design experience.

Has being involved in the industry and working behind the scenes affected how you understand your own brand after launching? What about how you understand customers and other brands, now that you know what the design process is like?

First-off, let me just back up and go over a history of what I did before OVERSOUL. In high school, I made clothing because I hated what everyone else was wearing. This was 2011-2013. During that time, that’s when I had a brand and brands like Obey, Diamond Supply, and The Hundreds – literally peak Tumblr hypebeast, Zumiez, starter pack shit – were around. I looked around at everyone else and was like, “I can’t click that, it’s not resonating with me.”  I had two other brands after that, and then came OVERSOUL. So I have this history of kind of knowing the market, even being a consumer, and evolving as a businessman and designer. I don’t think anything has changed. I think I’ve always stayed true to doing my own shit, rather than trying to compete with everybody else. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll notice what other designers are doing and some things I’ll take note of or inspo from but I hardly think about other people, to be honest. I respect everyone’s hustle, I just can’t be doing the same shit.

Give me your top 3 video game fits.

Top 3, oh my god. Snake from Metal Gear Solid V – very techwear, utility as fuck. My previous brand before this was techwear, and I had to stop it because techwear is so hard to sell. 

I’m really into draping fashion. Cloud, Final Fantasy VII, it was the movie Advent Children – you play Smash, right? There’s two costumes in there: the black, and like this, not really skirt, but it covers up somewhat? All-black, huge sash going on, it reminded me of Yohji Yamamoto.

Something that I’m going to make in the future is inspired by Naoto from Blazblue. His outfit, I looked at it and I was like, “Yo, this could be fucking, like Chrome Hearts, like what the fuck? I’m just gonna abuse this character design, it looks amazing.” I think that fashion right now, what really gets people’s attention on social media, is just some crazy shit, I don’t mean dumb shit, but like, just has to be very bold, and I think that’s what Naoto’s character design is. His pants have this huge cross on them. I think that’s one of the most crazy things I’ve seen in awhile.

Let’s talk about Anime-den! It’s this thing that we started roughly 5 months ago. One of my best friends here, he actually works at Fortune [Sound Club, a nightclub in Chinatown], and he’s a music producer. We really bonded over clothes, anime and gaming, and we had this idea – I think we were just high as fuck one day – and I’m like, “Yo, you know what would be fucking dope? If we brought weeb shit into the club.” I think he was just joking around, but he was like, “That would be really fun to set up, we can do it.” 

[Weeb being short for weaboo, a pejorative term referring to those obsessed with Japanese culture to the point of fetishization and idolization. It’s been ‘reclaimed’ by some fans of anime, used ironically as a form of self-deprecation.]

So, the next day happens, we’re talking, and he asks me, “Do you actually wanna do it?”, taking it seriously. I’m astonished. I was fucking joking, you know? We were just some high guys. He pitches the idea to Fortune and they approve it. At this point, we’re like, “Okay, we gotta actually invest all our effort into this,” because we’re actually gonna do something that I personally haven’t seen anybody do before – bringing a game into a club, anime into the club.

It’s really cool. Just yesterday, the commentator from Vancouver Street Battle came to Anime-den. Pride? He commentated for Battle of BC 3 and Pinnacle. He has ties with Animebae, too. [Animebae is a local anime-inspired startup streetwear brand.] Who would’ve thought that this guy would come through? And he brought his friends. He was telling us that what we’re doing is sick, and hearing this from a guy of that calibre in the gaming or Smash community, it really shook us. We’re actually bringing in people who play the game seriously here. 

How has setting it in a club made it different from other tournaments that you’ve been to? How does the dynamic change?

It’s a little different because when it comes to actual competitive events, people have a different mentality when they enter. They’re there to win and they practice hard for it. As for Anime-den, it’s the total opposite. It’s very casual, we’re all just drinking, blazing, whatever. It’s just the environment where, you know, dim light in a club, there’s music going on in the back –I guess to some gamers it can seem distracting? But I think people, they don’t care. They just play. They’re just there to have fun. Totally different dynamic from an actual event. 

I think that the purpose of Anime-den is to bring people together. That’s literally what Anime-den is for.

Yeah, I just noted here that I think it’s consistent with your brand, in that you’re translating the intangibility of these digital spaces like anime and gaming that people bond over, and you’re putting it into a physical space and letting people actually further develop what these subcultures would look like in person. Like, when you think of anime or gaming in real life you think of Anime Expo or cosplaying or some shit – and that’s fine, people have fun with that [Editor’s note – I think it’s fun!] – but it’s not the only mode of expression. With events like this, I think it’s cool that you’re saying, “If you’re a gamer, there’s another avenue for you. You don’t have to dress up or anything…”

I mean, walking in today and meeting you, you wouldn’t have gotten the idea that I was super into anime or gaming. I just look like a regular dude, right? And my clothing gets inspired by it, but I don’t really look like I’m cut from the legit anime cloth. Choosing these lifestyles and putting it into this real aspect, I think it can appeal to everybody. People tend to judge a lot of things, but once you step into the Anime-den room, whatever perspective you have about anime to begin with, I’m pretty sure that changes. Man, the crowd, they look all the same as you do too. We’re all normal people, we just like cool shit.

I think we should talk about ISEKAI.

OVERSOUL’s first small collection was ISEKAI. Translated to English, it would be ‘a better world,’ and I named it that based off of the anime genre, isekai. When you watch these sort of things, it’s usually someone going to another world. For my first collection, I wanted to welcome people to my world. That’s why I chose ISEKAI. One of the big graphics for the brand was the blade shirt. [On the site, it’s name is the Beginners Dagger Shirt.] My reference for that was playing MMORPGs. Typically, the first weapon you get [in MMORPGs] is a short sword or dagger. I wanted to be like, “This is the start of my brand.” This is your starter item. It’s funny, when I tell people this – they’re always like, “I never thought…”

[laughs] It’s really cool!

That’s why I went with ISEKAI. This is what my world is. One of OVERSOUL’s long-term goals is actually establishing ‘my world,’ if that makes sense? There’s only a handful of designers who have, like, captured a signature silhouette. For example, Rick Owens. When you see [a Rick Owens piece], you know it’s Rick Owens. If Zara did the same shit as Rick Owens, you would look at it and be like, “That’s Rick Owens.” You wouldn't call it Zara. That’s what I’m trying to establish for myself, to create that silhouette for myself eventually in the future.

What’s up next for OVERSOUL? 

Hmm, how should I put this... should I leak something? I’m going to drop an accessories part sometime soon. That’s in the design process right now, but I’m looking forward to doing my next big collection.

There’s this one song that I found in the past during my peak weeb days: Plastic Love by Mariya Takeuchi. A couple of months ago, they released the first official music video for it, after like 35 years, which is fucking insane – they should have done that a long time ago. I totally forgot about the song until I saw the music video. It’s something that I could relate to before and can relate to now, and I definitely want to build my next collection based on Plastic Love.

I think Plastic Love works really well because I’m surrounded by that scene in Vancouver – I work in Yaletown, and that’s the Yaletown lifestyle. It’s very lustful, but you don’t care. It’s all fake shit, really. That’s what Yaletown culture sorta is. I wouldn’t say that I’m like that, but I think that I could definitely expand on the topic through my brand. It’s not necessarily identity crisis, but the genre and artist kind of make it a subculture.

There’s also a few collabs on the way. One with a music group, another with a tattoo artist. What I really wanna do with the tattoo artist – he does anime tattoos – is ero art. Like, erotica. I think it’s a slept-on art style. It’s not generally for the public, per se, so I think that it would be something worth making. Super ecchi, maybe line art. I want it very exaggerated, even bondage-type shit. 

There’s a lot of things where people are like, “Oh, that’s too much!” But you know what, it could be sick! This is why I do things solely for myself. As long as I get a reaction from somebody, I’m happy with that. Wanting a response, not even approval, just being acknowledged, that this shit exists, it motivates me to keep doing what I do. 

I thought about doing graphic design shit; anime erotica art goes really well with techno. That kind of scene, the way that European style posters are, if you take the art and fuse them together, it works really well. I’m like, “How come no one has done this yet?” 

So you’re treating it more like art and not just a part of anime culture?

I view anime as its own respective art, and with art, there’s no rules, so I can just take this and this, and bang. At the end of the day, everybody wants to see new and cool things. People are always going to have their own subjective opinions, but as long as you have their attention, you’ve already won the battle. That’s the mentality that I carry, that everyone has their own opinions. 

Last question: what are your top 5 video games?

You know, I was trying to prepare for this interview – I didn’t even think this would come up.

[laughs] Come on, man.

I’m gonna put Super Smash Bros. Melee on there – I’ve been playing it for so long, it’s literally been bonded with my DNA. 

I don’t wanna say Ocarina of Time, because I think that it’s everyone’s favourite, but I mean, it’s still up there. It’s an all-time masterpiece, but I enjoyed Majora’s Mask a lot more. The concept of the world being blown up by the moon, in-game time, the moon crashes in like 3 days, and you keep going back in time, skipping whatever, I think it was so much fun, so yeah. 

I really like Fire Emblem: Three Houses. It’s very recent, but I have so many hours on it already, and I can’t stop. I haven’t felt this way about a game in a long time. It’s so replayable. Once you finish Ocarina of Time, you probably don’t touch it for a while. When you play FE, you’re like, okay, let’s do the next one. There’s three houses! Even after doing all three, it’s like, “Oh, I’m gonna try again, but I’m gonna make this character like this.”

I grew up playing a lot of Roller Coaster Tycoon, unfortunately, but it’s fun. It’s not a typical gamer thing, but I love it. 

I might put Final Fantasy VII on there, too – when Aerith died, I real-life teared up, like, “Dude, no way, you’re really gonna kill her off like that? You gotta save her!”… and then she dies. I’m pretty sure after that happened, I didn’t touch the game for a week. I was actually emotionally harmed. I’m really into RPGs – being able to emotionally attach yourself to characters, I think it’s a beautiful thing. 

Any last things you wanna say?

I want my brand comparable to Chrome Hearts, MISBHV or Rude [Vogue]; when they have their own aesthetic and that’s what they do, that’s what I want to build as well. The idea that I take a lot of inspiration from gaming, it really shows.

Maybe I’m hungover, so I can’t really find the words right now, but for anyone trying to do fashion, music, whatever, as saturated as the community seems at the moment, you just have to get your foot in the door and start. Yeah, there’s competition, but to be honest, with all the people here who have brands, I’m friends with all of the people who make them, and I have no judgement about if their clothes are wack or not. Some things I don’t agree with, but everyone’s on the same hustle.

OVERSOUL’s ISEKAI collection is available now online at oversoul.online. 

[bestmarbleworld-blog]

Luxury In Hand

CHOOSE-STATUARIO-MARBLE-THE-MOST-BEAUTIFUL-PRECIOUS-STONE-FROM-BHANDARI-MARBLE-WORLD-INDIA

Since ages, marble has been used in architectural designs and is priced for its beauty and many types as it delivers a one-of-a-kind classic look that can be adapted to any décor. One such extraordinary marble, said to be the finest of all in the world, is Statuario Marble. The mountain quarries of Statuario marble are located above Carrara in Italy and has limited availability and high demand. The low availability of this marble makes it more of a rare find. Extracted in the Carrara area, the Statuario white marble has a bright white background crossed by medium-wide gray veins. 

Thanks to its unique aesthetic properties, it lifts up the face of any interior project. The Statuario White marble of Carrara region is one of the most precious marbles in the world. Very few materials, in fact, can compete with its transparent sheen and incredibly compact structure.

The main types of this material are the White Statuario Venatino Marble, which has veins in shades of grey of various sizes, and the White Statuario Extra Marble with thin veins. White Statuario is the stone widely used in interior design projects and the physical characteristics of this marble make it suitable for use in environments protected from humidity and environmental factors.

Statuario marble is an ideal stone for indoor applications. This marble variety works well in a large tile format, in the form of countertop slabs, book-matched backsplashes or wall panels. The Statuario marble features are the same white and grey hues found in Carrara, with grey veining similar to that which you’ll find in Calacatta slabs. This marble is bright white in colour, and is pricier and more sought-after marble available on the market. There are also some architects who choose to incorporate the stones into the structures, usually as prominent elements, such as Green House, which practically uses the metallic structure to encapsulate the stones.

PRESTIGIOUS STATUARIO WHITE

Statuario marble is one of the most prized marbles in the world. This is due to a combination of its scarcity, pure white background, beautiful veining and rich history. It contains grey and white hues like most of the other marbles quarried in the Apuan Alps. The thing which sets it apart from other marbles is the purity of its white background and strong grey veining.

Statuario marble was known to the Romans at least as early as 100 BC. Visible traces of excavations can still be seeing in quarries in the Carrara region from this date. Statuario was extremely popular in ancient Rome and has held this popularity into the modern day.

This marble is used in luxurious commercial and residential projects across the globe. Whether it is the USA, Europe, the Middle East or the Far East. The appeal of this prestigious stone is truly universal. Statuario marble is often used to create a book matched effect. This is where two pieces of marble are placed next to each other in a mirror image giving the impression of an opened book (hence the name). Below you can see the beautiful result of book matching two pieces of Statuario marble.

USES OF STATUARIO MARBLE

Statuario marble is unsurprisingly commonly used as a focal point of any room. Most of our clients use it for stunning kitchen countertops and backsplashes or as large floor tiles. Luxury bathrooms are equally good uses for this natural stone, as it’s the perfect material for a vanity area or even as eye-catching floor tiles. Generally speaking, Statuario marble is not a good material for external projects. It’s equally popular with our commercial clients where it can be used as part of a statement reception area or boardroom, in 5-star hotels and can often be seen in religious buildings such as churches.

MAINTANACE OF STATUARIO MARBLE

For general upkeep, marble floors should be cleaned with a dust mop regularly, and surfaces should be wiped with a soft cotton cloth. Statuario marble is considered a luxury stone that should be cleaned with a serious level of caution. Never use harsh chemicals on your marble surfaces. Instead, use water and a small amount of a neutral, mild detergent such as dish detergent, or a soap that is specifically made for stone.

After washing, it is critical to dry marble surfaces with a soft cloth to prevent water stains. Never leave water sitting on marble surfaces.

POLISHING OF STATUARIO MARBLE

The process for properly polishing marble requires experience and special equipment. Trying to polish marble at home could result in grave and costly damages to your surfaces. This is because polishing the surfaces too much, or too little, are equally damaging.

This is a job that is best to leave to specialized servicemen who are trained and experienced in maintaining natural stone surfaces. Professionals have access to polishing machines that are effective and produce impressive results.

CONCULSSION

Never use cleaners that contain acidic ingredients. Never use abrasive cleaning tools, including sponges or brushes to clean marble surfaces. Never drench the floor with a soaked mop because it will trap water in the surfaces of the marble. Avoid all commercial cleaners. These will eat the surface of the marble.

Avoid oil or wax products coming into contact with marble surfaces. Marble will absorb these, and stains will result. Never leave marble unsealed, this dramatically increases its susceptibility to damages. Never drag boxes, tables, or heavy furniture across marble flooring.

ADDED BY EXPERT TEAM OF BHANDARI MARBLE WORLD…9784593721

[inadequate-nefelibata]

Still thinking about lil nas x, a 21 yo, who was also very closeted as a kid, receiving an unrelenting stream of homophobic comments online. And thinking about the reaction there was to that on social media.

I mean, the choice to fend these people off with jokes was his to make, and I get why ppl wanted to celebrate him. I did too. He’s excellent and so were the song and the video. But it was a bit striking to me that it took so long for people to even begin to wonder if he was doing okay, if this was affecting him in any way. It was only after dozens and dozens of posts making memes along with him that users started bringing up one tweet where he mentioned that he was feeling very anxious. Maybe 6 or so people commented on that.

It’s possible that was just my dashboard, or that most people did wonder but they just wanted to follow his lead. I mean, if that’s how he was facing the situation, then let him.

But I just… have been thinking about this for a while now. When it comes to this specific situation, there are some great post discussing this, by people who get his situation much better than me. What I’ve been thinking about is the effect that social media has had on our response to queerphobia and to bigotry in general. And just the responses we have to bigotry nowadays.

 Because of social media, we are more exposed than ever to all those ideas and groups that want to and have managed to hurt is. Lovers and haters of something occupy the same space, so you stumble upon their musings all the time. If you are a public figure, it specifically comes to find you. And Social media turns everyday activities and thoughts into a performance, so of course, vulnerability and sensibility are hard (impossible, I’d say); in a public setting, a disaffected front is easier.

My point is, I think because of this, somewhere along the way we started getting this idea that turning the hate you get into a joke or into a source of “inner strength” is the best-case scenario when it comes to dealing with bigotry.

Let me be clear: I do think that it’s necessary to learn to let go of hateful comments and actions sometimes. And joking around can help. If we were to focus all of our attention and emotions on every single fatphobic/racist/misogynistic/transphobic etc event of our lives, we would probably end up falling apart. Also, like I mentioned before, being vulnerable in social media is. Basically hell. It makes sense to be this way, especially for public figures.

But I do not want to end up creating a social environment where marginalized people are… I don’t know. Sensitive to being sensitive.  Some time ago I read something about “a fixation with reclamation” or something like that, in reference to people who are just… straight up transphobic or homophobic, and justify their behavior by pointing out that they’re part of those groups.

I guess this is something that’s not exclusively related to social media. We’re all living in a world where some forms of social injustice are still common place. We want to change that, but the path to the reality we want is meandering and rocky, and, at some point, you have to develop some short-term skills to deal with the situation you actually experience.

So… yeah, that’s how it is. Learning to make something good out of the bad stuff they throw at you.  I mean, reclaiming slurs is an example of this, and I use “queer” all the time because it feels right to do so. That this is something that we do is not the problem. Neither is being able to joke or downplay bigoted comments occasionally.

The question is: are we separating necessity from… I don’t know, morally affirming hardships?  Does that make sense…? What I mean is, are we interpreting our ability to be unaffected by these behaviors as something that “makes us stronger” somehow? Something that proves our worth? Are we better than other members of the group if we can joke about it, instead of being sensitive to it, or being hurt by it? Is this something we are incorporating to our mentality?

I don’t know. I just wonder about that sometimes. About whether or not this is happening. It’s possible that it isn’t, and this is just what I’m getting from social media at the moment. There are many conversations that aren’t happening here, but I do I have them with my real life friends, for example. Or maybe I’m misreading the situation, and there’s a better explanations for the things I’m talking about. It may be the effect of internalized bigotry: it could be that people are finding “woke” ways of behaving in the way they learned to behave when they were younger. It could be the effect of having different experiences: for example, joking about “going to hell” Is easier if you were never raised to actually believe that. It’s probably all of those things.

I just keep thinking about it.

We can’t really reclaim homophobia/transphobia/racism… etc. At some point, it’s something that is out there and it happens to us. Even when you learn to joke about it, it fucks you up. The aim is that at some point, someone growing up in the world won’t have the faintest idea of what it’s like to experience that. The things that happen in history never go away, but it can be like, I don’t know, reading about people who thought that the sun circled around the earth, if that makes sense.

I’m sure most people know that already, I don’t want to say obvious things. But I do wonder if it’s like a narrative we tell ourselves at this point: we endure bigotry and we win out. Like those experiences have an intrinsic meaning, instead of being a necessary part of existing in this world as a marginalized group.  Also, another thing that doesn’t feel right about this is that all the emphasis on the pain we withstand can make us forget that, in most cases, the reason why we’re still in one piece today is because of our communities. Is because other people offered us kindness, and companionship, and acceptance. Someone somewhere had to figure out their life on their own, I’m sure, but a lot of the time you at least have a sense of belonging to something larger.

All of this may be connected the idea that pain is morally edifying. But this is too long already so I’ll just leave it at:

?????

(Side note: I keep using examples of queer experinces, I guess bc those are the things I know the most. But maybe talking about bigotry in general terms was a bad call here. I don’t know. If someone has a different experience from mine and wants to add something, you’re welcome to do so.)