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schpiedehl · 7 years ago

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Reasons I hate the Hamilton fandom

Disclaimer: I’m a mod of one Hamilton fb group, an admin of another much smaller group, have seen the show twice, and a huge fan of many of the actors and creatives, not just the original cast. I am entrenched in the Hamilton fandom and have been for nearly 2 years so all of this comes from personal experiences with the fandom. I do not hate the actual musical and having talked to many folks and made friends through this fandom, I can confirm that it has had a positive effect on many people, especially aspiring actors of color. I had criticisms of the actual musical (reductive view of American history, perpetrates American exceptionalism, bootstraps narrative, not as feminist as fans insist, etc) but I’m mostly just addressing the issues within the fandom not within the media. The problems with the fandom is nebulous and manifold so I’m gonna try to be as thorough as possible here: - for those that don’t know, Hamilton is a show made by POC creatives for actors of color. The casting is not “color blind” it is racially conscious. All leads always, aside from the silly, villainous King George, are intended to be played by actors of color and the much of the fandom absolutely REFUSES TO ACKNOWLEDGE THIS. It ranges from the benign-seeing assertions that Hamilton is colorblind and therefore race of the actor doesn’t matter as much as talent (false, with the underlying belief that a white actor will somehow be better suited/more talented in a role that is literally not written for them) to petulant assertions that one white fan or another will be the first white actor to play x role, to erasing the racial identities of light-skinned black, latinx, and asian actors to fit the manufactured narrative that white actors can and have played principal roles and the show is therefore colorblind. Fans are quick to point out the ambiguous wording of “America then told by America now,” intended to subtly indicate POC, as meaning white folk, despite the continuous assertions by the creatives that this is simply not the case. - whitewashing in fan art. Hand in hand with the refusal by many white fans to acknowledge the fact that Hamilton the Musical is intended for POC, white fan artist almost universally draw the actors-as-characters with lighter skin, lighter eyes, and more typically European features. Lin, who played Hamilton in the original cast, is a Latino man of mixed race heritage with tan skin, black hair, and dark eyes yet fan art of him as Hamilton is nearly always pale, red haired, and sometimes even blue-eyed. Artists will defend this as interpretation and some will even indicate that Hamilton was white irl so this is more accurate but Hamilton irl and Lin were nothing alike and he presence of a goatee in Hamilton Fan art is an indisputable sign that the artist is drawing Lin, not the real life, baby faced Hamilton. Dark skinned actors like Okieriete Onaodowan (Hercules Mulligan in the original cast) are rarely drawn and when they are they tend to be heavily lightened. - characters deemed queer by the fandom - notably John Laurens who was thought to be gay or bi in real life by many historians - is often heavily feminized in fan art, despite the fact neither the character nor the actual figure are ever noted as being particularly effeminate. This is of course fetishization symptomatic of applying heteronormativity to gay relationships. - fans often reject and demonize female characters. This is not universal but many fans have negative reactions to Hamilton’s wife, Eliza (and ignore and/or demonize her in regards to the gay ship of Hamilton/Laurens, despite Laurens having died shortly after Hamilton married Eliza. Hamilton fans believe almost universally that Hamilton was bi irl, which is supported by historical consensus, but the notion of him actually being with a woman repulses much of the fandom. - basically standard biphobia). Fans are also extremely gross about Maria Reynolds. - a separate part of the fandom refuses to acknowledge both the historical consensus of the Hamilton/Laurens relationship and the fact that that musical contains several intentional references to it. I’ve been told many times to keep that “gay shit” out of the fandom. - shipping wars of course. - blind worship of the characters either without regard to their historical counterparts or including their historical counterparts. - slavery apologism. Comparing slaves to modern consumer items and/or farm animals to demonstrate the ubiquity of slavery and/or people’s mindset regarding it. While it is true that people are the product of their time, “everyone owned slaves” and “you cannot judge them by the Norms of our culture” are common silencing/apologist techniques which both lack nuance and perpetuate racist ideals. It also erases the fact that abolitionism and moral opposition to slavery existed not only in post-revolution society but also within the very people who owned slaves. Thomas Jefferson wrote that slavery was the worst evil while simultaneously owning and raping slaves. - I’ve encountered at least one person with a bona fide slavery fetish. That’s not the fandom as a whole but it is worth noting. - abhorrent beliefs are common re: Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemings. - this has basically been covered above but rampant racism is not uncommon in this fandom. You get the distinct feeling that a sizeable portion has never once interacted with a person of color before, based on the ways they claim ownership over the actors, portray the characters, talk about racial issues, etc - speaking of the actors: fans are very gross toward the actors in a variety of different ways. - fans fetishize the fuck out of Daveed Diggs, who played Jefferson in the original cast. Diggs, for reference is a biracial black Jewish man, a rapper, actor, and activist best known outside of Hamilton for his work with clipping., which includes an extremely politically charged afrofuturist space rap opera. Fans tend to do a couple things in regards to Diggs. One, they conflate him with irl Jefferson leading so some really and truly bizarre headcanons and fan interpretations. Diggs himself has no love for irl Jefferson and has - along with the rest of the cast - cautioned fans against romanticizing the real figures, apparently to limited success. More heinously, however, I have seen people claiming ownership of Digg’s body and hair (claiming they would be upset if his cut it, or would stop being his fan even), made comments about keeping him as a sex slave, fetishizing his ethnic features, or even denying his blackness in favor of fetishizing his white, Jewish heritage. I’ve even seen a white woman comment that she wanted to kill diggs’ black girlfriend, skin her, and wear her as a suit to attract Diggs. No fucking joke. Diggs work as a musician is loved by many fans but others reject it as “scary black music.” - this happens with other actors tho not as much as Diggs. Fans have made plenty of comments about Okieriete Onaodowan’s “big black spy on the inside,” for instance, showing further capacity to fetishize black bodies. - for many fans, the original cast can do no wrong. They will go out of their way to justify and forgive anything that can be seen as problematic rather than acknowledging that they can still like a person that has problematic aspects. - or conversely, they gang up on actors on twitter, or tag them in hate/undeservedly negative critique. - replacements and non-OBC casts are largely ignored and several of the actors have been trolled or sent hate simply because they are not the originals. There is also the mindset that no one could ever be better than the original and the show is not worth seeing without the originals which is extremely disrespectful toward the replacement actors. - a large portion of the fandom claims that Hamilton is the only rap they like, or that they don’t like hip hop at all. When the Hamilton mixtape - and album featuring inspired-bys and covers of Hamilton songs by contemporary singers and rappers, was released fans HATED IT, many pointed out that they hated the hip hop sound and the “bastardization” of the music. Many of the songs on the Mixtape were by artists which inspired Hamilton in the first place. - a lot of the fans are just plain cringey. Bad head canons which become more ubiquitous than the actual canon portrayals, extremely forceful when it comes to trying to “convert” people, extremely adverse to any kind of criticism of the musical, history, or the actors, obnoxious at cons, etc. - art theft is rampant - extreme classism re: bootlegs especially - older fans have a tendency to be extremely abusive toward younger fans. Not all young fans are bad but bad memes and stupid references are met with extreme, quick, and unwarranted vitriol.

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gygax-blog · 7 years ago

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Callout post: Kenneth David Beasley or “Kenichi Toriyama”

Tumblr user morelikeodindank (Previous URLs: gygax, magitekskald) https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-beasley-08437a4b/ Holds administrative positions within Nexus Gaming Alliance and A&G Con [Admin Note: This was typed mostly up by another party involved. Here and there, I will add my side of things, as some of his lies were specially crafted to suit one person or small group of people. All of my comments will be formatted like this one.]

If you take nothing else away from this, please remember the following: WHEN DEALING PROFESSIONALLY WITH KENNETH DAVID BEASLEY, GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING, SIGNED AND NOTARIZED BEFORE DOING ANYTHING ELSE. He will not pay his debts, and his word is essentially worthless.

Ken lived with my wife and I for a little over a year. He did not pay his share of the bills at all for the first 7 months, and for the following 7 months he underpaid. When he moved out, he skipped out on the last months’ rent entirely. On several occasions he offered us payment in exchange for transport several hours away - a payment that was never received. Between rent he didn’t pay, money borrowed, furniture he took with him when he moved, and a small collection of miscellaneous debts, he owed us well over $16,000.00 when he left.

When he moved in, we had a verbal contract that he would pay these things. During the process of accruing these debts, he made frequent promises to pay these things. When he left, he made a point to ask my wife to total his debts so he could continue to pay them off slowly.

The above is one of the last conversations between us - my wife was UNDERSTANDABLY nervous that once Ken got into his new apartment, he would immediately blow us off. (Sidenote, I really ought to listen to my wife more often.) Ken did not, in fact, pay us the $900.00 mentioned in this message - his portion of rent and utilities for the month of September - nor sign any paperwork pertaining to his debts to us.

I’ve waited over a year to write this post, and I’m still a little reluctant to do it. I want to make it very clear that my intent in writing this is not vengeance, I’m not doing this to publicly shame him or get some sort of revenge for the shit he’s put me through. This is purely so that other people who may be dealing with him in the future can have a certain measure of warning about the kind of person they’re dealing with and what they can expect. I’m writing the post that I needed to have read when I met him - the stuff I wish I had known. For brevity, I’m putting the rest of it under a cut:

First and foremost, Ken is a chronic liar. Who he is, what he has done, who he knows and where he has lived all vary each time he tells a story about his past. I’m going to document what he has told me and what I have found out. SOME OF THIS IS BOUND TO BE TRUE - a broken clock is still correct twice a day, and I am certain at least some of the ‘facts’ about himself he has told me are true - but none of it adds up to a whole picture.

False past - Where he went to highschool and where he grew up seem to change with the breeze. He has told me he went to highschool at no less than six different highschools, both in the US and in Japan. I’m going to relate some stories he has told us that seem to have passable internal consistency, but contradict each other.

Story: He grew up in Japan, at the center of a cult. He was told he was some sort of angel of the apocalypse, and a large group of people worshipped him, and he claims he’s still dealing with the emotional ramifications of this. He claims his uncle is Akira Toriyama, and speaks often about his frustration with his uncle only wanting to talk about his work - claims he is sick of DBZ because “Goku stole his childhood”. Apparently his father, a Japanese man, committed suicide, and he feels guilt about this.

Story: He grew up in the “Ghetto”, somewhere either in Ohio or in California, depending on the telling. He grew up with a black stepfather in a black community. His mother worked long hours and had a revolving set of boyfriends who were in and out (one of whom he claims sexually abused him as a child), and Ken claims he was the primary caregiver of his three younger sisters from age eight onward. He also claims he had a large “wolfpack” of very loyal friends who would kill for him, and claims he had a lot of legal trouble as a kid/young adult because he acted as a vigilante for his community. Academically gifted, went to many special-format educational facilities. Claims to have moved around a lot, but also claims to have many loyal/local friends who go back years and years.

Story: His mother was 14 when she had him, and was in such dire straights financially that she decided to volunteer for government experimentation on her unborn child for the money. Ken was genetically modified in-utero with animal DNA, which caused a lot of the medical issues he claims to experience - (more on that later.) Was diagnosed with ALS and/or testicular cancer as a child, survived the cancer. Experienced a traumatic brain injury as an adult, has retrograde amnesia. Was trained as a military operative with a large group of other children who were experimented on - claims to be one of the only survivors from this project.

[Admin Note: His step father is a black man, but I find it interesting that he is only ever brought up when Ken is using him as an excuse to spout of racial slurs. His mother is a very kind woman, but when you ask her about the things that Ken has told you, she gets confused because, according to Ken, she has an illness that is taking her memory away from her. As someone who has serious issues with memory, she seemed fine.]

False identities - Ken will frequently “Sock-Puppet” and make fake accounts on social media. Each account will have a purpose, something he gets from it, and will only show activity while he himself is online. They also show a theme of sexually praising Ken. I don’t want to link to the accounts in question in case one or two of them are actually real people, but here are some of the personas we’re fairly sure he’s taken on:

FB account - a close personal friend of his who has no activity on his feed beyond occasionally commenting on Ken’s posts or events. Longtime old friend of Ken, desperately wants to fuck him. Messages my wife, most conversations revolve around praising Ken’s attractiveness or sexual prowess, or attempting to peer-pressure or wingman my wife into having sex with him.

Multiple Gmail accounts - Big-name celebrities. Ken claims to have multiple big name celebrity friends from his convention connections. He’ll claim he’s been telling them about how cool you are and they want to say hi to you. Most conversations these accounts want to hold revolve around Ken - whether it’s talking about how he’s a good person, praising you for the positive things you do for him, or just these accounts talking about how much they really, really love Ken and are glad good things are happening for him. Sometimes these accounts will ask for nudes. All personal information is easily google-able.

Tumblr account - (now deactivated,) Abusive ex girlfriend. Ken claims to have an exceptionally abusive ex girlfriend, who sprang into existence shortly after my wife opened up about her own personal abuse experience. This account existed solely to send inflammatory, triggering messages to Ken, lazer-focused on whatever he was feeling insecure about. This account also attacked my wife, and told her that all of the “great sex” she’s having with Ken is because she taught him how to be good at sex first.

[Admin Note: I was told that she had committed suicide. She got better, though! (According to Ken, it was all due to some he-said-she-said.)]

Created a fake gmail account for an established costume designer, offered a cheap ‘friends’ discount for a costume I wanted very badly - CONVENIENTLY, this person’s actual work paypal wasn’t functioning and he had me send the money to an ‘alternate’ paypal account - I have a feeling I just funneled $300 to some shitty friend of his. Never received the costume.

[Admin Note: There were a few times during the time I knew him that he would have money. Which was strange because he didn’t have a paying job at the time and/or his money was supposed to be going towards bills. This type of scheming would explain where he was getting cash.]

Sexual coercion

Ken identifies as asexual - HOWEVER, he also claims that he has some sort of spiritual need for sex. He legitimately claims that he actually HAS to have sex a certain amount or he will get very sick. He uses his claimed spiritual need for sex along with the multiple sock puppet accounts to pressure people into having sex with him.

I don’t PARTICULARLY want to go into details, but he has also “invited himself in” to sex before. You know how some people just… invite themselves along to parties? He does that with sex.

Race - I want to preface this bit by saying I AM WHITE, and recognize that there is a certain amount of overstepping my bounds by bringing some of this up. HOWEVER, this is important information.

Ken doesn’t believe cultural appropriation exists at all, and actively encourages those around him to appropriate cultures they don’t have rights to.

For all intents and purposes, Ken passes as white, and has never once relayed an experience where he personally experienced racism or even frustration at erasure of his heritage.

Ken claims to be biracial - half japanese on his late father’s side, but sometimes it’s his mother’s side, depending on the day - and claims he is bilingual, frequently obviously faking ‘forgetting’ English and ‘slipping into’ Japanese. My wife, who actually has a passable understanding of Japanese, says his Japanese is BAD - poor accent, he can’t speak it and can’t understand or respond appropriately.

Ken claims to have been ‘spiritually adopted’ by ‘the native americans’ - to my knowledge he never claimed a specific tribe. He says he was given a ‘native name’ or something akin to it, “Stormtalker” or “stormbringer” or something along those lines. He uses this as grounds to speak out AGAINST the concept of cultural appropriation of native spirituality and culture.

Ken claims he was raised in a black neighborhood, and on occasion claims he has some african-american relative. He uses this as an excuse to use the N word in everyday speech, and frequently hands out “permission” to nonblack friends to use the N word as well.

Gender Identity + sexuality - Preface to this, I AM TRANSGENDER. I do not make these claims lightly.

Ken publicly identifies as Agender. He’s AMAB, uses he/him pronouns, and has no desire nor plans to physically transition in any way. He does not wear any clothing that does not strictly align to cis-masculine standards. THIS IS A PERFECTLY FINE WAY TO IDENTIFY, however, in confidence among other Nonbinary/Trans identified individuals, he readily professes that he only IDs as Agender as a way to get around his male privilege - both to relieve himself of the feelings of guilt that his male privilege gives him, and as a ‘gotcha’ to SJWs who may try to call him out on this. He is viscerally upset any time male privilege is brought up in any fashion, and needs frequent placation that we’re not talking about him specifically whenever anyone around him discusses dissatisfaction with privileged men. He also frequently expects his fellow trans people to agree with him or feel the same about their gender identities - IE he wants reassurances that we too are ID-ing as Trans/Nonbinary entirely to shirk social responsibility for what cis binary people do as a group.

Ken identifies as asexual in a way that seems focused on convincing those around him that he does not particularly care for or want sex, however he claims he has a very specific spiritual need for sex, and frequently coerces people into sex with him using this and other methods listed above. He also brags often about his sexual prowess and sexual history - claiming to have sexually satisfied numerous big name celebrities.

He claims to be a victim of rape or CSA, but only ever seems to bring this up as a method of redirecting attention back to himself when someone ELSE is speaking about their own sexual assault history. Myself and my wife - both of us sexual assault survivors - find the way he speaks about his supposed assault to be HIGHLY SUSPECT, as he is particularly insensitive to others’ traumas, and participates in sexual coercion and rape culture.

Education/Military history

Ken claims to have received military training, but have been pulled from service shortly before being deployed. He claims to be eligible for VA benefits and other veteran specific programs, and also claims that most of his medical record is “classified”, (see below.)

Claims to have spent some nebulous unspecified portion of his childhood in an active military zone, complete with comically faked “PTSD trigger responses” to airplanes flying overhead. This was clearly a performance, and his trigger was forgotten and never brought up again after that, despite living relatively near an airport.

Claims he was trained in military “enhanced interrogation” techniques, and then proceeds to spout a bunch of hollywood BS about torture techniques to show off what he knows. He’s grumpy with the Obama administration for ‘making his job illegal’.

Claims to have a sizeable academic record, be academically gifted, possibly have entered grad school, and this would be unremarkable except that it conflicts with so many of his spur of the moment “I’ve been everywhere/done everything cool!” stories he likes to tell.

Medical records / Disability - I do not make these accusations lightly. I am significantly disabled myself, and accusations of faking disability USUALLY do nothing good - however these specific instances come with manipulations - shit he will try to convince you to do to accommodate him that are excessive and unnecessary. Most of them are demonstrably false as well.

Claims to have ALS despite showing zero symptoms, and in fact does not seem particularly versed on what the symptoms even ARE - claims he was diagnosed via genetic testing about ten years before science identified what genes are associated with ALS - uses his ALS ‘diagnosis’ to get out of most physical labor and chores. Claims his ALS is what makes him ‘bad at videogames’ now, as he was once supposedly a ranked pro-gamer. However, I’ve gamed with him - his reflexes aren’t the problem, he simply makes poor decisions.

Claims to be colorblind - never consistent on which kind of colorblindness he experiences, perfectly capable of playing video games that rely on color identification for a gameplay mechanic.

Claims to have an unspecified ‘skin disease’ that conveniently makes him smell of urine - says he ‘sweats blood’, explains patchy skin color as vitiligo. In truth, he simply does not bathe frequently and does not use soap when he bathes. (He also does not wash his clothes, and substitutes air-effects febreze for both baths and clean clothes.)

PTSD - with inconsistent and easily forgotten triggers, most of which seemed to revolve around an aversion to being held responsible for his own actions. Only seemed comfortable discussing his traumas in an effort to belittle any traumas you’ve experienced - plays ‘trauma olympics’ - anything you’ve experienced he’s suddenly experienced something ten times worse. It really feels more like a ploy to request emotional support and not feel required to give emotional support in return, since he’s had it worse and you aren’t allowed to be the center stage because of it.

Extensive, inconsistent allergies - he’s allergic to the food he doesn’t want to eat, (never mind if said allergen is present in something he DOES want to eat later,) he’s allergic to ‘cut grass’ during mowing season, he’s allergic to quartz, silver, (uncooked) ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard but NOT bbq sauce, and whatever else is convenient for him to be allergic to. These allergies only ever exist when he is trying to avoid something he independently does not want, and never impede him otherwise.

Claims to be a cancer survivor and have a testicular implant, only having one biological testicle - claims he is infertile to avoid most forms of birth control. Claims he has a testicular implant that is simultaneously blue, glittery, and glow in the dark - claims the doctors let him pick out his cool-looking testicle from a box before the surgery, has no scar and never speaks about the treatments for his supposed cancer nor the medical bill.

Unnamed ‘blood disease’ that causes all of the blood in his body to die. Needs to vanish for a day or so every three months to get all of the blood drained from his body and replaced with fresh blood, because it’s all coagulating in his veins. Never even seems to have needle marks afterwards.

Claims to qualify for social security disability money - somewhere around $140,000 of “back-pay” money, that’ll come in any day now he swears. Uses this to avoid getting a job or paying his part of the bills - makes promises to use the money to buy your house for you or pay off car/medical bills. This magical payday is of course eternally delayed, but he swears it is coming soon, and that getting a job might negatively impact what he stands to receive.

Fake Deaths

Ken is perpetually and dramatically in mourning for someone or another, and uses it to demand emotional support and attention at all times. Every national tragedy that strikes - he knew someone involved, who just conveniently doesn’t show up on the victim’s list. (Claimed a good friend of his was a victim of the Pulse shooting, for example.) Some random old woman dies in New Orleans and he claims she practically raised him, despite never having mentioned living in New Orleans prior. Some minor celebrity dies and he idolized them and is personally devastated by their loss. Sometimes it’s a random army buddy. If someone isn’t freshly dead, he claims it’s the anniversary of someone dying.

He’s very dramatic and disrespectful about this - Ken claims his very presence brings terrible things into people’s lives, and demands constant reassurance otherwise.

Secretive binge eating

Normally, I wouldn’t air out someone’s personal demons like this, but if you happen to have an eating disorder yourself and you intend to live with him for any period of time, this is VITAL INFORMATION. Ken binge-eats a truly remarkable amount of food. Alone, he accounts for about a $700 a month food bill. If it’s not hidden or locked away, he will mass consume everything in the house - and he will lie to your face about it, blame other roommates, start fights, and when he is caught he will dramatically offer to let you destroy his things in vengeance - which is SUPER INSULTING because I am not a violent person at all? I have a feeling the over the top reaction to being caught was a way to divert attention away from what he did wrong and instead gain positive attention as we try to reassure him we’re not going to hurt him for overeating.

Theft - Ken has stolen or “borrowed without permission” the following:

My wife’s Nintendo DS - found in his room, he was never given permission to use it.

A folio book of my entire DS/3DS game collection - missing and never recovered

My nintendo 3ds

My laptop - ‘borrowed’ it without waiting for me to clear the data, did not return it when he moved out, refused to pay for it.

Fallout 4 strategy guide

Ken had a seemingly endless supply of Gamestop store credit, and we highly suspect he was getting it by pawning off some of our old/less played games.

Gaslighting

My wife and I both have some minor memory issues pertaining to our collective trauma history. Mentioning this around Ken was a mistake - he used this knowledge to gaslight us at every turn. He would lie to each of us individually about what the other one was saying or doing, causing numerous petty arguments over things that were ultimately found out to be his doing. He would blame the missing food or missing video games on us, and would frequently bring up our terrible memories as to why things that were happening didn’t make sense. Since he has left our lives, the world now seems to operate with standard logical physics. Things stay where we left them.

Animal abuse and neglect

While living with us, Ken was responsible for multiple animal husbandry chores - feeding, cleaning litter boxes, etc. Not once in our care did he actually do these chores - this involved starving our elderly cat, layering fresh litter over an already filthy catbox and claiming it was clean, failing to provide water for animals on his side of the house, and feeding/handling our reptiles without permission.

One of his friends who I believe he is now living with also seriously harassed our animals when he visited, going so far as to make concerning comments about the animal’s consent to be held not mattering to him. Ken seemed to take no issue to this and actively defended him.

Privacy - Ken did not and does not have respect for my or my wife’s privacy

On multiple occasions Ken brought uninvited and unannounced guests into the house without telling us anyone new was here. This involved multiple friends getting a view of myself or my wife without clothes.

I saw Ken’s dick so many times. He did not wear boxers that covered himself and I saw things I did not wish to see.

Frequently disclosed personal business of ours to coworkers even when we had EXPLICITLY asked him not to do so - also modified this information to make himself appear good.

Petty thing - bad gift giver

This is the pettiest fucking shit, and the single place where I will deviate from my express goal of this post, but considering literally everything I have listed above, I believe I am allowed one (1) petty stupid thing. He’s a shitty gift giver. He signs his name on the card of gifts other people give, (claims it’s from him AND the actual gift giver, b/c he ‘helped with the idea’), and never once actually bought a gift for either myself nor my wife - despite the fact that we went above and beyond to get him gifts while he was with us, and despite the fact that he DID have income. When he does give gifts, they’re regifted throwaway chachkies with some fake-deep meaning behind them. He’ll give you a used notebook or some thriftstore ‘home sweet home’ thing and make up a story about it. Once he went to a con and generously brought me all the free paperwork he got from the sony and nintendo booths. He gives gifts more to receive praise than to actually do a nice thing for you, and I think that’s telling about a person.

[Admin Note: This is most definitely one of his former urls. I snagged it a while back while I was feeling petty and it seemed the most appropriate to use for this purpose. None of this has anything to do with Gygax, Gary or others.]

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harryandmeghan0-blog · 6 years ago

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Meghan Markle baby: Prince Harry and Duchess to follow bizarre birthing rule? Did Kate? - Express

New Post has been published on https://harryandmeghan.xyz/meghan-markle-baby-prince-harry-and-duchess-to-follow-bizarre-birthing-rule-did-kate-express/

Meghan Markle baby: Prince Harry and Duchess to follow bizarre birthing rule? Did Kate? - Express

Meghan Markle, 37, and Prince Harry, 34, revealed they were expecting their first child together back in October last year. The announcement by Kensington Palace said the Duchess of Sussex’s due date was in spring 2019. And, while the exact month has not been confirmed, Meghan has told well-wishers that the youngster is likely to be born towards the end of April or start of May. As fans eagerly await the arrival of the newborn, it’s time to take a look at what royal traditions could happen shortly after the birth.

While the British Royal Family have no shortage of traditions, it’s not thought that they have to stick to a strict royal protocol, as such.

This means that the Meghan and Prince Harry will probably be able to make the arrangements they want for the birth of their baby boy or girl.

However, there are some things which the Duke and Duchess of Sussex may be likely to do.

For instance, according to reports, following the safe arrival of the child, royals must contact the family’s most well-known figure, as a priority.

The unusual rule came to light in a report by the Daily Mail back in 2013, ahead of the arrival of Prince William, now 36, and Kate Middleton’s, now 37, first child, Prince George.

According to the publication, the new parents would’ve had to have called Queen Elizabeth II, the Duke of Cambridge’s grandmother, ahead of contacting anyone else.

And, it’s said that this conversation must be made via an encrypted mobile phone.

This means that, if the couple’s parents weren’t in the building, the Duke’s grandmother could have heard the good news ahead of Kate’s mother, Carole Middleton, and their own fathers, Michael Middleton and Prince Charles.

Other senior figures, such as the Prime Minister and the Archbishop of Canterbury, are also thought to be on the list of people to call soon after the birth, this time by the royal’s private secretary.

It’s not been confirmed whether Kate and Prince William did contact the Queen first.

Traditionally, royals have made the announcement of a newborn to the world by placing an easel outside Buckingham Palace.

However, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge opted for a very different platform for sharing the news of Prince George being welcomed into the world.

Taking a more modern approach, the couple’s good news was first announced in a statement posted on Twitter.

Similarly, it’s unknown as to whether Prince Harry will call his Granny to share the happy news, before getting in touch with anyone else.

Meghan and Prince Harry have reportedly hired a doula, to help them in the run-up to becoming parents for the first time.

A doula is a non-medical professional who is on hand to private emotional support both before a pregnancy, as well as during and after childbirth.

Who is Meghan Markle? Quick profile

Meghan Markle was born Rachel Meghan Markle, on August 4, 1981 to parents Doria Ragland and father Thomas Markle.

Her father was previously married to Roslyn Loveless and Meghan has two elder half sibling – sister Samantha Markle and brother Thomas Markle Junior.

Actress

Meghan’s first television appearance in the USA was in an episode of the medical drama General Hospital in 2002.

She later moved on to roles in CSI, Without a Trace and Castle along with bit parts in Hollywood films including Get Him to the Greek, Remember Me and Horrible Bosses.

Meghan was also a “briefcase girl” on Deal or No Deal – but her most famous role was as Rachel Zane in legal drama Suits, which launched in 2011.

She was written out in the finale of the seventh series when her character got married, which aired in April 2018 – just before she got married herself.

Charity and humanitarian work

Meghan Markle’s career in television has gone hand-in-hand with her support for causes close to her heart.

She wrote about the stigma around menstrual health in an article for Time magazine and was a Global Ambassador for World Vision Canada – with whom she travelled to Rwanda for the charity’s Clean Water Campaign.

And her commitment to gender equality has seen her work with the United Nations – receiving a standing ovation in 2015 for her speech to mark International Women’s Day.

Relationships

In September 2011, she wed film producer Trevor Engelson, who she began dating in 2004.

But the pair divorced two years later in August 2013, citing irreconcilable difference.

She was in a relationship with celebrity chef Cory Vitiello for almost two years, before they broke it off in 2016 but the two remain good friends.

And in June 2016, she met Prince Harry on a blind date set up by a mutual friend.

Their relationship began in October that year and just over one year later, on November 27, 2017, the pair announced their engagement.

They married on May 19, 2018 at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.

Meghan’s heritage

Some have claimed Meghan Markle is the first mixed-race member of the Royal Family.

Historians are still arguing about Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III.

But Meghan will be the first royal to openly embrace a mixed-race heritage.

She has written about the difficulties of being a biracial actress in Hollywood as she claims she is not black enough for some roles and not white enough for others.

Source: https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/1084308/Meghan-Markle-news-baby-Prince-Harry-latest-Kate-Middleton

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