#brc musing

[secondarythings]

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

I'm replaying BRC and just go to the point in the mall where the Oldhead unlocks the area behind his speakers. Although I don't recall the exact wording, he says that he doesn't like that Felix and then Cyber were wearing the mask and that some things should be left alone.

My theory?

At some point, Felix entered Old Amsterdam and found the sarcophagus with the mask.

And then took it and put it on his face.

The upper two pics are canonical, the third one is a character model in the game's files called Kid Felix. I'm guessing he was pretty young when he discovered Old Amsterdam.

An Oldhead even remarks that New Amsterdam doesn't look much like Amsterdam. But who remembers it? Felix in his first dream sequence.

Canal, typical buildings, pretty Amsterdam-y.

There's even a tree in Old Amsterdam.

That's where Felix got his mask from.

And maybe something else?

The jetboost just looks freaky to me.

To sum up: little Felix (probably) fell and found himself in Old Amsterdam, upon which he desecrated a coffin and then wore the spoils of the crime on his face.

It's probably cursed and now DJ is cursed too.*

*that part is purely speculative. Although...

Felix wore it in the place of a jet boost and was famous for not needing one. Huh... (okay, this one really is just speculation)

[question-marked]

I made 3 more using the same song, I decided to put them each individually in the post because tumblr can do that

[jostenneil]

i honestly rly agree with ppl who say the batpham members should have love interests outside of the batpham

[shaonsim]

I was tagged by @incurablescribbler and @medhasree (the latter told me that this is not optional for me, I HAVE to do this, and made me feel all mushy mushy ♥️), and I might have been tagged by other people, more specifically, Ruhi and Anuja. Sorry, my activity page is a mess.

This is the post 5 of your celebrity crushes game.

The thing with me getting a crush is that one moment it is there, another moment it isn't. I jump from character to character and the actors/actresses playing those characters and it is a weird, awkward thing and just... Hahaha, consistency has never been my strongest suit.

Anyway, let's do this!

Indrajeet Bose (ahem - if I am hyper fixating on a show, I definitely have a crush on one of the leads) AKA Dhruba from Dhrubatara, although I did have a pretty strong crush on him during Goyenda Ginni. That handsome face, that baritone and wonderful acting. [On that note, someone cast him as the humorous side character (maybe as the Jamaibabu of one of the lead characters?). As much as I love seeing him as a romantic lead, he SHINES during comic scenes, I would love to see him do comic stuff in the background (and dress him in pajama-panjabi, yes yes)].

As a side-note, some years back, I had a small-ish crush on the actress playing Ranja, and now it has come back in full force. I love her sharp features, and of course, I like her acting (I would never like an actor/actress if they can't act, that doesn't happen with me). I also have a small-ish crush on the actress playing Deepti because WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT RADIANT SMILE, but it's just that, a small-ish crush. And I am trying really hard to come up with five semi-consistent crushes.

Sriparna Roy (+ Gaurav Mondal, both from the same show, but I generally don't like him that much out of the look he had for the show. Shaon has a huge crush on Lord Shiva). Sriparna though, I found her really cute in Aaj ari kaal bhab (do not hold me on the spelling, I am 80% sure I wrote it wrong), and of course, seeing her in Om Namah Shivaya simply made my crush grow.

Nitish Bhardwaj and Feroz (? I hope I spelt it right, I read an interview where he was upset about the confusion with Firoz Khan) Khan, both from the BRC Mahabharata. Parth and his Keshav. Even after all these years, my crush has stayed intact (although I do not keep up with their recent projects, but that's just me).

Vicky Kaushal. Love his face, that cute smile, and from what little I have seen of him, I love his acting and his voice (rarely do I get crushes where both of the things are present, but almost all of the people on this list, except Sriparna, who definitely has a cute voice, but it's not crush-worthy, tick both the boxes).

^ Is that five already? Amazing. Let's add some more because I like writing long posts.

Anne Hathaway. Natalie Portman. Keira Knightley.

Three lovely actresses. With amazing voices! And gorgeous hair, especially Anne Hathaway.

Jenifer Winget. Aditi Gupta.

Jenifer for her gorgeous face, hair, and voice. Aditi for everything except her voice. I love her in grey roles, because let's face it, our female leads are too quiet and too forgiving for my tastes.

Gaurav Chopra for his voice, I am really not that fond of his face (it is okay-ish, but I don't have a crush on him because of how he looks). His voice though. And of course, his voice modulation skills.

Harshad Chopda, but definitely not because of his voice. He is a good actor, a handsome man, I even have a crush on him, and it's not totally gone... But nah, not a fan of that voice.

And now, for the tagging bit... @jalebi-weds-bluetooth @ratnas-musings @padmaaavati and whoever else would like to do this. I don't know who likes these and who doesn't, so if you want to do this? Do this!

[atgrainnn]

Sometimes when you remember she is even more intellectual that she is gorgeous, you can’t help but see her as extraordinary, especially when she masters to intertwine beauty with brains, she becomes unstoppable, not even by herself.—————————————- #muse #poetry #blackwriters #writersofinstagram #poems #poemoftheday #poetryporn #poetrycommunity #poetryislife #poetryofinstagram #poetrylovers #poetrysociety #poem #blackpoetry #blackpoet #blackwoman #blackcreatives #blackwriters #blckroyalty #connecticut #redvelvet #blackmuse #fortheculture #share #followｍe #shortpoem #clickthebluelinkinmybio (at Windsor, Connecticut) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrC-EUjFUXJ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=152tvpdswe635

[onceuponamirror]

it was actually 1000% my intent to update brc first, but my muse took an abrupt turn and i ended up...actually...finishing the main draft of the next chapter of sh tonight? idk??? won’t be up till tomorrow, it needs to go through beta and i’m not fully satisfied with some of the wording so i’ll be doing editing, but...idk, update coming shortly. i apologize for doing this out of order, poor stillscape has been so patient with me, a terrible writing partner. 

[vincentbuckles]

Weekend reading: New year, old habits

What caught my eye this week.

The New Year is the day we all start behaving better – whether it be quitting smoking, eating more vegetables, jogging, or simply resolving to stop putting your dog’s waste in a plastic bag and then flinging it up into a nearby tree to hang like a toxic fruit bat. (Okay, perhaps nobody resolves to stop doing that. They should!)

Do we keep behaving better? Rarely.

I sometimes make New Year’s Resolutions and they seldom work. I’ve been resolving to read more books for as long as I remember. But whatever method I try, the instant delights of the Internet have soon sucked me back under and I’m lucky if I’ve finished a novel by February.

I read a book a day in university!

In another universe, I’m incredibly well-read now. In this one, well, at least you guys benefit via this weekly link list.

Ready, steady, gain

Perhaps one reason I do badly with New Year’s Resolutions is because I invariably start the year off on a naughty foot.

No, I don’t smoke cigars whilst quaffing champagne from the bottle. That’s all out my system by Boxing Day.

However I do lovingly re-set various aspects of my active portfolio tracking spreadsheet back to zero. By doing this, I start the year with a clean slate and a fresh chance to beat the market by December 31st.

This is only half bad. As part of my ongoing active investing experiments, I track my returns precisely. My portfolio is unitized – there’s none of this “I assume dividends cover expenses, and I guess I should count that bonus money I put into an ISA in April but it’s a faff” that you see in some online portfolio reviews.

No, I count every penny in and out like some miserly Noah. I track all my gains, losses, and costs, and I compare myself to four real-world benchmarks, over the short and long-term.

So far so reasonable.

Precisely tracking your returns can be a bad idea if you’re a passive investor. In fact I think most investors would be better off following a sensible passive strategy and not tracking their returns at all if the alternative is getting too obsessed and fiddling with their portfolios. It’ll probably only harm their results.

However if you’re an active investor, tracking is vital. Many private investors delude themselves about their performance, because they don’t know it. They see some winning shares in their broker accounts and think they’re not half-bad at picking stocks. They never work out where they’d be if they had just lobbed the lot into a global tracker fund.

Even if you’re actively investing for fun as much as profit, you need to know your returns. A dartboard without any numbers to score by is just a wall you throw darts at.

With that said, there’s very little to justify overly-focusing on returns over any particular single year. And there’s even less reason to do so from January to December. (At least for American investors that matches their tax year! April to April would make a little more sense in Britain.)

Of course you do need to know annual returns if you want to compare yourself to active funds; something that was very important to me for a while.

But even then it would be better to calculate the appropriate figures once a year, rather than watching as I do my performance versus my benchmarks with every passing day. Now a little ahead, now a little behind, now back in the lead again – it’s like one of those plastic horse racing games you used to find at seaside arcades.

Nevertheless I’ve resigned myself to this procedure for as long as I’m active investing. It’s part of my process now, however irrational. It may even be marginally beneficial that I reset the annual return column on each of my holdings (obviously I track the long-term loss/gain on purchase in another column) as a way to avoid any anchoring biases.

Human error

I know I shouldn’t watching things too closely; the knowledge is strong, but the flesh is weak.

As a result I’ve tried a lot of different ways to obfuscate my portfolio performance in the short-term, or on a quick view. I’ve experimented with everything from hiding the real pound values of holdings in my master spreadsheet to hiding the gains and losses, to creating ‘layers’ that blend the moving parts of the portfolio to try to stop me focusing on short-term winners or losers.

I’d write about all this, but I don’t want to encourage anyone. Perhaps when my passively pure co-blogger The Accumulator is back full-time I can indulge this side of things again.

For now: It’s a new year, and the game is afoot! Exciting. Yes I should change my habits… but then again I should probably read more books, too.

Happy new year and good luck with all your resolutions – except for that silly one to read fewer investing blog posts.

Pfft! A little of what you fancy does you good.

From Monevator

Nine underrated tools to help you achieve Financial Independence – Monevator

From the archive-ator: Estimating expected returns in your financial plan – Monevator

News

Note: Some links are Google search results – in PC/desktop view you can click to read the piece without being a paid subscriber. Try privacy/incognito mode to avoid cookies. Consider subscribing if you read them a lot!1

UK CEOs make more in first three days of 2019 than average worker’s salary – Guardian

House price growth weakest in six years due to Brexit fears… – ThisIsMoney

…though sales of £10m+ homes tripled after Referendum, on weak pound – Guardian

London divorce judges are curbing ‘meal ticket for life’ rulings [Search result] – FT

Bereaved partners are unnecessarily paying tax on inherited ISA savings – ThisIsMoney

Hedge funds’ hopes for 2018 dashed amid closures – Financial News

Reckless caution: 56% of savers say their risk appetite is low or zero – Money Marketing

UK trains packed to near double capacity, disruption hits 17-year high – Guardian

Long-term US bonds beat the US stock market over past 20 years – Financial Samurai

Products and services

Millennials queue for hours for the new 26-30 Millennial Railcard – BBC

Why overpaying your mortgage is a better bet than saving in 2019 – ThisIsMoney

Ratesetter will pay you £100 [and me a cash bonus] if you invest £1,000 for a year – Ratesetter

Annual household bills rise on average £150 after a year of hikes – ThisIsMoney

The cost of childcare across the UK – ThisIsMoney

Homes for New Year’s renovation projections: In pictures – Guardian

Comment and opinion

Larry Swedroe: There are no safety flags in investing – ETF.com

Forgotten bear markets – A Wealth of Common Sense

10 valuable personal finance lessons learned in 2018 – The Simple Dollar

Sequence of returns revisited, and other uncertainties – The Retirement Cafe

Merryn S-W: The best financial advice hasn’t changed in 300 years [Search result] – FT

Wunderwaffen: Part II – Demonetized (via Abnormal Returns)

Rich People’s Problems: How to fly first class for free [Sort of. Search result] – FT

A reminder that equities are risky [US markets but relevant] – Musings on Markets

Dividend income portfolio reviews – Fire V London & Retirement Investing Today

For stock pickers: There’s still a case for owning quality tech shares – GMO

Brexit

Prices rising at fastest rate in six years; BRC warns of worse if no-deal Brexit – Reuters

Kindle book bargains

Creativity, Inc. [Must read!] by Ed Catmull – £1.99 on Kindle

Barbarians at the Gate by Brian Burrough and John Helyar – £1.99 on Kindle

Start Now, Get Perfect Later by Rob Moore – £0.99 on Kindle

Turning the Tide on Plastic by Lucy Siegle – £0.99 on Kindle

Off our beat

How not to be stupid – Farnham Street

Chinese censors are first taught the truth so they know what to ban – New York Times

“I met my boyfriend 12 years after giving birth to his child” – BBC

How to develop better habits in 2019 – Ryan Holiday

Five books that explain why it seems the world is so fucked – Mark Manson

And finally…

“He gave a talk in which he argued that the way they measured risk was completely idiotic. They measured risk by volatility: how much a stock or bond happened to have jumped around in the past few years. Real risk was not volatility; real risk was stupid investment decisions.” – Michael Lewis, The Big Short

Like these links? Subscribe to get them every Friday!

Note some articles can only be accessed through the search results if you’re using PC/desktop view (from mobile/tablet view they bring up the firewall/subscription page). To circumvent, switch your mobile browser to use the desktop view. On Chrome for Android: press the menu button followed by “Request Desktop Site”.

Weekend reading: New year, old habits published first on https://justinbetreviews.weebly.com/

[rvtilant-blog]

brianna reynolds’ tag dump !!

[desircbles]

Brianna Reynold’s Tag Dump!

[secondarythings]

@dragonmarquise pointed out that kid Felix is present, in the very first dream sequence on the boat. Whoa, mind blown

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

I'm replaying BRC and just go to the point in the mall where the Oldhead unlocks the area behind his speakers. Although I don't recall the exact wording, he says that he doesn't like that Felix and then Cyber were wearing the mask and that some things should be left alone.

My theory?

At some point, Felix entered Old Amsterdam and found the sarcophagus with the mask.

And then took it and put it on his face.

The upper two pics are canonical, the third one is a character model in the game's files called Kid Felix. I'm guessing he was pretty young when he discovered Old Amsterdam.

An Oldhead even remarks that New Amsterdam doesn't look much like Amsterdam. But who remembers it? Felix in his first dream sequence.

Canal, typical buildings, pretty Amsterdam-y.

There's even a tree in Old Amsterdam.

That's where Felix got his mask from.

And maybe something else?

The jetboost just looks freaky to me.

To sum up: little Felix (probably) fell and found himself in Old Amsterdam, upon which he desecrated a coffin and then wore the spoils of the crime on his face.

It's probably cursed and now DJ is cursed too.*

*that part is purely speculative. Although...

Felix wore it in the place of a jet boost and was famous for not needing one. Huh... (okay, this one really is just speculation)

[jostenneil]

thinking comic thoughts