#but also like it would be unrealistic to pretend no religious people

[andthatisnotfake]

Started to rewatch episode 2 of this season of Young Royals and absolutely forgot I was going to comment on it here lol

So you get comments from the half point on

When August is in that room where he finds the phone, there are tons of games behind him. Maybe the kids would be less bored if they played one? Also, on that note, we've seen them playing chess and cards before, this isn't so different.

Very impressive that August remembers Sara's number by heart. I only know mine and my mom's.

Nils and Vincent "grading" the new headmistress is peak straight boy behaviour, which is even funnier as Nils is not.

August's audacity of talking to Simon. Baby boy, you shouldn't even be attending the same school as him. Also, I see the peek of purple in August's collar...

I wish we'd actually seen more of the mediation between Wille and August, because it clearly achieved nothing lol. Wille should have continued regular therapy instead. Better yet, couples therapy with Simon.

Wille's drawings are so cute.

The religious pamphlet written in Comic Sans was very accurate.

Simon is braver than the Marines recording that video straight to Instagram, no edits, no filter...

The book on Wille's shelf being entitled "freedom" was a bit too on the nose, but I appreciate it. (Apparently it's a great novel and now I wanna read it.)

Wille having only one picture with Simon on his wall is unrealistic, he should have at least 3 with both of them and another 10 of only Simon.

Fredrika says that people should have complained while they were studying, not after, but the issue is that they may have been scared to do so. And, more importantly, I think a lot of times, especially when you're a teenager, people fail to realize that the system they're under and the things that happen to them aren't normal or expected. It's quite common for victims of abuse to only realize that they'd been abused a long time later, and often when other people speak up or tell them that they weren't supposed to have gone through that. Maybe it's a bad comparison, but it reminds me of people who were beaten up by their parents when they were kids and grow up to do the same with their own kids and keep making excuses for that behavior and defending it. And then, occasionally, they're able to realize, usually through the help of others, that that isn't the norm and they can stop it. It's when you tell people "I'm sorry that happened to you and it shouldn't have" and watch them realize that it was actually fucked up and their feelings of anger and sadness and betrayal over it were valid. Ok, enough of this nos, but yeah... I really liked that line.

I love that Felice mentioned being the only one told to put her hair up, because I noticed that in S2 and I know this show doesn't do this sort of thing for no reason, but I really liked that she referenced back to it.

Stella's line is another one that I really like. Felice is talking about veiled racism and she completely misses the point and says Felice is pretty. She's trying to reassure her, and it's sweet, but she fails to actually hear Felice and emphatize with she situation. I think the third year boys are very clear examples of blatant prejudice (homophobia, mysoginy, elitism and, though not as blatant, racism), while this girls portray veiled forms of prejudice, which can appear non-consequential, but can be equally harmful, especially when you don't know whether or not to point it out, or you do and people act like they're offended that you feel offended, because omg, don't you know that it wasn't the intention at all? So a lot of times you just pretend you didn't hear it, which ends up being quite grating.

I'm curious if Nikita actually got her hands tangled in those lights or if she was just that good of an actress. 🤣

Wille picking Simon up remains the cutest thing ever.

The poor gym teacher is so done with these kids. 😅

These rich kids choosing to take lights and speakers to the woods instead of, you know, actually helpful and important equipment, is so funny to me.

Someone else said, and I agree, why on earth aren't Simon and Wille sitting together around the fire?!

I don't know what's best, Rosh's look when she notices Stella looking at her, Ayub whispering something to her, her face when she goes over to dance with Stella, or the face Fredrika makes when she sees them.

The girls peeing together, I... get it, but also, I could never. I'm just gonna go behind this tree, ignore me.

Them being surprised that Rosh and Ayub had never been to the US is super realistic, actually. Rich kids are very out of touch with reality.

Wille saying he was also getting a summer job, baby girl was trying so hard to relate to them, and also I guess to include them, but yikes. The second-hand embarrassment was real in this scene.

The whole altercation around the possibility of someone taking pictures of Wille and it being what sends everyone away was so heartbreaking. He can't win, even if he does nothing.

I understand where Simon is coming from, but he missed the point Wille was trying to make when he said he didn't have a choice in going to "prince school". Sure, he does get anything he want, but he also had a lot of duties and a lot of pressure on him.

The shushing though. I was gagged. The audacity! I would have left to sleep in the hammock if I were Simon. I get that that's how he's always been treated, but oof.

Insomniac Early bird Wille confirmed, he was up even before the teacher.

[keen2meecha]

Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday! How much does religion(s) play into the worldbuilding of your WIP(s)?

Happy WBW to you too!!!

Okay, so gifted is a slightly alternate version of our world, so all of the religions exist, blah blah blah - however! Thanks to the presence of Gifts, there are some significant but minor things to be noted.

One! Now, keeping in mind that this is heavily subject to change, last I thought about this, Gifts really rose to prominence maybe shortly before Jesus’ time? They weren’t quite always a part of humanity, but they’re also definitely nothing new. And I say around Jesus’ time because Christians/Catholics/etc. claim that Gifts were a gift from God (see what I did there?) as a sign of, like, His forgiveness or something (I’m not remotely religious so, you know, take this with a grain of salt). This is not necessarily a widely held belief among everyone - not even among all Christians/Catholics/etc. - but it’s also not only believed by a select few.

This has some… unfortunate implications for Ungifteds, especially in Christian-centric areas like America. If one of the major religions in your area insists that Gifts are from God, and you don’t have a Gift, then what does that say about you? There is a not-insignificant population of people that believe that Ungifteds were abandoned by God, so society should shun them as well. We don’t see a lot of this in the books! Even if those kinds of people did aim to go to Falks and become Heroes, once the rumors started that Falks accepted an Ungifted student, they would almost definitely change their minds and go somewhere else. However, this is something that has affected Sofia - she’s agnostic, but that doesn’t mean she’s never been exposed to it - so we see it sometimes. When they go to the mall in the first book, some comments on social media after the rumors are confirmed by Falks administration, and of course there are some sneers when they go to the networking festival (that… really needs a better actual name. Oh geez). But luckily for Sofia, she’s got all of her friends and all of her teachers backing her up and defending her, so a lot of that burden is eased. Eventually.

(Also religion plays a minor role in that three of Sofia’s classmates are Jewish and one is Muslim (along with at least two other recurring characters). This isn’t necessarily central to Sofia’s journey, but it does hold significance in those characters’ personal journeys)

[actualsunflower]

I didn't meant to be rude, but why is he fat? I mean, u have to bue quite Active to survive in the commonwealth, also he is kinda like a plant right? Photosyntesis n shit shouldnt make u fat i guess

How're you gonna say "normal not fat" to a fat person, about their oc that is based off them, and then say you didn't mean to be rude.... That is a very rude thing to say...

But back then, I was just learning how to draw, and didn't know how to draw fat bodies yet and to be honest, I wasn't putting much effort into learning. Now I do know, and now I do put effort into it. And if you've been around long enough to know what my very first drawings looked like then you should know how much my art has improved since then. At the time as well, I was just newly using art to ease and explore my dysphoria, and having him look more like what people expected men to look like felt ok. But just giving up and drawing him how he really looks and how I look has made me feel so much better about both myself and who I am as a man, and that it's perfectly okay (and sexy 😳) to be fat. And, it vastly improved my art skill.

There's a couple other reasons why he looks different in old art, 1 being that he's younger in those pictures and that's why his vitiligo is different too. I draw him at different ages depending on his age in relation to my fic which I don't plan on ever sharing any more of because of asks like this :) close friends are the only people I talk about this stuff with anymore bcs they aren't fatphobes, homophobes, or ableists

2nd, I am very active person, I walk and bike every day like, religiously, and I'm still chunky! Activity level doesn't equal weight. I do these things every day with my roommate who is very thin, and eats waaayyyyy more than I do. And I'm still fat and they're not! And again, he is based off me, so he is fat. We are both muscular and fat which just makes you look even fatter. Look up strongmen if you don't know what I'm talking about. He's that, but softer because I like belly. He's an old man, he stopped being thin with more defined muscles as he aged, just like everyone else

3rd, photosynthesis works by turning sunlight into glucose, which is sugar. Jay doesn't need to eat, but he likes to anyway. No matter how much you walk around if you're still 'eating' all day (by being in the sunlight) and then eating food on top of that, you're not going to look like one of those fake super models. Bodies just don't work that way, you're gonna be chunky. Plus some people are just big even without extra fat. Plus the dude is old as hell and has one leg, like... He isn't charging around fist fighting raiders and pretending he's Mr. Save the 'wealth like the game wants you to be. He just loves walking around with Nick studying things and farming at home. His story isn't the game's story and the game is super unrealistic in itself, I really would not base your idea of what bodies should look and be like off of gameplay mechanics.

And about surviving in the Commonwealth, you really don't have to be that active. You can just be strong, resilient, smart and resourceful and survive just as well or better than other people. I don't know why you think fat people can't walk around or whatever but we have a perfectly fine time doing stuff... I garden, walk, exercise, hike, whatever just fine and I'm still fat and I am not the only one so I don't really know why you think fat people would just like... Die off or not exist or whatever you believe

But most importantly he's fat just because I want him to be and that's it. There doesn't need to be any other justification really.

[weil-weil-lautre]

By Jonathan Franzen September 8, 2019

“There is infinite hope,” Kafka tells us, “only not for us.” This is a fittingly mystical epigram from a writer whose characters strive for ostensibly reachable goals and, tragically or amusingly, never manage to get any closer to them. But it seems to me, in our rapidly darkening world, that the converse of Kafka’s quip is equally true: There is no hope, except for us.

I’m talking, of course, about climate change. The struggle to rein in global carbon emissions and keep the planet from melting down has the feel of Kafka’s fiction. The goal has been clear for thirty years, and despite earnest efforts we’ve made essentially no progress toward reaching it. Today, the scientific evidence verges on irrefutable. If you’re younger than sixty, you have a good chance of witnessing the radical destabilization of life on earth—massive crop failures, apocalyptic fires, imploding economies, epic flooding, hundreds of millions of refugees fleeing regions made uninhabitable by extreme heat or permanent drought. If you’re under thirty, you’re all but guaranteed to witness it.

If you care about the planet, and about the people and animals who live on it, there are two ways to think about this. You can keep on hoping that catastrophe is preventable, and feel ever more frustrated or enraged by the world’s inaction. Or you can accept that disaster is coming, and begin to rethink what it means to have hope.

Even at this late date, expressions of unrealistic hope continue to abound. Hardly a day seems to pass without my reading that it’s time to “roll up our sleeves” and “save the planet”; that the problem of climate change can be “solved” if we summon the collective will. Although this message was probably still true in 1988, when the science became fully clear, we’ve emitted as much atmospheric carbon in the past thirty years as we did in the previous two centuries of industrialization. The facts have changed, but somehow the message stays the same.

Psychologically, this denial makes sense. Despite the outrageous fact that I’ll soon be dead forever, I live in the present, not the future. Given a choice between an alarming abstraction (death) and the reassuring evidence of my senses (breakfast!), my mind prefers to focus on the latter. The planet, too, is still marvelously intact, still basically normal—seasons changing, another election year coming, new comedies on Netflix—and its impending collapse is even harder to wrap my mind around than death. Other kinds of apocalypse, whether religious or thermonuclear or asteroidal, at least have the binary neatness of dying: one moment the world is there, the next moment it’s gone forever. Climate apocalypse, by contrast, is messy. It will take the form of increasingly severe crises compounding chaotically until civilization begins to fray. Things will get very bad, but maybe not too soon, and maybe not for everyone. Maybe not for me.

Some of the denial, however, is more willful. The evil of the Republican Party’s position on climate science is well known, but denial is entrenched in progressive politics, too, or at least in its rhetoric. The Green New Deal, the blueprint for some of the most substantial proposals put forth on the issue, is still framed as our last chance to avert catastrophe and save the planet, by way of gargantuan renewable-energy projects. Many of the groups that support those proposals deploy the language of “stopping” climate change, or imply that there’s still time to prevent it. Unlike the political right, the left prides itself on listening to climate scientists, who do indeed allow that catastrophe is theoretically avertable. But not everyone seems to be listening carefully. The stress falls on the word theoretically.

Our atmosphere and oceans can absorb only so much heat before climate change, intensified by various feedback loops, spins completely out of control. Some scientists and policymakers fear that we’re in danger of passing this point of no return if the global mean temperature rises by more than two degrees Celsius (maybe more, but also maybe less). The I.P.C.C.—the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—tells us that, to limit the rise to less than two degrees, we not only need to reverse the trend of the past three decades. We need to approach zero net emissions, globally, in the next three decades.

This is, to say the least, a tall order. It also assumes that you trust the I.P.C.C.’s calculations. New research, described last month in Scientific American, demonstrates that climate scientists, far from exaggerating the threat of climate change, have underestimated its pace and severity. To project the rise in the global mean temperature, scientists rely on complicated atmospheric modelling. They take a host of variables and run them through supercomputers to generate, say, ten thousand different simulations for the coming century, in order to make a “best” prediction of the rise in temperature. When a scientist predicts a rise of two degrees Celsius, she’s merely naming a number about which she’s very confident: the rise will be at least two degrees. The rise might, in fact, be far higher.

As a non-scientist, I do my own kind of modelling. I run various future scenarios through my brain, apply the constraints of human psychology and political reality, take note of the relentless rise in global energy consumption (thus far, the carbon savings provided by renewable energy have been more than offset by consumer demand), and count the scenarios in which collective action averts catastrophe. The scenarios, which I draw from the prescriptions of policymakers and activists, share certain necessary conditions.

The first condition is that every one of the world’s major polluting countries institute draconian conservation measures, shut down much of its energy and transportation infrastructure, and completely retool its economy. According to a recent paper in Nature, the carbon emissions from existing global infrastructure, if operated through its normal lifetime, will exceed our entire emissions “allowance”—the further gigatons of carbon that can be released without crossing the threshold of catastrophe. (This estimate does not include the thousands of new energy and transportation projects already planned or under construction.) To stay within that allowance, a top-down intervention needs to happen not only in every country but throughout every country. Making New York City a green utopia will not avail if Texans keep pumping oil and driving pickup trucks.

The actions taken by these countries must also be the right ones. Vast sums of government money must be spent without wasting it and without lining the wrong pockets. Here it’s useful to recall the Kafkaesque joke of the European Union’s biofuel mandate, which served to accelerate the deforestation of Indonesia for palm-oil plantations, and the American subsidy of ethanol fuel, which turned out to benefit no one but corn farmers.

Finally, overwhelming numbers of human beings, including millions of government-hating Americans, need to accept high taxes and severe curtailment of their familiar life styles without revolting. They must accept the reality of climate change and have faith in the extreme measures taken to combat it. They can’t dismiss news they dislike as fake. They have to set aside nationalism and class and racial resentments. They have to make sacrifices for distant threatened nations and distant future generations. They have to be permanently terrified by hotter summers and more frequent natural disasters, rather than just getting used to them. Every day, instead of thinking about breakfast, they have to think about death.

Call me a pessimist or call me a humanist, but I don’t see human nature fundamentally changing anytime soon. I can run ten thousand scenarios through my model, and in not one of them do I see the two-degree target being met.

To judge from recent opinion polls, which show that a majority of Americans (many of them Republican) are pessimistic about the planet’s future, and from the success of a book like David Wallace-Wells’s harrowing “The Uninhabitable Earth,” which was released this year, I’m not alone in having reached this conclusion. But there continues to be a reluctance to broadcast it. Some climate activists argue that if we publicly admit that the problem can’t be solved, it will discourage people from taking any ameliorative action at all. This seems to me not only a patronizing calculation but an ineffectual one, given how little progress we have to show for it to date. The activists who make it remind me of the religious leaders who fear that, without the promise of eternal salvation, people won’t bother to behave well. In my experience, nonbelievers are no less loving of their neighbors than believers. And so I wonder what might happen if, instead of denying reality, we told ourselves the truth.

First of all, even if we can no longer hope to be saved from two degrees of warming, there’s still a strong practical and ethical case for reducing carbon emissions. In the long run, it probably makes no difference how badly we overshoot two degrees; once the point of no return is passed, the world will become self-transforming. In the shorter term, however, half measures are better than no measures. Halfway cutting our emissions would make the immediate effects of warming somewhat less severe, and it would somewhat postpone the point of no return. The most terrifying thing about climate change is the speed at which it’s advancing, the almost monthly shattering of temperature records. If collective action resulted in just one fewer devastating hurricane, just a few extra years of relative stability, it would be a goal worth pursuing.

[ohhophelie]

ORIGINS & FAMILY:

Name: Ophélie Evangeline Redgrave

Nickname: O, Fee

Birthday: 31 July 1992

Age: 28

Gender: Female.

Place of Birth: London, United Kingdom

Places Lived Since: London, United Kingdom; Saint-Malo, Ille-et-Vilaine, France

Current Residence: Kensington, London, United Kingdom

Nationality: British & French

Parents: Lambert & Sérephine Redgrave, née Callac

Grandparents: Harold Redgrave (grandfather, paternal, deceased)  Hélène de Broglie (grandmother, paternal, deceased) Aurélien Callac (grandfather, maternal) Ophélie Hervé (grandmother, maternal)

Aunts & Uncles: Charlotte, Georgina Redgrave (aunts, paternal) Anita Acton (aunt, paternal)

Number of Siblings: Three brothers; Sébastian Redgrave (38), Arnaud Redgrave (36), Gaël Redgrave (32)

Relationship With Family: Ophélie is closest to Gaël, her other two brothers see her mostly as the family fuck up although they all feel somewhat protective of her as the youngest. This was particularly meaningful during the wild years of her teens when an attention starved Ophélie might find herself in places or situations she was likely too young for, they were mostly all still at home and willing to come collect her from wherever and keep her secrets from their parents. Her father has always been distant, she sometimes fears he’d rather forget she existed. Her mother is overbearing and critical - after three boys she thought Ophélie was at long last the daughter who’d belong only to her, a little doll to shape as she wished. She was very wrong.

Happiest Memory: The freedom and acceptance she finally found in university, the Christmas and New Years she spent with Gaël in New York when spent a year at NYU.  

Childhood Trauma: oh boy - see this answer HERE

PHYSICAL:

Height: 5'4”

Weight: 110lbs.

Build: Slim - some might say too skinny

Hair Color: Blonde.

Usual Hair Style: loose curls, a careless, practiced ease. Sometimes she wears it up if she's bored enough, high ponytail when she runs

Eye Color: Blue.

Glasses? Contacts?: Neither.

Style of Dress/Typical Outfit(s): Expensive as fuck - if she had to choose a ‘style’ it would be classic. She isn’t conservative in the least bit, but she also isn’t one to go into more out there fashions - that is Gaël lane. She tends to favor dresses and skirts and more feminine looks. Ophélie caught in jeans is a very rare Ophélie. When she is home alone she is usually wearing a thin robe or some form of lingerie/pjs  

Typical Style of Shoes: Ophélie does not like to wear shoes. However, given that going barefoot is usually frowned upon in society, she can usually be found in heels that match whatever she may be wearing. If she is very close with someone she will take her shoes off the moment she enters their home, and at her own flat can always be found barefoot.

Jewellery? Tattoos? Piercings?: She has both of her earlobes pierced, as expected. At one point she had a cartilage piercing, but she long ago forgot to keep it open. Unbeknownst to her mother and most of her family, she has both of her nipples pierced. Ophélie will say to anyone who knows that these are her favorite piercings. She has a tattoo of a scorpion on the nape of her neck. Everyday jewellery includes a heavy men’s watch that belonged to her grandfather, whatever earrings she fancies on any given day, as well as rings. The one ring she wears at all times is made up of three interlocking circles - when she is anxious or focusing on something Ophélie spins this around her finger.

Scars: She has a scar on her shin from falling off a horse as a child. The most recent additions include a thin line across her chest/sternum and a nearly perfect large C in the center of her back - she plans on adjusting that soon.

Unique Mannerisms/Physical Habits: When she is focusing, Ophélie will twist her ring around her finger. She has the tendency to curl her hands into fists and dig her nails into her palms. She also chews on her bottom lip, which has caused a significant investment in longwear lipstick.

Athleticism: Ophélie grew up playing tennis with her brother Gaël and got into running in her teens. She never does any actual races mostly because she couldn’t be bothered and also way too many people near her. It’s mostly a way for her to focus her own mind/punish her body.

Health Problems/Illnesses: She absolutely has an eating disorder from the unrealistic expectations of her mother when she was growing up. It is something she has struggled with most of her life that her friends are likely unaware of. Ophélie also has undiagnosed ADHD, PTSD, addiction issues that are yet to be explored.

INTELLECT:

Level of Education: BSc in Politics and Philosophy from LSE - it wasn’t exactly what she wanted to study but a compromise that got her parents off her back. If possible she’d want to go back to school for linguistics or art history.

Languages Spoken: English & French natively, Spanish fluently. Functionally fluent in Italian, a lingering understanding of Latin from prep school. She has a very good ear for languages and dialects and can pick them up quickly.

Level of Self-Esteem: Fluctuates between “I hate myself I’m such a bitch” and “I love myself I’m such a bitch.” No in between.

Gifts/Talents: Very good at languages and remembering things she’s heard if she cares enough to focus, weirdly good at crossword puzzles if she has the patience, has the ability to come off as unthreatening and use it to manipulate people.

Mathematical?: Hell no, she absolutely cheated her way through math and she is not at all sorry about it.

Makes Decisions Based Mostly On Emotions, or On Logic?: Emotions, particularly whims. She does have a vindictive streak and while that is based on emotions she can adapt logic to her purposes is.

Life Philosophy: live fast die young bad girls do it well. No joking, she doesn’t really have one or doesn’t like to consider it, but if we had to define it, somewhere along the lines of ‘never let them see you cry’ IDK TBD

Religious Stance: Was raised Anglican, not really about it. Enjoys the art and melodrama of the catholic church.

Cautious or Daring?: Daring, boarding on reckless, she has the arrogant privilege of the very wealthy, that they are untouchable and almost immortal.

Most Sensitive About/Vulnerable To: Her mother, people trying to lessen her or force her to be something she is not, her eating disorder/body image

Optimist or Pessimist?: says she's an optimist, mostly because she doesn’t let herself project any other way; deep down is def a pessimist mostly out of self preservation and years of building up armor

Extrovert or Introvert?: Extrovert.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Current Relationship Status: fucking her way through the french bros/leadership

Sexual Orientation: bisexual in that she is attracted to all beautiful women and men who are older, dangerous, and low key damaged.

Past Relationships: Only real/serious relationship was with Charles Jameson (alexa play champagne problems by taylor swift)

Primary Reason For Being Broken Up With: being caught cheating whoops

Primary Reasons For Breaking Up With People: boredom, afraid of getting to close

Ever Cheated?: yep, and if not for the way he reacted she might actually feel guilty about it.

Been Cheated On: not that she knows of

Level of Sexual Experience: very high and no she will not be slutshamed thank you very much

Story of First Kiss: A boy she met while staying with her grandmother in France. She was 11 and kissed him on a dare.

Story of Loss of Virginity: She’d just turned 14 but told him she was older, it was mediocre at best but she loved the rush of power she felt when she turned him down the next time.

A Social Person?: Very - she literally wouldn’t be able to do her job so well if she wasn’t. Plus shes a slut for attention and once you cross the threshold between casual friends and very close friends - she’s loyal as fuck.

Most Comfortable Around: Paul for sure, although she feels safe and comfortable with most of the frenchies she knows well - Noa, Laurent, Guillaume, Delphine, Sofie - its Paul she goes to first, her ride or die bitch. Outside of the French she feels comfortable around Spencer, shockingly, and within the family it's only Gaël who she feels she can even be remotely herself around.

Oldest Friend: Camilla Berkeley, her brother Gaël. Most of the people she knew through grade school and her teens she grew bored of or dropped for Paul and the French.

How Does She Think Others Perceive Her?: Dancing right on the knife’s edge between hot and hot mess; a fuck up; shallow and vain. For those who know her well she often fears they think she might be stupid or reckless, not as devoted as she actually is.

How Do Others Actually Perceive Her?: Literally dancing right on the knife’s edge between hot and hot mess. Those closest to her often think she’s smarter than she herself does, hopefully they also value and recognize her deep loyalty. All should think she's a great time.

SECRETS:

Life Goals: To be happy and find something and someone that makes her happy.

Dreams: That she will stop letting the negligence and cruelty of her parents - mostly mother, hurt her. That she will matter to someone, be loved and wanted for exactly who she is and not who they think she should be or who she pretends to be.

Greatest Fears: Being abandoned by those she loves,  being hurt by those who should care for her, never being seen for who she is. Horses - she had a bad fall as a child and doesn’t trust them.

Most Ashamed Of: The walls she builds out of self preservation, lying to her brother when he only wants to help her.

Secret Hobbies: Puzzles - the more pieces and complex the better. It isn’t really that much of a secret because there is usually one in progress on the unused dining room table. Collecting first editions of her favorite books - it's a secret because she is usually too impatient to find a better deal or negotiate and will literally pay whatever the seller asks for it, usually above what it is worth.

Crimes Committed (Was she caught? Charged?): She has never been caught or charged, but possession with intent to distribute multiple illegal drugs, selling said drugs for organized crime. There was also that one time that she may or may not have led a man to his death, which although she has done her best to block this memory, would likely make her an accessory to murder.

DETAILS/QUIRKS:

Night Owl or Early Bird?: Both really,  but that's the insomnia and stimulant usage.

Light or Heavy Sleeper?: light sleeper when she’s alone, heavy if she’s sleeping with someone she trusts

Favorite Animal: penguins

Favorite Foods: strawberries, champagne,

Least Favorite Food: anything mint

Favorite Book: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Least Favorite Book: any of the myriad of self help books well meaning psychiatrists have suggested

Favorite Movie: Heathers, Jurassic Park  

Least Favorite Movie: emotional porn - aka any movie specifically designed to make you cry without any profound or complicated themes other than ‘life is short’

Favorite Song: Kyoto by Phoebe Bridgers

Favorite Sport: she’s a tennis bitch for sure

Coffee or Tea?: coffee although she does like tea

Crunchy or Smooth Peanut Butter?: Ophélie is allergic to peanuts rip  

Type of Car She Drives: lol no one let this bitch drive

Lefty or Righty?: Left

Favorite Color: the champagne sheer of the sun pushing through the curtains in an early morning, baby pink of her favorite peonies, rich red velvet of box seats at the opera, the soft golden grey of art museum marble floors.

Cusser?: Yep - but controls it around her family because she doesn't have the patience or stamina for the lecture/scandal it would cause her mother.

Smoker? Drinker? Drug User?: Never smokes, drinks pretty often, regular cocaine use since her teens, a more recent venture into pills.

Biggest Regret: Letting it go on so long with Charles, the fact that she still lets her mother’s cruelty hurt her, not going to school for what she actually was interested in.

Pets: two italian greyhounds named Pogo & Banana

[spoonssporksandknives]

ableism in media: Star Wars

I’m picking on my favest of fave fandoms today y’all: Star Wars. Yes, you actually can enjoy a Thing while acknowledging that said Thing has problematic elements. I LOVE Star Wars, but it’s incredibly guilty of having people who look disabled as their visual shorthand for evil. I’m going to use examples under the cut, but before I do, I’ll say this. It’s okay for ableds to reblog this (please do in fact) but only if you’re actually going to engage in respectful discourse. Racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, fatphobia and other related hot takes can jog on. 

Also also: Star Wars abbreviations and their main characters for the more casual fan: OT = Original Trilogy (Luke, Leia, Han); PT= Prequel Trilogy (Anakin, Padme, Obi-Wan); (Sequel Trilogy = Rey, Finn, Poe)

Now, back to our regularly scheduled light reading: ableism in Star Wars.

For our visually impaired readers, the top image shows Anakin Skywalker’s first prosthetic hand from AotC, with the caption, “A mechno hand replaces Anakin’s after he is maimed by Count Dooku. As a result of his impetuous passions, Anakin has begun to lose his humanity.”

The second image is of Anakin’s hand in RotS, with the caption, “Some Jedi Council members believe that when Anakin lost his right arm to Count Dooku, he lost some of his humanity.”

Because losing a limb makes you lose humanity, amirite guys? And they even did it twice: the top image is from the AOTC Visual Dictionary and the latter is from the ROTS Visual Dictionary. 

It’s in the sequels too, because nothing is more evil than being old AND disabled: (image of Snoke on his throne)

And I know that in a visual medium you need some sort of visual indicators of evil, but using disability as code for evil is all kinds of Not Okay. And let’s not forget that Vader was a huge walking symbol of that in the OT.

However, Star Wars has not limited itself to obviously disabled characters. There are no explicitly coded invisible illness characters (unless we’re counting Vader’s breathing but considering he walks around in a giant space iron lung i think we can say that even that is a visual disability) - there are characters who definitely display characteristics of invisible disabilities. And I’m going to start with the ST’s most overtly coded as mentally ill character. That’s right, it’s ya boi Kylo Ren!

(image: Kylo Ren walking shirtless, in high waisted pants)

(I was originally going to put in a gif of him having a meltdown and destroying a console but I couldn’t find one easily but him shirtless was easy peasy. Go figure.)

Kylo Ren has been a very divisive figure in the fandom - much like Anakin in the PT, and for similar reasons. Public opinion has softened much on the PT but at the time of its release people hated heavily on the things that were coded as mentally ill in Anakin as well - outbursts, whining (is it really whining if you’re worried about your mum dying??), tears, anything not reeking of machismo, basically. Now, there are parts of fandom that have gone out of their way to point out the ways in which Kylo displays tendencies that could be read as autistic/neurodivergent, borderline personality disorder (BPD), or even dissociative identity disorder (DID). Much of the hate that Kylo receives is quite ableist in nature. However, he’s not the only ST character to display mental illness and receive hate for it. 

Let’s talk about our reformed Stormtrooper and hero of the ST: Finn. One of the first major scenes involving Finn shows him having a panic attack on the field (and then later after his conversation with Phasma). Finn clearly has PTSD, or maybe C-PTSD - I’m a lay reader and not a psychologist here, on one hand, and on the other, I legit have PTSD and find Finn very relatable.

(image of Finn in his Stormtrooper armor, mask streaked with blood)

And one of the things that disturbs me most about fandom and its tendencies toward purity culture is the fact that many of us who have invisible - and in particular mental illnesses - do in fact enjoy seeing characters who are coded like us surviving, thriving, and yes, still being disabled. Finn has overcome a great deal to get to where he is in the story. Let Finn be happy. Hell, let’s let Kylo live and be happy too. (I know he’s the villain but can we not kill off the obviously abused character?) Dark Side characters often have some sort of trauma and again, it’s the conflation of evil and disability that disturbs me deeply.

And while I’m on the subject - can we talk about the inherent colorism involved in the Dark Side? Color coding evil as darkness continues to perpetuate colorism. I know it’s used because people are afraid of the dark, but in this day and age it’s naive to think that this bit has no psychological effect on the public at all. The choice of Finn as hero is wonderful and it disappoints me greatly that the hints of his Force sensitivity have not been followed up on as of yet. *has a small amount of hope that maybe JJ will do right by our Finn*

Now, there’s a lot that’s problematic about Star Wars’s Force philosophy, and I’m aware that I very much see this as a religious minority, but the Force takes a great deal from eastern religions and philosophies but then turns around and overlays it with some very US Christian light/dark and good/bad duality in a way that is nonsensical to anyone with a background and understanding of the original philosophies. I have an entire tag on my main blog about this, entitled Paganism and the Force. (For the curious, I made this blog because the main is mostly star wars gifs and baby animal videos. I didn’t want people to wade through it for serious stuff, but if that’s your thing have at it) I may cross post or add on to the series here as well. For now, I’m going to leave you with a quote from another writer, who has reached a similar conclusion:

“… it may be countered that the Sith are worse than the Jedi because they commit a number of obscene acts throughout the films, most prominently the use of the Death Star to destroy planets during the Galactic Civil War in Episode IV. Two points in response to this. First, it effectively amounts to a “what-abouttery” argument; an informal fallacy. The Jedi are moral degenerates regardless of what the Sith do or do not do.

Finally, it may be countered that the Jedi only use the light side of the force, and therefore are good, whereas the Sith only use the dark side of the force, and therefore are bad. This is an argument not of reality but of word connotations. Simply put, there is no logical reason to hold that “light” equates to goodness and “dark” equates to badness (emphasis mine). Crucially, both light and dark are equal sides of the Force; they have to exist, as is often said in the films, in a “balance.” Pretending that one side of the Force doesn’t exist isn’t going to make it go away (as much as the Jedi seem to wish this).”

--  Matthew Berto, 'Star Wars': The Sith are the Good Guys and the Jedi are the Bad Guys

War is messy, y’all. Atrocities are committed on both sides and while we might all like a clean cut narrative where the Rebels/Resistance do no wrong, it’s disingenuous and unrealistic to think that this is true. That’s not how war works. The prequels are proof enough that the Republic wasn’t perfect or glorious and considering the current political climate, I wish some people would break out the films again and watch them carefully. Palpatine took it over from within because it was already corrupt. If I lived in the GFFA I’d side eye anyone who wanted to make the Republic great again.

Now, though I have said it before, I’m going to say it again: you can enjoy a thing and still critique it without demonizing it. Love Star Wars all you want (I sure do, got my TRoS tickets for opening night the day they were made available), but maybe, just maybe if the public and the filmmakers could refrain from immediately conflating darkness and disability with evil, that would be great.

[blue-opossum]

An Intelligent Approach to Understanding Dreams, 1

        Saturday, 6 July 2019

        Reading time (optimized): 4 min.

        Most people of the world today have little or no genuine interest in dreams (often to the point of being dismissive to those who do) or any understanding of their processes. One of the reasons society holds this position may be because virtually everything published about dreams to date is a result of misconceptions, many that are so asinine as to embarrass me as a serious writer. Many people of reasonable intelligence likely realize this and do not devote any time in approaching the subject with honesty, at least publicly.

        People might view someone like me, in having studied dreams all my life, as holding certain beliefs that I do not. That is the main issue that divides me from other people who may or may not have an interest in the subject. My continuous experience of both liminal space and enigmatic space (that has not only never been problematic but has resulted in me finding and marrying my ideal partner and remaining in a state of happiness and satisfaction for over twenty years) has also released me from the conditional mindset of most people. My ability is likely a result of actively rewiring my brain to regain the use of my left hand as a toddler, including subliminally during REM sleep. I believe this is why I understand the causal factors of my dreams when I am not otherwise deliberately modulating their content, including non-lucidly. (As I have often stated before, lucid dreaming and dream control are unrelated despite the uninformed hype and common misuse of the term "lucid." Instinctual dreaming allows me to control my dreams, without my dream self realizing I am in the dream state, an ability which developed as a result of the virtuous circle effect.)

        People might expect me to consider an "interpretation" when I have neither interest nor belief in the notion as most approach it. I devote my thinking skills to a genuine understanding of the causes and effects of dreaming processes and developing clarity of mind by way of this knowledge, not the search for supposed cryptic messages or pretending I have a "subconscious mind." In the last few years, I have tried to avoid the use of the word "interpretation" because of what people mistakenly assume from my previous usage of it. Even my use of the word "meaning" gets muddied by people who think I "interpret" my dreams. There have been many times when, after explaining a dreaming process and its causal factors, people remark (typically not with animosity but with appreciation) on my "interpretation," and it reveals to me that people lack the discernment to understand. Even the word "cause" does not typically ignite comprehension. It denotes the virtual brainwashing of society by the myths of dream lore similar to people who succumb to religious cults. (That is ironic considering the nature of enigmatic space that society refuses to address without contempt.)

        That said, my devotion to unlocking the dream state has never waned since earliest memory. I feel it is crucial to add a final foundation to my online dream journal. I know that it is rare for someone to have reached my level of understanding, and I do not expect anyone to have that access. After all, I have personally studied and validated dream content for over fifty years. I do not expect anyone to have reached my level of comprehension. It would be unreasonable for me to believe this.

        From here, I will emphasize the nature of my dreaming history. I will start by addressing what I consider the biggest misconception about dreams, especially in the subliminal (non-lucid) mode. Do dreams allow viable access to my unconscious mind as many people claim? If so, why is every "memory" in error? I have never dreamt of the same setting more than once, even in tens of thousands of dreams. Dreams skew the layouts of settings, often combining them with other locations, sometimes with the wrong directional orientation (as via a sense of virtual compass direction, not by being aware of orientation other than subliminally). Recently, a poster on Twitter said it best when they wrote, "It could be that the dreaming mind doesn't have access to the pathways that the fully conscious mind does."

        That brings me to another self-evident truth. My dream self is not a viable model of my conscious self in the first place, and as with settings, its presence is always unrealistically skewed, so why do people make claims about the dream self's experiences as "indicating" anything? (It is vital to understand that I am not referring to liminal space or enigmatic space, the latter being unrelated to the dream state and the former only partially integrated with REM sleep.)

        The best example of dreams skewing access to my unconscious mind is that even in dreams where I recall my marriage with Zsuzsanna, we are often living in a location she has never been (though again, it is always erroneous in layout). There are different levels of recall with people who are deceased as well. For example, regarding dreams about Marilyn (a half-sister on my mother's side), I may recall that she had died or I may not, and my reaction is always different.

        The perception of being inside a building or being in an outdoor setting is often ambiguously simultaneously combined in dreams (though this is likely a result of synaptic gating, where there is a subliminal presence of awareness of being in bed with a supraliminal imagining of being outside).

        I do not believe that dreams are symbolic in the conventional sense. Given the way they skew recall, it is not a feasible concept. What I do know beyond any doubt is that dreams render autosymbolic events and features, as validated countless times via my expectation and anticipation. That means the processes (exclusive of liminal space and enigmatic space) mainly stem from the circumstance of being in a dream. Understanding dreams is vital for clarity of mind as well as maintaining a beneficial imagination.

[scuffeddeejays]

Scuffed Deejays Interview

For research for a film on rave culture

1. Can you remember your earliest encounter with rave music/culture?

I think it was in the early years of secondary school so for me around 1991/92. One of my friends got given some tapes from the Dreamscape and Fantazia raves by some of the other kids at school and lent me a DJ Dougal tape from Milwaukees and a Ratpack tape from the Fantazia Castle Donnington rave. I'd listen to these religiously every night in bed to help me get to sleep! Being too young to attend raves at this point I remember trying to imagine how the setup would be with the DJ and MC at an event. For some reason I thought the MC would be stood behind a podium with sheets of lyrics that they read out.

2. Can you describe what you like about the atmosphere at a rave?

I went to my first rave (Dreamscape 11 at The Sanctuary in Milton Keynes, July 1994) at the age of 16. I remember walking in and seeing all the decor, hearing the loud music, whistles and horns and thinking "wow". The best thing though is the sense of unity with the other people there no matter what background they are from. A shared love of music and dancing.

3. Do you have a favourite raving story/memory?

One of my favourite memories is a Helter Skelter rave at The Sanctuary around 1996 where they were also using the Rollers roller skating rink as a second arena in addition to The Sanctuary warehouse. There was a problem with maybe too many tickets having been sold so you had to queue up outside either venue to get in them throughout the whole night despite having already navigated the main queue to get into the whole event. My friend and I came up with a plan so that we wouldn't have to queue whereby I pretended to have an asthma attack and needed to get my inhaler from my sister who was inside. This worked not once but twice but on the second occasion my friend and I were both led to the first aid room where I had to lie down and continue the pretence for some time while my friend tried not to laugh. 

4. What’s your worst raving memory?

I don't really have a worst raving memory. There have been a few dodgy situations like one of my friends getting mugged or one of us not feeling too well but that is just part of the experience. A lot of the best clubs have edgy atmospheres and clientele but if you want to hear cutting edge music you have to be prepared to experience that. 

5. Have the police ever turned up at rave you attended?

I've been to a few illegal raves where the police have shown up but they are usually relatively cool and want to work out whatever situation it is they are attending for. Some of the bigger legal raves will have police in attendance but again they are usually alright and don't act in a heavy handed or unrealistic way from my experience.

6. What is the funniest thing that ever happened at a rave?

Probably the asthma attack story above or maybe when one of my friends did some strong ecstasy and had to be led around the club by us as he was too high! Walking through the chill out room at that event with him resulted in all the people in the chill out area cheering and clapping.

7. Is it about the music or the drugs?

Both. Ecstasy is so important because it makes people dance who wouldn't normally and also because it creates empathy. Once these things are learned though you tend to go to the clubs more for the music and less for the drugs I think.

8. Has the World got better or worse since the UK rave scene circa 1988/92?

You have to say better. Even though it might not appear so sometimes (mainly due to increased prevalence of our ability to see the wrongs of the world through new media imo).

9.What does rave culture mean to you?

Rave culture is more than a fad or hobby for me. It's a way of life. Having experienced the neutral free zone that is a rave and seen how most people are able to act in a much better way in that environment has led me to try and spread that to other areas of life. I've also spent the better part of my life studying, writing and blogging about rave culture (see my current blog: www.scuffeddeejays.tumblr.com).

10. How much of an impact do you think UK Rave Culture has had on the world?

It's had a massive impact. Look at the music charts and you'll see its influence everywhere to the point where it seems to have (along with rap) eaten guitar music alive!

11. How has raving impacted your life?

Rave has had a huge impact on my life. Many of my favourite nights out were at a rave. Many of my friends and memories are intertwined with it. I'm still writing and talking about it now at the age of 40.

12. Do you have any regrets?

None.

[forksofwisdom]

What do you think witches and mermaids would have been like in the Twiverse? Do you think SM should have included other species?

Despite being a very pragmatic person, I am obsessed with mythologies of any kind, and I loved this idea so much that I took the time to do some research! And BOY did it get out of hands!

Note that I’m not a professional and most of my knowledge comes from scouring the internet, which is fraught with misinformation and I barely scratch the surface for the sake of brevity. I do mention things from my own culture - Icelandic folklore to be exact - but I encourage you to tag onto this post if you have something to add or want to make a correction! :D

I think SM kept a very narrow scope because she never intended Twilight to be anything more than a teenage romance between Bella and Edward. I for one am happy that she didn’t branch out beyond vampires, wolf-shifters, and the Children of the Moon because she was already on thin ice with her appropriation of the Quileute Tribe’s creation story. 

I also think that including more too many species and characters would have overwhelmed SM. Her side characters have spotty backstories, and I have a feeling that she wrote most of their history as an afterthought. Why else would SM have only mentioned Esme’s past in the Official Guide and not included the crucial information that Esme met Carlisle while she was STILL human in the story? 

If I’m honest, I would have loved to see different ending for New Moon and have SM do more character development in Eclipse. Bella’s quick recovery from her crippling depression was unrealistic in my opinion and her desperation to spend the rest of eternity with the Cullens seemed so shallow considering the fact she knew next to nothing about them and their past.

That being said, I still have some headcanons now that you got me thinking about this. I’m fascinated with the idea that some myths and legends around the world were born from encounters with real supernatural beings. 

Shapeshifters

Based on SM’s idea about the Quileute spirit warriors, there should be more types of shifters in the Twiverse since the Quileutes weren’t the only ones who founded their belief on having descended from wolves. 

Therianthropy is the mythological ability of human beings changing into animals via shapeshifting. This concept has been around for centuries, dating back so far that there are cave paintings that depict the transformation of men into animals. (x)

One of the most popular types of shapeshifting seems to be changing into wolves, and subsequently, there are a LOT of werewolf myths or The Children of the Moon as SM refers to them. (I’ve already written an entire post dedicated to them so I won’t talk about them here.) 

I won’t go much farther into Origin Stories than I have above since it’ll take over the entire post. There are so fricking many different tales, especially about randy gods - seriously, it’s wild - that it’s difficult to decide what would lead to becoming a Shifter and what would be considered fables in the Twiverse.

For the sake of clarity, I have made a short list below which includes a few types of shapeshifters from different cultures that people may be familiar with:

· In Chinese Mythology, it is believed that all things are capable of acquiring human forms through shapeshifting. There are the Huli Jing, which is a nine-tailed fox spirit, from which the Japanese derived their Kitsune (any fellow Naruto fan here???) and the Korean Kumiho.

· Selkies are a favorite of mine (Please watch Song of the Sea - I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cried during that movie) since they sometimes feature in Icelandic myths. Selkies are primarily thought to be women who live in the sea as seals but shed their coats and turn into humans on land. They aren’t able to shapeshift without their coats. Most of the tales aren’t happy and are about men who steal the selkie’s coats and hide them to coerce the woman into marriage.

· Nāga from Indian religions are thought to sometimes shapeshift from snakes, most often King Cobras, into humans.

Witchcraft

Witchcraft is tied to many religions, but as an atheist, I only have a layman’s knowledge of the practices that are still in use today. I’m highly skeptical when it comes to spiritual healing in real life, and I’m not at all a fan of the cult cultures that frequently surround religion.

Here’s a brief history lesson: 

Witches were the women who served the goddesses in the earliest centuries of human civilization and were revered throughout their communities. In the ancient civilizations of the Middle East, priestesses trained in the sacred arts and partook in the holiest of rituals. They were seen as benevolent, and wise women who helped deliver babies, and saw to people’s health.

What’s interesting about them is that they are so clearly understood to be positive figures in their society. No king could be without their counsel, no army could recover from a defeat without their ritual activity, no baby could be born without their presence. (x)

The fear of witches stems from the deep-seated misogyny born from male-centric and monotheistic religions such as Christianity and Judaism. The panic spread to Europe and spiked to a level of hysteria with the outbreaks of plagues. (x) Witch-hunts, especially in Central Europe, resulted in the trial, torture, and execution of tens of thousands of victims. About three-quarters of whom were women. (x)

Witch-hunts still claim thousands of lives every year, especially in developing countries that have an inadequate education system. (x) I recommend watching this documentary if you’re interested in learning about a Tanzanian witch-hunt that happened in 2017.

Keeping this gruesom history in mind, I think there would be hidden communities of witches and warlocks in the Twiverse. I’m not here to dictate what sort of magic they would use - I’ll leave the world building up to the writers!

Here are just a couple of examples of witchcraft:

· Shamanism is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness to perceive and interact with a spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world. (x)(x)

· Druidism is a spiritual or religious movement that generally promotes harmony, connection, and reverence for the natural world. (x) You can learn more about modern Druidry here: (x)

· Wicca is contemporary witchcraft and is one of the fastest-growing religions in the Western world today. (x) Wicca spirituality is earth-based enlightenment. Note that not all Witches are Wiccans. (x) I’m not a practitioner myself, but I quite like the idea of being more in tune with yourself and nature. You can take a test here if you’re curious to see whether Wicca would work for you.

In Iceland, we had what we called Völva (seiðkonur or seiðkarl, depending on the gender) who were seers. Most of their practices were based on herbalism and the use of runes. 

For those of you who are curious about Norse Mythology which hasn’t been altered by the likes of Marvel and Hollywood, I recommend reading Völuspá, which literally translates to Prophecy of Völva. It’s the fundamental source for the study of Norse Mythology because it tells the story of the creation of the world to Ragnarök (end of the world). You’ll also have the chance to learn some freaky shit about Loki - like that time he gave birth to a eight-legged horse - and see that he wasn’t really that much of a dick compared to the other gods *cough* Óðinn *cough* - also Þór once gatecrashed a wedding by dressing up as the bride. 

Mermaids

· Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks, and drownings. In other folk traditions, they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans.

The Little Mermaid (the H.C Andersen version) happened in the Twiverse and that is a fact!

· Sirens! (You thought I could go through an entire post without mentioning Greek Mythology??? Think again!) They were beautiful but dangerous creatures that lured the sailors with their beautiful voices to their doom, causing the ships to crash on the reefs near their island.(x) This connection to the sea is why many confuse them with mermaids when instead they were believed to be a combination of women and birds.(x)

I can totally see them chilling on Greek islands singing their songs and luring horny sailors to their demise.

Miscellaneous

· Huldufólk (hidden people) played a crucial part in Icelandic folklore. They were the spirits of the land and shouldn’t be confused with fairies. Huldufólk wore normal Icelandic clothing and used the power of words to cast spells on people - either blessing or a curse, depending on how they judge the person’s behavior. They lived inside the stones. To prevent any naughty behavior, it’s said that Huldufólk would kidnap infants and replace them with wizened old elves that pretended to be normal children. They would behave like wild brats, kicking and screaming, and nothing but a good beating could bring back the human child.

These oral tales were used to prevent many children from wandering away from human habitations and instilled fear and respect for the harsh powers of nature. (x)(x)

Contrary to popular belief, Icelanders don’t actually believe in the existence of elves, or anything tbh, we just like to mess with foreigners. So if you’re a tourist then “YES, I am a believer in elves. HoW DarE yOU qUeSTioN my FAith! You dare sit on our precious boulders? Tainting the sacred houses of our elves by touching them with your filthy behind!”

· Tröllskessur (mountain trolls) are usually female, hence skessur. Trolls turn into stone if the sunlight hits them and their tales were used to explain the natural phenomena in Icelandic nature, f.ex. a stone caught between two pillars or the outlines of a face on the side of mountains. (x)

Tröllskessur are extinct in my headcanon but I just think it’s nifty if these stories were true in the Twiverse. 

· DRAGONS! 

Don’t fight me on this!! I have no idea how they would be kept hidden in the Twiverse but they’re out there!

· Spirits (as in the soul) and Yōkai

I’ve watched Spirited Away too many times to leave them out of the Twiverse. They’re probably out there chilling somewhere in a Supernatural Spa Resort…

This was a fun question to answer, anon! Thank you for sticking with me to the end of this post! The sleep deprivation got to me in the end… ಥ∀ಥ

[bleenks]

Yeah, I also hate JK Rowling. And I feel terrible for the trans fans, for whom harry potter resonated as a world they could escape to during their childhood, only for the author to come out years later and say “actually I think trans people are invalid.” 

But that doesn’t mean those same trans people - or anyone else for that matter - have to stop writing fanfiction. If anything, they have the right to create fanfiction where literally every character is trans. Because harry potter is still their world. It will always be their world. Rowling does not have the power to undo everyone’s childhood and retroactively make harry potter something that trans people are not allowed to consume or enjoy.

And you are the second person to have literally no idea what I meant with my religious comparison. YOU are advocating for purity culture - for people to give up their own hobbies and pleasures - in order for them to be “good enough” for you. The only other context where I’ve seen people do that is in religious households, where we had to ask ourselves, “is it okay to like X or Y thing, or is it religiously subversive in some way? Would god want me to enjoy X or Y thing?” 

You can pretend that you are asking people to be “more pure” because it will have a measurable impact on the real world. But it won’t. JK Rowling is already rich and influential. The idea that everyone can just boycott harry potter until she withers up and dies from lack of income is completely unrealistic. You are not trying to accomplish a goal. You are simply telling people that it is inherently wrong to “support” someone by having anything at all to do with their work. 

People can write fanfiction. People can torrent the new harry potter show. People can continue to enjoy the series, separate from the author’s dumbass politics. Giving up something you love is not “basic goddamn decency.” And labeling the entire book series as transphobic to even engage with, is not somehow more effective than pointing out the obvious fact that Rowling is a TERF. 

But I question whether you even give a shit about being effective, or if this is just a game for you, to see who can rack up the most purity points by performatively disavowing your own hobbies and pretending that’s making a difference in other people’s lives. 

stop prioritizing your nostalgia over the actual harm jkr has done

[ramdomddadds]

Dream daddy ask: dino-nerd dadsona

He was a nerd wasn’t he?

So, um... holly motherfucking cow, I just remembered how much I love acurate, updated dinosaur stuff, and how it could fit the dream daddy fandom?

so, yeah.

I know I’m such a nerd and I’m so late to the fandom but I had fun writing this and here it is

-ROBERT

He notices how fast you get to withling, and how you always make some animal.

He also notices how interested you are in anything supernatural, But always fiting the science factor in there. Like how it could be that jakelopes exist, and they could crosbreed with hares but not bunnyes becouse they are too diferent or how the yeti could be a distant relative of the orangutan...

Or how you are pasionated about movie making too, but prefer realistic stuff, but he says nothing, because he likes silence.

Then, one day, he comes over for movie and pizza, and he finds it: notebooks.

Notebooks all over the house.

There are three different notebooks on the stack of the tea table. One, opened, on the big table at the dinner room. Another one somewere on the kitchen, and many, intersected with books, on the shelves across the house.

With the excuse that it was open and in the same room, he takes the one in the big table, and flips over it.

Its filled with drawings, sketches, notes and doodles of people, planst and animals.

There’s him, and betsy, so thats… there. Theres a lot of Amanda… and many, many animals.

It calls his atention that many of the drawings fit conversations they had.

MC hadn’t hear speak of the dover ghost before he met Robert, but here they were: pages and pages of sketches and different designs of how the dover ghost may look like.

Some of them were more animal-like, others where very human, and other were made of shadow, the mark of the pencil, smugled with the author’s fingers to make it look like smoke. A chill climbed up Robert’s spine when he came across a particular drawing that did look just the way he remembered it, dragging something behind.

There were steps behind him.

“…Robert?”

Ups. MC was back in the room, and he had his nose deep within the sketchbook. Robert concentrated in another drawing, one that was very common, and odd.

Robert lifted his gaze.

“…dinosausr, with feathers?”

“Oh fuck, Robert! Uh…”

Robert held his gaze, smirking

“Yes. Yes, ok? Dinosaurs with feathers. I can explain it”

Robert closed the notebook, but held it as he crosed his legs, leaning in the table

“Im listening”

And he kept listening as MC went on and on, telling him how come dinosaurs actually had feathers, and the remains of them that could still be found in birds, and so many little fascinating facts, with such passion, similar to when Robert himself told intrinsek made up stories.

He smiled. This could be so much fun

-DAMIEN

He was delighted, with MC’s appreciation of his abode. He even said he felt sorry for the dead butterflyes, but still appreciated the beauty of his colection, and the work that went into it.

As soon as they were sitting at the couch, he had asked for the skulls placed across the room.

They walked over to them and talked about fosils. MC tried to guess the species and origin of the bones, and if he did not get the exact thing, he could deduce a lot from looking at them.He took a bit longer to mention the feathers issue. It was nice to have interests in common with Damien and he didn’t want to ruin it with the stupid argument of the feathers.

Of course the day came. They went to the movies, and Damien turned out to be very scared! MC held his hand and rambled on and on of how unrealistic they were, and why some choices were made, and later on the conversation developed into a very popular, clasic movie:

Jurassic park.

“Most raptor species were smaller but there was one or two species the size of the ones in the movie, in wich they were inspired… but they had feathers, all of them, including the T-rex”

“Wait, what?”

“Ups. Uh… see…”

And it was down hill from there.

-CRAIG

When MC got to the BQ and saw Craig waving from across the yard, he recogniced an SOS call. His buddy needed him.

“Dude, I have no idea what is going on”

MC listened quietly for a moment and then leaned onto Craig and wispered to him

“Moustachasaurus is asking a simple question. Rastasaurodon misinterprets it and makes stuff way more complicated thatn it is. Both monsters engage in an eternal loop of bloodshed, a battle of giants. Is the dress blue or yellow? Are best cats or dogs? Pineapple or pineappleless?”

Craig gigles and covers his mouth, wile looking at the two men arguing in front of him.

Hugo tells Mat why he thinks you can not compare two pictures from different moments in history, but when Mat repeats the question, down they go again.

 “Moustachasaurus displays his extense knolege of taking pics throu the ages and Rastasaurodon tries to scape, but Moustachasaurus attacks from behind and they engage in tragic battle again. It must be mating season or something”

 Craig breaks into laughter, distracting the two men with glasses, and pretends he was having an innocent conversation with MC

“Do you remember how into dinosaurs we were?”

 Oh no

He’s got a funny, smug look. Its a trap! ABORT! ABORT!

 “eh… were?”

“Bro”

“Bro”

“Broooo what do you think the tyranosaurus rex did with those tiny arms?”

“Don’t do it bro. I found out. You won’t like it”

“I need to know bro”

“noo”

“Tell me, MC Tell me…”

 Craig held him by the shirt and roughly wispered in his ear

“What were those tiny claws for?”

“Mhhh huu aaaah FEATHERS”

 Craig stepped back, shock written all over his face

 “Bro… not you too”

“Im sorry Craig. It is true”

“No… its impossible. It can not be!”

“The t-rex had feathers. He probabbly had fluffy and colofull arms for display, when fighting for terrytory… and mating”

“Nooooo!”

“I would never lie to you, bro. It is true”

“…the velociraptor too?”

“…specially the velociraptor”

 -JOSEPH

MC tried not to talk about it in front of Joseph. He just didn’t know how he would take it, being religious and all. Until…

Joseph has a yatch. OMG. He has a yacht.

Before they got off the shore, MC was already creeping him out.

 “I just love the sea. It holds so many misteries… do you have interest in all of the marine life? Why would you own a boat if not?”

“hehe, I just enjoy the fantasy of sailing aways into the sunset… just the sea and I”

“But its not just the sea and you. There’s the giant squid. You knew that? its real. They are out there”

“Shh, don’t be afraid. I will protect you”

“No, Im not afraid, Im fascinated! There’s so much we don’t know about the sea, I mean, it is the origin of all life…!”

 And then, an akward silence

…he was nervous, ok?

 “uh… I mean, after God put it there, of course”

“…right”

“…sorry. There’s not a door we can close and open again this time”

 Joseph laughts, maybe to make it a bit less akward

“Actually, speaking of marine life, we may see whales”

“Whales!”

“And dolphins”

“Oh my god, really? Do you see them ofthen?”

“Yeah. You are interested on them? you know they can be cruel right? They drown theyr babys for fun…”

“Oh no, they don’t. Dolphins are some of the most inteligent and social creatures out there. If they ever do that is as a punishent to a misbehabing child, or to teach them to survive when they have trouble. Of course they can go mad or try murder too but it is…”

 Joseph was staring at him in disbelief

 “…rare. …uh. …yeah”

“Wow”

“hmh. Did you know dinosaurs had feathers? Why do you think they died?”

“…what?”

 -MAT

Mat is such a dork. And he babbles. Its adorable! I guess I feel less self-concious near someone who’s also self-concious.

…ok.

He starts talking about music. I don’t know much about music, but it is nice and sweet and Mat knows lots of stuff and it brings memories from a while back, so it is easy to listen and just roll with it.

Speaking of wich.

Retro music reminds me of retro stuff.

And that reminds me of Dinosaurs, and how awful and fake they looked back then.

 “What you talking about, man, dinosaurs are cool. …I think”

“Yeah, but, compare the ones in black and white movies with Jurassic park”

“Oh, yeah. Thats the stuff”

“Ok, now let me tell you: jurassic park is now outdated too. Dinosaurs did not look like that”

“what!?”

 Mat lays down and listens in awe to me babling abut the found proof that dinosaurs had feathers, and not only that, but also also spikes and colorfull crests and shiny scales, and the misterious noises they may had made. Even the spinoaurus from the third movie, turns out it didn’t walk on two feet. I start realising Im babling a bit too much, but he just looks at me with his sweet, big brown eyes and smiles

 “maaaan. I feel so old”

“well, look at the bright side. Not as old as those fossiles”

 -HUGO

Going to the acuarium with Hugo was an exciting adventure. And I got to awe a bunch of kids with my extense trivia about penguins, while he got some kid out of the penguin enclosure. How did she get in there? oh well.

 Trivia nights were also fun. Hugo and I make a good team and there’s lots of cheese!

It was the dawn of a new era. It really started the time the quizz master got some wrestling trivia wrong, and Hugo went head over hills for it.

I went for all the natural history and nature ones.

Thats what I told him when he showed he his colection.

 “Don’t be ashamed of this, man. Remember how I get when Master quizz talks about dinosaurs?”

“Oh. …OH. Oh, boy”

“Oh yeah. I too, have a dark seecret”

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. …but, what could it be? You are just very educated about nature. It is interesting, many people enjoy the nature channel”

 I was giving him a mischevous look

 “It goes deeper than that”

Hugo looks at me in the eyes and then carasses his chin before daring to ask

“…how deep is that?”

I walk closer to him, wrestling belt over my shoulder

“Remember you asked”

 He doesn’t moves, but gulps when I wisper on his ear

 “Dinosaurs had feathers”

“… what?”

“And shiny scales, and colorfull crests, and they made all shorts of music”

“Whait, what, for real?”

“And not all of them went extinct. Not only crocodiles and turtles survived. It has been proved: the birds that we have today descend from dinosaurs like raptors and relatives of the t-rex. Thats why they call it the extintion of the non-aviar dinosaurs now”

“…for real? I… didn’t know that”

“and there was a period, the triasic, when nature was on drugs, and it produced all kinds of crazy stuff!!”

 “Say waaaat?” Said his kid, Ernest, standing in the door. How much did he listen?

 -BRIAN

“oh, is that a dinosaur book?” said MC, and Amanda turned in horror.

“Oh no”

“yes, it is” Said Daisy, with a wide smile “I wish we were studing theese in class, but they don’t talk much about fosiles, just rocks…”

 Brian laughted proudly. “Daisy is not happy with all they teach in class. She is always looking for books with extra stuff…”

Only then he noticed Amanda frantically denying with her head, and making ‘cut it’ gestures. He then looked back at MC. It was too late.

 He was sitting next to Daisy, pointing at pictures in the dinosaur book.

 “Ok, you know this one?”

“Yeah, that’s a brachiosaurus”

“The long-neck one” added Brian “That one’s easy”

“yeah, but it did not look like that. Book is a bit outdated. New data travels faster online. See, look at the skull. Now, where are the holes of the nose?”

 Daisy thoug for a moment.

 “… they are… above its eyes? On the top of the forehead?”

“Exactly. Now, don’t you think that’s a bit weird? Having such a wide, weird nose, and a big mouth way apart? Something’s missing”

“Yeah…?”

“Ok, now look at the skull of an elephant”

 MC took out his phone and showed her pictures

 “… it doesn’t have a nose! And the cavities are huge and… oh my god!”

“Exactly. The trumpet is big and important, but it has no bones. If someone found the fosil of an elephant, but never saw one, they would draw him without a trumpet”

“Like it happened to the brachiosaurus. It had a trumpet! Dad!”

 Brian nearly flinched. He was barely catching up

 “The brachiosaurus had a trumpet, dad! Can you believe it?”

 Brian looked at Amanda. She was scrolling throu her phone like nothing was going on.

 “actually, not necesary a trumpet, see…”

 Daisy turned her attention fully back to MC

 “They are both big hervibores, but the brachiosaurus had a very long neck. It didn’t need a long trumpet. …kind of like a giraff. Have you seen what they do?”

 Daisy denied. MC was already playing a video of a giraff using its lips, and loong, sticky toung to catch things and eat them.

 “it probably didn’t have a trumpet. Nor a long tounge, but there was definetly something important on its nose, wich it probably used for eating and for singing, kinda like cows do, and maybe it was colorful, or diferent between males and females…”

“wooow! It is a big feature, why they don’t use it in movies?”

“see, it is kind of risky, to design such an extrange animal, so they play it easy and just cover the skull with skin. And that’s not all”

“there is more!?”

“this animals had spikes all over their tails, wich have been found incrusted in the skull of predators like the T-rex”

“Wooah!”

 “Don’t feel left out” Amanda said to Brian, seeing that the poor guy needed some company “he can’t help it, loves the stuff. Just make sure you can handle it before letting him anywere near the museum”

“uh… ok”

“And whatever you do, never ask about dinosaurs with feathers” she wispered this “You will never hear the end of it”

[peripetyy]

    Ethan grew up in a very strict, conservative community. His father was a religious leader with a career in politics with very formalistic and Dominant-favoring parities. He was homeschooled with a few other children in the neighborhood, most of whom attended their church, and was discouraged from associating with anyone outside of their church. Despite being surrounded by these people, Ethan struggled to assimilate to their mindset and as the son of the leader, his father wasn’t taken with his curiosity of the outside world. He was ten when Ethan’s father started to beat him. That stopped the questions, but the already nervous boy was forced deeper inside himself, drawn to books and his own writing for an escape.

    Because of the pace set by his homeschool group, Ethan managed to graduate high school a couple years earlier than his peers and was pressured to attending a nearby college for a degree in Pre-Law. Ethan had no interest in becoming a lawyer, but it wasn’t up to him. His life was in the hands of his abusive, domineering father and his mother only urged his compliance so he wouldn’t get hurt, though everyone knew there was nothing he could do to avoid it. He commuted his Freshmen year and that following summer, his father started campaigning for mayor. It was the beginning of the end for Ethan. As his father took his stress out on Ethan that summer while carting him around to various function, Fall came and with it the brunt of Sophomore year. The week before winter break, Ethan attempted to take his life, but a passing jogger around him laying on a park bench, covered in his own blood that early morning. He was kept on suicide watch through the winter holidays and worked with the law to get him out of his parent’s house and into someplace safer. By the time he was eighteen, he returned to college as an English major with a new foster family and found a new, more loving god to worship and help him through his hardest days.

     And it was at this new college that he began the lifelong friendship with his roommate, Tucker Warner. They grew close over those four years and kept contact after graduation. Ethan went on to work as a journalist for a progressive, submissive-friendly news outlet and ran several stories about civil rights and social politics. His creative writing career took off after he obtained his Master’s degree, so he left journalism and took a job in teaching. Working with high school students was difficult, but through it, he was able to continue to study works of fiction and work on his own writing.

    It was at the high school he first encounter a young submissive, Landon Fox. He was a good student from the very start. Eager to learn, ready to prove himself and rose to every challenge presented to him. Ethan took him and a few other students aside for an extracurricular study group meant to push them even further outside of his classroom. They worked in groups and Ethan gave each student some one on one attention. Something changed along the way and it went by Ethan’s notice, or perhaps he refused to see it until Landon confronted him at the start of Landon’s senior year of high school. Landon wanted Ethan. Deeply. Badly. Ethan tried to refuse him, but one thing led to another and Landon ended up in Ethan’s bed.

    It hurt Ethan for a while. His fear of getting caught ruled him the first few months, but Landon’s submission, his company and the fact that Ethan already cared very much about him changed everything. He saw Landon as someone more than a student for the first time. He was still young, far too young, and ethically, it wasn’t right, but Ethan was in love. They parted ways that summer. Landon would start college and Ethan received an offer from Tucker that he couldn’t refuse. He didn’t expect to see him again.

    Ethan played an active role in Harborage Home, mostly working directly with residents and mentors, making sure their needs were being met, organizing events at Harborage and managing the general upkeep of the facilities. He developed some close relationships with residents during that time and was glad to see some of them grow and leave to start their lives again. Tucker, whether or not he realized it, helped Ethan recover from his heartbreak through Harborage and as one of Ethan’s closest companions. Jokingly, they referred to each other as “work husbands”, but Ethan felt an unspoken bond with him that was more than platonic. But, still too tender after his split with Landon, he didn’t act on it.

    Then, Ethan published the novel he’d been working on and saw it become a rather sudden success. So, he decided to take a temporary leave of absence with Harborage Home to go on a publicity tour with book signings, readings and lectures across the country. At one of these book signings, a young man approached the table and Ethan looked up to see the face of a young man he never expected to see again. Their relationship began to feel like a faded dream, something foolish and unrealistic. Something to be forgotten. But, Landon met with Ethan that night and made him realize that the fire was still there. The passion, their chemistry, it was all so very real and it wasn’t going away. It frightened Ethan. He didn’t know what his future would look like without Landon, but he didn’t want him to jeopardize his education to be with Ethan. He left things with uncertainty that night.

     Landon applied to be a volunteer at Harborage Home and was accepted without any extra pushing on Ethan’s part. Their affair began, as employer and employee this time. Once again, they were unable to avoid a clash of interests and ethics, but it all began to seem so trivial in the light of Landon. It was only coincidence that they even met again this time, as Tucker needed someone to step in while he took a temporary leave of absence to work on some things outside of Harborage. Ethan was still on his book tour. Their time together was limited once again. So, Ethan made a decision. It was no coincidence Landon kept appearing in his life and he wasn’t going to fight what felt good and natural between them. As he said goodbye, he also gave Landon ways to keep contact and promised to arrange visits for them in the future.

     And then there was Tucker. They went on vacation. Just the two of them. In order to forget the hardships of work, the pain of love lost, love found and lost again, they turned to each other. Ethan told Tucker everything and Tucker helped him forget for a while. Despite what was growing between Ethan and Landon, it did nothing to diminish that feeling he had for Tucker. It was strange- they were both Dominants and biology dictated they shouldn’t be compatible this way, but there was no denying something was there.

    But, when they went back to work, it was almost as if nothing had changed. Either Tucker was good at pretending or it didn’t mean as much to him as it did to Ethan. As conflicted as Ethan was, he made good on his promise to Landon and made the extra effort for him.

[seriouslycromulent]

So Brooklyn 99 went and did what I hoped they wouldn’t do and ...

… it wasn’t too terrible. Granted, I typically loathe “very special episodes” about a character coming out because they often feel unrealistic, hyper-melodramatic and the tone often mimics an ‘80s after-school special script. But Brooklyn 99′s “very special episode” wasn’t all that bad.

I kind of wished they had waited a week, and brought back Gina Linetti in an episode by itself – her comeback deserves to be an A-storyline with central focus. Then, they could do the episode of Det. Rosa Diaz coming out to her parents, but I think the Gina comeback may have helped soften the edges of the episode’s message. (I’ve already seen complaints from some people about how they hate when shows try to force the gay agenda. ::insert Anderson Cooper eyeroll::)

Also, it just felt 10x more realistic than pretty much any coming out episode I’ve seen on American television in about a decade. So kudos to the writers on that one. I’m sure Stephanie Beatriz offered some feedback into how she thought the coming out should go.

Other things I liked about the episode:

Machete!! Danny Trejo as Rosa’s Dad is just a major win for her character. It adds to the general badassery and mystique that makes Rosa such a bomb character to begin with. 

The actress who plays Rosa Diaz’s Mom, Olga Merediz, looks like she could actually be Stephanie’s Mom. Another good casting choice!

I was thisclose to cringing when Rosa asked Jake to pretend to be her boyfriend when they went to dinner. That moment teetered way too close to farce territory, and I quietly said, “Please don’t turn this into a Three’s Company bit.” Then, they subverted it and kept it realistic. Thank goodness!

Scully Hitchcock being self-aware enough to know that the question he was going to ask when Diaz came out to the squad at the station was hella-inappropriate before he even said it made me crack up.

I think Kelly Kapowski and Lisa Turtle were equal in attractiveness, but who picks Zack over Slater? Seriously, Rosa?

Her parents’ initial rejection of Rosa’s bisexuality falls right in line with many of the same comments bi people hear on a regular basis – including within the LGBTQ+ community. (”It’s just a phase,” “Well, you’re still attracted to men, so it’s OK,” “There’s no such thing as bisexual,” etc.) So I respect the fact that there was no violent behavior or language thrown around, but Rosa was still hurt by their rejection. Again, realistic because the power behind those statements can hurt just as much as any fist.

I’ve missed Gina Linetti something fierce!! That is all. 😁

I also appreciate the second trope reversal where it’s the father who comes around to their kid being same-gender loving before the mother. So often the cliche is to show the Mom being the more understanding parent, but this time, it was the Dad. I also like how the family conflict wasn’t easily resolved by the end of the episode. Again with the realism.

I didn’t cry at the end when the squad came by Diaz’s apartment for a “family” game night, but I did think it was sweet and awesome. Rosa was just getting close to her family after she was released from prison, so I love that Jake immediately understood how, despite her tough exterior, Diaz needed her family. So he reminded her that she has another one.

Captain Holt’s short speech at the end: 

Final Thoughts:

I’m really glad they had her parents’ rejection was portrayed sans violence or abusive/hateful language. Too often, because white LGBTQ+ people control the narrative about coming out, some white people love to believe that all queers of color live in mortal fear of coming out, as if communities of color are pathologically predisposed to react to someone not being heterosexual with violence and uncontrollable anger. And we all know why. 

But from my personal experience, most stories about coming out in communities of color are rarely met with violence from their family and friends. Maybe by their classmates, bullies or others in the community, sure. But familial rejection for a lot of queers of color tends to be more along the lines of stupid questions, stupid jokes, insulting stereotypes, and general confusion. Like that great Key & Peele sketch. Or for a more personal example, when my cousin came out as a lesbian, off and on for a year, the men in my family would occasionally say: “I just don’t get that, but whatever man. She’s still my cuz.”

Maybe the reaction is different for men of color, so I certainly don’t want to stereotype or erase anyone’s experience. But I know a number of queers of color – especially Black folks – whose coming out was met with casual acceptance (”Yeah, we pretty much guessed that already.”), an outpouring of love (”Girl, come here and give me a hug! I know that couldn’t have been easy for you to share. I’m so proud of you.”), or general indifference (”Well, if she coming with you to Thanksgiving, tell her to bring a dessert.”)

Like I said, men of color and transpeople of color likely have a very different story to tell. But I appreciate seeing a coming out of a bisexual woman of color on American television that didn’t play to the stereotype that brown people coming out will automatically incur the wrath of violent rejection and abuse from their families. Not all of our families are brimming with religious zealots or hyper-masculine men. And our communities have no greater propensity toward violence than our white counterparts.

So thank you for that, BK99 writers.

[another-murdoch-mysteries-blog]

Murdoch is a show filled with tragedy and has never pulled punches to show how terrible the Victorian (now Edwardian) era was for people. Whether it's demonstrating the systemic sexism in place that even the very privileged for her time Julia had to deal with on her way to be a doctor, showing how men through history have dealt with lesbians by murdering them, the sexism around men's clubs, women who pretended to be men to have lives and jobs, gay gentlemen's clubs who were routinely oppressed by the police, how religious persecution has affected people, how religion intersected with science back then, the problems with the medical industry, etc.

Watts was never going to have an easy time with it, we have gay conversion camps to this day and many Canadian gay men and women in the year 2020 still pray and try to avoid the reality that they are same sex attracted. Gay marriage was legalized across Canada less than 20 years ago and the Harper government even messed with common law rights of same sex couples in the 2010s. There are lesbians alive in Canada today who have survived being put in asylums for being attracted to women instead of men. Watch any season of Drag Race and you'll hear of at least one story where someone was put into conversion therapy only maybe a decade ago. Hell, go on twitter and you'll find examples of gay people "chosing" not to be gay. There is/used to be a subreddit dedicated to it.

To wish for an absolute lack of tragedy in relation to Watts sexuality is not only unrealistic for the time, but also honestly unrealistic for Murdoch Mysteries, a show that has always been dark and tragic, willing to show the worst of Canada during the eras it covers. It would also be an absolute disservice to the history of gay people in Canada to act like our gay ancestors are bad people for having tried to conform in a homophobic society or have never gone to extreme lengths to avoid their sexuality. Imagine being taught your whole life that being gay is all sorts of terrible things and an absolute choice then growing up to be gay, it's only natural some would try to cure what they've been told their whole life is either a choice or a disease. And it would also be dishonest to show a gay man without struggles in the early 1900s, Murdoch takes some creative liberties with historical figures but they'd never go that far to keep pretending this never happened.

People have every right to be triggered and saddened by these storylines, but these were horrible times and this did and does still happen. If you want a show to make you happy at every turn, Murdoch Mysteries isn't the show for you.

And I hope to god the people lambasting Watts have empathy to real conversion therapy survivors, especially those who were gaslight enough in life to chose to go themselves

Okay I'm going to say it.

The whole conversion therapy storyline was tragic and awful, but we need to see it with a little more nuance and compassion.

I don't know why it's so hard to grasp what it must have been like to be scared and desperate and hopeless all the time and then see something that might significantly alter your life and change the one thing that's making your life hard- and obviously considering it.

You have to understand that people back then didn't know that conversion therapy not only didn't work but was morally wrong. It's not rocket science. Watts is only human. I'm pretty sure many gay people actually tried conversion therapy back then, when their existence was illegal and changing their nature would make their lives significantly easier.

It sucks, but think about the people that converted religions to protect themselves. Or did something else "problematic" to escape bad circumstances. When something that affects you so badly and feels so dreadfully out of your control, like your sexuality, why wouldn't you jump at the first chance of maybe changing it?

I mean honestly the one time mm tries to deal with a deep and contextual period appropriate issue we all get so upset. It is absolutely unacceptable now but it was very much a reality then. This show is set in the 1900s ffs.

What Murdoch was essentially trying to say in that episode, which is dicey but a hard pill to swallow is that people cannot be expected to put up with fear and oppression with a great cost to their happiness when we cannot give them any hope for a better life. It's so apathetic to dismiss Watts' humanity and his sadness because we hold him up as our "progressive king" and not a man who is heartbroken and is trying and failing to, albeit in a destructive and unhealthy way, gain control of his life. It's horrible and I'm glad he finally got away from it, but please for the love of God let fictional characters have real and flawed actions and try to have some fucking empathy.

[thisdaynews]

THETRUTH: Why Igbo Can’t Get The Presidency In 2023----Senator Alex Kadiri

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/thetruth-why-igbo-cant-get-the-presidency-in-2023-senator-alex-kadiri/

THETRUTH: Why Igbo Can’t Get The Presidency In 2023----Senator Alex Kadiri

2023: Why Igbo can’t get the presidency — Sen Kadiri

Senator Alex Kadiri is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress. He speaks with OSARETIN OSADEBAMWEN on the demand for Igbo Presidency in 2023 and the hurdles ahead of that plan and why the minority groups in the country will find it difficult to rule the country.

AGAINST the allegation that the Northern establishment is planning to retain power in the North, the South-East is staking its right to the presidency in 2023 going by the rotational arrangement. Do you think the South-East merits such consideration for 2023?

My belief is that power cannot remain in the North forever. Power has resided in the North for too long. Having said that, I must be frank with you, you are in my house. Nobody gives you power. You go in search of it and fight for it just like Abiola did. The late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola had a long-term plan for the presidency. People did not understand him. He established Concord Newspaper, put people from different parts of the country in charge. That’s how Yakubu Mohammed became the Editor of Concord. Dele Giwa became the Editor of Sunday Concord, and so on and so forth. If you are friend of Abiola living in Kano or Sokoto, Abiola will fly there if you have a naming ceremony in spite of the inconvenience and the bad weather or he will send a ram for the naming ceremony.

He established a football club, the Abiola Babes and was basically funding the Nigerian Football Association (NFA). So, his name was being sung by the people all through the country through his acts of philanthropy, through acts of employment for those who got employment. There were those he gave money to establish their own businesses. He didn’t care if you are Yoruba from Egba or Yoruba from Ekiti, or Fulani from Sokoto. He patronised most people in the country. So when it was time for him to ask for the presidency, his job was easy. He even challenged Nigerians by picking another Muslim from Borno, Babagana Kingibe, as his running mate in a country where we pretend to be more religious than the Pope. Yet, people voted for him. I voted for him too.

Now, whether the presidency goes to the Igbo people in the South or the Ijaw who are also in the south or the Bini who are also in the South, only God knows. I hate this idea of people saying the presidency is now for the Igbo man. I was surprised that a man like Okwesilieze Nwodo, former chairman of a party like the PDP, is saying that if they don’t give the Igbo people the presidency, he would ask Igbos to go and join Kanu in IPOB. That is almost a treasonable statement.

Don’t you now think his comment earns some merit, given the South to North and North to South presidential shift since 1999, especially when the South-South and South-West have produced presidents: Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan?

Look, I don’t know if you watched the interview with late Samaila Isa Funtua on Channels Television? It must have been a recorded programme they showed after he died. And he said things that I believe in. Any Igbo man who wants to be the president of Nigeria must come out and work for it.

No Igbo man is going to sit in Umuahia, Enugu or Awka and Nigerians would say, okay it is your turn. When will it be the turn of the Binis? As you know, there are other tribes, very many, in this country like the Tivs. When will it be the turn of these people? Those of us from the Middle Belt, we are beginning to think that in the schemes of affairs, nobody is thinking of the Middle Belt anymore because we are small tribes scattered all over the place.

Some people now feel that maybe the only way an Igala man or a Tiv man or a Berom man can ever ascend the leadership of this country is through the military because when it comes to party, nobody takes us seriously. The Igbo man believes that the Hausa Fulanis have held this position for too long, the Yorubas too have used it but the Igbo man is the greatest enemy of himself.

Why is that?

They are very disorganised. Do you know that when Atiku Abubakar picked Peter Obi as his running mate in the last election, do you know that Peter Obi could not harvest votes from Igbo land to help Atiku win the Presidency? The complaint about Peter Obi in the South-East was very vociferous. Maybe, because the other people have made a promise, as I read somewhere that they had made a promise that the next president of Nigeria is going to be an Igbo man. I don’t know what powers the president has by appointing somebody else from the South-East without the persons from the South-East fighting for this position.

Let me tell you something that is instructive: when Igbos in the North visited former President Ibrahim Babangida recently, he said the Igbos are in every nooks and cranny of Nigeria. They should use their presence in every village to network for votes in addition to the desire to look for money in those places. What Abiola used his own personal wealth to achieve, the Igbos who are scattered all over Nigeria can do it effortlessly if they really mean well for themselves. They’re not doing this.

What could be responsible for this?

Well, I don’t know. I’ve tried to look at it but I cannot understand it. My wife is Igbo. So, I have nothing against the Igbo people. The fact of the matter is they don’t mean well for themselves. Their republican and unrealistic approach to issues is not helping them, especially in a complex country like Nigeria where you need to network. Do not wait until the month or the week of the year of the election before you start making friends, hoping to be nominated. Before you can become a presidential candidate a party must field you. Like Ismaila Funtua said in that Channels TV interview, a party will field the candidates it believes may win election for it. It’s not just about fielding Alex Kadiri because I talk too much. How many people will vote for me? It will field somebody who can win votes from Sokoto, votes from Borno, Rivers, votes from Akwa Ibom, Ogun and so on. That’s the only way. How many Igbo politicians have that kind of spread right now? They are running back into their enclave, chanting that the 2023 Presidency is for the Igbo man. That’s wishful thinking. I can’t see them with any strength in APC. I can’t see them with any strength PDP. APGA has been boxed into Anambra State.

Just a few days ago, former Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, said that the leadership of the Igbo race has fallen on his shoulder and that of the Chief Whip of the Senate and former Abia State Governor, Orji Uzor Kalu. Which of them, in your estimation can garner votes from across Nigeria as you just explained?

It is one thing to be known as an individual in politics. It’s another thing to be liked by people in politics. Take Rochas, for example, he has schools here and there. That is good. However, if you meet some Igbo people, they will tell you he cannot be the representative of the Igbos. They have their reasons. I don’t know. You take Orji Kalu? Whether we like it or not, he has been to prison and has come out, not for political reasons, do you get my point?

Not really…

In Pakistan, many of their presidents have been to prison and come to become president later. They do it because of political reasons. They are not accused of anything. I hope you can see the difference. Some of this people have commas and full stops in their profiles. Why can’t we have somebody who does not have skeleton in the cupboard from the South-East? Someone has mentioned former governor of the Central Bank, Professor Chukwuma Soludo. He is a nice man, but where is his political base, Nsukka, maybe Awka? He is not a politician. He is a technocrat. He is a professor. He is an economist; for all these marks of excellence, I clap for him, (claps). Any Igbo man who wants to be president of Nigeria including Uzor Kalu, Okorocha, even Arthur Eze, their oga pata pata or Ifeanyi Ubah, all of them cannot sell themselves even in the states where they reside. That is a challenge they must overcome.

Let me tell you a funny story, when we were in the Senate, we zoned the Senate Presidency to the South-East. Evans Enwerem became our president. There were all kinds of problems due to issue of certificate or no certificate, even on performance; we put him aside and picked Chuba Okadigbo. Intellectually sound, but he was sleeping on the job; we decided to remove Chuba. We were now left in the Senate with Ifeanyi Araraume, Arthur Nzeribe and Adolphus Wabara, Nnamdi Oreagbuna and some others, we were faced with these choices.

There was hardly anyone to choose from because when you need to know more about each of them, go and meet their Igbo brothers. They know more than you and I will ever know about themselves. So this presidency that everybody is clamouring for, we are heading in the same direction. Are Imo people clapping for Rochas today? The Abia people, are they clapping for Orji Uzor Kalu today? Anambra people, are they clapping for Ifeanyi Ubah? So, there are a lot of problems they have to go back home to sort themselves out first. The ones that have good names and credibility outside have no political tripod on which to stand like I just mentioned, Chukwuma Soludo. That is the problem. So, to say that the Igbo man must become president… who is this Igbo man that will become president, and under which political party?

Are you saying it is not possible for the Igbo man to be president in 2023?

I can’t see the way through. You tell me how? As I just mentioned to you, there is no serious Igbo man in APC. There is Ogbonnaya Onu, Hope Uzodinma but the only person to me is Chris Ngige. He is the one that has the experience; he has been a governor, a senator and now he is a minister. So in terms of experience, he has it but has he got the backing at home? These are the issues. Somebody may drop from America or from Europe or India that we don’t know yet.

You did not mention Moghalu in your list of South-East Presidential material

His case is almost the same as that of Soludo.

Are you saying that no other political party can produce a president outside the APC and the PDP?

It is possible. You saw Ghali Na’Abba, Bugaje, and so on floating a movement now. Normally, when they start this kind of thing, they used to inform me. But do you see any Igbo man there? Have you heard of any serious Igbo man in their midst? That front is basically being pushed by people of Northern extraction who have fallen out of favour with the current people in power. Quote me.

Do you think they will be relevant politically in 2023?

Well, with the way things are going in this country, if they are able to play their cards well, by building a party like the Chinese, which they said is what they are trying to do… I have heard Bugaje’s position paper, they are building from towns and wards. If this thing works and is not sabotaged by the powers that be, if it sails through, that may be a successful outing for everybody. As they are molding this thing now, I don’t see any serious Igbo person participating right now. Can they finish what they are doing now and because they want to bring Nigeria together, go and look for somebody who is unknown and give it to him to become president? It is not possible. It is never done in any country.

What is your honest advice for the Igbo nation?

What they need to do is to widen the scope of their political participation. This mentality of I am richer than you is what is killing them and that has led to many sections of this country hating them. You want to be richer than your neighbour, money all the time. If they can spread out their net, catch more fishes, when the time comes, people would now look at the characters involved and make a choice. When Dr. Alex Ekwueme was the vice-president, in spite of all criticisms about Igbo people, nobody could point accusing finger at him. Nobody that I know appeared in the media to say Alex Ekwueme is a corrupt person. Can somebody like that come out of the South-East? This is the issue. But because of their pursuit of money, they do so many things and people have doubts about them.

For the Igbo people to aspire to be president of Nigeria, they must spread out, make friends from other places, not just making money from Nguru, Sokoto, or Idah. Where they make this money, what is their relationship with the host community? The money they are making should also serve as good avenues to attract votes for the Igbo man. Again, since we are practising democracy, the Igbo man who wishes to be president must belong to a party that is likely to win an election. No party will put up a candidate that it feels may not win any election. It is as simple as that. I wish a woman like Ngozi Okonjo Iweala were a politician. At least Nigerians now know who she is; she has shown us her worth and she is a worthy person across the globe; she needs no introduction. She may not have the funds to play the type of politics we play in Nigeria now, but if that type of person can stand out among the Igbos, it won’t matter whether she is Asaba Igbo, Ika Igbo or Orlu Igbo whatever. When the chips are down from these same Igbo people, you start hearing from them things that you would not want to hear a second time: who is proper Igbo or who is an Osu etc? Such divisiveness at a time when you would need them to pull their strength together! I worry for them. No human dead or alive can take the presidency of Nigeria and give it to the Igbo man. The Igbo man must find space in the existing parties or if he can form his own and attract membership to be able to campaign and win election.

2023: Why Igbo can’t get the presidency —Sen Kadiri

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well gosh golly gee will ya look at that its a tag game! tagged by the blogger of Bad Cosmemes: @sherpawhale​

PRESS J TO SKIP IF YOU AINT WANNA SEE THIS sorry mobile users ur screwed

Rules: answer 11, ask 11

1. What sport are you most excited to watch during the 2018 Winter Olympics? Or sport you’d most like to understand more about?

okay so im ngl i mainly watch the olympics for swimming, diving, volleyball, and gymnastics, and those are all summer sports, but that one when you ski and shoot things at the same time sounds pretty banging. also freestyle skiing and snowboarding are cool too.

2. Would you rather be Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or Snapchat famous?

honestly youtube probably. because i love to talk about stuff when no one can interrupt me and honestly i could probably swing it as a how to channel. and also adsense but the only things i know how to How To are tech theater nonsense or already have like 50 thousand videos on them so meh

3. What are your thoughts/feelings on your most famous “local” (local can be regional) sports team?

so. the thing about va. is that. we dont have SPORTS! we kinda bum off everyone around us, which means for college basketball, we go to duke vs TARHEELS WOOT WOOT (also its hilarious that nc state thinks that theyre somehow in the picture for that rivalry like lmao) and then i think the cavaliers do okay for themselves in football, and i think thats the closest we get to a Known team from va? also we have the tides in norfolk, who feed into the orieles, but like does anyone actually follow the minor leagues??? and because the nationals in dc are closer, everyone follows them instead of the orieles for the majors so its just wah???? and then obvi the redskins (whom i did not realize where in dc for THE LONGEST time) for the nfl and that about it. my fam goes to tides games sometimes, and also penninsula pilots games, which are really fun bc its all homey and old school, and thats about the extent of my sports knowledge. yes technically local for me right now would be la but honestly fuck an la.

4. What is the one book/book series you would read to experience it for the first time again if you could?

So Fucking Many. um. lemme think. i reread thief of time by terry pratchett almost religiously but it still manages to get me just as much as it did the first time, so not that one. (if you asking what book id want buried with me, however, that would 100% be the answer). maybe the belgariad/mallorean by david eddings?? bc the ending of that makes me cry like a fuckin baby holy shit. but i swear theres a better one...... NEVERWHERE. by neil gaiman. yeah. that one. shoutout to allison for first giving me that one lol. (also the wee free men and all the tiffany aching books. those are Good Shit too)

5. What is the one tv show you would watch to experience it for the first time again if you could?

pushing daisies. no question.

6. What is the one song or album you would listen to experience it for the first time again if you could?

transmissions by starset, and also gimme gimme gimme (a man after midnight) by abba and the last of the real ones by fob. the reason i listed more than one is bc if i didnt i would immediately star talking abt transmissions and starset and then this post would be 5 miles longer than its already gonna be

7.  What is the one game you would play to experience it for the first time again if you could?

i dont have very expansive gaming experience outside of browser stuff, and i technically havent beat superhot yet so i cant really experience it AGAIN cuz i havent even fully experienced it for the first time. but on the other hand, i do play an obscene number of escape room games and once you beat those is kinda like well... so i guess id go back and and do those again.... OH WAIT lego indiana jones. because im a fucking class act.

8. What is the one movie you would watch to experience it for the first time again if you could?

descendants (2015) bc HOLY SHIT did ben fucking hit me out of left field like that is an emotional experience i definitely want to relive. also power rangers (2017) and the entire oceans trilogy (in reverse order like i watched them the first time lmao its so funny to be introduced to andy garcia as like their grumpy sugar daddy in the last one and then see him in 12 and 11 and hes like.... so not that...)

9. If you drive, do you prefer to drive with your hands at 10 and 2 or 9 and 3 (don’t say other, which of these two)?

ah i see we’re gonna pretend i dont drive with one hand at 6 and/or my knee. and even then, they teach 8&4 now bc of airbag stuff, but uuuuh whenever i sit up really straight and stretch my arms, i put my hands at 10 and 2

10. What’s the best vanity plate you’ve ever seen?

i come from the land of $10 vanity plates so Let Me Tell You i have seen some real gems. my friend has AUDREY 2, saw a truck with TH8R once, also a PIR8 GRL truck, and my best friend has H3CK Y3A bc shes a fucking nerd. thats all i can tell you off the top of my head but there are some great ones. also lots of like ‘luv my kids’ or jackson 5 type plates. and also lots of Well Im Sure You Didnt Mean It As A Sex Thing Because Of The Stick People Family On Your Windshield But I Literally Cant Come Up With Any Other Interpretation

11. What’s the best prank you’ve ever pulled, or if you’re not a prankster, best prank you’ve witnessed?

god you know that feeling where you know youve pulled some good ones but you cant for the life of you remember them? thats me rn. cuz i Know me and my friends have pulled some real shit on each other. all i can remember is scaring obnoxious freshmen by turning off the lights in the catwalks after telling them about our theater ghost, but like thats boring. there was the 69 shirt a different group of made but like we were pretty obvious about that so it wasnt really a prank. hmmmm. cant think of any ive witnessed either damn. my memories really going to shit isnt it.

My questions:

1. what creature would you ride into battle in your YA adventure film?

2. what would your highly unrealistic virus a la hackers (1995) look like/be themed around?

3. what is your ideal pet? (real or otherwise)

4. what is your opinion on the fact that my roommate has color coordinated every goddamn thing she owns down to the fucking charging cable she uses?

5. what are your favorite kind of shoes?

6. follow any webcomics?

7. whats your treat yourself meal?

8. whats your feel good movie/book/show?

9. whats your favorite ride or type of ride at amusement parks/carnivals/etc?

10. what historical figure would be fight on sight if you could time travel?

11. if a car is going 70+ on a 60 highway are you the one with your foot on the pedal or the one screaming in the passenger seat?

tagging time: i know i normally dont actually tag people but i got to pick the questions this time so imma do it. also dont feel obligated to do it if you dont wanna, and if i didnt tag you but you do wanna, have at it fam. @colordrifter @punkpixieprince @holybikinisbatman @rainelinde @theheartshapedsunglasses​ @hometown-unicorn​