#but like not now but after I finish the tem project

[doopn00p]

A Taboo Kiss

[bitacrytic]

Bita? Why is fanservice so looked down on in BL. Like okay I understand if the reason is we don't know for sure if actors or actresses are forced to do something they are uncomfortable with...but other than that, why is it looked down on.

Isn't it kind of like a promoting your product? Plenty of people all around the world do it. We have Bollywood stars making appearance on tv shows to promote their films. We have a whole ass opera playing on streets of turkey to promote magnificent century: kosem. This is just more hands on, isn't it? I don't understand.

Now, I'm a ship-and-let-ship typa girl. Just as long as real people aren't hurt or abused or forced to admit things about themselves that they don't want to, ship whoever you want.

The thing is, fan service is like you said, advertisement for a product (current show or future projects of a couple). It's cute. It's harmless. It gives fans MORE CONTENT after the show is finished.

The problem, to me, begins when people start getting bullied on the Internet for dating women, just because they were promoting a bl couple. For example, Mile from Kinnporsche. He's been in so much drama with people claiming that he's "using" Apo for fame. Which is ridiculous because Apo never said he was dating Mile and they're both adults.

Just look at the issue with Nanon from Bad Buddy. People got mad that he had girlfriends. This is prevalent, in part, because fan service exists.

Fans will ship whomever they want. I mean, I'm over here shipping Tem and Tankhun and they met only once. And I'll be honest, the shipping is because I saw a couple of videos of the actors. Fans will ship people who have never interacted. So I can't blame fanservice for that. But when the actors play up a relationship or some form of "specialness" to each other, it's easy for people to believe that it's real. When, half the time, it isn't.

And yeah, we might sometimes know that it's part of the job. Other times, we might not. And this leads to fans misbehaving, in the name of protecting their ship. Mew got called out for abandoning Gulf just because he was cast in another show. As if these men are tied together and are not supposed to breathe without each other.

Fan service has led to some unfortunate things.

HOWEVER,

Like the people who indulge in bullying actors for having real lives, there are also bullies on the other side of the issue who believe it is their place to bully people who believe in or support fan service.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with shipping two actors. Especially when they protray themselves as "interetsed" in each other, outside of the show. The problem begins when this shipping gets these actors stalked and bullied just because strangers that they've never met want to secure a ship.

This is really an issue of people not understanding boundaries, more than anything. Because if we just enjoyed the content that they were giving us without looking for more, all will be fine. And if people just minded their business about who other adults wanted to ship, all will also be fine.

But with this culture of getting in people's business, crazy shippers and crazy anti-shippers find themselves on the same side, as they both bully other people for not living in the same reality that they do.

[secretsandwriting]

Ok so I was on that site which gives u prompts cause I saw it on Pinterest and I thought maybe send these prompts to you so ya ^^

I can see this happening

The friend whispering is def Jason

Don't mind me, just casually tucking the last one away to write a longer version of later...

They're very short. But it's 2:30 and I'm not very tired since I screwed myself with a nap from 5:30-9 this evening.

"Damian, you need to let go! I'm going to miss my flight!" You were going on a trip for work but Damian didn't want to let you go. So he was acting like a child and refusing to let you go.

"Damian! This is important!" He mumbled something into your back that you couldn't understand. "Damian al Ghul Wayne let go of me now!" He just held on tighter. "Damian please! I need to go. It's for work! I'll only be gone a week and no I won't cancel. Believe it or not I like my job and want to keep it! Just let me go!!" He mumbled into your back again. "I can't understand you when you're taking into my back."

Finally he pulled his head away, whether or not you would like what he had to say was unknown. It could be anything with Damian.

"What am I supposed to do while you're gone?" That was unexpected. Out of everything you thought he might have said, that wasn't one of them.

"... What do you usually do when I'm gone?" Maybe he was just trying a new tactic to get you to stay? But probably not. Damian wasn't one who really liked to manipulate people for reasons as simple as this.

"Wait for you to come back…" You almost missed it and from his silence. It was true but he didn't mean for it to slip and he was hoping you didn't hear it.

"Well, I'm sure you could see if Jon and Billy are free. Maybe do a bit more patrolling, you haven't had much time to paint recently so you could do that." Damian pulled you closer again and his head was back in your back.

"Damian if I miss my flight. You're staying back at the manor for the next month and I'm going to spend the entire month with your entire family except you." You were dating a grown ass child.

----------------------

"What the fuck?!" Tim stared down at his coffee cup. Written on it was "Tem".

Tem. How the fuck did anyone get Tem from Tim. There's an obvious difference.

The next time he got coffee, his name was spelled wrong again. And again and again. But sometimes it was right. So he started paying more attention. It only happened when the barista Y/n was there. Then his name was spelled wrong, or just a completely different name that was close enough to it.

"What are you doing?" Dick came up behind him and looked at the list he had on his computer.

"This is a list of all the wrong ways Y/n has spelled my name." Dick whistled as he looked through the list.

Tem,

Tiim

Tiiiiiiiiiiiim

Teeeeem

Timê

Jim

Him

Thim

Sim

Hem

Toim

And the list went on. He kept adding whenever there was a new one. But it was getting annoying. Finally one day, after a bad day he'd had it. Thankfully he was the only customer.

"Why the fuck are you always spelling my name wrong. It's not even an accident with at least 90% of them!" Y/n just stared at him and pointed at the other girl who was working.

"I blame Myah, she's the one who told me." What? Even Myah looked offended.

"Excuse you, I just said I spelled the names of those I found attractive wrong. I never said to do it!"

Tim felt the heat of a blush coming up and watched Y/n's face go red. Oh. That's not what he expected. Y/n found him attractive? Shit. The only reason he hadn't snapped before was because she was pretty.

"Um…" he was about to start embarrassing himself if he spoke but that was the only nice way out of this. A slam against the counter shocked them both. Myah was standing there staring at the two.

"You two are hopeless! Just exchange numbers!"

--------------------

Dick couldn't help himself, you had been invited to the gala and frankly, the best looking person there. The dress you wore was stunning, it fit you perfectly. The color was stunning, it matched your skin and made you look like you were glowing. The dim lighting of the room only made it more obvious.

He heard more than saw someone come up next to him. Judging but the size, it was Jason. Which could only mean one thing.

"Why are you so thirsty?" He looked to see Jason staring at him. A grin with nothing but trouble in it. "Maybe we should go talk to her."

"No! I mean I should probably go talk with th-" Jason grabbed him by the wrist and started pulling him in your direction. If he fought too much it would make a scene. So he started praying and went along.

"Oh! Hi Jason and Dick!" He was screwed. Your voice was so pretty.

------------------

"How the fuck is she sleeping? And so close to him too?" Dick stared at you, trying to figure out how you could sleep right next to Jason when his snoring sounded like a train! It wasn't fair.

"I mean, they've lived together for a few years now. She's probably used to it by now." Tim looked like he was about to crash. But considering the fact he hadn't slept in 3 days, it wasn't surprising.

"Either that or she sleeps like the dead." Damian chimed in. He looked ready to murder Jason. But then again, Dick was considering it too.

"Unfortunately, the girls won't let us out until they finish their project…" it was going to be a long night.

[pinktwingirl]

Loki Series Rewrite (AKA Loki Series but with Squirrel Girl) Ep 6

INT. CITADEL - DAY

Loki, Sylvie, and Doreen tentatively step into the palace. Out of nowhere, Miss Minutes suddenly pops up.

MISS MINUTES

HEY, Y'ALL!

DOREEN

Oh, Jesus!

She jumps as Loki and Sylvie pull out their weapons.

SYLVIE

You again...

MISS MINUTES

Welcome to the citadel at the end of time! Congratulations! Y'all had an awfully long journey to get here. He's impressed.

SYLVIE

Who's impressed?

MISS MINUTES

He Who Remains!

(Beat)

LOKI

And who is he?

MISS MINUTES

He created all. And he controls all. At the end, it is only... He Who Remains. And he wants to offer you a deal. He's been making a few... creative adjustments. And he's worked out a way to insert you back in your timelines in a way that won't disrupt things.

Doreen looks creeped out by Miss Minutes as they talk.

SYLVIE

Won't "disrupt things"?

MISS MINUTES

Mmm-hmm! The TVA can keep doing it's vital work, and y'all can live the lives you've always wanted!

(She turns to Loki)

How would you like... to kill Thanos?

Loki and Doreen exchange a look.

MISS MINUTES

You could stop the snap from ever happening... and get the throne you've always wanted.

Doreen's eyes widen.

MISS MINUTES

You want the infinity gauntlet? Yours. Throne of Asgard? No problem.

Loki tenses.

MISS MINUTES

(to Sylvie)

What about you, missy? All those years on the run... Desperate... Alone... How would you like to wake up tomorrow with just a lifetime of happy memories? Everything... exactly the way you've always wanted.

She purposefully ignores Doreen. Sylvie shakes her head.

SYLVIE

It's fiction.

LOKI

We write our own destiny now.

MISS MINUTES

Sure you do... Good luck with that.

She disappears.

DOREEN

So, we're all in agreement that this is a trap, right?

(Beat)

LOKI

Let's keep moving.

INT. KANG'S CHAMBERS - DAY

After meeting Kang, he invites the three into his chambers.

KANG

Please. Take a seat.

(He picks up a tray of tea and sets the cups down in front of some chairs.)

Uh... Loki... Loki... and...

(He smiles at Doreen.)

Ah, Miss Green. What an honor to meet you. A class five mutant... the TVA doesn't see many of your type around very often.

(Beat)

You know what I find fascinating about you? Out of all your little... Avenger friends... you... are the most powerful. You just don't know it yet.

Doreen looks utterly baffled. Kang laughs.

KANG

You! Not the... god from space, or the... part-time Kree... but a little girl who runs around spending time with squirrels.

He continues to laugh as the other exchange a confused glance.

KANG

You know, life may not be fair, but it certainly does have a sense of humor.

SYLVIE

Who are you?

KANG

Oh, I've been dubbed many names by many people... A ruler... A conqueror... He Who Remains... A jerk... But most people just call me... Kang.

The three exchange a glance.

INT. KANG'S CHAMBERS - DAY

After Kang explains who he is, he gives Loki and Sylvie a choice.

KANG

So now, you can either... rule the TVA together, as two Lokis... or... kill me... and let the universe burn. And if you think I'm... evil... Just wait until you meet my variants.

(Beat)

I believe you've met my wife, Ravonna? She can verify all of this, if you want.

DOREEN

You're full of shit. You don't care about protecting anyone; you just want power. You just want to have control over everything. Well, you don't get to make our lives for us.

LOKI

She's right.

(He unleashes his blade.)

And we've come to put an end to your reign once and for all.

He starts to attack Kang, but before he can, Sylvie uses her magic to block him.

LOKI

Sylvie, what are you doing?

(Beat)

SYLVIE

Do you really think I'm going to let you destroy my only chance at claiming what belongs to me?

LOKI

What?

SYLVIE

The TVA took everything from me. Now, I'm going to return the favor. By taking over, I can control all of those agents. Everyone that ever laid a finger on me... I can send their lives to burn.

LOKI

You said you weren't interested in ruling the TVA...

Sylvie laughs.

SYLVIE

Don't you know yourself at all?

(She smirks.)

I lied.

Doreen's eyes widen.

SYLVIE

I've waited my whole life for this moment. And no one is going to take it from me. Least of all, you.

She starts to attack Loki, but Doreen lunges at her, knuckles spikes unleashed. Using her magic, Sylvie enchants Doreen's hand and raises her knuckle spikes up so she is a second away from slitting her own throat. The blade chokes Doreen as she struggles. Loki uses his own magic to keep Doreen in place as he stares down Kang and Sylvie. Kang laughs.

KANG

Well, all this drama is making me thirsty!

(He takes a sip of tea.)

Who's it gonna be? Who's gonna get the throne?

Sylvie scoffs at Loki.

SYLVIE

Oh, I see. You just want the TVA throne for yourself, don't you?

LOKI

Is that really what you think of me?

(His gaze saddens.)

You never trusted me. You were always going to betray me.

Sylvie laughs.

SYLVIE

That's what we do, Loki. We can't trust. And we can't be trusted.

DOREEN

(Struggling)

Don't... listen to her... Loki...

Kang jabs a finger at Doreen.

KANG

I wouldn't interfere with our proceedings if I were you, young lady.

Doreen glares at him as he stalks toward her.

KANG

I'll admit, you've been a bit of a thorn in my side... You were never supposed to be here, but you just had to show up and help your little friend... and make my job harder. You're a problem, Ms. Green. A problem that needs to be... eliminated.

(Beat)

LOKI

I agree.

He suddenly conjures up a dagger and stabs Doreen through the stomach. She screams as he opens up a portal with the tem-pad and shoves her through it.

INT. DOREEN'S APARTMENT - DAY

Doreen falls through a portal into her apartment. Gasping in pain, she reaches for the dagger sticking in her stomach, only to have it disappear in a green shimmer. After a moment, she lets out a weak laugh.

INT. KANG'S CHAMBERS - MOMENTS LATER

As the tem-pad portal closes, Kang bursts out laughing and starts applauding.

KANG

Wonderful job, Loki! Wonderful! You know, if I weren't an all-knowing, all-seeing... god, of sorts, I might've actually bought that!

Loki's eyes widen.

KANG

Well, no matter. She'll be taken care of once we're finished here.

(He smiles.)

You know, there's something almost... poetic about it. Loki... the god of mischief... the man who believed he was destined to rule over all of Midgard... is in love with a mortal.

Loki grits his teeth and looks down as Sylvie sneers at him.

SYLVIE

You're pathetic. I honestly don't know how you even survived this long.

LOKI

Sylvie, listen to me... Please don't go down this path. If you do this... all of our variants will be stuck here at the end of time forever.

SYLVIE

And why is that my concern?

LOKI

Because they're us! They're all us! Can't you see that your anger is turning you into the very thing you hate?!

(He places hands on her shoulders.)

Please, Sylvie... I don't want a throne... I don't want to hurt you... I know how you feel. I've been where you are. But hurting the people that caused you pain won't change what happened. It took me so long, but I see that now! And I know a part of you must, too.

(Beat)

SYLVIE

Well, I'm not you.

She attacks him, and they start to fight.

LOKI

Sylvie, no!

SYLVIE

I won't let you stand in my way!

Eventually, Loki and Sylvie's blades are locked.

LOKI

(Voice cracking)

Don't make me do this... Please...

SYLVIE

I'll kill you...

Loki suddenly stabs Sylvie through the chest. She grunts in pain and collapses to the floor as Loki looks on in horror. Sylvie dies as he takes his blade out. Kang begins to laugh coldly as Loki collapses to his knees and sobs.

KANG

Bravo, Loki, bravo! Looks like you're the last Loki standing.

Loki lunges at him with his magic, but Kang uses his own powers to restrain him.

KANG

I'm hurt, Loki. I am giving you the chance of a lifetime! Power! Control! Wasn't it you who one said... what was it? "Freedom is life's great lie"? Didn't you want to free people from the burden of freedom? Well, now you can! All you have to do is say "yes"... And you can finally have it... The throne... The key to the universe... All to yourself. Away from everyone who pushed you around your whole life. Your father... your brother... your so-called "friends"... They're of no consequence anymore. You'll have everything you've always wanted... All... alone...

Suddenly, all the other Lokis, even Alligator Loki enter. President Loki now has a hook for a hand.

KID LOKI

He's not alone.

Loki looks at them tearfully, and a hint of a smile grows on his face. Kang laughs.

KANG

Oh? So that's how it is? You want to be the hero now? You and I both know that's not who you are.

After a moment, Loki slowly rises to his feet.

LOKI

No...

(Beat)

I'm not a hero... And I'm not a villain...

He begins to unleash his power, with a green glow emanating from his hands. He suddenly projects multiple versions of himself around the room, some male, some female. They all talk in unison.

LOKI

I'm me... First... Last...

(His eyes start to glow green.)

Always...

As his power begins to grow, his TVA outfit shifts into elegant green armor with a cape and white fur around the collar. His crown of horns appears on his head, and his power begins to levitate him off the ground. Suddenly, the room begins to glow green, with the army of Lokis joining in with their magic. We see bits of green magic expanding the timeline off into different branches.

INT. TVA - MOMENTS LATER

Back in the TVA, Mobius, Hunter B-15, and all the agents rise as the building begins to glow in a green haze. Mobius watches the monitor in awe as he sees the timeline beginning to expand.

MOBIUS

Wow...

Suddenly, everyone's eyes begin to glow green.

INT. KANG'S CHAMBERS - MOMENTS LATER

Loki stretches his arms out as his magic continues to free the timeline. Kang's eyes widen as a burst of green power extends from Loki's hands and hits him. With the other Lokis joining in, ray after ray of magic hits Kang, until he finally vanishes. Suddenly, portal after portal opens around the room. His magic weakening, Loki finally collapses to the ground. The other Lokis rush to his side.

KID LOKI

Are you alright?

Loki slowly sits up.

BOASTFUL LOKI

You've done it. You've freed us. 

(He looks around at all the portals.)

All the timelines have been restored. We can go home.

Loki looks around at all the other Lokis.

LOKI

Go on. You belong back home, with your families... Even if they're... complicated, at times...

(Beat)

We can live our own lives now.

The Lokis all start to go through their portals. Loki takes one last look at Sylvie's dead body before entering a portal back to the TVA.

INT. TVA - MOMENTS LATER

The TVA agents are all regaining their memories.

MOBIUS

Oh my god... Vanessa... Katie...

HUNTER B-15

I... I had a name... A real name once... Zoe...

CASEY

I... I remember now! I was a marine biologist! Back in San Francisco... Oh man, those sea lions are gonna be so mad at me when I get back...

Suddenly, Loki enters.

MOBIUS

Loki!

He hugs Loki.

MOBIUS

Where's Sylvie?

His face falls at Loki's silence.

MOBIUS

Oh... Oh, I'm sorry...

Loki bites his lip.

LOKI

Do you... remember now?

MOBIUS

Yes... I... I had a wife... and a daughter...

(He smiles.)

Thank you.

Loki nods towards the portal.

LOKI

They're waiting for you.

Mobius starts to head towards the portal. Before he walks through, he stops and gives Loki one last look.

MOBIUS

Whatever the future holds for you... I hope it's what you've always wanted. What you really want.

Loki smiles.

LOKI

Thank you.

MOBIUS

Oh, and...

(He tosses the tesseract to Loki.)

You might need this.

He exits through the portal.

INT. THE BENATAR - NIGHT

Loki appears in the Guardians' ship, holding the tesseract. Everyone turns to him.

DRAX

Empty-handed... And just when I thought I would have a decent snack around here for once.

LOKI

What? Wait, how long was I gone?

Thor shrugs.

THOR

Only around an hour. Why? What were you doing on Kylos, anyways?

Loki looks around at the Guardians.

LOKI

I... I'm going to Earth.

Before they can stop him, he vanishes with the tesseract.

INT. DOREEN'S APARTMENT - DAY

Loki and Doreen are sitting at a table in her apartment by the window. Loki pours himself a cup of tea, and Tippy-Toe brings him a sugar cube.

LOKI

Thank you, Tippy-Toe.

As he stirs the cube in his tea, Tippy-Toe extends her paw.

LOKI

Ah, yes, of course.

He conjures up another acorn and gives it to her.

DOREEN

Is that acorn number 78 or 79?

LOKI

79, I believe.

DOREEN

Huh. 12 more, and you'll have paid off your debt to her.

(She turns to Tippy-Toe.)

Will you like him then, Tippy?

Tippy-Toe squeaks in response.

DOREEN

Oh, "you'll consider it." Don't give me that!

Loki chuckles.

LOKI

Is Nancy home?

DOREEN

She's in class. My professors are letting me do my coursework online while... all of this gets sorted out. I mean, everything I do is on computers, anyways, so...

LOKI

I see.

Doreen glances at him as he stares blankly at his tea.

DOREEN

I'm sorry about Sylvie...

(Beat)

LOKI

Well, I guess it just goes to show that I... can't be trusted. Not even by myself.

DOREEN

No, Loki... What happened wasn't your fault. You tried your best to get through to her. But you can't control the actions of your variants; only your own. Just because Sylvie betrayed you... that doesn't make you a bad person. You deserve trust.

LOKI

Do you trust me?

DOREEN

Yeah. I do.

Loki lets out a bitter laugh.

LOKI

You know, a lot of people would call you naïve.

Doreen shrugs.

DOREEN

Doesn't mean that they're right.

Loki looks at her in surprise. He fixes his gaze out the window as Doreen sips her own tea.

DOREEN

There's something else, isn't there?

(Beat)

LOKI

I'm... I'm worried, Doreen. What if... What if I got this wrong?

DOREEN

What do you mean?

LOKI

What if it was a mistake to kill Kang?

DOREEN

Loki... You've freed trillions of people. You gave them back control over their own lives. That's not a mistake.

LOKI

I know; I just... What if Kang was telling the truth? About the multiversal war? What if... by freeing the timeline... I've unleashed something worse?

DOREEN

Loki... If it ever comes to that... We'll deal with it.

LOKI

How?

DOREEN

We'll figure it out.

(She extends her hand to him.)

And I trust you, so you trust me, too. Deal?

After a moment, Loki smiles and shakes her hand.

LOKI

Deal.

Doreen smiles.

DOREEN

Alright, enough of this doom and gloom. Here, give me your other hand.

Loki raises an eyebrow.

LOKI

Dare I ask why?

DOREEN

I'm gonna paint your nails! Duh!

(She takes out a bottle of black nail polish.)

Trust me, I have been wanting to do this for a while. Have you ever gotten your nails done?

LOKI

I... can't say that I have...

DOREEN

Ooh, well, you're gonna love it. I was debating what color to try on you, but then I figured I'd go for black. You have this very natural emo vibe to you.

Loki raises an eyebrow.

DOREEN

It means, like, dark and edgy and all that...

(She starts painting his nails.)

Wait, so there was actually a President Loki?

Loki chuckles.

LOKI

Yes, if you can believe it. You know, maybe I should run for president.

DOREEN

You can't! You have to have been born in the U.S.!

LOKI

Well, to be fair, I did die, and then I was reborn back into life at the Avengers compound, which is on American soil, so, technically, you could make the argument that I was born in the U.S.

Doreen snickers.

DOREEN

That is not how that works...

Her phone suddenly buzzes, and she picks it up.

DOREEN

Ooh! Look what Moby sent me!

She shows him a picture on her phone of Mobius riding on a jet ski with his daughter.

DOREEN

Look at my man out there living his best life! I'm so proud of him...

Loki chuckles, and she finishes painting his nails.

DOREEN

Okay, just let that dry for a bit. And that means no petting Mew, no matter how much she begs.

(She turns to Mewnir.)

I got my eye on you...

Loki smiles as she takes another sip of her tea.

LOKI

What will you do now?

(Beat)

DOREEN

I don't know...

(Beat)

You know, Ravonna told me that I was destined to spend the rest of my life in hiding.

LOKI

Well... the TVA is gone now. You're free to make your own life.

DOREEN

I know. I just... don't see how it could change. Right now, everyone either thinks I'm a criminal or some circus freak that needs to be locked up.

(Beat)

LOKI

That doesn't mean that they're right.

Doreen looks at him in surprise. A hint of a smile starts to grow on her face. After a moment, Loki clear his throat awkwardly.

LOKI

You know, you could... always come with me. I-I mean... me and my brother... and his friends. You wouldn't be an outcast there. We're... we're all... outcasts... in a way, I suppose...

(Beat)

DOREEN

I can't abandon the people here. There's still so much chaos going on after people returned from the snap... I have to help fix it.

Loki smiles at her.

LOKI

You're a good person, Doreen. They don't deserve you... But if you truly want to stay... then, I wish you all the best.

DOREEN

Thank you...

Doreen gives him a sad smile as he rises from his chair.

LOKI

Well, I suppose I can't put off returning to my brother and those buffoons any longer... By the way, do you think Kang really meant what he said? About you being the strongest Avenger?

Doreen scoffs.

DOREEN

Nah... He was just pulling my leg... 

Loki chuckles.

LOKI

Goodbye, Doreen.

Loki and the tesseract vanish in a blue haze.

(Post-Credits Scene)

INT. HIGH SCHOOL OFFICE - DAY

Ravonna is stepping through the office where she used to work.

RAVONNA

When I worked here... I thought this was all my life could be... I never thought that I would be destined for something greater... But now, you've given my life purpose... A destiny that I can be proud of...

She turns and the camera pans to who she is talking to. One of Kang's variants is sitting in a seat.

KANG

Yes, dear... It's time for us to begin our... corrections...

“Love is a dagger... It’s a weapon to be wielded far away... or up close... You can see yourself in it... It’s beautiful... Until it makes you bleed... But ultimately, when you reach for it... It isn’t real.”

Y’ALL SEE WHAT I DID THERE??? (Also, you know I had to put that “wow” in there lol)

So, apparently, Loki isn’t going to be in Thor: Love and Thunder... Hmm... GUESS I’LL JUST HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT, WON’T I??? Don’t worry, Squirrel Girl and Nancy will return!

Also, for the sake of my own sanity, I will now be considering these rewrites canon thank you and good night

@drawntothedarkside

[youngboy-oldmind]

ALBUM REVIEW- Certified Lover Boy

“Unless Kawhi wanna run it back/ Other than that, the strings'll be unattached/ Certified Lover Boy, I'm not the one for cuddling or none of that/ Y'all music gets watered down, when you love 'em back/ And you know what I'm on, blowing past ya, owning masters/ Said you're like a father figure to me, but now daddy's not around so I'm a bastard/ Oh, of course, the only villain that show remorse when I owe you more/ Soft spot for all the ones that came before, I can't ignore it”

After multiple delays and unsatisfied release dates, Drake finally released his sixth studio album Certified Lover Boy (CLB). Following the uninspiring Scary Hours 2 and the disappointing previous projects Dark Lane Demo Tapes and Scorpion, I had very low expectations for this record. However, I am extremely blown away by how above average this project is. Packed with revived energy and effort that I haven’t seen since 2015, CLB is honestly a pretty enjoyable album.

As expected, Drake doesn’t maneuver outside of his comfort zone on this record. We still get the mostly spacey, trap-hip-hop production. He talks about familiar topics: women, money, fame, emotions. However, it feels like Drake put much more effort into these qualities. The collaborations felt stronger instead of token appearances. The sentiments, while familiar, were performed with such passion that they didn’t feel like empty platitudes.

I enjoyed most of the collaborations; appearances of Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Kid Cudi, 21 Savage, Lil Durk, Travis Scott, Lil Baby, and Jay-Z were all great. However, I heavily dislike “Way 2 Sexy” and the appearance of Future and Young Thug. This obnoxious, immediately overplayed track is definitely a low point on this album. The best collaboration on the record is with Lil Wayne and Rick Ross on “You Only Live Twice”, followed by a tie between 21 Savage on “Knife Talk” and Lil Durk and Giveon on “In The Bible”.

The intro “Champagne Poetry” introduces the tone of the album well. The outro “The Remorse” brought it to a strong finish too. Honestly, regardless of how poor the project is, Drake has a perfect record of excellent outros. He has some truly reflective concepts on this track, talking about his development from unknown to a superstar. He discusses not knowing what “the middle” feels like, and how there’s a constant expectation for him to fall off, and an interesting note of how few people “pray for you when you winning”. 

While upsetting to him, he seems almost positive about these. He mentions keeping his head high and his eyes dry. He doesn’t seem to play victim or to complain. I mentioned on previous records, both with him and other artists, how contradicting it can be to flex about wealth and success, and then cry about haters and criticism. Here, Drake seems to take the blunt of criticism and accept it as a facet of his lifestyle. This is a refreshing change of pace for him, since Drake tends to play the soft Nice Guy approach to his music. Here, he’s unapologetically successful and welcomes people to look at his status and say he’s not who he is. And this tone is much more solid than the fake toughness Drake displayed on records like If You’re Reading This Its Too Late  or Nothing Was the Same. 

Besides “Way 2 Sexy”, there were a couple other songs I didn’t like. Interestingly, it’s a 4 track run following “Way 2 Sexy”: “N 2 Deep” with Future, “Pipe Down”, “Yebba’s Heartbreak”, and “No Friends In The Industry”. This 17ish minute run was uneventful and featured Drake unsuccessfully singing at some points.

The song “Fountains” ft Tems had Drake revisiting his attempts at Jamaican style production/singing, similar to More Life. This track wasn’t necessarily bad, but again Drake is performing out of his element. I still don’t see why he insists on performing this style.

I feel like the odd one out because many people are saying this record is trash. But I like it, and I think it will age well. Any fan of Drake can pull 7-10 songs from this record and enjoy it. Unfortunately, the building anticipation for this album led to harsher criticism because it’s still not a top 3 in his discography. But it’s the most solid project is created in over 6 years. At a little over 80 minutes, it may feel like it drags. But simply put, I like it.

Also, Certified Lover Boy is an awful title. 

Top 3 Tracks:

1) You Only Live Twice

2) Papi’s Home

3) The Remorse

Overall Grade: B-

[that-thing-that-feeling]

I don’t think Charlie has ever had a problem with booking roles. I mean it is harder for him, as well as the rest of the cast, to find roles since ST is such a huge commitment and takes up so much time. Sure he takes breaks between projects sometimes, but so does every other actor. He’s never gone longer than 7 months without working, and he’s usually visiting his fam, traveling, and doing press during those breaks.

Just look at his past schedule: in 2015 Charlie filmed AYA (Sept-Oct) then ST immediately afterwards (Oct 2015-Feb 2016), then Marrowbone not long after (June-Sept). Then he did ST2 (Nov 2016-June 2017), New Mutants (July-Sept), ST3 in 2018 (April-Nov), No Future in 2019 (April), followed by the Souvenir Part 2 (July), and Soulmates (Nov). Then ST4 started in Feb 2020, although his part wasn’t supposed to start until April, but it obviously got postponed.

Anyway, I’m not on Charlie’s team so idk anything abt what’s up with his agent situation, but all I can say is that there is a plan in place; there always is. Either he dropped his UK agent to focus solely on American work, or he’s getting a new one, or he upgraded one of his existing agents to take over UK/Europe auditions. Of these three options I’m more inclined to believe the third, but I suppose it’s possible he’s getting a new UK agent but is just waiting until he finishes ST and comes home.

Imo he kinda worked back-to-back through New Mutants and then new projects slowed after lax. I agree that the time commitment of ST is a lot, though, which makes it even more :/ that they underuse him and Jonathan can have like 10 min of screentime and he’s given little challenging acting to do in s2 and s3 (we’ll see what happens this season). But yeah I don’t say this to be negative, I just think he’s super talented and it would be great if he landed/filmed more roles so his acting is out there (it’s also just that some of his best acting/bigger roles have been in things with uncertain distribution like what happened with AYA and now with No Future and then there was what happened with TEM). But right hopefully there’s a plan and he gets a new UK agent or upgrades and he does whatever the networking and press is that can help get roles. I think will be v interesting to see what/when he books next and hopefully it’s something we all get to see p soon!

[healthcareleadership]

Healthcare Leadership During Times Of Change: An Interview

To start, what precisely is a between time chief?

An interval leader is an administration proficient who joins an association to fill a specific job, with the agreement that the person in question will be there for a short, predefined timeframe. Normally, these chiefs show up without prior warning inside possibly 14 days - and therefore, ease the heat off a medical clinic as it looks for a leader who will assume control over the situation consistently.

Would you be able to portray the conditions under which a clinic should recruit a between time?

Indeed, there are a few. To start with, there might be an administrative man­date that a specific position stay occupied consistently. It might come from Medicare/Medicaid, a state-level Department of Health, or even an intentional certifying organization like a Joint Commission. Acquiring a break will fulfill that require­ment. Do you want to learn healthcare leadership then enroll now in the program.

Second, there might be an information shortage inside the hospi­tal. It very well may be desirable over fill a recently opened space with an insider, in more modest emergency clinics specifically. Be that as it may, there are regularly no others in the association - at any level - who have what it takes essential for filling in when a particular position opens up.

What's more, third, there might be internal up-and-comers who, while prom­ising, are not exactly prepared to venture up into the recently opened position. For this situation, a between time chief may accept the job incidentally, and coach the internal competitor until he/she is prepared to take on a perpetual job.

For instance, there was as of late a New England clinic needing an Emergency Department Director. They had a Nurse Manager as an internal applicant, however she required greater advancement time. A between time ex­ecutive was gotten, and in a short measure of time the Nurse Manager had the option to venture up to the Director position.

Obviously ideally, your generally senior, most-criti­cal staff individuals would give a half year notice before they left. This would give you an opportunity to locate a certified can­didate or create internal chiefs for the new job. Un­fortunately, that is not the manner in which it normally works.

What's the danger of essentially "managing without" for a brief period, until a lasting individual can be found?

The greatest danger is most likely keeping up assistance quality. A medical clinic works "progressively" - you can't stock administrations and keep them for later the manner in which you can an item. What's more, in numerous regards, you can't handle request by the same token.

For instance, your Emergency Room and your OR are func­tions that should run easily and proficiently consistently. On the off chance that you lose a critical chief in one of these regions, you hazard making disappointed doctors, miserable staff and disappointed patients, all of which can do genuine mischief to the standing you've developed after some time, also your productivity.

At the point when you get a break chief to fill these basic jobs you guarantee that things keep on running as they ought to.

So it's just about stopping the openings?

In reality no, it's more than that. Break heads are ex­ceedingly capable for the positions they fill. By defini­tion, they are experts who have immense experience and are prepared to get down to business on the very first moment. That implies that when they show up, they do substantially more than just attachment openings.

As I referenced before, their work may include tutoring less experienced staff. Or then again, it might include dealing with projects that require a specific encounter or mastery. For example, a break chief may deal with the usage of another finance sys­tem.

The thing to remember is that notwithstanding meeting a prompt need of "stopping an opening," interval chiefs show up with a new arrangement of eyes and, now and again, many years of per­spective and experience. Numerous associations find that bring­ing an interval on board prompts an improvement in outcomes, not just a support of the norm.

What amount of time does it require to welcome an interval execu­tive ready?

A medical clinic in New Hampshire required a Manager of Perioperative Services. At the finish of the principal conversation, the Chief Nursing Officer asked, "Thus, does this cycle several months?" When informed that no, she would really have someone on location in around fourteen days, she was floored. She had somebody in there 13 days after the fact.

Normally, it will rely upon the specific circumstance, however part of the explanation you hope to employ a between time leader is on the grounds that you have a quick need. That is days or weeks, not months.

By and large, you can anticipate qualified resumes in 3-5 days. Insights show that one out of each two resumes shipped off customers is picked for a task.

Wouldn't it be smarter to simply enlist somebody lasting, full-time?

By and large, totally. I believe it's protected to say that all in all, if emergency clinics could fill all their basic openings with pioneers who were as great, as experienced and as promptly accessible, there would be nothing of the sort as between time heads. The real­ity, nonetheless, is that in the present climate, that is simply not the situation; the interval business has come to fruition as an immediate aftereffect of this reality.

[silverfootstepswrites]

Equinox: Spring [5]

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 (here) | Chapter 6 

“Yeah, not sure why Madara called a meeting so late,” sighed Temari, opening the door to the conference room. 

“It’s because he’s literally a demon,” quipped Sakura in return. Temari snickered as she flipped the light switch.

“SURPRISE!” 

Hidan jumped up from behind the coffee table and began flinging fistfuls of confetti at her. Kakuzu appeared too, placing a plastic pink crown on top of her head. The cheap kind from the dollar bin. 

And then Madara walked into the conference room, a cake held in his hands. Moving slowly so that the candles wouldn’t go out. Sakura covered her face with her hands as they all began singing to her.

“I told you guys that I didn’t want anything for my birthday!” Sakura whined, shaking Madara’s arm a little. 

“Yes, darling, and as the people who love you, we know to ignore that bullshit,” Madara responded, patting her cheek. 

“Blow out the candles, birthday princess,” Hidan urged. 

Madara cleared his throat. “Remember the diversity training we just had, Hidan?”

“Uh… birthday… overlord?” Hidan amended. Sakura nodded as she considered the title. She blew the candles out on the cake. 

“Then as birthday overlord, I decree that we should all eat this super-cute cake,” Sakura announced. 

As Kakuzu sliced the cake, Temari set a box on the conference table. Sakura flipped the lid open. Inside was a toy xylophone. There were little dancing cat decals all around the plastic. Sakura burst into laughter.

“Feature it on your next track. It’ll be lit,” Temari told her. Sakura hugged her.

“Hey, Bunny,” Hidan said to her left. Sakura turned her head to look at him. And was promptly met with a faceful of cake.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ASSHOLE!” he whooped.

Hidan’s smile faded as Sakura sat very still. She slowly wiped the frosting and cake from her eyes. And then rubbed the rest off on the back of her hand. Her head turned toward the slice Kakuzu had set in front of her. Scooping it up, Sakura grabbed the front of Hidan’s shirt.

“Yeah. Happy birthday to me… bitch,” she whispered before she smeared the cake over his neck and down his shirt. As Hidan howled for mercy, Madara took a bite of his cake.

“Oh, is this lemon frosting? It’s lovely,” he remarked to Kakuzu, who had been in charge of ordering it.

“Yeah. It’s not bad,” agreed Kakuzu, also taking a bite. Temari sat on the edge of the conference table, filming as Sakura continued to torment Hidan.

Eventually, Sakura forgave Hidan and pulled him to his feet. He tried to smear some frosting on Kakuzu’s face but Kakuzu held up his fork. Hidan slowly lowered his hand.

“Well, now that we’ve had dessert, why don’t we go out for dinner? That order makes complete sense to me,” Madara announced. Laughing, Sakura let Hidan and Kakuzu pull her through the door. Temari followed, hands on Sakura’s shoulders, hurrying to keep up with them. 

“I know I’m going to regret this, but…” Madara let out a sigh as he held up his black credit card, “Dinner’s on me.”

Hidan flipped the wine menu to the last page, where they kept all the fancy, aged bottles.

“How many bottles of champagne do you think you can drink, Bunny?” Kakuzu asked. Ripping the menu from their hands, she dropped the menu in Madara’s waiting hand.

“Thank you, my dear,” Madara said as he scanned the list.

The drinks came first. And then the food. The volume of their conversation increased as the waiter opened another bottle of wine. And then another. It was a Friday night, so the wine bar was busy. Their noisy little table didn’t stand out much in the bustling establishment.

“Round two! Are you coming, Boss?” Hidan asked, his arm over Sakura’s shoulder.

Madara swirled his wine around in his glass, chin resting on his fist. He shook his head.

“I think I’ll finish this and head home. It’s time for this old man to go to sleep,” he replied.

Sakura shoved Hidan away. She leaned over to latch onto Madara’s arm instead.

“Nooo! You’re not old, Boss. You’re beautiful!” she gushed.

“Oh boy. There she goes again,” Kakuzu muttered before he took a sip of his drink. He made a face when Hidan tapped his arm. But relaxed when he realized that Hidan was just handing him another drink.

“You have to come, Madara. I want you to be there,” Sakura whined, rubbing her cheek against Madara’s shoulder. He avoided looking at her as she gave her best puppy dog eyes.

“Come on, coolest boss in the world,” Sakura called, shaking his arm a little. “Come on. It’s my birthday! I want us all there. It’s more fun that way,” she added.

Madara let out a long sigh. He finally looked at her to poke the tip of her nose. “You, my darling, are positively dangerous,” he declared. And then he signaled for the check.

“I thought you said that siren charm doesn’t work on you,” Kakuzu spoke up.

“It doesn’t. She’s just my favorite,” Madara retorted, pointing at Sakura. Who grinned in return.

“We have so much in common. I’m my favorite too!” she said. Hidan rolled his eyes.

They headed to a nightclub owned by one of Madara’s many friends. Which explains how they got a table so late on a Friday night.

Sakura leaned against the railing, scanning the dance floor below. Temari sidled up beside her, a rum and coke in her hand.

“Why so glum, chum?” asked Temari. She offered her glass to Sakura, who pushed it back.

“I’m not glum. I’m in a great mood!” Sakura insisted.

But Temari only wrinkled her nose at her. “Sure. That smile is fake as fuck but okay.”

Sighing, Sakura dropped the expression. She didn’t say anything, but Temari saw the way Sakura scanned the DJ booth.

“So… I’m guessing you and Boss Numero Dos are…” Temari mimed slicing her hand over her throat.

Sakura’s shoulders sagged. “I know I did the right thing, Tem. But it doesn’t feel like it,”

It was Temari’s turn to sigh. She wrapped one arm around Sakura’s shoulder and hugged her close. “That’s how it is, girl. It isn’t easy for us.”

“Half-sirens?” asked Sakura.

“Nah. Women,” Temari replied. They chuckled together.

But then Temari’s expression turned a little serious. “At the end of the day, you have to do right by you. Your happiness has to come first,” Temari added.

“Tem, can you just adopt me and be my mom?” Sakura requested. Temari burst out laughing.

The topics lightened after that. They chatted about work and about their latest projects. They poked fun at the DJ at the club and criticized his transitions between songs. Sakura felt herself relaxing a little as she sipped her cocktail. Their conversation was interrupted every once in a while as people popped in to wish Sakura a happy birthday. Sometimes they were brief greetings, punctuated by one-armed hugs and pats on the shoulder. Only when people got a little pushy did Temari intervene, shoving them away with her foot.

After a while, Temari glanced down at her drink. And then at Sakura’s empty glass. “I’m gonna go get us some shots. Be right back,” Temari announced. She squeezed Sakura’s hand before she pushed off the railing. Sakura watched her descend the stairs, down into the rest of the club. 

Over her shoulder, she saw Kakuzu and Hidan sitting on the sofa. She waved her hand to get Kakuzu’s attention. And then she pointed toward the stairs, mouthing ‘Temari’. Kakuzu nodded. He downed the rest of his drink before he got to his feet and headed after their friend. It would take Temari a million years to get back otherwise as she fought off all the attention.

“Hey!” Hidan called, patting the spot Kakuzu had emptied. “Get over here, birthday overlord!”

Laughing, Sakura went to join him.

As she sat waiting for their friends, Sakura recalled a conversation she had had with Kiba just a couple days ago. It was a couple days after she had kicked Tobirama out of her house. And Kiba had shown up with a six-pack and a couple cheese-filled sandwiches. His hair and clothes were flecked with yellow paint.

Sakura checked her watch. “Kiba, it’s almost 9. Are you just eating dinner now?” He handed the food and drinks to her. She stuck her head out the door as she watched him jog down the gravel path to his truck. He reached over the back to pull something out. When he climbed back on the porch, he was carrying a clean plaid shirt and jeans in his arms.

“I gotta borrow your shower. We were painting all day and I stink,” Kiba said.

Sakura sniffed in his direction. The fumes coming off him were strong. She cringed. Kiba nodded.

Shaking her head, Sakura laughed. “Do you just show up at people’s houses to use their shower?” Still, she stepped aside to let him pass.

“Nah. I didn’t want the sandwiches to get cold. I’ll be quick,” he told her. He pulled his shirt over his head, back muscles stretching and flexing as he moved. Sakura looked away, sandwiches hugged to her chest. They were still warm.

Kiba emerged from the bathroom several minutes later, rubbing his hair with a towel. He wore his jeans, shirt slung over his shoulder. There was a shiny pink line on his left forearm. As Kiba sidled up beside her, it caught her eye. Sakura traced beside it with her thumb.

“Ouch,” she remarked.

But for some odd reason, Kiba was avoiding her gaze.

“Kiba.”

“You’ll get mad at me. It was stupid,” he said.

“It can’t be that stupid,” she assured him. Kiba huffed.

“I was trying to flip a pancake and… I kind of threw the frying pan by accident,” he admitted.

Sakura stared at him.

After a long time, she shook her head, letting out a quiet sigh. “Just…put your shirt on, Chris Hemsworth,” Sakura told him.

Kiba glanced down at his body, patting his stomach. “You think I look like Chris Hemsworth?” he asked, sounding flattered. She snorted. Still, Kiba pulled his shirt on and buttoned it.

He hovered over her shoulder as he watched her plate the sandwiches and pour drinks. Not quite touching her, but certainly well within her personal bubble. Still, she had grown used to this sort of behavior from Kiba. And, if she was being completely honest, she didn’t exactly hate it.

They ate sitting at the kitchen table. The beer was still cooling in the fridge, so they clinked water glasses. The sandwiches were from the deli near Kiba’s office. The bread was a little soggy from sitting in the foil, but it was still delicious. Gooey strings of mozzarella trailed from the sandwich each time they took a bite. And Kiba looked positively over the moon when Sakura asked him to finish the last few mouthfuls of her sandwich when she felt too full.

They sat in front of their empty plates, letting their food digest for a bit. Kiba scrambled to his feet when Sakura took their plates and stood. He snatched them from her to place them in the sink. Hands on her shoulders, Kiba marched her to the living room. He headed back to the kitchen and marched back over to hand her a beer from the fridge. And then he proceeded to do the dishes and wipe the table down.

Sakura popped the beer open and sat by the fireplace. Listening to the clink of the dishes against each other. The rush of water from the faucet.

A few minutes later, Kiba joined her with his own beer. There were a few flecks of water on his wrists and the backs of his hands as he sat next to her.

“Werewolf question,” Sakura announced.

“Shoot.” He stretched his legs out in front of him.

“You can drink alcohol?” She pointed at the beer

“Yeah. So. Hang on.” Kiba drained his beer before he placed it on the coffee table. Flopping onto his back, he stretched out on the rug.

“The reason we can go to regular hospitals is that we don’t look different from humans. Like x-rays and blood tests all look the same. And when we phase, we’re really wolves. So human-liver can digest alcohol just fine,” he told her.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. But, like, that can be bad. Because if we eat raw deer or something in wolf form… and then phase back before it digests… human tummy doesn’t like that.”

As he spoke, he wriggled on his back until he could drop his head into her lap. He let out a sigh of accomplishment. When he opened his eyes, he grinned up at her. She smiled back.

“It’s like how you’re not supposed to swim for 30 minutes after you eat,” she remarked. Kiba chuckled.

“Exactly.”

As a lull fell over them, Sakura touched Kiba’s hair. There was no product holding it up any more. It fell into his face. She rubbed his goatee. She suspected that he had a babyface hiding under the facial hair. Kiba’s eyes drifted shut.

A long groan left his mouth as Sakura scratched her nails across his scalp. She did it again, laughing at his blissful expression.

“Oh my god I’m so glad today is over,” he told her. He stretched his legs out, heels resting on the cold hearth.

“Did something happen?” she inquired.

“Nah… just… the client’s kind of annoying this time around. He was complaining how it was taking too long. And then he started saying some shit about how he was an architect. And that’s how he knew we were screwing things up,” Kiba recounted, eyes opening. Sakura scowled.

“What’d you say?” she demanded.

Kiba’s eyes fell on her. He smirked. “I told him that according to my Master’s in construction management, I knew what the fuck I was doing. That kind of shut him up.”

She beamed down at him. She squeezed his face between her palms. But then her smile faded. And Kiba’s did too as he stared up at her. “I hope all your clients aren’t like that,” she worried. Kiba rolled his eyes.

“It’s just every once in a while. You get some stuck-up jerk who thinks a kid from a small town doesn’t know what he’s doing. That’s why my old man always told me to get my Master’s. I could do my job fine with or without it. But he never wanted anyone looking down on me.”

“I really wish I could’ve met him. He sounds like a great guy,” Sakura murmured.

“Yeah.”

And then, all of a sudden, Kiba’s head jerked. He craned his neck back to look up at her.

“Hey, but more importantly, what’s up with you tonight? You’re acting weird,” Kiba accused. “I stopped by because Ino mentioned that you seemed pretty down lately,” he went on.

A noise escaped her mouth. It was supposed to be a laugh. But it died halfway up her throat and turned into something else. She leaned her weight back on her palm.

“I’m just…kind of re-evaluating… everything,” she sighed. “It’s… a really, really, really long story.”

Kiba turned onto his side, his cheek resting on her lap instead.

“Is it more embarrassing than my pancake story?” he questioned.

“No.”

“Then I’ve got time,” Kiba answered.

No one really knew the full story between her and Tobirama. Not even the close friends that she had worked with for years. At best, Temari knew that it was very complicated. And that was about it.

“I ran away from home. Did I ever tell you that?” Sakura suddenly asked.

“Oh. No. Um…” Kiba’s eyes darted around, flickering around the rafters.

“It wasn’t abusive or anything. I just… I disagreed with my mom about a lot of things. And I decided that I never wanted to be like her. So I just packed up and left when I was 18,” she elaborated.

Kiba folded his hands on his stomach. He nodded a couple times.

“I’d always liked music. So I started DJing to make money. And I made some friends with people in the music industry. They taught me how to write music. A few years passed and I was producing songs of my own. Then… one day… Tobirama came to one of my gigs. He just stood in the back of the club. I noticed him because he wasn’t dancing or drinking. He just looked… mad,” she recalled.

“At the end of my set, he told me that he wanted to start his own music company. And I was like ‘who even are you?’. I thought he was crazy.” The memory made her laugh a little. She remembered him wearing all black. A leather jacket in the middle of the summer.

“So y’all started… dating or what?” Kiba asked.

“Uh…” she hedged.

“… Complicated, huh?” Kiba guessed.

“Yep.”

“And I’m guessing all the yelling was you breaking up?”

“Yep,” Sakura answered again.

Kiba twiddled his thumbs for a bit. And then he stared up at the ceiling as he asked, “Why?”

“Huh?”

His eyes flickered back to her. “Why’d you break up?”

“I get… like you used to get with me… but worse. And it’s all the time. Because he’s a full-blood,” was all she said.

“So that’s bad? Sounds like you like him, though,” he observed.

Sakura heaved a sigh, a little annoyed that he didn’t get it. “But, like, that’s not real Kiba. It’s just the weird pheromones and charm.”

Kiba was silent for a moment. He continued twiddling his thumbs. And then he tilted his head back to look at her again.

“…Yeah. That’s kind of dumb,” Kiba finally declared.

“What?” Sakura laughed.

“Sakura, I’ve been up since 5 this morning painting and getting yelled at by an asshole with a receding hairline. Do you really think I’d have dragged my ass here if I didn’t want to?”

“Well, I just… I don’t know how much of it is me and how much of it’s… assisted… by charm,” Sakura explained.

“Then let me tell you. As a veteran,” Kiba announced.

“Veteran,” Sakura snorted. Kiba ignored her as he rolled onto his back again.

“When I first met you, obviously you’re pretty, so I was like ‘woah’. But then the charm comes out and it’s like ‘Wow. Look at how pretty she is. You should pay attention because she’s pretty’. That’s how it was with you for the first couple weeks,” Kiba began. And then he pointed at her to make sure she was listening. Sakura nodded.

“And then I started to get used to the charm. So it’s like…” Kiba trailed off as he thought. He rubbed his chin.

“You know when… think of Ino’s cafe,” he decided, “When you first walk in, you’re blown away by how nice it smells. But when you’re in there for a while, you get used to it. And every once in a while, you might be like ‘oh yeah it smells great’. But it’s not the first thing you’re thinking about anymore’. Am I making sense?”

“So you’re saying I smell like bread?” Sakura replied in a flat voice. Kiba glared.

“Listen, I have my Master’s in construction shit, not poetry. I’m trying my best,” he told her.

Sakura smiled. “Okay. I’ll stop being mean. I get you.”

It was quiet again. After a while, Kiba added, “You could ask the sheriff. He’d probably say the same thing. S’why he likes you so much.”

And then something occurred to her. She poked his cheek.

“Wait. Why are you telling me all this?” she demanded.

“Huh?”

“Why are you giving me advice about this? You… like me, right?” she asked.

“Hell yeah I do,” Kiba sighed. He stretched his arms out to the sides. Wincing when his elbow knocked against the sofa. He rubbed it as he looked up at her.

“But we’re friends too, aren’t we?” he then pointed out. He closed his eyes. “I look after my friends. Even if it means… y’know… not always getting what I want.”

Sakura sniffed.

“You crying?”

“No,” she retorted. She sniffled again.

Kiba cracked one eye open.

“You’re such a crappy liar. C’mere,” he said. And Kiba raised his arms to wrap them around her shoulders. He threw his legs over her, dragging her down onto the rug. Squeezed against his chest, Sakura laughed a little, cried a little.

“Cheer up, Sakura. Everything’s gonna be alright,” he promised her.

“Alright, you rowdy kids. Let’s do a toast before one of you ends up dead,” Madara called. Everything gathered around the table.

“Happy birthday, Sakura. May this year be filled with inspiration and song,” Madara announced. A whoop went around the group as everyone crowded together to clink glasses. Several people said “happy birthday”, voices overlapping with the music pounding from the speakers below.

As Sakura took a sip of her drink, she nearly sloshed it all over the front of her shirt. Because Temari grabbed her shoulder and shook her. Hard.

“What?!” she snapped. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She followed Kakuzu’s pointing finger. To Tobirama climbing up the stairs towards them. His hands were in his pockets, hair slicked back. His eyes darted from her, over to Madara.

“Oh shit,” Hidan whispered. Sakura’s hand shot out. She grabbed the collar of his shirt.

“Did you squeal again?” she hissed. Hidan shook his head several times. She stopped when she felt something on her shoulder. It was Madara’s hand. Glowering, Sakura released Hidan.

“I’m sorry, Sakura. I asked him to come,” Madara interrupted. His hand rested on his chest. He let out a long sigh. “I figured… might as well break the news now. When everyone’s here.”

“What news, Boss?” Kakuzu asked.

Tobirama pulled his hands from his pockets. He clasped them together instead.

“Madara will be leaving at the end of next month to start his own company.”

“WHAT?” Hidan and Temari yelled in unison. Sakura scrutinized Madara’s face. Her eyes narrowed when he winked at her.

“I know it’s sudden, but we’ve decided that this is for the best,” Madara added.

Tobirama grasped Madara’s elbow. He leaned in close to whisper something. Madara turned back to everyone, usual smile in place.

“I’ll be right back,” he told them. And then he followed Tobirama to the other side of the club. They stopped near one of the enormous neon signs that bore the nightclub’s name.

“What the hell is going on?” Hidan sighed.

“Something’s up,” Kakuzu muttered.

Sakura craned her neck to try to read their lips. It was impossible. Especially given the weird blue and purple lighting that blinked in time to the music. She did see Tobirama turn away from Madara. Madara grabbed his arm, pointing up towards where they were sitting. Sakura didn’t look away as Tobirama stared right at her. And then he shook his head as he said something to Madara.

Madara returned a little while later, a pink box held in his gloved hands. There were silver ribbons tied at the top. The wrapping paper glimmered.

“What’s this?” Sakura asked as he placed it on her lap.

“Tobirama asked me to give it to you. I can incinerate it if you’d like. But I’d open it first,” he replied, settling back down beside her. Kakuzu leaned over the back of the booth to ask him something, but he froze when he saw the box.

Sakura stuck her nail under the edge of the paper to slice the tape. She unfolded the end to reveal a plain cardboard box. She found the edge of the lid to pop the top open. Nestled inside was a microphone. The base was emerald while the rest was made of gold. She held it up to the light, watching the lights sparkle off the metal fixtures.

“Oh wow,” she breathed.

“That’s lovely. It’ll make a nice addition to your collection,” Madara remarked.

Sakura lowered the microphone back into the box. When she lifted her chin, Madara was watching her, an almost-smile tugging at his lips. She handed the box to him. He accepted without hesitation.

“He went that way, darling,” Madara pointed. Sakura got to her feet. She ran down the metal stairs, scanning the crowded room.

She thought she saw him standing near the bar. But as she approached, she saw that it was someone else. Her head swiveled as she scanned the faces again. By some miracle, she spotted him heading out to the lobby.

“Tobirama!” Sakura called. He stopped, head swiveling around. And she was sort of amazed by how he heard her until she passed a mirrored wall. Her eyes were tinged gold. It faded as Sakura took a deep breath. When she turned away from the mirror, she almost ran into Tobirama. He held his hands out, as if to catch her. Stared at his hands. Lowered them.

The lobby was a lot quieter. The lights were on. It was easier to think without the music pounding in her ears.

“I know you don’t want me around. I really just came because Madara asked me,” he told her.

Sakura mashed her lips together as she stared up at him.

He was wearing all black. Gold earrings glinting. It was unbelievable how handsome he was. The edges of everything started to feel a little fuzzy. She fought it, though. This wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have with stars in her eyes.

“Madara’s really leaving?” she demanded.

“Yeah. Madara and I want different things. He wants to go more indie. I wanna expand. The two don’t exactly match up,” Tobirama answered.

“Was… Is this…?” she trailed off with a sigh. She didn’t even know what she was trying to say anymore.

She started when he reached out with both his hands. He squished her cheeks together. And a smile flickered across his face. The one that had always been just for her. Then that expression faded.

Tobirama slipped his right hand into his pocket. He pushed the door open with his other hand. He smiled.

“Happy birthday, Bunny,” was all he said before he walked off.

[anniversary-magazine]

Q+A with Gonzalez Haase: On Their Vision and Recent Project TEM-PLATE

Gonzalez Haase AAS, Berlin-based studio founded by scenographer Pierre Jorge Gonzalez and architect Judith Haase stands for Atelier Architecture and Scenography. The studio has been designing distinctive projects by combining elements of art, cinema and lighting into restaurants, artwork installations, luxury retail interiors, workspace and residential extensions. Founded in 1999, the duo has taken an interdisciplinary approach to the next level, putting their trademark signature into each project.

Every design tells a story that exudes playful, colourful and delicately balanced narrative. Gonzalez Haase are experts at combining the interaction of lighting and architecture with rich materials of exposed concrete, timber and reflective surfaces. At the core of their values is the purpose to work with materials that are inspiring and not too loud, but open up possibilities so that the people can experience something different every day.

Their most recent work is the new luxury store TEM-PLATE in Lisbon. Located in the Marvila district, the new luxury omnichannel concept store aims to transform the international fashion retail landscape by offering a curated product selection of high-end designer clothing, accessories and design objects. The minimalist retail space, boasts a futurist art gallery feel - think all shiny materials for separation elements, white walls and concrete floors meeting under the original coffer ceiling.

We recently sat down with the founders to talk about their story, vision, inspiration, philosophy and recent work, Tem-Plate.

NR: Where did you two meet and how did Gonzalez Haase come about?

GH: We have first met in New York, both working for Robert Wilson foundation development. Judith had been working with Wilson every summer for already ten years, and I joined the program later. From there, Wilson asked us to stay in New York to accelerate the design development of the entire building and integrate his ideas in partnering with Richard Gluckman that was the architect developing prominent galleries at this time in Chelsea. After a time working on this program, we wanted to move back to Europe and establish our own design studio in Berlin along with some friends around the art scene. We then started doing art spaces like galleries, what became our specialty.

NR: Why did you decide to work together?

GH: It was a good match in New York. Judith has an architectural background, and I’m coming from a museum and stage design background with lighting design experience. We rapidly had friends from the art scene asking us to work on projects together, and this was the starting point.

NR: What are you trying to put into the world with Gonzalez Haase?

GH: We try to remove things from the world instead of adding more to it. In our projects, we try to reduce the interventions as much as possible and acceptable by our clients. Building less while emphasizing more on the lighting experience makes sense.

NR: How did you approach the project of Tem-Plate store? What was your main philosophy/objective?

GZ: Tem-Plate founders came to us with this vast open space, a warehouse off the center city of Lisbon, and they have been incredibly open to our ideas. The project is somehow about fragmented spaces into a warehouse with subtle but brutal lighting.

NR: Where did you gather the inspiration for this project?

GH: We are not so much in the idea of inspiration, on references and all these stories that are rarely interesting and serve only a form of bavardage for nothing. We try to go straight to the point: existing space, budget, needs from our partners, and design focused on necessity.

NR: Did you come across any challenges while designing the space?

GH: We had the best partners one needs. The difficulty was to fit a strictly limited budget to implement all technical elements for the air, security, and work with the local norms. We had our partner Duarte Caldas that was working with us a long time ago and today established his own practice and is doing beautiful work. He was helpful and patient.

NR: How was it to work with the original space of the building? How did you approach it, and how did you combine the “old” with the “new”?

GH: It's hard to dream of a better space. On the flipside, such warehouse building is hard to convert. But our strategy was to reveal the architectonic from the building more than adding decorative layers. Our starting point is always about removing what is not part of the structure's bones, which are preserved as an essential construction element.

NR: You designed a Balenciaga store in Paris, Holzweiler store in Oslo and now Tem-Plate in Lisbon. When designing a store, do you take into account the geographical and cultural aspect of the space?

GH: Strangely, it is more the other way around: many times the marketing part of our partners will ask us to bring Berlin into their own culture. But there again we shouldn't be confused about what this means. We, unfortunately, don't design a cultural center or social housing. When one designs a chair, the question is more about the culture of the designer than the recipient. We believe that the interest in our design stands there, bringing our own culture, at least for those projects you just mentioned.

NR: How different is it to design a luxury retail store from other spaces?

GH: Before to do so much in the fashion industry, we were working mainly for the art scene. We are bringing this culture of the space into fashion. Nothing is really new, but the fact that we have been developing many galleries in the young art scene at the start of the new millennium with very low - for not to say no budget - has made us working around low-build strategy. Artificial lighting has then come to be the natural element unifying the whole raw space. We still work with this approach when possible, like we did with Tem-Plate.

NR: Since fashion has a fast cycle of life, how do you create a space that stays "timeless" and immune to the fast-changing process of this industry?

GH: This is the point. A fashion store is rarely surviving the 7-year cycle average. So we don't make up complicated or useless expensive details like the luxury has been used to do. We use affordable, simple materials that are not made to be finished. It's the strategy of showing what it is, the reality of the construction, the durability. It's not fake, it's affordable, and is no indecent investment for such a short time.

Then, fashion collections are updated two times a year, and we think it is necessary, as for an art gallery, to set the space itself to become the frame, the display in which to show the best of the artwork: the goods.

NR: What is a luxury for you? (in design and also in life)

GH: It is about additional space you usually won't find or the space you generate from cleaning up from unnecessary furniture, walls, and other elements. Luxury is finally only something rare.

[fullynialls]

The New Girl - Antoine Griezmann

Based on this request:

Hey! I’ve seen that you posted that you’d like some requests so maybe I can request an Antoine Griezmann imagine? Maybe where there is a new girl working at the club and he thinks she is cute so he flirts with her and wants to ask her out, but she doesn’t believe him because she is a bit self-conscious the way she looks. She is petite, has freckles, very short hair and rides a yellow bicycle. Thank you!

Oops this turned out to be a long one again haha

Let me know what you think and whether you’d like a second part, yeah? I feel like I’ve not completely implemented the request yet xxx

---

She is nervous. Her hands are shaking as she dismounts from her bike and it takes her three tries to successfully turn the key in the bike lock. Calm down she tells herself as she straightens her shoulders and finally walks inside the Wanda Metropolitano. Today is the first day at her new job and she is excited, but so scared at the same time. She’s been a fan of Atletico since she was a little girl, growing up with a dad and a brother supporting the club she’s never really had another choice. And now she’d be working for the team. She had applied for the job several months ago, when she noticed an advertisement on their website. They were looking for someone to join their media team, interviewing the players, taking pictures for the website and the social media account. A couple weeks ago she got the call that invited her to an interview. They’d sked her several questions and when she left, she had no idea whether she had a chance or not. But only a couple days later she got an e-mail, telling her she’d be the new member of the social media team of the club. She couldn’t believe it at first, she was speechless. And now she was walking into the stadium, directly towards the cabins where she was told to be at 5pm today. When she is about to walk through the doors someone tall, dressed in all black stops her. “You must be y/n y/l/n?” She nods, she’s not seen this person before but she thinks it might be one of the security members. He guides her through the halls, underneath the stands she supposes. Then they pass the tunnel and she gets to take a glance at the pitch. She really can’t believe that she’s walking around this area right now, had it not always been her dream to see the stadium from this side? “There you go Miss” the man eventually says as he opens a door for her. She thanks him and steps inside the room. It’s a big conference room, but it’s almost empty, only three people are sitting in front of their laptops. When they spot her they all get up to greet her. One of them she recognizes from her job interview. “Hi y/n, it’s good to see you again” he shakes her hand. “These are Nora and Paul, they’re also part of the social media team. Nora is responsible for our Facebook page and the official website, Paul takes the pictures and I’m mostly coordinating interviews, meetings and other things.” “Hey” she greets the two of them, a bit shy at first but when they invite her to sit with them and they all get to know each other a little the shyness quickly falls off her shoulders. “But now onto the working part” Nora laughs when she finishes a story about her three year old son “until now I was responsible for the Instagram too but in combination with my other two projects it’s too complex. That’s why we want you to take over Atleti’s Instagram account.” Y/n widens her eyes. She thought she’d maybe take some pictures or interview some players every now and then but never did she imagine she’d be responsible for such a big task. But y/n is excited to start the work. “Alright, let’s go then, what shall I do first?” she asks laughing and the other’s join her. James, the team manager, explains her what she’s supposed to do and how they’ll guide her through the first couple of weeks. “You’re first task will be to update the account during tomorrows match.” He ends his explanation and after he shows her how that’s going to work he guides her through the stadium to show her around. Eventually they enter the pitch. “I know you’re a fan right?” he ask and y/n nods eagerly. “I am, all my life actually.” James nods his head towards the tunnels. “Well then, your work for today is done, you can enjoy the training now” he says smiling cheekily. She looks at him in confusion but then she gasps as the players exit the tunnel and make their way onto the pitch only meters away from her. “Are you serious?” she asks and James simply laughs. “Course it is, I thought it’d be good if you got a little used to being close to the players before your work with them starts tomorrow.” Y/n tries to pull herself together. “Good idea” she chuckles, then he says goodbye to her and exits the pitch. At first she doesn’t really know what to do now but eventually she sits down on the away bench, a little away from here the players train and watches them. It honestly feels surreal to her. Suddenly she snaps out of her thoughts when a ball rolls over to her. “Hey” someone calls out for her and as she looks up her eyes widen. It’s Antoine, her all-time favourite player and, being fully honest here, all time celebrity crush. Antoine approaches you, bending down to pick up the ball. “I’m Antoine” he reaches out his hand and shakes hers. “I’ve never seen you here before, have I?” he asks and she shakes his head no, still speechless. He keeps looking at her, waiting for her to say something. “Uhm, yeah I’m new in the social media team” she finally stutters and he smiles at her. “So I’ll see you more often now” he asks and she nods. “I guess so” she says and he grins. “Good” he chuckles. “I gotta go back there.” And with that he leaves, running back to his team mates. “What were you doing?” Lucas asks him and Antoine shrugs. “Saying hi to the girl over there” he nods his head towards the away bench and Lucas takes a glance over his shoulder. “Ahhh” he wiggles his eyebrows at Antoine. “She looks cute.” Antoine laughs and ignores his comment, secretly agreeing with him.

Y/n on the other hand can’t believe what’s just happened. Her idol, her favourite, has just talked to her. He even gave her a smile. She hides her face in her hands as she tries not to completely freak out. How’s she supposed to work with him when she get’s all sar struck when he’s close to her?

 Shaking a little y/n enters the halls underneath the stands of the stadium again, this time with a team member ID so the security guards would let her through. The stadium was already filled with excited fans and y/n first task of the day would be to interview some of them and take pictures to let Instagram know Atleti’s supporters are once again fully supporting their team. She greets Nora who’s going to accompany her and together they start their work. At first y/n is still a bit nervous but as time passes by she gets more excited and confident and has a lot of fun with Nora and the fans. “Alright, that’s enough. Now we gotta head to the changing room to take some pictures of the tricots” Nora explains and guides y/n through the halls to Atletico’s changing room. When they enter she’s taken aback a bit. All the players are gathered together, loudly calling out Nora’s name when they spot her. Nora just laughs, stepping into the room and dragging y/n with her. “guys, guys, alright, it’s enough” she laughingly tries to calm them down. When they eventually do she introduces y/n as the new tem member. “Hi” y/n says, waving slightly at all the boys and they all come over to greet her, each of them hugging or high fiving her to “properly welcome her to the team” as they call it. The last one to wrap his arms around her is Antoine. He smiles down at her when he lets her go again. “Nice to have you in the team” he whispers and she smiles back at him. “Thank you:” Then Nora takes her hand and pulls her away. “Alright, ou can now take pictures of each players jersey for the instagram story. And don’t forget to add them” Nora explains and hands her the phone. Y/n starts doing as she was told. One after the other she uploads and when she reaches Antoine’s spot he’s sitting on his bench in front of his jersey, grinning up at her. Y/n laughs at his behaviour. “Can you move a little, I have to take a picture” she asks him and he gets up, standing closely behind her as she takes the picture and adds him. “You’re doing a good job already” Antoine tells her but y/n shrugs it off. “All I’ve done is take a few pictures” she says and takes a step towards the next jersey. Antoine follows her. “I think you’re doing great” he grins and she can’t help but laugh at his cheesiness. Then Simeone enters the room and calls his players for a last team discussion. “I hope I’ll see you later?” Antoine asks and y/n grins at him. “When you score a goal we’ll definitively will cause then I’ll have to upload a picture of you.” Antoine laughs as he steps away from her. “That’s what I call motivation” he winks at her before she exits the changing room. Y/n can’t help but stare after him. Did he really just wink at her? “Has Antoine already wrapped you around his finger?”  Nora giggles as she notices the look on y/n face. Y/n jolts and hide her face in her hands as she blushes at Nora’s statement. “Don’t be embarrassed” Nora chuckles. “He’s handsome” she adds and y/n sighs. “I think I’ve had a crush on him ever since I’m a fan of Atletico.” Nora nods understandingly. “Well this might be your chance then.” She laughs sat her comment. “Are you kidding me? He’s Antoine Griezmann and I’m nothing. Now, I’ve still got three more jerseys to upload.” With that she focuses back on her work and when she finishes Nora and her exit the room and make their way to the stands. From there they watch the match and Nora shows y/n what kind of uploads they post right during those 90 minutes. It’s 0-0 until the 89th minute when Antoine scores a goal for Atletico. Excited y/n and Nora get up from their seats and cheer for their team. When the game is over they make their way down onto the pitch to take pictures of the players celebrations. When Nora spots Antoine she nudges y/n side. “Go over to him and take a picture of our man of the match” she tells her, wiggling her eyebrows at her. Y/n rolls her eyes but does as she’s told. When she approaches Antoine she spots Lucas getting closer to him and nodding his head in her direction. Antoine turns around and when he sees y/n he jogs over to her. “You came for a picture I guess?” Antoine asks grinning and she nods. He poses for her, forming the L above his head and she laughs. “Thank you“ she tags him in the picture before she uploads it. She’s about to turn away again, too nervous to try and make any more conversation with him. “Hey y/n” Antoine speaks up. “Do you” he gets a little closer “Would you go out with me? Tomorrow night?” She’s taken aback. No way did he just ask her that! But he looks at her expectantly, seriously. Y/n opens and closes her mouth, not knowing what to say. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to” Antoine eventually says but she quickly interrupts her. “No no no, I’d love to” she stutters and he smiles brightly at her. “Alright, I’ll pick you up tomorrow at 8pm?” he asks and she nod. Then he’s about to leave but y/n calls after him. “Wait, you don’t know where I live!” Antoine turns around again. “Right” he laughs and his cheeks redden a little which y/n finds adorable. “I’ll give you my number so you can text to me okay?” he suggests and she nods, typing in his number in her phone. “Alright, I’ll text you” she confirms and he closes the gab between the two of them to press a light kiss onto her cheeks. She blushes and the next thing she knows he’s vanished in the crowd. “Looks like you’ve got him wrapped around your finger just as much” Nora giggles as she approaches y/n and she jolts, slightly hitting her arm. “shut up” she laughs and Nora joins her as the two of them continue their work.

[artlessictoan]

what abt ino x temari

whelp, safe to say that temari and Chouji have won the unofficialrarepair contest kdfjhgskd also.. please consider…….. Super-Buff Femme tema andGlamour Butch ino………………

ok requests are closed for now, I’ll finish off the one I’vestill got in my askbox and then get back to my other projects, this was reallyfun though so next time I’m low on ideas I’ll do another rarepair fest orsomething! thanks to everyone who sent me stuff, hope you enjoyed it!

---

She’d never in her life been as petrified as she was at thismoment. She’d walked through hell and come out the other side to tell the tale– loudly, to anyone in the bar willing to indulge her drunken bragging – butsitting here at her dining table, staring intently at the candles slowlydripping wax into their decorative holders, counting the seconds until contact likeshe would in a courtroom, Temari felt anxiety she’d never known tickling up anddown her spine.

This was gonna go terribly,she just knew.

Mentally she went over the plan again; in approximatelythree minutes Ino was due to arrive, she would walk – not run, walk – to the door and greet her with aconfident smirk and a light peck, then usher her swiftly into the dining room,where she would unveil a beautiful feast and her girlfriend would squeal andgive her a tight hug and they would immediately dig in and marvel at thedelicious meal.

Temari had been preparing for this day for months, she’dbeen training and had thrown several dozen speeches in the bin in frustrationas she sought out the perfect words, but there was no more time left to plan,now she’d just have to pray that she’d done enough.

Her alarm going off made her jump, even though she’d known it was coming, as did the tuneful rappingon the door several seconds later.

Glaring at her phone, she swiped the screen to shut it up,then barrelled to her front door at almost full-speed – nearly twisting herankle when her stiletto heel managed to find the space right between twofloorboards – before practically crashing into the wall. Leaning on it heavilyfor a few moments to collect herself, she quickly glanced in the hallway mirrorand tweaked a few strands of her short, wild, curly hair, hiked up the top ofher strapless dress, then took a deep breath and opened the door.

“What the hell was with that thumping just now, you trip orsomething?” Was the first thing out of Ino’s mouth, followed by, “You look gorgeousbabe.”

She smiled at the compliment, glad that the light dusting ofblush she had would cover her flush and leaned down to place a kiss to hercheek. “Thanks, you do too; is that a new suit?” she asked, eyeing hergirlfriend’s sharp, tailored look appreciatively.

“Mhmm, thought you might like it” Ino said, winking as shesauntered past.

Temari shook her head at the door as she locked it, before placinga firm hand against the small of Ino’s back and pushing her towards the diningtable, even pulling out a chair for her with a smirk.

“Madame.”

Snorting, Ino dropped into the seat. “Enchanté,” she drawled, running a feather-light caress up Temari’s muscledarm, lightly squeezing at her bicep with that slightly delirious giggle shealways gave whenever she admired her girlfriend’s physique – a sound that neverfailed to boost her confidence. “So, what’s on for tonight?”

Gently pulling herself from Ino’s grip, Temari walked overto the kitchenette and pulled out the dishes she’d been keeping warm in theoven, carefully placing them on the table, before lifting the lids with aflourish. “Ghormeh Sabzi, served with rice and bread, and rose rice pudding fordessert.”

“Oh…” She gasped as she looked upon the spread before her. “Ohno… Temari, did you cook this?”

She thwacked her lightly with the oven mitts. “Hey! I knowI’m not a great cook but I’ve been practicing for weeks, I got Kankuro to tutorme and everything-” he’d walked out after two hours, declaring her a lost causeand insult to the culinary arts, but Ino didn’t need to know that, “-I couldfollow this recipe in my sleep I’ve made it so many times!”

Her girlfriend gently brought a hand to her heart in a waythat Temari honestly couldn’t tell was patronising or not. “Aw, babe, you didall that for me?”

Rolling her eyes, Temari sat down across from her girlfriendand started spooning some rice onto her plate, saying, “If you’re gonnacomplain you can just go home.” She knew wouldn’t though, because Ino couldnever resist the beckoning call of a train wreck waiting to happen… no matterhow many times she had been burned in the past.

Sometimes literally, when it came to Temari’s food.

“Oh, stop pouting,” she said, reaching across to take herown fill, the short hair tucked behind her ear falling forward as she did so; sheblew it out of her face with an annoyed huff. “I’m sure it’s lovely!”

Their mutual soft smiles lasted all of five seconds.

By the time Temari had grabbed a roll of kitchen towel, Inohad spat her mouthful back onto her plate and drained half her glass of wineand Temari was seriously regretting attempting to actually swallow.

“Why is it so bland? I’ve eaten paper more flavourful thanthis!” Ino wailed, desperately wiping at her mouth. “And how was the ricecrunchy and mushy at the same time?”

She shook her head desperately. “I don’t know! I followedthe recipe exactly; except the parts that seemed like a waste of time, I meanit was all going to be cooked in the end, so what’s the point in soaking the rice,or that ‘simmer gently’ bull – more heat means faster cooking! – or frying somestuff just to put it to the side only to go back in later, you should just cookit all in one pan at once, why make things harder for yourself!”

“Babe,” Ino said, dragging a hand slowly down her face, “Ilove you, but you can’t even boil an egg properly, what made you think tryinganything more ambitious than a sandwich was a good idea?”

Fully prepared to be deeply offended the entire night, perhapseven giving her girlfriend the silent treatment until she apologised, Temarimade the mistake of taking another bite of her objectively horrendous dinner.

“Ugh, god, fuck!”

Ino snorted, helpfully passing over the wine bottle, whichshe drank from liberally. Eventually she managed to recompose herself, though shecouldn’t remove the sour look from her face.

“…Guess we’ll give dessert a skip then.”

“It’s for the best, good thing I came prepared!” Ino reachedinto her blazer pocket and withdrew a long, thin envelope, holding it out toher as she said, “Happy anniversary!” with a wide grin.

She blinked a few times before hesitantly accepting the gift;sliding a short nail across the seal, she pulled out the contents, staring atthe paper in her hand for a good long two minutes before bursting into laughter,barely managing to speak through her cackling. “You absolute fucking bitch.”

Her girlfriend was stillgrinning at her, head leaning heavily on one hand as she tapped the menus in Temari’shands. “So, what do you feel like ordering?”

“How about some damn respect for all my hard work?” she asked,not able to sound even slightly annoyed.

“Aww, sorry, that’s out of my price range, but maybe I canget you some more wilful self-delusion when it’s back in stock.”

“You’re paying for this you know,” Temari said, idly glancingthrough the menus.

Ino recoiled in shock. “But I’m the guest! Your baby brotherwould be appalled at your sub-par hosting.”

She leaned forwards, batting her girlfriend on the nose withthe Chinese takeaway. “Hey, don’t play the Gaara-card on me, he’d be morelikely to get on your case about not finishing my food like a polite guest would-”

“I’m pretty sure eating this would put me in a hospital.”

“-and you can consider it practise for when you’re not a guest anymore,” she finished,ignoring Ino’s input in favour of checking out some desserts.

There was a long, heavy pause, before she finally realisedwhat she’d just said and how much wine was left in that bottle again? Becauseshe was pretty sure it was Not Enough.

“…Tem-”

She immediately dropped the menus and started waving herhands to cut her off, desperately trying to speak through her heaving lungs, “Oh,shit. I’m, I’m sorry, that wasn’t- Imean, it was, but that wasn’t how Iwanted to ask, I’m just…”

Soft, slender fingers caught her flapping wrists, tugging untilshe’d calmed down a little. Across the table, Ino was giving her the gentlest smile, bright eyes sparkling inthat way she adored, as she stood from her seat and slowly walked around to herside, crouching down so they were eye-level with each other and reaching onehand to tangle in her hair.

“Yes, I’ll move in with you,” she said, giggling andpressing a light kiss to Temari’s nose, “but only if you promise to never touch a frying pan ever again.”

Trying and failing to hold in her excited laugh, she presseda kiss of her own to Ino’s lips. “Deal.”

---

[compartmentalisinghmpf]

Oh yeah, hey! I finally reviewed the latest Laundry book!

Just in time before the next one comes out, lol. Here it is:

The Delirium Brief (TDB in the following) was greeted in many quarters as a return to form after the slight slump of the last few books. Ungenerous souls might say that this is largely due to fans being a tad inflexible when it comes to swapping POV characters, and thus being happy to finally be back with familiar old Bob. Which is true, as far as it goes, but not the whole story. (Personally, I happen to think the Bob-narrated Rhesus Chart formed part of the slump already... I would like to add that it really was only a slight slump.) TDB is probably my second-favourite installment of the series after The Fuller Memorandum, and that has a lot to do with the way it leaves me with a lasting, urgent sense of dread, just like that earlier volume did. It also has something to do with the way TDB tells the story of a shocking fall from grace… also, somewhat, like that earlier volume (arguably. Bob really didn‘t so much fall as was shoved). Last but not least, like volume three, this installment succeeds in lifting the Laundry series onto an entirely different playing field. Since volume three, it has been obvious that eventually we would have to enter the field of politics -- and now we‘re finally there. Plotwise, it‘s a proper rollercoaster ride from start to finish. After Leeds, secrecy is no longer an option, and the book opens with Bob being interviewed on national television… and things really spin out of control fast, after that. We have been in the beginning stages of Case Nightmare Green for a while now, but Stross doesn‘t try to top the fireworks of the previous book, for now. Nevertheless, the events of TDB feel even more momentous: the Laundry crosses a Rubicon, and the extended quoting, at a certain point, from a certain infamous work from history should make us think very hard indeed about whether we still want to cheer them on, now. TDB, I think, represents the culmination of a project that Stross has been pursuing, sneakily, for quite some time: to make us root for protagonists and an organisation who, via their dedication to an Undeniably Just Cause, slowly turn into something that in any other context we would readily identify as "the bad guys". The larger story of the Laundry is now fundamentally a story about complicity. All the while we still can‘t help but root for our heroes. The reader thus becomes complicit, too. This is a wonderfully complex place to leave things for a while. As for Bob: Bob‘s presence as a narrator at this stage is indeed essential to the success of the book, because throughout the series, it is through Bob‘s developing identity as a sometimes conflicted, sometimes distancing-himself-by-snark, but, ultimately, always loyal operative that we‘ve experienced the Laundry‘s sense of its purpose, necessities, and (shifting) moral baselines. We`ve experienced the conditions of, and slide towards complicity through Bob -- and now we get to see the result. It‘s been a fascinating journey. Bob, signifcantly, makes none of the most crucial decisions in the book -- not actively. The most important ones are made entirely without his knowledge, or even forced on him by magic, without so much as asking his consent. (Not that the Laundry was ever big on consent.) It‘s an interesting choice to give your protagonist/narrator this little agency, especially in a book in which such momentous things happen. Bob‘s role in the Laundry and his self-image – the latter of which, much earlier, still bore traces of the old "rebellious hacker" archetype, although that‘s always been more pose than reality – are beginning to converge. He is beginning to think of himself as a tool/weapon to be wielded by the Laundry, and no longer seems to question what the Laundry does, nor its methods. This, of course, is one way in which complicity with large-scale evil happens. I‘ve said elsewhere that I think Bob is not necessarily an interesting character in his own right, but that I find him deeply fascinating as a reasonably ordinary character reacting to, and being changed by an utterly extraordinary situation. In TDB, this continues to be true, only more so. In tems of how he relates to the larger political and supernatural situation, his private and professional loyalties and sense of duty, his still-stinging conscience and his growing reservoir of guilt, not to mention his very unusual… abilities and ontological situation – and perhaps even, if it ever sees a resurgence, the remnants of that slight rebellious streak in his self-image - Bob is currently quite possibly the most interesting character in the series (or at least the one in the most psychologically interesting situation). – Very closely followed by Mo, of course, though at the moment it‘s a bit hard to say where Mo is, in terms of character, as the end of the book shakes things up in that regard, all the way into the sphere of the Unknowable. I know the next book will feature other characters, and that‘s fine, I‘m sure I‘ll enjoy it, too. I do hope, though, that we get to keep Bob and Mo as recurring POV characters, as well, in later books - because I really can‘t wait to see what choices they‘ll make in post-TDB-Britain – and I want to see those choices from the inside as well as the outside. 

[darylelockhart]

How the mindset of designers can make us better leaders

by Moura Quayle

The author, second from left, is seen in this photo in a designed leadership dialogue session. The techniques of designers can help make us better leaders. (UBC School of Public Policy and Global Affairs)

When I decided to write a book on how design has informed my leadership experiences, I spent time and energy searching for a better word for my title.

After all, there are thousands of “leadership” books filling up business and self-help shelves or on the “others read this book” lists on our favourite online bookseller. But I was unsuccessful in finding another word for leadership.

But designed leadership is about how the mindset, tools and techniques of designers can make us better leaders, and so that’s the title I gave my book.

Designed leaders paint their way forward. Rhonda K/Upsplash

Leaders with a design mindset have a clear and transparent thinking or problem-solving process that works well with any number of people — family members, a community, an organization or a business. They “paint” the way forward with colourful, wide brushes to ensure a diverse range of perspectives.

I have only really ever learned in studios — places of learning-by-doing that are project-focused and highly integrative.

Studios are magic because they invite experimentation and creativity, although design is by definition a rigorous balance of the critical/analytical and the creative/generative.

The trick is knowing which aspect of our thinking processes to listen to at the right time. Is it time to converge on an idea or action? Or is it time to diverge to create more options? Whatever the action, designers have to lead.

Ask. Try. Do.

Designed leadership uses design and thinking processes. I am agnostic as to “what” design and thinking process others use. I use strategic design: ASK. TRY. DO.

When I joined the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business after four years as a deputy minister in the B.C. government in the Ministry of Advanced Education, I was challenged to introduce design methods for business innovation to business students.

I knew I needed a simple “hook” to remind students quickly of a useable process. I came up with ASK. TRY. DO. It works.

(Author provided)

Ask is about research and asking questions.

Try is about generating ideas and quickly testing them.

Do is … well, do is about doing, monitoring and evaluating.

Here’s a simple example. Leadership is often about making the best possible decisions. Say your family wants to plan a weekend adventure. Like many aspects of leadership, this decision process is collaborative and involves the whole family.

You would probably want to ask a lot of questions: What are the facts? The five W’s work well here: Why? What? When? Who? Where? It’s also probably useful to establish some criteria — what does a successful weekend look like?

Now move on to try generating ideas and testing them. This part may be the most fun as the family can call upon its creativity to generate a lot of ideas — a time for taking risks and then testing some of the ideas against your criteria for success: Safety, fun, uniqueness and cost.

And finally, do — decide on budget, time line, roles and responsibilities. And then monitor, after the weekend adventure, how the family enjoyed it. What did you learn?

All of these steps can be applied to business decisions as well by successful adherents of designed leadership.

Designing something better

I see the concept of “design thinking” that’s now relatively common as being a set of tools under the umbrella of strategic design.

Strategic design is more than design thinking. It utilizes design research, design thinking and design delivery. It drives our thinking toward transformation, to action and change, to designing something better.

There’s no recipe for this. In fact, like design, designed leadership takes different twists and turns often modified by changes in context, scale, mood and even whim.

I realized that using strategic design in leadership roles is a way of looking at the principled pragmatism of getting things done.

Design is a process driving towards a solution — a product, a service, or sometimes something intangible. When done well, the results have both utility and the elegance of complex requirements resolved.

But when solutions are held accountable to diverse interests and standards, silos of expertise often cause structural and cognitive barriers. A new set of skills and knowledge is required. Rarely do experts weave together human nature, business pragmatism and political influences to update and upgrade systems, products or organizations.

Linking values to actions

From one perspective, my work is at the increasingly hybrid convergence of diverse public, private, special and self-interests in a digital age.

A vital link between strategic design and leadership is the idea of using principles to link values to actions. More specifically, principles guide decisions and provide common points of reference for performance, accountability and improvement.

In Designed Leadership, I note 10 principles that I learned, and relearned, and relearned, which allow me to work with amazing people from different cultures, education, expertise and levels of experience to get things done.

These principles are derived from theories that are the platform of built environment design that is my background: Landscape architecture and urban design.

I thought about the various ways that we make decisions and test ideas in the built environment — and then imagined how useful they could be to the strategic design of organizations or services. Here they are:

1) Make values explicit.

2) Know place and experience.

3) Value diversity.

4) Emphasize edges and boundaries.

5) Bridge gaps and make connections.

6) Evaluate for fit, scale and context.

7) Learn from natural systems.

8) Apply the Jane Jacobs test, meaning, among other things, applying permeable thinking and mixed methodologies in your strategic design ideas.

9) Attend to patterns.

10) Never finish but always complete.

As background to the principles, I emphasize different kinds of values: Core values (like accountability, effectiveness and respect), process values (like complexity, resilience and diversity) and foundation values (like long-term, cost-effective, efficient). These values form the basis for the principles and for the practice of designed leadership.

In my book, there are also chapters on thinking visually and spatially, places to practise designed leadership, learning and education and some case studies.

But I look forward to correcting, improving and updating the book. Because designed leadership is always a work in progress; indeed, that is also its strength and what keeps our organizations dynamic and young.

Moura Quayle is Director, pro tem of the UBC School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and Professor at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. 

[midnightcoffeerain]

”Hi! Can I have a teen wolf and marvel ship please ? My mother tongue is french. I'm smol (5'2"), I have brown hair and green eyes. I love travelling ! I like going out with friends, reading, playing piano, juggling and dancing. I'm 22 straight girl. I study psychology at the university. I'm ravenclaw, ENFJ and aries. I try to go out of my comfort zone. Humour is really important for me. I'm optimistic, independent and I try to be kind to everyone (sorry for my english) Thank you!”

Hi gal! Thank you so much for the request! (And of course the tag in that post!) Sorry it's taken so long and don't be silly your english is great 😊💖 also i used google translate for the french my apologies if it's wrong!

For Marvel I ship you with…. STEVE ROGERS!

The first time he saw you, you were teaching french in a local school. He was doing a surprise visit to help boost morale after the recent attacks the last few years. So busy with the visit he didn't even have a chance to go over and introduce himself.

2 weeks later he found himself in a local coffee shop when heard a voice that made him lift his head from the book in front of him. You stood to the right of the shop ordering with a smile on your face as you laughed along with the barista. He watched as you took your drink and sat down, took a laptop out and started typing away. He felt like it was faith.  He had been kicking himself for not making time to meet you and was taking this as his chance. He mustered up the courage he needed to approach you.

“Un travail des enseignants n'est jamais fait next-gen”

"Pas s'il y a toujours quelqu'un à enseigner” you smiled at the familiar super soldier stood in front of you. Impressed that he knew your native tongue. You spoke for hours getting into deep conversation about everything. He told you he picked up some french from working with soldiers but it was a bit rusty.  You offered to help him pick the language up again if he wanted which he eagerly agreed to.

He sent flowers to your classroom for 5 straight days. On the 5th day he waited for you to finish work to deliver tem personally. He then with your permission took you for dinner.

You were also the school's guidance counsellor. You took pride in being able to assist people and letting them know someone was there. A bit of help went a long way and you were more than willing. Steve admired that. His own natural state was to protect and help. He bragged to Bucky one day about you, you then found the winter soldier inside your office wanting a quick chat because “Steve won't let me meet you yet”

You often go together for secluded weekends away from the hustle and bustle of the city. You would both spend the day travelling around your surroundings before spending the evening cooking dinner. He would ask for you to play piano for him and you would ask him to tell you stories from his life before the war.

Your relationship song - Marry Me By Train

For teen wolf i ship you with…. STILES STILINSKI

The first time you met Stiles you couldn't stand him. He yapped in your ear for an hour about some movie you'd never even heard of. You smiled for the first half of the class, but the second half was not as easy. You couldn't help but think that someone who talked this much must reaaaaally like the sound of his own voice.

Unfortunately you were paired up that same class as lab partners for a big assignment due for the end of the year. He yet again spent another class yapping your ear off as you tried to hmm and hah every so often keeping an eye on your work.

The fifth class week is when things changed. Weird things had been happening, people murdered and you got a weird sense of doom and gloom approaching. Your mind was wandering as Stiles sat close enough to you but not near enough to hear what he was chatting to his friends about. You jumped when a bird hit the window knocking you out of your day dream. “What the…” you start looking at the window noticing a huge flock aiming its way towards the window.

Before you knew it you were being pushed to the ground a body protecting yours as you felt your chest tighten and wings batter against any part of you not covered.

When it die down you looked up to see a worried Stiles glancing over you before pulling you into a sitting position. You were shocked to say the least but your whole perspective changed that day. An annoying know it all blabbermouth suddenly became a caring individual who sacrificed his own safety for yours.

You bought him a takeaway and brought it to him that weekend to thank him for protecting you from getting your eyes pecked out. You two spent hours laughing and chatting disregarding the science project sitting on the table.

You found yourself falling for the goofy boy who pulled faces to make you laugh. The more time you spent together you found a connection that kept pulling you two together. You eventually found out about werewolves when one evening you were in the wrong place at the wrong time and Scott came to your rescue along with Stiles and his bat.

When you weren't busy with pack stuff you two spent every second together. He eventually got the courage to ask you to be his girlfriend and you smiled and laughed how you thought he used to be so annoying and now you were falling for him. He told you that he had made it his mission for you to become friends due to your lack of interest in him. You both got more than you bargained for.

Your relationship song - Little Things By One Direction

~Requests for ships and one shots are open~

[earthconstructs]

Blog

I started a blog in July 2017, paid for a domain, did it up using Squarespace, made it super pretty. In 2017 I started focusing on improving my writing, and in my goal for 2018 was to become a better writer. 

In November 2018, I finished working at the Water Corporation after I had documented the “Kep Project”. My manager was acting in another manager’s role, and so an acting manager ended up signing off on my final report. I put a lot of effort into that report, I spent many evenings alone in the office trying to figure out if it was laid out well, clear to people who may be coming across the topic for the first time. I wonder if anyone will actually read it, or has, in the last two years.

The acting manager who was reviewing my report was known to be a stickler for detail, call out bad quality work, and be quite picky. She read my report, signed it off, and gave me feedback that it was written really well. And that was it for me - I had achieved my goal of being a being a better writer / writing better reports.

It’s funny how I needed the paid domain and blog back when I was working full time, and had a lot going on in my life, to motivate me to write. if I didn’t, then it would be like I was wasting the money I’d spent on it. 

But now it’s a huge expense. So I’m closing the blog, and keeping this free brain dump version of a blog. Where I just brain dump, without being strict on myself, and reading every post over and over and over again for fear of being judged by my friends - the only people who read it anyway. 

Finishing here with a copy-paste-dump of the 4 blog posts I wrote from July 2017 to April 2018. 

30 July 2017 - I am an engineer

I am an engineer trying to figure out my place in helping to make the world a better place for everyone to live in. I became a mechanical engineer because I liked understanding how stuff works. But recently, I've realised that a big part of the stuff I am interested in is how people and the world work to create this life that I am living. I am always learning, so this blog is my attempt to capture some of it, so that I can refer back to it later, and to hopefully share something new with you as well.

 30 July 2017 - My first visit to Kalgoorlie as a guest speaker

WASM Wall by Jason Dimer

OK, I’ll admit it, when I saw a request come through EWB* channels for a female engineer to present at the GEMIA* Girls and Guys Exploring Mining Forum, in Kalgoorlie, I jumped at the opportunity!

There were a couple of reasons why:

As a female engineer and EWB volunteer, I am passionate about inspiring students, especially female students, to pursue careers in STEM* fields as I believe these fields nurture the critical thinking so needed in our current world, and that increasing the number of females with careers STEM fields is one of our quickest paths towards gender equality

I had heard a lot about Kalgoorlie, but had never been there myself. I believe that the best way to learn about a place is by visiting, experiencing, immersing and talking to the locals (spoiler alert, I spent a lot of time doing this in my one and a half days there)

Everything we do at Engineers Without Borders links to one of the Aims from our 2020 Strategy. Speaking at events such as this Mining Forum for Year 9-11 high school students in Kalgoorlie fits into our aim to redefine engineering, specifically: “We will redefine engineering as a community centred profession that provides leadership in the creation of a more sustainable and inclusive world”.

And that is what I had at the front of my mind as I was putting together a presentation covering my career in engineering to date, my work as an Engineers Without Borders volunteer, and the concept of humanitarian engineering - with the aim to engage and inspire teenagers!

I wanted to share some examples of humanitarian engineering with the students, and luckily Sheena Ong, our ex EWB WA President and creator of the documentary “The Humanitarian Engineer", allowed me to include video clips of snippets from the documentary. I chose three examples that I thought conveyed the message of humanitarian engineering and appropriate technology concisely:

Rob Hughes, EWB field engineer, on developing biodigesters in Tonle Sap, Cambodia

The installation of Playpumps in Africa

Darren Lomman, Dreamfit founder discussing examples of equipment design or modification to make them accessible for people with disabilities

For each of the above examples that I showed the school group, I asked them three questions:

Did it address disadvantage?

Did it use science or technology?

Did it consider the community or persons’s needs in the design process?

After running through the second definition of humanitarian engineering covered in the documentary - humanitarian engineering is engineering that puts human well-being at the centre - I asked the students if I was a humanitarian engineer.

The questions I asked were answered by the students with a combination of murmurs of yes, and cocked heads. When I queried the teachers about this later, they said it was because this was not a topic that they had heard of before. I hope that I helped them to think about what engineering is, and that it can be related to more than the gold mining happening just up the road from Kalgoorlie town centre.

I like to think that I succeeded; later in the day one of the students asked me:

If I could be any kind of engineer, what would it be?

EWB = Engineers Without Borders GEMIA = Goldfield Education Mining Industry Alliance TEM = Science, technology, engineering and maths

Lemon Scented Gum at the Mt Charlotte walk trail and waterwise garden

Mulla mulla overlooking the superpit

Amok Island - 58 Egan St Kalgoorlie

21 August 2017 - Diversity and Inclusion

I had a really good weekend. I had back to back appointments and catch ups from Friday to Sunday night, and like the good extrovert that I am, it left it me feeling happy, stimulated and productive.

Which brings me to Monday night. I’m writing this during my first free moment, after my first day back at work since getting home from two weeks leave (while half watching the latest episode of Rick and Morty with my domestic partner). Anyway, I'm here to write about the Engineers Without Borders Humanitarian Day Gala, which I attended last Friday night.

On this night we heard from three speakers - Pete Baynard-Smith (Engineers Without Borders CEO), Suzanne Brown (Water Corporation Drainage and Liveable Communities Manager), and Fadzi Whande, social justice advocate and inclusion and diversity adviser.

And while I loved hearing about Pete and Suzanne's experience and work, I'll admit that I learnt the most from Fadzi, from a diversity perspective. I do not know many (any?) women from Africa, or much about diversity and inclusion in the workplace, other than it is important.

There are two points that Fadzi shared which have stuck with me. The first is the analogy she used about diversity and inclusion:

Diversity is being invited to a party, inclusion is being invited to dance.

The second is - The are six steps towards diversity and inclusion in our life and in the workplace are:

1.      You

2.     You

3.     You

4.     You

5.     You

6.     You

What a great way to emphasise that, as with pretty much everything in life, the most important thing I can do is to focus on myself, and what I myself can do or change.

By saying this, I understand that Fadzi means that to work towards diversity and inclusion, we need to start by changing our own circle, recognise that we are mainly surrounded by people that we are used to, and that a way to change this is by changing our own circle, and getting out of our comfort zone.

Hearing this motivates me, as I partly feel that I am on track because I already do this - by going to events I haven't been to before, where there is an opportunity to learn something new or that are attended by people outside my usual circle.

However, I appreciate my circle a lot. I am so lucky to be surrounded by so many smart and admirable friends.

People who:

value logic and data*

are open minded

who have  taught and helped  me see so much of what I understand today

who recognise that we can't assume that we know someone's whole story

(and people who can explain to me what unconscious bias is because they are studying a Masters of Psychology - hopefully you'll get a guest post from that friend soon!)

Thank you Fadzi, Pete and Suzanne for sharing your words and experiences at EWB WA’s Humanitarian Day Gala, and to the special, like-minded people who I got to spend time with on Friday night. You all keep me inspired.

*On Data - I need to figure out my thoughts around data, perception, and community development. On one hand I believe, as Fadzi said on the night - data doesn't lie - and on the other hand, I believe in human centred design - that a community knows what they need, and what the statistics show may not always be what the community needs. I want to figure out which thought applies in what contexts If you have any ideas or information about this, please let me know!!!

9 September 2017 - Chasing Coral

Well, you know they've done a good job with a film when they can make you cry about coral.

CORAL BLEACHING FEBRUARY 2016 AT HERON ISLAND, PHOTO COURTESY THE OCEAN AGENCY / XL CATLIN SEAVIEW SURVEY

But films like this leave me feeling like I'm not doing enough about the ocean's temperature rise. That being vegan isn't enough; I'm still driving an internal combustion car, I don't have solar panels, I'm not putting enough pressure on our Australian government, and not having enough conversations about this with my peers.

I haven't been keeping up with the news much since I got back from a 2 week holiday to WA's North West. Today on triple j's 3pm news, I heard that the Nationals are having a federal conference where NSW and Queensland will present motions to phase out renewable energy subsidies and support the development of the coal industry.

They will also move to resist the determination of environmental groups "to disrupt and impede the progress of this important industry".

I'm just in disbelief. How can they not understand that this is going backwards? How can they not care about the damage that has already been done?

Maybe I need to find myself an opinion piece written by a member of The National party, so that I can try to understand where they are coming from.

Coal is the most polluting way to produce electricity. There are other options. We need to implement them. It seems so simple, what am I missing?

I'm going to The Great Barrier Reef in November. I hope that I won't be too saddened by what I see, and that I get to have some conversations with locals. As I've mentioned in a previous post - learning by immersion.

I'll end this depressing post with an infographic made by the Chasing Coral team, and the fact that I need to stock up a reef-friendly, oxybenzone-free sunscreen, now that summer is one season closer!

2 October 2017 - Experts (I am not one)

I’m writing this as I am watching the sun go over a hill in the distance at Roelands Village, just outside of Bunbury. The hill is known to Les, the director of Woolkabunning Kiakaand his ex-Roelands mission peers as “Bunbury Hill”. It might also be the hill where he pointed out their traditional-spear-watchmen-shaped tree out to us earlier today. Anyway, it’s f*cking blissful as you can see in the photo below, which does it no justice.

I’m here at the ex-Roelands mission for the annual Engineers Without Borders strategy retreat. This year I agreed/volunteered to feed all 20 attendees over the two day weekend. I wasn’t really looking forward to it – but saw it as an opportunity to challenge myself! As well as cooking in the kitchen, I got to take part in the sessions put on by the president, vice president and some other long time volunteers. In one of the sessions, we defined inspiration, which is actually really hard to do!

I was talking to a good friend of mine in the car as we were driving down. I think it was actually the same trip 3 years ago where we first began our deeper conversations about feminism, people, psychology and ethics. This year marks our 10 years of friendship, which for some reason I find a pretty crazy fact (the 10 years part, not the friendship itself). One of the many topics we covered in the two hour drive was - blogging about topics which we are not an expert in. I concluded that for me, this blog is my way of collating and sharing topics and solutions that I come across and am learning about, but is not me speaking as an expert. I hope that by my sharing information and resources, I am supporting the good work that is being carried out by others. There is so much happening around the world; something in place to address nearly every single issue that exists. I just want to keep track of, and share them all! I also hope that this becomes a way for me to hear about interesting work that I might not already know about.

So, you know how I mentioned that I wanted to find a marine friendly sunscreen, after watching Chasing Coral and realising that corals are actually very delicate creatures, and that chemicals in sunscreen are harming them? Well, I did a bit of research and found a couple of brands. One of them is Stream2sea, but as they are an American company, I was on the hunt for something a bit more local. It wasn’t too hard to find – Surf Lifesaving Australia sell a sunscreen where proceeds from sales supports surf lifesaving training and development programs around Australia. They even listed that this sunscreen was in a recyclable aluminium can instead of plastic and I thought, “Even better, it's plastic free - at least when aluminium gets recycled it doesn’t become a lower grade product like in the case of plastic.”

But then when it arrived, in a standard post plastic bag, it was further packaged like this.

How ironic, an item marketed as being marine friendly, wrapped in an item that is widely known as causing enormous damage to the environment, especially marine environments.

When I complained about this in the Zero Waste + Plastic Free Living Perth, WA group on Facebook, Darren Lomman told me that almost all items in the health and beauty aisle in supermarkets comes transported like this. Why? I don’t know enough about wholesaling and packaging to be able to answer that. But it just looks like such as juxtaposition to me:

Marine friendly                                                                                  

                                                                                                                            Plastic

So now that I am done complaining, I need to write a letter Surf Livesaving Sunscreen, to ask them about the irony of this situation. I’m unsure if this will change anything, but at least I will have tried. I suppose the other approach is to accept that it needs to be packed like that for a reason (which I hope I find out when they reply), or do something about the packaging that has already been used and is here to stay in our environment now.

Enter Greenbatch. (Remember how I spoke about interesting projects above?)

Greenbatch is Western Australia’s first PET plastic reprocessing facility. It is founded by a guy called Darren Lomman, who studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Western Australia (like me!). Darren recently handed over the reigns of Dreamfit, an organisation he founded that designs equipment for people with disabilities). He is now using his engineering and entrepreneurial background to establish a plastic processing facility, with the aim of reprocessing 100 million bottles by 2025, preventing them going into landfills, oceans and waste incinerators. Plastic processed through Greenbatch will be turned into 3D printing filament for schools to build and create with.

You can support this amazing social enterprise by:

-          Telling your friends about Greenbatch

-          Giving them a donation

-          Getting your local school involved

They are also holding a free community event at Perth City Farm on Wednesday 18 October. This event will give us the opportunity to learn from experts in the fields of sustainability, education, marine conservation and plastics recycling.

The experts will share what WA is doing about waste and recycling and ways that it can be improved, and talk about initiatives currently underway solving waste problems and how you can get on board and be a part of this sustainable change.

For more info, or to register your spot at this event click here.

I hope to see you there, and if you can’t make it, stay tuned for a summary of the event here on my blog :)

13 April 2019 - Work, Life and Balance

Well, it's been 6 months since my last post. I can remember the last 6 months so clearly, though it feels like they passed in a blur. I have felt so much anticipation in the lead up to big events that I had been excited about for months or years; 18 months of anticipation before getting married, 7 months of awaiting Kep's arrival in Perth, and two and a half years of looking forward to moving to Europe.

Kep's arrival... I'll give some background before I continue.

Kep is Water Corporation's leak detection dog. She's the world's first dog to be trained solely to detect underground water leaks, using only the scent of treated water alone, as a cost effective way of leak detection in areas where it is difficult and costly to perform leak detection via the usual methods.

In August last year, after I lead a successful trial with two experienced detection dogs, I learnt that I would be the project manager of a project to acquire Water Corporation's first leak detection dog. I worked together with the dog trainer, Steve Austin, to select a working English Springer Spaniel puppy, who we named Kep*. She began training with Steve in Sydney, and her delivery date to Western Australia depended on her physical and mental maturity. On her arrival in Perth, I would also complete training to become her primary handler.

From August to November, as well as working on water source planning projects as part of my substantive role, I spent a lot of time detailing options for the implementation of a detection dog into Water Corporation's business, including all required logistics  for the transport and care of the working dog.

After getting married in Perth and honeymooning to the Great Barrier Reef at the end of November, December passed in the usual holiday-period way - fast. In January, I spent every spare moment during the weekends doing the things I love - camping, hiking, scuba diving, going to the beach, seeing friends, teaching piano and learning new things (surfing!!!). February was spent preparing for Kep's arrival, and I also fit in a trip to Melbourne where I presented at the Australian Water Association Young Professionals conference, and caught up with dear friends (some human, some furry).

And then, it was the end of February and the end of summer! I spent 3 weeks being a new dog mum and handler, before I handed Kep over to her other handler so that I could fly off for a 4 week trip to Europe,, where I have been since the end of March.

I had never been so excited for a holiday before; usually I would feel excited about going to explore new places and eating new food. This time, I just needed a break badly.

For the first time in my working life, I had felt...stressed.

In the lead up to, and in the 3 weeks after Kep's arrival, I had been featured in workplace internal communications, been on TV multiple times, and presented at an Engineers Australia Young Innovative engineers presentation.

I felt like everyone within Water Corporation, and a lot of members of the public, knew about my project, and I was very aware of the two most common attitudes of people when they heard about my project:

- You have the best job ever, how did you get it?!

- Will it really work, is it really that effective?

Both attitudes make me feel slightly guilty about how much I love my job at the moment, and how good I have it, in different ways.

It wasn't until both the dog trainer's program manager and my CEO's personal assistant had asked me - "How are you going with all the pressure?" - that I realised that it was normal to be feeling how I was. Once they asked, it made sense - I was experiencing what I was because my project was in the public eye.

Through my experiences in the last few months, I've learnt a lot more about myself and become better at dealing with pressure. By this I mean I am better at controlling how I feel internally, as apparently it doesn't show on the outside. What I also now know, is how it feels to be excited and invested in my work every day. The last 6 months have made me realise how much I enjoy working on new, exciting, and never-been-done-before projects.

The answer I gave to a student's question in Kalgoorlie has also stuck with me. I still think about working on plastic reprocessing, and ocean clean ups. And my next career goal is to have a bigger impact on issues that I care about. As my time away from Australia is wrapping up, for now, I'm starting to think about how I want to spend my time when I am back in Perth. As well as the busy project schedule awaiting me for the implementation of Water Corporation's leak detection dog into the business, there are still many issues that I want to delve into and learn about in more detail. And I'd like to get better at balancing work, exercise, diet and reading/learning.

For me, this post reflects on and captures a certain point in my life - the feeling of wired-excitedness for what will come next in my life and career.

*Kep

Kep was named after the Noongar word for water, which was selected in consultation with Noongar elders and the Water Corporation's Aboriginal Affairs team, and was the winning name in a Facebook poll with the Western Australian community where 7 000 people voted.

You can view more about Kep here:

Kep's Water Corporation page

Kep on Channel 9 News

Kep on GWN News

[danilakozlovskyfansbr]

#Coach

A estreia de Danila Kozlovsky como diretor: Primeiras fotos no set do filme "Coach".

Danila Kozlovsky começou a gravar um novo filme chamado "Coach". Para o recente vencedor do Golden Mask Award, este é o primeiro projeto como diretor; Ele também interpreta o papel principal - o artilheiro da equipe nacional Yuri Stoleshnikov, que não marca uma penalidade no momento decisivo na trama. Depois de um erro lamentável, Stoleshnikov deixa a equipe nacional, termina sua carreira e se torna treinador da pequena equipe provincial "Meteor". É com este clube que o herói tem que realizar um milagre e novamente acreditar em si mesmo.

"Sempre sonhei em interpretar um treinador de futebol", diz Danila Kozlovsky. "Quando começamos a trabalhar no filme 'Coach', eu planejava ser apenas um produtor e ator, mas em algum momento eu percebi que não posso e não quero confiar em ninguém esta história, quero contar ela eu mesmo - Como diretor ".

Danila admite que, para ele esta história é sobre paixão, sentimentos, emoções, sobre como um pequeno grupo de pessoas em uma cidade remota da província mudou o mundo ao seu redor:

"[É] sobre pessoas que não têm medo de realizar o seu sonho e assim dar esperança aos outros, fazer o impossível. Na história do futebol, há muitos tais exemplos - FC Rostov, Leicester, seleção Islandesa. Mas este filme é não só sobre o futebol. É também uma tentativa de falar não sobre as páginas gloriosas e heróis do passado, mas sobre o que está acontecendo aqui e agora, o fato de que um milagre é possível hoje ".

As filmagens de "Coach" serão realizadas em Moscou, Krasnodar, Novorossiysk e Londres na primavera e verão de 2017. O filme será lançado em abril de 2018 - na véspera da Copa do Mundo, cujo embaixador Danila Kozlovsky foi anunciado em março.

"Estou feliz por ter a oportunidade de participar da Copa do Mundo, ao fazer meu trabalho profissional, ou seja, criar um filme sobre futebol", diz Danila Kozlovsky. "Eu também sou um fã, mas no futebol eu não estou torcendo para as equipes, mas para a personalidade, para aqueles que fazem milagres contra todas as expectativas. É sobre uma pessoa como essa que retratamos esse filme".

No elenco, Danila Kozlovsky, Vladimir Ilyin, Andrey Smolyakov, Olya Zueva, Irina Gorbacheva, Maria Lobanova, Pavel Vorozhtsov, Aleksandr Ilyin, Igor Gordin. Nikita Mikhalkov está entre os produtores. A produção é dirigida pelos estúdios Kinoslovo, Nikita Mikhalkov TRITE Studio e DK Entertainment com o apoio da Fundação Cinema.

_________________________

The debut of Danila Kozlovsky as director: First photos on the set of the film Coach.

Danila Kozlovsky started to film a new movie "Coach". For the recent winner of the Golden Mask Award, this is the first project as a director; He also plays the main role - the national team scorer Yuri Stoleshnikov, who does not score a penalty at the deciding moment in the plot. After an unfortunate mistake, Stoleshnikov leaves the national team, finishes his career and becomes coach of the small provincial team "Meteor". It is with this club that the hero has to perform a miracle and again believe in himself.

" I've always dreamed of playing a football coach," says Danila Kozlovsky. "When we started working on the 'Coach' movie, I planned to be just a producer and actor, but at some point, I realized that I can't and don't want to trust anyone with this story, I want to tell this story myself - as a director."

Danila admits that for him this story is about passion, feelings, emotions, about how a small group of people in a remote provincial city changed the world around them:

"[This] is about people who are not afraid to realize their dream and thereby give hope to others, the hope to do the impossible. In football history, there are many examples - FC Rostov, Leicester, Iceland squad. But this film is not only about football. This is also an attempt to tell not about the glorious pages and heroes of the past, but about what's happening here and now, the fact that a miracle is possible today. "

"Coach" filming will be held in Moscow, Krasnodar, Novorossiysk and London in the spring and summer of 2017. The film will be released in April 2018 - on the eve of the World Cup, whose ambassador Danila Kozlovsky was announced in March.

"I'm happy to have the opportunity to participate in the FIFA World Cup while doing my professional work, that is, creating a film about football," says Danila Kozlovsky. "I'm also a fan, but in football I'm not rooting for the teams, but for the personality, for those who work miracles against all expectations. It's about a person like that we take our film."

In the cast, Danila Kozlovsky, Vladimir Ilyin, Andrey Smolyakov, Olya Zueva, Irina Gorbacheva, Maria Lobanova, Pavel Vorozhtsov, Aleksandr Ilyin, Igor Gordin will act. Nikita Mikhalkov is among the producers. The production is directed by the studios Kinoslovo, Nikita Mikhalkov TRITE Studio and DK Entertainment with the support of the Cinema Foundation.