#but when i lose like 5 times in a row and its like a 30-70 ratio everytime it makes me feel really fucking horrible

[delightfuldevin]

Idk what it is about splatfests but I always play so bad during them. I never lose as often nor as badly at turf war as I do during splatfests and it makes the game less enjoyable for me :/

[gstqaobc]

🇨🇦🇬🇧🇨🇦STOP THE PRESSES🇬🇧🇨🇦🇬🇧

STOP PRESS: We thought you'd be delighted to hear that, thanks to members’ generosity, our first advertising about the League for many years in La Belle Province appeared today in the leading newspaper of Quebec City, Le Soleil. If you would like to receive a pdf copy of the ad, please request by return email.   ECOMM 8.5.21 A JUBILEE BLESSING...OUR THANKS... LEAGUE FLAGS - again available LEAGUE TARTAN SCARF - update and last but not least A SPRING SALE OF MONARCHICAL ITEMS PLATINUM JUBILEE MEDAL Our thanks to the many members who told us they have contacted their MP and the Prime Minister’s office to express their support for the issuance of this Medal in the Canadian tradition.  We look forward to hearing of replies any of you may receive; and we ask you keep up the chain of advocacy by thinking of friends to whom you can send our original message, and urge then to participate in our efforts. A BLESSING ON THE QUEEN IN THE IROQUOIAN TRADITION A member of the UEL Association who is a Kanienkehaka Embassador at Large, wrote to the League as follows: Please remember our Mohawk members, who would like to express our good wishes and thanksgivings to our Sister. You may be familiar with our ceremonial blessings, and the thanksgiving address to be offered before all matters; it is an Iroquoian custom:

Next year marks the 70th Anniversary of The Queen’s reign. Our Monarchy has never before seen a Platinum Jubilee! Thus the occasion calls for celebration, thanksgiving and above all, a sense of gratitude and unity. LEAGUE FLAGS NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER AT DISCOUNTED RATE With hundreds of new members in recent months, the League has received a number of requests as to when we will re-issue the League Flag. Part of our Armorial Bearings, it bears a Royal Crown by personal permission of Her Majesty The Queen. Produced for many years by our friends at the Flag Shop, it is ideal for your den or boathouse, a kid's bedroom, college dorm - with grommets so it can if you wish also be flown on a flag pole outdoors Its dimensions are 24 x 42 inches, and it is made of 200d nylon.  We order and keep only a limited stock, so as not to tie up funds in inventory, as it is a specialty item. PRE-PRODUCTION SPECIAL: $85 INCLUDES POSTAGE LIMIT: TWO PER MEMBER If you wish to reserve a Flag (we should receive it in around three weeks) kindly access the League’s online store at https://store.monarchist.ca/en/products and make a “Fighting Fund” donation for $85.  We will know your purpose, and get a Flag right off to you once we have received them.   THE LEAGUE’S TARTAN SCARF Progress Report Thanks to our friend Matthew Rowe, who runs the Prince of Wales-patron Campaign for Wool in Canada, we have located a UK manufacturer who is willing to manufacture scarves in a small quantity by commercial standards. The fine Tartan chosen by you, and designed by our member Carol Martin, will be woven of  wool, sized 180cm (app 70 in) X 30cm (app 11½ in) with tassels of 7cm (app 2 3/4 in). We will approve the cloth material this coming week. It appears a custom label may be expensive given the quantity required - we will do our best to resolve that issue and deal with somewhat tiresome but important details remaining, such as the method of shipping to Canada and potential duty and taxes. It is our hope to come up with firm pricing in June, and shortly after to solicit pre-orders within the price range acceptable to the several hundred members who expressed interest in a scarf.  All of which is to say - we are on track, and look forward to producing and getting to you the League’s first - and long overdue - piece of apparel suitable for both women and men!   AND NOW.... WHAT (SOME OF) YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR... OUR SPRING SALE! These monarchical souvenirs, for one reason or another not suited to our annual Silent Online Auction in September, have been donated to the League in recent months. Many would be suitable for young people to interest them in the Monarchy and history. IF YOU WANT TO PURCHASE AN ITEM/ITEMS, PLEASE CONTACT US FIRST TO MAKE SURE YOUR CHOICES ARE STILL AVAILABLE. WE WILL THEN CALCULATE THE POSTAGE APPLICABLE TO YOUR ORDER, AND GIVE YOU A LIMITED TIME TO PAY ONLINE VIA THE LEAGUE STORE, THE ONLY FORM OF PAYMENT FOR THIS SALE, BEFORE MAKING THEM AVAILABLE TO THE NEXT MEMBER REQUESTING. 1) THREE CORONATION 1953 MAGAZINES The Sphere, Illustrated, and The Illustrated London News, lovingly used condition, each telling the story of the Coronation as only the British can do!  The advertising is fascinating, too. These will be enjoyed as living images and texts describing the beginning of a glorious Reign! $20 2) SIX ROYAL SOUVENIR PUBLICATIONS Maclean’s magazine’s tribute to Diana on her death; Pitkin glossy colour booklet Charles and Diana’s Wedding day; The Queen’s Silver Jubilee Pitkin-sized booklet; another similar-sized booklet by Ronald Allison: The Queen - The Life and Work of Elizabeth II; Illustrated London News Royal Year 1986; Illustrated London Newscoverage of The Marriage of Princess Anne, 1973. $25 3) HMY BRITANNIA POSTER Sized app. 16 x 20 inches, a glossy photographic portrait (2002) of The State Rooms aboard Britannia.  Especially appropriate now that the Yacht is, in a way, to be replaced by the HMS Prince Philip. In a tube with Britannia-watermarked tissue paper and a gold Britannia seal, we suspect it was sold at the resting place of the ship, now a tourist attraction. Some water stains. Will need to be dry mounted to remove creases from rolling, after which it will occupy pride of place in a den, a kid’s bedroom or a man cave! $25 4) A CRAZY FUN ITEM: COLOUR RUBBER 3-D DIANA KEYCHAIN You will never lose your keys with this app 1 3/4 inch high rubberized moulded Diana key chain! We’ve not seen anything like it previously. You might well use it - or display it as a sure conversation-starter on a shelf, perhaps next to a bobbling Queen! $20 5) SILVER JUBILEE MEDALLION & CHARLES AND “LADY DIANA SPENCER” WEDDING CROWN Both 1 1/2 inch diameter. Gold-coloured Souvenir medallion bears profile of The Queen, 1977, with a  surround referencing the Jubilee. The Crown, encased in a plastic holder by the Westminster Bank, is official coinage from 1983, with the usual image of The Sovereign on front, and verso, a profile of Charles and Diana with a surround referencing the occasion and year. $25 

(the mark on the Royal Arms is not a defect, but a seller's sticker that is not on our plate)6) UNUSUAL, RATHER-MODERN IN DESIGN, SOUVENIR PLATE FOR SILVER JUBILEE - BY WEDGEWOOD A heavy 10" plate produced by Wedgewood in 1977, respectful and colourful, but, in our view, not really “traditional” and thus of special interest. A deep blue silhouette of Thhe Queen in centre, surrounded by the Garter motto, with tne lancets extending which depict Heralds, Guardsmen and elements of the Household Cavalry and one Royal Shield surmounted by the Crown. Many decorative flowers, Rim references the Jubilee and states “God Save The Queen.” Crimson tracery surrounds the plate. Condition: as new $35   (The picture is the Van Dyke etching of the King, whose image appears in the framed print offered below)

7) A CANADIAN-FRAMED PRINT OF KING CHARLES ENGRAVING After the original by Van Dyke, the engraving from the original owned by the Earl of Pembroke, it is unusually but attractively framed, we believe in pine, ready to hang, with modern “Art handmade Plaque Canada” sticker on back. The entire object is app 10 x 13 inches, with the engraving proper about 5 ½ x 10 inches. Condition - engraving darkened by age but distinct; frame: excellent; print: slight water-stain foxing at bottom adds authenticity rather than detracting from the overall appearance. $50 8) BOOK: CHARLES & DIANA VISIT CANADA Vivid colour pictures, hardback, published by Collins, and covering many moments from the Royal couple’s 17-day first visit to Canada in 1983.  Condition: excellent. $15 9-14) LIVING HISTORY: DRY-MOUNTED ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHS From the collection assembled by the federal government in Diamond Jubilee year, these are terrifically “usable” as, hard mounted without “frames” they are light in weight - and ready-to hang in your den, or child’s room, or to fill a wall with multiple pictures! All are app 10 x 14 inches b&w unless noted otherwise. We will advise you of the postage cost at time of your inquiry, as this varies considerably depending on your postal code.  If anyone wishes to purchase all seven of these at a favourable price, please contact us immediately. 9.    In colour: Prince Edward in his late teens, a broad smile on his face as he leans against an oak and relaxes on autumn leaves with his Labrador Retriever.    $15 10.    Front cover of Paris Match depicting The Queen returning in the Golden Coach from her Coronation, Orb and Sceptre displayed, and Prince Philip by her side. $20 11.    Princess Elizabeth on the telephone in her office at Buckingham Palace, 1946.        $15 12.    In colour: The Good King, George VI of late, happy and beloved memory, wearing a tan jacket - a reflective portrait on the grounds of Buckingham Palace.    $25 13.     The Princesses Elizabeth & Margaret Rose, probably just after the war, looking ready to go out for an evening in lovely beaded formal dresses. $20 14.    Our favorite of this tranche of pictures. Colour shot of the Royal Family, shortly after the War, in the Palace Gardens. The King, The Queen and the Princesses are seated on wicker chairs - with Elizabeth’s dog beside her. This happy family - “we four” - exemplifies the bequest of a happy, close family life that made our Queen such an extraordinary person. $30 15.    Colour 3/4 length study of a beaming Princess Elizabeth, hands clasped in front, on her 19th birthday.    $25 16.    The shade of the Abdication not yet visible, this 1936 picture shows the future King and Queen as Duke & Duchess of York at the door of their Piccadilly residence, with a serious-looking Elizabeth holding her Mother’s forearm. $25  

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE BEING A PROUD MEMBER OF THE MONARCHIST LEAGUE OF 🇨🇦 CANADA 🇨🇦 

💜🙏🏻🙂✝️💟PG💟✝️🙂🙏🏻💜

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦🇬🇧🇦🇺🇳🇿

[cpinhais1920]

PINHAIS: A Testimony of A Living History

(Translated from Maria Martinho's article, edited by S. M. Amamangpang)

A stone's thrown from the sea, Matosinhos is the epicenter of the canning industry to the north of Portugal. In that area alone, 52 fish factories were installed, today only two remain and one of them is PINHAIS. The company was founded in 1920 by António Rodrigues Pinto Pinhal together with his brother Manuel Rodrigues Pinto Pinhal, natives of Espinho, who initially dedicated themselves to salting fish in a small warehouse, and Luíz Alves da Silva Rios, who is believed to have launched the challenge to the two fishing brothers to set up a company dedicated to the manufacture of canned fish, to which Luíz de Sousa Ferreira later joined. With the construction of the factory, the company started to produce canned sardines, mackerel and horse mackerel in olive oil, spicy olive oil, tomato and spicy tomato sauce. “We still maintain the original process. From the treatment of the fish to the packaging, everything is done by hand,” guarantees António Pinhal, grandson of the founder and currently responsible for the family business that is in the third generation.

He was only eight when he had his first memory linked to Pinhais. Hand in hand with his father, he saw trawlers loaded with fish arriving at Matosinhos pier on a Saturday morning. “I always did that at the weekend, it was happy to see the seagulls approaching, it was a sign that there was a lot of fish”, he tells The Observer. Later, he was in his fourth year in Economics at the University of Porto when his father asked him to work with him. “My cousin was his right hand, but he got sick and called me. I went to the auction to buy the fish, did the commercial and export part. Only when my cousin passed away did I join the staffs of the company directly and, as a working student, I finished the Economics course at night. ”

For a decade, António was responsible for carefully choosing the raw materials for preserves, a function that allows him to distinguish the quality of a sardine with the naked eye today. “The sardine caught at four or five in the morning is better than the hake at midnight, I can see that from the eyes, the gills and the scales”, he says, adding that it was also on the wooden base of the trucks used to transport the baskets of fish that could take the real test of the nine. “I would take the sardine and throw it to the wood, if it jumped it had been caught in the morning, if it was quiet it was because it had been caught earlier.”

When he finished his Economics course, he already had several job offers, but his father said: either the bank or the factory. “The bug got into me and I ended up staying here. I don't know if I did it right or wrong, but I don't regret it.”

While most canning companies have industrialized over the years, Pinhais has decided to remain faithful to artisanal production, despite the various crises. “There was a Portuguese olive oil supplier that sold the product much cheaper and one day he asked my father if he didn't want to buy a car, which at that time cost about 100 contos, with the money he saved. My father did not have a license nor did he know how to drive, so he refused.” It was like this for four years, until it was discovered that this oil was adulterated. “The containers that other firms distributed to the United States were recalled and the canning industry crisis started there.”

In 1935, Pinhais launched Nuri, a brand with the same products, but aimed at the international market. “One of the partners in the company was my uncle, a public relations person who spoke several languages. It was he who discovered the first international markets and when he went to Spain he met a very beautiful Spaniard named Nuri, that's how he decided to name the brand. ”

During the 40 years that he is at the helm of the canning industry, António Pinhal confesses that the most difficult moment was when the European Union's share of fishing emerged. The golden season in Matosinhos was from June to October, which forced the official to go buy fish in Sines, Peniche, Figueira da Foz, Spain or France. Nothing that would move him or make him lose his faith, after all the Pinhal family is deeply Catholic and in António's office are visible old cans, black and white photographs of the family, but also saints and candles.

“My father went to Mass twice a day and until three years ago we used to pray the rosary half an hour before the people left.” At 4:30 pm, someone put a cassette in the tape recorder and workers exchanged fish scissors for the rosary. “We stopped doing that when we hired people with other religions, it didn't make sense to be imposing that. It used to be different, people were more devout, especially when we talk about a fishing community. Times change and we have to accept those changes. ”

The fish arrives every morning through a special door, leaves the boxes and is immersed in an aluminum container in cold water and salt where the brine is given. “The large sardine is 40 minutes, the medium is 15 minutes, and the petinga, 5,” says António Pinhal. After this process, sardines, mackerel and horse mackerel are spread on large marble tables, where the head and the gut are removed with a small knife. "This is a normally mechanized process, but here we do it by hand to ensure that the gut comes out completely."

Headless and with a spine, the fish is placed one by one on a metal grid and dipped in a tank with cold water to remove the salt. The rooks loaded with fish are distributed in carts that enter a greenhouse at 100 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. They come out of there hot and during the cooling process all the moisture and grease drain out. “Thus, both water and fat do not go into the can and oil, when added, turns yellow and not brown. This is one of our major differences from the competition,” explains António Pinhal.

It is only after this phase that the fish is placed in containers to then be cut by hand with scissors to fit in the can of preserves, which can then carry tomato sauce, cucumber, carrot or chilli pickles. In this assembly line, several employees dressed in white are seated in a row, from the cap to the wellies, passing through the waterproof apron. Many have their names written on the back and pillows to ensure comfort throughout the day.

Emília Vaz is in the section dedicated to homemade tomato sauce. She is 67 years old and is the oldest employee of Pinhais. She started at 18 and at the end of 2020, she will retire. With the reddish apron and the sweat on her forehead, she proudly shows the marks on her body that the years of work left him. “I've already cut myself on the toes with the cans and scalded my foot to make tomato sauce,” she says, adding that the factory is her second home and her colleagues are part of her family. She treats them by their first name and says she likes to teach those who arrive there for the first time. Among all, she is known as the “Emília da Afurada” (Emília, The Sharp). “In the past, I crossed the Douro in a small boat, but nowadays I take the bus to Boavista and then take the metro to get here.”

About 30,000 cans come out of Pinhais every day, essentially filled with sardines. There is no waste around here, proof of this is that the fish's head, tail and gut is sent to the flour industry to fertilize the soil and the remaining oil is supplied to the soap industry. On the mechanical mat, the cans stuffed with fish and other ingredients arrive in a veritable rain of Portuguese olive oil and are then closed by another machine. Still greasy, the closed can is washed in a tank with water at 100 degrees and sterilized for 60 minutes to eliminate any bacteria and will be packed by hand. Three months is the minimum time to stay in the warehouse to gain flavor, only after this period of maturation is the canned ready to go on its journey.

Célia Ferreira is responsible for the packaging department and in the 15-minute snack break she is the only one in the room to wrap cans of preserves. “I can eat at home,” she says, smiling, guaranteeing that she likes what she does. Her mother, aunts and cousins ​​passed through Pinhais, so it would be almost inevitable for Célia to also work at the Matosinhos factory, where 1,200 cans per day pass through her hands. The natural employee of Leça da Palmeira walks surrounded by cards and packages painted in yellow, green, red or blue and knows the destination of each one by heart. "These go to Australia, those to the United States and those to the Czech Republic.

In 2016, the Pinhal family sold its stocks to an Austrian agent, the current owner of the brand. “It was a decision motivated by the fishing crisis, there were no orders, we lacked liquidity and we thought it was necessary to take this step. He is a trustworthy person, he has worked with us since 1985, he belongs to a family business connected to cereals. At one time, he was our best customer, he represented more than 70% of our exports, and he became the only way to save this firm,” recalls António Pinhal. Despite the change, everything seems to have remained. “The only premise was to leave everything as it is.” Currently, Pinhais exports 90% of its production to countries such as Austria, the United States, the Philippines, Denmark or France. Here, the points of sale are limited to gourmet stores. “Quantity is not quality. We bet on quality, while in large stores we buy a can of sardines at 0.90 cents, ours costs € 2.50. The labor is very expensive, we work with 14 or 15 stages, the other factories have only three,” justifies António Pinhal.

Extending the range of products is not part of the brand's plans, which work on original marble tables from 1920 and see their work space limited to small fish. However, there is a need to bring something new to the market, so next year, Pinhais will use leftover sardines to market patês. The online store was launched just in time for the pandemic and in the summer of 2021 a live museum is expected on the factory premises, a project that has lived in the drawer for several years and bureaucracy has delayed. “We want to make it known what the tradition of the canning industry was, showing, at the same time, how we work.”

António Pinhal is not afraid of the future and says that only the pandemic forced small changes in the company, such as the acrylics arranged among the workers, a laboratory converted into a quarantine room and more mechanized transport processes. The grandson of the founder of Pinhais eats preserves religiously every Friday at lunch. “Canning tins are normally six years old as an expiration date, but my father always preferred old ones that were 15 or 20 years old. Every Friday at lunch he opens an old can, watched, smelled and asked me to eat a piece. After five minutes, if I didn't feel bad, I would eat it. It was your guinea pig and I thought it was funny. ”

Source:

(https://observador.pt/2020/09/13/conservas-pinhais-a-fabrica-onde-se-rezava-o-terco-e-hoje-se-canta-o-fado-enquanto-se-enchem-latas/)

[sailing-elitsha]

Hallelujah

Thinking about a header for this report I am struggling, it’s from boring because of no wind from all directions in the doldrums, over: exited to come closer to the Amazon river, over: we saw Neptune, over: not being sure if we can do this up to total exhaustion. We have been so tired that we could not even show excitement and joy anymore by our safe arrival in Paramaribo, after a very difficult 11 days stretch.  Let me first write everything down and see which heading we will choose.

Very quiet Dick said, “I saw you praying with your hands folded.” “Yes, I did that.” Whoever up in heaven, the universe or wherever feels I could have meant him or her: Thank you. Dick agreed.

Towards the end of this stretch, we could not think straight anymore, did not sleep because of the funny moves, Elitsha made, encouraged by Jip and Janneke, and the waves. Sometimes we really heeled onto our side after sliding down steep waves or swell. Realistically and objectively, there was no real danger, but at times it felt differently. Elitsha did a great job.  And let’s be honest, while in a force 8, in gusts 45 knots on our wind vane at sea with a currant of 3,5 knots, 12 knots showing on our log, knowing shore was close even though you do not see a thing and to sail in a river mouth with low tide, you make one wrong move……… everything can happen. But we did not make a wrong move. Dick knows what he is doing, and I am not too bad a sailor too.  Most importantly: when I was losing it and panicked there was Dick for me and when Dick was tired and miserable, I was there for him: Interesting self-studies of a relationship therapist, I am telling you. Do not do this if you don’t have a good relationship. But if you have good relationship, this is so special and amazing to go through together.

And… perhaps or most probably, this is normal and not a big thing for cruisers on an ocean crossing, but for us as beginning cruisers, it was a big thing. The challenge was, that for the last 4 days we hardly found a longer stretch of sleep than 1 or 2 hours and that breaks you at the end. That was, I think, the reason why we were desperate to arrive and stay somewhere for a while.  

But let’s start at the beginning:

We started relaxed after leaving Fernado de Norunha. Although, sailing without wind is never relaxing. You are looking for wind all the times, changing your sails and finally if you can’t stand the slapping of the beams and sails anymore you start the motor and you get annoyed by the noise of he motor and the fact that you are a sailing boat and not sailing……all of those things. Fortaleza just didn’t want to come closer, and Suriname seemed unreachable far for us. The promise was that we at least will find the strong current which would push us along from Fortaleza to the Amazon delta and Suriname.

On the 8th of Mai at 2.23pm Brasilia time we saw Neptune and served him an Oude Jenever. He seemed to like it. We originally wanted to go and swim with Neptune but just at that time Neptune on his turn treated us with some wind and we made 7 knots: 3 of them from the current. But in the doldrums, you are happy with everything what moves you along. Anyway, he (Neptune) had to do it with the Jenever, and we kept on sailing.

Just before the Amazon river at the end of day 6 of 11 it started blowing. Yeah!!!!!!!! 180 miles a day and no motor anymore. That’s great. Forecast: 12-15 knots with gusts of 20 knot. Lovely!!!!! From late afternoon of day 7 the constant wind was 32 and the gusts up to 40, RAIN and it started with a close-by lightening flash and a thunder clap. And that carried on till close to Paramaribo. The funniest: Nothing of all was forecasted on the Iridium weather report: as I said: ENE wind 12 – 15 knots, gusts of 20 knots and some possible thundershowers, but in our case they were not gusts any more, but constant hard wind 30 knots plus for 3-4 days in a row. The Amazon, even we passed him on a big respectable distance, and later the Suriname river brought trees down to the sea. You had to have your eyes everywhere. A whale, a humpback, close to the Amazon, just next to Elitsha, I saw him thinking: you are here and not in Africa? (we see whales in Hout Bay on a regular base), that close he was. For weeks we didn’t see more than a handful ships. They were huge, okay, but we saw them on AIS far before we could see them in real. Now there were lots of fisher boats around who didn’t feel like using AIS (they don’t want to be seen by their colleagues), tankers from Venezuela who switch on AIS only last minute, and this all at night, without moon and stars assisting…...and then………..always this “gale wind”, waves and massive swell.  Another thing made us nervous: the “shallow” water.  After having sailed for month now in blue water, REALLY blue water of 4 000, 5 000 meters deep, we suddenly sailed up the plateau of the South American Continent: only 200 meters of depth. You should think: That’s deep enough, Sylke. Yes, but it’s just what you are used to, right?! And we were used to 4000 to 5000 meters. The water was green, closer to Suriname, when we had no more than 20 meters it was yellowish. The Amazonas brought trees with big branches and fields of green-brownish weed, leaves…. and always the strong wind, the rain and thundershowers and you can’t step out of this train or leave the movie……you have to hang in there. This paired with not sleeping and being exhausted and Navionics giving us problems at this very moment, we saw the lights of French Guyana as the lights of Suriname (same character) and panicked that we would have passed Paramaribo already. After having struck sails and heading Elitsha into the wind, to check out if we are right or wrong, we finally followed our way towards Suriname with only the Genua, which was still fast enough. Holger, one of our shore captains confirmed, that we have the entrance of the Suriname river 20 mile ahead and not behind us. Ufff, what a relief. We still didn’t see land………. only 60, 50, 40, 30 foot of water under Elitsha, no entrance buoy in sight…….  Via radio we got in touch with  MAS ( Suriname Harbour authorities). Anneke, our other shore captain, had arrange contact and allowance with them already. In times of Corona regulations this is essential. You can’t just go to a harbour. Everything has to be pre-arranged. When we called MAS, to ask if we were somewhere close to the entrance buoy of the river mouth, a deep voice in Dutch with a heavy Surinam’s accent answered: “ik zie jullie on AIS.” YES!!!!!!!!!!! Eventually, we saw not the entrance buoy, but the first green buoy and shared this” achievement” with him. His dry and short reaction: “Mevrouw, u bent op de goede weg!!!!!” (“Lady, you are on the right way”). Not more and not less, but it was like music to our ears. It was low tide and our echo sounder told us, 20, 10 and then 9,60 foot. Elitsha needs at least 5,50 foot of water to float. We motor sailed (to be more controllable). Still 30 knots of wind, rain, and buoys not visible all the time. On the river we almost got stuck twice in the mud: 6 foot on the depth sounder. We were blessed to have sailed for years on the Dutch Waddenzee. This was very similar. The only difference: ELITSHA is not a flatbottom with leeboards.  It looked exactly like you sail from the Stortemelk into the Schuitegat towards Terschelling with low tide and it felt exactly like that.

I could tell you more about my fear of sailing over the many wrecks alongside of the coast, our chart showed us and Dick’s fear of hitting ground in the bottom of the waves (that’s why he looked for more shallow water without swell and waves), about comforting and encouraging each other that we will make it, that the fishermen would look out, that 30 - 40 knots of wind is actually not that bad and we are not in real danger but that we just needed some sleep and rest, after 2 antibiotic courses and, and………  And then we just arrived……just like that!!!! We picked a mooring buoy, made the dingy ready to go and went ashore. I did not eat for 4 days, actually ate the other way round (if you know what I mean). In the bar of the Marina, where everybody welcomed us, we ate and drank because we felt, we must celebrate. But the feeling was not there like in St Helena and Fernando. We went back to our brave ELITSHA and slept like we got paid for it. The next day we celebrated full time. We ate the whole day, talked to everybody who came across. We did 5 washes in the Marinas washing machine, had I don’t know how many showers and Elitsha got a very good clean up: you don’t want to know how it looked like inside her: flour everywhere, everything everywhere and because of the salt water everything was sticky, wet and just ick.

Now we have a fruit bowl and candles on the table, new sheets on our beds, nothing moves, and we can just move without getting thrown into one of the corners of the ship, fall of the toilet and stuff like that. Okay its rainy season and if it rains, it REALY RAINS, buckets of water coming down, but that is not such a problem: cleans the boat and fills the water tank. A bar with nice music and good food where you meet nice and friendly people, a shower, free internet: that is what we were craving for.  We are on the Suriname river in Domburg, close to Paramaribo. We hear the howler monkeys on the other side of the river, where it’s already  pure jungle. I am telling you, it’s REAL heaven.

I remember from the old days of sailing in Holland: the feeling of arriving after a tough stretch in bad weather and under poor conditions is unbeatable. Leaving under difficult condition makes you nervous, hanging in it, you just do what you must do, and arriving is heaven.

Wednesday we will go for the stamp in our passports and on Friday we will sail with ELITSHA  70 miles down the river to meet caiman, anaconda, howler monkey and jaguar in the real jungle. No Sonny and Crocked anymore, Dick as Tanzan and I will be Jane.

………to be continued.

[dungeonmaster36]

Prismo, the lich of the House of Mirrors

Medium Undead, any chaotic alignment

Armor Class 17 (natural armor) 

Hit Points 135 (18d8 + 54)

Speed 30 ft.

STR 9 (-1) DEX 16 (+3) CON 16 (+3) INT 14 (+2) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 20 (+5)

Saving Throws Dex +10, Con +10, Cha +12

Skills Acrobatics +6, Animal Handling +6, Arcana +16, Athletics +2, Deception +19, History +5, Insight +6, Intimidation +8, Investigation +5, Medicine +6, Nature +5, Perception +6, Performance +8, Persuasion +19, Religon +5, Sleight of Hand +6, Stealth +17, Survival +6

Damage Resistance cold, lightning, necrotic

Damage Immunities poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks

Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned

Senses truesight 120 ft., passive Perception 20

Languages Common, Elvish, Dwarvish, Deep Speech, Draconic, Infernal

Challenge 21 (33,000 XP)

Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If Prismo fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.

Rejuvenation. If it has a phylactery, a destroyed lich gains a new body in 1d10 days, regaining all its hit points and becoming active again. The new body appears within 5 feet of the phylactery.

Spellcasting. Prismo is an 18th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 20, +12 to hit with spell attacks). The lich has the following spells prepared:

Cantrips (at will) friends, mage hand, minor illusion, viscous mockery

1st level (4 slots): bane, hideous laughter, chaos bolt, shield

2nd level (3 slots): blindness/deafness, invisibility, shatter, melf’s acid arrow, mind spike

3rd level (3 slots): bestow curse, fear, major image, counterspell

4th level (3 slots): dimension door, hallucinatory terrain

5th level (3 slots): cloudkill, mislead

6th level (1 slot): eyebite, mental prison

7th level (1 slot): forcecage, prismatic spray

8th level (1 slot): feeblemind, demiplane

9th level (1 slot): power word kill

Turn Resistance. Prismo has advantage on saving throws against any effect that turns undead. 

I’m Where I Need To Be, And You’re Where You Need To Be. So long as Prismo is in his House of Mirrors, he can not be located or viewed through magical means. All divination spells fail to locate him or his possessions in his House of Mirrors. Additionally, Prismo always has a general idea where someone is located in his House of Mirrors, but never their exact location. Prismo can still be surprised.

Actions

Paralyzing Touch. Melee Spell Attack: +12 to hit, reach of 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 10 (3d6) cold damage. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of his turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Legendary Actions

Prismo can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. Prismo regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.

Cantrip. Prismo casts a cantrip.

Paralyzing Touch (Costs 2 Actions). Prismo uses its Paralyzing Touch.

Look Inside Yourself Detective (Costs 2 Actions). Prismo fixes his gaze on a creature within 10 feet of him. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw against this magic or spend be incapacitated for one minute, spending that time being incredibly introspective. The target may repeat the save at the end of each of their turns, ending the effect on a success. If the target’s saving throw is successful on ending the effect on itself, it becomes immune to Prismo’s gaze for 24 hours.

Did You Get The Scalpel, Detective?. Prismo forces keys into the bodies of all living victims of his house of mirrors. Each non-undead creature within 20 feet of Prismo must make a DC 18 Constitution saving throw against this magic, taking 3d6 necrotic and 3d6 piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a success.

Prismo’s Lair

Little is known about Prismo’s House of Mirrors. A place where the eye can not be trusted, the clown-lich will taunt and toy with his guests when ever they enter the House. Often times in this place, illusions may become much more than their intention. Whenever a spell that creates an illusion is cast, there is a 20% chance the illusion becomes real. It does not hold any loyalty to its caster and acts according to its own nature. This does not include spells that effect the caster, such as invisibility. If Prismo is fought in his lair, his CR increases to 22 (41,000 XP)

Liar Actions

On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), Prismo can take a liar action to cause one of the following magical effects. Prismo can not use the same magical effect two rounds in a row.

* Prismo rolls a d8 and regains a spell slot of the level or lower. If he has no spent spell slots of the level or lower, nothing happens.

* Prismo summons many glass shards, hurling them at a target within 60 feet of him. The target must make a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw, taking 52 (20d4) slashing damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. The shards of glass clean themselves up after the attack is complete.

* Prismo targets one creature that is adjacent to one of his carnival mirrors. They must make a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or become the warped reflection they see. Roll 1d100 and consult the table below to determine the creatures morphed state. The flesh warping condition can be ended by a greater restoration spell or something similar.

01-05 The targets hair grows obscenely long, blinding them.

06-10 The target grows a small face on their shoulder. The target has advantage on saving throws against being charmed, stunned, or frightened. This face will speak rudely of the target consistently.

11-15 The creature grows crab claws for hands. These claws cannot hold normal weapons but can function as daggers. Somatic spell components aren’t possible with the claws.

16-20 One of the targets legs grow twice as long as the other, reducing their walking speed by 10 feet.

20-25 The targets grow fins and gills, gaining a swim speed of 30 feet and the ability to breath water. They can survive 30 minutes out of water.

26-30 The targets eyes begin crawling around, acting as tiny creatures with a movement speed of 15 feet. The target can command their eyes as a bonus action and see through them as normal. The eyes share initiative with their owner and are unable to take any actions that are not the Dash action. The eyes have 1 hit point each and an AC of 8. If they eyes are destroyed, the target is blinded until they get new eyes.

31-35 The targets ears tear off and scurry around the targets body. The target is now deafened.

36-40 The targets teeth double in size. They can not use spells requiring verbal components.

41-45 The targets skin becomes stretched and flabby, granting advantage on grapple checks but halved movement speed.

46-50 The targets legs and arms switch places, forcing them to crawl.

51-55 The targets arms begin dragging on the floor, increasing their weapon range by 5 feet.

56-60 The targets legs double in size, increasing its movement speed by 10 feet.

61-65 The targets head doubles in size. They have disadvantage on ranged attacks of any kind.

66-70 The targets eyes disappear and reappear on the back of their head. They can now see behind them, but not in front of them.

71-75 The target swells, tripling its weight.

76-80 The targets body broadens substantially. They look like a square.

81-85 The targets feet and hands double in size, making fine manipulation difficult.

86-90 The targets ears become wings, giving them a fly speed of 5 feet. The target is deafened

91-95 The targets body becomes brittle, giving them vulnerability to bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage.

96-00 The target must flip a coin. On heads, they are reduced in a way similar to the Reduce spell. On tails, they are enlarged as if under the effects of the Enlarge spell. This effect lasts indefinitely until a greater restoration spell ends the effect.

________________________________________________________________

@paper-mario-wiki and @snapscube are absolutely hilarious. I don’t do fan content often, but after seeing this video I had to get some of that good good Prismo content. So have him in your game! Fight Prismo! Be Friends with Prismo! Enjoy his House of Mirrors! he’s got like all skill bonuses cause I made him a bard so y’all can enjoy that if you so please

[theycallmebabycakes]

Budgeting 101

I got bored, and I enjoy teaching, so here are some tips from yours truly on how to set up a basic budget for yourself:

[I like using a spreadsheet. Here’s a basic one I’ve put on google drive. The link will be in the description at the bottom of this post. Don’t worry if you can’t read it right now; we’ll go over the different parts in a future slide.]

Here is the link to the pictured spreasheet.

[Step 1: Personalize

The first column is your description word. I’ve put in some basic examples for you. This spreadsheet is meant for what I’m going to call “fixed” expenses. They’re expenses that you can’t or won’t get rid of, and that are fairly consistent. Don’t put expenses that change dramatically from one month to the next, or that you can alter by spending carefully.

Items that should NOT be here: clothing expenses, one or two-time purchases, like plane tickets, deposits to your savings account

Items that SHOULD be here: travel expenses, like your car’s gas or your bus tickets, school tuition, groceries]

[Step 1: Personalize (cont.)

The first row is the month to month play-by-play. I’ve put the full 12 calendar months in my example, but you don’t need all 12 months. A 3 month range is good enough, and a 6 month range is great.

DON’T: use more than 12 months at a time, use just one or two months (if one or two months is all  you have, that’s different. Use what you have.)

DO: use as much information as you have available, within reason, and put a month or two of empty boxes for future use]

[Step 2: Fill It In

-All incomes should be positive numbers

-All expenses should be negative numbers

-If there’s a month that you didn’t pay one of the bills, put a symbol of some kind in the corresponding box.

DON’T use a zero

DON’T leave it blank, since that will count as a zero

A zero confuses the program, and throws off the formulas I’ve built into the document. It will make your final numbers misleading if you put a zero.]

[Step 3: Do Some Math

If you’re not using the document I linked, with the formulas I programmed in, here’s what you want:

High: this column tells you what tha bill has been, at its absolute worst. Take out any outliers. That month you had a leaky faucet and didn’t know it? Get rid of it. Mark the box where it was, so when you come back you’ll remember that there was something weird about that month.

Low: This tells you what that bill has been on its best day. Take out any outliers. Your mom paid your water bill one month? Take it out. You don’t want to build a budget on things that only happen once or twice a year.

Average: A lot of bills vary month-to-month. Add all of one row up and divide by how many months you’re covering in this budget.

Leftover Money: Subtract your total expenses from your total incomes. You can do this for your high/low/average columns, as well. Remember, this math doesn’t include things like plane tickets, or replacing your torn shirts. This is the money left over after fixed incomes.]

[Step 4: Set Money Aside

Look at your average leftover money, and find 10% of it. That will be taken off of your budget in a moment.This is making an allowance for those months when one bill or another is unusually high, without forcing you to completely re-budget for that month. If you want to be extra careful, take your “average low” leftover money and use that, instead.

Take another percentage to set aside for your savings account. I suggest 20%, but that may not be possible for you. It could be as little as 1% of your leftover money, as long as you can put something into your savings account. This % should be subtracted from your allowance. The idea is that you’ll only use it in emergencies.]

[Step 4: Set Money Aside (cont.)

Add up the percentages from the previous slide: 10% “buffer” plus 20% “savings” equals 30% total

Subtract that new percentage from 100%: 100% minus 30% “total” equals 70% final

Multiply your “average leftover money” by your final percentage: $750 multiplied by 0.70 equals $525

This is your total spending budget. Remember, this didn’t account for your unexpected or widely varying expenses. This “spending budget” includes things like buying new clothes, or going out to eat.]

[Step 5: Start Budgeting

Congratulations, you now have a set “spending budget”! A few things to remember:

We didn’t account for unexpected or widely varying expenses. Some parts of your budget will have to be adjusted monthly.

Speaking of varying expenses, there are some “fixed” expenses that vary from season to season, like your electricity or water bills. That means you’re going to have to redo your budget. I would recommend revisiting your budget every 3-6 months.

Some savings accounts don’t let you withdraw from them, or they limit how often you can withdraw. I recommend that you have a “buffer” stash in your main account, for routine needs. The actual savings account should be used for emergencies only.]

[Step 5: Start Budgeting (cont.)

Splurging happens. If you go over your budget, don’t panic. Just try not to make it a habit. This is a guideline, not a law.

If you don’t spend your full budget one month, be sure to stick some of the leftover in your savings. You can carry leftover money from one month to the next, to give yourself a reward for following your budget. But maybe put a quarter or even half of that into your savings account first.

If you have a debit/credit card, and you tend to lose track of your spending when you use it, put your budget into cash, instead. I break my monthly spending budget up for each week, and withdraw that in cash from the bank. Using cash keeps me from overspending: I can tell how much money I have left in that week/month’s budget by opening my wallet.]

[asterinjapan]

At last I see the (sun) light

Good – morning this time!

Yeah, as predicted, yesterday ran very late, so I decided to leave writing my report for the next day and just go to bed already, haha. I’m starting my report in the morning while I’m trying to think of plans for today, so I might just drop the report and finish it later, but here we go – Tokyo Disneyland!

Pictures will be up later today!

It’s definitely not my first time to Tokyo Disneyland, although usually I take the subway to get there. Since I have my JR pass still active and I haven’t been using it much in Tokyo, I refused to take a mode of transportation I had to pay for, so I first went to Tokyo station with the Yamanote line. From there, it’s 15 minutes with the Keiyo line, but that’s all the way at the other end at the station, so you can seriously add another 15 minutes to the travel time. I wasn’t exaggerating when I called Tokyo station a separate city!

The Yamanote line came to an abrupt halt halfway through as the emergency brake had been activated, but it must be a false alarm or otherwise easily solved issue, as we continued a couple of minutes later. It was indeed quite the walk to the Keiyo line, but they put up signs every five steps, so at least it was a very easy road to follow.

And then Maihama station! The weather had turned out to be incredibly nice today, with blue skies so bright I could easily see the Skytree and – was that the snowy top of Mount Fuji? It sure was! That’s how clear the skies were, haha.

Anyway, the walk from the station was a bit different. I know they’re working on a new area inside the park, but apparently they’re also doing extensive redevelopments, because the main entrance was under covers and there were cranes surrounding the castle. After the entrance, the first Halloween decorations came in sight, and part of the fun: watching everyone’s costumes! It’s only during Halloween season that you’re allowed to dress up in Tokyo Disneyland as an adult, and lots of people make use of that opportunity. Some costumes are so good I had to blink and stare to realize they were not the official cast members (which is, incidentally, why it’s not allowed to dress up the rest of the year – you might confuse the kids). Also, it makes for fun situations, like Alice standing in line for lunch with the Queen of Hearts or Belle posing with the park version of Gaston while 5 other princesses watch with interest, haha.

I was inside a little after opening, so I lingered around to wait for the first parade: the Spooky Boo Halloween parade! It’s held twice over the day and thus a short one, but I love Halloween, so I was curious to see what they’d pulled. The parade mostly features the best known characters: Mickey and his friends. They taught us a dance and halfway through, the parade came to a halt for a dance performance. The dancing cast members had gorgeous costumes! They were really into it too, so that was a joy to watch, and I’m kinda sad I couldn’t get a good full view of them on my camera from where I was standing to show you guys, only glimpses in between people’s heads.

I was in for something sweet now, so I wandered into Fantasyland for what I thought was a churro, but ended up being a tipo torta, which – I’m not entirely sure what it is, but it was delicious! I got it in purple sweet potato flavor, because I felt obliged after Okinawa haha, and purple is a Halloween color here, so the sweet potato from Okinawa gets used liberally this time of the year.

I had chosen the Haunted Mansion as my appropriate first ride of today, because duh, Halloween. The wait was 40 minutes when I joined, which was okay if it weren’t for the hot sun, so I was glad to make it inside for the Nightmare before Christmas version of this ride. I really love it a lot – I think it was summer 2017 that I last saw the ride in its original form, oops.

After that, I went back inside again for another favorite ride: Mickey’s Philharmagic Orchestra. There was a small wait here, and a ton of kids who got really into the screening (it’s 4D, so the 3D effects are heavy and you get sprayed with water and scented air in between), so that was kinda cute, haha. They were all making grabby hands at the apple pie and Ariel’s gems.

Once outside, I stumbled upon some character meet and greets in Fantasyland, and then right into the Dreaming Up parade. It’s a lovely one, but I’ve seen it twice now fairly recently, so I wasn’t going to wait on the floor for it. Didn’t have to! I got an okay spot for the visually most impressive floats, so that was a nice little coincidence, haha.

Next up was Pirates of the Caribbean, which I love, but the drop is the scariest thing I do in Disneyland, so I wasn’t super pleased about being put in the front row, haha. I lived, but it took a while for my pulse to calm down. (I’m big on the thrill rides, you can tell.) It’s still super fun, and outside was a band of pirates playing! I think they were kind of trying to spread the crowds today, as it was probably a bit busier than initially expected due to the weather and a couple of rides that tend to draw crowds were closed for today.

After some lunch, wandering around for the views and some window shopping, I settled down next to Snow White’s wishing well to wait for round two of the Spooky Boo parade. About ten Snow Whites and other princesses showed up to take pictures by the well, haha. Sadly, the parade only made a quick round here without dancing in between, but I did get much better shots of the floats now!

And it wasn’t that bad, because I had wisely gotten a fast pass for Haunted Mansion at the same time as the parade, so now I didn’t have to rush as the parade was over quite quickly. I didn’t see the Haunted Mansion wait go down to under my 40 minutes anymore, so that fast pass had been a good call. (I think they’re connected to your ticket now, because I had to scan my entrance ticket and not the fast pass receipt to get in line.)

After that, the iconic ride: It’s a Small World! It’s still fun, and I think I’m mostly past my trauma over the song now, haha. I couldn’t help wanting to take pictures here and there, even though I have a ton already. Spotting the recently added Disney characters is quite fun.

It was getting dark quickly now, and I noticed I was getting a bit bumped out. I kept getting lost in the dark and with the covered parts of the park, so I eventually told myself to just get something sweet and then decide whether I was going to call it an uncharacteristically early day.

As it turned out I just needed food, haha. A hot dog for lunch wasn’t sufficient to get me through the complete afternoon, who knew! I got some ice coffee for the caffeine rush (bad, I know, but hey), bought a little gift for a friend, and was just in time to see the electrical parade Dreamlights. This one changed a little a couple of years ago, but overall it’s still the same one as the one I saw in 2010. It’s still fun, even though the song is even catchier than It’s a small world, haha. They added a tiny something that I spotted right away: Alice was riding a giant teacup on top of the Cheshire cat, rather than the cat’s back proper. I was a bit further away this time, so I got some nice shots of the full floats. I eh, have plenty of close-ups from earlier years, haha.

I then finally made the decision to just get the new Tangled popcorn bucket, which is shaped like the floating lantern from the movie with a little Pascal the chameleon to sit on your shoulder on the strap. There’s a light inside, so that makes for lovely sights in the evening, although the amount of popcorn (caramel flavor at this stand) that came with it was – worrying, haha. I did manage to finish it all though, despite not being the biggest popcorn eater, but whoa. (You can get the bucket separately from the popcorn so you won’t have to clean it, but the popcorn separately means you get two cartons of them, since that’s how much can fit into the bucket.)

Newly invigorated, I decided to get back to attractions. I went into the Enchanted Tiki room first as it was nearby and I love the songs and Stitch. It’s very much a kids attraction and I very much don’t care, haha. If anything, the line is non-existent here and you just have to wait for the next performance to begin.

I then found the ball game stand, which I suck at, but that’s okay, because you get to pick a really nice exclusive pin if you lose, so I got the Minnie one, haha. Making my way back to Fantasyland from there, I hopped into Philharmagic again, the line gone and just having to wait for the next performance to start. There’s a merit in staying late, haha. I rushed to Peter Pan next, where the wait was down to 15 minutes. It’s a fun ride, but it’s over so fast that I can’t justify standing in line for 50 minutes for it.

Finally, with ten minutes until park closure to go, I went to Pooh’s Hunny Hunt – and they closed the line after me, oops. Two more ladies came rushing in via the fastpass entrance, but that was it. Pooh’s Hunny Hunt is a fun and unique ride, but since I’m not a big fan of Pooh bear, I refuse to wait for him for 70+ minutes, haha. This worked, even though it was still about 10 minutes. Around park closure! Wow.

There were still surprisingly many people in the park as I made my way to the exit, some even still on the way into the park. I wonder at what time they can actually close the gates… Hopefully the park members work in shifts, yikes.

After a quick last look in the Bon Voyage store just outside the park I made my way to the station, where I had to wait for the next Keiyo line train as this one was… very full. At 10:30 PM. Ah, the Disney magic, haha. (The people from Disneysea also gather at this station.) Thankfully that got me a front row place in line for the next train, so I could sit (!) until the terminal station of Tokyo, where it was another brisk walk to the Yamanote line and finally, back to my hotel.

 So here I am now. I took a shower last night and fell asleep almost right away. Didn’t sleep through my alarm at least, but I did put it on snooze and only got up as late as possible to still eat breakfast at the hotel here, haha.

Today should be a little calmer. I might do some karaoke and find a café I read about opening some months ago, but other than that, I don’t really have plans. Sadly, the weather is getting bad again starting tonight, thanks to yet another typhoon making rounds. It should be gone by the time my return flight is scheduled, though.

Yikes, time flies. It’s Thursday and I’m flying back on Monday! Ack. Sadly I don’t think many of my Tokyo side tips can go through, if any. A bit of a waste of my JR pass, but it’s long since paid itself back and hey, I will still use it for the Narita Express to the airport if nothing else. I don’t want to over-exert myself or put myself into dangerous situations, so I might just stick to Tokyo until the last day (although Saturday should be alright weather wise, at least less rainy, but again, dangerous situations). And hey, I haven’t gone back to just Tokyo on 2 separate trips because I hate it here, haha. Although with all the things I’ve seen around here, I might have to cash in on that extra luggage… After that huge book I found the other day, I’m already nearing my limit, and the cost of overweight luggage is as much as an extra bag at Don Quijote would cost, so uh. I can still think about it until 24 hours before the flight, so that’s what I will do, haha.

Time to head out. Photos coming up soon, see you later!

[televinita]

Books Read in 2018: The Why

Third year in a row* of answering the self-imposed question: why did you read this particular book?

(*Although 2017′s is presently flagged by the garbage bot and under appeal -- WHY DO U HATE MY BOOK COVER COLLAGES, MR. ALGORITHM)

I am beginning to deeply regret the extra work involved to split them by category, so next year is probably just gonna be a numbered chronological list after the Quilt of Many Covers, but for now they are still divided into adult fiction, YA, middle grade/children’s books, and nonfiction

FICTION

True Valor - Dee Henderson. 2002. Read because: I went hunting for a military romance in which to cast Dalton and Jaz [The Brave]. This one at least guaranteed me Dalton (and included rescuing a female soldier lost/hurt in combat, so).

These Healing Hills - Ann H. Gabhart. 2017. Had this one in my back pocket for a while as a quality-sounding stock romance (nurse/soldier) waiting for players. When my need for a Barbie/Julia [Under the Dome] story reached a new high, I deemed it a match.

Shane - Jack Schaefer. 1949. This is the book Fourmile is based on, so I thought I could get a two-for-one casting thrill out of it.

The Lake House - Kate Morton. 2015. A gorgeous historic mansion hidden within an abandoned estate. A mystery from the past to be solved in the present. What are "things I am here for always."

Crimson Peak (movie novelization) - Nancy Holder. 2015. I LOVED the movie, and the only thing I love more than amazing movies is when I can have them translated into and enriched by prose.

Chasing Sunsets - Karen Kingsbury. 2015. Brush of Wings - Karen Kingsbury. 2016. I was hunting, desperately, for Ben/Ryan-shaped books [Off the Map], and "Brush of Wings" checked all the boxes (young woman who needs a heart transplant volunteers in a third world country, love interest has to find a way to rush her home when the situation turns dire). I only read C.S. first because I didn't want to miss where the romance started.

Rancher Under Fire - Vickie Donoghue. 2014. I was looking for a different book when I casually stumbled upon this title, and listen. I am not gonna turn down a ready-made Barbie/Julia AU* with bonus "single father" angle. (*cowboy/journalist)

Heart Like Mine - Maggie McGinnis. 2016. "Ben/Ryan, Sexy Hookup AU Version please."

The Mountain Between Us - Charles Martin. 2010. The request list for the movie was too long, so I decided to see if it was based on a book. Upon reading the back cover and finding out one character was a surgeon, I immediately forgot the movie cast as my brain exploded with Shondaland options.

When Crickets Cry - Charles Martin. 2006. "Doctor whose wife died young of a lifelong heart condition" sounded like the best book-shaped Ben/Ryan approximation yet, with bonus "watching out for a little girl who is sick in the same way" cuteness as well.

The Woman in Cabin 10 - Ruth Ware. 2016. A woman at work recommended it to me, and I was like, "a well received general thriller? Sure!"

Listen to Me - Hannah Pittard. 2016. Put "road trip" into the library catalog --> picked 70% because "Gothic thriller" made me think of "The Strangers," and 30% because I was reliving the glory days of Derek And Addison and this marriage sounded similar.

The Lying Game - Ruth Ware. 2017. I enjoyed the other book of hers I read so my friend brought in the next one she had.

Hatter Fox - Marilyn Harris. 1973. Read in high school and forgotten until I reread the Goodreads summary, and "doctor drawn to help 17-year-old" set off my radar. Shippy or merely protective/caretaking, my radar reacts the same.

Vanished - Mary McGary Morris. 1988. The trailer for unreleased Martin Henderson film "Hellbent" whipped me into a frenzy so I did my best to find book-shaped approximations of it. (spoiler alert: this failed miserably, but I grudge-matched it out)

Thunder and Rain - Charles Martin. 2012. Former Texas Ranger who is a single dad. Rescuing & protecting a scared/abused woman and child. At his ranch with cows and horses. By an author who has proven his salt in the hurt/comfort and restrained-romance departments.

Before the Fall - Nick Hawley. 2016. Mostly I came for the dynamic between the young orphan and the passenger who saved him, but I also like witnessing the general aftermath of plane crash survivors.

The Perfect Nanny - Leila Slimani. 2018. My work friend loaned it to me with the statement, "This has such good reviews but I don't know if I 'got' it -- I am really curious to know what you think of it!"

The Girl Before - J.P. Delaney. 2017. She loaned me this one too, with a more glowing recommendation.

Everything You Want Me To Be - Mindy Mejia. 2017. Aaaand one last rec from my seasonal work friend before our projects took us in separate directions.

The Dog Year - Ann Wertz Garvin. 2014. Dog on the cover + synopsis was basically a list of tropes I love: a woman (a doctor to boot!) grieving loss of husband and unborn baby; dogs; a new love interest who is one of my favorite professions to pair with doctor (cop)...

Losing Gemma - Katy Gardner. 2002. "So basically this is the victim backstory to a Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders plot? Dude, sign me UP; I can so see this friendship!"

Uncharted - Tracey Garvis-Graves. 2013. The companion novella to a book I loved.

The English Boys - Julia Thomas. 2016. Mom checked it out of the library, "guy in piney unrequited love with his best friend's fiancee" intrigued me enough to open it, and by 3-5 pages in I was hooked.

The Broken Girls - Simone St. James. 2018. Abandoned boarding-school ruins, a murder mystery from the past being solved in the present day, possibly tied to a second murder from the past?? Yeah, give it.

Heart-Shaped Hack - Tracey Garvis-Graves. 2015. White-Hot Hack - Tracey Garvis-Graves. 2016. Proven quality romance writer's latest books feature a professional super-skilled hacker? Sounds right up my Scorpion-obsessed alley. First book was plenty good enough to launch me into Part II.

Shine Shine Shine - Lydia Netzer. 2012. In my continuing quest to find books in which to cast Walter/Paige, I searched the phrase "her genius husband" and this one's summary matched my desires well.

Learning to Stay - Erin Celello. 2013. Ever eager to expand my hurt/comfort scenario stockpile, I went looking for something where a husband suffers a TBI/brain damage that mostly affects their personality. The bonus dog content sold it.

The Fate of Mercy Alban - Wendy Webb. 2013. Came up on my Goodreads timeline. I read as far as "spine-tingling mystery about family secrets set in a big, old haunted house on Lake Superior" and immediately requested it from the library.

Rated PG - Virginia Euwer Wolff. 1981. I was rereading her Make Lemonade trilogy when I saw a quote in her author bio that said, "I did write an adult novel. Thank goodness it went out of print." Curious, I looked it up, and between its age and the fact that it sounded more like YA than a proper adult novel, I was immediately more intrigued by it than her boring-sounding middle grade books.

Someone Else's Love Story - Joshilyn Jackson. 2013. "Young single mom with genius son meeting a possibly-autistic scientist who protects them during a gas station holdup/hostage situation and later bonds with her son" was the exact literary approximation of a Scorpion AU I wanted in my brain. By the time I realized that was not the endgame ship, I had already flipped through it and fallen in love w/ William and his romantic memories of his wife instead.

Driftwood Tides - Gina Holmes. 2014. Cool title + I love the "young adult adoptee bonds with the spouse of their late birth mother" trope.

The Haunting - Alan Titchmarsh. 2011. Title caught my eye at the library near Halloween; I dug the "dual timelines" setup with a mystery from the past to be solved in the present, and hoped for ghosts.

The Lost Hours - Karen White. 2009. I searched "scrapbook" in the library catalog.  A family member's formerly buried old scrapbook, an old house, and unearthing family history/secrets? GIVE IT TO ME.gif.

The Etruscan Smile - Velda Johnston. 1977. Slim (quick read), attractive cover painting, an exotic Italian countryside setting in a bygone era, and a young woman investigating the mystery of her sister's disappearance all appealed to me.

Stay Away, Joe - Dan Cushman. 1953. All I could tell from the book jacket was that it was somehow Western/ranch-themed, possibly full of wacky hijinx and had once been deemed appropriate for a high school library. I just wanted to know what the heck it was about!

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

YOUNG ADULT

(I’m kind of guessing at the line of demarcation between teen and middle grade audiences for some of these, especially the older ones -- another reason that I should give up on categories in the future -- but let’s just go with it)

These Shallow Graves - Jennifer Donnelly. 2015. Seemed like a YA version of What the Dead Leave Behind (which itself I was using as a Crimson Peak AU), from an author whose work has always impressed me.

Snow Bound - Harry Fox Mazer. 1973. Always here for survival stories! Also, this is a good author.

The House - Christina Lauren. 2015. I LOVE evil/haunted mansion stories.

The Masked Truth - Kelley Armstrong. 2015. It looked like Criminal Minds in a YA novel.

Things I'm Seeing Without You - Peter Bognanni. 2017. Went googling for stories that sounded like contemporary variations on Miles & Charlie Matheson [Revolution]. "Teen shows up at estranged father's door" fit the bill.

Even When You Lie to Me - Jessica Alcott. 2015. I always turn out for student/teacher stories, given enough suggestion of it being mostly an emotional connection rather than an illicit hookup.

Too Shattered for Mending - Peter Brown Hoffmeister. 2017. I also dig stories where teenagers have to take care of/fend for themselves in the absence of a parent/guardian.

The Devil You Know - Trish Doller. 2015. I enjoyed a previous book of hers, and I always like road trips and teen thrillers.

The Raft - S.A. Bodeen. Terror at Bottle Creek underwhelmed, so I thought I'd try a YA/female protagonist option for a survival thriller, not least because the girl on the cover reminded me of Under the Dome's Melanie.

Ghost at Kimball Hill - Marie Blizard. 1956. Picked up randomly at an estate sale; the vintage cover and incredibly charming first 2 pages won my heart.

A New Penny - Biana Bradbury. 1971. The rare idea of a teen shotgun marriage in this era -- when it would still be expected, but also more likely to fall apart and end in a young divorce or separation -- fascinated me; I was curious to see how such an adult situation would play out.

Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer - Katie Alender. 2013. I mean...it is really all right there in the title and/or the awesful puns all over the cover. ("Let them eat cake...AND DIE!") Pure unadulterated crack, combining my two fave specialty genres of history and horror? Yes ma'am.

Me And My Mona Lisa Smile - Sheila Hayes. 1981. I was looking up this author of a Little Golden Book to see what else she had, found one that suggested a student/teacher romance, and bolted for it.

To Take a Dare - Crescent Dragonwagon/Paul Zindel. 1982. 50% due to the first author's cracktastic name and my full expectations of it being melodramatic, 50% because I was still on my "Hellbent" high and looking for similar teen runaway stories.

To All My Fans, With Love, From Sylvie - Ellen Conford. 1982. The last one from my attempt-at-a-Hellbent-esque-storyline set -- girl hitchhiking cross-country is picked up by a middle aged man who may or may not have pure intentions, by an established quality author.

Be Good Be Real Be Crazy - Chelsey Philpot. Bright cover called out to me; I was in the mood for a fun road trip novel for spring/early summer.

This is the Story of You - Beth Kephart. Kephart's name always gives me pause due to her fuzzy writing style, but I loved Nothing But Ghosts, so I could not resist the promise of surviving a super-storm disaster.

A Little in Love - Susan Fletcher. "Eponine's story from Les Mis" on a YA novel = immediately awesome; I LOVE HER??? Also it's just my fave musical, generally.

Adrift - Paul Griffin. 2015. I've been really digging survival stories this year, and while stories about survival at sea aren't typically my fave, they keep popping up in my path so I keep poppin' em like candy.

Life in Outer Space - Melissa Keil. 2013. After delighting my brain with concept sketches for a high school AU, I set out to find the equivalent of Scorpion's team dynamics/main relationship in a YA novel, and by god I found it.

Everything Must Go - Fanny Fran Davis. 2017. The brightly colored cover drew me in, and the format of being like a scrapbook of personal documents/paper ephemera lit up the scrap-collecting center of my brain.

Going Geek - Charlotte Huang. 2016.

originally I thought it might be like Life in Outer Space, but once I realized the title geeks were all girls I shrugged and went, "Eh, still a solid contemporary YA novel at a cool setting (boarding school)."

Like Mandarin - Kirsten Hubbard. 2011.

By the author of my beloved Wanderlove, I was drawn in by the title, intriguing cover photo, rural Wyoming setting and the concept of a high school freshman girl latching onto/idolizing a cool senior girl.

Sixteen: Short Stories By Outstanding Writers for Young Adults. ed. Donald R. Gallo. 1984. Tripped over it at the library, and immediately wanted to consume a set of 80s teen book content from a pack of authors I know and love.

A & L Do Summer - Jan Blazanin. 2011. In the summer, sometimes you just want to vicariously relive the feeling of being a largely-responsibility-free teen in a small-town location.

The Assassin Game - Kirsty McKay. 2015. Looked like the (Welsh!) boarding school version of Harper's Island. (spoiler alert: it is rather less stabby than that, but still fun)

We Are Still Tornadoes - Michael Kun/Susan Mullen. 2016. "College freshmen? Writing letters to each other? Sure, looks solid."

Nothing - Annie Barrows. 2017. It looked relatable: like the kind of book that would happen if I tried to turn my high school journals into a book. (spoiler alert: dumber)

The Memory Book - Laura Avery. 2016. Contemporary YA about a girl with a(n unusual) disease, but mostly, the title and promise of it being a collection of entries in different formats.

Kindess for Weakness - Shawn Goodman. 2013. LITERALLY AU RYAN ATWOOD.

Make Lemonade - Virginia Euwer Wolff. 1993. True Believer - Virginia Euwer Wolff. 2001. This Full House - Virginia Euwer Wolff. 2008. I reread the first two so I could give them proper reviews on Goodreads, and then realized I hadn't read the last one at all.

Blue Voyage - Diana Renn. 2015. A hefty teen mystery in a unique exotic location (Turkey) -- with an antiquities smuggling ring! - called out to me.

Girl Online - Zoe Sugg. 2014. I was really in the mood to read something on the younger end of YA, something cute and fun, when I saw this at the library.

Wilderness Peril - Thomas J. Dygard. 1985. Reread of a book I rated 4 stars in high school but couldn't remember, which happened to be lying next to me on a morning where I didn't wanna get out of bed yet.

Survive the Night - Danielle Vega. 2015. The cover had a GLITTERY SKULL. Give me that delightfully packaged horror story for the Halloween season!

The Hired Girl - Laura Amy Schlitz. 2015. I've been digging into my journals and old family photo albums lately, really fascinated by personal historical documents (also recently obsessed over The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt), and when I saw a diary format book set in 1911 -- a housemaid's diary, no less; that must be interesting as far as recording grand house details -- it spoke to me.

Fans of the Impossible Life - Kate Scelsa. 2015. The colored-pencil-sketch cover gave me Rainbow Rowell vibes.

All The Truth That's In Me - Julie Berry. 2013. Someone who favorably reviewed The Hired Girl also recommended this one; the cover caught my eye, and it sounded like a thriller.

Girl In A Bad Place - Kaitlin Ward. 2017. I heart YA thrillers featuring girls.

Facing It - Julian F. Thompson. 1983. I was in desperate need of a book one night and my only option was to buy one off the library sale cart, so I snagged the one that looked like some entertaining 80s melodrama with a fun (summer camp) setting. (Spoiler alert: fun and entertaining it was not.)

A Good Idea - Cristina Moracho. 2017. "Rural literary noir," promised the cover blurb, and as I just mentioned: I heart YA thrillers.

Something Happened - Greg Logsted. 2008. Short/easy read + I was hoping for either a misinterpreted Genuinely Caring Teacher, or scenarios to use in an appropriate age difference context.

In Real Life - Jessica Love. 2016. My shipper radar pretty much looked at the summary and went "THE AU CHRISTIAN/GABBY SETUP OF MY DREAMS."

The Black Spaniel Mystery - Betty Cavanna. 1945.

Adorable cover (and dogs!) from an established quality author.

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

CHILDREN’S / MIDDLE GRADE

The Cloud Chamber - Joyce Maynard. 2005. The cover made me think of Under the Dome, and the MC immediately reminded me of Joe McAlister.

Terror at Bottle Creek - Watt Key. 2016. After rereading Fourmile, I got a hankering for more books I might be able to cast with the kids from Under the Dome, and figured more Watt Key + a thrilling survival adventure was the ticket for that.

Swampfire - Patricia Cecil Haas. 1973. One of approximately 100 unread vintage horse books I own at any given time; finally in mood because it was short and sweet.

Baby-sitting Is A Dangerous Job - Willo Davis Roberts. 1985. Reread a childhood favorite in order to give it a proper review on Goodreads.

In The Stone Circle - Elizabeth Cody Kimmel. 1998. Same as above.

Wild Spirits - Rosa Jordan. 2010. Clearly the "Kat & Tommy take Justin under their wing" Power Rangers AU of which I have always dreamed, in my very favorite version of it: the one where Kat surrounds herself with animals.

Claudia - Barbara Wallace. 1969. Picked up cheap at a book sale, standard cute vintage Scholastic about a girl and her school life. Comfort food.

Reasons to be Happy - Katrina Kittle. 2011. The cover and the 5 reasons excerpted in the summary were so cute that I wanted to know what more of the reasons were.

Dark Horse Barnaby - Marjorie Reynolds. 1967. Needed a quick read and I'll p. much read any vintage horse book.

Runaway - Dandi Daley Mackall. 2008. Start of a companion series to my beloved Winnie the Horse Gentler, featuring some favorite themes: foster care + animal rescue.

Wolf Wilder - Katherine Rundell. 2015. Pretty cover, girl protagonist, historical Russian setting, wolves. All good things!

Backwater - Joan Bauer. 1999. Sounded like a beautifully tranquil setting.

The Dingle Ridge Fox and Other Stories - Sam Savitt. 1978. Animal stories + author love = automatic win.

If Wishes Were Horses - Jean Slaughter Doty. 1984. Overdue reread of a childhood favorite because I needed some short books to finish the reading challenge.

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

NONFICTION

Junk: Digging Through America's Love Affair with Stuff - Alison Stewart. 2016. I mean, I am definitely an American who has a love affair with stuff.

Keeping Watch: 30 Sheep, 24 Rabbits, 2 Llamas, 1 Alpaca, and a Shepherdess with a Day Job - Kathryn Sletto. 2010.

As soon as I saw my favorite fluffy creature on the cover, I felt an immediate need to transport myself into this (dream) hobby farm setting.

(Side note: this is probably the lowest amount of nonfiction I have read in 1 year for a decade, but I was just so busy hunting down specific types of stories that I could not get distracted by random learning.)

[perfect-corroscience]

Wow, a lot can change in about a year, huh. I was there for TB2, but tapered off it and TB1 sometime for real-life reasons, just before the Girls Gone Astray event in 2… but I’ll leave my thoughts for the end of this (the playthrough).

With version 5.5.3, Terra Battle now has an ending. For the most part, I’m going to be aiming just to finish that. I got to chapter 36 before I stopped playing, so chapter from now to at least chapter 34 will be several versions behind. But nevertheless, onwards:

Chapter 30: Rising World – “The will of countless creatures great and small converges into a single purpose: to protect the future.”

30-1 They live solely for vengeance.

Things are coming to a head, now.

30-1 is five rounds of these two enemies. They aren't too out of the ordinary. The Oxsecian Striker’s Rocket Force move doesn’t do damage, just displaces your units.

30-2 The rancor that has festered in their souls for so long.

The Oxsecian ship unleashes its weapons en masse on Animata, intent on retribution.

This is the day they will finally purge themselves of the rancor that has festered in their souls for so long.

A new face among the two enemies seen in 30-1: sentient space junk! They appear in the second, fourth, and fifth battle alongside some other mooks. Take care of the Oxsecian enemies while hopefully staying out of range of the Space Debris’ status-inducers. 

Of the two, sleep is less annoying, so it’s not a bad idea to bring someone with Panacea (at the very least, Palpa will have it, but there’s also have Eileen and Gatz or Sheena w/ Cleansing Caper), or even just Locomotion (Palpa again, but Bonna and Kana are notable for having it while also having Paralysis Ward. Kana’s A class so most people likely have her anyway). 

Of course it’s a complete non-issue if you get rid of them first and/or stay out of the AoE, but it never hurts to be careful.

30-2 introduces this, the sword counterpart to the other.

30-3 The king does not budge.

Three battles this time: Space Debris/Oxsecian Bladebots make up the first and third battles; latter is notable since there’s 10 Bladebots to deal with.

30-4 With a subtle, slithering movement.

This introduces the Oxsecian Spearbot. Fairly self-explanatory.

There are no Space Debris in this stage; just Bladebots, Spearbots, and Strikers.

30-5 The sound of a massive explosion rips through the air.

This battle is of spear-enemies, so if you’re not overleveled like my crew, arrows are better.

This enemy is introduced here, and I guess is notable because it has Solar Wind, the at-the-time strongest Fire elemental spell (at 3x damage). Its in a cross range, so I guess be aware.

30-6 Shield with Animata.

Four battles this time. There’s another new enemy: another Elemental Spinner, this time ice-typed, with Absolute Zero, Cross (1).

30-7 Trust in me, overworlders!

There aren’t any Elemental Spinners here; just fights against Oxsecians.

30-8 Their collective will is sublimated into radiant life.

Their collective will is sublimated into radiant life that illuminates all.

“That radiance, washing over you, becomes a source of newfound strength.”

Before the battle starts, you get the message above. What this does, as you may notice, is fill up the Powered Point gauge to near-full. 

There’s only one battle in this stage; the boss is the Oxsecian Fighter EX (as noted by the 4x4 square), with a whopping 16 Oxsecian Strikers backing them up. For the most part, though, it’s not too bad: its moveset is really simplistic, with the only skill you have to be concerned about being Missile Barrage.

It helps that the mooks have a number of turns before they act, giving you time to pincer them and create some breathing room. They’re all staff, so no circle of carnage advantages. For a pack like this, you’d probably want at least one mage for their AoE attacks.

Its laser attack is column only, so just stay out of range.

It will telegraph when it’s about to use Missile Barrage, saying sth among the lines of “Missile Launchers open”; you have a turn to prepare, heal, etc. If you bring anything that has an Ice attack, this will happen, making it lose its turn. 

After that, it’s just a matter of chipping it down and any other Strikers it summons. Finally, it can drop Dark Matter and/or Mantle Helixes.

30-9 The power of will evokes a miracle.

The formidable will of the humanoids rouse an even greater power: the beasts that inhabit this world you once dubbed Planet Beastbait.

Humanoid and beast alike stand ready to confront the alien threat.

The resolve to defend their home--and the home of future generations--converges into one will, transcending ecosystems and the planet itself.

The will of countless creatures great and small converges into a single purpose: to protect the future.

As one, they raise their voices in a thunderous rallying cry to that future.

Hmm... 

After that fight, 30-9 returns to the 5-battle stage. Another Elemental Spinner is introduced. Good thing there’s no elemental mixing and matching.

Ba’gunar was helpful for dealing with them, with both type advantage + summoning capsules. If you’re not like me and have great luck, managed to pull someone like Samatha or Jennish – even better.

As an aside, there’s a chance of nabbing a Demon’s Badge otomo from this stage. Its evolved forms eventually provide Death Ward, self – which has some niche uses, I guess!

30-10 AND SO WE RETURN TO ZERO!

Everyone was too caught up in the battle to notice they vanished. But then, perhaps it isn’t a surprise they came back given what we’ve seen of them in previous chapters…

Before the battle even starts, we see each member of the Zero Series fuse together into…

6ZOO. He’ll always start the battle with Cyclone, Area (1), which does damage and knocks units back. At level 99 with those stats, he’s pretty beefy.

He has Counterattack, but it will always proc when pincered. He also summons two mooks too after using Cyclone; in fact, he follows a pattern of: Cyclone > summon two mooks matching its type > switch weapon. The weapon type switches from Sword (default) > Spear > Bow > Staff, then repeats.

The Staff form is notable because 6ZOO doesn’t summon anything, but will spend a turn preparing to use Quake, All. It’s one of the reasons I brought Gatz.

The mooks aren’t too bad, but their attacks can add up as 6ZOO beats your team down. As you clear them, take note: 6ZOO will use Supporting Fire whenever one of the mooks is pincered. Keeping health topped up is seriously important, and this is with a mainly B-class team that’s near his levels. (Fun fact for non-vets: levels used to be maxed out at 70.)

Once you wear it down, it says this…

Music (listen to this!): The World’s Awakening/Day of Reckoning

…and transforms again, recovering HP and becoming even more monstrous! This time around, it stays Staff-typed, but switches elements around. As it does, it not only summons corresponding Elemental Matchers, but also absorbs attacks of the same element. 

Not a problem if you’re bringing a majority-physical team like I did, but…

A few turns in, you’ll get this message. It’ll telegraph the big moves, then follow up w/ the corresponding elemental aim attack (except when its Dark-typed):

An inescapable gravity field takes hold… > Black Hole

Crackling bolts cross and spread outward… > Tempest (Cross)

An inferno blazes up on both sides… > Wall of Hellfire, 1 row

A band of frigid air descends… > Icicle, 1 column

Watching and waiting… > Terra Panic, All (occurs at ~25-30% HP)

Tempest and Icicle are explanatory: they’re strong elemental attacks. Wall of Hellfire creates flames on the rows 6ZOO is on – it’s a really damaging stage hazard, though mercifully it only lasts a couple turns and can kill off the mooks. Black Hole transports two random units away for a few turns.

Terra Panic is its big move; it affects everyone with every status effect except Ice/Shadowbind and the Solar/Lunar related ones. As a reminder:

Poison: damages units for a few turns. (not bad normally because it never kills your units, but could potentially help the boss/mooks)

Sleep: units don’t act and can’t be moved for a few turns or until they take damage. (the least dangerous, but iirc they can still be shifted)

Paralysis: unit don’t act and can’t be moved for a few turns. (You can still shift them away, though)

Demoralize: unit’s physical attack and skill proc rate drops to 0 for a few turns; buffs still proc, while demoralized units can still use skills w/ a Powered Point (though physical attacks will hit for peanuts)

Confusion: unit moves around randomly, cannot be controlled, act in chains, or be used to pincer. (This one is pretty bad because your unit is useless until it wears off, and they can put themselves in range of attacks or run through Wall of Hellfire if it’s up)

Petrification: unit turns to stone, cannot be controlled, and can’t be shifted by other units. (IMO the worst status effect because it pretty much never wears off; your units get petrified for 99 turns! By then the battle is over, either with your units dead or the boss dead.)

This is why it’s good to bring along a Remedy character or two. I had Gatz (who has Sleep Guard, Adjacent and Panacea by J3) but Bonna comes to mind because her J1/2 teach skills that cure Petrification and Paralysis while she herself gets Petrification/Paralysis Ward, but again, there’s Palpa. Just hope she doesn’t get petrified…

I was lucky to not get petrified, but this was pretty bad, too. Everyone was a sitting duck while Sorman and Zan were off who-knows-where after getting Black Holed.

Thankfully after that, things are fairly smooth sailing.

 Now, onto the epilogue…

“What is happening?”

“What are we to do?”

“I do not understand.”

“This is no fault of your own. It is simply that I have chosen a brighter future. Forgive me.”

“Father…”

 A strange sound emanates from the Oxsecian ship.

“Sire, what have you done?”

 It was 6ZOO who set the Oxsecian Ship on its suicidal course.

He sought complete and utter destruction, even if it meant his own end. He desired nothing more and felt no attachment to life.

He was the perfect weapon, destruction incarnate. This was the mission assigned him by his king.

 But the king had realized the error of his ways.

“I have changed the ship’s course.”

“WH… WHERE TO?”

“Is there somewhere you wish to go?”

6ZOO does not answer. He has collapsed into a heap of inorganic material.

Animata is a massive technological life form. Humans, lizardfolk, beastfolk, stonefolk, and the children of the Oxsecians dwell within her. 

All of these are species created from DNA plundered by Animata in her travels. Each has a home world somewhere in the vast universe.

As anyone might do, they seek out their roots to discover their origins.

There’s something really poignant about that simple message, accompanied by that backdrop.

It’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it? With this, part one of Terra Battle is finally, finally complete. Though this may be done, there’s still more left to do. I’ll be putting up the table of contents for part one, and from there on it’s just catching up to my story progress in-game.

Finally: that final boss theme tho, god bless Uematsu. Fantastic track, in a game with great music. I actually remember getting some chills when I played through 30-10.

[domiandsascha]

Roland Garros diary - Day 3 - Wednesday the 30th of May 2018

This is a long one, bear with me and blame Domi (and my English is still on court with him so please please please forgive all the mistakes, I’ll proofread myself on the morning).

Once again, we arrived there early enough to be at the front of the queue, therefore on the inside thirty seconds after the opening of the gates. Why this desire to go in at 9:30 when matches start only at 11 ? Well, early practices are obviously our main motivation, but also, there's something magical about Roland-Garros in the morning, when there's no one in the alleys except for the ball kids warming up. It looks so pretty and peaceful. And also, players are still free to wander around with no security and that's another plus. Talking about that… We had been in for like maybe five minutes, and the day turned epic already. We were heading towards the Lenglen, when out of the sudden and out of nowhere, Novak appeared, walking down the stairs on the main alley, smiling, unguarded and completely unnoticed. The way I gasped "Jue ! Look up !" was pretty epic too. We rushed, but by the time we got to him, he had already entered an area we couldn't follow him in. It didn't prevent Jue from freaking out and getting very very emotional. Then she became even more emotional when she found out he would be practicing on the Lenglen, which we had tickets for. There wasn't any other practice we wished to attend and Jue had a bit of time to get ready for her upcoming death, so we made our way to Court 18. Okay so, I need to explain before carrying on. We had reserved seats on the Lenglen where the order of play was Svitolina, then Djokovic, then Goffin VS Baby Corentin Moutet, then Frenchie Alizée VS Frenchie Pauline. Pretty good, right ? Right. But. On Court 18, the order of play was Naomi Osaka, then the end of Pierre-Hugues match, then Grigor, then Dominic. I mean, you know me by now. I'm not gonna pretend I hesitated for a single second… Now the thing with Court 18 is that, despite its size, it remains a side court which works on a "first in first served basis", where absolutely EVERYBODY can go to and where the program was highly appealing. Also, it was Wednesday and on Wednesdays, Roland-Garros is full of kids and teenagers who can only access the side courts and it's a bit of a nightmare. So I went there at 10am to secure a spot, ready to go through the day without moving, peeing, smoking, standing, drinking (so I wouldn't need to pee) if needed. But I didn't need to. The great thing was, we had reinforcement : my mum and my step-dad were here for the day. So we grabbed four great seats on 18 (sixth row, a tiny bit on the side, facing the players benches so the umpire chair wouldn't obstruct the view), leaving at least two of us there at all time while the others were going to the Lenglen (or to the toilets in my case). Although, after 4pm it became more and more complicated to make our way back into 18 and after 7pm, it was just impossible so that was good the four of us were back. Before telling you about MY day on 18, let's talk about Jue attending Novak's practice, front row, and getting a picture with him !!!!! She's dead, but she's okay, and I'm so freaking happy for her. Let's talk about Jue metting Pierre-Hugues in an alley and getting a picture with him !!! Let's talk about my mum spotting Lucas in practice (when he wasn't supposed to be practicing here) ! Let's talk about Sascha's freaking stressful match that we followed on the app ! And also Goffin won ! And Karen won ! Now… Hélène's day on Court 18… It started with the practice of Tsitsipas that I spent on my phone, because (probably an unpopular opinion here) I can't stand the guy, sorry not sorry. Then Naomi's match ! She played so well, she was amazing ! And she's so cute ! Next was Pierre-Hugues, resuming his match at one set all, and he played epic tennis in a freaking awesome atmosphere (French people love their Frenchies), it was so cool. Then Grigor's match… Oh my. Grigor. I mean, first of all, GRIGOR. He's one of my ultimate fav and I had already seen him in London last November, but from afar and during a match he had won super easily. So watching him up close, fighting a proper battle against Donaldson (who was playing great tennis, but he's an absolute dick, just so you know) was the best thing. At first… Grigor, were you kidding me ??? Four hours and twenty-two minutes ???? When 50% of me was just waiting for Domi and stressing my life out ??? Then it went to 70% of me, then 90%, then 100%. I couldn't stand it anymore. I was absolutely terrified. Grigor's match was so tight, and the "no tie break in the 5th set" thing got me completely distressed and paranoid, that they would carry on for two more hours. That Domi's match would never start and would be postponed to the next day and moved to Court 1 (where you need a special ticket to go). It was completely irrational, but the sun was going down already and I was starving, dehydrated, sleep deprived and I had spent nine hours on that stupid seat. And freaking Grigor was breaking just to get broken right after. The atmosphere in the crowd was mental, like football stadium mental, and in other circumstances, the end of that match would have been the best thing ever, really. But I was way too scared to enjoy it. Thankfully, Grigor finally won !! But let me tell you : if he had lost after all this, after giving me a nervous breakdown, he would have stopped being one of my favs for a little while. But he won, just in time for Domi to not be taken away from me ! So all good, I still adore him. But, oh Grigor… Domi's match started super quickly after that and the court remained absolutely packed. Now, there's something you need to know about me : watching Domi's matches always turn me into a person you don't really want to meet. Every single point stresses the hell out of me, his inconstancy drives me crazy and things that come out of my mouth aren't always pretty. So I had been worrying a bit at the thought of watching him for real, without the possibility of turning off the stream for 5 minutes or going for a cigarette every two games. But… I believe my anxiety crisis during Grigor's fifth set had just drained me from anything remotely negative and I became a ball of happiness and excitement and OHMYGOD DOMINIC. He was so close, he was perfect. Guys. I can't find the words. And his first set was such a walk in the park (because Tsitsipas wasn't really there yet…). The second set was a joke, Domi went brainless, like he does way too often. In a 3 sets match, I would probably have turned into Dark Hélène a tiny bit. But it was a 5 sets match. And I truly trusted him. And I was just too happy and grateful to have him in front of me. And also, we were having so much fun. You need to understand that, after four hours and a half of Grigor under the burning sun, the crowd was literally cooked. So during the first set, it was dead. Silent and non-reactive. There were only three people screaming their lungs out : Jue, my mum and I (and my tiny Austrian flag haha). And I know, for an absolute fact, that Domi had spotted us from the very beginning (so had his box). I'm not saying he was looking at us at every change over, but he was facing our direction super often. Between the first and the second set, three guys managed to get in and sat behind us. One of them said straight away "Okay, let's make some noise, this crowd is dead !" so we said "Yes please, help us !". They hadn't really picked a player to support, but because we were rooting for Domi, they decided to root for him too and let me assure you that the six of us woke up the entire Court 18 ! And despite Domi playing dreadful tennis during that set, I laughed so hard and enjoyed it so freaking much ! Like there was no place on Earth I would have rather been. Then came the third set. The crowd was finally on fire, both were playing epic tennis and Domi was better. Masterful. Perfection. Everything I had dreamed of. Guys. I love him so much it's unreal. It was obvious they would interrupt the match after this one as it was super late and getting really dark. And I was now so happy about it. I was grateful to Grigor for his never ending battle and to Domi for losing a set. Because a match always resumes on the court it has started on. So it would resume on 18, where I could go. That meant an extra day of Domi. I'm the luckiest person alive. When Domi left the court, the entire crowd was cheering, but he was walking his face down at first. Until he looked up and aside, towards us. The six of us, who had been cheering for him all along. He gave us a smile and a little wave before leaving the court and excuse me while I go cry on my bathroom floor. Well no, actually, I'm gonna go get four hours of sleep and think about my review of day 4. Coming up tomorrow !

[adhdvane]

i have so much angel halo fodder to farm but its magna fes so now is the best time to do it anyways i’m gunna try and 5* eahta today/tomorrow/at least before 25th is a reasonable goal. i need to max 11 more silver relics so 11 lazuline vessels for that + it takes 745990 exp (approximately ~25 lazuline vessels) to go from lv 1 to 150 (but I might be able to do it in less with journey drop boosts when using them since it seems to say that journey drop boosts and such only have no effect on the exp gain when putting weapons into the reserve and not the act of using the vessel on a item and vessels are also special considering unlike other exp upgrader items they can have a chance of grand success and its double jour drops right now so might as well) then other than that all i need are 6 more silver centrums, 4 of which i can get from just hosting the raid twice today (if i somehow get blessed i can get all six if i can get them to drop from the share chest both times) (otherwise getting 8 more heavenly horns from just joining raids to get 10 to trade for the other 2 centrums will be easy) (i have the two peacemaker stars for the two hosts) (i then proceeded to ramble too long so the rest is under the cut. ii keep writing shit out tat’s too long and then just deleting everything and never posing my rambling anymore but like fuck it at this point im keeping this)

and that’s it, i already did the awakening step on all 10 katanas yesterday which was the most painful step bc need 500 white dragon scales will always be the worst step in my opinions, which is why i spent yesterday getting to like 438 yesterday using the campaign exclusive quest (bc the drop rate for scales on that quest is surprisingly amazing considering the low ap cost even after you’ve done it 30 times) (but i ended up quitting 438 and then proceeded to buy the remaining 62 with cerulean stone bc i have a bunch still and tbh the only thing worth spending cerulean stones on are white dragon scales or shit like translucent silk, broken teacup, coverging rays, etc bc the drop rate for those is stupid, and i guess technically i’m going to need those 50 jumbo best bones when i get to the 5* part of death, but i still have more than enough stones if i wanted to buy all 50 of those drops and i’ll defiantly be getting even more after the roulette starts so i’m not even concerned, bc yeah i got the sunlight stone now for death but i’m still pretty damn far from deal w/death, though maybe not as far as i think if i just remember to host my go and primarch raids for a couple days, wow yeah actually im stupidly closer than i thought bc im only 12 celus fragments from all 30 i need, the only annoying issue in the last step is going to be taking the time to farm the 10 primeval horns bc sometimes they don’t drop when you join proto hl, i know its guaranteed from share i’m just always weary about hosting that raid since it is 18-man elixir limited and i can’t solo it, and have had a time in the past were i was only joined by people leaching and it sucks when only you and like 1 other person contribute. so i always feel better join one bc i can make a decent contribution (and even like sort of mvp race or usually more vice mvp race for like 2nd or 3rd) (okay one time i joined a proto baha hl raid that was between like 70~60% bc it was on earth and 8 ppl already, and upon joining discovered like most of them had jumped ship, and the log was dead and was like well fuck, but started raiding anyways, and trying to send back up requests anyways, ended up getting some momentum, painfully got it always through to 50% dark by my self (kind of annoyed i took my light grid with my spheric harp bc i thought it was going to be an instance were it would get to 50% super fast so the off element wouldn’t matter and not that everyone but host had retreated) and then like around ~45% another person finally joined and me and this one other person destroyed the rest of the boss in like a minute, that was one of like 4 or 5 times i’ve mvp’d proto baha hl upon joining. tbh i kinda wish i knew what the host was doing, like if they were sitting there watching, was afk, or had like left the raid page to do other things. like if they were just hoping someone would come in and beat it for them, or had sorta given up but didnt want to fully end the raid just incase, look okay i just felt fucking good thinking i helped out a lower rank player get through a hl raid that they were abandoned on by several other players who appeared to have either not being strong enough, or joined saw the damage and jumped ship bc it looked like it was going to fail. though if i remember correctly the time limit was pretty far gone so that’s probably also why no one was joining, i was just a dumb fuck who didn’t look at the time before i joined, then realized, and then just fucking felt bad and was like well fuck it lets see how far i can go by myself bc clearly everyone else is dead and i don’t have anything to lose and im not stoping anyone else from potentially saving this bc there’s still like 7 slots open that anyone can join at any time...) anyways the last thing i wanted to say was i remember i was like a little peeved when they announced everyone who finished chapter 4.5 in the demon slayer collab would get kengo for free bc FARMING FOR KENGO AROUND THE TIME IT CAME OUT HURT BC I HADN’T BEEN HL FOR VERY LONG SO IT TOOK A LOT OF EFFORT, esp like bc extra II class suck worse than row iv bc you have to make the ccw element change for every goddamn class. but i was glad they compensated us with materials and i was mostly just glad for the extra silver centrums and steel brick (even tho i just realized i have fucking 50 steel bricks where the fuck did those come from like i don’t remember having so many), but i remember thinking to myself like oh wow thank 40 samurai distinctions, thats so useful, wow, what am i going to do make another murakumo and unsigned kaneshige?? i think im good. guess those will sit there forever... and then a couple days ago when i started thinking about finishing eahta up since i literally finished farming the demon slayer event the day after the second half was unlocked (when u can just auto extreme+ with ur fire team u don’t have to do shit, i got all the items i wanted and after than even played to get the 200 battle trophy for the heck of it. i only wanted the tickets, ring, dama crystals, steel, summon unlock mats just ‘cause those spellbooks, skill jewels, the fire urns bc i know they’re farmable but they’re annoying and i am low on fire urns, and then i was like i guess the summon since it’s a 1 copy only thing and can’t be reduced even though i’ll literally never use it bc i have gabriel and gabriel has a sub aura, i guess maybe it could be potentially useful for prometheus solo’ing because of the 1 turn debuff resistance, but the times i did solo prometheus i never had problems running out of veils or clears and tbh garnet carbuncle has a shorter cooldown and again i’ve got lily and gabriel already (and 5* lucifer now) so like i’d much rather have my four summon slots for that be gabe, moon ssr, luci, garnet carbuncle. (heck i don’t even take extra damage cuts for the wilnas trial vane, lily, gabriel, and 5* feower’s gravity and delaying the everloving shit out of wilnas is enough for me, though i’ve never done the raid so maybe it would be helpful there.) anyways then i just spend the rest of the event drops on half elixers, and back to what i was saying i was thinking about finishing eahta and looking at all the mats i need and then remember oh yeah i need 30 class distinctions don’t i? which ones do i need for eahta??? oH THAT’S RIGHT. SAMURAI DISTINCTIONS. so that fuckin worked out perfect (not that i don’t have the pendents to just buy them anyways). anyways im going to shut up now and probably never re-read any of this ramble i wrote ever again bc adhd brain be like no read only write

[dominiquesstudiopage]

1. Paint a strip of every person on earths favorite color(exact color)

2. Draw a scene of every dream I’ve ever had even ones I’ve forgotten

3. Paint in all of the colors seen by cats

4. Create an origami piece the size of the sun

5. Create a map of everyone on Earths foot print path

6. Draw with the mind of my child mindfor 20 minutes

7. Paint a big wall while flying with no equipment

8. Become a cloud and paint the earth with colorful rain

9. Create a ribbon big enough to be seen from space on the earth and wrap it around earth like a present. Then take picture

10. Draw all of the different poses a hand can make

11. Completely accurately make sculptures of unborn babies grown up into adults

12. Make all of the oceans and rivers and lakes a deep purple and then write white messages in them

13. Take a star and stamp it onto a huge paper to make a star imprint

14. Have everyone dance to the Macarena at the same time...on Earth

15. Create an album with all my favorite moments in it from childhood

16. Draw all of my worst memories and when I burn the paper all of those memories disappear

17. Have each cloud be a different color for each person on the earth

18. Have lights big enough to light the entire sky and change the light each day

19. Create strings out of my aura and braid them into my hair

20. Walk on the sky and leave footprints in the shape of a heart

21. Build a house that sits on the point of its roof

22.rename all streets signs

23. Dance on the moon with no suit

24. Create a hair piece of the face of my unborn sibling

25. Create a hair piece that reaching space

26. Paint life after death

27. Paint life during death

28. Create a sculpture with just liquid water

29. Make a paper mache mask out of every assignment I’ve done

30. Create a drawing with permanent marker then erase it with a pencil eraser

31. Create a painting of my brother out of my heart and still live

32. Replace all grass with lush carpets

33. Make a drawing with my Aunt Merl

34. Make a dragon out of paper and have it come to life

35. Dance on pointe with no pointe shoes

36. Paint with an old dead artist

37. Create a ritual with a unicorn

38. Do a performance piece transforming myself into inanimate objects

38. Complete a fully functioning house made out of cotton candy

39. Live as the Halloween character I choose for a day

40. Give everyone on earth a small decorated card of random messages

41. Dance on the sun

42. Feel every feeling at once and make a painting of it(and not lose my mind)

43. Make an art piece in heaven

44. Run around in a performance set on fire without burning

45. Make a sculpture through my grandmas eyes

46. Make a sculpture through my dads eyes

47. Ride a whale and have it spray rainbow colors

48. Make my favorite sound into a real image

49. Put 5 volcanoes in a row and have them all erupt at the same time

50. Paint with hooves

51. Hold a paint brush with only my nose and make an oil painting

52. Cut as many colorful yarn pieces as the number of my hair strands and make a portrait w it

53. Get 100,000 green skittles only and melt them then make a giant skittle out of it

54.spend 100 days completely awake

55. Give 100,000 ppl play dough and have them all make a different variation of the same animal

56. Do a ritual performance and summon a god everyone can see

57. Paint with an invisible paintbrush but you can see the paint

58. Jump off a roof and land on the same roof

59. Sing a tune so high only dogs can hear and make them come to me

60. Wear a suit that turns me into an elf

61. Use magic to make 5 roses that breath air

62. Let three ppl read my mind and then write poems on what they heard/saw

63. Grow a magic bean stalk and the drop paint balloons from them and make a colorful circle around the beanstalk

64. Make a huge mold of the earth

65. Make a huge mold of the moon

66. Make a bracelet out of those molds connecting them with asteroids

67. Make a copy of myself out of newspaper that comes to life

68. Never say another word for the rest of my life

69. Have no one ever speak to me again

70. Have everyone on earth jump at the same time

71. Catch a snowflake and make an imprint of it on a paper

72. Get to the end of the rainbow and paint what I see

73. Ride on a flying broom and have the end covered in paint so it paints the floor

74. Knit a sweater that turns you into anything you want when you wear it

75. Make a pile of everyone in Georgia’s least favorite objec they own and burn it

76. Make a paper airplane that never stops flying

77. Make a VR set that allows you to lucidly play your dreams

78. Remember and draw every persons face you see in your dreams

79. Give a high five to everyone on earth

80. Meet an alien and compare trendy dances together

81. Make an art piece with Malcolm X

82. Make a floating heart

83. Make a person out of flower petals

84. Have my aura color shine from inside my chest

85. Make a rope out of my laugh

86. Grow horns and be able to dress as a real demon on Halloween

87. Give everyone in my city their favorite flower on their birthday

88. Have a magic wand that allows me any artistic ability I want

89.handmake seeds

90. Crochet a hat big enough to cover half the earth like an earth hat

91. Have no name for a year

92. Make a drawing with only my braids and a pencil

93. Draw my face perfectly with no mirror

94. Grow hair as long as a 15 ft tree

95. Braid that hair

96. Make boat out of the hair

.97 use the hair to make a trap for animals to have as pet

98.fly a paper plane all the way to Florida

99. Eat every food I’ve ever wanted to eat as a performance

100. Handmake a crystal

[auburnfamilynews]

Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

Our friends from And The Valley Shook join us to answer some questions about LSU Basketball!

Auburn prepares to host another Top 20 match-up tomorrow morning as #18 LSU comes into town for an 11AM Tip. LSU comes in off a stunning loss to Vanderbilt, their first SEC loss the season. With Auburn at 7-2 and LSU at 8-1 in the SEC, the winner of this game will be in first place in the league.

To get a better understanding of LSU, we reached out to our sister site, And The Valley Shook, for answers. My thanks to Zach Junda for taking the time to answer our questions!

LSU went into Vanderbilt with an 8-0 SEC record and by all accounts look poised to come into today’s match-up at 9-0. What happened Wednesday night?

ZJ: William if I knew I’d tell you. I live in Nashville these days so of course I had to go, and there was something in the air that didn’t feel right all day long. Maybe it’s that funky raised court of Vanderbilt’s, maybe they were looking ahead to Auburn but this was a team that wasn’t ready to play and they ran into a team who had been playing better lately. Vandy was up 10 on Kentucky in Rupp, only lost by 6 to Florida and gave you guys a pretty good scare to start league play. Vanderbilt was due. LSU just had the misfortune of walking on a landmine.

2. LSU’s had a knack for winning a lot of close games this year, including 6 straight games in January by 4 points or less. This happened last year too but what is it with the clutch factor for LSU to be able to win all of these close games?

ZJ: I think it’s because LSU has had some serious dudes in the front court the last two year. Naz Reid, Emmitt Williams, Kavell Bigby-Williams, Darius Days, Trendon Watford. These are the type of guys that, when the game slows down, you can just throw it inside and they’ll get a bucket. And LSU has had smart ball handlers the last two years. Tremont Waters was a Bob Cousy finalist last year and Skylar Mays, did ya hear this have ya heard about this, is a 4.0 pre-med student. LSU’s been blessed to have guards with absurd basketball IQs and complete specimens on the front court.

3. LSU’s offense has been outstanding at the bucket (7th in 2-point FG%) and at offensive rebounding (8th in the country). Have any opposing defenses been able to slow that down this season?

ZJ: Not really. LSU’s been held to under 70 three times this year. LSU gets so many second chance opportunities because they have more length than just about anyone in the country. No the only thing that slows LSU down is LSU deciding to shoot threes. LSU’s shooting 30 percent from three and yet they insist on taking about 20 a game.

4. I got a chance to watch freshmen Trendon Watford up close for the first time the other night (I also attended the LSU-Vandy game Wednesday night) and came away extremely impressed with him. He returns to Alabama for the first time in a LSU uniform for this matchup. Just talk about the impact he’s made on this year’s LSU squad.

ZJ: Yeah Watford has really helped fill the void left by Naz Reid, and honestly I think he’s a better player than Reid. Naz was a more impressive looking basketball player, but Watford’s the better player in my opinion. It helps that Watford has Darius Days and Emmitt Williams flanking either side of him, but Watford’s his own man. He’s the guy I trust above any other LSU big to convert a three-point play with the game on the line.

5. Darius Days is a guy that seems to flying under the radar. He is 26th in Offensive Rating, LSU’s best rebounder and shoots extremely well from 2. Why hasn’t the average SEC hoops fan heard about him? And who (along with Days) is an under the radar player Auburn fans should be concerned about going into this game?

ZJ: Well of the LSU starters everyone’s got a story and Days...well, doesn’t. Javonte Smart’s got that whole strong ass offer thing; Skylar Mays is a 4.0 medical student; Trendon Watford was a five-star; Emmitt Williams wears his shorts a little high and broke LeBron’s scoring record at the Jordan Brand Classic. Days? I mean...Days doesn’t really have a moment that makes you think “oh yeah that guy.” But Days is probably LSU’s most well-rounded front court player, and can make a three from the corner. He’s the kind of guy who you may not know leading up to a game, but you’ll remember him afterward.

As for a guy to look out for, Aundre Hyatt redshirted in 2018-19 but now he’s eligible and he’s carved out a role as one of LSU’s best bench players. And because of his size he’s able to guard a team’s two guard or their small forward. He gives LSU some much needed flexibility.

6. But seriously, how in the world did you guys give up 99 points to Vandy????

ZJ: Let’s just say, mistakes were made. Who hasn’t had a regrettable night out on Nashville?

7. Lastly, how do you see this matchup playing out? Do you have a score prediction?

ZJ: LSU needs this game. Losing Wednesday night amplified the importance of Saturday and I’d like to think the Vanderbilt game may be a the kind of loss that refocuses the Tigers. LSU may play down to its competition from time to time, but when they go up against teams that are in their weight class they usually play well. Yeah losing to Vanderbilt sucked but LSU’s still 24-3 in its last 27 SEC games and had won 12 in a row on the road. I like LSU’s chances.

.......so congrats to Auburn on their big win and being in first place

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2020/2/7/21128987/opponent-q-a-lsu-tigers

[usabsportdevelopment-blog]

A Champion’s Resiliency 

FUNdamental Skills - Character Development Series

By Darren Fenster / September 29, 2017 

Perspective can be an amazing thing sometimes.

We can look back at some great accomplishment, and figure out all of the things that went into reaching that pinnacle. We can do the same with failure, and determine how and why the wheels fell off the bus. In both cases, our experiences into what was help prepare us for what may be down the road, knowing exactly what worked and what didn’t.

Perspective on our 2017 season with the Greenville Drive was indeed a beautiful thing. We won the first South Atlantic League Championship in the 12-year history of the franchise, and set a regular-season record for wins with 79 along the way. We had some incredible wins. Extra inning marathon wins. Great, competitive wins. Perfectly played, all-around wins.

And we had some losses as well… 62 of them, to be precise.  

Looking back now, there were four specific games over the course of the season that clearly shaped us as a team. Not a single one of them was a win. Some clubs create their team identity behind improbable comebacks. Our Major League club in Boston seems to have built theirs in extra innings, just finding a way to outlast their opponent late into the night. Meanwhile in Cleveland, the Indians, in the midst of their own historic run, have done so by pummeling teams from the very first pitch of the game, rarely ever trailing over the course of nine innings. The 2017 Greenville Drive? Our identity was born from potentially debilitating defeats. Our lifeblood was our unbelievably consistent ability to respond to them.  

May 30: Rome Braves 10, Greenville Drive 7

The first of these identity-building losses was quite possibly the worst. Not only the worst of the season, but it just might have been the worst loss I have ever experienced personally in my entire career on a baseball field, as a player or coach.

In the first game of a doubleheader against a Rome Braves team that was nipping at our heels in second place, we took a comfortable 7-0 lead into what should have been the final inning of the game. The frame opened with three hits, a walk, and a hit batsman; the score was 7-3. A base hit sandwiched in between two outs drove in another run with one out to go. 7-4. With the tying run at the plate, and us now clinging nervously to a three-run lead, we got the game-ending strikeout that we needed… but our catcher was unable to get a glove on the ball, and the pitch went to the backstop as the batter reached first with another runner crossing the plate. 7-5. The next hitter doubled off the wall to complete the unthinkable comeback, driving in two to tie the game at seven.  We had just blown a seven-run lead in the last inning of a game, and eventually lost after giving up a three-spot in extras. This was the kind of loss that could stay with a team for a long time.  

It was my job as manager to make sure it didn’t.

Very rarely would I ever address the team after a game.  Over the course of the regular season, it might have happened five times – maybe. Post-game speeches just weren’t my style; we would generally talk about the previous night’s game before stretch the following day. But after a loss like this, with another game to start 30 minutes later, it was a no-brainer to speak to the group about what had just happened, as I had to make sure the guys got that game out of their system and move on. With players shell-shocked, sitting quietly in front of their lockers in the clubhouse, most with their heads down wondering what had just happened, my quick team address went something like this:

“This was bad, there’s no sugarcoating it. But it’s not one person’s fault. We win as a team, and we lose as a team. We move on as a team. Right now. The best part about that game? It’s over. In 30 minutes, we get the opportunity to right the ship.”

And we did…

Not only did we win game two of the doubleheader – we went on to win four games in a row, part of a run in which we would win seven of our next 10 games, putting ourselves in a great position to close out the first half of the season on top of our division.

June 15: Columbia Fireflies 7, Greenville Drive 2

The 140-game South Atlantic League season is broken up into two, 70-game halves. The winners of each division in each half go to the playoffs. With four games to go in the first half, we were clinging to a half-game lead over Columbia, who came to town red hot, winning something like 12 of their previous 13 games. We had played extremely well over the course of the first 65 games of the half, pacing the division in first place from Opening Day on. If we took care of business on our end, we wouldn’t have to worry about what anyone else was doing below us, and that playoff ticket would be ours.

Well, we didn’t take care of business that night, and for the first time in more than two months, we found ourselves in second place with three games to go, on the outside of postseason baseball looking in. A three-game series awaited us on the road in Rome to play what was arguably the most talented team in the league. A thrilling comeback win on the final game of the half gave us a series win, and – with some help from Charleston against Columbia – the division title.

We were going to the playoffs.

July 7: Lexington Legends 5, Greenville Drive 2 (PPD, eight innings)

We stumbled a bit out of the gate in the second half of the season. Perhaps we were tired from the way we had to play the final two weeks under pressure to win the first half; but while playing the same brand of baseball we had been the entire season, we just couldn’t find ourselves on the winning side of the scoreboard like we had so often in the months prior. Our record, which stood at 4-10 going into this game, wasn’t a huge concern for me because we were going about our business professionally and competing in a similar manner as we had all season long… that was, until this game.

As we sleepwalked into the eighth inning, we found ourselves down 5-2, playing with very little energy, and even less focus. As a team, we had just one hit for the game, and it certainly wasn’t Clayton Kershaw or Corey Kluber who was on the mound. It wasn’t “just one of those days;” we flat-out were not competitive. Unfortunately, these days are bound to happen over the course of a 140-game season. In the bottom of the eighth, as the skies opened up and the ocean began to fall from above, our players’ enthusiasm was renewed.  As I sat on one end of the dugout, I thought to myself, had we had this kind of life when the game was actually being played, we’d probably be in a better position. The energy that this rain delay brought out in our team frustrated me.

And then, when the game had been officially called, a few guys thought it would be a good idea to go tarp sliding. After we had just lost a game. After we had gotten just one hit. Well, needless to say, this prompted a post-game “speech.” That “speech” had a clear message: even if it’s just for one day out of 140, a lack of energy, focus, competitiveness, and professionalism was not acceptable. Not even for one day.

The next day would be the start of a seven-game winning streak, and a stretch of winning ten of our next twelve contests.

August 22: Columbia Fireflies 14, Greenville Drive 7

In one of those days that was, truly, “just one of those days,” we were getting beat handily by Columbia, down 14-0 as we went to bat in the bottom of the eighth inning. A Rome-like, miracle comeback was hardly in the cards in a game where two touchdowns would merely tie things up. But from the third base coach’s box, I witnessed something pretty incredible during our last two times at bat, which spoke volumes about who we were as a team.

Down 14-0, with six outs to go and everyone – myself included – tired and hungry, as the post-game spread was getting cold, we didn’t give away a single at bat. Our competitiveness in the box during those final two innings was as good as it had been all season long. We were disciplined and made the pitchers work. We found ways to get on base beyond just base hits. We got clutch hits to keep the line moving, and the game going.  Eventually, the last out was recorded, and we had lost the game by seven runs when the dust had settled. But despite the box score that would show us losing, I remember thinking to myself how awesome it was to witness our guys truly play all nine innings, which was our Modus Operandi all year long.

In a game where we were dead in the water, the life we showed in those last two frames carried over to the next day, which put us on a run of eight straight wins, and got us on a trajectory to peak at the exact time of year when we needed to: right into the playoffs.

If someone asked me to describe this collective group of 49 players in one word, that would be simple: resilient. Time and time again, we got knocked down, and time and time again, we got back up, and responded.

As we moved through the playoffs, I had my “back against the wall,” or, “world against us” speech all ready to go, with those four aforementioned games as its backdrop. This team was battle-tested and as well prepared to respond as any group of players I had ever been around. It was who we were; it was what we did. And I was ready to give that speech to make sure every single guy in our clubhouse knew that.

But in the end, these guys played so well that I would never have to give it.

The natural ebb and flow of our game will always present adversity. Often times, we cannot control how, when, or even why that hardship will hit. What we can control is our response. When many others would have been crippled by it, in 2017, the Greenville Drive used adversity as a springboard that enabled us to leave our own mark on a franchise’s history. We responded better than any coach could ever hope for. We responded all the way to a ring.

For more resources, check out these links: USA Baseball Mobile Coach Amateur Resource Center Online Education Center The Mental Game

Darren Fenster is a contributor to the USA Baseball Sport Development Blog, and is currently the Manager of the Boston Red Sox Class A Affiliate Greenville Drive. A former player in the Kansas City Royals minor league system, Fenster joined the Red Sox organization in 2012 after filling various roles on the Rutgers University Baseball staff, where he was a two-time All-American for the Scarlet Knights. Fenster is also Founder and CEO of Coaching Your Kids, LLC, and can be found on Twitter @CoachYourKids.

[xmichaeljacksonx]

100 Michael Jackson Facts

1. Michael Jackson's favorite animated character was Pinocchio

2. When he was a child his favorite books included Rip Van Winkle and The Old Man and the Sea

3. Michael Jackson was very ticklish

4. Saint Vincent, an island in the Caribbean, once issued Michael Jackson stamps

5. The singer once owned a boa constrictor called “Muscles”

6. As a youngster he used to put spiders in sister La Toyah’s bed

7. He played a scarecrow in The Wiz, a movie version of the Wizard of Oz

8. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (one for himself and one as part of the Jackson Five)

9. Quincy Jones nicknamed him “smelly” – a slang term similar to “funky”

10. Jackson described his own voice on early Jackson 5 records as “like Minnie Mouse”

11. He was a big fan of The Three Stooges

12. He is an Exeter City fan

13. He had two llamas called Louis and Lola

14. Thriller spent 37 weeks at number one in the US Billboard chart.

15. In 1984 he won eight Grammys – the joint highest amount ever won by one person in a single year

16. He gave his first public performance at the age of 5 singing Climb Every Mountain

17. He had eight brothers and sisters

18. His marriage to Lisa-Marie Presley lasted only 19 months

19. Jackson paid $47 million for the publishing rights to the Beatles back catalogue in 1985 and sold a share of to Sony in 1995 for $95 million

20. His middle name was Joseph

21. He was born on Aug 29, 1958

22. At the Brit Awards in 1996 Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker took exception to his bombastic performance of Earth Song and ran on to the stage

23. Jackson was very fond of Mexican food

24. In 1993 Jackson’s dermatologist said he had a rare skin disease called vitiligo, which causes sufferers to lose pigmentation in their skin

25. Thriller is the world’s best-selling record of all time with an estimated 150 million copies sold worldwide

26. Two of his other albums – Bad and Dangerous – are also among the world’s best-selling records

27. He popularised dance moves including the robot and the moonwalk

28. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice

29. He won 13 Grammy Awards

30. Billie Jean was the first video by a black artist to air on MTV.

31. Jackson owns the rights to the South Carolina State Anthem, South Carolina on My Mind.

32. He has waxworks in five Madame Tussauds museums across the world. Only Elvis Presley and Madonna have more.

33. He has sold more than 300 million records worldwide

34. His favourite superhero is Morph from X-Men

35. He had a pet ram called Mr Tibbs

36. His total lifetime earnings from music are estimated at $500 million

37. Jackson regularly wore a black armband to remind people of children suffering around the world.

38. The moonwalk was picked up from street dancers

39. Little Richard wanted to be played by Jackson in a biopic

40. Jackson had a pet python called Crusher

41. In 1984 a French fan committed suicide because he couldn’t have surgery to look like Jackson

42. The video for Scream was the most expensive ever at £3.8 million.

43. A library once accused the singer of owing $1 million in overdue book fines

44. Jackson was a vegetarian

45. He won an MTV award for Best Movie Song in 1994. It was for Will You Be There from the movie Free Willy

46. HIStory was the biggest selling double album ever released in the United States

47. Jackson was given a royal title in the Ivory Coast in 1992

48. Before concerts he would drink Ricola candy dissolved in hot water

49. His birthplace Gary, Indiana, is planning a museum in his honour

50. The singer patented a shoe device that allowed dancers to lean forward at gravity defying angles

51. He was a best man at Liza Minnelli’s wedding to David Gest

52. The largest television audience in US history watched him perform at half time during the 1993 Super Bowl

53. Martin Scorcese once directed a Jackson video

54. A survey in 1997 declared him the Most Famous Person in the World

55. He paid $1.5 million in 1999 to buy for the 1939 Oscar for best film won by Gone With The Wind

56. Jackson once described Elizabeth Taylor as “a warm cuddly blanket that I love to snuggle up to”

57. He recorded a voice-over on The Simpsons

58. Macauley Culkin is godfather to two of Jackson’s children

59. Jackson co-wrote We Are The World with Lionel Richie

60. He is godfather to Nicole Richie

61. He is also godfather to Bee Gees singer Barry Gibb’s son Michael

62. Jackson shares a birthday with Sir Richard Attenborough and actress Rebecca DeMornay

63. At the time of his death Jackson was rehearsing for his greatest comeback, with 50 shows scheduled in London

64. He was four years old when he began singing with his brothers Marlon, Jermaine, Jackie and Tito in the Jackson 5

65. The Jackson 5’s number one hits included “I Want You Back,” “ABC” and “I’ll Be There”

66. In 2002 Jackson caused controversy when he playfully dangled his infant son, Prince Michael II, over a hotel balcony in Berlin in front of fans

67. MC Hammer once challenged Jackson to a dance off

68. In a TV documentary he acknowledged sharing his bed with children but described the practice as sweet, and not sexual

69. During production of a 1984 Pepsi advertisement Jackson sustained burns when an explosion set his hair on fire

70. Jackson’s 13 number one hits on the US Billboard charts put him behind only Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Mariah Carey

71. Jackson’s father Joseph worked in a steel mill

72. Joseph Jackson and his brother Luther were in an R&B band called The Falcons

73. Michael was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness by his mother

74. In a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey the singer spoke of a traumatic childhood including suffering from loneliness

75. Jackson showed his singing talent at the age of five when he performed at a Christmas recital

76. The family band was originally called the Jackson Brothers

77. Michael was promoted to joint lead vocals at the age of eight and the band became the Jackson 5

78. They toured extensively in the US Midwest from 1966 to 1968

79. Hestrongly disliked the “Wacko Jacko” nickname

80. Wild stories about him included that he slept in an oxygen chamber and that he bought the bones of The Elephant Man.

81. During the world tour for Bad he performed to 4.4 million people

82. His first autobiography, Moonwalk, took four years to complete

83. The book reached the top of The New York Times best sellers’ list

84. Jackson had 8 siblings; 5 brothers and 3 sisters

85. He suggested weight loss and a strict vegetarian diet had contributed to the change in his appearance

86. He paid $17 million in 1988 for the land in California that became the Neverland Ranch

87. The 2,700-acre property had a theme park, a menagerie, and a movie theatre.

88. Its grounds were protected by a security staff of 40

89. Neverland was valued at $100 million in 2003

90. The profits from his single “Man in the Mirror” went to charity

91. In 1991 he signed a contract with Sony worth $65 million

92. In 1992 he founded the Heal the World Foundation which brought underprivileged children to Neverland and made donations worldwide

93. When he visited the African country of Gabon 100,000 people turned out to see him

94. Jackson’s most famous pet was Bubbles the chimpanzee

95. Bubbles was adopted at the age of three from a cancer research clinic in Texas.

96. Bubbles sat in on recording sessions for the Bad album and accompanied Jackson to Tokyo

97. The artist Jeff Koons made a series of sculptures of Jackson and Bubbles

98. Jackson fathered two children with Deborah Jeanne Rowe – Michael Joseph Jackson Junior (also known as “Prince”) and a daughter, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson

99. The couple divorced in 1999 and Rowe gave full custody rights to Jackson

100. Vitiligo, the skin disease from which he suffered, affects 1 to 2 percent of the population

~Courtesy of The Telegraph

[tkatsumi06j]

A riot of Japanese prisoners was the bloodiest conflict on New Zealand soil in the 20th century.

[(動画) キャプション1] 日本人捕虜たちによる暴動はニュージーランドの地で起きた20世紀で最も凄惨な衝突だった。[―といわれていた]

Last updated 17:33, August 25 2017

最終更新：2017年8月25日午後5時33分

Stuff has partnered with Top Shelf productions to bring you a new NZ On Air-funded series about New Zealand's unique historic places and efforts to preserve and share them. Here's part one of Heritage Rescue.

「NZ On Air」をスポンサーに迎え，StuffはTop Shelfプロダクションと提携して，ニュージーランド固有の歴史的価値のある場所の保全と共有化に向けた取り組みを扱う新たなTVシリーズを提供する。ご覧の動画は新番組『Heritage Rescue』 (歴史遺産を救え) のパート1だ。

It's not often that a small museum finds itself at the centre of a diplomatic row between two cultures.

Yet that is the lot of Featherston Heritage Museum, which is in the unenviable position of being the custodian of one of the country's best-kept military secrets.

小さな歴史博物館が，二つの異なる文化をまたがる外交問題の只中に置かれるということは滅多にない。しかし「フェザーストン・ヘリテージ博物館 (Featherston Heritage Museum)」は，まさにその宿命を負っていた。これまで巧妙に隠されてきた軍事機密を保護してきたからだ。

In February 1943, the Kiwi home guard shot 122 prisoners of war. A military tribunal promptly absolved the guards of any blame, claiming the shooting had been to quell a riot.

[画像キャプション2] 1943年2月，NZ国防市民軍の警備兵たちは122名の戦争捕虜たちに向けて発砲した。軍事裁判が開かれたが，暴動鎮圧のための銃撃であったとして，警備兵たちは一切責任を問われずに放免された。

It happened just down the road from the museum and, to this day, it is the bloodiest event of the 20th century to have occurred on New Zealand soil.

この出来事は博物館のすぐ傍で起きた。そして今日に至るまで，二十世紀中にニュージーランドの地で起きたもっとも凄惨な出来事として記録されている。

Heritage Rescue presenter Brigid Gallagher, left, talks about the shooting at the POW camp with the granddaughters of one of the guards.

[画像キャプション3] 捕虜収容所での銃撃事件について 『Heritage Rescue』の番組プレゼンターであるブリジッド・ギャラガー（左）と語り合う収容所の警備兵の孫娘たち。

Phil Dittmer, the museum's chairperson, has long felt uncomfortable about this. "Yes, it was a dark day in our history," he tells Brigid Gallagher, the presenter of TV show Heritage Rescue.

博物館の館長 [理事長？]を務めるフィル・ディトマー (Phil Dittmer) は長年，このことを思い悩んできた。テレビ番組『Heritage Rescue』の番組プレゼンターであるブリジッド・ギャラガー (Brigid Gallagher)に対し彼はこう言った。

「そうです。あれは私たちの歴史の暗部といえる一日でした」

"Why didn't I learn about this in my history classes at school?" Gallagher asks.

"It was all hushed up. No one knew," Dittmer says.

ギャラガーはこう尋ねた。

「なぜ私 [たち] はこのことを学校の歴史の授業で習ったことがないのでしょうか」

ディトマー館長はこう答えた。

「完全に秘匿されたからです。誰も知り得なかったんです」

Featherston in the 1940s.

[画像キャプション4] 40年代のフェザーストンの風景

The "dark day" Dittmer is referring to is the shooting by the Kiwi home guard of 122 prisoners of war in the world's first Japanese POW camp. Forty-eight prisoners died.

ディトマー館長のいう「歴史の暗部と言える一日」とは，世界初の日本人戦争捕虜収容所で国防市民軍のニュージーランド人 の警備兵等が122名の捕虜たちに向けて発砲した日をいう。そのうち48名が死亡した。

A military tribunal promptly absolved the guards of any blame, claiming the shooting had been to quell a riot among the prisoners.

軍事裁判が開かれたが，暴動鎮圧のための銃撃であったとして，警備兵たちは一切責任を問われずに放免された。

This isn't so, says Dittmer. "It's time for the truth to come out. We want our museum to tell the real version of events."

しかし，実際はそうではなかった。ディトマー館長はこう語る。

「真実を知らしめるべき時が来ました。われわれの博物館は事実を伝える場でありたいのです」

All that remains in remembrance of the deaths at Featherston is a grove of cherry trees.

[画像キャプション5] フェザーストンの捕虜収容所跡に残されたのは死んだ者たちを弔う数本の桜の木々のみ。 

That's why the Featherston Heritage Museum asked the Heritage Rescue team to investigate the events of February 25, 1943.

そこで，「フェザーストン・ヘリテージ博物館」は，『Heritage Rescue』の番組調査チームに1943年2月25日に起きた出来事の調査を依頼した。

"When it comes to getting beneath the skin of modern history," says Gallagher, "it can take more than just reading through the standard version of events. Like a police detective, all the evidence needed to be collected and re-looked at, from different angles."

ギャラガーは言う。

「現代史の暗部に迫るとなると，公式の記録ばかり読み漁っても真実には辿り着けません。刑事のように，すべての証拠を集めて，あらゆる角度から再検証しなければなりません」

The programme, which is in its second series, helps to transform the fortunes of small museums by bringing in heritage expert Gallagher and curator and designer Rose Evans to create a dynamic new look.

第二シリーズに突入した番組は，歴史文化遺産の専門家であるギャラガーと博物館の館長で設計者でもあるローズ・エヴァンズの下，小さな博物館たちの数奇な運命をよりダイナミックな，新しい角度から映し出す。

Japanese POWs were used as labourers, building key infrastructure and tending crops.

[画像キャプション6] 日本人の戦争捕虜たちは労働者として徴用され，インフラの建設や農作物の栽培等に駆り出された。

The Featherston Heritage Museum Rose needed, among other things, documentary evidence of the cover-up. The TV crew set to work requesting official documents from Archives New Zealand and the Swiss Federal Archive in Geneva.

「フェザー��トン・ヘリテージ博物館」の場合，ローズは何よりも隠蔽の証拠を文書で確保したいと考えた。番組のクルーはニュージーランドの公文書館やジュネーヴのスイス連邦公文書館に文書の提供を依頼した。

What they uncovered was a story of subterfuge on the parts of the New Zealand and British governments to prevent reprisals on Commonwealth soldiers as acts of revenge by the Japanese.

そうして明らかになったのは，英連邦出身の兵士たちに対する旧日本軍の報復を恐れたニュージーランド政府と英国政府の一部の勢力による謀略だった。

A telegram sent by the Japanese to the Swiss intermediaries who were put in charge of mediating between the two countries shows Japan was outraged, saying what New Zealand had done was "not justifiable".

当時，両国を仲介したスイスの仲介人に対して日本政府が送った電報によると，日本政府側はニュージーランド側が行ったことは「到底正当化し得ない」と，怒りを露わにしていた。

Heritage Rescue also invited academic Jim Veitch to come to the museum to give his opinion. He's studied the incident and has long thought the government should issue an official apology. Former prime minister John Key turned down his request.

番組では，歴史家のジム・ヴェイチ氏 (Jim Veitch)も博物館に招いて見解を求めた。長年に渡ってこの問題を研究してきたヴェイチは，ニュージーランド政府は公式に謝罪すべきだと考えてきた。当時のジョン・キー首相に提案してみたが認められなかった。

Veitch understands why New Zealand had to lie - "they couldn't tell the truth, because if they had told the truth that would have been to give Japan an advantage in the propaganda war" - but he thinks it's now time to talk about what happened. Too many people have had to carry the burden of this lie, some to their deathbeds.

ヴェイチ氏は，なぜニュージーランド政府が嘘をつかなければいけなかったか理解できるという。

「真実を伝えることはできなかったのでしょう。なぜなら，もし真実を伝えてしまえば，情報戦で日本を利することになるからです」

しかしヴェイチ氏は，真実を語るべき時が来たと考えている。あまりにも多くの人びとが，生涯を通じてこの嘘の真実を抱え続けてきからだ。時には墓場まで。

"All those in the camp associated with it were sworn to secrecy; you did not break the rule of secrecy for fear you might lose your job, and jobs were hard to get. So you stuck to the rule and, furthermore, you never talked about it for the rest of your life."

「収容所の事件に関係した者はすべて，事件を秘匿することを誓約させられました。彼らは仕事を失う恐怖から，この誓約を破ることができませんでした。当時は仕事を得るのがひじょうに大変でしたから。だから彼らは誓約を守り抜き，そして生涯，そのことを語ることはなかったのです」

According to Veitch, a special ward was set up to look after the injured prisoners. "The windows were blacked out and all staff dealing with the prisoners were replaced afterwards to prevent the secret from leaking out."

ヴェイチ氏によると，[事件で] 負傷した捕虜のために特別病棟が設けられたという。

「 秘密を厳守するため，窓は真っ黒に塗りつぶされ，負傷した捕虜たちを介護していた職員らは全員後で入れ替えられました」

All that remains in remembrance of the deaths at Featherston is a grove of cherry trees. This isn't enough, says Veitch.

フェザーストンの捕虜収容所跡で死んだ者たちを弔うのは，数本の桜の木々だけとなった。だがこれでは不十分だと，ヴェイチは言う。

"Let's have the names of the people who were killed there, and every Japanese person who comes here should come here because this is part of their story."

「あの場所で殺された人たちの名前をここに刻むべきでしょう。そしてここに来るすべての日本人が，自分たちの歴史を知るために来るようになればと思います」

As part of the retelling of the story for the museum, Heritage Rescue also tracked down Michiko Iwasa, the granddaughter of one of the prisoners who was shot, and invited her to visit from Tokyo.

フェザーストンの博物館の真実の物語を伝える試みの一環として，『Heritage Rescue』は銃撃で負傷した捕虜の孫娘であるイ���サ・ミチコ (Michiko Iwasa)さんを探しだし，東京から跡地慰問のために呼び寄せた。

"We needed to do justice to the lives of the people devastated by this event," Gallagher says. "Their voices have been hidden away for three-quarters of a century."

ギャラガーは言う。

「この出来事で人生を狂わされた人びとにせめてもの償いをする必要があると考えました。彼らの声は70年もの間，覆い隠されてきたのですから」

Iwasa revealed that whenever her grandfather went to the hospital for an x-ray, doctors were shocked to see a bullet lodged in his back.

イワサさんは，こんな話をしてくれた。彼女の祖父が病院でレントゲンを撮って貰うたびに，背中に銃弾が埋まっていることを発見する医師たちが衝撃を受けていたと。

Brigid took Iwasa back to the site where her grandfather was shot. "Walking on to the site with Michiko was one of the most nerve-wracking, sensitive and memorable moments of my life. My heart went out to her."

ギャラガーはイワサさんを彼女の祖父が撃たれた収容所の跡地に連れて行った。  

「ミチコさんとあの現場を歩くのは，私の人生の中でもっともやるせない，ひじょうに敏感にならざるを得ない，記憶に刻まれる瞬間でした。私の心は，ミチコさんに対するお悔やみの気持ちで一杯になりました」

At the end of five days, the Heritage Rescue team opened the museum to the public.

五日間の調査ののち，『Heritage Rescue』は博物館を一般に公開した。

Dittmer was delighted to be able to show the Japanese Ambassador the new display that he feels now honours the memory of those who died on February 25, 74 years ago.

ディトマー館長は，新しい展示を日本の大使に見せることができることをひじょうに喜んだ。74年前の2月25日にここで亡くなった人びとを追悼することができると。

Heritage Rescue, funded by NZ On Air, screens on Choice TV on Saturday at 7.30pm.

NZ On Airがスポンサーを務めるテレビ番組『Heritage Rescue』は土曜午後7時30分から「Choice TV」で放送される。

- Stuff