#do the kids like joco. ... i like joco

[p0kern1ght]

redraw of simmons as my favorite promo image of jonathan coulton 🍊

[tetsunabouquet]

hi :) ok, just watching shaman king 2021 in 2024 recently so the fandom seems gone LOL and I have doubts thanks to the spin-offs. in shaman king marcos; marco was shy and victim of bullying and luchist saw good in him, adopted him and gave him a happy childhood (luchist doesn't seem an abuser) so how a shy bullied kid became a violent abuser adult? luchist said he was disciplined? does it means marco hit kids for not doing homework?

hao used to be good and became bad later in life, so can't stop thinking marco became bad 'cause of his hate for hao and his wish to get revenge, hate changes people. maybe he started abusing kids in search of the perfect weapon to kill hao and found it in jeanne, plus, living a big lie without nobody to share with, it must have driven mad, he lost it when yoh said he was the leader. so he was well aware of his lie.

hao wasn't a murderer, pain and human idiocy changed him.

and it may explain why luchist abandoned marco? luchist always wanted to join hao, but created x laws for marco, he was supposed to be a great father and left his son suddenly, maybe he couldn't see how bad marco became and couldn't kill him.

ren and chocolove did bad things and changed to good, so good people can change to bad. tamao changed too, she used to be shy and kind, now does she hit hana?

sorry, I'm just late to the party, 3 years late LOL not sure whether to watch shaman king flowers, it seems canceled and don't want to be in cliffhanger and have to wait 20 years more.

thanks for replying to my annoying questions LOL

Hao and Marco's childhoods are incomparable so they don't make for good comparisons. Hating someone with a burning passion doesn't suddenly turns people into (child) abusers. Sure it corrupts people, but corruption only ever shows what was already under someone's surface. With the attitude of the church at this time, it is very likely that Marco already picked up that behavior far before Hao came around. Hao was very much a murderer! He killed people, humans and shamans alike. That's the very definition of a murderer. Pain and trauma which isn't idiocy had twisted him into a murderer. A sobby backstory doesn't excuses away that he as someone who is mentally an adult throughout the entire story, killed plenty of innocents.

Ren, Joco and even the Shaft gang hadn't reached psychological maturity and never knew any better which is why I don't consider them the same as Hao. Adults should know better, and Hao still performed heinous crimes. You do know of Tamao's her arc into becoming a legendary gangster in her teens is one of the things Takei hasn't expanded upon, right? She and Ryu alike are probably more accustomed to tough love then gentle love. Yoh's dad literally slapped children, have you forgotten about that? We do have to take into account that corporal punishment is still much more common in Japan as it is in the West. It's more normalized over there as about 70% of Japanese children still get spanked at home. We do have to take account how certain cultures and time periods in Marco's case, normalize child abuse. It doesn't make it right, but at this point with the numerous examples we have seen, it's very clear that Takei himself is amongst those who believe in abusing children which is one of my issues with the franchise. PS: Whilst the 2021 is superior in terms of following the manga, I've been part of the fandom since the original anime aired. The Shaman King fandom has pretty much always been comatose. Welcome to the club. PPS: Also, Shaman King Flowers the anime was literally released in January in Japan....

[shanie-the-toyaddict]

Can we TALK about the Spongebob Squarepants Musical?

Just got done watching the Nickelodeon Filmed version, and...

I HAVE THOUGHTS

(SPOILERS FOR THE MUSICAL AHEAD)

Things that my tiny brain can’t get past:

Karen: Sheldon, you couldn’t rap to save your life. Plankton: OH YEAH (Proceeds to be a rap god for an entire song, INCLUDING a section literally BASED ON THE SONG “RAP GOD”.).

Pearl: Come ON daddy, I know we aren’t the same species... which is, like, REALLY weird when you come to think about it...

Speaking of Pearl, she is HANDS DOWN the best singer in the entire show, and it’s not just a random fact, it’s a legitimate PLOT POINT

Show Producers: We’re not going to make the characters inhuman. They will be real people who just look like the characters. Meanwhile, Ethan Slater: *is an actual invertebrate sponge (I don’t think the man has bones, I really don’t)

Nickelodeon: This is a kids musical for children Also Nickelodeon: We’re including an entire subplot about RACISM!

Nickelodeon: Spongebob is a family show about family values Also Nickelodeon: Well, Patrick is Jesus and Christianity is stupid, sooo...

Spongebob: “Is that a jellyfish on a stick?!”

Mrs. Puff is a damn ALCOHOLIC. They don’t even try to HIDE it.

Everyone: Let’s have a concert!! Patrick: Is mayonnaise an instrument? (Yes, that made it into the show)

THEY DID THE TIME LAPSE BIT

Every damn time Ethan Slater switched voices (as in dropped the Spongebob voice for a line or two) I WAS SHOOK.

HE CAN DO THE LAUGH

Despite being humans you can tell who everyone is supposed to be, and that is FN AWESOME

SQUIDWARD GETS THE SHOWSTOPPER

Speaking of which, I have two different sponge tutorials of this show, one Broadway, one Previews, and HANDS DOWN I feel the Nick one is better than both because you can see the minute details in facial expressions. I don’t even know how this show worked on stage because I have BEEN on broadway, and you can’t read emotions from the balcony. So I know little things like Spongebob’s eyes going haywire would NEVER translate to a theater audience. 

Person (I forget who): I NEED A DRUM KIT UP HERE! *realizes there is literally a percussionist on stage* Person: Oh. Percussionist: *waves*

*DOLPHIN NOISES*

Plankton/Karen is the true love story of the show, and I love that they REMOVED the line about “We don’t need to punish them, they have each other, that’s punishment enough.” NO FUCK THAT. Plankton/Karen is a true, loving marital relationship, and I am so grateful they drove that point home, rather than make it seem like Marriage = Hell.

PATCHY THE MUTHAFUCKIN PIRATE

“I Guess I Miss You” Is still way too close to a love song for my tastes but YMMV

I wish to know exactly what sort of training/preparation is required to be the sound effects guy because HOLY SHIT HE’S GOOD

The touching scene where Spongebob says goodbye to Gary? Wonderful.

Ok, so that part where Spongebob is climbing through the ladder setup. I didn’t SEE them attach the cable to him, and I’m fairly certain it would be impossible to USE a cable there, so PROPS TO ETHAN FOR DOING THAT SHIT WITHOUT ANY SAFETY EQUIPMENT!

The Panic! at the Disco song is really strong, and is the one moment where you find yourself realizing “Oh shit, Spongebob can SING!”

(during “Hero is my Middle Name”) Sandy: That’s nice boys, but mine’s Jennifer.

Not even counting the fact that “No Control” and “Best Day Ever” were already established songs, if someone handed me the soundtrack recording, along with a list of songwriters who contributed, I’m fairly certain I could match up most of them without any additional information. For example, “Just a Simple Sponge” is very CLEARLY Panic! and “Hero is my Middle Name” screams 80′s pop (Cyndi Lauper did that one). “Bikini Bottom Day” is right up there on JoCo’s style chart, I didn’t need to be told that the rock song was by Steven Tyler, and HOT SHIT, could it be possible that T.I. wrote the RAP SONG??? (and so on)

I’m somewhat sad that they removed the line about “Bikini bottom for fish only” because it made it absolutely impossible to miss the racism/white nationalist subplot. Perhaps they thought it made it a bit TOO obvious though and left it out because “This IS a family musical, and we don’t need to beat our audience over the head with that shit”.

On a related note, The Mayor is straight up a political statement on the inefficiency and corruption of the Government, and I’m here for that. I JUST REALIZED THAT IN THE TV VERSION PATCHY IS ACTUALLY TOM KENNY OMG!!!! Loving the diversity of the cast, TBH. However, it’s not colorblind casting like Hamilton. You can tell there was very careful planning in who played what, such as Sandy being a black woman with natural hair, Pearl being a woman of color while Mr. Crabs is white, The mayor is white, and so on. The only deliberate casting I have any issue with is Karen being Asian (and again, this was deliberate, not just colorblind casting), but I suppose you can handwave that less as “Asians are geeky/nerdy” and more as “She’s literally MADE IN JAPAN”, which makes it a bit more palatable.  This is all I have time for right now, as I am due elsewhere in 20 minutes, but yeah. There is so much awesome with this show/performance, and I recommend it to anyone, not just people who watched Spongebob as a kid. Yes, the millennial crowd will likely get the most out of it (even more than current kids), but it’s a good show for everyone. 

[shamipking]

Patchwork Dolls- SK Fanfiction

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Shaman King (Anime & Manga) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Oyamada Manta, Asakura Yoh, Kyouyama Anna, Tao Ren, Amidamaru (Shaman King), Usui Horokeu | "Trey Racer" Horohoro, Chocolove McDonell, Asakura Hao, Opacho (Shaman King) Additional Tags: Drabble, silly fluff Summary: Manta, Yoh, and their friends explore one of the various shops for tourists set up by The Patch. The Patch are known to be strapped for money, but selling merchandise of the shamans participating seems a bit... odd, to say the least. Also On: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24977110 https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13632448/1/Patch-work-Dolls

The Patch’s desperation for money was no secret. Odd sponsorships, sold out stadiums of normal people who can’t even see ghosts, PatchDonald’s. It seemed there was no lengths they wouldn’t go to.

But this. This was a surprise.

Manta held up a keychain of Shamash, the partner of Lady Jeanne of the X-Laws. He shuddered a bit at the memory of her fight against Team Nile. “This seems…. A bit in bad taste, don’t you guys think?” He placed the trinket back on the rack and took a step back to observe the full spread. He recognized several of the other items; Joco’s claws, Ren’s guandao, Horohoro’s snowboard, Harusame, Amidamaru himself… all in miniature. There was even a rainbow of small Oracle Bells, each bearing the name and Furyoku level of the shaman it belonged to. Incredible.

“Oh, I dunno Manta. These seem like they could be fun!” Yoh said, and Manta turned to see him swinging around a toy-sized version of his Spirit of the Sword Oversoul. Typical Yoh, unbothered.

“It’s stupid, but it’s harmless,” Anna chimed in, thumbing through a box of flags bearing the names of the various teams. She pulled one out bearing the name of Team Funbari Hotsprings with a gentle smirk and a gleam in her eye. “Anyway, you can’t complain about this free advertisement.”

No wonder she doesn’t mind, Manta rolled his eyes. He continued to wander around the store until his eyes locked on one particular stand, the biggest one in the shop, taking an entire wall, floor to ceiling. “Y...Yoh-kun…look… at this…” he stammered.

“What is it, Manta?” Yoh turned, and his eyes went wide. “Woah!” He ran to stand beside Manta and picked up…

A stuffed doll. Of Amidamaru. Like the other dolls on the shelf, the features were rendered in ultra-cute, chibi-like proportions. The eyes were buttons.

“Amazing! And they’re so cute! People can buy these?” Yoh was getting excited.It made Manta laugh.

“I guess they are pretty cute, Yoh-kun. But why sell anything that looks like the spirit allies? Not everyone in the audience can even SEE them.”

“It is obvious, Lord Manta,” Amidamaru said, materializing close enough to make Manta jump-- he never would get used to that would he? “They made likenesses of us spirits so everyone can know what we look like as well.”

“Really? Well I guess that makes sense--”

“Check this one out,” Yoh laughed. “Ren, it’s you!”

Ren frowned, and pushed himself off the wall by the door, where he’d been since the group had walked into the store.

“These are absolutely ridiculous,” Ren’s voice was a deadpan as he picked up a plush Bason. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more trivial. Put them down, Yoh, we should get going.”

But Yoh had disappeared from his place between Manta and Ren. With mirrored looks of surprise, they both whirled around to find Yoh already at the cash register handing Kalim money. He came back with two bags stuffed full of the dolls. “I got one of everybody! Including our spirits!”

“Yoh-kun… why? You aren’t… you aren’t planning on using these as voodoo dolls are you?” Manta poked at the bags. Yoh laughed loudly at that.

“Of course not, Manta, don’t be silly,” Yoh rummaged through the bags and pulled out one of the dolls. He held it up but it’s hands. “I don’t think voodoo is really the right term for what those types of shamans use. But anyway, these are too cute for that.”

“Wait wait wait, Yoh-kun,” Manta said, his voice shaking slightly looking at the doll in Yoh’s hands. “YOU BOUGHT ONE OF HAO?!?”

“Yeah! Why not?” Yoh’s ever-present smile was shining even now. Anna harrumphed from behind him.

“Don’t waste money on things like this again, Yoh,” Anna said, in her usual cool tone. “You can keep them, but you’ll be running 10 extra laps for each one you bought.” She breezed past him and out of the store.

Tears streamed down Yoh’s face. “Right Anna, of course,” he whimpered.

“I hope it was worth it Yoh-kun,” Manta chuckled, trailing behind Yoh as they both followed Anna out.

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

Ren didn’t bother hiding his disgust for the dolls. He jabbed at one of Horohoro with the tip of his spear These dolls were idiotic, and the people who bought them more so. Whoever thought of it should really be--

“Mama, mama, I want a dollie!” A tiny voice chirped. “Woooow, there’s so many! Mommy, which should I choose?” A tiny girl, smaller than Manta even, was looking up and down the wall of plushies in awe. Ren could almost see her eyes sparkling.

“Just don’t take too long, sweetie, your father is waiting for us,” a woman called distractedly as she perused another nearby display of Shaman Fight merchandise.

The girl ran along the display, looking at all the shamans and their spirit allies. She was so focused on the dolls that she ran right into Ren’s leg. She pulled away from the flowy fabric around his ankles.

“Sorry mister!” She chimed. Before Ren could respond, a look of excitement spread over her face. “I know you! You’re one of the shamans fighting! Your ghost was really, really big!” To emphasize this fact, she spread her arms as wide as they could go. So, the child could see spirits, could she? Perhaps she was related to another participant. Or maybe she was just a brat with a little second sight? Ren grumbled a little, as he looked down at the child, then back at the wall.

With a faint blush spreading across his cheeks, Ren reached out and grabbed one of the dolls of himself. He didn’t look back at the girl, but he thrust the doll into her arms.

“Since you recognize me, you should take this one,” he growled, though there was no heat in his voice. “I, Tao Ren, am going to be the Shaman King, after all. You’ll do well to remember that.”

The girl accepted the doll happily. “Okay! Thank you sir!” She turned to head back to her mother, but stopped. She glanced back at Ren, and chirruped, “Good luck, Len! I hope you do win!” With that, she scampered off, still clutching the doll he gave her. Normally Ren would get annoyed if someone said his name wrong, but he found his features softening despite himself. He almost smiled.

Almost.

Until he heard snickering coming from behind him.

Turning a deep shade of crimson, Ren whirled around to find his teammates, Horohoro and Joco, failing to stifle their laughter. “What are you idiots laughing at?!” He fumed as he stalked passed them.

“Oh, nothing Lenny,” Joco breathed. “Just didn’t know you had a soft side”

“Yea, Ren, who knew you were so good with kids,” Horohoro chimed in.

“Shut up! Both of you! I was just making sure she knows who the victor is going to be!”

“Whatever you say, Ren,” Horohoro said, patting him on the shoulder. “Whatever you say.”

“Hmph,” Ren mumbled, and made to leave. The girl and her mother were on their way out, but before the door closed, she looked back. She waved at him again with a big smile. Before the door closed, he saw she’d gone back for a Bason doll as well.

This time, he did smile.

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

“POW!”

“Ka-shhh. Slash! Shing!”

“Hiya! Hup! Hah!”

“Pchooo!”

“Will you two shut up?” Horohoro and Joco’s game was interrupted by a slap across the face from Anna. “Stop playing with these dolls. Yoh’s supposed to be carrying everything.” She stuffed the dolls of Horohoro, Kororo, Joco, and Mic back into Yoh’s bags. They probably didn’t add much weight, but considering he was already carrying everything else, on top of an afternoon of training, it likely didn’t help.

“Ah c’mon, Anna, no need to interrupt their fun, right?” Yoh attempted.

“No. They’re your dolls. You carry them back,” Anna’s clipped voice left little room for argument. Yoh hung his head in defeat. “Besides, they were annoying me.”

The two teams of friends rarely trained together. They were all rivals, afterall. But by now, they’d all seen each other in action enough times that there was little harm when they were all out anyway. After a morning of shopping together, they spent the afternoon together training for several hours, as well. With the sun just beginning to set, the group made their way back into town towards the dormitories they stayed in.

“The boss really wasn’t kidding about making you run those extra laps, huh chief?” Ryu drawled, looking half amused, half concerned at Yoh’s plight.

“Is she ever kidding?” Yoh whined back. A chuckle ran through the other boys. “Come on, guys, it’s not funny--woah.” Yoh stopped short as a couple young boys ran in front of him. Like Horohoro and Joco, they were making fake fighting noises as they swiped at each other. One boy took a swipe with dull claws, toy replicas of Joco’s own. The other bapped him on the head with a small piece of wood painted like Horohoro’s snowboard.

“Hey hey, these kids have good taste,” Joco cooed. They all stopped to watch the children at play. “How come you’re sticking around, Anna? This doesn’t annoy you?”

“Of course not. It’s cute when six year olds are playing. Though I suppose neither of you are much older, mentally.”

“Damn, Anna,that’s cold,” Joco whimpered.

“Well, obviously we know which of these kids is best,” Horohoro bragged, gesturing to the kid with his toy snowboard.

“What? No way, the kid with Mic’s claws would win!” Joco snapped back.

“This argument is pointless,” Ren chided, and was the first to break away from the group and keep walking.

“SHOOKY ZAMMY!” Another young boy appeared and ran at the other two. He held a small guandao and he jabbed it repeatedly at the other two, until they both fell over. The smug look on the kid’s face rivaled Ren’s own during a fight. Another ripple of laughter rose at the expense of Team Ren.

With a growl, likely of embarrassment, Ren turned and stormed off. Both defeated, Horohoro and Joco swayed after him.

Perhaps seeing people with these toys was going to be annoying after all.

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

“Opacho?” Hao’s voice was light, unconcerned, as he looked for the child. “Opacho? Where have you gotten to?”

“Opacho here!” A tiny voice called from a nearby room. Opacho was so rarely far from Hao’s side, he wondered what had gotten her attention. He laughed jovially when he saw where she was.

Her face barely peeked out of a large pile of plush dolls. “Where did these come from, little one?”

“Hao-sama! Cute!” She cried, thrusting a doll of Hao out of the pile, causing the rest to tumble to the floor around them. Hao smiled serenely at Opacho, running his hands over several of the dolls.

“Yes, Opacho,” Hao agreed. He pulled up a doll from the floor, ran his thumb over the orange strip of fabric in the doll’s brown hair. “Very cute, indeed.”

[maddhatterreviews]

I have to talk about this because...I just...Okay, Y’all remember Joco from Shaman King?

Yea, him. He’s one of the examples of racist lips from the first post (Because of course he is) And I’m just...I like Joco. I really do. And no, I am not calling him by his japanese name, Chocolove Mcdonell, because the nigga’s name is CHOCOLOVE. Are you fucking kidding? Chocolove. CHOCOLOVE.  The fuck out of here. Joco McDonell, I think we can all live with that, right?

Anyway, I get it; Shaman King was made in the late nineties in Japan, I doubt Hiroyuki Takei was taking critical race theory into acout when he made this, but fuck me. Even when I was a kid and I realized there was something wrong with the way Joco looked. At the time I just thought he looked goofy, now I realize it’s a lot worse than just looking weird. 

I am really excited about the Shaman King reboot coming up soon, and I want Joco to be just as big a part of it as he was in the original series, but I prey that whoever is working on this will not do this shit again. Hell, someone online already fixed this shit!

Look at this! It looks great! It wouldn’t be that hard to make Joco look like this. Literally no one would miss the old design. 

I mean racists might, but fuck em.

Hey jsyk it’s 2018 and if you’re still drawing characters with big lips like THIS, even if they’re pale/not black, it’s fucking racist. Stop doing it.

No excuses. “It’s a stylistic choice!” It’s a RACIST stylistic choice.

“Idk how else to draw big lips!” That’s because you relied on racist caricatures and are a bad artist. Teach yourself. Learn. If you’re not willing to do that, then you are a bad, racist artist.

“But it’s part of the character design!” Yeah, and it’s racist. If it’s your OC, then change it. If it’s not your OC, make the right choice and draw them with normal looking bigger lips instead of this racist monstrosity.

And if this post makes you uncomfortable because it’s calling you out for stuff you’ve done, good. Fix it. Own up to it. Grow.

If you see this and you’re first thought is to defend this: you are racist. You are part of the problem. Congrats. Now work on yourself and unlearn that.

[nivithasree]

MACRO POST 4

With this as my last post, I would like to summarize the whole experience of working with JOCO angels. With the making of the presentation and the video for our practicum, we were able to recollect the various thing we participated in and the various message we were able to take home and apply in our lives. Firstly, about JOCO angels, they were a group created by people who lost their near and dear ones to substance abuse. They started this group as an initiative to provide resources and education to young people who are affected by the influence of substances such as prescription opioids, drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes, or vaping. Their goals were to raise opioid awareness, prevent opioid abuse, and help those affected with opioid use disorder. With these as their goals, they have joined hands with various faith-based institutions and organizations to raise awareness. They conduct many events on opioid abuse, overdose, and recovery from substance use. Some of the recent event conducted was the overdose awareness day, 12 stones recovery event, and weekly cornerstone teen recovery. We attended a few meetings with the team and discussed their future goal and upcoming events. We also were part of the weekly cornerstone teen recovery event which had discussions, music, and worship. We discussed various topics during the event such as letting go of our baggage and opening up to others and not suppressing our feelings. Our team members also spoke to the members in the group about peer pressure, bad relationships, how to maintain good friendships, and also about situations where saying no is the right option to go for. All these events were very eye-opening and informative and the message given are some things we could utilize in our day-to-day lives. One of the major and important events we worked during our semester was the red ribbon week. During the preparation of the event, we contacted schools, created sample posters, created videos, testimonies, bows (we made 700 which took a lot of time and effort) which symbolized the red ribbon week, emailed our ideas and posters to the schools, and got their approval to conduct the event, we created resource brochures, conducted poster competition and judged them and provided them with a pizza party and ice cream party as the winning prize. We were able to speak with the students and encouraged them to review the event we conducted for them. We received a lot of reviews and suggestions from the students. Some of them were about their struggles with substance use and some were suggestions on how to make the event even better.

Some of the quotes from the kids: “A lot happened over the summer and it ended in me being taken away from my mom and placed with my dad 24 / 7 and a lot that happened during that time could have been prevented by not taking drugs, because drugs rip families, friends, and more apart. because you convince yourself you are fine,that the drugs don't do any harm,i will quit them in a week . But because of that mindset so many young and old people die because of overdosing so this means to me that I hope everyone is one day drug free and I know this poster doesn't do much for that cause but it's a 1 /2 step in the right direction.” “In my opinion it sends out a message on what it can do to you and how bad it can get with drugs. A lot of people fall for it and think it'll be fine but they wont it screws you up. A lot of kids fall for it out of peer pressure but you dont have to do it.” “I couldn't have the prize because it was pizza and ice cream and i'm lactose intolerant. I just felt left out and I feel like they should have had an option for everyone.”

Seeing these quotes from young people makes us feel that we had done something right to help them effectively. Along with educating the teens on substance use and abuse we also learned how to interact and communicate with students, how to communicate with school organizations, collect resources, research the statistics of substance and identify the vulnerable groups and mainly how to be organized and work better in a group. We also were able to realize how some things which we learned during classes were realistically happening and how unaware are people of these public health issues. Some things that shocked me was learning and experiencing that teenager and African Americans were the most vulnerable population to substance abuse and many of the adults who suffer from recovery from substance use are ones who started using substances at a very young age. Some of the positives that came from this experience were to introduce communication with faith-based organizations and opioid recovery-related institutions and also communicating with schools and forming a relationship with them and encouraging them to continue working with JOCO angels and the public health department in educating the students with future events. We wanted to work with the wake monarch academy and also with the high schoolers about substance use and the issues associated with it and also with parents and create videos for how to identify mental health issues with their children and how to look out for their children if they are struggling, about the resources available and mainly educating parents to talk to their children about all these issues openly and freely. But unfortunately, we were unable to connect with them due to Covid-19 restrictions and time constraints. We hope that this initiation will continue and further continue to work with Campbell university in promoting awareness on opioid abuse and recovery.

[nardinnashed]

Macropost #2

With only a couple lefts week of the practicum, I got to learn a lot about the different work that JOCO Angels does with other organization that focuses on teens who struggled with opioid abuse. A lot of the issues that they face has to do with daily stress and many other socioeconomic factors. My team and I will be working with two different middle schools within Johnston County to educate the students on peer pressure, drug overdose, smoking and drinking during red ribbon week. This will demonstrate applying leadership into guiding the student into making appropriate decisions regarding their health. This week, me and my classmate worked on creating a poster that includes Halloween theme for the students but incorporating drug abuse language to deliver the message of how drugs are dangerous in a creative way that fits their age and understanding, specifically for middle school class. Some of the challenges that we faced to reach this point of the project related to COVID-19 preventing us to do many activities in person with the students to fulfill the purpose of the project. Some of original plans were to do in person activities with the students and to present in person some important information, however with many restriction of COVID-19, changes will have to occur by finding solution and working around the original plan. We also are working on creating a presentation that can include resources for students who live rural areas and are likely to avoid seeking medical help. Part of the project is going to middle school homerooms and throwing a pizza and ice cream party for the students as part of Red Ribbon Week. Not only that but to award the best poster which we as a team will judge with a prize. We plan to do so at the end of October and Beginning of November. As we have learned in our rural health class, anonymity is not an easy thing for rural people to have in that everybody knows everybody. Stigmatism comes to be a part of the process, the idea of being an addict as a negative term. I plan to start attending a Monday service that involves hearing people’s testimonies and worship. I have never been to such events at churches so that will be my first time experiencing something different and hearing about how others dealt with such a difficult situation. This project is important to be completed because adolescents are suffering from addiction, and some have taken their own lives because of the power that it has over them and because they do not have a lot of resources and education on prevention. Therefore, it is very important that we reach those of younger age to help them understand the danger of misusing opioids and that seeking treatment is very important. There is no reason for any parent to see their child suffer and die from taking opioids because it all started with pain prescriptions or other types of prescriptions. Educating students on how to avoid peer pressure during middle school is also important because the decision that a student takes can impact their future in one moment. Not only is talking to the students important but reaching the parents is also needed because they need to be aware of the kid’s life and understand what the problem is coming from. They have a hard time finding help for their loved ones with addiction so taking a big role in trying to help them find resources that are near them such as treatment centers and others can help them provide help for their kids and others who are struggling in the community. With this project/presentation, we are able to show the students different scenarios of peer pressure, drug overdose, smoking and substance abuse in both a negative and a positive approach to each kind of situation. We as a team took part by incorporating our own slides that explained how each scenario was a negative representation and what are ways to prevent such issues or scenario. Working as a team and brainstorming the scenarios and the slides for the video really helped us bring creativity to the video we created.  Overall, I am excited to be part of this project and to educate the students and make a change. I also believe that this project will bring future possibility for projects for JOCO Angels with old and new schools to help bring this project together and hopefully involve the parents too.

[xavidotron]

I’m not bold enough to write this as a “Speculative Queerness Manifesto”

I don’t really write or talk about being genderqueer or queerness in general. It’s hard to talk about things I haven’t really figured out, I guess. I don’t really have self-consensus on much.

But in some ways, the story I’m the right person to tell should be based on who I am, I guess. (Technically I’ve written more with DID representation than genderqueer representation, but that just sorta happened.)

Anyways, a while back Jennachat folks, largely @geostatonary and @laenan, had some discourse about what a Queer Narrative might be, as distinct from queer representation. I won’t try to present their perspectives; I’m sure I’d get it wrong. But that, in combination with some other stuff like @templeofshame‘s Flying V JoCo show, Where The Water Tastes Like Wine, and my continual desire to figure out what a non-fanfic response to Hitherby would look like, has had me thinking about this stuff a lot.

The way I’m seeing it right now, there are different “levels” a… non-defaulting, or whatever, work can operate on. (I’m primarily thinking about queerness, but hypothetical distinctly queer examples are also hard for me to think of and insert concisely, and I feel like this same analysis also applies to other things like “feminist” gender-role subversions as well as other types of marginalization I’m less well-situated to speak on. I’m gonna mostly say “queer” here and handwave the fact that some of my examples are more properly gay, because it’s my party, but I think the same analysis applies to other forms of non-defaulting to varying extents.)

Level 1: Representation by Substitution/Normalizing Queerness

A knight rescues a princess from a dragon and they get married, except the knight’s a girl. Or maybe a girl rescues a prince. Nothing changes about the story.

Basic representation is good! I want there to be books like that for my kids to read, and not have everything fit in problematic defaults.

But it’s also sort of fundamentally boring and superficial? It doesn’t really acknowledge that there’s more to the queer, or gay, or whatever experience than just gender substitutions.

At least one queer character needs to be main or central to get this far. If you have people being queer in the background or whatever, I’mma knock you down to Level .5.

Level 2: Representation With Consequences/Informing

This is about media that deals with realistic or expected consequences of the non-defaulting aspects. Someone gets disowned for being a lesbian. People worry about how to come out. People deal with stereotypes, bias, and other types of marginalization.

These can be great. I love Freakboy a lot. In some ways these are educational, and they can be good in both showing queers dealing with these realistic issues that they’re not alone and show them possible positive paths forward.

I’d put Alanna and Protector of the Small in the feminism version of this category.

Level 1.5: Provocative Normalization 

There are some things that might be strictly in Level 1 but I really like them so I put them in their own category: straightforward substitutions that don’t necessarily have meaningful in-universe consequences but nevertheless are thought-provoking or boundary-pushing to the audience in a way that seems well-considered and perhaps designed to confront the audience with their preconceptions. Flying V’s Skullcrusher Mountain with a woman as the supervillian and a man as the helpless prisoner felt like this to me (for the gender roles ladder). Gems all being identified as female would maybe be this on its own (though Steven Universe overall is Level 3). In A World Rapidly Turning To Cards might barely sneak its way because of Mathilda’s last line.

I guess @prokopetz’s Costume Fairy Adventures is here, near as I can tell assuming that all characters are girls without ever actually saying this anywhere? Golden Sky Stories is in a similar but less punch-you-in-the-face place with the example characters being girls but not being prescriptive about it.

Level 3: Extended/Speculative Queerness

But there’s a different sort of queer reader, one that’s seen level 2 narratives, is generally well-informed, and maybe has figured out something about their life. While Level 2 issues are still hard in various ways, they’re familiar in a way they aren’t to a nonqueer or a “new” queer. Their queerness is no longer uncomfortable or transgressive.

At the same time, equality is not a checklist where you check off everything and then you’ve won. Gay marriage, check. Trans gender recognition, check. There’ll always be new pokemon to catch, so to speak. There will always be queerness on the margins, there will always be a new struggle.

So, to have this sort of impact, particularly in a work targeting a queer audience, you need to be speculative, go beyond the “standard” forms. You need to push the boundaries into what’s uncomfortable or transgressive even to queer readers.

In a sense, it’s similar to what magical realism does. If I was doing this as a proper manifesto, it’d include something like “A queer narrative can't be purely realistic. Queer lives don't fit into the consensus reality around them.”

Examples that I put in this category include:

Dream Askew, with gender presentations like “gargoyle” and “goddess”

Monsterhearts as well 

that story by @porpentine

presumably We Know The Devil, which I was totally actually going to play for real this time and then Where The Water Tastes Like Wine took over my quanta

Hitherby Dragons is arguably this for abuse victims? Though the analysis on why you take an indirect/speculative/magical realism approach is presumably quite a bit different.

Singularity, the transhuman dating show LARP

This is obviously the interesting, challenging space that I’d want to try to position myself in.

Level 3x: Metaphors with Plausible Deniability

Some things feel like they’re almost at Level 3 except they don’t come out and talk about the queerness of their metaphors, and they’re not blatant enough to have unambiguous authorial intent. The example that comes to mind is Flying V’s lesbian version of I’m Your Moon, which ends up making the song feel very trans to me (even though probably neither the song nor the staging had that in mind).

A trans reading of The Girl Who Was Plugged In might be in this category? (The presumably more-conventional feminist reading would be straight Level 3.)

I guess this whole category is questionable because it’s more a function of an analysis of the work than the work itself. But death of the author and all that.

A Different Lens

Another way to look at the concepts I’m thinking about here is in what terms things are defined. In a Level 1 story, relationships/identities/interactions are based on mainstream structures with superficial changes or swaps. At Level 2, mainstream structures are fundamentally not working but new structures are being understood in terms of more familiar mainstream structures because that’s the available basis point. At Level 3, perhaps there’s more active rejection of mainstream structures as a basis, or maybe there’s active pursuit of relationships/identities/interactions that are sufficiently radical as to not directly derive from familiar mainstream structures. Gem Fusion is like sex or dating in some ways, but it can’t be defined just in terms of sex and accurately reflect how it works in the show.

(I do feel like I like this as an aspect of queerness, an explicit refusal to be content to subvert expectations because that’s still defining oneself in terms of expectations. Something for me to think about more.)

I sorta want to make a case about queer narratives breaking medium assumptions, based on Queers in love at the End of the World, Undertale, and Dream Askew, but I don’t have enough examples or well-formed analysis as of currently. 

Closing Thoughts

All models are wrong. Some are useful. Do not mistake another’s model for your own truth.

[orbemnews]

Botched 911 call leads to Prairie Village mother’s death, according to lawsuit PRAIRIE VILLAGE, KS (KCTV) — Cathryn McClelland was a loving mother and nurse. She was just 41-years old when she collapsed inside her Prairie Village home with her young kids. Her husband was working on a construction project in another state. Cathryn McClelland was a loving mother and nurse. She was just 41-years old when she collapsed inside her Prairie Village home with her young kids. Her husband was working on a construction project in another state. Submitted Her 8-year old son, Joel, grabbed the phone and called 911 for help. What happened next is now the focus of a lawsuit. It says the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department and the Kansas City Fire Department failed the family by not trusting the child knew his address and waiting too long to dispatch help. Her 8-year old son, Joel, grabbed the phone and called 911 for help.  Submitted Medical records show the young mother suffered cardiac arrest. Her heart rhythm was restored but she suffered a lack of lack of oxygen to the brain. Her family eventually removed her from life support and donated her organs. Cathryn was pronounced dead on July 22, 2019. Her family donated her organs. Medical records show the young mother suffered cardiac arrest. Her heart rhythm was restored but she suffered a lack of lack of oxygen to the brain. Her family eventually removed her from life support and donated her organs. Cathryn was pronounced dead on July 22, 2019. Her family donated her organs. Submitted 911 call for help KCTV5 obtained the 911 recording for help. It begins with 8-year old Joel explaining the situation.      JOEL: Okay, so I’m only a child with my little sister and my mom is lying on the ground and my dad is out of town KCPD: Do you know your address? JOEL: Let me go outside. Prairie Village, Belinder Avenue. 9347. I mean 7347! KCPD: Let’s get you over to ambulance… Stay on the line don’t hang up… The legal team for the McClelland family calculates it took more than 10 minutes for an ambulance to be dispatched despite the child providing the address about a minute in. KCTV5 actually calculates the call to JOCO MED- ACT closer to the 13-minute mark. KCTV5 reached out to the parties named in the lawsuit which include the mayor, police, fire and individuals involved in the call. All declined to speak citing policy to not discuss matters under litigation. What happened? The mobile call for help in Prairie Village, Kansas bounced to a Kansas City, Missouri cell tower because that was the closest tower. That tower routed the call to KCPD. There’s instant confusion because the KCPD mapping software reveals a different location for the wireless call from what Joel gave. It shows it’s also in Prairie Village but on a different street. KCTV5 News A focus of the lawsuit is that call takers didn’t immediately send help in the correct direction and decided to firm up address. Minutes roll by as they track down an adult’s phone number and eventually call the husband of Cathryn, Frank McClelland. KCPD: This is the Kansas City Missouri police department…who am I speaking to? Frank: Frank McClellend Frank: Yes. What’s wrong? KCPD: I don’t know. He said his mom fell down on the ground. She is laying there. She is not awake. We’ve got him on the line we just needed to verify the address. Frank: Oh, Jesus! Numerous call takers and dispatchers are involved in the call. At times, call takers discuss how to transfer the call. KCPD: The address is going to be 7347 Belinder and that is in Prairie Village, Kansas KCFD: 7347 Belinder. B-E, spell that for me? KCPD: B-E-L-I-N-D-E-R KCFD: Okay and have you guys already gave the call over? KCPD: Uh, yeah. I was on the line with EMS there. They are on the line with the child. KCFD: No, I’m asking since it’s in Prairie Village have you already? KCPD: No, I haven’t done anything KCFD: okay KCPD: nope  KCFD: And you are calling from PD? KCPD: Yes. Do you guys have a phone number for their EMS? KCFD: Uhm…   KCPD:  Let me see if I’ve got… I don’t know if we have their EMS KCFD: Okay… hmmm. KCPD: I just have their PD line KCFD: We do too… We’lll- let me see. No, we don’t. We will probably send it over *unintelligible buttons pushed* Oops, sorry The address. Yeah, we’ll probably send it over to Kansas, to Leawood, I believe. The collection of call takers and dispatchers remain calm but the stew of people involved appear to create confusion. At one point a person from KCFD begins her call to Prairie Village Police muted. She then shares an incorrect address and incorrectly refers to the dad and husband as “Joel.” Prairie Village Police: Hello? KCFD: Oh, Sorry muted! Okay. This is Nicole with Kansas City Fire. PVP: Hello. KCFD: We have a call. 1747 Belinder. Do you guys have that? PVP: 1747 Belinder is not in Prairie Village. KCFD: What address did they give you Brittney? 7347 Belinder PVP: And what was the? KCFD: We have a child caller on the phone it sounds like might be, his mom’s passed out. So, we don’t know if she’s like passed out or deceased. Husband is supposed to be Joel Family praises first responders, horrified with 911 “Getting them there, that’s it that’s it! Once they were notified, they were there in a short amount of time,” Frank McClelland said. McClelland began questioning the timeline of when help arrived almost immediately. Doctors wanted to know how long Cathryn was without oxygen. McClelland says listening to the call was crushing. “When I listened to the call, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My son had called and within a short amount of time. He provided information to get help to his mother,” McClelland said, ”He was doing everything he could to convince them. He was calm he was articulate. I’ve told him since that time. He’s my hero.” The attorney representing the family considers the 911 call shocking and says there must be accountability. When you call 911, you need help fast. A KCTV5 investigation revealed some statistics for 911 calls into Kansas City, Missouri. What it boils down to is that, when you call 911, be prepared to wait. “You would think for 911 in a centralized system- that supposed to be set up. The people answering those phone calls including those from children who need help for parents would be trained on how to deal with these calls!” attorney Brian McCallister said. If you have had a concern with 911 in the KC Metro area, you can report it here. KCTV5 News will be investigating your concerns when it comes to 911. We are looking at the hold times people encounter when calling for help in Kansas City, Missouri.   !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments); if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '685577345422755'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); Source link Orbem News #Botched #call #cathrynmcclelland #Death #frankmcclelland #Joel #kansascity #lawsuit #Leads #missouripolicedepartment #mothers #Prairie #Taker #Telecommunications #telephony #village

[tetsunabouquet]

Joco's Jokes: How He Describes His Cast Members Headcanon

A/n: I made one of these about KNB's Izuki Shun who has a similar type of terrible pun-related humor a while ago. So I hereby decided to do a Shaman King version.

He has a point. - Ren Tao

She Legendary Left our conversation once. - Anna Kyoyama

This girl thugged her way to the top. - Tamao Tamamura

He arose from cat-astrophy. - Matamune.

The maker of some Horoble candy. - HoroHoro Usui

This holy maiden cries like Bloody Mary. - Iron Maiden Jeanne.

He who has mastered the art of sticks and stoners. - Yoh Asakura

The one that puts the flambé in flamboyant. - Ryu

He Bonds with the right people. - Lyserg Diethel

He dwarfes our courage. - Manta

-He CULTivated justice. - Marco Lasso

-The kid that follows Hao like a sheep. - Opacho

-His sword is bigger then yours, -Amidamaru

-He blew his chances to reconcile. -Luchist Lasso

[mythomagically-delicious]

Tag

Thanks for tagging me @scarletlunartic these are pretty fun!

Age- 20 (But only 30 days until my birthday!!)

B- Biggest fear: What I’m going to do next and not having any idea and somehow ruining everything

C- Current time: 2:21 pm

D- Drink you last had: Coke

E- Everyday starts with: Trying to figure out what my dream was the night before and seeing how long I can stay in bed without being late for class

F- Favourite song: (I firmly believe this question is unfair, too many good songs to choose from!!) Um but I love American Authors a lot right now. Maybe of all times it something by Relient K or Casting Crowns, though.

G- Ghosts, are they real: Nope. 

H-Hometown: I’m a JoCo kid. That means nothing to the majority of you, so that’s fine.

I- In love with: Dancing, singing, musicals, reading, cats that don’t claw my legs, and brownies

J- Jealous of: My sisters, kind of. They just seem to have a lot of things together and I’m floundering around like WHAT instead.

K- Killed someone: Well in my dreams, I have killed people, but mostly it was self defense. 

L- Last time you cried: Yesterday morning at about 9 am.

M- Middle name: Marie (I know it’s common, but it’s a family name and I also just love the way it flows with my name)

N- Number of siblings: 2 sisters

O- One wish: That everyone could be okay.

P- Person you last called/texted: My dad, I think? 

Q- Questions you’re always asked: Why are you still talking?

R- Reasons to smile: Homemade chocolate chip cookie dough, Dancing to your favorite song, the next chapter of your favorite fanfic will be out in a few days, the way the stars shine when there are no lights on around you.

S- Song last sang: Dancing Through Life from the Wicked Soundtrack.

T- Time you woke up: My body woke me up at 9, my brain woke up at about 11:30.

U- Underwear color: Purple

V- Vacation destination: Germany

W- Worst habit: (Too many) But I guess I’ll go with freaking out when people talk to me a lot and then never responding again

X- X-rays you’ve had: When I broke my little toe and my middle finger (at different times)

Y- Your favorite food: Homemade/cooked (for all of these): Fried chicken, beef and noodles, and roast beef. Strawberries.

Z- Zodiac sign: (This means nothing real to me) Pisces

And I’ll tag @kai003 and @megalunalexi if you feel like it too!

[fresne999]

Voyages of the Bakerstreet (complete) - Huzzah!

I had been trying (trying, trying) to finish my big writing project before I went off on the JoCo cruise (think nerdy convention on a boat) and couldn't quite make it.

A writing project that I started almost to the day a year ago.

But a five hour plane flight and Wi-Fi means I'm DONE!

I stand by my all caps because the big writing project is basically a complete Science Fiction series (admittedly fanfic) of 7-8 novels depending on how I splice it, 528,359 words.

Originally thought of it as, "What if I cross Kelvinverse Star Trek with BBC Sherlock, establish there were multiple Khans (cuz I like Benedict Cumberbatch, but he's no Ricardo Montalban)  and set it in the STNG/DS9 period with Augments being a subset of society," to abstract a discussion of racism in a society that has eliminated phenotype racism, but not racism entirely. Oh, and make it ABO so I could play with gender a whole lot. Also, porny, because ABO is good for that.

Oh, and dig into what it means to be in a post capitalist society(because replicators + plentiful energy) and what that means. What happens when an adventure story includes parents with kids who aren't Wesley Crusher, and aren't all young professionals. How that changes the dynamics of an adventure. Without, hopefully, being twee. Kids have meltdowns. Need snacks. Need to be cared for. Grow up.

I posted about the whole thing back in July when I thought I was done at a solid 350k and all the bits filled in. I've been posting steadily on AO3 since then.

As I'd post each section on AO3, I'd reread it. Think about comments people were making. Add details to fill in points of view.Not changing what had gone out previously, but… definitely informing what I added. Resolving plot arcs I hadn't even noticed really as I raced (if 5 months of writing in every free moment is racing) to write the short stories that make up the overall work. I ended up adding a story to handle a character's redemptive arc. Fleshing out the very last story.

Quite a bit of, Reader: Why character X? Me: But I implied character X did that because Y. Hmm… add backstory so I explicitly told the reader what was going on.

The story grew and grew.

I keep describing it in terms of word count, but that's only to get across how much time and energy went into writing a complete end to end science fiction series. Admittedly with the type of short cuts I could make because I don't need to provide an entire backstory on Borg, Klingons, the Dominion, various characters showing up from the DS9. Then again, there were a couple of arcs I did because I really wanted to mess around with an old episode. Not necessarily because the overall story arc needed that story.

All along being very aware of the dangers of stopping. i.e. why I stopped doing NaNoWriMo. With NaNoWriMo, I'd end the month with a very badly written novel. Start writing for Yuletide. Write 20 or so stories. Go into a writing coma in January-March. Get distracted by some other shinier project and never come back to the badly written novel that I admittedly liked enough to write 50k words of.

I'm very inclined to file the serial numbers off of it at some point and self publish. If that's possible. I flat out reinterpret episodes from TOS, but it's not as if much of those items haven't become Science Fiction tropes over the years. I can see what those would be. Where I’d consolidate. Compress for a more solid narrative even I wasn’t also fan-pleasing myself to fit in so many touch points. But seriously, that was a lot of making myself get out of bed at 5am, writing on treadmills (so I can get some exercise), writing through lunch, etc.

I've neglected *a lot* of it can wait thing over the last year in order to get this out. So that revision won't be anytime soon.

Anyway,

Title: Voyages of the Bakerstreet (series) 1st story is: "Encounter at Augmented Farpoint" Fandom: Sherlock BBC fusion/crossover with Star Trek (all) Pairing: Sherlock/John Warnings: ABO,  so many tags, simpler to link. Rating: Gen to Explicit Words:  528,359, # of stories: 34 with an average story length of 15k. Description: Starfleet never really intended to assemble a crew led by Sherlock Holmes, an alpha Augment with authority issues. John Watson had figured he'd at least finish medical school before being deployed. The Bakerstreet wasn't built to last. Become a home.

Nevertheless, these are the Voyages of the USS Bakerstreet. Her ongoing to seek out new life and new civilizations. To solve mysteries strange and bizarre. To go boldly.

[kansascityhappenings]

JoCo Parks and Rec starts new safety campaign after gun scare at day camp

GARDNER, Kan. — Important conversations about safety are taking place after a gun discharged in a 10-year-old boy’s backpack during a day camp.

The incident happened Tuesday during the Mad Science Camp at the New Century Field House in Gardner. The gun shot a hole into the floor. Thankfully no one was hurt.

The Johnson County Parks and Recreation Department said its held several meetings over the past 24 hours to figure out how to prevent this from ever happening again.

Officers with the Johnson County Parks Police spoke with the child who brought the gun and say it’s unlikely he intended to harm anyone.

“To be honest, the child was very scared. He had not expected that to happen,” Capt. Rob Weber with Johnson County Parks Police said.

“Honestly, I think he was doing what some 10-year-old boys do. He thought it was kind of cool. He found out different,” Weber added.

The park board is working to update safety protocols at its facilities.

“We talked about numerous things that we might implement, and of course some of those things, like policy and procedural changes, take a little bit of time,” said Jill Geller, executive director of the Johnson County Parks and Recreation Department.

Now, they’re launching a new campaign encouraging parent participation

“It’s called ‘Take a minute. See what’s in it,’ just encouraging parents to check their child’s backpack before they leave for school, for camp, for a sports program, and check it again when they come home. What does your child have in his or her backpack? Make sure it’s appropriate for their days activities,” Geller said.

Department leaders say over the past 24 hours many parents have voiced concerns with how quickly they were notified.

“We’re also again looking at internal processes on how we might better address or more proactively address such situations,” Geller said.

Mad Science Camp resumed Wednesday as scheduled. Program directors said only a few children showed up for camp. Refunds will be given to parents who don`t wish to bring their kids back.

The child who brought the gun is prohibited from attending future Johnson County Parks and Recreation Department camps.

The Mad Science Camp is run by a Lenexa-based company. Company leaders say they’ve met with the parks department and are working with that agency to discuss future safety measures.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2018/08/01/joco-parks-and-rec-starts-new-safety-campaign-after-gun-scare-at-day-camp/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2018/08/01/joco-parks-and-rec-starts-new-safety-campaign-after-gun-scare-at-day-camp/

[tetsunabouquet]

Can you explain in a thread why you don’t like Marco?

First of all, I wanna give you a quick shout-out, whoever you are! You're the first person outside of my main fandom (KNB) to send me a request that's civilized and actually something I'd like to talk about so thank you! Reason number one would be, well, on my blog I've already mentioned various times that I don't like characters who abuse kids, and Marco is definitely not without corporal punishment himself. Whilst I like Ren and Jun, I also dislike the rest of the Tao family and Hao as he was mentally an adult throughout the story who didn't mind hurting and killing children (attempting to eat the souls of the Hana-Gumi waitresses for one, when two of them were still young girls is just unacceptable to me). Reason number two would be his brainwashing of Iron Maiden Jeanne and turning her into a murderer. That she forgave him for it doesn't means the audience has to. Children have a certain loyalty to their parents/caretaker figures that in abusive situations can be rather binding and making the child in question creating excuses, forgiving their parents when they shouldn't and see them with a loving kindness because they are the kid's rolemodel in life. Which brings me to reason number 3, the way Marco got absolved of all the sins he has done. Sure, he repented... By becoming a literal angel. That's rewarding him for repenting, and that is something I see as fucked up. That's one of the reasons why I respect Joco as a character- he literally blinded himself, and turnt himself in to serve time in prison for everything that he had done, continuing to carry the stamp of his prison sentence with him on his records for the rest of his life. Joco chose to repent, with no rewards, only more drama, awaiting him. That takes a whole lot of courage. Meanwhile Marco on the other hand, went on to power up in an attempt to say sorry for everyone, whilst Jeanne paid the price for the sins the X-Laws had comitted with her life. The only thing I could possibly say about that is, "Screw you Marco. I don't care if you soul 'could have shattered' because did that happen? No. The only price you actually had to pay was becoming a boy all over again. Oh boo hoo." However, I do think the Shaman King series has a problem with accountability in the first place. Children who were essentially brainwashed or didn't knew any better were held fully accountable for their crimes and didn't blame any of the adults for teaching them these things and blame themselves instead. Whilst the adults had to pay little to no price for the shit they did. I do find that harmful and victim-blaming. Reason number 4, his obsession with Jeanne. I mean, that Jeanne watch that Reiheit tried to give Teruko because he didn't have an engagement ring implies the X-Laws have Jeanne-merch. They have their own 'X' chant, which is more used as a Jeanne fanchant in the series, then it is a thing of everyone (including Jeanne) does. The way Marco himself admits he probably would have shot Ren during his wedding with Jeanne had he been there. Having been around the K-POP scene since 2010, Marco very much reminds me of a toxic fangirl that's one step away from becoming a full blown sasaeng. Just that scene of Lyserg faking Jeanne with an oversoul, and Marco being like, "the chastity belt was incorrect, that's the most important part", is seriously creepy to me. I mean, he considers the most important detail of Jeanne's appearance her chastity belt?! For fuck's sake. I can definitely see that a Shaman King reader who doesn't knows much about idol culture and how Marco is clearly written as if he were a toxic idol fan, to be like, 'Wait, the chastity belt is the most important thing? Hold on, the X-Laws are Christian coded... Do they touch little kids?!' (considering the Church's massive cover up of child sexual abuse). That scene definitely reads capital ICKY either way. Being actually obsessed with a little girl's purity as a grown man is just disgusting. So... Overall I find Marco to be an abusive creep who got off too easy, and that is why I don't like him.

[nardinnashed]

Macropost #1

In these first couple of weeks of my practicum, I participated in an overdose awareness day that JOCO Angels planned with other parts of the community to bring awareness to the public on opioid addiction. That was the first event that brought my attention to the big issue that rural areas are facing currently, the opioid epidemic. In this event, people shared stories and prayers among their community. They had a couple of posters of people who are victims of opioid abuse, and it affected me personally because coming from an urban area, I did not realize that so many people were struggling and given that rural areas have a low density of population and are most likely to geographically isolated, it makes it so much for difficult for the individuals to seek help with their addiction problems. Before starting the program, I did know as much as I am starting to learn by researching and working with a team every other week to complete this project to impact others' life and prevent opioid abuse. Some of the challenges that we discussed in groups and were mentioned by the team are how they are barriers to seek prevention for addiction. Some had to do with not having many prevention centers in rural areas or having to drive a long distance to get access to one. In the first meeting of the team, we were asked to pick a topic to focus on for the practicum. Our group wanted to pick educating middle and high schoolers on opioid addiction and prevention. Also, this process would include talking to the parents on looking for signs of addiction and helping them look for treatment centers for addiction near them. One of the competencies that we plan to focus on is selecting communication strategies for different audiences and sectors. Given that our focus will be to communicate with middle, high schoolers and parents, we plan to provide different content for each of our audiences since it would not be appropriate to give the same high school presentation to a middle schooler. And for parents, we would be talking about different content other than what we would be talking to the student about. The plan is to communicate through presentations, surveys, polls, and other interactive activities to get involvement from the students and to see what they know. The problems that we plan to focus on are the education of the misuse of opioids, help those who suffer from opioid addiction get the treatment needed, and provide them with resources within the area that they live in. At the moment, a problem that we are facing is having to reach the school systems to let us talk to their students, especially with COVID-19 still being an issue. With COVID-19, there are chances that we might work with students and schools through online websites rather than online which can make it difficult to send the message and get interaction from the students. Another option that we can look into while we try to figure out how to reach the schools with COVID-19, is to participate in student clubs that deal with mental issues and inclusion clubs. Although we would not be reaching all the students as we could have with an entire class in a certain public school, we would still try to impact those students who are dealing with mental health issues. This project is very important and is critical to be completed because adolescents are suffering from addiction, and some have taken their own lives because of the power that it has. Therefore, it is very important that we reach those of younger age to help them understand the danger of misusing opioids and that seeking treatment is very important. There is no reason for any parent to see their child suffer and die from taking opioids because it all started with pain prescriptions or other types of prescriptions. Not only is talking to the students important but reaching the parents is also needed because they need to be aware of the kid’s life and understand what the problem is coming from. They have a hard time finding help for their loved ones with addiction so taking a big role in trying to help them find resources.

[kansascityhappenings]

Joe’s Weather Blog: School Day less than 1 week away + coping with storm anxiety (FRI-4/27)

Good morning…some nice weather coming up for the next few days as Spring is really starting to settle into the area now, Next week will be more humid overall…but for the next few days the dew points will continue to be very comfortable. Saturday will be the cooler of the weekend days…but again a dry forecast is at hand.

Forecast:

Today: Mostly sunny and mild with highs into the 70s

This weekend: Mostly sunny and not as warm but still good with highs in the 60s and lows around 40°

Monday: Warmer and breezy with highs in the 70s to near 80°

Discussion:

Not really much to talk about in the short term…next week will be wetter and stormier but how we do regarding those storms and the severity of them with respects to KC remains to be seen and it’s too early to really dive into that at this point. Wednesday and Thursday may be the days to watch…

Obviously Thursday is of concern for the kids for School Day at the K

For the 20th year, FOX 4 will be presenting another new and exciting science show at the K. It’s no secret that attendance has been poor this year…between the Royals slow start and the miserable weather there hasn’t been a lot of reason to get excited about baseball this year.

Next Thursday however, aside from Opening Day, one of the largest crowds of the season will be in attendance and the crowd will be over 15,000 screaming kids. Each year they swarm School Day and watch the Largest Weather Show In The World. They learn about weather, obviously and even some chemistry. We try to weave in some thermodynamics too! If it sounds complicated to pull off…it can be. The kids though love it and we typically do several big experiments…with lots of explosions and kids love explosions!

The idea started more than 20 years ago. We did a couple of years of shows at JOCO Community College. 3 shows scattered through 1 day. Two shows for kids and one family show. We knew we were onto something when the shows were sold out so fast. Those shows tended to be more video heavy.

Back then the Royals had some very small School Day shows…when they approached us, we wanted to make this a bigger deal and reach out to more kids. A connection was made and now we pack them in.

The gates open at 8:30 and hundreds of school buses from all over the area. some driving for hours, come to the show. The actual show starts at 10AM and features some education…quiz questions, lots of on field demonstrations and a lot of fun. This show concept is now been brought to TV stations and other baseball teams, minor and major, across the country…all because of the work of FOX 4 and especially Chief Meteorologist Mike Thompson. This has been his baby for the last 20 years or so and he pours his heart into the production of the show for months…the show is next Thursday the 3rd and on Friday the 4th, he’s gathering information about making the following years show better and bigger.

Each year we do a variety of popular experiments. Some years everything is flawless…other years things sometimes don’t work. Some experiments require very little wind…sometimes in KC that doesn’t work out. We just roll with the changes. Dozens of volunteers help with the production. Then after the hour long show…kids go out to the parking lot where a huge Science related exhibition is held. 30-40+ other exhibitors are out there teaching kids other things about science and weather.

As you can see…it’s a huge undertaking.

Now let’s hope for dry weather. We’ve been internally concerned for about a week or so about the potential for storms and that concern continues…will it rain during the show? Way to early to say. We’ve had one show done in the rain and one show called because of snow! We do have a “rain show” prepared just in case however. We’ll cross that bridge though later next week.

Meanwhile there are still plenty of tickets to the show available. All you need is a ticket for the game and you get FREE admission to the show.

For more information go here

and from the Royals…go here

Meanwhile another aspect of teaching weather to kids, and for me to adults as well…is trying to relieve storm anxiety. Next Friday is a rather significant Weather Anniversary in KC. It will mark the 15th year since the KC Tornadoes that happened on 5/4/2003. I’ve written about this is the past and I’ll have a lot more about it next week but many still remember that day vividly.

Some also get anxiety from storms…and yesterday I noticed some interesting information regarding how folks can try to ease their anxiety about thunderstorms and what can happen during the storms. This information is from the NWS in Norman, OK…and area of the country where there are typically so many storms to begin with…although they’ve yet to be hit by a tornado so far in 2018 (a record).

This information is from that office…maybe you’ll find it useful or know someone who will.

Advance preparation – thinking about where you will take shelter, making sure you have several ways to get weather warnings and information, and having a plan for you and your family – can help reduce your fear and stress levels when storms are in the area. Planning and preparation puts you in control of your situation and can make the storms a little less scary.

Think about what stresses you out the most about severe weather. For some people, it’s the sound of thunder, the flashes of lightning or the roar of the winds. For others, it’s the anticipation and uncertainty about what might happen to them or their family. If there is something that makes your fears worse that you can control, this might help you.

Learn about the storms. Understand how they are forecast and what the various watch, warning and advisory terms mean. Follow the National Weather Service severe weather outlooks and forecasts online and learn about the science that goes into those severe weather predictions. Attend a free NWS storm spotter training class to learn more about tornadoes and severe storms.

Many people who are afraid of storms want all the information they can get their hands on when severe weather is in the forecast. With social media, there are many sources of weather information to choose from. Some are considered official sources, like the NWS, your favorite TV station or local TV meteorologist, or your local emergency management or public safety agencies in your community, and these are generally good places to get weather information. A small percentage of social media forecasts tend toward the extreme or worst case scenario when forecasting severe weather. If you have storm anxiety, these might make things worse.

Visit your local National Weather Service office. Meet the forecasters who are working around the clock to watch for dangerous weather and who have your back during severe weather.

Make a tornado safety plan with your family. On a sunny day with no storms in the forecast, figure out where you will take shelter if a tornado is coming your way. Practice getting you, your family and your pets to that safe place. Put together a safety kit that has the supplies you would need if you had to take shelter.

Plan how you and your family will stay in contact in case you lose electricity, phone service, cable or satellite service, cell service or internet service. Develop a communication plan in case you are separated.

Make sure you have at least three different ways to get a warning. This can include local television, NOAA Weather Radio, phone apps, outdoor warning sirens, community notification systems, etc

Learn about your local warning systems in your community – sirens, mass notification systems, etc – and how they work.

Find a way to see radar data and learn to track the storms yourself. There are lots of apps that provide detailed radar data, and some of them will even plot your current location so you will always know where you are in relation to the storms. You can also access free radar data on the National Weather Service website and on your favorite local TV station’s website.

Learn your local geography – nearby cities and towns, counties, interstates and highways – to make it easier to track the storms as they move through the area. Understanding where the storms are and where they’re going can make severe weather much less stressful.

end text.

Feel free to share that information with anyone, especially children.

Our feature photo is from Paul Smith of the very neat halo that occurred around the sun yesterday.

Halos are caused by the suns light passing through cirrus clouds up around 20-30,000 feet in the air. The clouds are made of ice crystals. This particular halo is called a 22° halo when it fully circles the sun. The get this moniker when the ring around the sun has a radius of about 22°.

The halos you see are caused by both refraction, or splitting of light, and also by reflection, or glints of light from these ice crystals. The crystals have to be oriented and positioned just so with respect to your eye, in order for the halo to appear.

They can occur on full moon nights as well…although something for the future…since the full moon isn’t as bright as the full sun…the moons halo is mostly colorless, while the sun’s halo will reveal colors. The inner part of the halo is more sharp while the outer more diffuse. The sky surrounding the halo is also somewhat darker compared to outside the halo.

The more you know.

Joe

  from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports http://fox4kc.com/2018/04/27/joes-weather-blog-school-day-less-than-1-week-away-coping-with-storm-anxiety-fri-4-27/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2018/04/27/joes-weather-blog-school-day-less-than-1-week-away-coping-with-storm-anxiety-fri-4-27/