#don walker cycles

[str8rat]

Today we're talking about Change God Cults in my ISAT/Fear and Hunger AU!

WARNING!! The following post contains really fucked topics. If you can't handle topics such as sexual harrassment, all sorts of body horror, murder and gore, please keep scrolling. ( If you're any familiar with Fear And Hunger then you can most likely imagine that it gets B A D here. so proceed with caution )

~ ~ ~

NEW Gods;

God of Change - Among the most revered deities in Vaugarde, the God of Change represents the ever-shifting nature of existence. However, some Vaugardians have taken this belief to dangerous extremes, becoming fanatically obsessed with the idea of constant transformation. Over time, this obsession has spread like wildfire across the country, gaining popularity to such an extent that even Isabeau, known to be someone who 'Capital-C Changed', now distances himself from the belief entirely, even going as far as to claim that the Change belief is something completely different to what it used to be a few years ago.

In their fervor, many parents have forced their children to undergo drastic changes against their will, believing it to be a sacred duty. Others, consumed by the need to change constantly, in some cases even daily, each time adopting a new persona. This relentless pursuit of transformation often leads to insanity, as they become overwhelmed by the chaos of countless personalities battling for control.

One particularly disturbing example can be found in Dormont, where a man known to Mirabelle exemplifies the madness that has taken hold. If Siffrin chooses to speak with him before heading to the Clocktower, they will witness the man’s unsettling behavior: with each sentence, he switches tone, language, and attitude, as if he’s a dozen different people trapped in one body. Yet, beneath the turmoil, it's quite clear that the man is still good-hearted and kind, despite everything.

~ ~ ~

Change God Cults;

The Children of Change; the name surrounding all kinds of Change Cults, which take the concept to an extreme, twisted degree. Examples of the most popular cults known to exist;

The Body Crafters; A cult emerges in the dark corners of Vaugarde, where followers of the God of Change take the concept to an extreme. These individuals use Body Craft to reshape their bodies. They believe that constantly altering their physical forms will bring them closer to divine enlightenment. However, the grotesque results leave them disfigured, with limbs twisted into unnatural shapes, faces mutilated beyond recognition, and bodies often barely functional. Their minds, too, begin to warp, as they lose their sense of identity, becoming trapped in a cycle of endless, horrific transformation.

The Skin Walkers; Some Vaugardians become so obsessed with Change that they seek to embody others completely—by wearing their skins. These fanatics hunt down those they admire or envy, skinning them alive to create a "new self," usually in the circle of other Skin Walkers, brought together to witness the ritual. They believe that by donning the flesh of another, they can absorb their traits, memories, and personality. The ritual often leaves the victim alive and screaming until death finally claims them. The Skin Walkers then parade through the streets, proudly displaying their new "selves," only to discard them once the flesh begins to rot, seeking a fresh "change."

The Memory Eaters; In their desire to experience every possible life, some Vaugardians develop a twisted ritual where they consume the memories of others. Using forbidden rituals and Crafts, they extract the essence of a person's mind, leaving the victim an empty husk. The Memory Eaters then live out the stolen memories, believing that by experiencing as many lives as possible, they can achieve ultimate enlightenment. However, the process slowly erodes their sanity, as the cacophony of voices in their head grows louder, each demanding to be the dominant personality. Eventually, they lose control, their minds shattered by the weight of countless lives they can no longer distinguish, becoming crazed, bloodlusting maniacs in search of people they can stole the memories of. One of such individuals can be encountered on the second floor of the House, somehow having avoided being frozen by the Curse. If a party member ends up being hit by the Memory Eater's 'Mind Steal' Skill, they will become mere husks of their former selves. With no tonics or healing Craft being able to help, the rest of the party will be forced to leave them behind. Shields can reflect this Skill.

The Perfectionists; In some of the more remote regions of Vaugarde, there are rumors of parents who take the concept of Change to a horrifying extreme. Obsessed with creating the "perfect" children, they subject their offspring to dangerous experiments and rituals designed to force rapid, unnatural growth and development. These children are subjected to forceful use of Body Craft and invasive procedures that twist their bodies and minds. Some become hideous monstrosities, unable to comprehend their own existence, while others are molded into mindless puppets, their free will stripped away in the name of Change.

The Cult of Marrige; Deep within the shadowy corners of the world, a cult has arisen, known as the Cult of Marrige. This twisted sect is devoted to the Change Belief but has taken its teachings to horrific extremes. They believe that true Change—the ultimate transformation—can only be achieved through a grotesque ritual they call "Marrige." Despite the name, Marrige is not a bond of love between two beings, but rather a nightmarish fusion, where two souls, bodies, and minds are violently merged into a single, monstrous abomination. This cult sees Marrige as the highest form of devotion to the God of Change, a symbol of love twisted into something far darker. They believe that by merging two beings into one, they are embracing the most profound and eternal Change, transcending the boundaries of individuality. To them, Marrige is a sacred act, a final, irreversible transformation that elevates the participants to a higher state of existence—or so they claim. In reality, the result is a horrific amalgamation of flesh, mind, and soul, where both beings lose their identity and sanity, becoming one, monstrous entity driven by pain, rage, and madness. One of such monsters can be encountered on the third floor of the House, and the battle with Marrige is incredibly difficult and horrific, as the disturbed party truly gets to see what lengths the followers of Change can reach to prove to be worthy of the Change God's blessing.

Due to all those terrible twists to the Change Belief, rumors began to spread, of the Change God becoming ashamed and furious with their followers, that have came to such an extent of insanity, just to follow their belief. And so, they left, leaving the human race to fend on it's own, not wanting to associate with the awful Cults that originated from them.

~ ~ ~

The Marrige Cult Encounter;

Shortly after Siffrin joins the party, consisting of himself, Isabeau, Odile, and Mirabelle, they find themselves seeking shelter at a large encampment while en route to Dormont. The camp houses over a hundred members and, despite appearing welcoming and respectful towards the Saviors of Vaugarde, the group quickly realizes they are in a precarious situation. Odile immediately identifies the inhabitants as members of the Marriage Cult, a fact underscored by the horrifying amalgamations wandering openly throughout the camp. Despite their discomfort and heightened vigilance, the party has little choice but to accept the offered refuge for the night, deeming it the safest option available, as this particular area is simply filled with strong Sadnesses, which they would be safe from while they stay at the camp.

Each member is assigned their own tent, but Siffrin finds himself unable to sleep, opting instead to stay awake and keep watch for any suspicious activity. In the early hours of the morning, he hears faint footsteps outside but initially dismisses them when the sounds quickly fade. An hour later, a piercing scream shatters the silence, sending a jolt of dread through him. Recognizing the voice as Mirabelle's, Siffrin springs into action, racing through the maze of tents toward the source of the distress.

What he discovers chills him to the core: Mirabelle is bound and trapped within a sinister summoning circle alongside an unknown man, surrounded by a gathering of cultists eagerly observing the unfolding ritual. Siffrin wastes no time, lunging forward to slash the man across the chest and force him away from Mirabelle, before he can hurt her. Trembling with sobs and pale, Mirabelle struggles against her restraints, managing to pull her dress back down over her legs, as Siffrin brandishes his dagger, demanding an explanation despite already grasping the horrifying intent.

The wounded man staggers to his feet, enraged by the interruption and shouting that Siffrin has no right to interfere. Moments later, Odile and Isabeau arrive, alerted by the commotion. The cult leader steps forward with a twisted grin, explaining that upon seeing Mirabelle, he perceived only weakness and failure. Believing the party needed more strength to defeat the King, he took it upon himself to initiate a Marriage ritual with her, intending to create a more powerful being through their grotesque fusion. Mirabelle's sobs and visible terror only fuel the party's determination to protect her. Isabeau, seething with uncharacteristic anger, carefully moves to free Mirabelle while Odile and Siffrin position themselves defensively between their Housemaiden and the advancing cultists.

As tensions escalate, the cult leader commands his followers to capture the intruders, sparking chaos throughout the camp. Odile and Isabeau fiercely defend Mirabelle against the onslaught, while Siffrin confronts the leader directly, delivering a fatal stab to his neck and leaving him collapsing to the ground, choking on his own blood. Seizing the opportunity amidst the disorder, the party fights their way through the frenzied cultists and makes a desperate escape into the safety of the surrounding wilderness.

In the days that follow, Mirabelle remains quiet and withdrawn, barely speaking or eating as she grapples with the trauma of the attack. Her companions stay close, offering unwavering support—Isabeau provides comforting embraces, Odile offers gentle words of reassurance, and Siffrin becomes notably protective, seldom leaving her side, especially when they enter a new town two days later. This harrowing experience solidifies the bond between them, with Siffrin realizing just how deeply he cares for his newfound family and affirming his resolve to defend them with every ounce of his being.

~ ~ ~

that's all for now! I still have a few ideas when it comes to this AU, but i've got no clue if i'll be able to publish them, as i am starting my final school year so i'll be very busy. as for the Anon that has shared some more ideas about this AU, if you're reading this, feel free to write more, if you have anything else in mind! I got super giddy reading your suggestions :3 I'll be sure to include it, whenever i'll have the time to post ._. we'll see how things will turn out :D

[paintyoureyeswithavividmind]

close to home | chapter eleven

close to home | chapter eleven

plot: this chapter features the first time jump as her and Daryl grow closer on a hunting trip, but find themselves in some trouble

series masterlist

Pairing: Eventual Daryl Dixon x f!reader Word Count: 2,289 Warnings: violence, blood A/N: thanks for reading! (also, the timeline between s3 and s4 always confuses me a bit, so just go with it lol) I am still in recovery after surgery, it went well, so updates might be slow for a little while. I can’t even put my laptop on my stomach lol

It had been weeks since your group took in the people from Woodbury. Things were improving every single day after that. The prison expanded its resources, and everyone chipped in. The courtyard had a dining room awning, and flowers and herbs grew. The front meadow held pigs, horses, and crops. A water pump brought water into the prison daily, and with gas coming in from runs, the generators were running from time to time. Hunting parties brought in a circulation of food to feed everyone. While there wasn’t plenty, there was enough.

Newcomers seemed to come in steadily, and a council was formed. You were offered a seat, and while you wanted to decline it, Michonne and Carol talked you into it. They believed you got a voice after all the help you did. And you were family. 

Summer was in full bloom. It was nearly a hundred degrees out daily, and even though you hated the heat, you couldn’t find reasons to hate anything. Not with how happy things have been, not with how happy you’ve been. 

In the time you’ve been here, you and Michonne have grown exceptionally close. The two of you joined the group around the same time and went through many of the same motions. But she wasn’t the person you were closest to. 

“Hey, you comin’ or what?” Daryl yelled over at you. 

Your hair was still damp from the shower you had earlier today, and it dripped down on your gray t-shirt. The shower was probably not the best idea since you started sweating when you stepped out into the Georgia heat. 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” You waved him off, walking up to Carol. She handed you a bag full of the needed supplies, and you thanked her before walking over to Carl, sitting at the table. You finally found Tora there, and she meowed when you rubbed behind her ears. “I should’ve known you would’ve stolen her right from me. Little traitor.” You said, lightly flicking the rim of Carl’s hat. 

“It’s not my fault she likes me so much,” Carl laughed, feeding her some meat. 

You hummed and leaned down, kissing Tora on her head. “You just watch her while I’m gone.” But you didn’t need to worry about that, as Tora took a very quick liking to the boy and bounced back and forth between you and him. He knew all her whistles and commands, and you knew Carl always closely watched the giant cat. Especially since she was so popular with the children.

“Come on, I don’ got all day,” Darl yelled again. 

You rolled your eyes as you finally approached him, adjusting the strap on your bag. “Take a chill pill, Daryl. The sun’s only been up twenty minutes. You have all day with me. You don’t gotta rush me outta here,” You replied. 

He scuffed, and you laughed at his reaction as you walked over to your jeep. “Come on, we don’t wanna be late,” You said. 

***

It was a bit cooler once you and Daryl got to your usual hunting grounds. The trees provided ample shading, but the breeze was still warm, and it was still early. You were a good few miles away from the prison, where the walkers were more spread out and the noise level was quieter. Still, you’d taken out quite a number of them. 

Despite the heat, the ground was still a bit damp from the rain last night, and your jeans soaked through as you knelt on the ground, checking the snare traps. It took you and Daryl about twenty minutes to go through the cycle, and you successfully caught three rabbits, four squirrels, and a groundhog. You reset the snares and would come back tomorrow. 

You heard a whistle and turned back to Daryl, who pointed toward the ground. Your eyes narrowed, and you walked over, trying to see what it was. “Walker?” You asked. 

“Nah, person,” He said. 

“How do you know?” You asked. 

“You see here,” He pointed, “The footprints are in a line. Ain’ zig zaggin’ all ‘ver the place.” He knelt down and moved some of the leaves away from the trail. “How many?”

You knelt down beside him and looked, taking a few more seconds than he did to come up with an answer. “Just one. Only one set of boot marks.” Daryl nodded in confirmation, and you smiled at him before standing up. “Soon, I’ll be an expert tracker like you,” You said. 

“You only been doin’ it a couple weeks, give it a few more years,”

You laughed and swung your bag around, grabbing your canteen of water and taking a sip. “It’s hot out here today,” You said and handed him the water. After he took a sip you put it away. “I bet it’s the end of July,”

“Maybe,” He muttered, looking at another pair of tracks on the ground, “Come ‘ere, check ‘em out,”

You walked over and looked, not recognizing what they were. “Some type of bird?”

“I think wild turkeys, trail goes this way. Look kinda fresh too,”

“Maybe we should follow them if we can catch some and bring them back, that’s fresh eggs during their breeding season, and we can raise a number of them in the meadow or something,” You said, “Maybe depending on how many we find we can kill a couple. Have Thanksgiving in July,” You laughed. 

Daryl shook his head and turned, but you caught him smiling before he did. 

***

An hour later, you and Daryl were still tracking the turkey tracks when you came across a lake, It was small but crystal clear, and there were plenty of animal tracks around the muddy bank. It was getting warmer, and you’d thrown your hair up in a ponytail. 

The trees were forty feet back and the meadow gave a really nice viewpoint of the area around you. You weren’t exactly sure of where you were, other than north of the prison. You didn’t need to say anything to Daryl, you both knew that this was a good place to take a breather and have your breakfast. 

“You wanna know what I miss more than anything?” You asked, biting into a well-expired granola bar. You didn’t need to wait for him to answer. “Chocolate chip pancakes. Or waffles. I loved breakfast food. Lots of syrup and butter. So much better than this shit,” You said. 

“I liked the grits we found,” He said. 

You groaned, “Ugh, I hate that crap. I hate the texture.” 

“It’s filling, though,” He countered. 

You shrugged your shoulders and leaned back in the grass. The sun was heavy on you, and a part of you wanted to take a swim through the lake. It’d been so long since you’d been swimming. But you only had another hour or so before heading back. The council decided smaller hunting parties wouldn’t go out for long hours at a time. It was too risky after a couple of newbies never came back. 

The little break you and Daryl took was enough to make you curl up and go to sleep. Just like everyone else, your sleeping schedule wasn’t what it should be. Days were long, even though life was easier.

“We should get goin’ in a minute,” Daryl said but went against his words and laid back a few feet away from you. 

You sighed but didn’t say anything. It was peaceful out here, despite the danger around every tree. Still, it reminded you of when it was just you and Tora. When your days were spent wandering the forest for food and scaling trees to avoid passing walkers. As much as you like your new life with your family and the prison, sometimes you miss the simplicity of when it was just you.

 The sky was mostly clear, with only a few white puffy clouds on the canvas. You laughed as one passed and pointed up at it, “That one looks like a bear,”

“Which one?”

You moved a couple inches closer to him and pointed, trying to angle your finger right. “There,”

“Pft, no it ain’,”

You rolled your eyes and sat up. That was when you saw a few wild turkeys by the other side of the lake. “Daryl, the turkeys,”

He sat up immediately and grabbed his crossbow. “Only four, not enough to bring back.”

Your eyes narrowed briefly, “No babies, I wonder what happened to them.” You said. Neither of you needed to say what happened to them. You both knew. 

The two of you grabbed your gear and started toward the other side of the lake. Your stomach grumbled at the sight of them, and you felt terrible, but not bad enough. You grabbed Daryl's arm when you got as close as you could to them. “Let me try?”

“Again?”

“Yes, yes, come on. We can’t shoot them, and I need the practice if I’m going to get good at the bow and arrow we found,” You said. 

He sighed loudly and handed you the crossbow. You handed him your gun and adjusted the bow in your hand. He’d only let you try a couple of times, and you never could get used to the weight of it. But that bow and arrow was just sitting in your cell at the prison, and you did want to learn it. 

“Gotta take the bow out more,” Daryl said to you, “We can do some target practice. Glenn been teachin’ some of the others to shoot. Maybe we’ll go with ‘em?”

You nodded and lifted the bow, repeating the instructions in your head on how to use it. You set your finger on the trigger and waited for a few heartbeats before aiming, then waited again and then fired. The arrow pierced the leg of the animal, and you cringed when you heard its painful clucks. This was the part you hated most about hunting. 

“Dammit,” You muttered. 

Daryl looked at you, “You’re leanin’, can’ kill it with just a shot yet, it’s okay,”

You sighed and lowered the crossbow while Daryl went to kill the injured bird. The other three scattered off but didn’t go too far. You were entirely disappointed in yourself, and the sound of the turkey in distress only made it worse. 

You were just around to tell Daryl he could get the rest when an arm around your throat pulled you backward, and you felt the sharp tip of a knife touch the base of your throat. 

“Don’t move,” A deep voice said in your ear. 

Daryl turned around with the gun raised at the sound of a new voice. “Let ‘er go,” He said. 

A different man came into view with a gun too, and you closed your eyes for a second. You were fucked. 

“Nobody’s gotta get hurt,” The man said, “We’re just gonna take your shit, and we’ll be on our way,” The man holding you hostage said. “Drop your weapon, and I won’t slit her throat,”

Your eyes met Daryl’s, and you could see the anger and worry on his face. He was breathing heavily. Slowly he put the gun on the ground. 

“Adam, get the bags and the bird,” The man said. 

Adam moved to grab the bags, and you quickly pulled his arm away from your throat in the opportunity of your attacker's lack of attention. That quick second of reaction gave you enough time to duck under the arm, pull out your own knife, and slam it into the side of his body. He screamed in pain, and you pulled it out, dropping to the ground to swing your legs. His head hit the ground at the same time as you heard a gunshot, but you didn’t stop. 

You drove the knife down into your attacker's arm, and he screamed again, dropping the knife he did have. With his weapon removed, you turned back, ready to throw a knife at Adam, but he was already on the ground. 

You barely had time to react before Daryl was on the man, and you grimaced when you heard the sickening crunch of bone as Daryl assaulted the man. 

“Daryl!” You yelled, grabbing his arm mid-punch and using all your strength to keep him from beating the man to death. 

“He woulda killed ya!” Daryl yelled, pulling his arm free.

“Doesn’t mean we gotta kill him!” You yelled.

“Nah, this asshole is dead,”

“No!” You yelled, trying to shove Daryl off of the unconscious man. “He’s as good as dead as it is. We don’t know if it was just the two of them. We need to go, Daryl, now. Please.” You stressed. You weren’t sure what exactly caused Daryl to stop, but thankfully he did, and he cursed loudly as he stood up.  

When he looked at you, his eyes dropped to your arm. “You’re bleedin’,”

You looked down and saw a two-inch gash on your bicep. You hadn’t even felt it. “Crap,” You muttered, immediately putting pressure on the wound. You hadn’t noticed the blood dripping down your arm either. 

“We got stuff in the bag,” Daryl grunted and went to get the supplies. 

You followed him and watched silently as he quickly cleaned up the cut and put a gauze pad over it. It would have to do until you got home. 

“Let’s get out of ‘ere, don’ wanna be ‘ere when he wakes up. I’ll fuckin’ kill ‘em,” Daryl cursed.

[the-unforgotten]

2024 reading list

my list of 50+ something books I plan to read this year. a mix of random fiction some series as well as classics fiction and philosophy and some political stuff

Little Women Louisa May Alcott Meditations Marcus Aurelius Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen Flowerheart Catherine Bakewell Bookshops & Bonedust Travis Baldree Blood Debts Terry J. Benton-Walker A Broken Blade Melissa Blair Utopia for Realists Rutger Bregman Break the Cycle Dr. Mariel Buqué Small Pleasures Clare Chambers The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Suzanne Collins Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes, Edith Grossman Evicted Matthew Desmond Ripe Sarah Rose Etter Polysecure Jessica Fern The Wicked + The Divine (2014), Volume 1 Kieron Gillen Fear of Black Consciousness Lewis R. Gordon The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work John Gottman, PhD, Nan Silver A Wizard of Earthsea Ursula K. Le Guin Seraphina Rachel Hartman Royal Assassin Robin Hobb Ain't I a Woman Bell Hooks Five Survive Holly Jackson The Queen of the Tearling Erika Johansen Time Squared Lesley Krueger Yellowface R. F. Kuang Jade City Fonda Lee Six Crimson Cranes Elizabeth Lim What We Owe the Future William MacAskill Earth Logic Laurie J. Marks The Communist Manifesto Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels One of Us Is Lying Karen M. McManus Killing Commendatore Haruki Murakami How High We Go in the Dark Sequoia Nagamatsu Hello Beautiful Ann Napolitano Beyond Good and Evil Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche Murder in an Irish Village Carlene O'Connor 1984 George Orwell Boy, Snow, Bird Helen Oyeyemi Children of Chicago Cynthia Pelayo Murder on Black Swan Lane Andrea Penrose The Republic Plato Mort Terry Pratchett Everything's Fine Cecilia Rabess Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Benjamin Alire Sáenz A Gathering of Shadows V. E. Schwab Vicious V. E. Schwab The Taming of the Shrew William Shakespeare Frankenstein Mary Shelley They Both Die at the End Adam Silvera How Fascism Works Jason Stanley Dracula Bram Stoker She Is a Haunting Trang Thanh Tran Womb City Tlotlo Tsamaase The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Stuart Turton The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde

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after the creation of this list two weeks ago I've already added more

Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis Dean Spade

The Complete Maus Art Spiegelman

[theam-cjsw]

The AM: September 11, 2023

Beakerhead's Parker Chapple joins to discuss the 10th anniversary of the science + engineering + art festival. That plus classic Canadian post-rock, expansive folk tunes, new spins on Arthur Russell & Moondog, and more. Feeling pretty good about this one—hopefully you enjoy it, too.

Listen on Soundcloud

Stream from CJSW

Other podcast links

Spotify playlist

Hour One

Midnight Marker Shy Layers • Midnight Marker

Solarus Eric Cheng • Super Motherload OST

Sunrise Session v2 OAKK • Big Friday Sunrise Sessions

3 Cycle Multi-Programme Étamine • Single

Expo Transit System Pocket Pavilions • Gondolas Traversing Lofty Peaks

Staying In diskJokke • Staying In

M.C. Etcher Various Artists, featuring AuntBibby • We Are Time Mixtape Vol. 1

Liquid Lights Pantha du Prince • Garden Gaia

Oscillations edapollo • Technicolour Places

Hour Two

Give It to the Sky Peter Broderick, ensemble 0 • Give It to the Sky

Why Spend a Dark Night with You Ghost Train Orchestra, Kronos Quartet, featuring Joan as Police Woman • Songs And Symphoniques: The Music Of Moondog

Smells Like Content The Books • Lost and Safe

Amoeba Eyeliner The World Next Door • Find Your Face in It

Wake Me Up When It’s Over Dosh • Tomorrow 1972

Hollow Stars Beans • Crane Wars

Vitamin Meathawk Fond of Tigers • Continent & Western

Stranger Nights Fabiano do Nascimento • Das Nuvens

Flow Slowly Rolling Camera • Flow

Swell Cortico • Aeolia

Hour Three

Long Road Ahead Maybel • Gloam

Sideways Dream Sitch • Single

Highway Anxiety / Radioactivity Live William Tyler & The Impossible Truth • Secret Stratosphere

Tirannia Velata Futuropaco • Single

Poo-Jo Hysear Don Walker • Complete Expressions, Vol. 2

The Tier Drop Ulrika Spacek • The Tier Drop 7"

Don't Give In Andrew Vivona • 10 Other Times

I’m a Stranger Here Olde Nightrifter • Single

Contemplation Shadow Folk • Holiest of Days

Thunder Bay Bry Webb • Run With Me

[australieh]

Jobless in July

I am unemployed again! This time last year I was “fun-employed” as I liked to call it, but this time it’s different. This time it’s not by choice, and it’s not in the summer, and I am not surrounded by my closest friends and family. So it is not so fun. 

Perth is mid-winter right now, meaning gloomy days filled with rain and wind. Everyone wears dark coloured puffer vests and jackets, toques and blundstones. I have to admit it makes me chuckle a bit- these people don’t know what winter is. They all stay inside, except to walk their dogs and buy groceries and go to their jobs. The hospitality industry slows to a crawl because of this, which is why I, a backpacker, cannot get a job for the life of me. Which is why I, unemployed, cycle to the bookstore in a tshirt, passing the dog walkers and grocery buyers all bundled up in their puffy coats. I silently curse these job goers for staying home and putting me out of a job. 

On this bike ride I have a thought that often occurs to me in this neighbourhood, in this city, in this country: I don’t belong here. I don’t fit in here. This upside down, backwards place where July weather makes me want to watch Halloween movies and prepare for Christmas. This neighbourhood which is full of families and 9-5ers, and where I rarely see another person in their 20′s. This city, where I am considered plus size because everyone else seems to be thin and fit and put together. 

I was reminded of this thought quite brutally the week I got back from El Questro. I got called to come in for an interview with a temp agency, and so off I went. I put on my new pants (the ones I had to buy after trying on the only nice pair of pants I brought with me from Canada and finding I could barely button them) and hopped on the train to the city. From the train I trudged 20 minutes up a steep hill, following the hoards of job goers who were walking to lunch; all dressed in identical business clothes. I weaved between them and tried to ignore the feeling of dread pulling at my soul. I had always run away from this world and here I was, marching up a hill to sit and smile nicely and beg to be initiated into it. 

When I got to the office I was shown to the board room and given a glass of water. The young receptionist, blonde and barely 25, handed me four cards with work personality traits on them and told me to choose which one I most identified with. I read through them and tried my best to fit myself into the boxes on the cards; Was I analytical and logical, or a big picture thinker with emotional decision making? My whole life I have been both, and my whole life I have been told to choose one. I rifled between the cards for five minutes before setting them aside.

Ten minutes later the lady I met with promptly, and rather bluntly, ripped apart my resume. She was in her 50′s and mentioned her daughter a few times. She was wearing a turtle neck, a blazer and heeled boots, and she made me want to sit up straight. It felt like meeting with my own mother, and when I told her I hadn’t bought any office clothes yet she tsked and started naming thrift stores in my area where I could find a blazer. I didn’t mention how hard it is to find clothes in my size at the thrift stores in my area, only nodding instead. She never mentioned the personality cards. 

When I left the meeting I sat on a brick garden wall outside the building and thought about how badly I had to pee. I’d felt too embarrassed to ask for the washroom, and mostly I just wanted to get the hell out of there. I snapchatted my friends from El Questro about how dumb I felt for not wearing business clothes to an interview for an office job, and how out of place I felt in the city after 3 months in the bush. Then I walked back towards the train and found a coffee shop busy enough that they wouldn’t notice if I used the toilet without buying anything. 

On the train home I thought about how today wasn’t the first time I’d felt out of place in a city. I don’t know how to stop correlating crowds with nausea, but ever since graduating and travelling that’s how I’ve felt. Being around so many people in such concentrated spaces makes me feel like I am suffocating. That’s how I felt in Edmonton, in Calgary and now in Perth. I look around at all the people wearing the same white sneakers and zip up jackets and I feel sick to my stomach about the state of the world. I see the job goers and dog walkers and grocery shoppers just living their life, same as me, and all I can think is capitalism consumerism landfill nuclear family heteronormativity patriarchy etc etc. It’s my curse as a social sciences studier. 

I know this a dramatic story and I’m sure you're thinking, okay, Raylene. Relax, your life isn’t that bad. And you’d be right! It is actually a very good life, and the thing about me is I am great at seeing both sides. I am logical and I am big picture; detail oriented and creative. I don’t fit into any big box, but there are some little boxes I do fit into. Because I am feeling wordy right now, here are a few:

One absolute sure fire thing, no ifs ands or buts about it, is that I am a Coffee Gal. At least once a week a cappuccino will restore my faith in humanity. I will have a full blown meltdown about what it means to be a member of society in this specific point in history, and then I will cycle to the coffee shop and order a fluffy warm beverage because it’s the only thing I can think of to cure my despair. And it does; that specific combination of steamed milk and espresso is my magic little fix. 

Another solid truth about me, is that I am lazy. Truly and simply, I am a lazy girl. I love to lay in bed and scroll instagram. I love to curl up in the lazy boy I got for free from verge collection and watch movies I’ve already seen. If I am feeling creative I sit in the sunny window in my living room reading or painting. On a night out I will not be on the dance floor, but sitting down at a table with my drink and chit chatting. I like to say I am chill but really, I am just lazy. 

One last truth about me is that I am a fake vegetarian. Largely this is because chicken is so tasty, but it is also because I am so chalk full of contradictions. Everything inside of me wants to go a different way, explore a different feeling, experience a different thing. I guess that’s how I ended up here, isn’t it? Here, in this big city, drinking cappuccinos and cycling past dog walkers after a meltdown about which outfit to wear. I hope I never change.

[thecyclinglifestyle]

Don Walker Cycles

Custom steel bicycle manufacturer featuring road, cyclocross, tandum, mountain and specialty bikes.

[leporellian]

like i KNOWWWW that leporello and don giovanni’s whole dynamic probably is not meant to be read into the way i’ve read into it but if you take their scenes together and compare them to the walker model of cycles of abuse…. well…. Well!!!

[nasa]

5 Out of this World Experiments Awaiting Crew-1 Space Scientists

NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, and Mike Hopkins, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Soichi Noguchi embark on a historic mission on November 14, 2020 aboard the Crew Dragon. NASA’s Crew-1 mission marks the first certified crew rotation flight to the International Space Station. During their 6-month stay on orbit, these crew members will don their science caps and complete experiments in microgravity.  Check out five out of this world experiments you can expect to see these space scientists working on during Expedition 64.

1. Space Gardening

The Crew-1 astronauts will become space farmers with the responsibility of tending to the rad(ish) garden located in a facility known as the Advanced Plant Habitat (APH). Researchers are investigating radishes in the Plant Habitat-02 experiment as a candidate crop for spaceflight applications to supplement food sources for astronauts. Radishes have the benefits of high nutritional content and quick growth rates, making these veggies an intriguing option for future space farmers on longer missions to the Moon or Mars.

2. Micro Miners

Microbes can seemingly do it all, including digging up the dirt (so to speak).  The BioAsteroid investigation looks at the ability of bacteria to break down rock.  Future space explorers could use this process for extracting elements from planetary surfaces and refining regolith, the type of soil found on the moon, into usable compounds.  To sum it up, these microbial miners rock.

3. Cooler Exploration Spacesuits

The iconic spacesuits used to walk on the moon and perform spacewalks on orbit are getting an upgrade. The next generation spacesuit, the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU), will be even cooler than before, both in looks and in terms of ability to regulate astronaut body temperature.  The Spacesuit Evaporation Rejection Flight Experiment (SERFE) experiment is a technology demonstration being performed on station to look at the efficiency of multiple components in the xEMU responsible for thermal regulation, evaporation processes, and preventing corrosion of the spacesuits.

4. Chips in Space

Crew-1 can expect to get a delivery of many types of chips during their mission.  We aren’t referring to the chips you would find in your pantry.  Rather, Tissue Chips in Space is an initiative sponsored by the National Institutes of Health to study 3D organ-like constructs on a small, compact devices in microgravity. Organ on a chip technology allows for the study of disease processes and potential therapeutics in a rapid manner. During Expedition 64, investigations utilizing organ on a chip technology will include studies on muscle loss, lung function, and the blood brain barrier – all on devices the size of a USB flashdrive.

5. The Rhythm of Life

Circadian rhythm, otherwise known as our "internal clock," dictates our sleep-wake cycles and influences cognition. Fruit flies are hitching a ride to the space station as the subjects of the Genes in Space-7 experiment, created by a team of high school students.  These flies, more formally known as the Drosophila melanogaster, are a model organism, meaning that they are common subjects of scientific study. Understanding changes in the genetic material that influences circadian rhythm in microgravity can shed light on processes relevant to an astronaut’s brain function.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space:  http://nasa.tumblr.com

For updates on other platforms, follow @ISS_Research, Space Station Research and Technology News, or our Facebook to keep up with the science happening aboard your orbiting laboratory, and step outside to see the space station passing over your town using Spot the Station.

[smolderingflame]

Kickstart My Heart: MCU/Captain America (Steve/Bucky)

Kickstart My Heart- by SmolderingFlame

Rating: Explicit

Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Category: M/M

Fandoms: Captain America/MCU

Work In Progress

Relationship: Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers

Characters: Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov, Sam Wilson, Clint Barton, Tony Stark, Thor, Bruce Banner, Wanda Maximoff, Matt Murdock, Peter Parker, Brock Rumlow, Jack Rollins, Alexander Pierce, Nick Fury, Rebecca Barnes, George Barnes, Winifred Barnes, Sharon Carter, John Walker Summary: Bucky Barnes is an Omega police officer who is trying to earn some respect in a workplace he isn't welcomed in. When an undercover assignment is offered to him, he gladly accepts, though, he doesn't realize all he is getting into. Nothing was simple or safe when it came to becoming notorious mafia don, Steve Rogers, mistress. Tags: No powers, 1980s setting, organized crime, crimes and criminals, Mob Boss Steve Rogers, Undercover cop Bucky Barnes, corruption, drug use, out of character, Dark Steve Rogers, Character death, sexism, crossdressing, feminization, Post-serum Steve Rogers, bearded Steve Rogers, Sugar Daddy Steve Rogers, Sugar Baby Bucky Barnes, Omegaverse, Strippers, rough sex, drama, comedy, romance, dirty cops, betrayal, revenge, seduction, Stripper Bucky Barnes, makeover, mating cycles, mating bond, Omega!Bucky Barnes, Alpha!Steve Rogers, Top!Steve Rogers, Bottom!Bucky Barnes

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Snake Symbolism Analysis via @galadrieljones

@galadrieljones:

@twdmusicboxmystery, I just saw your snake post on Instagram! I loved it. Makes me think if every snake is essentially an ouroboros symbol. 

The ouroboros originates with Morgan in “Here’s Not Here,” which is when Eastman gives him the Art of Peace. There was then a Fear episode called “Ouroboros” that aired about six months later, a few weeks after “The Last Day On Earth.” 

It’s the episode when they find the wreckage from Flight 462, Travis clears a blockage of dead walkers from the engine of the Abigail, Nick discovers the guts method, Chris mercy kills a man with a broken spine in the fuselage, and Strand sabotages their rescue of the Flight 462 survivors. Has anyone watched that Flight 462 mini-series?

The snake seems like a powerful symbol of “recycling” or the cycle of violence/abuse/etc. It, of course, also goes back to the Eden allegory. Beth seems to end the cycle and restart the narrative in Coda by sacrificing herself to kill Dawn and end her reign of terror. She’s the first one to do this. Then Rick does it in 9.5.

I remember I once compared Nick Clark to Beth and Rick, but Nick doesn’t die in sacrifice. He dies when Charlie kills him in revenge. He is a victim of the cycle perpetuating itself, so it’s not the same. 

Madison does however seem to reset the narrative after sacrificing herself. The whole narrative does experience a reset with the onset of season 4, when Morgan shows up, along with John Dorie and several other new characters. It’s just that we learn of Madison’s death in a non-linear fashion. 

Importantly, some major characters die while breaking the cycle of violence/vengeance/etc., while others are victims of the cycle. For example, Sasha dies breaking the cycle, but Tyreese is a victim. Sasha doesn’t reset the narrative though. Only a couple characters do this, like I said: Rick, Madison, and Beth. 

What’s the uniting factor here? They’re not actually dead. Well, we know for sure that Rick and Madison aren’t dead. And with Beth there are “questions.” This pattern makes it all the more likely TD is right. Maybe their ultimate sacrifice is greeted with a cosmic reward or something. Like Jesus dying on the cross. Rick and Madison did what they did to save their families. Why does Beth die? It only makes sense if she dies for something really big, ie: to foil a deadly CRM research plot? Maybe…?

This can also explain why characters Teddy and Alpha don the ouroboros (Teddy on his “box of the dead,” and Alpha on her belt buckle). Both characters essentially worship the “cycle.” Teddy espouses his motto that “the end is the beginning.” He wants to reset the world but his method for doing this only perpetuates and even compounds it’s suffering. His death is in vain. 

Alpha’s lifestyle involves becoming the dead. She worships death and has come to command it in some ways. When she dies, it’s a consequence of her betraying her code. She ignorantly trusts Negan, who betrays her.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Love your analysis! Especially for why Teddy and Alpha wear them. That totally makes sense!

[oceanstone]

Self-Help Books

Productivity

Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins

No Excuses!: The Power of Self-Discipline by Brian Tracy

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

Unreasonable Success and How to Achieve It by Richard Koch

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Little Black Book by Otegha Uwagba

Time Management in 20 Minutes a Day by Holly Reisem Hanna

Write it Down and Make It Happen

The 12 Week Year

The 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

How to Begin by Michael Bungay Stainer

Physical Health

WomanCode: Perfect Your Cycle, Amplify Your Fertility, Supercharge Your Sex Drive, and Become a Power Source by Alisa Vitti

Mental Health

The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book) by Don Miguel Ruiz

Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach

The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook

The Inner Child Workbook by Cathryn Taylor

Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe About Ourselves by Curt Thompson

The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor

ADHD

You Mean I'm Not Stupid, Lazy, or Crazy?! A Self-Help Book for Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder by Kate Kelly and Peggy Ramundo

Women with Attention-Deficit Disorder: Embrace Your Differences and Transform Your Life by Sari Salden

What the ADHD Brain Wants—and Why by Dr. Ellen Littman (pdf)

Finally Focused: The Breakthrough Natural Treatment Plan for ADHD That Restores Attention, Minimizes Hyperactivity, and Helps Eliminate Drug Side Effects by Dr. James Greenblatt

* Living with ADHD: Simple Exercises to Change Your Daily Life by Thom Hartmann

Thriving with Adult ADHD: Skills to Strengthen Executive Functioning by Phil Boster

Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You by Jenara Nerenberg

Screwed Up Somehow But Not Stupid, Life with a Learning Disability by Peter Flom

Trauma

Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker

Polyvagal Flip Chart: Understanding the Science of Safety by Deb A. Dana

Taming Your Outer Child: Overcoming Self-Sabotage and Healing from Abandonment by Susan Anderson

My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem

Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve by Stanley Rosenberg

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsey Gibson

@complextraumarecovery bookshelf

Healing Developmental Trauma by Lawrence Heller

Waking the Tiger by Peter A. Levine

The Pocket Guide to Polyvagal Theory by Stephen Porges

Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection by Deb Dana

Trauma and Recovery by Judith Herman

Call of the Wild: How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power, and Use it for Good by Kimberly Ann Johnson

Trauma and Memory by Peter Levine

Stephen Porges work

Nurturing Resilience by Kathy Kain and Stephen Terrell

Relationships

Women Who Love Too Much by Robin Norwood

Break Your Addiction to a Person by Howard Halpern

Addiction to Love: Overcoming Obsession and Dependency in Relationships by Sudan Peabody

Journey from Abandonment to Healing by Susan Anderson

The Betrayal Bond: Breaking Free of Exploitive Relationships by Patrick Carnes

The Power of Attachment: How to Create Deep and Lasting Intimate Relationships by Dr. Diane Poole Heller

Conscious Loving: The Journey to Co-Commitment by Gay & Kathlyn Hendricks

Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller

Love is a Choice: The Definitive Book on Letting Go of Unhealthy Relationships by Thomas Hemfelt

Strange Situation: A Mother's Journey into the Science of Attachment by Bethany Saltman

Gaslighting by Stephanie Sarkis

Boundaries by Anne Katherine

Models by Mark Manson

Set Boundaries, Find Peace by Nedra Tawwab

Why Does He Do That? by Lundy Bancroft

I Want This to Work by Elizabeth Earnshaw

The Adult Psychotherapy Homework Planner

Me, You, Us: A Book to Fill Out Together by Lisa Currie

The Will to Change by bell hooks

Getting the Love You Want by Harville Hendricks

Wired for Love by Stan Tatkin

Games People Play by Eric Berne

The Chemistry Between Us by Larry Young

Men Are From Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray

Cats Don’t Chase Dogs by Kara King

Art of Seduction by Robert Greene

No More Assholes by Chantal Heide

Pussy: A Reclamation by Regena Thomashauer

The Power of the Pussy by Kara King

Why Men Behave Badly by David Buss

Safe People by Henry Cloud and John Townsend

The Deep Life

The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life by David Brooks

Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality by Anthony De Mello

Sick Souls, Healthy Minds: How William James Can Save Your Life by John Kaag

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle

The Defining Decade by Meg Jay

Authenticity

The Likeability Trap: How to Break Free and Succeed as You Are by Alicia Menendez

I Thought It Was Just Me (but It Isn’t) by Brené Brown

Career

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith

How Women Rise by Sally Hegelsen

Own It: The Power of Women at Work by Sallie Krawcheck

No-Fail Communication by Michael Hyatt

Leadership on the Line by Ronald Heifetz

Purple Cow

Dream Manager

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Quantum Success

Influencer

Decide

Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office

Switchers by Dawn Graham

The Seven Minute Productivity Solution by John Brando

Entry Level Boss by Alexa Shoen

Mindfulness

How to Breathe: 25 Simple Practices for Calm, Joy, and Resilience by Ashley Neese

Money

Unfuck Your Finances by Melissa Browne

Broke Millenial

I Will Teach You to Be Rich

Clever Girl Finance

We Should All Be Millionaires

Parenting

Expecting Better by Emily Oster

Cribsheet by Emily Oster

The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years by Emily Oster

Grief

The Beauty of What Remains: How Our Greatest Fear Becomes Our Greatest Gift by Steve Leder

[allgirlsareprincesses]

A Saga in Ruins: How the sets reflect the empty nostalgia of the Sequel Trilogy

To the great surprise of many fans, the Skywalker Saga ended in the ruins of the Lars moisture farm on Tatooine. Perhaps this was intended to be circular, to be a coming home of sorts, but it was an odd choice for many reasons. Why would the youthful heroine find herself in an old, empty home to which she had no real connection, instead of on a verdant green world that she had so clearly craved earlier in her journey? Wouldn’t a place full of life be more fitting for a young woman starting a hopeful new chapter?

Of course, the dirty little secret is that there is nothing hopeful about the end of the Skywalker Saga. In fact, if we look across the Sequel Trilogy, we can see the theme of destruction, aging, death, and decay in many of the settings. Notably, the only sets that look truly new are the interiors of the First Order ships, and the rich luxury world of Canto Bight, but these sleek structures actually contain a moral rot.

It was appropriate for the Prequel Trilogy to be filled with shiny new sets as the Republic and Jedi were at the height of their power. The beauty was intentional, both so that we would appreciate the civilization that would be lost with the ascension of the Dark Side, and so that we would see it as the deceptive shell hiding the moral destruction within. In the Original Trilogy, the sets have an older, worn appearance, but are rarely what could be termed “ruins.” Given that the Sequel Trilogy takes place 30 years later when the galaxy has presumably been rebuilding since the Galactic Civil War, why then are SO many of the events set in ruins, or in places that become ruins?

Ruins in The Force Awakens

The first movie of this final trilogy started on Jakku, a ruin of a world home to the destroyed imperial fleet that made a last stand at the end of the Galactic Civil War. In the first scene of the film, new ruins are created when First Order troops destroy a village. Not long after, Poe and Finn crash-land into the desert, the ruin of their TIE fighter swallowed up by the sand. Later, we meet Rey, a lonely scavenger who is picking at the guts of a downed Imperial Star Destroyer. The shots in this sequence emphasize the scale of these ruins, along with the utter emptiness of the desert. Next, we see Rey in a little trading outpost cobbled together from disparate parts. She gazes dolefully at an elderly woman working the same task that she is, clearly seeing in the aged woman her own barren and lonely future. Finally, she travels to her own home, which turns out to be a collapsed AT-AT Imperial Walker. In an endearing but somewhat macabre moment, Rey dons the helmet of a Rebel X-Wing pilot. In a parallel scene, Kylo Ren is seen talking to the charred helmet of Darth Vader, beseeching his grandfather to speak to him. It’s nostalgia, yes, but for a past that is ruined, destroyed, and dead.

She next escapes Jakku in the Millenium Falcon, which might not be considered a ruin since it still (barely) flies, but it has clearly seen better days. Rey heaves the decrepit freighter through yet more bones of downed starships, finally escaping Jakku only for the Falcon to malfunction again. Han and Chewie, elderly yet vigorous as ever, join Rey and Finn and they all travel to Takodana, where Maz Kanata lives in a castle. From there, they witness the destruction of the Hosnian system, and then the First Order arrives and completely destroys Maz’s castle, creating yet another pile of rubble. The group next travels to D’Qar, a Resistance base nested in an old Rebel Alliance base from the Galactic Civil War three decades prior. Again, everything is old, aging, and recycled; nothing is new.

Starkiller Base is shiny and new, but it is also a tool of destruction, and before long it too collapses into space debris like Alderaan and Hosnian Prime. Meanwhile, we learn that the Skywalker-Solo family itself is in ruins, with Han and Leia split up, their son Ben fallen to the Dark Side, Luke missing in exile, and Han soon killed by his own son. Rey then travels to Ahch-To, where stand the ruins of the first Jedi Temple, to find the aging and bitter Luke Skywalker.

Ruins in The Last Jedi

On Ahch-To, Rey comes to find that the Jedi religion itself is in ruins, with their ancient texts abandoned and their one avatar, Luke, having cut himself off from the Force itself. In the course of her stay, she shoots a hole through the wall of her hut, slices through a large rock on the island, and emerges from the ruin of a hut that Luke explodes when he finds her with Ben Solo. Though Ahch-To is teeming with life, death is equally present, with Luke chatting with Force Ghost Yoda and watching the Jedi tree burn.

Further, Luke is a ruin of his former self, his moral certainty destroyed by regret. In the series of flashbacks to his last encounter with Ben, we see the hut collapsing, Luke rising from the rubble later, and his training temple in flames. Luke’s legacy, his relationship with his nephew, and now the physical manifestation of both is in ruins, as well. Even his X-Wing, once a symbol of his daring, sits submerged in water, presumably unusable and possibly scavenged already for parts.

On the Supremacy, the shattering of the Skywalker legacy is made visible in the breaking of Anakin’s lightsaber in the destroyed throne room. The ship itself lies in ruins after the battles that have raged across the ship and Admiral Holdo’s brave sacrifice, and even Ben and Rey’s fledgling relationship has been shattered by the end of the sequence.

Meanwhile, after the destruction of their fleet, the Resistance escapes to Crait, to yet another old Rebel Alliance base in the hope of escaping the First Order. Their speeders are so decrepit that Poe manages to punch a hole through one with just his foot, and the remaining forces are decimated before he makes the decision to pull back. With their massive laser cannon, the First Order punches a hole through the blast door to the base, effectively destroying it and rendering it unusable as a defensive position. By the end of the Crait sequence, the Resistance, their fleet, their base, and the central relationship of the movie between Rey and Ben are all in ruins.

Though destruction and ruins abound in The Last Jedi, the framing is notably different from the other two films because the purpose of all this imagery is to show hope for the future springing from the rubble. Rey states this theme explicitly when she’s meditating for Luke on Ahch-To, saying she sees “death and decay that feeds new life.” The breaking of Kylo Ren’s mask and the legacy lightsaber are intended not as endings but as steps in the cycle of rebirth and renewal. Luke manages to shed his broken shell and become the young hero he once was, later achieving transcendence as he passes whole into the Force. Despite the massive wound dealt on Crait, the salt cleanses and covers the carnage, suggesting rebirth with womb-like imagery. Ruins in The Last Jedi tend to serve less as nostalgic settings and more as visual symbols of brokenness that must and will be healed.

Ruins in The Rise of Skywalker

As the final film of the sequel trilogy opens, we see Kylo Ren fighting a group of cultists, whom the TROS Visual Dictionary tells us are Vader loyalists. Leaked images from the art book and cut scenes suggest that this scene actually takes place in the shadow of Vader’s castle, also now a ruin in the absence of its dark master. Using the Sith wayfinder, Kylo flies to the Dark Side planet of Exogol, entering what appears to be an ancient temple of the ruined Sith culture. There he finds the resurrected but still deathlike Palpatine, who is clearly such a ruin of his former self that he must be kept alive by machinery and dark arts.

In returning to the forested, hidden Resistance base, Finn and Poe nearly destroy the Falcon yet again, with the old ship catching fire as she lands among a small collection of similarly ancient ships that appear to be in questionable flight condition. While running her Jedi training course, Rey uses the same pilot’s helmet and training remotes that Luke used over 30 years earlier to practice her skills, and cuts down a number of trees in the process, leaving a path of destruction in her wake. Not only does the continued use of old, OT-era objects confound logic, but the wanton destruction of the natural world seems at odds with the Jedi philosophy’s reverence of the life which creates the Force.

Rey’s vision leads her to the barren desert world of Pasaana, where she meets the now-elderly Lando Calrissian, then finds the wreck of the ship that pursued her family when they were fleeing the resurrected Emperor. In the ruin of Ochi’s ship, Rey finds D-0, a broken and abandoned droid who yet again mirrors all the broken and abandoned characters (literally, ALL of them) in the Sequel Trilogy. When Kylo Ren appears, Rey first destroys his TIE Whisper, then when he crawls from the wreckage, the two have a Force tug-of-war over a transport ship which ends in Rey destroying it, as well. Of course, it later turns out that Chewbacca was not aboard that transport, thus continuing the pattern in this film of laying waste to the new planets, ships, and characters that were created for the sequels, while those from the original trilogy are miraculously preserved.

The gang next travels to Kijimi, where they apparently need to destroy C3-P0′s memories in order to unlock his ability to translate an ancient Sith language. As with Chewie, this is merely a temporary “death,” and Threepio’s memories are restored later. Kijimi, unfortunately, is not so lucky, and it is rather unceremoniously blown up, like Alderaan and Hosnian Prime. It seems that even with their allies, the Resistance heroes leave nothing but destruction in their wake.

Rey and friends next land on another moon of Endor, and the poor Falcon takes another beating. While her friends work yet again to repair the old ship, Rey escapes alone to the most imposing ruins of the entire film, collapsed shell of the second Death Star from Return of the Jedi. Calling back to not only Luke’s ordeal there, but also Rey’s own origins scavenging in the carcasses of Imperial Starships, the partially-submerged battle station serves as the backdrop for still more violence and destruction. When Ben Solo arrives, Rey engages him in another duel, which ends with Leia dead and Ben mortally wounded. Though Rey heals Ben, she next flees to Ahch-To, abandoning him and taking his TIE Whisper with her.

On Ahch-To, Rey burns the TIE, standing before the flaming ruins and attempting to throw her lightsaber into the fire. Luke stops her, then leads her to an abandoned hut to find Leia’s lightsaber, a remnant of her aborted Jedi training. Lastly, Luke raises his X-Wing from the water, offering it to Rey inexplicably space-worthy and no worse for the wear having been underwater for the better part of a decade and being at least 35 years old.

Finally, all the characters converge on Exogol, where they continue to engage in as much destruction as possible, including the apparent annihilation of an entire Sith civilization who lived on the planet as part of Palpatine’s Final Order. Ben Solo also arrives on the planet to help Rey (in another OT-era fighter that is miraculously space-worthy and moreover made it across the galaxy WITHOUT A HYPERDRIVE), but Palpatine sucks the power from him and then throws him painfully down a chasm, leaving his body broken. The climactic sequence ends with thousands dead, ships destroyed, and even Rey dead (or something) on the ground. Ben drags his broken body up and across the wreckage of the arena, and dies after resurrecting her, thus ending the Skywalker line.

After a celebratory hug with her friends, Rey flies the Falcon to Tatooine, to the literal ruins of the Lars Homestead. This is the place we last saw belching smoke as Owen and Beru’s charred remains splayed grotesquely across the scene of Luke’s destroyed childhood. Recalling again Rey’s beginning scraping a meager and lonely existence from battle wreckage, she slides down a sand dune on a loose piece of debris, and precociously explores the place. Finally, she buries Luke and Leia’s lightsabers (further cementing this place as a graveyard since Shmi is also buried here along with the Lars), and declares herself to be a Skywalker, the heir to these ruins.

Nostalgia as Love of a Dead or Imaginary Past

So, what does it all mean? If the Sequel Trilogy relies on ruins as a setting more than the other two trilogies, why does that matter? Isn’t it just paying homage to all the stories that led to the saga’s conclusion? Doesn’t it simply tie everything together?

Most critics and fans agree that the Sequel Trilogy relies heavily on nostalgia. In particular, JJ Abrams is often criticized for using nostalgia to such a degree that many of his films are direct copies of the stories they’re referencing: Super 8 is a mash-up of films like E.T. and Stand By Me, Star Trek: Into Darkness is a copy of The Wrath of Khan, The Force Awakens is nearly identical to Episode IV: A New Hope, and so on. Nostalgia is defined as:

“A sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.”

Most of Abrams’ movies succeed in creating this feeling because they rely on a shared cultural childhood memory. We fondly remember iconic moments from the films we loved as children, so seeing those moments again creates a feeling of remembered happiness. These movies encourage the viewer to recall how they felt the first time they saw certain images by repeating those images.

The first problem with this approach is that nostalgia is for the audience, not for the characters. The believability of the characters’ actions suffers when they are forced to act out scenes from a story that is not their own, from lives and perspectives that are not theirs. The audience might love seeing a lightsaber battle because that’s quintessential Star Wars, but if the two (or more) characters have no logical reason to fight other than as a spectacle for the audience, then the scene will lack any emotional depth. Likewise, a character revering someone whom they either barely knew or openly loathed makes no sense. In the case of settings or props, characters must respond to them in a way that is believable based on their actual history (or lack thereof) with the place or object. If the main characters of a story function only as a sort of modern Greek chorus, mirroring the nostalgic reactions of the omniscient audience, then they fail to be characters at all and become the most reductive versions of a self-insert.

This video explains the problem well, from 7:09 to 10:58 (the whole video is good but fair warning that not all of his takes align with what I believe about Star Wars, especially as regards Kylo Ren/Ben Solo): 

Another problem with this reliance on nostalgia is that in order to speak to a shared childhood experience, everyone in the audience must have had similar childhoods, or at least belong to the same generation so that they all fondly remember the same things. This is necessarily exclusive, as different generations have vastly different collective experiences and memories. The members of the audience who were children at the time of the Original Trilogy’s release or shortly after grew up in a very different world than those who were children during the release of the Prequel Trilogy, or from the generation living through childhood now. Some things that older generations remember fondly carry uncomfortable or even traumatic associations for younger generations, so something intended to be nostalgic will not impact all audiences in the same way.

The legacy saber is a great example of this: an older Original Trilogy fan might be delighted to see Luke’s inaugural lightsaber from the very first Star Wars film being passed on to the new generation, but a younger fan who grew up with the Prequels might see it as a tainted symbol of Anakin’s fall to the dark side and a weapon stained with the blood of innocent younglings. A family sword meant to press the nostalgia button in The Force Awakens instead invokes a feeling of dread and horror in fans with different associations. While Rian Johnson mentions deliberately referencing the Prequels in his creation of The Last Jedi, JJ Abrams and Chris Terrio make no secret of the fact that they don’t acknowledge those films, and it shows.

Lastly, Star Wars has always been a story of youth, of coming of age, growing up, and becoming one’s own person. Luke’s story in the Original Trilogy was about him learning who he was independently of his father and mentors. He is merely a boy, young and defiant, and through his own mistakes he learns how the elder generation was wrong, resolves to do better, and thereby redeems them. Anakin’s story was similar, except that he was unable in his youth to learn the right lessons from the failures of his mentors, his defiance taking a more destructive form. In contrast to both of them, Rey learns.... that all her mentors and parental figures were right all along. In the end, she defies no one, discovers no new and better way, and ultimately brings nothing new and different to the galaxy. She brings no peace or renewal, adopting a legacy of death and destruction to cap a life that has featured only the old, dead, and destroyed.

This is where Disney and Abrams tip their hand and the true philosophy underpinning the Sequel Trilogy is revealed: in an effort to appeal to the nostalgia of older Star Wars fans, they fail to tell a story of youth and instead offer an orgy of death-worship and aesthetic decay. Rather than having the Star Wars conclude with Star Peace, the final trilogy seems to say “Weren’t those wars great? Don’t you miss them? Don’t you want to be reminded of all those wars?”

In her book The Future of Nostalgia, Svetlana Boym defines the term a little differently than the dictionary:

"Nostalgia (from nostos - return home, and algia - longing) is a longing for a home that no longer exists or has never existed. Nostalgia is a sentiment of loss and displacement, but is also a romance with one's fantasy."

Boym points out that memory is often faulty, and that fond recollection is often a reaction to current despair. If things are bad now, it is natural for us to imagine a more comforting past, as with popular references to “the good old days.” In fact, another translation of the root algos is “pain,” thereby associating the return home with pain. Is it pain that prompts our longing to return home? Pain that creates the fond memory of home in the first place? Perhaps home itself is a source of pain, and so our minds construct an imaginary home that is better than the reality. In any case, it is typical that our rose-colored glasses distort the truth of what we long for, so the danger of nostalgia is a disassociation from truth.

One of those truths that we might deny in our fantasies is the ephemeral nature of human life and experience. All things age, decay, and ultimately cease to be. They may be evergreen in memory, but in a contiguous timeline like the Skywalker Saga, every location, object, or person must inevitably show the passage of time. Thus it is that the youthful heroes of the Original Trilogy become wizened and less vital when they reappear in the Sequels, that old ships break, and symbols of better times shatter and burn. As Boym states, however, the nostalgic lives in denial:

“The nostalgic desires to obliterate history and turn it into a private or collective mythology, to revisit time like space, refusing to surrender to the irreversibility of time that plagues the human condition.”

Nostalgia cannot hide the steady march of time, which is why most stories look to the future and the creation of the new. Not so the Sequel Trilogy. At no point in the story does there appear to be a goal outside of “defeating the latest bad guys, who are identical to the old bad guys.” There’s no vision of the future toward which the characters are striving, neither on a galactic level (achieving peace) nor a personal level (starting a new family on a vibrant living planet). As such, with nothing to look forward to, the story can only look backward, trapped in nostalgia for a past that appears worse the closer you look at it.

This is why the Sequels are filled with characters, objects, and places from the Original Trilogy that are revered in spite of their violent and even traumatic pasts, not to mention visible signs of age. Ultimately a story that has nothing new to say or offer, only weak attempts to recreate a half-remembered childhood feeling of an aging generation, can ONLY logically end in a graveyard. Viewed in this light, it makes sense that the young protagonist builds her life around fond memories that for her are only imaginary, surrounded by the visible evidence of death and decay to which nostalgia blinds her.

If this is all the fan in the audience is looking for, a faded echo of their favorite memory, then perhaps that is enough. But for those who do not share the reassuring memory, or those who look forward to the future and how things might change for the better, the ending of the Skywalker Saga offers only knowledge that all things fade and die. Without the lens of nostalgia, the Sequel Trilogy is merely an empty tale of death.

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: Artillery

Excerpt from “The Coming of Man”, a detailed accounting of the human ghuma war on Racvar III, written by ghuma veteran Ghaulic Fhi.  “We had been trained since day one of joining the Ghuma defense leagues that combat was only honorable through face to face combat. When one was prepared to take another’s life their dying breath must be witnessed first hand lest you bring shame to you clan. The lesson clung to me day and night for the first three cycles I was in training and was firmly imprinted into my mind once my unit was deployed into real combat.

One of the Ghuma trade partners had come under attack by a strange race of pink flesh aliens donning strange armor and stranger still weaponry. The high council dispatched my unit along with several dozen other units to the sight of the incursion on Racvar III.  Racvar III was a mixture of jungle and wide open plains that dotted the planets surface. The timber from the Dil trees that grew in great numbers on the planet were as strong as reinforced Motilc metal and were highly sought after in trade. I never found out the exact reason the war started but my guess was the pink skins tried to cut a deal with the natives and it went bad, forcing them to invade and claim the timber themselves. Things went from bad to worse as a few weeks after the trade talks failed a large invasion force landed and seized control of half the northern hemisphere. They may have conquered the entire planet had it not been for the topography stalling their progress. 

We landed in the southern hemisphere and began advancing northward to meet the invaders in force. Spread out across the living sea, the largest plain on the entire planet, the full force of 250,00 Ghuma soldiers marched to meet the pink skins head on. 

Oh we were a sight to behold as we marched across the living sea. Our crystal armor glistening in the sun, the ground soft beneath our four legs, the sound of marching feet and heavy vehicles driving by forming a rhythmic beat; it was almost as if we weren’t at war at all and were instead taking a stroll across the diamond beaches of our homeworld. 

I remember i was near the front of the advancing line when I began to hear the whistling. At first I thought it was some stranger native creature of Racvar III and paid it no mind. It wasn’t until a few moments had passed and the intensity of the whistling grew louder that I began feeling something wrong.  To the left of me a heavy walker exploded violently and engulfed the nearby soldiers in fire and shrapnel. The advance halted in an instant and we hit the ground and started scanning the plain ahead of us for the enemy. We spent nearly three minutes laying their in near in the sound of burning embers and screams of our injured comrades; laying and waiting for the enemy to show themselves. 

By the forth minute I began to slowly stand up when some twenty meters ahead of us the ground suddenly exploded upward in a gout of grass and soil. I watched as the dirt began falling back down like rain when my world became my nightmare as the sound of whistling returned but in far greater numbers than before. 

In an instant more gout’s of soil shot upward all along the line, halting the advance in the face of this anomaly. This confusion began to turn to panic as the  gout’s of dirt began creeping closer and closer to the front ranks of our warriors. I watched the lead element just ahead of me, warriors I had known for countless training cycles, without warning vanish into the cloud of dirt; the place they had been standing now a deep crater into the soil. 

Panic spread rapidly at this point and our forces began pulling back to escape the onslaught but whatever it was began moving much faster. I saw veteran Ghuma warriors throw down their arms and run headlong into those behind them in a desperate attempt to escape. Some huddled near heavy walkers for protection but not even they seemed strong enough and many more exploded. 

By now the advance had turned into a rout and we were in full retreat. I remember sprinting as hard as I could back across the living sea. I jumped and leapt over my fellow Ghuma that had tripped and fallen purely by reflex. I remember wanting to stop and pick them up, to carry them to safety, to make sure whatever this thing was didn’t claim another life; but my body simply would not respond to anything other than self preservation and so I kept running. 

I only turned around once during my sprinting to safety. The whistling overhead followed by explosions was enough to warn me that with every delay it crept closer to where I was. Looking back through the clouds of dirt I swore I could see the shapes of the enemy we had come to fight slowly moving behind the gout’s of dirt. They seemed to be keeping their distance from the gout’s but none the less continued following it, staying as close as possible as if it was clearing the way for them. 

As a Ghuma soldier it is unbecoming to speak of our fears; but that day when I saw our enemy seemingly casually following in the wake of our destruction as the very ground around us erupted into destruction, I felt what it means to feel real fear for the first time. 

[opera-ghosts]

Edyth Walker (March 27, 1867 – February 19, 1950) was an American opera singer who had an active international career from the 1890s through the 1910s. She began her career performing roles from the mezzo-soprano repertory, but later successfully added several soprano parts to her repertoire as well. While she did perform in Italian and French language operas, she had a clear affinity for works in the German language. She particularly excelled in the operas of Richard Wagner. After retiring from the stage, she was active as a voice teacher in both France and the United States. Walker made her professional debut as a concert singer at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig in 1892. She made her professional opera debut on 11 November 1894 at the Berlin State Opera as Fidès in Giacomo Meyerbeer's Le prophète. The following year she became a member of the Vienna State Opera where she was a leading mezzo-soprano with the company for eight seasons.  She notably sang the role of Magdalena in the Vienna premiere of Wilhelm Kienzl's Der Evangelimann in 1896. She was also much admired in Vienna for her interpretation of the role of Amneris in Giuseppe Verdi's Aida.  While under contract in Vienna, Walker made guest appearances with other European theatres. She made her first appearance in the UK at the Royal Opera House in London, singing the role of Amneris on 16 May 1900. She sang several more roles at Covent Garden in 1900-1901, all of them from the Wagnerian repertoire, including Erda in Siegfried, Fricka in both Die Walküre and Das Rheingold, Ortrud in Lohengrin, and Waltraute in Götterdämmerung. In 1901 she portrayed the role of Elvira in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival At the close of the 1902-03 season, Walker left her position in Vienna abruptly after a dispute with Gustav Mahler. Having broken her contract with the influential Vienna opera house, she found it impossible to gain a permanent position with another German or Austrian theatre under such circumstances.  She therefore returned to the United States and signed a contract with the Metropolitan Opera of New York City. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera House on November 30, 1903 as Amneris to the Aida of Johanna Gadski and the Radamès of Enrico Caruso. She sang at the Met for three seasons, notably appearing in the Met's first stagings of Gaetano Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia (as Maffio Orsini) and Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus (as Prince Orlofsky).  She portrayed mainly mezzo-soprano parts at the Met like Brangäne in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Erda, Fricka, La Cieca in Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda, Leonora in La favorita, Nancy in Martha, Ortrud, Siebel in Charles Gounod's Faust, Urbain in Les Huguenots, and Waltraute. Her final and 108th performance with the Metropolitan Opera was in the title role of Karl Goldmark's Die Königin von Saba for an out of town engagement in San Francisco on April 16, 1906.  While on contract with the Met, Walker began adding soprano roles to her repertoire, beginning with Brünnhilde in Die Walküre which she first performed at the Metropolitan Opera House in December 1905. That was the only soprano role she sang on the Met Stage However, after leaving the Met in 1906 to return to Europe, she added more soprano roles to her stage credits. Walker had already been performing periodically as a guest artist with the Hamburg State Opera (HSO) since 1903, and upon her return to Europe she signed a contract with that company. She remained with the HSO through 1912 performing both mezzo and soprano roles. Among the soprano parts she performed there were Isolde in Tristan und Isolde, Kundry in Parsifal, and the title role in Salome. In 1908 Walker sang the roles of Ortrud and Kundry at the Bayreuth Festival. That same year she had a major triumph as Isolde at Covent Garden. She returned to the Royal Opera House in 1910 to portray the title role in the critically acclaimed UK premiere of Richard Strauss' Elektra under the baton of Sir Thomas Beecham, and to sing the part of Thirza in Ethel Smyth's The Wreckers.  That same year she sang at the wedding of William Ernest, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen. Kaiser Wilhelm II was in attendance and, impressed with her performance, the emperor made a point of having Walker presented to him. From 1912-1917 she sang annually at the Munich Festivals with the Bavarian State Opera. She made appearances as a guest artist at the Cologne Opera, La Monnaie and the Prague State Opera, among others. Her final performances were singing various roles in Wagner's The Ring Cycle at Elberfeld in 1918.

[eopederson]

Puente antiguo sobre el río Orbigo, Hospital de Orbigo, Léon, 1998.

In legend it is said the bridge dates to Roman times, but evidence suggests it was originally an early medieval construction. Important during the Reconquista, the bridge was destroyed during the Peninsular Wars in the 19th century. It was rebuilt in the 20th century.

“In 1434, the Leonese knight Suero de Quiñones held a tournament in which he or one of his companions challenged all men of equal rank who wished to cross the bridge here to a jousting tournament, Suero holding this bridge in the name of unrequited love. By 1434 the skill of jousting was not a standard part of military training but the challenge was taken seriously. Since 1434 was a Jacobean Holy Year, the traffic upon the Road of St James was considerable. The tournament lasted from July 11 until 9 August and Don Suero claimed to have broken 300 lances by the end. Twenty four years later Suero de Quiñones was killed by Gutierre de Quijada, a knight he had beaten at the 1434 tournament.” Wikipedia.

Pilgrims on the Camino fránces walking or cycling toward Santiago de Compostela (2 weeks or more to the west for most walkers) still cross the bridge. The culinary specialty of the town is sopa de truchas which, despite its name, is trout baked on a breadcrumb crust.

[petsitting123-blog]

Doggie Walking for a Located

As seasons go, summer time drives by far typically the most career changes. Which hardly a surprise. Looking on one perfect sunny day after a further via at the rear of the uninspiring landscape of our workstations, few are usually the people who is able to say they've never provided a thought to being some sort of river guide, a rancher, a deckhand on a high-class layer. For numerous dog lovers, individuals rosy-tinged, outdoorsy dreams concern dog walking. A life regarding simple days, surrounded by means of nature in addition to happy pooches-but in reality, will be certainly a great deal more to the career. Persons from every thinkable vocation-lawyers and computer coders, gross sales reps and accountants, nursing staff and writers, ex-military personnel and classical musicians-give upward their previous, typically really successful, careers to be able to wander other people's pups. And of course, pet sittingif you love dogs and praise the outdoors, if anyone desire to get your personal boss and don't mind being your own business director, marketing exec, and customer satisfaction representative to footwear, dog taking walks just might be for you. In spite of this, if this seems as simple as slapping a leash with a few dogs and going on a stroll you'll likely always be astonished. In today's densely populated, greatly regulated, in addition to litigious planet, in which will people's pets are usually vital to the family such as by no means before, good, secure dog walking demands technical expertise, physical stamina, and in-depth knowledge of almost everything from puppy behavior and even pack control to doggy first aid plus piste social grace. There are positive aspects, of course. The flexibility, for one thing-a pet master starts your ex working day from whatever moment fits her and hasn't got in order to dress up for work. For another, there's the particular regular shower of adore. In every single house on his route, your pet dog jogger is greeted by his charges with the eagerness quite unequaled by way of anything at all known in the business world. And for typically the type of man best suited for dog jogging, the time on the particular trail-or at the sea or doggie park-is the particular it most worthwhile. Aside from this evident physical and mental health advantages of fresh weather, exercise, together with being through a tranquil natural setting up for hours any time, some walkers talk involving the particular sheer satisfaction connected with observing dogs romp in addition to work together. For anyone along with an interest in doggie behavior, dog walking is fertile study ground, with all its unconstrained play plus pack conversation far through this busy streets involving the metropolis. That, nevertheless, bring us about what canine walkers often rank as the worst part associated with the job: the generating. The grind of heading from residence to home to collect dogs is fine at the outset, although it dons you decrease over time-how many joyful taxi individuals have anyone met in your lifetime? Most dog walkers keep your driving to a good minimal by choosing customers inside a confined geographical spot and timing their driving a car cycles to avoid heavy traffic. Nevertheless, if you aren't considering dog going for walks seeing that a career, assume to spend at least as much time in your car because on the trail. When traffic is impossible to control, so is the weather, and as together with any outdoor work, undersirable climate produces its own set associated with tests for dog walkers. Drenched, muddy dogs have got to be cleaned out right up before they can possibly be make back into their particular homes, so count toweling off together with perhaps hosing down each one dog as well as washing tons of dirty towels as part of often the task, too. And ultimately there's this loneliness built in in some sort of job of which comprises nominal human get in touch with. These are the pros in addition to cons most people develop when they consider puppy going for walks. Freedom, exercise, and even doggy love are the particular major extras, and too much driving, occasional awful weather, and scant human contact are the disadvantages. Of which, however, is certainly not all you can find to dog walking. For starters, it can be a business like just about any different and as this sort of it involves paperwork, client service, marketing, accounting, and so forth, all of which the walker has to find moment for outside of often the several hours he or your woman stays walking and even driving a vehicle. Subsequently, it is the popular misconception that dog jogging is easy. The idea is, if you are jogging two arthritic dachshunds you are aware well, although that will won't pay the lease. Or even the film tickets. No doubt this kind of fallacy stems from this humble beginnings involving puppy walking. Once after this 1950s and 60s we simply paid the little one decrease the streets a buck to get Fido out there for you. As all of us have packed into tighter urban spaces, the challenges involved with little Jimmy walking Jojo no longer allow for that solution, nevertheless pet owners have even less time to walk Tiger, who needs normal, vigorous exercise over and above what they can get in our smaller in addition to smaller backyards. Hence often the birth of professional canine going for walks. And a expert is what it will take to help safely navigate six to be able to eight rambunctious dogs by way of densely booming places and heavily made use of natural spaces. As Kim Moeller, a experienced dog jogger and even trainer, puts it, "To manage and coach some sort of group of dogs is definitely much more tough in comparison with people realize. Not anyone is usually surprised that teaching a new sled dog group demands expert knowledge in addition to talent. I don't know exactly why anyone thinks dog walking is different. " Several walkers start out along with just their particular summer aspirations, a fancy of pups, and the connection with going for walks their own pets, together with soon recognize the career is definitely also about doggie training in addition to being liable for the safety of someone else's beloved pet. Really about interacting with additional trek users (some regarding whom are not canine lovers) inside a responsible model and finding the appropriate entitlements and insurance policies, knowing whenever and how to decline a good client whose doggy would fit badly with your particular pack and being aware of what to do if some sort of fight fractures out with the trail, structuring your current route to cut low on driving a car time together with gasoline consumption, etc. Regardless of the challenges, a good deal of canine walkers believe they have the perfect work in the world. A single jogger once told us, "My worst day about the trail is better than the best moment inside my old job. very well It really is pointed out very rarely what a great share dog walkers make in order to the quality of existence in the dogs they function. Rather than being home solely all the time, these dogs are given essential exercise in addition to social connections, which just isn't just healthy and balanced, it keeps dogs safe as well as in long lasting homes, too. Research shows that will many dogs given back up or returned to shelters exist because of standard expressions regarding boredom or maybe lack of training: screaming, chewing, excess strength, plus so on. Dogs are usually doing their particular level right to fit into our twenty-first century routines, the least we can do in return would be to take his or her physical and even mental overall health critically. Which means entrusting your current pet to a expert.

Business Name: Pretty Poodle Dog Services

Address: 1805 Jasmine Trl. Savannah, Tx 76227

Email: info@prettypoodledogservices.com

Description: Providing quality pet care services that you can trust

Website:www.prettypoodledogservices.com