#existential crises mode: activated | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

novaturientism-blog · 7 years ago

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( joe keery, 23, male, he/him ) — have you heard about parker o’connor? yeah, that’s the one living in apt 23. they’re so ostentatious, it’s unbelievable. to be fair, though, i guess that they’re also quite extemporaneous. still, doesn’t take away from the fact that he was homeless for the majority of his life. ( astra, 18, she/her, pst )

shamsh that like button and i’ll mssg u 4 plots !!!

well hello party people !! tis i, ya girl astra !! as stated before, i’m currently 18, go by she/her pronouns, and in pst for my timezone. i also ?? dont join a lot of rps that do intro posts so forgive me if i’m awkward in this or not rlly following a specific format ?? but anyways, some #cool facts about me would be that i am obsessed with photoshop and web design. it’s lit my passion atm and you can catch me out here bein a nerd abt it. i also rlly love video games so... if you play video games & wanna talk abt it... hMU !!

anyways, moving forward into the actual intro for my bby boi ?? here’s the... quick & easy lil bullet points for him. also, triggers include death, robbery, and homelessness

parker was born in new york. he lived in the city for the first part of his life with his family. one night, however, his parents were killed in a robbery gone wrong. luckily, parker was away and sleeping over at his friend’s house at the time it happened. because of the area in which it happened, his case slipped through the cracks and he was put into foster care. shortly after, he ran away.

he lived on the streets for a while, and thus, a knack for spontaneity was born. parker traveled a lot after that and did whatever he needed to do in order to satiate his need for adventure. as he got older, he often picked up odd jobs here and there until he eventually settled down in the cheapest apartment he could find.

despite his tragic and humble beginnings, parker rarely feels sad these days. when he does feel somber, it comes and goes in waves and never really sticks. overall, he’s talkative and friendly.

being untrustworthy is also one major fault of his. a part of his past and living as a homeless teen included stealing and scamming to make enough money for food. he often pickpocketed others and lived his life in a rather deceitful way. while he does feel bad for his past actions, he does not necessarily regret it simply because he did what he needed to in order to survive.

parker is a passionate man, to say the least. he enjoys being everything over nothing and often displays this with erratic behavior. a spontaneous man, parker is often noted for his ability to act creatively and conjure up interesting and fun plans. he’s always a reliable person when it comes to not being bored, but that’s where his accountability ends.

it’s parker’s background, it’s often a shock to find how intelligent he truly is. while he may not know much about chemistry or math, he does know a great deal about literature. he can recite poetry forward and back and has used this skill to his advantage.

parker has also been in his fair share of rock bands. though they were small and never amounted to much, they did post videos on youtube, and as a result, he has accumulated a rather small fanbase.

throughout his life, he has turned things around. from living a life of being no more than that weird kid who lost his parents, parker is slowly building an empire of his own with his music. he strives towards success and soaks in every bit of it whenever he can. he’s far from camera shy and even enjoys being the center of attention.

aside from music, parker is also a gifted skateboarder. he frequently posts videos and photos of himself skateboarding, and has even posed as a model for small skating companies and clothing companies.

that’s pretty much ?? it i guess ?? but also, i want to make a section for wanted plots and connections tbh so here we go my dudes

buddies: could be male or female and any age tbh ! all i really want for him are buddies he feels safe with. people who make him want to let down his walls with and be real with

past interests: any gender tbh ?? but i would love some past flings for parker. anything from past relationships to just passing crushes would be neat to write about !

current interest: this would be >?? for only one person and i operate on a chemistry basis, not just plotting. it would also be chemistry in terms of ic and ooc communication. someone i feel safe with in terms of communicating ideas and a person parker will click with. again... it can be any gender tbh

fans: this can be fans of his music or fans of his instagtram ! it doesnt rlly matter which one bcs both can be interesting !

#mtl.intro #what... is this.#who am i ??#existential crises mode: activated

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stillwinterair · 4 years ago

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I have so much creative energy that, like clockwork, manifests in me almost every single day at around midnight, give or take an hour or two to either end (I also get it in the afternoon between like 2 and 4 but it's not as strong and not nearly as consistent). It's when I have my best ideas and can generally work the most effectively; I can very easily sit down and hyper-focus on a project.

Unfortunately, work really prevented me from taking advantage of that because I was usually asleep then. Quarantine was going to be the perfect opportunity to actually... create! To actually do the things I wanted to do in life, to write and outline and work on creative projects and run ttrpgs!

Except... my cat. My cat also, like clockwork, has a mode she enters every night at midnight, give or take an hour or two in either direction. It is her "scream and cry and demand attention, but only play a little bit, mostly I just want to sit in the same room as a person, but it HAS to be a particular room, and you HAVE to look at least vaguely in my direction the whole time, and at least one of your hands HAS to be empty or I will know you're not paying attention to me, and we occasionally have to get up and walk to another room for a few minutes, and then we can go back, and you HAVE to be touching me, except now you CANNOT be touching me, except now you HAVE to be touching me, and if you don't do all of these things then I will go so far out of my way to cause a ruckus and make as much noise as possible and wake up Ash who has to go to bed early because she has work early every morning" mode and it has prevented my creative juices from being able to flow almost every single night for the last year.

I do get a lot of reading done during the several hours per night where I tend to just... wander around the apartment at Lilith's whim. Usually it's not a problem for her, we just sorta walk around and I give her some fuss until she doesn't want fuss anymore but DEFINITELY still wants someone near her (but it HAS to be in the room that she wants it to be in, which is usually Ash's office).

But when I'm not using up that creative energy, it builds. And I have so much trouble using it at other points in the day. If I start trying to write at 1 in the afternoon, I can't do it. It doesn't work. But when the feeling hits, when I get in the zone? It's pouring out of me. I have so much creativity to spend, and for every night I don't have a chance to indulge, the night after is only more intense.

Sometimes I get around it a little bit by opening a Google doc or a note file from my phone, but it's just definitively not even close to the same. All I can do is write down my ideas in a bulleted list, but the act of trying to actually write from my phone is just a recipe for frustration. I've tried to being my laptop with me from room to room, but Lilith seems to hate that (she doesn't even like it when I'm reading a particularly large book, but seems okay when I have a paperback I can read in one hand).

So this leads to nights like tonight, where my creative energy is boiling over, and I need to spend it so I won't go crazy, but then I'm working on a project in 30-60-second chunks broken up by several minutes of fussing over Lilith because as soon as I leave her alone she finds something loud to slam on until it wakes Ash up.

I can't put her in any kind of baby jail like you usually can for cats because she is SO loud and SO stubborn that it basically negates the entire point of using one. She absolutely refuses to rest in the living room, which is where most of my stuff is that I use for creative projects, and she goes on and on for hours

Anyway. I love her very much. She has just been making it so incredibly difficult to make any progress on literally anything that I want to be doing lately. It's incredibly frustrating and has become so much worse since moving to this apartment and I don't know what to do about it. It's making me feel terrible because I've been in quarantine for over a year now and have accomplished nothing, and not even for lack of trying, but because the time of the day when I am the most able to produce content and absorb information, I just can't.

And I kept trying to start running new ttrpg campaigns over the course of the pandemic and I feel like I keep letting people down but I do so much of my work on them during this creative window of mine every night, so I keep getting halfway ready to run things and then I can't put any more work in because my cat is completely absorbing 100% of my creative time. I feel like I keep wasting my friends' time in addition to my own and it makes me feel guilty -- and then I feel even MORE guilty, because of how much of this I'm blaming on a cat!

I feel like I'm going crazy! I feel like I'm having an existential crises crisis every single night for 4-5 hours! Some nights Lilith is content and goes to bed early only to wake up at 4 and lasts until the sun comes up and then I just don't sleep. Some nights I prepare, put aside everything and do something idly that can be put down easily, and those are the nights she sleeps peacefully, every time!

I just. This was a non-issue for so long, because I'm so used to cats having weird quirks like this, and hers is generally easy to take care of: it's late, and she wants someone to sit with and very occasionally play with; I can do that, easy. I didn't have much time for creativity when I was working, anyway.

But a year into quarantine, and looking at all the projects I started, and have gotten so much farther in than I ever would have been able to before -- all the lore documents and scripts and outlines and fanfictions and novels and RPG rulebooks and design documents. All of these things paled in comparison to the whims of my cat.

It's so very silly when I actually lay it out like this. Like, this is genuinely something that has been a huge source of depression and anxiety and self-consciousness for months. And then I write it all out and I'm like... Really? A cat?

But, man, I really don't know what to do. I don't know how to train her not to lose her mind precisely when I need space to concentrate at my desk, without creating a situation that would be actively worse for my partner, AND for our neighbors, because boy, if I did the thing you're technically "supposed" to do with cats (ignore them and let them work through their complaints and realize they're okay on their own, potentially lock them in a room with food and water and a litter box until they calm down), she would wake up the entire fucking neighborhood.

I don't know, this whole problem is dumb but it's literally consuming my life. I just need this very particular atmosphere at a certain time of day in order to be creative, and it's been within arm's reach for a year now, but it's been unachievable because my cat is an unstoppable destructive force

I really do not know how to write any of this out without sounding completely insane but I am losing so much sleep and getting so much anxiety over it aaaauuugghhhh this is unfortunately what we get for naming our cat after a demon

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psychologyofsex · 5 years ago

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Will There Really Be a Coronavirus Baby Boom? Here’s What the Science Says

In the last few weeks, I’ve seen a ton of headlines predicting a massive baby boom stemming from the COVID-19 coronavirus situation, with some making very bold claims. Case in point: “It’s probably going to be the biggest baby boom we’ve seen," Dr. Kevin Kathrotia recently told Fox Business.

But will the coronavirus baby boom really come to pass? Let’s take a look at what the research says.

The basis for a lot of these claims comes from studies finding that baby booms are linked to various catastrophes and natural disasters. For example, some research has found a statistical link between hurricane advisories and birth rates in coastal areas [1]. This is probably why Dr. Kathrotia also told Fox Business that "anytime there’s the threat of a hurricane, there’s a little baby boom."

However, it’s not quite as simple as that. What the research actually shows is that low-level advisories (like a tropical storm watch) are linked to increased birth rates, whereas severe advisories (like a hurricane warning) are actually linked to decreased birth rates. In other words, when natural disasters become more severe, the odds of a baby boom actually seem to go down.

Of course, it’s difficult (if not impossible) to extrapolate from hurricane research to the current coronavirus situation. Whereas hurricanes are very time-limited events localized in specific areas where people have opportunities to escape, the coronavirus is a worldwide issue, we don’t know how long we’re going to be grappling with the effects of it, and there’s no escape from it. In other words, these situations aren’t very comparable, so I’d be hesitant to generalize from one to the other.

In addition to natural disaster research, there is also some work finding a link between terrorist acts and baby booms, including an increase in births in Oklahoma County in the period after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing [2]. Again, though, it’s hard to draw parallels between that and the coronavirus crisis because these are drastically different situations. Also, not all terrorist events have been linked to baby booms, which raises questions about this hypothesis.

For example, while the media widely prognosticated a baby boom following 9/11, it didn’t actually come to pass.

That said, theoretically, there are certainly some good reasons to predict that the coronavirus pandemic will increase rates of sexual activity. For example, let’s think about this through the lens of Terror Management Theory. The basic idea behind this theory, as I describe in my book The Psychology of Human Sexuality, is that “when we are reminded of our own mortality, we subconsciously alter our attitudes and behaviors in order to help us cope with the ‘terrifying’ prospect of our eventual death.”

Some research has found that when we are faced with the prospect of our own mortality, this prompts sexual desire and behavior as a coping mechanism [3]. Put another way, sex is one way that some people seek to reduce and relieve anxiety about existential crises.

So to the extent that the coronavirus is making our mortality more salient, it’s not unreasonable to think that it just might prompt more sexual behavior, which could have implications for the birth rate down the line.

Also, taking a look at the broader picture, many people are in lockdown mode right now. Businesses are closed and there’s no choice but to stay home. To the extent that work-related pressures are reduced and people have more leisure time, that also creates more potential opportunities for physical intimacy, assuming you have a live-in spouse or partner, of course.

At the same time, however, the coronavirus appears poised to throw the economy into recession and that’s going to create a lot of economic uncertainty. If people are preoccupied with how they’re going to pay their bills and are worrying about whether their jobs are going to be there when all of this is said and done, that would create strong pressures against childbearing and promote more consistent contraceptive use. Put another way, if people are focused more on basic survival right now, bringing new kids into the picture might be seen as highly risky.

Similarly, something else that makes this situation unique is that so many schools across the country are closed, which means parents who are tele-working also suddenly have to care for their kids 24/7. That situation is one that could very well inhibit physical intimacy, and I’ve heard many parents on Twitter who have already said something to that effect. They describe the current situation as a strong deterrent to sex and, especially, to having more children.

On top of that, it’s also worth noting that, today, access to highly-effective, reversible contraceptives (not just birth control pills, but also IUDs and implants) is greater than ever before. This gives people a lot more power and control over pregnancy, thereby allowing them to sexually engage without the risk of unintended pregnancy. Condoms can also be shipped discreetly to your door, even in the midst of this pandemic (thanks, Amazon!). Increased access to contraceptives may therefore play a role in limiting any potential baby boom.

I should also mention that the current lockdown situation will be a deterrent to dating and casual sex, which will place yet another limit on conception possibilities. So even if there’s an increase in sexual activity and conception among partnered folks, a decline in casual sex would provide a partial counterweight to that.

In short, there are a lot of competing forces at work here, so it’s difficult to say with any degree of certainty what’s going to happen. Given the severity, widespread impact, and uncertainty created by the COVID-19 coronavirus, I wouldn’t say it’s a foregone conclusion that there will be a baby boom in the next nine months, let alone the “biggest boom we’ve seen.”

In fact, there’s also the possibility that we could even see a delayed coronavirus baby boom. If I had to place my money on something, that’s where it would be. In other words, rather than conceptions peaking now, perhaps we’ll see them rise once the virus is under control, the economy is in recovery, and the outlook (for having children and for life in general) is more optimistic.

Want to learn more about Sex and Psychology ? Click here for previous articles or follow the blog on Facebook (facebook.com/psychologyofsex), Twitter (@JustinLehmiller), or Reddit (reddit.com/r/psychologyofsex) to receive updates. You can also follow Dr. Lehmiller on YouTube and Instagram.

[1] Evans, R. W., Hu, Y., & Zhao, Z. (2010). The fertility effect of catastrophe: US hurricane births. Journal of Population Economics, 23(1), 1-36.

[2] Rodgers, J. L., John, C. A. S., & Coleman, R. (2005). Did fertility go up after the Oklahoma City bombing? An analysis of births in metropolitan counties in Oklahoma, 1990–1999. Demography, 42(4), 675-692.

[3] Goldenberg, J.L., McCoy, S.K., Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (2000). The body as a source of self-esteem: The effect of mortality salience on identification with one’s body, interest in sex, and appearance monitoring. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 118–130.

Image Source: Shutterstock/Stokkete

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#coronavirus #baby boom #conception #pregnancy #Terror Management Theory #natural disasters #terrorism #mortality #economics #contraception

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gaming-rabbot · 6 years ago

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Salmon Run and Presentation

A (not so) brief dissertation on narrative framing in video games, featuring Splatoon 2

With the holidays in full swing, I took advantage of a deal one day when I went into town, and finally got my hands on Splatoon 2. Having loved the prior game as much as I did, waiting this long to get the sequel felt almost wrong. But like many another fellow meandering corpus of conscious flesh, I am made neither of time nor money.

Finally diving in, I figured I might take this excuse to remember that I write game reviews, sometimes. You know, when the tide is high, the moon blue, and the writer slightly less depressed. I ended up scrapping my first couple drafts, however. You see, a funny thing was happening; I kept veering back into talking about Salmon Run, the new optional game mode the sequel introduces.

Also I might look at the Octo Expansion later, on its own. After I get around to it…

Look, the base game already has a lot of content to explore, and as previously stated, I am sadly corporeal, and not strung together with the metaphysical concept of time itself.

My overall thoughts, however, proved brief, so I’ll try to keep this short.

(Mild spoilers coming along.)

Gameplay wise, I think the story mode is much improved upon by handing you different weapons for certain levels which were specifically built with them in mind. Whereas the prior game left you stuck with a variant of the starter splattershot all the way through. This keeps things interesting, pushes me outside of my comfort zone, and it’s a good way to make sure players will come from a well-informed place when deciding what weapon they want for multiplayer; which, let’s face it, is the real meat of these games and where most players are going to log the most time.

I also love the way bosses are introduced with the heavy drums and rhythmic chants and the dramatic light show. It endows the moment with a fantastic sense of gravitas, and manages to hype me up every time. Then the boss will have an aspect of their design which feels a bit silly or some how rather off, keeping the overall tone heavily grounded in the toony aesthetics the series already established for itself.

Narratively, I felt rather okay about the story aspect of Story Mode. The collectible pages in the levels still have a certain amount of world building, though this time it seems more skewed toward explaining what pop culture looks like in this world, such as, an allusion to this world’s equivalent to Instagram.

Cynical as it is…

That’s definitely still interesting in its own right, though perhaps it’s less of a revelatory gut-punch as slowly piecing it together that the game takes place in the post-apocalypse of Earth itself, and the inklings copied ancient human culture.

We still got some backstory for this game’s idol duo, though. And that, I appreciate. It means Pearl and Marina still feel like a part of this world, rather than seeming obligatory for the sake of familiarity, given the first game had an idol duo as well.

Meanwhile, perhaps it is a bit obvious that Marie’s cousin, Callie, has gone rogue, and that she is the mysterious entity cracking into the radio transmissions between her and Agent 4. If I recall correctly, that was a working theory that came about with the first trailer or two. That, or she had died.

As soon as Marie says aloud she wonders where Callie has gone, I knew right away. And that’s just in the introduction.

That said, on some level, after stomaching through certain other games and such that actively lie or withhold information to force an arbitrary plot twist for plot twist sake, it feels almost nice to go back to a narrative that actually bothers to foreshadow these things. Plus, having gotten already invested in Callie as a character from the first game, I still felt motivated to see the story through to find out why she went rogue. And, loving the Squid Sisters already, there was a hope in me that she could be redeemed, or at least understood. In terms of building off the prior game’s story, Splatoon 2 is moderately decent.

Also, I mean, c’mon. The big narrative drive might be a tad predictable, but hey, this game is for kids. It’s fine.

That, I think, is something I love the most about Splatoon. Despite feeling like you’re playing in a Saturday morning cartoon, and being aimed primarily at children, it doesn’t shy away from fairly heavy subjects. Such as the aforementioned fact that the humans are all long dead and you’re basically playing paintball in the ruins of their consumerist culture.

Which brings me to what fascinates me so much about Splatoon 2: the way in which Salmon Run is framed.

You see, on the surface, Salmon Run appears to be your typical horde mode; a cooperative team (typically comprised of randoms) fights off gaggles of foes as they take turns approaching their base in waves. Pretty standard for online shooters these days, as was modernly popularized by Gears of War 2, and Halo ODST.

I say “modernly,” as the notion of fighting enemies as they approach in waves is not exactly a new concept for mechanical goals within video games. Rather, the term itself, as applied to multiplayer shooters, “horde mode,” became a point of game discussion when Gears of War 2 introduced the new game mode by that same name back in… 2008?

No, no that can’t be right. I played Gears 2 back in high school (I had worse taste back then, okay?). Which, from my perspective, was basically yesterday. That game being ten years old would mean I myself am old now, and that just can’t be. I’m hip. I’m young.

I am, to stay on theme here, fresh.

But okay, existential crises and game talk terms aside, the writing team behind Splatoon 2 probably decided to absolutely flex when it came to the narrative surrounding Salmon Run. It is one of the most gleaming examples of the nontraditional things you can do with writing in video games, to really elevate the experience.

Let me explain.

You see, narrative in video games typically falls into one of two categories: either the story sits comfortably inside of the game, utilizing it like a vehicle to arrive at the destination that is its audience’s waiting eyes and ears. Or the narrative, on some level, exists rather nebulously, primarily to provide something resembling context for why the pixels look the way they do, and why the goals are what they are.

Not to say this is a binary state of existence for game writing; narrative will of course always provide context for characters, should there be any. It’s primarily older, or retro games that give you a pamphlet or brief intro with little in the way of worrying over character motivation, and the deeper philosophical implications of the plot, etc (though not for lack of trying). These would be your classic Mario Bros. and what have you, where the actual game part of the video game is nearly all there is to explore in the overall experience.

Then you have games like Hotline Miami that purposely sets up shop right in the middle to make a meta commentary about the state of game narrative, using the ideological endpoint of violent 80’s era action and revenge-fantasy genre film as inspiration and the starting point to draw comparison between the two. It’s bizarre, and I could drone on about this topic.

But I digress.

Despite falling into that latter category, that is to say having mainly just an introduction to the narrative context so you can get on with playing the game, Salmon Run is a stellar example of how you can make every bit of that context count (even if it does require the added context of the rest of the game, sort of, which I’ll explain, trust me).

First, a (very) brief explanation of how the game itself works, for the maybe three of you who haven’t played it yet.

A team of up to four inklings (and/or octolings) have a small island out in open waters. Salmonid enemies storm the beaches from various angles in waves. Each wave also comes with (at least) one of eight unique boss variants, who all drop three golden eggs upon defeat. Players are tasked with gathering a number of said golden eggs each round, for three rounds, after which their failure or success in doing so shows slow or fast progress towards in-game rewards.

And it’s all an allegory for the poor treatment of labor/workers, utilizing the fishing industry as both an example and a thematically appropriate analogue. Yes, I’m serious.

First, Salmon Run is not available through the main doors like the other multiplayer modes. Rather, it is off to the side, down a dingy looking alley. And when you’re shown its location, either because you finally entered the Inkopolis plaza for the first time, or because the mode has entered rotation again, Marina very expressly describes it as a job.

A job you should only do if you are absolutely, desperately hard strapped for cash. You know, the sort of job you turn to if, for one reason or another, you can’t find a better one.

An aside: technically, playing Salmon Run does not automatically net you in-game currency, with which to buy things, as regular multiplayer modes do. Rather, your “pay” is a gauge you fill by playing, which comes with reward drops at certain thresholds; some randomized gacha style capsules, and one specific piece of gear which gets advertised, to incentivize playing.

The capsules themselves drop actual paychecks in the form of aforementioned currency, or meal tickets to get temporary buffs that help you progress in the multiplayer faster via one way or another. Which, hey, you know, that helps you earn more money also. Working to get “paid,” so you can get things you want, though, still works perfectly for the metaphor it creates.

When I first saw it open up for rotation, I found out you had to be at least a level four to participate. Pretty par for the course, considering it’s the same deal with the gear shops. But, again, it’s all in the presentation; Mr. Grizz does not simply say something akin to the usual “you must be this tall to ride.” He says he cannot hire inexperienced inklings such as yourself, because it’s a legal liability.

After returning with three extra levels, I was handed off to basic, on-the-job training. Which is only offered after Mr. Grizz (not ever physically present, mind you, but communicating with you via radio), the head of Grizzco, uses fairly typical hard sell rhetoric when it comes to dangerous, or otherwise undesirable work: calls you kid, talks about shaping the future and making the world a better place, refers to new hires as “fresh young talent,” says you’ll be “a part of something bigger than yourself.” You know, the usual balancing act of flattery, with just the right amount of belittlement.

Whoa, hang on, sorry; just had a bad case of deja vu from when the recruiter that worked with the ROTC back in high school tried to get me to enlist… several times… Guess he saw the hippie glasses and long hair and figured I'd be a gratifying challenge.

The fisher imagery really kicks in when you play. Which, I figure a dev team working out of Japan might have a pretty decent frame of reference for that. A boat whisks you out to sea with your team, and everyone’s given a matching uniform involving a bright orange jumper, and rubber boots and gloves. If you've ever seen the viral video of the fisherman up to his waist in water telling you not to give up, you have a rough idea. Oh, and don't forget your official Grizzco trademark hats.

It’s on the job itself where a lot of what I'm talking about comes up the most; that is to say, despite buttering you up initially, Mr. Grizz shows his true colors pretty quickly. While playing, he seems to only be concerned with egg collecting, even when his employees are actively hurting. This is established and compounded by his dialogue prior to the intermediate training level, in which informs you about the various boss fish.

Before you can do anything remotely risky, even boss salmonid training, Mr. Grizz tells you he has to go over this 338 page workplace health and safety manual with you. But, oops, the new hire boat sounds the horn as you flip to page 1, so he sends you off unprepared. “Let’s just say you’ve read it,” he tells you, insisting that learning by doing is best.

This flagrant disregard employee safety, in the name of met quotas; the fact we never see Mr. Grizz face to face, making him this vague presence that presides over you, evaluating your stressed performance with condescension; that we are not simply given the rewards as we pass thresholds to earn them, having to instead speak with another, unknown npc for our pay… It all drives toward the point so well.

The icing on the cake for me is when a match ends. You, the player, are not asked if you’d like to go back into matchmaking for another fun round of playtime. Rather, you are asked if you would like to “work another shift.”

The pieces all fit so well together. I shouldn’t be surprised that, once a theme is chosen, Splatoon can stick to it like my hand to rubber cement that one time. It has already proven it can do that much for sure. But it’s just so… funny? It’s bitterly, cynically hilarious.

Bless the individual(s) who sat in front of their keyboard, staring at the early script drafts, and asked aloud if they were really about to turn Mr. Grizz into a projection of all the worst aspects of the awful bosses they’ve had to deal with in life. The answer to that question being “yes” has led to some of my favorite writing in a video game.

All of these thoughts, as they started forming in my skull, really began to bubble when I noticed Salmon Run shifts become available during my first Splatfest.

Splatfest is, to try and put it in realistic terms, basically a huge, celebratory sporting event. Participation nets you a free commemorative t-shirt and access to a pumping concert featuring some of the hottest artists currently gracing the Inkopolis charts.

The idea, the notion, that a hip young inkling (or octoling) might miss out on one of the biggest parties of the year because they need money more than they need fun? It’s downright depressing.

It got me thinking. I looked at my fellow egg collectors. In-universe, we were a bunch of teen-to-young-adult aged denizens missing out on all the fun because we desperately needed the cash. We became stressed together, overworked together, yelled at by our boss together. But in those sweetest victories, where we’d far surpassed our quota? We celebrated together.

Spam-crouching, and mashing the taunt, something changed. I felt a greater sense of comradery with these squids and octos than I did in nearly any other coop game. And it’s all thanks to the rhetorical framing of the game mode.

It accomplishes so many things. It’s world building which wholistically immerses you in the setting. But mainly, its dedication to highly specific word choice does exactly what I mentioned earlier: it elevates the experience to one I could really sit down and think about, rather than use to while away the hours, then move on to something else. So many games make horde modes that feel inconsequential like that; it’s just for fun.

There’s nothing wrong with fun being the only mission statement for a game, or an optional mode of play. But this is exactly what I mean when I say this is the nontraditional writing games can do so much more with. And Splatoon 2 saw that opportunity, and took it. And what a fantastic example of bittersweet, cold reality, in this, a bright, colorful game meant mainly for children…

Happy Holidays, everyone!

#Rabbot Reviews #video games #review #Splatoon 2 #Salmon Run #narrative #framing

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auctes · 7 years ago

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THOUGHTS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF TWO PERSONALITIES : FUKAWA TOUKO’S DID AND PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT .

i’d like to elaborate on a previous address of mine regarding the independent respective development of touko’s dominant personality versus her alter , genocider syo . i hypothesized that , due to the split - off of syo from touko in their preadolescence and during their concrete stage of development , ( piaget , 1964 ) each personality displayed differing adaptations of moral , ethical , social & abstract thought , and deductive reasoning . ( aspects which refine during the formal operational stage . ) i’m basing my assertion off of erikson’s ( 1963 ) psychoanalytical theory of personality development as it is distinctly ego - based : as personality is refined through the ego’s means to successfully resolve social crises , and touko’s maladaptive tendencies originate from severe social stressors , erikson’s theory is concurrent with how i theorize the emotional & psychological capabilities of each respective alter .

touko develops dissociative identity disorder ( hereafter referred to as DID ) as a result of severe early childhood trauma , which is congruent with the observed cause of 97% of real DID cases . ( putnam et al , 1985 . ) touko’s trauma originates in the psychological & emotional abuse inflicted unto her by her parents , and the ongoing social exclusion & persecution by her peers , culminating in touko’s maladapation to the competence vs . inferiority stage in her psychosocial development . ( erikson , 1963 . ) her initiative is restricted by her parents ; her peer group , which is critical for esteem development at this stage , brutally rejects her . this leads to the development of a severe inferiority complex . the split - off occurs here , catalyzing the ego - based reconciliation of two separate personalities by virtue of each personality experiencing different sets of psychosocial circumstances .

genocider syo is actively fronting & murdering during her & touko’s adolescence ; her most active periods begin synchronously with the development of identity vs. role confusion , whereby an individual’s identity is formed as an outcome of their social & existential experiences . ( erikson . ) failure to establish a place within society leads to role confusion , and inhibits the reintegration of sense of self . ( bee , 1992 . ) due to differences in episodic memory and the nature of syo’s development as a response to psychosocial trauma , her external experiences diverge from touko’s : syo’s formation is a maladaptive response void of empathy to contrast touko’s abject depression , and so her external & internal role is solidified by a primal pleasure derived from the rejection of morality & society . while they operate on the same base emotional register , syo actively rejects normative belonging .

furthermore , touko’s identity crisis and subsequent negative development during this stage is a direct response to syo herself . touko is diametrically opposed to the actions of her alter , therefore solidifying her steadfast sense of morality & ethics , as well as enforcing her self - loathing due to her revulsion at syo’s lack of empathy & compassion . while syo establishes her role within society as an external antagonist & internal protector ( towards touko , and , by extension , herself , ) touko rejects society by withdrawing from it , and contributing only her literary prowess as a means of asserting herself . both personalities therefore approach the end of their formation of formal operation ( piaget ) with conflicting ideologies & differing modes of abstract thought as influenced by their respective moral profiles . they do not differ in how much they know about the world , so much as how they now respond to it .

the distinct formation of two separate identities during adolescence dictates how touko & syo respectively negotiate the final relevant stage of intimacy vs. isolation . ( erikson . ) while each personality interprets intimacy & relationships separately , it bears remembering that syo split off subsequent to touko’s development of a need for attachment to others during stages of autonomy vs . shame and initiative vs . guilt , respectively . they additionally share concrete operational competence . ( piaget . ) touko expresses that she & syo share the capacity for emotions ; by virtue of this being touko , this includes the will to be accepted & loved by others . due to syo’s conscious rejection of normative standards , she experiences a desire for interpersonal meaning , but cannot interpret it beyond the primal desire to eliminate potential social rejection . this results in the hypersexual tone of her crimes .

now , i get to speculate : syo is capable of forming intimate attachments to others , but experiences the same fear of intimacy that touko does . while touko fears intimacy due to it generally leading to another murder , syo fears the rich & complex palate of emotions that occur between individuals when they mutually agree to commit to one another , in any sense . she is unable to parse such emotions due to her repressed empathy , and detachment from societal values & ideologies . to compromise her defined identity & role within society is to forfeit the place she has established for herself as an intrapersonal barrier against psychosocial trauma . we witness the effects of this in DR : AE , when komaru successfully convinces syo not to perform her self - actualized role by appealing to the shared emotional register of touko & syo . she cannot reconcile her attachment with her need to detach .

my final word is regarding the reintegration of touko’s alter into her dominant personality on the basis of forming a common ground : i think it’s impossible . touko & syo are endenmically different by virtue of their developing independently of one another ; two resounding identities will not express the desire to merge into one . additionally , touko takes less issue with syo on the basis of her withdrawal from murder , and syo is able to externally direct her role as protector toward komaru , as opposed to her internally - focused desire for self - preservation . touko no longer “ needs ” syo in the sense of needing to dissociate in order to cope with psychosocial stressors ; she is autonomously capable of dealing with the world herself . touko is deconstructing her fear of intimacy , and by extension , syo is refining her sense of interpersonal attachment to the best of her ability .

#( so as you KNOW :#i have a rep for being EXTREMELY precious when it comes to the portrayal of DID and touko's in particular #namely ... you CANNOT cherry - pick aspects of the disorder for your portrayal #furthermore ; touko and syo are separate identities which depend heavily on one another #they take cues from each other ; they're both capable of forming their own emotions and this creates conflict between them #but god fucking damn if i aint passionate about doing my gd research and getting this shit RIGHT #don't write DID if you're not going to put in the work towards understanding it kiddos #IF ANYONE WOULD LIKE TO READ MY SOURCES THEY'RE SUPER INTERESTING #PLEASE DM ME I LOVE TALKING ABT THIS AND SHARING WHAT I'VE LEARNED #wow oh my god that was fun #✑ ( meta . ) / ❝ 🇧🇷🇮🇳🇬 🇹🇭🇮🇸 🇸🇹🇴🇷🇾 🇹🇴 🇦🇳 🇪🇳🇩 . ❞#✂--- ( meta . ) / ❝ 🇱🇴🇻🇪 '🇪�� 🇦🇳🇩 🇨🇱🇪🇦🇻🇪 '🇪🇲 . ❞#☆ ( OOC . ) / ❝ 🇸🇺🇵🇪🇷 🇭🇮🇬🇭 🇸🇨🇭🇴🇴🇱 🇱🇪🇻🇪🇱 🇸🇭🇮🇹🇵🇴🇸🇹🇪🇷 . ❞#long post /

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defenestrata · 7 years ago

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Kisha + ykw questions 👀

why is this a daily routine. when will the government stop your sinful hands from sending me these ksksksksksksk

QUESTIONS FOR YOUR OCs

What’s the maximum amount of time your character can sit still with nothing to do?

fairly long, maybe even forty-five minutes. she’s a meditative person who can probably keep herself entertained trying to recall things like song lyrics.

How easy is it for your character to laugh?

kisha has almost never laughed out loud in a solid holler more than twice in her life. But getting a chuckle out of her isn’t that hard. surprisingly, short zingers, puns and slapstick are what truly get her.

How do they put themselves to bed at night (reading, singing, thinking?)

reading the medical journals that she should be reading for work. But those things can knock you out so goddamn quick, it’s amazing. either that, or rambling in her journals about nothing in particular.

How easy is it to earn their trust?

difficult. kisha is a private person who absolutely hates confiding in others. moreover, because she’s so professional and detached by nature, she doesn’t speak to others much about herself. therefore, to hear her deepest thoughts and secrets is really a privilege.

How easy is it to earn their mistrust?

easy. do one thing that she doesn’t expect from you and her trust in you is gone forever, and you are wiped out from her psyche. good thing is that she may entertain an explanation, but you’ll have to be ready with a good excuse.

Do they consider laws flexible, or immovable?

hey, she wants a carefree, healthy life without getting into trouble from the police. besides, laws are absolutely necessary to keep order. if you don’t like law, good, you likely live in a democracy, and can protest in a healthy manner. otherwise, don’t break the law unless you’re fine with everyone breaking the law.

What triggers nostalgia for them, most often? Do they enjoy that feeling?

everything to do with family. media remotely related to siblings will make her miss her own baby sister. a lot of things make her miss the days when she didn’t have to do taxes by herself. also, shitty fast food triggers memory of home cooking. nostalgia is not a good feeling. it makes her mournful and mopey.

What were they told to stop/start doing most often as a child?

child kisha was very shy, but also vaguely a prick. she had to be told consistently to be a little more outgoing and involved in school activities. she didn’t really take to sing-alongs and clay-modelling. also, for a long time, she had a mildly snobbish attitude, and didn’t make friends easily. just had to be softened around the edges a bit, be a little more considerate and flexible and enthusiastic.

Do they swear? Do they remember their first swear word?

well, back at home, she never did. now, in london, the habit is sort of growing on her. her first swear word was probably something along the lines of shit, and it probably made her super guilty when she did say it.

What lie do they most frequently remember telling? Does it haunt them?

kisha doesn’t lie. she doesn’t like to. but in her line of work, she’s also relatively inexperienced with delivering hard truths to her patients (she’s a physical therapist). the worst lie she’s ever told in that context was to an old patient of hers, who was terrified of surgery, insisting that she wouldn’t need it. the comfort slipped out of her without much meaning. the patient got better, yes, but she feels terrible about it regardless.

How do they cope with confusion (seek clarification, pretend they understand, etc)?

she has no pride about asking. especially given that even the slightest gap in her knowledge leads to her having immense anxiety.

How do they deal with an itch found in a place they can’t quite reach?

suffer. run to the nearest bathroom as soon as she can to get at it with some kind of string of toiler paper.

What colour do they think they look best in? Do they actually look best in that colour?

kisha likes to keep it simple and elegant, so she wears a lot of white and beige, without getting too wild with it. it’s a shame, because she looks really good in blues and greens.

What animal do they fear most?

kisha fucking hates anything that flies. birds, bats, insects, you goddamn name it. just, doesn’t trust anything that flies.

How do they speak? Is what they say usually thought of on the spot, or do they rehearse it in their mind first?

you bet that she will repeat a sentence in her head three times before she actually says it because she’s that scared of looking silly or incompetent. her style of speech is usually curt, eloquent, and to the point, without a lot of metaphor.

What makes their stomach turn?

the idea that she’s going nowhere. that her career doesn’t really contribute anything meaningful to people’s lives other than the fact that she’s helping just one or two individuals. in her, there’s a selfish desire to do something remarkable, give herself some purpose. Right now, she feels a little lost, losing her life in-between each workweek.

Are they easily embarrassed?

by others? no. but if she does something herself that’s in any way even slightly a little awkward she’s going to shrivel up and die inside.

What embarrasses them?

making mistakes, mostly. making factual inaccuracies. being put on the spot and interviewed about her personal life. talking about herself in general, to be quite honest. she doesn’t have a very clear picture of the kind of person she is. she cries if she has to submit statements of purpose to anywhere.

What is their favorite number?

maybe — 12? a pleasant enough number. It’s a multiple of one, two, three and four. Very aesthetic.

If they were asked to explain the difference between romantic and platonic or familial love, how would they do so?

oof, you’re not asking the best candidate to answer. kisha would state that platonic love is more or less omnipresent in all positive relationships. platonic love for blood relations is the same as familial love, and romantic love means a best friend that you’re willing to marry and kiss and do all that sort of romantic stuff with. thinking about this would give her a headache.

Why do they get up in the morning?

bills don’t pay themselves. and, you know, the chance to help people yada yada yada. but the bills first. god, rent is expensive.

How does jealousy manifest itself in them (they become possessive, they become aloof, etc)?

kisha has the capacity to be remarkably cold and controlling if she needs to be. she can be immensely vitriolic. if she’s jealous, which, incidentally, isn’t a very common phenomenon, she will become hypersensitive to the actions of people around her and majorly possessive of the object of affection, and become aggressive.

How does envy manifest itself in them (they take what they want, they become resentful, etc)?

she takes a completely different approach to envy. genuine envy just makes her upset and causes her to have 11pm existential crises with silent and soft tears streaming down her cheeks about how there’s so much that she wants and will never have, like a stable, anxiety free life.

Is sex something that they’re comfortable speaking about? To whom?

she’s pretty meh about sex, to be honest. she isn’t especially prudish but also not especially liberal on the subject. if she can be said to have any opinion at all, she thinks sex is a little overhyped in media.

What are their thoughts on marriage?

marriage is cool, but would be massively inconvenient given her current financial situation. so no thanks. besides, ya girl is way too busy to even date (trust me, she’s tried) so there’s no way wedding bells are ringing anytime soon.

What is their preferred mode of transportation?

bus. there’s a bus stop right outside her apartment block, aka god is real, and it’s a convenient way of getting most places — without being too packed with people on weekday mornings. as long as she starts early, she usually gets to work on time.

What causes them to feel dread?

the idea that she’s not really getting anywhere. the poor girl is stuck in a 24/7 existential crisis please save her. just, she wants so much more meaning from her life, but she isn’t able to really implement anything to change her life. she’s been stuck in a crap apartment for almost all of her adult life with no significant opportunities coming her way.

Would they prefer a lie over an unpleasant truth?

absolutely not. dealing with the truth is critical to growing up. so she’d like to give it as it is in theory. in practice she may just buckle once or twice, but she dislikes lying greatly, and isn’t even a good liar.

Do they usually live up to their own ideals?

hahahahahaha. not really. kisha isn’t even sure of what her ideal is, to be honest, she just knows that she’s got a pretty long way to go to get there. this existence of bill to bill doesn’t cut it.

Who do they most regret meeting?

lowkey? her roommate, melanie. if she didn’t contribute half of the rent, kisha would’ve booted her out three years ago. she’s almost never home at night, doesn’t help in cleaning up and/or cooking, and fawns over her boyfriend all the time. of course, her leaving would cause more problems than her staying, but what do you do. good thing she leaves later in the plot :) she also lowkey regrets meeting erich because let’s be honest she could have had better things to do than ward off an organised crime unit.

Who are they the most glad to have met?

jamie. at first, she was the biggest thorn in kisha’s side, just showing up at her workplace one fine day and asking for mentorship. kisha had agreed pretty much instantly, out of general social pressures, but truly wanted her to leave in a week. soon, jamie became important to her — a massive help in warding off social anxiety and general dread.

Do they have a go-to story in conversation? Or a joke?

she has stories about her old school because it was lowkey pretty wild with its traditions and stuff, but she never really participated in them as much. it doesn’t diminish the value of the stories in any way.

Could they be considered lazy?

never. no. if she isn’t doing something meaningful one every six hours she’d die of boredom and nervousness.

How hard is it for them to shake a sense of guilt?

impossible. kisha is probably the most moral character I have, she’s really committed to doing what she believes is the right thing, and doesn’t believe that the end justifies the means. therefore, anything she does that conflicts with her moral compass will make her guilty for a super duper long time.

How do they treat the things their friends come to them excited about? Are they supportive?

yes, if she’s genuinely excited. fake it if she’s not, which she’s good at. the trouble is that she’s also relatively quick to see problems in people’s plans and ideas — but she wouldn’t dare say them out loud; it’s just gonna fester in her head for the rest of eternity. on the surface, she’ll support them, and if it backfires later she will stay mournful and silent.

Do they actively seek romance, or do they wait for it to fall into their lap?

listen, a part of kisha is hoping so goddamn hard for a nice meet-cute on the subway or at work and everything to just fall into place and happen. then she can be happily married and in a stable job. but actually talking to cute people ?? skull emoji.

Do they have a system for remembering names, long lists of numbers, things that need to go in a certain order (like anagrams, putting things to melodies, etc)?

she just makes notes on her phone. it’s the twenty-first century, bud.

What memory do they revisit the most often?

christmas time memories, always. chelmsford would always be absolutely lit up, and there would be carollers, snow, her sister would be home, she’d be home, they’d have a great dinner, she’d get her sister all the presents she wanted from london. every year it gets better and better. she also has memories of certain patients that were really lovely.

How easy is it for them to ignore flaws in other people?

difficult. she can find flaws in anything and everything. but she is level-headed enough (most of the time) to acknowledge a person as someone despite their flaws. someone valuable to her. however, when these glaring flaws come into play in interaction, she will take note of them.

How sensitive are they to their own flaws?

oh, she thinks she’s super flawed. she’s not bold enough, risk-taking enough, charming enough, warm enough, fun enough, loving enough, smart enough. and she’s especially sensitive about these flaws if pointed out. her poor ass tries so hard to be unemotional but to be honest she’ll cry at the tip of a hat if you say the right thing.

How do they feel about children?

overrated germ sacks. there, she said it. dealing with kids gives her a plain old headache, and while she’d never ever hurt a child or even do anything to them that’s not an expression of care — she just doesn’t like kids that much. even her own baby sister really took a lot out of her.

How badly do they want to reach their end goal?

what is a goal. what is reaching. is anything real. i mean okay to be real she would not risk her stability and health to pursue her goals, which is probably why she hasn’t achieved very many of them at all.

If someone asked them to explain their sexuality, how would they do so?

she’d just say she’s straight. aside from the fact that she’s never had a crush in her life.

QUESTIONS FOR CREATORS

A) Why are you excited about this character?

she provides a kind of one sane man archetype to the rest of the plot, so in that way her dynamic in the larger setting is going to be fun. also, she has major chardev ahead of her.

B) What inspired you to create them?

well, the need for a one sane man. also erich needed a therapist. no particular reason, i just wanted to write a determined, hardworking professional type of woman.

C) Did you have trouble figuring out where they fit in their own story?

nope, she fits in rather smoothly. i love her ; she’s my least problematic oc.

D) Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look?

i think she might be the only oc who’s appearance hasn’t changed much at all. she was a little shorter when she started i think, now she’s the tallest of all my ocs in this story.

E) Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you?

we’d be very good friends. in my opinion, she’s a pretty darn valid person to have on your side. smart, caring to a degree without being too emotional. just, a cutie.

F) What do you feel when you think of your OC (pride, excitement, frustration, etc)?

pride. she’s gonna do such amazing things in her life, and in the story. god bless.

G) What trait of theirs bothers you the most?

she’s so self-doubting and passive for the first half or so of the story. it’s her character so i can’t really fault her for not having a bigger role in the first bit but uggh she’s got potential she just runs away from anything risky.

H) What trait do you admire most?

she’s the reasonable one. the person that sees through almost all of the bullshit and mind games the protags play with each other. the people on her team would be straight up be dead if not for her. also she’s just a cutie please.

I) Do you prefer to keep them in their canon universe?

you know what i’m gonna say.

J) Did you have to manipulate or exclude canon factors to allow them to create their character?

mostly related to the roommate. her roommate sort of shapes her initial dislike for jamie in a way too. also i had to switch up a coupla timelines to make her story possible.

#realmzenith #oc talk.

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brittanyyoungblog · 5 years ago

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Will There Really Be a Coronavirus Baby Boom? Here’s What the Science Says

In the last few weeks, I’ve seen a ton of headlines predicting a massive baby boom stemming from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic—and some people are making very bold claims. Case in point: “It’s probably going to be the biggest baby boom we’ve seen," Dr. Kevin Kathrotia recently told Fox Business.

But will the coronavirus baby boom really come to pass? Let’s take a look at what the research says.

Of course, it’s difficult (if not impossible) to extrapolate from hurricane research to a pandemic like the one we’re experiencing now. Whereas hurricanes are very time-limited events localized in specific areas where people have opportunities to escape, the coronavirus is a worldwide issue, we don’t know how long we’re going to be grappling with the effects of it, and there’s no escape from it. In other words, these situations aren’t very comparable, so I’d be hesitant to generalize from one to the other.

In addition to natural disaster research, there is also some work finding a link between terrorist acts and baby booms, including an increase in births in Oklahoma County in the period after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing [2]. Again, though, it’s hard to draw parallels between that and the coronavirus crisis because these are such drastically different situations. Also, not all terrorist events have been linked to baby booms, which raises questions about this hypothesis.

For example, while the media widely prognosticated a baby boom following 9/11, it didn’t actually come to pass.

Similarly, something else that makes this situation unique is that so many schools across the country are closed, which means parents who are tele-working also suddenly have to care for their kids 24/7. This situation is one that could very well inhibit physical intimacy, and I’ve heard many parents on Twitter who have already said something to that effect. They describe the current situation as a strong deterrent to sex and, especially, to having more children.

In addition, it’s worth mentioning that access to highly-effective, reversible contraceptives (not just birth control pills, but also IUDs and implants) is greater today than ever before. This allows people to sexually engage with a very low risk of unintended pregnancy. Also, condoms can now be shipped discreetly to your door, even in the midst of this pandemic (thanks, Amazon!), which removes barriers caused by embarrassment about buying them. Altogether, this increased access to contraceptives will play a role in limiting potential baby booms linked to catastrophes and natural disasters.

Lastly, I should also mention that the current lockdown situation will be a deterrent to dating and casual sex, which will place yet another limit on possibilities for conception. So even if there’s an increase in sexual activity and conception among partnered folks, a decline in casual sex would likely provide a partial counterweight to that.

[1] Evans, R. W., Hu, Y., & Zhao, Z. (2010). The fertility effect of catastrophe: US hurricane births. Journal of Population Economics, 23(1), 1-36.

Image Source: Shutterstock/Stokkete

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ellenlucasonlinedatingblog · 5 years ago

Text

Will There Really Be a Coronavirus Baby Boom? Here’s What the Science Says

But will the coronavirus baby boom really come to pass? Let’s take a look at what the research says.

For example, while the media widely prognosticated a baby boom following 9/11, it didn’t actually come to pass.

[1] Evans, R. W., Hu, Y., & Zhao, Z. (2010). The fertility effect of catastrophe: US hurricane births. Journal of Population Economics, 23(1), 1-36.

Image Source: Shutterstock/Stokkete

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Can the Coronavirus be Transmitted Through Sex?

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from MeetPositives SM Feed 4 https://ift.tt/3ddKhsa via IFTTT

#IFTTT #MeetPositives SM Feed 4

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robbiemeadow · 5 years ago

Text

Will There Really Be a Coronavirus Baby Boom? Here’s What the Science Says

But will the coronavirus baby boom really come to pass? Let’s take a look at what the research says.

For example, while the media widely prognosticated a baby boom following 9/11, it didn’t actually come to pass.

[1] Evans, R. W., Hu, Y., & Zhao, Z. (2010). The fertility effect of catastrophe: US hurricane births. Journal of Population Economics, 23(1), 1-36.

Image Source: Shutterstock/Stokkete

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Can the Coronavirus be Transmitted Through Sex?

How Coronavirus is Affecting the World of Porn

from Meet Positives SM Feed 5 https://ift.tt/3ddKhsa via IFTTT

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0 notes

theatredirectors · 7 years ago

Text

Brandon Woolf

Hometown?

Port Washington, NY

Where are you now?

Long Island City, Queens, NY (I recently moved back after living in Berlin for six years).

What's your current project?

There are a few things in process:

In 2017-18, I will be a fellow at LABA, the Laboratory for Jewish Culture at the 14th Street Y. The focus of this residency will be to create a new performance inspired by the five pages of the Babylonian Talmud that tackle the “Messiah.” Psychically stunted by the “what the fuck do we do now?” of our current (geo)political situation, it seems that many (or is it just me?) are hoping, waiting for messiah – in some form or other, religious or secular. Messiah, that mystical political force that will, should, must relieve the pressure of our current chaotic calamity. AND/OR: Messiah, that excuse to do (virtually) nothing while we wait. But what are we waiting for? What should we do while we wait? What beauty arises (or not) out of the ashes of destruction? It all sounds a little serious, no? I mean, is Rabbinic exegesis suitable fodder for performance? We’ll have to see; but it is clear that one major formal challenge of this performance-in-progress is to find the associational meeting points of Talmudic hermeneutics and its pop-cultural-analogues, scenic leanings, cartoonish moments, song-and-dance numbers, etc. The Talmudic text-fragment itself is so rich with dialogue, debate, parable, philosophical reflection, social commentary, apocalyptic conspiracy theory, etc. that it can’t help but provide an exceedingly rich archive of stimuli for a new work of devised performance.

For the last two years, I have also been developing The Summer Way, a new play created with my Berlin-based collaborator Maxwell Flaum. Sequestered in a Tony Soprano-style basement, ravaged by binge consumption of contemporary television and under threat of imminent drone strike, Torn (white) and Timbre (black) wrestle with major issues of the day in an attempt to make a broadcast that “speaks to people.” During the course of their mind-bending skirmishes, the two would-be media gurus come face-to-face with the “Golden Age” of TV in the form of a 1967 broadcast-battle-royale between Norman Mailer and Marshall McLuhan, which quantumly entangles itself into the fabric of their flagging podcast. Torn and Timbre must therefore reckon with a bygone era in the American media when public intellectuals, rock 'n' roll stars, and politicians were all go-go dancing in the same corporate miniskirt; a brazen and audacious time when white people could say just about anything, as long as it was entertaining. This descent into an older, black-and-white America on the brink of a personality crisis, leads to a host of questions Torn and Timbre must face up to: What is the role of the public intellectual in contemporary mainstream culture? And how do we effectively speak to each other without getting bowled over by technological feats of restive schizoid chatter at a Trumped-up time when people will say just about anything? We were Next Stage artists-in-residence at the Drama League with this piece in March 2017, and are currently in workshop to continue developing and refining both the text and the piece’s directorial vision.

A few other things are at the very beginning stages as well: a song-cycle about Black + Jewish relations (in collaboration with Stew) and an olfactory piece of “Culinary Theater” in the “outer” boroughs (in collaboration with Ben Gassman).

Why and how did you get into theatre?

Not sure I can precisely pinpoint one “how” or “why.” It is some mercurial admixture of that first role in the elementary school musical, working on weekends as a cashier at my stepdad’s record store smack in the middle of the theater district, high school and college theater-club-like-activities, and that stumble and fall head-over-heels into the theater and theory of Bertolt Brecht. It was with Brecht that all-things-theater first “really” clicked, and my life took a pretty dramatic turn. Fascinated by the power and the faith he found in the theater as a social practice, I co-founded two performance ensembles – first in Berkeley and then in Berlin. Between 2010 and 2014, Shake im Park Berlin, our playfully (ir)reverent take on the Papp model, created site-specific performances that drew thousands of audience members to Berlin’s Görlitzer Park in order to rethink its dynamic spaces as sites of multi-lingual and inter-cultural performance, (post)dramatic experimentation, and participatory art. Between 2009 and 2011, UCMeP engaged performance as a tactical means of “creative protest” and mobilization against the austerity measures that beset public education in California.

What is your directing dream project?

My mother served four years in federal prison between 2010 and 2014. During that time, we corresponded mainly by handwritten letter. During that time, we also lost our family home. I dream of (and hope I find the guts) to explore these writings as investigative fodder for a not-yet-existing performance work. I want to put these texts in conversation with related legal documents as well as Brecht’s classic Mother Courage. I want to (re)read his play with my own mother and other mothers I have met whose lives and homes have been (re)shaped by the prison-system and by various financial and housing “crises.” Together we would begin with the question: How might we collaboratively reconstruct tales of Mother Courage, who worked relentlessly to provide for her children by “living off” yet another 30 Years War – for American prosperity, which came to an abrupt close with the housing crisis of 2007?

What kind of theatre excites you?

I say something else about “excitement” and political/civic/social investment below, but from the perspective of the types of theater aesthetics that most excite me, I am drawn to theater practices and artists that/who embrace theater’s fundamental interdisciplinarity. I am deeply invested in modes of performance that de-hierarchize “the story” as the only mode of story-telling. Instead, I understand performance as a productive meeting point of multiple intelligences and media. Performance (through a park, within a protest, at a rehearsal, on a stage) provides an explosive site of parataxis: text and body and environment and music and… Of: simultaneity, dream-image, spectacle, hallucination, intimacy, immediacy, and collage. Of: pop-culture and obsolescence, real and play, aesthetics and ethics. The kinds of work(s) I am most excited about are those which strive to challenge our inherited assumptions: about agency, spectatorship, identity, and community. I am inspired by a theater of big ideas: curious, probing, intransigent (when necessary). I think the great power of performance lies in its capacity to promote and provoke controversy, critique, even discomfort and antagonism, just as much as it promotes and provokes exuberance, laughter, amusement, and joy. And I am deeply invested in the power of irreverence; but an irreverence that serves reverence in an effort to tease out – aesthetically and politically – intangible truths about belonging, collaboration, and civic responsibility.

What do you want to change about theatre today?

I don’t dare offer prescriptions because, after all, who am I? But here are a few hopes for and dreams about theater as a social practice that are important to me and which I am trying my best to make manifest in my own little way:

As a public laboratory of existential experiments, I believe theater is one of the most vital civic institutions we have. It helps us to reckon with the state of things as they’ve been, but also as they could be. Theater helps us – or even forces us – also to reckon with each other, in our similarity and difference, as a citizenry, and as a public.

I believe that theater makers have a unique opportunity to provoke us all – sometimes gently and sometimes not so gently – to reimagine just what “public” means.

I believe in theater as workshop, as process: never (quite) finished, always fleeting, exploratory, and improvisatory – and yet always also striving for formal precision.

I believe in the power of collaborative ensemble, of the embodied practices of mutual exploration, interdependence, and critical generosity that performance demands and facilitates.

I believe in a theater of desperation – a theater that demands we ask “why are we at the theater?” every time we walk through its doors.

I believe in a theater that demands we reckon with the question: what is essential about live performance – and what does it do that TV or cinema cannot?

What is your opinion on getting a directing MFA?

Since I don’t have an MFA, again, I won’t dare to offer an opinion. Instead of the MFA, I pursued a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from UC Berkeley. While this was a rather (or radically) different path, Performance Studies has helped me in so many ways to understand, clarify, and even experiment with the kind of theater maker I want to be. As an interdisciplinary field, Performance Studies has supported my diverse explorations into both the practice and theory of “performance” in its many incarnations. Performance Studies has also afforded me incredible opportunities to work across languages, cultures, and continents, across different communities of artists and thinkers, across different theater worlds and economies of art.

Who are your theatrical heroes?

An obviously impossible question. But I am teaching a course at NYU this semester on “Experiments in 20th Century Performance,” and here are some of the artists we’ll be spending time with: M. Duchamp, G. Stein, A. Artaud, J. Cage, M. Cunningham, A. Kaprow, Y. Ono, Y. Rainer, C. Schneemann, J. Malina & J. Beck, R. Schechner, S. Sanchez, E. Bullins, J. Grotowski, P. Bausch, T. Kantor, H. Müller, R. Wilson, E. LeCompte & S. Gray, and F. Castorf.

Any advice for directors just starting out?

Since I feel like I am still “starting out” in many ways, I can only say that, for me, to continue to believe in theater is to believe in the enduring persistence of radical possibility.

Plugs!

I’m teaching another course this term that takes us to see theater across NYC every Thursday evening. Here are some of the pieces we’ll be checking out. Maybe we’ll see you at the theater?!

A Doll’s House, Part 2, Groundhog Day, Hear Their There Here, 7 Pleasures, Sam’s Tea Shack, BLACKOUTS, The Siege, The Treasurer, Bronx Gothic, Miracle, Measure for Measure, 17c, The Fountainhead, Home, and Race Card.

There are more words, pictures, music, and video from me at: www.brandonwoolfperformance.com.

And if any of the above resonates with you, and you’re interested in talking further or collaborating on something, please do be in touch.

#Brandon Woolf #ask a director #theatre directors

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zephiraz · 8 years ago

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Tagged by @cobrakiin (the great and beautiful)

Answer the questions and tag people!

Sign: Cancer

Height: 5'6″

Time: 7:52pm

Last thing googled: "minecraft aether 2″ There’s nothing better than stopping to look up block mechanics while falling out of the sky

Favorite artists: Like music artists? Tyr, Korpiklaani, Finntroll, Ensiferum, and various others. The Gotta Go Fast mode is nice for when I need to focus, or for calming down when panic because it’s familiar and just keeps Going. Also I enjoy when the lyrics aren’t english because I’m hard of hearing/have hearing comprehension issues sometimes and it’s nice when I don’t have to actively think about the words.

Last tv show watched: Alton Brown’s BDSM Kitchen, except I ran out of episodes cause the food network website only has very few up at a time rip

What I’m wearing: Kitty cat pajama pants and a very old WoW shirt from Jinx.

When I created blog: 2011? Maybe? August of last year I got an email saying my blog turned 5.

What I post: Cats, dogs, and Warcraft. Lots of crying about elves. Memes. Occasional venting and existential crises.

Do I do asks: Sure! They don’t happen often, but yeah.

I chose URL: ZephiraZ. Zeph-eye-ruh. Plus a Z. It me!

Pokémon team: I wanna say Team Rocket because they were First but they’re terrible so idk bro.

Favorite color: Purple!!!

Hours of sleep: Man I don’t even know. Depends on how much noise there is.

Lucky number: 7

Favorite characters: Right now? Aethas Sunreaver. Plus many other belves. But mostly Aethas. (and Kael’thas.)

How many blankets I sleep with: 1-3 depending on how many my girlfriend uses.

Dream job: Writing things would be nice, but honestly I really enjoyed my old job of game testing and would love to have that be a thing that actually pays well.

Tagging @pikestaff @stormruler @shinyforce @alynissia @misteradequate

#meme

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angrycollectordaze-me-blog · 5 years ago

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Paper代写：Discontinuous music education

下面为大家整理一篇优秀的paper代写范文- Discontinuous music education，供大家参考学习，这篇论文讨论了非连续性音乐教育。音乐审美教育的维度是多方面的，是在尊重人的个体复杂性的基础上提高整体音乐素养，塑造更健全的人格。灵活的非连续性音乐教育对音乐审美教育及素养培育来说具有独特的现实意义。作为传统教育的补充，它通过偶然、随机的方式为人们认识音乐、体验音乐、感受音乐、欣赏音乐提供多重选择，使人们在自由选择中提升音乐素养及审美能力，捕捉优秀思想。可以说，非连续性音乐教育是审美教育的一种特殊教学途径，同时，音乐审美是非连续性音乐教育的一项重要延伸。

Influenced by existentialism after the World War I, the German educational philosopher O.F. bornov realized the lack of human crisis coping ability and the limitations of traditional education, and put forward the proposition of human education focusing on the development of human personality and the freedom of survival, and introduced the discontinuous form into traditional education.

The discontinuity education proposed by boroff is a new education mode of relative continuity education. He believes that education should no longer be regarded as an independent phenomenon similar to school education, but should be regarded as an indispensable condition that plays a decisive role in people's whole understanding, so that people's essence can be understood as a whole and their taste and value can be improved through education. Under the guidance of this concept, music educators began to ponder how to perfect the personality shaping through discontinuous music education. The author believes that the discontinuity and absurdity of non-continuous music education is an opportunity for music aesthetic education to develop multiple education methods, and it is also an important concept for participants to break the solidified aesthetic thinking and improve music literacy.

Continuous education has created a long-term stable environment for human growth and basic personality, and laid the foundation for family, school and social education. The cultivation of sound personality and noble accomplishment should be combined with setbacks, contradictions, accidents, crises, failures and other situations so as to overcome the emotional and will weaknesses of the educatees and arouse the deep moral character of the people. The crisis and experience of students in the process of development may make their moral development higher or lower at the original level, or change the direction of students' development. Therefore, discontinuous education accompanied by "experience" is very important. For example, some family and social situations lead to the phenomenon of left-behind children for a long time in rural China. "left-behind" breaks the emotional sustenance for children to live a normal life with their parents. Under such circumstances, left-behind children continue to receive traditional continuous education is likely to backfire, lose themselves and deviate from the original intention of receiving education. Therefore, it is necessary for discontinuous educators to train children to be self-sufficient, resolve difficulties, and be strong and positive. As bornov says: "the transition to a new phase of life can only be achieved through a crisis. No one can attain inner independence except by steadfastly going through the crises that beset him. Only in a crisis or through a crisis can we grow up."

It can be seen that only by accepting the intermittent "encounters" of emotional loss, plan failure, unexpected misfortune and other powerful influences on life and carrying out good discontinuous education can we stimulate the inner moral consciousness, arouse the positive thinking of the educatees on life and highlight the quality and value of people.

Similarly, the author believes that the discontinuity and absurdity of non-continuous music education is an opportunity for music aesthetic education to develop multiple education methods and perfect personality shaping, as well as an important concept for participants to break the solidified aesthetic thinking and improve music literacy.

Listening is an art. Different from watching, it is an abstract experience accompanied by thinking and cognition. It is also the primary way for the educated to contact music. According to Finn of Greece, in the initial stage, the listener must identify and summarize according to the rhythm, linking short music units to form long music units, including melodic, rhythmic, music and textual patterns. This proposition is completely in line with the teaching goal of continuous music education, and advocates to make use of the continuous and normative advantages of continuous education to lay a basic listening accomplishment in training and shaping. Then, can discontinuous music education promote the cultivation of listening literacy? What does "encounter" music mean to music aesthetic education?

The author believes that, according to boroff's point of view, discontinuous music education mainly occurs in the process of sudden emotional impact or mood change of music on people, which is beyond the expectation of continuous music education and brings discomfort and crisis to the recipients. For example, when John cage played "4:33" on music, the audience's understanding of traditional concert was broken, and they expressed confusion, anger and dissatisfaction to the occasional music played by cage, believing that such "music" completely deviated from their expectation of listening. When people hear the traditional noise on the Internet by collage, amplification, processing noise music, once feel sick, uncomfortable and irritable. Because "encountering" these "accidental music" receivers' listening habits still remain on the consciousness of taking melodious, classic and beautiful as the aesthetic standards of music, their listening quality is generally established in the continuous music education of textbook style. However, the change and thinking brought by non-continuous music education make the educated form a more professional and inclusive listening quality. The so-called more professional and inclusive listening quality refers to the ability to actively face the music that is different from the previous aesthetic habits, enrich perceptual feelings and acquire more music exploration ability. Facts have proved that although the occasional appearance of music and experimental music has been greatly criticized, discontinuous contact and education have gradually made them gain supporters and played an active role in promoting the creation of music.

Music is one of the living ways of human beings, and understanding music is an important bridge reflecting people's psychological activities, emotional state and social environment. Therefore, the cultivation of understanding literacy should not be ignored in the process of music education. There are two main ways of understanding literacy, one is organized, the other is spontaneous. In general, organized understanding mainly depends on the continuous music education in school, and the level of music understanding of the public also depends on it. The second kind of random and spontaneous understanding is the dialogue that really shows the value between people and music, that is, the proposition of discontinuous music education.

In the school music education as an example, the ideal education should focus on the students' self development, cultural consciousness and the cultivation of moral character, but the status quo of education in China can be seen, from kindergarten to the senior year, music as a set of teaching essential courses, education function too, this pattern is likely to make long-term of educatees to form a single music understanding thinking. On the other hand, bornov's non-continuous music education concept provides a solution for school music education -- making use of non-continuous situation simulation to enable students to independently feel music and emotional resonance, and to choose the appropriate way of understanding music in the situation to improve their comprehension ability.

The cultivation of understanding ability is open, with levels and stages. If continuous music education is regarded as the first level of music understanding, non-continuous music education is the second level of comprehension improvement. Discontinuous teaching method can guide students to encounter with characters in the textbook, guide students to encounter with abrupt voices in life, and lead students to encounter with all kinds of different music, generating strong spiritual shock. This mode makes education focus on the sublimation of students' experience and comprehension ability of life instead of only imparting knowledge. Students' sensitivity to music is also gradually improved in the intermittent experience, and they realize many truths beyond the textbooks, so as to better cope with the discontinuous events in life.

Just as composers need to know how performers understand and listen to their work, performers need to be professional and ethical performers, who are not only playing musical notes, but also conveying beliefs and awareness. The sublimity of transmission behavior completely depends on their performance quality, which is not the basic skills of reading, playing and singing music in continuous music education, but the extra embodiment in the process of non-continuous music education. The author believes that non-continuous music education can improve performance literacy in the following two aspects.

Music performance, like any other human behavior, consists of a variety of psychological components, including happiness, stimulation, embarrassment, tension, anxiety and so on. Music performance is the art of improvisation, very susceptible to interference and interrupt, so in the process of performance to overcome disturbance stress ability can reflect the highest performance level instead, help the performers in the inevitable interference or spiritual reality, to overcome obstacles, coherence to continue to present the music works is the value of the continuous education. By guiding the performers to accept the "encounter", affirms the positive significance of "encounter" to individual development, and solves the temporary crisis in the performance, only in this way can they develop the professional quality to guarantee the integrity of the work in any state and deduce the music full of true feelings.

Good discontinuous music education is reflected not only in the stress behavior under "encounter", but also in the sense of responsibility shown by music. According to Maurice grossman, acting involves a major tension between constraint and freedom, "double duty." Qualified performers do not simply copy a sheet music. They also determine the content and quality of a piece of work. For example, when a performer is suddenly asked to give an emotional performance of requiem in a church, the solemn and eulogized performance style is generally more indicative of music's moral quality than the passionate and rock and roll performance style. The impact of discontinuous education makes performers understand that although they have the right to interpret music flexibly, they also undertake the mission of conveying positive beliefs to the recipients, and different groups of performers need to assume different music responsibilities. "Encounter" refining literacy, which is the discontinuity of music education is different from ordinary music education.

The dimensions of music aesthetic education are various, although "interest is not controversial", but the goal is still to respect the individual complexity of people on the basis of improving the overall music literacy, shaping a more sound personality. Flexible discontinuous music education has unique practical significance for music aesthetic education and cultivation of literacy. As a supplement to traditional education, it provides multiple choices for people to know music, experience music, feel music and appreciate music in an accidental and random way, so that people can improve their music quality and aesthetic ability and capture excellent ideas in free choice. It can be said that discontinuous music education is a special teaching way of aesthetic education, and at the same time, music aesthetic discontinuous music education is an important extension.

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josephborrello · 5 years ago

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Magnitude and Direction, Issue #41 | 6 Sep 2019

Hardware, Prototyping, and Fabrication

The Mobius Flex is both an elegantly simple work of electronics art, as well as an ingenious use of a flexible PCB. 🛸 The Curiosity rover's wheel's have taken quite a beating in the time it's been driving around the Martian surface. Take your files LITERALLY everywhere you go, with this implantable mesh network device. I appreciate how open-sourced this is, but I think I'll pass on implanting this in my forearm.

Software and Programming

From the MIT Tech Review: You can now practice firing someone in virtual reality. Well, isn't that lovely? How do you turn your macbook (or any laptop, for that matter) into a touchscreen for about $1? I'll give you a hint, computer vision is involved. This video of Bill Hader turning into the people he's impersonating is one of the most jarring things I've ever seen, and also the scariest deepfake-produced video I've ever encountered. Perhaps you've heard me say this here before (you have), but AI-driven fake news articles are getting uncannily good at writing to any prompt and we're going to start to have a really hard time identifying fake news, videos, etc. unless we're really paying close attention. Still don't believe me? Try making a fake article yourself.

Science, Engineering, and Biomedicine

🥃 What do you do with an artificial tongue? Taste whiskey to make sure it's not counterfeit, of course. 🔴🔴 According to popular lore, you can predict the weather based on sky color. The saying typically goes, “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.” The saying has been around in various forms for a long time, and the reason it’s lasted so long is that it actually works (at least in certain parts of the world), as XKCD artist Randall Munroe explains with words (and cartoons) in the New York Times. ➕➕🧑➕🤴 It turns out that having a few extra husbands can be a good way to weather tough times. Apparently we've had the idea of a harem backwards this whole time.

Mapping, History, and Data Science

The Version Museum may be the easiest museum in the world to visit, seeing as you can get there right from the device you're reading this on right now. What does this Version Museum exhibit? The old versions of some of the world's most influential websites. (It really does feel like a "only 90s babies will remember..." article - crazy how much has changed in the just under a quarter century.) ‍ Here's a design guide for the flags of all the US states, which explains but doesn't quite justify why some of these designs were chosen. ⚰ Since it is my birthday today, I'll also continue a long-running social media tradition here and share my deathclock. Do you live in The Midwest?

Events and Opportunities

Maybe my channels to find out about upcoming events and opportunities have just increased, because we've got another jam-packed section in this edition of M&D:

Friday 9/6 I'd like to say Nanotech NYC scheduled their next nanonite happy hour in honor of my birthday, but I don't think Jacob or the other organizers know when my birthday is! (Although they do now.) At any rate, NYC's nanotech community (practitioners and enthusiasts alike) will be getting together at Clinton Hall in east Midtown.

Monday, 9/9 Small science gets a big showcase at Nano Day at the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center. Learn about some of the most exciting nanotechnology research and innovations coming from the NYC area and meet other technologists working in the field.

Monday, 9/9 Innovation Forum New York is co-hosting a workshop with NYU Biolabs on fundraising for biotech startups, a topic of utmost importance to entrepreneurs in the life sciences. The workshop will provide valuable insights for all interested in starting their own company or considering work at a startup.

Tuesday, 9/10 The NYC Emerging Healthcare Technology meetup is holding their next event for anyone interested in creating websites for Healthcare

Tuesday, 9/10 The Accelerating BioVenture Innovation 12-week entrepreneurship training program kicks off at Cornell Med. The program is focused on building teams and business plans around patented technologies from Weill Cornell Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Rockefeller University.

Wednesday, 9/11 Ingredient Intelligence startup (and M&D darling) See Thru is holding the first panel discussion in their Straight Talk series, aimed at unpacking emerging trends at the intersection of beauty, science, and technology. The first topic: what does it mean to be "transparent" in the digital age, where consumers are more educated on products than ever?

Wednesday, 9/11 Scientists, researchers, cartographers, artists, and everyone in between will be gathering together at Peculier Pub for the next SciArt mixer.

Friday, 9/13 The Nanotech NYC meetup hosts Kendra Krueger, the founder of 4LoveandScience, a research and education platform that inspires new modes of working and learning in a complex world. An electrical engineer with nanotech experience in academia and the photonics industry, Kendra is also a trained facilitator in mindfulness, sustainable design and social justice.

Some other upcoming events to keep on your radar...

Wednesday, 9/18 LiveIntent is hosting their first tech happy hour at their office in lower Manhattan. The event promises to be a great opportunity for New York tech professionals to network, share ideas, meet our team, and learn all about LiveIntent and how their re-imagining email. There will be food, beer and wine provided, along with video games and board games available!

Friday, 9/20 The Aspen Institute Science & Society Program and the Institute for Systems Genetics at NYU Langone Health are co-hosting InspireScience, a symposium inspiring scientists to create a more outward-looking culture through communication, engagement, and innovation. Scientists of all levels are welcome to this special event focused on community building through communication and outreach.

Tuesday, 9/24 Join NYDesigns for a tour of their 5,000 square foot fabrication facility and learn about how you can make use of all the impressive equipment there at their upcoming open house.

Tuesday, 9/24 Join GeoNYC and Doctors Without Borders for a special map-a-thon to fill in missing geospatial data for underserved regions in order to provide international and local NGOs and individuals with the data they need to better respond to crises.

Wednesday, 9/25 Coming off their 1st birthday party, the NYC JLABS crew is taking a short break for the summer but will be back in September for their next Innovators and Entrepreneurs mixer.

Wednesday, 9/25 The RobotLab meetup's September event focuses on the good, the bad, and the ugly of Industry 4.0 and autonomous manufacturing.

Thursday, 9/26 It's been touched on in previous Existential Medicine events, but the next science seminar collab between New Lab and JLABS dives deep into the revolutionary, and sometimes controversial technology of CRISPR. Use code "NewLab2019" to unlock the event registration.

Saturday, 9/28 Admission is just the swipe of a metro card for the Parade of Trains at the Brighton Beach station. Vintage train cars from all periods of the subway's history will be on display, as well as taking passengers on short trips around south Brooklyn.

Tuesday, 10/1 The next stop on Ogilvy's healthcare innovation pop-up series takes them to Hudson Yards, where they're teaming up with the HITLAB and SAP.iO Foundry for an event that will focus primarily on the female and underserved health innovators who are disrupting healthcare today.

October 11-16 Innovation Week at Mount Sinai. What started as just the SINAInnovations conference is now a week's worth of activities dedicated to bringing New York's biomedical innovation communities together. Here's the full lineup:

Friday-Sunday, 10/11-13 Mount Sinai Health Hackathon. The 4th annual Mount Sinai Health Hackathon will be an exciting 48-hour transdisciplinary competition focused on creating novel technology solutions for problems in healthcare. This year’s theme is Artificial Intelligence – Expanding the Limits of Human Performance.

Tuesday, 10/15 Careers & Connections 2019. October may feel far away, but I promise you it's not and you'll want to be sure to mark your calendars for GRO-Biotech's next big event, the Careers & Connections mini-conference and networking event, held concurrently with emerging healthcare technologies conference, SINAInnovations.

Tuesday & Wednesday, 10/15-16 SINAInnovations Conference. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is hosting its eighth annual SINAInnovations conference around the theme of Artificial Intelligence. A range of talks and panels will focus on the explosive growth of AI in our society and in particular in medicine, featuring international thought leaders across the range of relevant domains.

Saturday, 10/26 The Future of Care conference is back at Rockefeller University featuring some of the latest breakthroughs in clinical care and the innovators helping shepherd them from bench to bedside. Apply to attend the conference by September 6th.

Tuesday, 10/29 Join Columbia Nano Labs for their annual Industry Day conference. Learn how you can use and leverage the Nano Labs facilities, hear from a panel of entrepreneurs who have done just that, and listen to faculty and technical experts discuss the way these sophisticated tools contribute to cutting-edge research. (Yes, this was rescheduled from the originally planed date of 9/5.)

Friday-Sunday, 11/8-10 For 36 hours on November 8-10, HackPrinceton will bring together 600 developers and designers from across the country to create incredible software and hardware projects. They'll have swag, workshops, mentors, prizes, games, free food, and more.

Map of the Month

When we hear about the 2-3 Celsius increase in temperature that's going to set us on path to irreversible environmental changes, it often sounds like it's still a ways off. As this map from the Washington Post shows, that future is already becoming a reality in some parts of the US.

Odds & Ends

"Jay Street and needless to say... ...Metrotech"

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wallythayer · 6 years ago

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How Stress Affects Your Sex Drive

I gave a talk at a conference recently — the kind of talk I give all the time, about how couples can sustain strong sexual connections over multiple decades. People came up to me afterward and told me how helpful it was, how normalizing, how practical. Then, later that evening, I sat around a table with a group of women who had attended the event. We were drinking chardonnay and talking about sex — of course — when the woman across the table from me suddenly leaned forward and said, “But let’s be real, Emily. Sometimes it’s just not there. You don’t want it. And nothing on Earth can make you want it.”

“True,” I said.

“It doesn’t matter how much you love your partner,” she said. “Sometimes it’s just not there.”

“Yup,” I agreed. “Sometimes.”

“So . . .” she hesitated, her eyes filling with tears. “Where does it go?”

“And how do you get it back?” asked someone else, so quietly I couldn’t tell who it was. Around the table, heads were nodding.

Loss of desire isn’t just loss of sex. When desire diminishes, people wonder if there’s something wrong with them, and they feel as if they’re losing themselves. Or that there’s something wrong with their partner, and they’re losing their partner. Or they worry about the relationship and losing the love that bound them to this person in the beginning. Loss of desire begins to feel like loss of connection.

Yet a bajillion things can interfere with sexual desire, and only rarely is it because there’s anything “wrong.” Almost always, it’s neither you nor your partner, nor is it the relationship. To find the problem, you have to zoom out and look for a factor in the larger context that’s standing between you and your own sexual well-being.

And the single most common factor?

Stress.

Which is the bad news. Because everyone has stress.

But here’s the good news: Everyone can do something about it. And when you do, your sexual desire can come roaring back to life.

I want to tell you what I told those women that night and what I tell everyone — regardless of gender — who asks me, so that you too can recognize when stress has hijacked your interest in sex, and know how to get the desire back.

The Mind Matters

The first thing to understand is how sex actually works in the brain.

The brain has a sexual accelerator, or “gas pedal” — technically called the sexual excitation system — designed to notice all the sexually relevant stimuli in the environment. Anytime you see, hear, smell, touch, taste, or (crucially) imagine something that your brain codes as associated with sex, it sends a “turn on” signal.

It’s happening right now. The fact that you’re reading about sex is, just a little, sexually relevant. The smell of your partner’s skin, fresh from the shower. The sensation of that person’s lips on your shoulder. The memory of that time that person did that lovely thing to you. These are all sexually relevant stimuli.

Your brain also has a sexual “brake” — the sexual inhibition system. It’s not inhibition as in shy; it’s inhibition as in slowing down. The brake, too, is scanning the environment for everything you see, hear, smell, touch, taste, or imagine that it codes as a good reason not to be turned on. The kids are awake in the next room. You’re frustrated about work. You’re annoyed with your partner. You’re unhappy with your own body.

The standard advice for people struggling with sexual arousal, desire, or orgasm is to increase stimulation to the accelerator: add role-play, toys, erotica (which are great if you enjoy them). But when people are struggling, it’s rarely because there’s not enough stimulation to the accelerator. The problem is almost always that there’s too much stimulation to the brake.

All kinds of things can hit the brake: Relationship issues, trauma history, and body-image stuff are all key offenders. But the most common culprit — and the foundational condition the others activate — is stress. Stress from your job or family. Stress about your relationship. Stress about your own body. Stress from worrying about sex!

So, imagine you’re trying to drive a car . . . with the hand brake on. You might eventually get where you want to go, but you’ll take a lot longer, burn a lot more fuel, and maybe even damage the engine along the way.

Plus, in the accelerator–brake design of your sexuality, the frustration and judgment of Why is this taking so long?! Isn’t it supposed to be easier than this? adds even more pressure to the brake, so you slow down even more.

The first tip is this: Know that it’s completely normal for your sexual response to require more time and effort when you’re stressed, because stress is hitting your brake. You’re not broken; this is the sexual-response mechanism in your brain working appropriately in an inappropriate world.

Ironically, the more patient you are with yourself, the more readily your brake will release. The rest is about effectively offloading your stress.

“Sure, Emily,” you say. “I’ll manage my stress better. Piece of cake.”

Actually, it kind of is — once you know how stress works.

Understanding Stress

You’re probably familiar with the fight-or-flight stress response that involves adrenaline and cortisol and all the rest of it. What most people leave out, though, is that the stress response isn’t just a response; it’s a cycle. Like this:

Suppose you’re living in the African savanna, the environment where humans evolved many thousands of years ago. You’re there, minding your own business, when you spot a lion charging you. Instantly your body is flooded with stress hormones that prepare it for what happens next — which is, you run.

At this point, there are only two possible outcomes, right?

1) You could be eaten by the lion, in which case your sex life is no longer a problem.

2) Or you survive! Maybe you run back to the village, shouting for help, and everyone comes out and slaughters the lion, saving you. You and your loved ones enjoy a feast of roast lion. The next morning, hand in hand with people you love, you bury the parts of the carcass you won’t be using, giving thanks to the lion for its sacrifice.

That is the complete cycle: Alert! Action! Safety! Celebrate!

Fortunately, these days we are almost never chased by lions.

Unfortunately, however, our bodies respond to modern stressors more or less the same way they would if we were being chased by a lion. Horrible business meeting? Chased by a lion. Fight with your partner? Chased by a lion. Onslaught of toxic self-critical thoughts about your body when you try on a pair of jeans? Chased by a lion.

Since activation of the stress-response cycle is about survival, it makes perfect sense that all of these experiences hit the sexual brake. After all, suppose you’re in the process of running away from the lion, and your certain special someone says, “Hey, sweetie, would you like to have some sexytime tonight?”

Your response is probably something like, “Are you kidding me? How about you help me with this lion?!” Or, in 21st-century terms: “How about you help me with these kids/bills/dishes/social injustices/existential crises?!”

We are all in the middle of a lot of activated, incomplete stress-response cycles, and they’re keeping our brakes on. That’s the problem.

The solution is to get out of survival mode, complete the cycle, and release the sexual brake.

Complete the Stress Response

One approach that absolutely does not work to complete the cycle is telling yourself to calm down once the stressor is gone. Dealing with the stress is a separate process from dealing with the stressor; until you’ve dealt with the stress itself, your brain will keep the brake on. Your body needs you to do something.

Once upon a time, what we did to deal with the stressor also dealt with the stress — by design. We ran from the lion. This both saved us from being eaten and purged the stress hormones we released in response to the crisis.

These days, there is a fundamental disconnect between the behaviors that complete the stress-response cycle and those that effectively deal with the stressor. Let’s say, for example, that you’re stressed out by a toxic work colleague. Maybe you have a calm and productive meeting with your supervisor about strategies to work effectively with (and around) this difficult individual. That’s how you deal with the problem that is behind the stress.

But just because you’ve dealt with the problem doesn’t mean you’ve dealt with the stress itself.

You tell yourself you should feel good now that you’ve talked with your manager, to let it go, to stop thinking about it, and to stop feeling frustrated and annoyed.

But your body is still in being-chased-by-a-lion mode, and there’s nothing you can say that will convince it the lion is gone.

When you’re being chased by a lion, what do you do?

You run.

The same is true when you’re stressed out about work, family, life, or sex. Go for a run. Or a walk. Or head to Zumba, or practice yoga, or do whatever activity feels right for your body.

Movement is the most efficient way to complete the cycle, because it quickly cleans out the stress hormones. It tells your body you have escaped the threat and your body is once again a safe place to be.

Physical activity is just one of many ways to complete the cycle. Another is creative self-expression. I come from a family of musicians, so my people “sing it out.” My sister recently made up a little ditty called “Sometimes I Hate My Boss, But Then I Sing a Song About It.” It’s just those words, sung to a bouncy little tune, until she can laugh about it.

Maybe you knit or embroider. Maybe you cook. Maybe you draw; heck, maybe you color! Whatever mode of expression works to bring your body and mind into a place of calm and safety is the right one.

Dance is especially amazing for stress. If I were going to start a movement, it would be to teach everyone to partner dance. It involves physical activity, creative self-expression, and our third cycle-completion strategy — social connection.

The Power of Connection

Research shows that a little social connection can go a long way. Your pleasant interactions with the barista, the bank teller, or the bus driver all shift your body chemistry to a calmer state, as you’re reassured that you’re surrounded by people who aren’t enemies.

Even better, though, are the moments of laughter and play you experience with friends, family, kids, and partners. Warm, playful social interaction (whether rough-and-tumble or storytelling play) is a way to get back to the “village” and celebrate your survival. Your body knows it is safe now, because you are surrounded by your tribe.

Most powerful of all are the affectionate, intimate social connections with your partner. Marital therapist John Gottman, PhD, recommends the six-second kiss as one way to get and stay connected with your significant other. That’s one six-seconds-long kiss, not six one-second-long kisses.

Six seconds may not sound like much, but would you kiss someone you just met for that long? Would you kiss someone you were angry with for that long? A slow, deliberate kiss (rather than the hasty peck) requires that you notice that this person is there for you, that you like them, trust them, and enjoy feeling connected to them.

Another version of stress management through affection is the 30-second hug: an exercise many couples therapists use called “hugging till relaxed.” For this stress-response-cycle-completing hug, each person stands over their own center of balance and puts their arms around the other person, and they hold each other — yes, for 30 seconds, or even longer. Whatever it takes for your body to be convinced that you are home again, safe from the lion, in a place where you can celebrate.

The Magic Circle

This brings us to my favorite, and perhaps most revolutionary, strategy for completing the stress-response cycle: sex.

I don’t mean crazy, acrobatic sex or even the high romance of a movie scene. I mean you choose a time and place when everything else in your life gets set aside — work, kids, bills, everything — and you put your body in the bed. You let your skin touch your partner’s skin. You pay attention to the sensations.

Sometimes what will happen is one of your stressors will rise up like a demon between you and your partner. This creates a perfect opportunity to ask for support in dealing with it. You can also just notice and ask the demon to go watch a movie or something, because right now you’re busy enjoying your partner’s body and being touched.

More often what happens is your body wakes up and remembers, I really like this person! I really enjoy these sensations! And pleasure, so long restrained by your brake, is free to romp across the bed.

Here’s more good news: You don’t have to wait for “the mood.” Waiting for the mood is waiting for your life to be calm enough for you not to be stressed. Because many of us sustain a state of stress for years at a time, waiting for the mood usually means waiting indefinitely. And the more you wait, the more frustration, isolation, and worry builds up between you and your partner. Am I broken? Is my partner broken? Is our relationship doomed?

The mood comes when there’s enough stimulation on the accelerator and enough turning off the brake; that’s it. And a great way to help release the brake is to snuggle with and love your certain special someone.

This originally appeared as “Sex and Stress” in the July/August 2018 print issue of Experience Life.

Get the full story at https://experiencelife.com/article/how-stress-affects-your-sex-drive/

#brain

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suzannemcappsca · 7 years ago

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The collaborative imperative – or the existential imperatives for modern mediators

Ian Macduff

“An action-oriented citizenship is, first and foremost, engaged with other people in the creation of shared social spaces and in the discourse that such spaces make possible. Through participation and conversation, we reproduce our social meanings through time: that is what culture is. Squares and institutions, walkways and stadiums, these are the places where the dreams of people are realised in stone and iron, glass and air. They are the sites of politics, not merely of design or style; or rather, here design and style are themselves aspects of the political.” Mark Kingwell, The World We Want: Restoring Citizenship in a Fractured Age, [Rowman & Littlefield, 2000, 172]

Over the past 40 years, we can identify a wide range of ‘drivers’ for modern mediation and mediators – from critiques of formalism and legalism, through pursuit of cultural relevance in dispute processing, persistent concerns with the ‘remoteness’ of law and courts, to preferences for a ‘warmer’ way of working and dealing with disputes. . . and so on. More recently, of course, one of those concerns – with the costs of courts and litigation – seems to have become as much a concern for governments, such that it is austerity and efficiency that drives the promotion of mediation (and its online variants) as much as it is the incapacity of the impecunious litigant. Ask any mediator and you’ll probably get a similar array of reasons why this is a preferred way of working. “Imperative”, too, takes on a dual meaning: first of a social and value-oriented drive to mediation; and second in the perennial question as to whether mediation can and should be mandated, and whether doing so undermines the first interpretation.

In recent weeks, however, I’ve come across another angle on all of this – more of an existential imperative, if you will. The context is this: one of the modes of assessment and out-of-class conversation I set for my Negotiation and Mediation class involved the regular writing of a group blog or class forum. The generic rubric for all of the groups was “Access to Justice”, but beyond that there was a free choice on the topic. Each group (of 4 to 5 students) had at least a weekly obligation to report on reading and research on their topic as a work in progress (to be completed by a 600 word executive summary at the end of the semester); and all students were invited to read and engage with the blogs of other groups. At the outset, I tried to underscore this as an exercise in collaborative learning, even if I wasn’t really believed to begin with. Once the initial reservations about writing unfinished thoughts, not having to comply with style guides, adopting an informal style of writing and so on were overcome, the conversations took off – both between the members of each group on their developing topics and with other class mates who joined the conversations, offered resources and links, raised critical questions and shared the research that they’d been doing for individual essays. At the very least, there’s a revelation in the learning that takes place collaboratively as much as it does in the more private and even competitive modes of individual assessment. The pedagogical point for me and, I hope, the class is that collaboration works at this level.

But a more interesting collaboration-related theme emerged, and which prompted this blog. After reading student essays and the student class blog, it seems to me that there are three things that are uppermost in the concerns of this generation (apart from the prospect of jobs and the daily anxieties of assignments and deadlines). These are:

First: diversity. In a class population of hyphenated identities (which information tends to come out in informal writing more readily than in the usual modes of assessment); and in light of the very obvious “face” of a shifting demography, shaped by migration, international education programmes, and modern blending of cultures, the challenges and reality of living in this world give particular substance to the often more abstract and theoretical work on intercultural communication, cross-border negotiation (who needs to cross borders when there’s plenty of cross-cultural work to be done at home?), and cultural relevance of formal and informal dispute processes. Given, too, the modern blending of identities and mobility of populations, any suggestion that the broad cultural styles in negotiation and mediation might be nation-based can be dispelled.

Second: climate change and environment. In the discussion on the processes of environmental negotiation, the Paris Agreement, the Kigali Agreement, there is no dissenting voice, no denial of the risk and reality – and President Trump’s announcement on American withdrawal from the Paris Agreement was, at least for discussion purposes, if not for the planet, perfectly timed. For a generation which understands science and evidence and which – above all – faces the consequence of habitat degradation, diminished water quality, resource depletion, the prospects of the Sixth Extinction etc – this discussion fits squarely within the concerns with sustainability, resource management and the kind of topics addressed by the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University.

Third: technology. For the groups discussing various aspects of digital justice, online dispute resolution, and the impact of technology on professional lives, their research embraced a world with which they are already familiar and in which they are ‘natives’. For them, there’s no fear in the prospects of a digital life, though there’s the unknown impact on their world of work. Instead, there’s a recognition that this is the reality that they will necessarily live through and with, whether in the form of the digitisation of professional lives or the migration of courts, tribunals, arbitration and mediation onto digital platforms.

In all three cases, the ‘existential’ element is a recognition that the world they face is one that is radically different from the one that appears in the text books and law cases; and they know that there’s a risk that their education is about a world that has moved on. And the existential part too is knowing that there are risks:

• to social cohesion and identity separation, especially where rapid demographic changes are not matched by coherent policy intiatives; • in the unknowns of technology’s impact on human communication and sociability; • in climate destabilisation, resource depletion, habitat degradation and so on.

One consistent point that did emerge – and maybe this is because they wrote in the context of a negotiation and mediation course – is the imperative of collaboration and dialogue. What this tells me also is that there’s another reason – in addition to the ‘imperatives’ noted in my opening paragraph – as to why this group begins to show an interest in mediation: hitherto, there have been those who have been interested as a career path, or because it looks like a preferred option to conventional legal practice; but blog conversations now suggest that negotiation and mediation are an existential necessity; collaboration is not a fringe activity or policy tool but a moral imperative. We talk – through mediation, negotiation, collaborative processes – not merely for reasons of efficiency, austerity or even personal preference, but because we have to. Mediation becomes, in these conversations, one of Ivan Illich’s anticipated “tools for conviviality”.

As David Bohm wrote:

“Dialogue, as we are choosing to use the word, is a way of exploring the roots of the many crises that face humanity today. It enables inquiry into, and understanding of, the sorts of processes that fragment and interfere with real communication between individuals, nations and even different parts of the same organization. In our modern culture men and women are able to interact with one another in many ways: they can sing dance or play together with little difficulty but their ability to talk together about subjects that matter deeply to them seems invariably to lead to dispute, division and often to violence. In our view this condition points to a deep and pervasive defect in the process of human thought.”

D Bohm, D Factor, and P Garrett, (1991) ‘Dialogue – a proposal’ http://www.infed.org/archives/etexts/bohm_dialogue.htm