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[garden-frog]

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[blackswaneuroparedux]

The Irish Lion: The legend of Paddy Mayne and the SAS

The first crop of Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers were a motley crew of bar-room brawlers, public school hell-raisers, eccentrics and misfits but they all embodied the tenets of courage, honour and ingenuity.

Hatched in the desert and borne out of the necessity of World War Two, the SAS or known as ‘the regiment’ was started by the 6’5” ‘Phantom Major’ David Stirling nicknamed him The Giant Sloth for his chronic laziness and fondness for slipping out of camp for nights of carousing. He hated marching, military discipline and disdained authority. By all accounts a terrible soldier but he was brave and cunning.

The principle behind the SAS was simple: To use small bands of irregular elite soldiers who could operate by stealth behind enemy lines, destroying aircraft, supplies and hopefully also enemy morale as a by-product of causing vast mayhem. One perception of the unit at this stage is as a motley band of scruffy and rebellious commandoes striking out of the darkness at the Nazis. The latter part of that is true, the former needs qualifying – all the men were disciplined operators drawn from commando units. They sometimes grew out unkempt beards because they were in the desert and away from camp for long stretches. It, of course, helps glamourise things more that Stirling himself was captured and eventually transferred to the infamous Colditz Castle after multiple escape attempts.

In his absence, responsibility for the SAS passed to his second in command, the larger-than-life Irishman Robert Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne.

Known to be a terrific soldier with tremendous battlefield intuition, Mayne was allegedly recommended to Stirling by his friend Eoin McGonigal. He was brave, unconventional and a force to be reckoned with – the perfect man for the nascent SAS. There was just one problem: He was languishing in prison for striking his superior officer Geoffrey Keyes (or perhaps it was for threatening him with a bayonet?). Curiosity sparked, Stirling went to meet Mayne in his jail cell.

An account of their initial meeting appears in Alan Hoe’s biography of the SAS founder.  At first, Mayne was reluctant to join Stirling’s unit, known at that point as ‘L Detachment’: “’I can’t see any prospects of real fighting in this scheme of yours’. There was undisguised scepticism on his face. “’There isn’t any. Except against the enemy’. It was the right reply because Mayne began to laugh. “’All right. If you can get me out of here I’ll come along’. He extended his huge hand. “’There’s one more thing’, Stirling said, ignoring the hand. ‘This is one commanding officer you never hit and I want your promise on that’. He reached out for the hand.

It wasn’t just the partnership that became legendary. On the heels of his stunning military successes, a number of stories about Mayne sprang up that added to the legend.

The son of William Mayne and Margaret Boyle Vance. Robert Blair "Paddy" Mayne was born on 11th January 1915. He was born into a wealthy Presbyterian family and the sixth of seven children, four boys and three girls. He grew up on the 41-acre grounds of the Mount Pleasant estate overlooking the town of Newtownards, County Down in Northern Ireland. Educated at Regent House School, he played cricket, rugby and golf, excelling in each while also demonstrating an aptitude as a marksman in the rifle club.

While at Queen’s in Belfast studying law to eventually qualify as a solicitor (lawyer), he took up boxing and within a matter of months won the Irish Universities Heavyweight title in August 1936. He made his Ireland rugby debut against Wales at Ravenhill in 1937 and the last of six appearances two years later, coincidentally against the same opposition in Belfast. His talent was recognised in selection for 1938 Lions tour to South Africa, where he made quite an impression on and off the pitch. Mayne could tolerate any physical challenge but was unable to cope with boredom and when of a mind to do something expected full compliance from acolytes, willing or reluctant. Breaking hotel furniture during drunken stupors were not uncommon.

His drunken off-pitch exploits couldn’t camouflage his innate ability as a gifted rugby player. Mayne lined out in 17 of the 20 provincial games and all three tests against the Springboks; having lost the first two he was singularly influential in securing a victory for the Lions in the third test.

The late Sean Diffley, rugby correspondent and author, wrote of the talented rugby second-row: “Mayne was a Viking, a throwback to the ancient days of towering warriors, gentle and charming when in repose, but fierce and dangerous when aroused, and a ‘hyphenated’ nuisance when he had a couple of jars. His fierce dark physical outbursts may well have been the stuff of legend, but they were not always fun to those immediately concerned, and they were a great cause of worry to his friends. There was the case of the Irish player for instance, who in 1939, was thrown out of the window of the Swansea hotel by Mayne during the post-match celebrations. Witnesses were thankful that it was a ground floor window and that the player came to no harm, but it was not simply high jinx either that caused the incident, but the result of Mayne brooding darkly on something that is now long forgotten.”

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Mayne received a commission in the 5th Anti-Aircraft Battery, in April 1940 joined the Royal Ulster Rifles and following Dunkirk volunteered for the 11 (Scottish) Commando.

He was mentioned in dispatches for the impressive manner in which he commanded his troop in the Litani River Raid in Lebanon and recruited by David Stirling for his newly formed SAS unit.

There are tales of Mayne shooting the floor around the feet of a bar owner who overcharged and was rude to him, and the 2004 documentary ‘SAS Warrior: The Life of Paddy Mayne’ reports that an intoxicated Mayne once unloaded his pistol into a drinking companion.

The murder is said to have been covered up.

But many of these stories are untrue, or at the very least they require contextual explanation.

Take for instance the story that Mayne was in prison and awaiting a court-martial for striking his commanding officer, Geoffrey Keyes, later posthumously awarded a Victoria Cross, but whom the Irishman considered an upper-class twit. That Mayne had no time for the privileged caste is part of Mayne’s myth making.

Many historians now dispute the veracity of the story. There is no record of Mayne’s arrest and David Stirling, as author Gavin Mortimer and other writers of the SAS Regiment have written, was prone to exaggerate to mischievously feed the legend. 

Indeed the story that Mayne was imprisoned for striking his superior officer, Geoffrey Keyes because he wasn’t selected for a raid to kidnap or kill Erwin Rommel makes no sense. The SAS were drawn from Nos 7, 8 and 11 Commandos, operating around the Mediterranean in 1941. (Commando were units containing around 500 well-trained troops). Keyes and Mayne were both in 11 Commando, which was decimated in a mission in Syria earlier that year. By the time it was reconstituted and the Rommel Raid conceived, Mayne had already left the unit. In any case, it’s just as well Mayne did not participate – the mission failed (because Rommel wasn’t there) and Keyes, along with many others, didn’t make it back.

Instead, Mayne, would meet Stirling in North Africa months before, and not in a prison cell either.

It was he who, in fact, recommended his friend Eoin McGonigal to Stirling, not the other way around.

Stirling was not looking for a modern-day incarnation of a Viking berserker. On the contrary, the founding philosophy of the SAS (then known as L-Detachment) indicates a need for extreme heroism but also extreme professionalism: “An undisciplined TOUGH is no good, however tough he may be. Most of ‘L’ Detachment’s work is night work and all of it demands courage, fitness and determination of the highest degree and also, and just as important, discipline, skill and intelligence and training.”

The odd thing is that life in the SAS during World War 2 was perfectly exciting enough. There simply wasn’t any need to make up tall tales. Mayne himself said as much in a letter: “(T)here is no use writing this stuff, people think you are shooting a line – the most fantastic things happen every time we go out.”

A perfect example of this occurred around the time Mayne wrote this. He and Stirling had decided to drive a truck with five comrades right up to an enemy encampment in the desert.

They had a German speaker with them and used him to bluff their way in. When the man was asked for the password, Mayne, who didn’t speak much German, related later what he understood the general direction of the conversation to have been:

“How the – do we know what the – password is, and don’t ask for our – identity cards either. They’re lost and we’ve been fighting for the past seventy hours against these – Tommies. Our car was destroyed and we were lucky to capture this British truck and get back at all. Some fool put us on the wrong road. We’ve been driving for the past two hours and then you so and sos, sitting here on your arses in Benghazi, in a nice safe job, stop us. So hurry up, get that – gate open.”

It wouldn’t be a nice safe job much longer. Mayne, who had a pistol resting on his lap, waited as one of the guards stepped closer to inspect them. Luckily the bluff worked because Mayne realised at the last minute he’d forgotten to cock it.

Once the gate was open, they proceeded to blast the hell out of the trucks and tents that they found within the camp, before also blowing up their own truck (by mistake) and hot-footing it out of there.

By this point, of course, they’d found their stride, but it had been a difficult learning curve. L-Detachment’s first mission called for dropping 60 men by parachute behind enemy lines. But wind conditions were awful and they were scattered hopelessly wide, isolated in the desert and miles from their targets. Most were either killed or captured (one of the dead was Mayne’s friend Eoin McGonigal). Fortunately, there was a solution right under David Stirling’s nose.

The Long Range Desert Group were themselves a kind of special operations unit conducting reconnaissance and the occasional raid of their own. A portion of their men and vehicles were next allocated to assist L-Detachment, and from that point forward Stirling’s force would be conveyed to their targets by their comrades in the LRDG. Gavin Mortimer’s book ‘Stirling’s Desert Triumph: The SAS Egyptian Airfield Raids 1942’ features an exchange between Mayne and one of his subordinates during a mission rehearsal in one of the 30cwt Chevrolet trucks they’d be using:

“’What direction are we driving in?’ (Mayne) suddenly said, turning to the front gunner. “The man stared at the stars, trying to figure out which star was which. At length he replied: “’North-east, I should say, sir’. “’Ha!’ exclaimed Mayne. ‘You wouldn’t get far if you had to walk back.’ “Changing gear, Mayne cast a sideways glance at his gunner and said quietly: ‘Mind you’re certain of your direction by tomorrow night’.”

At first, Stirling’s men were dropped off some distance from their targets and then approached on foot. The favoured method for destroying German planes in airfields – the main objective – was to attach and then detonate Lewes bombs. These had been created by one of their comrades, Lieutenant Jock Lewes.

But then a new method of operation was stumbled upon. During a raid on Bagoush airfield, in the Quattara Depression, Mayne had put bombs on 40 aircraft but only 22 of them went off. After examining some charges left over, he found that the primers had been inserted into their plastic sleeves too early – they’d been in there too long and had become damp.

From this problem came a series of solutions: They should just drive the LRDG vehicles right up to the target from now on to save time; they should, therefore, make sure the vehicles had machine guns mounted for protection; in fact, why not just drive the vehicles into the airfields and use the machine guns to destroy the planes instead?

This all came together in the raid on Sidi Haneish airfield on July 26/27, 1942. Two columns of nine jeeps each burst out of the night and whipped around the rows of Luftwaffe planes, riddling them with bullets before high tailing it back out into the darkness. 30 aircraft were left in ruins.

But the history of the SAS and Paddy Mayne wasn’t all spectacular desert raids.

Following the capture of Stirling and the migration of the war to Sicily and Italy, the nature of the fighting changed.

So too did Paddy.

L-Detachment had been re-designated as 1 SAS Regiment on September 28, 1942, and now Mayne, promoted to Major himself, was its standard bearer in Stirling’s absence. Contrary to his reputation as a stereotypical action hero, Ross says that Mayne’s side as solicitor now emerged as he came to be, in Ross’ view, probably a better administrator than Stirling. To be sure, an authoritarian side also emerged, but this too seems indicative of his care and commitment to professionalism, training and mission prep. He seems to have cared very deeply about men killed under this command and worked extraordinarily hard to prevent their deaths.

The SAS’ next incarnation as ‘the Special Raiding Squadron’ (SRS) was certainly very successful, as it worked its way over defensive positions in Sicily and then up the western side of the Italian peninsula. These actions are noteworthy for two things: Difficult objectives achieved and relatively low casualty rates, a testament to Mayne’s careful stewardship.

Augmented by the American landing in the east at Salerno on September 9, 1943, one of these actions took place at the Biferno river, behind which the Germans were making a stand. The SRS, along with Nos 3 and 40 Commandos were dispatched to Termoli to outflank them. No 3 Commando would establish a beachhead allowing No 40 Commando to capture the town and its harbour whilst the SRS continued on to take bridges. The subsequent fighting would be the stuff of Hollywood Second World War movies, featuring trucks set ablaze and Germans spilling out in alarm, along with encounters with hardened German paratroopers and skirmishes around farm buildings.

Despite the stiff and professional resistance, the Special Raiding Squadron lost only one killed, three wounded and 23 as MIAs. In return they inflicted casualties of 23 killed, 17 wounded and 39 captured, as well as taking ground north of the Biferno.

Next up was France. Here the SRS would be upgraded to 1 SAS proper, a battalion-sized force of about 1,000 men, as it served in the Special Air Service Brigade alongside 2 SAS (led by Bill Stirling, David’s brother) and two French parachute battalions and an independent Belgian parachute company (about 200 men). Just as Mediterranean operations had required the SAS to work under different circumstances and terrain, so too would a return to parachuting and work behind enemy lines in France test the unit. Gone (were the days) when teams of four men with water bottles and a handful of dates, lightly armed – a few grenades in their pouches and Lewes bombs in a haversack – set out to stalk an enemy airfield. They would need more equipment - not only more of what they’d had before, but more equipment than those used to logistical planning for the airborne troops seemed to realise.

Resupply by the RAF was thought about, as were jeeps – better for getting men around but harder to conceal. Men on foot might prove more stealthy in the new rubber-soled boots, but these left distinctive footprints that could be tracked and, in any case, problems had shown up in training (the uppers were known to separate from the soles). Training patterns also needed adjusting. Early on Mayne had fought to prevent the SAS from being turned back into a regular Commando unit.

Now he was fighting amalgamation with the PARAs. Maroon caps were issued and his men instructed to wear them instead of their sand-coloured berets– Mayne told his men to hid the SAS berets in their packs until they could don them later out of sight of officials. On a more practical level too the SAS was butting up against what, by that point, had become conventional methods of training paratroopers. The latter had to learn to land in large groups during the daytime in open country, ready and able to engage in battle immediately. SAS parachutists needed to land in small teams, quietly and at night.

Mayne himself was involved in some of the war’s latter action. Most memorably on 10th April 1945, the push towards Berlin was underway. Near the village of Borgerwald, an SAS unit was ambushed and their commanding officer killed. Mayne took over the Jeep, manning the guns and some say he single-handedly rescued every wounded man by lifting them one by one from a ditch and into his jeep before destroying the enemy gunners in a nearby farmhouse. For this daring feat, he was recommended for the Victoria Cross. The citation was signed off by Field Marshal Montgomery himself but the award would elude Colonel Paddy. He received a 3rd bar on his Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and his name would be remembered as the stuff of legends.

Paddy Mayne’s service with the SAS would end as it began, with his commander Major-General Bob Laycock – who had been the one to recommend him to David Stirling – writing to congratulate him on his DSO:

“My Dear Paddy, “I feel that I must drop you a line just to tell you how very deeply I appreciate the great honour of being able to address, as my friend, an officer who has succeeded in accomplishing the practically unprecedented task of collecting no less than four DSOs. (I am informed that there is another such superman in the Royal Air Force). You deserve all the more, and in my opinion, the appropriate authorities do not really know their job. If they did they would have given you a VC as well. Please do not dream of answering this letter, which brings with it my sincerest admiration a deep sense of honour in having, at one time, been associated with you. Yours ever, Bob Laycock.”

Looking back at his legacy, many have wondered why he didn’t get the Victoria Cross. George VI publicly expressed surprise that Mayne had not been awarded a Victoria Cross. Some say it was because hot-headed Mayne, who’d become Lieutenant Colonel by the end of the war, had punched the second in command in his battalion during one heated exchange. Others say it was down to a technicality - because the raid in question was multiple acts of bravery, not a single act. The official SAS historian Ben Macintyre suggests that Blair Mayne was denied the Victoria Cross either because of his brawling, his anti-Establishment streak or his alleged homosexuality (rumours rather than factually proven it must be stressed). Blair Mayne mistakenly thought Churchill had personally blocked him because of his history of brawling against military superiors and drunken behaviour that perhaps offended Churchill’s purist views of being an officer. The truth seems to be that Churchill was said to have been saddened and shocked by the omission.

In 2005, 50 years after Mayne’s death, an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons supported by 100 MPs, proposed that, “the Government mark these anniversaries by instructing the appropriate authorities to act without delay to reinstate the Victoria Cross given for exceptional personal courage and leadership of the highest order and to acknowledge that Mayne’s actions on that day saved the lives of many men and greatly helped the allied advance on Berlin.” It was defeated.

Perhaps there was no conspiracy though. Some historians of the SAS Regiment have laid out a common-sense case for precisely why one would expect Mayne not to have won the VC: Because doing so required independent witness testimonies of a recipient’s brave deeds from high-ranking officers. Special forces work, by its very nature, made reaching this bar highly unlikely. Heroism would have been commonplace, but, for the most part, it was clandestine and often independent of senior officers.

Mike Sadler, now close to 100 years old, is the last surviving member of the original SAS. His feats of bravery during the war read like a movie script. He was decorated with the French Légion d’honneur at 98 Years old in 2018 . Mike Sadler joined the Long Range Desert Group in 1941 and was based in the North African desert.  Lieutenant David Stirling brought the SAS (Special Air Service) into service, and Mike Sadler was transferred to the new unit when they began launching raids in Libya. He became their top navigator as he had a unique talent for being able to navigate vast expanses of desert, without the aid of maps, to guide the raiding parties to their targets. He also served under Paddy Mayne from 1941 until the end of the war.

I have had the privilege to have met Mike on one or two occasions through both my older brother and father with whom they share a common friendship through military veteran circles (but belonging to different eras). Over a few lunches and dinners over the years, I was hooked on his anecdotes and was full admiration for his exploits.

Most memorably Mike recounted the time that while sitting in a restaurant in Paris surrounded by seven or eight soldiers Paddy Mayne took out a grenade, pulled the pin and placed it on the table. Several dived for cover but Sadler reckoned that Mayne wasn’t about to kill himself. He was right; Paddy had previously removed the detonator.

This atypical story added to the Olympian myth of Paddy Mayne. And yet the grenade incident in the busy café wasn’t the random act of recklessness it sounds like. There was method in the madness. Mayne was making an important point. Whilst responsible for French troops who were part of the Special Air Service Brigade in 1944, he’d been horrified by reports of improper handling of grenades. The French troops simply hadn’t been as familiar with infantry training as they should have been. So Mayne used the incident in the café to show it was possible to completely control a grenade if one knew what they were doing.

Sadler explained that like him all the men who served with Mayne had a huge respect and admiration, drawing from his comforting presence on missions. But for all that Paddy Mayne had no close friends, other than Eoin McGonigal, who helped persuade him to join the SAS and who was killed in the Benghazi raid, the very first SAS operation in 1941.

The sad truth is that Paddy Mayne cut a solitary figure, often to be found reading the darker poetry of AE Housman. Mayne was socially awkward with no idea how to talk to women even though they were attracted to this very big, athletic Irishman. He revered his mother and put women on a pedestal, refusing to tolerate swearing in their presence. He was shy until drink initially loosened his inhibitions but then transported him to far darker places. But for all that he wasn’t reckless with the lives of his men. He weighed up situations, was intuitively brilliant in terms of the guerrilla tactics he employed when orchestrating his night-time raids in customised jeeps deep behind enemy lines initially in Egypt and Libya.

Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne was a fighting legend, and a pitiless killer in war. Even his comrades thought him cold-blooded and overly ruthless. Stirling thought Mayne had gone too far on occasions in killing the enemy. And yet Mayne typified the SAS recruitment policy, whose finds were the “sweepings of prisons and public schools”. In countless missions behind enemy lines, Major Paddy Mayne destroyed more aircraft than any fighter pilot on either side during the course of the war between Britain and Germany. He was to go on and become one of the most decorated British soldiers during the war.

Ben Macintyre, author of ‘Rogue Heroes: an authorised history of the SAS’ wrote: “It is not a story of unalloyed British bulldog heroism. These people were tough as tungsten but they were also human and frail and huge mistakes were made.”

Such men of war are not made for peace time.

Mayne sought further adventure in an Antarctic expedition but had to return home prematurely with a debilitating back condition, the origins of which came from his war service.

He took up a position as secretary to the Law Society of Northern Ireland until, returning from a night’s socialising on December 14th, 1955, he clipped an unlit parked lorry, and crashed into a telegraph pole on the Scrabo road, a few hundred metres from his house. Paddy Mayne died at 40 years old. He is buried in Movilla Abbey graveyard.

Hundreds attended Mayne’s funeral. His life was and continues to be commemorated in books, film. A statue in his native Newtownards stands in his honour. The town’s western bypass is also named after him.

A remarkable and complex character, he crammed a great deal into a life largely spent in the service of others, some of whom would have regarded him as a hero, although he, himself, would not.

King George VI asked Paddy Mayne how it was that he had not received the Victoria Cross, and he answered in a manner that sums up this courageous and remarkable man:

“I served to my best my Lord, my King and my Queen, and none can take that honour away from me.”

[hamsterrivals]

ok, so.

I made a youtube video, of me narrating Ashita no Joe episode 4.

I was wondering for awhile if it would be ok to upload a video that’s just directly an anime episode of Ashita no Joe.

I thought partly, maybe it would be ok, since that anime came out like before 1970 or something so maybe it’s free domain,

but nah. It is blocked. I can’t find the video at all.

but, that isn’t going to stop me..

I will do the impossible, (even though I am depressed, about someone I know. irl)

and narrate Ashita no Joe episode 4.

I made a whole video of me narrating it with my voice. but it’s blocked aaaa. I refuse to let it go, though.

giga..drill...breakeriswhat I’d say but I am too depressed about someone I know irl.

Ok so anyways, this was gonna be a YouTube video, especially cuz-- [had to delete the explanation] anyways here:

[deleted stuff.....] ...

anyways here:

oh shizzat its 4am I’m fluffin’ tired. so I’m just gonna skim the episode and post screenshots argh my foot is pulsating as I type that as if my entire body is thinking “wow I know you re-watched Ashita no Joe episodes again yesterday but you should watch the whole episode again its godly” I’m sorry ewotjwte its just almost 4am and I had to wake up at 10am yesterday.

the opening plays. and then:

that one guy that is like my dad reads about my stuff

Jebus freakin’ RICE I’m tired. But I need to do something productive today cuz after I woke up at 10am for my social worker I was tired and drained all day from hearing the voices of the people upstairs and the noise in the wall.

my dad I mean Danpai keeps reading the newspaper (like how in -- gah nevermind [deleted cuz I’m paranoid about what [NEVERMIND deleted the explanation]] and

my freakin’ dad I mean Danpai gets mad at Joe just like

I DELETED [can’t say] like 8 years ago cuz of that time when I [=/ Can’t say the details]

GOSH DARN IT this is just like something irl and I can’t even say what it is because I’m too paranoid about people [deleted explanation here]

ok so basically Joe is super successful and doing good things in this world but no one believes him cuz his stupid azz danpai adopted dad figure is a dumb bummie, and then

and then I wanna explain 99 lines but we’re not even 2 minutes into the episode, so I guess I have to skip some parts; I mean it is 4am after all

and then

ok so there’s this snobby lady (at the time ? perhaps she changes at the very very very very end but I won’t give any spoilers about how the very final episode goes itjewiot btw I literally watched this anime starting from the very last episode cuz someone said this series has best ending in anime/manga of all time, and then I started back at early episodes after that, when I first watched this however years ago,)

and then

yes we printed this article cuz .. you’re trustworthy and popular but Joe is just an unpopular guy who helps out orphans and gives his money away to help out orphans

ya know how when I watched the first 11 episode with [won’t say but the guy that begins with Sau and ends with ce that I was friends with for 15 years and he kept making fun of it multiple times in the chat saying “More like a shit a joe.”] well these guys are like wow Joe is a delinquent cuz he is helping out orphans

wow Yabuki Joe used an alt account or some shiz and made a complete lie to try to help society for the better like making a peaceful game and then I mean boxing I mean waterver and then

no one believes ni the main character Joe who is LITERALLY helping out local orphans; and they’re basically like just jealous of him and twisting the truth to make him look bad is what these snobby popular people are doing t hat actually have friends unlike the wondering loner Joe Yabuki,

this very popular snobby lady who actually has friends unlike ab- Yabuki Joe doesn’t care that Joe is actually being helpful and wants to make projects that will bring peace to this world, she will not give him a chance because she cares more about appearances and keeping up her reputation.

....She takes on the full pressure and responsibilty. But can she handle it?

they’re basically like “uhhh do you have [deleted in case it comes off as offensive, since I know some others that make fun of that stuff >=\ which I don’t like either cuz I get made fun of [the deleted thing] too . It shouldn’t even have to be deleted >=\ but I was in a [DELETED] and they made fun of [the deleted thing] so I guess it has to be [deleted] which is so sad for this world ??] and so

the really cool person who *doesn’t reveal spoilers of the end of the series aa* says please leave Train- Yabuki Joe to me !!

i have faith in him he totally will not somehow break this faith that I vaguely have in him and am kinda too shy to publicly admit..

I wonder what Joe is feeling like right now and doing:

s o anyways Joe keeps laughing 99 times in this episode, and, cuz he knows he’s right and just helping out orphans and people that aren’t popular and too afraid to join the b- never mind.

some of his followers don’t respond to his long rants and are like maybe he is going too far and should back down fro mthe very popular snobby lady

Yabuki Joe laughs again

he says What’s the matter with you!? Stop siding with the very popular lady that actually has friends and a good reputation who is a stuck up and like do what is right instead of what . will make people think better of you even if you know in your hear that maybe it might be wrong.

The snobby lady posted on Twit- I mean irl the anime known as Ashita no Joe the they posted a screenshot of me saying “I have family.....” and they mocked him saying “Um.... I have family too....?” as her followers mocked Yabuki Joe on twitter in the 1970s anime or something,

but family isn’t what matters, everyone has family,

what matters is that you all still have a poor reputation because you have no friends which I think is 100% ok but the stuck-up lady who hates Joe for some reason atm just cares about how they’re rich in [deleted snarky remarks] reputation.

stop caring about the dislikes and haters and appreciate the supporters that you do have;;.

yabuki Joe says F THE HATERS THIS IS Just the beginning of [would say but I wanna here but X_X; [deleted the reason why I won’t] because of [deleted] because of [deleted]]

,y gpa; s 1 million followers cuz then they at least know what is right

in this world.

and then joe is like

and then;

then he’s like yea in my heart I know its good to have that many followers cuz I know the true true truth about Yabuki Joe the anime and manga character from Ashita no Joe, he just wants that many followers to program an indie game about- I mean anyways

they say

[OK WHAT THEH ECK I SERIOUSLY DID RECORD A VIDEO OF ME JUST NARRATING THIS ENTIRE EPISODE AND I uploaded it yesterday on a video sharing site but it is blocked cuz of copyrighted content aaa even though this was from before  1970 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa now I gotta explain in text instead of voice like I already did last night AAAAAAAAAAaa]

they say But what would you do with that much power, that many internet I mean irl followers in 197o in Ashita no Joe the anime/manga series?

and then Yabuki Joe says teh

then he’s like What the gosh darn shiz in yoshville mans,

and then

and they’re like Look Yabuki Joe lives in a Terrible place with Terrible living conditions wher e brick dust keeps falling down and then

and like Joe has no problems like getting kawaii innocent ppl to follow him, but the others are a bit suspicious.. of Joe and his behavior..

Joe is like i’m gonna build a huge online hamster game soon.

and then someone tells Abu in tumblr messages I mean they tell

Someone tells Yabuki Joe as you can see if you flippin’ watch the episode yourself (I don’t blame you. I hope someone will check this series out, though. It’s my favorite anime series, to be honest.) anyways and then someone from his fandom of - anyways someone says

He’s so full of himself.

I guess you suffer from delusions of grandeur?

the bully who is even in the same exact fandom as ab- Yabuki Joe of being an orphan says that, and because they’re so big inside, people blindly listen to them.

the true actual innocent follower that knows trainerab- Yabuki Joe is actually honest and truthful is like, wow shut the fak up brah, and then:

Then the “Are you sure you don’t suffer from delusions of grandeur?” doubtful follower who is keeping an eye on Ab-Yabuki Joe I mean and watching over him to try to keep the orphanage safe falsely then says “This is a clown. See this clown? Abu is hiring th I mean Yabuki Joe had this younger person defend him” Wow and then

one of the only innocent ppl in this show besides Yabuki Joe and a bunch of later characters in this series in later episodes that happen soon, know Joe really is telling the truth and that he really is honest and she’s pizzed awf at that hater troll person trying to Provoke joe and such on [deleted] anime & manga series Ashita no Joe the anime/manga series, and then

then they’re like, uh oh maybe Joe does have some loyal followers who know the real truth and we should hold our distance and see what he does and what he is truly like, first, and then

so, then

so then Yabuki Joe shows them their steam profile and the gam I mean the BY- I mean

Joe is like ok I played retro games my whole life and watched cool cartoons like the Rugrats and I play cool games and twisted trolls like the snobby girl try to make it look like I “change my interests to appease others” but come into my YouTube channel office and c the truth that I really DID play a lot of SNES games and then

I mean Yabuki Joe says this is my office and this is where I live,

I live in a factory that rains brick dust,

and then,

AND THEN I WANNA NARRATE THIS ENTIRE EPISODE BUT IT IS FREAKIN’ 4:35am and I gotta get up soon

I mean I flippin’ already narrated this entire episode and commented on it etc. and made a cool video of it but YouTube blocked it AAAAAAAA even tho it was an anime made in

1970 I thought it would be free domain by now and o.k. to upload a video of it to YouTube with audio commentary GOSH AAAaaaa GOSH I WANNA NARRATE THE WHOLE EPISODE

AS I SAID IN THE youtube video that is blocked on YouTube I think it is a requirement cuz like it really pejeroyjoirjyorejijioe

ok have a nice night.

[canid-slashclaw]

The Outliers - A Guildwars Love Story

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8

Chapter 9

The following morning was cool and breezy. Kaleb slept off the effects of the alcohol and was - for the most part - sober. A couple of his buddies helped him get home without any issue and he managed to sneak back inside without his parents even being aware. He was also well aware that if his parents found out he had come home drunk, he would never have heard the end of it.

Kaleb made his way to downtown Claypool hoping to find the library. To his fortune he found that the building lay adjacent to the town college. He approached closer and could see throngs of students bustling in and out of the revolving doors, clumsily bumping into each other as they tried to squeeze into the all-too-narrow passageway.

On more than one occasion, his knees almost slammed into the faces of a couple of Asuran exchange students. As expected, they uttered a slew of perfunctory insults that were aimed at his large size.

Just what the hell is a 'booka' anyway? He pondered as he made his way past the librarian and towards the cataloging directory.

His eyes carefully scanned the various topics. There were certain ones he was specifically looking for, but was a bit too embarrassed to ask.

Non-fiction section - aisles 10 through 20;

    Reproduction - aisle 15.   

    Romance - aisle 17.

He discreetly made his way towards aisle fifteen hoping to find some information. Scanning the titles, looked to see if anything matched what he was looking for.

Human reproduction, The Human Reproductive Cycle, Stress on the Human Reproductive System.

No, no, and nothing. He thought as he perused more titles.

Mating habits of Asuran.

Close but not quite. Let's see... cee, cee, cee. Ca, ce, ch. Change... Charge... Charr. That's it!

Charr: their Ecology, Physiology and Reproductive Cycle.

Mating Rituals of the Charr. Vol. XI.

Bingo!

He began to quickly flip the pages until he saw the topic he had been looking for. Interleaved amongst the Krytan text were several poorly drawn illustrations of what appeared to be two oversized cats in a mating position. As he began to read some of the text, he suddenly heard being called by an all-too familiar voice.

"Kal! Just what are you doing in a library of all places?"

Quickly snapping the oversized book shut, Kaleb turned around to face the individual in question.

"Oh. Uh. Hi Rachel. Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

"Hello, I'm between classes, moron! What are you doing here anyway? Mom sending you here to check on me?" His sister said sarcastically.

As he started to back away hoping she wouldn't see the incriminating book, he heard another sharp voice coming from below.

"Watch it! Clumsy bookah!"

The irate asuran darted right by him, its floppy ears brushing up against his hip.

"Sorry," he said as he tried to hide the book from yet another set of potentially prying eyes.

"Hey Glempt. Did ya find that book Ella was talking about?"

The small male elevated his oversized head then crossed his arms in a haughty gesture. "Hmph! I have come to the inescapable conclusion that dear miss Ella has been endeavoring every attempt to set me up for ruin. That girl will stop at nothing to be at the top of the class."

"Eh. No worries. You beat her out on the last exam. She can go suck on her pride."

"Okay. I gotta scat," Kaleb said as he made every effort to hide the book from his sister and the snooty Asuran. "Nice to meet you, Glempt."

"We never did..." the asuran replied arrogantly.

"Kal. What's the book in your hand anyway? Lemme see it!" She pleaded.

"It's nothing really. Just checking out a couple of books on culinary cuisines, that's all. Really boring stuff."

Kaleb knew his back was against a proverbial wall.

"Cuisines in the reproduction aisle? Um. You're just weird!"

Glempt turned around to look at the oversized human. "Charr: their Ecology, Physiology and Reproductive Cycle. Volume Eight is decidedly missing from the repository. I happened to observe the gap between the other titles. And. Ohh. The Mating Rituals of the Charr. Vol. XI. appears to have absconded as well. Very interesting!"

Nosey little big-eared twit! Kaleb thought to himself as he felt the walls closing in around him.

"Reproductive cycles of charr? Charr mating rituals? Ewww! That's just gross!"

"Shut your pie-hole, sis!" Kaleb snapped.

"Well. It is quite easy for me to deduce that your elder sibling is a bona fide pervert. I'm leaving!"

"Watch it bud! Otherwise I'll knock those shark teeth out of that fat head of yours!"

Moments later, the librarian came rushing over as she pointed her finger at the bickering trio.

"All of you... hush right this instant! Don't you people know where you are? I could practically hear you all the way down the hall. The next time any of you says anything above a whisper, I'm going to ask you to leave. Am I clear?"

Kaleb nodded. "Yes ma'am."

Rachel and the asuran nodded as well.

By the time the bickering was over, Kaleb had checked out some additional books, mostly on subjects involving cuisines and wagon making. He didn't want to give those who saw what he was checking out the wrong impression. As he got to the checkout desk, he noticed his sister standing behind him with her own set books. She made numerous ugly faces whenever he looked her way.

"Your card, sir." The librarian asked in a shrill, monotone voice.

Kaleb frisked his pockets then quickly realized that he didn't even have a card.

"I can't seem to locate it. Anyway, I can register for one?"

"Didn’t you mean to say, may I? But yes… a card will take three days to process. Do you have a valid ID?" The librarian was quick to correct Kaleb’s grammatical faux pas. 

"No." He huffed.

"I'm sorry, sir. Without a proper ID, you cannot check out any of these books."

"Oh. Come on, ma'am. Yer talking to a local war hero here! Practically everyone in town knows who I am. Surely you know who I am, right?"

"You are holding up the line, sir. I will say this once more: you will need..."

Kaleb abruptly finished her sentence for her. "I know, I know. ...a proper ID, yadda, yadda, yadda."

"Rawarrr!" Rachel giggled while making a catcalling noise.

"Just stop it Rae!"

"Okay. Never mind, then. Sorry for wasting your time, ma'am."

As Kaleb was about to leave, his younger sister suddenly grabbed his stack of books then presented the librarian her ID card. She then looked up at him with a devilish grin.

"He's my brother. Here you go ma'am. I'll check them out for him," she said as she set her own books on top of the ones he wanted to check out.

Her older brother looked at her skeptically wondering what kind of angle she was trying to play.

"You're being generous all of the sudden. What's your game, sis?"

She just smiled and grinned. "Nothing."

As the Grimwald siblings left the library, Rachel shoved the books he wanted to check out straight into his midsection. "Here! You can have these nasty books. Pervert!"

"Rawarrrrrr! Rarrrwww!"

"By the wrath of Balthazar, that's annoying! You weren't being generous back there, were you? What's your angle?"

Rachel walked coyly beside her big brother and grimaced. "You muck out the stalls and clean out the troughs from now on."

"Or what? Tell mom?"

"That you've been checking out kitty porn? Try me!"

"You wouldn't dare."

"Rawarrr!"

"Maybe I should convince my new girlfriend to eat you. At least I won't have to put up with anymore of this nonsense," Kaleb said with a chuckle.

"So you admitted it. She is your girlfriend!"

"Not in the way you are thinking, sis. Our relationship is purely platonic. Do you even know what that big word even means?"

"Duh! Of course I do. So why the dirty books?"

"They aren't dirty. They're educational."

"Sure they are. Uh, huh. Whatever you say, brother." His sister gave a snarky laugh.

Kaleb grabbed her by her shoulder then pulled her in for a hug. "Y'know... in spite of being a royal pain in the backside, I still love ya, sis. Don't you forget it."

Giving him a slight hug in return, Rachel pressed up against his chest as she pointed towards a refreshment shop down the road. "Have you tried their beverages? They are out of this world!"

"Come to think of it, I could go for a little snack myself."

When they arrived home, Kaleb opened the front door for his sister. As she walked in, he leaned close to her ear and said in a hushed tone. "You promise not to tell our folks about those books."

"Promise to do my chores, then."

"Deal."

"Okay. Deal."

Rachel turned to her brother as she picked some flax seeds out of her teeth. "Yanno. I kinda felt self-conscious about eating that salad that I had ordered from that sylvari clerk. It felt like I was eating her cousin."

Kaleb couldn't help but laugh at his sister's comment as he commented. "I will never look at a salad the same way again."

[jainarden-blog]

A Little Bit Of Organization Wouldn’t Hurt A Bit

Today is a searching and researching online day for an end to the endless clutter I have lived with FOREVER! I am so ready to clear the decks both physically/mentally and offline/online and get to some #extremeproductivity.

This is going to involve a lot of thinking and a lot of trying out things to streamline it into this no-fluff ecosystem I am dreaming about, even as I am typing this. A big part of this is to go paperless and also to start using my IOS phone a lot more. The below may seem like a lot of places but the object of my game is to have places to put things where I can go back and retrieve them. My mind and life goes so fast a lot of the time that the clutter, even when it is just mental has a tendency to pile up and to overwhelm me. By clearing physical mess (most importantly paper) and mental overflow, I can create the space I need to be the best me. Two big goals are time to do online study and being fit mind and body.

Read on for tools and thoughts about them:

Tumblr - Reasons for Tumblr: braindumps, writing habit, connection my introvert heart desires at times, and ease of use. Tumblr is good just to write or to spend time reading. I find a lot of the people on Tumblr are pretty deep, creative and wildly entertaining. Tumblr is a good place for introverts.

Saved.io - to try and curb the worthless habit of saving fifty trillion bookmarks and adding to them daily without ever really delving into those websites or using them. No extensions for this. You just add saved.io after the http:// or https:// and to make folder (tags/labels) put a name in front of .saved.io. Super easy. Sign up for an account and have an online spot for bookmarking your heart out

Google Keep - I need something to take down my own thoughts in a browser as I am surfing/researching and do not want to make a big deal out of it. There is a Chrome extension or you can right-click to add notes with tags. Braindumps and a place to satisfy data pack-rat urges. Follows the line of thinking that I am using Google for a lot of things and it’s already there anyway.

Google Calendar - I have multiple Google accounts but one where all my emails and appointments go. I synced this as my main calendar on IOS instead of the default calendar. One calendar to rule them all! Same for the one gmail. There is also an extension to add events quickly, along with the right click option.

Feedbro - RSS feed reader - too bad Google did away with theirs. This takes away some bookmarks for favorite sites/blogs and gives me an easy and fast way to know that I am keeping up with things that are important to me. Clicking the extension lets you “Find feeds on this page,” save feeds and also to open up your feedreader. Feeds can be categorized into folders.

LastPass - I have used this for years on my computers. It is the best password keeper as far as I am concerned. AND FREE! Today, I put it on my phone. I cannot say enough about how great this tool is for your information.

Scanbot - app for scanning in documents by taking a pic of them. This will definitely come in handy for those on-the-go document situations. Things like bills, manuals, purchase papers, etc. I have at home will, most of the time, be scanned in using my printer’s scanner.

Bullet Journal (BuJo) - my offline to-do / to-did and short journal things. I have one for me and one for my computer. The one for my computer has already saved me this year when I was trying to figure out what program was conflicting with another. My memory was helped by my documentation on what programs I had downloaded and when. I also document computer problems: what happened and what helped. Everything in one book - I think everyone should have one of these and I am surprised I never thought of it before this year. My personal BuJo is not one of internet proportions. I tried that and failed miserably and lost all site of what the book was supposed to be for to begin with. I ditched the trying to make it pretty and doing weekly/monthly spreads. I am back to the original version that Carroll Ryder set forth with his inspiration and am a thousand times better for it. This is something I can hold in my hands and look back on from time to time to see exactly how my time on earth went.

SimpleNote - I have a Reminder label in this for to-do’s, but I mostly just write to-do’s on the calendar or on a post-it/index card to throw away. I also document to-do/to-did’s in my personal BuJo. No this program is going to be something I use for some time, I do believe. I decided I am going to document work with this, especially conversations. I never remember the specifics in time so this will be my second work brain. Tags will be people (initials, first name, or my nickname for them). I can then go back to specific conversations that I want to refresh myself on and also for people notes such as date of birth, family (kid/husband/wife name), and/or specific things about them. Also, dates of meetings, project dates,etc. This is in its infancy - I have high hopes for this going forward.

AirTable - This website/app has high potential. I really like that it is set up like an Excel spreadsheet. I have projects set up in it for tracking daily spending, pantry inventory, gifts, etc. etc. etc. This is so customizable!!!! In my pantry list, I can add columns to be able to know what my lowest price on an item was - so in essence, a pantry checker with a price book included. I figure the way I use it will grow as I get used to it and find its value.

mySymptoms -  $$ App for tracking your health. This is the one thing I paid for. I can’t wait to get enough stuff in it for a good PDF download. It is customizable to you, just like the AirTable. You can add/delete the things you want to track and there is a big list of them: drinks, food, medications, supplements, mood, symptoms, bowel, energy, sleep, stress, exercise, environment, and other. Some of these can be extra helpful for people who struggle with certain diseases or triggers. This is certainly a make-it-all-about-you app that can show correlations between a factor(s) causing another factor(s). Or even for people who forget when or how long they took medications or supplements. In my new found goal of creating a life that serves my health - this one is a winning part of it. I will be a participant in my healthcare.

Instagram - because, at times, I like to take photos of food and things I see that I like. And because, I hate Facebook. IG also gives me an easy way to change the way the photos look and share back to myself for other uses and ways to share my account online with my online people-ha. Braindump for photos.

Twitter - because it’s fun... and sometimes informative. Twitter is the quick connection to the rest of the world and let’s anyone fit into it. My favorite parts of the twit are hashtag and whatever “new episode” tv show I am watching. It’s fun to join in with whatever other people think of an episode and throw your two cents in too. I never feel like I am sitting at my house alone on Friday & Saturday nights with #livepd. With the added gifs on posts, it can get quite hilarious.

GoodReads - This is hooked up to my Amazon account and my Amazon account is hooked up to my local library account through Overdrive. So... free books. I read every night on my Kindle app (you can read in your browser too). The books are automatically added to my GoodReads account. At this time, I am 8 books ahead on my goal to read 100 books this year. 

Listal - As for movies, the best site I have found is Listal. You can tag, star and make lists for the movies/tv you watch (along with books, products, people, dvds, and games, if you wish). Many members do a Halloween movie list each year.

Pinterest - this place fulfills my yearnings to save a million quotes, presented in a pretty way and is the easiest way to make kick ass vision boards. I have multiple boards for this very thing: HouseVB, ClothesVB, ThingsVB and so on.

This is the big starting out list. I didn’t want to leave anything out because I need to be clear on what I am really using and be consistent on what accounts I use for what services. Pinterest may be a big black hole, but once set up with mostly productive boards, I can relax knowing that they are helping me visualize the things I want while also letting me do something that is fun (even if sometimes just losing time surfing the internet).The same with Twitter and Instagram. They are black holes for time. But this way they are serving a purpose of entertainment and braindumps to clear the way for good space in my life. I will follow up with this as being productive online is both an important topic for me and also a much needed topic discussion. In my research, I wish more people would post about their systems to help the rest of us out :D

[grim-you-fuck]

21 Things Tag

I’m catching up with the recent load of tags! I was tagged by the delightful @jencala and @mischiefpuff !! Thank you my lovelies!

Rules: answer 21 questions then tag 21 people

Nickname(s): My blood family call me Boo (or Boogie), my Chosen Family call me Bub, BB (Brat Boy) and my partner calls me a lot of pet names, plus “Dingle” 

Zodiac: Aquarius 

Height: 5ft ...7″??? I think? Maybe more, Maybe less lmao 

Last movie I saw: The Woman in Black? I think? Charlie-Bub and I rewatched it on our anniversary lmao. 

Last thing I googled: “Where is the new Pomeranian Pup Cafe?” 

Favorite Musician: Currently: A.C.E, Forever: Pink Floyd 

Song stuck in my head: A.C.E - Take me Higher, and Hwasa - TWIT

Other blogs: NSFW: ruinedsalad, witchy stuff: substitute-witches, Writer ref stuff: qwertyandquills. 

Followers: 324... Where the fuck did you all come from, last time I looked I was at like 270???? 

Following: 623 (I’ve been here a while and have a lot of interests lmao) 

Amount of sleep: Last night: Lots, normally: not a lot

Lucky numbers: 7 

Dream job: Narrative Designer, Published Author (it WILL happen) 

What I’m wearing: pyjamas cos I just got back from a walk and was SOAKED. [p.s. wet jeans are gross and must always be replaced with snuggly clothes] 

Favorite food: Spicy stuff

Language: English (I used to be able to speak fairly decent Japanese, but have since forgotten it - I’m slowly picking up Korean thanks to my partner) 

Can I play an Instrument: I played the clarinet to grade 8, and I’m mediocre at guitar and ukulele. (I also played the flute for a while)  

Favorite song: I have a favourite song for each mood of each day of the week! Currently, lets go with Hwasa: TWIT, but the song that is most meaningful for me is Pink Floyd’s Wish you were here. 

Random Fact: I developed a text adventure game (first chapter can be found here: anexerciseinmadess 

Describe yourself in aesthetic things: pastel fuck boy, coffee, borrowed clothes, witchy tattoos, fluffy hair, and blankets, sweater paws, piercings, backwards snapbacks, the gay agenda

Most of my tumblr fam have been tagged, but if you haven’t go ahead!! 

[true0neutral]

OC Interview Meme

Tagged by @lindira

Tagging @daddywarbats, @pixelblitzer, @bloodredrook, @malfyre, @hyperewok1, @fauxfire76, @miaaoi, and anyone else who would like to do this!

Witness, Hazel Hearthheart, my Life Domain Cleric of Pelor!

1. What is your name?

“Hazel. Hazel Hearthheart.”

2. What is your real name?

"It’s still Hazel. Only way that’s changing is if the bitch that originally had me came up with something and didn’t say anything.”

3. Do you know why you were called that?

"I’m called Hazel because Mom and Momma gave me that name when I was given to them by the stuck up elf-bitch that gave birth to me.”

4. Are you single or taken?

"Single, but interested in a certain someone. Possibly more than one someone now, I think?”

5. Have any abilities or powers?

“I’m a Cleric of Pelor in His Life Domain. I channel my faith into divine magic and I’m pretty handy with a warhammer. Also a spear, and a crossbow. Plus all that time running circles around the temple in increasingly heavier armors got me really used to it all and I think I can almost cartwheel in the clanky stuff!

6. Stop being a Mary Sue.

“A what?”

7. What’s your eye color?

“They’re a sorta amber-brown.”

8. How about your hair color?

“Dark brown. The bow Mom and Momma gave me compliments it really well!”

9. Have you any family members?

“My elf-mom was a massive stuck up bitch and didn’t even give me a name. I only got my name when I was 5 years old and she gave me to Twilly and Miranda Heartheart, Mom and Momma. They kinda adopt all sorts of kids so the family’s a bit big. There’s Conn; he’s half-orc, travels a lot ‘cause he’s a merchant, 25 years old. Andri; half-elf and VEEEERRRY pretty,  lives in the city of Belarys, 22 years old,. After that there’s me at 18 years, and then the younger kids starting with  Keth; half-orc like Conn, 15 years old. Ramas; half-elf like me, 14 years old. Mella; same as Ramas, 12 years old. Oskar Balderk; dwarf, 10 years old. Dawn; half-orc, 8 years old. Skylar; half-elf and looking to be a Paladin of Bahamut, 6 years old. Evan Deadeye; gnome and really really sneaky in the awesome way, 4 years old. Lissi Riverrun; human, 13 years old. Candor; tiefling 10 years old. Last but not least at all even though she’s really small is Geloe, she’s a pixie, no idea how old she is.

10. Oh? What about pets?

“Well, we’ve got Noop who’s this really big yellow cat. Then there’s Sunshine the yellow Fairie Dragon, he’s technically Lira’s but he took a shine to Evan so he’s moved in with Mom, Momma, and everyone else. Finally there’s Flitty, who’s a bl-well, green now, Fairie Dragon. He had the same liking for “poket ‘ventures!” as Sunshine but decided to follow me and Darvin and Froseth and Remi, and Nai, and Ava around instead of just staying at Hearthhome.

11. That’s cool I guess, now tell me about something you don’t like.

“Elves who are up themselves, gossipy twits, really really scary governers of Equitas when they’re mad, blasphemy, and asshats in general!”

12. Do you have any hobbies/activities you like doing?

“Being with my family, being with my friends, adventuring are the main ones. There’s also...um....a few I learned about more recently. It’s personal stuff!

13. Ever hurt anyone before?

“Yes, mostly self-defense and the usual adventuring things but sometimes by accident ‘cause I flail.”

14. Ever… killed anyone before?

“Yes. Again, self-defense and adventuring related. If someone’s attacking you you kinda have to hit them back.”

15. What kind of animal are you?

“I’m...a half-elf? Though I got turned into a bunny at least once.”

16. Name your worst habits.

“I flail. A lot. Mentally and physically. The people training me at the temple tried to solve that by having me carry really heavy things and run around in armor and stuff.”

17. Do you look up to anyone at all?

“To Mom, and Momma, and Conn, and Andri, and the group I’m adventuring with, and Clarity.”

18. Gay, straight, or bisexual?

“Lesbian.”

19. Do you go to school?

“Mostly learned what I know from Lira, the local Cleric of Pelor back home, then I spent some time trying to learn at the temple of Pelor on Mt. Pelor. Now I learn as I go. ”

20. Do you ever want to marry and have kids one day?

“Maybe, but probably the way Mom and Momma do, adopting them and keeping Hearthhome going.”

21. Do you have any fanboys/fangirls?

“I have really good friends. Does that count?”

22. What are you most afraid of?

“My family and friends and home getting hurt.”

23. What do you usually wear?

“I got some pretty basic amor, but the main piece is this chestplate made by Jenna, who’s a Forge Domain cleric and several kinds of awesome!”

24. Do you love someone?

“Yes. Several people. Some in one way, others another way.”

25. When was the last time you wet yourself?

"NOPE!”

26. Well, it’s not over yet!

“What?”

27. What class are you? (High class, middle class, low class)

“I’m a farm girl, so I think that’s low class? Buuuuut I’m also an adventurer so that’s got me a bit more all over the place and most of the money I make is gonna get sent home so I dunno.”

28. How many friends do you have?

“Clarity, Darvin, Froseth, Remi, Nai, Ava, Kezia, and a few people around the town Hearthhome sits near.”

29. What are your thoughts on pie?

“Pie is awesome! Just, eating too much at once does bad things.”

30. Favourite drink?

“Ale, Mead, anything Kezia picks, the awesome stuff I had in Belarys and this one drink Nai called a ‘Strawberry Occupied’.”

31. What’s your favourite place?

“Hearthhome!”

32. Are you interested in someone?

“Um...well...I like Clarity a lot, but there’s also Kezia aaaaaaand it’s complicated okay!”

33. What’s your bra cup size and/or how big is your willy?

“Nope! NOPENOPENOPE!

34. Would you rather swim in the lake or the ocean?

“Either works, swimming is awesome!”

35. What’s your type?

“People who are kind to others and willing to put up with my flail.”

36. Any fetishes?

“What?”

37. Seme or uke? Top or Bottom? Dominant or Submissive?

“Also what?”

38. Camping or indoors?

“I like indoors if I can have it but Mom and Momma gave the group this tent so outdoors is also cool!”

39. Are you wanting the interview to end?

“Why are you asking?”

40. Now it’s over!

"Oh, okay.”

[2bstudioblog]

Thoughts on Composer forums, no more negativity...

But before we begin, let’s make it a straight and clear... I don't want to out anybody, but I guess it isn't news because we are all aware that these community/forum problems/people exists, no matter the content or platform.

In the community of film-composers, game-music composers, Audio-directors, Sound-designers and perhaps music supervisors, the film-composer forum/community has been one of the first stepping stones to help and most of all build new relationships with people in the industry.

I’ve always had the image of this community to be about being equal, nobody was above or below, but talking to each other on the level. All that was required to enter was 1 IMDB credit (Internet Movie Data Base), get it verified and then you were in this very exclusive groups.

But so far, the idea was sound, we started to establish a group of a mix of westerners and Japanese composers, and the idea was to share ideas, help people who wants to break into the Japanese scene and the AAA-gaming industry. However, we only had a few meetups and 2 of them happened in a very interesting place in Korean Town in Tokyo. We ended up in the home of former On Tour QUEEN Keyboardist Morgan Fischer, who in turn was one of the first names I remember on an instruction manual for the Yamaha DX7. The first gathering brought about 7-8 members and we talked, showed each other what we do and then we enjoyed general talk, jamming and had a lot of fun. There I also ran into another young guy, who just scored an iPAD app. Let’s call him R2.

A few months later I was contacted by someone from the U.K community chapter, a young lad, with ideas on how things should be and he asked me if we should meet up and talk a little bit since he knew I’ve written music for Resident Evil 6 at this point, so I felt honored and thought let’s help each other out. Let’s call this guy D2.

D2 is now at first glance, I thought he was an OK guy, and I showed him around the city, we talked a little about ourselves and then I had to get back to my ordinary job as a teacher afterwards. He’s very focused on keeping up a fashion and to look cool... all the time. At this I didn’t really care, but I told him that if you want to have a chance at pitching to get into the industry, perhaps he should meet one of my agents. So I arranged that, brought him over to the agency, took about 1 hour, sitting down talking to one of the toughest and impressive women in the industry. She asked about his ambitions and why he was in Japan for a casual tourist visit and in the end the question came: - “What game would you like to write music for in the future?” -”Metal Gear...” was his answer.

He already told me before the meeting that he always wanted to work on a MGS project but I felt a little bit guilty but I told D2: -”I can’t guarantee anything about the chances of getting that kind of gig as a first from that agency. But they’ll try to find something up your alley.” The agent said that would be hard one to get him into because they only like to work with established artists on their MGS franchise, so getting it would seem to be impossible at this point, since we didn’t know that it was being developed at the moment, or so it had been in secret.

He returned back to Europe and I was on my own again. But we promised that we’d follow each other on the platforms and he said he’d try to promote me to get a few more followers on twitter (Duh, he didn’t, naive as usual.) and give a shout-out on his “incredible” YouTube channel devoted to his brand of a software/kontakt library creator. Nothing came to fruition on that front. I sure did give him a shout-out and told people about him, but I got nothing in return.

A few months later he returns and he decides to meet with me again, so I thought, what is it this time? Well, turns out he was back in Tokyo again for a business meeting or something, however he also met someone last time he was in Tokyo and decided to say hi to his girlfriend.  So we all 3 went out to a cafe in Shinjuku area and we sat down and talked about film, games and music since we all were kinda in that industry. But since I know he is passionate about “EPIC” music as he would call it, we (me and his girlfriend) started to talk about Star Wars and he was .... incredibly ignorant. I told him, if you want to hear EPIC music, these are the films you have to see.

I told him: -“John Williams is the reason I am here. The reason I started to do film-scoring and bringing that into cinematic games like Resident Evil 6.” -”Who's John Williams? Never heard of him...” was his response.

Me and his girlfriend were completely flabbergasted of this guys total ignorance of a film-defining classic that changed film-music for science-fiction, approaching it with an operatic execution, giving characters themes, music that flowed with the action like those old golden-era film styles, but modernized for a new generation of movie-goers. It was the biggest risk, bringing in an orchestra for a sci-fi fantasy, but it paid off. Orchestral music was COOL again. Without John Williams, we wouldn’t have one of the first hybrid-action scores in Return of the Jedi with big thick synthbasses in Jabba’s Palace for that ominous uncertain character that turned out to be Leia unfreezing Han Solo from his carbonation chamber. Minimal amount of synth, but it was there.

The ignorance of D2 started to show. But I didn’t want that to be the moment, so I told his girlfriend to sit down and watch those films together. Not sure if they did, but it was here I started to feel the “British twit” mentality, the “I am better than thou”, the “I’m in my 20′s and I have already figured out the meaning of life...” All he had was his own business back home generating the dough in making sample-based kontakt-libraries. Good on him.

Then a few month’s later, I saw something on his YouTube channel that really started to kill my vibe for the dude. Whenever when I work for big companies like Konami, Capcom or Sega, I always sign an NDA. That mean’s I’m not allowed to record or show off my work for projects that are in progress. But here he is, talking about his cues he’s composing in real-time on YouTube. My first thought was, maybe I should tell anybody about this, but I don’t want to be a buzz-kill. I decided I didn’t want to butt in. Perhaps he would learn something from that mistake. Or did he?

A few months later D2 came back, now the game was pretty much in it’s final stages and he decided to meet me up together with R2 and we went out to yet another cafe, talking about software and stuff. Before we even met up with R2, D2 started to ask me if I had any registration keys for some software he didn’t own... I’m now getting even more confused. Is he asking me for pirate copies??? I just can’t make this one slide, so I’ll just stay quiet. R2 shows up, they start to make fun out of my English, my use of words in fun ways. I know the Britt’s and the Australians share the dry word humor, but I told them that I really like to perform on real hardware and twisting knobs for cutoff filters and stuff. All they wanted was to make fun out of me using the words “I like to turn knobs” (English slang for wanking off people, not my intention since we are talking about synthesizers...) R2 however was sucking up to D2 due to his huge following on YouTube and Twitter, so my point of view was completely irrelevant for R2. I had made valid points, but D2 shot me down, R2 is right behind him like a narcissists flying monkey.

This was the moment where I felt I should distance myself from D2 for trying to acquire pirate software keys, asking me if I had any cool software etc. He’s bloody rich. He should buy the software like everyone else, especially guys like me. I pulled a small ploy and pretended I got a phone-call from an agency going;

*hanging up the phone* -”...Sorry guys, it’s seems to me something important has just landed in my lap and I have to leave you here, but I wish you all good on your ventures. Take care and talk to you guys later.”

From that moment, I was just exhausted from R2 and D2. They are a perfect fit for each other. But the ignorance and bluntness from D2 lost all of his credibility for me and I just said to myself quietly I just have to keep fighting my own battle in an uphill, serving D2 with the best kind of courtesy I’ve learned from the Japanese and being shit on in the process. He doesn't respect many of us, so I’ll now don’t give a damn.... I need closure. And with a snap of my fingers, all the bad went away.

After leaving these thoughts to you, I’m ready to let go and start a new future in the land of music production. But one thing is for sure, I'm done with the charade.

Of course there are times when enough is enough. And I've had enough.

[the-desolated-quill]

Mummy On The Orient Express - Doctor Who blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

Here I go, stepping into the unknown. I’ve never seen any episodes past Kill The Moon and I really didn’t know what to expect. It couldn’t possibly get any worse than that surely?

So this came as a rather pleasant surprise.

You’d think an episode titled Mummy On The Orient Express would be destined for failure. It just sounds too gimmicky for words. There’s a mummy on the Orient Express... in space! And yet somehow it works. It fact it works better than the majority of Series 8 has done until now. So kudos to Jamie Mathieson for doing such a stellar job.

Okay, so it’s set on the Orient Express... in space, and there’s a mummy onboard called the Foretold that only certain people can see, and when you clap eyes on it, you only have 66 seconds left to live. That’s an immensely creepy idea and they use it to great effect. Whoever designed that mummy deserves a fucking pay rise. It’s without a doubt the scariest thing ever to come out of New Who. When it first showed up, I actually screamed! The attention to detail is extraordinary, from the old bandages to the rotting, decomposing flesh. The gangly height of the actor playing him helps too. A lot of the shots are from a first person perspective, so when it reached out to the camera, I found myself instinctively leaning away from my TV. Even the Orient Express setting contributes to the horror. The tight, claustrophobic corridors of the train really bumps up the fear factor even further.

A lot of Mummy On The Orient Express has quite a classic series vibe to it. Obviously there’s the whole base under siege stuff, which has been a staple of Doctor Who since the beginning of recorded time, but there’s other things too like the mystery angle, the Doctor and the companion splitting up so that the story ends up becoming a two pronged narrative, the Doctor being suspected of being behind the killings (although thankfully it doesn’t last long), and the episode actually jumping straight to the heart of the action rather than wasting time on angsty ruminating like previous episode have done this series. There’s even a moment where the Doctor offers jelly babies. There are a few elements of New Who in here too, most notably the Evil Capitalist villain who wants to control the monster, but this really feels like a well executed homage to Classic Who. I could imagine Tom Baker’s Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith feeling right at home here.

But we don’t have Tom Baker. We have Peter Capaldi. How does he do?

I feel what’s really been letting Capaldi down is the scripts. The writers just can’t seem to make up their minds what direction they want to take this Doctor. Moffat keeps saying he’s darker and more serious, but then we get episodes like Robot Of Sherwood and The Caretaker where they try to incorporate quirky humour that just doesn’t suit this type of Doctor at all. It’s like putting a party hat on top of a skeleton. Thankfully Jamie Mathieson seems to have a better grip on what kind of Doctor he’s writing for here. The humour is a lot better here and while the Doctor is still eccentric, it’s been toned down quite a bit. For instance the way he offers the jelly babies is more casual and nonchalant. It’s noticeably strange, but at the same time it’s not so goofy it’s distracting. And there are some genuinely funny lines, which Capaldi delivers perfectly. My favourite is probably when he confronts the mummy at the end:

“Hello! I’m the Doctor and I’ll be your victim for this evening. Are you my mummy?”

I also got a kick out of the whole mystery shopper scene:

“I could do with an extra pillow and I’m very disappointed with your breakfast bar, and all the dying.”

It’s quirky, but it’s not too quirky. It’s pitched at just the right level so that it works for this particular Doctor.

But what I especially like is the callousness of this Doctor. When characters are being picked off one by one by the mummy, the Doctor is more concerned with getting more information about the Foretold rather than helping or comforting the victims. He’s not in the least bit apologetic like Nine or Ten would be. He just wants to find out as much about the mummy as he can from this death in the hopes that he can prevent the next one. At one point he even goes as far as to get Clara to trick Maisie into coming to the carriage so that he can seemingly sacrifice her to the mummy for more information (later we learn this was just a ruse, but it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility. I could imagine this Doctor doing something like that). It’s very dark indeed and Clara is clearly appalled by this, accusing him of being heartless, but that’s not really true. If the Doctor really was heartless and uncaring, then yeah, this would just be horrible, but the reason it works is because of Peter Capaldi’s performance. Just look at the scene where the kitchen staff are flushed out into space by GUS. The subtle frown on Capaldi’s face speaks volumes I think. The Doctor does care about the deaths. He’s just internalising it, choosing instead to focus on the problem at hand, which comes off as callousness, but as the Doctor himself says, there’s no time to mourn. Standing there wringing your hands isn’t going to do any good. So the Doctor just gets on with what he has to do rather than get bogged down in sentimentality.

Are there any problems with the episode? Well... the ending is a bit of an anti-climax. I suppose it can’t be helped really, but the mummy is sort of thrown away at the end (I read some reviews and people seemed really confused by the ending. Why did the mummy salute the Doctor if he surrendered? How did it die? It seemed perfectly clear to me. The alien tech was controlling the mummy, absorbing the life force of people to keep it alive, the Doctor’s surrender deactivated it and the mummy saluted the Doctor as a way of expressing gratitude before collapsing into dust). The characters are a bit limp too. They’re not bad. They serve their purpose and the actors give decent performances. They’re just not very interesting. The engineer Perkins is probably the weakest. He just felt a bit bland and nothing-y to me and I’ve never been particularly fond of Frank Skinner.

And then there’s Clara. It was a little bit jarring seeing her again and seemingly getting on with the Doctor after Kill The Moon, but the episode quickly explains this is their ‘last hurrah.’ I really have mixed feelings about all of this. I had no problem with Clara calling the Doctor out for his supposed callousness, but it’s the context that bothers me. Clearly she’s still reacting to what happened at the end of Kill The Moon, which as I’ve said before is utter bollocks because the Doctor didn’t actually do anything wrong, and yet Moffat clearly expects you to be on her side... which I’m not... because she’s chatting shit. Later she realises, in a very clunky exchange with Maisie, that she’s not ready to give up her adventures with the Doctor and is prepared to overlook his faults (which begs the question what was the fucking point of the last episode then). But then it gets even weirder toward the end when she not only lies to Danny about ending her travels with the Doctor, but also lies to the Doctor, saying that Danny was the one that said she should give it all up. I’ve never liked Clara and I’ve completely resisted any attempt of Moffat’s to convince me she’s somehow the perfect companion, but here I’m utterly confused by what I’m supposed to think of her at this point. Why is she lying? She’s got no reason to lie as far as I can see. Why can’t she just be upfront and say she wants to keep travelling? It certainly demonstrates how fucking dysfunctional her relationship with Danny is, but is that intentional or is Moffat once again being an utter twit?

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed Mummy On The Orient Express. It’s a great throwback to the classic series with a truly creepy monster at its centre. I’d say this is my favourite episode of the series so far. Please let the rest of Series 8 be as good as this.

[mbtizone]

Jafar (Aladdin): INTJ

Dominant Introverted Intuition [Ni]: It’s Jafar’s greatest ambition to usurp the Sultan, and he’ll do whatever it takes to make that dream a reality. He wants Agrabah to bow to him and is extraordinarily patient in his quest. Everything Jafar does is a carefully thought out piece of his overall plan of ruling the kingdom. He spends years searching for the Cave of Wonders. When he finally finds it, he sends a man in to retrieve the lamp, which is all part of his long-term vision of using the Genie to make himself all-powerful. However, when he realizes he can’t just send anyone into the cave, he remains patient until he can identify the “diamond in the rough.” He’s certain that he will get what he wants eventually and doesn’t get worked up when he faces obstacles (unlike Iago). Jafar is able to manipulate the Sultan (even when he’s not using his cobra staff to hypnotize him) and typically knows exactly what to do and say to get what he wants from him. Jafar instinctively doesn’t trust “Prince Ali” and is very skeptical about him and proves himself correct when he catches a glimpse of the lamp, allowing him to deduce that he’s actually Aladdin.

Auxiliary Extroverted Thinking [Te]: Jafar is all about seizing power and being in control. No matter how much he has, it’s never enough for him. Jafar doesn’t hesitate to take action and will do whatever he has to in order to overtake the kingdom. He doesn’t care who he has to hurt to get the lamp and gladly sacrifices whoever he has to in his quest for power. Jafar can sometimes struggle to see beyond the facts of the situation. Jasmine will have to marry a prince, and once that happens, she’ll get rid of him. It doesn’t occur to him to change the rules so that Jasmine must marry him, allowing Jafar to become sultan – that idea comes from Iago. Jafar is strategic about accomplishing his goals. Once he discovers that Aladdin is his diamond in the rough, he has him arrested in order to use him to get the lamp.

Tertiary Introverted Feeling [Fi]: The only feelings of any value to Jafar are his own. He holds everyone around him in contempt and believes himself to be superior. Jafar doesn’t discuss his personal feelings and appears to completely lack empathy. Jafar only bothers with those who can help him achieve his goals. He knows what he values (power, authority, control), and he won’t allow anything to distract him from his mission to take over the kingdom. Once he gets everything he’s ever wanted, he uses his power to control the people around him to show them who’s boss now.

Inferior Extroverted Sensing [Se]: Once Jafar finally gets a taste of the absolute power he’s always craved, he begins to act recklessly in the moment. He wants to enjoy all of the pleasures that come along with the status he worked so hard for. Although his original plan was to kill Jasmine, he changes his mind and even gives into his lustful urges by attempting to use his last wish to get her to fall in love with him. When he gives in to it, he forgets to think ahead, allowing himself to be tricked into becoming a prisoner of the lamp. His desire for authority leads him to act on impulse, which leaves him susceptible to manipulation. Both Jasmine and Aladdin are able to pick up on this and use it to their advantage to defeat him.

Note: I’m sure that some people will think I’m stereotyping. I know of some people who argue that Jafar can’t be an INTJ because of how impulsive he became once he got the lamp. I think that was just a grip experience, though. Jafar spent a very long time singularly focused on just one goal and didn’t stop until he made it a reality. Then, when the moment came and he finally got everything he ever wanted, he reveled in it, which led to his downfall. Giving in to the urges of the moment at the very end doesn’t discount everything leading up to it. Someone with higher Se would probably have a much better handle on it than Jafar does. My aunt was the only INTJ I’ve ever known in my life, and when she was in the grip of Se, it was not a pretty picture.

Enneagram: 8w7 3w4 5w4 So/Sx

Note: (He shows a lot of 3 and 8, so deciding his main type was difficult and I’m not 100% confident about which actually takes precedence)

Quotes:

Jafar: At last, after all my years of searching, the cave of wonders! Iago: Awk! Cave of wonders! Gazeem: By Allah! Jafar: Now, remember! Bring me the lamp. The rest of the treasure is yours, but the lamp is mine!

Iago: I can’t believe it. I just don’t believe it. We’re never gonna get a hold of that stupid lamp! Just forget it. Look at this. Look at this. I’m so ticked off that I’m molting! Jafar: Patience, Iago. Patience. Gazeem was obviously less than worthy. Iago: Oh, there’s a big surprise. That’s an incred–I think I’m gonna have a heart attack and die from not surprise! What’re we gonna do? We got a big problem here,a big prob- [Jafar pinches his beak shut.] Jafar: Yes, we do. Only one may enter. I must find this one, this… diamond in the rough.

Iago: I can’t take it anymore! If I gotta choke down on one more of those moldy, disgusting crackers… bam! Whack! Jafar: Calm yourself, Iago. Iago: Then I’d grab him around the head. Whack! Whack! Jafar: Soon, I will be sultan, not that addlepated twit. Iago: And then I stuff the crackers down his throat!

Iago: With all due respect, your rottenness, couldn’t we just wait for a real storm? Jafar: Save your breath, Iago. Faster! [He places the Sultan’s ring in the contraption.] Iago: Yes, o mighty evil one. [Iago runs faster. A lightning bolt streaks through the ring, passing into an hourglass below. The sands begin to swirl.] Jafar: Ah, sands of time– reveal to me the one who can enter the cave. [The sand in top forms the Cave of Wonders. It falls through into a storm, but it shows Aladdin climbing up a ladder, followed by Jasmine, who is covered in her cloak.] Yes, yes! There he is. My diamond in the rough! Iago: That’s him?!?! That’s the clown we’ve been waitin’ for? Jafar: Let’s have the guards extend him an invitation to the palace, shall we?

Sultan: Jafar, this is an outrage. If it weren’t for all your years of loyal service… From now on, you are to discuss sentencing of prisoners with me, before they are beheaded. Jafar: I assure you, your highness, it won’t happen again. Sultan: Jasmine, Jafar, now let’s put this whole messy business behind us. Please? Jafar: My most abject and humblest apologies to you as well, princess. Jasmine: At least some good will come of my being forced to marry. When I am queen, I will have the power to get rid of you. Sultan: That’s nice. All settled, then. Now, Jasmine, getting back to this suitor business. Jasmine? Jasmine! Jafar: If only I had gotten that lamp! Iago: I will have the power to get rid of you! D’oh! To think–we gotta keep kissing up to that chump, and his chump daughter for the rest of our lives… Jafar: No, Iago. Only until she finds a chump husband. Then she’ll have us banished–or beheaded! BOTH: Eeewww! Iago: Oh! Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Jafar? What if you were the chump husband? Jafar: What? Iago: Okay, you marry the princess, all right? Then, uh, you become sultan! Jafar: Oh! Marry the shrew? I become sultan. The idea has merit! Iago: Yes, merit! Yes! And then we drop papa-in-law and the little woman off a cliff! Kersplat! Jafar: Iago, I love the way your foul little mind works!

Jafar: Sire, I have found a solution to the problem with your daughter. Iago: Awk! The problem with your daughter! Sultan: Oh, really? Jafar: Right here. “If the princess has not chosen a husband by the appointed time, then the sultan shall choose for her.” Sultan: But Jasmine hated all those suitors! How could I choose someone she hates? Jafar: Not to worry, my liege. There is more. If, in the event a suitable prince cannot be found, a princess must then be wed to… hmm… interesting. Sultan: What? Who? Jafar: The royal vizier! Why, that would be… me! Sultan: Why, I thought the law says that only a prince can marry a princess, I’m quite sure. Jafar: Desperate times call for desperate measures, my lord. Sultan: Yes… desperate measures… Jafar: You will order the princess to marry me. Sultan: I… will order… the princess… to… but you’re so old! Jafar:The princess will marry me! Sultan: The princess will marry… What? What is that? That music! Ha ha ha. Jafar, you must come and see this!

Iago: We gotta get outta here! We gotta get– I gotta start packing, your highness. Only essentials. Travel light! Bring the guns, the weapons, the knives and how about this picture? I don’t know– I think I’m making a weird face in it. [Jafar starts to laugh wildly.] Oh, boy–he’s gone nuts. He’s cracked. [Iago flies down to him and knocks on his head.] Jafar? Jafar? Get a grip, Jafar! [Jafar grabs him around the neck] Good grip! Jafar: Prince Ali is nothing more than that ragged urchin Aladdin. He has the lamp, Iago. Iago: Why that miserable– Jafar: But you are going to relieve him of it! Iago: Me?

Genie: You know Al, I’m getting really–I don’t think you’re him. Tonight, the role of Al will be played by a tall, dark and sinister ugly man. Jafar: I am your master now. Genie: I was afraid of that. Jafar: Genie, grant me my first wish. I wish to rule on high, as sultan!

Aladdin: Genie! No! Genie: Sorry, kid–I got a new master now. Sultan: Jafar, I order you to stop! Jafar: There’s a new order now–my order! Finally, you will bow to me!

Jasmine: We’ll never bow to you! Iago: Why am I not surprised? Jafar: If you will not bow before a sultan, then you will cower before a sorcerer! Genie, my second wish–I wish to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world!

Iago: Ladies and gentlemen, a warm Agrabah welcome for Sorcerer Jafar! Jafar: Now where were we? Ah, yes–abject humiliation! [He zaps Jasmine and the Sultan with his staff, and they both bow to him. Rajah comes running at him. He zaps Rajah, and the tiger turns into a kitty-cat.] Down, boy! Oh, princess–[lifts her chin with his staff] –there’s someone I’m dying to introduce you to.

Jafar: It pains me to see you reduced to this, Jasmine. [He takes a bite out of the apple she is holding.] A beautiful desert bloom such as yourself should be on the arm of the most powerful man in the world. [He waves his finger and a crown appears.] What do you say, my dear? Why, with you as my queen… Jasmine: Never! Jafar: I’ll teach you some respect! [She falls back as he raises his hand to slap her. Then he stops.] No. Genie, I have decided to make my final wish. I wish for Princess Jasmine to fall desperately in love with me. Genie: Ah, master– there are a few addendas, some quid pro quo- Jafar: Don’t talk back to me, you stupid blue lout! You will do what I order you to do, slave!

Jafar: You little fool! You thought you could defeat the most powerful being on earth! Iago: Squeeze him, Jafar–Squeeze him like a–awk! [Genie elbows him out of the way] Jafar: Without the genie, boy, you’re nothing! Aladdin: The genie! The genie! The genie has more power than you’ll ever have! Jafar: What!! Aladdin: He gave you your power, he can take it away! Genie: Al, what are you doing? Why are you bringing me into this? Aladdin: Face it, Jafar- you’re still just second best! Jafar: You’re right! His power does exceed my own! But not for long! [Jafar circles around the Genie.] Genie: The boy is crazy. He’s a little punch drunk. One too many hits with the snake Jafar: Slave, I make my third wish! I wish to be an all powerful genie! Genie: All right, your wish is my command. Way to go, Al.

Jafar: The universe is mine to command, to control! Aladdin:Not so fast, Jafar! Aren’t you forgetting something? You wanted to be a genie, you got it! And everything that goes with it!

Jafar (Aladdin): INTJ was originally published on MBTI Zone

[junker-town]

Social media outrage may force the PGA Tour to address its slow play problem

Another viral video of Bryson DeChambeau’s interminable process illustrates how the social media voices of its audience, and more importantly, its players, will compel the PGA Tour to fix slow play.

Twitter mobs are bad but when they’re armed to fix golf’s slow play problem, they’re good. The problem will be fixed. It’s happening, where it’s through an increase in penalties, real actual penalty strokes, or some sort of hard-and-fast shot clock or another hybrid subjective solution. It may not be next week or next year, but it’s inexorable. This will be addressed and changed.

It won’t be because the PGA Tour looked inward, saw it degrading their product, and felt compelled to act. No, the Tour and golf’s governing bodies abdicated their responsibility to monitor this problem a long time ago. Here’s PGA Tour rules chief Slugger White in a recent Golf Digest interview on the crime against humanity that is handing out a slow-play penalty.

I hate slow play as much as the next guy, but I can’t agree with the idea of hitting players with penalty strokes. Maybe it’s because I was a player once, but I envision these horrible trickle-down effects. Say there’s a player who barely squeezes into the top 125 of the final FedEx Cup points standings because he made a couple of thousand dollars more at a tournament than the player right behind him on the list. Imagine if he’d been hit with a one-stroke penalty at a key moment because he was two seconds over his time. Say the penalty cost him $5,000. Suddenly he’s so far down the FedEx Cup point list he doesn’t have a place to play the following year, which in turn might mean his kid can’t go to college, or he can’t put a down payment on that decent house. Or worse. Basically it means you’ve drastically affected the guy’s life with the click of a stopwatch. I’m all for looking at fine structures, maybe increasing them. But determining his fate with a stopwatch to me is a little harsh.

It won’t happen because the media partners put pressure on the Tour to fix it. No, beyond an exasperated sigh or gentle chiding over a plumb bob, they are there to present the product in as appealing a way as possible. I once overheard Lance Barrow, the legendary CBS producer for NFL and golf broadcasts, bellow out on the patio at Colonial “we’re not journalists, we’re partners!” in a discussion about the latest NFL hot topic. That’s their job and marching order and the media partners can effectively jump from hole to hole and shot to shot, avoiding some of the interminable pre-shot routines creating this pace of play problem.

It’s going to happen because social media has made this a problem impossible to ignore or bury. Whether it’s through the players, the members this Tour is accountable to, using their Twitter accounts to lambaste their peers, or some citizen journalist out there capturing low-fi video of an objectionable routine from outside the ropes at an event or during one of the moments the broadcast can’t avoid it, this problem has become impossible shrug off. Twitter has pushed this and it’s been rolling downhill for a few years, picking up asteroid-headed-for-Ponte-Vedra-Beach type speed this year. We’ve seen the outcries and illustrative examples from January through the summer, from California to Ireland and now in New York.

The videos and pictures and stopwatch times shared on Twitter all year have also given some of the best in the game the objective evidence to speak up even louder about their peers. Slow play moaning is not new, but the top of the world rankings lambasting it and calling for action with this frequency does feel like a more recent development. Edoardo Molinari felt emboldened to use social media to share the internal bad times list kept by the Euro Tour earlier this year. Brooks Koepka, Tiger Woods, and Rory McIlroy went in on it again this week, with Koepka continuing his plea that slow play is “breaking a rule” as much as any other rule.

On Saturday morning, one of those lo-fi Twitter videos of the pre-shot routine of Bryson DeChambeau became the latest example of how the platform is intensifying the pressure to do something about this real problem. The video came from PGA Tour Live’s featured groups coverage, where the cameras are only focused on six or so players and it’s harder for the broadcast to jump around to avoid making these routines a conspicuous part of the coverage. The video is chugging towards 800k views in about four hours.

We can... pic.twitter.com/TOnRS4BXds

— Fantasy Golf Pod (@fantasygolfpod) August 10, 2019

It came the morning after another Twitter video showed Bryson walking off another shot in a process that allegedly took more than three minutes.

In addition to the views, the reaction to the video has been swift and nearly unanimous. Justin Thomas, Bryson’s playing partner in the above video visibly incredulous at the process, came right out and tweeted that it was hard to not walk off alongside the use of a clock emoji. Eddie Pepperell, the outspoken Euro Tour player, called for penalties and not toothless fines while referring to Bryson as an “unaffected single minded twit.” Former world No. 1 Luke Donald was equally critical, while also pointing out that Bryson still missed the putt by a wide margin. Mark Calcavecchia tweeted that there needs to be an official trailing Bryson with a stopwatch giving him times. Paul Lawrie, another former major winner, added that he could not believe there were defenders of Bryson’s pace of play. Ian Poulter made a general reference to “players that continually disrespect their fellow pro’s and continue to break the rules without a conscience.” Roberto Castro, a Tour pro who also happens to have a Georgia Tech industrial engineering degree, was a bit more direct about the specific Bryson process.

All the “physicist” and “his caddy needs to be an aerospace engineer” stuff is an insult to actual physicists and aerospace engineers. They can do actual math and engineering, anyone with two eyes and/or two feet can read an 8-footer.

— Roberto Castro (@cicioCASTRO) August 10, 2019

This is just a sampling (that paragraph could have gone on a lot longer!) of the comments from players, who are more vocal about these kind of Twitter videos and timing reports than ever. As for the non-players on Twitter, well, Bryson sharing an unrelated highlight video from his account is currently being ratio’d into the core of the Earth.

The first leg of the Tour’s “ultimate prize,” the greatly hyped and celebrated FedExCup, is engulfed in shouting about the slow play issue. A video has gone viral at one of its most marketed and important events, typically cause for a victory lap. It’s just not the one of the pro signing an autograph for a kid or some dog frolicking in a nearby stream or the shot to win the tournament.

Even though Bryson has been unrepentant about his pace and process, often citing how he “walks fast” in between his pre-shot calculations, this is a pile-on that may not make you feel comfortable. He’s the current punching bag for something many pros do and a problem the Tour let fester. But in the absence of the PGA Tour handing out penalties, maybe shaming from other pros (see Koepka on JB Holmes at The Open) and their Twitter accounts continuing to shout about it are what’s required to provoke real action on an issue that’s impacting the product.

As Koepka has repeatedly said, this is rule-breaking and it’s not one that simply affects the slow-player himself, but one that has a significant impact on other players around him. Tiger said it again this week — the fast players start to play slower in a twisted and desperate plea to actually be put on the clock in the hopes of speeding up their slow-poke playing partner. Thanks to social media — the voices from both Tour pros and its audience — it’s becoming an issue that will have to be addressed, whether they want to or not.

[ixvyupdates]

Glimpse the Future with Amy Webb @amywebb (Thanks @TWiT)

The last couple days I’ve been listening to the latest TWiT podcast, hosted by Leo LaPorte (@leolaporte) and featuring guests Amy Webb (@amywebb) and Greg Ferro (@etherealmind). Wow have I ever loved their conversation and the insights they shared on a variety of topics including AI, the ascendency of China, Amazon, EU anti-trust law, and more! I highly recommend this show to you. In this post, I’ll share a few of those insights to (hopefully) clarify my own thinking and encourage you to delve more into these issues and referenced resources.

I am loving the conversation in this latest ?@TWiT? podcast with author and futurist @amywebb cc #edtechSR https://t.co/CRoUrKKxom

— Wesley Fryer ??? (@wfryer) July 25, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

First, if you are not already, follow Amy Webb (@amywebb) on Twitter. I’ve just purchased her book, “The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe Is Tomorrow’s Mainstream,” and can’t wait to immerse myself in more of her thinking and informed vision of the future. Her next book, which she briefly mentioned on this TWiT podcast episode, is about AI and the 9 companies which are vying to control it globally. That book (which has not even been released yet) is already banned in China (via the rights purchaser who is blocking its sale and distribution) and that fact alone ought to get everyone’s attention. Amy has the pulse of a great deal that matters in our society and with technology, and is a voice anyone with an eye to our collective future should listen to.

#book2read #JustBoughtOnAmazon: The Signals Are Talking: Why Today's Fringe Is Tomorrow's Mainstream by @amywebb https://t.co/Mttai1LVS9

via @leolaporte @TWiT cc @edtechSR #future #edtech #futurism

— Wesley Fryer ??? (@wfryer) July 28, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Dean Shareski (@shareski) posted a thought-provoking article recently (“Flogging the Dead Horse of RSS”) which brings to mind a question related to the ideas in this TWiT podcast: How did I serendipitously come to find and listen to this show?

iReading: Flogging the Dead Horse of RSS by ?@shareski? via ?@techlearning? s/o ?@feedly? #GoogleReader https://t.co/SBYlfLSWzj

— Wesley Fryer ??? (@wfryer) July 28, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

The answer is I’m subscribed to the TWiT podcast, along with about 100 other podcasts, using my favorite podcatcher app on my smartphone, PocketCasts (@pocketcasts). I also now love being able to ask one of the Google Home Minis in our house, “Hey Google, play the latest episode of the This Week in Tech podcast,” and have it immediately start playing. Virtually “discovering” or encountering Amy Webb isn’t an act of random serendipity for me, it’s rather the result of intentional and deliberately plotted serendipity. I love to highlight this strategy and others in a conference breakout session I usually title simply, “Discovering Useful Ideas.”

An updated OPML file of my current podcast subscriptions. Culled this down from 140 to just over 100. Lots of great stuff here… https://t.co/y6l72jCLJj

— Wesley Fryer ??? (@wfryer) July 8, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

In this podcast, Amy Webb is unequivocal that China is the ascendent nation on our planet, and will be the dominant force economically, politically and culturally in the 21st century. This is a prediction I’ve glimpsed myself in four visits to mainland China dating back to 2007, and as I consider the academic choices of our youngest daughter in high school (whether to continue studying French or to switch over to Chinese) as well as our future / prospective schools to work in as professional educators, this gives me pause. If your school is not offering Chinese as a language choice today in 2018, it should be and that needs to change. If you or your child has an opportunity to study Chinese and potentially become fluent in the Chinese language, definitely give it a try. If you or those you counsel / advise have the opportunity to live, study, and/or work, or at least travel in China, DO IT. Of course ours is a big world, and there are many of pathways to a satisfying and “successful” life which do not involve the Chinese language or China, but increasingly our lives as a globalized society will intersect more. This also makes me consider the importance of translating the books “I have inside me” and want to write and publish in the years ahead into Chinese.

“More excitements coming soon!” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

I also found Amy’s points in this TWiT podcast about the short-term thinking (generally) of U.S. society, businesses and government leaders relative to other nations and regions of our planet very provocative and important. I think it is common today for many in the United States to take our global position as economic and hegemonic leader for granted, and assume our status quo will be maintained into the future. This isn’t a safe assumption and warrants reconsideration on multiple levels.

One of the blog posts which I’ve been thinking about writing for several months now would address things I’ll likely term, “Our Grand Challenges.” As a society in the United States and more broadly on our planet, we’ve got some important things to figure out and change.

How are we going to provide for the health and medical needs of ALL our citizens? (Hint: It’s not by continuing to let insurance and pharmaceutical companies write the legislation which becomes our laws.)

How are we going to fundamentally change our political culture, so elected officials in Washington D.C. don’t have to spend most of their time fundraising and pandering to wealthy donors, and instead can learn about issues, listen to each other, and seek political compromises on a wide variety of important issues?

How are we going to change our behavior to sustainably care for and “serve as stewards” of our planet, rather promote the short-term interests of corporations and investors?

How are we going to manage our information and media landscape, so the voices of extremists and actions of “bad actors” do not dominate our collective attention and exercise such out-of-balance influence over our shared political agendas?

I could go on (and likely will when I finally write that post), but I’ll stop and note that Amy’s analysis in this TWiT podcast got me thinking even more about the importance of LONG TERM thinking and strategies for our society and institutions. We need more long term and “long game” thinkers and leaders. This can and should start and be fueled by conversations in our classrooms tomorrow.

Finally, Amy’s commentary in this TWiT podcast got me thinking (as I often do) about the importance of understanding technology, understanding code, and embracing rather than fearing the challenges as well as opportunities which are presented to us today in 2018. I’m reminded of Virginia Postrel’s (@vpostrel) outstanding 2011 book, “The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress.”

s/o to @vpostrel "The Future & Its Enemies" by @cogdog in his #ASCUE17 keynote https://t.co/VytH7yTYjD pic.twitter.com/xOIXa20pzF

— Wesley Fryer ??? (@wfryer) June 24, 2017

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

We need more “dynamists” (rather than “statists”) in our communities and households, as well as more informed optimists like Amy Webb. I won’t pretend to have a picture perfect view of the future through my own metaphorical palantir, but I definitely feel like I’m seeing further than I could before after listening to Amy. I’ve added her to my Twitter list of “yodas” I follow via Flipboard. You should too!

“Shelly Fryer and Wesley Fryer in Shanghai” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

Did you know Wes has published several eBooks and “eBook singles?” 1 of them is available free! Check them out!

Do you use a smartphone or tablet? Subscribe to Wes’ free magazine “iReading” on Flipboard!

If you’re trying to listen to a podcast episode and it’s not working, check this status page. (Wes is migrating his podcasts to Amazon S3 for hosting.) Remember to follow Wesley Fryer on Twitter (@wfryer), Facebook and Google+. Also “like” Wesley’s Facebook pages for “Speed of Creativity Learning” and his eBook, “Playing with Media.” Don’t miss Wesley’s latest technology integration project, “Mapping Media to the Curriculum.”

Glimpse the Future with Amy Webb @amywebb (Thanks @TWiT) syndicated from https://sapsnkraguide.wordpress.com

[iowamusicshowcase]

(via Iowa Music Showcase - Episode 41: Favorites of 2016 by Iowa Music Showcase | Free Listening on SoundCloud)

Well, we finished another year here at Iowa Music Showcase.

I changed things a bit here. Afraid I couldn't keep the biweekly podcasts up, so now they could at least once a month, though I still threw in some extra ones when I could.

Instead, I started a weekly post. I think this is working better in presenting you with more Iowa music. I can now show other places where you can get Iowa music, like other podcasts, compilation albums, playlists, and other websites.

Also, by doing a playlist at least once a month, I can play artists that I might not be able to get a hold of and can't get permission to play their material on the podcast.

Looking over the past year's podcasts, I feel pretty good about what I've done.

Did some on stuff I hadn't done previously, like an Iowa musical, Iowa electronic music, and Iowa soul, RnB, and funk. But still got a retrospective in on an Iowa band, Peace, Love, and Stuff. And did 4 Halloween episodes and 3 Christmas ones!

In this coming year, I have big plans.

With the podcasts, I still plan on doing a retrospective on an Iowa band, but this time one from the 80s! There will probably be less theme shows and more genre shows so I can catch up on submissions. Listeners seem to prefer the genre shows anyway. And I will tackle a couple of genres that I haven't covered yet!

But we'll still have Halloween and Holiday episodes at the end of the year. My list of songs for both is already growing.

And if I can find enough material by May, I'd loved to do a Star Wars theme episode for Star Wars 40th anniversary. So if you know any Iowa bands and artists who have done a Star Wars-related song, write to me at iowamusicshowcase@gmail.com!

I will still continue to do at least one playlist a month, but I plan on doing some featuring new music that's coming out rather than just random music ones. So if you are a band or artist, send me your Spotify, YouTube, and SoundCloud links!

And if you do or know of a website or a podcast on Iowa music, or a compilation album of Iowa music. let me know. I'll be happy to a feature on you!

And last, but not least, don't forget that on Sat, Feb 4, at Lefty's Live Music, we have Iowa Music Showcase LIVE! Nine different bands from nine different genres! Showing the diversity of the Des Moines and Iowa music scene!

For more information on that, you can go to our Facebook event page - https://www.facebook.com/events/756507931165093/

So if you've been with us the past two years, thank you. If you're new here, I hope you stick around. And please tell a friend and help spread the word!

And finally, a big thank you to Indianola, Iowa, artist, Monique Booker, for providing the cover for this podcast! You can find her work at Spiritual Fantasy Artworks - https://www.facebook.com/spiritualartworkdesigns/ - and Native Iowa Keepsakes - https://www.facebook.com/nativeiowakeepsakes/

And now for some boring stuff, you can skip if you want. For those interested, these songs were pulled from the podcasts that was either read about, viewed, or listened to the most. The song I used from the podcast was picked by the one that was looked at the most on the Iowa Music Showcase Songs website.

IMSC podcasts about Favorites:

http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/search/label/Favorites

IMSC "Other Sources" posts:

http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/search/label/Other%20Sources

IMSC posts on other websites featuring Iowa music:

http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/search/label/websites

IMSC posts on other podcasts featuring Iowa music:

http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/search/label/other%20podcasts

IMSC posts on compilation albums featuring Iowa music:

http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/search/label/compilation%20albums

IMSC posts featuring playlists:

http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/search/label/playlists

IMSC posts featuring SoundCloud:

http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/search/label/SoundCloud

IMSC posts featuring YouTube:

http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/search/label/YouTube

IMSC posts featuring BandCamp:

http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/search/label/Bandcamp

IMSC posts featuring Spotify:

http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/search/label/Spotify

To download the podcast, right click on the link below and hit "Save as...":

https://archive.org/download/IowaMusicShowcaseEpisode41/Iowa%20Music%20Showcase%20-%20Episode%2041_.mp3

Cover by Indianola, Iowa, artist Monique Booker

The original rectangular painting has been digitally stretched out

to make it a square for this podcast

https://www.facebook.com/spiritualartworkdesigns/

https://www.facebook.com/nativeiowakeepsakes/

TRACK LISTING:

For more information, click on the link below the track.

Opening - Iowa Music Showcase theme by Dylan Boyle

(http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2015/01/intro-and-closing-dylan-boyle.html)

Song 1 - "I, I, I" by Peace, Love, and Stuff (from the most viewed post [from 2016] on the Iowa Music Showcase website - "Episode 33: A Chad Taylor Dedication")

(http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2016/09/ep-33-song-3-i-i-i-by-peace-love-and.html)

Song 2 - "Seance" by Rhonda is a Dead Bitch (from the most viewed non-Christmas post on the Iowa Music Showcase Songs website and from the podcast, "Episode 37: Happy Hawkeye Halloween 2016, Part 4 of 4 - Scary Silhouette")

(http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2016/10/ep-37-song-2-seance-by-rhonda-is-dead.html)

Extra 1; The most popular post on other podcasts and second most popular "Other Sources" post - "Other Sources: Iowa Block Radio"

(http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/2016/02/other-sources-iowa-block-radio.html)

Song 3 - "Beautiful Girls Put Yo Handz Up" by Polo Bandz (from the most listened to podcast on our SoundCloud site, "Episode 31: Iowa Soul, Rnb, and Funk Music")

(http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2016/07/ep-31-song-5-beautiful-girls-put-yo.html)

Extra 2: The most popular post on other websites where you can find Iowa music, second most popular post about other podcasts, third most popular "Other Sources" post, and third most popular post using YouTube - "Other Sources: Iowa Blues Showcase Podcast and the Best of the Blues in Des Moines website"

(http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/2016/08/other-sources-iowa-blues-showcase.html)

Song 4 - "Girl Rappers" by Gracious and kFc (from the most listened to podcast [from 2016] on our BandCamp site, "Episode 30 - Iowa Hip-Hop and Rap")

(http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2016/07/ep-31-song-5-beautiful-girls-put-yo.html)

Song 5 - "Polka Dots" by Peace, Love, and Stuff (from the most downloaded podcast [from 2106] on our BandCamp website, "Iowa Music Showcase - Episode 27: The Peace, Love, and Stuff Retrospective, Part 2 of 2")

(http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2016/10/ep-34-song-4-polka-dots-by-peace-love.html)

Extra 3: The most popular post on compilations albums, most popular most from the "Other Sources" feature, and second popular post featuring BandCamp - "Other Sources: The "Under the Mic" Compilations"

(http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/2016/06/other-sources-under-mic-compilations.html)

Song 6 - "Good Bye Good Luck Good Riddance" by the Caucus! The Musical cast (from the most viewed podcast [from 2016] on our YouTube channel, "Iowa Music Showcase - Episode 25: Caucus! The Musical")

(http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2016/01/ep-25-song-7-goodbye-good-luck-good.html)

Extra 4: The most popular post using playlists, the most popular post using YouTube, most popular post suing SoundCloud, most popular post using Spotify, and most popular post using BandCamp - "Playlists: 'Fake' Iowa Bands"

(http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/2016/06/playlists-fake-iowa-bands.html)

Song 7 - "To: You" by Madam Jules (from the actually most viewed post in 2016 on the Iowa Music Showcase website, "Episode 20: A Jimi Strychnine Scribner Dedication")

(http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2015/11/ep-20-song-2-to-you-by-madam-jules.html)

Extra 5: The third most popular post using a playlist, the third most popular post using Spotify, and the third most post using SoundCloud - "PLAYLISTS: Iowa Halloween Music"

(http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/2016/09/playlists-iowa-halloween-music.html)

Song 8 - "O Holy Night" by Jonny Lipford (from the actually most viewed post on the Iowa Music Showcase Songs website and from the podcast, "Episode 38: Happy Hawkeye Holidays 2016, Part 1 of 3 - The Milk Edition")

(http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2016/12/ep-39-song-1-o-holy-night-by-jonny.html)

Extra 6: The second most popular post using a playlist, the second most popular post using YouTube, the second most post featuring SoundCloud, the second most popular post featuring Spotify - "PLAYLISTS and OTHER SOURCES: Iowa Holiday Music"

(http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/2016/11/playlists-iowa-holiday-music.html)

Closing - Iowa Music Showcase theme by Dylan Boyle

(http://iowamusicshowcasesongs.blogspot.com/2015/01/intro-and-closing-dylan-boyle.html)

All song are copyrighted by the performers and composers, and used by their kind permission.

Next episode: The artists playing at Iowa Music Showcase Live!

Iowa Music Showcase can be listened to and/or downloaded on the following sites:

Home page:

http://iowamusicshowcase.blogspot.com/

Feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/IowaMusicShowcase

Itunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/iowa-music-showcase/id1173339660

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Iowa-Music-Showcase/364796883703114

Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/iowa-music-showcase

Bandcamp:

https://iowamusicshowcase.bandcamp.com/

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXMPcIaIvvs0Aj4zk2JbXdQ/feed

Iowa Music Showcase is also on Code Zero Radio every Tuesday and Thursday at 10pm central time:

http://codezeroradio.com/

Other websites:

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/iamusicshowcase

Instagram:

https://instagram.com/iowamusicshowcase

ReverbNation:

https://www.reverbnation.com/iowamusicshowcase

Archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/@iowa_music_showcase#uploads

Spotify:

https://play.spotify.com/user/iowamusicshowcase

Labels: alternative music, Bandcamp, Christmas, compilation albums, Favorites, Favorites of 2016, hip hop, hip-hop,other podcasts, Other Sources, playlists, rap, soul music, SoundCloud, Spotify, websites, YouTube

[ixvyupdates]

Glimpse the Future with Amy Webb @amywebb (Thanks @TWiT)

The last couple days I’ve been listening to the latest TWiT podcast, hosted by Leo LaPorte (@leolaporte) and featuring guests Amy Webb (@amywebb) and Greg Ferro (@etherealmind). Wow have I ever loved their conversation and the insights they shared on a variety of topics including AI, the ascendency of China, Amazon, EU anti-trust law, and more! I highly recommend this show to you. In this post, I’ll share a few of those insights to (hopefully) clarify my own thinking and encourage you to delve more into these issues and referenced resources.

I am loving the conversation in this latest ?@TWiT? podcast with author and futurist @amywebb cc #edtechSR https://t.co/CRoUrKKxom

— Wesley Fryer ??? (@wfryer) July 25, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

First, if you are not already, follow Amy Webb (@amywebb) on Twitter. I’ve just purchased her book, “The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe Is Tomorrow’s Mainstream,” and can’t wait to immerse myself in more of her thinking and informed vision of the future. Her next book, which she briefly mentioned on this TWiT podcast episode, is about AI and the 9 companies which are vying to control it globally. That book (which has not even been released yet) is already banned in China (via the rights purchaser who is blocking its sale and distribution) and that fact alone ought to get everyone’s attention. Amy has the pulse of a great deal that matters in our society and with technology, and is a voice anyone with an eye to our collective future should listen to.

#book2read #JustBoughtOnAmazon: The Signals Are Talking: Why Today's Fringe Is Tomorrow's Mainstream by @amywebb https://t.co/Mttai1LVS9

via @leolaporte @TWiT cc @edtechSR #future #edtech #futurism

— Wesley Fryer ??? (@wfryer) July 28, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Dean Shareski (@shareski) posted a thought-provoking article recently (“Flogging the Dead Horse of RSS”) which brings to mind a question related to the ideas in this TWiT podcast: How did I serendipitously come to find and listen to this show?

iReading: Flogging the Dead Horse of RSS by ?@shareski? via ?@techlearning? s/o ?@feedly? #GoogleReader https://t.co/SBYlfLSWzj

— Wesley Fryer ??? (@wfryer) July 28, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

The answer is I’m subscribed to the TWiT podcast, along with about 100 other podcasts, using my favorite podcatcher app on my smartphone, PocketCasts (@pocketcasts). I also now love being able to ask one of the Google Home Minis in our house, “Hey Google, play the latest episode of the This Week in Tech podcast,” and have it immediately start playing. Virtually “discovering” or encountering Amy Webb isn’t an act of random serendipity for me, it’s rather the result of intentional and deliberately plotted serendipity. I love to highlight this strategy and others in a conference breakout session I usually title simply, “Discovering Useful Ideas.”

An updated OPML file of my current podcast subscriptions. Culled this down from 140 to just over 100. Lots of great stuff here… https://t.co/y6l72jCLJj

— Wesley Fryer ??? (@wfryer) July 8, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

In this podcast, Amy Webb is unequivocal that China is the ascendent nation on our planet, and will be the dominant force economically, politically and culturally in the 21st century. This is a prediction I’ve glimpsed myself in four visits to mainland China dating back to 2007, and as I consider the academic choices of our youngest daughter in high school (whether to continue studying French or to switch over to Chinese) as well as our future / prospective schools to work in as professional educators, this gives me pause. If your school is not offering Chinese as a language choice today in 2018, it should be and that needs to change. If you or your child has an opportunity to study Chinese and potentially become fluent in the Chinese language, definitely give it a try. If you or those you counsel / advise have the opportunity to live, study, and/or work, or at least travel in China, DO IT. Of course ours is a big world, and there are many of pathways to a satisfying and “successful” life which do not involve the Chinese language or China, but increasingly our lives as a globalized society will intersect more. This also makes me consider the importance of translating the books “I have inside me” and want to write and publish in the years ahead into Chinese.

“More excitements coming soon!” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

I also found Amy’s points in this TWiT podcast about the short-term thinking (generally) of U.S. society, businesses and government leaders relative to other nations and regions of our planet very provocative and important. I think it is common today for many in the United States to take our global position as economic and hegemonic leader for granted, and assume our status quo will be maintained into the future. This isn’t a safe assumption and warrants reconsideration on multiple levels.

One of the blog posts which I’ve been thinking about writing for several months now would address things I’ll likely term, “Our Grand Challenges.” As a society in the United States and more broadly on our planet, we’ve got some important things to figure out and change.

How are we going to provide for the health and medical needs of ALL our citizens? (Hint: It’s not by continuing to let insurance and pharmaceutical companies write the legislation which becomes our laws.)

How are we going to fundamentally change our political culture, so elected officials in Washington D.C. don’t have to spend most of their time fundraising and pandering to wealthy donors, and instead can learn about issues, listen to each other, and seek political compromises on a wide variety of important issues?

How are we going to change our behavior to sustainably care for and “serve as stewards” of our planet, rather promote the short-term interests of corporations and investors?

How are we going to manage our information and media landscape, so the voices of extremists and actions of “bad actors” do not dominate our collective attention and exercise such out-of-balance influence over our shared political agendas?

I could go on (and likely will when I finally write that post), but I’ll stop and note that Amy’s analysis in this TWiT podcast got me thinking even more about the importance of LONG TERM thinking and strategies for our society and institutions. We need more long term and “long game” thinkers and leaders. This can and should start and be fueled by conversations in our classrooms tomorrow.

Finally, Amy’s commentary in this TWiT podcast got me thinking (as I often do) about the importance of understanding technology, understanding code, and embracing rather than fearing the challenges as well as opportunities which are presented to us today in 2018. I’m reminded of Virginia Postrel’s (@vpostrel) outstanding 2011 book, “The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress.”

s/o to @vpostrel "The Future & Its Enemies" by @cogdog in his #ASCUE17 keynote https://t.co/VytH7yTYjD pic.twitter.com/xOIXa20pzF

— Wesley Fryer ??? (@wfryer) June 24, 2017

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

We need more “dynamists” (rather than “statists”) in our communities and households, as well as more informed optimists like Amy Webb. I won’t pretend to have a picture perfect view of the future through my own metaphorical palantir, but I definitely feel like I’m seeing further than I could before after listening to Amy. I’ve added her to my Twitter list of “yodas” I follow via Flipboard. You should too!

“Shelly Fryer and Wesley Fryer in Shanghai” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

Did you know Wes has published several eBooks and “eBook singles?” 1 of them is available free! Check them out!

Do you use a smartphone or tablet? Subscribe to Wes’ free magazine “iReading” on Flipboard!

If you’re trying to listen to a podcast episode and it’s not working, check this status page. (Wes is migrating his podcasts to Amazon S3 for hosting.) Remember to follow Wesley Fryer on Twitter (@wfryer), Facebook and Google+. Also “like” Wesley’s Facebook pages for “Speed of Creativity Learning” and his eBook, “Playing with Media.” Don’t miss Wesley’s latest technology integration project, “Mapping Media to the Curriculum.”

Glimpse the Future with Amy Webb @amywebb (Thanks @TWiT) syndicated from https://sapsnkraguide.wordpress.com